To eat nothing but salad for a month?

[WoundTheBobbinUp]

Ok slight exaggeration - salad for lunch and dinner, and porridge for breakfast. One spoon of 50% reduced fat cheese on the salad and a couple of sprays of light dressing. Drinking only water.

I've been trying to lose weight for months now and I'm just not getting anywhere. I've tried various things. For the last six weeks I've used an app to make sure I'm not exceeding 1200 cals, or my sugar / fat / carb limits. I cannot understand why I'm not losing anything.

I absolutely love salad, so I'm thinking of trying the above for the month of August to see what happens. The same food every day would not bother me at all (I've got Asperger's to give you an idea of why that may be!)
Will I be ill? How much weight would you expect to lose on that diet?

For the first month of ADHD meds I probably ate 800-1000 cals with the side effects (good side effects) and was absolutely fine. I took a multi vitamin just in case. Stabilised on meds has stabilised my appetite but keeps me from binge eating and overeating.

I don't imagine you'd still love that salad in a month if it's pretty much just lettuce and a bit of cheese
You need to make sure you feel satisfied and get all your macronutrients if you want a sustainable diet, that can still include salad but with more variety

Do you know what your TDEE is for your goal weight? Maybe aim for that instead of 1200 if you are struggling, I'd also put yourself down as sedentary as calories burned off can be difficult to measure, then any exercise acts as bonus weight loss instead of being dependant on it.

porridge - make sure it’s a correct portion size as it’s easy to have more

we are meant to eat 10 different fruits and veg a day, so yes a colourful salad with lots of greens, sauerkraut, pickles will be great for the gut and overall health. An egg, cheese, chicken drumstick, salmon, seeds would vary the protein. Soup makes a good alternative if you get bored too.

berries are also low sugar sweet treat but great for health, lowering cholesterol

When I want to drop some weight, I do intermittent fasting. I drop breakfast and eat a good lunch and dinner, and never try to go less than 1500 calories, walk every day and run three times a week. I get in healthy snacks and nice herbal teas so i can still have something nice in the evenings.

Check out Team RH on facebook / web - it really really works!

I'm 8 stone and couldn't live on that. At least add in an egg with the salad lunch and some skinless chicken with dinner. Personally I'd also have wholemeal toast/rice/pasta too. How much exercise are you doing? If you're not already then I'd recommend a 3 mile walk a day.

Are you exercising as well?

Not everyone can get started with weight loss in this way though. I follow rebelfit and I think it’s great for the majority of people: but if you suffer from disordered eating you literally can’t ‘trust your body’ or have a box of Frosties in the house for breakfast now and again. For them, the body is addicted to sugar, and the Frosties would be eaten dry out of the box when the binge strikes.

i also don’t see anything ‘not sensible’ about for porridge for breakfast and two delicious protein filled salads over summer?

It’s a real privilege to ‘eat sensibly’ and ‘intuitively’. I can do this now- but my body needed an overhaul to heal and learn exactly what hunger is. I did this though ketogenic eating which (thin) people were quick to roll their eyes at and deem unhealthy and unsustainable.

How many calories do you think the porridge and salad is?

Low fat cheese and spray dressings aren't things I would include in a diet aiming for sustainable weight loss.

something more like

2 scrambled eggs made with butter for breakfast (250cals)

chicken or feta and tomato salad for lunch - use lemon/salt/pepper/garlic for dressing - up to 300 calories

Steak/pork chop/ grilled fish/ halloumi with loads of green veg or salad and a few boiled potatoes or cous cous with butter and lemon dressing - could do it within 650 calories as long as you are careful with portion sizes

Stick to water/ fizzy water with nothing containing sugar added

your body will be far more nourished eating that many calories that way than just 2 meals of salad and porridge.

Some really good suggestions here, thanks very much everyone. Has given me lots to consider!

@Suprima that's exactly my point. If you have a disordered relationship with food, then to my mind, restricting and having these strict rules, is setting yourself up for failure. What if one day you are exhausted and have some pizza for dinner. Will that lead to shame, and subsequent bingeing? Because I know personally diets lead to exactly that. That's why I recommend working on one's relationship with their body and with food and then hopefully get to a stage of being able to eat food to nourish our bodies, without shame and feelings of "failure" for being human and not eating perfectly.

I'm glad you've found something that works for you.

It's one of the reasons I recommended Lisa Schlosberg's podcast. I'm finding her thoughts very helpful.

IMO if someone suffers with disordered eating the worst thing that can do is restrict and have strict rules around food. My opinion tho and the OP can choose for herself what she feels is best for her.

Getting to a place of being able to eat intuitively can take a lot of work (I know, I have suffered with binge eating and body shame my entire life). I can categorically say that eating porridge for breakfast and salad for every other meal would not help me long term. And I would hazard a guess that for most people it would result in a binge/restrict/shame cycle. If it works for someone else then that's great, and I really wish them all the best. But personally I believe any sustained weight loss starts with fixing our relationship with our body and foods, so that we don't "fall of the wagon" and regain lost weight and add on a huge heap of shame and self loathing.

Not everyone has that ability to 'listen to their body' and eat that way though.
I'm autistic and one of the ways I'm affected is that I don't have good interroception.
I don't notice when I'm too hot or cold until a very late stage.
I don't notice when I'm unwell.
I don't notice if I'm hungry or thirsty.
I dont have a shame-based relationship with food.
I enjoy eating and I eat for sensory stimulus, but I can equally forget to eat for a whole day if left to my own devices.
What helps me is a meal plan and alarms.
It would definitely not work for most people.
I need the rigid planning to make sure I get enough soluble fibre, enough protein.
Otherwise I would just eat scampi fries 3 meals in a row.
Or an apple instead of a meal for 2 days.

I think it's helpful not to make assumptions about what works for each person.
It's really such an individual thing.

Just make sure you actually have vegetables as salad (ie. lettuce) on its own isn't that nutritous.

I eat a lot of big salads
I add brown rice or chickpea tuna or other things
eating healthily is a big priority for me
pm me I’ll send you my recipes
I’m working on a cookbook around cheap easy nutritious meals

I don't know if that's a response to my posts @SuperLoudPoppingAction I feel like I've tried hard to give my personal opinion, a general "for a lot of people" view, whilst also reiterating of course that it is down to the individual to find what works for them.

It sounds like in your situation a plan to include healthy, varied meals to provide you with good nutrition is the best plan for you.

For many many people, there is so much evidence out there that restricting and being rigid can lead to the opposite effect than we are hoping for, long term, which often leads to shame, binges etc. I am merely trying to highlight that, so that people can choose what is right for them. I've been doing the rigid diet route, I know how damaging I found it, and I just want yo encourage others to consider that before they head down the route of rigid restriction.

Everyone has to do what feels right for their own situation. I would just encourage everyone to eat in a way that feels positive and nourishing as much as they can. It doesn't have to be "intuitive eating" (I don't think I actually suggested that, but responded to someone else mentioning it) but personally I feel restriction and "good" "bad" foods, and having rules we have to follow, can be detrimental. I don't mean things like having a meal plan so you ensure you're eating and fuelling yourself, I mean "I will eat porridge every breakfast and salad for every other meal" type thing, which is what the original post was about. To me, that reads like a recipe for disaster. This is how I feel and obviously if someone else finds it works then good for them.

Personally I think aiming to up your veggies, make sure you have a filling nutritious breakfast, but also making sure you give yourself grace and compassion and not having to stick to rigid rules is just much more sustainable as a way of living healthily. So sure, aim for porridge and more salads. Great. But if you grab a sandwich and muffin for lunch one day, that's fine, if you have spag bol for tea another 👍🏻 all I'm saying is - try to do what you can to avoid ending up feeling shit about yourself if you "fall off the wagon" which unfortunately is something that MANY women have become conditioned to feel, thanks to the diet culture driven society which we live in.

Obviously every individual is an individual. The op is asking for opinions and I've offered mine. If that doesn't align with how they or anyone else wants to eat and live then that's fine and their life to lead ❤️