Please only reply if you're female and closer to 50 than 40

[IWillSurviveHeyHey]

Because how in the name of the holy cheeses does one loose weight at the age of 48, when nothing that used to work in the past, works anymore?

I am reasonably active and don't overeat although admittedly I do drink alcohol and have a weakness for sweets. This was never an issue before but clearly it is now. Simple I hear you say, stop drinking alcohol and eating sweets. But I have. And whist in the past I would have started noticing some change after a couple of weeks, nothing moves at the moment. In fact, I am just getting bigger and bigger.

I have extremely large thighs and I am only short so I feel really uncomfortable within myself. My only saving grace is that I don't have a fat belly.

I am a bit sick of being hungry pretty much all the time and still, it seems I need to accept that I've gone from a size 10 to a size 12 in the space of a year and I've been hungry for the most part. Well I don't want to accept that. I need to go back to a size 10 or by the end of 2018 I'll be a size 14.

Please help me.

I think part of the issue with losing weight, in general, is the mixed messages around diet and exercise.

Someone who is 10st needs to walk 50 miles to burn 1lb of fat (3,500 cals).

So whilst exercise is undoubtedly important, it’s not really going to affect your weight.

Cutting calories is by far the most effective way of increasing the deficit between consumed and burned.

It is tough, though. I’m 46 and have managed to get 7kg/1st off in the last few months. I’m exactly where I want to be now but I’ll need to be careful to maintain it, I think...

There are probably as many ways of losing weight as there are people, we're all different.

Like Cheese I have found what suits me, I eat differently too, I'm not on a 'diet' as such.

I will continue happily ! Oh and my health is important to me . There are a lot of younger people than me who are unhealthy.

You're right, @TalkinPeace, that demonising foods isn't helpful - least of all because it can set up cravings for that very food! But too much of certain foods isn't good for weight/weight loss.

Low carbing isn't about cutting out an entire food group, but reducing it, so that the proportion of carbohydrate in the diet is altered. That's all.

@MoreProseccoNow - debating the issues isn't derailing the thread! I'm interested if you have a different point of view. As long as it's not about insults, of course ....

Thing is @BIWI I am very strongly of the opinion that Chocolate has no place in a healthy diet - but that might be because I'm allergic to it
DH is yet to be convinced
Its all about moderation, compromise and being willing to keep trying till you find something that works for you

Cheeseandbiscuits - I'd like to know more about your plan please.

I am delighted I started this thread because it has taken off and I feel like it's been a hand to hold whilst I am embarking on these life changes. I thank you all for that and the information provided. It would be good for the 'I know more than you' tone of some of the messages to stop because they're cluttering an otherwise helpful thread.

Iwill
its also nice to be on a thread where none of us have much chance of falling pregnant

I genuinely feel the blood sugar diet has totally transformed me. I cannot believe how satisfied I am with my food. People can appear shocked when you don't eat things like rice, bread, pasta, biscuits, potatoes.....but they really are not the be all and end all!
I just had a lovely Sunday roast, I had salmon, celariac mash with yogurt and lime, stir fried cabbage and sprouts with a few pomegranate seeds and I am full and it was delicious.
I basically bought a £40 frying pan - which I use a lot and got cracked on.
For breakfast I enjoy mushroom omelettes, lunch times - stir fries - chopped cabbage, bean sprouts, dash of soy, tinned mackerel. I also make delicious soups. I enjoy lots of full fat Greek yogurt with a few raspberries too. Teatime i May have butterbean mash, more stir fried greens and maybe tuna and lime fish cakes. I make lots and lots of different dishes.
A good stir fry pan is a must.
The key is more veg and less fruit, I eat raspberries (frozen) and a few mixed berries. I don't miss fruit like banana etc at all.
I buy lots of green veg and chop it up ready and keep it in tubs in my fridge ready to Wack in a pan.
On the days I'm working I take it cold. Prepare it in the morning and then I like it cold. Perfectly fine microwaved,
One of my faves is cauliflower cheese. I do my cauli in microwave for 10 minutes then I add a mixture of cottage cheese, mixed up with Greek yogurt, Parmesan and lots of seasoning and a few chilli flakes. Pop on over for 20 mins. Delicious.
The main thing is I am satisfied with my food. My carb craving has gone. I don't look at a cheese panini and wish I could scoff it - if I wanted one I'm sure it wouldn't make much difference if it was just every now and again, I'm just genuinely full all the time.
I don't make a big deal of it. I just eat so much better. Don't think fruit and veg - think veg and fruit.
I use a lot of Greek yogurt (full fat) to cream things up - celariac mash is another fave.
I am active as I have 2 dogs but I've always been an avid dog walker so I haven't upped my exercise.
I don't drink much,I would say 4-5 gin and tonics a month if that so that goes in my favour.
I also love overnight oats and have a delicious carrot cake oats recipe which taste exactly like carrot cake perfect for time of the month.
I even found the 800 kcal days a doddle.
I put a stone on on my early forties over a few years but I look back and I used to eat things like beans on toast, tuna buns, jacket potatoes.....I just eat differently now and am honesyly never tempted by cakes at work etc. I just keep it low key, never mention a diet - as it isn't and I've found it really easy. I weigh myself every morning. I'm still amazed and ecstatic to see 9stone 2. This isn't a stealth boast, if I can help anyone feel as great as I do I will be delighted x

Your cauli cheese sounds perfect for me as it's one of my favourites and I've recently discovered chilli flakes. Will definitely be making that. Trying to give up bread but have been having vegetable wraps for lunch so stuck for an alternative but considering just the veg or making them into an omelette type meal. Thank you.

cheese
I admit, I love the look of your diet.
I drink a bit a lot more than you do
and having a rugby playing teen in the house impacts on meals (but he'll be off to Uni soon)

I have grown cavolo nero kale this winter : DH and I eat a shed load of it most days!
THen again my mum bought him a cheese making kit and we've been having fun with that

everybody has their own way : and its not a "diet" its a "way of eating"

I still make a family tea for my husband and children (12 and 8) but what I eat is generally really quick to prepare and so cooking a few different things is generally easy. They enjoy lots of the things I cook but they certainly don't follow my way of eating - and their sausage and mash doesn't even tempt me!

Ah, see , there I differ
family meals with shared serving dishes are sacrosanct in this house

We still all eat together. I've always cooked different meals to be honest as I dont eat meat and my family do.

So you do not in fact eat together
as you do not eat the same food
what do your children think of you rejecting food that you serve to them?
just that all eating disorders start in the head not the stomach
What do your family eat while you are eating the meals listed above ?

FFS! Do you mean to be so rude TalkinPeace?!

BiWI
How many people on here track their food issues back to watching their parents?
Why is it rude to highlight that fact?

OP - I could have written your post. I lost and gained the same 7lbs for the last 5 years. Losing any weight was really hard. Then joined the MN low carb bootcamp and lost 12lb in 9 weeks. It stayed off. Now about to do strict low carb again and know I can lose my last 1.5 stone in 2-3 months. Never hungry, delicious food and no cravings for sugar food. Blood level stable. Wish I'd know this years ago.

@DianaT1969, would you care to give us a typical days's menu please?

Cheese, I wouldn't worry about what TiP is saying. For years the dcs had different food to dh and I as they ate two hours earlier. Even though we mostly eat together it is no biggie that someone has a different meal. No eating issues here. And flipping heck, I've even managed not to sully my kids with the problems I've had.

Can relate to this - following with huge interest!

cheeseandbiscuits I really like the sound of your diet, it's where I'm aiming myself. I'm 49 and really struggling to lose a stone and a bit. What works for me in the past was low carb, but any slight slip up seems to pile the weight back on again now..
I'm thinking of trying the 16:8 diet.

I want to look the best I can at my age. My dad died from problems related to poor diet and I want to keep being as healthy and active as I can be for as long as I can.

Re low carb / ketogenic diets

www.stephanguyenet.com/reflections-on-the-us-news-world-report-diet-rankings-and-my-involvement-in-them/

'no traditionally-living human population has ever been shown to exist in a state of chronic ketosis, which the diet promotes. Even the arctic Inuit, who traditionally eat a high-fat, low-carbohdyrate diet, were not in chronic ketosis, and the reason is rather troubling for ketogenic dieters: A genetic mutation preventing ketone production spread rapidly throughout the ancestral Inuit population, suggesting that avoiding ketone production conferred a powerful survival advantage (14). Furthermore, few of the people reading this are descended from Inuit and their genomes weren’t shaped by thousands of years of eating the Inuit diet. The vast majority of traditional diets that have been documented contain enough carbohydrate and/or protein to prevent ketosis, although the amount of carbohydrate varies greatly (15). Long-term nutritional ketosis doesn’t appear to be part of the ancestral human metabolic spectrum'

And your point, ohfortuna, is ... ?

You don't have to be in ketosis (or 'chronic ketosis', whatever that is) to lose weight on a low carbohydrate diet.

There are a lot of different low carbohydrate plans, but few of them are based around being ketosis - certainly not for the whole length of the plan.

I'm just sharing some information about ketogenic diets BIWI

Oh, OK. Then likewise!