Quite right.
I also got so big that related health problems made exercise very hard for me. My thighs chaff so badly i can wear through my leggings and have my skin bleeding within an hour of walking. My tendons in feet and legs flare up with tendinitis for months at a time. I get blisters even with my expensive shoes, gel innersoles, walking socks and anti blister creams. I have other issues including an unpleasant skin condition on my arms that stops me going swimming. I have PCOS with insulin resistance that seems to make gaining weight easy and losing it hard. I have aspergers and bipolar, I have had a traumatic life and have been abused by people I trusted as well as horribly bullied all through school and in work. I have man sized feet and a big under bite. I had acne from age 10 - 30. I have a huge long list of things stacked against me and reasons to feel sorry for myself. I too have seen those documentaries of people bed ridden by their size and i can see how that could happen. It does not feel distant from me. I can easily see how that could be me if i do not do something about this.

Saying all that I have lost 39lb in the space of 7 weeks so I know it is possible to turn things around. I have been constantly on a diet of falling off the wagon in a big way for 23 years solid since age 10. I have lost loads twice and put it back on because my methods were unsustainable due to being so hungry. What is working for me now is following a mostly paleo ketogenic way of eating. Yes it seems extreme but so much less extreme than being bed bound or having surgery. Surgery would be on my list and i understand why others choose it but for me there are more options i will try before going that route. For now i am happy with what i am doing because it stops me being hungry all the time and it kills the cravings. It was not easy to wave goodbye to my comfort foods but those comfort foods are like a big soft teddy full of knives, they are like the man i loved who hurt me in some of the worst ways, they are nothing but illusion and lies. I see them for what they are and i will not let them hurt me any more. i do not have to put the poison in my mouth so i won't. I am very angry at being introduced to these poisons disguised as foods in the first place. I am not helping to line the pockets of heartless people by buying their poisons any more.

I eat between 1000-1500 calories a day most days, sometimes less. I go for walks when i can manage them. I was trying to incorporate a couple of very low calorie days each week 500-600 but i got a bad gallbladder attack last time i did that so not doing any more fasting. Bile stagnates while not eating and that can cause gallbladder attacks. I make sure to eat 3 times a day to avoid that again. I do not see an issue with eating very low calorie sometimes though because my doctor approves and if had surgery that would be all i could eat anyway. For me personally i do not trust that surgery would even work for me. I have seen programs where even after full gastric bypass people managed to gain huge amounts of weight again due to finding ways around it eating liquid high calorie foods. I can see that being me. For me i need to tackle this in my head and find the resolve not to eat the foods that trigger the cravings. There is a basic law that if do not eat then starvation will occur. So if the recommended calorie reduction generates no result then a bigger calorie reduction can be tried until do get results. I have no interest in starving myself and will not exist on 600cal a day long term but i will happily add in some very low calorie days amongst the low calorie days if it means i lose the weight that is destroying my life. I will be sure to split my calories between 2 or 3 meals though so my body is not left fasting long enough to upset my gallbladder.

We can all win this and shift the weight if set our minds to it strongly enough. It is just finding the willingness to let go of old ways and keep adjusting things to find what works best individually.

I believe I agree with everything that has been said. Don't wait, don't keep doing the same thing because it's "supposed" to work and "only if you try harder", don't quit doing something that's working just because something new and exciting has come along and don't give up. The best gift you can give those that you love is to live a long healthy life. They want you to stick around and be an "active" part of their lives.

The big thing I have found is that I had to change my way of thinking. I have always thought of myself as "going on a 'diet'" and all that has ever done is set myself up for immediate failure. I now think of this as a lifestyle change and eating nutritionally. There will be good days and not so good days (you notice I didn't say "bad" days - that wording only leads to guilt and beating myself up).

And yes, I opted for weight loss surgery and yes, I gained part of my weight back. That was due to two factors. First, I had never dealt with the reasons that I used food in the first place (childhood sexual abuse which led to additionally a food addiction). I am now dealing with the "head" issues and progress is coming slowly. My RNY "pouch" still does it's job but this leads into the second reason for the weight gain. First I quit following all the "rules" and starting drinking with meals, testing my ability to eat high fat and high sugar food, etc. But something they don't tell you when you have surgery is that after the first two years, your body begins to adjust. In the beginning you are eating so few calories, your body eventually starts thinking starvation. Therefore, your body finds ways to absorb more of the calories you are eating later. The malabsorption of vitamins and minerals is for life but the malabsorption of calories only last no more than two years. So it's very important to deal with the head issues and learn how to change your lifestyle in those two years. If you don't, then you put yourself in danger of gaining weight back. I'm here to tell you though, that even if you do start to gain it's not impossible to get it back off. You simply have to go back to basics, obeying the rules, and listening to your pouch. And don't forget exercise, lol. I don't want to discourage anyone from WLS. By all means, if you've reached that point where you feel it is the right thing for you, fantastic. I just want you going into it with your eyes wide open. The surgery doesn't mean you will never have to deal with food issues again. (Something the surgeons neglect to inform you.). I would have WLS again in the blink of an eye - it was the best decision of my life. I may still be obese but 290 obese is a hell of a lot better than 500+ pounds obese.