To give you my biggest tip on losing/maintaining a slim weight?

[Dooleydally]

Prepared to be flamed for this because of waste.

Basically I don’t eat everything on my plate. Sometimes I do but a lot of the time I don’t.

I do care about wasting food but then I think about the masses of waste that goes on in farming, factories, supermarkets etc.

And if you think about how much money is spent on the dieting industry, it seems to be a paradox in terms of expense/waste.

We have chickens, so any leftover food is gratefully gobbled up by them = zero waste :D

Apparently, every time you feed your chickens leftovers, you are breaking the law.

" Technically you can get two years in prison for feeding your pet hen kitchen scraps. Hens are livestock and the law doesn’t differentiate between home owners with a couple of birds and agribusiness operations with 100,000 birds. "

www.lowimpact.org/whats-wrong-with-feeding-food-waste-to-chickens-and-other-livestock/

DisgruntledGuineaPig**
You hit the nail on the head.
It is a learning process for so many of us.
I need to resist the diet traps ( if it works long term for you congratulations, I mean it with no sarcasm as A) it's bloody hard and B) it makes you one of the 5% who can keep the weight off after more than a couple of years).
But for people like me who have an unhealthy relationship with food, giving yourself permission to eat, and knowing when you're full instead of overeating, is something we need to work on.
We are not idiots. We know that of course eating less and moving more will lead to a calorie deficit and to weight loss, as long as our metabolism is not impeded by health conditions, hormones etc.
Of course this knowledge helps you lose weight.
It doesn't mean you will maintain the weight loss though.
Anyway my username says it all... I have decided that I was done dieting. I want to repair my relationship with food, with my body and my life.
I heat plenty of healthy food but I love wine and burritos.
I run, I walk.
I am making peace with being a bigger size that I'd like.
I have decided that life is too short.

How about not putting more on your plate than you need? Even simpler. If you ignore the complex factors that affect appetite, that is.

Hmm. I got carried away in my previous post. My point is, yes, the OP is not coming up with anything groundbreaking but it can be useful to those who are done with diets or who still think not clearing your plate is an unforgivable sin.
Again, in theory it sounds simple and obvious. In practice most of us can't do it long term. Otherwise most of us would indeed keep the weight off.

I absolutely agree OP! If you want pork belly and trifle when you're out just eat smaller portions of it! I eat what I want but only as much as I want. If it can be kept till later (bag of crisps) I will. If not it goes in the bin. Wasteful? Well supermarkets sell set pack sizes and I divvy up and freeze where I can but sometimes it just needs to not be eaten!

STOP TELLING PEOPLE TO EAT LESS MOVE MORE. IF IT WORKED NOBODY WOULD BE FAT.

Most people are fat because they don't eat less.

So your weight loss ‘tip’ (and I’m being extremely polite when I use that word) is to cook or order large portions of food and then throw most of it away? I think I’ve officially lost faith in humanity.

STOP TELLING PEOPLE TO EAT LESS MOVE MORE. IF IT WORKED NOBODY WOULD BE FAT.

What??

Of course it works, people just have to actually do it though.

And of course the 'less' depends on how much less in order for it to work.

I rationalise that there’s more waste going on beyond my control

This is so mindless. It’s the same stupid thinking which stops people trying to reduce their carbon footprint because power stations are still burning coal so what’s the point. Do you still use a different plastic bag every time you go shopping and a different disposable cup every time you have a drink.?

Food waste is one of the single biggest contributors to climate change:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48257019

www.worldwildlife.org/stories/fight-climate-change-by-preventing-food-waste

Stop being so mindless and just put less food one your plate and get more exercise.

^STOP TELLING PEOPLE TO EAT LESS MOVE MORE. IF IT WORKED NOBODY WOULD BE FAT.

What??

Of course it works, people just have to actually do it though^

LOL. Have we done 'the NHS food plate is wrong, it's full of carbs, that's why people are overweight, it's not their fault, the advice is wrong' yet?

Because all the overweight people are following the NHS food plate to the letter aren't they?

If 'eat less move more' doesn't work then we're well on the way to solving the world energy crisis if there's people out there who can extract more energy to store as fat than is contained within the food they eat.

We.overeat because of the taste. If food tasted bad, we would need t overeat. If only there was something to coat the tongue(kind of like the one we paint on nails to stop kids biting them) and make food tasteless we would all be thin!

Why not have the restaurant box up half your meal and save it for lunch the next day? Or save a portion of what you've cooked yourself to eat later on in the week? You don't have to eat it all in one sitting, but I don't see any need to waste it.

Initially I was a bit at the OP’s post but now she’s made it clear she’s taking about food served to her it makes sense.

And there’s no reason she should have to cut out all puddings, losing weight is about finding a lifestyle that works. She should have trifle (although OP can you ask for a half portion but say you’ll pay for a full one? I know someone who does that.)

I do tend to eat most of what’s on my plate at restaurants because I’m at my maintenance weight now and I’m careful about treat meals. But I love pizza and now I almost never eat the “pizza bones”. So those get left. (Although my OH tends to eat them.)

If I don’t finish a meal, I put it in Tupperware and have it later or the next day. If there is leftover veg, I blitz it up into soup.
I am not averse to asking for a doggy bag in restaurants either.

If you ever watch Gogglebox it’s really obvious what’s wrong with us as a nation. People stuffing themselves with crap whilst they watch crap TV. Plates of doughnuts and crisps. It’s the same at the cinema . Why do people feel they need to eat constantly all day long? This never used to be the case. Remote controlled everything, even hoovers now means people could just sit virtually all day eating and drive everywhere. It’s actually revolting and so far from what life was like when we were hunter gatherers. Our bodies are not intended to live the way we do. Going to the gym for an hour three times a week and then sitting all the time isn’t really going to compensate.

If you ever watch Gogglebox it’s really obvious what’s wrong with us as a nation. People stuffing themselves with crap whilst they watch crap TV. Plates of doughnuts and crisps. It’s the same at the cinema .

That is part of their contract. In addition to a smallish payment they also receive food. If you look they are rarely eating it. It is part of the show.

If you look they are rarely eating it.

I don't think I've ever seen them eating it. I thought it was some kind of set dressing.

Oh really!

I read something really interesting, I think it was on here. Don't wait until your really hungry before eating or you will eat loads, have a little snack about half an hour before you eat then you won't eat as much, tried it and it worked.
It doesn't matter when you eat, morning, dinner or late at night it's all about calorie deficit.
I move a lot but I also eat way too much crap therefore I maintain my weight but don't lose.

And because it's almost the norm to be fat now there's no shame in it anymore. I look at facebook and most of my younger 'friends' on there are fat as are their friends. If all your friends are fat then you'll feel it's ok and you'll also feel like the thin one, when in reality you're fat.

And because it's almost the norm to be fat now there's no shame in it anymore.

Society still shames fat people. You don’t honestly think it doesn’t?

Dp and I have always shared restaurant desserts. To start with it was romantic (think Lady and the Tramp), then it was to save the pennies and now it is because we are fat bastards always trying to diet. But agree, always ask for the leftovers to be boxed up. Delicious fridge raiding the next day.

Channel 4 did a series called something like 'the secrets of slim people', which was a sort of reverse 'secret eaters' type programme, so instead of the people who 'lived on salad but couldn't understand why they were overweight, especially as they had a physical job' where the woman was a traffic warden on the high street who couldn't walk past Greggs without going in to buy a pasty, it featured the people who appararently lived on junk food but were slim. It's probably still on their catch up service.

Like secret eaters, they logged everything the people ate for a few days, and time after time, the big secret was ........ they didn't actually eat that much .

The people generally didn't eat 3 big meals a day, didn't snack, stopped when they were full, if they had something like a pizza or other takeaway, saved a lot of it for later, didn't drink lots of calories, basically didn't do any of the things that make people overweight.

They calculated all their calories, and it was, with only one exception, less than 2000 calories a day and less than what they said that person burned given their sex, weight, activity level etc.

There was one woman who apparently ate more than she burned, and it couldn't be explained, but of all the other people in the series, the big secret was that they just didn't overeat.

I think, unless you eat in a restaurant once a week or more, then eating what's on your plate when you go out isn't that big a sin.

A lot of us only eat out for birthdays/anniversaries/special occasions, and I love eating food that I'd never cook for myself - it's a treat.

The rest of the time I don't snack, exercise five days a week and don't eat crap. It means I look forward to those meals out far more than I would if I ate whatever I wanted all the time. It makes it a 'proper' treat, rather than 'something you do'.

The programme I follow is amazing and cannot fault it. Too many of these quick fix diets around and it boils my head!

The shake diet is a quick fix diet! As you said yourself, you’ve consistently put the weight back on again when you’ve come off the diet.