How can I lose weight when I love eating?

[ViperActive]

Not a joke, I desperately want to lose weight and have been overweight my whole life (now in my 30's) I was born a big girl (11lbs almost!!!) and I'm quite tall so I have always been bigger. I need to lose 2 stones after baby who is now 1 years old. I just love eating and love food, good and bad! I probably pver eat and mostly good healthy stuff but too much. I know what I do wrong but I can't stop. What the hell am I going to do!!!!!

Hi, I know what you mean! I love eating but am low cal as the meds I'm on slow me up. I found that focusing on the food I eat helps me eat less. I'm properly hungry at meal times so I really really enjoy the taste and feeling of eating. It's made me enjoy food more.
It's very much a head shift thing.
Exercise helps, not in burning cals but it regulates appetite.
Make sure you drink enough fluid.
Make fruit and vegetables your main foods, eg half your plate should be veggies.

I love food and I found the only thing that worked for me was a combination of calorie counting (I used My Fitness Pal to log meals, and set myself a calorie target of 1200 per day), setting a target weight, weighing in no more than 1 time per week, and having a solid reason for why you're doing it. It's not a fun diet, and I've had a massive set back in the form of Christmas, so will probably spend most of January just getting over the past weeks' binging.

I don't know how I'll ever get back to eating normally - not without quitting my stupid sedentary job and doing something more active for a living (unlikely)

Totally agree it's a head shift thing that is needed. I love eating, cooking, baking you name it. The only thing that works for me (and even then it doesn't always work) is using some kind of motivation tactic - in my case proving people wrong that I can't shift baby weight - and keeping that in my head knowing if/when I get to target I can say 'I told you' to all of them. I also disagree slightly about only doing weekly weigh ins as I think daily weigh ins work better as you know exactly where you are and it is easier to keep on track.

My issues with daily weigh ins are that they make me a little too obsessed on the results, rather than meeting the 1200 calories - I guess it diverts my focus. Also if you time it wrong the results can fluctuate. But really whatever works for the individual - it's all about finding your own comfort zone and if that's daily weigh ins then there's nothing wrong with that.

My focus is on healthy eating because that's the only way to achieve a good weight loss and build good health at the same time. ( I'm over 60 so I don't have much choice)

My OH loves to eat three times a day so he's got me In to better habits.

So we eat from scratch. Nothing processed . No fizzy drinks. I'm logging what I eat into Mfp. Bit of an eye opener on just how much you can over eat.

We have a fairly sedentary life in the winter but goforwalks when the weather warms up so I need to keep calories quite low.

Do you cook? Or enjoy cooking. Batch cook and freeze your portions if you have a busy lifestyle.

I like the idea of cooking your own food as you have control over what you eat and the the quality of what you put I to food.

I have a green juice with some apple and pear added each lunchtime. Don't particularly like it but I just think of the benefits I'm getting from it.

It's baby steps. I found it hard at the beginning of the week. Now at the end of my first week I. Getting into the swing. Getting over your first two to three days is the hardest then I think it gets easier.

You can do this. Good luck.

A days menu for me looks like

B ...2 egg omelette with onions cooked in coconut oil . I like a protein start to the day as you don't get that spike and drop with a carb breakfast. I also don't eat wheat

L...green juice...for health benefits

D protein with veg and some carb. Usually rice, sweet potato or quinoa, spelt grains etc

Tonight we are having home made shepherds pie with sweet potato topping. Tasty and lush.

Any calories left I have a treat. Chocolate is my downfall so I'm eating the Christmas presents one at a time. 1 Ferraro roche is 60 cals. I've made some apple juice with powdered gelatine jelly ( I don't do artificial sweeteners) and that is very nice. You can add some fruit to it. A1 pint jelly With fruit works out about 100 cals and makes eight portions. I use paper cups . A scoop of ice cream or some fruit yogurt counted in and you could have a nice little desert for 150.

Im working on 1200 calories a day to get me cracking.

Stop snacking and stop having second portions....you should lose weight, just following those two rules. If you have a weakness for sugar, you'll need to knock that on the head too.

Drink a ton of water.

Eat a suzable green salad before anything else at lunch or dinner.

Low carb

Exercise ALOT

It is "Veganuary" this month and being vegan does seem to lead to weight loss (provided you keep away from the cake recipes) Viva 30 day vegan, Deliciously Ella and the Veganuary site itself all have lots of information.
I too my vegan lunch to a meeting yesterday as I'd forgotten to ask for one from the caterers, all the other people attending said how much nicer it looked than what they were given.

Low Carb! Cook delicious meals with plenty of good fats and veg. Eat when you're hungry. I have to say, after I got past the initial sugar/carb cravings it's the only diet that I don't feel deprived on.

Well if you love eating, then focus on healthy foods, not crap or junk.

Work out how many calories you need to cut in order to lose weight, and then spend a week trying different approaches (do you prefer light grazing, or three more substantial meals with no snacking)?

If you are prepared to lose weight at a slower pace, then you don't need to cut so many calories that you feel hungry all the time.

Alternatively, you could just focus on eating healthy food, not calorie count, but do an absolute shit ton of exercise and resistance training.

Low carb boot camp! You will eat better than EVER BEFORE!

Promise!!

I do mindful eating and have been doing it for over ten years now. I eat whatever I want when I am truly hungry and stop as soon as I am satisfied which is generally about 4 bites of anything for me. No food is good or bad, just food. I have all foods I love in my kitchen, nothing diet at all. I am also a big foodie. I used to diet and this caused bingeing so it took a leap of faith and started stocking everything I love and eating it mindfully. I cried the first day I went shopping and chose all the foods I love. It was such a relief after a lifetime of been on diets. I lost weight too.

As part of Veganuary eating I've changed to Rye bread - the proper sort ( mine is Village Bakery) that is hard and comes in small loaves. One slice of this fills me up for half the day ( have two if it is a very small loaf) I have it with mushrooms and tomato for breakfast or humus or avocado for lunch. The first time you eat it it seems hard and strange tasting but after a few days it becomes totally delilcious, and unlike other sorts or bread it is not addictive. No need for margarine or toasting, just eat it as it is.

I love to eat.
I love to go to restaurants.
I love to cook.
I love wine and cocktails.
I plan my holidays around where I'll get dinner.
I would never EVER give up a food group - so low carb has never been an option.

BUT
5:2 works a treat as I eat very little two days a week, mindfully 4 days a week and let rip one day a week

interspersed now that I'm at happy weight
fast properly 24 weeks a year, fast roughly 24 weeks a year, eat all I like 4 weeks a year