How on earth do I lose weight? How did you?

[JustTheLemons]

Apologies for starting an AIBU but I have posted before in weight loss chat and not got much response.

I need to lose about 60 pounds, and I'm determined. I've recently got a binge eating habit under control, and for the last two weeks I've been sticking with 1500 calories a day as well as an hour long walk every lunch. I've gained 2 pounds!

I really don't understand how I can go from bingeing loads of calories a day to cutting them out and walking and gain weight! What am I doing wrong? I had been told that CICO was the easy way to do it but it's not seemingly working for me- I am now considering Atkins but I worry that's too restrictive for day to day.

Any help much appreciated!

This might not a be a popular comment but I do unfortunately have extensive experience with disordered eating. If you've just got binge eating under control (well bloody done you, not easy), then I really think plunging eat long into restricted eating is not a good idea. Disordered eating is like a spring and the pressure you put on, the harder it can spring back. Can you try and have a period of just "normalising" your eating. Learning to eat intuitively, only when hungry and allowing yourself some freedom around food? Many people think binge eating is "too much" freedom around food but it's actually the opposite and comes with its own regimented set of rules and habits. I do think if you go from one set of rules to another you won't fully recover. Try focusing on being active and drinking lots of water. Eat foods that you recognise make your body feel good. Eat fewer of those that don't. And build on it. You will not be able to change yourself physically long-term until you make the psychological changes needed. I wish you lots and lots of luck.

Best advice I’d give would be to ignore the calories and look at carbohydrates. I lost an incredible amount of weight by cutting my carbs to 40-60g per meal 3 meals a day. This was while still including one snack at no more than 10g of carbohydrates.

It limits all fizzy or sweet drinks to diet or sugar free and cuts out chocolate but I lost a stone in 3 months.

I am doing a low carb diet at the moment, not no carbs as I love eating fruit. For me the key is not feeling deprived, I drink shed loads of water too. I have dropped a stone in the last month but over 6 weeks have lost 2 inches off my waist, hips and thighs. Diet alone will not help you when you have a lot of weight to lose, up the ante with yoga or cardio. Start slow and then go at your own pace your fitness levels will improve. Good luck

Don't cut out breakfast!

That's a bad idea. Cut out bread, potatoes, rice and pasta and don't eat too much fruit.

Don't eat after 6 pm until breakfast time.

I have lost nearly six stone over eighteen months by doing this.

I didn't increase my exercise at all and do very little.

Every so often I do VLCB for 5 - 6 days. It isn't sustainable for any longer IMO.

But just having coffee for breakfast is not the way to go, OP. Good luck.

If you need a complete reset, and massive kickstart I highly recommend Jason Vale's Super Juice me diet. The first few days are really tough but after that it's fine.
Making the juices are a bit of a faff, but I just told myself, it's only 28 days. I did it mid April to mid May, and lost 17lbs initially. The weight has stayed off so far (in fact I'm another few pounds down) and I'm back eating 'normally' again. Although my normal doesn't include nearly as much chocolate and sugar as I just don't want them.

You do NOT need to go down to 1200 kcals to lose weight.

Go to James Smith Academy (free to sign up), use the calculator on there. You need to input your weight, height and activity level. It will tell you your maintenance kcals and kcals you want to aim to eat to lose weight.
Then log everything - and I mean everything, even that splash of milk in your tea - in Myfitnesspal. Weigh everything because I suspect you may be thinking you're only eating 1500kcals but your portions are bigger than you think.

I weighed 60kg on May 1st. Today I weigh 55.3kg. I've not done anything drastic, just kept my kcals to my target of 1450.

I'm 5ft 2in and with my current weight and activity level (light - I go to the gym 3 times a week but have an office job) my TDEE is 1675 and kcal target to continue to lose fat is 1423. Within my kcals I make sure I eat at least 90g of protein. I don't care about fat/carbs split but protein for me is key.

Oh and take photos and measurements as well as checking the scales (and if you are going to use the scales, either do it every day or just once a month, not once a week)

Maybe you need to give it more time.

I've gone from 13st 10lb to 10st 2lb since April last year, using MFP only. It gave me 1560 cals a day, but I didn’t drop a dress size for about six months, even though my weight was going down.

1200 is too little for sustaining long term with the weight you have to lose.
Follow Team RH and James Smith Academy on Facebook/Insta.
You need to give yourself more time, weight fluctuates and your starting weight may not have been accurate or your muscles are retaining some water weight from the extra activity, this will go when your muscles are less tender. Time of month makes a difference as does toilet issues.
I know you say you're exact with weighing but the calories in your breakfast alone sound low considering there's seeds and a banana in there too. Lunch similar considering there's mayo and veggie crisps, they may all be low calorie versions but they're the sort of thing where an extra few grams will add calories, same with the banana, their size varies hugely so calories will too.
It sounds like you're in the right mindset, making the right changes and choices, don't panic or doubt yourself so soon, keep doing what you're doing but tweaking it along the way. No disrespect to anyone here but you need more than just random figures thrown at you for what works for other people.
Find your TEED and Bmr and work from there.
Best of luck, I still have similar to lose so maybe we can motivate each other.

Dont cut out meals especially not breakfast. Just go for something with protein in that will keep you full, your porridge is great. I would have something much much lighter than your lasagne and swop the latte for actual food.

I've just lost 10lbs this month. I eat

Breakfast: small amount of fruit, nuts and a tea
Lunch (I have it early): fish and salad
Afternoon : small bit of avocado and 2 crackers
Dinner : hello fresh box which is usually under 500 calories.

I only drink water but loads and loads of it - about 3 litres. (I'm bf ing too)

I walk for two hours with pram and do a very strong yoga class two or three times a week.

It's working for me. Good luck!

@JustTheLemons

Your daily diet as listed would be more than I eat to maintain my weight. I'd gain on that.

You don't need carbs at every meal.

Swap the sandwich for a salad- tuna and salad veg but no bread.
Ditch the crisps.

Keep pasta ( lasagne) as a weekly treat and cut out carbs (refined ones) from main meals.

Stick to things like a salmon fillet, baked cod/ haddock, stir fry chicken, lentil or chickpea -based dishes, omelettes, grilled steak or whatever.

Weigh the oats for the porridge. Under 300 cals sound quite low if it's made with milk and you have added a banana.

How many grams oats was that? Aim for no more than 30gms.

Make sure you drink lots of water too!!
That’s my tip.
I’m fat so you don’t want any ideas from me but I know that when I was dieting it always helped when I was drinking my full quota of water! Xx

@AnastasiaVonBeaverhausen this is kind of my thinking at the moment with having a sandwich for lunch- I know it's not the healthiest option but it keeps my brain in a good place. I definitely am wary of tipping myself backwards but I also feel so uncomfortable the size I am.

@JinglingHellsBells I think carbs is key here, you are right. The oats are 40g so will cut that back- I dont make them with milk, I use a little protein powder instead as it makes them milky with less calories! I definitely rely on easy, carby dinners so will add in a stir fry and some more fish. Currently eating salmon once a week.

So less carbs and less indulgent dinners is key I think. I have some meal planning to do!

Thanks everyone, I love mumsnet for this kind of support!

I lost my baby weight (20kg+) by walking LOADS (absolute minimum 10,000 steps a day), drinking lots of water and not snacking. No starch after lunchtime so no pasta, bread, rice, potatoes etc...with dinner. Just meat/fish with lots of veg...no desserts/sweets etc...

Good luck!

Check out Mas2Fit app on PlayStore. It gives you weekly shopping lists, meal plan, macros explained etc for 3 meals a day 2 snacks and a pudding and still be in calorie deficit because they use high quantity low calorie dense foods. It also has daily workouts to do with their personal trainer within the app, its HIIT so only 15 mins but super burn! I've lost eight kilos since I started using it! The most common mistake is to not correctly count calories, or think the type of exercises you are doing are using more calories and are more efficient that they actually are

I've lost 37lb in the last few months and am still going as although I'm now a healthy bmi, I want to get down to a comfortable size 10.

First find out your BMR which is your resting calories needed to maintain your weight as you are.
Then you need to deduct 500 cals a day to lose 1lb a week. More cals reduced means more weight loss.

Walking (even for 2 hrs) won't lose you any weight unless your heart rate is up for the entire time, so it's good to discount calories burned during exercise and if you do burn a good amount then it's added bonus.

My BMR is 1400 calories. So I'm currently on 700-800 cals a day.

Carbs make you retain water, giving you weight on scales and making you look bloated so if you can avoid I would.

I currently skip breakfast,
Meal 1 350-400 cals at 1pm
Meal 2 350-400 cals at 5/6pm

Drink tonnes of water. It'll fill you up and flush you out.

I also exercise for 1-1.5hrs 5 times a week.

I know I'll get slated here but I'm happy with my progress and I'll do what I have to until I get the results I want.

I spent years being overweight, binge eating, addicted to junk food, laying about, inactive.
It's nice to be able to tie my shoe laces comfortably, run up the stairs without getting out of breath, play ball games with my children without making excuses.

At the end of the day I still have enough fat on me to not starve to death.
The feeling of hunger late at night or in the morning isn't going to kill me, I'm a grown adult, I can live a few hours without food.

I also don't have any cheat meals. Not worth it.

I follow FrancisDiet on Instagram, he's a coach, I'm not signed up to him but I love watching his stories and highlights, loads of free information, he's absolutely straight talking and brutal about weight loss. But he's really opened my eyes up to what it takes to get yourself healthy.

Sorry for the essay

What worked for me:

• Exercise every day. Burn at least 500 cals. One day a week burn over 700 cals. No excuses, no "I don't feel like it today". Go to bed an hour earlier, get up an hour earlier and do it first thing in the morning.

• Don't eat anything that isn't part of a meal. No snacks, ice creams, chocolate, elevenses, etc etc.

• Eat out no more than once per month (includes takeaways).

• Other than that, just eat what you normally would at mealtimes.

Clearly this wouldn't work for everybody but for me it gave me some real goals to live to, didn't put me on a 'diet', and didn't leave me feeling hungry the whole time. Weight loss is slow, but consistent - probably about 1-2lb per month. I have lost over 3 stone this way and by building my lifestyle around it I've been able to keep it off for over ten years.

I lost around a stone just doing intermittent fasting, I ate only between 12 and 8, Usually 2 meals per day.
In the last week I have followed an eating plan of....

only whole foods
nothing processed
no grains
no sugar (other than the natural sugars in fruit etc)
All dairy and meat is organic and grass fed
no snacks
Only tea, Coffee and water to drink.

Lost 6lbs last week, Wasn't hungry once.
I still have around three stone to lose, But am very happy eating like this.
Lost 3 inches off my belly in the last week as well.

I find the only way to lose or even maintain is to cut out breakfast. Just have a cup of tea or coffee instead. Its worked for me for years! I've tried adding a small breakfast sometimes, but within a week the pounds are creeping on again.

Cross post with Movin

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Carb free. It falls off.

After trying and trying unsuccessfully to lose weight, I found I was hypothyroid. and once I started taking thyroxine the weight came away easily.

I’m the same as @Goldenapples

I’m only just over the normal weight bracket for my height, but i need to lose 2st to be at a proportionate weight for my build.

I have tried many diets over the last 15 years. The only thing that works for me is to cut calories to about 700-800 a day and exercise 6 days. I do a mix of circuit training and treadmill walking- i walk for an hour, sometimes 2 as i can do all my little jobs or watch tv on my phone while doing so. I walk at 5.5 kph, hr at 130-140.

I did check my bmi the other day and they had a calorie calculator. To lose 2lb a week i need 500/day cals if sedentary, 700 if i exercise 3-4/week, 900 if i do 5-6 days a week, and 1300 training like an elite athlete.

Sounds insane but in practice i’d say it’s right.

People have to find what works for them. In short consuming less (calories) than you are out putting (burning off) is the only way to lose weight sustainably.

I find, lurking, this forum is very derogatory about Slimming World, it worked for me. It isn't rocket science that once you get to where you want to be (target weight) if you return to old (poor) eating habits, weight will pile back on. Some posters cant grasp this and see it as a fault of SW.

@Goldenapples - your BMR isn't the amount needed to maintain your weight, it's the absolute minimum your body would require just to exist, i.e. what you would need if you were say in a coma. Your TDEE is your maintenance number, and it includes all the steps, fidgeting and other energy use that comes from just day to day life. If your BMR is 1400 and you don't do any exercise, your TDEE is still probably 1600-1700. 1.5 hours of exercise 5 times a week is probably putting you at at least 2000. For a pound a week the 500 should come off that.

Just mentioning because 700-800 cals doesn't sound fun and you can afford to eat a bit more if you want to! It's great that you've seen progress but it might not be sustainable, and you might struggle when you hit a plateau that usually happens, as you can't take your cals any lower.

I do agree with one thing you wrote very much - that feeling of hunger isn't going to kill you. I think we forget that we're meant to be hungry.