... to tell you that diets don't work for everyone

[Wroxie]

Today is my 9 month anniversary of tracking every bite of food that's gone into my mouth, with the exception noted below:

My birthday (one day in which I had, as I remember, pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, no lunch, and fish and chips + a couple of donuts for dinner).

And that's it. I don't drink alcohol. No takeaways. No restaurants. Nothing that I didn't weigh, portion, and track faithfully. Even when I bake or make something from a recipe, every ingredient is weighed and the calories per serving calculated. I skip breakfast during the week and have normal, healthy food and smallish portions for lunch and dinner.

I eat, on average, 1,100 calories per day. I have a desk job but I walk for 30 minutes to an hour nearly every day.

Before this, my diet was pretty bad - takeaways 3-4 times per week, pastries for breakfast, sandwich with crisps and chocolate at lunch, biscuits whenever I felt like it- probably more than 2,500 calories most days (I'm 5'3" so that is A LOT).

And now, nine months later, I have gone from 13 stone to 12.3 stone. That's a grand total of ten pounds lost on an extremely restricted diet- and it was all within the first two months.

Please don't give me diet advice - no, I'm not in 'starvation mode' (because that's a complete myth). No, I don't need to 'cut carbs'. Seriously, I do not want your advice. What I want is to point out that, the next time you're tempted to say something asinine like 'it's just about calories in vs calories out' or to dismiss or vilify or judge someone based on their weight, to realise that the human body is not a two-stroke lawnmower engine and weight, food, activity, hormones, age, genes, and a million other factors are at play. Losing weight isn't simple and even with all the willpower in the world - which I have demonstrated - it isn't always possible.

I'm not giving up. I have gotten used to eating this way and I actually feel like my blood sugar is more regulated (no 'sinking feeling' a few hours after eating a big lunch, for example) and I know that as I get older, it will be better to, at the very least, not get any fatter. That, at least, I can probably do. But nothing short of eating less than 1000 calories per day or surgery or medication are going to get me to a 'normal' BMI.

That is unusual 1100 calories is nothing, would you think about seeing a nutritionist or something like that? maybe what you're eating isn't suiting the weight loss? I don't know, it is odd though, you should have lost more than that in 9 months

This sounds terribly exhausting and I don't think that's normal. Have you had a blood test and your thyroid checked?

Sounds like you need your thyroid checked.

Yours sounds like an extreme case but in principle I agree with you. You might even add that calorie counts as measured by scientists are extremely suspect, since they are done by burning food, while we digest it, a totally different process.

I'd definitely see a doctor as at that amount of calories per day the weight should be falling off you. It sounds as though you've been extremely disciplined in sticking to it.

You are not proving anything, you are just eating the right amount of calories for your current level of activity and you are maintaining your weight.

The word "diet" does not mean "restrictive diet", you are willingly confusing the 2.

A half an hour to an hour walk is better than nothing but doesn't qualify as exercise in any way shape or form.Why don't you try to up your exercise level if you don't want to restrict your calorie intake anymore?

Of course "diet" work, in the sense that eating less than you need will cause weight loss. It's not rocket science.

I believe you OP.

If I want to lose weight I have to severely cut calories. More so than recommended.

Its hard. And harder the older one becomes.

Is your health otherwise okay?

I agree with your broad sentiment, that the older we get the harder it is to lose weight and that there’s more to it than many diet plans would have you think.

But you’re not actually dieting. 1100 calories is maintenance level when you’re sedentary.

I’m 41 and I’ve lost two stone in six months (12.7 to 10.7) by switching to a mainly plant based diet and going from furlough to a physical job (12hr shifts on my feet). There’s no trick to it.

Before this I was convinced I’d be fat forever because of my age and hormones and blah blah but it turns out that even my diet attempts were still too many calories in and not enough out.

Well done on the 10lb loss, that’s not nothing. I do think if you upped your movement and reduced your calories you’d lose more.

Maybe try and add some light resistance exercises into your daily routine with some dumbbells? Build that muscle

Your OP is written in such a way that I would love to see what exactly you are eating over a month, your mention of "average" and "big lunch" is a clue...

Also, I know you said you didn't want diet advice but I do know several people that have had problems losing weight and so did a diet such as the Cambridge diet or slim fast to really kick start their weight loss. Low carb diet works wonders too for people who struggle to lose weight, although I know you've said you don't want to cut carbs down.

YANBU. Weight loss is not simple or easy, in spite of what many people say. I'm not going to give you advice (I have none). I wouldn't call it 'starvation mode', but I think there's some evidence that your brain/body slows down your metabolism to stop you losing weight if you eat too little. Seems like a fairly obvious and natural self-defence mechanism for helping humans cooe during famines etc.

1100 calories is maintenance level when you’re sedentary.

Where do people get these numbers from? Yes, everyone is different, but 1100 is certainly not "maintenance" for the average person!

But yes, I agree with you OP. I think that we really don't understand enough about individual human metabolism. I hate the "calories in, calories out" mantra.

@NoPainNoTartine I very clearly said that I average 1100 calories per day. I have an app, a scale, a spreadsheet, and a brain.

But its not "weight" is it? It could be loss of fat but also water, muscle mass etc. You may have lost more fat than you think but your weight hasn't changed much because you could've put on muscle...or in reverse you perhaps have just lost a load of water and muscle mass but no fat loss. You can diet and restrict till the cows come home but you need to look deeper at what your weight consists of. Your right, its not simple and you've done very well to be so dedicated.

Are you on any sort of medication or even birth controle otherwise I’d see a dr not a brag but I can easlily lose that in under 4 weeks sorry your going through this I’ve struggled with yo yoing weight my hole life and know how soul destroying it can feel

If you genuinely, genuinely have been tracking every bite accurately - and I mean the oil you cook your food in, mayo, sugars in coffees and all the little extras like that - then that doesn't sound right. Calories in vs calories out does work on a simplistic level, so if it's not working for you then it sounds as though something is out of whack. I know you say no carbs, but back in the summer I was 12'10 and blood tests showed I was insulin resistant and prediabetic. I was finding it hard to lose weight. I have a medical issue that buggers up my hormones if I'm not careful. I cut out basically everything except from chicken and greens for a few weeks to allow things to reset themselves a little, then gradually added certain things back to my diet in smaller amounts. I have kept that up with 16:8 fasting and am now 10'7. I do not calorie count or track food because for me, it's not enough to restrict calories if those calories are still going to be carb and sugar heavy. They don't interact well with me.
If I have a sandwich for lunch I won't have potatoes with dinner, that sort of thing. When I only counted calories I couldn't get down past 11'7

I don't tell you this to convert you to my low carb ways, only to point out that you're absolutely right that the body is complex, however if you're still significantly heavier than you feel you should be and it's not shifting, it really is worth looking closer to see why

Just typical that even when you say you don't want advice everyone thinks they know better! Thanks for sharing OP, well done on the initial weight loss which makes a lot of difference if you're short (like I am too).

When i lost weight successfully it was on an average of 860 calories a day

But i do have an under active thyroid and PCOS

So i agree with you, and different ‘diets’ work for different people anyway

Are you weighing your food and are you short?

Diets do work. Calories in vs calories out is a basic fact of life. It's just Most people drastically underestimate their calorie intake, especially if they dont weigh absolutely everything and dont cook your meals separately. if you are short you have far less margin for error.

@Hazelnutlatteplease feel free to read my original post again where your questions are both clearly answered. Thanks.

You seem very angry. Maybe channeling that into some exercise instead of biting everyone’s heads off might be a better plan.

'Calories in vs calories out' is just the laws of physics. Noone's body defies them. The problem is that the required calories in depends on many factors and the calories actually eaten and expended do too, which is why advising people to eat x calories a day or do x workout to lose or maintain weight is just a load of rubbish. Diets do work, there just isn't a one size fits all one.

@lurkingforawhile If OP didn't want advice she should shove this on FB where her friends can rally round and answer with general comments. Its not that 'people know better' but information sharing may be useful for others reading this thread as well as OP (even if she doesn't want to hear it, frankly).

Completely agree, I'm a nurse so I thought I knew how to lose weight. Been trying to shift my baby weight for months and I've only lost about a stone in total. I used MyFitnessPal to track my calories and that hardly helped. Now I don't actually keep a record I've lost it quicker. I've noticeably lost 2 dress sizes and inches though as I fit smaller clothes and had to buy new bras. Only thing I've changed more recently is going back to work and I can see the difference. I would think about increasing exercise but stick with what you're doing RE: eating.