54 and 5 stone overweight - is it too late!

So... it's gonna take a long time .. so what? That time is gong to go by any way. Might as well do something positive while it's rolling on.

It is never too late! ... OK, you're probably not going to get that young, taut, and buff young person body at the end of the journey ,,, but hey, is that what you have right now? I think not.

However ... if you do work on it ... in small measures to start and let the measures increase as they will .. at the end of that time (you say 2 years), you will probably be thinner and perhaps even more fit than you are today. No 'gung-ho' measures needed. Just attempt to eat a little less today than you did yesterday. And if you ate 'good' yesterday (meaning a reasonable about of negative calories from your normal intake), then try to repeat that today as well ... and just keep rolling along that way.

Don't over-think it. Don't make huge plans that full of details ... Just concentrate on that one thing for now ... "Eat lighter today than I normally do." ... Naturally to know that you did, you will have to jot down the foods that you actually did eat so that you can compare as the days roll by.

Oh ... and forget about what you did in the past that didn't work. This is a new plan ... a relaxed plan where you are just starting out with that one goal in mind .. eat less than you normally do.
The rest will fall into place as you become good at doing that one thing. Wait .. try it ... you'll see!

It's never too late. Just think how much better it is that you started now instead of next week or next month?

Slow is good. Even if you aim for and succeed in losing one pound a week, a year from now you will have lost fifty pounds!

Set some shorter term goals if the long-term ones are daunting. If you stumble, don't quit. Stick to it. Get back doing what you know works right away. Don't wait for tomorrow or next week. Just get back to it NOW.

It is not too late…Nov 2021 I was 134.1kg at 6’4”…am now 99.1kg and 12.5% body fat. Start slow and begin to exercise with a plan and then begin to slowly work on the diet…lose the scale for 6 months…choose one thing to change…for me I stopped eating jelly beans every day and then all pop and then all junk food and then began to increase protein intake and then began intermittent fasting…and now I exercise the equivalent of 6-8hrs 130bpm+ cardio a week and target 3,400 calories per day at 280g carbs, 126g fat and 260g protein trying to hit 210 @ 10% body fat so I can hit my training goals. Rome is not built in a day so set realistic goals….eating a chocolate bar every day? Well week eat one every 2nd day and slowly make these changes and suddenly without you even noticing it will happen…

Marc_196 wrote: »

HELLO - It is starting to feel like it's too late! I find it difficult to follow a long-term plan that's needed to lose 5st - it more than likely needs 2 years to achieve this.

Well, maybe. But that time's going to pass anyway, so why not work on the goal? Going slowly makes it more sustainable, increases odds of success.

That said, it could be possible to average around a pound a week over the whole time, which would be a bit less than 2 years. (You'd ideally reach that weekly average by going a bit faster at first while you have more fat stores to draw on, then slower at the end when you have less energy stored. If it's hard to start aggressively, you could gradually ease your way up to the faster-loss deficit over a period of a few weeks, if that helps.)

But there's nothing wrong with slower.

I lost 50-some pounds in a bit under a year at age 59-60, and there are others here who started older. It's not too late while we're still walking around above ground.

I find it easy to break the rules when my mood drops - especially as work can be very stressful, and I have a terrible habit of eating too much each weekend with little to no remorse.

So make a plan that accommodates that. Quite a few people bank calories for the weekend by eating a little below goal on weekdays (not massively below, that will backfire). Then they have some extra calories to spend on the weekend.

If the problem is stress or mood, the better solution is something that directly addresses that root problem. If the root problem isn't fueling or nutrition, the ideal answer isn't food. People use different things for stress/mood issues: Exercise, journaling, prayer or meditation, stretching/yoga, aromatherapy bubble baths, relaxing music, being outdoors in nature, non-caloric herbal teas, etc. What might be a non-food intervention you could try?

I want super fast results, but I know I should be happy with losing 1-2 lbs per week. I signed up for FitnessPal premium today and will obediently start tracking calories, water, exercise and walking.

Everyone wants super fast results. But it can be that a slow loss gets us to goal weight in less calendar time than an aggressive loss rate that triggers compensatory overeating periodically, or that's unsustainable so one gives up for long stretches.

Over the next week, I need to produce a list of reasons why 22 diets attempted over the last 10 years have failed. I hope it isn't too late. Here is to 2023 being the year I succeed at reducing my weight by 2 st 7 lbs as part of my 2-year journey. Is this realistic?

The reasons your previous attempts failed will be useful. Do something this time that solves those problems.

35 pounds this year? Yes, that's reasonable, if you can find a sustainable (relatively easy for you) plan. It's fine to experiment, while finding the right plan. Just keep going. If something doesn't work, try something else. Patience and persistence pay off.

Best wishes!