To stop giving a shit and get fat!

[Inneedofbrandy]

Im a 10 on top 12 on bottem, this can to yo up and down slightly. Im dreading a life time of denying myself cake biscuits cheese and nachos. Why can't I let myself go ( as my mother would say) and stop giving a shit and just eat cake. Whats going to be so bad if I end up a 14/16?

What's so good about staying a 10/12 I would love to be a 6/8 if I could, but hey I love food and I want cake every day so fuck it, it's winter and I'm going to get fat!

Also I am one of these people who just CAN'T get really thin. I don't have that sort of body. I can eat very little for ages and all that happens is my metabolism slows right down, I never go lower than a size 10 in Hobbs/Boden etc, and the minute I eat 'normal' meals I balloon by about 5lbs per week.

Am 5 ft 6 btw so dead average. Would never have fit a 10 until I was 37 tho, so guess I should be pleased with myself.

My number one weight loss tip is: DON'T LIVE WITH A MAN. Especially not a foodie man. They surround you with foodie stuff all the time, cook massive portions etc. My weight loss has all been since divorce!!

If you read the threads, nope, most of us are finding it really easy to only have 500 calories.

Yesterday I had a mug of tea, an apple, two large black coffees and for supper a huge bowl of tomato soup with an inch of baguette and a sprinkling of parmesan.
And as usual I woke up this morning not hungry.

What happens is that the 500 tells your body that it is still getting food so not to panic. The next day you have no inclination to eat more than a normal day. In fact the heaviest people are seeing the biggest appetite drop - and some of them are 8 weeks in.

It is astonishingly easy. I often shop on fast days as then I am planning my menus for later in the week. Knowing you can eat anything you like tomorrow removes the whole "forbidden food" psychology.

oh my god that 2 day menu sounds bloody awful though. HOw do you concentrate on work etc?

I realised I often do the 16 hour fasts automatically, as never really hungry until 11 or 12. Wonder if that's contributed to my weight loss in recent years.

Oh god I know this sounds so bloody stupid but I never thought to include tea and coffee in what I eat! I drink at least 10 cups of tea a day plus 1 treat proper coffee most afternoons. They all have 2 sugars in as well.

btw noone has (i think) mentioned the impact of unhealthy food on mood.

As a depressive I find I feel way, way worse if I eat crap. I think this would apply even if I were eating 500 calories per day of crap. You need nutrition from food sources and refined sugar is really really bad for mood. Mine always takes a dive afterwards. It's worth thinking about.

Size 6/8, but 18 weeks preggers now, so belly expanding.

I eat mostly exactly what I want. I used to run, a lot, but gave that up in first pregnancy and you know what... Made absolutely bugger all difference, I am still skinny and eat the same. Made me question the virtue of exercising from a wright loss pov (fabulous from a feel good pov).

The thing is, when I say I eat mostly exactly what I want, what I want is not not generally unhealthy food. I WANT steamed veg, chargrilled chicken, bread with no butter, sorbet rather than ice cream. When I want some chocolate, I have a few squares. Yes, I might want more, but I just think, enough, and leave it at that. The though can be full of choc (generally is, DH is an addict) but it leaves me unfazed.
When out for dinner, I really enjoy rich food and get stuck into creamy pasta dishes and ice cream sundaes, but rarely.

Point is, I think you need to train your brain to actually enjoy healthy low fat food. Otherwise weight loss will surely o.nly be short term, as who could possibly keep trying to have an appetite that is not natural to them, for decades. Impossible, or a very unhappy life.

My advise is initially choose some foods that you wil consciously ALWAYS choose the healthy option. Not all foods, just some. For example, choose skimmed milk instead of semi on your cereal, it isn't so nice, so you wil probably have a smaller bowl. Before you know it, skimmed is all you know, you don't miss semi and you are still having smaller bowls. Avoid butter. It is a simply very easy thing to do, keep your normal fillings, just completely miss out the butter. Ok, might not taste quite do good, but will still taste good. The slight compromise on taste wil be more than outweighed by the fact that you will be saving yourself a good few grams of fat by not having the butter.

Good luck

I also cut out wheat recently, didn't think I'd ever manage that but now I don't miss it and I THINK it is affecting my energy levels positively

Sorry, meant o finish off by saying that soon theses healthy ways of eating will just be part of you. It won't require effort. And when it doesn't require effort, THAT is when you know you have nailed the weight loss thing. Skinny people etc don't yearn for junk food, they really don't. I yearn for fresh fruit salad and colourful salads. But you need to train your brain to think that.

Thanks for the clarification on the 5:2 thing - it was what I thought, DP and I have started doing this - mainly due to the impact it is thought to have on long term mental acuity rather than for weight loss. But a friend who has been doing it a while has lost weight and my DP too lost 2lb last week. DP is watching what he eats anyway at the moment and also doing a fair bit of regular exercise (he is training for a climbing holiday) and this shift of eating patterns has been beneficial.
I hate dieting with a passion, but didn't find a couple of days a week going very low calorie that hard...I had porridge for breakfast, smoked salmon and a yogurt for lunch and steamed chicken/baked fish with plain steamed veggies for dinner - didn't feel hungry and drank more water than usual. Because I wasn't hungry and it was only one day, neither of us felt the need to overcompensate the next day. I think this could be a winner for us.
Totally agree with domesticgodless though, my (slender and athletic) DP is a foodie and due to his cooking I'm a size larger than I was before we met!

Bbface I love fresh fruit, there's always naice fruit like mango and watermelon around since my dp is Jamaican. I won't buy low fat anything I'd prefer to not eat it at all. I don't eat sandwhichs to use butter I eat rivitas or crisp breads, could not do without proper butter on A crumpet or hot cross bun, but then I haven't had either one o those for at least since April. I also love salads ( and the dressings) but when being good il have a dollop of humous instead of dressing or mayo.

I already use skimmed milk to. I think my problem is cheese and biscuits and portion sizes. I just want to be able to maintain a healthy weight instead of the constant yo yo of half a stone, and denying myself cheese and biscuits and cakes.

Nothing wrong with being an active happy size 14 - the health hazards of BMI 25-30 are often overstated.

But once you've got there you'd have to either revert to watching every biscuit, (and that would be really tough after a year's binge) or carry on putting on a dress size every year until you were well into the fucked knees/diabetes/dementia risk/breast cancer risk/heart disease/general immobility zone. And an oversized body which you're fit enough to cope with in your twenties can be really tough to live with in your fifties.

Sorry OP, dig those running shoes out or learn to love lettuce
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OP I reckon your mood and feeling rotten and so on comes from all that caffeine. I only drink decaf tea. No coffee, no cola.

I bet you anything if you cut out the caffeine you will see a massive improvement in how you feel - give it a few days though as you have to go through withdrawal.

It may be "easy" to eat only 500 cals, but it is much easier to eat about 1500 - 2000 cals a day and do 500 cals worth of exercise at least 3 times a week.

Re cutting out caffeine. Doesn't work for me. Cutting down if I've been overdoing it, yes. Cutting it out all together makes no difference, in fact my mood slightly worsens as I am without my beloved Lavazza lattes. Also see alcohol. Yes I feel shit if I drink more than 14/15 units a week on a regular basis, (also it affects my diet) but there is a no intrinsic benefit for me in having no alcohol at all as opposed to having say, 10 units a week.

Also it's a fallacy to say you can't eat cake/biscuits/chocolate and be slim. A healthy diet contains a considerably amount of fat.

I could cut down, can't cut it out. I think it stems from when I used to smoke. Couldn't function on a morning without my tea! I might swap to lemon green tea for say 3 cups, do water for another 3 cups and see where that leaves me.

Dilys I think trainers and sports bra needs to see the light of day once more to. I'm just lazy.

Tea with semi skim milk and no sugar - 5 big mugs adds up to 100 calories

Leaving aside health reasons, self-esteem, blah blah blah, being over a size 8/10/'fat' does not automatically mean you are frumpy! I've seen plenty of frumpy 'skinny' people.

I'd like to eat 3 meals a day with a couple of snacks and a few glasses of wine on a weekend. But when I do that I pile on the pounds, I need to eat 2 small meals with no snacks to maintain what size I'm happy with.

This sounds like very little and it sounds like you have a slow metabolism. How many calories are you actually eating per day to maintain your size? If it's much under 2000 then I'd say you have a slow metabolism.

ways to help your metabolism:

1. get your thyroid tested in case you are hypothyroid
2. do more activity. Doesn't have to be "exercise". Walk instead of driving, sit on an upright chair instead of a sofa, walk up the escalator, etc.
3. build muscle. Muscle burns calories even if you're not actually using the muscle. So do some weights to build up your arms legs etc.
4. stay away from sugar and white flour (bread cake etc). Not for calorie related reasons but because they mess up your metabolism big time. Coffee's not great either.

If you can stay away from the sugar and carbs for a bit you may well find you want them less. With these foods the more you have them the more you want them.

Yes I agree you can have a bit of caffeine and be Ok - or alcohol - but it dependswhat you're used to. I can't have any now without noticing I get very anxious and tense the next day.

I think 10 cups a day is pushing it though.

10/11 cups a day seems like a lot to me too, even just in terms of the amount of liquid! Are they dainty little cups, or big mugs?

And that question sounded vaguely impolite...

Easy to do. I have between 5 and 6 cups a day - and its a 500ml cup!

Ho;y cow I think I'd be passed out on the floor if I only ate 500 calories a day. From what I had read you can stop losing weight if you don't eat enough, your body goes into starvation mode and hangs onto everything it can.
I'm losing on 1500 to 2000 a day with eating healthy and 5 hours a week of excercise 3 are cardio and 2 are strength.
www.stumbleupon.com/su/1HAf25/www.coachcalorie.com/calorie-deficit-to-lose-weight/

I sometimes feel like this OP

am a 8 - 10 but i really work at it....hate denying myself stuff, sometimes feel lifes too short

NO NO NO
As you only do it two days a week
Go read the links to scientific papers and the Michael Mosely programme on BBC2
Its solid science