To wonder why my body reacts like this to diets??

[LellowYedbetter]

I’m a great believer in calories in vs calories out. However, this does not seem to work for me and I appear to be the only one!! I’m 5ft 10in And currently weigh 11st. This time last year I weighed 10st.

Throughout my life, whenever I tried to diet I end up either putting on weight or at least maintaining. I’m miserable and good obsessed and never lose weight.

Whenever I give up on diets and go back to eating whatever I want, I lose weight.

Example ... for the past 6 months I’ve watched what I eat, recorded everything religiously on MFP and have made an effort to eat healthy. I’ve put ON weight and it keeps going up.

This week I thought “fuck it” and have literally eaten whatever I fancy. Yesterday’s example:

Breakfast - Shreddies Granola
Lunch - super noodle pot and a packet of crisps
Dinner - chicken wings (8 of them!!) and potato wedges. Birthday cake and a packet of crisps.

All week has been like this and this morning I got on the scales and finally, for the first time in 6 months, I’ve lost 2lbs.

Possible explanations??? It doesn’t make sense but I’ve always been the same!

When you eat healthy and cut calories, are you still eating a reasonable amount?
If you are sticking to a very low calorie limit then your body is probably reserving the little food it is getting. When you start eating again it burns the excess. Thats why the 5:2 works for some people.

Because dieting is a capitalist scam. They're not designed to work. They are designed to make money. If they worked then you would stop buying the books, paying for the groups, buying coconut oil act.

Etc*

When you diet, are you eating enough fat and protein? All calories are not equal. Those chicken wings might have helped a lot.

Because calories in calories out is bullshit. It works temporarily but doesn't deal with the complex hormonal and metabolic processes that occur when you eat food.

If calorie counting worked none of us would be overweight. Excess weight is hormonal...insulin is the storage hormone and when it's constantly high you store whatever you eat. Reduce insulin through intermittent fasting or low carb diets to shift the extra weight.

It could be worse! I'm 2 inches shorter than you and weigh half a stone more
I've been on the 5:2 for nearly 2 months now and at first I lost weight rapidly but now I'm not losing weight after a fasting day and I'm gaining on the normal days.
Unlike you, though, I know if I eat what I want I will be back at 12 stone in a couple of weeks if I eat what I want.

There's a lot of research pointing to the observation that diets Do Not Work for many people. All they do is screw up your metabolism and relationship with food. Which means that you cannot possibly lose weight sustainably.

I suspect that when you’re in the “diet” frame of mind you feel deprived and so go on to overeat, whereas when you’re not dieting you exercise a bit of moderation. I’m a bit of a 5.2 evangelist so I’ll go ahead and evangelise but for lots of people the daily calories reduction approach doesn’t work, and you need to rethink.

dieting works for me as ive lost 19lbs in 5 weeks. Im actually jealous you can eat whatever and lose weight! why is that a problem?!

Surely you're close to mid ideal bmi at your current weight?

I used to find that if I tried to diet, I had less energy, and therefore moved around less.

DH and I are both overweight and are trying to tackle it. DH has joined a free course for men which promotes a healthier lifestyle rather than dieting. It seems to be working, but slowly instead of huge losses in the first two weeks. It's about calorie counting but more about being aware of what you're eating and making sure the balance of nutrients is correct, eating 5 of day veg and drinking the recommended amount of water (excessive toilet visits though!) I have lost 11lb in 6 weeks, which I'm happy with, he has lost over a stone.

We both have fitbits linked with MFP for recording food and exercise. We make sure we walk at least 10k steps a day and will be in the near future starting C25K and regular cycling (when the evenings are lighter for longer).

I will still eat the occasional takeaway but will make sure I have earned it through exercise. We are also saving money as spent a lot on junk food and takeaways before.

Maybe what you feel like is what your body needs. You are also eating what you want so stop when full.