What Eating plans are you following?

[SVR28]

I have tried every diet under the sun and I think I now have diet fatigue.

I feel like I cannot count another point or calorie, remember a red day or green day, not eat carbohydates, eat carbohydrates, have low GI/High Gi, write down your food and feelings etc.

It is quite frankly driving me potty and making me rather obsessed and depressed. With everything else I need to think about in a day I just can't do the food thing anymore.

How do naturally slim people manage it? They make it look so easy. (my entire family and most of my friends are healthy weights)

Is there a simpler more straight forward way of doing this? Like just having smaller portions, plan 3 meals a day, 8 glasses of water a day, my 5 a day, exercising 30mins a day - have I just answered my own question??

Anyhow, any suggestions that do not require counting anything would be great!

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SVR28,

Firstly I need to explain that it all works differently for "naturally slim people"!

You see when you are overweight your body adapts to that and changes how it produces hormones which regulate things like appetite, saitiation, fat storage, fat burning, etc.

You don't notice those changes because being overweight kind of creeps up on you slowly

That's one of the reasons why overweight people tend to become more overweight, unless they take control of the situation and break that cycle. Add into that the fact that being overweight makes it more effort to move about and tends to make you more resistant to exercise/activity, also often it causes problems with bone struture or joints which also causes a reduction in acitivity/mobility and, of course, there's the good old 'habits' as well - people get into the 'habit' of eating too much, or eating junk, or pigging out on cakes or chocolate, or eating oversize portions, etc.

Counting calories will suit some personality types better than others - just as joining a gourp like Weightwatchers will suit some more than others.

Personally, I don't striclty calorie count. I have a good idea of the calories of just about everything I eat, so I can make sensible eating choices.

Other than that, I regulate the process at the other end by weighing myself daily and recording it and ensuring I'm not losing weight too fast, but also that I am keeping up enough calorie deficit to keep losing the weight.

I know many people will throw their hands up in the air at the thought of weighing themselves daily - but it works for me and suits my personality and lifestyle.

The changes in hormones that occur through the body adapting to being overweight, almost all change back (to that of being a 'slim' person) through one of two processes.

1) becoming slim or 2) exercise/activity.

One hormone doesn't change back though and that's ghrelin which has an inpact on your feelings of hunger. So once you've been overweight you'll always have a slight tendency to want to eat more than an equivalent slim person who had never been overweight would.

And that's why getting into 'good' eating habits as you ride the weight loss bus matters so much.

By the time you get to the end, it's those habits tat will keep you from just yo-yoing back to being overweight again.

Good luck with your weight loss journey.

[SVR28]

Thanks Doikosp. That does make sense about slim v overweight people. I think perhaps I may need to look more into the hormone changes and explain this to my family - they honestly look at me like I'm a freak and where did I come from in relation to them.

When you first started this did you count your calories, write them down etc. and now you kind of know what they are since you did the ground work first? Or did you always just do a rough estimate and make better choices?

I weighed myself daily but being the perverse person I am I found if I was heavier than the day before I would say to myself "what's the point and eat more", and if I found I was lighter than the day before I would say to myself "hoorah I can eat a bit more today"!!

I think I am most certainly my own worst enemy and I dont' know why I self sabotage all the time. Maybe I need therapy! Is there such a thing?

Anyhow I now try to weigh myself weekly so I don't do the above silliness.

I need to start consciously making those sensible chocies you speak of and try to look at the bigger picture rather than losing weight quickly and learn nothing from it.

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Hi SVR28,

Weighing living human beings is a bit of a hit and miss thing. My weight can change by over 2 kgs over the course of a day, so it's important to try to get a constant weighing point (as best as you can). The best one is first thing in the morning (because you've been asleep and not eating for several hours), after your first pee and before eating or exercise.

But even that is an indication, rather than some super precise mathematical actuality. But by recording that and keeping track of your trend (perhaps using an Excel or similar spreadsheet) you can see pretty well what's going on with your weight.

And you will have blips and spurts for all sorts of reasons.

I've always had a pretty good idea of the calories in most food, but I just didn't really take any of it all that seriously. So some of it has been guestimate and there have been some things I've learnt along the way about some foods.

I basically really just had a hissy fit about my weight and chucked out all the rubbish (fat and creamy stuff, cakes, biscuits, sweets, fizzy drinks, chocolate, fried food, etc) and took control of my portions. Oh and I upped the exercise a bit.

I can usually guess a meal to be about the number of calories I should be aiming for - and, with a few exceptions, I generally get it pretty right(ish).

I'm also realistic enough about it all to know that I can't eat a few healthy meals and also still eat bars of chocolate / cakes with my cups of tea, or pour loads of cheesy sauce over my 'healty' pasta meal, or have a quick double sausage in batter and chips from the chippie as if the calories in that somehow didn't really count!

The turning point for me was the realisation that only one thing had caused me to become overweight - ME.

And only one person was going to bring about any change in it - ME, again.

Good luck with your weight loss journey.

[SVR28]

That is so true! I think it is what made me turn to the NHS web page to start with. I know it's really down to me now, no one else so I wanted to find something that I could stick with - forever.

I've run out of excuses and am now looking within myself - it is a rather painful process and an enlightening journey facing one's own demons.

But what I had not realised that by visiting the NHS webpages I would find such amazing and motivating resources and people, and all for free. It has been a light at the end of very dark (and expensive) diet tunnel.

On a lighter note your bit about eating healthily but then adding chocolate etc. and a "quick" sausage from the chippie not really counting has made me laugh! Again so true. Mine was eating standing up or picking at food while I'm preparing the family meal - how can this mindless eating not count!

Take care and thanks

[wandg in reply to SVR28]

I can sympathize with realizing that you have reached a point where you have to look to yourself and take responsibility for your health, I have had to do pretty much the same and its hard! I too have spent a fortune on 'diets and quick-fixes' which haven't worked well.

My little sister as a natural size 8 - she is an instinctive eater and eats what she wants and stops when she is full - my goal is to try to reprogram myself (I'm pretty sure it will be a long process) of not having 'bad' and 'good' foods but to listen to what my body needs and respecting my body!

Good luck to you!

[SVR28 in reply to wandg]

Yes it is getting out of this ingrained mindset of labelling foods and stop that awful guilty feeling when you actually do eat something - I've stopped enjoying eating because I'm in a permanent state of thinking "this is bad for me" - when really it isn't it's just about moderation, balance, portion size and energy/calorie deficit

As you say it is listening to ones body and respecting oneself (loving oneself) enough to do the right thing.

A long, hard journey and one I think I'm feeling finally ready to take

My husband sounds like your sister. I am making a study of him, watching his eating habits and although he still has chocolates and crisps when he wants he never, ever over does it. He effortlessly enjoys his food but seems somehow to know when to stop.

This is what I would love to be able to do. Be calm around food and enjoy it - no obsessing, overthinking it or guilt.

Good luck - sounds like we are in the same boat!

[Mazhar1]

I follow the NHS plan, have oats with some honey and egg for breakfast and use the Vi shake for lunch. A pear around 3pm. And then a healthy dinner. It keeps me on a balanced plan. And since I have been doing this for just over a month now I have lost 2 inches around my waistlne.For more information see the video on visalus.uk.com Good Luck!