Despite my username, I don’t actually like having a big butt.

I’m only 24 and have seen my weight creep up over the past few years. Before going away to university, I was on the curvier side of slim, although at that time I thought I was huge. I had no confidence in my looks and in many respects didn’t feel as if I deserved to feel and look good. I’m a comfort eater. 5 years on and I’m heavier than I’ve ever been before and until recently, very much in denial. My confidence has reached an all time low and for me it’s now or never– I don’t want to end up with health issues as a direct result of having no self-control. I’m overweight because I’ve made myself this way and I’m lucky enough that I’ve got youth on my side to turn things around.

I was first attracted to the 5:2 diet as I know that in the past, denying myself the foods I love would not end well. Previously I have done just that; I’ve lost a lot of weight quite quickly and then ended up putting it back on and more.

I thought I’d sign up to this site so that I can see how well others are doing as a means of motivating myself. In real life, very few members of my family and hardly any of my friends are what you’d consider ‘overweight’ for me, as someone who is obese, this can be isolating. Sure, they’d be supportive and at no point to I resent them for being healthy, but I also feel I need to share my experiences with those who are going through something similar. For me, losing weight isn’t just a physical thing about changing the amount I put into my body and when I do so, but a psychological thing. I need to feel like I deserve to be healthy and I need to feel as if I have the ability to take control of my life.

My head has been so deeply buried in the sand that I don’t even own scales. I own a tape measure but I conveniently forgot where I’ve put it. Today I have started to turn things around. Within a few hours the lovely people at Argos will have delivered a new set of scales and I’ll go and look for my tape measure. I’ve been fasting today and in a very strange way, the hunger feels good. I hope to update weekly with my progress as a means of making myself commit to this. I know you’ve all got lives and whatnot, but if someone out there could let me know that they’re keeping an eye on my progress via this thread then that would help massively!