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?

I don’t know if my weight has anything to do genetics and was the reason older family members survived being starved for years during wars.

I am obese yet my blood pressure is normal and cholesterol levels are really low. So I feel somewhat vindicated that I don’t stuff my face with doughnuts which is what most doctors think I do.

Eat peanut butter out of the jar with a twix

I drink too much and once I've had a drink I eat everything in sight.
I get about 3/4 of the way through a big bag of crisps and even though I don't want any more, I keep pushing myself until its finished.
I like to get an Indian at least once a month and I order so much I can get 3 large meals out of it because you get a discount once your order a certain amount and DP doesn't like leftovers

I can't stop at 1 bag of crisps so it has to be 2 along with lunch and then you need something sweet to round off the meal. My worst time is making the kids dinner as they have theirs before me and dh. I'm hungry by then so maybe have a freddo or a biscuit of some description. I have eaten the 2 bars of chocolate that came with my Easter egg but will not unwrap the egg as once it's open it will go without even thinking about it.

I go to gym classes but then come home and am incredibly lazy which doesn't help

@keepaddingpets ha! That sounds about right for me then! I've managed to put the biscuits down but had loads. Had lunch at 10.30am followed by the mass of biscuits and nothing since. Hopefully I can just drink water until teatime...

thenewaveragebear1983 the flaw in your theory of averaging your weight gain over 17 years is that for most people it’s very unlikely to happen that way.

I am currently 10lbs heavier than I was 5 years ago - so you could say that’s a weight gain of 2lbs per year or an extra 20 calories per day.

Except I stayed that weight for over 4 years so I’m actually 10lbs heavier than I was only 10 months ago. So that’s an extra 115 or so calories a day.

Night eating. Something about menopause has triggered my appetite. I will rise at 1am and circuit the fridge and pantry. My bedside is littered in the morning with popcorn husks and Dorito dust.

I control my daytime intake very well but lose it at night.

Also, cream...coffee is the vehicle for all the lovely, lovely cream I pour in.

Mmm, twix with peanut butter. Now that sounds delicious. I’m going to have to stop reading this thread. I’m supposed to be losing a stone so I’m in a healthier state to try for DC2.

Boredom-eating and tiredness-eating are my nemises.

Continuity the thing is though that most of the women I know are either naturally slim, or are perpetual dieters in varying degrees of slimness ranging from their very biggest to their very smallest. I'd imagine that most posters in this thread are in that second category- I certainly am. I am currently slim, but my 'mind' is overweight (and I believe it always will be) and I battle with food constantly. If you asked me to lay out a days food, accurate to within 115 calories of what I burned that day, it would be nigh on impossible, certainly without knowing exactly what I'd burned- so the very fact that we are doing this, daily, either demonstrates that actually we are capable of pretty good self regulation of intake/output (and that despite the family sized chocolate bars, leftovers, takeaways etc some serious calorie regulating is going on elsewhere) or that actually it is not the calories in these foods at all, but rather some other factors involved that we aren't aware of, that is making us overweight. The point I was making was that being overweight is not as simple as just eating loads of food, and that actually, if taken as an average over a longer period of time, it's actually not a large amount of excess food required to make someone overweight.

(It's not my theory by the way, it's something I read a long time ago and it really struck a chord with me)

I am obese yet my blood pressure is normal and cholesterol levels are really low. So I feel somewhat vindicated that I don’t stuff my face with doughnuts which is what most doctors think I do

I was the same then one day I went to the Dr and Id ran out of luck. I had high BP and raised cholesterol levels. It can just happen over the space of a few months after years of getting away with it.

I'm an ex fatty. The more crap you eat the more you want, and the reverse is true. I stopped because wanted to be healthy and live in a hilly place so carrying several stone extra weight around was just awful. The less you eat the less you want and I enjoy every mouthful now I eat like a normal person. Three meals a day and nothing is off the menu. This is for life and I feel absolutely great. The good feelings start as soon as the crap stops going in and the weight slowly but surely comes down.

If you're obese your organs will be fatty and that's what will make your body struggle, BP changes come later

I lost 4 stone and went from being obese to overweight, like a couple of pounds off 'normal'. Then I got pregnant twelve weeks ago and I'm falling back into old bloody habits because I'm always hungry :( I'm angry at myself!

She is convinced that it is something genetic that the doctors have missed and nothing to do with her food intake and gets annoyed with her GP and specialist as they keep insisting that she needs to lose weight
'Ivy44, that sounds very difficult:(
afaik there's an increased risk of dementia with T2 diabetes and obesity/inactivity, could she have some cognitive decline do you think & hence the lack of rationality?

hoolihan I'm with you on the bloody bakery section. I had an addiction to the cheese twists from Lidl

^@Prequelle- my basal metabolic rate is 1305 per day. That's how many I need to maintain (my already overweight body) just lying down all day.
That's quite different to 2050.^

The 2050 isnt BMR its TDEE for a sendentary person. Obviously it depends on the person I was using an example, but what I was saying is either way you're overeating. Being sedentary just means you can eat less. You said it's possible to be fat without overeating then went on to talk about sedentary lifestyle when all that means is you need less calories so easier to overeat.

I used TDEE as BMR is literally as though you would be lied in a coma, with no spikes in heart rate or any movement at all

I am trying to be better these days but at my worst:

I like lemon cheesecake and DH likes chocolate. So we bought both. I like cream and DH likes ice cream. So we bought both. I like salt and vinegar Kettle Chips and DH likes plain. So we bought both. My favourite massive deli cookies were triple chocolate and DH's were oat and raisin. So we bought both. I like hummus and DH likes sour cream and chive dip. So we bought both. And then it doesn't keep...(even if it does).

The dr also thought I had IBS. I started a slow and sensible diet (ie, not low-carb/Paleo/5:2) and had three healthy meals a day and it was an absolute revelation how suddenly my guts could digest all sorts of food properly, because they were getting a break between meals.

Also, exercise. I started walking 15,000 steps a day about 4 months ago and it is amazing how much more you can get away with eating if you do regular walking!

Hallelujah and congratulations OP! I've been reading weight/food related threads on here for about 10 years and never seen such honesty. Or such creative ways to consume calories!

hearhere
I don’t know. She’s mid 60s, is that too early for dementia? She has been obese for as long as I can remember, a good 30 years. She is under specialist care for the diabetes and has been referred to a dietician (quite a few years ago). Is this something they would check?

I am a bit of chubby funster and I binge eat at least a few times each week.

Here are my tips:

• If anything comes in a multi-pack then see that as a single serving.

• Make friends with doughnuts, chocolate, crisps, cakes, cream, custard, cheese, biscuits, butter and bread.

• Avoid eating fruits, veg and lean protein, which might fill you up, leaving less room for the above!

• Move as little as possible

• Take medication, which you need but which lowers your basal metabolic rate- meaning that you burn fewer calories than you would do if you were not on them

• Make sure every drink you have contains sugar or at the very least has sweeteners in it (which make you more hungry!)

• Always have seconds/thirds

• Brunch doesn't need to be an alternative to breakfast and lunch but rather the meal that falls in between the two!

Mood stabilisers make you pile on the weight big time.

Having a car makes me lazy, also living in a village where almost nothing is within walking distance.

Not weighing regularly so you don't notice a few pounds on.

Mindless eating.

Poor portion control.

That sprinkle of cheese on my large portion of pasta.

Buying large bags of M and Ms when they are on offer for £1.

Take aways when in a depression because no energy to cook.

I did manage to get it under control for a while by using MFP, having small portions of chocolates, almost cutting out take aways but slowly slipped off the wagon.

Well I can contribute here! I'm about 3 stone overweight.

• toast with butter and Marmite and a milky coffee (or two) to start

the day

• doorstep sandwiches for lunch. Chocolate
• enjoying being able to taste butter in a sandwich; not just see it
• the same size evening meals as 6 foot DH and teenagers
• 'Cooks Privilege' (you get to do lots of tasting when cooking)
• at dinner leaving your favourite food until last.
• always buy big plates, bowls and mugs - and make sure you fill them
• not jumping on the scales because you don't own any
• buying favourite wine by the case load and telling yourself it's

cheaper that way (and nothing to do with always being available)

• Chocolate stashes all around the house
• only having two settings; either on a diet or eating everything in sight

Great thread by the way!

Prequelle The 2050 isnt BMR its TDEE for a sendentary person.

It’s not TDEE for the sedentary 5’5” 150lb 26 yo female though in your example though - TDEE in that case is more like 1600-1700. You’d need to be lightly to be moderately active for a TDEE of 2050 (depending on which calculator you use).