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.

Oooh I'm intrigued by the fuelband?

I'm calmer now; I'm at my folks' (staying here tonight to get the ferry to the isle of wight tomorrow) and I've just had a shower [fragrant]. I am hiding from the DCs while my 86-year-old grandma chases them around my parents' house , bad mummy. Although I've been such a bitch to them while in packing mode they're probably relieved to be with someone who pays them attention!

No flax yesterday, 5g today, all quiet on the southern front. (Or should that be rear?!) Have packed both flax and protein for hols though (we are self-catering). Currently trying to resist the lure of the giant jubilee box of cadbury's biscuits residing in my parents' larder. Er, might be failing?

Nope, not available online. And they've only released them in 2 Nike stores in the UK so far. They announced 3 more today. But they won't be properly available in the UK until after the summer, by the sounds of it.

Glad everything's calmer now, Minnie. Have a lovely holiday :)

Tobey dp is going to get fish and chips for us too. I have loads of calories to use so kind of ok. I reckon fish and mushy peas are healthy/clean if I go easy on the batter (don't like it much, anyway) and don't have too many chips! I'm going to snack on cottage cheese to take the edge off my appetite.

We had the strawberry oatmeal smoothie without sweetening it and it was popular all round. Will make more as we have loads of strawbs so might freeze some too.

Thanks Shirley, so kind. I'll be going back to the doctors soon, I just can't find an AD that works long term so not sure what to do next.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend, happy hols to those who are going away too. We are going to a local show tomorrow, will be wet and muddy but should be fun and they have wine .

Hey AMU - you're welcome, I'm so sorry that you're having trouble finding the right medication, but don't give up! Keep plugging away and the right one/right combination will appear and it will be like MAGIC.

Seventh - how far over? And how much BF are you doing?

What are you eating, Seventh? Is it just that you're eating high-calorie crap food and not enough of the 'correct' sort of food, which will fill you up for longer?

Did have a look at BF earlier in the thread I'm I'm pretty sure it was 500 for EBF and then 300 after that...

But it doesn't really matter - I think the issue is more getting you to feel fuller, less hungry. It's MISERABLE to be starving all day and to not be able to eat - that's the opposite of what this WOE is all about, so can we have a look at a typical day?

We might be able to show you some alternatives that will fill you up more!

Hi there, can you help?? i just signed up for month with WW and there pro points diet but i love the idea of everything i am reading. I dont excersise but i do have two kids so always on the go. I tried today to follow WW but i also counted calories and i was way down with the pro points compared to how many calories i should be allowed using your calculator...what should i do is there a way round this? i have eaten very well as in protein etc but not sure if WW means i am not eating enough? i am about three to four stone over weight and i reckon i should according to calculator be havin 1860 to lose?? what you think? thanks

seventh my goal is to eat at least 8 portions f/v
Every day - I do things like have slightly
Less pasta with dinner and top up with broccoli on the side, eat home-made veggie soups for lunch, snack on apples and carrots (which also have the advantage of being cheap) and balancing things like pastasauces and stir fries out with veg. The last one is hard to balance with getting enough protein though

Well that'll teach me to order food from Amazon late at night on my phone - what can I do with 2.5 kg of DESICATED COCONUT?? Other than roll in it, which is dh's suggestion.

Good morning!

Another day, another set of houseguests arriving, another meal out tonight. Gah!

Right Seventh, I've had a little look at your diary and it is quite carby. Quite a lot of bread and more cake than I would like to see jealous. This might be contributing to your hunger. When you eat bread/cakes/biscuits/white rice then your body essentially recognises these as sugar. You get a spike in your blood sugar, followed by a crash - hence the cyclic hunger thing.

If I were you I'd cut right back on that stuff, have a slice of wholemeal bread (or a wholemeal sandwich) just in one meal. You are quite low on veg - I'm not that bothered about your fruit intake, veg is the important one IMO - I'm very fortunate that I LOVE pretty much ALL veggies and so don't struggle to incorporate them into my diet at all, but I do understand that veggies can have horrible connotations for people and that some just don't like the taste...but the thing is that the enormous variety of veg means that they DO NOT all taste the same, obviously. So, I'd suggest giving more vegetables a try, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, runner beans, baby sweet corn, mange tout - I mean, the list is endless and it's so filling and halo making! /vegetable rhapsody.

Hi saddotcom - is there a reason that you're unhappy with your diet or weightloss with WW? You can't really compare calorie counting and points counting as we're counting different things IYKWIM. I think WW (well it used to be) are counting fat content, whereas I positively ENCOURAGE eating fat. The 2 WOEs aren't really comparable or compatible TBH.

Haha knit! Could you make a coconut snowman?

Morning :) i have just joined yesterday but started to reading this and thought i would try both. WW has this new pro points system and seems to be concentrating on protein and filling foods ?? i also am a memeber of loseit.com and says my calorie allowance is about 1350 were the calculator on here says 1860 so i think i got myself ?? whats that expression? 'fingers in too many pie's' ahhh haaaaaaa but i just paid for the ww for a month and gone all paranoid its the wrong thing to do and going to be starving lol Help please and thankyou this is all so very encouraging .

saddotcom, I think you should forget everything else and concentrate on your WW for the month you've paid for. At the end of that, see if you've lost any weight and how you feel about the plan, then decide.

I suppose it wouldn't help to use MFP to track what you're eating on WW, as long as you ignore all the stats and macros. That way you'll have an idea of what you might prefer, and it helps you to track what you're eating whatever WOE you choose.

Morning, Shirl. Just waiting for DP to get up, then off to westfield!

Thanks i think thats what am going to have to do :( wish i read this first tho. Shall keep reading your thread and already decided none of those diet meals you buy or diet coke i am addicted too so just try and eat lots of healthy meals and not bags and bags of low point crisps :) thanks for taking time to reply my message as i know it must be frustrating when your asking stupid questions like me :) and i think i might try that band thingy excersise as a friend of mine has them set up in her garage and i must admit her body shape has changed so much even tho she a slim jim anyway. thanks and will see how i go for the month

Good luck saddot! I think if you commit to the WW and give it a good go and then decide if you want to continue, then you won't have 'wasted' your money. I think its probably helpful to know about the shitty low fat stuff regardless of which eating plan you are following though. You haven't asked a stupid question!

Hey tobes, good luck! Let us know if you're successful with the fuel band.

Right, off to whip some cream for a rhubarb fool - I wonder how many calories will be in that.

Lovely, healthy, natural cream, Shirley! Delish. We had a whole heap of Eton Mess last weekend. Cream and fruit - practically a health food if you disregard all the meringue

Have all my food programmed in to MFP for the day, leaving me with a good 500cal for the Victoria sandwich my friend is bringing this afternoon healthy snacks of nuts and seeds.

I massively lack exercise, but I still want one of Tobes' fuel bands.

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Ooh, strikeout with pointy brackets makes arrows:

->

Am currently stuck waiting to get off the ferry. Bit hungover from my parents forcing wine down our throats last night and desperately craving sugar?

Right, turns out EMLW is more like EMGW in my case. Have been doing it for 2 weeks and have gained 2kilos exactly. That said, I was in Cornwall last week so more than one cream tea was ingested - it's the rule, isn't it?

I also didn't do much exercise - but that's normal for me (haven't found anything that doesn't make my achey back worse).

I haven't started the 15% cut yet - this has been following my TDEE and going over occasionally thanks to said cream teas etc.

So do I panic and join SW, keep on with the TDEE and assume my body will get used to the extra cals, or start reducing to my 'cut' amount (a mingey 1650 cals)?

I think I need to have a look around the mfp forums - there must be people who've been in the same boat.

Fuelband mission: successful. Plus DP took me to Yo Sushi for lunch. Double win!

Fuelband looks ace. Let us know if it's worth the £££!
And @ Yo!Sushi.