To think I’ve found the secret to losing weight and keeping it off!

[Mummybo88]

Posted in weight loss but don’t know if anyone read it, so posting here for traffic.

I feel really passionate about this and I’m hoping it might help some of you the way it helped me.

I’ve had problems when it comes to food since about the age of 12 or 13. Up until then I was very slim & very active. Anyway, by the age of 15, I found myself very overweight. This prompted a cycle of me trying to cut a million & one things from my diet, having some small successes but then falling off the wagon, giving into my bodies cravings and feeling like a failure. Cue the self loathing, subsequent binging and weight gain.

I went through years of this. I tried everything. At one point, I even lost 3 stone but, lo and behold, I eventually gained it back and then some.

Anyway, one day it dawned on me that what was destroying me was all the rules. I never listened to my body, I didn’t trust myself to listen to my body. Days when I went to bed hungry felt like a success. In all honesty, I had sort of lost the ability to listen to my body. I’d become a slave to this diet - binge cycle.

Anyway, I decided to try something which felt very, very daunting. I decided to forget all the rules and try to learn to listen to my body again. I was terrified that I’d find myself living off chocolate brownies but guess what, it didn’t happen!

My initial focus was to really start concentrating on stopping eating at the moment I started to feel full. This wasn’t as hard as I thought because I felt safe in the knowledge that if I felt hungry again, i would just eat something else. Overtime, my cravings for all these “forbidden foods” lessened because they were no longer forbidden. When I used to diet, I’d spend my days fantasising about all of the foods I wasn’t allowed but now the everything was allowed, I’d find myself craving porridge for breakfast or a banana for a snack.

I also vowed to get out of the habit of weighing myself everyday. Initially, I’d do once a week and now I’m probably once a month (or whenever I remember to!!). The thing is, my weight on the scales each morning was dictating how much I ate that day. That’s just ludicrous when you think about it.

The other thing I realised is that some days you’ll eat more than others. If you have a day where you are more hungry and you find yourself eating more, don’t beat yourself up about it! You’ll find yourself eating less another day and it’ll all balance out.

I broke the diet/ binge cycle and I’ve weighed in the region of 8stone 10 - 9stone for the past 4 years. Other than my two pregnancies and both times, i lost the weight following this way of eating.

I eat cake, sweets & chocolate, but I also eat fish, vegetables & fruit. There’s a reason why 95% of people who go on a diet regain the weight within a year.

This has really worked for me and I hope it can help some of you. It’s by no means an overnight fix. The weight won’t just disappear in a few weeks, but it will come off and stay off. I know everyone’s different and what works for one person may not be so good for someone else but this has really changed my life and I can now enjoy food in a way I never could before.

I hope this can be of help smile

Well done Mummy. I am trying to do this at the moment . There is a website called Beyond Chocolate which I have found very helpful. Currently ploughing my way through the book Beyond Chocolate....whilst drinking wine and eating chocolate I might add. I think I have a way to go.....

Some people are so rude. Would love to see their perfect figures.

Thanks op I did this before myself I didn't want to diet just try to make better choices. After a while like you I stopped wanting the bad stuff and just ate to fuel myself with the occasional treat of my fancy. Worked very well for me.

I am going to get back into it.

Thanks for the inspo.

Brilliant post Mummy - diets do not work for just the reasons you outline!

This sort of thinking should be taught in schools, particularly to girls about to start their body conscious years and potentially the binge/diet cycle for their next 40 years or so.

I'm 53, have never dieted, weigh myself about once a year and have never been overweight. I'm blessed with not liking sweet things much but I'm a huge fan of white wine!

This more or less what I try to do
Work out what foods suits me best healthy-wise
Remember that it my choice what I eat and my consequences of that choice
Explore my eating and hunger and fullness - when what and how much I eat
Try different ways and times of eating
Try to reduce my portion size
Look out for times and situations when I eat when I'm not hungry or eat too much - wanting more than I need in quantity or quality
I try not to weigh myself too often
I avoid talking about diets or weight etc
Think in terms of health rather than weight loss

SweetMoon I'd love to try that exercise idea! But I need to check first - have you ended up with your abdominal muscles looking prominent?

I ask as some otherwise attractive young women at my gym look quite masculine because their abs are very prominent through exercise.

Thanks for the advice though!

For me the secret to easy sustainable weightloss is Keto/LCHF, no weighing, no counting, I’ve dropped several stone over several years without ever being hungry or guilty about what I’m eating. The hardest part isn’t reducing the carbs, it’s eating enough fat. Eat til you aren’t hungry anymore, keep your insulin response low and feel better.

I carefully lost a stone and a half, and was then put on bedrest for three weeks. Regained a stone!

No offence OP but I fail to see how you've reinvented the wheel with this? Eat sensibly, don't over-indulge, move you're arse - it's hardly rocket science

So simple, yet it's brilliant. It's going to take a bit of mind management, but I'm going to give it a go.

Thanks for sharing

@Mummybo88
I totally agree.
A few years ago I did a lifestyle programme with Jo at defeating diets (www.defeatingdiets.com/)
It works just like you said.

You discovered that all along your problem was not overweight but overeating.

There's a book called Overcoming Overeating by Hirschmann & Munter which essentially says that diets make people fat and you actually eat far less without the pressure of restraints

Good for you Mummy. I don't do well with self-imposed rules, either. I rebel against them very fast. Also it is true that anyone going on a diet to lose weight may well lose the weight, but if they then go back to the same old eating habits the weight is going to go back on. So the key surely must be to find something sustainable in the long term. That does, however, require some self-control. For me, although I have a sweet tooth I have found that desserts, cakes etc are rarely worth the calories so I don't eat sweet stuff unless I really fancy it and then don't finish it if I find I am not enjoying it as much as I expected to. Wine, on the other hand, is totally worth the calories. Also, feeling a bit hungry is not the end of the world. I will quite often have a cup of tea or coffee if I feel hungry between meals on the basis that if I still feel hungry half an hour later I will then eat something. Usually I don't.

She's only sharing what worked for her, never mentioned wheels being reinvented! Sounds simple but most diets don't tune in to your body, they're all about instructing us what to eat, not to eat and when. No need for

Just loving the smug messages from those who have never struggled with weight.

OP, you’ve cracked it. Eating normally and listening to your body is an enormous achievement for anyone who has suffered disordered eating or messed up their natural bodily cues through dieting.

kaybush. No they are not prominent. My tummy is quite toned as in I've lost the paunchy bit I used to have but I'd say it just looks very normal.

For one horrible moment I thought you were going to start banging on about Juice Plus! 🤣

I found a similar method worked for me when I stopped smoking. I didn’t say I was stopping. I told myself I’d smoke when I wanted to......and most of the time I didn’t want to. I now don’t smoke. It’s the rules that get in the way for many people.

Haven't read the whole thread but Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin is a long version of your post.

Somw if you people on here are absolutley vile!! OP is imarting some good advice which i for one am taking on board. Speaking of boards, The Motherboard on Facebook is much less judgey than some of you bastards on here 😂😂😂

Try walking, I do 6 miles a day minimum (school run),I can't put it on,I had boobs and butt but now my clothes hang loose no matter what I eat.my doctor advised I try McDonald's but I hate eating meat.x

I've been eating like this most of the time for the last 11 years. Some of the time I've been on a diet, not losing any weight. I weigh a lot more than you.

Hello, so glad I have came across this post. I have been dieting my whole life, in fact I don’t know how to eat without dieting or bingeing. I have 5 stone to lose to get to a healthy BMI. I have tried intuitive eating before although I will admit as I struggled to know what to eat I would still have chocolate every night and maintained to the exact pound in 3 months (never managed this before!). Since then I have thought this way of eating may help to maintain my weight but need to diet to lose it, I am also moving abroad this year and fed up of when I am in the sun being uncomfortable in my body. I want to take my daughter to the beach and play in the pool and feel good in the sun. Do you think this could work for me or should I try and eat intuitively but count calories to try and manage portions? Thanks for any help and advice, fed up of my eating taking over my life!! X

Thanks for this. I have finally agreed to stop the madness of diets. I am listening to my body and stop when I’m full. I am moving more and meditating. One thing i’ve found about diets is they eventually make me put on more weight.

Thank you @Mummybo88 great post.

As someone who has struggled with my weight all my life I'm going to try this :)

You've done amazingly well OP, it's one of those lightbulb moments that you have to experience, no amount of people telling you can make you realise until you suddenly 'see the light' for yourself.

You've also encouraged a fair few other people to give it a try which can only be a Good Thing

Well done OP. Can’t believe how horrible some of these posts are. It’s very kind of you to share this and it will have inspired lots of people to give it a go.