Depressed about weight gain

froghat

Well-known member
I've always been pretty fit my whole life. I ate lots of junk food and never gained weight, but about 3 years ago things changed. I'd say I gained about 15 extra pounds. I'm 6'3 206. Not obese or anything, but it's depressing looking at myself in the mirror. I have a tiny belly, but the thing that ticks me off the most is my face. It looks bloated and I have lose skin under my chin. It looks like I'm getting a double chin!!! The past year I started running for about 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week... and I also cut back on junk food. I figured I would lose 10 pouds or so..... well nothing has changed ....still 206!!! Well, now I'm thinking this has something to do with my metabolism slowing down or something. It's bumming me out cause I run everyday and I still look like crap. Does your metabolism slow down around age 25 or something? Have you guys experienced this? Haver any suggestions? It's bad enough having social anxiey and living a crappy life, but if I have to live life looking like a bloated fish I might as well give up now. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, seriously, this sucks!
 

garry29

Well-known member
I've always been pretty fit my whole life. I ate lots of junk food and never gained weight, but about 3 years ago things changed. I'd say I gained about 15 extra pounds. I'm 6'3 206. Not obese or anything, but it's depressing looking at myself in the mirror. I have a tiny belly, but the thing that ticks me off the most is my face. It looks bloated and I have lose skin under my chin. It looks like I'm getting a double chin!!! The past year I started running for about 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week... and I also cut back on junk food. I figured I would lose 10 pouds or so..... well nothing has changed ....still 206!!! Well, now I'm thinking this has something to do with my metabolism slowing down or something. It's bumming me out cause I run everyday and I still look like crap. Does your metabolism slow down around age 25 or something? Have you guys experienced this? Haver any suggestions? It's bad enough having social anxiey and living a crappy life, but if I have to live life looking like a bloated fish I might as well give up now. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, seriously, this sucks!

I have a really big beer belly which I hate. I started exercising just free-weights at home and put on about half a stone in weight from 10 1/2 but my belly's still the same. It's been like this for a couple of years. :cool:
 

Emily_G

Well-known member
Be thankful you could enjoy a high metabolism for the time that you did!!!! I have always been overweight and always had to be concious of what I was eating, etc. Not so fun when you're a kid.
 

lef09012

Well-known member
I feel your pain. You're 6'3, but I'm 5' and gained 13.5lb in a couple months!! Yes it's obvious that I became bigger!
I cut back junk, eat healthy meal, walk, and do exercise with DVD, but haven't lost any yet. Feel like my thighs got even bigger.

It's really discouraging and makes me feel helpless and hopeless.

Now I'll try weight training.
Hope this one works. But I'm so ashamed to go to gym.. Feel so ugly... hah......

But I won't give up! If others can lose weight, I can too.
 
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Damaged

Well-known member
Maybe running 30 minutes isn't enough, maybe your body needs different type of exercise to lose weight?

I know how you feel though, i went up to 13stone and half during my sad times :( but then i bought a running machine in feb and since there i've lost 2 stone. Just make sure your eating healthier and count your calories. It really does help.
 
Try running 1 hour or cycling is even more better, I'm now cycling every two days for 1 or 2 hours and remember to drink enough water!
 

market.garden

Well-known member
See a dietitian. They can advise you how to lose weight without compromising your health. And maybe think about hitting a gym, or looking into certain 'regimes' that can target certain areas of your body.
 

BlackKids

Well-known member
I got to a huge weight and due to puberty ended up with stretchmarks. I'd say getting depressed is the worse thing you can do. The weight is only gunna drop if your focused and motivated. Although personally I dont like weighing myself. Cant tell you how good you look or feel.

There are lots of things you can do. Drink more water. Spread your daily calorie intake over 5-6 meals. I think It might be better to run half the time for twice as long if possible, or increase the pace. Lifting weights will really help. Tone you up but also burn calories the next day as they are rebuilding.

If you want to trim up then I'd say you have alot of homework to do :p Men's health Magazine is a good place to start
 

lunarla

Well-known member
A more technical way to look at it would be to try and burn 500 calories daily (at least). With doing this (and not overeating - eating healthily) you'll lose a pound a week (since one pound of fat equals 3500 calories) When I stick to this, it does work! So, in that sense, just running for 30 minutes daily (which is great by the way!) is more of a way to maintain your weight. For me, running for 30 minutes burns around 160 calories, but for you it'd be a bit more considering you're taller/weigh more, etc. etc. Also, try reading up on what would be the right amount of calories for you to be eating daily, taking into account all of your stats, in order to lose weight.
 

DeathMetal

Well-known member
I have been thin my whole life. I am almost 32 and am 5'10" 150lbs, about the same as back in high school. I have gained about 5 lbs but that is from weight lifting.
 

Luthien

Well-known member
I'm working on loosing some weight, myself. I've gained many unwanted pounds since I stopped going out of the house.

One thing that I think is SUPER important is to eat consciously. Most people eat WAY more than their bodies actually need and a lot of it is because we're not in tune with our bodies and what it needs. If you can, try to only eat when you are able to sit in peace (don't talk to people or watch tv). Chew every bite and really TASTE it, then wait and take a breath before you put the next bite into your mouth. You'd be amazed at how hard this can be! It's such a force of habit (at least for me) to start shoveling in your next bite before the last one's even in your stomach!

I don't know if this will help you, but it's totally helping me. I went from having about two cups of oatmeal in the morning to having a half a cup. I just couldn't finish it! And even that is sometimes too much. If you really pay attention to your body and when it's hungry and full, you'll only eat what you need and it'll be a lot easier to loose weight.
 

Luthien

Well-known member
I agree with Luthien. You can use something like fitday.com to track what you're eating: you'll probably be surprised at what you're actually taking in.

Also carbs are the enemy, much more than fat. If I had to choose between eating a little more super-refined/processed carbs or a little more fat, I'd take the fat everytime.

Beyond that, sometimes things like a fat face and double chin are from genetics.

You changed your picture!! I loved that picture, it went so well with the name "token asian friend"

Anyway, on the topic, I feel like it's a bad idea to count calories or obsess over how much of what you're eating. The more you think about it and judge, the less you'll enjoy your food! If you know you're eating good foods (lots of organic veggies, good meats that aren't loaded with hormones and healthy grains and no processed sugar "food products") and you don't have a serious food addiction, then you should be fine. And I wasn't trying to imply that you consciously cut down how much food you eat. All I was saying is that if you payed attention to your food when you're eating it, enjoyed every little bite and ate slowly with time in between bites for the food to go to your stomach, then you will DEFINITELY naturally eat less.

I know a lot of people think he's a total quack, but I learned this from a Deepak Chopra tape series I have and I think it's such a great way to eat! I really enjoy my time eating so much more than I used to. He also says to only take as much food as would fit in your hands cupped together, and to wait five minutes before going for seconds. Just listen to your body, if it says it wants more after five minutes, give it a little more, but if you eat consciously, your appetite will be much smaller.
 

Luthien

Well-known member
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... lol... Aw, and here you were, one of my favorite posters until that admission. ::p: Eh, I guess I can overlook it since it's not related to quantum physics. :)

Oh, and no worries on my ugly mug: just moved it to my profile pic, in case you need to remind yourself what a token asian looks like. :D But my new avatar is representative of my token asian-ness, also, so I'm keepin' it real. hahahaha.

Okay, so I totally understand the feeling about Deepak Chopra being a bit quackish, but I think you should never write off anyone completely. He does have some very good ideas and while I'm more into Chinese and homeopathic medicine, it's interesting to hear about Ayurveda from the prospective of an open minded medical professional, and he's very good at explaining it. I also really like his voice :) The first tape set I got of his was just him reading the Bhagavad Gita with this nice classical Indian flute music in the background. I just loved to listen to it, I found it to be very soothing. I also really like that he has a lot of technical knowledge about medicine because he's a doctor, but he fuses that with traditional medicines. I think it's important to listen, but with a discerning mind, so that you can weed out what sounds a bit woo-woo and still get the benefit of what does not.

Token Asian Friend, I should just make your photo my desktop picture so that I can pretend that there are Asian people living in my area and not just a bunch of white hicks and hippies. I was one of your favorite posters??? Wow, thanks :) I'm blushing!
 

EscapeArtist

Well-known member
Deepak chopra.. I just heard about him yesterday, because my friend's older brother is interviewing him on their spiritual radio station in the next week I believe, so he's in town. I've got to look into this dude...
 
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