I started gaining weight a year ago. As soon as I noticed the weight gain I started doing everything I could think of to stop it from happening: work out twice a day, make meal plans recording every calorie, eat more fruits and vegetables and less high-calorie foods, speeding up my metabolism with anaerobic workouts, running 4.5 miles in the morning before work … and in that year, I gained thirty pounds.
I am a 23 year old female, 5’3", 140 lbs. I can do 8 pull ups, squat 155 lbs., and run several miles without stopping. When I had my body fat measures a few months ago, I was in the 20-25 (normal) range. HOWEVER, my doctor has told me I should lose some weight, and I agree. I am gaining weight at an astonishing rate because I have trouble putting down the fork. I haven’t tried any sort of weight loss support group, which I am considering now since my other ideas have failed, but I’m imagining the disdain people would have at a girl wearing a size small waltzing into their meetings.
I have a friend who anyone in their right mind would consider trim and athletic, IOW she’s in great shape, but she goes to a weight loss support group to help keep herself on track, and has never mentioned that anyone there is unfriendly or unsupportive. Id say go for it.
I think it would be fine as long as you don’t go on and on about how fat you are when you are the smallest one there. I like to see young people catch their weight problems before they get out of hand.
Another suggestion - Would a “virtual” weight loss support group work for you? SparkPeople is one of the groups I see recommended frequently, and has gotten good reviews from various sources. When I was using it regularly I really enjoyed it and it helped me focus on my goals. I’m in the normal BMI range and only have about 15 lbs to lose - I tend to eat due to boredom or annoyance, but stop before I get too overweight due to the cue of how my pants fit - and so I’m always concerned about not “really” being overweight but participating in discussions with those who need to lose more. You don’t have to make your weight or your goal public. And I think there are support groups there specifically designed for people who don’t have that much to lose, maybe even “maintaining your loss” groups as well. Last I checked there was a SDMB group as well, though it’s been a while (too long!) since I’ve checked in.
If going to a support group will help you, then do it. I go every week, I’m at my target weight so I don’t have to attend if I don’t want to but my friend who started going with me still has to reach her target so we still go together. There are people in the group who are at their target weight, people still working on it and a couple of girls who really don’t look like they should be there at all. But nobody comments on it, we’re all there to give each other support for the same reason - we don’t sit around commenting on how fat we are (or aren’t), it’s purely to chat about our weight loss plans and what works or doesn’t work for different people.
Weight loss groups are a misnomer. Many people go to those meetings to maintain the weight in a healthy zone, so you’ll see people of all body types. Don’t give it a second thought.
I was part of a weight loss class a few years ago. One member was maybe a smidge overweight, but she looked pretty healthy to me. She really wanted to get in better shape so she could run a marathon. No one looked at her funny.
It was interesting, though, that when we did the class on exercise, we were the only two that were able to make it that week.
Have you talked to your doctor about potentially being hypothryoid? I was diagnosed at 19, after gaining something like 30 pounds my freshman year of college. Turns out I wasn’t a lard ass, I was pretty hypothryoid, and lost the wait in due course. Google the symptoms, you may have it.
Also, if you’re on any birth control of any form, you need a free T4 test for hypothryoidism, not the regular hypothryoid test.
Also, you’re not on the Shot for birth control, are you? That’s a mess and a half.
Nah, my doctor said my thyroid gland was normal. A good bit of the 30 lbs. was muscle, as I do much more muscle training than most females do. But my body fat went up a good deal, so it’s definitely not all muscle.
But he didn’t test you? My glands were normal too, but I had a family history so he tested me anyways. I’d push for a test if there’s no discernible reason you’d be gaining bodyfat. I mean, you’re not aging or hitting menopause, so there could be something up. Do you have a family history of diabetes or insulin resistance?
I joined an online support group once. Most of the people there were trying to lose weight. We didn’t actually have to say what we were there to be supported for. Many people chose to report in every day, e.g., “I walked 3 miles, ate 1562 calories, did 22 jumping jacks, and then blew it all with an ice cream sundae. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.”
It wasn’t so much that I was interested in the mundane details of other people’s goal attainment, but reading their progress reports made me feel… accountable. To myself and to them. All I was trying to do was get moving and exercise more often. One woman lost more than 130 pounds and can now do something like 1200 crunches at a time. Reading her struggles and daily reports was inspiring to me. If she could keep going, I could keep going. I didn’t have 130 pounds to lose (I’d weigh a negative number! ;)) so I didn’t have nearly the degree of difficulty/obstacles getting in the habit of exercising as she may have.
Basically, talking to other people taught me that I have no excuses. Accounting to other people helped me learn better self-control. Nobody was going to judge or pick on me if I failed; on the contrary, if you fell off your goal wagon one day, everyone would chime in to encourage you to pick back up and start over again tomorrow.
Then board politics (of course) blew the whole thing up and we all splintered off into different groups. I found pole dancing/pole fitness and work out 5 days a week. At 41, I now weigh what I did in high school, only with better muscle tone and definition. So the support group thing was a useful tool for me and served its purpose. Nobody cared that I was never really overweight in the first place. I was looking for the self-discipline and my long-term-weight-loss friends showed me what it was and how to find it within myself.
I think that sounds fine, in theory, but as with choosing a therapist, getting along with people in a support group is pretty much going to make or break your experience. I think the OP has a valid concern, but she won’t really know if people are going to be warm or snarky until she meets them. Since she sounds pretty healthy overall, taking a healthy cooking class might work just as well.
It would be silly to say that there’s some rule that you have to be hugely fat before you can join a weight loss group. Better, as the others have said, to nip it in the bud.
In April 2009, I weighed 220. (I’m female, 5’7".) Today I weigh about 145 and I’m a Weight Watchers Lifetime member (which means I reached my goal weight and maintained it for 6 weeks; now I weigh in once a month). I still go to meetings to “keep my hand in” and make sure I don’t backslide. I also like to think that when the leader asks me to talk about what has worked for me or how I have dealt or still deal with issues (and I still have them), it’s an inspiration to people who may be just starting, or struggling, to see that it can be done and that even (some) skinny people have to work to stay that way.
Yeah, stay away from the “me so fat” comments and you’ll be fine.
I start showing up at Weight Watchers when I hit 145. I’m 5’7". I’ve done it twice. No one blinks. Many people at a WW meeting are maintaining their goal weight, or have only a few pounds to loose (in some cases, a few pounds left). I loose 12 lbs, get down to 133 or so, then stop going for another seven or so years.
Fair enough. I was thinking more along the lines of a WW meeting, as opposed to a support group like AA or something, where it is more community oriented. So I guess it depends on what kind of support group is being discussed.