I need to loose weight but enjoy food too much.

[ItsGotABitOfPink]

I've been slim my whole life. Up until recently I was able to eat anything and not put on weight. People always would ask me how I stay so slim after having children and I couldn't give an answer as I didn't know.

However, since the first lockdown I've gradually gained weight. I'm now 2 stone heavier than I was pre COVID. I don't know if it's down to stress or my age (31) or anything else. Problem is there's no way I could diet. I've tried and it makes me feel so stressed out and rubbish. I end up with bad migraines.

My diet isn't too bad. I will have porridge for breakfast with sugar on.

Pasta/ whole meal sandwich with salad. Fruit for lunch.

Usually some type of protein with veg and carbs for dinner.

If I snack it's crisp, cake, chocolate up to twice a day.

Can I loose weight without cutting out any of my food?

Eat the same food but half the amount?

The NHS weight loss app might be a good place to start. It takes a bit of maths at first (adding up all your calories), but it’s very enlightening to see what calories you’re meant to consume in a day vs what you do consume.

You’ll soon figure out what bits need cutting out, e.g. sugar on porridge, and cakes and chocolate twice a day. It’ll help you naturally choose more filling healthy choices for your snacks.

In answer to your question, no, you can’t lose weight without a calorific deficit.

Thank you both. I will look into that app.

Sorry but your diet is bad. You’re eating too much sugar and too many carbs. Cut down on sugar and carbs and you will lose weight.

Not enough vegetables and protein, far too many carbs in that diet.

I am the same. I have lost 7 lbs so far by cutting down my carbs. It works for me because I still get the tasty parts of the meal, and all flavours, so I dont feel like I'm missing out. I lost nearly 4st doing the same after dc1, and kept it off until I had dc2 and my health deteriorated. It is easy to maintain as you don't have to calorie count and can usually just slightly adapt things you would be making anyway. I swap out pasta for spiralized or roasted veg, stick to one piece of bread and have more of the sandwich filling, switch white potatoes to sweet potatoes, swap rice for cauliflower rice. If I have a chocolate craving I have one of those 90cal chocolate fibre bars or a diet hot chocolate. I will have pretty much anything in moderation and fill myself up on low calorie foods like fruit and veg.

The problem is cutting out the carbs and sugar. It makes me feel so rubbish and my migraines get so bad.

I think halving the amount of carbs/ sugary snacks, seems like a good place for me to start rather than cutting them out completely.

The feeling rubbish / migraines when cutting carbs sounds like withdrawal / detox symptoms. Takes about 3-5 days to go IME - May of course be different for you and others.

Your diet sounds pretty carb, fat and sugar heavy - bread, cakes, chocolate, crisps may be tasty but they’re likely to impinge on weight loss. I can’t eat those if I want to lose weight.

Use my fitness pal or similar to record all you eat.

Then you can gradually reduce the amount of sugar and carbs you consume without withdrawal headaches. If you do this slowly you will have no nasty symptoms.

At the same time increase your exercise. You can work out how long it you have to walk or jog or cycle (whatever) to burn off that kitkat or whatever. Work out the calories you plan to eat and then google how long you need to exercise for to burn it off.

When you realise how much energy you are eating, not using, and turning into fat it will give you a wake up call.

The thing with refined carbs is that they actually make you hungrier because of the rise and fall of blood sugar. When you cut them out, you maintain a more consistent blood sugar level, and stop feeling hungry all the time. For me that makes all the difference as my willpower is shite. Definitely cutting them down is a good start, and I would stick to brown complex carbs, it will help to stop that roller coaster effect on your blood sugar which makes you hungry.

id maybe change your lunch to more vegetable heavy rather than pasta or bread and change your snacks to something high protein, or vegetable based see if that helps, but i dont think your diet needs a drastic overhaul.Once youre more active again, it will help

What's your level of exercise?

I’ve lost two stone and I’ve not been hungry once. Nor have I denied myself anything I wanted.

I set myself a daily calorie limit based on my TDEE, and ate whatever I wanted within that. I also upped my exercise.

My calorie limit was 1800. Plenty.

I’ve gone from 13st 6 to 11st 6. I’m on the last half stone now before I start maintaining.

Have a look at this thread for a way of eating that allows you to eat a wide range of healthy, home-cooked food:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/4023261-Why-We-Eat-Too-Much

I am similar to you, but older

Never had to think about my weight until 30s

I had to drop the snacks, only have crisps on Friday ;with a glass of wine

But the daily wine + crisps had to go for me. Also cut back on sugar a bit

Like you, any kind of “dieting” (cutting carbs) gives me migraines

So I eat much more veg (veg box) abd less of the sugar/crisps/alcohol/deserts

Over time I’ve gone back to a good stable weight without ever “dieting” as such, am now 50 and still that same weight

Sometimes you just need to tweak rather than diet

My advice is to use my fitness pal app (it’s free) and put your height/weight/activity level etc and start adding the food and drink you consume into the diary (you can scan the barcodes). It really makes you realise how some foods are calorie laden and unhealthy/low in nutrition.

The problem I find in halving portions of a higher calorie diet is you end up with little on your plate which makes you feel miserable in the long run...and hungry. When you lose the weight, the portion size goes up again and so does the weight.

I have a diet now that’s got a lot more vegetables, I’m aware of protein goals and other nutritional goals I need to meet and if I’m offered cake, crisps or biscuits (they were my downfall) I’m not tempted because it’s high and nutritionally empty calories to me.

You definitely don't need to cut healthy carbs. You need them at each meal, and I was told off by an NHS dietitian for not eating them at each meal. You dont need tons, though eg 60-80g bread per portion and 45g porridge oats. Protein each meal. Fill up on veg.

White carbs are best avoided. Sugar is best avoided. Wine adds weight to most people. All these things should be very occasional if you want to lose weight.

Take heart. I've put on 2 stones and my doctor told me most people have.

Calorie count. Ditch the sugar on the porridge and weigh out the portion. Add banana and cinnamon for flavour.

Weigh and count the pasta including any sauce/oils/butter on it.

Switch oils used to cook dinner to fry light.

Half the plate veg, a quarter protein, a quarter carbs (if you must). Calorie count it.

Buy in some under 100cal snacks to swap the cake and crisps you usually eat. Allow yourself two per day if your calorie count allows.

I've tried and it makes me feel so stressed out and rubbish. I end up with bad migraines.

This is your body's reaction to coming off sugar. It's tough, but you need to work through it. There's way too much sugar and simple carbs in your diet, ignoring the weight gain, you need to think about longer term health consequences.

Including fatty liver, visceral fat, blood pressure, diabetes. These are serious conditions. A close friend of mine who is almost underweight naturally has eaten herself into type 2 diabetes, simply due to diet.

You need to come off the sugar and snacks. These are "sometimes" foods, not multiple times a day food. I would start by simply changing,

• Porridge, no sugar, 1/2 banana instead PLUS protein (greek yoghurt)
• Overall decreasing your simple carbs while increasing your protein should reduce the need to snack. If you absolutely needs something, think carrot sticks with hummus, boiled egg, 10 almonds...

Since Feb I've lost 2.5 stone through intermittent fasting (16/8) and heavily reducing my simple carb intake (rice/pasta/potato/bread I'll only each twice a week). I won't lie, the first two weeks were horrible; I felt horrible, I looked horrible, I'm pretty sure I was horrible to be around. But since getting through it, I feel fantastic.

The problem is cutting out the carbs and sugar. It makes me feel so rubbish and my migraines get so bad.

Yes but that's a bit like saying "I couldn't possibly give up my litre of vodka a day - I'd feel awful"! If you get migraines from not eating refined carbs and sugar, that's precisely why you should cut down on refined carbs and sugar! You will feel better for it (and lose weight) once you've got over the initial withdrawal.

I agree with others that it's too much processed sugar. I had sweets over easter and it did really make me considerably hungrier! It also gave me heart palpitations 😂

Why don't you try changing one of the cake or chocolate for fruit? It's still sweet, but much better sugar than what's in a cake amongst other things.
If you are after savoury, nice cracker with soft cheese or quark with herbs and cracked pepper is really nice. Or a sloce of chorizo etc.

The thing is that you won't feel great first week, but then you will absolutely feel changes in energy levels and digestion, if you drop some of the sugar.