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.

You don't have to use almond milk! I just like it. Skimmed milk or semi skimmed is just fine!

Don't get too hung up in what I eat - its just there as an example! So you can have boiled eggs, or scrambled eggs or baked beans on whole meal bread or yoghurt and fruit for breakfast!

I have protein shakes as a quick easy thing to fling down my throat before I leave for work - and because I do a lot of exercise, protein helps to sort my muscles out and prevent too much agony!

Just marking my place

Just marking my place

Ok I'm a little bit confused on two things:

• Can you put your carbs/protein/fat preferences into MFP? I'm only really using it on my phone and I can't see how to adjust that, or even where it is.
• Do I put my TDEE or my TDEE -15% into MFP as my daily aim? It's a difference of approx 300 calories.

Apologies, I get the feeling you've explained the latter already but I'm still not completely understanding it, sorry.

I am horrified by the fact that my MFP friends can now see all the crap I eat. It's completely motivating me to lie completely.

This is really interesting! Any idea how to adjust for breastfeeding? My TDEE -15% is 1988 cals - I put moderate exercise as am now home with 11 week old baby and dog to walk.

Maryz - I can tell you about my breakfasts, but mine are low carb, which is different from what you're doing here.

(I eat mostly eggs - boiled, poached or sometimes scrambled. Weekends often have bacon and eggs. On the days when I have a 6.45 am gym appointment I have some full fat natural Greek yoghurt)

Ok.

Minnie - if you go into goals and click on 'custom' then you can change all your details in there - not entirely sure how you do it via the app though...

Enter your TDEE minus your 15% for weight loss, Mary was right!

I'm not too sure about breastfeeding - I have a feeling you're meant to add an extra 300 - 500 cals per day wile nursing, but I'm slightly shaky on this. I can ask the question over at MFP if you like?

Maryz what do you tend to have for breakfast? I have wholemeal toast with peanut butter, or full fat greek yoghurt with some nuts and fruit, or sometimes pancakes but with yoghurt and fruit. Or bacon.

I am interested to know what the consensus is about breastfeeding.

Also Vivi - please can you tell me about granola? How much do you make up at one go, and how long does it last? And your recipe please :)
Mornings are chaos here and only going to become more so once DS starts school in September, so I can't cope with making something on a daily basis, but something I can do a week at a time, or a few days at a time and then just shove together with some yoghurt would be fabulous.

Yes, please ask about the breastfeeding, Shirley! Thank you!

Finally managed to change the goal setting - it was set to 66% carbs but , that does sound rather nice.

You have compelled me into exercising, so thank you! I did half an hour of 'Just Dance' on the Wii - really is good fun, and then all the DCs (5,3 and 2) joined in so I felt doubly virtuous.

< waves to Alibaba >
I'm on the Paul McKenna thread as well and I think I'm about to leap on this as The Answer To Everything.
Can't digest all the info properly as it's my birfday today and I've just hadhalf a bottle a couple of glasses of Champagne before dinner.
But I thank yew Shirley and I look forward to a healthy, happy New Me.
Re. the exercising: I struggle with high-intensity aerobics as I have back/joint ishoos so if I push things even a little bit I'm paying for it for weeks after. So my gym programme is a balance between aiming for pain relief and toning.
But, weirdly, I've just come across a programme called Curvalicious which is basically the same idea you mentioned - that women are not best served by the 'low weights high reps' method, but need the opposite to build firm muscle and burn fat.

Am struggling to comprehend the calorific figures fully in my pissed state, but will come back when fully sober as a keen follower of the sect.

And Mary, I find a great sustaining breakfast is wholemeal toast with jam and a big dollop - not a scraping - of peanut butter. Easily keeps me going to lunchtime. Or I have two eggs, again with wholemeal bread.
Protein and brown carbs are key to long-term sustenance.

Well done Minnie! I love that Dance game, I beat the boys every time.

Shotgun - happy birthday! I think the heavy lifting stuff is really gathering a following among women. Lots of people have been scared of bulking up and looking like a bodybuilder, but it's so unlikely to happen without steroids that it's starting to sound like a good option!

Mary! A MARS BAR ICE CREAM? How decadent! Get some nuts in the house, these will provide you with a high cal, good fat easy snack and it's much more healthy!

I still have calories left too - about 200 of 'em. Not sure what to eat now. There's only limited food in the house due to DH and I trying the Don't Buy Any More Food Until Pay Day challenge. I might actually have to cook something to consume my calories, unless I eat 3 or 4 apples.

Shirley I just wanted so say thank-you again! Today I have eaten properly for the first time in along time! We had a BBQ, ice cream and I ate some biscuits. And I don't feel one bit guilty or sick :) OK so I ate 12 more callories than I should have but I don't care!

Hooray!

Those of you with calories left over - if it's under a couple of hundred I don't worry too much, I've got 181 left today, I probably won't eat them now. It won't matter too much if I bounce a hundred over my allowance tomorrow.

It's the first day! You don't have to be too tough on yourselves! This is a marathon not a sprint.

Thanks Shirley. I think I've cracked it! Had a BBQ tonight, with a lovely glass of wine and STILL hit my calorie target.

Carbed out of my brain as usual, no way near enough on the protein thing but it's giving me something to work on. Eggs for breakfast tomorrow hurray.

Thanks again for this, I feel quite inspired!