Now, I know how to lose weight - I have done it before and lost 5 stone. It took me 2 years ad was hard work as I dont lose weight without a very restricted diet and LOTS of exercise.

Yesterday I stood on the scales and it read 17stone 1lb. I felt physically sick and I wanted to cry so hard.

I am trying to figure how we can budget for food so that I can have healthier food, but I cant be cooking 2 meals an evening - we have like £400 laft over after bills t feed the 3 of us and for etras like bus fares and what nots. We have to save some of that for my driving lessons, so we cant spend more than £70 a week on shopping - and that doesn't go far when i have to factor in Emmas milk etc.


I am now stuck in a catch 22............I feel too fat and It depresses me so I don't want to go out, so I don't. So I am not exercising. The HV thought that maybe as I have NO energy (cos of weight and lack of exercise) that iron tablets would help - well they haven't. I still want to sleep 12 hours a day. I also am preferring being up at night as well...................no one will see me then .
I am not going back to work as it will make the situation worse as I will be sat on my arse all day - more than at home, and I know what the guys in the workshop are like as they take the piss out my boss for being chubby and she is only a size 16! I was a size 10/12 before I got pregnant so they have never seen me this fat - I don want the slagging, or knowing they will talk about it behind my back.

OH and I eat together in the evenings, and I have spent the last few days trying to figure out how I can avoid it . I think I will have to have like a 1/8th of what he has and then load up on veg.........

I need to have approx 1000 cals a day to lose weight. But I tried it a few weeks ago and I was soo tired that I slept for almost 22 hours

Cutting down to just a 1000 is too little. What sort of meals are you eating? It is possible to cook low fat healthy meals on a budget. It just takes some planning really.

Could you manage to go out fr a short walk every day and slowly build it up a little every day? The fresh air will be good for you and you'd get some exercise.

I can manage long walks tho, we go out pron 3 time a week and for about 2-5 hours each time - just walking with a mate or round town for a nosey.

Unfortnately most meals are the likes of mince and tatties, stir fry satay chicken, pasta and bolognese, chicken and bacon pasta bake etc. I have veg with mine but OH doesnt. I try to have veg every day. I feel bad if I want something that he wont eat - such as a salad or cous cous and fish etc.

I'd agree that 1000 calories is far too low. You will have no energy and your body will store fat quicker if you don't give it enough. You need to double that number easily. You need the energy to exercise too.

You can cook lower fat alternatives to your normal meals. Use lean mince and bulk up the meal with veggies. Make pasta sauces with reduced fat cheese (melted in a sauce you wont tell the difference - and neither will he!) Use spray oils for frying or grill as an alternative.

Offer him a compromise. 4 days a week you'll have the stuff he likes and 3 days a week you'll have the healthier options. On the days its a healthy meal if he wants anything else, he can cook it himself!! On the days you have the less healthy options, have a smaller portion and add a large lightly dressed salad or a big side of veggies to it for you. One of my failings is "portion distortion" The meal might be healthy enough but I just eat too much of it!

Make sure you have plenty of fruit and veg for snacking and don't buy anything you would be tempted by during your down times.

Have you tried weightwatchers? You can do it online now and they have heaps of resources for healthy tasty meals. Eating healthily doesn't have to be very expensive. Making stuff from scratch can be a much cheaper alternative and that way you know exactly what you are eating.

Good luck with it, I'm trying to do the same but haven't really made a start yet and luckily didn't get far enough in pregnancy to pile on the weight, but I was heavy to start with so am still looking to shift a couple of stone.

I agree, perhaps you should try Slimming World or Weight Watchers and go by points etc. instead of calories. I'm a calorie counter and you should never go below 1200. As I'm breastfeeding I have 1700 and lose 2lbs a week but there is a way of working out how many cals you should have to lose so much weight at your current weight without putting your body into starvation mode. I tried Slimming World and lost half a stone in a month after calorie counting stopped working.

And in terms of giving up? Yes I feel like that a lot. I'm now at a 'respectable' weight, but I'm still not happy with how I look and some days I just think I'd be better off eating what I want and saving money and effort and just becoming a housebound slob as I never go out anyway now I have a baby and he'd love me regardless. BUT then I think how unhappy I am at this size and it would be 100x worse the bigger I was and I'll be gutted if I'm too unfit to take Theakston out or go swimming with him or whatever and I don't want him to suffer and that helps me stay on track a bit more. You can do it!

I have tried WW. I lost about 6 lbs in 5 weeks.......which was crap. I also begrudge paying out for someone to weigh me!

I know what my BMR is, and factoring in my sedentary life style I know what I technically should be burning jsut to stay alive and what is needed to lose weight.

As for the dropping below 1000cals. Even when I was 12 stone (I cant get below that as if I do I get ill) and a size 10/12 If I didnt go to the gym for 1hr a day (after horse riding usually) and keep my diet around 1000-1300 cals a day I put on weight, and it was fat. The doctor before just said thats the type of metabolism I have. And I am prone to storing fat - as I am of irish and scandinavian decent and we store weight well apparently?!

Then you should get your thyroid checked. I have Hashimoto's disease and trust me an under active thyriod can really kick your but as far as weight loss. If you are eating less than you are burning and not loosing weight then there is something wrong with you.

I know that sounds mean. I don't want to sound mean but really, If you are burning more than you are eating and not loosing weight something is wrong. You also need to take into mind that sitting, sleeping and EVERYTHING you do burns calories. Go here, it gives you a rough estimate of how much you burn a day http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

And as for only loosing 6 lbs in 5 week on WW, that is how much you are supposed to loose. The slower you take it off the slower it comes back. You have to be patient. Crash dieting doesn't work. 6 lbs in 5 weeks is good. If you don't want to pay someone to weigh you then don't. All their stuff is online for free if you look for it. I;m doing it myself.

For free? Where? I had to pay for it!!

What you could do is go to a Weight Watchers meeting only to get weighed and get all the info you get at the first meeting. With a voucher printed off their website that should cost you about 3quid.

My favourite low cal/fat meal is probably chilli...I make vegetable chilli for myself[3 tins of tomatoes, 1 tin of lentils, 1 tin of kidney beans, 1 red onion, garlic, 2-3 red peppers and lots of chilli powder]
this works out really cheap!
If hubby wants a more 'manly' meal you could replace the lentils with a pack of lean turkey mince and then add some shredded cheese to his chilli.

I have done many 'diets' and given up many times. I think just because I have a bit more of an incentive this time around[wanting to get healthy before TTC] I find it easier to stick to it.

http://www.webmilhouse.com/pointcalc.php Here is an online points calculator.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...7230153AAQ06kr This has how many points you get a day. If you read a few comments down it also has the old point system, which I am using because on that one I get less and I really want to loose weight.

And basically if you are eating something that doesn't have the nutrition facts on it then just google "How many points are in ____" I have never not found anything.