cheery
Full Member
I'm 32, male and I've struggled with my weight for about ten years. I'm posting here in the hope that someone can offer me some advice about what to do next.
I've always been 'a bit' overweight. I was never a slim child and my parents were also 'a bit' overweight. We rarely ate vegetables, had something frozen with oven chips for tea most nights and I can't remember eating any breakfast from about age 10. So I guess bad habits are ingrained into me.
I was probably about a stone overweight until I was about 24, when I went to university. In my first year, I put on about two stone. By the time I was 28, I was 6 foot tall and 16 stone. My BMI was about 32. I was unhappy with my weight and couldn't wear the clothes I wanted to. I'm gay, and appearance is important on the gay scene, and I needed to lose weight. I tried fleetingly to eat a little healthier, and joined a gym, but couldn't sustain any attempts to make changes.
I did lipotrim for a week, after researching online, and absolutely hated it. I felt sick and tired and my breath stunk. I stuck with it, and lost about a stone in the first week, then moved to Slimming World. Over six months, I lost a further two and a half stone and reached my 'target' weight of 13 stone. I always knew I'd have preferred to have been a little slimmer. I sustained that loss for about a year, gaining about half a stone. I was very happy with how I looked (in clothes at least) and proud of what I've achieved. However, over the next year or so, I gained back the three and a half stone I'd lost.
In the last three or four years, I've lost and gained the same three or four stone about four times. I've done a combination of healthy eating (I always find it too slow when I want to lose quicker, and find it hard to sustain), Weight Watchers (good for a week, but I'm lazy and don't cook, never feel full), Slimming World (I can't get my head around Extra Easy and find free foods too much of a temptation), Exante (last time: lost two stone, then quickly gained three) and the gym (went eight times in two weeks, then never again for six months).
As I write, I'm at the end of my first week on the VLCD Exante. My start weight was 16 stone 2 pounds and I lost 10lbs in six days. I followed this loss tonight with deep fried chicken from the chinese, egg fried rice, black bean vegetables, one bottle of beer and a Wispa Gold. I just can't face having 'no' food. Yet I know deep down that I won't be able to sustain healthy eating.
So, I guess my question is, what next? Nothing works, truly because I just can't hack it and stick to a plan, but yet I know I do want to lose weight.
Should I accept the fact that I'm just one of those people that is three or four stone overweight, and likely always will be? It's four stone, and stays around this usually, not ten stone and it's perfectly possible to be healthy at a few stone overweight, isn't it? Perhaps I should just be happy and forget about it.
Or should I try yet another diet? I'm skeptical because the truth is that I weigh exactly the same as I did four years ago, even though I've gone through so much pain and drama - gains and losses, expense, and even heartache. But perhaps I just haven't found the plan that works for me?
Sorry for ranting, but I just don't know where else to turn. I'm unhappy with my weight and my appearance, but I just can't hack losing it, yet again, only to gain it all back and more.
I've always been 'a bit' overweight. I was never a slim child and my parents were also 'a bit' overweight. We rarely ate vegetables, had something frozen with oven chips for tea most nights and I can't remember eating any breakfast from about age 10. So I guess bad habits are ingrained into me.
I was probably about a stone overweight until I was about 24, when I went to university. In my first year, I put on about two stone. By the time I was 28, I was 6 foot tall and 16 stone. My BMI was about 32. I was unhappy with my weight and couldn't wear the clothes I wanted to. I'm gay, and appearance is important on the gay scene, and I needed to lose weight. I tried fleetingly to eat a little healthier, and joined a gym, but couldn't sustain any attempts to make changes.
I did lipotrim for a week, after researching online, and absolutely hated it. I felt sick and tired and my breath stunk. I stuck with it, and lost about a stone in the first week, then moved to Slimming World. Over six months, I lost a further two and a half stone and reached my 'target' weight of 13 stone. I always knew I'd have preferred to have been a little slimmer. I sustained that loss for about a year, gaining about half a stone. I was very happy with how I looked (in clothes at least) and proud of what I've achieved. However, over the next year or so, I gained back the three and a half stone I'd lost.
In the last three or four years, I've lost and gained the same three or four stone about four times. I've done a combination of healthy eating (I always find it too slow when I want to lose quicker, and find it hard to sustain), Weight Watchers (good for a week, but I'm lazy and don't cook, never feel full), Slimming World (I can't get my head around Extra Easy and find free foods too much of a temptation), Exante (last time: lost two stone, then quickly gained three) and the gym (went eight times in two weeks, then never again for six months).
As I write, I'm at the end of my first week on the VLCD Exante. My start weight was 16 stone 2 pounds and I lost 10lbs in six days. I followed this loss tonight with deep fried chicken from the chinese, egg fried rice, black bean vegetables, one bottle of beer and a Wispa Gold. I just can't face having 'no' food. Yet I know deep down that I won't be able to sustain healthy eating.
So, I guess my question is, what next? Nothing works, truly because I just can't hack it and stick to a plan, but yet I know I do want to lose weight.
Should I accept the fact that I'm just one of those people that is three or four stone overweight, and likely always will be? It's four stone, and stays around this usually, not ten stone and it's perfectly possible to be healthy at a few stone overweight, isn't it? Perhaps I should just be happy and forget about it.
Or should I try yet another diet? I'm skeptical because the truth is that I weigh exactly the same as I did four years ago, even though I've gone through so much pain and drama - gains and losses, expense, and even heartache. But perhaps I just haven't found the plan that works for me?
Sorry for ranting, but I just don't know where else to turn. I'm unhappy with my weight and my appearance, but I just can't hack losing it, yet again, only to gain it all back and more.
