To think I shouldn't be THIS heavy??

[Lotsofsausage]

So to start, I know I am no supermodel. Fairly tall at 5'8, size 14, smaller waist, medium bust. Fairly curvy arse/ thighs but toned. I am fit and strong and exercise 4-5x per week, including strength training.

Now I know measurements and photos are a better gauge than the scales, and muscle is meant to weigh more than fat (but I thought that was bullshit).....I am 14.5 stone! I have a friend with the same body measurements as me and same height and she is TWO STONE lighter.
Can some people just be 'heavy'???

It was a joke!

You said she’s trained herself to ‘eat very little’ I think she’s eating quite a lot.

You can’t possibly work out the calories if you don’t know the portion size.

OP - how many kg do you deadlift as part of your regular workout and what is your one rep max?

I'm 5'8, size 14-16 and 12 stone. I do cardio 3 times a week. Small boobs though

I’m tall but I have small frame - I eat a completely normal amount of food and I’ve eaten the same my entire life. Never really dieted, never counted calories,

The reason slim people are slim is because they eat less food, they want less food, they need less food.

I feel many people have lost touch with normal portions, and adequate food intake and the result is an overweight population.

Breakfast at 11am and dinner at 6pm. How is is this healthy?

Longer fasting periods are beneficial to people with higher baseline levels of insulin. It gives insulin a chance to drop, while eating something frequently keeps insulin high and effectively blocks any fat burning. So there’s a double whammy of higher calorie intake and zero fat burning. Insulin is an anabolic hormone, so will encourage fat tissue growth as long as it is present in high amounts. Conversely, lower than normal levels of insulin will make somebody waste away, literally.

Because I am predisposed to insulin resistance, if I eat ‘everything in moderation’, I will be continually stimulating my insulin production without giving it a chance to drop. Eventually I will end up diabetic type 2 like my maternal grandmother.

Almost going to size 20 gave me a jolt I needed to start looking after myself. Interestingly, there is only 10kg difference between nearly size 20 three years ago and size 14 now. BUT I have been doing weight lifting in the meantime. I actually went to 80kg initially, but put 7kg back on in the last year with my measurements going down at the same time. So not a straightforward matter of losing ‘weight’ by far.

The reason slim people are slim is because they eat less food, they want less food, they need less food.

Exactly. They eat and want less because their hormonal feedback works as it is supposed to. Not because they are somehow more virtuous.

Paradise is right - i've done calorie restricted diets without low carb and felt like i was starving. Cutting out carbs stops my spikes and troughs of glucose, so no trigger to snack, eat dessert etc. You are not starving if you dont eat junk, you're eating healthily!!?

Low carb is just a posh way of saying stop troughing doughnuts and croissants.

It's fine to eat wholemeal toast and a bit of wholemeal pasta.

Without any effort whatsoever, I fast 6 or 7 days per week for 16 hours.

Before I got pregnant, I 'fasted' 24 hours every day. It sounds unbelievable, but I would just eat one very large meal a day when I got home from work and then have nothing until the same time the next day. It was incredibly disordered and noone should do it but it worked for me with my lifestyle and lack of food breaks (couldn't eat before work coz I always feel too sick), it was the reason why my co-workers knew I was pregnant... because I started snacking in work.

I repeat though, noone should do this. It isn't healthy.

Fasting is another tool people use to achieve a calorie deficit which results in weight loss. Just like low-carbing.

Fun fact I picked up from Scott Baptie: if you are losing, you need to consume more protein to preserve muscle than you actually need protein to build muscle when bulking. (Beginner's gains aisde)

Paradise, congrats on your weight loss and training successes.

"And he can genuinely eat what the hell he likes and it doesn't make a difference in the least. I can't.

What is that, if it's not a difference in metabolism? 🤔 I'm honestly interested... He's not particularly active, has a desk job most days a week "

He's a man. Even if he's not taller than you, he'll be naturally more muscly and able to eat more.

Dr Jason Fung would disagree with you, Preqelle, as fasting is exactly how he treats and cures his diabetic type 2 patients.

I can feel how beneficial fasting is. I feel the effect for a couple of days after the 36h fast, but I can do it only occasionally as yet. My glucose dependency still has way to go, so I have to be careful not to eat trashy carbs. The downward slope will be fast.

'Low carb is just a posh way of saying stop troughing doughnuts and croissants.

It's fine to eat wholemeal toast and a bit of wholemeal pasta.'

Not for some, pasta or bread = reactive hypoglycaemia for me, which drives me to something carb/sugary to try to rectify it.

"Double it on itself and wrap it around your natural waist, around your bellybutton."

A woman's natural waist is not on the belly button though.

Thanks, Rivers, but I am not out of the woods yet. Or will ever be, unfortunately. I do still have a higher fat percentage than is ideal, but work in progress, hey.

I know what I need to do. I will be ok as long as I low carb and resistance train. So keep on keeping on 😆

@TatianaLarina I'm also quite tall 5ft10 and I was never fat in my life. The biggest I've been was a size 14 while pregnant. Otherwise I'm normally a 12. Even a 10-12 If I exercise or run. The only time I was unhealthy was when I was a size 8, only bones, because I was eating only a couple of times a day like 700 calories each meal and that's much more than a meal of 3 boiled eggs or a tin of sardines.
I don't agree with spending too much time without eating/ skipping meals or much less than the 2000 calories. I think I've got a good metabolism because I eat about the recommended calories for a woman throughout the day being the highest amount of calories when I'm more active.

Paradise most people couldn't do my job whilst fasting for as long as I do. I walk approx 20k steps a day and don't sit down all day. What I was doing was not healthy and for a lot of people could be quite dangerous. It's how I lost 3 stone but wasn't a healthy way to do it, but it wasn't really a choice either, my appetite just diminished and I didn't have time.

I am 5’7’’ and weigh 12 stone. I really want to lose a stone because I am trying to become better at a sport I am training in and it would help. Problem is I eat healthily and not a huge amount and I exercise 3-4 times a week. I usually walk over 12,000 steps a day. I just don’t know what more to do really to shift that extra stone. I know low carb works but I struggle with that now because of all the exercise I am doing and because I am allergic to milk and eggs. Any suggestions welcome?

Not for some, pasta or bread = reactive hypoglycaemia for me

I just don't believe a slice of organic wholemeal bread triggers anything. Other than the nom reflex.

Fasting/low carb is not about calories. For me, it is about keeping my insulin in check and giving me quality of life. If you don’t have and never had insulin resistance, you will struggle to see how it is relevant to you. It is very much relevant to apple shapes who put on weight round their middle and upper body and do so very easily.

Fasting is much more than calorie cutting. If you read up the research on it, it has demonstrated wide-ranging health benefits. Particularly beneficial for treating insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in general. Nuclear option, but so effective.

I just don't believe a slice of organic wholemeal bread triggers anything. Other than the nom reflex.

Of course you don’t believe it, Fazakerley, if you don’t have the insulin issue. I know exactly what OnlineAlienator is on about. White bread is the worst, but wholemeal is only marginally better.

I am sure people who binge can get triggered by certain foods and would do best to avoid them.

Choosing between wholemeal or white bread/pasta/rice, wholemeal is slower release as more fibre, so a bit better. But if you can replace it with something else, say veggies, it is ideal. We can’t be 100% all of time, as long as you are moving in the correct direction, it’s ok.

A large part of bingeing is physiological, the dopamine, fast glucose rush etc etc Behaviour is important, but it is so much easier when you don’t need to use will power. Will power often can’t stand up to extreme hunger. And that is what morbidly obese are feeling. Work to reduce the intensity of cravings and get rid of them eventually. It’s a child’s play not eating biscuits if a. you don’t want them, b. you haven’t got any in the house. You forget to eat them lol

The research shows that people who eat for pleasure/to get a kick, experience a gradual reduction in dopamine receptors over time, so end up having to up the ante to get the same kick. More doughnuts, bigger tubs of ice cream etc Brain scans demonstrate that it is an identical mechanism to addiction.

So not so easy to stop or curb.