to hate my stupid metabolism? Diet related rant ahead.

[NotTodaySatan]

I've lost quite a lot of weight recently by eating a very strict 1400 calorie a day diet, and exercising every day. I'm also breastfeeding.

On Friday night I developed a horrible cold and cough and have felt really rough and unmotivated. I didn't throw the diet completely out the window but did have a few treats (couple of biscuits, 3 slices of pizza, a glass of wine) and this morning I am 2lb heavier .

I have literally no leeway. If I don't keep to the low calorie intake I put on weight. When not breastfeeding I have to keep to 1000 calories a day to lose weight. Any more and I don't. It's so infuriating and makes me feel like I have to be on an inflexible no treat diet forever if I want to be at my desired weight. Ideally I want to lost another stone and keep it off. Which seems like it'll be practically impossible once I stop bf-ing.

Disclaimer: I know I'm being shallow and petty and this is a royal first world problem but it's pissed me right off and I need to rant. I have Xmas party dresses to fit into goddammit! I'm back on the wagon this morning, have had a low carb breakfast and am now off for a 6-7k walk with the dog.

Any of you who can truly eat whatever you like and not put on weight, I am eternally jealous . Jammy sods. Mmmm jam....

Belly pork is my kinda brekkie My favourite too! Had it again today with berries & cream.

I can't believe you are in size 8s at 10st 2lb Definitely a case of squeezed in, but I'm a 10 everywhere and I can pull the waistband out a couple of inches.

Underbust - 32 inches - I'm a 30 as I got a new bra on Sat - don't know about the others.

I've been using My Fitness Pal to log my calories. I find that easier than strict low carbing. All I'm doing on that front is cutting out most refined white carbs. I'm still eating 2 slices of seeded bread a day and carby veg like carrots, sweet potatoes etc.

You'd be better having all the veg you like but losing the bread. You'll lose some belly bloating immediately if you can cut out all refined carbs.

manicin If you read or listen to PaulMckenna he cites an experiment where that many calories were fed to people in the 2nd WW. And the results were as I said.

Calorie counting is totally unnecessary, I lost nearly 3 stone without counting one calorie. I am still maintaining not counting calories, it has been proved to be silly anyway because some people are good (and will lose weight with natural fatty meat and butter etc.) and some are not, there is no "one diet fits all".

I'm sure that 2lbs isn't fat but you are right, there's no universal simple answer to weight loss.

More recent studies have shown that gut bacteria make a big difference to how efficiently calories are absorbed from food and twin studies who that gut bacteria are linked to our genes. Then you have all the other factors of physical and mental health and wellbeing and it's all very tricky.

Anyone who says, with regard to weight loss, that "all you have to do is..." doesn't understand the complexity of the interactions.

yes the micrombiome is the new hot topic, we are only just starting to appreciate it's significance for a wide variety of health issues

?Re 'starvation mode' if your calorie intake is significantly lower than?your calorie consumption then you will tend to lose muscle tissue.
Muscle has a high metabolic cost so it is adaptive for the body to burn it up first when energy input drops and it needs to dip into energy stores.

However, in our modern obesogenic world this is actually maladaptive, basal metabolic rate drops with the loss of muscle and so the amount that you can eat without accumulation of adipose tissue drops further.

You have to find a way of eating that works for you - I could always lose weight by calorie counting - but it always found me again, slowly but surely .
I've found fasting works for me both as a way of losing and of maintaining, I know lots of people it's worked for and others who simply don't seem able to do it without feeling ill. I'm the opposite - once I got into the rhythm of it a fast day gives me more energy.
Forget all you've been told about starvation mode btw - scientifically its a load of nonsense (I am a scientist and read the research when the whole 5:2 thing started, it was the science that convinced me to give it a try).

Things is Oddboots, no one fully understands the 'complexity of the interactions'

We are a long way from reaching a consensus on this issue ?

Interesting reading. Thanks all.

I was very good yesterday with my food, exercise and water and according to the scales this morning am 4lb lighter . I think the salt in the pizza/water retention was a major factor.

Onwards and downwards (on the scales) .

Absolutely Suzanne, I only get miffed with those who get all patronising and say there is an easy answer and imply that anyone overweight must just be stupid or lazy.

Your body is designed to need and want food. Every animal's body is.

Ultimately attempts to limit food intake is fighting against every natural instinct. Some scientists compare the sensations of food deprivation to water deprivation, it's extremely difficult to force-dehydrate your body.

So you ate a pizza, that doesn't make you a bad person. Maybe your body might prefer something healthy, an avocado, an egg, a rich salad made with lots of different ingredients and a nice tasty dressing. As you make the choices to eat more healthily and mindfully, your body will start preferring these foods, so a treat might become an avocado or a bright fresh summer salad. Then your weight becomes irrelevant because health and weight are not directly correlated.

plec I am eating natural food 85% of the time. I'm a veg junkie. I love vegetable salads, soups and stews.

It's just so hard to break the habit of a lifetime of seeing pizza and wine and chocolate as treats. If I've had a rough week I'll never be able to convince myself that sitting down with an avocado on a Friday night is a treat.

Anyway, I'm going in the right direction. Going to stick to what I'm doing and just stop weighing myself every day.

I put on 2 lbs from 7pm last night to 10am this morning and all I ate was a banana :(

food preferences can and do change over time, I have lost and a?cquired the taste for various different things in my life thus far.
I'm not saying that cravings are easy to resist, far from it.
Just that it is possible to live perfectly happily without things which you previously felt to be indispensable ?

I'd say try looking at the 5:2 threads on MN. Trying to stick to 1400 calories every day for the rest of your life is pretty tedious, with 5:2 you can have the odd blowout without (a) sabotaging your weight loss and (b) feeling guilty about it. There's lots of advice about doing 5:2 whilst bfing and suggestions for exercise regimes too.

NTS

That's absolutely fine. It's OK to enjoy pizza and wine, providing you're enjoying the sensation of eating it, rather than the sensation of "a treat".

I think that's where we can get confused sometimes, we have "bad" and "good" foods, so we crave the "bad" foods even though sometimes, the experience of eating them isn't really that enjoyable.

I recently went on a mindful eating retreat and it was amazing, very enlightening. One of the things I came away with was being mindful about "treat" foods.

So for example, I love wine, I love the complex tastes of wine, I love the ceremony and ritual of wine - finding a nice glass, using a corkscrew, opening, pouring, toasting, etc. So, making wine a treat in itself for me is a lovely bottle of wine, drunk out of a beautiful glass, served correctly (chilled, decanted, whatever). What I learned on retreat was that to just have half a bottle of warm plonk on a Friday just because it's a Friday isn't a treat, so why bother? It's just empty calories. So I'm trying to cut down on the cheap plonk and substitute it with lovely (and more expensive) wine less often. It's not easy, but it feels so much better when I do it.

piecofjustice that sounds an interesting retreat; it says the same as paul mackenna says .
Also we are not bad or good, we have some habits that can be positive or negative to our health and weight and the habits can be changed.

On an active lifestyle 1400 is so low. You use that just being lied in bed all day. It's not about the calorie number, it's about the food.

Exactly GraysAnalogy

I am also a bit skeptical of size 8 at 10st 5'4
Mainly as im 8st 9 and not an 8.
There was a tread about how shops sizes are so different and sizes have gotten more generous.
Really dress sizes are meaningless. Small, med, large frame is more relevant.
1400 cals isnt that low as although 2000 is the average for women you wont need that if you are short, small frame, inactive or already overweight.

Certainly worth checking thyroid after having baby. Though unfortunately it actually usually hyper in first 6m then hypo (so fast metabolism then slow)
I lost all pg weight in 2 weeks despite eating packets of biscuits. Not all babies feed as much, i was constantly feeding.

Unfortunately its not a level playing field. But i think most thin people either
Picky
Dont like being full
Addicted to exercise
Fast metabolism
Work at it

Im on thyroxine and have pcos

Op youre doing so well.

Thank you naty .

I actually have hyperthyroidism/Graves Disease. I was diagnosed NYE last year. One of the symptoms was me staying at a steady weight while eating like a maniac . I am on medication for it and I don't see any effect on my weight, positive or negative any more.

My diet today.

Breakfast:

Oats So Simple with semi-skimmed milk, strawberries and a tiny (half a teaspoon) drizzle of golden syrup.

Lunch:

Chicken breast, tomato and sweetcorn sandwich on Seed Sensations Wholemeal bread with a tablespoon of Mayo.

Dinner:

Soy and chilli trout with green beans and broccoli.

Snacks:

Small ramekin of full fat vanilla yogurt.
10 walnuts.
A plum.

2 litres of water plus 3 cups of tea.

How do they test whether you still need the meds? Tsh?
Or is it something you will always stay on?'
That doesnt sound a lot of food.

Hopefully they are checking if its been affected by the PP hormones.

Counting calories is useful if it helps show how many are in different types of food. What is really useful is figuring out your daily calorie requirement. For a normal day, get up, have shower, get in car, drive to work, walk from car park, etc etc I calculated I needed only 1700 calories. That was the eye opener. Realising that you might as well drink whole milk rather than skimmed was another, as they are both low calorie substances and most of the vitamins are in the creamy bit.

A quick look at the books reveals..........

You need around 1400 calories a day to live (basic metabolism), ie approx one calorie a minute to stay alive. Not much more for lying down, or sitting. Which, unfortunately, is how most of us now spend our days, either at a desk, or in front of the TV.

Standing burns an extra calorie a minute, walking a couple of calories per minute, running 10 calories a minute. Shifting loads also burns a lot.

So there's the answer to the problem. If you spend 10 hours a day standing you can eat an extra 600 calories on top of your basic metabolic rate (ie 600 minutes at an extra calorie a minute). Two Mars bars or a chicken breast, veg and a potato. Spend 10 hours walking, depending on pace, and you have an extra 1200 to 2400 a day to play with. Sedentary lifestyles mean we need barely any more food than necessary to support our basic metabolism. And I suspect that if we eat this little we would also be vitamin deprived.

An hour in the gym on a treadmill - 600 calories. So I get to eat 2000 calories a day and not gain weight if I spend an hour a day running. Whereas if I spent 6 hours a day walking around I would burn a whole bunch more. Just need to get a job involving digging rather than being basically sedentary.

Just to add, I totally recommend this blog

www.foodstolove.co.uk/nutrition/

Her take on food and health is really positive, inspiring, achievable and gentle, and I love it.

If you're using myfitnesspal and exercising then you need to make sure your net calories are correct. Eg if you are burning a few hundred calories walking, you need to eat them back as well as your 1400 cals, or else your net is too low and you'll stabilise. I'm the same height as you and was losing weight at the end of my goal (10st) at 1600 cals net, which was sometimes more than 2000 cals consumed if I'd had an exercise class etc.
And to the Pp who said calorie counting is silly and unnecessary, thats just the same as me saying low carbon is silly, different things work for different folks. I lost 5.5stone over a few years with calorie counting and exercise, and maintained for 2.5 years (until I got pregnant, now I'm at it again!)
You should also be making allowances for extra cals for breastfeeding, but I'm not sure how much, sorry.
And yes, weigh maximum once a week!

*low carbing

What gigajoules says is very helpful, and the reason why comparisons to what people ate in WW2 ate aren't helpful. Prisoners at Auschwitz ate 1400 calories a day but they were doing backbreaking manual labour all day long, not sitting at a desk!