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!

I've lost about 19kg since having Alex, it's taken me longer than I would have liked, as I kept being lazy, making excuses, and falling off the healthy eating wagon (having a poorly baby or a bad teething stint was normally to blame) basically, just not getting my shit together 😂

I can only talk for myself here, but I can't imagine simply walking, would do a great deal to shift weight. I exercise every day when not working, I do exercise classes when the husband is free to watch the baby, or I pop him in crèche (I'm lucky my gym has one!!)
If I can't get to classes, I go for a run, with the baby in his (secondhand!) Running buggy!
I also find just eating clean (high protein, low carb) helped weight loss is apparently 80% diet 20% exercise (although in sure my exercise has played a big part in helping!)
I've had foods like.....
Protein shakes (quick and easy for a bad day with the baby!)
Protein smoothies (smoothie with protein powder i.e blueberry, raspberry, avocado, spinach and chia seeds) I make a batch and have as meals
Overnight oats
Meals with chicken, veg, and quinoa, rather than pasta, potato or bread

The keto diet works well for an initial boost
As does the 16/8 diet (fasting for 16 hours, eating during an 8 hour period)

Good luck

Kim Beach diet. 8 weeks. I felt great afterwards. I've put it all back on though :(

I need to lose about 2/3 of my body weight. I fully agree with the 'eat less move more' idea. In theory. In practice though I've never found a type of exercise that's not extremely boring and these days it's all just painful as well.
I also need to work out how to remember not to eat, how to stop when I'm full and how to remember to forget about food.

I’ve found MFP to be the most helpful as you can eat normally but be more disciplined. I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of cutting out food groups etc (but that works well for some). I’ve got about 2 stone of baby weight to try and shift. The first stone should come off easy but I know I’ll find the next stone harder and that will require exercise as well as diet.

MFP is good because you can eat what you want but say if you have a cake well it takes lots of your calories up...and it makes you think. Maybe better to eat more of stuff like that as you can then eat more. I tried LCHF but hated the fatty food, and then low fat means high carb and lots of sugar ups and downs.

1500 is too much.

This is not true. An average woman needs around 2000 calories per day. I think 1500 is pretty low, depending on how active you are. My advice is to focus on building muscle - the more muscle I have in my body, the easier it is to maintain my weight. Personally, I think that weight loss isn't the best goal - it's possible to lose weight quickly, and unhealthily, and then not be able to sustain it. It's difficult to build muscle in an unhealthy way (drugs aside), as it requires the right fuel, sleep, training and rest.

The NHS recommends 1400 cals a day which it says is based on NICE guidance. and OP is quite tall so sounds about right, to me. (1500) Depends how fast you want o lose weight. I think to burn 1 lb, it is around 2500 cals so that would be around 500 cals a day so roughly 1lb a week. Around a stone in 3 months. Not bad. Two weeks is too soon to judge.

Exactly. Though I remember on another thread about how active you are, some people hardly seemed to move, and considered 5000 steps a day a lot, whereas I do at least 12,000 and on two or three days a week 20,000. I suspect the 1200 calorie target which all the apps seem to magically conjure up, is because most people are so sedentary and also undercalculate their calories by a third. They are probably eating about 1500 and losing weight. My recommended calorie intake to maintain weight is 2,200, no wonder I get hungry on 1,000 less a day.

The NHS guide looks quite helpful = here www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/start-the-nhs-weight-loss-plan/

1744 for me on the NHS plan. Sounds doable, but I'm pretty sure I eat less than that already.

The NHS plan kind of looks sustainable for a longer time. Might retrain me to eat better in general instead of up and down. MFP is kind of similar I guess.

I was always slim when I didn't have a car, walked everywhere, did lots of sports, ate exactly what I liked

Compared to having a car, doing a sedentary shift work job. Eating at odd times like 3am on night shift. Doing less exercise

So for me, exercise was the key

I know a few people who did one of those shake diets, no solid food. They lost the weight and always put it back on again, when they ate normally.Repeat, repeat
So you probably need to make some lifestyle changes, rather than do a fad diet

Hi OP,

It's very unlikely that the weight you've put on is fat if you've cut out binge-eating, been eating 1500 calories and walking for an hour a day (which is amazing!-well done).

It could be fluid retention, which varies by time of day; hormonal fluctuations (which can cause 3-5lb weight gain during ovulation as well as PMS); liquid content in the food you have eaten (e.g. fruit and pasta weight heavily in terms of fluid).

I weigh myself in the morning daily but if I weigh myself later in the day I'm 3lbs heavier and sometimes my weight goes randomly up by 2-3lbs one morning and then back down the next- usually this coincides with having eaten pasta the night before!

Just keep doing what you're doing. Reduce to 1200 cals if you are able but don't stress too much as it could lead to binge-eating.

Try to avoid using apps like My Fitness Pal, they put every person (regardless of size, height, etc) at 1,200 cals per day
This is not true @mewk. I’m using MFP and as I’m tall and have a lot to ,one it started me at 1990. I told it my weight and what I wanted to lose (0.8kg/week). I lost a bit faster than that, have now lost 1 stone 4lbs and am on 1840kcals per day. Still losing. I go to the gym twice. Week for about an hour - 20mins cardio then weights. I try to go for a walk another day but often don’t. There’s some rubbish here about having to do loads of exercise and cut down to 1200 or 1000kcals. It all depends on your height and weight. I have an under active thyroid, too.

I’ve found a high fat, no/low carb diet works the best and cutting out alcohol entirely. I lost 1.5 stone in 11 weeks.

I'm 5'6" and naturally slim (before having 2 kids that is) and I can only lose weight by consuming no more than 1300 calories per day, keeping under 49g of sugar and exercising 4 times a week for 1.5 hours at a time (cardio and weights). I also use the My Fitness Pal app like others on here, otherwise I lose track of how bad for me certain things are!

Fitbit reduces the calories I can eat when I log that I've lost weight - make sense that you need more calories to maintain a larger body. Also adds more on if I do a lot more exercise.

Have you worked out your Basic Metabolic Rate? There are calculators online you can use.

That will give you an indication of your recommended calorie intake. If you are a larger, then this normally starts out higher and reduces as you lose weight, so if you use it make sure you routinely check it as you lose weight.

Muscle replaces fat so don't get too hung up on the scales if you are doing exercise at the same time.

Low starchy carb, high protein, lots of veg, low sugar generally works for your calorie consumption.

Basal not basic!

I run 3 times a week and do resistance training 2-3 times a week. During the week I eat fruit for breakfast, salads, a healthy curry type meal for dinner and a protein bar as a treat on an evening. At the weekend I do allow myself a glass of wine or an ice cream. It’s been slow but the weight is coming off. Sometimes I just have to put up with being a bit hungry. I’ll have a glass of water and then distract myself with something. My body is happy at a size 14 but I want to be a 10-12 so I have to constantly work at it.

I lost 4 stone last year.
1200 calories a day.
Cut out sugar.
Stopped snacking.
Reduced portion sizes.
3 meals a day.
Ate loads of veg, unrefined carbs (cut out white carbs completely). Lean protein. Drank loads of water (still do).
Now maintain on around 1500 a day (but I am late 50s).
Good luck OP.

I'm doing a loose version of 16:8 at the moment, I find it easy to not eat breakfast until 11 ish (I do drink coffee with milk all morning to stop me feeling hungry) then I still have lunch and dinner by 7pm, three meals. I know snacking in between meals is my downfall so eating three meals close together completely stops this.
I tried lots of diets/healthy eating before this but my chocolate cravings always got the better of me! Its funny I only get cravings when I have begun to eat so this has been amazing for me as I have made no other changes to my diet, just the timing.
Lost 10lb on it so far.