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.

[ShirleyKnot]

Welcome olivia! Please stay unlurked! I think you are right about Mary's TDEE - it sounds as though our numbers are similar so 2000 would be more in the right region...

Toby - I did..

25 minutes on the treadmill - alternating running and walking - getting the heartrate right up and then walking to recover and then running hard again - High Intensity Intervals basically.
20 minutes on the bike - High resistance vs Low resistance (again HIIT)
10 minutes rowing
25 minutes on the crosstrainer of doom
Then warm up and warm down as well.

The group on MFP are VERY big on heavy weight lifting and not so big on the cardio. I love cardio, but it does mean that I have to watch that I'm not over exercising and therefore giving myself a calorie goal I can't reach.

I do bodypump 3 x times per week (weight lifting class) but I'm planning on starting some heavy weight strength training in the meathead part of the gym next week.

[TobyLerone]

Shite, I hate the crosstrainer.

I usually do 5k on the treadmill (combination of running and walking -- usually about 50:50), then 5 miles on the bike. This only ever seems to add up to about 350 - 400 calories :( Perhaps I will force myself onto the crosstrainer tonight.

I must start with the weight machines. I can just never be arsed. I figured I ought to drop some weight via the cardio first, then start toning with the weights. I could well be doing it wrong, though.

[ShirleyKnot]

Don't do the cross trainer if you hate it!

The EMTWL group on MFP is very big on heavy weight lifting and I have seen some incredible before and after shots!

The thrust as I understand it is that not only do muscles burn more calories than fat, take up less space in the body than fat - but also that strength training also continues to burn calories for LONGER after your workout than cardio! (an 11 stone muscular person will not only burn more calories than a fat person of the same weight but they will also look a lot smaller - another reason why scales are poop)

They are big on NROLFW regime over on MFP. I have downloaded it and read it and it certainly raises some interesting points!

As I say, I'm planning on starting that next week. Just dreading going into that maley man bit of the gym.

Mary - you could deffo do some weights at home then!!

[BIWItheBold]

[ShirleyKnot]

I was complimentary BIWI!

[TobyLerone]

I wish I could properly low-carb but it makes me sad in the heart.

[BIWItheBold]

I'm really glad it's working for you Shirl - honestly. I know how frustrated you were and how good you were being.

[ShirleyKnot]

I'm still eating a higher (good) fat and protein diet than I was when I started the bootcamp and I want to say thank you so much for curing me of my horrible bread and cake addiction...

Also for introducing me to 90% chocolate - I always hated dark chocolate but my palate changed so much during bootcamp that the darkest stuff tastes sweet to me now!

So BIWI. You really changed my attitude to the evils of sugar and the pros of a good, healthy, protein rich diet.

Mwah!

[BIWItheBold]

Mwah right back atcha

[YouveCatToBeKittenMe]

Me too Toby

I've just eaten almost a whole tub of Blueberries. It said I had to eat 80g for it to count as 1 of my 5 a day, but it would seem I wasn't very good at estimating that 80g.
I have left about 10 for the DC's to squabble over
I just don't know how to not have fruit or potatoes!

I haven't measured enough since I started my exercise regime so I have no idea where or if I have lost inches. My tummy is still a bit floppy, but I have lost half a stone since I started in about February I think.

Well done Shirley
My TDEE is 1976 apparently, ( I put in moderate exercise to balance between strenuous Jillian Michaels workouts and gentle dog walking) my basal metabolic rate is 1275, so does that mean I will get fat because it is lower than the TDEE?

[ShirleyKnot]

Your BMR is the amount of calories your body would burn if you were in a coma!

What this means is that your net calories (the calories you have eaten less the calories you have burned through activity) should never drop below this number because your poor old body, rather than turning to your fat stores to function, basically panics and believes you are living in famine. The human body is incredible and geared towards survival, so if you eat below your BMR it adjusts your metabolism to burn LESS calories, which means the minute that you start eating normally again - or have a binge - it grabs all of that 'extra food' and lays it down as fat.

This is why people lose weight initially on a low cal diet, and then usually stall and then get frustrated, binge eat for a few weeks and the weight piles back on again.

People with eating disorders who never drop out of starvation mode, have bodies who have broken down all the fat stores PLUS muscle and eventually the organs.

So. What I'm saying is that you should eat at your TDEE - this figure without the -15% cut is the amount your body uses to maintain weight. With a 15 % cut you WILL lose weight/inches, safely. Although it will be a slow loss, it will also be a sustainable loss which - provided you continue to eat at TDEE once you are happy with yourself, will never be regained.

[littlemissstan]

I am so inspired - thank you Shirley! Have just had - for me - an ENORMOUS lunch (bean salad, whole tin of tuna, sweetcorn, cucumber, tomatoes and dressing) and a Cornetto (it's bloody hot...) and still have over 1,000 calories left - I think I have been coming in at least 800 - 1000 UNDER my TDEE which would explain why I have come to a crashing halt, my poor body must think I am going through such tough times...

[nocluenoclueatall]

Marking my place. I hate numbers. Really, really hate all these damn numbers BUT I noticed this morning I am now somewhere between 11.5 and 12 stone on the scales (I love my scales - they're a bit worn away so you can't really read the NUMBERS on them) and that's bad. That's about two stone bad.

I do no exercise at all and I think it's highly unlikely that I get anywhere near to not eating enough calories (thinks back at the entire packet of St Agur I scoffed yesterday... mnnnnn. Nope. Defo enough calories in there). My plan is to MFP it and make sure I eat somewhere between 1500 (what they suggest to lose weight) and 2000 (which I think is not far off one or other of the acronyms).

Does this sound right to you? Or do I have to click on all the links and use my addled brain?

If anyone wants to add me as a pal on MFP I am specialknickers.

[nocluenoclueatall]

Okay. I went onto the scooby whatsit and I'm about right. BMR of 1486, TDEE of 2044. They suggest a target daily calorie intake of 1737. Which sounds about right to me.

I wish I'd known this years ago when I tried to do a diet that had only 600 cals a day (I know, I know. It was called the rotation diet, I was 16 and a little bit chubby. It was brutal, I couldn't stick to it and my weight's been going up and down ever since).

Thanks Shirley. I'd given up on dieting for good but this has inspired me. It makes sense. Now, all I have to do is not eat an entire packet of cocopops in one sitting and away we go.

[ShirleyKnot]

Noclue - please have a look at the calculator. It's not terribly complicated and you can c&p your results if you like and I'll have a look for you.

Mary - don't get too hung up othe macros yet, im still working out how to hit them consistently. Get used to the calorie load first.

[ShirleyKnot]

X posted!

[BIWItheBold]

Maryz - don't worry about the cholesterol. The low carb thing - should you go down that route - really isn't an issue.

A really good book to read (and for anyone else) is Escape the Diet Trap, by Dr John Briffa. He talks about cholesterol (and the myths about it) in there.