Hi all,

I've just joined the site and hoping to get to know some new people and find some inspiration and motivation on here.

I'm 41 and finding it harder and harder to shift the excess weight that seems determined to stay around my middle, I feel like I'm constantly modelling a rubber ring these days. At the beginning of the year I weighed 150lbs and was relatively happy apart from a need to tone up. I then decided to stop smoking and now 9 months later weigh 175lbs. I'm so disappointed in myself and feel horrible that I have let myself put on this weight.

I have blamed stopping smoking for the gain but now I wonder if maybe this is the middle aged spread I was always told to expect as I got older. Any ideas??

Jo

Hi Jo and welcome. I think there's bound to be some change when we get older and we will need fewer calories to maintain weight, but I think in this case it sounds like it's definitely down to stopping smoking because it's quite sudden. Good for you for stopping smoking anyway. I also had a weight gain after stopping smoking but was 22 at the time.

My longer term weight gains were due to a number of factors ultimately - again partly due to lifestyle changes like marriage, eating out far more frequently etc. I've put on and taken off a similar amount of weight about 9 years apart. I'm now 46 and the second time I started dieting was about a year ago, taking me 9 months to get to my original goal. I was doing the same diet as before, Weightwatchers and I found the weight loss a little slower after the first couple of months, but the weight still came off ultimately.

So don't think that at 40+ weight gain is inevitable. It's not and you definitely can do something about it if you want to!

Welcome =) I hope you have a good time here and find the inspiration you need for weightloss.

As for the weight gain after quitting smoking, I'd imagine that it's a case of "needing something to do with your hands (or mouth, though that sounds so dirty lol). I know that smoking gives me something to do when I'm bored, and another thing I do when I'm bored is eat for no reason, so you just need another way to distract yourself basically.

Good luck on your weightloss journey

Hi Everybody!

I found this thread here and because I "fulfill" the two main criteria (over 40 and UK )) I thought I share what I felt today, when hubby took a few photos of me....
WHaaaa, what a shock!
I cannot believe I look like this and I am truly ashamed to share my pics not only, because I am in underware... but mainly, because I look horrible...

I started my diet about 8 weeks ago and lost since only about 9 lbs, but it was the first time I felt I could diet without having mood swings or food cravings.
I started to walk again on a daily base and I am doing every morning the 5 Tibetan exercises.

Although I feel well, I never thought I would have put on so much weight... my starting weight was over 15 Stone , 214.7 lbs, today I weigh 205.3...

I record everything, from food and water intake to weight and tape-measurements, BMI, etc pp, something I never ever have done before.
My goal-goal is to lose another 75 pounds, and I truly hope to stay motivated enough for it

Beni