Depressed over weight..weight watchers

LegacyUser

Ive been trying to lose weight for around 5 years now. Every time I get determined and I manage to lose some, then fall off the bandwagon, binge, and end up heavier!
Its restricting my life so much at the moment and I feel like its never gonna happen. I have been looking at the nutrition forum on here and I know that WW is not popular over there by the vast majority but Ive been thinking about giving it a go as Ive tried for so long on my own to lose weight and I havnt been successful so it could be worth trying.

Im kinda worried because it is so expensive and the success rate isnt great, but i suppose part of me is hoping that ill be in the minority that manages to lose weight and keep it off?
Ive tried calorie counting, low carb etc before and while I know the numerous health benefits of things like paleo it just makes me binge horribly when I eneviably fall off the bandwagon! I suppose im just wondering whether any one here knows of any long term success stories? I think being weighed every week by someone else would help keep me on track!
Thanks.

December2012

I have used the weight watchers method and it helped me, but my weight was caused by having a baby. I mention this because I think an important factor in relapsing is understanding why you gained weight in the first place so you can modify that behaviour.

Could be boredom, lifestyle, emotional eating.

I think a monitored and supported health improvement programme is great - you could get this with a personal trainer and you might get better success than just dieting.

If you think there are bigger issues at play you could talk it out with a mental health professional, while you are taking real life steps with your nutrition and fitness.

Niamho!

If It's a diet you are looking for recommendations on I would highly recommend Slimming World. I'll never go back to WW after it. No point counting. Can eat as much pasta, rice and potatoes as you like as long as a third of your plate is salad/fruit/Veg. That's the basic rule of it.

Obviously, you're gonna try different things to see hat works for you but personally, WW was SO restrictive. Point counting and having tiny crappy little portions of everything. No way. I'm not drastically overweight by any means and I lost half a stone in my first 2 weeks. Slows a little after that, like most diets.

If you're not a bit fruit and Veg lover though, give it a miss as you'll get a pain in your face after a couple of weeks of eating LOADS of it!!!

Hope you start to feel better in yourself soon OP. Best of luck!

LegacyUser

OP here. Thanks so much for the replys! I suppose the main reason im overweight is because I began to diet! When I was younger I thought I was fat (really I just needed to tone a bit) so I started dieting, and this restriction made me binge! Its just been a vicious cycle ever since!
I considered WW because I heard the propoints wasnt too restricitive, that it gave you weekly points to use when needed and that fruit and veg was free! Never considered slimming world, how much is it per week? Thanks again for the reply, I just feel so hopeless, I dont even like leaving the house at this weight, so uncomfortable

judgefudge

Hey, I've been to weight watchers twice in my life. Never gone as an overweight person but just when I've wanted to lose a few pounds.

I found it great. Both times I lost considerable amounts of weight, especially considering I wasn't overweight to begin with.

They have a new points plan now where you get weekly "bonus points" that you can use at any point during the week. This I found great because it allowed me to splurge and have a takeaway, or go for a few drinks, without feeling like I had wrecked my diet. Alternatively you can spread the bonus points out over the 7 days and make life easier mid week.

I think weightwatchers teaches you how to eat well and what to look out for. Depending on how good the group leader is. It can be a great support network and getting weighed once a week does provide some motivation through accountability alone. Plus, at a tenner a week I don't think it's crazy expensive, your health is worth it, and you'll save that tenner through eating less anyway.

I'd recommend it.

LegacyUser

Hi OP.

First off, dont worry, most people who want to lose weight go around in circles for ages. I have done this myself and took me a long time to figure out what worked for me, and even now im still playing with my diet to make it work better for me.

I first lost 3 stone of pure fat just by working out and modifying my diet a little.
Then, concentrating on the diet I went from 20% body fat, which was not massive, down to 8% in 6 months, while keeping my weight constant, i.e making myself very lean and relatively fit.


From personal experience, weight loss depends on 2 things:

1. Working out.
You need to get and stay active. a minimum of 30 minutes 5 times a week is necessary.
And workout is not sitting on an exercise bike for 30 mins reading a magazine.

Workout should be intense. And workouts should include a mix of:
-cardio ( running, burpees, rowing machine etc etc)
-weight lifting(lots of squatting, free weights, dumbells that feel very Heavy to you)
-body weight work ( pushups, air squatting, situps, pullups

I suggest finding a good gym and trainer to recommend some programmes for you. Personally, i found crossfit to work for me. they keep it intense, give great variety, work on all areas, and also work on mobility to keep you from getting too sore and injured.


2. Food.
This is HUGE. 70%+ of weight loss is down to food.

First thing you need to do is record what your eating for a week. Record EVERYTHING!!
You think your eating healthy, but your not.

a tablespoon of ketchup is 60-100 calories. 7 times a week that could be up to 1000 calories. Its guessed that there are 3500 calories in a lb of fat, so 3.5 weeks of 1 table spoon of ketchup = 1lb of fat.

Thats a very contrived example, but its to illustrate that you need to know what you are eating and how much of it before you can fix the problem.

Once you can see how much fat, carbs and protein you are eating, you need to adjust it. A session with a GOOD trainer will help you here.

I use myFitnessPal application ( on android & iphone). it makes it super easy to record your eating habbits.


For me, i was eating way too much carbs and fat.

After i saw what i was doing wrong, a nutritionist recommended the following diet:

-max of 50g fat a day.
-max of 200g of carbs a day.
-min of 200g of protien a day.

This allowed me to get 2000 - 2500 cals a day, tons for my body shape & size, so i wasnt hungry, but with my workouts, i burned more cal's than i consumed and so lost weight.

Eating a min of fat and lots of protein let me lose fat weight while imcreasing muscle.
Its a little more complex than that, but overall, thats how it worked, for me.

Even doing little things like instead of eating 3 large meals a day, eat 5 small meals. this way you never get hungry, you train your body that food is always available and its less prone to store reserves as fat.

Im not against weight watchers, but I dont agree with teh points system. Calories are not all equal, i.e. 100cals of carbs affects your body very different to 100cals of protein and it doesnt really take this into consideration.


First things first. get intensely active 5 times a week.
Record EVERYTHING you eat so you can see where you need to improve and make changes.

Remember massive changes rarely make a difference.
Record, make small changes, keep them up, monitor, check results and modify if necessary.

Best of luck.

LegacyUser

Hey,

Just had to reply cos as I read your message it hit home as I am feeling very similar to yourself. I feel like I have been thinking about my weight for about 4 years straight! Through losing weight (3stone),maintaining for 1 yr, regaining (literally couldn't stop eating), getting depressed over that, feeling helpless, restarting, falling off the wagon etc. I completely agree with what you said about dieting. The worst thing is that the "dieting" is the very thing that makes us go crazy with food, the "binges" etc like you said. I am more obsessed by chocolate and sweet things now than I ever was before I started "dieting", which annoys me more than I could explain cos I am the only one to blame for that, then again I didn't know it would happen that way. I genuinely believe "dieting", when too restrictive, just complete messes up your brains' response to food.

I have lost about a stone and a half over the past 2 months and in the past 2 weeks put on a few lbs from being "off the wagon", so am feeling pretty bad about that but making myself get up early to exercise. It is very difficult. I want to lose another 2 stone and the reality is if I get it off and want to keep it off I will have to exercise every day for the rest of my life..

What usually happens to me is that I let myself get too hungry and then "fall off the wagon" by eating something bad for me, then say "ah feck it sure the day is ruined" ETC ETC. When I do get into the weight loss mindset I am very very disciplined but I think in a way this is also my downfall. I am too hard on myself so I swing from extremes, eating too little or not eating enough!

Like yourself I have thought about weight watchers or slimming world to keep up the motivation, the thought that someone other than yourself will be checking the scales at the end of the week and I guess the support of a group of people all going through the same thing could be a huge asset. The thing is I have tried the calorie counting and that really made me feel obsessive so that strikes WW out and I know a girl I work with did slimming world and I didn't like the plan really... I have often thought maybe having a friend or someone going through similar issues would help to keep each other motivated but most of my friends are naturally skinny or happy with their weight so that a no-no too!

I just wanted you to know you are not alone. So many people struggle each and every day with this and I think people who have never had issues with their weight could never understand the way it impacts so many aspects of your life (confidence, dating, trying new things, etc). xx

kjl

Hi OP,

It sounds to me like you are doing the classic yo-yo dieting. Really nutrition is a lot easier than you think. All this books that tell you not to eat carbs and even weight watchers, they are only after your money.

There is 2 things you need to do to lose weight.

1. Cut out the following from your diet. Sugar, Refined Carbohydrates and Saturated fats. It really is that simple, but you have to be strong. My typical day would be a bowl of porridge for breakfast, some fruit for a mid morning snack, At about 1 I would eat something like soft boiled egg and two slices wholegrain toast, then dinner would be a breast of chicken, loads of veg and maybe some brown rice. them maybe a nighttime snack of carrot sticks and hummus. I never feel hungry and when I do eat something fatty, it tastes horrible (can't even drink low fat milk). I make a great spaghetti with turkey mince and serve with whole grain pasta and it's amazing. For you to start off with I would get a bag of frozen vegetables and before every meal you have except breakfast eat a bowl of them cooked in microwave and drink a pint of water, wait 10 min and reevaluate how hungry you are .

2. Exercise. It's not as hard as you think. Buy yourself a punching bag and do 5 3 min sets with 1 min in between everyday, then pick a day of the week and lift some weights, focus on all your muscle groups (talk to a trainer for this) and let your muscles heal completely before you start again.

Take a day of the week, maybe sunday and say to yourself I can eat whatever I want on that day. you can binge to you hearts content, but what ends up happening is you don't want those foods after about week 2.

We as a society have an addiction to processed crap and really the key to losing weight and keeping it off is to make a lifestyle change. There is no magical diet that will allow you to go back to eating crap and still look good.

I know it's hard, when I started I was 4 stone overweight, but I am not down to 6% body fat and everything feel good. It took about 2.5 months to lose the majority of the weight and another 4 to get under 10%

Either way good luck, but I know myself I have given this advice to a lot of people and they didn't take it. You have to be prepared to just go for it and be strong and know that the rewards of looking great and being healthy will be worth the effort.

samina

+1 for slimming world it's more of a healthy eating plan than a diet, and it has a different group dynamic than ww. Love my weekly group

ibarelycare

There is some great advice in this thread, but losing weight is something that some people struggle to do on their own. OP I'm like you, I've done all the diets over the years, and inevitably have failed at them all.

I struggle badly with motivation, and I find that going to a weekly WW class keeps me on track. If no one could see the figures on the scales but me, then I know I wouldn't get anywhere.

I do have my own criticisms of WW but generally I find the programme quite good. The "new" (introduced in 2010 I think) ProPoints programme is far less restrictive than the old system and also focuses a lot more on teaching you about nutrition and good foods. You also have extra "weekly" points which, as someone else said, are great for nights out/treats/takeaways, etc. I am never hungry on this programme, I have adjusted my eating habits and portion sizes, without feeling like I am on a diet. It's a change in lifestyle really, but I honestly don't feel like I'm missing out.

One of the most important things is to have realistic expectations. Yes, you might have a big loss on the first week, but you often hear people complaining when they don't have 3lb+ losses week after week. That's just not sustainable. When I started WW this time, I said that I wanted to lose on average 1lb a week. Yes it's slow, but 1lb a week is 4 stone in a year! I've failed before because I've given up after not seeing results quickly enough, but I've learned that it's not a race. This is the longest I've stuck at any diet to date, and the most weight I've lost.

Only you will know if WW is for you or not, but I would encourage you to give it a try for a few weeks. The WW thread in N&D is invaluable in terms of support and information.

Tiddlypeeps

As you can see from this thread alone peoples opinions on what is what in the world of nutrition vary by extremes. It's very difficult to find out who is right and who is wrong. The reality is most diets you try will work, the only difference between them are 1) how efficient they are, so how quickly you will lose weight and 2) longevity, how likely you are to actually be able to keep the diet up for a long period of time. So for most people the first one shouldn't really matter that much, as long as they weight comes off and stays off it shouldn't be that big a deal if it takes a bit longer or not as long as it's possible to keep it up.

So only you can know what diets you will be able to stick to. If you don't think that the diet you are starting now is something you can do for the rest of your life then you are wasting your time starting it.

The best advice in this thread so far has been do it a bit at a time. Make a small change, get used to that change and then move on to the next thing. So for example if you drink fizzy drinks then you can swap that out for water (or if this is too big of a change up front then swap for diet drinks) try that for a few weeks until you are used to it and then make the next change which can be cutting out snacks in between meals or sweets or something like that. The things you change are up to you, its likely you already know which areas of your diet are effecting you the worst, but the main point is make small changes towards a healthier diet that you believe you will be able to maintain indefinitely.

It's a lifestyle change you should be aiming for, not a quick fix.

There is no point jumping into a diet of having a plain breast of chicken and leafy vegetables for dinner every night and absolutely no carbs or sugar if thats something you will only be able to keep up for a couple of weeks before breaking. From the sounds of it the thing that's doing the most damage to you is binging when you fail. So a gradual change in everything will likely stop their being this dramatic change back to the way it was so you are less likely to feel like a failure and binge eat.

With regards to weight watchers I'm not a huge fan. They put way too much emphasis on the scales. Body weight can fluctuate greatly from day to day by a surprisingly large amount. If you lost body fat during a week but drank a lot more water the night before a weigh in than the week before then it's likely the scales won't pick up on much of the weight loss. This often makes people feel really bad about themselves making it difficult to stick to a strict diet. Their advice on food isn't particularly great either, if you can follow it then it will probably work, but it's often difficult to stick too.

My cousin went on weight watchers before after having a baby to lose the extra weight. She joined a gym at the same time and she hit the exercise pretty hard. Within a week she had gone down a jeans size. When she went in for her weight in she had only lost about a pound. Everyone in the group was trying to reassure her saying things like "you'll do better next week" etc. Muscle weights more than fat, so it's likely that she lost a lot more than one pound of fat and she put on extra muscle in the gym. This results in her being slimmer but not fluctuating by much on the scales. Their system is very flawed and the emotional support you get can sometimes go the other way too.

anthony4335

I looked into a lot of different methods last year when I had to loose weight and went with simple calorie counting and exercise. This has worked from dropping from 120KG to 77KG in a year. I count everything and eat as healthy as possibly, but I allow myself 2 cheat days a week where I treat myself to the bad things ,but only to a level. Normal days intake for me is 1600 to 1800 cals, cheat days 2000 one day and 2500 another day. I don't drink so this has made it easier. I exercise 5 days a week, swimming mainly but the occasional "run". One thing is to expect plateaus and setbacks ,it happens to accept it and move on and don't give up because you had a bad weekend and put on weight. I find new weight is always easier to loose.
You need to identify what is your main problem, ie crisps, chocolate ,drink and limit what you keep at home, from me it was anything with sugar, some things were easier than others and I still struggle but I never give up and that appears to be the main thing. Set targets and ensure they are achievable ,ie a 1lb per week weight loss initially should be achievable.
Best of luck and don't give up, it is achievable .

Also note the first KGs were easy ,it is the last that takes effort and understanding so as not to fall. It is all about 2 things calorie count wether it is weight watchers or similar, and exercise you need both.

ulinbac

Agree with kgl and Anthony.

Please do not go about the means of starving yourself! So many people do this and its terrible as your body eats away muscle, not fat after a while.

Interval training is great for losing weight, but in a controlled environment. Talk to a trainer in the gym. IMO you would be better investing the money in a Personal Trainer than WW.

Remember that first 2/3 weeks you will lose the most as it will be water and it gets slower then. As Anthony said, you will notice the big improvements in the first few weeks, its after this period that the works starts. A binge (not too excess) is necessary too. We are allowed a treat once a week at least !

A good method I have found when training to cut down is take a pic of yourself, front, back and side on Day0 week 3,6,9 etc. As you see yourself everyday you are unlikely to ntice small changes but the proof is in the pics!!

Goodluck and enjoy

Soft Falling Rain

Hi OP.

Weight loss is by no means an easy thing to achieve, and I think a lot of people underestimate the amount of mental power it takes to break certain habits and find the motivation to change your lifestyle.

I know this won't help but you need to sit down and think about why you want to lose weight. I always found this helped me take a step back whenever I felt like binging, as it helped me realise that I wanted the long term satisfaction over the short term satisfaction. If you can identify the exact reasons why you're so sick of the situation that you're in you'd be surprised at how easily the motivation comes.

And look, don't worry about falling off the bandwagon, as it's always going to happen. Ask anyone who has lost significant weight and I'm sure they'll tell you they had some awful weeks, and indeed months. But as IBC said, it's not a race. Slowly but surely will get you there if you're patient, and you won't have to kill yourself either. Just watch your portion sizes and make sure you get to the gym at least 4 times a week.

And lastly, and seriously, do not kill yourself exercising as you'll only end up pissing yourself off and suffering an injury. There really is no need for it, so just be patient (and realistic) and the results will come.

dafunk

I've never been overweight so perhaps im not a good advice giver but I'll tell you why I think I've never been overweight. I adore food. What I mean by that is that I respect good quality food. I've no tolerance for ****e. I'd pick sushi over a hamburger any day of the week. I'd select homous and guacamole over a pizza. I eat six - eight meals a day and stay thin. Perhaps I've fast matabolism but I don't think so because most of my family struggle with their weight. Learn to love food. And by food I mean proper food. Don't by a snickers, get some good quality chocolate with a high coco content. You'll eat less of it as its richer but that doesn't even matter because its good for you!

Any of my friends that respect food and are intolerant of ****e don't have weight problems. Some people think I'm fussy with food but perhaps I am. I won't eat a sausage, know what's in that crap? If you don't then find out. It's expensive but treat yourself to good quality decent food. Once you respect it you'll have a different relationship with it. Also, little and often. Don't eat big meals, maybe hard at first but once you gey into the routine it'll be more.enjoyable.

dafunk

I've never been overweight so perhaps im not a good advice giver but I'll tell you why I think I've never been overweight. I adore food. What I mean by that is that I respect good quality food. I've no tolerance for ****e. I'd pick sushi over a hamburger any day of the week. I'd select homous and guacamole over a pizza. I eat six - eight meals a day and stay thin. Perhaps I've fast matabolism but I don't think so because most of my family struggle with their weight. Learn to love food. And by food I mean proper food. Don't by a snickers, get some good quality chocolate with a high coco content. You'll eat less of it as its richer but that doesn't even matter because its good for you!

Any of my friends that respect food and are intolerant of ****e don't have weight problems. Some people think I'm fussy with food but perhaps I am. I won't eat a sausage, know what's in that crap? If you don't then find out. It's expensive but treat yourself to good quality decent food. Once you respect it you'll have a different relationship with it. Also, little and often. Don't eat big meals, maybe hard at first but once you gey into the routine it'll be more.enjoyable.

Diziet

I have being doing the 5:2 eating plan for a year now. Lost 9kg and now down to healthy BMI. I have dieted and lost weight with ww etc, but put it back on. It gets a bit depressing, and I don't like counting points/calories all the time, so the regime of 500 cals two days a week and normal eating the rest of the time suits me. I am very very strict on the two days though, but it's like a switch has been turned off and I no longer fancy the calorie dense foods. I find it very easy to say no to chocolate. If I want it and it is not a fast day, I have it.

Not for everyone, but it works well for me.

seamus

So yeah, as you can see from the varying pieces of advice on this thread, it's very easy to get confused because so many people advocate different methods. The people who write diet books and come up with diet plans rely on this confusion. It's great for them because it means that there will always be a market for yet another fad diet for people to go nuts over.

All diets share one thing in common: Eat less and you will lose weight. It's not about what you eat so much as how much you eat. Forget about carbs, proteins, fats, etc. For someone overweight, focus on portion size and everything else will look after itself. Only athletes or people with special needs have to give special focus on the balance of nutrients. For the purposes of weight loss, they only muddy the waters.

You've tried this of course. Calorie counting is the most basic form of this. But you're probably not one of those people who can say, "I'm going to learn Chinese in 9 months", and go and do it. If you're like me and 99% of the population, you'll last about two weeks before giving up. It's an issue of motivation. We all make private goals, but we suck at keeping them (most of us do anyway). This is because we can silently let our goals drop and nobody will ever ask us about them.
But if people ask us about them - or better if we expect people to ask us about them - then they will stay forefront in our mind and keep us motivated to stick with them.

Tell yourself you're going to run the Dublin marathon and you'll probably go out sporadically over 3 weeks before giving up and telling no-one. But announce it on facebook and get people to sponsor you for charity and then you can't back out. People have put their money down and are expecting a result.

Weightwatchers works because of this; because every week you will have to stand on a scales in front of another person and look at the raw numbers. This keeps you focussed all week on watching how much you're eating.

You need to do two things:
- Tell people you're trying to lose weight. And not just, "Oh no, I'm on a diet" stuff, proper requests to friends and family to help you
- Try to draft in a weight loss buddy. Don't get someone flaky who'll only turn up to a meeting every third week. Someone you know that will be there with you and most importantly someone who will tell you, "Yeah, you need to lose weight". Parents or siblings can be crap for this because they'll tell you you're grand, don't worry about it.

4 to 8 weeks is all you really need to get kickstarted. Once you start seeing actual weight loss you will find that to be its own motivation (cheesy as that sounds), and you'll find it much easier to stick with it.

As for success stories; you will see some people at the meetings who never seem to lose anything. I think they enjoy going to get out of the house more than for any weight loss. I lost about 3 stone in around 8 months on WW. Kept it up for probably another 6-8 months after that and lost another half stone, but found myself a bit jaded with the whole thing. I had the knowledge to manage the weight myself so found the meetings kind of asinine.
I'm 5 stone down now from where I was when I first went to WW, and while I wouldn't be bothered going now if I wanted to lose weight, I don't think I would be in the position I am now if I hadn't got that initial kickstart into weight loss from WW. It was literally the first time in my life that I'd lost more than half a stone and understood why and how I was losing it.

The fad diets like paelo, atkins, no-carb etc, will lose you weight, but won't teach you why it's working and so will make it impossible to keep the weight off.

dellas1979

You know, the biggest change that needs to happen first is in your head. Otherwise you are going nowhere. No "diet" is going to change this. You'll keep fooling yourself, like you have been.

Because the hardest part of loosing weight is changing your mind set. The eating and exercise part is actually easy, once youve changed your mind.

There is noway telling you to do this and that (all great stories/tips btw) until you change your mind.

You say the word "diet". You shouldnt see it as being on a diet, with the objective to be skinnier/smaller. Its about being healthy, and feeling good, and eating good/right food.

Are you an emotional eater? Do you eat more at certain times? Do you eat when you are bored? These are all questions you must answer and realize and face up to.

You can get help to face up to these things, to help you. I am not sure joining a slimming club will focus you enough at this stage. Its another "diet" to you.