haven't ever really dieted before, please advise!

[2jamsandwiches]

I'm fed up of being fatter than I used to be! I'm about a stone heavier than I used to be. 2 DCs, and probably a bit less active than I used to be (more walking and picking up, but no 'real' exercise).
Am still BF (two children, but one doesn't feed much).
So, I decided that I'd give up sweet things, I've got into the way of being used to eating lots of sweet stuff, and it's bad for teeth and a bad example to set too.
Problem is, I was clearly getting a lot of calories from the sweet stuff and I'm constantly STARVING now.
Have also made the mistake of weighing myself several times in the last few days and not only do I not seem to be losing any weight, the scales suggest I'm actually gaining it!
So, help!
I need to eat a lot, I'm a hungry person, BF etc., and I'll just be miserable and horrible and exhausted if I feel badly hungry all the time. What can I eat that's satisfying but not too calorific? What's a good way of getting past the 5pm I'm-going-to-kill-myself if I don't have something to eat NOW moment? I don't mind if losing this takes a while, but I'd like to feel I'm making some progress!

Lots of protein rich meals (protein at every meal) with the right type of carbs (brown rice and wholegrain carbs) along with fruit and veggies, will help to keep you feeling fuller for longer. So at 5pm, have a low fat yoghurt or a chunk of low fat cheese. Cottage cheese is fab and can be topped with berries or other fruit to help satisfy the sweet craving.
If you eat white processed bread products and white rice and past, it won't be as good for you as wholegrain and you won't lose weight as easily.

thank you lucie!
standard sort of day is:

muesli for breakfast (porridge is no good for me as I'm starving by 10.30 no matter how much I eat...)

generally bread and cheese and veg and fruit for lunch, sometimes soup, or pasta, or left-overs from yesterday dinner

bits and pieces from the children's plates at teatime

dinner of something like risotto, stew, curry, roast, lentils

don't drink as much water as I should. A lot of milky tea, 1 cup of milky coffee, often 1 (small) glass of wine.

Protein at every meal, does that mean I'd do better with an egg (two eggs?) for breakfast? What about lunch? Does cheese (def won't be low-fat...) count? I can't be doing cooking meat or fish at lunch, specially as DC1 is a vehement toddler-vegetarian...

Just reading and running. From a Weight Watchers persepctive, muesli, bread (presumably marg/butter too) cheese, milky tea can be very high in points.

Definitely swap bread & cheese for more soups or pasta/ rice type dishes for lunch. I find cous cous the most filling of the pasta/grain family. I eat a lot of quorn as I am vegetarian, but it is also a very filling protein.

Cut out breasy defo - unless wholegrain.
Yes, cheese counts towards protein but WON'T help you lose fat if it's full fat.
Try and not pick off the kids plates.
You don't have to have eggs for brekkie - why not have them for lunch on a piece of wholegrain toast with some tinned toms too.
Unless it's wholegrain, you shouldn't really eat too much white pasta.
Put a banana or berries on your museli too - is it no added sugar and salt museli? All the supermarkets do yummy versions - Tesco especially. At tea time, why not have a few spoonfulls of cottage cheese with pineapple - will take the cravings off and is protein so will keep you on til dinner.
At night - when DCs are in bed, you could boil some chicken breast in stock and then roast a dish of veggies to have for lunch or dinner the next night.
I try to have soup for lunch with no bread but sometimes add a bit of rice or pasta to it.
A jacket pot with loads of watercress and a poached egg on top is a yummy too.
Run up and down the stairs 5 times a few times a day too.

Oh dear, how depressing! I'm caught between feeling that food is a major pleasure in my life and damn the weight, and knowing that there are health risks in not going back to your pre-children weight.

I think I eat a pretty good diet on the whole - always brown bread, always brown pasta, usually white rice, always no sugar etc. muesli.

Why is bread considered so bad? Can't really be any different from cous cous, can it? And what's wrong with milky tea (I should get skimmed milk in for it, I prefer it, it's just a pain having different types of milk around)? Genuine questions!

I think it may be that I have to accept that I won't lose weight fast because I'm still BF (I seem to be one of the people who holds weight then, rather than shedding it). I do however need to get used to less/no sweet stuff, and simply eating less food!

What is your body type 2jam? I recently found out that my body type is an endomorph and once I read the description of what that means to the way I eat and easily I lose weight, everything made complete sense and so that's why I'm trying to follow the above.
typcial endomorph shape.The only difference in my body type than the picture is that I have a much smaller stomach and narrow waist (nightmare for buying jeans though as I have big thighs and hips)
I drink loads of tea (semi skimmed milk) but they reckon the benefits of drinking about 7/8 cups of tea a day, outweigh the caffeine negs.
White processed bread isn't good but wholegrain is fine once a day. Brown rice better than white but to be honest, why cut out everything you enjoy? My kids and DH won't eat brown rice so if I'm cooking rice for the family, I'll cook white but brown for my lunches.
If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much whilst BF but concetrate on the healthy bit of it rather than trying to weight. If you're feeding, you're body will store extra fat so you don't want to be drastically losing weight.