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Girth

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Hey guys, first thing's first, I'm extremely nervous posting this...I've suffered with my weight for as long as I can remember and have never spoken openly about it except for a few drunken rambles with some close friends I no longer see.

I'm a 22 year old student from the UK and I'm currently unsure of my exact weight. My scales limit is 31st 9lb and I'm now too fat for that too - another thing to add to the list almost as big as me!

I guess 31st 9lb (443lb, roughly 200kg - calculations may be inaccurate as they were done in my head at just past 4am) is a good short-term target weight to begin with to give me a proper starting point.

I've no idea why I'm posting here, I toyed with the idea of an anonymous weight-loss blog to inspire me but never really got round to it. Now that I've found this place I think I can safely say I won't be furthering that idea.

My main vices are beer (I'm Irish), the vast quantities of unhealthy food following said beer, chocolate, crisps, biscuits and the like. I'm also fully aware that my portion sizes at mealtimes are far too big, even though the meal itself isn't too unhealthy.

Couple my excessive intake of calories with a huge lack of exercise and it's easy to see how I've gotten to where I am today. This needs to stop because I can't live life like this any more, I'll be dead before I hit 30 - I'm probably lucky to still be alive now.

I've noticed recently some worrying signs; swollen left calf due to fluid (massively reduced since I've cut out alcohol), shortness of breath walking/climbing stairs, excruciating back pain when walking and painful joints, especially the ankles.

It's painful to write this and read it back, however I already feel a weight lifted off my shoulders (pardon the pun). Hopefully I can lift myself out of the depression I've created along with a low self esteem amongst other paranoias and confidence issues and lose this burden.

Happy to be a part of this community already, it's been a long time coming.
 
Hey man, glad to have you with us!! This is an awesome site for support and educating yourself on your nutritional needs! Here at WLF. We tend to push for the healthy lifestyle changes "aka eat less move more" and not any dieting fads or pills.

You could start by making a journal. Thats a good way for us to check up on you and you can keep us updated on your progress or ask questions.

Good luck! Let me know if you need anything!
 
Hi and welcome :) Congratulations on making that first step.

Make sure you read the stickies on nutrition and exercise here, they'll be really useful. Although perhaps the first thing I'd recommend is talking to your doctor about weight loss- they should be able to tell you what you can do and what your limitations are.
 
Hey hun--Don't be nervous :grouphug: This community is AWESOME. Can I suggest making a diary in the diary section? It's a good place to log food and stuffs.

So, what's the plan batman? I figure you wont be able to do much exercise (maybe swimming would be good says the hypocrite who has not been seen in swimming gear since she was 9!) so you should focus on calories. Do you know much about BMR and how many calories you should be eating for a person of your weight and height? If not, let us know and we'll help you out with figuring all of that out.

Before you exercise or anything you should also see your GP/doctor to have an overall health check to make sure you're okay to do stuff.

Welcome to the forum and I hope you stick around--So many people write intros here and then never stick around long enough to get to know people around here and shed some pounds!

Good luck :)
Hana x

(P.S. Also 21 year old student in the UK here :) Don't have an awesome Irish accent though :p)
 
Hi there, welcome, and congratulations on overcoming your fear and nervousness about being honest.

In addition to following advice given above, can i suggest you read the cohen diet thread in the bottom section. I am not recommending you go on this diet because I'd say its quite expensive but its a diet for people with diabetes and probably also for people who are very overweight. I found it interesting that they are discouraged from exercise. I think it makes sense to forget about that when just moving around puts great stress on your body already.

Yeah, you need to get the weight down for the sake of your knees as a matter of urgency. They aren't designed for carrying so much weight. If you keep that in mind it should help.

Its great you have ditched the alcohol. I once met a woman in her 50s or 60s who told me she had recently lost 20 stone just by giving up alcohol. This obviously meant a lifestyle change in her case. She said she just sat around with her friends drinking a lot. When i met her, she would only have weighed about 9.5 stone or less even.

Get the help of your gp who will hopefully refer you to a dietician to work with. I think its where you must start now that you've quit the grog, as we say over here.

Good luck.

Oh one last little thing. When i joined here i made myself a promise to stay here for a year, even if I reach my goal weight before then. I am doing this because i am trying to change my habits of eating and i know the only way i can do this is if i do it for an extended period of time. Writing the food diary is holding me to account.
 
@Korrie: Thank you very much for the welcome, I'll definitely be starting a journal once I being eating less and moving more. There's no way I'll be trying any fads/pills to aid in weight loss, healthy eating and exercise will be all.

@amy1985: Thank you! I don't really want to visit my doctor regarding my weight as I don't want anything to go down on my medical records - probably foolish but I don't want my future employment to be affected by my weight/health issues.

@Sunflower: I'll be doing a diary, definitely. Hope this spurs me on and shows me where I'm going wrong. I guess the plan is to cut down/out all junk food and alcohol, do some light weights and core body work to strengthen my back and get walking my dog. I find if I plough on with the walking, the back pain will disappear, if not, a break of a minute or two sorts it out. Batman? I bet he looks better in lycra than I do, lol! I don't really know anything about BMRs, calorie requirements or anything, but I'm gonna put some time into looking at it and making some calculations to see what I need. I'm not really a calorie counter, to begin with, just cutting down and eating healithily will make a drastic impact. I plan on sticking around as long as it takes to get down to an ideal weight, maybe longer to provide my own knowledge I pick up on the way. Unfortunately I moved over to the UK when I was three years old so I don't have an awesome Irish accent either.

@fortyfour: It's not necessarily a fear of being honest, it's more about overcoming my demons about my weight. I'll have a look at the Cohen diet and let you know what I think, thanks for the suggestion. Dietitians piss me off, they sit there looking you up and down taking up half of their chair and put on a forced smile which really grinds me. Been there, done that, gone up a few t-shirt sizes. I do appreciate the suggestion though.

Good luck, also, to all of you who are losing weight.
 
Well good luck to you :) Will def be checking on your diary when you make one! Looking forward to seeing how you do xx
 
For BMR, I started here: Work out your daily calorie needs, then reduce that number by 500 or 1000 (depending on which is manageable- personally I use 500, it's slower but more manageable) to give you a guideline goal. You don't have to count everything (I do, but that's my choice), but at the very least you should be aware of that number, and what it means in terms of what you eat. Find out what foods are high or low in calories, and look on sides of packages when you're shopping, and think about that number in terms of your daily allowance (for example, yesterday I saw a chocolate cake, worked out it was 1200 calories per serve. My calorie allowance is just shy of 1900, so no, that chocolate cake is not worth most of my food for the day). Also find foods that are lower in calories that fill you up- porridge is a good one for me (also cheap as dirt given the student budget). And check out nutritional requirements to give you an idea of what you should be eating- I use a combination of the NHS and other resources-

I don't see how your future employment could be hindered if you get help losing weight. In most instances your medical records are completely confidential, and I fail to see that it's a bad thing if you lose the weight- surely that shows the kind of persistence and dedication that many employers would appreciate? (And ultimately I think health is the most important thing you have- and there may be complications from losing weight at your size that I and others don't know about and thus can't advise you on)

Hope this gives you some ideas.
 
Amy i think its something that people with health insurance worry about. It's an American thing.

I agree with Amy though. I think ALL AROUND its so much smarter to work with a doctor. You seem to be letting fear of the unknown stop you from taking the most sensible course of action.

Your attitude towards dieticians indicates some projection. They want to help you. It's their job. But in the end, its your call.
 
I'll be starting a diary today/tomorrow - what kind of stuff do you put in them?

My issue with going to see a doctor is that everything gets put on your medical records. If a potential employer asks to see them and there's something on there weight related like high blood pressure, they're not going to want to employ me. I'd rather be able to allow the employer to see my records rather than decline through fear of what they're going to see and fail the interview because of this.

I have been to dietitians before and they've never been of any use to me, the only time I've successfully lost weight is when I joined a weight loss group but due to lack of commitment I gave up. I've had a good weekend regarding eating the right foods, portion control is still an issue, but I do feel more positive than before and feel ready to commit to this for the long run.

I calculated my BMR and it's ridiculously high, I think cutting out the alcohol will see a major reduction in my calorie intake. I even weighed out 30g of Bran Flakes this morning...I think I died a little inside.

Thanks for the continued support and advice, guys. It means a lot. =)
 
For diaries, it depends on where you're keeping it and for what purpose you're keeping it. I have a diary in the section here (link in my signature) where I write down my thoughts related to exercise and diet, the exercise I've done, and the food I've eaten. Different people have different approaches, you need to find what helps you. I definitely suggest tracking what food you eat though. That way, if things aren't working out, you can look at what you're doing fairly precisely and try to figure out where you've gone wrong.

If your BMR and thus maintenance calorie needs are very high, slash the number by 1000 and start with that. You don't want to overdo it and slow down your metabolism. If you've calculated your needs and calories correctly, that should see you losing two pounds a week (perhaps a bit more because the more weight you need to lose, the faster you can lose weight).

Have a look at nutritional needs on sites such as the NHS, to look at the kinds of things you should be eating every day to get sufficient nutrients.

I still disagree with you on the medical issue- at your size, there may be substantial risks involved with any diet/ exercise program. Ultimately, I feel that health is far more important than any one job (and if a prospective employer asked me for my medical records, my answer would be "absolutely not", and if they insisted, I'm afraid my answer would become less than civil. That kind of stuff is between me, my doctor/s, and- if I ever become incapacitated- anyone who needs to make medical decisions for me- a family member, spouse, or good friend. Notice how "employer" makes that list the same way in which "cashier at Tesco" does. You have a right to confidentiality of records)

In general, I'd advise eating healthily (getting your 5 a day, a serve of lean meat or vegetarian alternative a day, 3 serves of dairy, etc), being satisfied with your food (don't try to starve yourself and make healthy things you enjoy eating), and eating as little or as often as you need to (if you snack, make them small, healthy snacks like fruit or vegetables).
 
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