To think you need to deal with a certain amount of hunger to lose weight?

[Cushionwoman]

I feel this way.

I've done exercise and healthy eating. Yes I felt better. But did I ever really lose weight? No.

I'm now sticking to three healthy, smaller meals with no snacking and it's working.

I do go to bed hungry though.

The only other time in my life when I've actually lost weight I had to do this too.

Is that the true nature of a proper lose weight diet? A certain amount of hunger and discipline?

Or is it just me?

I had a sleeve gastrectomy privately cost me £9800

For me I love my carbs and they haven't limited my weight loss. That said personally bread causes issues so I don't have it regularly. But pasta, rice potatoes I eat every day, I eat it in proportion with a good amount of lean meat and veg. I think the balance is what people often get wrong. I very much do as demonstrated in garlic's diagrams.

You do need to listen to your own body, not everyone's body will react to each food and way to eat in the same way.

Garlic
I don't know if you meant her? but Maggie has a special reason for her very very low carb diet and it does seem to be helping a lot with her diabetes. She does have vegetables which are carbohydrates too which is the main thing. Perhaps she could have pulses which include them too.

Paleo people seem to swear by it, but I have never tried.

Seeing that pyramid (shown below your food circle) with that wide base of rice (white too), bread (white too), pasta, potatoes and the small point at the top with sugar and fats lumped together shows what went so wrong for so many people for so many years in my opinion.

Musing about carbs:

Wheat and rice have only been introduced into our diet in the last 10,000 or so years, which is nothing in the great scheme of things. Potatoes have only been around for the last 500 years.

So, IMO, cutting out carbs from these sources would not be detrimental to the human body.

Yes, I have to low carb for medical reasons weight loss aside, I have had bleeding retinas as a result of badly managed diabetes due to a high carb diet, that's no fun I can assure you.

Breadandwine...

But according to that logic you also should not eat imported fruit or veg, tofu, spices, use a blender or microwave or clean drinking water, medicine, whatnot

People have been eating potatoes for hundreds of years withno ill-effect

Yet suddenly, now, it's demon food. The obesity epidemic is much more recent than the advent of potatoes.

Leave the poor potato alone

Do you carb count Maggie?

I'm T1 and, please forgive me if I come across abrupt, but I don't think it's high carb diets that cause problems as long as the correct amount of insulin is taken.

So sorry you've had eye problems - I have too. Also, glad to hear you've found something that helps you manage your levels.

Hi Cushionwoman. I don't carb count so much as just avoid the high carb foods - if I do that and take my oral meds I can keep my blood sugars in the range of 5-10. If I start eating carbs I need to inject but because I'm not carb counting all the time I end up guessing and taking too much and going hypo... so sometimes its easier just not to.

You've hit the nail on the head when you say 'so long as the correct amount of insulin is taken'... it's so hard to work out the correct amount ! ( I find). I have done the carb counting course but found it hard to put it into practice. Good for you if you've managed to.

I do have a bit of chocolate in the evening though sometimes and inject a bit extra. Plus I can inject extra whenever I want to. But then the weight piles on.

The eye risk is the worst, isn't it. That really puts any weight issues into perspective. Luckily I seem to be ok now -but only if I stay on the straight and narrow. Hope you are ok too.

Oh, Baby...

I love, love, love potatoes - I consider them my favourite fruit!

Boiled, roasted, fried, mashed - any way they come, I'm there!

But if I was pre-diabetic or worse - I'd drop 'em in a heart-beat! They're not necessary for a healthy diet - whereas green veg, for instance, most definitely is!

A dietician at the cancer centre wisely told us it's not a good idea to start eating food that our ancestors didn't eat. Our digestive systems have evolved in a particular way because of our ancestors' diet so it's not a good idea to change it. We are seduced by Eg Asian diets because of their low cancer rate.

I appreciate this isn't about cancer but it's good to bear her advice in mind. We have a history of potatoes going way back (ok, 500 years) and our digestive systems don't cope with all the weird and wonderful stuff out there these days. She also said if we don't do well with certain foods - Eg pulses are the main culprit - don't force it. Stick with the potatoes - just not a lot.

It's too easy to excuse over eating as being a response to some trauma or deep unhappiness. Of course there are instances where this is true but for most of us it's just that food is tasty and abundant and we're greedy. I am including myself in that. However, I have succesfully lost a lot of weight recently by recognising that hunger is not an illness to be medicated with food. Can also recommend an app I've used called Loserz. It's a free one and it matches you with other people the same sort of age and weight and with the same kind of diet so you can swap tips etc. I've found it useful in coming to terms with recognising the difference between hunger and greed.

Erm, I wouldn't agree entirely with that House. Some people have an addiction to food and are powerless to stop eating.

I wouldn't agree that they are "powerless to stop eating" either springy

Lucky you then, Adrenaline.

some people can't control drinking, drugs, shopping, gambling. The first premise of a 12-step programme is acknowledging they are powerless to stop. I am lucky that I can have a drink and it doesn't set me off on an addictive cycle. Many aren't lucky in that way. I'm not so lucky on the sugar front, however.

If you read the blurb about food addiction you may change your mind. Not everyone is a food addict, of course, but labelling genuine food addicts 'greedy' doesn't help. Very common, though.

My argument is that it should not be used as an excuse. I've had to battle some demons very hard and if I'd thought of myself as 'powerless' to stop then I doubt I'd be alive today - in a similar vein 'luck' never played a part either.

Well in my case, if I eat like the food pyramid advises, I will also look like the food pyramid quite soon.
I'm low-carbing, not cutting them out entirely

I've lost quite large amounts of weight (from very obese to underweight) multiple times over from continuous yo-yoing and various manifestations of disordered eating.

I've found that the only time I lost weight and wasn't hungry, was when I went very, very low-carb. I was only eating meats, eggs, and veggies/salad, plus protein shakes with almond milk if working out. After about a week I had no hunger at all for the duration (about 6 months - lost approx. a stone per month).

I've lost weight successfully using other methods, but all have involved hunger. Sometimes I'd end up saving all my 'food allowance' for just before bedtime so that I wouldn't be lying awake hungry.

Currently pregnant, but planning another low-carb run in the near future. The biggest problem is how to maintain once the goal is reached, without continuing to lose, or gaining again!

Keep it down, I find I have to do lowish carb to maintain my weight - I am very carb sensitive though.

To keep it off I've found low carb substitutes to be invaluable for things like bread and pasta. Lowcarb megastore and Avidlite (online low carb grocery stores) are worth a look.

I make a lovely porridge with almond flour, almond butter, almond milk and flaked almonds (add just a few oats for texture and sweetener to sweeten) which keeps me going in the colder months!

There are some people who have an extremely serious eating disorder - both bulimia and binge eating disorder in which eating a huge amount of food is uncontrollable.

One of the main causes is dieting, especially when still in the teen years, as for some people the brain can believe the body is starving and take over in
a flawed non-stoppable way. This is not about self-control either. It destroys lives.

One of the many reasons why I don't 'diet' and I don't follow any kind of 'plan' is because of the possibility of very disordered thinking about food (I don't think I am particularly at risk, I am simply too old and have done my binging/starving in my misspent yoof - never to a pathological degree, but I had the usual hangups of a young woman growing up in a society that values height/slimness/long limpness and is neither of those 3…).

IMO and IME a worrying large minority of people who are 'doing the Atkin's Diet' or are 'gluten/dairy/whatever intolerant' or can only eat food harvested by fairies under a new moon when Venus is the house of Taurus have eating disorders, whether diagnosed or not. It seems to be more socially acceptable to have some kind of 'medical' reason for being very, very careful about what they eat than to address a problem with their relationship with food. Disclaimer: I am well aware that food allergies and intolerance exist and are very real.

Re 'health eating plate' and the food pyramid: I am reasonably sure that the official advice on healthy eating/reducing blood sugar/reducing cholesterol or cardiovascular risk will change radically in the next 5-10 years. Low fat/high carb is not working for the Western word where most of us lead sedentary lives with ready access to too many cheap calories. Low carb (not no carb), high fat/protein diets have been shown to reduce cardiovascular risks, bring cholesterol down and reduce blood sugar/insulin resistance and weight.

And of course food addiction is not about 'greed'
I am plenty greedy, but I don't have a food addiction