If you have to work to stay slim tell me what you usually eat

[Iwouldbecomplex]

I struggle a bit with my weight - currently a size 14-16. Not massive, but the biggest I've ever been. I put on weight really really easily and it's getting worse as I get older (currently 37). I love food, I eat too much and my tastes tend towards comfort type food. I do exercise regularly.

If you're someone that is over 30, slim but that it doesn't come easily to, please can you tell me what you eat in an average day? I think I have a bit of a warped idea of what's normal. I either eat way too much or I'm dieting and massively restricting my calories. I'm not very good at moderation and need inspiration!

I went on a strict diet a couple of years ago to lose weight and lost three stone by eating basically
B. Scrambled eggs with bacon (no fat), spring onions, spinach and mushrooms
L. Chicken salad and low fat dressing
D. Stirfry with meat and vegetables or chilli with cheese but no rice

Now I maintain by almost unwittingly doing a fast, my appetite got smaller and I learnt to only eat when I’m hungry so now a normal day will be

B. None - lots of black coffee
L. Chicken salad
D. Sort of whatever I want but home made and not deep fried
L&D are eaten between 12pm and 7pm so I have 17 hours of ‘fasting’

That said, because I am on maintaining rather than losing, I can break it up a bit. I have a very social job so sometimes I will have a very heavy 3 course lunch with booze and not worry, but I will also not eat dinner that day, unless I’m actually hungry whereas before I’d have eaten dinner because it was dinner time!

This time of year my job is mental and the booze is flowing so I’m probably averaging one meal a day (but it’s a big one) and on my days ‘off’ I’m probably a little stricter than I am normally...

No carbs after 3pm plus drink glass of water when you feel peckish. Works a treat, I lost a stone in 2 months very easily on this. I also had my body composition analysed via dietician who confirmed I needed less calories a day than is recommended for females. I don’t exercise...Went from size 16 down to 12/14. Back up again to 14 due to mince pie overload but will be getting back on it come January

Basically fuck all

Chocness That's amazing, well done!

I started trying to lose weight at the end of August due to having major joint surgery booked for early October. Its taken me until the end of November (so 3 months) to lose one stone on 800 - 1000 calories a day.

Bear in mind I cannot exercise due to said joint operation.

Two rules of thumb:

1. exercise regularly
2. generally avoid ‘empty calories’ ie only eat food with some nutritional value.

If you get into a habit of choosing nutrient dense(r) foods you start to value foods which do you good and find the refined stuff is less tempting. I do eat rubbish too but try not to eat mindlessly anything that crosses my path. So if i’m in the supermarket and i’m hungry i’ll buy malt loaf and a punnet of blueberries. Neither is particularly ‘healthy’ both contain sugar — and somebody will probably point out that I should carry a hard boiled egg in my handbag for such eventualities or nibble on a bunch of spinach — but they are better choices than a bar of chocolate or a bag of doughnuts. Denying yourself everything you like is just a recipe for starve:binge eating and that is no good for you at all and usually no good for maintaining weight.

I’m not sure if helps to look at what other people eat — everyone is different.

If you try to treat your body like a temple, even if you don’t manage it, you’ll not be mindlessly treating it like a skip!

I track macros (but eat what I want within that - today that included red wine and a mince pie). I lift weights 3 x a week.

I'm 43, 5'7 and 133 lbs (9.5 stone). Size 10.

I recommend the Facebook group 'macros inc.' where you can get advice on how much you should be eating and how to track macros. I really recommend it as a way to sustainably eat and educate yourself about nutrition. Protein is key if you're trying to lose weight without feeling deprived all the time. I eat 100-120g a day.

5'6" 48kg/7 1/2st
Strict dietary restrictions gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs potatoes and legumes keeping weight on is more a problem, was a hourglass 12 now a small 6 (that's with an under active thyroid!)

5 ft 3 and 8 stone 10 ish
Age 48
Yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Protein (eg beans, fish, nuts, quark or cottage cheese) with veg and fruit for lunch and dinner
Veg, yogurt or fruit for snack
Sometimes eat too much of it all which is why I'm not thinner as I eat big portions and can easily eat a big tub of plain yogurt 😀
No sugar or alcohol
Run 3-4 times a week

Hi @thenightsky
Do you have any medical issues that could cause weight gain at that amount of calories? I understand that different bodies work in different amounts but when I was struggling with an eating disorder and about 7kg underweight at least and 3 inches shorter than you I also ate around 800 calories a day. Obviously I got help and this was increased. Sorry if this comes across too much and I'm not telling you to eat more but maybe consider that needing to eat that much to maintain seems unusually low, especially at your height

Bfast: 25grams of porrige oats mixed with 109mls of skimmed milk and topped with water.
Lunch: Small banana with 1level tablespoon of 0% Fat Total Greek Yogurt / or carrot and cucumber sticks
Dinner: 1 small chicken breast/Salmon fillet/Lean pork steak with boiled veg. Occassional Count On us ready meal if I'm.in work. I try to stick to the ones under 300 cals but sometimes treat myself to a 372.cal Jalfrezi/Tikka masala.

I basically try to stay under 700.cal a day as often as possible.
I drink black tea, sugar free squash and water.

I'm still 2 stone over weight but can't stick to a plan any lower than this. I was doing quite well until they reduced my medication (levothyroxine). I had 18lbs to lose before the medication fuck up but have gained 10lbs since September sadly. I can't see where I can cut back much more tbh.

I also walk lots, take stairs not lifts or escalator and always park in the far corner of any supermarket/car park. My fitbit says I usually walk 15000 to 19000 steps on an average work day. Every little helps

ShristmasChopper

I know NOTHING about counting calories but I feel light headed at the THOUGHT of eating that little everyday. I would be starving and have huge blood sugar highs / lows from the meals consisting of just porridge and banana.

Doesn’t relying on carb based meals put up your insulin and make it hard to burn fat?

Aren’t you hungry with so little fat and protein ?

That sounds very VERY tough to me. You must be very dedicated.

It's what I've become used to and it is pretty joyless but so is my ever increasing weight. I lose confidence and just with draw when I get chubby. I've had real thyroid issues thst have massively affected my ability to eat luke the rest off my family.
One advantage being interactive is a loss in appetite and heartburn if I eat too much. Both of those things mean I don't actually want to eat at all some days.
I do occassionally join the family for a meal out but I will gain sadly.

*under active not interactive

Sorry to hear your thyroid disease isn’t well controlled. Are you seeing a consultant - some GPs aren’t very good. They can be too focussed on the levels and not on how you are feeling.

About the food - I know l sound like I’m on commission for LCHF but you might want to spend a few hours reading the boot camp threads on MN, just to find out more.

Or check out Fast 800.

I’m older than you ( I’m guessing ) , lighter than you, probably less active also have an under active thyroid , so it should be harder for me to lose weight than it is for you.

But I can lose weight eating about twice as much food as you. Just very different kinds of food.

I’m no expert of any kind, but I’m wondering if your high carb meals and the squash are keeping your insulin levels high , so your body can’t burn the stored fat. Which might explain why you are eating tiny amounts but still gaining weight.

But I might be talking bollocks of course because I’m not an endocrinologist or a dietician. Just talking from my own experience , nothing more.

Do you have metabolic syndrome as well as the thyroid disease ?

No I'm interested in your input. Any change would be welcome as its such a restrictive diet I'm on. I've become too scared to eat the.
I had Thyroid cancer twice. I now don't have a thyroid and am only on a low suppressing tired of Thyroxine. I was discharged this year from a really horrible and unhelpful endocrinologist who never even looked at me, just sat ticking the boxes on his NHS paperwork. It was a relief but all year GP has been reducing my Thyroxine as my levels were too high for a surprising dose. I find it all very confusing to fully understand tbh.

God this thread is depressing...so slim = no joy

Not at all. I get a lotof joy out of being slim.

I eat whatever I fancy but control my flab by intermittent fasting. Currently 5'6" and 8st 2 or 3 and enjoying a thick slice of buttered toast covered in marmalade.

Definately naughtier at weekends!

^

This can be a total game changer.

Say you eat 1500 cals per day, 5 days a week.

Then at weekend you have 2500 cals each day as a 'treat'. You're then eating more calories than you should for the entire week!

Treat weekend included (1500x5=7500+5000=12,500)

Rather than (1500x7=10,500)

Those extra 2000 calories can be make or break.

It's interesting to hear how many people do low carb. To be honest I thought that was a fad that went out of fashion a while ago but I'm going to consider it now. I'm also going to try 16:8 fasting. I used to do 5:2 and it worked but I REALLY struggled on the 2 days and it wasn't sustainable for me. I can cope with no breakfast though.

I know where my problems lie - my examples were just what I eat generally and I know it's too much, especially at weekends. If I'm dieting I do massively restrict and it does work, but I do feel very deprived even though I'm eating tasty things. I'm just a greedy person who loves feeling full and also has a taste for crappy food! I think I've always thought 'people can't really eat like this all the time poor me putting on weight easily' etc but this thread is showing me that people really do eat like that all the time and I just need to accept that and stop thinking of it as a deprivation. I'm at a point where I'm embarrassed about how I look and it's really affecting my confidence and so I need to be thinner more than I need to eat what I want.

This thread has been really useful. By thinking about how & when I eat, I've realised thatni only eat between 12- 6pm. This means I'm inadvertently fasting and didn't even realise it!

There's a new LCHF Bootcamp starting in January, OP, You should check out. It's been a literal game changer for me, and the lovely ladies on the threads are so helpful and supportive.

@ShristmasChopper, that’s a bugger, so sorry to hear about the cancer and your horrid endocrinologist. Does that mean you are on a low iodine diet now, or can you eat dairy and eggs?

I thought you were supposed to eat lots of protein and veg after thyroid cancer, to get all the nutrition you need? Or do you still find it hard to swallow? Your diet sounds very low in these to me ( but I’m not an expert as I said ) .

Smilar to others 5'5" 9st 5-7 .
Breakfast (9am)- black coffee and a bannana
Lunch Soup or salad with some carbs
Dinner- normal home cooked meal mostly veggi (stir fry, chilli, curry, soup, pasta pizza once a week). Drink about once a month (just the one usually). Run 20 k a week.

I’m pregnant right now so not watching weight but this summer I lost 3st doing intermittent fasting. I was down to my ideal weight for the first time since my early twenties - I’m 47. I’m 5’10 and went from over 15 stone to 12 stone. Due to my age and slowing metabolism if I eat like a normal person I put in weight easily and I like the intermittent plan as I’m a bit of an all or nothing person. To get good results (losing 2kbs a week) I literally had to just have drinks (tea/ coffee/water / miso) on my fast days and I alternated fast days with feast days - it was hard at first but it’s amazing how quickly you get used to it.

I had my bloods done earlier this summer and dr congratulated me on my cholesterol levels which were really low. I have no doubt that fasting is really good for you and reverses aging. I think the fact I fell pregnant really quickly after losing the weight is telling - when we tried for number babies 1 and 2 it took over a year each time. This time it only took a couple of months. Not bad for an almost 50 year old!

I'm 44, 6'2, just under 81kg (down from 91kg 3 months ago), size 12-14. I stick to 1200 calories a day for 5 days a week. I keep from most carbs (I have the odd bag of crisps) and the only bread I eat is seeded rye bread. One slice of this with a little butter and marmite for breakfast. Salads with no dressing for lunch, protein and veg for dinner. Most days I track my calories with MFP. It makes me really think about what I'm eating and making more sensible choices.

I seem to 'settle' at a large 12 - 14 no matter how much exercise and how clean my diet.

This happened to me after I had DS. I lost the pregnancy weight quite fast and then plateaued at around 63 kg for a few months at which I was a size 12. Then I got a stomach flu and lost around 3 kg and didn’t put it back on again after as it seems I eat well to maintain weight but eating less to lose it is hard. So to be honest I think it’s probably worth biting the bullet - go very low calorie for a few days (although I did that very unintentionally) to give you that head start and initial big weight loss and go steady and healthy from there.