Morbidly Obese- where to start?

[Anonymous]

5’9, 45 years old, 322lbs. I’ve been heavy my whole life, but crossed over into 300s over the pandemic with a 40lb weight gain.

No preexisting conditions that I’m aware of, but I also haven’t seen my doctor or gotten blood work in the last two years.

My life is somewhat active with 3 kids, two dogs, a job and a household to maintain, but not as active as I’d like it to be. My legs are swollen at the end of the day and I’m just tired and not able to do the things I want to do with my kids like tubing, hikes, etc.

I’m ready to make a lifestyle change but frozen in action. I don’t want to deal with medical professionals who make me feel terrible for the size of my body or super restrictive diets.

Tell me where to start. Better yet, tell me the name of a medical professional who can help me. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Who does the grocery shopping?

[Anonymous]

Start with a doctors appointment

[Anonymous]

Semaglutide for sure!

[Anonymous]

Ozempic
Walks to the park with the kids
No fast food/pop/alcohol

Those are probably the easiest to start with. Definitely get your blood work done and talk to a dr.

[Anonymous]

It’s not a cure all but I had the gastric sleeve in 2017. It’s a tool in the journey. I was 265 and I got down to 175. Now hovering around 180 trying to get back to 175.


It’s not willpower but you do have to change your mindset towards food and exercise and it’s every day, forever, not just the first week then give up. Every day I have to remind myself that I’m walking or swimming for a reason. I have a sweet tooth and indulge myself but now I tell myself once a day, not multiple times a day. Yesterday I had a frappachino from Starbucks but that was my one junky treat for the day.
If you have dogs start there. Commit to walking 30 mins in the morning before it’s too hot with the dogs. Start the day off well and it’s easy to continue. Baby steps OP but you gotta stick with it.

[Anonymous]

This is the perfect time to be obese! Have you been under a rock? Go to the doctor and get offered injections to make you lose weight. You do not even have to exercise although it is recommended.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of luck with food tracking. I use Lose It, but there are lots of other apps you can use too. Just having to actually log everything I eat makes me less likely to eat mindlessly. It's shocking how many empty calories I can eat in a day when I'm sitting around my house. Another big thing for me is not drinking calories.

When you are larger (I am also not a small person, OP) you can actually still eat a fair number of calories and still lose weight. So I have my goal set at 1.5 lbs a week and it's enough to eat a healthy 3 meals a day. It makes me shift to more vegetables and less carbs because of the calorie balance. I don't do it perfectly (I don't measure or weigh everything) but as long as I am strict about it, I lose weight. Cutting 750 food calories a day is a lot easier than trying to burn 750 calories.

[Anonymous]

Join WW and get your doctor to prescribe semaglutide.

[Anonymous]

I really don't understand people who immediately jump to drugs as the first recommendation.

OP, despite your dislike of medical professionals, start with a complete physical exam (and ignore whatever comments or judgement you perceive from the medical staff). First of all, this will provide a baseline of your health and identify any conditions that may be contributing to your weight or inhibiting losing weight.

Next, see a nutritionist.

In the meantime, if any of these apply:
eliminate soda (including diet) and any other sugary drinks and alcohol.
Make sure you have a protein at every meal and snack.
Look at what and when you're eating and make any easy substitutions or eliminations you can. If you're snacking late at night, go to bed earlier. Sleep is key!
(for example: just the sandwich at lunch, no chips - or replace chips with an apple; if you have a soda, don't have french fries or vice versa until you eliminate both; be sure to have a salad with dinner every night - and eat it before the main meal; etc.)

Most importantly: just start moving around more. Get up from your desk every hour and move around for 2 minutes; walk around during commercial breaks when watching tv instead of skipping them; do high knee lifts while you're waiting for the water to boil when cooking dinner; start each day with a few minutes of stretching; etc.

You don't say what your current diet is like or what level of activity you engage in. So I'm just assuming you are eating poorly and too much, and that you are quite sedentary.

[Anonymous]

If you drink any kind of soda or juice, replace that with water. That's a great place to start. I was 255 at 5'4", and I don't drink soda, juice or alcohol, so I started with snacks - I only had fruits or veg for snacks, with the exception of one bag of popcorn per week.

After a month of getting used to that, I cut all my carbs in half or less than half. Like, I looked at the serving size of pasta and used a measuring cup - turned out I was eating four servings at a time.

Then, I realized I kept interpreting "hunger pangs" as "pain." So every time I felt them, I reminded myself "You're not in pain - you're fine; you're just losing weight."

I stopped going back for seconds or thirds. Even at Thanksgiving, I had a plate with about 4-6 ounces of turkey (hard to eyeball it), a scoop of potatoes, a small bit of cranberry sauce and some greenbeans. I tasted a bit of my nephews pie and otherwise didn't have dessert. And it was ... totally fine!

I am at 205 now.

[Anonymous]

Start with a primary care doctor and ask them for a referral for an obesity specialist. Ask them to do all required testing and prescribe a suitable weight loss medication.

Throw away white flour, white rice, sugar, read meat, alcohol, soda, chips, jam, jelly, cake, cookies bread etc.

In addition to whatever exercise you do, walk around the house for 10 minutes after every two sitting hours. Walk instead of driving for short distances, take stairs instead of elevator. Stay in gym clothes and sneakers as much as possible so you have one less excuse for going to gym or for walks. Make home fitness friendly with a trademill, some free weights, a soccer net and ball, a basket ball hoop etc. Get a bicycle, etc.

Hire a fitness coach if possible, even if its a high school or college athlete on minimum wage/hr as all you need is some structure and accountability.

[Anonymous]

Join some group activity if possible.

[Anonymous]

If no board certified obesity medicine doctor near you then go to an endocrinologist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Join some group activity if possible.

I'm guessing you've never been fat, right? It's incredibly hard to join groups when you are. I did yoga for six months. The yoga instructor wouldn't correct my form, claiming she'd touched a different fat woman who got upset. I literally stared at her as I said, "We're not all the same." Everyone else in the class keeps glancing at you - partially to make sure they're at least doing better than the fat person, but also because it's amusing to see - like a hippo doing ballet would be. I used to cry before I headed out, and know of at least two times I called a friend and asked her to firmly tell me to go. Oh, and let's not forget people complimenting you for being fat yet being at a workout class.