weight loss theories don't make sense and make me maaaaddddd!!!

[deffonamechange]

Right...am gonna stay calm and just ask this question cos maybe there's something I'm just not getting.

Right...so when I speak to doctor/sports people/books/internet - general theory is that all you have to do is eat less calories/burn more calories to lose weight.

This is a proven theory to me for several reasons:
some of my friends/family have had emotional/physical traumas...stopped eating/reduced eating and weight has fell off them (and stayed off in quite a few cases)
Anorexics eat very very little, they are very very thin (not healthy I know, but definately thin)

So....how come, when I massively increase my exercise and massively reduce my diet, I don't lose anything and am then told by various SW/WW members that it's cos i'm 'not eating enough' and my body is 'holding onto weight'

The 2 theories contradict themselves!

Anyone empathise with my frustration? or can anyone explain it?

bald - you're probably right, I think our portion sizes have got too big, and I might have turned into greedy cow.
I am not a fan of slimming clubs/diets - what did you do to take off the 4 stones?

It needs to be something with cheapish ingredients too

I made up my own version of SW red with a bit of India and a bit of Atkins

By avoiding pasta wheat potatoes you can cut the carbs out easily, no biscuits, cake, etc.

Sheherds pie with mashed carrot and swede istead of potaotes/thinly sliced cabbage or spaghetti squash instead of tagliatelle with your bolognese, that kind of thing

India's website

I agree about portion size - 30 years ago you were advised to cut down on carbs if you wanted to diet, no bread, potatoes etc. Then the advice began to change and people were advised to cut down on fat and fill up on carbs. I think this led to folk eating bigger portions and often not enough protein because they were advised against eggs, meat and dairy.

It is swinging the other way again now and most people seem to head down the low carb/better carb route. On the whole if you eat less carbs your portion sizes are smaller.

Do you eat eggs or fish namechange? On the list you've given us I would swap the primula on your toast for a poached egg (or have porridge) and have tuna or chicken salad for lunch. And weigh your pasta to see just how much you're having.

I like the look of that site Piffle.

yy saggar, the low fat trend imo encourages people to eat more, cos it's low fat innit

If you like big portions then go for huge mountains of salad with lemon juice and a touch of salt, make the salad interesting: so in addition to lettuce, toms and cucumber go for olives, onions, celery, apple, sweetcorn, peppers, sun dried toms, artichokes- not all together, maybe a few cashews or a few chunks of feta. For carbs add a small portion of potato salad in a light mayo or a little bit of brown rice or pasta. You will get the healthy fats from the olives. Sweetcorn is also quite carby. Add a bit of tuna or salmon for extra protein if you like.

Soup can also be a really low cal, but filling option. I can give recipes.

You can have tasty, nutritionally sound, low cal food.

Some foods, ie celery actually use more calories in being digested than they contain believe it or not!

Aye BALD but they don't realise that all those unused carbs turn to fat anyway.

God I hate celery.

Celery is the devils' tersorium

I lost about 2.5 stone a few years ago, I kept it off for 5 years until I got pregnant.

For me the thing that worked is I didn't diet, I just kept my portion sizes under control and didn't eat fattening food on week days.

I loosely followed weightwatchers, I was allowed a total of 18 points a day but I actually had about 22 it meant that it took longer but I preferred doing it this way as it was so easy to maintain my new weight.

I really ought to start a similar eating plan again.

Have you ever worked out your basal metabolic rate? If you google it, it will help you work out how many calories you need every day just to do nothing. This should then be what you aim to eat every day and if you exercise then it should come off (albeit slower than it went on!!).

Mine is higher than I was expecting, about 1700 cals a day. Eating below this level consistently will actually only serve to bring it down, meaning you have to eat less and less just to do nothing. However, it will probably be skewed if you do have thyroid problems. Doc could maybe refer you to get it measured properly by dietician?

I am not in any way qualified by the way, just been goggling it loads recently!

Deffonanamechange - I think maybe you are replacing fat with heavier muscle mass.If you are starving yourself and doing lots of exercise for any lenghth of time you would lose loads of weight.There were no fat prisoners in Belson or Aushwitz.