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.

MYOB - Good job on the scale banishment!

Tobe! - You already look brilliant!

A word about breakfast - it's really important to get eat something as soon as you can in the morning. I think it wakes your body up and that bit of fuel first thing can definitely fire you up for the day. I've always found it quite difficult to eat before I leave for work, time constraints and just not feeling hungry (although I wake up STARVING these days) combined and gave me a real MEH feeling about it.

As I've said before, I like a protein shake, sometimes with a banana blended up or other soft fruits - but if you don't want or have any shakes then a smoothie made with milk, full fat natural (or flavoured) yoghurt, soft fruits, nut butters, flaxseed or whatever you want to shove in is also a great option. There are BUNDLES of recipes on the internet! (And I have heard that you can freeze the banana and bung it in to get a more "ice cream/milkshake" texture)

Porridge is a good option, no added sugar muesli, weetabix (love it). I avoid Special K and their ILK as they are basically bowls of sugar.

I LOVE the look of these refrigerator oatmeal breakfasts

While I was low carbing I tried kippers for breakfast one morning, that was a pretty rough day, but I love kedgeree and that's great for a weekend breakfast.

If you can't face any of these options then you can't go far wrong with a slice of granary/wholemeal bread and some peanut butter.

Try and get something down you within an hour of getting out of bed and then you can have something more substantial a bit later.

Oh my god, I can't believe that one glass of Sprite has half the calories of my whole dinner. I only drank it because there's no mineral water in the house! Jesus.

Today is a day I have some childcare and so should be working my freelance arse off so I fitted in some more Just Dance.

Does being able to get through 'Rasputin' without collapsing count as a NSV?

I definitely did not put those pictures up so people would be complimentary about them (although I realise you're all far too lovely to agree with my opinion with them out loud :o )

Those refrigerator oatmeal things look worth a try. I have printed out the cocoa/banana one to bung in the fridge tonight.

Does almond milk taste like almonds? I have a very complicated relationship with milk. Basically I think it's vile. The thought of drinking a glass of milk makes me want to heave. And I would still never drink a glass of almond milk (although if it were called 'almond juice' I probably would!). But I'm thinking of making some smoothies and quite like the idea of using it. I would never, EVER use normal milk in a smoothie.

Grumple - WHAT? How many calories in a half a glass of sprite then?

Minnie - Yes. "rah rah rasputin la la killer of the queen"

Tobe - I love the old almond milk, it does taste almondy but it is essentially almondy milk. DYKWIM? If you have an aversion to milk you're not going to like the almond stuff. Have you tried soy? They've run out of almond milk at Sainsbury's so I'm giving hazelnut milk a try tomorrow.. OH1 What about rice milk or oat milk?

I think you could substitute apple juice for the milk - obviously it wouldn't be a smoothie really, but you could blend up a banana, some apple juice and strawberries and give it a try. Or frozen banana, greek yoghurt, honey and ice cubes - I bet that would work.

I've never tried any kind of milk other than actual cows' milk. Hmmm, maybe I'll give it a miss then. I've always made smoothies with juice anyway, so I'll just keep doing that. Ta!

I have heard tell that you can make your own, homemade almond milk.

You might like that as you KNOW it's not milk, it's almond juice.

ZOMG. I totally want to try this

...but I am totally laughing at:

"■Soaking your nuts in water for 4-8 hours before hand will release their enzymes"

Hahahahaha! I laughed too, even though I knew it was coming :o

That is brilliant. That might do it. I know it's insane, but I can't help it

I'm going to try it tonight, and save the pulp for the healthy muffins I'm going to make tomorrow evening.

BUt you need a nut bag!

Or are you going to try the letting the nuts sink to the bottom technique.

I thought I might strain my nuts through a teatowel.

Anyway, how do you know I don't have a nut bag already?

I bet you HAVE got a nut bag, haven't you?

I bet the tea towel thing will work. . I bet you could strain your nuts through a muslin square as well.

You must let us know how you get on with your nut juice.

nut milk. fnar, fnar

My nut bag is...uummmm... full at the moment.

No muslin, so tea towel it is. I bet I get some delicious nut juice, along with some tasty nut pulp.

My DS lols every time he sees 'nut butter' in the supermarket. I wish he'd just grow up.

at nut bag. And nut milk. Snigger.

My DS thought that the word "penis" was "peanuts".

He was always completely dumbfounded when I offered him peanut butter on his toast. No shit.

What is cute in a young child (your DS, I'm assuming, Shirl) is as immature as I am in a boy of almost 13.

OMG I just practically wet myself with excitement using the barcode scanner in MFP on my iPhone - it is amazing!!

Anyone who wants to friend me on MFP, I am ALATH.

I've had a bit of a revelation this avo.

We went to an 'art exhibition' at the DCs' school today - all very sweet, grouped by year, lots of jubilee-tastic pics and? a cake stall.

Cue DD1 'Oooh Mummy can I have a cake please' and DD2 'Cay. Cay. CAY!!!' (DS doesn't like cake, the oddball.)

Soooo I had one too (a mini-Victoria sponge, fact fans) and then the revelation hit me - it was FINE. Totally allowable, not a disaster, doesn't change anything, all good. Whereas previously I'd have thought 'oh fuck it, in for a penny' and eaten ten more. But I'm not going to do that, and I am guilt-free (well, very nearly)

Ali - it. is. BRILLIANT.

Minnie! Be completely guilt free - you ate some cake - big wow! Allow for it in your calories, and it's all good.

Lost my earlier post! Those oatmeal breakfasts look yummy. A bit like proper muesli, soaked oats, fruit and nuts. I have made some with strawberries, almond milk (sadly no nut bag or peanuts ) and vanilla essence to see if dds and I can have some for breakfast. The smoothies look good too...

I have taken the plunge on Amazon and bought the 'Beyond Chocolate' book that someone mentioned before - just started but it makes so much sense - the first chapter looking at how you need to get out of the 'all or nothing' approach - exactly like Minnie did so well today. One treat (mine today was a little chocolate eclair at a work thing) should no derail you and make you think you might as well abandon things after one slip up...