Can I lose weight and still eat chocolate?

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I have about 11 lbs to lose and have tried low carb, with some success in the short term.

I don't eat wheat because it seems to aggravate my IBS. However I do want to be able to eat a little chocolate. Giving it up completely just makes me crave it more and when I'm hormonal I lose all willpower and go on a chocolate eating spree, putting all the weight back on in a couple of days. I feel like a real failure and just get depressed, causing me to eat more chocolate!

I'm rubbish at counting calories. I need something easy but that still allows me to live my life. Low carb suited me because I like meat and veg, not bothered about pasta, potato, bread at all, don't eat cake, just want a small chocolate bar!

Any way I can diet like that? I don't want to attend meetings, there's nothing local.

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

Sorry, I should add I hate sport and can't afford to join the gym, but I do walk my dog every day.

[TwasBrillig]

Join us on couch to 5k? I still have a couple of squares of dark chocolate a day but I've got a lot more to lose than you!

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I'll have a look - just presumed it involved jogging/running?

[TwasBrillig]

In very small doses. . . First week you walk 5 mins, jog for a minute, walk for 90seconds etc etc for half an hour. Sort of logging for those who don't like sport. But might not be your thing! I like that its free, can do anytime and I don't have to be social. Only a week in though!

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I can't run - haven't got the time or the knees for it (painful knees) and stress incontinence!

I'll just stick to my walking

[cariadmawr]

Hi this is my first time on mumsnet but I am on slimming world really does work 1stone down loads to go but there we go still can have choc and crisps .

[MotherOfNations]

I lost 10 stone and ate chocolate every day. Just a wee funsize bar or small pack of maltesers that I kept to eat In my bed at night. It gave me something up look forward to.
Apart from that my best tip is to eat whatever you fancy but I. Smaller portions. Fill your plate with extra vegetables and salad and most importantly only eat when you are genuinely hungry.

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

So I could take a fun sized choccie bar to work for my lunch every day?

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I don't know much about SW but it looks complicated?

[MotherOfNations]

If you'd prefer your choccie fix at lunch time then that's fine.

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I just need to get back to a point where I don't feel the urge to stuff myself with chocolate because I've not had it for so long! But where I feel happy just having a small piece. At the moment I never feel like the craving has been satisfied, if that makes sense.

[TwasBrillig]

Wow mother! How did you lose 10 stone? You should write a book? Or a thread? Or something. I need to lose 6 and it seems like it will take forever.

[MotherOfNations]

Really easily actually TwasBrillig. I was 19 stone in my late teens. I left home and away from my mother's massive portions I was eating a lot less. I never really cut anything out.
Being a poor student I couldn't afford travel expenses so I started walking a lot more. By the time I got pregnant 9 months later I was 14 stone and 3 months after ds was born I found out I was pregnant again with my dd1.
I lost one more stone before finding out I was pregnant again 6 months later with dd2. I was down to 12 stone by the time I had dd3 5 years later and down to 9 stone 5 by the time she was 4.
My weight climbed back up to 11st 5 but I was happy with that as I was looking old and haggered as I always seem to lose it from my face and my collar bone sticks out.
I'm currently expecting again and eating far too much rubbish but I know the weihht will come off easily as soon as I start eating normally again.

[CMOTDibbler]

I've lost nearly 4 stone and used www.foodfocus.co.uk which is free, but if I was starting again I'd use the myFitnessPal app.

Logging foods is really easy, so I set how much I wanted to lose, and stuck to my daily calories. So if i wanted chocolate, I could have it, but factored it into my limit - same with crisps which are my nemesis.

In September, I was wearing a 16 top, 14 bottoms, now I'm wearing a 10 top, 8 bottoms and feeling fabulous.

[shelldockley]

I use myfitnesspal and have chocolate everyday, i can't not. My tip is to have good quality chocolate, I have dark chocolate or milk chocolate Green & Blacks, it satisfies my sweet tooth, without making me crave more. If I eat Cadburys, it makes me want more Cadburys, and more and more...

[Scoobyblue]

Yes of course you can. Small portions of everything is the key. That way you don't crave forbidden foods and have treats to look forward to.

[HeySoulSister]

sounds like a sugar craving dressed up as a 'chocolate' craving

[EldritchCleavage]

Dark dark choc in small quantities, and not every day (I suggest) but maybe every other day, or a couple of times a week. With dark choc (esp the salted or chilli ones) you get a more intense chocolate hit that seems to satisfy cravings better.

Have you read The Idiot Proof Diet by India Knight and Neris Thoma? That is a low carb plan that factors in choc and alcohol (after the initial boot-camp phase) that I'm following with some success-after a hiatus (4 stone down, 2 to go).

[Lollyheart]

Another slimming world member here. I've lost 11lb in 3 weeks doing it. It's rely easy to follow.
I ate loads of chocolate on Sunday but still lost 2 1/2 lb this week

[Megsdaughter]

Lost almost 5 stone with MFP and I have chocolate whenever I want it.
I keep in the little mars bars and have one now and then.
Because know they are there and I can have one, I tend not to bother

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

Thanks for all the replies

What's MFP?

I'll have a look at India and Nerys's book, didn't know it allowed chocolate, I thought it was just low carb.

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

I don't think I could cope with entering everything on MyFitnessPal all the time, I'd forget and then not be able to remember what I had!

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

CMOT, that's great, well done!

[decaffwithcream]

If you like dark chocolate, peanut butter on dark chocolate is very rich and satisfies all sorts of cravings while being pretty low carb if the chocolate is proper dark stuff.

Also these truffles are just dark choc and double cream www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/18/nigel-slater-classic-chocolate-truffles

[Choccywoccydiddlyboo]

Thanks, Decaff, I love peanut butter, will try that. Any particular peanut butter? I don't like the stuff that is just nuts without fat/sugar.