Overweight, Depressed, and trying to be Determined.

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Hi,
I've been overweight since I was 7 years old. I'm now 18, 5"1 and 201 pounds. I hit 200 this summer and I couldn't feel worse. I have severe depression and anxiety, and my psychiatrist wants to change my medication because she feels that it may have caused my rapid weight gain (15 pounds in 6 months). I want to try to lose some weight on my own before we decide to change it or not. After all, I haven't been active or eating well.

I have no car, so I do at least 2 miles of walking a day, but usually more than that. I went to the gym twice in the past week and was pleasantly surprised with how much I could do. I was very fit at one time for a period of about 6 months.

I'd very much like some support from anyone who can understand my situation.

Replies

  • missbclark18
    missbclark18 Posts: 3 Member
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    I've been overweight my entire life so u know how that is. Just gotta take it one day at a time and stay focused. I use a calender app and schedule gym time in advance, helps me stay on track. Good luck!!!
  • cassiz91
    cassiz91 Posts: 15 Member
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    I understand your situation very well. Firstly it takes time and patience.Your young so weight can be easier to lose then when your older. Begin to build up a steady routine of doing physical fun activities such as sports, and include going to the gym. Get your favorite fruits and veggies you like to eat and you can build up a simple yet effective nutrition plan. Give yourself a cheat meal so you don't deprive yourself or go cold Turkey. I'm sure you can do it and will see results! Here if ya need anything!
  • RobertCu
    RobertCu Posts: 33 Member
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    mcgiffertmia,

    It's not hard to lose weight, but rather training your mind and keeping the routine will be the hardest part. You will see, once you start tracking your progress in MFP, that the weigh will start dropping like crazy. It's going to take time and patience and some tweaking but it can be done. You can do it!
  • danaakatherine
    danaakatherine Posts: 2 Member
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    hey there, im the same height as you & also working to lose weight (as most people on this app are) you can do it !!!!! do home workouts, run around the block, eat healthy!!! go you !!! :) good luck
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    From my own experience, i know that you can put on weight pretty fast without the influence of meds. You should keep a strict food diary. Depression, regardless of your meds, makes many of us eat more and it also makes us want to eat junk food. What you want to try to do whilst working hard to fix your mood, is to train yourself to eat really healthy nutritious food. It will take time. If you are a binger, what i have found helpful to me is swearing off those bingy foods, particularly high sugar foods. I now only eat those foods when other people offer them to me. And if my mood drops and i go into a bingey mood, i eat more and but not those sweets because i have so little control over my consumption of them.

    Many people on these forums tend not to know what healthy food is. Healthy food is not processed food so that sort of thing should be kept to a minimum. Meanwhile fruit and vegies must be increased a lot. I know most of us struggle with this. But if you know that fruit and vegies is where the solution lies you can keep pushing yourself over time towards eating them a lot in your diet.

    When you eat a lot of fruit and vegies and other unprocessed foods in combinations then your food tastes good, you feel full, your weight stabilises or reduces and you feel happier. When you are not happy, your healthy food routine may fall over but at least you know where to go back to.

    There's no way round it but we all have to get into our own food preparation. Eating out, eating packaged foods is not sustainable for long term weightloss.

    I do take antidepressant medication. Have done so for years. Some meds are known to cause weight gain. If your med is one of those then it might be a good idea to change it. Prozac is one of those. I don't know what others are.
  • hcrafty0261962
    hcrafty0261962 Posts: 3 Member
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    I agree with everyone! I am 53 I have been overweight all my life, my top weight was 315. I am only 5'. I used to laugh and say I was as big around as I was tall! But it hurt. Depression has been my best friend. Have been hospitalized. Attempted suicide. Medicated. Food has always been there! But something clicked for me in the last few weeks. I decided to lose the weight for me! I have always worked as a caregiver to the elderly. But I never took care of me! Now I don't work. Now it is my time! Since my daughter (age 32) showed me this app, losing weight has almost become easy. I am only losing 1 pound a week. But that is great with me! At least it is going down! Do it for yourself! If you don't take care of yourself, no one else will! And it is so much easier when you are young!! Oh how I wish I had listened to those words so long ago! You can do it! We are here to help!