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.

Will exit if you think I'm trying to do that.

Oi! Where is you gsoh BIWI ? i WAS JOKING. I was very complimentary on several threads about your boot camp,it sorted out my odd food habits for sure. My bowels just couldnt handle it haha.

Right I have signed up and put my details in. MFP wants me to eat about 1500 per day.
Based on TDEE though, and taking into account breastfeeding I should be eating 2300 per day, and more if I do anything significant in the way of exercise.

I am not going to stress about the calories, I'm planning to use MFP as a food diary - mainly for the composition of what is in my food.
I suspect that I am still eating too much sugar, despite the fact that I eat massively less sugar than I used to. Which is scary, and does rather explain why I had impaired glucose tolerance in my last pregnancy.

I will be interested to see whether eating according to the PMK method (slowly, only when genuinely hungry etc) will have me roughly on target.

I would like to sign myself up, this sounds very interesting. Thank you Shirley. :)

I've now joined MFP. I did the calculator thing, which reckons my BMR is 1947. That sounds scarily high. TDEE is 3018, and my aim is 2565. I'm more than happy to scoff 2500 calories a day, just worried that I've done it a bit wrong and I will balloon!

Just done the weekly shop. We have lots of fish, skinless chicken, fruit and vegetables, and lots of my favourite things to add to salads. I don't think I eat anywhere near 30% protein but I'm actually really looking forward to trying. Have also bought flax seed and almond milk to try. I also have asthma, and it's been playing up recently, making it a bit difficult to do the 30 day shred. :(

Should I be aiming to have 30%protein/30%fat/40%carb in each meal, or just overall throughout the day? And any suggestions for a higher protein breakfast besides eggs?

Breastfeeding an under 6 mo means an extra 500 cals? That makes my total roughly 2500! I think I need to go shopping.

Have had porridge for breakfast with skimmed milk and brown sugar. Not sure where porridge fits with carb/protein, though - am using GlamourDiets.com as a food diary because I am used to it and can't be arsed mastering a new system.

Shopping list currently includes peanut butter, wholemeal bread, Greek yoghurt and eggs. Maybe granola makings, too - please please post your recipe, Shirley!

There's protein in poridge!
Now I feel a bit thick Think I'm going to have to have a long sit down with MFP.

X-post with TooImmatureTurtleDoves. I've just looked on MFP and poridge came up with the following;

Homemade - Poridge ( 20g Oats + 200ml 2% Milk), 1 cup cooked
208 calories 26 carbs 5 fat 11 protein

I'm happy, I love poridge.

at MrsMango. Great minds! Might have to bite the bullet and start learning MFP. GlamourDiets won't let me eat 2500 cals a day without painting my progress charts red and saying I am overeating.

Well I have very carefully measured out my coffee with almond milk, added all the details to MFP, and sat down to work out more foods, coffee in hand. Bleugh!! Sorry Shirley! I think I will be going back to milk. :(

Can I join too please ? Can't tell you how well timed this thread is. I lost 63lbs from July 2010 to July 2011 with WW and SW. Had loads of stress between now and then and did exactly what I swore I wouldn't do - piled lots back on.

Have been trying to get back on track the last week but can't stick to WW points as get too hungry. I found when I was doing WW that I lost better if I ate more but then had feelings of guilt when I did.

Bought the Virtual Gastric Band app and have listened to it for 6 days. I've stopped craving chocolate and cheesecake which is great but it made me uneasy and wasn't sure why. I think it's because on some level I knew I needed to eat a fair bit in order to lose and it was causing me to feel a bit conflicted.

So have signed into MFP and will be joining you from tomorrow. Not going to weigh myself for now but aim to drop a dress to start with. I feel like I've had one of those lightbulb moments reading this thread.

I've eaten so much Veg for tea. Thai green curry with Veg overload and a tiny bit of rice. I feel all healthy now.

I had a look at 70% choc today and it was so much more expensive so I will just try and lay off chocolate full stop. Crisps are my down fall.

If I eat no carbs all day can I have wine and crisps at night? Or is that cheating?

On mfp it doesn't have 'housework' listed at exercise.
Or crushing plastic bottles for the recycling. So I put stepping instead as that's kinda the same. Isn't it?

I am now addicted to almond milk! I thought rice milk was delicious... I too have asthma and have just finished steroids .

I am shocked at how much more I need to eat. I have just realised why I am shattered because I am much more active than I thought and have been eating so little. I am a 12 and thought I couldn't possibly eat any less to be a 10. I must have plateaued.

I have reset my carbs/protein/fat and also my calories. I still have 1100 left today as I have been very active today: cleaning am and long pm in the park (30 mins walk away). Planning on meatballs in tomato/veg sauce for dinner. Yum.

70% chocolate is more expensive because you eat much less of it!

Arghhh I've got 700 callories left to eat any ideas?

Sorry - GSOH still intact - was meeting up with MmeLindor and other assorted MN rogues.

This makes so much sense - can I join please? I'm on MFP with a 1200 calorie limit and have been failing miserably at it. Now I know why!

I have a question about the calorie intake on exercise days. My BMR is 1339, TDEE 2075 and Target 1764 based on 15% reduction.

I think this means that I should aim for 1764 calories every day. However if I end up doing so much exercise one day that my net calorie intake (i.e. calories gained from eating minus calories lost from exercise) is lower than my BMR, should I eat more calories to get back up to BMR or TDEE?

Just signed up for MFP to be told my calorie limit is 1200. Stuff that!
EMFLW tells me my TDEE less 15% is 1589 - not much more than the 1400 I've already been quoted on other sites - and that I struggle to keep to, tbh.

I don't eat much crap, I just like to eat a lot,although I put on the weight a couple of years ago when I had an uncharacteristic phase of eating puds/cakes and drinking wine every night.

I think the problem is I'm not particularly overweight - I'm quite slim but like being thin better - loads of clothes in my wardrobe don't fit and I'm fed up with not being able to wear the things I like. But that means it doesn't take a huge amount of calories to keep me alive, so my TDEE is lower than I was hoping for.

But Shirley's fat-melting thing, resulting in smaller measurements but not necessarily weight loss as such, sounds worth a try.

One question: do you have to do loads of exercise? I try and go to the gym once a week, plus do loads of time-consuming stretches each day for my bad back; don't think I've got the time or the inclination to up the activity by much.
Oh, and I walk the dog a few times a week.

I am gradually increasing my activity, but have to be cautious as it hurts to over-exert. I was nearly in tears last week after an hour's gardening session .
Can't see me doing a body pump class any time soon.

< Impressed >
I like the sound of steadily eating my TDEE's - I'm away this w/end and have managed 2,500 today < feels proud >, so it shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice .

Btw, you can easily get non-salted nuts - look in the baking or 'health foods' section of the supermarket. Or in health food shops, obvs.
Loads of different nut butters as well, spread on crackers or rice cakes make a sustaining snack. Or slices of apple dipped in is nice.

I think the trick is not to think as a snack food as fancying a nibble, but somethi g to keep you going to the next meal. Dull when compared to a choc chip muffin or half packet of digestives - but they're not really food - just something put together in a factory to make a profit.

I do have a resistance band and a couple of weights - and we've even got a redundant rowing machine, plus I've got some dvds which I know are pretty effective if I stick to them. So I'll have to work on building up that side of things, which hopefully will help with the back pain anyway.

Good morning!

Righty-o, looks like everyone is doing pretty good!

Mary - hummus is a brilliant food to eat, I like it with those ryvita thin thingies, they're like a dry flatbread, but I also love it with carrots. God I love hummus.

MrsMango - sorry you didn't like the almond milk! Try it on cereal or something, don't waste it!

A word about exercise and 'eating back' calories...

If you have chosen a MODERATE activity on the calculator, and you do about 3-5 exercise classes per week (or you have a busy lifestyle, walking with buggies, running around after toddlers etc etc) then the amount you need to eat is your TDEE with the -15% and that's it. You eat this amount of calories EVERYDAY. The exercise is 'built in' to your daily calorie amount.

The only time you need to eat more calories after exercise is if your net calories drop below your BMR.

I didn't go to the gym yesterday as I was far too busy dealing with a FLEA INVASION and getting ready for my DS's birthday BBQ/sleepover.

I had some alcohol last night and after a good few weeks of abstenence I can tell you that I feel like poop this morning

I'm booked to go and do a body combat 'clinic' round the gym at midday and the thought of bopping about is making my head spin!

Oh! I had a lovely Non Scale Victory today - NSV's are when something lovely happens about being slimmer, like your jeans fitting better, needing to do your belt up another notch etc etc - my friend who I haven't seen for a few weeks came over and did a face at me in my shorts, followed by a "OMG Shirley, you're getting skinny! Look at your WAIST!"

Yesterday! Not today. What a twat I am