Restrictive dieting is the cause of weight gain, is this your experience?
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Re "naturally thin" - my mom is one pound away from being underweight but she is always moving. Yesterday, my brother and I were helping her dig roots out of a recently tilled garden bed and stopped after an hour but she kept going for another hour until she had to take a bathroom break.0
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Ticklemynose wrote: »
Exactly that. So instead of coming home and working on a hobby or cleaning or whatever, you come home and completely veg out because, between your low calorie intake and your high exercise activity level, you are exhausted.[/quote]
Gotcha. I will take a look at it.
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Lol - my trick? Drink more water or tea or whatever makes you pee more. Its good to get more water, and having to pee twice as often forces you to move more
double win! Drink all day!
Other tricks - made up a chart of housecleaning. on Mondays I do the bathroom, Tuesdays the kitchen, etc. One day a week is special project - moving the stove out to clean behind, etc. Its up to an hour a day of planned movement - increasing my NEAT, and obviously hard to eat while cleaning so I dont eat that hour at least ANd my house is always clean - bonus! Its under an hour and the tasks are not so overwhelming it is easy to skip (i.e. if I said I was going to clean the whole house one night it would be easy to back out of it... but if I walk in the door, then jump right into it, I am done in under an hour so I just do it).
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AlabasterVerve wrote: »No. I restrict my day-to-day diet so I can trust my hunger signals and eat a satisfying amount of food. Other foods I reserve for special occasions -- which increases my enjoyment of those foods and the occasion immensely. It's the best of both worlds for me.
Eating anything, anytime, anywhere was a spectacular failure and even with counting calories that didn't make that way of eating anymore sustainable for me. Putting boundaries (aka restrictions) in place actually allows me to truly eat whatever I want without restriction because what I want to eat is nourishing food that doesn't leave me hungry and craving more food.
Sounds like mindful eating to me! It ain't really about eating everything and anything, it is more about taking a little bit of it. I do agree that the enjoyment level goes up when I do enjoy some food on occasion. I am still learning what works for me, a balance between boundaries and enjoyment. I am one of those that the book talk about, use smoking to stem my food intake (silly I know) and I under eat which made me gain more weight. zzzzz...... I am learning more about different food and maximising the nutrition of the food I eat.
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Exactly that. So instead of coming home and working on a hobby or cleaning or whatever, you come home and completely veg out because, between your low calorie intake and your high exercise activity level, you are exhausted.[/quote]
How does one calculate NEAT and how much calories to add or subtract?
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Ticklemynose wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »No. I restrict my day-to-day diet so I can trust my hunger signals and eat a satisfying amount of food. Other foods I reserve for special occasions -- which increases my enjoyment of those foods and the occasion immensely. It's the best of both worlds for me.
Eating anything, anytime, anywhere was a spectacular failure and even with counting calories that didn't make that way of eating anymore sustainable for me. Putting boundaries (aka restrictions) in place actually allows me to truly eat whatever I want without restriction because what I want to eat is nourishing food that doesn't leave me hungry and craving more food.
Sounds like mindful eating to me! It ain't really about eating everything and anything, it is more about taking a little bit of it. I do agree that the enjoyment level goes up when I do enjoy some food on occasion. I am still learning what works for me, a balance between boundaries and enjoyment. I am one of those that the book talk about, use smoking to stem my food intake (silly I know) and I under eat which made me gain more weight. zzzzz...... I am learning more about different food and maximising the nutrition of the food I eat.
Undereating did not cause you to gain weight. You were either eating more than you think you were or you ended up binging due to feeling restricted.0 -
I tried that "natural eating" method but I just gained weight. All that works for me is counting calories and working out. To have sufficient energy, I have to make sure I am getting enough protein, not skimping *too* much on carbs, and getting all my vitamins. Also, because I have blood sugar issues, instead of 3 full meals I break it down into 6 dinky ones so that I eat every 3-4 hours. Blood sugar levels and energy levels can be made more stable by making sure proteins and carbs are eaten in combination. Eating a carb alone can cause sugar to rise then crash for some people, leaving you tired and depleted. Adding the protein stops that from happening. (Source: Endocrinology clinic at Duke University Hospital)
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Undereating did not cause you to gain weight. You were either eating more than you think you were or you ended up binging due to feeling restricted.[/quote]
Oh really? I thought under eating puts my body into starvation mode and it kept piling on more weight as a result. I do binge, I don't deny it. But not often and not a lot. I was tracking it on MFP and even factor it more calories for each meal just in case but even for a 1200 per day, I had a tough time hitting it. Is this thinking wrong?
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I tried that "natural eating" method but I just gained weight. All that works for me is counting calories and working out. To have sufficient energy, I have to make sure I am getting enough protein, not skimping *too* much on carbs, and getting all my vitamins. Also, because I have blood sugar issues, instead of 3 full meals I break it down into 6 dinky ones so that I eat every 3-4 hours. Blood sugar levels and energy levels can be made more stable by making sure proteins and carbs are eaten in combination. Eating a carb alone can cause sugar to rise then crash for some people, leaving you tired and depleted. Adding the protein stops that from happening. (Source: Endocrinology clinic at Duke University Hospital)
Thanks for sharing. I think natural eating is that natural for many anymore. There was an interesting chapter on differentiating real hunger pangs or false emotional ones. It was then that I realised how out of sync my body is. Counting calories does keep one on track for weight loss, no doubt. Yeah, I am looking into my eating habits about carbs and protein in moderation. Skipping carbs totally is just plain madness. I can't do it and don't believe it's healthy either. How do you keep to small meals, what with work and family and all? Prepacked snacks or?0 -
Ticklemynose wrote: »
Oh really? I thought under eating puts my body into starvation mode and it kept piling on more weight as a result. I do binge, I don't deny it. But not often and not a lot. I was tracking it on MFP and even factor it more calories for each meal just in case but even for a 1200 per day, I had a tough time hitting it. Is this thinking wrong?
Starvation mode does not exist in the way you are thinking. True starvation mode is when your body starts to experience the nasty side effects of actually starving. Weight gain is not a side effect of starving. Your body using it's lean body mass as fuel is a side effect. Metabolism slowing a bit is a side effect.
If you were gaining weight you were eating more than you think. This could be the result of using measuring cups instead of weighing on a food scale, picking inaccurate entries from the database, not logging 100% of what you eat, or any combination of the above.0 -
I am also the opposite! I have hypoglycemia (extreme low blood sugar.) If I don't severely carb restrict (<50g daily) and watch my glycemic index like mad, my overactive insulin makes me ravenous 95% of the time. (Due to low blood sugar, which convinces my body I'm starving.) So I either spend all day eating or trying to gnaw off my own arm.
It's much, much easier for me to retain a healthy weight by restricting (though admittedly it's harder to stick with long term.) Though I guess you could call it mindful eating because I'm making an active choice about what my treats are, and what fits within my body's limits, rather than cutting things out based on a regimen that gets dropped when I hit my goal weight.0 -
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Starvation mode does not exist in the way you are thinking. True starvation mode is when your body starts to experience the nasty side effects of actually starving. Weight gain is not a side effect of starving. Your body using it's lean body mass as fuel is a side effect. Metabolism slowing a bit is a side effect.
If you were gaining weight you were eating more than you think. This could be the result of using measuring cups instead of weighing on a food scale, picking inaccurate entries from the database, not logging 100% of what you eat, or any combination of the above.[/quote]
OK I will go read up more on it and also rethink my entries. I think it might be due to my depression, I tend to be inactive during those days and even my pathetic 1200 is too much. I just started tracking it so I need more time to get an accurate read. I did lose some weight on keeping my 1200 per day and now up to 1500 for slower but more sustainable weight lost in my instance. Thanks. Man, the process of losing weight is overwhelming sometimes. I have a lot to learn.
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Ticklemynose wrote: »OK I will go read up more on it and also rethink my entries. I think it might be due to my depression, I tend to be inactive during those days and even my pathetic 1200 is too much. I just started tracking it so I need more time to get an accurate read. I did lose some weight on keeping my 1200 per day and now up to 1500 for slower but more sustainable weight lost in my instance. Thanks. Man, the process of losing weight is overwhelming sometimes. I have a lot to learn.
It doesn't have to be overwhelming. I think if you find what you're doing to be overwhelming the chances are lower that you'll stick to it. At the end of the day weight loss is about calories in vs calories out. Eat more than you burn and you'll lose weight. Get a digital food scale and weigh and log all of your food. Make sure your deficit is appropriate for the amount of weight you want to lose and that you're at least eating back some of your exercise calories. Get at least .6-.8g of protein per pound of bodyweight to ensure minimal loss of lean muscle while you're eating in a deficit. Move more. Consider incorporating lifting into your exercise routine if you don't already. Repeat until you hit your goal and move into maintenance.0 -
I hear about it all the time. Limit yourself and you'll eventually give in and go overboard when consuming all those guilty goods. I tend to eat chocolate. Twice a day. I'm down over 100lbs and going strong. If you can eat within your calories, don't completely banish it if you don't have to. Once you cut out most of the crap from your diet you're less prone to crave it anyway, which allows you those few guilty pleasures GUILT FREE when you do have them.0
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I suppose so
I know that all the diets I've tried in the past have resulted in my crash and burn and putting on more weight within the year because my way of living didn't actually change
I've done
Slimming world twice
Weightwatchers twice
Harcombe three times
Low-carb
5:2
Healthy eating and more I'm sure
This time round my whole lifestyle has changed...I've become an overall more active person who hits the gym three times a week and has a PT
I log every single calorie I eat, weighing it
I have a generally healthy diet and don't cut out or miss out in anything, eating ice cream and chips daily, going out with friends
I hit my initial weight goal in 8 months, been in maintenance (but still slowly dropping) since February
I still log every calorie but it is almost automatic, my food tastes have changed and I am not happy staying still for too long [/quote]
Good on you. She was talking about very restrictive diets that don't address the root cause. Lack of nutrition knowledge, emotional eating, lack of exercise, bad time management etc. It's really about overall having a healthier relationship with food. Not afraid to have cheat days or indulge once in a while, not having fear surrounding it. I do agree that tastes will change as well as a matter of habit. I have successfully integrated vegetables into my diet, which I hate in the beginning but subsequently come to accept and even like. Nice to hear such stories, thanks for sharing.0 -
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Calorie restrictive diets can be very effective for dealing with emotional eating. If a person commits them self to eating food that does not give them the comfort they seek, they will have to find a non food way to deal with stress and social situations. Much like how alcoholics have to learn to address stress and social interactions without alcohol. I am not making the old "sugar is addictive" argument but people are creatures of habit and we reach for pleasureful things when we are unhappy. Sometimes just by restricting the calories low enough we automatically exclude those items for months. If you say "I will eat only 1200 and I will not cheat no matter what" you will not have the calories to eat things like a big mac large fries and a shake, so if that was your comfort meal you will have to find another way to deal. Even if you can fit it, like eating a massive diner breakfast, you will regret it as the day goes on and you are not allowed to eat again.
Restricting specific food groups is a bit harder long term. People do it though. Every single diabetic out there is trying really hard to cut their carbs everyday. That means they are not eating huge slices of cake with ice cream, or big mounds of white rice, or costco size muffins. They have to do this to stay healthy so they make it work. If we all looked at our diets as what we have to do to stay healthy perhaps we wouldn't be yo yoing so much.
Well, I would say yes and no. Depends how unrealistically restrictive in the calorie count and how the calories are used up. Emotional eaters like me will binge on the exact thing that is highly restrictive. Key word being highly. For example if I say I will stay off ice cream forever, when I have an ice cream craving it will be a tub. But if I allow myself a small scoop from time to time, it will curb the craving and I will still be within my calorie limits. For emotional eaters, I think it is more about acknowledging the core issue of boredom, feeling out of control, wanting to be in control, etc and break this unhealthy relationship with food. No amount of calorie counting will work unless this is fixed. It's all about balance really. It is true what you say, if we see it in a lighter and brighter way of keeping healthy instead of this heavy oppressive way of looking good on the outside, etc. yo-yoing will stop.
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »No. I think this is the experience of binge eaters.
Not everyone who is overweight has a binge-eating tendency.
True that not everyone who is overweight has binge-eating tendency. Although it is common. Not just binge eating though, it could be eating too little, not eating healthy, these all contribute to not being able to get in touch with our natural hunger pangs and have a healthy appetite over time.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I'm not sure how "restrictive diet" is defined, but I haven't done what I'd consider a particularly restrictive diet--no going hungry, no cutting out foods so that I missed them, no eating in a vastly different way than I plan to for life. I can see how that could cause rebound or overly restrictive periods followed by bingeing periods.
I don't buy into the idea that all that many people are "naturally thin," though. I do know people who do a ton of exercise and don't really need to watch their weight (or are actually focused on trying to gain), and I know one guy who is simply uninterested in food, but most people I know who enjoy food use some kind of strategy to avoid gaining weight, even if they've never been fat.
What worked for me when I maintained for 5 years before was being active plus casually watching my portion size and eating a generally nutritious diet where I cooked at home for the most part and was not overly indulgent at restaurants when I went and not snacking much. Now I find I'm pretty good about staying within my projected calories when I do that, so long as I stay active so my calories aren't too low. So we will see. I don't think I could ever trust just eating when I'm hungry or the like, and I can't blame dieting for that because I didn't really ever diet at all until my 30s.
When she spoke about restrictive, she was talking about extreme diets with very small groups of things you can eat- all juice only diets for example. I don't think yours is considered restrictive at all and generally contain good healthy habits. When she talks about mindful eating, it is a lot about trusting that our bodies have natural cues, when to start and when to stop. I think there really is a portion of people who don't restrict their diets at all. This could be due to them already having the habit of smaller portions/like healthier food from the get go or they are really in tuned with their bodies so not much overt effort is needed.
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Katiebear_81 wrote: »Which is why I'm not strictly paleo any more That said, I had a lot more energy, my seasonal allergies were next to nil, and my digestion was never better. So there was something to be said about how I felt while doing it. I also had a wonderful self-righteous glow the entire time!
Lol!
The problem is people who restrict things then reintroduce them again without changing anything else in their diet... or yeah end up binging because they haven't had those things in so long.
Yep. This happened to me last year. I started my low carb paleo diet last July and lost about 25 lbs in 4 months doing it while walking 1 to 2 miles per day. Then I got really sick with the flu and so did everyone in my house and I was so exhausted that I told myself I'd give up my diet for a couple weeks so I wouldn't have to spend a ton of time cooking specialized meals for myself and let's face it when you're sick all you want is comfort food. Plus it was the holidays and we all know how hard it is to skip out on cookies and candy and pie during the holidays. Of course I ended up binging on all the foods I wasn't allowed to eat on my paleo diet and I stopped tracking what I was eating on MFP. By May I had gained back 15 of the 25 lbs I lost.
So I came back here to start over this month. Instead of trying to only eat 50 or so carbs a day, I'm allowing myself up to 150 carbs while staying under 1500 calories a day. So while I am still restricting carbs I allow myself the occasional pasta dinner or bowl of cereal or *gasp* can of Coke (and I'm not talking Diet Coke). I just eat a smaller portion of it and I base most of my diet on meat, fruit, veggies and water. I'm also mixing my exercise routine up more than I did last year (a mix of walking, pilates, high impact aerobics, and light strength training). I'm hoping I'll start losing weight soon and maybe I'll restrict my calories or carbs more once I hit a weight loss plateau, but for now I feel like still allowing myself some treats will help keep me on my weight loss journey and not lead to me losing control and binging on junk food this holiday season.
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Ticklemynose wrote: »Oops....I don't know what is NEAT either....care to share? I am one of those that get exhausted ALL the time on my very pathetic 1200 calories. zzzzz......
Think of it like this...
BMR = laying in bed calories burned being alive for the day
+NEAT = calories burned walking to the bathroom, doing dishes, walking to the car, etc.
+Exercise = calories burned doing deliberate workouts
Many people try to lose weight by overexercising and undereating, which leaves them tired, so when they are not exercising they lay around more than they used to. So Exercise goes up, but NEAT goes down.
Calories burned are calories burned. Do your regular exercise, but make an effort to move more in general to raise your NEAT. Its just a bonus
This is really helpful for me right now. So thank you!
I've got nothing for the OP though. I have noticed, since I'm using MFP that I'm ok, usually at work. It's weekends and dinner/evenings that are revealed as my problem times for eating. So I'm starting to work on that.0 -
Yep, sounds pretty familiar!
For me "dieting" didn't work because I would go to extremes and try to completely cut out all the "bad" foods like chocolate, crisps, sweets, ice cream, pizza, fast food etc and it was too restrictive.
So then I would just give up and when I wasn't "on a diet" I gave myself licence to go to the other extreme of "eat everything in sight". And so the cycle continued on and on and every time I did lose weight I ended up putting even more back on again.
Until I found MFP and learnt moderation, portion control and how to maximize my food intake without going over my calories and still have room for some of the "bad" foods so I didn't feel deprived and just give up!
MFP has also helped educate me on nutrition in general and made me far more aware of what's in the food I eat/how many calories it has, which has helped me massively. Before I really had no idea of the calories/macros in different foods and just ate mindlessly.
Now I am in maintenance and trying to fine tune my "mindful eating" even more in the hope that one day I will be able to stop logging and maintain naturally.0 -
strong_curves wrote: »Naturally skinny people are a misnomer...no such thing. The eat enough calories to keep them at that size...either intentionally or unintentionally.
As for "restrictive" diets...I feel "diets" in general are at fault. Because people believe that once the weight is gone they are done..and they are not. Maintenance is not as easy as most think esp when you haven't committed to and have the knowledge and foresight to do it.
all "diets' work as long as you do them...and unless you learn why you gain, how you gain you are doomed to gain the weight again...
That is why understanding the basics of the human body is important and to understand how our bodies use food as fuel etc.
This!!!!!! So many people think once they reach their goal weight that they no longer have to do whatever actions that got them to their goal in the first place. I see it time and time again, someone gets down to their goal and foolishly think they no longer have to workout or pay attention to what they're eating.
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Unfortunately I'm one of those who did that and gained it all bad
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Ticklemynose wrote: »
There are many diets that can be shown to work in terms of weight loss. Maintenance may require a plan beyond reverting to a previous eating behaviour.
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