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.

Well done knitknackdid you eat a lot of sugar previously?
I am of your willpower

Reading the last few posts, I am definately the fat bird in the corner here! On the upside, still have much more energy, which is helping with getting back into regular exercise. I am also finding that my comforatble clothes are feeling a bit loose, and my pre-preg clothes are still a bit too tight, but I can do them up! :)

I would like some advice and tips please. I'm an avid baker, but I've been avoiding it recently as it's a big part in my over eating carbs. Other than using wholemeal flour, oats, and fruit, does anyone have any good tips for healthy baking?

MrsMango spelt flour is also good to add, as are ground almonds and apparently milled flaxseeds but I haven't tried those yet. The fridge oatmeal link had a recipe for healthy magic muffins which sounded delicious.

If I do proper baking I do it every couple of weeks and freeze half a batch, if muffins/cakes or biscuit dough. Also share your baking with others so you are only getting a little bit.

I haven't tried it but stevia is a natural low gi sweetener which you can bake with, also fructose. hth

Hello everyone, hope you've had a good weekend.

I'm a bit confused. in some people have mentioned the target weights they would like to get down to.

I'm a bit confused. I thought that with this WOE your body would reset itself to whatever it's normal should be. I was aiming for a particular number when I was previously on Diet Chef, but since giving that up and increasing my calories, I am just hoping for inch loss and am thinking sod the bloomin scales, but these posts have got me thinking.

With this WOE will I just continue to 'get smaller' as long as I stay at the TDEE less 15% or is there a point at which I will stop getting smaller once I have 'reset' my natural weight?

If not how do I stop myself reverting back to the old ways of constant scale watching and worrying about how heavy I am? I don't really want to do that. I just want to learn to eat healthily by making better choices, and then carry on that way and just make sure I don't overdo the calories.

Also (sorry for all these questions), how long after increasing the number of calories I'm eating should my metabolism have recovered enough to come out of starvation mode?

At some point, when I reach my natural weight, would I then revert back to eating at TDEE or do I carry on at TDEE - 15% forever?

Thanks again. :)

knitknack, I'm going to give up sugar. On Monday . Too many cakes still lying around ...

Are you cutting out carbs as well? Or just having a smaller percentage? I want to have that energy back. I need to be doing what you're going

Hey Floreat
I'm going for giving up sugar from Tuesday. So I'll be stopping chocolate, sugar, biscuits,cakes and anything else that's obviously loaded with sugar. I'm getting jittery writing this so I hope i can do it!

Good Luck for Monday.

Hey mumat . Good luck to you, too. But what about the carbs?

I still don't really understand how this whole thing works. I just know I've got to cut out sugar. Probably caffeine as well, but I just can't face that.

Mumat, you've made me think now - that's my thinking face. I agree, it's really about more than the figure on the scales, and I need to try harder to avoid the twice daily weigh-in which has ruled me for so long.

I do feel more wobbly around the middle since last week, but I also know I've done three reasonable exercise sessions which will firm me up if I keep it up.
And I feel like there's more energy in reserve to actually do the exercise rather than slump on the sofa on Mn.

Hopefully someone sensible will answer your other questions.

Floreat - hello again. Hmm carbs... Erm, if I manage to stop eating sugar, than I'll be half way there to giving up carbs although I'll try and do low carb rather than no carb, if that makes sense. I currently live of very sugary sweet coffee, biscuits, chocolates and sweets. Giving up sugar is going to be really really hard as I'm not very organised about feeding myself. So I'm planning on getting some things in like baking potatoes and sandwichs and making a start with those and just have more sensible choices in the house. After that I'll try and reduce things like the size of the potatoes and have more protein and also try and add salads in as well.

TBH I'm just thinking about stopping sugar. It's going to be baby steps for me. If I don't have sugar, the number of cups of coffee I have will automatically go to zero. I'll have tea but maybe only a couple a day.

I don't know how that sounds but I'm really going to eat better so now sweet stuff and keep up the calories and hope I don't end up looking like the back end of a bus

Shotgun, sorry if my think has got you thinking. Really not necessary on a Saturday night eh

In one of Shirleys early posts she said that the scales are FILTHY Liars, and I'm happy to believe that tbh (even though in my case they're not )

I haven't been on the scales for the last few days and am not going to get back on. My jeans feel a bit tighter, but I believe Shirley that this is only a blip so am actually not bothered about it. I haven't eaten well for a few years so it doesn't surprise me that I am in some sort of starvation mode, even at my size, so I'm just trying to be kind to myself and am enjoying the freedom from worrying. It really is such a breath of fresh air for me.

Good Luck with your 'journey' and fingers crossed we all succeed.

Hope everyone's having a lovely long weekend.
xxx

sorry that should say sorry if my thinking hast got you thinking

Can't remember what everyone's names on My Fitness Bastard (as one of my friends called it when it originally recommended only 1200 calories a day ) but I have just tried to friend a bunch of people?

Always happy to wake up the grey matter .
Was it you, Mumat, who mentioned the Potatoes not Prozac book?
I'd recommend it for helping with withdrawing from sugar. It really does take a 'babysteps' approach.

Afair, you begin by just journaling what you eat and how it makes you feel. Then you start making sure you have protein with every meal ( that's quite a revelation), then you move your sweet 'fixes' to after meals, so you never eat sweet stuff on an empty stomach. Only after this stage do you aim to cut out the sugar completely.

There's also a thing of having a baked spud every evening for supper, which is lovely and means you wake up feeling normal and you're not climbing the wall in hunger until breakfast. You can have your water, have a shower, get dressed with ease. Amazing.

The more I think about it, the more I feel an idiot for ever coming away from that approach. My mood and weight were stable (I lost about a stone and could have ended up below 9st but had to consciously keep my weight up).

I think there's an online community now, possibly called Radiant Recovery. Will look for a link.

Always happy to wake up the grey matter .
Was it you, Mumat, who mentioned the Potatoes not Prozac book?
I'd recommend it for helping with withdrawing from sugar. It really does take a 'babysteps' approach.

Afair, you begin by just journaling what you eat and how it makes you feel. Then you start making sure you have protein with every meal ( that's quite a revelation), then you move your sweet 'fixes' to after meals, so you never eat sweet stuff on an empty stomach. Only after this stage do you aim to cut out the sugar completely.

There's also a thing of having a baked spud every evening for supper, which is lovely and means you wake up feeling normal and you're not climbing the wall in hunger until breakfast. You can have your water, have a shower, get dressed with ease. Amazing.

The more I think about it, the more I feel an idiot for ever coming away from that approach. My mood and weight were stable (I lost about a stone and could have ended up below 9st but had to consciously keep my weight up).

I think there's an online community now, possibly called Radiant Recovery. Will look for a link.

Eek!
Seven steps to recovery here.

Mumat39, I also took the calories as targets, but the carbs/fats/prot as goals.

So in theory, if you're aiming for 2000k calories, you need try to hit that. The closer you get to your macros on finishing the day is a bonus. Your body needs a certain amount of energy(carbs(including sugars)) / protein (bump it up!) for re-buidling muscle, and fats to keep things running AFTER you eat! If you can try to make sure they're healthier, but jumpinng people OUT OF starvation mode is the key here.

Oh my I've taken a lot (A LOT) longer to post than I meant to, damn you Snirmnoff!!

Right, from my understanding was that if you check your eating, to your BMR (Check Scooby's Calculator then made sure you were covering your excess (Be that actual EXERCISE or random extras thrown on by HAVING KIDS!) so that you are always at least just above your BMR. IF you drop below your BMR you run the risk of your body hitting starvation mode again. Those of you on low cal diet will know what that is.

Sorry if this turns up a post or five late, but I'm enjoying spending my time on a weight loss system ( if you can call it that) that works!!

Mango

Oh screw you posting facilities! That should have been combined to one big post!!

Damn you MDHQ!! My last two posts should have been one! Now I feel like some kind of illiterate tr*l !! gasp!"

MNHQ

Of all the stupid messages I could have been followed by and I ended with that!! sobs

Here have this one instead[ smile]. goodnight!

Shotgun, thanks for that, that's really helpful.

I did mention the book but haven't started it yet. I like the idea of slowly coming off sugar. Maybe that's a more realistic, i.e easier to stick to, approach.

I'm interested in the mood aspects too. I am on anti depressants for anxiety and have been for just over a year. My dose was reduced abot 2 months ago, but I can feel the anxiety setting in again.

Before I was eating enough cals, I was actualy thinking I needed to up my dose as I was feeling depressed. I have noticed a slight improvement in that since I've been eating more so I really hope the book can help me bet back onto a more even keel so that I can maybe get of the AD's at some point soon.

Thanks for your help and for the link. I'm going to have a look at it now.

take care xxx

Thanks Mrs Mango.

It sounds like you need a bigger smirnoff

That was a really stupid message but it'll be deleted by MN hopefully and then you'll be followed by the lovely one from Shotgun.

xx

sugar people I've gone totally 'cold turkey' in that I'm not eating ANY carbs (except fruit &veg) just because ipI've tried cutting down SO many times it's untrue! In a few weeks I'm going to experiment with different grains and brown rice etc - after reading 'wheat belly' and learning about how wheat has changed due to breeding etc even over the last 30 years it's going to be hard to eat it at all!

And yes, I used to eat sugar CONSTANTLY and drink tea (with sugar!) all day too.

I've just woken up from a dream that revolved around cupcakes!! Haha