Why We Eat (Too Much)

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Has anyone come across this book? It's written by Dr Andrew Jenkinson, who is a bariatric surgeon in London. Basically, it's about how to lose weight by lowering your body's natural set weight point. This may take a long time but it's sustainable and doesn't fuck your metabolism.

The book goes into a lot of detail about the causes of obesity, because he says it's important to understand why people are getting fat in the Western world. It pretty much comes down to eating too much omega-6 fat and sugar. The overall volume of food people eat doesn't matter.

I'm trying to work out how you would cut that out practically and I wondered if anyone had tried it. It sounds like going lower carb but not low carb as in low carb diets. He suggests eating low-carb breakfasts and throwing out bread (and anything else baked). I eat toast for breakfast most days and sandwiches for lunch. I'm trying to work out practical alternatives that I actually like.

Porridge
Full fat unsweetened yoghurt
Bacon and eggs
Omelettes
Soup
Oatcakes and cheese
Salads

Other rules include no takeaways or fast food or crisps etc, and no snacks, mainly because most snack food is carb-based with vegetable oil in it.

I drink water... I like it ice cold from the fridge. Or coffee. Or a glass of milk. I do have a Coke Zero every day but I will kick that habit soon as it’s so bad for me.

I do have NAS a couple of times a week if I fancy something sweet

I drink water with slices of lemon and coffee. I don't like squash, especially the no-added sugar squash as I find it tastes quite artificial if that makes sense?

I drink coffee, occasionally tea. Herbal tea (lemon and ginger), a naice ginger cordial, occasionally a can of san pelligrino orange or lemon, or water.

Thank you. I do like a fruit tea every now and then so I may start trying some different flavours.

I normally drink fizzy water with diluting lime going to have to wean off this. I also have a sugar in my morning coffee. Amazing once you start looking how much sugar you actually ingest. I think stage 1 will take me a wee while x

It's amazing how your tastes change though @Coconut80 - years ago I always used to add sugar to my coffee, but gradually cut it out and now I can't stand the taste of sweetened coffee.

Another crazy week at work for me, but I planned ahead and took food in with me. Visited a friend’s for their birthday today and felt obliged to accept a (small) slice of birthday cake, I didn’t enjoy it one bit and it was soooooo unpleasantly sweet that it set my teeth on edge! It’s reinforced to me that I’m not missing out on anything.
I still need to get more variety into my meals so am having a go at a mousakka recipe tomorrow

Please do post the recipe (and a picture! ) if it's tasty!

Will do

Ditto re taste buds changing. I had a bowl of homemade greek yog, a handful of blueberries and a drizzle of honey for pudding. It tasted so sweet and creamy it could have been a blueberry cheesecake topping. Absolutely bizarre really how much sugar we consume without realising. I would always say I don't have a sweet tooth, I must have just not noticed.

I did the same the other day. Added honey to my porridge halfway through eating it and ruined it.

I can’t believe I’m not eating sugary crap on a daily basis any more. Once or twice a week is a vast improvement from several times a day.

Morning everyone, how are you all today? Anybody any nice plans today?

We are having friends over in the garden again today - am having chicken wrapped in bacon cooked in a creamy sauce with courgette, peas and mushrooms which I'm serving with new potatoes and roasted carrots. Doing a rhubarb syllabub for dessert which does have some added sugar, but the rhubarb was not too tart so I haven't added very much, just a couple of spoonfuls of honey. Hoping the weather will be dry!!

Ooo lovely! Enjoy!

I have done a cardio Pilates workout, had a shower and some brekkie (bacon and eggs) and now just drying my hair. Taking the kids to the park for a run around but that’ll be it today I think!

Managed to get myself into some dungarees I haven’t been able to wear due to excessive chub, so I’m happy about that. Will be happier when they’re a little looser!

Have a good day all x

I was wondering what everyone thinks about cheese? Jenkinson refers to dairy throughout the book but mostly in the forms of butter and milk.
I've always loved it but have seen it as a 'bad' food due to all the fat. I'm now thinking that perhaps a lot of the problem was what I was eating it with: on pizza or as toasties or with tons of pasta etc, as well with sugary tomato based sauces.
I'm veggie so won't be having meat as protein but am now thinking that adding some feta to my roast veg or making some home made spinach paneer might be a good thing!
I can't see that there's been much discussion of cheese on the thread. I'm wondering what everyone thinks or if anyone has upped their cheese intake when dropping the carbs and what happened.

I've been eating loads more cheese than I used to - having feta with salad, veggie lasagne with ricotta and parmesan, mascarpone with the dessert today. I used to only really have cheddar and it would have been on pizza or toast, so have dropped the carbs but upped my cheese intake.

I am eating loads of cheese and still losing weight, which I am very happy about. It really fills me up and makes me miss carbs less.

I am still eating the same amount of cheese I did before (I haven’t hidden from calories for a number of years now). I have definitely lost weight.

I had the nicest dinner based on this recipe- slow roasted pork belly with roasted new potatoes and peppers. I replaced the soy sauce with balsamic vinegar and used butter instead of oil.

Oooh that looks nice Banging, I used to do a pork belly recipe years ago but haven't cooked it for years. Have just started using a new local butcher and he always has some in, might get a piece next week. I'm also going to do liver and bacon with mashed potato, peas, savoy cabbage and carrots as well. Its another dish we used to have a lot but I stopped doing when I got lazy in the kitchen.

I eat a lot of cheese as well. For the first couple of weeks I was snacking on cheese when I got hungry mid morning. However I don't need to now, am having to make an effort to eat lunch especially when I am busy.

Have had sunday dinner today. Have made dark chocolate mousse as well so got that to snack on later, had a sneaky taste earlier and its lush.

Dark chocolate mousse sounds lovely, I could definitely eat that right now. Will console myself with raspberries and cream instead.

I tried crumble - apple and berry base, with a bit of honey and oat, coconut flour and butter topping, no sugar. It was ok with lots of cream - the coconut flour went really dry and powdery. I wouldn’t bother with it again, I was going to use just oats, but there weren’t enough left so I chucked in the coconut flour to bulk it up a bit. I think I’ll try cranachan instead next.

Morning! Weight has gone up again, but I'm putting it down to 2 factors - firstly, week 3 on a diet is always weird, as your body adjusts to losing water weight and evens out a bit. Secondly, AF started yesterday and I'm retaining water like crazy - drank two pints of water last night and still didn't need to pee! Until 4am, naturally. Hoping that in a day or two it'll have settled back down. It's just frustrating because I was a lot better this weekend than last, and it doesn't seem to have made much difference! I know I am eating less, with much more nutritional value, so it must be good for me and it must eventually translate into weight loss. Bloody DH has lost half a stone. I'm currently on net loss 0.5 lb - I had lost 4lbs but it's all back on today.

Anyway, that wasn't very positive! My goal for this week is to start doing some exercise again. I used to do two Zoom classes a week, but work changed a meeting time so I can't do the Monday one at the moment, and I've missed the last two Fridays. I need to either sign up to something else or start making myself do free YouTube workouts.

Too much I was the same last weekend, AF doesn't do anything for dieting does it? If it makes you feel any better am 1.5lbs down again with a net loss over 3 weeks of 6.5lbs and another 1lb or so will come off tomorrow. I retain loads of water at the start of the week, I drink friday and Saturday then a sunday roast with salty gravy keeps me hanging onto it.

Been for a run this morning, got housework and guinea-pigs to clean out, then a showrr and some trigonometry to do . Not sure what I am eating today, need to go food shopping at some point, will probably be something simple like fish and veg and potatoes or something.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar you have my sympathy, I know my weight can vary but up to 6lbs at different times of the month and that it is just water, but that doesn’t make it any nicer to see on the scales.

I am now down 13lbs, I know a lot of this is water but it’s hugely motivating so I am celebrating it anyway.

I’m going to try and make a no sugar panna cotta tonight, relying on vanilla pods rather than sweetener. When I have followed low carb high fat previously I have had far too many sweeteners and I’m sure it impacted my weight loss.

I lost 2lbs at the start, and 4 weeks in I’ve still lost 2lbs, no more. My stomach is definitely flatter though and I only really want to lose up to another 5lbs altogether.

I’m part way through the Tim Spector book and am waiting for him to get to some positive advice rather than debunking every other theory going. He doesn’t seem to be anti-wheat and I’m thinking about adding the odd bit of wholewheat pasta in for fibre and variation. It’s interesting how he claims that everyone is totally unique and that certain foods can be better tolerated by some people than others.