What diet/way of eating has actually worked for you?

[Alexandra84]

As the title suggests, what actually worked for you?
I think I’m over complicating things. High protein, fasting, healthy fats, low fat, low carb, keto, 5:2, shakes, jabs etc etc…it’s all spilling in my head and I’m actually taking all the bad bits of each diet and combining to just have a hugely unhealthy way of eating.
I don’t have a lot of headspace to make sense of complicated systems, v busy job, 2 high needs kids.
I just want a plan to stick to, knowing that slowly but surely, it will work.
Any ideas appreciated.

Absolutely 🫶🏼

I passed a gallstone vand got pancreatitis.
I was on an extremely low fat diet for a year which made food very unpalatable.
lost loads of weight but felt awful.

Dietician said I should not have been in this diet for so long (skin hanging in folds off my arms)

She has now said to add in real butter, full fat milk, olive oil and full fat yoghurt.

Feeling better with these additions in but needed back surgery two weeks ago.

After this I could only eat toast, liquorice allsorts and a few bits of chocolate.

It was strange but any time I thought of food I felt ill.

In hospital I ate nothing, then came home and got a stomach infection with diahrrea.

It was after the stomach infection I found I could only eat chocolate and liquorice allsorts.

I am feeling better and eating yoghurt with milled chia and grapes.

I am losing my taste for chocolate again but craving liquorice allsorts.

Friends keep bringing me food nibbles but just looking at them makes me feel sick.

Very sorry about the length of this but I can’t talk to friends as they seem to be racking their brains to think up food to bring me 🤢

I am lucky to have great mates !

I agree that extreme low fat diets are rarely a good idea. Yes, minimising the use of oil and butter in cooking is a good idea, but we should consume some healthy fats, such as EVOO, nuts and full-fat yogurt.

I never deep-fry food (except falafel once in a blue moon…), but I do a lot of stir-fries with minimal oil. Mostly chicken with lots of vegetables, or just vegetables with pan fried salmon or prawns added at the end; occasionally tofu.

I use myfitnesspal and track everything.

My calorie intake is from the James Smith Academy, he has a highly rated calorie calculator. Easy to find via Google.

I think I'm successful because I don't cheat.

I do also track my macros and have a fairly protein heavy diet and avoid bread and bread products (I'm probably a bit intolerant)

I also have a stash of sugar free mints everywhere and if I have a sugar craving, I just have a mint instead.

I try not to eat my exercise gained calories.

I fast 48/72hr a week and eat very veg/salad based meals mon-thurs
Weekends I try not to eat much rubbish but do drinks a great deal of wine, so I guess I prioritise

There is a school of thought that low fat diets actually cause gallstones. The mechanism is that when there is very little fat in the diet, very little bile is needed, so it sits in the gall bladder for ages and that’s how gall stones develop. Whereas if there is a higher level of fat, mile is made, stored in the gallbladder and moved on on a regular basis. The throughput prevents the buildup of gallstones. Or maybe they just don’t get big enough to cause a problem before they are passed.

Like I say, a theory, I don’t know if there is firm evidence for it.

Calorie counting is the only thing that consistently works for me.

Low carb works if I stick to it, but I find I can't in the long term - I get terrible carb cravings and end up standing by the bread bin ramming white sliced down my throat at 2am.

Calorie counting works because I don't have to think about the what, just the how much.