No wonder people struggle with their weight!!!

[GreenTeacup]

I have decided to turn my life around. Now in my 40’s, I have realised that my eating habits are not healthy and I need to address my relationship with food. I have been slowly putting on weight over the last few years. I am also insulin resistant and struggle with the physical symptoms (eg hair loss and hairy chin).

So I decided to research and I am more confused then ever.

IF for insulin resistance and keep it low carb
weight train and carb load on these days
Eat like a king for breakfast and pauper for dinner.
Spinach is a superfood
Spinach has no fibre

Please, please can someone point me in the direction of where to start? I am more confused than ever!

Have a look at the fast 800 and Mediterranean diet. The late Dr Michael Moseley was a big fan of this diet for type 2 diabetes

I agree, there is so much confusing information if you read it.

My top tip is to ignore it all. Just eat healthily and eat less of it if you want to lose weight. One square of chocolate rather than three. A small pizza, not a large one. Plenty of salad.

It's basically calories in/calories burned. So doing exercise will help with the burning. Never sit for more than 20 minutes at a time, get up and jog on the spot, do some stretches, run up and down stairs collecting the laundry, go to the toilet on a different floor or in a different office area.

Perhaps try some simple fasting. Most days I don't eat after 5 pm. The eating break is good for your digestive system.

It works for me. I maintain my weight at about 3 stone less than I would be if I made no effort. Someone else will be along to lecture me on how I should be doing it differently (which I will ignore 😂).

Good luck, find a plan and stick to it.

The conflicting information is often down to people trying to promote themselves or their product and attempting to find a point of difference.

Lots of different approaches work for different people, but a successful diet is one that suits you and that you can stick to even on your busiest most difficult days. And on that puts you in a calorie deficit, however you achieve that. Fresh whole foods are better than processed so aim to increase those if you can.

Also look at information that is targeted at women - books like Stacy sims ‘roar’ and ‘next level’ talk about how perimenopause affects female physiology - we aren’t little men and sometimes, depending on stage of life for example, fasting isn’t great for our stress levels. I hate to recommend glucose goddess because she sold out on her principles (selling wellness pills 😱) but her first book did help me regulate my glucose levels when they went haywire in early perimenopause. I still swear by porridge oats so will
disagreee agreeably with her on porridge for breakfast.

@FourChimneys's advice is good and I'd add to consider if there is a psychological aspect to your overeating, because you'll need to address that to succeed.

I have done Noom a few times and while annoyingly Californian (and pricey!), they're very good on that aspect.

Im Confused by your title - do you actually mean people struggle with their weight because nutrition information is unclear?

It isn’t - people overeat and the availability of cheap very poor nutritional food is insane.

A common sense approach approach generally works.

I would simply start by eating plant and protein rich food and a small amount of carbohydrates. Avoid to much sweet fruit

eg breakfast- melon and yoghurt
lunch- tomatoes cucumber crackers and ham
dinner -chicken stirfry and brown rice

Nutracheck is a really great app. I eat 1200 per day. Calorie deficit is the same thing my mum did in the 1970 but it was called calorie counting.

I’m in my 35th year of being on a diet. I am now taking mounjaro and it’s life changing.

Spinach is great for you
IF is good to manage blood sugar especially overnight
you don’t need to carb load if you are just doing regular resistance type exercise in the gym but an extra rice cake won’t hurt.

If you are interested take a look at this course by a UK based charity- very straight forward and easy to follow.

And if you want a deeper dive into why we all so confused watch Zoe Harcombe talk about the science behind dietary advice.

It depends on what works for you. I have never been hungry for breakfast but have forced myself to eat because "you have to". Then heard about intermittent fasting and was so relieved not to have to force myself eating in the morning ! I have lunch and supper. Healthy meals but I always have treats afterwards (chocolate/pudding) and besides that I'm slim. So if you're not hungry in the morning just skip breakfast would be my advice.

OP the bottom line is that it’s calories in and calories out. You need to put yourself in calorie deficit to lose weight, and for most average women I think that’s around 1000-1500 calories per day (depending on height, weight and activity).

In terms of weight loss, it doesn’t matter if your calories are in the form of cottage cheese or chocolate. If you’re in calorie deficit, you’ll lose weight. But obviously it’s a good idea to eat a healthy mix of foods, ensuring you get enough vitamins, minerals, and all the major food groups.

Ultimately it’s simple maths. In calorie deficit, you’ll lose weight. And if you’re not losing weight it’s most likely because you’re cheating (eg not counting every calorie, like when you have a bit of someone’s cake or finish off the kids dinner).

I think you have to find what works for you. I am also insulin resistant. For me it’s no sugar, very little processed food and fasting 20:24. In my four hour eating window I eat nutrient dense, high fibre, low carb food. Chat GPT is brilliant for analysing your diet. I tell it what I have eaten that day and it will say what I need to do to improve it. For example have some sunflower seeds as not consumed enough omega 6 today.

For the first time in my life I am managing to maintain my weight
loss without counting calories or points, I don’t feel restricted and am not bingeing.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

There are loads of different ‘diets’ but the best diet is one that you enjoy and will stick to as a changed way of life. Prioritise ‘real’ food, that is stuff you cook yourself, whole foods, focus more on protein as that’s what fills you up, but you don’t have to abandon carbs. Any type of exclusion diets are very hard to stick to. Find recipes that you enjoy and that are wholesome, avoid UPF or ‘diet’ foods. And listen to your body, it often tells us we are full and we don’t notice - could be that you slow down, that you let out a sigh, that you sit back in your chair slightly.

Common sense. Carb loading? Are you an Olympic level weight lifter? No food is a ‘superfood’.
Just figure out a deficit calorie level, eat a variety of whole foods and get some activity in - walking is fine.
You can use an app like My Fitness Pal, which will help track calories and show you your macros (totally ignore exercise calories though as they are vastly overestimated).
I mea you know a scrambled egg in toast is better than a bowl of sugary cereal and a plate of grilled fish with veg better than fried chicken and chips…

This is not entirely accurate although the premise is sound. If OP is insulin resistant that she won’t be processing glucose properly which means it is more likely to be stored as fat because your body has to get rid of it from your blood somehow and that’s the mechanism used.

so yes, absolutely calories in/calories out but it needs to be the right calories.

OP I have PCOS and insulin resistance, then last year that escalated to full blown T2 diabetes. I have to be really careful of the carbs that I eat. I wear a Libre freestyle sensor to avoid having to do finger prick tests all the time and have seen how my sugar levels sing up super high with pasta, oats, potatoes, rice and white bread. They stay high for ages and I can correlate it to symptoms of irritability, tiredness and gnawing hunger. About an hour after a high sugar food my stomach is rumbling, my mouth is watering and I’m in a bad mood.

Sticking to high protein, low carb (green veg/veg grown above ground, multi-seeded bread etc), high fat, high fibre foods keeps my sugar levels even and within normal range and I don’t feel hungry.

Having said all of that, and wanting to be completely transparent, while that is the diet I stick to and I ensure I eat 500 calories below my TDEE on a daily basis, what has made the biggest difference is Mounjaro, I am prescribed it by NHS for the diabetes and it’s meant I’ve been able to stop taking Insulin and Metformin, but it has made a huge difference in sticking to the diet and being able to remain consistent.

Ive managed to shift over 2 stone, keep it off and have increased my activity levels - and am @60, smaller and fitter then I have been my whole life

The only thing I have cut out from my diet is bread. I used to live on the stuff, toast for breakfast, sandwich at lunch, a slice of toast late afternoon staving off hunger pains. Now I only eat German style rye or a wholemeal pitta - and only a couple of times a week

So just cutting that, and finding foods that filled me has seen me lose and keep off without counting calories or following faddy diets . Ive just naturally moved towards veg and protein and using beans and grains as filler uppers

Half my meal - any meal - is plant , quarter protein, quarter carb
Bacon roll? Now a wholemeal pitta stuffed with lettuce and tomatoes and anything else I have going, with the bacon

A sandwich? Open faced rye bread piled high with salad and pickles, topped with cottage cheese and tinned fish or cold cuts - ham, turkey, chicken

Dinners - half a plate of veg/salad/pickles/fruits. Even if Im doing curry or bolognese, I will have veg added and serve to the side as well . Using the air fryer for cooking things like hand cut wedges / chips and roast potatoes keeps the calories down

Yesterday was full on Sunday roast, turkey, ham, stuffing, roasties and 4 different veg, and I had the lot but then I didn't want the full dessert of a huge cream filled cake, I just had a scoop of ice cream. Eating to my fill at meal times stops the snacking

I have had fluctuations in weight over the years, tried fads, fasting, ww etc the only thing that keeps it off , is calories in Vs calories out. You also can't outrun your diet, you can go to the gym five times a week but if you're eating kfc for lunch and dominoes for dinner every night you'll still be overweight.
What I do find though is when I'm regularly at the gym I eat better, because I think about how hard that spin class or work out was and it only burned approximately X number of calories, and then think that Bakewell isn't worth it.
Calories in Vs out also steers you towards eating healthier food to be full, you can eat an awful lot more veg for the same calorie 'price' as a KitKat and one keeps you much fuller

There is lots of very sound research and evidence for the benefits of a Mediterranean diet.
@GreenTeacup have a good read at what a true Mediterranean diet actually looks like. It's not full of pasta, as some believe!
If I were you, I would avoid and not get bogged down by the nitpicking and conflicting info, such as your spinach example.
The reality of a good diet is fairly simple. Increase vegetables, pulses, etc., minimise refined carbohydrates, minimise processed foods - especially UPFs (basically, if it doesn't resemble food and contains a huge list of ingredients that you don't recognise, it's best avoided), reduce processed meat, get good quality protein from a variety of sources - if you're an omnivore, some lean red meat is fine, just not every day (again, look at the Med diet).

Think less about what you're cutting down or out, and more about what you're adding in, and therefore replacing the other stuff with.
The balance if your diet will be weighted in favour of the 'good' stuff, but I firmly believe you shouldn't try to cut out the other stuff completely cold-turkey, because you'll end up craving it!
Gradual changes are more likely to become long-term changes, rather than trying to do a complete overhaul. It will be kinder on your gut too!
Look at Michael Moseley's 'change one thing' approach.

What's that expression? Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.
And it's important that you continue to enjoy food.
Best wishes!

You also don't need any fancy supplements or random poncey ingredients.
Everything you need should be available in any supermarket.

This

If you want simplicity amongst the noise - follow these guidelines.

If it doesn't grow and it doesn't move (when alive) - don't eat it.

So vegetable, fruit, meat, fish, seeds/nuts - all good.

Anything that comes in a packet and has a name on the ingrediants that you can't pronounce or you wouldn't find in a average kitchen - don't eat it.

Anything that has been mildly processed (foods that people processed 500-1000yrs+ ago) - cheese, milk, yoghurt, grains, oats, bread - eat moderately.

Follow those rules and you're eating a healthy diet.

If you want to put it in a woo/hippy type way - Eat what the earth provides that requires minimal processing or processing that you could technically do in your own kitchen if someone showed you how (like making cheese/yoghurt/bread).

If you can pick it or pull it and eat it straight away - it's good for you.

If you can kill it with one cut, cook it and eat it straight away - it's probably good for you.

If you have to take it away and process it into something else (grains) - it can be good for you, but bare in mind how long and labour intensive the process would take to do that - therefore don't eat loads of it. Those foods have been designed to add bulk calories (energy) for people who needed them. For example, bread 500yrs ago was closer to rye bread - dark and dense with thousands of calories and it supported people getting through long arduous and freezing cold winters. In our centrally heated homes, we don't need to be eating lots of bread now.

Anything that advertises itself as 'healthy' - step away. Healthy foods don't need advertisements.

Things that can trip you into making mistakes is looking at highly processed meats - bacon/sausages. You think they're meat so they're ok - but they are processed/smoked/mixed with fillers. So check the back of the packet for those unpronounceable ingrediants.

If you're not preparing it and cooking it with your own hands (you're just putting it in an over) - proceed with caution and check the packet.

This.

Honestly, you need to find the thing that creates the least amount of stress and interruption - and stick with it. Chopping and changing doesn’t work. Make it a lifestyle, not a diet. Change how you think about it. Once the pounds start dropping, Recognise that you are spoiling yourself by devoting time and energy to something that benefits only you. What a luxury. When you eat out, don’t go hog wild. Find the closest, most suitable food and have that.

Just to confuse us more I read somewhere that oats raise blood sugar and you should have a cooked brekkie (eggs).

If common sense works, why have you been on a diet for 35 years?

Oats are a bit of a will they/wont they food. They are really good for you and the fibre content makes them lower GI than other carbs but some people can’t tolerate them, I’m one of them a bowl of porridge raises my blood sugar really high. I can have porridge but need to do a small amount of oats, make up the rest with chia and add something like full fat yoghurt or peanut butter for protein. Overall I don’t both because the calorie content becomes too high and it’s easier to just have a couple of eggs.

If the OP was confused before, this thread hasn't helped one bit 😂😂😂😂

As you can see, everyone has a different opinion of what works for them.

For me personally, it's about adding good things to my plate, not restricting entirely. I'll eat what I want but reduce the portion and add something nutrient dense to it ( pizza + dark green veg)