Hello there everyone,

I decided to join this lovely forum to seek advice and support along my journey. Sadly I am a social butterly, which means that I am tempted at nearly every opportunity to cheat or give up on possibly every diet I have ever went on. I am 26 years old and I have been big since I was around 8 or 9. The heavyest I have ever been is 319lbs, I am currently sitting at 308lbs and I am reluctant to get it off and away. For years I have looked at gastric surgery, fad diets and slimming pills. Now I am just determined to get it off the good ole fashioned way, less calories and more excersize.

I think luckily for me I hold my weight pretty damn well. My sister and mother both guessed one time how heavy I was and they were 4-5 stone (55-70lbs) out. They were in tears with shock when they realised just how bad it had got.

I do not want to pass the 30 year mark carrying all this baggage. If anything by then I would like to of lost it all, maintained it and if needed get it chopped off and away.

Thank you in advance for the great community benefits you guys will most probably provide.

Scotsgal! Good for you wanting to do something about your weight while you are still so young! There are lots of forums and threads here to help you and this is a wonderful community, full of support! Become active here, join one or more of the daily accountability threads, research as much as you can on eating healthily and exercising and on how harmful the excess weight is, especially the older you get! Most importantly, believe that you can do this, because you can! Good luck!

Welcome! Good luck on your journey. I always recommend the 20-somethings forums (we are fairly active). Or, may be find a challenge on the Chicks up for a Challege forum Is there any sort of diet or plan you are going to follow?

Thank you Jacqui!!! It is the community support that I mostly need to help me along the way so I believe I am in the right place.

KissKiss, Thank you also! I will get onto the 20-somethings forum just now. It would be nice to get into a pretty active area of the site.

Have you ever heard of Amelia Freer?? She is an English nutritionist who helped the British Solo Artist Sam Smith loose so much weight recently. It is basically about eating the right food to fuel your body through fresh meat and veg.

I use the phone app, Myfitnesspal to track my calories to do my best to keep record. It also helps me to work out the calories I have burned through exercise.

Thank you for your replies

Awwright, hen?! Nice to see more Scots on the board.

Welcome to the site. You say so many things in your introductory post that suggest you will do this........ 'good ole fashioned way' is the key. I really feel for you on the age front: I remember being in my mid-20s and feeling the same, like my 20s were slipping away from me, but you have plenty time, and once you get working on it, you'll have so many years of health ahead of you. I hit 30 this year.... it's a psychological battlefield!

Looking forward to seeing you in challenges etc. - good luck with this first, motivated phase. I don't know Amelia Freer's specifics, but meat/fish and veg has worked so well for me (no grains, no dairy).

Bramblefox

Yay! Another Scot, And by the sounds of your hay hen, possibly not so far away from me either.

I am still trying to work my way around the site to find the most active and best groups to be in. Im in the 20something and the 300+ (which I hope not for long after this week ), any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I think my issue is, ive done it all...... I became a vegetarian when I was about 10 thnking that it would help me loose weight, instead I ate pasta for about 3 years and but a lot on. I then did many diets and exercise crazes and it did not very much.

I lost a lot of weight when I started going to Curves Gym... only it was short lived after about 4 months because my body then needed more than just the 30 minute circut a day. I got bored, I could of done 2 classes back to back which they didnt allow.

I did weight watchers, but they had me as not eating enough calories so they wanted me to eat about 800 more calories a day. But I was full... I refused to eat more to loss weight.

Now I have decided that as long as I eat less than 1800cal a day, fill my diet with fresh meat and veg and fibre, then I should be loosing weight. I have been a lot stricter this last week, so this weekend I will make my way to boots to see just how well I might have been doing.

Heh - I'm from all over the shop - brought up in Perth, work in the Borders, live in Midlothian, hang out in Edinburgh. Err....... shop in Glasgow

I think the age-based boards are really useful. I find 'home' in the '100+ to lose' zone - as you say, you don't want to be 300+ for long, whereas losing 100lb or more takes a good long time, so there's time to settle in and get to know people. Always some good topics in the general 'Weight Loss Support' area, too.

I have been the World's Unhealthiest Vegan (TM) in my time, and also mostly cut meat, only to fill up on the most random things that are totally unhealthy... right now I'm following the paleo idea of eating, and it works really well without making me feel deprived. I've lost 40lb in about 3.5 months, with shamefully little exercise... am swimming now, though. I have a spiral cutter for vegetables, and find that spiralized courgette does actually satisfy pasta cravings.. it's just similar to eat. I make a big batch of it mixed up with a tin of chopped tomatoes, some basil, an onion, some cooked chicken. Delicious.

Running absolutely devastates my knees, although I loved it as a youngster... hoping I'll be able to try it again when I've lost another 20lbs or so. I've got a colleague who does Curves, but it doesn't seem to have a lot of impact - if you could easily do the circuit twice then I don't think it would've made a lot of difference! Obviously works to keep some sedentary people going, though.

GOOD LUCK with your weigh-in this weekend - your plan is sound. Getting the water habit going is also helpful for the big early losses - it all just flushes out. It's weird for me NOT to have a pint glass of water on hand at all times now.

Nice to 'meet' you!

Oh! your further north than I thought. I live in Ayr but in the next 4 weeks will be moving to Shawlands in Glasgow. So is there a forum for 100+ "to loose?" By problem is by next weekend hopefully ill be in the 200's so I dont really know what to say in the one im in just now.

I tried doing the corgette thing but by peeling it. I didnt realise there was a tool that actually spiralled veggies for you lol.

I hear ya on running, Not only did I damage my ankle a few weeks back but 2 years ago I tore the ligament in my knee (same leg) after slipping on a spilt drink on a dance floor in Manchester for st patricks day. Then that same year (the same foot/leg) I crushed the cartilage on the top of my foot after taking a bad run and jump of a pier into a lake in America. I am the ultimate Mr Bump!

I used to go a run at night along the beach but my injuries are really causing issues with it so now im stuck to fast walking and walking on soft sand for resistance.

Lost 4lbs between weigh in on Monday and Today.. Most of that is because I am able to exercise now, so I would not be hoping to see for those results every week, but it would be nice to loose another 4lbs next week at least.

Thank you for all your helpful info I saw this water challange that I might do the next time I come across a 2 litre bottle. While I do only really drink Water and the odd cup of tea I feel I havnt been drinking enough lately so Im thinking of doing something like this just to keep track (Ihope the picture attached).

Omg... if you're going to have an injury, though, "I did this leaping into a LAKE in AMERICA," is pretty good, haha. Definitely got the glam factor.

The '100lb Club' next to the '300+ Club' on the forum is for people with 100 or more to lose... so there are people throughout the whole range of the 200s and 100s there.

The spiralizer I have is a Lurch Spirali bought cheaply from Amazon (there are some amazing high-end ones out there, but I'm not sure I like courgettes that much yet) and I have Ali Mafucci's Inspiralized book of recipes which are all delicious.... she has a website, too.

CONGRATS on the 4lb off - that's a great speedy start. Good luck for the next week.

Cheers Bramblefox!

Yeh sounds like the life of luxury lol but it was horribly painful lol like having cramp on the top of your foot for weeks.

Ill have a look at more of the forums

I love the thought of using corgette as spaghetti, I might go on an Amazon shopping spree

And thank you for the congrats I would be happy to see it again next week but then I need to get realistic lol It wont keep up for long.