Feeling crippled by weight gain.

NiqueKristan

Hi! I'm a 24 yo 5"6 female and I've been obese my entire life. I fluctuated between 200-224 in high school and in my adult life I've significantly lost weight twice. The first time my lowest was 178, the second time I went down to 190. At those weights, I looked smaller than I actually was. Even now, I don't look like I weigh as much as I do.
I now am at my absolute highest- 230. I carry my weight mostly in my stomach and thighs. I breathe heavily and get out of breath easily. I work at a restaurant and it's hard to stay on my feet for long. dress code is for jeans and none of them fit and the ones that did have rips in the thigh area.
I've suffered from depression and anxiety which makes it so hard to lose weight because food helps in the moment. I've done it before, but it feels so hard to do it again. I also am worried that if I lose weight again, I'll gain it all back again.
Any words of advice or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

SoozeE512

I've found that losing slowly has helped me best. In the past when I lost quickly, I gained it back quickly too.

Taking my time with it and weighing myself every morning and logging my food every day has helped me keep track of my trends to understand the difference between normal fluctuations, weight loss, and weight gain.

I've also taken breaks along the way to maintain weight so I understand what that looks like too.

If I start to see my weight going up on the scale, I recognize that quickly before it gets out of control, and I can stop any bad habits in their tracks and turn things around before it becomes a bigger problem.

It think it takes a lot of trial and error for each person to learn what works best for them. I wish you well!

tamawamara

I relate to a lot of what your saying.It's an up and down battle.If you make little changes w exercise and food ,not too much at once., have patience w yourself,until you find what works for you .I f eel what I can do right now is log everything and see where I can cut back there,as .I am having issues now because of a ankle injury am not working for several weeks,and can't be very mobile.It's causing me anxiety about gaining weight.Feel free to friend me we can be of some help to one another.

OliverFiles

Your problems sounds a lot like mine...
I struggle a lot with yo-yo'ing in weight too; Getting my weight down and going back up, plus some. It's really difficult for me to grasp that monitoring what I eat will be a life-long commitment and that I can't just "go back to normal eating," because normal for me is really bad eating habits. I also have issues with emotional eating and binge eating when I'm upset/frustrated/etc (example; Ffff it, I had a bad day, I'm going to eat this whole box of poptarts and a pint of Ben&Jerry's). I carry my weight in my lower-stomach, butt and thighs. I've been wearing men's jeans since I was probably 16 (I'm 29, creepin on 30 in about a month) because no women's jeans fit me anymore, even in the plus sizes.

So, hope you don't mind I lurk in your thread to see the advice and stuff

try2again

Well, I'm twice your age, but I can relate to most of what you're saying. When I started on MFP a little over a year ago, I was unhappy about it because the little joy & comfort I had in my life was from food and I thought, "Great... now I can't even have that!" But I just focused on the short term- meeting my calorie allowance for that day- and put one foot in front of the other. Each successful day boosted my spirits, and it didn't take much weight loss (10-15 lbs) to start feeling the physical benefits, which increased my motivation. You can absolutely do it! But a few tips: Don't make your weekly weight loss goal too aggressive. Keep your calorie allowance manageable and sustainable. Don't try to completely overhaul your diet at the same time- you'll have lots of time to tweak because, when it comes down to it, this is going to take the rest of our lives (to lose and then maintain). Get comfortable with that... don't look at this like a short-term project with a completion date. View it as a lifelong journey that will have its setbacks, but that you'll likely get better at along the way!

socajam

NiqueKristan wrote: »

Hi! I'm a 24 yo 5"6 female and I've been obese my entire life. I fluctuated between 200-224 in high school and in my adult life I've significantly lost weight twice. The first time my lowest was 178, the second time I went down to 190. At those weights, I looked smaller than I actually was. Even now, I don't look like I weigh as much as I do.
I now am at my absolute highest- 230. I carry my weight mostly in my stomach and thighs. I breathe heavily and get out of breath easily. I work at a restaurant and it's hard to stay on my feet for long. dress code is for jeans and none of them fit and the ones that did have rips in the thigh area.
I've suffered from depression and anxiety which makes it so hard to lose weight because food helps in the moment. I've done it before, but it feels so hard to do it again. I also am worried that if I lose weight again, I'll gain it all back again.
Any words of advice or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

I share your pain and I am not as heavy as you - 186.8

You need to take one day at a time or plan small goals instead of being all over the place. Do you drive to work or take public transportation. If you take the bus, how about leaving early (now that its lighter) and walk to work or from work - this depends on what time you finish.

Have a bottle of water with you and take a sip when you can, this will starve off hunger. At meal times, try to eat enough protein so that you are not hungry. Try to fill up on protein and fiber - both to me are really needed - one to keep hunger away and the other to plush you out, provided you drink enough liquid.

On your days off, try to exercise first thing in the morning, its so easy to say I will do it later, but later something always gets in the way - I am speaking from experience.

Get yourself a scale and make it your BSF, you will be amazed how much 2 ounces of cheese is.

Losing weight is really hard, it can be done, you just need to be focus on your goals. Good luck.

ponycyndi

When I was at my highest weight, I suffered too. I felt asthmatic trying to walk stairs, all my clothes felt like a straight jacket, I was fatigued (realized later it was from carrying extra weight around). So instead of beating myself up, I took baby steps. I figured i could walk for 10 minutes, work on my elliptical for 10 minutes, and cut back on my over eating.

It got easier over time, until I lost 37 lbs, was in the best shape of my life and thinner than I'd ever been as an adult. You don't have to eat 1,200 calories and work out 2 hours a day. Just move in the right direction.