I have reached epic new weight of 24 stone. This is very bad, I am 5 feet 10 and large build but still no way of hiding that I am twice the size I should be. I got to this point through an unfortunate combination of treatment resistant bipolar with binge eating disorder being my main form of dealing with stress of that. I have been playing around with huel for a while as a means to ensure my protien needs are met as a new vegan and also in hopes of losing some weight. My bipolar has been really bad though and binge eating has been out of control.
I am thinking it might be time to go to that last resort and get gastric sleeve stomach surgery but feels wrong still. Reading up about what I would have to eat if got that surgery it involves weeks of liquid diet to first shrink down liver prior to surgery and weeks of liquid diet after surgery to allow healingl. In long term protien shake supplements and small meals are recomended to stay well after surgery.
I thought lets go for a last ditch effort to avoid surgery or prepare a practice run for surgery. I would like to see if a morbidly obese binge eating food addict can do huel only for a month. when I did lighter life they made me stick to 500cal a day and then few years later 750cal per day but no thanks. I think I will aim for 1600cal or even 2000 cal huel a day plus lots of water and see how long I can make it. It would be good for my liver to have a break from all the over eating for a while. I find it easier to not eat at all than to eat in moderation. Huel is as close as I can get to avoiding dealing with food while not actually starving and still get basic nutrients I need.
The very best of luck to you! ā2000 cal a day plus lots of waterā sounds like a quite reasonable approach. I hope you succeed, and I also hope you will keep adding to this thread as the days go by, so others can enjoy your epic adventure!
It sounds great that you want to try this rather than surgery. As above, 2000kcals a day sounds like a good start, as you want to lose the weight slowly and steadily so itās maintainable and not too much of a shock to your body and also so your skin can shrink at the same rate. Good luck, you can do it!!
Hi
I am by no means an expert but below is my opinion and if I am telling you something you already know then I apologise in advance.
Firstly I commend you on taking steps to try and help yourself, It isnāt easy to find motivation when dealing with mental health conditions, so really well done for putting yourself out there and sharing your story.
Mental health problems teamed with stress can lead to binge eating as a coping mechanism, I say this from experience.
I too have been down lighter life route many years ago, and it took doing that type of diet to realise starvation was not the answer. Also that I realised a diet isnāt something you go on, a diet is what you eat.
You mention that you have been using Huel for a while already, and I think your challenge to do 100% Huel for a month is a great idea, however unless you are already having Huel daily to cover 60-70% of your calorific requirements, I personally think going 100% Huel without building up to it could be an added stress.
If you do decide to try 100% Huel for a month then I think it would help to have already experimented with your recepies if you are going to be adding a bit of fruit or coffee etc, just so that you can enjoy your shakes.
Finally picking up on your comments regarding calorie aims, my personal advice to you would be three things:-
As an example I have used it filling age as 30 years old, and the calculation shows that if you consume approx 2800 calories a day your weight will not change.
Therefore a good starting point would be 500 calories less, 2300 calories a day.
From there on out you could use the calculator every couple of weeks and gradually lower your calorie intake keeping the deficit the same and over the course of time if your activity levels rise then it is a really handy tool to ensure you consistently losing weight.
If the calculator tells you 2300 cals a day is your first target but you know yourself that 2000 calories is perfectly satisfying already then start there, listen to your body.
Keep a food diary or use myfitnesspal, super helpful even if you end up on Huel alone it keeps you accountable and gives you one place to log your food and progress on your weight loss, you can store body measurments and even progress photos and even activity levels.
As I said above this is purely my opinion and I have taken the time to write this info for you as I can relate to your post and admire that you have taken the first step of making a plan.
All the above good advice, also ease into Huel gentlyā¦it takes a while to get used toā¦so one meal a day of Huel for a week, then 2 and then whatever suits you.
Loads of people to give you advice and support hereā¦
Thank you for taking the time to write that. Yes I am familiar with myfitnesspal, I have been a member on it for many years. It is a great tool.
I have over the past 26 years since I was 10 been on just about every diet and healthy lifestyle change imaginable and can report all of them work if stick to them.
I do think the approach changes a bit between an overweight person, an obese person and a morbidly obese person. Both lighter life and surgery involve huge calorie deficit but they are designed to be life saving for morbid obesity. Someone my size is living like ticking time bomb as could drop dead from complications of my size at any time. 4 members of my close family have done exactly that just dropped dead without any warning , grandmother overweight age 58 from pulminary embolism, grandfather overweight massive heart attack and father obese at spookily died same age as his father 54 also of massive heart attack and aunt morboidly obese at just 44 went same way as her mother pulminary embolism, she collaped while in doctors office and still died. I am bigger than any of them were. My father and aunt were wake up calls but i still could not stick to a sensible healthy lifestyle. I have been in 12 step addiction programs before. I have had loads of therapy.
I am a food junkie and the bipolar is what always derails my efforts. I promise I have tried every option out there to get a grip on the bipolar and the food.
I would not go for something this radical unless I had run out of all other options.
I need to lose weight and I need to lose a good chunk of it fast due to medical issues. I also have polycystic ovary syndrome and an underactive thyroid so losing weight is a challenge even without bipolar and binge eating.
Gastric sleeve is the last resort and I think I am in last resort teritory now. In order to be approved for surgery I need to be capable of sticking to a low cal liquid diet. I personally agree very low diets like under 1200 calories a day are best avoided that is why I am going to go for 1600-2000 range on my own for now. If I can manage to stick to it then surgery becomes a more realistic hope. If I find I can stick to it better than expected then I may decide to continue with huel and not go for surgery option. I am waiting to start another course of therapy which I hope will help me stick to some changes.
I am fully aware it has to be a lifestyle change with real food in the end but for now I am so out of control and so unwell I need a break from food and surgery may or may not be my only realistic hope of life. Either way I need to do something to help myself now and a huel only plan might just save my life. Thank you for you time and good luck wishes
At 24 stone Iād probably aim for lower calories, maybe even 1750? Youāll be hungry all the time and your body will tell you itās wrong, but push throughā¦
You do realise the heavier you are the more energy your body needs to move around right? you want a sustainable lifestyle change not a crash diet putting your cals too low will lead to hormone imbalances as well as the willpower breakdown it could take up to 24 months to shift the weight Runaway need to get to a āhealthyā weight range no point in making it a miserable couple of years.
Nice going for wanting to kick start your weight loss, sometimes it takes us to get to a certain point before we can mentally do something I started back in may last year and never looked back I recommend getting a good support group around you in times of need when you lack willpower because we all have a finite amount we use up daily.
All I can say is take it slow do not rush you will reap the benefits better that way, also here is a group I have been part of for a while now great people and support and they will allow you to not feel guilty about eating so have a little look in dont worry its nothing like weight watchers, women (and men) on here are eating what they want and most are eating 2000 plus calories daily and still losing weight https://www.facebook.com/groups/EmpoweredByEating/ great place to get ideas and motivation.
also look into intermittent fasting which is a great fat loss tool
I implore you to do what I did and dive in headfirst and read up as much as you can from good sources which are backed by science rather than faddy shit
I am here if you ever want to chat,vent whatever
you can do it!!!
Anyone know if there is there a block option on here?
@ James_Swift
See post I already wrote above. I have tried all the other options already, including variouse forms of intermitent fasting. I have binge eating dissorder and have done for 26 years. I have had all the treatment there is available short of gastric surgery. I am at a point where I can not safely engage with food and my life is in danger due to severity of morbid obesity. If I could afford it I would check into an eating disorder unit for a year or two where all food intake was supervised but I can not afford it. The medical recomendation is Gastric surgery so that I lose weight fast for health reasons and then physically would be unable to binge eat. I am way past the point of a slow steady lifestyle change approach, been there done that, got several hundred tea shirts. Every time my treatment resistent bipolar goes off rails all my efforts get undone.In order to have gastric surgery I need to prove I can stick to a meal replacement liquid diet. The options are Huel and then surgery or Huel until right size along with more therapy. Slow weight loss wonāt cut it for my size related health complications. I am not looking for advice , only support. Thanks
In that case Iām not sure what youāre asking. The only way for you to overcome this is to āman upā and build the willpower necessary to stop binge eating. High willpower + 1750 calories a day would have this fixed.
I can see it can get frustrating when lots of people feel they need to give lots of advice. But just remember some people think this might be what you mean by support. You are your own expert and know what types of plans/diets do and donāt work for you. I can totally empathis with your situation having struggled with bulimia for a decade in my teens/early twenties. There is no logic to binge eating and I understand when you said you would rather eat nothing than in moderation. A drug addict can go cold turkey (in some cases!) but we canāt just stop eating food can we?! itās so hard and I commend you.
Although I no longer suffer with bulimia, the strange relationship with food never really goes away. Huel has really helped me with using food as fuel rather than a treat or indulgence. I can prepare it in the morning and have it at structured times. When itās gone, itās gone.
Iām not sure i could do 100% Huel but I really have your back here and would love to hear how you get on.
Just a remark about your comment. Although this approach may be useful to some it is not possible for someone to āman upā out of a debilitating mental illness (binge eating disorder/bipolar). It has absolutely nothing to do with willpower. Iām sure you meant well and are trying to be motivating but this approach is probably more damaging in this case.
Yeah I appreciate that, itās just that I was in a similar situation myself and suffered extreme food addiction after puberty. I used to constantly blame my family and friends for feeding me as well as Googling all the conditions I could that would help me justify my addiction.
Not sure what changed but I just looked at myself in the mirror one day and thought āMan up, this is your responsibility, your problem.ā. Since then Iāve been hooked on fitness, lost all my weight, tiny bit of loose skin around belly but otherwise better than ever.
I know itās not advice for everyone, but itās just one of those things that I look at now and think āCome on, you can do itā¦ā.
Itās really good this approach worked for you. It sounds like you are living a much more fulfilled life. I too had a Ureka moment, similar to yourself but it was something that happened out of the blue and certainly nothing I could have done to make it happen or āwoman upā (:P) before then.
Like I said before iām sure you were commenting from a place of kindness and wanting to be supportive but just careful not to belittle someones genuine inability to change or see it is them lacking in motivation. Everyone is differentā¦and thank goodness for that!
