12 stone at 19. 5 foot 5..

Question
I think its about 168 pounds that i weigh maybe more the
last time i weighed myself was after i ate.
Im starting a diet tomorrow a low calories one but its hard
for me to do exercise as i suffer from depression and find
it hard to go out my house as it is because of it. I dont
know what to do. I feel massive. It always gets me down.
How do i live on like this?

Answer
Hi Emma

Personally, I don't think that very low calorie diets are at all helpful - in fact I don't believe in starting any 'eating plan' that isn't sustainable for life and here's why:
1.  On very low calorie diets you'll lose water and muscle first (both precisely what you need to keep your metabolism speeded up)  and the very last thing you lose is fat because your body reads a very low calorie diet as famine which means it holds onto your fat supplies.
2.  Very low calorie diets often mean cutting out carbohydrates which contain serotonin which is the very feel good hormone that you need in order to beat depression.
3.  Psychologically - the lower your calorie diet, the more likely you are to become focussed on food.  So, you start becoming fixated on the very think you're supposedly meant to be eating less of.
4.  Low calorie diets that are unsustainable are the best way for us to land up yo-yo dieting ourselves fatter in the longer term.  Because when the diet fails us and we got back to our old eating habits, we don't gain back the water and muscle we've lost, we gain back fat.
If you want to read more about these, as well as many other reasons why low calorie diets are a bad idea check out: http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/diet-myths.html

Now, about exercise....ask yourself a few questions like....
1.  What exercise do I think I could enjoy and find fun?  (If you can't think of any remember what you loved as a child)
2.  How can I incorporate that into my life in a very small way initially?  Here I'm talking about just starting off with even as little as 5 minutes a day.  You see you need to find something that feels psychologically and mentally easily do-able for you and build from there.  So often we start off with something that is unsustainable and then hate it and give up.

For loads of tips on how to make exercise fun and sustainable got to: http://www.ditch-diets-live-light.com/exercise-information.com

And lastly, don't focus on losing weight- rather focus on gaining health.  On a low calorie diet, you can lose weight and ironically lose health at the same time because you're often cutting out major food groups that your body needs.

Good luck and please let me know if this answer was helpful.
Kind regards
Cari  

1. Prev:Cant seem to lose weight!
2. Next:Need help, weight loss Question