your body is going into starvation mode rubbish at slimming clubs. .am I the only one who thinks this is utter nonsense!

[deffonamechange]

I have joined a slimming club. Stuck to it . I do loads of exercise anyway. Been doing it 4weeks..have lost 2lbs and tonight put 0.5lbs on!!
Leader said I am not losing because I am not eating enough!
Drives me insane this theory!
If I eat more I will be eating the same as I ate before joining!
How does anorexia work?
Why do laws of physics say less calories in and more exercise lose weight?

So frustrated! !! Argh!!!

[Niloufes]

You need to combine exercise with a different diet. Cut out salt, bacon, pizza anything like that. Cut right down on pasta. Limit alcohol to only the weekend. Eat lots of fish, veg etc. keep going it'll work. Sack off slimming classes, they don't work for keeping it off. You need to change your lifestyle. Just do it yourself and keep a record of your gains and losses. Dropped 3 sizes in under a year doing this and its staying off.

[Niloufes]

You need to combine exercise with a different diet. Cut out salt, bacon, pizza anything like that. Cut right down on pasta. Limit alcohol to only the weekend. Eat lots of fish, veg etc. keep going it'll work. Sack off slimming classes, they don't work for keeping it off. You need to change your lifestyle. Just do it yourself and keep a record of your gains and losses. Dropped 3 sizes in under a year doing this and its staying off.

[CrystalMcPistol]

I was stuck for three weeks with no apparent weight loss (even though I could feel it in my clothes). Then suddenly the scales told me I'd lost half a stone in a week. I think the lost pounds can bottle-neck somewhere and then seemingly whoosh out over night.

[LaBrujita]

You can google 'no such thing as starvation mode' if you want some decent writing on the topic. Most quality fitness/strength training sites will have a decent rebuttal.

"I mean I f you diet, you lose weight - then you pile it back on if you stop dieting because your body hangs on to it."

No, you 'pile it back on' because you 'stopped dieting' - whatever 'dieting' was and whatever your 'before' was. You went back to your old, more-calories-in-than-out habit and regained the weight.

You need to identify what it is about your current diet that is giving you a large calorie surplus - portion size? Takeaway habit? Snacking throughout the day? Costa lattes? - then cut it down. Even just a few days tracking your intake should show you where the issue lies.

[KatharinaRosalie]

Give it a little bit time. Last winter I was exactly the same - eating like a bird, exercising like a maniac, and the weight just would not move. I was just about to sell my body for scientific experiments when I suddenly just dropped a dress size pretty much overnight.

[TheWrathFromHighAtopTheThing]

My WW leader suggested I was sticking too rigidly to the plan and that's why my weight loss stopped. or perhaps I was exercising too little. Or too much.

Essentially she was fucking clueless and just desperate to sell tons of WW merchandise for the sake of her commission.

I still see her around and she's a good 3/4 stone heavier than when she first started WW. Great advert.

[2kids2dogsnosense]

Some types of hormonal contraception, especially the implant, stop periods from happening in women that do not fall into the categories mentioned so not necessarily a cause for concern,

I didn't know that - thanks

[Woody67]

I reckon the weight lose will show up next week.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I think the problem is that food is just so available these days, and too many calories for our needs is affordable to most people.

Also portion sizes are too big, especially in food eaten outside the home and snacking is normalised.

I've heard it said that it's actually a miracle that more people aren't overweight or obese as excess food is so hard to avoid.

[Pisssssedofff]

If any of us could get off the diet train imagine the million dollar industries that would vanish over night. People do need crutches, support, motivation, coaching etc but fundamentally we all know we just need to move more and eat less. I've had all my calories for today already, but I'm committed so it'll be just water until bed now for me

[OhtoblazeswithElvira]

Interesting.

My grandmother survived a famine as a child. The rest of her life has basically been a race to eat as much as she can. She is now overweight and has diabetes - has gone almost blind because of it. She cannot put her experience behind her, I think it's in the back of her mind every time she sits down for a meal.

[deffonamechange]

I have a mierna coil so dont have periods and don't suffer from bloat or any pmt symptoms. I am 3 stone overweight which is why I am finding it so frustrating. .the fat is there to lose!!!

[Theoretician]

My understanding is that the argument is that you should try and lose weight slowly, a pound or two a week on average, because if you try to lose weight faster your metabolism will react by storing more of the passing calories.

I've no idea if it's true, but it does seem plausible. Even if it's not true, you should not be following an eating plan that is too aggressive to be sustained for the rest of your life. "Dieting" isn't something you do until you've lost a certain amount of weight, if it's going to work it has to be a rest-of-your-life change to your eating habits.

I don't know if this is separate or part of the same idea, but there is idea of maintaining blood sugar levels by eating foods that release energy slowly. So if you eat a healthy breakfast when not hungry that is supposed to prevent your body thinking it is being starved. Assuming you are eating enough calories so that you will only lose a pound or two a week, then eating a breakfast you don't want would mean subtracting calories at another time of the day. You wouldn't eat more calories overall.

[Murphysgirl]

PCOS could also cause a lack of periods and make it more difficult to lose weight.

[BarbaraofSeville]

Some types of hormonal contraception, especially the implant, stop periods from happening in women that do not fall into the categories mentioned so not necessarily a cause for concern, although if the OP does not have periods because she is already very underweight, that would be a cause for concern and also the reason why she is not losing (much) weight. The likes of WW/Slimming World are much more successful on people that actually have a reasonable amount of weight to lose.

[2kids2dogsnosense]

I don't have periods

Unless you are pre- or post-menopausal, or have had a hysterectomy (or are biologically male), this is rather worrying.

[2kids2dogsnosense]

unless you vomitted immediately after eating your body absorbs calories.

Digestion begins in the mouth. You have already absorbed calories long before your food gets into your gut.

[2kids2dogsnosense]

If Belsen survivors ended up fat, it would be because, quite understandably, their experience of starvation played havoc with their ability to regulate their food intake.

Agree - perhaps psychological factors compelled them to eat anything and everything they could, because even though they intellectually knew they would never be starved again, emotionally they could not believe it. And so they are and continued to eat. I would imagine too, that they would never waste food the way most of us do: they will eat what is on their plate, they will eat food if there is a danger of it going bad, they will clear plates that other family members leave - food most probably has a greater value to them - and not surprisingly.

[2kids2dogsnosense]

If I dont eat like this, and let my body go into starvation mode
("like this" = healthy snack every90minutes)

Feeling peckish is NOT "starvation mode"

[deffonamechange]

Not just started exercising. I have been doing that for years. .no change to my exercise.
I am counting points.
My husband done same diet and no exercise and lost 2 stone! Ffs. .it's just so frustrating
I am writing every single thing down this week to prove to myself and leader what I am doing.
I guess I will just keep going and it will come off eventually. :(

[Murphysgirl]

OP - if you're eating under 1000 calories a day you're not following the plan AND not trying to lose weight at a steady pace. You need to be making small changes that become permanent and easy to maintain rather than drastic changes to lose weight then slip back into old habits.

Do you tend to point or do no count? Have you measured yourself? Are your clothes feeling looser? You may be losing inches rather than pounds.

[emmantfc]

I think different diets probably work for different people. I've lost 2 stone and 5 inches off my waist in 9 weeks with slimming world and I've eaten WAY more than normal, absolutely stuffed my face but it's nearly all been fruit/veg or protein. I find if I restrict calories or skip meals I end up feeling dizzy and faint and ill and then have a mars bar to rescue myself, so that doesn't work for me.

[Tanith]

Not pregnant, are you Op?

Happened to me with Weightwatchers years ago. We couldn't work out why I was putting on weight despite my best efforts so I went to the doctor...

Very embarrassing

[PhyllisWig]

Resurrection that's a 'thing' isn't it? Start of an exercise programme can often see a gain but it's not fat it's fluid and other gubbins. I believe it's not then unusual to then see a 'swoosh' of weightloss. At least that's what the my fitness pal exercise board always says. No idea if it's true.

[FleshEmoji]

eye level grill




Sorry I'm writing down here, something weird has happened to the app, and the top of the text is off th screen.

eye level grill - my guess would be that you're in ketosis overnight. If you're eating the right amount, that might happen as you use up your stored glycogen.

That means you're burning fat for fuel, so you won't be hungry if you skip breakfast. Makes things like the Cambridge diet, which I'm just finishing, more bearable.

If you have a no or low GI breakfast (eggs, oats), your blood sugars don't rise quickly and an insulin response isn't triggered as massively as if you have pure sugar orange juice.

When you come down from a sugar high / insulin response, you'll be hungry.

There was an article in the Guardian yonks ago pointing out that breakfast eaters ate smaller lunches than non breakfast eaters. Unfortunately it made the schoolboy error of not adding calories for the two meals together - in that case, the breakfast skippers ate much fewer calories.