Because I don't know what the fuck to eat anymore!

[MissusWrex]

I'm almost ready to give up.

It's in the news today that a high carb low fat diet is bad for you and that a high fat low carb diet is the way to go with lots of protein.

Though not too much red meat according to the stories a few months ago.

I suppose you could have eggs? Are they bad or good I can't bloody keep up anymore!

I know I know. The advice I should listen to is to just have a healthy balanced diet but I've never had that. I had a terrible diet growing up and still have a very poor relationship with food.

So asking me to just follow a 'healthy balanced diet' is the equivalent of asking me to build a rocket to Mars using only the contents of my bin.

Ive tried to research what exactly constitutes a healthy diet but there is so much contradiction...

I've a few stone left to lose but have been following the low fat high carb route ( no low fat or sugar foods though, I cook from scratch as often as I can)

Will someone more knowledge my that me just tell me what's good and what isn't in a easy to understand format that won't change tomorrow.

Is that too much to ask?!

Eating good fat like avocado will help. It's the omega-3 amd omega-6 fatty acids to look for. One helps you gain weight one helps you loose it drink plenty too. I lost 16kg in 4 months following this with high carbs and fruit in the morning and only eating clean and natural foods. Plus strength training. Safe to say I've packed it all back on with pregnancy and breastfeeding number 2.

My advice ? Don't read diet advice. Go see your Doctor's surgery for a full MOT. Check you have no underlying health issues that affect your diet- and join their free healthy eating programme, you will get advice and support for your health needs and your lifestyle. Some even pay for leisure centre sessions or swimming as 'exercise prescriptions'. Being one large lady myself , I can only tell you when I stopped following 'diets' and followed my GP healthy eating clinic plan ( which was free, no weekly meeting costs, no expensive food delivery boxes or shakes or meal replacements or cranky supplements I started to lose weight, which did stay off. Good luck !

I can't lie I have to hide them in salads I don't think I could handle a mouse

I've joined Weightwatchers 4 weeks ago, they are similarly-low sugars(carbs) but hi protein, and I'm losing more weight than I've done before.
unfortunately my love for all things sweet has no place in my life anymore.
The 2worlds don't mix.
Ww seems pretty sensible on the whole. Regular food stuffs, encourages increasing fruit and veg, and reminds you of portion size.
I can see that life could be maintained with this lifestyle too.
I'd recommend it.

It's so confusing isn't it? When I haven't a clue what's good for me anymore (courtesy of reading too many magazines/internet articles and working myself into a tizzy ;) ) my thinking always returns to the Mediterranean way of living - plenty of fruit, veg, nuts, whole grains,, fish, occasional red meat etc. Red wine in moderation (good excuse, anyway!!)

When i had gallstones i couldnt eat SOLID food. I had already been on SW so it wasnt fatty food causing the problem It was caused by fast weight loss.

Hope you have your operation soon

Wonder what the take is on this.

www.bodyandsoul.com.au/weight+loss/diets/the+sirtfood+diet+lose+weight+by+turning+on+your+skinny+gene,41263

Low intake of carbs, but not banning I think is sensible. A lot of carbs consumed are related to the sugar in biscuits, cakes, sweets etc and it is these that help make us fat. Protein from meat, fish,dairy and consuming veg but not too much fruit is I think what is meant by a low carb diet.
It's the junk food we eat, the snacking all day long, (do we really need a biscuit with a cup of tea or coffee). Do admit it is mind boggling to try and decipher what is good and what is bad to eat.

When they say fat is now GOOD, do they just mean the fats that wear a halo, like avocado, fatty fish and nuts? Or is it really fine to scoff loads of cheddar/cream? I can't get my head around the latter being true, but maybe it is?

Halo ones, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut apparently, hemp oil, olive oil, walnut oil.yes. Maybe a tablespoon of oil a day, a handful of nuts.

Moderate cream, butter, cheddar. For example a matchbox of cheddar with a small apple. A pat of butter on a piece of toast with two eggs.

Not too much in the way of fats if you want to lose weight but halo ones are very good for you and feed the brain too.

No to heavily processed fats like margerine.
No too low fat versions that make up for it with sugar for example low fat, sugary yogurt (incl fruit concentrate versions of sugar.)

One warning I would give to anyone cutting carbs, do it gradually. I low carb generally but I was ill recently and was eating whatever I fancied, including lots of toast.

I have just gone back to my 30g of carbs limit and I am fucking STARVING! Your body gets used to being bulked up on starchy foods and so even though you have consumed a massive meal of protein and veg (say), you still feel hungry because your stomach isnt packed out with potatoes or pasta. I find it passes within a week or so but in that week I could bite the balls off a low flying duck!

Work out what you normally consume in grams per day and aim to cut that by 10% ish a day until you reach your personal limit and you wont have that issue. Include all fruit, snacks and drinks (including milk) as well as meals.

With my low carbing, I happily eat as much butter, cream etc as I want, makes no difference to weight loss at all. The fat isnt consumed by the body, its sugar that is that is the problem.

For the record the last time I used it for weight loss I lost 2 stone by eating all the so called "bad" fats. The weight went back on through illness, but previously to that it stayed off quite happily.

Just seen elsewhere that Lisa Riley was on 400 calories a day and lost 7 stone in 7 weeks.

I lost 7 of my 10 in 7 months and the surgeon told me that that is what caused my gallstones.

There is lots of sensible advice on this thread but unfortunately in the sleb culture we live in they are the ones who get listened to whether they do these things healthily or not.

I'm pretry sure cavewomen used to go foraging for Haribo and Supernoodles

On the whole fats thing - which one is good for you: saturated or unsaturated? (I'm pretty sure polyunsaturated is bad cos it's plastic right?) And which one does butter fit into to?

And why is olive oil good but sunflower not?

But YANBU op it's incredibly confusing.

Well the confusion arises because we are all different . There are very few foods that are good or bad for everyone

Pork and pork products are bad for everyone. Sunflower oil is ok for most but olive oil is good for all of us. So some people can eat the paleo or Atkins diet and be brilliant while others will be ill on them.

I always say there are really only two ways of eating - processed, junk foods and then all the rest. All the rest is people eating wholefoods - now they might differ eg vegan, veg, rice/fish Japanese style or paleo, keto or 100% meat/fish/fat but "all the rest" are all normal diets. Humans have always eaten like all the rest - all the rest would be your eskimoes mostly eating blubber and animal parts and your nomads on their roots and insects as well as fish eaters and sea food/sea weed.

So just pick which kind of all the rest balanced diet suits you and stick with it for life. If you love your steaks major on that with veg. If you like your rice then have that with your veg . Which ever route of all the rest you go down and that includes the sirt foods too which again are mostly healthy whole foods, then you will be fine healthwise. If you want to be thinner then you will always need to eat fewer calories than you need (and good fats tend to fill you up and help you eat less as indeed does intermittent fasting because dur.... it means not eating for longer periods).

I lost over two stone on slimming world. It's straightforward reasonably balanced and sensible. I syn good fats like coconut oil and butter because I personally agree with the train of thought that humans need fats for hormone balancing and brain development. Each to their own. Google a group near you that suits your timetable and see what you think.

There's also the emotional side to consider with low carbing - it can impede serotonin production and cause low mood in some people.

3 weeks ago Monday I had a no carbs day to see how it felt. Usually carbs form the main part of my diet. I expected to be starving all day.
In fact I wasn't hungry until well after my usual meal times. Unfortunately it happened that I was running around more than usual and I did suddenly get that 'running out of energy, legs feeling loads heavier ' feeling. I think it meant that I had used up my 30 minute supply of carbs and had moved onto fat metabolism. I actually felt really great still by the end of the day and am sticking with some carb free meals but also try and think what exercise I will be doing to help decide on the amount of carbs.

The media loves a story about 'diets' and the trouble is that there are arguments for and against all foods because the only way you could ever scientifically test the Best Diet would be to lock people away from birth and only feed them the test foods. That of course won't happen. Demonising individual foods or food groups is in my view a bit too simplistic because it doesn't allow for lifestyle. Greece has a very high life expectancy and yet it also has a very high rate of smoking. It also has a very community minded culture where the old are supported and sociable and the weather is conducive to relaxing! I'm not a nutritionist but I'm interested as I love food and have been too thin (as a child), overweight (post kids) and now approaching 50 want to eat for health. With all the reading I've done and observations, the overriding messag is always to eat more veg. I've looked at lots of nutrition plans and they all without exception advocate increasing veg. As a rule of thumb, any food that's nutrient dense is more satisfying so you're less inclined to feel hungry or over eat. Veg is carbs so by low carb you can usually assume the less simple, 'white' carbs the better (bread, pasta, rice). If I think back to my childhood we didn't eat pasta all the time or pizza. We tended towards meat and two veg!! Reducing sugar helps stabilise your hunger too. Just like giving it up in tea after a while you don't like things that are too sweet. I think the food industry likes the low fat model because it's easy to process carbs and add huge margins. Less so with meat. Fat is satisfying and necessary but good fats in butter, coconut oil, avocados and olive oil are better for you than trans fats and anything that oxidises at high temperature. I was vegetarian for 20 years and when I went back to eating meat I felt more energetic and I lost weight. Another friend can't tolerate meat or dairy and is thriving as a vegan. If I eat bread I feel hungry again soon after if I have a salad I don't (as long as there's some protein in there). Everyone has different physiology but eating as much from scratch with lots of veg, good fats and less 'white' carbs is a good guide for most people.

I agree with Tehlu upthread about fat.

A low fat diet means cutting the amount of fat in your diet, not resorting to low fat processed foods.

Lower fat plain yoghurt, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk; and lower fat cheese are not products I would put in the junk, processed foods category. The way the fat is removed is not problematic and provided nothing is added to bulk them out, they are fine.

Depending on the animal and the cut, meat can vary widely in fat content.

This book is actually informative and encouraging, despite the annoying title. Some of her recipes are a bit 'Paltrow' for me, others look lovely. It is expensive though. I got it for tuppence in a discount bookshop.

Exactly. Thanks WindPowerRanger! Avoiding all fat isn't good, but cutting out high-fat processed foods and even cutting down the amount of good fat if you eat too much of it is bound to help you lose weight, especially if you cut down on sugar too.
I personally think that a diet based on plenty of lean protein, eggs, pulses, loads of veg, some fruit and unrefined carbs and a low to medium amount of good fats (the latter depending on how much you need to lose weight ) is the way forward. With the odd treat of course.

When I first had to go low fat because of the gallstones I started looking around for low fat recipes, but I soon realised I could very easily adapt almost everything I already cook to make it lower fat. Any eating plan which involves embracing a complex regime or sticking to a whole load of new unfamiliar types of recipe is doomed to failure imo.

I would just avoid processed foods and refined (white) carbs as much as possible. Eat 'real' food - no 'low fat' or ready meals either.