AIBU to ask you to help me lose weight?

[whereloveis]

Would really welcome advice and tips that aren't calorie counting and weighing portions. Don't want to take weight loss jabs.

I'm a vegetarian (eat eggs and dairy), 38 years old, 5ft4 and weight 12 stone 1lb.

Have just started couch to 5K and want to loose a good 3 stone. Is this doable? What sort of things should I be eating and how long do you think it would take me?

If you're vegetarian you could consider going vegan. I lost a lot of weight this way because most of the foods that made me OW, chocolate, cakes, cheese are not easily available for vegans and substitutes not as palatable.
My other tip is to raise your step count as high as you can. Never just sit there if you can be moving. Pace at the bus stop, walk in place watching TV, walk while on the phone, jog on the spot for a count of 150 every hour. Try to build a couple of 'proper' walks into each day, at lunch time, after work. I got my steps to 20k this way and the weight fell off.
Last tip, try 'crowding' which focuses on eating what your body needs in addition to but (crucially) BEFORE you give it what it wants, so the good eventually crowds out the less healthy. Fancy a cake? Fine. But don't have it until you've eaten a portion of fruit or veg. You'll have less appetite for the cake and your cravings will be better managed when your body is properly nourished. This is a good one psycologically as it focuses on the positives of giving your body the real 'treats' it needs, rather than the deprivation associated with diets.

Use a calorie counter like nutracheck and eat in a calorie deficit. You can just do it for a month to get an idea of how much food that is if you don't like the idea of counting long term (some people think it makes them obsessive)

an app like this will also give you a timescale for the weight loss based on how much restriction you want to go, and if counts up the mix of proteins and fats etc, so you can check you're eating healthier

I certainly don't think you need to consider weight loss jabs for the relatively small amount you have to loose.

I'd avoid anything extreme like very low carb, or cutting things out completely. There is no point as if all comes down to a deficit, and mad diets tend to make people a bit bonkers and obsessive.

Eating 12 mini rolls is binge eating though
A sweet treat is one or a couple of squares of chocolate

As PP’s have suggested you could try intermittent fasting, the benefit of which is that it limits the times you can eat, which is easy to stick to. The other thing I found both easy and effective was no carbs in the evening (or after about 3pm) so rather than having a big bowl of pasta/rice/potatoes it was protein and veg or salad, which filled me up but wasn’t laden with calories.
It’s not easy to lose weight but by the sounds of it, you know what you need to change, and you’re taking positive steps to improve your health. Good luck!

Yes, and if your day goes to shit, just get back on the wagon the following day. I find it helpful to remember that one day of healthy eating won't make a difference if you always eat badly; so likewise one bad day doesn't matter if you always eat healthily. It's when the bad day becomes the bad week and then the bad month that you are lost.

I gave up sugar on 30 September. I’ve lost 1 stone exactly since then. I have to say the first week I had excruciating headaches and it was horrendous I nearly gave up. I was consuming a huge amount of chocolate plus sugar in tea and coffee.

Wickedlittledancer
hope its ok to jump om here .. but i share some of op s issues and have never looked into calorie counting .
it was like a light bulb that went off in my head that its personal to
the persons calories they burn and need to define what you aim for each day to facilitate loss.
i am 62 next month and getting soft and weaker and need to be proactive .
please may i ask five foot one - and say no exercise ( i plan to
do some but hate it ) how many calories would

1. maintain my weight

2 . what deficit/ how many calories less wd I need to lose a llb a week please. Thank you . good luck op ! Will do it with you !

Sorry to hear you have so much going on. Have you thought about low carb high fat? There are some really helpful threads on this in the Low Carb bootcamp section. It can be challenging as a veggie to start with but I've found it very helpful to get a handle on sugar cravings and emotional eating and no need for calorie counting or deprivation.

If you’d of put this info in your OP then we could very easily tell you where you’re going wrong. We don’t need to though you know that is a hideous amount of food. Cut all that out to start with and you’ll begin to loose some weight

Reduce your portions by about 1/3 you soon get used to it. Don’t snack unless fruit/veg.

complete the couch to 5k and then continue to run 3 times a week. Strength training along side at least once a week. I dropped 3 stone at a similar age over the course of probably around 14 months by doing this. I’m now very into running and see it as my main hobby and so at 40 I usually run around 30 miles a week and can pretty much eat what I want within reason. Though if I have to take time out due to illness or injury I will adjust my calorie intake accordingly.

Op can I ask why you don’t want weight loss injections? Your bmi is 29, but I’d guess after a day of eating as you do and some water it would be 30 in the evening.

the reason I ask is that’s a shocking amount of bingeing sugar you’re doing, and you may struggle to do it without help if you can easily out that away, your blood sugar must be going haywire. It will hugely spike, then drop meaning you want more.

For me it's cutting out snacks and not eating as much. I also don't eat until late lunchtime, so almost IF. I've lost a stone in two months. I've another stone and a half to go, but finding it hard at the moment.

Carbs are not the devil but it’s very easy to overeat on them and they’re often paired with higher calorie things.

I lost weight by basing my meals around protein and veg.

Protein is used to muscle repair and it’s only if you overeat on it will it be stored as fat.
Veg is low calorie, filling and has micronutrients.

I love carbs and so would have them but try not to have too much.
For most meals I would have things like stir fry (no noodles), omelettes, chicken & veg, stuffed peppers etc.

I also increased my walking and sleeping - both help you burn fat but also you can’t eat if you’re doing them. Plus they make you feel less hungry.
I would go to bed as early as possible and read.
I find that I eat out of boredom/habit and so just keeping busy helped with snacking.

From your comments I would suggest cutting out processed food and sugars. I am like you and can demolish lots of the bad stuff in one go but when I cut out processed foods and sugars I can manage my cravings and once I pop I can't stop behaviours. Processed food is designed to make you eat more. I can eat a whole cake made to serve 8 (yeah right, more like serve 3) in a sitting but if I have homemade cake it is much easier to walk away after 1 or 2 slices.

I would suggest looking up veggie low carb recipes and then starting with making a change to your first meal of the day (if you can fast and miss breakfast even better) as the macros you take in for your first meal can really impact what you eat the rest of the day. If you have a high protein and fat breakfast you will be fuller for longer and your blood sugar won't crash and temptation to eat rubbish should drop.

Good luck, it is really annoying but I can really see the benefits physically and mentally of these changes now and it is great.

Some general tips -

If you drink alcohol regularly (once a week or more) cut it out. Not only is it empty calories, it also makes you lethargic and hungover the next day so you are less likely to get exercise and more likely to eat rubbish.

Find an item of clothing you're too fat for - if you haven't kept outgrown clothes, buy something a size or two smaller in a charity shop - try it on once a week. It's very motivational to see it get closer and closer to fitting and really comes into its own if your result on the scales isn't what you'd hoped for in a particular week.

Per above, weigh yourself once a week. More often than that and yo'll get frustrated by the daily small fluctuations in weight due to hydration and so on. Less often and you lose accountability. Weigh yourself at the same time of day and in the same clothes (or without clothes).

Do you like Indian food? There are masses of options for vegetarians with Indian food.
Eggs are good, 2 a day will be fine. You could have more as you don't eat meat.
You are correct to ditch sugar. Beware hidden sugars. You say you like pasta but do you use jars of sauce? Hidden sugar in there. Switch to wholewheat pasta instead of white.
Pasta goes well with veg. You need to do searches for recipes.
Greek yogurt is good.
Sauerkraut and kimchi are great for your digestion and are both vegetarian. I make a kind of mix between the two of them and have it as part of my breakfast daily.
Chinese stir fries are good vegetarian meals. Again avoid premade sauces.
Cauliflower cheese is great. Caulflower steaks with spices are great fried.
Eat nuts, high in protein. Almonds are my favourite.
As Michael Pollan said "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" and you can't go wrong.
Avoid UPFs and snacking. You need to be eating a calorie deficit.
A 16 hour fast is good. When I was losing weight I would welcome being hungry as I knew I was losing weight. When hungry drink water instead of snacking. If 16 hour fasting eat only 2 meals and drink plenty of water.
Read Jessie Inchaupe, Dr Michael Mosely, Dr Chris Van Tulekan, Dr Andrew Jenkinson.

@whereloveis

Check out the Low Carb Vegetarian recipe thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/low-carb-recipes/3146576-Vegetarian-Low-Carb-Recipes?reply=143894981

You don’t necessarily need to be a low carber if you don’t want to, but these might help get you away from so much sugar - which is what pasta and pizza really are!

Forgot to say, try changing how you experience food by mindfully eating sour and bitter foods to change your taste away from sweet. It may be difficult at first but persevere. Vinegar is great. Pickled beetroot and gherkins.

Going against the grain, I calorie count and base most of my meals on carbs simply because it's too expensive to base them on meat and I'm not a fan of meat substitutes. I'll have a jacket potato (with protein filling) two or three times a week, pasta with sauce once or twice a week and then one or two meat based meals (steak, chicken, fish with a small portion of boiled new potatoes and green veg).

For lunch, if I'm at work I have any sandwich below 450 cals. If I'm at home I'll have something like Longley Farm cottage cheese with whole-wheat crackers or home-made soup if I have leftovers to make the soup.

I generally have one ready meal (e.g. curry with rice or a packaged lasagne) on average per week. I've lost 3 stone, I'm at a healthy weight now (BMI 23) but would like to lose a further 10lb to be at my personal goal.

Well as counting calories and being accurate about your intake (which involves weighing and measuring) are the two most important aspects to losing weight what are you expecting? There is no other formula that is guaranteed to work. I know someone training for a marathon but still didn’t shift his beer belly til he took control of his diet. And wasn’t there an Olympic cyclist who said the same? It doesn’t really matter what you eat, but how much. Sure nutrient dense whole foods are the best as volume will help you feel full, and as a veggie you need to be sure you get enough protein but otherwise as long as you are in a deficit you will lose. That’s it.

@whereloveislove - please don’t think you’re greedy. You are not. You have disordered eating. And as others have said, you need to fix that emotional side before all else.

Have a look at someone called Rebelfit on Facebook…he explains the link between emotion/trauma and eating.

You say you don’t want to calorie count but tracking what you eat can show you what you could easily cut out. For example, I realised I was wasting a silly amount of calories on sugar in tea and coffee so I cut down the amount I drank and opted for water instead. MyFitnessPal is great

The thing is I managed to quit sugar and eat healthily a few years ago. I felt better and was able to do it. I’d like to achieve that again but as a vegetarian.

I understand that weight loss jabs are good for some people but it’s really not something I want to start - and I guess I don’t believe I need it. This is something I want to do without them.

Thank you! Yes. Ooo do you have a kimchi and sauerkraut recipe?? And one for cauliflower cheese? I’ve made a moong dal dish today and will eat that with a big salad and some cooked cabbage with spices.

Thank you! I will take a look. It’s true I need to sort my emotional health not just because of my diet but I would like to feel happier too and not so sad and lost.