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.

Have just set myself up on MFP too!

That sounds like you're short of a meal Ledkr. I can't tot up the cals off the top of my head, but your breakfast and lunch are typical of me (except I'd have two eggs and skip the banana and cereal bar).
I'd then have a reasonable meal (from scratch with a good amount of protein).

You've had the nut butter/bread/wine, but that's probably not enough protein to fill you up, and the wine's messed with your blood sugar.

Maybe a piece of cheese with fruit or some nuts might do the trick?

I love reading all the stuff on this thread .

Hopefully, I've got a Beachbody dvd - mine's the Brazil Butt Lift (an acquired taste for some, but it's actually had some effect, in spite of me only doing it about once a week on average). Think I got mine on Amazon, a bit cheaper.

I'm StandsToReason on mfp if we're sharing.
Where do we put measurements - here or somewhere on mfp?

I went over with my amounts today - didn't manage to eat before my evening class so overdid it with snacks then had a small(ish) dinner when I got home.
Tomorrow is another day!

to be fair i dont normally drink wine in the week and do eat a normalish meal at night. My stupid dh annoyed me with his lazyness though so I used my normal coping mechanism of wine

I have shifted a bit of weight eating less so its a bit scary to eat more just in case.Im off to re cap on the rules I think.

Hello
Am just browsing the thread and thought I would comment on the frozen banana
For breakfast I often have it blended with protein powder and milk, sometimes a teeny bit of peanut butter (no added sugar one)
I am paleo inclined and it really fills me up. I also do fairly heavy weights as I train with Easyfit team training. It's based on circuits and interval training

Buppers I am the same - I was low-cal-ing, then I fell off the wagon and over-ate for at least a month. God knows what that's done to my metabolism? still, eating less but without starving has to be a good thing, right?

Not judging Ledkr - we all appreciate the power of vino from time to time !

Meant to say frozen banana - I used to freeze chunks of it and blend it with mango and soya milk (in a dairy free period). Comes out like a sludgy ice creamy smoothie, the kids loved it.
Definitely a dessert rather than the main part of your meal though.

Minnie, this is why I can't go back to SW/WW. I have been a member of both on and off for the last ten years. I lose weight, get bored of being hungry/limited and decide that I love food more than being a size 10 so become a regular at the Krispy Kreme counter...

I need to change my relationship with food. I need to be able to eat healthily long-term and not pay for the priviledge. SW/WW set you up to fail or else they'd have gone under yonks ago.

Bupcakes I hate SW and WW for just the reason you said- they clearly have a vested interest in keeping people fat and set you up to fail.

I remember thinking how bonkers it was when my friend said she didn't have enough syns for a banana but she could have some crisps instead.

I lasted less than a day with WW I have thought about food constantly during that time, and had a meltdown at tea time because I couldn't think of anything to cook and I only had about 100 cals left anyway!

ive done both too abit ww is ridiculously small portions and sw I just became a carb muncher.

At ww all the staff were fat and food obsessed.Used to munch food from the ww "stall" all through the meeting.

Still getting my head around this and been too busy to fill in food diary as doing such long days at work.Im off after today so will really get into it.

Will be nice to be able to enjoy the half term without eating like a mouse

Seventh - I bf my 14 month old 3 times in 24 hours and I've put -300 for that. He is a milk monster though and drinks gallons

Food is fucking awesome. There's just so much that tastes amazing (and I'm a right fussy bugger too). Life is definitely too short to not eat.

Minnie, you are so right!

Hmmm...fucked things up a bit yesterday. I have a thing where I can only bear to eat small amounts of very healthy food in front of other people, we were invited back to a friend's house after Home ed group so I skipped lunch. Onwards!

Joining in the WW bashing, when I did it I found myself constantly snacking on their crappy sugary bars because it was easy.

While we're bashing, can I say SW got me back into my 'cuppa tea an a biscuit' habit? I'm over it now - I've realised they're not actually that nice. I also started obsessing over the WW toffee ice cream which you could only get from Tescos and they didn't always have it in. Much gnashing of teeth at the freezer cabinet.

All that slimming stuff does is foster your reliance and obsession with the kick you get from sugar.
< Chants > sugar is the devil

I've had a moment as, although Ihave officially SaFTFS, I went on them this morning, just casual like, just to check - and most of the excess I was panicking about on Monday (which Shirley said was water) was gone! So I had a reasonably indulgent birthday weekend, involving Champagne, cake and chocolate (not massive amounts, but still..) and I put on one pound!

Go EMLW!

Good Morning All!

I THINK I've friended everyone on MFP. If you have been missed out then please let me know and I'll do it now. My diary is open to friends so it might help give you some idea of the sort of stuff I'm eating.

Welcome Buppy!

"Ihave but one question, Shirl': will it work for me if my body hasn't been in starve-mode? I have been over-doing it somewhat for a fair few months now"

This way of eating will work for EVERYONE. It's science innit? So if you've been in a binge phase then to start eating at TDEE less 15%, or at maintenance (TDEE without cut) then you will be on the road to mending your metabolism.

As to the WW bashing - ledkr makes a very good point, I've been on and off WW for years now and everytime I climb back on that old tired wagon, I see the same old faces at the meeting and they never, ever look any slimmer! SO while I'd been off the programme for 2 x years or whatever, they hadn't lost any appreciable weight and had often gained a bit.

Mary - I really think you need to stop worrying quite so much about your carbs - you're getting GOOD, complex carbs - ones with good amounts of dietry fibre and other nutrional qualities. You're not eating cakes and biscuits which are full of sugar and very little else. Please try not to be too hard on yourself!

Buppers, I haven't been in starve-mode either. If nothing else, this has regulated my eating and made me think a bit more about what I'm stuffing in my face. I always eat fairly cleanly anyway, with as few processed foods as possible, but this is more motivation. I try to put in as much of my food for the day as possible first thing in the morning. That makes it easier to decide how much wine I can have what I have to play with in the evenings.

I weighed myself this morning and have provisionally lost 1lb, but I'm not logging it at the moment as it could always be water. I'm going to log my weight every Monday.

Re the nut-squeezing activities which were due to occur at my house last night, I was in Sainsbury's holding the nuts in my hand, when I suddenly thought, "Making your own almond milk? What the actual fuck are you doing, woman?!"

I also didn't have time to make the oatmeal thing, but I fully intend to try making one tonight.

Hopefully sorry, the 2100 calories figure I quoted was TDEE -15% so yes I am trying to lose. So I burn 600-700 calories about 4 or 5 days a week at the gym (depending on DH's work) so am I correct that on these days, I can eat the extra 100 calories to bring my net calories back to 1600 if I want?

Shirl~ I am ceebee74 on MFP - please befriend me

Oh, and anyone who hasn't friended me on MFP and wants to, it's kiki_jp. Please excuse the photos. They're for my motivation only and there is no way to set them so that only I can see them

Yes ceeb - you must make sure that you NEVER net below your BMR.

Oh, TObesa - I had the hazewlnut milk this morning on weetabix. Delish!

Perhaps I will brave buying one this evening. Maybe the kids will drink it if it's vile.