I’ve been ‘trying to lose weight’ for the last 30+ years with just the occasional, short-lived success. And suddenly I am almost three stone lighter in the space of just six months!
This dramatic result is not due to discovering a Holy Grail of a diet, but to a pesky gallstone. One which has been sporadically blocking my bile duct and causing my gallbladder to flood, leading to episodes of biliary colic – pain that I can only describe (despite thankfully only having experience of the former) as a cross between childbirth and a heart attack.
My gallbladder issue is a whole other story, suffice to say that when I finally saw a doctor about what I thought was very severe indigestion, I was told to avoid fatty foods.
That was last February. Since then, I haven’t touched an iota of butter, full fat cheese, marmalade, normal crisps, honey chilli chicken and so much more. I have eaten copious amounts of plain salad (no dressings, no coleslaw) grilled fish, chicken and turkey and porridge. Eating out, which used to be a pleasure, is now touch and go as to whether I will find anything on the menu that isn’t a potential trigger. Telling a server in a restaurant that you have to avoid fat isn’t the same as telling them you have a serious or potentially fatal allergy – the barely disguised eyeroll generally indicates that the server thinks you are just another person on a faddy weight-loss diet. And mumbling about your gallbladder doesn’t seem to change their attitude.
But the purpose of this blog is to focus on the first sentence I wrote, and what I have discovered about being thin(ner). I am not skinny by any stretch, just a lot leaner than I was.
So, when I went to see my GP the day my gallbladder was playing up last February (2026), I weighed in at 76kg. Today I weigh around 58kg. For those more used to stones and pounds, I have roughly dropped from 11st 10lbs to 9st 1lb.
There are people out there who will have lost many more kilos than me, but this has still had quite an impact on my physical state – and not all in a positive way.
I have dropped a full size in clothes, probably more. Previously, a UK size 14 would have been my best fit. Now a UK 12 is a bit on the loose side. I have had to put lots of clothes in storage and buy new ones – though to be fair I did have a few size 12s in my wardrobe from previous weigh loss. I have even had to buy smaller knickers – my big ones looked like nappies!
My skin appears to have aged 10 years in six months. I haven’t lost enough weight to have an apron of loose skin, but I have a lot of saggy, wrinkly skin, on my upper arms, upper thighs and my stomach in particular – and it’s not attractive! On holidays recently, I had my husband take a photo of my in my bikini on a beach – something I normally avoid, but hey, this time next year I might be back to my old self, so why not get the pic! When I looked at the photo, I saw someone who was fairly slim, yes, but my skin was old and crepe – not quite the Baywatch physique I had pictured in my head!
My boobs have always been large (probably a 36E). They have joyfully reduced in size, and I can now wear a 34D bra. The biggest bonus in relation to boobs and bras is I can now wear an underwire bra without it pressing down on my rib cage and causing huge discomfort. Before the weight loss, I rarely ever wore an underwire, although to be honest every bra seemed to put pressure on my ribs, and I certainly don’t miss that!
But – my boobs do sag exponentially. While no one really needs to look at them unrestrained, I have managed on at least two occasions to tear tissue / muscle when freeing them from a supportive bra. Most recently when, after waiting all day at an airport for a flight that was cancelled, I returned home and whisked off the bra, letting gravity do its bit, and the pain in my upper left boob (heading towards my armpit) was excruciating. I should have cupped each boob as I released it and lowered it gently. Lesson learned. The pain from that tear eased in time but remained with me for the best part of a month.
I am going to confess that I am tired a lot. More tired than normal. I read about people who lose weight and have boundless energy to leap out of bed and go for a morning run. Nope, not me.
I still do my walks with the dogs, my low-level mountain hikes and my three-times-a-week gym sessions. Exercise makes me feel good and the weights in the gym will go, I hope, in some way to tightening up all that lose skin. But generally, I am weary, I look forward to bed, doing general chores such as housework, shopping, even socializing, is daunting – I am not sure if I can be bothered.
Perhaps it is the lack of calories and the lack of volume of food. Often I feel hungry.
Yes, I could eat more beans and lentils, even more fruit and salad, but you can only eat so much of this stuff. And as one of my gallbladder triggers is possibly spice, making those beans and lentils into something enjoyable is quite a challenge for someone who loves curry.
Thank heavens for dates (of the edible variety)! And oven baked crisps – though there are so few in a packet they satisfy only the flavour craving, not the hunger.
Finally, I expected that if I ever lost weight – particularly almost a quarter of my bodyweight – that people would notice. They would be impressed. And are they…?
Quite honestly, there have been some complimentary comments, but if many people have noticed, they haven’t said. And unfortunately, my changing shape has prompted lots of concern from those who care for me about whether I have lost too much, how I am fading away, how I don’t have a butt anymore (that much is definitely true, for the first time in my life)!
The purpose of writing this blog is to remind myself that being marginally overweight is not the worst thing in the world. I so miss hot buttered toast, cheese omelets, chicken tikka masala, potatoes with butter, full fat mayonnaise, ice cream, fatty lamb chops, garlic bread and parmesan cheese on pasta. Even low fat carbonated drinks!
On the plus side – alcohol desn’t give me any problems with the gall-bladder. Now the hangover is a different matter…!
And once I get my gallbladder out – if they remove it, I am still waiting to see a consultant seven months from being referred – I will hopefully get to enjoy these fatty delights and fizzy drinks again.
And my weight will increase. As I hope will my energy levels. And perhaps my loose skin will fill out again.
But it will be goodbye to underwired bras, skinny jeans that actually make me look skinny, and skimpy bikinis (thought to be fair I never avoided these before!) And goodbye to the occasional complimentary comments, and the confidence at standing on scales in front of others, and the toned shoulders (I love toned shoulders).
A happy medium – that’s what I should aspire to when I can change my diet. Somewhere between 76kg and 58kg.
Sound like a plan. Watch this space…
