Problems of weight loss

Morglin

I recently lost weight easily, with the online WW pro points thing.

I lost the weight I needed to, and now just adjust the points to keep it stable.

I cannot really exercise (disability) but I averaged losing about 3lbs per week with just sticking to the points.

Lin

FBaby

I agree that for me avoiding some bad foods leads new to not crave it. People are constantly bringing cakes in the office either homemade or very nice shop ones. I can go through phases when I'm not fussed at all hardly give them a look and feel no temptation at all. However last winter colleagues started to insist I gave them a try (not always easy to say no when homemade) and before I knew it it became a real struggle to resist the temptation. I have now gone back to saying no without thinking it throb ans once again feel no desire to have a piece when I look at them.

mumps

margaretclare wrote: »

DH can't understand why I like to watch programmes like 'Secret Eaters'. I suppose the only reason why I do is that I still have an interest in social psychology, why people do the things they do.

All of the people depicted followed a 'healthy eating plan' devised by the programme's dietitian and all of them lost weight after 5 weeks. I think when you're fairly young almost any 'healthy' eating plan will work and we're not told the details, but it would seem to involve an end to the 'secret eating' that got them into that state in the first place, the snacking, the eating just mindlessly when not hungry, and the piling plates high. It always seems to me that the 'healthy eating plan' is less important than the change in mindset brought about by the 'shock tactics' of having your habits brought into the full glare of publicity. Human beings are capable of almost infinite self-deception, that's well known. What pukkamum is doing is more or less self-hypnosis, over-riding the bad (harmful) impulses by 'good' or useful ones. It works for her.

For me, over the past few years I've changed many of the bad habits I'd slipped into. I no longer even like very sweet items. I've had KrispyKreme doughnuts advertised in my face and I don't give them a second look. Cadbury's cream eggs - uuugggh. I can be out, sit and have a coffee with home-made cakes staring me in the face and they don't tempt me at all. They certainly wouldn't 'jump into my mouth' as people blithely say. My problems are different. After a lifetime of being extremely active I'm no longer very active at all. I don't need the carbs for energy, but I seem to have found something which works, at last.

Although I like some sweet things it is in moderation and not too sweet. I never have sugar in drinks, don't like things as sickly as creme eggs. I do like dark chocolate but I don't know if that is better or not, I honestly don't have a clue about calories. The girls I work with have an absolute obsession with the latest diets, they can quote the calories, GI etc of just about anything. At the moment the in thing is the two day fasting thing. Makes me laugh, they moan all day Monday about not being able to eat and then on Tuesday eat huge amounts of chocolate, biscuits etc. One thing is consistent, the start a new diet, lose weight, get bored and start eating and end up heavier than when they started.

I love vegetables and eat little meat, my husband loves a roast but I will probably have a small slice of meat, some potatoes but lots of veg. Maybe I am just lucky but it seems to have worked for me. I am busy, job, husband and lots of childcare for my grandchildren. We lost our dog last year and I know I am missing out on some of the walks I used to do with her.

Generally I eat what I want, for example on Friday husband had a cooked meal but I had a salad sandwich, no mayo. Just what I fancied. On Sunday a bit of meat and potatoes but lots of veg followed by a very naughty lemon meringue. This morning I had a boiled egg and a slice of toast. Tonight we are have fish and chips from the chippie as DD is coming to eat and its her favorite, probably not a diet friendly meal?

One thing I don't do is drink alcohol and my dieting colleagues tell me that saves me a lot of calories, again I don't know if that is true of all alcohol. I don't do fizzy drinks either and I guess they are a no no for dieters.

I have never needed to diet and not genetics, I come from a family of big people but I just eat differently to them. so I am assuming it is my choice of food that makes the difference. Can't remember when I had a fried breakfast which is a biggie in my family. I do have an underactive thyroid and that made me put some weight on until it was diagnosed. As soon as I started on the thyroxine it just gradually returned to normal.

I agree that people delude themselves about what they eat, a friend of mine used to eat more of her children's food than they did and would be convinced she was sticking to her diet. She would just be pinching a chip here and there and a sausage or something. I imagine it was more than she would ever admit to.

margaretclare

About alcohol, I read some research very recently about the amount of calories in alcoholic drinks, but apparently it wasn't the drinks themselves that were causing weight gain. It was the lowering of inhibitions and the fact that the alcohol caused hunger! This is the reason why so many kebab shops, pizzerias, chip shops etc are open very late, and I mean late as in after the pubs and clubs close.

I very rarely drink alcohol. I like 'real ale' but usually have half a pint maybe on 2 special occasions a year. A bottle of wine if we win one in a raffle. It would be very easy for me to go completely teetotal - as it is, I drink it so rarely that there's no point in worrying about it.

The girls I work with have an absolute obsession with the latest diets, they can quote the calories, GI etc of just about anything. At the moment the in thing is the two day fasting thing. Makes me laugh, they moan all day Monday about not being able to eat and then on Tuesday eat huge amounts of chocolate, biscuits etc. One thing is consistent, the start a new diet, lose weight, get bored and start eating and end up heavier than when they started.

This is exactly what I was talking about earlier. I've been in contact with people who are having success with the 5:2 system. It involves sticking to 500 calories on 2 separate days of the week but eating normally the other days. 'Eating normally' does NOT involve eating huge amounts of chocolate and biscuits 5 days a week to make up for the perceived 'deprivation' of the 2. These are the people I meant when I said they are a lost cause.

picklekin

I've been doing the 5:2 for a while, but haven't seen much success. Its probably due to the fact that I am a "lost cause" and eat lots of treats on my non fast days. I think my mental state has a lot to do with it, I LIKE healthy foods, and I DISLIKE being overly full, and yet when I'm depressed I just keep eating. I had a M/C last month and have put on 4lbs (not a lot to most, but I'm tiny) Don't really know how to get my head in the right place, I do for a few days, then I feel I've "earned" a break or "deserved" it for the cra ppy day I've had.

margaretclare

picklekin wrote: »

I've been doing the 5:2 for a while, but haven't seen much success. Its probably due to the fact that I am a "lost cause" and eat lots of treats on my non fast days. I think my mental state has a lot to do with it, I LIKE healthy foods, and I DISLIKE being overly full, and yet when I'm depressed I just keep eating. I had a M/C last month and have put on 4lbs (not a lot to most, but I'm tiny) Don't really know how to get my head in the right place, I do for a few days, then I feel I've "earned" a break or "deserved" it for the cra ppy day I've had.

There's a 5:2 thread on the Health and Beauty forum, you might find that helpful. Or, the suggestion earlier from pukkamum.

IMHO your mental state has everything to do with it, and that applies to all of us. You've identified the problem. Talk to your GP first. Also try to identify just why you see these unhealthy items as 'treats'.

Do you know what is a 'treat' to me? Getting out and about at this most beautiful time of the year, a walk in a bluebell wood, seeing the hedges full of may-blossom. Walking down the garden seeing my pond come to life and seeing the little creatures in there, tadpoles and newts. Things give me pleasure which do not involve putting sweet unwanted stuff into my mouth.

lostinrates

mumps wrote: »

But that is exactly what I was talking about. Alot of people blame weight on genetics when it is more about what they eat. Slim people tend to be people who eat a healthy well balanced diet, this might be because of how they were brought up or just that they like that sort of food, my son is very slim and he eats alot but it isn't junk he likes good food meat fish veg fruit. People might look at him and think it is his genes but it isn't.

The other problem I see is that once people start on the diet treadmill it just seems to set a pattern, diet that seems to work for a while, slip back and end up heavier than when you started. This has happened to several friends/family of mine. I don't know the science of it but it does seem to happen (unless I just know some unusual people.)

In my original post I said people should ask people who are slim and I think what they would hear is don't over eat, don't eat when you aren't hungry, don't eat too many treats (I think a few don't hurt but they will vary from person to person, for me chocolate for my son it might be a pizza.)

Diets are a multi million pound industry and they don't really seem to work, or do they? I am happy to hear if lots of people go on a diet, lose all the weight and live happily ever after. I only know one person who has managed that but I know far more who have just stayed slim even thought slim at 60 might be a bit heavier than slim at 16.

margaretclare wrote: »

DH can't understand why I like to watch programmes like 'Secret Eaters'. I suppose the only reason why I do is that I still have an interest in social psychology, why people do the things they do.

All of the people depicted followed a 'healthy eating plan' devised by the programme's dietitian and all of them lost weight after 5 weeks. I think when you're fairly young almost any 'healthy' eating plan will work and we're not told the details, but it would seem to involve an end to the 'secret eating' that got them into that state in the first place, the snacking, the eating just mindlessly when not hungry, and the piling plates high. It always seems to me that the 'healthy eating plan' is less important than the change in mindset brought about by the 'shock tactics' of having your habits brought into the full glare of publicity. Human beings are capable of almost infinite self-deception, that's well known. What pukkamum is doing is more or less self-hypnosis, over-riding the bad (harmful) impulses by 'good' or useful ones. It works for her.

For me, over the past few years I've changed many of the bad habits I'd slipped into. I no longer even like very sweet items. I've had KrispyKreme doughnuts advertised in my face and I don't give them a second look. Cadbury's cream eggs - uuugggh. I can be out, sit and have a coffee with home-made cakes staring me in the face and they don't tempt me at all. They certainly wouldn't 'jump into my mouth' as people blithely say. My problems are different. After a lifetime of being extremely active I'm no longer very active at all. I don't need the carbs for energy, but I seem to have found something which works, at last.

Sorry for big quotes...

Not all slim people eat well. There is a nother tv show where they get a very overweight person and a very underweight person. Usually both diets are equally atrocious, often the underweight. people live off candy bars or carbonated drinks.


Personally, I think margaretclare is doing the right thing.....seeing what works for HER and sticking to it. .

Five two or fasting works well to maintain for me, Nd looking back when I was slim, and well, I naturally fasted. I am just not the kind of person who can eat three meals a day and maintain.

I also agree that a little of what you fancy might suit some people, but not so much me, not regularly. I find it easier to schedule a day when a little of food that is sweet is ok.

I find giving up food that is ' alluring' does help one lose taste for it more easily.

For example, I love wine, but cannot drink on medication. ( in fact, by terrible omission we all forgot and I had a quarter of. A glass of wine just recently before we realised, but its ok). I do sometimes wish I could have a glass of wine, but much less than I did originally. Tbh, I used to have one or two glasses of wine on previous meds at most, and none for three months a year every year of adult life. When I stopped drinking for this drug I wanted a glass of wine every night for a while:rotfl:.


I hVe had to give up dairy products too. I used to have my meds with a glass of milk when I couldn't eat much, so I found this practically hard as well as sometimes just wanting a piece of cheese , a yogurt or a glass of milk, or mug of hot milk before bed.

The first month or so were very hard, NO its only occasionally stumping while I think what might work for me as alternatives to what I am feeding my family/guests that doesn't look too weird compared to what they are eating.


The thing I cannot loose taste for is fruit and raw veg, ip and it have had to try for health reasons too, and its really hard.

Izadora

margaretclare wrote: »

About alcohol, I read some research very recently about the amount of calories in alcoholic drinks, but apparently it wasn't the drinks themselves that were causing weight gain. It was the lowering of inhibitions and the fact that the alcohol caused hunger!

I don't know about it causing hunger but I definitely lose a lot of willpower when I've had a drink or am hungover. I'm getting better at making healthier replacements for drunk munchies but there are still times when (especially if my OH is going to the kebab shop on the way home) I'll end up thinking "I want pizza and don't care. I'll deal with it next week."
I think the biggest difference since I've tried WW though is the fact that, when I have done that, I don't throw my hands up, decide that my diet's doomed and fall straight off the wagon. I accept that I might not lose much that week, or have a small gain, but that in the grand scheme of things it's not a disaster as long as I stick to my points more weeks than I don't.

margaretclare

Maybe it doesn't cause hunger - maybe it simply has that effect by lowering inhibitions and as you said 'I want pizza and I don't care!'

~Chameleon~

mumps wrote:

I think this is so true. I wonder why some people lose the ability to recognise the signals?

margaretclare wrote: »

Peer pressure may be one factor, one's social group. The fact that food of all kinds is now so easily-available, the opposite from when I was young. We're surrounded by ads saying 'Just eat - don't cook'. Numerous reasons.

There are also issues to do with hormones, particularly leptin and ghrelin which regulate appetite and energy balance. Leptin is responsible for suppressing food intake and it's now been established that obese people can become leptin-resistant which switches off the receptors so they just don't know when to stop eating.