How can I lose weight when I've been dieting for 40+ years?

elljay

During a sort out the other day I came across a booklet called 'The Outline way to slim' which I remember sending off for in the early 1970s. It's so depressing to realise I've been trying to keep my weight down all these years. Apart from a period when the children were little and we had little money and even less time to think about eating I've been a stone or more (more now - I'm 14 st 2!) overweight.

I eat far less than the recommended calories for a woman of my age and height - 5ft 8 and 68 yrs - so I suppose my body has just got used to having so much less. I usually take in around 800 - 1000. I'm conscious that as I eat a relatively low amount I need to make every mouthful count nutritionally, I'm vegetarian. Always cook from scratch etc etc. I'm very healthy, can walk miles, never catch colds, rarely tired. Use mfp.

If I ate the recommended calories I'd shoot up, I've tried it. Has anyone been in the same boat and found a way to break through or a way of managing your metabolism - I assume that's what has gone wrong here.

Not prepared to line the pockets of moneymaking businesses such as SW, WW etc but otherwise all ideas are very welcome. Feeling a bit desperate about it really.

Thanks, sorry to ramble on

EJ

Jono111

An underactive thyroid can cause weight issues but your chances of getting it diagnosed if you have it are slim.

elljay

Thanks. I've just looked underactive thyroid up and I don't have any other symptoms so don't think it's that. I've messed up my system through my own stupidity I reckon.

Thanks for the idea though. Other ideas to follow up will be very gratefully received.

EJ

belfastgirl23

First of all, just note that whilst you might like to lose weight, you have been successful at more or less maintaining for a long time (even if it’s at a major calorie deficit). Ok so you want to lose some weight but just note that things could be a lot worse and that your consistent efforts mean that you’re relatively not in a bad position. Not saying you shouldn't want to lose weight but the starting point should be to congratulate yourself for making an effort all those years, not beat yourself up about it.

A few questions.

Firstly how certain are you about your daily calorie intake - ie how scientifically do you map it, it’s very easy to think you’re eating less than you actually are. Have you used MyFitnessPal or similar just to double check that your estimates are right? And weighed everything you eat religiously for a few weeks just to make sure that there’s nothing that you haven’t noticed. I haven’t been drinking for a while and it has totally shocked me how much alcohol adds to my daily calories (not saying that’s you by the way but just as an example of how cals can creep up for me!)

Secondly, if you’re veggie where are you getting your calories from? I’m mainly veggie and it is so so easy to end up eating a lot of carbs (even ‘good’ carbs) rather than protein. And I do think they have a different effect if you’re trying to manage your weight.

Thirdly, what’s your physical activity like?

I’m sure you’ve also heard of ‘starvation mode’ where your body hangs onto every ounce of fat because you’re under feeding yourself. It sounds like this might be what’s happening to you. I’m no expert but I would wonder about increasing the amount you eat very slowly, e.g by 100 calories a day, until you get closer to a ‘normal’ eating point and just watch the scales and see how it works out for you.

I’ve been listening to a podcast called ‘half size me’ that is really interesting on some of this stuff. The person talks about calories from a very mathematical standpoint but in a very accessible way which really works for me anyway. The other thing is that she is very pragmatic about weight loss and really takes the emotion and shame out of it which has been very helpful for me. E.g. it might take you 2 years to get to the weight you would like to be but that’s ok if you’ve learned along the way. Maybe worth giving it a listen.

There is always hope, don’t feel you can’t change things.

UKTigerlily

You aren't eating enough, you have to eat more if you want to lose weight. As you lose, you need to reduce calories and right now you aren't eating enough. I also suggest MyFitnessPal and getting Thyroid checked. Vegetarian isn't healthy anyway, nor does it help any animals, maybe try Vegan (obviously if for religious reasons that's different, but for animal welfare it's causing more cruelty)

elljay

Gosh thank you so much both of you for such helpful replies.

My reason for being veggie is that I just don't like meat - the thought, smell, taste of it. I think being veggie is generally considered a pretty healthy way of eating especially if you don't eat pre-prepared stuff all the time.

I think I mentioned in my original text that I use MFP- it's invaluable though hard to use when you cook from scratch but I'm pretty sure I include everything, for example the quarter onion I used for onion gravy and the half carrot I used in the salad. I tsp Marmite etc. Yesterday I had 196 for brek, 325 for lunch (a huge salad) and 211 for tea. That's 732 and feels like a pretty adequate amount of food. I did just over 6000 pretty active steps but quite a lot of other exercise as I'm decorating the kitchen plus gardening. I'll do my meal plan for today in a minute but I'm sure it will work out much the same. I don't usually snack, not because I have anything against it but I've never been used to having snacks and just don't think of it as it seems pointless.

I do so agree about carbs though, I don't have potatoes in the house and rarely eat rice or pasta. Bread could be my road to hell though, I have some home made sourdough rye in the freezer at the moment - had some toasted yesterday and it's very scrumptious.

Last weighed myself last Wed when I was 14st 2.6. This morning 14 st 3.4. So disheartening!

Thanks for the other ideas, I might try adding 100 for a few days and see what happens. Will also check that podcast.

Happy bank hol.

EJ

lessonlearned

That must be very disheartening for you.

However, I agree with the others, I think you might not be eating enough. A similar thing happened to me.

I managed to lose 1 stone. It took me a year then I plateaued, then I started gaining again. I redoubled my efforts (or so I thought) lost a half stone and then plateaued again and once again started gaining.

I'm not a fan of diet clubs either (too happy clappy:rotfl:) but in desperation I joined WW.

Their plan is not faddy, I don't touch their ready meals, I cook entirely from scratch.

I think diet clubs have changed a lot.......both WW and SW seem quite similar in that the focus is on healthy eating rather than "dieting" iyswim.

Anyway i now find that I am eating twice as much as I did before and I'm losing a steady 1 to 2lbs a week. I think that like you I hadn't been eating enough and I had messed my metabolism up.

I think 732 calories is far too low for A long term way of eating. Ok for a quick fix or if you need to reduce blood sugar levels (ie the blood sugar diet works out at 800 cals) but the purpose of going that low is to reset insulin, it is not meant to be a long term way of life.

Same with the 5:2 diet or any kind of fasting, it's not meant for every single day. It's meant to intermittent.

I think you need to eat more and it sounds like you aren't eating enough protein.

I can uunderstand you not wanting to pay out good money to a slimming club (I felt the same) but it might be a good investment. You could just sign up for 3 months, learn all you need to learn and then just continue to put it all into practice and carry on losing weight.

Sea_Shell

Have you plugged your figures into a BMR calculator. This tells you how many calories your body needs to maintain itself in its current form.

As an example, I'm smaller than you and even my BMR comes out at 1350 calories per day!!!. That's if I were to sit on the sofa all day and do nothing.

*** Edit - I've just plugged your numbers in and it comes out at 1516 calories per day ***

Any movement you do during the day increases the amount you need...and so it's a balancing act between giving your body the fuel it needs, whilst neither starving it, or over filling it.

As others have said, unless you have an undiagnosed condition, it sounds like your body's gone into starvation survival mode. It thinks you're on holiday with Bear Grylls!!!!

maman

lessonlearned wrote: »

I'm not a fan of diet clubs either (too happy clappy:rotfl:) but in desperation I joined WW.

Their plan is not faddy, I don't touch their ready meals, I cook entirely from scratch.

I think diet clubs have changed a lot.......both WW and SW seem quite similar in that the focus is on healthy eating rather than "dieting" iyswim.

That's exactly where I was 9 years ago (as you know LL). I'd never been on a diet in my life but I'd gradually put on 3+ stone over time because of lifestyle changes and I needed a plan to help me get rid of it. I joined SW which is balanced, healthy and definitely not designed to make you go hungry. I lost 3.5 stone in a year and I've kept it off ever since.:D

lessonlearned wrote: »

I can uunderstand you not wanting to pay out good money to a slimming club (I felt the same) but it might be a good investment. You could just sign up for 3 months, learn all you need to learn and then just continue to put it all into practice and carry on losing weight.

There's a good SW thread on here which many people use who don't attend a group. The advice is to go to a class once (£10) and then you'll have the books and an explanation of how the plan works. Alternatively, go onto the SW website (or buy one of their magazines) and try following the sample 7 day plan for free and see if it works for you.

Anoneemoose

Sadly, you probably can’t. There is no known method of long term weight loss that works for the majority of people. Contrary to popular opinion and belief, it is very difficult to manipulate our weight to be lower...and the more you try, the bigger you generally become.

I ‘battled’ my weight for nigh on 20 years (getting bigger and bigger over the course of that time - sound familiar?) and only now that I’ve given up battling it, has my weight stabilised. Yes, it’s the highest it’s ever been but I’m happy with that.

Being bigger is NOT the bad thing everyone declares it to be either. Even the medical world who contstantly say it is, hasn’t been able to categorically prove a CAUSAL link between higher weights and ill health, only a correlation, which is HUGELY different.

This video sums things up well.

https://youtu.be/jn0Ygp7pMbA

You’ll note from the graph she uses that if you want to improve health, there are 4 behaviours that we can try and follow and they work for health regardless of weight.

Wednesday2000

Anoneemoose wrote: »

This video sums things up well.

https://youtu.be/jn0Ygp7pMbA

You’ll note from the graph she uses that if you want to improve health, there are 4 behaviours that we can try and follow and they work for health regardless of weight.

Wow, that was fascinating. Thanks for posting that link.:)