The topic has come up a few times lately, so here's some random thoughts on the subject.
Calories in equals calories out. Well, of course it does. But for some bizarre reason, the nutritionists think that this implies a lower longterm bodyweight if you force a reduction in dietary calories (against your body's wishes).
Their reasoning goes something like this: if, today, you burned 2000 calories on your daily activities, then you'll probably need 2000 calories tomorrow. If you only eat 1600 calories, the other 400 has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is bodyfat. If you do the same thing for the next 9 days, you'll have burned a pound of bodyfat, because bodyfat contains 3500kCal/lb.
They forget that the human body is a machine that's carefully designed to manage its own energy intake and expenditure. If it couldn't perform that basic function, there would be no such thing as human bodies.
As far as it goes, the recipe for losing a pound of bodyfat is more-or-less correct. As any dieter knows, if you create a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight ... for a week or so. And then the weight-loss stops (and a couple of years later, you'll be right back where you started). Your body is continually adjusting the way it uses fuel, and when it sees a large and consistent drop in intake, there's only one possible conclusion: there's a famine coming. Evolution did not take into account the existence of diet plans, nutritionists, supermarkets, or industrial agriculture.
So, when there's a famine coming, what's a body to do? Discard its only means of long-term survival (bodyfat) as quickly as possible? No: the optimum strategy is to hold onto as much bodyfat as possible, and reduce your fuel consumption (ie., reduce your metabolic rate). Your body can dial your metabolic rate down to a very low level if it has to - most people can survive for months or years on 1200kCal a day. Your body knows that famines eventually recede, and it expects that food will be available in the coming year, so it will run down fat stores ... slowly. And then when you start eating "normally" again, it'll build them right back up again, probably bigger and better than ever before, because it now knows you live in a region plagued by famine.
Fat has a purpose. It is not the pointless excrescence, or metabolic mistake, that the nutritionists think it is. Attempting to fight nature never works, especially when you don't understand nature in the first place.
LCHF starts from the assumption that your body knows what it's doing. It takes into account the function of fat: it's a metabolic flywheel, which smooths out both the short-term gaps between meals and long-term variations in food availability. We live in an era of abundance, so there is no variation in food availability (unless we pay heed to the nutritionists). That means we don't need to carry much bodyfat, and all we need to do to convince our bodies of that simple fact is to eat to satiety.
Now, if you're thinking: "why does that not work when you eat carbs to satiety?", I don't think science has yet come up with a satisfactory answer. I have a hypothesis that may or may not be correct, which hinges on the fact that starchy carbs are highly seasonal. Plants produce seeds (grains) and edible storage tubers just prior to the "hungry gap" - that period in the year when food is scarce for all animals. It makes sense that a body would tend to pack away excess carbs as bodyfat to get through the period of food scarcity which immediately follows that carb glut. It would make sense that our appetite would drive us to eat an excess of these things - precisely so that we can get fat. An animal that gets fat enough to survive winter will pass on its genes; an animal that can't will not.
The problem is this: we've figured out how to supply abundant carbs for 12 months of the year, by means of advanced storage technology, modified plants, and international trade. Our bodies are always expecting a "lean period" that never happens. So we keep squirreling away bodyfat, like a miser who saves out of habit and has forgotten what he's saving for. It's only when we finally stop eating famine food that our bodies switch out of famine mode.
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I still think that even on LCHF diet plan, one needs to be careful with the calories they consume. Hight fat foods like cheese or cream are very calorific and it is very easy to overeat. 1500 calories from fat or carbs, will give you the same amount of energy. The difference, I reckon, is that calories from fat will fill you up and won't spark insulin levels, unlike the same amount of calories from carbs.
The problem is, though, how do you gauge "being careful"? You have no external metric, no means of measuring your calorie requirement, that's more accurate than your body's own reckoning.
I suppose it's true that it's tempting to overeat when food is cheap and abundant (as it is in our heavily-subsidized supermarkets). Things like cheese and butter and meat would, once upon a time, have been pretty expensive relative to income - it would have been financially impossible for anyone except the very rich to gorge themselves. But my own experience is that your appetite can be trusted - so while I can afford to overeat, I don't. Eating 100g (800kCal) of cheese is a treat the first time you do it, after years of low-fat hell. But if you do it every day, it eventually becomes unpleasant (or at least less interesting), and you stop doing it.
As long as you're eating a wide variety of foods and not doing the "steak and eggs" caricature of LCHF, I suspect that consistently overeating is quite hard to do.
The problem is that sometimes people do not recognise that they are full. Even if they are not physically hungry anymore, they keep eating for all sorts of other reasons. That's way, telling someone who might have problems with emotional or comfort eating, that calories, does not matter can be dangerous. The beauty of the LCHF way of eating is that it fills you up and you need to eat much less. However, if you have problems with portion control, you can easily overeat.
Yes, that definitely happens. However I'm not saying that "calories don't matter". Far from it. I'm simply suggesting that people who (presently) can't recognise when they're full should find their appetite restored to normal functioning on LCHF. As you said, the LCHF approach fills you up and you naturally eat less.
Of course there are people living stressful lives who turn to food for comfort, or who have experienced psychological trauma and use food (or obesity) as protection. But I think they're a small subset of the number of people who believe they are "emotional eaters". In general terms, your brain creates post hoc explanations for autonomic behaviour. Eating is a very primal act - we have little or no conscious control over it - and your brain ends up constructing weird explanations when your purely-mechanistic energy regulation system starts doing weird things.
People who overeat (almost invariably because their meals are carb-heavy and fat-deficient) label this as "emotional eating" or "bingeing" because there's no rational explanation for it. They start to believe that there's something wrong with them (or, worse, that they're mentally ill), and they often have this belief confirmed by "professionals". This isn't the case at all. All that's happening is that their appetites are being thrown out of whack by foolish advice from the nutritionists, or by non-foods from the supermarkets; since they are "doing everything right", the Self can only conclude that there is something wrong with it. The tragic thing is that, as they persist with unhelpful diet plans, they eventually develop genuine psychological disorders. To that extent I agree that there are cases where people will need additional support. But those cases are, I think, mercifully rare.
I really did truly believe I was an “emotional” eater, or stress triggered... it’s such a wonderful feeling now to just not have any cravings or thinking about food constantly. For me it’s the other extreme now- slipping towards OMAD but trying to eat more as I worry about slowing my metabolism down. Your post sets everything out perfectly!
There’s no rhythm to my fasting! 😖 I just find myself finished eating usually by 7pm at night, and often not hungry til 13.30pm or later... I don’t plan it. Just following all the good advice from these forums about listening to your appetite. I’ll try to chip in more on the fasting forum.. just still feeling like a beginning and learner here!
Hi I was reading most of the comments above and I am so with you on your comment as I was going to say the same. I have only been following the plan for one week and before this I was a emotional eater I think I just ate for the sake of it sometimes. But since I haven’t been eating carbs my hunger has dropped considerably and I don’t seem to be eating for the sake of it. Sometimes I have to force myself as I’m really not hungry and when I do eat it’s hardly anything. I worry a bit in case I go into starvation as it’s got worse towards the end of the week. Is it just my body saying I don’t need the food? I hope so. X
This is not a problem for people who have to lose huge amount of body weight because they would need to consume a lot of fat which may not be easy to do, almost impossible when following LCHF diet. However, people who have only small excess weight that they want to lose, it would be easy to overeat even on LCHF diet, if not careful.
I'm not Praveen, but I think it's because those with less weight to lose burn fewer calories. My maintenance calories per day is 300 below dietdoctor's mealplans, so I gained on those. Had i been say 50lb more, i would have lost on those plans. I hope that helps!
I always find maintaining weight hard, hence my interest in calories and low carb eating. I don't eat sugar, starchy carbs - potatoes, rice, bread and pasta and I do IF. My problem is overeating on healthy food like cheese, yogurt , humus, almonds. So how do you control yourself to eat no more than 8 almonds or 30 grams of cheese?
I am not sure. I don't count calories. Normally, I try to estimate roughly the amount of calories a meal consists without obsessing too much with the numbers. I try to eat healthy and most of the time it is all good.
According to online calculators my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is about 1260 cal a day. When you add exercise and so on, I assume is possibly about 1500, 1600 a day to maintain my current weight.
I was more trying to work out if the reason for small portion sizes was because your daily calorie need is quite low relative to the 'norms' that portion sizes are determined for.
Are you restricting yourself to just 30g of cheese because you feel that's healthier, or another reason?
After smoking for about 30 years, in 2015 I gave it up. In addition, I went through menopause. So as a consequence, I have put on weight - about 7 - 8 kg, which was not pleasant. It was not the end of the world, but I didn't like it. The worse thing was that, I could not lose the excess weight as I was able to do before. My diet was decent at the time - I was eating lots of fruit and veg, no sugar and so on. So I did some research and made some drastic changes - started exercising, altered my diet (low carb, IF, stopped eating fruit) and eventually I have managed to lose the weight.
The thing is that maintaining weight is proving even harder. I don't eat junk food - crisps, biscuits, ice-cream, chocolate - we don't even buy them. It is sometimes hard to resist the healthy stuff - nuts, cheese, fruit. I mean 30 grams of cheese is good for you, 100 grams not so good. That is why I reckon, it is not just the carbs. People should be aware that even nice, healthy food can make you put on weight if you eat too much of it. Or at least this is my personal experience. I am sorry about the long rant and thank you for replying.
My understanding is not different at all. It is same as what is being said here. However, some time the message gets misunderstood at the receiving end. What I understand about calories following LCHF diet are:
1. Whether we count calories or not, it does not change the rule of weight loss-
ENERGY DEFICIT IS A MUST. ( ED )
2. Calorie in/calorie out ( CICO) theory does not work for traditional high carb low fat diet. We are not talking about that here.
3. For most people who are severely overweight or obese and are on LCHF diet, calories restriction comes naturally because it would be very difficult to consume the amount of fat required to maintain the current weight. Hence, no need of calories counting.
4. The recommendation of 'NO CALORIES COUNTING' should not be taken as a license to overindulge in food even if they are LCHF compliant. It may not produce desirable results for all. Examples: just because bullet proof coffee sounds cool, it may not be for every one. Know your needs.
5. For some of us, particularly those who want to lose small amount of weight or even maintain the current weight, NATURAL CALORIES RESTRICTION and creation of ED may not happen or may find it challenging. It is not about overeating(fat), it is about eating little less ( fat) than body needs so that body can use its own fat. In such cases, it makes sense to use another tool which is at our disposal - Calories (FAT) counting. It may even lead to IF ( intermittent fasting) for some to achieve the results.
6. Yes, no amount of calculations can predict accurately the energy needs of our body. Calculations give a starting point. The only sensible way to confirm and revise our initial estimate is through weekly monitoring of our weight under the same conditions. If we are losing weight, we have created ED. If we are not losing weight consistently for a few weeks or gaining, we need to review our diet and adjust the intake suitably.
Really well put! I need to make sure there is not too much on my plate to begin with.
I could go back for more if I still feel hungry once I am done.
I think there is a slight 'lag' between the full feeling and the the brain recognising it. Is is about 10 minutes or something? So if you are really enjoying the food .... you 'aint going to stop, no matter how high that plate is piled, because you don;t have the full message and you are enjoying it! I think that also, we have it drummed into us, how much we hate waste. So we don't like to leave anything.
>> I think there is a slight 'lag' between the full feeling and the the brain recognising it. Is is about 10 minutes or something?
That's true. But I don't think it matters. Once your appetite is working properly again - and you're listening to it - all that will happen is that you'll feel inclined to delay your next meal, or to eat something lighter. Just last night, for example, I had an enormous blow-out at an all-you-can-eat restaurant (picking the low-carb options, of course). I was absolutely stuffed. I had no breakfast and ate an omelette for lunch. It's now 3pm. I'm just off to the gym, I don't feel the slightest bit hungry, and I'll probably not eat until 6pm.
But yeah, it's probably a good strategy to start with a bit less and then go back for more if you want it.
That's a great explanation thank you, I think my body is so good at squirreling fat away like a miser it is never going to give it up without a real fight.
Hi TheAwfulToad, a very good summary. With regard to carbs, I saw a video by a heart surgeon, which in essence said that carbs/sugar in the bloodstream, damaged artery walls which cholesterol had to then try and repair. Eating carbs as in modern day diet he likened to sun bathing 24 hours a day every day of the year, giving cells no chance to repair. Following this as a theory would be a reason why the body brings insulin into play, to remove sugar from bloodstream (then stored as fat) to lessen damage to arteries - and why calories from carbs have different outcome on the body from calories from fat.
I’m just general member of the public with no medical expertise, so I will just give you the link to what I was watching and you can make your own mind up - but I’d be interested to know whether you think it’s convincing?
Whilst on this lchf, (remember I'm not technically overweight) I have discovered that I still need to be very careful with my calorie in take, as the calories in the food are higher than what I was eating before, so I have to be very careful. I do feel better, I have stopped my fizzy drinks and the amount of fruit I was having is zero apart from some strawberries.
The weight I lost when I first started lchf has come back, and I am unsure why, as I am doing nothing different. I've been looking at You tube bits to help and also the support on here.
Unless I fast once a week and cut meals out, the scales don't move nor are my clothes loose, then if I eat without fasting it's back on again, not what I want a yo yo way of eating.
I have even tried cutting back on protein and not having the lean chicken. I wasn't carb mad before as in bread, cakes, biscuits, but, it was the fruit I was eating that I didn't realise was full of carb, apples etc.
I no longer do keto baking either, I've cut back on cream to zero and stopped buying cheese too. I was over the moon when I found out I could have all the foods that weight watchers said no too and I've avoided for years. In fact my hubby said he never thought he would see the day I was eating strawberries, but with double cream.
I didn't really want to count calories. I know the point of lchf is to feel fuller on the foods, but as my hubby says it may work for someone that has a lot to lose, but if you haven't like me then this is where you may struggle unless you cut your in take right down.
I find it is getting more and more restrictive on what I should be eating due to the problem I am having and I don't want to start that path.
I have lost 2 and half stone twice, both with weight watchers, once as a teenager and the other after my son was born.
Interestingly, a lady at my gym who is overweight has started to look a lot slimmer, when I commented on how well she looked she was over the moon as she was thinking no one had noticed, anyway, she is doing slimming world and that day she was on a zero carb day. Things have changed since I did weight watchers.
I must say, your situation is very odd, and it may be that there's something ... erm, unique about your metabolism. Your thyroid issues might be a big factor. I can't help wondering, though, if you're finding it hard to let go of the idea of control - which is largely illusory - and just trust your body to do the right thing. Have you tried to go with the flow for a few months, without tweaking or worrying, to see what happens? It would seem physiologically impossible for you to just balloon out.
As things are at the moment, I'm concerned that you're backing yourself into a corner, making ever more draconian impositions upon yourself in order to keep your calorie intake down. That's exactly the place that traditional diet plans put you into, and the awkward question is: how long can you keep that up? How desperate are you to override your body's opinion of your "correct" bodyfat ratio? How long is it before you have to let go of the stretched-out elastic band and let it snap back on your fingers?
You might also be expecting a little too much. LCHF (in and of itself) doesn't give you a supermodel body. Life conspires against us, and we inevitably start to sag at the seams; pushing the stuffing back in gets harder and harder, and there comes a point where we have to accept that all old people look like ... old people. In the second half of life, strength training probably becomes more important than anything else. Wanting to look your best is not a sin, but it's important to understand that a 20-year-old might be able to look stunning just with dietary adjustments, but a 30- or 40-year-old body demands far more effort in the gym to get the same result.
I'm not criticising your chosen route: you know your own body's quirks better than I do. I'm just saying that you can hold back the tide given enough effort and motivation, but you can't stop it entirely.
Hi I am new to this site but I am exactly the same as peanut31. I haven’t tried this low carb diet yet and just about to start. Have ordered lots of recipe books which should come today.
I don’t think what peanut is experiencing is unusual. I lost 1-1.5 st on weight watchers and slimming world which both say you can eat as much fruit and vegetable as you want. In fact at least 1/3 of your plate should be these items. And on slimming world you can eat potatoes as long as they are not fried. I lost the weight for 6 months or so but gradually it’s crept back on and I notice that just having salads day after day, has not helped. If anything my weight has stabilised at my heaviest weight ever. Having read the information sent about keto diet I am intrigued as it makes sense that I am getting an insulin burst but in my case I never really feel hungry. But I have concluded that my metabolism is badly damaged as no matter how much exercise I used to do ( last year I was doing 1:5-2 hours 4 times a week at gym) and barely lost a lb.
I am worried about this new diet and wonder how do people calorie count this diet. I am nervous of eating all this fat and it putting in weight before I start to lose it again. Ie how long will it take my metabolism to work out it’s getting supplies/food and not starving any more. I have avoided things like cheese for years so now cutting a piece to just eat, I am asking myself how much cheese can you eat in a day before it’s too much calories. Same with milk as my weakness being irish is tea. On slimming world I was only allowed 250ml of semi skimmed so I reduced down the tea I drank. I used to use my fitness pal to help count my calories. Is this what others use ?
It takes about a week for your body to realise that it's carrying too much bodyfat and that there's no more danger of starvation. That doesn't necessarily mean that your flab will fall off at a reliable one pound per week, but over time, you will reach a sensible bodyfat ratio.
I'm honestly not entirely sure what's going on with Peanut31. Whatever it is, she seems to be a bit of an outlier - her experience is highly unusual. But I have certainly noticed that the main stumbling for people new to LCHF is fear and guilt. It contradicts everything we've ever been told for 50 years. The only solution is to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and jump in. It will work.
I'm going to post another movie clip for you guys dipping your toes in the water and wondering if there are sharks:
Your body will manage its own calories. You know when you've eaten enough cheese when you don't want to eat any more cheese. It works for cats and dogs and bugs, and it works for humans too. But it's very hard to let go of all the silly nonsense that's been put into our heads, for so long.
To quote Star Wars again: Do, or do not. There is no try.
It’s just some people on their comments seemed to be concerned that some things like too much meat can turn into carbs and seem to be using maximum guides like 100gm protein What’s the max amount of carbs you should have ?
As regards protein, my personal experience is that my appetite is the best guide ... just as it is with carbs and fat. I find it almost impossible to either reduce or increase my protein intake - my body knows what it wants. Eat meals that you find palatable, and you'll probably get it right.
The ethos of LCHF is freedom. You don't need to count and measure and limit this or that. The only time you need to do this is while you have your training wheels on, ie., the induction phase (two weeks of very low carb). The aim is to limit carbs to 20-25g and get most of your daily calories from dietary fat. This doesn't actually require counting your carbs, although some people do. It's sufficient to just know which foods are "carby" and avoid them entirely, while basing your meals around ingredients which are virtually carb-free, such as green leafy veg.
I was worried too about eating cheese, cream, full fat milk, butter - all things that I had avoided for years. Now after more than 3 stone loss, and loving the food I’ve been eating, my weight seems to have stabilized about a stone and a half above my distant teenage lightest ever. At my age that’s a decent size and look without getting too haggard, so I’m very happy and am hoping this time I’ll be able to continue and keep the weight off. Good luck!
Thanks for your reply, when I did weight watchers it was when you had to count fruit, apples for example were half a point each, bananas one and a half points, so I would have a bag of walkers french fries crisps instead, maybe not the correct choice.
Anyway, by the second time I did WW they went to fruit and veg free of points.
I tried this, but, the weight started to pile back on, so I have to revert back to the old diet.
Many of the WW members put the weight on as well, as they were eating fruit to fill up. I was helping at the time, but, decided to leave as I couldn't help knowing the new diet was not working.
You are right cheese, cream and all the things we are told are good on keto were a no go area with WW. I remember grating cheese and I am sure it had to be the size of a small match box for something like 7 points!!!!
I was shocked when I spoke to a friend on slimming world saying pasta, bread, and potatoes were fine, and then she said they have a no carb day as well. I have no experience of slimming world though, just WW.
I suppose the WW diet is programmed in my brain.
I started recently to look at my intake of food on Carb Manager, but I don't know if its helpful as it does calories as well. It's clear I am having too much protein and not enough fat.
One thing I would suggest is perhaps getting your thyroid tested. Normally GP'S will only test TSH and that is no good.
You need to test TSH, T3 & T4. I have had thyroid issues for years and not aware of it. It is only the last 2 years that it was discovered, often like me it runs in the family.
I self test to see my levels now as my GP will only test TSH.
I would suggest maybe testing for this. At the moment Medi checks are offering several tests for thyroid and I would suggest maybe ordering the Thyroid check Ultra Vit at £79.00. This will test thyroid , vitamin B12, Vitamin D, folate, ferritin as well as auto immune disease (Hashimoto's) I have this too.
It is a finger prick test as well as a venous, so if you did go ahead make sure you tick finger prick test, that way you can do this at home yourself, then send the kit back. The results will be emailed to you, you can either tick the box for a medi checks GP to comment, or, ask for express results.
I ask for express as the GP'S are NHS trained so go by outdated thyroid guidelines.
Then go to the thyroid forum and do a new post with your results. Make sure you take the test as early in the morning as possible, I do it around 7am,no eating and drink water and plenty of it to make it easier for the blood to flow and prevent clotting.
If you supplement with vitamins, especially B12 don't take those for a while.
I would advise to take the test Monday or tuesday for posting back.
Currently, there is a discount code to use of TUK20 that offers 20% off all tests until the end of MAY, after that try THYROIDUK for 10% off. If tests already discounted the code may not work.
Funny you should say that as I have just this second come back from the doctors surgery having had a blood test for thyroid.😂 She didn’t say not to eat before hand thou. And I do take b12 regularly as I find it gives me energy. They ran a thryroid test back in 2011 she said and that was normal.
Yeah slimming world was so much easier than ww, but now it doesn’t seem to work for me. Maybe I am having far too much fruit as I do load my salad up with it to make it interesting. Ww I found I wasn’t eating enough food but I never fancied more so ended up eating curly Whirley and a beer every night to make up the points.
Am hoping all these books I ordered on this Lchf diet and the pages I printed off of receipts will make it easier for me - I just need to feel “the force “ as per the video sent to me earlier 🤪
Am hoping that this change of diet might also have an effect on my daughter so is also high bmi ( not obese) but my son who eats loads more is like a rake. You could play xylophone on his ribs. ☺️
Just annoyed that I been “dieting” for two- three months now and not lost a single pound. There’s only so much salad one can eat! So last resort this. Xxxx
Word of advice, go and get a copy of your blood results from your GP. The official printed copy. Don't be fobbed of by the receptionist either. GP'S don't tell you about fasting and the times to have the blood.
Its a tip we pass on to thyroid patients on the forum and ask it is not mentioned. You need the test as early as possible because your TSH is always the highest AM, and this may help get the medication for thyroid without being sent home and telling you tests are 'normal'
You are entitled to your blood results, by law since the new GDPR came into place in May 2018. They can't charge you for them any longer either.
Once you have them put a posting up on thyroid forum. Being told they are normal means nothing. What they mean is that they are in the lab ranges, that means nothing. For example, If they have only tested TSH and the range is (0.27-4.20) (those are medi check ranges not the NHS, they will vary from each lab)
Anyway, if your result is nearer the high end of the lab range, say 4, and you are having symptoms, your thyroid is struggling, and I bet your T3 levels and T4 levels will be low as well, but, as the GP'S don't test them you will not know.
The NHS will not step in with thyroid medication until your TSH reaches 10, yep even though it is out of range, they send you away and tell you to test in a few months time, or tell you, you are depressed and take anti depressants. You only had to go on the thyroid forum to see the patterns emerging.
The NHS didn't help me until mine was 12.2, by that time I was in bed most of the time and like a zombie.
The support of the Thyroid forum has helped me get my life back to this awful thyroid journey.
Pop over to the thyroid forum and look on Thyroid UK to see if you can relate to any of the symptoms. Mine were gradual, then all at once like a brick wall had hit me in the face. Weight gain for no reason is one big one, being cold all the time, hair loss, dry skin, no energy, brain fog, depression, anxiety, brittle nails,
Will do. Got some of those symptoms like brittle nails, anxiety and depression - but that could be more to do with the fact I am leaving my husband and my new partner doesn’t believe I am leaving - so he keeps dumping me. It’s been a rollercoaster lately, not helped also by my setting up a new business. So stress everywhere. But I normally handle stress much better than lately - before I thrive on stress, now I am tearful, miserable and tying myself up in knots. Thought if I could control my weight that would be one small molehill in the mountain of my life. But hey, I keep smiling and I know it will get better. The light at the end of the tunnel is not the oncoming train 🚆🥴😉
I'm with you all the way. I never felt full, I could and did eat cake whilst reading slimming magazines. I've developed my own unique way of moving forward lchf and thrown away the scales.
With regard to body image, no one is as lovely as me! I've bought arm bras and bloomers and tuck those wobbly bits in; leggings a wee bit small as tights keep things from swinging around.
Yes, when I disrobe bits hit the floor but I havent died of respiratory failure, yet. My sats are up and I only need 1L oxygen, I'm hoping to come off bipap this summer.
Thank you so much for your support, it is greatly appreciated.
I think you are right I have to accept that being 41 years old is not the same as those younger days. You did make me laugh.
With you saying about my metabolism, I don't think its right, and my husband last night reminded me of this.
Many many years ago I was feeling awful and despite going to the GP, and some of my vitamin levels being low they could not find anything wrong (I didn't know about thyroid issues then) anyway I decided to pay for one of those BUPA all over MOT'S.
They hooked me up to a bike with a mask and they had to keep upping the resistance on the bike as my metabolic rate was not increasing. After the results they mentioned something about my body skips the fat burning stage or something along those lines.
As said hubby jogged my memory about this, and said that is why you have also struggled with your weight. I met my husband after I lost my weight the 1st time, he also says I can look at a biscuit and put weight on.
It doesn't help that I was badly bullied as a teenager for being over weight. This is when I decided to join weight watchers the first time. I have had counselling for this as I didn't realise how much it effected me, you try to brush it off don't you. My biggest fear because of this is weight gain, as said I am not over weight, but, hate it if I put on pounds hence why I don't tend to weigh myself often and go buy my clothes fitting me.
I actually saw one of the bullies a few months back, and really wanted to say to them how they made my life hell, but, I let them go by, I don't think they saw me.
I know this sounds horrible, but they are overweight now, and then I felt awful for thinking that, as I am not normally that kind of person. I am so cross I didn't say anything, and wonder if this has affected me recently.
I am due another thyroid test soon so will know whats going on, I think your right about overthinking this I need to relax.
The Star Wars video was very good and a coincidence, as my child is named after the Star Wars character (hubby made on Star Wars as a child).
I do think I am having too much protein and need to get my head around this too.
Wow that’s so sad and so horrible that people did that to you.
I was a chunky early teenager as my mum used to load me up with huge adult meals and called me “ hungry Horace’s girlfriend”. I then got ill at 15, went to hospital for over a month and the weight fell off me. But at 5 ft 1 inch I only have to put on 1-1;5 stone and that’s 2 dress sizes for me.
So my wardrobe is full of clothes from size 8 to 12 Not great in an old grade 2 listed cottage with no wardrobe storage. 😂🥴😡. And a planning department who refuses to let me extend the house 😡😡😡😡
People when they are young think they are invincible and nothing will ever change for them. They think they will always be thin and they “respect” themselves enough to keep themselves that way. ! But life will catch up on all of them and the metabolism will slow down. These people probably don’t even remember the remarks as they are so self centred on their own weight issues now. Maybe now they might appreciate how cruel people can be, even with what seems a nice comment - but if it’s hit a button with you, can tear you apart. (I.e. It wasn’t a better comment.)
Peanut, I hope you will take this how I mean it (positive about you!). I've wondered a few times if you are trying to be slimmer than you need to be. Because you are already a healthy weight and your loss has stalled despite being on a LCHF protocol.
When you posted you had been given a hard time about weight as a child (me too, BTW) I wondered if that legacy is stopping you seeing that you have already made it, and are as slim already as you need to be.
I did rather wonder if something like this had happened to you. I don't think you need to feel any guilt over that little episode of schadenfreude. I think that's what they call "karma", isn't it?
I remember hearing some actor - it might have been Dolph Lundgren - speak about being bullied as a kid, and meeting the bully years later when the bully was living on the streets and he himself was relatively well off (although not famous). His revenge was to give the bully a few $.
Since you would have been overweight at a time when it was much less common (ie., the food landscape wasn't affecting everyone) it does suggest there's something slightly amiss with your metabolism. I would try not to let it worry you, since you're clearly now in a position where obesity is physically impossible, even if you're still slightly unsatisfied with your bodyfat distribution.
Your bike test would have probably been a fitness test. You measure oxygen going in and CO2 coming out, and you can estimate metabolic power. By looking at the ratio between the two (respiratory quotient) you can tell if your body is burning primarily fat or carbs for fuel. RQ<0.8 means mostly fats, RQ>0.9 means mostly carbs. The former tends to happen at lower resistance levels, which I guess is what they were referring to.
Funnily enough I was teased (not exactly bullied) for being a skinny kid. My mum couldn't afford a lot of food, and I was perennially hungry. During my teenage years I was obsessed with getting bigger. I spent all my spare cash on food, gym fees, and and steroids ... and I did get bigger. Nobody could talk me out of it. Fortunately by my mid-20s I was settled down with a gf and realised it was a futile pursuit, and that one's attractiveness depends to a great degree upon what's inside your head. Unfortunately, that's when I started getting fat!
Anyway, I suspect you'll get there in the end. It might just take you a bit longer.
I don’t have any rules... if I’m not ready for a meal in the first half of the day, but feel like a nibble, then I’ll have a couple of Brazil nuts or pecans- or a coffee with a small amount of cream. Once I’ve had a meal during the day I don’t feel like snacking, so I don’t. And in the evening after a meal I don’t snack. But, as I said earlier, no rules really. It just seems to be the way things are at the moment. It’s a blessed relief from the way I used to want to eat and snack constantly.
I was pondering on the "why" rather than the "what". There aren't many people who now seriously dispute either the physiological/psychological effects of high-carb, low-fat, calorie-controlled diets, or the underlying mechanism of insulin resistance. Even if the NHS are still in denial about the practical importance of those observations, I don't think they'd deny outright the fundamental truths. I was taking a high-level view rather than delving into the biochemistry: why do carbs make you fat? Why would they make you crave more? Why is it that consuming a high-carb diet basically switches off fat-burning and drives you to seek more carbs? What's the evolutionary purpose of that adaptation? Of course there's no way of proving or disproving how any specific feature of our metabolism arose, but it's interesting to speculate on possibilities.
Although we disagree somewhat on the details, my views are similar to yours in that I think carbs are a useful (if not essential) part of the diet. We clearly have mechanisms for using carbs as fuel, but that mechanism has some ... peculiarities, in that a diet of carbs and more carbs, for years on end, will eventually kill you. That implies (to me) that carbs are supposed to be eaten seasonally.
As for the "balanced diet" composed of fake foods and a completely skewed macronutrient profile (zero fat and lots of carbs) ... I'm with you all the way on that one. It's unconscionable.
That is a distinct possibility. "If you don't like the message, shoot the messenger" is a tried-and-trusted political strategy.
My guess is that it's gone too far for that to happen. There is a growing public awareness that something is deeply amiss in nutrition policy. If they tried to shut down the DPP now - just when it's starting to show results - too much noise would be made, and managers would be in danger of losing their comfortable salaries and pensions. They might not care much about the health of the nation, but I bet they care about that.
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Getting head around eating fat
loss of muscle mass over 40