Piglet to Gazelle - My weight loss journey

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

I know sometimes its just in the wording and if you want a bit of a blow out thats fine, but if you did want to have a cheat meal, its ok to eat a bit more on those days, thats why people have them.

I think I got a bit confused with the terminology when I said cheat I actually meant treat. I have heard of the cheat meal concept but only in reference to bodybuilders. Does this help anyone trying to get in shape then? and also this may be a stupid question but I assume it is still all good quality foods just bigger/more portions or snacks.

purpleshoes_2

I understand what you are saying and I do get that its just a phrase, you could have called it a blow out.

There is something about your diet plans that I can't put my finger on, I just think that if you made a few tweaks you'd do better.

I think its maybe that you aren't eating enough meals. I think you should consider eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner

I know its hard to do when we get it drummed into us that 3 meals are the way to go, but I eat that way and Ive lost more weight than I would have if I had been eating 3 meals a day.

I also think your calories are still on the low side at times.

purpleshoes_2

First_Trouble wrote: »

I think I got a bit confused with the terminology when I said cheat I actually meant treat. I have heard of the cheat meal concept but only in reference to bodybuilders. Does this help anyone trying to get in shape then? and also this may be a stupid question but I assume it is still all good quality foods just bigger/more portions or snacks.

Doesnt have to be bodybuilders, I know people who arent who have cheat meals. I also know people who dont eat good quality foods for a cheat meal, they'll have a takeaway. Its the 80/20 thing, if people eat well most of the time, they can have a blowout once in a while, sometimes weekly, theres also a school of thought that says the more weight you have to lose, the less cheat meals you should have, once a month or once a fortnight, not once a week.

I dont really do cheat meals as such, but if I want a bit of junk food, I have it and I don't worry about it.

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

I understand what you are saying and I do get that its just a phrase, you could have called it a blow out.

There is something about your diet plans that I can't put my finger on, I just think that if you made a few tweaks you'd do better.

I think its maybe that you aren't eating enough meals. I think you should consider eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner

I know its hard to do when we get it drummed into us that 3 meals are the way to go, but I eat that way and Ive lost more weight than I would have if I had been eating 3 meals a day.

I also think your calories are still on the low side at times.

On weekdays I do tend to snack more often as I always have an mid morning and an afternoon snack. As I am quite aware that right behind me is a vending machine so when I am at work I like to make sure I have enough food on me to get me through the day. Weekends I am more relaxed as I know the fridge is in the other room. Actually I would say I am lazier around food at a weekend and am preferring easy food. This is the part of my diet I am trying to work on. Being more prepared at weekends with food like I am during the week.

When you said that I may still not be eating enough I had a little shot of panic go off. I think as it is pretty much ingrained that 1200 is the amount you should be eating to lose weight and I have been on that for more years than I care to count. So it obviously isn't working for me. It is difficult though to try and eat more but I will try to increase it as I have got used to the 1600 and that doesn't seem as scary any more. I will not let myself go below 1700 for January as see how I get on. I suppose I am scared of putting on loads of weight but 100 cals isn't that much of a difference and if it was too much I have weekly weigh-ins and would catch the trend before it got out of hand.

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

Doesnt have to be bodybuilders, I know people who arent who have cheat meals. I also know people who dont eat good quality foods for a cheat meal, they'll have a takeaway. Its the 80/20 thing, if people eat well most of the time, they can have a blowout once in a while, sometimes weekly, theres also a school of thought that says the more weight you have to lose, the less cheat meals you should have, once a month or once a fortnight, not once a week.

I dont really do cheat meals as such, but if I want a bit of junk food, I have it and I don't worry about it.

I think I have a long way to go before I can eat a piece of junk food and not have it worry me. Since starting this thread I have come to realise that I have a very startling relationship with food and talking out my issues on here is really helping me to pinpoint them and forcing me to work on them as well.

purpleshoes_2

First_Trouble wrote: »

On weekdays I do tend to snack more often as I always have an mid morning and an afternoon snack. As I am quite aware that right behind me is a vending machine so when I am at work I like to make sure I have enough food on me to get me through the day. Weekends I am more relaxed as I know the fridge is in the other room. Actually I would say I am lazier around food at a weekend and am preferring easy food. This is the part of my diet I am trying to work on. Being more prepared at weekends with food like I am during the week.

When you said that I may still not be eating enough I had a little shot of panic go off. I think as it is pretty much ingrained that 1200 is the amount you should be eating to lose weight and I have been on that for more years than I care to count. So it obviously isn't working for me. It is difficult though to try and eat more but I will try to increase it as I have got used to the 1600 and that doesn't seem as scary any more. I will not let myself go below 1700 for January as see how I get on. I suppose I am scared of putting on loads of weight but 100 cals isn't that much of a difference and if it was too much I have weekly weigh-ins and would catch the trend before it got out of hand.

1700 could be too low as well. Im older than you by almost 20 years. Ive done all the calorie counting in times gone by.

I dont count calories. There may be times when I keep an eye on the calorie count of something Im eating particularly if its junk, but that is it.

I bought myself a garmin vivofit for christmas. For my height and weight they said I should be doing around 7000 steps a day. I did 4 and a half miles yesterday which from recollection was around 11000 steps and it calculated my calorie burn as around 1800 cals.

If I had eaten 1700 cals yesterday Id have been in minus. I still have weight to lose. Im heavier than you are just now, but I was massively heavier than you are 18 months ago.

I eat clean. I eat junk food occasionally. I do HIIT and I lift heavy weights. I dont count cals or carbs, fat units.

I just try and follow a diet based on Paleo principles. Speaking as someone who counted cals for way too long and still had food issues for a long time, it might work for some people, but the fact that panic set in when I said that you weren't eating enough, I think that if you worked towards ditching the counting you might get on better.

purpleshoes_2

First_Trouble wrote: »

I think I have a long way to go before I can eat a piece of junk food and not have it worry me. Since starting this thread I have come to realise that I have a very startling relationship with food and talking out my issues on here is really helping me to pinpoint them and forcing me to work on them as well.

Ive not always had the most positive relationship with food either. But when I started working out hard, eating Paleo, you get to the stage where you realise that one treat meal isnt what makes people fat.

What made me fat wasnt binging on junk food. It was more a case of eating healthier foods in way too large portions. When I look at my weight even 2 and a half years ago, I was very active, I ate healthily, home cooked curries, wholemeal rice and pasta, I just ate too much.

The people I know who are in very good shape don't worry if they have a cake, or a glass of wine, or a packet of crisps or a plate of chips. That's because its occasional.

My bro is a PT, hes in incredible shape, he works hard for it and he eats very well. When we go out he doesn't sit pushing salad around his plate, he'll have a burger and chips and not worry about it.

I know what its like to have issues with food, Ive probably had them the best part of 20 years. But for me personally and this is me talking about me, if I was sitting right now eating food and counting every calorie and feeling guilty if I went over calories, Id have more food issues than I have right now and Id never be able to break away from it.

All Im saying is, it is possible to get away from the mindset of count cals, burn cals and still lose weight. Its also possible to realise you can have junk food if you want it now and then and you wont wake up in the morning half a stone heavier.

purpleshoes_2

We are all individual as human beings, what I need calorie wise to get me through a day will be different from yours. Very low calorie diets do work, but in the short term, long term, its incredibly hard to sustain it.

For your height/weight and activity levels you could probably eat 1900 cals and still lose weight, thats if you want to continue counting.

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

1700 could be too low as well. Im older than you by almost 20 years. Ive done all the calorie counting in times gone by.

I dont count calories. There may be times when I keep an eye on the calorie count of something Im eating particularly if its junk, but that is it.

I bought myself a garmin vivofit for christmas. For my height and weight they said I should be doing around 7000 steps a day. I did 4 and a half miles yesterday which from recollection was around 11000 steps and it calculated my calorie burn as around 1800 cals.

If I had eaten 1700 cals yesterday Id have been in minus. I still have weight to lose. Im heavier than you are just now, but I was massively heavier than you are 18 months ago.

I eat clean. I eat junk food occasionally. I do HIIT and I lift heavy weights. I dont count cals or carbs, fat units.

I just try and follow a diet based on Paleo principles. Speaking as someone who counted cals for way too long and still had food issues for a long time, it might work for some people, but the fact that panic set in when I said that you weren't eating enough, I think that if you worked towards ditching the counting you might get on better.

I am still focused on that number and once I have it in my head that I was going to 1600 then that was my goal and I was hitting that every week. I do use it to count my carb intake (MFP) and unfortunately I also see my calories.
One thing that I don't know if you have picked up on that my mum did when I spoke to her is I use it as a form of control and to lose that form is slightly scary I do admit. But right now I don't know if I am confident enough to calculate everything without it to let you all know my food diary with accuracy. To help me if my diet gets off the tracks.
One thing is for sure I do not see myself using it for the rest of my life or even for the rest of the year.

First_Trouble

purpleshoes wrote: »

We are all individual as human beings, what I need calorie wise to get me through a day will be different from yours. Very low calorie diets do work, but in the short term, long term, its incredibly hard to sustain it.

For your height/weight and activity levels you could probably eat 1900 cals and still lose weight, thats if you want to continue counting.

I think I should continue counting until I get confident enough in my eating habits that I don't need it to tell me I am eating right. I will know and to be honest I don't think it is that far off as I am starting to get a feel on what a low carb day looks like. Maybe this can be a goal for Feb.

I will be upping my cals to 1900 for the rest of the week see how I go for weigh in on Monday. My body does need fuel as I want to build my muscle not just burn fat.