Advice on whether to change diet over please

[petra27]

Hi. I have 8.5 stone to lose. I have lost 4 since 8th Jan this year on Weight Watchers plus 5x hard gym sessions per week. So I have 4.5 to go.

I am aiming to lose 3lbs per week. I know that is a lot, but I have my reasons (to do with TTC etc). I have managed this so far but it is a lot of work to get that kind of weight off on weight watchers. The exercise is literally shattering me every week.

I'm wondering if I should try low carbing instead but I'm not sure if it would suit me:

1. Anecdotally people seem to lose more on low carb than low calorie. Is this true? What is a weight loss for a week after the first couple of weeks where there might be a lot of water weight etc.?

1. The advantage of WW for me is that I can have half a twix etc when I crave one and I worry how i'd cope on a low carb where I can't have stuff like that and would that lead to a binge?

1. On the other hand I do feel like I'm counting down the hours till I can have something sweet and getting more obsessed with sweet treats than ever before on WW and I wonder if low carbing would break that?

As you can see I really don't know what to do and would appreciate any advice or experience. Thanks

wow well done on your weight loss so far, you must have worked really hard

3lb is quite a high target weight loss, as you know, and you wouldn't be guaranteed to lose that on a low carb diet. however, i have found it is a much more sustainable way to lose a lot (as in several stones) of weight as you are more satisfied as you are eating lots of fat and protein, and less prone to the blood sugar highs and lows that lead to cravings and hunger quite a short time after eating carbs

in answer to your questions:

1. during the first couple of weeks or so of low carbing you do tend to lose more weight as you are depleting your glycogen stores. it's a big boost to see the changes on the scales, and all positive of course, but usually after a couple of weeks the weight loss settles into 1-3lb loss per week depending on how strict you are and how much weight you have to lose (more weight to lose usually means higher weight loss weekly). however, you won't necessarily lose a steady amount per week - i find i can stay the same for a couple of weeks and then suddenly have a whoosh where i drop 5lb for what seems like no reason. you do need to keep the faith!

1. during the first couple of weeks or so where you're basically going cold turkey on sugar and other carbohydrates, you could well experience devilish cravings, though it does depend on how carby your diet was before. this settles down though once you're in the swing of it, so you have to really persevere through the cravings and not give in. once you've got through to the other side though, you would find that cravings are much rarer if at all. we all have a bit of a wagon-topple from time to time (or even mindfully go off-plan, real life happens after all) and tbh, the things we crave often don't seem as good as we remember!

1. low carbing would definitely help break the reliance on sweet things. you have to be very strict though and not even have artificial sweeteners if you really want to break the cravings for sweet tastes.

i would say that if you want to try low carbing, you really need to do it properly and understand why you need to make food choices which seem to go against everything you've been taught before. e.g. you need add plenty of fat to your food. it's not difficult, and it's so good for you as you're eating lots of fresh food and avoiding anything processed.

there's some good info written by MNer BIWI here, here and here. we've just started another bootcamp so if you would like support or have questions then the latest thread is here

Firstly, congrats on what you've done so far.

Secondly, what Willie said

Thirdly, it doesn't have to be this hard! If you're finding the gym sessions etc unsustainable, you might want to have a look on the Mark's Daily Apple site and see what he has to say about 'chronic cardio' and exercise in general. It's an eyeopener. John Briffa is another one worth reading. You don't need to be doing exercise that is 'shattering' you.

Good luck - I very much doubt you'll regret switching to
low carb!

thanks so much for the replies.

I slightly daftly posted this late last night when I was musing it over without realising I would be out all day, so sorry i've been so long in getting back to you both.

Thanks in particular for the links to the threads, I'm starting to read through now.

Chronic cardio sounds like where I am, so I'll have a look at that blog too.

I take on board what you say about really understanding what I'm doing- my big fear is switching to something that then just doesn't work, so I'm going to spend the weekend reading and then decided on Sunday evening if its right- my weigh in day is a tuesday, but i'd need to get food in and stuff on monday ready for tuesday ifswim.

Thanks again

that's a good plan. if you do decide to try low carbing it's best to be well-prepared, as the first few days can be tough and you need to make sure you have low carb options on hand just in case the carb cravings are strong.

there are lots of recipes here, so if you do go ahead, pick out the ones that look the tastiest to you and which you will most look forward to - that helps with cravings too

and if you need moral support do shout on the bootcamp threads linked to above