Sick of being fat

Hey Pretzill,

I was in much the same boat as yourself. For me, calorie counting is absolutely the way to go. I certainly tried to cut down on carbs & sugars, but calorie counting was the main focus. Use MyFitnessPal if you're not already and take a proper count of you calorie intake. Try use the carbs/protein breakdown as a general guide too.

Focus on that for a while anyway and see how you're getting on. Also try to find snacks that are healthy or low calorie and have them between meals if you can. It'll help you reduce portion sizes for meals and you won't be hungry in between. Find a low fat yoghurt or something that you enjoy (it's vitally important to enjoy the food you're eating, it'll make it much easier to stick to it).

Penn wrote: »

Hey Pretzill,

I was in much the same boat as yourself. For me, calorie counting is absolutely the way to go. I certainly tried to cut down on carbs & sugars, but calorie counting was the main focus. Use MyFitnessPal if you're not already and take a proper count of you calorie intake. Try use the carbs/protein breakdown as a general guide too.

Focus on that for a while anyway and see how you're getting on. Also try to find snacks that are healthy or low calorie and have them between meals if you can. It'll help you reduce portion sizes for meals and you won't be hungry in between. Find a low fat yoghurt or something that you enjoy (it's vitally important to enjoy the food you're eating, it'll make it much easier to stick to it).

Low fat yoghurt isn't a good choice - fat keeps you satisfied for longer periods than anything else.

Low fat yoghurts are generally full of sugar, as you need something to replace the fat content.

Sugar = the worst thing you can eat, as 50% (the fructose part, sugar being a disachharide if I spelled it right) of it is converted diretly to fat, as the body cannot process or use it.

Pretzill wrote: »

Thanks both! It's all hypothetical at the moment and I do hope I can make those changes and stick to them - but without feeling I'm not ever again allowed have a slice of cake - I bake so I use very little sugar if I make a bun or cake (if any) but use fruit (I know but still a little more natural) instead - I like to have control over what I eat and I eat very little processed food. I also live out in the sticks with no access to take-aways - I love cooking but it's not always healthy. I recently got into greek natural yogurt (full fat) delicious (but a lot more calorific than I thought)

I know sugar is bad but since I stopped smoking this is by far my biggest problem - I started to love sweets, and chocolate again - I'm day 3 now without a sugary snack and I'm cutting snacks altogether. I don't want to think of this as a diet. The only times I've actually dieted in my life I put on weight after stopping. And when I smoked i had the luxury of being able to eat and drink anything without putting on extra weight.

Personally I have a very sweet tooth. Although I love every type of food, foreign, Irish, sweet, savoury, alcohol.. you name it, I love it!

So I'm eating really healthy Mon to Fri, with a fair bit of fasting included.. but at the weekend I have a few drinks, I may eat some sweets or some doritos (but a LOT less), I might have some nice stoneground wholewheat bread, or a pizza or a take out even..

I'm FAR from perfect, but eating well the majority of the week is a massive benefit and I am still losing weight regardless.

Sure don't we celebrate by feasting for all of human history that we know about? our culture is obsessed with food, you couldn't be expected to go without good food.

Do what you think you are able to do is the best advice, know what's good and bad so you can make the best decisions. Reward yourself when you need a reward and don't feel guilty about it either! :cool:

Penn wrote: »

I found as a small snack inbetween meals, the yoghurts I was having were great. I know they're not the best thing I could have eaten, but again, it's important to eat things you enjoy. I did have other snacks all the time too, but the yoghurts were one of my main ones and I had great success. Even though it's converted to fat, if you're at a calorie deficit you're still burning fat off regardless.

Like I said above, I'm far from perfect and I snack on bad stuff too. Particularly at the weekend.

The reason I meantioned it being bad is so that he can be aware of it. Lowering fat in an item and then increasing sugar is obviously bad, sugar is worse than fat, but a lot of people see "low fat" and incorrectly assume that the item is healthy. It defo isn't.

Sure might you not have a mini mars bar instead, it's also full of sugar, and you can burn the calories off as you said yourself!

The problem with a standard calorie deficit diet is - adaptation to lowered calories (generally after 6 months to a year), something which you see in real life with "weight loss plateus". Which strangely enough doesn't occur with fasting!

I do agree with reducing calories, and trying to snack healthy as you can. I eat bad stuff also, literally just 3 chocolate sweets 2 minutes ago as I was hungry enough to eat the chair I'm sitting on.

jim o doom wrote: »

I also snack too, but much less at the moment. Every time you eat, you produce insulin (the chemical which stores fat), and constantly elevated insulin leads to insulin resistance, which leads to obesity and potentially diabetes.

Rather than get into it again, I'd recommend reading this and even listening to the podcast with Jason Fung.

https://sigmanutrition.com/episode85/

Fairly balanced.

This thread seemed to be in bold when I scrolled through boards - it wasnt, it just jumped at me - so I think im obliged by spiritual intervention to tell you my story - Its only 2 months old!

So - Im a big fan of the JRE podcasts, a lot of guests recently have been talking of the carnivore diet - anyone familar with JRE will know there is a lot of nutritionists, bodybuilders, athletes etc, but the one that struck me was jordan peterson. Ill link the section below.

Anyway

Im 6ft - 35 - and hovered between 15st 8 and 15st 11 the last 3 or 4 years - pretty much the op's twin

So I basically started eating nothing but meat and veg - tonnes of it - dont Ever let yourself be hungry - I was a big snacker, late at night especially - after about a week the carb cravings went away and potatoes pasta (my favourite) and bread were really all I cut out - I switched the crisps to nuts, not healthy ones either - salted or roasted or whatever.

Anyway - within the 1st 3 weeks I saw 14st 13 appear on the scales - 3 days ago I was 13st 12

Id like to point out i have not done any exercise whatsoever - I eat like crazy - I cheat about every 2-3 days with a spud or a bag of crisps. I drink about three bottles of lucozade a day and take three sugars in my tea - I drink a lot of tea.

Sugar is bad - but not as bad as people make out - Salt is an essential mineral, slandered by the sugar industry - get it into ye!

My back pain is gone
Arthritis in my fingers is gone
I stay awake longer
I can concentrate more
I wake up earlier and dont feel like i was hit by a bullock

Try it for a month

If your serious try a solid elimination diet - add back one item a week and see how you feel - if its good, keep - if it wrecks you get rid.

15/8 to 13/12 in 7.5 weeks - by doing feck all - It really didnt hurt and I loved my spuds i tells ya!

Anyway this will explain a lot more than i can.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Rather than get into it again, I'd recommend reading this and even listening to the podcast with Jason Fung.

https://sigmanutrition.com/episode85/

Fairly balanced.

I agreed with pretty much everything he said, the couple of things I’d differ on emphasis were that he said that all researchers understand how hormones work in the body, maybe they do but that doesn’t filter down to the general public and probably a lot of people involved in nutrition. Then he rightly said that thyroid issues would affect someone’s energy balance but seemed to want to step back a bit with insulin having the same effect? The way I’d see it and Fung will have used the argument is that if you want to get someone to gain weight, simply inject them with insulin which will have the effect of down regulating their energy balance.

Penn wrote: »

Have to agree. I lost 8 stone in a year simply by calories in, calories out. As simple and as flexible a weightloss program as it gets.

Amazing, I'd say you feel great now. And you probably can count the calories in your head at this stage like I can and look at a plate and say yeah that's about 500 calories.

iamtony wrote: »

Lads can I just say yous are going a little overboard with all this stuff. This is a weight loss thread and we're trying to get people to put down the big Mac's and support each other.
I'm not saying this stuff isn't true, well some of it anyway but the battle most people here are fighting is a physiological one and the information your providing would he more useful to an athlete.
I'm loosing loads of weight and I'm still eating all the food groups. I just change the portions around to be veg heavy but I'll still have some mash or some chips or pasta or whatever. When I'm at my ideal weight and want to improve further I'll start worrying about the macros and insulin etc.
Keep it simple people.

Yup. Apologies.

I do try and keep it simple because I think simple works if you actually follow through.

iamtony wrote: »

Amazing, I'd say you feel great now. And you probably can count the calories in your head at this stage like I can and look at a plate and say yeah that's about 500 calories.

Yeah pretty much. When I finished the diet I was hitting 1,200-1,300 calories a day. I've stopped using MFP now that I'm (mostly) off the diet, but I know I'm still probably eating maybe 1,400-1,700 max, and still weighing myself weekly to keep an eye on things. But like silverharp said, "Once you are prepared to eat for ever what you ate on the "last day" of your diet then its whatever floats your boat". I'm still eating what I was eating when I was dieting, maybe with something extra or slightly bigger portions. But I enjoyed the food I was eating when I was on the diet, so that's still the food I'm eating now. I can afford to be more flexible with it, but my metabolism has definitely changed so I know I can't afford to change things too much too quickly either.

It's all about what you can stick to both short and long term. I mean if people can stick with Jordan Peterson's meat-only diet, fair play. I sure as hell wouldn't try to. Same with keto and intermittent fasting, they just wouldn't work long-term for me. Short bursts, maybe, but I'd find it too restrictive and not enjoyable.

That's why when it comes to weightloss, first port of call is calorie counting. Then you can segue into different types of diet if you want or choose to, but even many of the types of diets out there (Slimming World, Keto, IF) still have calories in vs calories out at their core. So long as you enjoy whatever path your diet takes, go for it. But there's no one way that will suit or work for everyone. Even calories in vs calories out, some might much prefer to try burn off more calories so they don't have to restrict their food as much.

jim o doom wrote: »

Very well put indeed. I saw statistics about the full keto diet, which showed better weightloss and better health markers (bad cholesterol and the like) than calorie restriction over 6 months..

..but over one year, all the keto group (and calorie restricters) regained the weight, because the diets were unsustainable.

Fasting is absolutely not for some people. A good friend of mine suffest horrible gas and cramps if he goes without food (stomach issues).

For me it works great. It's easy (for me) to just not eat for x number of hours. Even if it's having dinner at 8 and skipping breakfast and eating a lunch the next day.

But no diet is universal, it's all down to what you can do, and do in the long term.

Glad your one is working for ye!

Cheers. I was kinda doing IF most weekends anyway just out of the fact that I tended to not eat early on weekends, so it was close enough to 16:8 without even realising it most of the time. But during the week it just wouldn't have worked out for me. Early start due to commute, small office with coffee breaks, possible delayed lunches due to meetings or sometimes being on the road. I know I just would have found it too restrictive for me to stick to regularly. Don't deny the benefits of it, just wasn't beneficial enough for me.

Interesting study here just published
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413119302487?via%3Dihub

Processed versus unprocessed diet - those on a processed diet ate on average 500kcals extra per day over the 2 week trial and gained 1kg - the excess calories were the cause of the weight gain not the fact it was processed food, though processed/junk food encouraged individuals to consume extra calories.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01523-w?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=8b64b295bc-briefing-wk-20190517&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-8b64b295bc-43966249

TL;DR

It's all about the calories!

After a week of good success with eating healthy and fasting, I cooked and ate enough tacos over the weekend to feed a family of ten.

Think I shall not be eating again until tomorrow night to make up for it.

Starting: 94kg
Week 1: 93.7kg


Week one and weight loss was negligible. I started well but at the weekend I stopped counting calories. Looks like I maintained overall. I didn't feel hungry at any point so I really need less calories than I think.