My diary of my new diet and fitness.. eeeeek..

Wootball

Hunger isn't in your head, it's what you feed it with that are the problem. Cravings are in your head

GEEGEE8

Wootball wrote: »

Hunger isn't in your head, it's what you feed it with that are the problem. Cravings are in your head

Very true. I can have a big meal and half an hour later I crave something sweet.. if I ignore it, it goes away, but more often than not I don't have the willpower, or I'm just lazy about it..

Day 2 - easier than day 1

Wootball

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

Very true. I can have a big meal and half an hour later I crave something sweet.. if I ignore it, it goes away, but more often than not I don't have the willpower, or I'm just lazy about it..

Day 2 - easier than day 1

That's normal - the sweet food item isn't a craving, it's what your mind and body use to signify that the time for eating is over, because you've spent all your life eating a dessert after the savoury course. Try sprinkling some sweetener on some strawberries, or having a teaspoon of organic natural peanut butter.

GEEGEE8

Wootball wrote: »

That's normal - the sweet food item isn't a craving, it's what your mind and body use to signify that the time for eating is over, because you've spent all your life eating a dessert after the savoury course. Try sprinkling some sweetener on some strawberries, or having a teaspoon of organic natural peanut butter.

Good idea although I detest peanut butter. I should have some melon, strawberries etc to have afterwards, that would help

puddy

cgk1 wrote: »

Sure I wouldn't disagree with that, I think my point was that it has to be "in conjuction with", otherwise what's the point?

again i agree, i have the same problem, food is not fuel for me, its used emotionally to 'feed' emotions. i cant afford counselling for this so have to make a start on something (doing well at present). it depends on area but here a session would be about £60 per hour, i dont have that sort of money, so the only thing i can do is work this out in a 'self help' manner and focus on what im eating.

i have mixed views about 'fad' or 'crash' diets, on the one hand i believe what is generally thought about them, they can be dangerous, they dont focus on a good relationship with food. o the other hand, being chronically and morbidly obese is extremely unhealthy, so the benefits of quickly losing weight could outweigh the dangers.

im sticking to a reasonable 1574 calories a day and this is working for me, but i dont criticise people that feel the need to take drastic action as ive also done that in the past out of desperation.

jenniewb

cgk1 wrote: »

You guys seem to make this seem awfully complex, let me tell you my system.

I don't weight myself*, I don't count calories (although I do have low-calorie cookbooks around to get recipes from). I did however learn about Health and nutritional principles. I avoid processed foods and make pretty at least 80% of my food from scratch, with the only exceptions being if I'm at someone's else house and they serve up something processed. I drink a lot of water and I don't snack between meals. If I go out and have a kebab one night, then I know I need to cut back in my food intake in some way the next day but I don't worry about it too much. I don't have treats in the week but if I want some biscuits on a Friday or Saturday night then I have some. Fundamentally all I do is live a life of moderation, that's it.

I think that its great you seem to be able to do that so effortlessly but few people can. For many eating isn't just about refuelling and adding energy for immediate use, its about feeding an emotional hole weather that be for boredom or to absorb the pain of a loss or bad news. Emotional eating is just one side of non-functional eating, theres also chemical addiction (to things like refined foods and unsaturated fats) which itself is a battle to overcome even without trying to lose weight. Moderation is great but it takes practice and also dare I say it, knowing what moderation is!

So much of the time we are sold vast quantities of foods, encouraged to "super size" everything and its all become so normal. It then becomes harder to learn what a portion actually is and easier to kid yourself/ourselves that a portion the size of 3 portions is actually OK because the shop said its OK/everyone else is eating it/its what I've always eaten.

You seem to have a good understanding of how to eat healthily and maintain a sensible weight but for many who don't have this same intuition, it does end up being 'painting by numbers' until the new "rules" are a bit more ground in and there are many different ideas and ways about doing this. Hence the many answers- everyone has their own take on it and what has worked for them.

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

Boredom and stressing over life in general, nothing major really.

I think I have a little bit of depression, but I do think it's caused by being overweight, so it's a vicious cycle.
.

These (above) are emotional eating patterns! Its something that your aware of so can look out for, it unfortunetly doesn't automaticly mean they wont happen, it does mean you know where to focus your energies though!

Wootball wrote: »

Hunger isn't in your head, it's what you feed it with that are the problem. Cravings are in your head

Correct to a degree- if your body lacks something, say nuts and seeds (certain vitamins and fat), or oranges (vitamin C and sugar) this is why pregnant women often have odd and random cravings- plaster is a well know one! The baby wants something and mum has to find it


Just to add incase I already didn't say...

Low carb diets can and do work to some degree. They work because they force your body to use up its glycogen.
What is glycogen? glycogen is basicly energy, comes from carbohydrates you eat and is what is used to fuel your muscles. Its a very good idea to eat some carbs early on in the day to fuel the rest of your day if your at all active.

Thing is, once you reduce all that glycogen, you have a deficit. Your body has run out or run low. The other thing about glycogen is that it holds onto water quite well, you reduce glycogen you lose the carb energy and its weight (not body fat, energy weight- not so good IMO as you need energy just to think properly!) but you also lose the water it holds onto as well, so you see a big drop- its not so much fat your losing as water.

Then you go eat some carbs, either because you can't stand the constant craving/hunger (body in deficit remember) and your body immediatly goes to store it- it needs the energy! But then it does its thing of holding onto water and your weight shoots up very quickly: you assume that carbs= fat but its not true! Carbs (good carbs, complext carbs) are very important for energy levels are used for energy and will help you out when your dieting by taking the egde of hunger pangs and blood sugar drops.

Maybe if your set on trying it, try it. But if you don't manage beyond 2 weeks without finding it hellish and feeling faint, think about re-intergrating them back in, a little at each meal to take the edge of things, eat them with protein to lower the GI levels and help keep you feeling full in the longer term and do drink enough, its not fat your gaining, its water and its there for a reason: because your body needs both the glycogen and the water to keep your body healthy and working normally.

Unless you intend to cut out carbs for the rest of your life, adding it back in will always result in weight gain (glycogen and water, not fat) so personally? I wouldn't waste energy (literally!) on taking it out, the more energy you have, the more you can do.

Eric_Pisch

jenniewb wrote: »

Low carb diets can and do work to some degree. They work because they force your body to use up its glycogen.
What is glycogen? glycogen is basicly energy, comes from carbohydrates you eat and is what is used to fuel your muscles. Its a very good idea to eat some carbs early on in the day to fuel the rest of your day if your at all active.

Thing is, once you reduce all that glycogen, you have a deficit. Your body has run out or run low. The other thing about glycogen is that it holds onto water quite well, you reduce glycogen you lose the carb energy and its weight (not body fat, energy weight- not so good IMO as you need energy just to think properly!) but you also lose the water it holds onto as well, so you see a big drop- its not so much fat your losing as water.

Then you go eat some carbs, either because you can't stand the constant craving/hunger (body in deficit remember) and your body immediatly goes to store it- it needs the energy! But then it does its thing of holding onto water and your weight shoots up very quickly: you assume that carbs= fat but its not true! Carbs (good carbs, complext carbs) are very important for energy levels are used for energy and will help you out when your dieting by taking the egde of hunger pangs and blood sugar drops.

Maybe if your set on trying it, try it. But if you don't manage beyond 2 weeks without finding it hellish and feeling faint, think about re-intergrating them back in, a little at each meal to take the edge of things, eat them with protein to lower the GI levels and help keep you feeling full in the longer term and do drink enough, its not fat your gaining, its water and its there for a reason: because your body needs both the glycogen and the water to keep your body healthy and working normally.

Unless you intend to cut out carbs for the rest of your life, adding it back in will always result in weight gain (glycogen and water, not fat) so personally? I wouldn't waste energy (literally!) on taking it out, the more energy you have, the more you can do.

not strictly correct

whilst carbohydrate (The hint in the name its water based) does contribute to body weight, its a nominal amount the body only stored 2-3k calories depending on your size and muscle mass and for most dieters its a tiny % of there body weight especially if there obese+, sure if you switch back to a high carb diet you will gain a small amount of weight (and then pile the weight back on as the fastest way to store body fat is to fill the glycogen store, the body converts carbs to fat very easily) but its a small amount in the scheme of things

the real thing here is to ignore body weight (and especially the nonsense BMI scale) and focus on % body fat and aim to get that in a healthy range.

we don't physically need to eat carbs, we have the ability to run purely in fat burning mode (ketosis) however this is not practicable in the modern world but we can still kick ketosis in by staying under 100g of carbs a day which is not hard to do

you certainly do not get constant cravings / hunger in ketosis, thats a high carb diet symptoms as your insulin-glucose levels fluctuate wildly, you are rarely hungry since protein is the best appetite suppressant, i get true hunger maybe once a month now. I was insulin resistant so profile my blood sugar pretty frequently, i was hitting 14+ on a carb diet now I am always in the range of 4.3-5.8 even after a 12 hours fast and then a 2 hour gym session.

one of the best things about being in ketosis is that you have limitless energy (until you run out of body fat ) i could run for 10 hours straight if my muscles and joints would let me, one of the odd things is that exercising whilst in ketosis kills hunger for a couple of hours after where as most of the high carb eaters i know get ravenous after training.

the first 2-3 weeks take some adjustment but after that very little will power is needed, i would say thou you do not need to go as extreme as atkins / ducan to get very good very sustainable results

SandC

I agree about the psychological aspect, that's why I don't advocate jumping in and trying to lose weight quickly - more than 1lb per week type of thing.

cgk1 seems to have generated a few comments on how he/she (sorry!) seems to control food intake quite effortlessly - but what people need to know is that it ISNT effortless. It's a learned mindset and cgk1 has already stated that they learned health and nutrition. Those we see as 'naturally slim' work at it day in, day out all their lives. But it's become normal to them, whereas to those of us who struggle with up and down size/weight we aren't sure what normal is!

I bet if we followed the principles he/she has just stated a slow and steady weightloss that could just be permanent may come about. With our minds on the ball about triggers of stress and moods. It's just that most of us are not happy with taking 6 months to lose a stone, never mind that actually it took us that long to put it on.

GEEGEE8

I certainly don't know what normal is anymore, I have to admit. I'm sure my boyfriend has been horrified at things I've eaten after a big meal, or eating late at night, because he just doesn't see the need to.

I also wouldn't be happy with losing 1 stone in 6 months, which is stupid really, because otherwise I'll be this weight or heavier in 6 months if I don't take it steady lol. My stupid brain!

It's good to hear all the views on carb or no carb. I haven't really started the no carb diet like I had planned to. I don't feel like I'm ready for the major change yet and really want to get a start on just eating less and more sensibly, and stop binge eating. Once I have that under control then I may start a more strict regime.

Again, I didn't get to 1500Kcals yesterday, it was 1803 Calories, but I'm still happy that it's less than I have been eating, and I can see what I need to cut out as soon as I feel I can.

Here is the Diet sheet for Day 2 -

Breakfast -
Oat so simple with milk 216

Lunch -
Cauliflour Cheese - 210
Salmon fillet - 200
Mix Beans - 50

Snack -
Go Ahead Bar - 117
Hot Choc - 100

Dinner -
Reggae Reggae chicken - 170
Potatoes - 540 (made a mistake in reading calories, as I read it for half the pack)
Carrot & Swede mash - 0

Snack -
Hot choc (again!) - 100
Weight Watchers snack bar - 100

Total 1803

I am still struggling to control sweet cravings, hence the hot chocolate! Hopefully I can not have this today and reduce my calorie intake.

Otherwise I felt quite full yesterday and the day went okay.

Today I am aiming to drink more plain water and no hot chocolates! lol.

puddy

remember that as long as your calories in, equal less than your calories out, you will lose weight, just not very fast

i use foodfocus.co.uk to log everything i eat and exercise i do. even on the day i went over and it was about 1800 calories, i think it still said that it was an equivilent loss of .12 lbs (about a tenth of a pound), its better than a plus.

i have over the years as i say, done the fads and crashes, wanting to just get rid of 'this' quick, out of my sight and off my body so that i can be a better size, the problem is i have no staying power for cutting right back, it all sounds so easy in principle (yes, i can drink pints and pints of cabbage soup, it'll fill me right up, i can do this for 2 weeks), but i rarely get past the 2nd or 3rd day.

ive reached a point where i cant carry on over eating, huge portions of quite healthy food. because im logging everything, im using proper portion sizes and learning that is the amount i should eat. i have in line with this started to recognise 'feeding' emotions and when it happens and more importantly that my goal will take 18 months, not 2 months, 18 long months. and when i get there, im not 'off' the diet, i have to stick to eating the same amount that im burning off to avoid putting weight back on, which will be considerbly less than im burning now because i will weigh so much less. thats another mistake people make, they think they can eat the same amount all through their weight loss plan but of course as you lose weight, you burn less so need to adjust your food even further downwards.