Battling for my Health

fatty1979_2 wrote: »

Hello, MFP members,

I just signed up for this and am psyched to get started. I have a vicious history of dieting and hypotheses that never match up to Science and am looking to lose and maintain weight the right way. I just don't know the right way to lose and maintain weight. I used to starve myself by eating only a can of sardines per day when I weighed 110 pounds. I have since overeaten my way back up to 210 pounds. I don't really like exercising, but know that I have to in order to be healthy.

I have a history of starving myself and then eating normally for one day and gaining almost ten pounds in one day. I know, it doesn't make any sense and goes against everything that Science points out. Don't ask me how this happened, but it did. I am looking to break myself from that cycle and lose and maintain weight the right way.

Actually, I don't think that goes against science. I think it would even be expected, when eating an extreme tiny amount one day (or few), then eating a normal amount.

Keep in mind that most of us, when trying to lose weight, are wanting to lose fat. But our body consists not just of fat, but also water (up to 60%+ of the body is water), muscles, bones, etc. On top of that, our scale weight includes things that are - strictly speaking - not even part of our body, such as food on its way to becoming waste. (Full transit of the digestive system may take up to 50+ hours.)

If you eat nearly nothing for a day or few, you will tend to lose water weight. That's because digesting/metabolizing food, especially food's sodium and carbohydrate content, requires some water in the biochemistry of it. In addition, even if it's only one day where you eat a tiny amount, you're letting your digestive tract empty out a good fraction of its typical average waste-to-be, but not replacing it with new food intake.

Those things, less water weight, less than normal digestive tract contents, both show up as a lower number on the bodyweight scale. Then, when you eat normally again, water retention and waste-to-be go back close to your average, and the scale goes back up again. It has very, very little to do with fat/gain loss, over that short of a time period. It's other changes faking you out, basically.

This is a good read:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Those effects will continue day to day, in smaller magnitude, whether you're gaining fat, losing fat, or holding steady on body fat levels. For most of us, the daily changes from water weight and digestive contents can be 2-5 pounds from one day to the next, sometimes more. Pretty fast fat loss would be only a fraction of a pound from one day to the next. Routinely, the changes in the non-fat stuff will fake you out, if you look at short term scale weight changes, over a day or few.

Fat loss, the thing most of us are really going for, only shows up clearly over a few weeks and sometimes even beyond. For example, when I was losing weight fast, my daily weight might range from 175-180 pounds during one week - not the high number at the start, and the low number at the end, but just bumpy ups and downs in that range. A month later, I'd still have the same bumpy up and down effect day to day, but maybe through a range of 171-176 pounds.

That's where the fat loss shows up, in the trend, over long time periods.

I have begun logging my calories and I know I have to drink water. I just fear the scale being stuck at 210 pounds and not moving while driving me back to starve myself.

Thank you.

Another effect that starving yourself can have (and the emotional side of the anxiety about it!) is an increase in the stress hormone cortisol . . . which tends to increase water retention. That can make extreme tactics cause even bigger scale-weight distortions.

Starving yourself is counter-productive in many ways!

Losing weight "the right way" is an exercise in patient persistence. Losing a meaningful total amount of weight - in a healthy way - takes weeks to months, maybe even years for someone who is severely overweight. I started just over the line into class 1 obese, and lost 50-some pounds in just under a year . . . and a bit of that happened too fast for my own good, by accident, for a few weeks at one point.

To me, that puts a priority on finding tactics that are sustainable relatively easily, then following that course patiently and persistently through scale ups and downs. Trying to lose weight fast can backfire, as you've discovered: It can trigger binging, create low mood/moodiness, increase water retention, and more.

Usually, sustainable tactics involve finding a way to eat foods that are nutritious, tasty and filling for us personally, and that add up to slightly fewer calories daily than we burn. At your current weight, losing a pound to a pound and a half a week would probably not be too fast, though shifting to something slower would be good eventually. Getting into a day to day pattern that's pretty consistent is a good way to go, rather than those extreme swings of starving/refeeding. After that, it's a matter of trusting the process - I know that can be hard!

You may find that scale weight stalls sometimes along the way (usually, it's that water/waste thing). You can adjust calorie intake a little bit at a time, if your loss has gradually slowed then stopped, over a period of many weeks. If it stops more suddenly, while you're doing what you'd been doing successfully, it's more likely to be one of those water/waste fake-out things. In those cases, patience and calm will usually sort things out . . . eventually.

I've had some of those that took up to a month to break through, then there was a sudden scale drop. Bodies are weird!

It sounds like you've really struggled in the past. Have you had an ED treatment team at any point? If so, reaching out to them may be helpful. If not, seeking some expertise on the thought-patterns side of things may be helpful, from someone like a degreed/certified counselor who has experience with helping people with thoughts and emotions about eating and weight. There should be no stigma in reaching out for that help. We go to physical therapists or personal trainers when we need help with our musculoskeletal system and exercise, or to a registered dietitian when we need help with nutrition. Seeking out qualified counseling when we need help with thought patterns is no different . . . not really very different from calling plumber if we have leaking plumbing, actually. That's why experts exist!

I think you can do this, but it will take some effort to reorient your thinking, as well as finding a good course of sensible eating, and manageable (ideally fun) exercise. If you need help with that, people here in MFP can maybe give tips, but don't be afraid to get professionals on your team, too.

Wishing you success!