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.

Hmm.

Champagne is good alcohol, yes?

It's clear, so... yes!

I have higher fats than protein too - from the reading I've been doing I don't think it's really a problem...

Hi all,

I'm still trying to get my head round this ... I've changed my MFP goals so my target is 15% below TDEE, and adjusted the percentages. I'm also cutting out sugar completely as of today [utterpanic].

Can I PM someone my MFP username so I can see what you're up to?

Thanks

? aaaand now I'm hungover and have to do dinner and bedtime

Floreat, I'm StandsToReason on mfp - you're welcome to have a nosey at my diary. Cake and alcohol seem to be creeping in this week though!

Floreat I'm kn1tknack on there! :)

Oh, thank you both - I will add you. I am toomanygoldfishcrackers

I have found it hard to do this today - I still have over 400 calories left to guzzle . It's going to take some adjusting to.

BUT - but but but but - I have had no sugar. Apart from fruit - is that allowed? No chocolate, no cakes, no biccies, nada. So I'm quite pleased with that generally .

That's brilliant!! Well done :) do you like nuts? I was low today so I just ad a handful of almonds - nearly 300 cals, nuts are fantastic! (thinking of starting a nut appreciation club!)

I hardly ate anything yesterday because I didn't feel well. I shall do my first recorded weigh-in when I can be arsed to get out of bed.

There is someone on MFP whose diary never seems to add up to what it says it does. Why would that be?

Toby, I've noticed that as well. I also find the macros strange. I eat heaps of protein but still seem to come out as carb/fat heavy. And the nutrients baffle me. I don't think I'm ever above about 20% on the vitamins, calcium and iron - even when I've added in a massive portion of spinach or a steak, or had loads of yoghurt. I'm sure no doctor would find me lacking in any of these things.

I'm happy with the calorie counting side of it but not convinced about the rest.

Hi all, hope everyone's had a lovely Bank Hol weekend!

My food diary looks awful compared to everyone else's I need some better food ideas. My snacks are mainly yoghurt and green and black's chocolate. On the up side, 6 tiny squares of green and black's last me ages, the higher the cocoa the longer they last! So think I've cured my addiction to cadbury's.

I had a bit of a lightbulb moment the other day as well, I thought I was hungry but I'd not long since eaten, so I had a glass of water and immediately felt full! So half the time I've been filling my face I probably just needed a drink.

I seem to have lost 4lbs but I think it's a weird blip. I thought I was 15.7 when I joined MFP, then weighed myself and was 15.12 so had to edit it. Now I'm back to 15.8 so will see what happens next.

Am feeling a bit down today but am determined not to give in to binge eating for comfort.

floreat I have added you to MFP, well done on your no sugar day!

Toby hope you feel better soon. Not sure about diary not adding up, do you mean the food doesn't seem to add up to the total cals?

Well, I've just done my first official weigh-in and I appear to have lost 3lbs

I'm tentatively pleased.

What I mean is that their breakfast will say (eg) 200 cals, lunch 300, dinner 300, snacks 200, but the total cals eaten is 1800. And the main things I see listed are cereal bars. It must be some kind of blip, surely?

Excellent Toby - what a boost!

Toby that is brilliant, well done!

Ah I see what you mean now, yes it's strange. Must be a glitch or something.

Toby well done

I am definitely back on track today - had yet another blip yesterday which involved a trip to Pizza Hut and lots of some wine

7 weeks till my holiday so need to get myself focused again.

Toby I have always trusted that the calculations done by MFP are correct but are you saying they may not be?? And why would someone eat cereal bars all day ?

It's someone from here, but I can't remember who. I'd just like it to be known that I'm not judging you for only eating cereal bars :o

And I'm definitely looking at the right stats. It's very odd.

Also, the same person has done exactly the same kind of exercise as me, but less of it and burned more calories

Someone recommended East less without trying to eat less - it was about £8 at the time it was recommended but £2 now. It doesn't say it's on sale weirdly, it just says that the digital list price is now £2.05.

I have just eaten a huge vat of pasta and am still under my target

This can't be right, can it? I feel like I've eaten loads today. I only ate pasta because the DC were having it and I fancied eating early, but I bloody stuffed it down . Did do some cycling earlier on, maybe that had an infinitesimal effect?

I'm staunchly not weighing myself, though. It's inch-loss I'm after, not pounds. Day 2 of no sugar! Though I've gone over my MFP 'allowance' by eating some fruit. FFS. I'm trying.

Just got home, making place on the thread as it had fallen off my TIO.

Calories burned will be calculated relative to your weight - it takes more energy to walk 15 stone of person for 30 minutes than it does to walk 8 stone of person for 30 minutes, for example. Probably

Um - my entries for the last 3 days are a leeeeeeetle on the inaccurate side - and some serious guessing!!

Sunday I was good all day - then the eve was a street party and although i did not go as wild i often would with a buffet it is so hard to hold off when there is so much yummy --crappy- food in front of you!

yesterday - ditto being good - then we had friends to dinner - we did main, cheese course and pud. I don;t think i went too far over but i couldn't track everything i ate as there were lots of slivers of cheese here and there.

Today we were out at the cinema - so for lunch intended to go to giraffe. Had chosen a healthyish looking veggie quesadilla (comparatively speaking - normally i would be a burger n chips gal) - but the don;t serve lunch til12 and we needed to start eating a bit before so as to make the film (beauty and the beast) - so ended up in TGI Fridays - had a chicken quesadillia. yummy but, erm......

Stocked up on salady bits, tinned fish, some nuts (went for macademias and cashew in the end) when i shopped yesterday so should be a bit better the rest of the week!!!!

Well done on losses - and hi to those new joiners. It is amazing how those extra 3 or so hundred calories make all the difference between feeling terrible and feeling healthy!!

Thanks "trills" for the book link - just downloaded it on my kindle (damn one click!!) - already bought the Briffa one last week so this can join it.