I’m finally realising how much harder weight loss is for some people.

Stats: 5’8”F, SW:207, CW: 163, GW: 140

I started losing in mid February because I’d realised quite how overweight I had become, and I was wearing a UK size eighteen. I live alone in my own apartment and I have a kitchen to myself and full control over what I buy, what goes in the cupboards, etc.

I found it surprisingly easy. I counted calories to 1500 a day, I cooked loads, and started to incorporate some exercise, finally taking up running once I hit a healthy BMI and knew I wouldn’t be putting too much strain on my knees. I lost 40lbs in just over three months.

And then, I moved to my parents’ for a month during quarantine, to have someone to be with. I still tried to count calories. I still cooked. I took up running and began running 30mins a day. And despite all that, I plateaued. Couldn’t break 170. Then I gained two pounds. Then I got sick, and lost it again. After a while, I realised: the reason weight loss had been so easy up until that point for me was because I had the ability to be self-centred, in a way. I could focus on every nutrient, every calorie that was going in my food. I could eat whatever size meal, whenever I wanted, so some days I could ‘save up’ calories and have a big dinner. At my parents’, that all changed. Suddenly I was cooking for five people, including three big, hungry men. Suddenly, I didn’t know if my mum had added a couple of tbsp of oil into my salad without me noticing. Suddenly, there was a lot more food around. And it was so much harder. Suddenly, I had to have three ‘proper’ meals a day, so I couldn’t have a snacky lunch and a big dinner. And it turns out you can’t cook an egg on toast for a big hungry Greek man for his lunch.

All of this is to say that I think people like me need to understand that in a perfect world, weight loss IS easy: just count and see the scale go down. However, so many have complicated family lives: kids, overweight parents who don’t eat well, university or school cafeterias to contend with, less money to buy healthier food, etc. And this DOES make it so much harder. I can’t imagine how frustrating trying to lose weight must be if you’re young and your parents cook unhealthy food for you. I remember from my time at boarding school (picture a hogwarts feast! Jk, but there was a LOT of stodgy British food) how hard I tried and how it didn’t work. I’m sure this isn’t exactly a new revelation to most people. But I need to try to be kind, and thankful for the control I have.

Eventually I did manage to lose some weight at my parents’, 7lbs. But it was SO MUCH HARDER. So to anyone living in situations where it’s hard to lose weight, you are amazing. You can do this. Have conversations about why you’re doing this, and how. Portion size is king. Above all, though, I’m so so proud of you, and it took a weird quarantine time in a home I haven’t lived in for ten years for me to see that.

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