Are some people ( like myself) perhaps beyond help ?

Your diet, exercise and results have all been sporadic.

So what lesson did we learn here?

This.

It's amazing what consistency and patience will do.

No, I don't believe if someone is alive they are beyond help. This site has plenty of good examples of that. People who were hundreds of pounds overweight that have lost weight and gotten healthy, people with severe disabilities that have done the same. It is about how badly you want it and how ready you are to change.

No one is beyond help.

1) Establish your goals
2) Set up a well researched and realistic plan (some people on here are great resources)
3) Stick with it, give your plan AT LEAST 6 weeks, if it was realistic you should see changes
4) Reassess your goals and plan periodically based on progress or challenges
5) You deserve what you settle for. Settle for greatness.

Thank you for the replies .... I suppose I can't want it badly enough although it is all I think about. Not sure that makes sense it doesn't really does it ? You would think if something bothers you that much you would make a change ......

It might be a good task to try to figure out why. Sometimes people don't act because they're not educated about how to go about things, don't know exactly WHAT goal they want, lack confidence, don't believe they CAN do better, have some kind of fixation on being miserable, etc.

Don't believe that you CAN'T do better, though. You can. It's just a matter of finding what's going to get you there and working towards it.

My diets and exercise were sporadic until I started logging on MFP. And even then, I fell of the wagon for a couple months. But I'm still sitting here at my lowest weight in 10 years.

You're only beyond help when you've given up on yourself.

You are totally describing the OLD me. I always yo-yo dieted, and after about a month of exercising and dieting, I would totally fall off the wagon and binge. I did this for years!

I decided to not "diet" anymore. I would just get healthier; baby steps. Portion control, moderation and substitution. I started walking, then after about a month, joined the gym. Instead of saying to myself "I am on a diet and will exercise" I just said to myself "I want to get healthier". It was literally taking the word diet out of my vocabulary that changed my life. Diet is short term. Getting healthier is a lifestyle.

I was 252 pounds. I was lazy and would look for any excuse not to work out. I am now 128 pounds and enjoy working out everyday! You just have to adjust to the baby steps. Make mini goals instead of large ones, because your are more likely to go back to old habits if you don't succeed at your large goal in a specific time.

You can do it! Don't talk yourself down! Encourage and motivate yourself. You are worth it to be the best version of yourself that you can be!

You got this!

I have been on and off diets for over 15 years and hated my body , binged etc etc .. Exercised sporadically never consistently!!I just wondered if perhaps some people ( like myself! ) can't be helped ? Or if some people don't want what rules their life badly enough ? If you have tried everything and are still in the same position should you just give up ? I am great at excuses and being good to others , just not myself . I do feel I am a broken record going on and on , but I know I am the only person who can do anything about it !

Really interested in peoples thoughts, if I have not bored you silly : )

Completely get some people won't agree with me here, but this is my opinion, I believe binge eating disorder, etc is exactly the same as anorexia because it will end in the same result, death. I am in recovery from purging type anorexia, no one has ever told me not to recover, all my family/friends/doctors have always done their best to persuade me to continue in recovery because well if I didn't, I would end up killing myself, slowly. Would you tell me to give up in recovery because it's really hard and I slip up alot? No, I doubt you would. Don't diet, change your lifestyle, do this for you and your health, only you can save yourself xxx

No one is beyond help. Just some people work through the pain and others don't want to. It's a choice. if you apply yourself, eat right and exercise, you simply can't fail.

It's just not easy. It's incredibly difficult.

And, I'm going to sound like a total uncaring *kitten* for saying this, but either you suck it up and be strong, or you will never achieve your goals. No one is going to hold your hand while doing this, the strongest person in your life has to be you.

I don't think anyone is beyond help, but you have to want to do it first, which you clearly do, or you wouldn't be on here.

I have always battled with my weight, from being an overweight teenager, to then losing loads when I went to uni, getting to a size 10/12 (UK) in my early 20s, then putting weight on again when I did my teacher training, losing it for my wedding, putting it on in both my pregnancies. I think my body definitely wants to be fat and jumps at every chance it gets!

I want it badly enough though, and being thin in my 20s has shown me that it's possible, so that it was I am aiming for. I am now 2 inches off fitting into my size 12 (US size 8) jeans properly after 15 months of a healthy lifestyle.

As others have said, it's all about a healthy lifestyle rather than a fad, so there will be days when your diet isn't perfect, or you don't exercise, but you have to make it long term.

I find that focusing on little, manageable goals helps, as does taking measurements as well as looking at the scale.

Um, sorry for posting this twice!

Good luck!

They say drug addicts usually relapse seven times before becoming sober for the long term.

It doesn't sound like you've figured out the "why" yet. You think about it, but can't get through the day before you've given up.

So...why? Why don't you do what you plan to do? Why do you make choices that you know aren't going to get you where you want to go? Why do you do things you know are unhealthy? Why do you give up?

You need to answer these questions. It's all well and good to say, "I should lose weight," except that it's not a compelling motivator. You need to know why, for you, losing weight is more desirable than staying at the weight you are (or gaining). You need to know why you make those decisions. It doesn't sound like you've come to a point where you really believe that losing weight is better than the alternatives. Don't feel bad, that's most people who are mad at themselves for being overweight. Ever hear something like, "I was doing so well and then I ate a half-dozen cupcakes! I obviously can't lose weight!" It's not that the person can't lose weight, it's that in their mind, eating the cupcake still appears the better option than forgoing it. You won't be able to do it until you understand why you want it and why it's better than what you're doing now.

And no, you're not beyond help. I spent the last eight years being suicidal and depressed. I loathed myself. I thought constantly about how to hurt myself, make my life miserable and painful, and how to end it. My diet consisted of Doritos, fast food, soda, and liquor. I gained 80 pounds, and just kept thinking that it'd eventually kill me if I did it long enough (without looking like your more traditional suicide means). I'm somewhat rare in the sense that I knew exactly what I was doing in putting on weight, but that didn't make it any easier when I finally crawled out of the depression and found myself in a body I didn't recognize. I'd forgotten what it was like to be normal, to want to help yourself, to want to feel good. It's a slow process getting back to good, but take a look at my ticker and you'll see the progress is very real. And it took me figuring out the answers to those questions I asked you. I had to finally face the fact that I didn't deserve what I was doing to myself, that I should be okay with feeling okay, and that I could find a way to get there.

I was broken, as broken as people can get. And I figured it out. You can too.