If you are losing weight what are you eating?

[Nanechange3007]

I'm hungry all the time, please give me some ideas! Today I've had a small omelette for breakfast with tomatoes.
Lunch was a big salad with prawns.
Dinner was gnocchi with green beans and sea bass.

But I'm still hungry so just had a few oatcakes with low fat cream cheese which probably wasnt great.

I have high blood sugar so have to try and avoid sugar and carbs. Did have gnocchi today though.

I had my blood sugar tested and it was high so have been told to cut out sugar and also bread, rice, potatoes, pasta.

No I'm not tracking my calories. I'm starving constantly so couldnt cope with 750 calories a day or doing 16:8

I'd suggest tracking your calories for a while. Weigh and log every single thing you eat.

When I need to lose weight I do around 1250 calories a day - I exercise but not manically.

I have a slimfsst for breakfast, something like a wrap with refried beans an chicken and salad for lunch, snacks or fruit and carrot sticks and super would be rice, veg and prawns. ( with a small bit of sauce). I'd often have calories left over and could have a biscuit or a halo top icecream.

If I didn't calorie count then I might underestimate how many calories I eat and that's not good as I'd feel hungry.

I aim to lose one pound a week. It's slow but it works for me. I'm at a good weight now but if my weight creeps up a pound or so then I'm happy to calorie count for a few days.

I stick to 1200 Kcal. I started off from 1500 Kcal, but wasn't losing weight, so gradually lowered the amount I was eating, and now I'm losing 1-2lb a week, which I'm happy with. I find it easy to stick to the calories as long as I'm not drinking. As soon as wine enters the equation, I go over.

I eat three meals a day, plus sometimes a snack. They're just not very big meals. I'm not avoiding anything in particular or favouring low fat, but it's easier to keep the calories lower if I replace some starch with veg. (I know from experience that low carb also works for me, but I don't eat meat anymore, and generally prefer to not lose all the carbs just for my sanity.)

Usually:
B: Greek yogurt with berries
L: sushi, or hummus with vegetables, or leftovers, or an omelette
D: pretty much whatever
Snacks: fruit, nuts, seed, dark chocolate, boiled egg, cherry tomatoes or something like that.

If you want to lose weight you do have to adjust your ideas about hunger. Being a bit hungry after dinner isn’t going to harm you. You’ve had a day of nutritious food. It is partly a process of adjusting your ideas of how much food you ‘need’, and partly accepting if you want to lose a decent amount of weight you do have to learn to tolerate mild hunger.

The gnocci will have caused sugar spike making you hungrier. I bet if that had been low carb you would have been ok, so maybe cut the simple carbs from your evening meal.

If you get that feeling after dinner again, drink a large glass of water and tough it out. If you really can’t, eat some carrot sticks and chew them really slowly. Or just drink water and go to bed! If you are asleep you won’t notice you are peckish.

You need to re-train yourself.

And you don’t need to be bonkers about calories, 1200 should be absolutely fine. You might be cutting too hard, or actually eating more than you think. Try tracking with My Fitness Pal for a few days to get a sense of portions and which foods are much more calorific than you assume.

To add, I'm seeing a nutritionist (I think she's not a dietitian, but not 100% sure), as I have some health issues that prompted my GP to send me her way. So I'm mostly following her advice, apart from preferring actual calories (I use MFP) instead of "portion the size of your palm" estimations, and I eat less grains and more "fatty" dairy than her booklets advice!

If you want to lose weight you do have to adjust your ideas about hunger. Being a bit hungry after dinner isn’t going to harm you. You’ve had a day of nutritious food. It is partly a process of adjusting your ideas of how much food you ‘need’, and partly accepting if you want to lose a decent amount of weight you do have to learn to tolerate mild hunger.

This bit has been really the key for me a lot, and is still a bit of a problem for me. I grew up with restricted food, and have always struggled with an almost sense of panic at feeling hungry as an adult. Not sure how much reasoning with myself is helping, to be honest. It's more helpful for have extra cups of tea or water to help with that empty feeling, or to go to bed early to avoid evening snacking.

You do have to be a bit hungry to lose weight. Don't be afraid of it.

Meat. Eggs. Dairy. 99.9% carnivore (still drink some coffee).

Less.

Thank you. Problem is the night before I hadnt been able to sleep as had been so hungry and I didnt want that again.

Low carb for me

B - full fat Greek yoghurt and raspberries
L - chicken, Parmesan, crispy bacon, half a bag of salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, Caesar dressing
T - not sure yet, probably meatballs and veg or maybe an omelette

I'm doing 16:8 and it's really working for me.

Yesterday I had 2 slices of lower carb bread toasted with peanut butter; an instant porridge pot at work with some berries; homemade cauliflower and lentil dahl with a small baked sweet potato. And a few big chunks of watermelon.

I've been doing it for 6 weeks and lost 18lbs.

OP if you have blood sugar problems, then eating something like gnocci, white rice, white pasta, bread, or anything sugary (even fruit) will make you feel ravenous afterwards.

Try making your evening meal a decent piece of meat and lots of veg, or have the omelette last thing with a big salad. Then no treat or snack after dinner.

It’s easy to feel all-or-nothing over dieting. Why not experiment with ‘full’ low carb eating for a couple of days and see how it affects your hunger.

And track calories for a couple of days for information. You may have cut very low and are making yourself hungrier than you need to.

However I stand by my advice on retraining ideas about hunger always being ‘bad’.

Why not experiment with ‘full’ low carb eating for a couple of days and see how it affects your hunger.

Thank you, what does this mean?

I’m doing the 16:8 which is really working for me and has helped reduced my appetite

Me too, and it is the only way of eating that has worked for me. I have lost 11kg since the 22 June. Yesterday I ate:

breakfast: black coffee
Lunch: 2 boiled eggs, half an avocado, 2 x finn crisp
Snack: handful of mixed nuts
Dinner: Roast chicken, roast beetroot, boiled new potatoes, garlic kale and peas.

Basically the 16:8 diet is how people used to eat before we became accustomed to all day grazing and snacking!

OP if you have blood sugar problems, then eating something like gnocci, white rice, white pasta, bread, or anything sugary (even fruit) will make you feel ravenous afterwards.

I don't have blood sugar issues, but this is still true for me. Switching from toast/porridge to proper yogurt in the morning, for example, has pretty much cured me of that 10-11 am snack hunger I used to have.

My calories came to a neat 1199 yesterday, so as an example:
B: Greek yogurt with raspberries and a sprinkling of seed mix.
L: Medium pack of veggie sushi, a snack pot of melon chunks and a bottle of kombucha.
D: Salmon fillet (oven baked with miso paste), spicy sweet potato wedges, baby leaf salad and cherry tomatoes.
Also: 200ml semi-skimmed milk in tea, and 20g of cashews.

So the 16 8 does that mean I would for example stop eating at 7 tonight and then not again until lunchtime tomorrow?

I’m doing Noom and I’ve lost 5lb in the last 2.5 weeks.

You need to fill up on low calorie density foods. Salad is good, plus broth based soup. And you need to track calories.

You also need to each 1200 calories a day or your body will actively try to hang on to fat stores.

That sounds good & healthy, keep doing that for a while & you will adjust. Add in an apple & a small portion of nuts or hard cheese to feel more satiated,

Yesterday for me:

B: two eggs, scrambled, on Toast with paprika dusted on top
Morning snack: banana, pear
Lunch: massive salad, veg sticks and small portion hummus
Afternoon snack: two cookies, nectarine
Tea: potato, chicken, grape and celery salad with natural yoghurt and a bit of salad cream.
Evening snack: three rings of pineapple

It came to 1400 calories for me, which was fine.

I've lost 3lbs in the last week after baby just by cutting out snacking and eating healthier.

Breakfast: Coffee, smoothie (tesco frozen smoothie mix and apple juice) and some mornings porridge (I dont have porridge if I'm not hungry)

Lunch: salmon salad (with new potatoes if I'm hungrier than normal but try not to over carb) or a tuna mayo jacket potato

Dinner: fish and rice most evenings (we just have the frozen pre bagged stuff) or anything made from scratch (no processed or ready made meals)

If I fancy a snack I have a 10cal jelly/ a light yoghurt/ piece of fruit

And I drink around 3 litres of water a day, I gained 2lbs in the beginning guessing it was water weight but it's all come off seems to be working for me! I walk the dog about 30mins a day and do a workout app on my phone for about 10mins.

Oh and I log everything on my fitness pal and always come in at under 1200 per day

I'm 57 and even with a gastric band have a hell of a job losing weight.
However since going completely vegetarian more on the side if vegan the weight is falling off.
But I eat nothing readymade and everything off a very small plate.

@Nanechange3007 yes that’s right, or whatever 8 hour window works for you. I eat between 11:30am to 7:30pm as that fits in best with my lifestyle.

OP you need to fill up on good fats a lot more - fat is insulin-neutral, so will not affect your blood sugar at all. Fats are necessary for vitamin and mineral absorption and to feel satiated. Feeling hungry all the time is the reason diets fail, humans crack sooner or later.

Go very very low carb with high fat (like hard cheese, butter, fatty meats, eggs etc). White cabs are a travesty for blood sugar. Protein also raises it to degree, but fat is great in that respect - it has no effect on insulin. You will need to be consistent and squew your diet to lower insulin production. This will take a long time as you likely have high baseline insulin levels with diagnosed high blood sugar. Permanently high level of insulin is exactly the reason you are putting on weight and finding it hard to lose even a few pounds. Insulin literally blocks fat burning.

You may benefit from reading the Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung which goes into detail on it. You will feel better that it is not your gluttony or flawed personality, it is the way your body works. It can be corrected by fasting and low carb. But it is likely for life, so you will never be able to stuff yourself with cake without consequence, even after you lose all the weight and bring your blood sugar to normal levels. You will be back to square one in no time again. Speaking from personal experience.