How to loose weight 1st time?

wcah

After breaking my back 4 years ago and being limited to exercise (walking with crutches) iv gained to ME a massive 20kg i used to be 67kg. i am mentally depressed also do to my life changing disability and getting help for that but with weight gain also its making me even more depressed and worthless. So i have set a date for this Saturday to start my first ever diet. I am going to be trying out Arbonne feelfit protein shakes for breakfast and lunch and am looking around at recipies for my dinner. I am going to start my phyisio exercises again to get a bit energy burnt.
My biggest probelm is i get massive sugar cravings at around 3 and 9pm and would like sum sugestions on what i could try to prevent these from happening please.
TIA

yirara

How do you eat and at what time? Maybe having something small to eat at 2:30 and 8:30 to prevent this? Or are you bored at those times?

Sinisterbarbie1

@wcah
Hi and congratulations for feeling well enough to tackle this issue. That in itself is a big accomplishment. I also put on and subsequently lost weight after an illness followed by an injury. In my case at least part of my problem had to do with medications for pain etc that had made me gain. I no longer needed them at all so could stop, but if thats not the case a dr who understands weight gain and loss might suggest others with fewer adverse impacts to hold you back from success in dieting.

I am sure others will also jump in to comment that since you are here anyway why not try just measuring/weighing and accurately recording everything you eat for a few weeks and making adjustments to see what you can cut down on of your normal diet and still eat the foods you enjoy rather than moving to a liquid diet for two meals which is really tough to maintain long term, and doesn’t give you any way to join family outings, work lunches etc. so is isolating and can make you feel socially deprived and less likely to maintain. Moreover, you are going to have to keep up the changes long term to keep the weight off so you may not want to be drinking expensive milkshakes for two meals a day forever. Also the replacement shakes pack in a lot of calories, carbs, etc per drink bc they are intended to replace meals so don’t leave you a lot of room to snack if you aren’t satisfied from them if that is what you find you need to feel full. You can probably do better just becoming conscious of what you are eating now and readjusting a bit. Measuring and honestly writing everything down is a huge eyeopener and that pause before you eat something often helps make you consciously decide whether its worth it or not rather than mindlessly graze on what is in the kitchen.

As for what to eat when you crave something sweet - I tend to go for something like fresh mango spears or berries which are pretty low calorie, have fiber so are filing and are also hydrating and full of vitamins. If I want something that approximates a cookie I eat a metamucil bisquit which has psyllium fiber and is super filling, If I want something more like dessert chia seed pudding or a small serving of greek yogurt with berries (each has a different nutrition profile chia seeds are high in fiber, greek yogurt in protein, both are filling for different reasons).

Finally, you have decided you want to do this … why are you putting off starting to the weekend? Weigh yourself today, enter it in the app, buy some healthy food choices today, give away the less healthy ones you don’t think you will be able to eat in moderation, get yourself some a decent kitchen scale and start recording what you are eating. And if you are up for it do something like chair yoga or ask your doctor or physical therapist to recommend exercises for people with mobility problems - I am sure they did or will gladly do so. You will be surprised at how quickly you can feel better even if the weight loss is slow, just knowing you are doing something good for your health.
You can do this!

wcah

yirara wrote: »

How do you eat and at what time? Maybe having something small to eat at 2:30 and 8:30 to prevent this? Or are you bored at those times?

at the moment i have breakfast at 0830 skip lunch and have a plate of veg and some meat for tea at 1830. snaks can be anything from a few double deckers, muller rice, jelly babies, nuts, apple, ice cream

wcah

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

@wcah
Hi and congratulations for feeling well enough to tackle this issue. That in itself is a big accomplishment. I also put on and subsequently lost weight after an illness followed by an injury. In my case at least part of my problem had to do with medications for pain etc that had made me gain. I no longer needed them at all so could stop, but if thats not the case a dr who understands weight gain and loss might suggest others with fewer adverse impacts to hold you back from success in dieting.

I am sure others will also jump in to comment that since you are here anyway why not try just measuring/weighing and accurately recording everything you eat for a few weeks and making adjustments to see what you can cut down on of your normal diet and still eat the foods you enjoy rather than moving to a liquid diet for two meals which is really tough to maintain long term, and doesn’t give you any way to join family outings, work lunches etc. so is isolating and can make you feel socially deprived and less likely to maintain. Moreover, you are going to have to keep up the changes long term to keep the weight off so you may not want to be drinking expensive milkshakes for two meals a day forever. Also the replacement shakes pack in a lot of calories, carbs, etc per drink bc they are intended to replace meals so don’t leave you a lot of room to snack if you aren’t satisfied from them if that is what you find you need to feel full. You can probably do better just becoming conscious of what you are eating now and readjusting a bit. Measuring and honestly writing everything down is a huge eyeopener and that pause before you eat something often helps make you consciously decide whether its worth it or not rather than mindlessly graze on what is in the kitchen.

As for what to eat when you crave something sweet - I tend to go for something like fresh mango spears or berries which are pretty low calorie, have fiber so are filing and are also hydrating and full of vitamins. If I want something that approximates a cookie I eat a metamucil bisquit which has psyllium fiber and is super filling, If I want something more like dessert chia seed pudding or a small serving of greek yogurt with berries (each has a different nutrition profile chia seeds are high in fiber, greek yogurt in protein, both are filling for different reasons).

Finally, you have decided you want to do this … why are you putting off starting to the weekend? Weigh yourself today, enter it in the app, buy some healthy food choices today, give away the less healthy ones you don’t think you will be able to eat in moderation, get yourself some a decent kitchen scale and start recording what you are eating. And if you are up for it do something like chair yoga or ask your doctor or physical therapist to recommend exercises for people with mobility problems - I am sure they did or will gladly do so. You will be surprised at how quickly you can feel better even if the weight loss is slow, just knowing you are doing something good for your health.
You can do this!

thanks for your insightful reply. i get what you mean by the expense of shakes long term but i thought id try them to get kick started on my diet. why the weekend? well it was my birthday on tuesday an iv birthday cake to finish off ha ha. i speak to my dr today in fact so i will ask her about exercise hopefully she will send me back to physio as then i am accountable to do my exercises!!! as i tend to be all talk and no motivation to do. shakes are easy and simple to get started i thought, gives me time to explore other meals in the mean time nothing to say i wont skip a shake and have a health meal instead im more than happy to experiment an mix things about. going shopping later today so may even start tomorrow. do you find feeding your self healthy costs much more than simple frozen meals and junk food??? thank you for the motivation

Xellercin

I'm also on crutches and have no problem losing weight with diet alone.

I'm not sure what the purpose of the protein shakes is, they're just food in a different, unpleasant form.

I'm also prone to extreme sugar cravings, but for the past 20 years I've rarely had them. If I eat sugar too regularly, I get them really badly, like obesessive constant thoughts of sugary foods, but when that happens, I take a 6 week break from eating sugar and they totally disappear.

Then as long as I never eat sugar two days in a row and never more than twice a week, I can have it whenever I want, enjoy it, and don't get cravings. As I said, I've been doing that for 20 years and spend most of my time benignly disinterested in sugar.

As for weight loss, when I was obese after graduating, I didn't totally change my diet overnight, I started slowly one meal at a time. I started with figuring out a routine for really healthy breakfasts and then once that stuck, I moved on to my other meals.

I also never ate less food, just more nutrient dense food. I absolutely flooded my diet with raw vegetables too. My lunches and dinners were about 70% raw vegetables by weight. I left every meal absolutely stuffed, but was only eating about 400-500 calories per meal.

I kept no calorie dense snack foods in the house and generally didn't eat between meals. If I did need more food between meals. I kept hard boiled eggs in the fridge at all times and that was all I would eat between meals. If I didn't want an egg, I obviously wasn't legitimately in need of more food.

As for exercise, I don't do anything rigorous that could really contribute to my weight, but I do A LOT of gentle physiotherapy exercises every day, and I see my physio every 3-6 weeks religiously.

People with mechanical disabilities need constant monitoring of how our muscles are compensating and constant adjustments to out exercises, so even if you have to pay out of pocket like I do, keep up with your physiotherapy, it's critical to keep you functioning as well as possible.