Can you do me a favour? Guys and girls :-)

[Poltergeist]

I've probably mentioned this before, but because of my "trans issues" I have developed an eating disorder and now have a very serious weight problem. I need to lose half of my body weight - I am at 147 kilos today, and my ideal weight is supposed to be around 75. '

So - I need someone to keep an eye on me... I think I kind of need the risk of failing in front of an "audience" to keep me motivated, and some support would be nice too, of course.

So... I've started a twitter account, and I'm considering doing a youtube vlog as well. But for now, if any of you have twitter accounts, please follow me, I'm adrianldk https://twitter.com/#!/adrianldk, and please remind me that I'm a chicken if I seem to be giving up! :D

And yes, I know, I could make myself the victim of bullying by doing this "in public", I've thought a lot about that, but I've decided that if it happens, I will look at it as a form of motivation and turn it into something positive. I need to try something new to make this work... I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to weight loss, and I can't fight myself alone.

[mistunderstood]

I have a twitter account but I have to see what my info is. When I find it I will post it and look you up. I to have a lot of weight to lose to. If you can see if any of your gyms or places that have a indoor pool offer water aerobics. That is how I started to exercising. Twenty minutes a day is the same as running for an hour plus when you are in the water it take 45 per cent of your body weight off your lower body. When I started taking classes I was so stiff and could not do any thing but know I can work out with weights. I have lost 65 pounds in about 18 months. I know that sounds slow but that does not count the whole losing and gaining weight thing. All so you might want to see a counsellor about the eating thing and the reason I say that is you need to make sure you know why you are eating. Some times eating can be about depression, self abuse, boredom, a way to keep people a way, or may be some were in your mind you might think this is a way to change your body. I know those reasons sound kind of off the wall but they can be real for some people. Biggest thing is you have to change your relationship with food.
Hang in there.

[Poltergeist]

Thank you, that's good advice :-) I guess it's important to be patience. At this weight, you don't really notice the progress much. You're still using a size XXXL, you still get stuck in chairs... well I do LOL!

As a teenager I put on weight on purpose. I liked how it made me feel bigger. And I didn't get those "nice ass" comments and so on from the guys. I'm actually attracted to guys, but as a teen it was really difficult for me to live with the typical remarks that teenage girls get from boys. Also, I eat for boredom, and to reward and comfort myself. I have a lot of things I need to work on!

[mistunderstood]

I have the hand to mouth thing going on my-self.

[AllieSF]

Hello, and I appreciate the task in front of you, and not from personal experience. I have always thought that the reason some people are successful in reaching certain goals is that they are willing to strive for those goals as part of a group and be measured publicly in that group along with everyone else. So, from a type of peer pressure situation most participants strive to meet their stated goals, and give and receive support from other members. Here on the weight reducing area, we have Weight Watcher and a couple of others that I cannot remember. So, besides your on line support group that you are trying to develop, I would suggest one of these other more commercial groups. My daughter has done Weight Watchers a few times and it does help. The commercial aspects is that they encourage you to also buy their prepackaged meals, which are healthy and low calorie. I don;t think that you have to buy the meals though. You may have a small monthly membership fee, but that could be more than worth the investment if you actually can lose half your weight. A member normally goes in once a week to maybe exercise, listen to a talk and then be weighed. Look at it because it might be another workable option for you. Good luck.

[Babeba]

I don't have twitter, but I promise to come check this thread regularly!! :-). I am trying to get more fit myself, so I understand the struggle it can be.

Ali mentioned weight watchers - I lost a lot of weight on them years ago, I liked how open and supportive it was and how you didn't get overwhelmed about it because they built on it each week. It was nice.

Slower weight loss is actually really good for you because it is easier on your body than the quicker weight loss that you'll probably yo-yo back on right quick. I mean, all that weight didn't go on right away so it won't come off right away either- but that is okay because by then you will know how to listen to your body and what to feed yourself for what reasons!

Also - I think it is excellent that you have figured out why you eat, because that means you can change those reasons. You could find other things to fill your time as rewards, for instance!!

So what will your first step be? What is the first milestone you want to reach towards with your journey? Would you like to aim towards losing 5 pounds to start? Be fit enough to walk 1 km without stopping? Then what will your reward to yourself be when you get there (not food)? Then you can work on the next step, and the next.

One more thing: if you eat premade foods all the time already, then it may be okay to try "lean" foods like the WW brand... But read the ingredients first! If it has maltodextrin it will make your body crave food, get addicted to those things! Ideally you should k ow exactly what each bite you put in your mouth is.

[Jorja]

Jorja puts on her sleek, and if I may say so myself, sexy Ninja wear. She gets a GPS reading on Poltergeist's location and sets out to keep an eye on you. You never know where I will pop out from. Behind the bushes. The kitchen cupboard. From behind the woodwork. You have been warned! :)

I do not have a twitter account but I will stop by this thread every day to see how you are doing and to encourage you. Just to let you know, at one time, I was near 300 pounds. I managed to get down to 153 pounds and have maintained that for the past 25 years or so. I don't know what that works out to in kilos - never was good at the conversion thing.

You can do it!

[Poltergeist]

Thank you everyone :-)

I've used an online converter, and if that can be trustet, my weight in pounds is 323,4. When you use centimeters and kilos, they say that your ideal weight should be the same as the two last digits in your height. So, for me, 178 centimeters (5'10) = 78 kilos (171,6 pounds).

My first goal is to get below 140 kilos - I've decided to focus on 10 kilos at a time. I'm a bit careful about giving myself deadlines, before I know what's realistic for me and what isn't. But I would like to have reached that goal around spring (May).

I've always been good at walking, I've never owned a car and I seriously hate driving, so I've always walked whenever it was humanly possible LOL. My doctor thinks I should lose a bit of weight before I start on any serious exercise, and has suggested that I start out by walking faster.

I've only found one weight loss group in my area, it's a private support group. Unfortunately they will only accept me on the woman's team. It's something I will have to think over. On one hand I would like to join, on the other hand it makes me feel bad to think about it.

For the most part i stay away from premade meals. I eat a lot of vegetables, but what I need to do is watch my portion sizes, and cut out any unnecessary fat and sugar. And I need to stop myself from drinking soda and eating candy every day! I'll have to try to get used to drinking tea without sugar as well.

[Jorja]

One kilo at a time slow and easy. One day at a time.

I know it goes against the grain for you but seriously consider joining the support group even if you have to pretend to be female for an hour or so each meeting. At this point your main objective is to lose the weight.

[Andy66]

This is very brave, Poltergeist - having your friends keep an eye on you. It sounds like a good idea.

I put my pants on this morning and thought to myself, my weight is starting to go back up again, and it's making my clothes fit bad, and my feet hurt. :sad: I used to be about the same weight as you, but lost about half of what I wanted to. I want to be sure I keep losing weight and it does not come back, so I have started being more careful about what I eat starting today.

I do not have Twitter, but I hope you will keep us up to date on this website, if it's not too much trouble. I saw some sort of weight loss club thread somewhere else in this forum recently, so I guess we are in good company. Maybe you can keep your eyes open for it. I think it may have been in the Body Issues section.

I would be upset too about having to join a women only weight loss group. Too bad they don't make a mixed group. Maybe you can think of yourself as an undercover spy for the mens team, going to see what the ladies are up to. :heehee:

[Sandra]

You can do this just take it one day at a time. I lost 3 stone roughly 19kilos, I didn't deprive myself of anything because I knew if I said I couldn't have something then I would just go and eat it, so I ate chocolates, chips crisps, pastry etc but in moderation.

I weighed myself once a week and yes some weeks I had put on, so the following week I cut down a little more. I'm not keen on deadlines, if you don't reach them that can put you on a downer and when you're trying to lose weight that is not good.

Take it slow and enjoy the food that you eat, don't rush eating, also and this did work for me, if I felt peckish between meals I would have a glass of water, if after 1/2 an hour I still felt peckish then I would have a piece of fruit, but m ost of the time the water did the job.

[Babeba]

I would break it down even smaller than 10kg - that's still a lot of weight, even if it doesnt feel like a lot out of your goal. I think that you should be super proud and celebrate how awesome you are every single week that you lose (either in g or in cm around), and celebrate EXTRA hard for yourself every time you lose 2 kg! Do a little happy dance! :bh: if that's just too girly, then maybe the sort of victory dance footballers do when they score a goal? They may seem just like tiny drops in the ocean, but the ocean will be the less by missing those drops.

The other thing than cutting down your sugars you need to do, is figure out how many calories your body needs to fuel itself properly - if you starve yourself of energy, your body will just hoard what comes in. For me, apparently my minimum is 1174 calories on my lowest food intake days PLUS extra if I have been exercising that day. Any less and my body will not function properly. Also, do make sure you are eating enough protein, it's important! :). When I was in Weight watchers, they had us count calories by basically rounding up 50 calories at a time as a 'point' - as a young 'in, you would get 4 points, two for your biological estrogen (sorry, this is yet another part of your life this drags down as bio men get 4 here, 1-4 depending how active you are, then the first two digits of your weight in pounds... I'm guessing with the walking and all that puts you around 41 by their scores which means roughly 2000 calories to lose weight and not starve your body right now, you can recalculate that every 5 kilo or so. Add a bit, because they give you a few fruit and veg freebies.. So a well balanced 2200 calories should have you lose weight sensibly and let you eat lots of fibre, healthy fats like olive oil, veggies, and protein!

[DanaR]

My wife and I started watching our calories about a week ago. There is a program that will help you it's at: http://loseit.com

It isn't a diet, you plug in your weight, what you want to weigh and how much you want to lose a week. Then the program will tell you how many calories you can eat each day. I think if you become aware of what calories are in each food, you'll have a chance to lose. YMMV

[Poltergeist]

I saw my doctor today and talked to her about my diet, among other things, and got some advice from her. I've lost about a kilo... it's a start I:) I think my biggest challenge right now is that I'm not really able to exercise "for real", but I'm doing everything my current weight allows me to do. I'm surprised at how quickly I got used to the smaller portion sizes... I actually seem to feel better physically from not overeating all the time :-)

[Sandra]

Well done on losing the kilo, slow and steady is best. As for exercise until you can do it "for real", just go for walks you don't have to go like a bat out of hell, and as the weight comes off you'll find yourself walking faster.

[Babeba]

Yay for you!! That's definitely the right first steps (doctor AND a kilo!!) :D

[Kate T]

I don't do twitter Poltergeist but nevertheless I wish you well.

Sometimes nutritionists can be helpful for this sort of thing. Certainly slow and steady is the way to go. It is about changing lifestyle choices and don't fall into the fad diet trap.

Good luck.

Oh yeah, don't eat brown things. Not a bad rule. Also uncooked and unprocessed foods are good. They usually have a stack of moisture so make you feel full but have a low total energy content.

[7sisters]

I was very bulky formerly. Poltergeist, you have to committ to changing your lifefstyle. And only you can help you. You hve to be 100 percent determined. Congratulations for losing one kilo. It's a significant start .... significant because your body knows what it is to lose weight. Once it gets into practice, it gets easier to lose weight. Eat the broccoli. It gets rid of the extra estrogen floating around.

[mistunderstood]

How are you doing today with your goals?

[Poltergeist]

How are you doing today with your goals?

I think it's going ok... I've decided to weigh myself once a week instead of every day, I was getting a little too obsessed with the numbers on the scale. I really want to try to get used to this, and stop thinking of it so much a a diet. I think I'm going to start measuring myself too. Once my doctor thinks it's ok for me to start exercising for real, I want to do some weight training and build muscles, and I know I'll gain muscle weight from that, so measuring should give me a more honest idea of how things are working out :-)

The only small problem for me has been to fight my sugar addiction. But I'm actually starting to enjoy drinking water instead of "liquid sugar"... and I'm saving money too :-)

[mistunderstood]

Cool. Weighing once a day is not good it makes you crazy. Sugar is hard to quit eating. Keep up good work.

[Kate T]

I think it's going ok... I've decided to weigh myself once a week instead of every day, I was getting a little too obsessed with the numbers on the scale. I really want to try to get used to this, and stop thinking of it so much a a diet. I think I'm going to start measuring myself too. Once my doctor thinks it's ok for me to start exercising for real, I want to do some weight training and build muscles, and I know I'll gain muscle weight from that, so measuring should give me a more honest idea of how things are working out :-)

The only small problem for me has been to fight my sugar addiction. But I'm actually starting to enjoy drinking water instead of "liquid sugar"... and I'm saving money too :-)

Definitely don't weigh yourself daily!!

Also to be really accurate and if you are weighing weekly try and use the same scales all the time and weigh yourself at the same time every day (typically first thing in the morning is easiest and most reliable).

Another thing, don't get too worried if you plateau out especially after a few weeks. The first lot of weight lost is likely to be highly mobilisable fat stores in the liver. It will then switch to the longer term fat stores but they produce a lot more energy per gram metabolised, hence the slowing down of weight loss.

[rosetyler]

Hi Polt. How're things going?

[JenniferR771]

don't give up Polt. Its going to be worth it. Keep going--keep losing. Better to weigh yourself every day--keep yourself on a short leash. Self discipline.

And a good psychological trick you can play on yourself. Place a scales in the kitchen next to the refrigerator or dining room table. You don't have to actually weigh yourself...just the visual reminder...will be a big help.

Good luck in any case--your goal is worthy--keep pushing forward.