One weight loss secret doctors don't want you to know?

dremilymaya · March 2021

Hi everyone,
I'm Emily, 29, UK.
I've lost count of the number I've times I've made a fresh start on here over the years but here we go again!
I've never had loads to lose and previously my weight hovered around 10st4/144lbs. I looked fine at this weight but I was never particularly happy with it, and I was never at any decent level of physical fitness.
Last March things changed in a big way.
Firstly I moved in with my partner, J, who is 6'6''. Cue bigger portions and tempting tasty snacks being consumed next to me on the sofa (I have no self control when things are literally open in front of me).
Secondly, the UK plunged into lockdown, no gym, restricted outdoor time, and Im an NHS doctor, so I was working solidly on the covid wards and came home emotionally and physically drained with no motivation or energy to control my diet or exercise.
So here we were a year later and more than a stone heavier 🙈 in January I weighed 11st5/159lbs and I realised it was time to try again. Of course covid wave 3 hit and slightly knocked me off course again, but I'm now down to 11st1/155lbs.
My initial target is 10st4/144lbs (my pre lockdown weight)
My ultimate target is 9st4/134lbs.

Currently I'm trying to stick to my calories (1500 or less), stop snacking, eat plenty of veg/fruit with each meal. Exercise wise I'm following Pamela Reif on YouTube, her workouts have great music, great motivation and they really seem to push me. I'm really enjoying them.
If anyone has any tips or advice that would be great. I can advise that that "one weight loss secret doctors don't want you to know" does not exist and I need all the help I can get!
Emily

Deviette · March 2021

Hi there can I say that you sound like you're describing my life situation so much that it's almost scary (even down to age and weights!!). Seriously my partner is a foot taller than me, he has a more active job than me, he's bigger than me. Oh I know that feeling well. And while I'm not public sector, I do have a relatively stressful and high demanding job.

Rant over, here's some things that I find helpful:
- Intentionally make your meals smaller. I found this hard. I always cooked and split meals 50/50 and made sure that the meal split was "fair". I'm working on letting that need for "fairness" go and making sure my meal is smaller. For me, this has made the biggest difference.
- Have snacks in the house that you can eat when your will breaks. Bags of popcorn work for me but I've also found crisps multi packs are surprisingly good some time. Hoola Hoops and Mini Cheddars are a favourite of mine as they feel like I'm having a snack while actually only being ~120kcal (unlike all those ~90kcals 'healthy' snacks that always leave me unsatisfied)
- Make some things 'his'. Personally I like to think of some snacks as 'mine' and 'his' because then I will not eat 'his'. Because they're not mine. Works for me.
- Plan and prep your meals in advanced. If you know what you've got for dinner, and all you have to do is pop it in the oven and/or on the stove, it is so much easier to avoid the takeaway when you've just got home from work and you're tired and hungry.
- Buy less food. Thinking of takeaways especially, we always used to order more food because it was in a deal and "we'd have some as leftovers", and I just didn't need that temptation. We've now stopped ordering the sides that he barely ate and I always ate because "otherwise it would go to waste as it doesn't reheat well"

Aaaand I think that's all I can think of right now

(also, I was 100% expecting to have to report this as a spam post lol!!)

sijomial · March 2021

What a tough year to be an NHS Doctor - thank you.

Think the "secret doctors don't wan't you to know" is that dieting is boring, hard and has an enormous failure rate!

It's also perversely something that people go out of their way to make as unpleasant and arduous as possible. Which is the opposite approach people normally take to a difficult and long-term task. Actively try to make cutting some calories as easy as possible instead.

My tip would be to make a plan for when the enthusiasm wears off and it becomes harder or results don't reflect the effort being put it and you feel discouraged. It's so much more important to avoid giving up than anything else. A holding pattern to fall back on when dieting or life or work gets too hard is a good idea.

thisvickyruns · March 2021

Use MFP, thats my tip! :laugh:

It works!

Weigh and log EVERYTHING you eat, do some exercise that you enjoy, eat back those exercise cals, and be patient!

Make sure you set your weight loss goal correctly - you'd probably want to aim for 1lb a week max - and that your activity level (movement outside of exercise) is appropriate. I imagine you would be fairly active given that you're a doctor.

And, as a woman, learn how your body weight fluctuates due to hormones so you're not disappointed when the scale doesn't do what you expect!

Good luck!

PAV8888 · March 2021

I often got advice from doctors either to low carb or to eat low calories (1200/1500) for rapid loss!

I interpret the subtext along the lines:
Eat low low calories (1200/1500) (or lose water weight with low carb) to lose weight fast(er) and see progress (which may motivate you).

And since so very few people retain their significant loss, the more weight you drop quickly the longer it will take you to regain it all, which means that you will have benefited from a longer overall period at low(er) weight...

And anyway, first things first, just get to the lower weight now and we will then deal with retaining the loss later.

I didn't like this subtext!

25lbs is a year long project at a 250 Cal restriction.

But, during that year, in order to achieve that continuous 250 Cal restriction equal to one less candy bar a day (should you decide to aim for that) you will be forced to confront and address how you will eat and move now, with your partner, when things change in the future. You will learn to differentiate between water weight changes and actual fat gain or loss. You will address which food items u are willing to modify, and which ones remain sacred cows for you

And by then you MAY have developed enough tools to cope with the bit of hormonal kick back you should expect during quite a few months following your weight loss. and because the new behaviours will be embedded you might continue with them instead of "slipping" back into past behaviour.

But, if you go gangbusters for 2 lbs a week done in 3 months, sure, you will still probably get there with will power and effort, but the self educational component will probably be missing and the hormonal kick back will probably be more intense. So you'd better start enlisting some colleagues for nutritional and counseling support because you won't have time for self discovery during weight loss... hopefully external help will provide you with the answers! 😉

But most of us have to self discover triggers behavior coping mechanisms substitutions new habits and all the other incremental changes that can add up over time into significantly major changes.

The final goal is to slowly create preconditions habits and behaviors that will encourage you to maintain the final lower weight.... Is whatever you're doing today to achieve your weight loss creating such?

JAT74 · March 2021

Hi Emily

I'm from London but now live in Spain. I'm not sure how tall you are but your story sounds similar to mine though I'm older (46). I'm 5'4 and in February 2020 my weight got to 11 stone 1! It was out of control and I really wanted to do something about it. My body fat was up to 39% and my size 12 clothes were really tight and I was so unhappy.

Initially I just started counting calories and trying to stick to 1200 but didn't change the type of foods I was eating really. I also made sure I walked for at least 40 minutes a day and I went to the gym 3 times a week to do weights or a class etc. I lost just over a stone but it took me about 5 months and then I was 'stuck' for about 3 months and didn't see any movement on the scale.

I then decided to hire a diet coach with my birthday money last September, which was the best decision I ever made! She did me a personalised plan based on my goals, lifestyle and activity level. I started losing weight again and followed her plan for 6 weeks very strictly. I had to send her photos of every single thing I put in my mouth!!! The focus was mainly on eating healthily (low fat, high fibre, high protein reasonably low carb and all home cooked/natural food) and I lost another 10lbs in the 6 weeks. The main thing it taught me was that you don't need to count calories or do any fad diets, just eat natural food in the right quantities and proportions and stay active.

I am now down to 8 stone 9 and 25% body fat which is the lightest I can ever remember being as an adult and it's not been particularly hard I have to admit. I do daily cardio plus my dog walks (so I do cardio on the treadmill or xtrainer for at least 40 minutes in addition to my 2 x 20 min walks. I also do Yoga once a week and a fitness class once a week and use the gym to do strength training once or twice more every week too.

I now eat around 1200 calories and stick to the way my trainer taught me to eat. Protein is reasonably high and I have 2 protein shakes a day to ensure it stays high enough, I have my main meal at lunchtime (protein, a small quantity of carbs and loads of steamed or oven cooked vegetables) and breakfast is yogurt with berries most days. I also have an afternoon snack of a boiled egg and some cherry tomatoes.

The best thing is I give myself weekends off now so I can eat whatever I've ben missing on the other days, and believe me I do indulge in lots of things I really like, without counting calories. I'm maintaining my weight but want to lose around half a stone so have lowered calories slightly this week and increased my cardio, but I'll only do it Monday-Friday and continue having weekends off.

One tip in addition to this is to work out your TDEE using an online calculator, what your body needs to maintain your weight, and from there work out how much you need to eat in order to lose weight etc. it really works.

dremilymaya · March 2021

Thanks everyone!

Will definitely be taking a slow and steady approach, the actual food I eat normally is all homemade from scratch and healthy, so in terms of my normal habits I think it's more of a tweak than a transformation. Definitely need to be cutting portion sizes though, I suffer from eyes-bigger-than-my belly-itis.
Good idea about the snacks, I tend to take an avoid all snacks approach but maybe having small and healthy snacks will be more helpful and easier to stick with.
I think my main problems are portion size, snacks and a lack of exercise so my focus is going to be on correcting these for now!

KNoceros · March 2021

Hi. Another female UK medic here (Consultant Anaesthetist). I’ve been here a while (maybe 6 years) and have dropped 14kg from BMI 27.5 to 21.5.

I too used to have “snack attacks” and ate the “right” foods just in portions more suited to my taller, more active husband...
The discipline of logging here with the app set for a SMALL deficit (I don’t think I ever went more aggressive than 0.5kg/wk and was mostly at .25/wk) did the trick for me, but it took TIME - maybe 18months. For the last 4 years I have been maintaining, still logging though.

Oh, and the whole NHS CoVID experience has been the pits. Don’t be too hard on yourself and look to be sure you have all the support you need in place. It’s OK not to be OK.

(If you want, you can always send a FR...)

One weight loss secret doctors don't want you to know?

Replies

Categories