Am I addicted to Carbs?

[AppleDumplings]

I'm just so very very weary of watching my weight. I'm now 51 and since the age of 14 seem to have permanently been either dieting or unhappy with my weight. I'm 5'10 and a size 16. I don't know my weight but am thinking it has to be around 15 stone. My only success was Weight Watchers but that slowly returned. I'm on HRT and 200mcg of Levothyroxine meds wise. I'm almost certain my problem is carbs. I'll cook a meal and for me the lion's share will be carbs. I'll prep lunch and I'm just happy with bread and butter. My go to easy meal is noodles with butter and salt. I know I need to break this cycle but don't know how. Please, if someone has done this let me know!!

I think lots of us have done this by just not making those things to eat. Don’t buy them don’t make them.

If I have a meal I will make more veg and protein (fish; chicken) than the carb portion, and for me carbs is a small portion of Wholegrain rice, Wholemeal bread, grains such as quinoa or a small amount of potato. I rarely eat pasta, noodles and potatoes to be honest.

You can eat bread but it needs to be less of it, Wholemeal, and with something else, like a soup?

you need to fill yourself up on other foods like fruit veg and meat

the NHS have a lot of health balanced diet advice on their app for free

If you want to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit. How you choose to do this is up to you. There is no need to cut out major food groups. You'll probably find it easier to achieve a deficit and lose weight without feeling hungry if you make sure the carbs you eat are complex, so wholegrains not refined white carbs, and you eat more lean protein.

Have a look into the HBD diet. This is the book.
I've been doing it for the last 6 months and it's genuinely changed my way of eating. No more craving carbs/sugar etc. Don't get hungry in between meals etc.

This is the book:

The Human Being Diet: A blueprint for feasting and fasting your way to feeling, looking and being your best https://amzn.eu/d/eZg1oas

There's a hugely supportive community on Instagram and the author does regular lives on there.

Try cutting the carbs and see how you feel. Make either your first or last meal of the day low carb, so a bacon and 4 eggs in the morning, or a steak with butter and a small salad in the evening, and see how it makes you feel. For most people they will feel fuller and not want to snack.
The issue with carbs is that eating then starts a cycle of have them/ want them.
If you want to understand how carbs function in the body try this podcast,
https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-144/

By carbs, you mean simple carbs and not complex?

I think it’s best to use simple language yes, and start with the basics before going low carb straight away.

carbs are a massive food group and veg is carbs so it’s best people understand the advice given to them. Carbs are not ‘bad’ and you can still eat them just focusing more on complex carbs.

this will explain how carbs work and what to look for.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/carbohydrates-and-diabetes/nuts-and-bolts-of-carb-counting/learn-about-carb-counting/the-basics

I’m not great at dieting but have recently improved my diet and shed half a stone by the simple step of no longer eating a lunchtime sandwich. I have soup instead. It’s a bit tedious but lower calorie and seems to switch off much of the desire for carbs and sugary items.

Soup is excellent. I make a big veg soup and grate cheese on the top.
Lentil curry is amazing and filling.
I buy the microwave sachets of whole grain rice and have half with my oh.
Just think about the carbs you like and have half. I’m not that keen on bread which is helpful.
I’ll make a bolognese or a roasted tomato sauce packed with veg and have more sauce than pasta.
Always wholemeal.
M&S do lovely lentil noodles which I have with tonnes of veg.

At 51 years old I imagine that @AppleDumplings is very much like me in this regard. We absolutely know what we should be eating. I think that both the OP and I could write an up to date version for the NHS of how much of any of the food groups we should all be* *eating, paying particular attention to our lifestyles, including our weights, heights, fitness levels, ability or desire to exercise, and if we enjoy exercising what types we do, or would commit to doing, regularly.

My problem is that having spent almost a lifetime on starting diets, and even having twice lost a considerable amount of weight, I am totally bored of trying to eat the right things - and consistently failing in the long term. I also have an underactive thyroid and am on HRT. My body does not want to go below a size 12, when it has I have looked gaunt and not felt well. However, I now weigh significantly more than the OP, have type 11 Diabetes, am both very depressed and stressed, and am taking opiates (legally prescribed) for severe pain caused by various other conditions. I would love to weigh less, and be a lot slimmer, but I am too tired, too miserable, and too lacking in any enthusiasm to put myself through the agony of constantly trying to lose weight and be healthy, to diet any more.

Sorry @AppleDumplings, I am sure that I'm not helping you, unless you can get some motivation from my failures, to help you make a determined effort to not turn out like me - I am over 10 years older than you, you do still have time to turn your life around. Of course your underactive thyroid, peri or actual menopause, and your HRT won't be making life any easier for you either.
By the way, I would love to be a size 16 again, but I just haven't got the energy or wherewithal to even attempt that anymore.

If at all possible OP, please have another go at changing your whole lifestyle quite dramatically, or just accept you will be a little overweight, but not morbidly obese like me. Just don't spend the rest of your life feeling like a failure. I am sure that you will get some good tips on how to change your frame of mind, you certainly don't need tips on what you should or shouldn't be eating! 💐

@Itwasafterallallaboutme I’m sorry you have had a bad time but this is projection, OP did ask for advice about food on a weight loss forum so I am not sure what else you would expect in terms of responses. I’m sure we are all addicted to carbs and sugar which led us here and if you want to know how people become less addicted well the simple truth and honesty is a degree of abstinence and swaps and reduction. It’s ok for us to validate that truth.

And lack of food and nutrition education is one of the main reasons people eat poorly, as they have little awareness of calories or nutrition intake. People post here all the time with no idea where to start.

Thank you all so very much for taking the time to reply. I know I'm being a lazy arse and want an easy fix but I really want to try and understand why I reach for carbs (bread, pasta, crisps) before a healthier option. I'm going to listen to the podcast suggested and read the information that has been linked. But damn that Ozempic is tempting. But not just yet.

Do you like your carbs as much when you don't put fat on them? Plain, no butter and of course no salt?

You want to understand why you reach for those dishes? It is because the magic combo of carbs+fat+salt doesn't exist in nature, and each on its own will push for signals in your brain. In nature you have sweet (fruit), fat (nuts), and salty (seaweeds) but it is their combination that makes it irresistible. That is what the food industry does. Add sugar to savoury sauces , add salt to biscuits, ..

Are your crisps as good without salt? Would you eat as many? Avocado on toast is yummy. Is it as yummy without a sprinkle of salt?

Understand that it is the combo of carbs+fat+salt that makes you reach for them, so create dishes that recreate this combo with lower calories. Yes you need to put the effort. But many salads or some asian stir fry and soups as already suggested.

Since you are mentioning Ozempic, reflect on the fact that Ozempic will increase insulin, showing that insulin is not the bad guy as many want you to believe.

Carbs are a massive food group that has been the main food source for most humans since we existed. It is the manipulation and transformation of carbs that in the recent decades have been hurting us.

Yesterday I was wasting time on Reddit whilst waiting for someone and this map came up. Isn't it fascinating how Italy, where every household eats pasta every single day and sometimes twice a day has a far lower rate of obesity in women. Could it be that carbs are not the issue? More the processed food? Lack of vegetables in diet?

@gordonpym you are absolutely right. I do add salt, butter or cheese to my carbs. I'm going to do some reading up on recipes that can simulate this, but more healthily. I went for a long walk today and DH took a photo of me from behind. I didn't even recognise myself.

This is why any low fat or low carb diet works, because you break the combo. A boiled potato without oil, butter, cheese is very different from a roasted or fried potato. Sure you can add tons of butter to broccolis and they will be delicious but you won't eat the same quantities or calories because veggies are filling.
You end up eating less calories and more whole food.

Eating healthy requires work and planning, absolutely. But it can be extremely delicious and rewarding. It is not only about the calories, it is about nutrients and nourishing your body, your brain and your mind.

Learn how to cook tasty vegetables. Focus on what you want to eat more than what you want to ban.

You have been on and off diet since you were a teen. What about changing your mindset and embracing a new way of eating, a lot of plants, a little bit of fat, a little bit of quality carb (not the shitty Tesco bread, but an authentic rustic bread) .