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.

We bought some biscuits and chocs yesterday and I have been picking at them all day today. Feel appalling, permanent sugar slump. Is this how I felt all the time before cleaning up my eating?!

Sorry to all those who are knackered today.

Am in London for the weekend, going to be a struggle to et healthy, am packing lots of little healthy snacks.

Welcome vezzie. Glad to see you are joining the cult thread! The link for the refrigerator oatmeal is on the thread a few times, it's DELICIOUS!

Oh God yes, Hopefully, I felt like shit after eating those little cakes yesterday (and they were little as well, about 2" square), my heart was racing about an hour later and my mouth dried up like mad.

Madness.

Oh right, refrigerator. I searched "fridge"!
Sorry to hear about your late late night. I hope you make it through the day.
I woke up at 4.20 and couldn't get back to sleep so I've got the caffeine jitters...

I just want to cry at the moment. I was hoping to get my head down for half an hour in my lunch hour but my fucking boss has just rolled up with a massive pile of work - THE CHEEK!

I keep waking up ridiculously early, it's the lovely light mornings, and the stupiud STUPID birds.

at G'n'R. They're notorious for this. As soon as I saw you'd taken your DS to see them I was wondering what time they'd actually deigned to turn up. Axl Rose is an arrogant fuckwit.

Anyhoo, I had refrigerator oatmeal this morning. Had the cocoa/banana one. Didn't really like it, tbh. Although it really filled me up -- I haven't even thought about eating all morning. Perhaps I'll try another flavour.

Gym again tonight. Hoorah!

Oh, those birds are BASTARDS! Every weekend morning I'm awake by 6.30 because of the fuckers, and sometimes they wake me at 4am and I can't get back to sleep :(

Every morning i wake up muttering "its like living in a fucking rain forest" the birds are so noisy.

I am officially a twat today. Got stupid looked after for 3 hours so i could sleep,what did i do? Housework! I didnt feel tired and the house was so dirty but now she is due back and im really tired

Had some cheese on toast,i am going to have a tired and greedy day today.

Shirley what a PITA - however what a fab Mum you are. There is no way in the world that my mum would have driven me to a concert and sat about while I went to it

I'm also suffering a cake slump. My lovely friend came round for a cuppa this morning and brought jubilee fairy cakes with her. I have eaten two and feel like shite. There are two left sitting on the worktop looking at me, but I am unmoved. They are going to go in a tin and we will share them between the four of us after dinner this evening.
I am seriously astonished at that, I really am.
Lunch is going to be a chicken sandwich, some carrots and hummus.

I am loving the App. It means I can fill in the food diary while I'm BFing DS2, who loves his morning milk so much that he takes about 40 minutes about it He is going to get a hell of a shock tomorrow morning when he gets 5 minutes and is then bundled into the car to catch the ferry!

I love brown rice, mum always cooked it and so to me it is normal. And delicious. I am slowly training DH to like it too.
I cook mine in a steamer, and you need to cover it with plenty of boiling water and let it cook for about 50 minutes IME.

550 calories in a bottle of wine.

Just saying.

Really Trills? That is less than two cupcakes.

Zactly. And much nicer.

Oooh thanks for the rice tips! I will definitely freeze some.

Yy to freezing rice. We freeze loads of stuff is a good way of keeping healthy food. Stops you reaching for the nearest crappy food. Pureed some very ripe melon and froze it in lolly moulds for healthy snack. Not nearly as sweet as shop ones but very refreshing, stopped it going off as we couldn't eat it all in time. You could do it with other fruit too.

Shirley you are officially the coolest mum ever! Didn't realise G n R were such arses though, it's crap that they cba getting on stage on time.

Please no one mention birds and wake up calls, we have neighbours who have a fecking peacock which wakes us up at all hours with it's noisy bastarding calls. Neighbours are not in a country pile or anything, just a regular end terrace in residential area. Council now involved thankfully!

Toby I had the choco banana oatmeal this morning, couldn't eat it! Was too banana-y. Might have to try a different flavour and feed nasty one to DH.

ledkr tsk, housework can always wait! Hope you'll get another chance to catch up on some kip this week.

Hi Vezzie welcome.

You know if I lose some weight, do I need to adjust my figures on the calculator? I think 3 or 4 lbs have disappeared, doubt it makes much difference overall but don't want to be eating too much.

Also- I tried do some of the couch to 5K yesterday but at the first running bit my shins started hurting really badly, surely that's not normal? Do I need special running trainers? I haven't run since I was a kid so not got a clue!

I didn't put the banana in mine til this morning because it would have gone boakily slimy overnight IMO.

Yes, you need running shoes if you're going to run. Or at least some decent cross trainers or similar. Plimsolls, fashion trainers and the like will do you damage.

Bananas in any shape or form make me but even more so if left to rot ferment overnight.
Anyway good tip on freezing rice! Has anyone tried the short grain version? I much prefer it to the long grain/brown basmati - much softer and less chewy. It's apparently also much healthier as it stays in your system longer and absorbs toxins . you can only get it in healthfood shops though.

Everyone struggling with the birds atm - I have two words: ear plugs. The soft waxy ones are best, discovering them changed my life as DH snores horribly. You can still hear the alarm, not sure you'd hear a cryi g baby down the hall though might be a good thing.

Oh-em-gee I just tried the chocolate protein shake? it tastes amazeballs! I'll definitely be ordering that in a larger size (there is no killing my sweet tooth, I'm afraid).

Protein shakes rule

AllMuddledUp, I optimistically went and put various different weights into the calorie calculator because it says you need to recalculate after losing 5lb. Turns out that after losing 5 or even 10 lbs you only drop maybe 20 cals max, so no need to worry!

I must start doing some exercise other than a bit of mild dog-walking. Taking the baby swimming does not count - we managed 10 mins of swishing her around before she started howling and I had to take her out. I ought to start the Shred... I don't want to! It's too scary! I remember how bloody long 20 mins can seem mid-Shred. And I'm not sure my sports bra will fit over giant bf boobs. I feel weak and unmotivated. Help!

Ledkr, ignore the housework! I think our babies are roughly the same age (12 weeks?) and I have hoovered once since DD was born.

Is it wrong to be putting my wine and dinner in first and then using the remainder to figure out what to have the rest of the day?

If that is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Well I'm now nearly finished day 4 of no sugar/carbs!! I can't believe it - feels like an enormous achievement :-) this thread is keeping me going! Who'd have thought shredded cabbage would be so good as a rice and spaghetti substitute?! I feel amazing - no tiredness at work (I'm a teacher, ths is unheard of!) but the oddest thing is that I just feel so... Calm! Weird

Hope everyone's OK, you're doing brilliantly, keep on going!

Oh God, I have failed, failed ... failed, I say!

Eaten carbs and cake all week. This thread is really, really long now. Can somebody please just give me a simple 5-point summary of what I should be doing? I want to feel like Toby . I am a useless fucking twat and have eaten all the Jubilee cakes.

I worked out my carb level, but it seems as though some people are doing no sugar or carbs, and others are staying within limits?

Oh Heeeeeeellllppp, please.

Not Toby - KnitKnack

Floreat, I am just trying to hit the right amount of calories daily, that is all for now. I'm feeling lots better already in terms of having more energy, and am eating nice, normal food. My carbs come out around 50% every day but I'm not cutting them for now. I'm just getting used to fuelling my body rather than starving half the day and bingeing at night.

Don't worry about eating all the cakes, that's done now, fresh start. Do you bake your own buns/ cakes? There's lots of ways to make them more nutritious and then you can feel virtuous while you eat them!