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.

Oh, the reason for the quote from Shirley is that he talks about the studies which show that diet drink users put on more weight and eat more...

I will attempt to get out for a brisk walk this evening...bonus in that I can put the baby in the sling and make it harder for myself! How does this sound, a half hour fast walk three times a week plus an hour of yoga on Saturdays and Sundays?

knit - I keep meaning to read that but never get around to it - he's quite low carb though isn't he?

yippee, I have friends! Thanks Toby and Shirley

I am starving today....but still have millions of calories left so shall stuff my face appropriately.

I'd really need to go to the gym to do heavy weights, wouldn't I? Might be a bit scary. I'm going to check on Amazon for some to be delivered. Poor postie!

Thank you Shirley - I also used to be very very good at drinking plenty of water - my DH used to say your like a baby with its bottle of milk with that bloody water bottle always with you and somewhere along the line I kinda just dropped the habit. Interestingly that was when I was very effortlessly slim so you may well have a point ! So that's my first thing is to resume my former clinginess with my bottle of water!
I joined MFP btw and I cant see where I find my BMR or my other thing you said l would need to calculate (forgotten abbeviation sorry ends in EE ??)
MFP just said I would need to eat 1340 calories and when I tried to join EMWL or whatever it's called it just said join a group or start a group so I dont know where to go with it after that.
My head hurts but at least time spent on this is keeping me out of the biscuit tin.

VIVIPRUE - tell us the granola recipie please

I think the thing with diet drinks is that the sweet taste makes your body think it is getting sugar, so it produces insulin which is then sloshing around with nothing to do, so you go in search of actual food.

The weights sounds interesting. I could bench press my children?

I have tried WW.

Also tried PMK.

Nothing works!! I am now heavier than I have ever been - all since having the depo injection in late 2009

What you say really makes sense to me...I had a herniated disc in my back last summer and due to that have done no exercise since then. I am 5.5 and weigh nearly 12 stone

I am starting to need size 16 clothes.

My dh and dc tell me I am not fat BUT I AM.

Please tell me what I need to do!....

Foosty! I think the gym is the best option, BUT I think that you can use your own body weight as well...

god that sounds awful...what I mean is that you can use your own body weight and a resistance band in order to get a fairly good workout

this looks good

MYOB - I think you need to start reading the thread from the beginning - There is a calorie calculator that we're using rather than the crappy MFP one and all you need to know is in the links and posts from earlier on. To join the EMTWL group you just need to..join the group! . It just means you can read the message boards - which I would say is very valuable!

(I did lose weight after the birth of ds2 on the harcombe diet but its tough and I am not sure it follows these rules?...)

Heeeeeelllpp?? shirley I've just started at SW(never dieted before). Is it shit? pls speak freely. If it's not totally shit will you advise me on how to modify it so I don't mess up my metabolism?

Thank you

Ok, I have just come back to this now I am in the right frame of mind...I have just put everything into the calculator.

Can someone please explain the daily calorie requirements?
It says 2115cals based on goal in step 6. Is that my calorie allowance to lose?

Shirley - yes he is but it almost doesn't matter, it's just the understanding that you need really (well, I need! haha)

madmomma - no! Slimming World isn't shit, it's actually pretty good! I still use lots of their recipes. It is a bit - one size fits all, which I think can be counter-productive, but I wouldn't say it's a terrible "diet" plan...although I WOULD say that it might be valuable to track your food on MFP at the same time - it might be interesting to see how close to your TDEE you end up being (also, AVOID all them horrible muller light yoghurts! )

Badvoc - Harcombe diet - is that the low carb one? See, I think the low carbing diets are pretty great really, mainly because due to their very nature you end up getting a decent amount of calories a day, cutting the evil sugar and diet shite.

Bonkey - If your allowance after the 15% deficit cut, and you have set your activity realistically - then YES, 2115 calories is what you need to eat every day to lose weight.

Wow, I'm quite shocked at that!

I am also wondering if the reason that i get tired quickly is because I'm not eating enough, or pig out on shit because I'm so tired. One or the other.

I'm very active but everyday active, not purpose exercise iykwim.

I reckon I eat 1300 ish a day atm. Bring on the food

maryz yes, then both of my arms would fall off which would take me just below my target weight

Ah thanks Shirley - l have started to read back and some of the knots l've got my silly head into are now unravelling. I have worked out my net calories to be 2130 my 'in a coma' calories are 1464 or something. So far so good but now l have the problem (sorry high maintenance me ) of the rules about what you actually can eat - can you make these calories up to your net amount from eating 4 packets of chocolate digestive biscuits [hopeful] one day if in a slovenly mood and then chicken and fish and salad the next or does it not matter what the calories are made up of as long as accurately measured?

Cheers, Shirley

Have decided to use the devil's own spewtum to feed little Shirl, so don't have to factor in extra bf calories.

I am already using MFP, but at about 10% of its capacity. It's set to 1500 calories a day at the moment, so have some maths to do to work out what it should be. I am baffled by the 40/30/30 thing too, so will have a play with it. I hear what you're saying about not taking off the 15% yet, so will give it a couple of weeks. I remember eating loads of sugary stuff when DD1 was a baby just to keep awake- don't want to fall back into that trap.

Was just about to spunk sixty quid on SW, so will give this a go first- will be interested to know how you get on, madmomma...

This diet is hard-going the day before payday. Luckily, I had a monster chicken in the freezer so I had roast chicken for dinner last night, chicken salad for lunch and have just snacked on a giant chicken leg. And I'm still hungry...and have 1000 calories left. The only things in the house to eat are bread, potatoes etc.

MYOB - "can you make these calories up to your net amount from eating 4 packets of chocolate digestive biscuits [hopeful] one day if in a slovenly mood and then chicken and fish and salad the next or does it not matter what the calories are made up of as long as accurately measured?"

! What do YOU think? You, WE, should all be aiming to be eating in a way that nourishes our bodies at least 80% of the time! I'm not saying you can't eat chocolate digestives (although watch those bad boys, they're 85 calories a pop and you can suddenly find you've eaten five and it's 425 calories and OH GOD I CAN'T HAVE ANY DINNER!) just that you should see them as an occasional thing, not a major food group! When I'm in a slovely mood I get a chicken shish kebab - God, it's like My Secret Shame round here - which clocks in at about 450 calories and at least I'm getting some protein and some salad in me.

Tethers- HAHA @devilsputum. OK, then you can stay. Eat at your maintenance TDEE to get into the swing of it. Don't worry about your macros yet, just get the calorie load right first.

TooImmature - It's just planning really, but I totally know what you mean! Isn't it awful that the cheapest stuff to buy is the WORST stuff for us? Don't worry too much about your macros yet, and while I don't eat very much white pasta/rice/potatoes if that's all I had in the cupboard then I would certainly be eating it! Can you do baked potatoes with tuna or beans or something? Or potato wedges in some olive oil with some of the chicken?

I do feel the need to say again that this isn't a quick-fix, lose 7lbs in a month WOE. I've been reading some threads on MFP and people are pulling their hair out about gaining 7lbs or whatever in the first few weeks - I'm going to try and forestall that now byu telling you all that you will probably gain a couple of pounds in these first weeks, but to stick with it as those Low calorie diets might mean you can lose a bit for the summer, but it'll all pile back on in the autumn with a few of it's mates for good measure!

That's ok, Shirley, I was taking the bf-cake diet a bit too literally so this is actually a reduction in calories for me! So am still secretly hoping for the 7lb-in-a-week weightloss... Anyway, I am stuck because bf and dieting don't really mix so going for a super-low-cal diet is out for me. In the end I found some Special K (well, the Co-op version) and scoffed that, leaving myself 700 calories for dinner. I shall be having something involving chicken and potatoes for that. I still have 104 carb grammes to eat so that'll be ok.