Healthier eating advice - Is this too much food per day

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

I'm 5 foot 8 and wear size 18. I'd always been very slim and verging on underweight until about 5 years ago. I wore size 10/12 before. I've always had a huge appetite. People wondered how I stayed slim.

I was happy at size 14. I felt I had a bit of flesh on my bones. My parents made unflattering comments but I ignored them. They have weird food issues and I felt starved by them as a child.

Now at a size 18, I am determined to lose weight as I feel insecure about the size of my belly. I've cut down on unhealthy food, more fruit and veg, drink plenty of water and reduced snacking. I already get plenty of exercise.

I still have a huge appetite but munch on carrots, cucumber, oranges etc. to fill me up. I drink as well if I'm hungry. I took 5 years to gain the weight so plan to lose it gradually.

This is a general typical day's food.

Breakfast - 2 small slices of toast with thin layer peanut butter or bowl of all bran.

Lunch - tin of mushroom soup, 2 low fat cheese slices on 2 small slices of toast

Dinner - large salad with feta, peppers, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, lettuce and low fat dressing or walnut and feta salad.

Snacks are oranges, cucumber, carrots etc.

I am happy with my diet. I am seeing a small decrease in my belly and feel healthier. I still have a huge appetite and my family still say I'm overeating. I struggle to eat less. Are they right to criticise?

[ErnesttheBavarian]

How old are you? You're an adult, v right? So it's not any of your parents business what you're eating. They can kindly express concern I suppose. But anyway, their suggestion is crap. It's not enough food, it doesn't have enough fat. Not snacking is ok, as long as you eat decent meals.
I bet neither of them eat so little!

Here's a nice idea for a quick breakfast or snack to take with you. You need to let it sit for a while though, so make it in advance but it takes literally a couple of minutes. In usually make 2 or 3 lots at a time, so it's even quicker - just open fridge and grab. Once you've made it once, you can judge about 150 g so you don't need to weigh it.

About 150g full fat plain yogurt. (Make sure there's no added sugar).
About 1 tbsp chia seeds
About 1 tbsp frozen raspberries
1 tsp cocoa powder.

Yummy and filling and really nutritious

[OliviaD68]

Ernest is making a huge amount of sense. His food recommendation is good as is his recommendation to do what’s right for you and not what your parents think.

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

I'm mid forties with a child. I am an adult!

That does sound good ErnesttheBavarian. I've been using the chia seeds in my homemade bread and I have frozen raspberries from doing smoothies. Will have to get cocoa powder. I know holland and barrett do some cocoa products so will have a look.

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

They persuade me to get on their scales every time I go home and my father then looks up my bmi. I find it easier to go along with it. I think they are concerned about my weight but it's very upsetting the way they go about it.

I have put my scales away in the attic.

[Nancy91]

Find a BMR calculator and eat fewer calories than that number.

[OliviaD68]

Forget the scales. Use your waistline as a guide.

If you go low carb and high fat as a diet you’re going to lose a huge amount of weight initially possibly up to 10 lbs in 10 days though it depends on you. It will be water weight from the reduction in carbs and lower cortisol levels. Effectively inflammation leaving the body.

Then you’ll start losing fat. It takes about a week to get into fat burning mode. The weight will just fly off and you can get your scales back.

I don’t recommend going too low on calories bc it will slow down your metabolism. Find your BMR using a BMR calculator and add a few hundred calories. The body doesn’t work in a calorie in calorie out way though admittedly it does help if you’re in a slight deficit. Plus you want this process to be easy and it should be.

You’re probably going to find you’re not hungry. There have been times when I forced myself to eat enough food.

[OliviaD68]

PS: your parents are right about one thing. Snacking is bad for you. Best to eat as few times a day as possible. Once or twice only is ideal but build up to that.

[PostNotInHaste]

I get that they are concerned but I'd nip that in the bud. you'll find people can go a bit strange when you lose weight. 'I'm doing it under my GP's supervision ' generally tends to shut people up though so I'd be tempted to use that one finishing up saying that they don't need to worry.

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

Why is snacking so bad? I always believed as long as it is healthy then it's OK?

[OliviaD68]

It goes back to the problem of insulin again. Every time you eat, insulin spikes. When insulin is present in your body you can’t burn fat for fuel. So the more times you eat the more insulin you have in your blood and the less chance you have to burn fat bc insulin takes time to get out of your blood.

Here’s a great vid that explains it. Dr Berg is solid.

[OliviaD68]

BTW I hope I’m not getting too technical. I like to understand what goes on in the body because it then helps guide my decisions.

Don’t want to impose this on you though.

[RosemaryHoight]

No actually fuck your parents. You are a grown up.

I don't bollock my dds about their diets or weights. Fuck that.

[SwearyBerry]

I agree with Rosemary. Tell your parents (perhaps only inwardly) to fuck off.... if you feel like you're managing your diet for yourself, and not because your parents are telling you what's "correct", I'll bet you'll find it much easier to maintain a weight that you're happy with.
I wonder if your relationship with your parents might require some reflection on your part - their approach to your weight/health/ wellbeing doesn't sound like it comes from a very caring or supportive place, though I accept that perhaps I'm making an assumption based on very limited information.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I'm mid forties with a child. I am an adult!

why do your parents even know what you eat? Insisting on weighing and calculating the BMI of another adult sounds a bit weird and controlling, TBH. And even if their intentions are good, it's liable to be counterproductive.

Take some of the good advice already suggested, backed by science, find what suits you and your body and take control of it yourself. You sound like a perfectly capable, rational person.

[RideOn]

Your diet sounds fine to me.

If I had only grapefruit for breakfast and I'd be eating my lunch by 10am. I think their attitude to breakfast is the same as when you were a child, maybe it suits them to eat little but I tend to overeat if I get over hungry.

I would stop with the weighing in when you visit them. I am not sure if you think their interest is motivating but I would not find it helpful.

[PostNotInHaste]

If you want to snack it is fine to do so. Unless you have a medical problem such a being insulin resistant or PCOS you will lose. It may be optimal to not eat between meals but effectively it is just a way to cut your intake so as long as overall intake less than what you burn off it will come off.

The important thing is to find something that suits you and that you can keep doing and main the weight loss in the future rather than get into the cycle of yoyo dieting.

[ppeatfruit]

People forget we are all different and respond in varying ways to foods (also to diets, etc). I reckon if you're happier and are losing weight when you snack , then as long as you're snacking on nourishing foods then that's great!

(look at Paul Mackenna's I can Make you Thin) His way of eating which is eating ONLY when you're hungry, chewing slowly and stopping when you're full, works beautifully and I lost 3 stone on it, I t's for life !you eat less so you eat smaller healthy meals more often!!

[OliviaD68]

It’s true that one can choose to ignore biology and still be successful in weight loss.

However knowing the facts about how the human body responds to food should be helpful in understanding what can work and why.

So while it’s a fact that snacking is unhelpful to achieve a weight loss objective it is also true that it won’t prevent weight loss.

[ppeatfruit]

Snacking ,chewing properly though, on a handful of nuts and or carrots etc. is good for weight loss because our bodies use up more calories digesting them then they contain. I do IF nowadays ( I don't eat between 7.30pm and 9 am ) because I've noticed that as I get older I start putting on weight if i eat late.

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

Thanks everyone. Olivia I tried the scrambled eggs this morning and didn't have my morning snack although I had my lunch about half an hour early. Just looking at Dr Berg.

I have noticed that some of the congregation at Church are very young looking for their age. Every single one of then fasts for religious reasons. I have tried fasting but didn't last more than a day and had no energy. I'm quite interested in the IF.

[OliviaD68]

@poster paranoidpammywhammy2. Good start.

Don't try IF until you've converted you body into a fat burning machine. It's too hard to do before that bc you'll be hungry all the time - the swings of hunger you'll get off of glucose as a fuel makes IF too challenging.

Stick to low carb, controlled protein high fat diet for a week or two, then we can see about IF ... which is not a diet as it doesn't say what to eat but when.

It's true there are health benefits to IF beyond burning fat. The main one is growth hormone production which is a hormone that promotes cell recreation. It's what allows kids to grow muscle, bone, other tissue. Your skin will all of a sudden feel soft - I no longer need to use cream on my face.

But that's for later. Don't do it yet. Get into ketosis first and foremost.

[OliviaD68]

@paranoidpammywhammy2:

I must stress: In the first week or two you are going to lose a lot of water weight. This is lowish quality weight loss (bc not fat) even if it will be a good psychological boost.

Anyway, with the water weight loss you will also lose minerals. Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium. We'll need you to compensate so you don't get tired and we'll tell you how

[OliviaD68]

@paranoidpammywhammy2:

I forgot to ask what you ate for lunch ...?

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

I would probably have no issues fasting between 7:30 pm and 9 am though.

I do tend to ignore my parents comments, it's easier to just get on the scales. We eat together regularly so they will always comment on what I'm wearing and what I eat.

They are very fixated on nutrition and weight. I'm just over a stone overweight but my belly sticks out. I've tried the body shapers but they are uncomfortable. I think they have weird ideas about what a healthy weight is. They are very concerned for me but it sometimes comes across as controlling. In the past I've needed their help and they worry excessively about me now.

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

Lunch was asparagus soup followed by an egg salad. I was so wanting my croutons though. I'm fairly peckish now though.