Can someone explain this? Question about my 'old' diet

terlywerly

This is something I've just been wondering about since I started to eat healthier and exercise more (and apologies for the long post).
When I was in uni I didn't exactly have a healthy diet. Breakfast was usually a glass of juice and a sugary cereal eg Coco Pops or Rice Krispie MultiGrain thingies. Break in uni was tea and either a sausage roll or a white scone with butter and jam. Lunch was either a panini or white bread sandwich, and if I had lunch in town, maybe shared a pizza with someone or got Mexican. I ate dinner every night but it was usually carb heavy eg white rice, pasta, potato, and I got a takeaway once a week. Ate plenty of chocolate/crisps/sweets as well.
Exercise was walking in and out to uni from my apartment ~15 mins each way maybe twice a day.
I was 10 stone in uni.
When I finished uni I worked full time, but since becoming unemployed I have put on weight again. So far I've lost a fair amount of it, but I know I will never get to 10 stone again (and I don't think I'd like to as I was very thin/unhealthy looking at times in photos from then), but I am aiming for anything in or around 11 stone. Someone told me that the pill causes weight gain and I read somewhere that it increases your appetite therefore leading to weight gain if you're not careful. I wasn't on the pill in uni but I am now, for the past maybe 3 years or so.
Can the pill make that much of a difference? And can someone explain how an unhealthy diet with next to no fruit/veg or healthy fats and a crazy amount of junk food could have had me at 10 stone, while a bit of a slip up food-wise and going on the pill could have had me at 12 stone 10 lb (my heaviest weight before I started)?
Just a curiosity, I've been thinking about it for a while.
Thanks!!

Iristxo

terlywerly wrote: »

This is something I've just been wondering about since I started to eat healthier and exercise more (and apologies for the long post).
When I was in uni I didn't exactly have a healthy diet. Breakfast was usually a glass of juice and a sugary cereal eg Coco Pops or Rice Krispie MultiGrain thingies. Break in uni was tea and either a sausage roll or a white scone with butter and jam. Lunch was either a panini or white bread sandwich, and if I had lunch in town, maybe shared a pizza with someone or got Mexican. I ate dinner every night but it was usually carb heavy eg white rice, pasta, potato, and I got a takeaway once a week. Ate plenty of chocolate/crisps/sweets as well.
Exercise was walking in and out to uni from my apartment ~15 mins each way maybe twice a day.
I was 10 stone in uni.
When I finished uni I worked full time, but since becoming unemployed I have put on weight again. So far I've lost a fair amount of it, but I know I will never get to 10 stone again (and I don't think I'd like to as I was very thin/unhealthy looking at times in photos from then), but I am aiming for anything in or around 11 stone. Someone told me that the pill causes weight gain and I read somewhere that it increases your appetite therefore leading to weight gain if you're not careful. I wasn't on the pill in uni but I am now, for the past maybe 3 years or so.
Can the pill make that much of a difference? And can someone explain how an unhealthy diet with next to no fruit/veg or healthy fats and a crazy amount of junk food could have had me at 10 stone, while a bit of a slip up food-wise and going on the pill could have had me at 12 stone 10 lb (my heaviest weight before I started)?
Just a curiosity, I've been thinking about it for a while.
Thanks!!

I've gone through a few different "diets" throughout my life and to some extent I am like you, baffled at what a body can do with what one perceives as different amount of calories and definitely different quality of food. For one I think you are forgetting that when one's a young one definitely burns more calories even if it's purely because we have way more energy. Back then I could have been mopping my kitchen floor at 11pm if it needed mopping whereas now I would not even consider something like that. It is a fact that specially we women (and men too I'm sure) have more of a tendency to put on weight as we grow older. Also whatever your activity now whether still unemployed or on an office job or whatever it is likely that you generally "move" less than you did when you were in college.

Also and this happened to me and perhaps not to you when I was in "junk food diet" I ate as much as I needed to avoid feeling hungry cos I was too eager to "get on" to something else more interesting than getting fed and to be honest looking back I think the amount of calories I ingested could not have been that big. On the other hand when I finished college and I started getting "regular meals" more often my weight started to creep up slowly. In other words, a plate of veg (even with spuds) and a piece of stake is definitely more healthy than a bowl of coco-pops but it has more calories as well.

Hope that helped a little, someone might have more scientific explanations as well.

terlywerly

Iristxo wrote: »

For one I think you are forgetting that when one's a young one definitely burns more calories even if it's purely because we have way more energy. Back then I could have been mopping my kitchen floor at 11pm if it needed mopping whereas now I would not even consider something like that. It is a fact that specially we women (and men too I'm sure) have more of a tendency to put on weight as we grow older.

Haha I'm doomed so lol. I'm only about 5 years out of uni!!!

Iristxo wrote: »

I ate as much as I needed to avoid feeling hungry cos I was too eager to "get on" to something else more interesting than getting fed and to be honest looking back I think the amount of calories I ingested could not have been that big.

No, not so much for me. I ate breakfast because I was hungry, had a break mid morning for the same reason. Was always hungry for lunch lol must have been all that hard work in the lectures :rolleyes: and the same goes for dinner. I've never been the type that ate just for the sake, or that ate to avoid being hungry. Hmmm??

Iristxo wrote: »

Hope that helped a little, someone might have more scientific explanations as well.

Thanks for your reply Iristxo, it's good to know I'm not the only one at least!!

Iristxo

ok scrape all of that then

terlywerly

Iristxo wrote: »

ok scrape all of that then

Haha ah no it was good to get some input all the same, thanks for taking the time to write. It just really confuses me In my head I'm still a 'young one' maybe my body has decided I'm not better not tell that to the OH....

I'd love to have the easy eat-what-I-want-when-I-want time again, but sadly thats not to be

El_Dangeroso

Ah to be 19 again.

I used to think I was fat when I was young, ate whatever I wanted, god looking back at photos I was deluded. It took 5 years of crash dieting to gain 4 stone and be properly fat.

They always tell you that if you watch what you eat you don't gain weight on the pill, but I've watched every friend of mine that took it put on weight. Although, having said that a lot of women's metabolisms seem to drastically slow down in the early twenties anyway, could be that that's the point at which you start your first desk job and when a packet of koka noodles, vodka and a few cigarettes no longer constitutes a meal.

terlywerly

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Ah to be 19 again.

I used to think I was fat when I was young, ate whatever I wanted, god looking back at photos I was deluded. It took 5 years of crash dieting to gain 4 stone and be properly fat.

They always tell you that if you watch what you eat you don't gain weight on the pill, but I've watched every friend of mine that took it put on weight. Although, having said that a lot of women's metabolisms seem to drastically slow down in the early twenties anyway, could be that that's the point at which you start your first desk job and when a packet of koka noodles, vodka and a few cigarettes no longer constitutes a meal.

I hadn't reached the 10 stone at 19, that came a bit later lol I'd say at 19 I was around the weight I am now.
And I don't think I've ever had Koka noodles, don't like vodka and never smoked lol.
Scrap all that, I'd happily go back to being 19 again, knowing what I know now of course

Pembily

I am on the pill and have never found it a cause for weight gain, I was on the Nuvaring for years and lost weight on it (through my hard work) and now am on Microlite, yes have gained about 8lbs in the last month but that is from no exericse, sitting for approximately 18 hours a day on my latptop and eating chocolate every day at least once!!!!

I find as I have gotten older (only 26) my metabolism is getting better due to exercise I thought?? I have never been as slim as I am now, was always (from about 8) overweight!!!

But would love to know how people (girl I lived with) who eat white bread, burgers, packet soup, pasta etc are skinny?? Random....

IMHO your body will thank you for not eating white bread, pasta and crap when you are 80?!?!?!

terlywerly

Pembily wrote: »

I am on the pill and have never found it a cause for weight gain, I was on the Nuvaring for years and lost weight on it (through my hard work) and now am on Microlite, yes have gained about 8lbs in the last month but that is from no exericse, sitting for approximately 18 hours a day on my latptop and eating chocolate every day at least once!!!!

I find as I have gotten older (only 26) my metabolism is getting better due to exercise I thought?? I have never been as slim as I am now, was always (from about 8) overweight!!!

But would love to know how people (girl I lived with) who eat white bread, burgers, packet soup, pasta etc are skinny?? Random....

IMHO your body will thank you for not eating white bread, pasta and crap when you are 80?!?!?!

I'm on Microlite as well, and I didn't notice it specifically giving me an increased appetite or anything, but for whatever reason, the weight creeped on.
We're similar ages too (I'm 25) and I have been doing better on the exercise front and eating better, but its just so annoying to think that in uni when I was floating around eating any random rubbish and doing feck all exercise that I could be a size 8 on the bottom, and then end up a size 12/14!!!
If anyone else is reading this and has a scientific reason for this, I'd really love to know. It's driving me mad with the curiosity ha scrap that I'm just nosey.

Pembily

terlywerly wrote: »

It's driving me mad with the curiosity ha scrap that I'm just nosey.

hahaah I love it!!! But think back - were you exercising? Were you on the go?? Do you sit down all day now?? I find when in college even if I don't do exercise I still move around a good bit where as when working you sit down for nearly 8 hours but in college you move about every hour or so!!! I would love to know too... Maybe the weight didn't creap up on me cos I have been conscious of it!!!

terlywerly

Pembily wrote: »

hahaah I love it!!! But think back - were you exercising? Were you on the go?? Do you sit down all day now?? I find when in college even if I don't do exercise I still move around a good bit where as when working you sit down for nearly 8 hours but in college you move about every hour or so!!! I would love to know too... Maybe the weight didn't creap up on me cos I have been conscious of it!!!

I never did any set exercising e.g. jogging, swimming etc. I just did the walk in and out to uni every day which was only a few mins in the road. And with the course I was doing it was nearly all sitting in lectures or labs with very little movement.
I'm not working at the moment so I have to make a mental choice to be active, but when I finished uni and was working full time, I was moving around a fair bit - it definitely wasn't a sit down for 8 hours job. And yet the weight still creeped on! Maybe I was just really lucky with how I was in uni, and very UNlucky with the way things went afterwards

brianthebard

You described your diet in college in the op, but you didn't compare calorific content of your diet then and now. I imagine you have better access to food on a more regular basis since you're no longer a student.

terlywerly

brianthebard wrote: »

You described your diet in college in the op, but you didn't compare calorific content of your diet then and now. I imagine you have better access to food on a more regular basis since you're no longer a student.

When I finished uni and started working full time, I'd say my actual access to food was about the same as uni in that I still had a breakfast, a tea break, lunch, evening snack and dinner, and bits in between. And probably a take away once a week with the OH, just like I had one in uni with friends. And to be honest when I came back from uni initially my diet was no better than it had been in uni. Tea break at work was waaaay worse than tea break in uni.
It's only in the last couple of years I've really made any great progress in consistently home cooking dinners etc, and obviously now in the last few months that I've been keeping serious tabs on things. I do know though that calorie wise, what I ate in uni was definitely a lot higher than when I was working, and I can't see how I would have burned it off more in uni (walking for 30/45 mins) versus in full time job (walking to and from work and on my feet moving around all day).
Maybe I'm not understanding properly?

brianthebard

I don't see how you know for sure you're calorie intake in uni was higher unless you were accurately tracking it the whole time? I suppose the point I was trying to make is its impossible to compare yourself now to a different time in your life when looking at your weight and stuff, you're basically two different people there are so many variables. The important thing is you've taken control of our situation now.

watna

I ate whatever I wanted in uni. I never put an ounce on and never gave a thought to what I ate and I was 8st 7 until I hit about 23 then I started to put weight on and it got to a point where I was actually overweight. It crept on slowly but nothing in my life had really changed except my age.

I honestly think your metabolism just slows down when you get older. A lot of women complain that they put weight on in your mid-twenties. My aunt was the same as me, she used to call me a skinny bitch and wasn't surprised when I put weight on now - it happened to her too and now she has to be careful what you eat. I read somewhere that as you get older you need less calories. That's why, with WW they ask you your age and you get more points if you're younger.

terlywerly

brianthebard wrote: »

I don't see how you know for sure you're calorie intake in uni was higher unless you were accurately tracking it the whole time? I suppose the point I was trying to make is its impossible to compare yourself now to a different time in your life when looking at your weight and stuff, you're basically two different people there are so many variables. The important thing is you've taken control of our situation now.

I would definitely have drank more in uni (and had chips etc after a night of drinking) and I would have had more of those premade microwave dinner things as opposed to when I was working.
But you're right about the taking control now. That's more important.

watna wrote: »

I ate whatever I wanted in uni. I never put an ounce on and never gave a thought to what I ate and I was 8st 7 until I hit about 23 then I started to put weight on and it got to a point where I was actually overweight. It crept on slowly but nothing in my life had really changed except my age.

I honestly think your metabolism just slows down when you get older. A lot of women complain that they put weight on in your mid-twenties. My aunt was the same as me, she used to call me a skinny bitch and wasn't surprised when I put weight on now - it happened to her too and now she has to be careful what you eat. I read somewhere that as you get older you need less calories. That's why, with WW they ask you your age and you get more points if you're younger.

I think you have a point watna, maybe it's just a slow down, and I'll have to work harder to get the weight off than I would have if it had been there in uni. Feck, hard work is hard

brianthebard

watna wrote: »

I honestly think your metabolism just slows down when you get older. A lot of women complain that they put weight on in your mid-twenties. My aunt was the same as me, she used to call me a skinny bitch and wasn't surprised when I put weight on now - it happened to her too and now she has to be careful what you eat. I read somewhere that as you get older you need less calories. That's why, with WW they ask you your age and you get more points if you're younger.

Afaik a slowing metabolism in your twenties/thirties is due to muscle loss, weight training slows or reverses this issue.

terlywerly

brianthebard wrote: »

Afaik a slowing metabolism in your twenties/thirties is due to muscle loss, weight training slows or reverses this issue.

I've been working really hard in the last few months and I've lost almost a stone and a half, through healthier eating and exercise (jogging). I've never been one for doing anything exercise related, even as a child I used to hate doing P.E. in school, tried everything to get out of it But I am seeing a difference with the jogging, more so in toning myself than anything else. I've never had any particularly great 'strength' though in terms of weight training. I'd have no idea where to begin, and also being unemployed I wouldn't have the money to join a gym or buy expensive equipment.
A few weeks back, I posted a question in the Fitness forum about circuit training, but didn't get any replies. There is a circuit training class in a community centre near me and from what I know it's only €5 to go to each class. Would something like that help? I honestly wouldn't even have a clue what it entails

brianthebard

It would definitely be a step up and a new stimulus, which is what required to keep making improvements. If you can afford the fiver per class then just go and see if you like it, that would be the main thing. gym memberships can be cheap enough, around 40 a month in a lot of places, or there are deals to go at off peak hours which might suit you. If you get more interested in weight training it might be something to consider.

terlywerly

brianthebard wrote: »

It would definitely be a step up and a new stimulus, which is what required to keep making improvements. If you can afford the fiver per class then just go and see if you like it, that would be the main thing. gym memberships can be cheap enough, around 40 a month in a lot of places, or there are deals to go at off peak hours which might suit you. If you get more interested in weight training it might be something to consider.

True, I think I may try it the next time its on. And I had been thinking about the gym membership for ages, it probably wouldn't be any harm to ring around and see if there are any deals.
Ah I'm glad now I started the thread, I'm feeling a lot better about the whole thing!

barbiegirl

I enjoyed this thread. I was 8 1/2 stone all the way through college, I ate anything I wanted and felt great. The pill I can't blame for putting on weight, but rather a slowing metabolism once I hit 23, then I lost it all again at 25, but now 10 years later I'm heavier than ever. I still look ok, not quite a blob, as a doctor recently put it I carry it well. :-)
So this week I started tracking my calorie intake and exercise, as I eat better now than I ever did and walk everyday for about 50 minutes with the dog, and am still overweight. Due to weigh in tonight and see how I go. What I did notice was that a burger and chips was 650 calories last Friday night as a treat, whereas the four course healthy meal, with 2 glasses of wine last Sunday was 2200!! So it's when you look at what you actually eat and then try to keep the balance between healthy food and low calorie and then I'll hopefully get back to maybe 11 stone.

Dymo

I'm sure a lot of people have the same problem as the OP, I'd put it down to when your younger your metabolism burns more calories quicker and when I was a student I walked eevery where and due to budget restrictions I had a controled diet of pasta and bread

terlywerly

barbiegirl wrote: »

I enjoyed this thread. I was 8 1/2 stone all the way through college, I ate anything I wanted and felt great. The pill I can't blame for putting on weight, but rather a slowing metabolism once I hit 23, then I lost it all again at 25, but now 10 years later I'm heavier than ever. I still look ok, not quite a blob, as a doctor recently put it I carry it well. :-)
So this week I started tracking my calorie intake and exercise, as I eat better now than I ever did and walk everyday for about 50 minutes with the dog, and am still overweight. Due to weigh in tonight and see how I go. What I did notice was that a burger and chips was 650 calories last Friday night as a treat, whereas the four course healthy meal, with 2 glasses of wine last Sunday was 2200!! So it's when you look at what you actually eat and then try to keep the balance between healthy food and low calorie and then I'll hopefully get back to maybe 11 stone.

Thanks for your feedback! I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that that was then and this is now after all

Dymo wrote: »

I'm sure a lot of people have the same problem as the OP, I'd put it down to when your younger your metabolism burns more calories quicker and when I was a student I walked eevery where and due to budget restrictions I had a controled diet of pasta and bread

Funnily enough, of all the other people from uni that I still keep in contact with, I'm the only one who fluctuated. They all are about the same now as they were then, and 2 have lost weight. So I suppose everyone is different too

breda206

terlywerly wrote: »

Funnily enough, of all the other people from uni that I still keep in contact with, I'm the only one who fluctuated. They all are about the same now as they were then, and 2 have lost weight. So I suppose everyone is different too

Don't be fooled, everyone makes conscious decisions about their weight, they aren't staying trim magically. If you quizzed them on what they eat and what they do, you will find that even though what they are doing isn't in a diet book, they make lifestyle choices.

Weight creeps up on people, the most important thing is you are making decisions now to lose the weight that you have gained. The second most important thing to keep in mind is that those lifestyle changes that you make don't stop when you hit your target weight. That is what will keep you at your target weight. Everyone does it even if they don't realise that they do.
Good luck

terlywerly

breda206 wrote: »

Weight creeps up on people, the most important thing is you are making decisions now to lose the weight that you have gained. The second most important thing to keep in mind is that those lifestyle changes that you make don't stop when you hit your target weight. That is what will keep you at your target weight. Everyone does it even if they don't realise that they do.
Good luck

I have to say, every week it gets easier and easier, and I definitely don't see myself as being on a 'strict diet'. It's a lifestyle change, and it really isn't that bad. And I find I enjoy exercising, a whole lot more than I ever thought I would.
I have also discovered a previously unknown love for beansprouts, so it isn't all bad

And I'm sure everyone is the same really. Weight is something that has to be kept track of, or you will end up struggling with it later on