Obese dad saying hello

MrKSm1th

Hi all

Just thought I'd introduce myself and give a little background into why I am here.

Since the age of eighteen I have struggled with my weight. My relationship with food has been complicated at best, abusive at worst.

I have tried WW and slimming world both of which helped me lose a shedload of weight but i would always plateau and find the weight piling back on. I also struggle with some of slimming worlds reasoning for example mashing a banana causes it to be synned or the fact that if you take the batter off deep fried fish its syn free as the batter acts as a barrier.

I am an emotional eater and I am binge eater. The latter I do in secret, often hiding sweet wrappers where they will not be found.

At the start of January I was told by my doctor that I was not diabetic....yet. Still I heed the advice and continued to pile on the pounds.

In July I was my heaviest at 335lbs. I could no longer walk without my legs hurting. And I was severely out of breath just taking my son up two flights of stairs.

I decided enough was enough downloaded my fitness pal, started to count calories, dusted off the weight bench and here I am.

Tiernan1212

Welcome to MFP! I've never used any official programs, so I can't relate to your experience there, but I have been here over 10 years. I'm a boredom eater, and have been a binge eater (although I've made huge improvements with the binges).

My best advice is to take it slow and steady. Many people arrive here and want to lose all the weight all at once. They end up setting their goals too aggressively to maintain long term. Planning ahead is also important. When I was working on my binging, what really helped me was keeping high volume, low calorie foods on hand. That way I could feel like I was eating a lot, but my actual calorie intake was much less than a typical binge. My go-to was/is a huge spinach salad. Tons of spinach with a serving of shredded cheese, a serving of sunflower seeds, some chicken, and a low calorie dressing (Olive Garden light Italian is AMAZING, and only 30 cals for 2 tablespoons). You can find tons of recipes for this type of eating. It's not ideal for the long term, but over the last year I've managed to decrease my binges from a few times a week down to one or two a month.

Don't worry about going gung-ho with exercise right off the bat. Try to focus on just increasing your movement throughout the day. If there's a commercial on TV, get up and walk around the living room. Park a few spaces further away when you can. Take the long way to walk somewhere at work (to the bathroom, the printer, etc.), go on a 10-15 minute walk when you can. I found that when I jumped into an exercise program too quickly, it wouldn't last long. I'd get super sore, take a rest day or two, and then never get back to it. Slowly work your way up to longer sessions of activity. I use a FitBit, and I've managed to increase my steps per day from around 4,000 to almost 10,000 by making small changes that add up.

You can definitely do this, focus on making small changes that you can stick with long term. Feel free to add me as a friend, I am online pretty much all day M-F, and a few times a day on the weekends

jst1986

My situation probably completely mirrors yours - Dad struggling with a life balance, comfort eating, failing at WW/SW etc etc, yo yo dieting etc! I topped the scales in April at about 390lb and have managed to lose 40lb in the three or so months since buy tracking calories and trying to up exercise!