I gained weight due to medication as it make me ravenous at all times and by the time I came off of it I was used to eating loads. I had been known to buy a birthday cake and sit there and eat the whole thing. I was about a size 20-22 and now I’m an 8. I do not restrict myself or count calories at all. The trick is to ADD things to your diet instead of making yourself miserable thinking you can’t have things. There is space for all things in a healthy diet and cake does not make you a failure.
If I want a bit of chocolate then I will put some muesli in a tall fancy glass, then some yogurt, then sliced up banana, then chocolate and then honey on the top. Sometimes it peanut butter, sometimes it’s Biscoff and sometimes it’s all 3! Instead of finishing a chocolate bar and not filling myself, I have a nourishing snack that made me feel good to make and eat.
If I want some ramen I’ll buy the crappy £1 ones and then have it will a boiled egg, some seaweed I got off of Amazon, frozen chicken breast strips, whatever canned veg I have like sweetcorn, sugar snap peas, some carrot ribbons etc.
I think a lot of the trouble is people think your diet should be “perfect” when really we’re looking for “sustainable.”
Stay away from people on social media that insist that just because the formula for weight loss can be simple, that means it’s easy.
Ben Carpenter, the plantslant, James Smith are all names I wish I had had back in the day. Best of luck everyone.