I hate being fat!!!

I hate being fat and I dont know what to do about it. Im 5'10 and I weight 206 thats how much I weighed when I was 9 months prego with my daughter. But after I had her I slimmed down but not to my original weight. I weighed 175 which I was ok with but when I first got prego i lost 20 pounds from all the throwing up i did, Then I gained all back later weighing 206.

After I had her I weighed 186. But I have been so busy taking care of her and i cant figure out what i should do. Everytime I start a exercise plan I give up becasue I lose motivation. My bf doesnt want to work out with me so I feel alone in this. We are both broke looking for jobs and hes trying to start a business. anyways I need some tips to get started and stay on the right track with this. It is so much harder for me to start than actually saying I will.

What should I do

Hi Jamie - me again. I know how you feel, because a former boss of mine had the same issue. She was a very attractive woman, but fact is, she had a real bear of a time losing her pregnancy weight. I think she got past 200 lbs, too. She would start diets and exercise regimes, and time and time again, would give up because of lack of motivation.

She finally figured out why her motivation kept fizzling out. Because she was setting very broad goals that were so big in scope, it seemed impossible to attain. For example, she just kept saying "I've got to get back to my pre-pregnancy figure." And it just seemed like an impossible goal for her. So, she started setting shorter term goals: a) this week I will work out three times. b) I will lose five pounds over the next two weeks. c) I will ride my bike instead of driving to any place that is two miles or less from where I live.

MOST IMPORTANT: she kept a journal and wrote in it EVERY DAY about her progress, or "slip-ups". Then she would read back over everything once a week, etc. and it really, really kept her focused.

I'm sure others have some good tips, too - hopefully this will help. The point is not to set yourself up for failure by thinking only of the end goal, or it will become this unattainable thing in your mind. Think in terms of measured, positive steps that bring you closer to your goal every day. I do think it's a good idea to establish a time frame you'd like to achieve your goal, one that is realistic - you might find you get there faster than what you originally estimated!

Well, you can try a number of things. You can try just going for walks. Walking a distance burns as many calories as running that distance, although it leaves out other benefits, and it also lowers risk of injury. See if your bf will walk with you. It's cheap, and you can take you child too.

If not see if you can find another partner.

Alternatively, look at your diet. Try to change things in it. See if Atkins or Southbeach or one of the others helps you. (I think Southbeach makes a lot more sense than Atkins, personally.)

I'm in the same boat with you. I'm also a "fluffy" person. I lost 30 pounds 4 months ago. I had to get a handle on proper portion control. I didn't fad diet, I just used common sense on how I could cut calories here and there. (drink water instead of soda, healthy snacks) I exercised too.

Unfortunately, I'm an emotional eater and due to stress over the past few months I gained it back.

I wish you better luck. By the way Splenda is an excellent sugar substitute.

I myself went through losing a lot of weight 2 years back from now. This is a web site that helped me a lot.

link removed

Its a forum dedicated to people wanting to lose fat. It is a forum that says the real thing and it comes from real people. If you are commited to it then you can lose weight only by watching what you eat (eat the right food) and by walking 30 minute a day. It doesn't necesseraly cost money to lose weight it just take time and dedication. Once you get some results you won't want to stop.

I wish you luck.

Thanks for the reply so far. They make sense. More are welcome.

The Atkins Diet is one of the most foolish dieting trends to ever hit America. In fact, this whole low-carb frenzy is just another example of people wanting a "magical, quick fix cure" where they can still gratify their desire to eat fatty, cholesterol laden foods. See comment below from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's website:

The Controversy Over Dr. Atkins' Health

By Neal Barnard, M.D.

The Atkins diet phenomenon has spread like a virus accross North America, Europe, and elsewhere. It has convinced millions of people to buy into two dangerous notions: that avoiding carbohydrates is the key to weight loss, and that high-fat, high-cholesterol foods pose essentially no risk.

Serious health problems and deaths have occurred in individuals following the diet. For example, the Southern Medical Journal reported the case of a sixteen-year-old Missouri girl who died while following a low-carbohydrate diet. In the report, her physicians described the ways the diet may have contributed to the disordered cardiac rhythm that killed her. Jody Gorran of Delray Beach, Florida, went on the diet, only to find that his cholesterol level skyrocketed. He developed chest pain and needed urgent heart surgery. And in 2001, the American Heart Association issued a warning that low-carbohydrate diets are likely to contribute to heart and kidney disease.

The principal spokesperson for the diet was Robert C. Atkins himself, the controversial doctor whose 1972 book described how carbohydrate avoidance cured his own weight problem. In subsequent years and even after his death, the Atkins organization has used details of Dr. Atkins' health condition as a key part of its marketing strategy. As the Wall Street Journal put it, "Throughout his life, Dr. Atkins was the public face of the eating plan he espoused and often spoke publicly about his own eating habits and health."

Dr. Atkins discussed his medical history in media interviews, and Atkins Nutritionals posted details of his cardiac history on its Web site. In particular, it described his cardiomyopathy—a diseased heart muscle that he attributed to a viral infection—as well as a cardiac arrest that apparently occurred as a result.

The Atkins site also described tests of Dr. Atkins' coronary arteries, saying he had an angiogram at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in April 2001 that showed normal coronary arteries.

Why was the Atkins company providing so much personal detail about Dr. Atkins' medical status? Because doctors and health organizations have cautioned Atkins dieters that high-fat, high-cholesterol foods can lead to heart disease. In the intense marketing of commercial diet products, Atkins and his company have tried to convince dieters to set those concerns aside.

In a statement on April 25, 2002, Dr. Atkins' personal physician said this about Dr. Atkins: "Clearly, his own nutritional protocols have left him, at the age of 71, with an extraordinarily healthy cardiovascular system." In other words, not only was Dr. Atkins in great health, dieters were told, but his diet—which he had followed for decades—could take the credit for it.

Recently, a physician sent PCRM a copy of some medical examiner's notes related to Dr. Atkins' death. This physician, who is not a member of PCRM, obtained the notes from the New York City Medical Examiner's Office. The notes were not a hospital chart nor an autopsy—Mrs. Atkins had apparently declined to have an autopsy done. The medical examiner had simply noted Atkins' weight at the time of his death, inspected his external surfaces, and noted a few aspects of his history. However, some notes suggested that Dr. Atkins had heart problems that went beyond the viral cardiomyopathy to which he had admitted.

Reporters picked up on the story; they wondered whether the Atkins organization had distorted Atkins' health profile in order to make the diet appear safe. Although PCRM had not requested or received the report from the medical examiner, we became the principal media contact about it.

Then, on Tuesday, February 10, 2004, Mrs. Atkins released a statement clarifying details about her husband's health. She confirmed that, in fact, he did have coronary artery disease. In particular, she said that Dr. Atkins "…did have some progression of his coronary artery disease in the last three years of his life including some new blockage of a secondary artery that was remedied during this admission…." Artery blockages of this type are typically caused by high-fat, high-cholesterol diets, smoking, and other lifestyle factors.

It must be emphasized that it is always a matter of concern when elements of an individual's medical history become a matter for public discussion. In this case, the Atkins company—and Dr. Atkins himself—made a major issue of his health and exploited his seemingly robust cardiac status as a means of allaying fears about the fatty diet he espoused.

Many health authorities have been shocked and greatly troubled by the spread of the Atkins phenomenon. People around the world have been lulled into complacency about cardiovascular health. Disregarding cautions about saturated fat and cholesterol, they are digging into steaks, pork chops, and cheese and shying away from fruits, legumes, and whole grains, with little regard for their long-term health. It is disturbing that Dr. Atkins may have been less than honest with the public in such a way as to spread a message that many doctors and health organizations say is dangerous.

In the public discussion of this issue, we wish to underscore that no hospital or clinical medical records were obtained, discussed, or publicized and that no autopsy was performed on Dr. Atkins. The new revelations consist only of brief notes from an external inspection of Atkins' body by the medical examiner, followed by new revelations by his widow. Our only goal in discussing these issues is to curtail a major public health threat.

If the new revelations about Dr. Atkins' cardiac problems end the charade that fatty, high-cholesterol foods can give us an "extraordinarily healthy cardiovascular system" and have no health consequences—and if the emergence of the truth can prevent further deaths and illnesses—then the public health may have been served at last.

Jamie, another suggestion: have you considered joining your City's Recreation Centers? It's a much cheaper alternative than a fitness center, and they usually have weight rooms and swimming pools. You could ask if you could get a discounted rate based on your current income situation. I think they offer stuff like that.

If you looked at Southbeach, forget the guy's name, you will see that he discusses all of these diets, and applauds Atkins for questioning things.

Southbeach is low carb, but it is not high fat, and mostly, it is avoid the carbs that you bodyprocesses really quickly. If you drank Gatorade, you are poruing sugar into your blood stream. That's great for when you are in the middle of a tough game, but what does it do when you are sedentary. Any processing starch has a fairly high glycemic index and pumps sugar into your blood. (There really is no question that your body will take the sugars that are in the bloodstream and turn them into body fat.)

Atkins was eat all the fat you want, eat lots of protein, eat nothing else. It was bacon by the slab and eggs for breakfast. Southbeach says have a veggie omelet. So it is not all meat and high fat all the time.

I've known of those who did Atkins to lose weight without a problem, then got off it and exercised to maintain. Does that make sense? More than Atkins for life.

But Southbeach makes a whole lot more sense. It just cuts out some things from what most would say is a fairly healthy diet.

I practiced ketogenic diet that is an atkins diet with a carb loading day when you do bodybuilding and I had a lot of good result with it. The problem is that you can't leave on that kind of diet forever and they tend to cost a lot of money because you need to take vitamins and minerals you don't get from fruit and vegetable you don't eat. I don't recommend it to anyone that want to keep the fat away from their food. I changed it for a 40/40/20 diet (read it 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat) following the 9 calorie per body lbs directive. It work really well. I lose 2 lbs/week with this one. I cut all the refined sugar (means no cola) and refined flour from my diet and everything thats fried. Now I'on a maintenance phase at 12 calorie per body lbs and I eat almost anything I want.

Quick advices: check the portion size of your meal, try not to eat too much in one meal. Train your stomach to eat smaller portions and you will feel full with almost nothing. Drink a lot of water it fill you up, at least a gallon a day. Try to make 6 small meals, it means eat something every 3 hours. That make your metabolism work more... DO NEVER SKIP A MEAL, it puts your body in starvation mode and that makes you store everything you eat because your body fear it don't know when you'll get your next meal. Your body just love regular intake of food and will learn to spend all that comes in. Don't think about this whole think like a diet, think about it like a new way of living, a new way to eat. Its not something you should do once in a while, its something you should do forever.

Keep your eating in check and then only make an exercise program. Without the diet exercise do nothing and vice-versa.

Anyway feel to PM me if you need to talk about this. I went through 4 diet programs in about 3 years before finding the right one for me.

You'll find everyone has different suggestions for the "right" diet. I myself am a vegan, and my weight has stabilized since I became one. Plus, I never get stomach-aches anymore and hardly ever get colds or the flu, or acne. If you are interested in learning more about a vegetarian diet, feel free to PM me. I can point you to some good sites that have nutritional information, plus delicious recipes. I can also give you some sample daily menus ideas.

You'll find everyone has different suggestions for the "right" diet.

Truer words cannot be spoken. One size does not fit all.

I'd go nuts as a vegan. When I order take out chinese, I cannot even opt for the vegtable dumplings. I always get the meat dumplings. Not that either are good for you.

Beec, you vegetable-hater, you!

I don't hate all of them. I even had some asparagus today. Maybe, I'll have some more veggies next week, if I recover from the asparagus.

Actually, I am trying to be better about it and get more veggies, but ones with green and fiber in them. Nothing starchy.

And I would like to rid the world of beets and turnips. Beets and turnips are clearly the work of the Devil or some other nefarious source.

I absolutely agree with you about beets. And I'm one of the few vegetarians that despises carrots!

Awww come on. Pickled beets are delicious!

I'll eat both of your servings for you

you dont need to do all of these fad diets, you have to have a stable invoronment with a lot of support. Instead of doing diets, you have to change your life. NO fast food, watch you sodium and fat intake. and burn more calories than you eat. It is hard until you stomach shrinks but then you should be ok!!! REMEMBER!!!!!!! -----.> YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!

I forget who said this but I think I am gonna set small goals for my self and accomplish them. Like I said I would take a walk every night and so far I have, except tonight my walk was short only like 15 mins, the other two nights I took like 1 hour walks. Its actaully nice to get out. When I exercise I fell better about my self.

I heard also that if I just cut down my porsion size I can eat anything I want. My brother in law does this and he said he has lost weight. But he exercises alot too.

Anyways thanks for the tips.

As for the vegitarian idea, I tryed that before and it lasted a month. I cant go with out meat everyonce in awhile

Pickled beets? eeeeeeeeeeeks. Must be a Minnesota thing, Av... Hey, Jamie...feel free to use this thread as a means of support as you launch your new "program." Like another poster said, you are definitely not alone!

Hi Jamie, just checking in on you to see how you're doing, and what you accomplished last week that you feel good about. Also, what manageable goals have you set for yourself this week?

Did you have any setbacks? Feel free to let us know, this thread is here to support you as you get back on a path that makes you feel better about yourself.

- Scout