Don't Starve! The Eat More to Weigh Less Group

[ShirleyKnot]

Hello!

OK, stemming from this thread I promised to start a thread to explain a little bit more about eating well and still losing weight.

I'll start by telling you about me because I love to talk about me

About 5 years ago (when I was 34) I went back to work full time, this time locally, in a sedentiary desk job. I drive to work everyday and was often far too busy lazy to do any exercise at all. My weight remained fairly static (At about 11 stones, I'm 5ft 7.5 and fairly chunky) for a good couple of years and then it started creeping up.

For the past two years I have skipped on and off WW, SW and I have tried low calorie diets, the lot. My weight has gone up to 12 stone 11 lbs at it's highest and I'm carrying it pretty much all over. My gut though TERRIBLE - It hangs over my knickers and in January my size 16 clothes were starting to strain.

Miserable ain't the word. It has affected my confidence (yes, honestly) and I know that at my age (39) it is only going to get harder to lose.

So, in January I started back on WW. I watched everything I ate, I thought about food compulsively, I went for walks in my lunch hour, and every weekend I fell off the wagon and stuffed my face. WHY? It makes no sense! I gobbled bread and cakes and biscuits and sweets like mad.

In April, after having lost and gained the same 7lbs over and over again I joined BIWI's Low Carb Bootcamp, and started upping my exercise at the gym (Doing classes mainly and swimming and I also started the Couch 2 5K) this is where it got weird...I stuck to the diet, it was pretty easy! I loved the food and didn't feel hungry at all - my endurance during exercise was affected but I thought I'd break through that barrier sooner or later. I watched as people on the thread lost masses of weight and I was completely stalled out. What? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? I believe that during this time I was eating a good couple of thousand calories per day, plus exercising almost every day.

I left the group as I felt so fed up with not losing and limped back to my fitness pal, but decided to stick with the no crap (no white bread/pasta/rice, easy on the white potatoes, easy on the fruit) WOE. MFP gave me a calorie limit of 1,200 cals per day and I did this for a a few days before starting to feel rotten. I started looking around the MFP community pages and found the Eat More To Weigh Less Group and read every link, and lots of the discussion boards.

It was a lightbulb moment - WHY was I expecting my body to cope on less calories than it needs just to exist? WHYYYYY?

I started EMTWL on 16th May and have lost 1 lb. That doesn't really mean very much though, as the scales are FILTHY liars - but I have eaten very well and am losing inches consistently. Since I started eating more calories (I include BIWI's brilliant Bootcamp in this calculation) I have lost 4.5 inches from my waist and a good couple of inches from my hips, arse and bust. I have dropped a dress size.

OK. I'm going to post this essay and then I'm going to talk a bit about metabolic rate calculations and the sciency bits.

It's okay Everything - I'm actually the last person to starve themselves. Just can't do it - was more of an exaggerated over-reaction to this morning's horror.
Will be aiming for my TDEE for this week and see how it goes.

Shotgun.

It is water. Is your period due?

To gain 7 pounds of fat you would need to have eaten 24,500 EXTRA calories over the weekend. I'm pretty sure that this is humanly impossible.

Stop weighing yourself.

If you have been starving yourself for years then how has that been working for you? Are you at a happy weight? Are you content with the food you've been eating? How's your energy levels?

Answer those questions and see if you're prepared to give this thing a proper try - it might take 6 weeks, or even longer, before you start seeing a loss on the scales.

This is not a quick fix. You will not lose 5 lbs in a week - it's not what we're aiming for!

Exercise - If you have set your calories correctly - TDEE less 15% cut and your activity level is correct then you WILL lose weight. Exercise burns just mean that we get to eat MORE every day and it helps to build muscles, which burn more calories and take up less space than fat.

I would really, REALLY urge you to try and get some exercise into your life. I know that having a dodgy back precludes you from high impact and heavy weight lifting, but how about swimming, walking, bike riding?

Morning!

I feel really motivated, thanks to this thread. I don't think the weather's doing any harm, either.

I am going to take loads of measurements tomorrow morning. I might even post them here because it'll definitely motivate me and I've got to keep them somewhere!

x posted!

CeeBee. - If you have entered your info properly on the calorie calculator, and you have chosen MODERATE as your activity level AND you have chosen a 15% cut in your TDEE and you're getting 2,300 then YES! This is what you will eat every day.

Isn't it FAB? Loads of lovely food. It can be difficult for the first week to realise that you CAN EAT! It's fuel for your metabolism. To get your calories up, add some full fat yoghurts, some good oily dressings, a handful of raw nuts.

When you get some time read through the thread, the link and the links in the links.

You only need to eat back your calories if you burn so many that your net calories drop below your BMR.

YES! YES! YES!

EVERYONE should take their measurements today.

ANd some photographs!

I'll do mine in the morning, because I think it's a better base measurement -- before I've eaten anything.

Morning!

Another gorgeous day - went for a quick run after dropping the kids off and did some planks, push ups, squats etc....feeling good!

Shirley - what do you think about choosing low-fat over full-fat? I have a tub of full Greek yoghurt which I love, and I know it's lower carb than the low-fat versions...what would you do? It would certainly up my calorie intake...

Had All-Bran with banana, blueberries and skimmed milk...have been low/no carbing for a while and really want to get my fibre intake back up.

also - you said about your fat intake going over - mine did too, yesterday but this is because I had smoked salmon with lunch and mackerel with dinner, so I reckon that kind of fat is fine to go over on, right? I mean it's not like I then ate a bowl of M&M's and Minstrels, is it??

Hey foosty!

I choose full fat yoghurts. I eat full fat Total Greek Yoghurt and I also eat full fat flavoured yoghurts too. I wouldn't touch a muller light with a bargepole! It's a good way of getting your calories and it has none of the nasty sugars and sweeteners which low fat options are full of.

Full fat produce helps to give you that feeling of satiety, I truly believe that eating low fat, non natural stuff just makes you MORE hungry.

Did anyone watch Secret Eaters last week? There was a very interesting part about Diet Coke. They found that when one of the family drank a glass of diet coke, about 20-30 minutes later he was in the larder looking for something to eat! It could be a coincidence, but I don't trust that diet stuff as far as I can throw it!

Mary - It's measuring to get your BASE, not to see if there's been any loss!

I weighed and measured this morning. But more importantly I fitted into a pair of trousers that were too snug last week

I am debating whether to join the local pool and gym. They only have a creche for 2 hours in the morning, which isn't enormously helpful. It will cost me £6 to put both boys in for an hour, the only day where the creche overlaps with DS1's preschool hours is Wednesday. Other than that it means going to the gym once the boys are in bed, which is 8pm and DH and I eat together then.
I think I am going to wait until DS1 starts school in September, at least then I can go any morning of the week.

Okay I'll step away from the scales this week .
not had AF for about 6 months so if it's water retention that's not the cause.
So I'll call it a blip and aim for a few exercise sessions this week.

I don't think I've starved myself since I was 17 and taking two pieces of fruit to school for lunch . Oh, and I did a Rosemary Conley diet about 20 years ago .

But 'normal' eating for me seems to result in weight gain since hitting the mid-forties. So, yes, there's no other alternative to heaving my aching carcass around I guess.

I have just spent an hour signing up to MFP etc, I am convinced!

I need to change my relationship to food, I'm 28 and worried about the long term effects of my frankly insane eating habits (veering from obsessively healthy and high raw to stuffing in the Dairy Milk) especially on my 3DDs.

Exercise is a problem for me, I would like to do couch to 5k but have a lack of funds for running shoes problem. Walking at toddler pace doesn't really count!

Shotgun - When I talk about starving oneself, I'm really talking about eating under your BMR - not surviving on 2 x pieces of fruit for a day.

The reason "normal eating" is causing weight gain is that your metabolism is fucked (unless "normal eating" for you is eating a lot over your TDEE, in which case you need to pull that back into line anyway) so as soon as you feed it it HOLDS ON to all those calories as fat. It's just trying to survive.

PLEASE, if you haven't done so already, please read the links, the EMTWL group stuff on MFP particularly.

buggy - Do you have any trainers at all? I don't have "proper" running shoes, but have managed fine in my normal trainers!

I do, but I gave myself shin splints running in them a fortnight ago!

Oooo, not good. Fecking shin splints.

I tell you something you could do though, and that's to take that half an hour you would have gone running in and either do a DVD (Shred is agonisingly good) or go out for a brisk walk. It's better than nothing!

I'm starving today. I'm trying to save my lunch until 1pm, but it'll be hard.

Is there anything I could have added to my breakfast this morning to have upped the protein in it? If you're my friend on MFP, you can probably see it on my food diary, but it was yogurt, seeds, berries, walnuts and a spoonful each of honey and Nutella. It was bloody delicious, but I've been hungry since about 10am.

Going well so far today. I woke well before anyone else as I was so hungry! Meant I had time to do some of my yoga workout before DD woke up and decided to "help" So far I've had twice as much protein as fat, and not many of my carbs, which is good because DD and I are at a party this afternoon and I will be eating biscuits (guilt free) taking some melon with me too so I don't eat too many if I get hungry.

I've ordered some samples of that protein stuff, thank you Shirley. I also tried poridge with that almond milk this morning, very nice. I used half almond milk, half water and half a pureed banana. It was really creamy and it didn't need any sugar.

Toby - EAT if you're hungry! I've had a peek at your diary and you've got LOADS of calories left for today. Eat your lunch now and get a snack for this afternoon.

The hunger is a good sign, but you should listen to your body and if your stomach is rumbling and you're hungry then EAT SOMETHING!

I didn't bring anything else to work with me, and I'm here 'til 4pm. My lunch is a giant salad and a whole tin of tuna, so I won't be hungry for long. But I've learnt from my mistake and will boil some eggs tonight for a mid-morning snack tomorrow. I had some cherries mid-morning, but that didn't cut it!

Oatcakes and peanut butter would be handy to keep at work, too.

Yep...maybe change your MFP layout to the same as mine?

Breakfast
Mid Morning
Lunch
Mid Afternoon
Dinner
After workout.

Having it this way helps me to plan what I'm going to eat during the day.

Other good snacks for the office are raw nuts (I'm so boring!), snack packs of dried fruit (apricots are filling, I expect raisins would be good if they weren't the work of the devil), protein bars.

I'm very lucky to have a fridge at work so I am not limited at all.

hey..how do I add friends on there? I'm foosty73 if anyone wants me..