... 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.

Although, to be fair, I've just checked my fitbit app and according to that my average daily calorie burn is 2138 so maybe its more accurate than I first thought.

And I do like swanking around to my DH that the TDEE calculator puts my daily burn with the running and walking I do (according to FitBit stats) into the athlete status everyday! He only gets athlete status a few times a week.

I find that a strange question Eckhart. I can't possibly know the answer so I just exercise and moderate what I eat guided by calories to make sure i burn more than I consume. It doesn't have to be so complicated?

@Eckhart

For all you calorie counters; when you burn calories, what is the split of fat calories and carb calories you burn? And before you say 'it doesn't matter, they're all calories', how would you expect to lose fat from your body if you aren't using fat to fuel yourself? Where would you expect the fat to be disappearing to?

Well, my FitBit gives me macros. I do eat plenty of fat. But if you run fasted and have depleted all you glycogen stores the body will burn fat for energy to fuel the exercise so the muscles perform etc.

If you have a calorie deficit, glycogen stores won't last the day.

I mean the body will burn body fat. It can burn muscle as well in conjunction with burning body fat. However I think intensity might affect that. Some people don't like very long distance running for this reason. Thankfully I've not lost muscle through my running. I seem to have gained.

I've looked at some calculators on body building sites. They moot the possibility that there is a maximum amount of body fat you can burn in a day and will do a calculation of that for you if you put your stats in. I find bodybuilding sites very interesting when looking a weight loss, fat loss, muscle gain and diet. They mess about an awful lot with these things in ordered get 'competition ready'.

But then again the MAF sports scientists reckon people can improve their body fat burning abilities through MAF training so this maximum daily body fat burn potential might be a moving goalpost.

If you put the stats through this TDEE calculator you can see how much fat percentage can change things
Very Interesting. So my nai tendance rate is about 1870 calories a day. This sounds about right. So I would need 1400 calories a day for quite some time to loose 10lbs. Indeed to loose about 5lbs and in the past, it's taken me 4/5 months to lose.

You weight loss is normal OP.

Muscle is the very last thing the body wants to burn. Jason Fung likens this to carbs being your fridge, fat being your deep freezer in the basement, and protein being like the physical materials your house is made of. Why would you go to the deep freezer if there was food in the fridge? Why would you burn your very structure down when you have some food left in the freezer?

Obviously there can be minor fluctuations in this, but you won't lose significant muscle through exercise unless you've used up your spare fat first. We've all got spare fat, even us runners.

@Eckhart, yes, I agree. There seems to be ongoing battle between some runners and some bodybuilders on YouTube regarding the subject, though. I've kept on running though and I'm not sorry!

My nephew is a bit of a gym bunny and seemed to think his muscles would instantly waste away if he so much as attempted a 5k!

@Eckhart

I do think possibly Keto diets can become less effective as your body becomes well and truly fat adapted, though. I not looked this up but I suspect you are less likely to go into ketosis a essentially 'waste' a load of fat by excreting it in ketones.

Years ago a low carb diet without any extra exercise used to work for me. I could stuff my face as long as I wasn't eating many carbs and lose weight. But then I plateaued and I found I needed a calorie deficit to lose. Exercise helps with that.

To everyone who doesn't understand how they can't drop weight despite not eating that much - that was me for about 15 years. Then my other half shifted three stone pretty quickly by doing keto and upping his activity heaps (30 mins jogging or 1 hr cycling every day mainly). He watched what he ate and cut out the alcohol.
I got some aerobics videos and started doing 30 mins to 1 hour 5-6 times a week (high impact dancing around stuff - lots of fun). I also largely cut out booze and rubbishy food but didn't deprive myself as I've never had a huge appetite. I shifted nearly a stone in about 12 weeks (my BMI was within normal before this and this weight loss took it to around 21). If you up your activity significantly and continue to eat healthily, OP, which it sounds like you're doing, I'm sure you'll see a difference. My best tip is to eat food with loads of good fats, vitamins and minerals as it's really filling (meeting your needs nutritionally so you don't get cravings) and maybe take a multivitamin now and again.

For those who low carb, do you carb cycle?

@justanotherneighinparadise

For those who low carb, do you carb cycle?

No that’s really only for those into heavy duty exercise.

Oh, and OP I know you're not asking for advice but I posted what I've experienced as it contradicts your findings so adds something to the discussion (I hope). A post like yours will inevitably attract comments from people like me who think you may find what worked for me to be helpful. Please feel free to disregard!

They work for most people, except that they can't stick to them. You should see a doctor.

I’ve bern listening to a Keto coach on podcast who talks about having a ‘carb up’ day every 30 says to keep metabolism high and to protect the thyroid. By increasing carbs she means eating some sweet potato not chips and sweets.

Had a look through my watch info, this is my alleged resting energy. My active energy is on top of this and much lower, but I am honestly (obv no way I can prove this!) not eating the 2,264 calories it would take to maintain - according to this. My resting HR is approx 100bpm, so obviously it’s skewing this, but if anything I should find it easy to lose on OMAD?

I’m quite happy to be a research subject if anyone wants me! I’m not making excuses when I list all of the possible causes for my weight, I’m looking for a reason. If there’s a reason, I can address it.

But I see a dr and they just say “oh you’re ill, you’re a wheelchair user, of course it’s hard for you to lose weight”, and that’s without the assumption that I’m lying about what I eat.

As I said in my first post, I have family history of both hashimotos and premature menopause, but I get fobbed off with “it al looks normal” when my bloods are analysed.

I’m so sick of it, and I can understand the OPs frustration. Hence why I’m still here complaining, cause I don’t k ow what else to do!

For those who low carb, do you carb cycle

Not deliberately. I just avoid a lot of carbs I could eat, and used to eat. I've not lost weight (and wasn't aiming to) but I have lost a significant amount of 'bloat' and 'fart'! My body is a lot happier with less carbs, and happy to run (literally) on empty, whereas previously, I always had to have some food with me in case I got hungry, which always came out of nowhere and made me feel faint and shaky almost immediately.

I heard carb addiction likened to other addictions, recently. In that withdrawal leads to physical weakness/shakiness/dizziness and mood swings (ie 'hangry') It really struck a chord. I still eat carbs, but I don't get that response anymore if i don't.

I eat chocolate, chips, bread, whatever I want really. I fry, eat saturated fat. I don't think any food is all bad. However I do eat portions and proportion my food a lot differently to what is typical from restaurants. I'd have one roast potato on a roast dinner or the equivalent amount of chips to that one potato if having them, for example. I fill half my plate with salad or green veg. I have one chocolate from a chocolate box with my coffee after a meal. We never have seconds and freeze leftovers for another meal. I do log my food and count calories to ensure a deficit. I run, and walk a significant amount everyday to make the task easier and because I enjoy it, have added fitness and mobility (used to suffer from sciatica previously) I do limit the amount of alcohol I drink. I don't find the task at all onerous with the apps available (I use FitBit). I prefer this to being fat and suffering from sciatica then getting cancer.

I can fast if I want and don't get ravenously hungry between meals. Have been able to do that since doing a low carb diet over 2 decades ago now.

@dontdisturbmenow
No not particularly but remember things like Fitbit account for your BMR (I think that's what it's called) which is what you burn naturally just living and breathing. Think mines approx 1800 then there's a class and at least 10000 steps. If it's a day where I do over 20000 steps that's when I get closer to 4000.

I think I got fat agin most recently because I was concerned to give D.C. a balanced diet including carbs and also being the only woman in the house. My DS and DH can both eat a lot more than me and exercise less (though they are runners too) without putting weight on at all. But I enjoy exercising now anyway.