The secrets of overweight people

[ColouringPencils]

I mean this in a light-hearted way, but I guess it might also be helpful to us to see where we're getting it from.

I'll start:

I always serve myself the largest portion, and often nick a few extra bites in between the cooking and serving stages.

I eat a full meal whether I am particularly hungry or not (then often have seconds).

I gave up sugar and doubled my cheese intake (then I went back on sugar too).

Speaking of which, no meal is not improved by a generous topping of grated cheese.

I could quite happily drink a bottle of wine a night, although I don't let myself. On my 'good' nights I drink hot chocolate/ couple of beers and eat crisps instead.

Sometimes if nobody has seen me eat my first slice of toast, I'll put a third one in. This is especially the case when it's white bread, the 'only one' I could buy in the corner shop.

When DH is away I love to read and eat chocolate in bed.

Anyone else got any good tips to help me continue to sabotage my weight loss efforts?

The problem with food,its not like other addictions.You dont need to drink alcohol,smoke or take drugs.They are choices that you start.
But you need food,l.

I know my downfall is i dont eat all day then order takeaway.If i drink i eat everything around me.
And i actually like porridge and veg and salad.Its getting the willpower to stick to it.

I haven't read all the thread but just to comment on wine calories ... in my dark pre-AA days, I could drink three to four bottles of wine a day, but didn't eat anything (or minimal amounts). I was less than 8 stone at 5 foot 8. I heard years later than apparently the body cannot absorb calories from alcohol if no food is consumed. It makes sense, given my experience, but no longer relevant for me.

Note: I am NOT advocating this in any way as a good diet plan!!!!

I stay the same most of the time because although I have no breakfast and salad and fruit for lunch at work x5 days a week, with a mostly healthy dinner most evenings, I cant help but feel deprived if i don't have q treat of some sort. I don't really drink but I do crave something sweet in the evenings...and I don't always stop at one.

And trips out are treats so treat food is on the menu.

If I drop the treats in the evening I can lose weight. I just need to do that consistently.

I do 2x dance fit classes a week and do at least 7000 steps every other day. Often more. And I'm in 16 Jean's that I couldn't wear last year due to a stint in ww (until I got bored) but I've lost my mojo.

I heard years later than apparently the body cannot absorb calories from alcohol if no food is consumed.
No thats not true,alcohol has calories.Its just you where getting your calories from drink rather than food

There's evidence that suggests that foods with approximately a ratio of 2 grams of carbohydrates to 1g fat cause the body to produce the most feel good hormones, this creating the most addictive and moreish foods. While human breastmilk has this ratio, it's a combination that exists almost exclusively in processed foods and very, very rarely in nature. Not many people will eat sugar straight from the bowl, but mixed with fats in cakes, chocolates, and fast foods.....

article here

Cited in Michael Moseley's fast800

I eat cereal with the open box next to me (refillable bowl).

I drink 'dairy free' coffees - so I can have as many lattes as I want

I skip a sit down breakfast so I can eat more at night... and stand at the counter mid morning with the tubs of almond butter&nutella and a spoon.

thenewaveragebear1983 I’ve read before that ice cream is the perfect storm of fat and sugar that means you can never get enough of it.

My secret is working from home. When I was in an office all day I worked with a bunch of slim girls who were always dieting and it kept me in check.

Now though I'll have a big bar of green & blacks for lunch. Chocolate is my downfall.

I am scared that I am passing my rubbish eating habits onto my daughters so I do a lot of secret eating.

I go on my first overseas holiday in 10 years in less than 5 weeks and I am 3 stone over weight but can't seem to do anything about this.

So, I've read the thread and always thought my overweight friend was just unlucky, I never see her eat much, she would often just have an apple for lunch while I ate a proper packed lunch. Is she eating when other people aren't there? Everyone says, she barely eats I don't know why she is overweight!

I’m too lazy to meal prep and then I just eat whatever is to hand

No matter how much chocolate/crisps etc, I always drank diet Coke

My tip: marry someone extraordinarily skinny who eats two dinners every night and never puts on weight. Start eating like him, believing with dumb faith that your metabolisms are as compatible as your personalities. After 15 years of double dinners you will look like a comedy duo: him tall and thin, you short and round.

@ wipeyourfeet

perhapsiwill we can’t really comment on your friends situation.

But I know for me I have a lot of shame around eating in front of people, especially out of the house. So if you were my friend you probably wouldn’t ever see me eating that much, although I do eat. I overeat when I am alone.

Really, though, if she is your friend- does it matter? Do you need to discuss her weight behind her back?

I didn't mean to sound like a bitch. I love my friend dearly and she is wonderful I care not the least what she weighs! Only I always thought she was just built a different way as ate so little.

You didn’t sound like a bitch!

It just sounded like you and your other friends discuss it- but maybe i read that wrong.

I think people who are overweight can have a complicated relationship with food.

I don't eat breakfast as I can't eat that early in the morning. I do, however, eat fruit at about 10.30am. Then I try so hard to have a healthy lunch (salad or soup) and then I have a fairly decent evening meal. Sounds good, but then I haven't told you about the home made coleslaw I have with my salad that has full fat mayo in it because Light Mayo should never have been invented! Likewise with the massive ladle full of mayo and topping of cheese I have with my evening meal. Then the huge bag of crisps and chocolate dessert that I eat every evening once the small person has gone to bed!!! I do exercise quite regularly and I walk EVERYWHERE but for some reason the calories just stick to me

Sticky calories - that’s what I’ll blame

My weight yo-yos and I know exactly why.

I eat 2/3 healthy balanced meals a day, my portion control is good and I always stop when full.

I also stuff fistfuls of sweets, biscuits, brownies, cake, crisps and chocolate every time I pass the kitchen. Sometimes I consume an extra 2000 calories a day because I can't leave the junk alone. If I don't have it in the house I'll stop off on the way home from the school run and buy it.

I remember in a previous job we used to have loads of little tea parties for birthdays, well anything really! I never used to eat much there and my ever so lovely boss who would have meant absolutely nothing by this piped up, "oh you're so good, always resisting temptation". I wanted to stand up, do a full body sweep and say "really? Do you think??" But I didn't because she was lovely.

This thread has been so interesting. I have lots of the habits mentioned, but I'm not really overweight-I'm just trying hard to shift the last stone of pregnancy gain. I put on four stone each of the (three) times I've been pregnant.

I love food, and would eat double what I do all the time if I could get away with it, I.e. be a similar size. My mum has always struggled with her weight, I've always been aware of my diet and weight. My in-laws are both very overweight, but whilst they know they are, they say they don't understand why. My fil, in particular, is in complete denial about his size and what he eats.

Food is so tempting and lovely, but such a difficult thing to manage if you're a person who LOVES IT(I do). I wish I could be someone who just eats when they're hungry and is indifferent to the joys of fresh bread, scones, pastries, steak and fat chips, pancakes with bacon... Food is so tied in with emotions and celebrations, no wonder it's so hard to stay slim 😭

It's so refreshing to see an honest thread. I'm fed up of all the oh I only eat 800 calories a day but I am 5 stone overweight brigade. Denial.

I'm kind of in control of my weight at the moment. I've lost 4.5 stone in the last 5 months. But I have 1-2 binges per week. (Rest of the time shitloads of exercise and calorie control on MFP) Binges are usually timed for after SW weigh in (I'm at target but still go) or following a stressful time (Easter Monday following weekend resisting feeder in laws). My inner fatty is fighting back against my desire to stay at my target weight. Who will win? I've eaten all the easy access snacks in the house post-today's weigh in and have now started microwaving butter with golden syrup and oats to make a kind of sloppy flapjack Thankfully it's nearly time to do the school run and I'll be able to stop then. I do need to stop this behaviour somehow. Being half a stone heavier and chilling out a bit might be a nicer life to live.

I've relogged in after a very very long time for this thread.

I have many of the habits that you all describe. (Feel like I found me tribe!)

Am at the start of a journey of which weightloss is a part and for those of you who are interested these might be some good tips.

I started with exercising. Tried Reformed Pilates on a whim. Absolutely love it! Am currently doing it 3x a week. It has not made me loose weight as I still overeat, but it has changed my body and I love feeling strong!

I came across a podcast by a lady called Stefani Reinold; It's not about the food. Through this I have started learning about Intuitive Eating. Learning about how destructive dieting is, how restricting yourself (physically or mentally) makes your body jusy crave more food (hello Cave Brain).

I have started following lots of body positive peopel on Insta. Lots of non-diet advocates etc. It has been really healing to see a feed of not just insanely thin people.

For me I know I need to accept myself and my body and love myself for who I am before I will be able to loose weight.