Weight gain after restrictive dieting and struggling with sugar cravings

[WeightForMe]

I'm so frustrated. I've been on a highly restrictive diet for months and months. I was a healthy BMI for the first time in my adult life last year due to this diet. This year, I've put on 1-2 stone and now overweight, again. My 8s are so snug that I may have to size up for holiday in a week!

I'm 157cm/5'2"

DH is buying lovely food for me because I've been on a total meal replacement and I've told him I'm taking a diet break to recalibrate and get back to what I need to do after holiday. I really appreciate this from him. He knows I'm suffering from diet fatigue (I miss chewing, ffs) and we haven't had a proper meal together in months.

THE PROBLEM: Instead of eating healthy, whole foods to keep within maintenance whilst on break, I keep eating biscuits that aren't even in the house! I go out of my way to bring them in because I have an insatiable sweet tooth! I have never had a sweet tooth before this diet and now I'm binging sugar like I'm going out of my way to give myself diabetes!!!

I don't know what the hell has come over me? I've tried fasting, reducing carbs etc but it's like I'm possessed! Is it perimenopause or something? I've been checked for diabetes, cholesterol, thyroid etc and all has come back in as clear.

I know weight loss takes time. Been there, have the badge. But, what can I do for damage limitation before I restart in September? We are going abroad so I can't not just eat or bring meal replacements. That would be boring for me and DH.

I'm trying to steer clear of things that increase sugar cravings like protein bars etc.

Guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself for the position I've never been in before and put myself into...

Thanks for listening.

@WeightForMe what's your actual weight at the moment?

70kg when I checked last week

Also. If the meal replacement isn't right for you and isn't going to get you where you need to be, you really don't need to continue to use it even if it's cost you a lot of money so far. Is it a subscription that you can't cancel without penalty, or have you already got all the products for several months supply?

All the products so 13 weeks and a bit left.

One of the things I have learnt through long term weight loss is that waste is sometimes inevitable and that I don't need to eat things just because I've bought them. Sometimes the better choice is to bin it and start again. If these are freeze dried products or similar presumably they have very long expiry dates and will keep for a fair while anyway?

It is a bit of a cliche, but you do need to build a manageable relationship with food. Choosing not to eat or only having a total meal replacement system is not a long term strategy for maintaining weight loss. You could use the meal replacements up by having 2 a day instead of 3, and eating a healthy meal for the other one. Then move to having 1 meal replacement and eating two meals a day, until you can eventually get to 3 meals a day and no meal replacements.

I have had similar cravings to you before after going on low calorie diets; right now I can’t make myself go low but am just working on maintaining and resisting the urge to go bananas! Hopefully then I can get back into weightloss.

I agree with @SilenceInside about using MR alongside food. If you were replacing 3 meals a day before then maybe use them fully again for a week or two after holiday to lose a bit of regained weight, then gradually phase them back out and replace with calorie counted meals, maybe just get to the point where you use them when you can’t be bothered cooking? If they are dry powders you can probably use them past the expiry date. You could also try adding some extra exercise in when you up the calories to help balance things out. Apparently exercise is at its most most helpful when it comes to not regaining weight rather than when trying to lose weight.

My height is similar (161cm, 162 after a good yoga session 😅) and I lost weight (14 kg) three years ago and have maintained since.

I don’t believe low carb, keto or meal replacement are good choices in the long run. I do restrict some things, for example I never drink fizzy drinks and I don’t eat or snack in front of screens, but in general what works for me is focusing on quality and variety over quantity. What I eat is a mix of Mediterranean and Japanese/Korean-inspired diet and make sure that my meals are colourful and interesting. Lots of plants and plant proteins, I eat tofu nearly every day. It really works for me, I don’t feel restricted or miserable. Maybe try something similar OP?

Today I've had: 20g goats cheese, half avocado, 1 tsp honey, 1 banana, 1 tablespoon peanut butter and dinner will be 1 small bowl homemade spaghetti Bolognese, with limited or no gluten free pasta, and (don't know how much yet) red wine

No calorie drinks until wine. Just water and black coffee.

This sounds reasonable, thank you very much! I will have a closer look at the Med diet and Japanese/Korean. In the past, due to hypothyroidism, I've avoided soy and tofu but this whole diet via total meal replacement is soya based and I've made it okay this far!

Good luck OP, you can do this! I’ve just had a shakshuka with some kidney beans and red lentils mixed in for extra fibre and complex carbs for dinner. It’s the kind of meal that work for me: colourful, fragrant, lots of texture and flavour, and very easy to make at the same time. And a portion is under 500 kcal.

What diet are you / were you following? Can you write out a meal plan for the week and stick to it? When you got to your target weight have you been following a maintenance plan based ?