I'm just about to start the 12 weeks, on monday, although I'm staring to look at my food choices now. I am an emotional and binge eater, however it is about control where I can become too strict and barely eat....so trying to be careful! My portion sizes can be too large, I do love my food!
Decided to count the calories for my dinner and I'm shocked that it comes to 900! Eek!!
Hello and welcome, Blue881 
Yes, you'll become more aware but no need to panic: if you use the NHS BMI calculator to find the calorie range appropriate for you, you may well find it's higher than you expect (the 1400/1900 figures are generic and suit very few of us). And once you start thinking about what will go into those calories, particularly if you get rid of the idea that dietary fat is the problem, you'll do just fine, I'm sure.
Here are a couple of things to read, about calories blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-t... and about emotional eating helpguide.org/articles/diet...
About the forum: follow this link healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh... to see our Welcome Newbies post, which will help you find your way around, and a post about online pirvacy/security - important as you haven't locked your post.
I suggest you start by joining a weekly weigh-in on the day of your choice, and using the Daily Diary, where members log their meal plans and discuss their choices.
Wishing you success in 2020
Hi, ive started today but can relate to your post, historically I have swung between either eating almost nothing and binging.I am hoping that the 12 week plan will help me form a healthier relationship with food.
That's the way to go Eating too little is a sure fire way to fail. Eat well; enjoy your food; make good food choices - real food, home cooked, avoiding processed foods and that includes anything labelled low fat or light or diet, as they're all heavily processed
Hi Blue, have a good look around the posts. I suggest you read the Welcome Newbies post and follow every link so that by Monday you will know exactly where to look for stuff. I suggest you write in the Daily Diary as it can help to keep our eating habits healthy. If you join a weekly weigh in you will become part of a team which makes the whole weight loss thingy more fun. I'm a member of the Tuesday Trimmers.
Good luck.
If you're an emotional/binge eater, I strongly recommend you don't attempt calorie-counting. Aside from the fact that it won't help you maintain a healthy weight, there is a lot of solid research suggesting that it can trigger obsessive behaviour and even eating disorders in those who are already vulnerable. A big red flag is your use of the words "control" and "strict"; these concepts are almost always mentioned by anorexics as a factor in their body-image beliefs. Even the NHS, I think, do not promote the 12-week plan for anyone who isn't already basically healthy.
Everyone loves food. It's normal. And weight gain has nothing whatsoever to do with portion size: human bodies are perfectly capable of regulating their energy intake correctly and storing an appropriate amount of bodyfat, just like all other animals. In fact it would be a huge surprise if the most successful mammal on the planet had a genetic defect in its feeding behaviour. All that's happening here is that our appetites are being badly disrupted by the content of the modern diet; once we stop eating subsidized, synthetic pap, our bodies go back to business-as-usual without any "portion control" or other draconian measures.
Your first order of business, I would suggest, is to reorient your relationship with food. Accept that it's OK to love food ... but ensure that what you are eating actually is food. So much of what is sold in supermarkets is just engineered garbage with some makeup slapped on it, so it looks like food. Health authorities and diet clubs, unfortunately, continue to promote some of this junk as healthy, with predictable consequences. To give one example: I recently saw a WeightWatchers chocolate roll thingy in the supermarket. The ingredients were what you would expect: sugar, chocolate, flour, chemicals. But because it had "less fat", and was calorie-counted, that supposedly made it OK. That sort of thing gets my blood pressure up.
Get a book of classical French recipes and see how they use proper ingredients: meat, veg, eggs, dairy. If you're on a budget, Jamie Oliver's books often turn up in charity shops. Start by basing your meals on wholesome, unprocessed ingredients and you've set up a solid baseline for weight loss: from that point, only a few minor tweaks are required.
Thank you, I do get a bit obsessive on the number, whether that's calories or with weighing myself. So basically I should get back to basics, clean eating, fresh food?
Hi and welcome if you're a bit obsessive with food LCHF may be better for you than calorie counting many on here swear by it. Good luck
I too eat out of control/ emotional eating when unable to control feelings
I have found a knowledgeable counsellor has really helped me to understand this for the first time in 54 years
It is a relearning process, but it has helped hugely to help me to recognise eating patterns
How do Calories work?
How many calories
How many calories?!
