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!

There is a lot of just dreadful advice in this thread. It is simple, if you are not losing weight you are either eating too much or retaining water. 1500 calories a day is not a big enough deficit for most women. You need to get a bit more scientific. If you are doing CICO and work out your TDEE and what your daily deficit will be. You need 500 cals a day deficit to lose 1lb a week (3500 cals = 1lb). Find a tdee calc and start from there. The loseit board on reddit is an invaluable starting point

Sorry should say 1500 cals a day doesn't give a big enough deficit for most women

I've lost over 35lb since March, firstly with 12 weeks of Fast 800, then with still restricting calories to 1200 or less a day, but I think the real clincher is cutting carbs out almost completely. I had a sandwich this week for the first time in months and I felt so uncomfortable and bloated afterwards. It didn't even taste that nice either which was annoying! I also bought myself a decent-ish new bike and have been going on 3 - 4 bike rides a week, ensuring I burn over 600 calories on each ride. It's a really pleasant way to exercise, I enjoy it much more than the gym. It helps that there are a number of pretty, safe cycle paths right near me though. So in summary, I eat less, move more and avoid carbs. It hasn't been easy, but it also hasn't been as horrendous as I expected. Best of luck to you.

My answer, go see a dietician/nutritionist. I'm not dieting, I've found out what I was eating wrong and re-educated myself. Knowledge is power! It's really slow this way,but I'm so much healthier. And 1.5stone down in 6 months. Thing is about this is it's changed my mindset. I don't deny myself or measure, just very conscious of when I am full, don't mind leaving food etc. It's a way of life rather than a diet that I will stop at some point. I have a way to go yet! I cycle lots and when I'm upping training close to a sportive I stop losing and plateau, I assume because of muscle.

This won’t be popular but I used a product similar to juice plus/Herbalife. There was nothing in the milkshakes to help me lose weight- just the cost motivated me to stick to it and the big loss the first couple of weeks spurred me on.
I sacked it off after the first stone or so then carried on to lose almost 3 stone with low calorie eating and exercise. That was 4 years ago and I’ve not regained- I am just more mindful of what I eat now.

Intermittent fasting! I do 16:8 and it has been life changing, lost plenty of weight and no longer crave carbs. There’s a book called “Delay, Don’t Deny” which it explains it really well and the author has a great facebook group for support.

If you like food and want to lose weight then lift weights.

You can even eat Carbs.

Because we do so little exercise a walk up may seem a lot but a generation ago we'd do that to get to work and start our physically active day.

Gym classes do make a difference as well. Especially non traditionally female ones, boxercise, Mauythai etc.

But for weight loss you need to drop down to 1200.

There is no quick way to lose weight otherwise there wouldn't be such a market for things like SlimFast and "Take this tablet and drop a dress size"! The ONLY way to lose weight safely and for long term is to burn more calories than you are eating and be prepared to do this for the rest of your life ! And its 24/7 too not, as I discovered, 24/5 then stuff your face at the weekend or be more relaxed about weighing stuff out, thereby undoing all the good work of the previous 5 days!!!!

As PP have said, your hour long walk will burn minimum calories. I work out hard in the gym for an hour each morning, end up literally dripping with sweat (its disgusting!!) and can just about burn 500 cals according to a HRM. I have to be very careful not to respond to my post gym hunger pangs or I would easily eat well over this just for breakfast.

As PP have also said, cut right down on processed carbs like bread, pasta, rice, cakes, biscuits especially if youre over 30! As a society we eat far more now than we need and portion sizes are way too big.

Slimming World

Then 5:2. Highly recommend 5:2 or 16:8. So easy!

You need to read “101 ways to lose weight and never find it again” by Scott Baptie. It is a good book for changing your lifestyle and losing weight in the process, but better as it is a lifestyle change so should maintain forever.

IF works better than CICO as it’s about regulating your insulin levels and burning fat.

Check out MAS2FIT app on Playstore. It give you weekly shopping lists, meal plan, macros explained etc for 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and one pudding, and still be in calorie deficit because they use high quantity low calorie dense foods. It 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 than they actually are!

You really have to stop eating as many calories.

Definitely low carb ( not Atkins because it makes you obsess about food). Any Michael Moseley ones because he’s one of the few people to actually say “ it’s ok to not eat very much”. Which as someone who’s is overweight, we need to be reassured about!

Just eat less and exercise more. That's the hard truth. Anything else has never worked for me.

2 big salads a day with no bread/potatoes/beans/pulses or rice. My favourites are chicken, shaved Parmesan, avocado & butterhead lettuce, or roasted Mediterranean veg with feta, or sliced steak & tomatoes & blue cheese - all with lots of raw veg

• slimfast shake for breakfast if you’re like me & cant manage breakfast
• switch wine for vodka & soda with fresh lime & mint
• or be really motivated and join the low carb boot camp thread on here !

What I dont understand about cutting out carbs is... Lots of countries that eat tons of rice have very low obesity rates... Carbs have been the staple of most diets historically without causing obesity. I'm confused

Modern developed societies have a more sedentary lifestyle. Asian countries eat a lot of rice but many people are involved in physical labour, no cars or reliable public transport, etc. Even in developing cities in a China you see people pushing hand carts to deliver goods not driving trucks for example.

FWIW I agree that rhe calories posted sound low. The average latte is more likely 100-160 calories, for example. I think somewhere in working out what you eat there's been a bit of an error- which is probably why you're not dropping weight.

If running works for you, then why not try getting up an hour earlier and running before work? It'll be cool enough then and raising your heart rare at the start of the day is good for weight loss.

I think you'll have to cut down on what you're eating a bit more- if skipping breakfast is the easiest way for you to do that then go for it!

Wow, that's a lot of conflicting advice!

For everyone questioning my calories, I am definitely not miscounting. My latte is one of those nescafe instant sachet ones. My lasagne was homemade with only 2 layers to keep calories down, low fat cheddar, low fat pork mince bulked out with mushrooms etc.

For everyone saying salads, the problem with that is it triggers my binge eating- I will go looking for something else if I eat a salad for lunch.

@edgeofheaven this is what I need to do for sure. For a few months I was getting up at 6:30 and running 5k every morning, I felt great. I've thrown my sleeping patterns out of whack so I'm struggling to wake up even at 7:45 now so I need to sort that out.

@JustTheLemons if you're on Instagram a very helpful lady to follow is as per the pic attached. Some great meal ideas and she has done amazingly well.

Sorry I meant to tag @Jayblue on that last point about morning running!

Darkstar: IF is cico. So is low carb and any other diet you can think of. The only way to lose weight is to make your intake of energy less than what your body uses.

Have you thought about something like this?

As a pp said, disordered eating is like a spring : push it down and it springs back stronger. Eg push down binge eating and up pops some other food/body compulsion. It's endless ime.

So so good to leave all that behind. And drop 3st+ very easily.

@Darkstar4855 sorry but that is nonsense, there is no scientific evidence that IF does that. Don’t get me wrong, it works for certain people but because they then eat less calories in total.
You can’t argue with Physics, you have to burn more calories than take in, it is the only way you can lose weight. All the other diets, if/when they work are doing so because you end up eating less calories.
OP it’s hard, and good in you for starting, but it’s not a miracle cure, it takes time and your body might be keeping water due to the hot weather, your hormones can make your weight fluctuate. You might have weighed your self at the beginning and then gone up 4lb in the next couple of days due to the days before your diet started. Make a choice to change your life but they say 95% of people put on more weight once the diet ends, I think this is an arbitrary % but the sentiment is true, a high percentage of people who do faddy or restrictive diets end up more over weight 5 years later.
IF can work though but it would mean you would have to have your 1400 calories in an 8 hour window, I would be hell to live with for the other 16

@JustTheLemons

Something else I also did was create an Instagram account, its totally private, nobody follows me but I follow loads and loads of people who have had a "weight loss transformation" and people into their exercise/healthy eating etc

I also post once a week my weight and a photo of me in my underwear front on and sideways on. Its so useful to have a visual log, on weeks where I may have put on a few pounds I scroll back to my first few posts to see how far I have come. Nobody has to see it other than you

Lower your calories to 1200. Also bear in mind that My Fitness Pal can be slightly out with their calories, sometimes too high and sometimes too low, Google search and there are articles stating why.

Also move more, a walk a day just isn't enough. We've gone from a lifestyle not too many decades ago where people worked in more labour intensive jobs, walked everywhere, walked to public transport etc to everyone driving everywhere now, we all move less than we did a few generations ago so therefore an hours walk is just not enough.

Eat less, move more

if youve suffered binge eating disorder i wouldnt cut out breakfast.becasue tht could cause major low in blood sugar and for someone who has ssuffered it would cause a trigger to binge.id try have smaller meals consistantly.so that need to binge doesnt return.that way your always in control and satisfied that your feeding yourself something.
try and get some more fruits and veggies in their.these can bulk up lots of things