Dieting is horrendous

[SassyLemonFish]

Just looking for sympathy really.

I’ve a bmi of 28. I need to lose a lot of weight. For the last two weeks I’ve been good but MY GOD the hunger and sheer depressing nature of it all. My BMR is only 1600. Sticking to 1000 or less is so hard.

My husband, on the other hand, seems to have no hunger and amazing self control. Last night he ate a single sweet potato and declared that as his dinner. His BMR is 2700. I can see him visibly changing before my eyes.

I guess I’m just jealous.

Those calories are ridiculous. WLI only eat your muscle due to making you eat too few calories, which you are doing anyway. Try 1,400.

I’m 5 feet tall so I understand low BMR but you’re setting yourself up to fail hard.

@Fridaygin I agree, intermittent fasting is a very easy way to lose weight.
I thought I’d miss having breakfast, but no, it’s fine.
The only issue I have with it is breakfast was my muesli time, so now I have to fit in the roughage elsewhere.

Go on YouTube and follow April Whitney.

She explains why what you’re doing will backfire.

Eating below your BMR will decimate your muscle.

I've been having sessions with a health and wellbeing coach for a while now. She has encouraged me not to be on a diet, not to count calories, but make simple changes that can be lifelong habits. The key things that have made a difference are: more protien - at least 100g of meat each meal three times a day (or 150g if feeling more hungry), - at least half the plate each meal to be non-starchy vegetables. - trying to avoid processed foods. - exercising regularly. I am encouraged to have snacks between meals if I am hungry and am banned from counting calories. I have gone down from 108kg to 104kg so far. It's slow but she says that the slower it comes off, the better it stays off long term.

Men have a totally different metabolism to women. Women are adapted to hoard blubber so we survive the famine. If food is scarce our metabolism drops and we burn as little energy as possible. Men don't have these adaptations and their metabolism stays high

@hiddenforest , Eat veg you like then.
I don't eat cake very often because most cakes are a disappointment. I prefer to have a delicious cake every now and then than just ok ones often.

That’s not sustainable at all - it’s the equivalent of doing WLI anyway eating so little but it will feel terrible! It’s the low calories which are a risk from WLi not the actual jabs themselves so you’re doing the same!

also you’ll have to stop 1000 calories a day at some point; or you’ll die!

I lost 2 stone this year from BmI 28 to now 22. 1500 calories a day made up of 3 meals of 500 cals and 30g minimum protein. (Sometimes a protein based snack or 2 so prob averaged 1600-1650 a day) Barely ever felt hungry as protein so high. Strength training twice a week (properly with a PT) and 3 more cross functional fitness, more cardio but still with dumbbells. I have never felt so good or strong. And it became a way of life - not a diet. That is the key I think. It was just who I was and I didn’t have to think about it. And don’t have to think to maintain.

I don’t like veg. Sorry. I know I’m not giving the answers people want here but it is the truth. I would say the only veg I like is corn and that has to be a particular texture and cooked a certain way.

I will eat them but I don’t enjoy them (and I don’t eat a lot because some I really dislike and make me feel sick.)

Anyway - sorry OP, I just came on to say I get it. Didn’t mean to divert your thread!

Muesli supper is a habit my mum got me into! Worked well for me a few years ago as I was feeding small children at 4-5pm which was far too early for me to have dinner and I was ravenous later in the evening.

Are you short, OP?

If petite, you will have to cut very aggressively, way below 1200 in most cases and especially if you are sedentary, to get the weight off in the same time frame others seemingly require but with more calories.

As short people, who are sedentary, as well, we just don't have the 250, 500 or 1,000 calories in our TDEE to give and lose weight in a reasonable amount of time. Even while active, activity doesn't burn as much as people think it does so you still have to restrict calories, no matter how you look at it.

That being said, if you're not in any kind of hurry, you don't need to be aggressive. You can lose weight as quickly or slowly as you like.

However, restriction does mean going hungry, regardless of what anyone says. Your body is used to having a certain amount of calories and will ring alarm bells when it wants to have those topped up.

I made a post earlier in the week about starving so I sympathise!

1000 calories a day is just ridiculous, you will fall off the wagon hard. Where did you get that number with a BMI of 28?

Plus you're not hitting your protein goals on that calorie allowance so you're probably losing a lot of muscle. This means when you regain any weightloss (which you will because its all too hard to maintain) you will regain fat instead of muscle so you will be worse off.

I feel unreasonably irked by this as I assume you have heard it all before but have some stupid theory like you're just really disciplined.

You should never go under your BMR. what are you doing?? What is your TDEE?

BMR is how much your body needs to survive without movement, just by breathing and functioning so you’re in a deficit of 650 before you’ve even got up and pottered around doing your day to day shit. If you throw in a workout routine- strength training, running, swimming, HIIT whatever it may be your deficit would be huge. Also 1k calories a day isn’t enough to sustain anyone, not even my 6 year old so you need to up that to 1200 minimum.

If her BMR is 1600 then she absolutely does not need to go as low as 1200 to lose. this is just bad and dangerous advice.

She needs to be eating 1600 minimum if 1600 is her BMR not 1200

No, it's really not and I'm not giving advice so please try to restrain comments with selective outrage directed at me, if possible.

1200 is perfectly healthy and reasonable.

Thanks.

Not true.

BMI of 28 is significantly overweight you only need to reach two extra points to be obese and weight loss injections are prescribed for bmi's over 25 so your comments are fairly ill informed.

Fist of all, yeah. Weightloss sucks.
I also reccomend going to the weightloss chat instead of AIBU.

That being said, you can't be eating 1000cal. Recalculate your DTEE and if it is 1600cal then go on 300cal deficit to start with.

Whether it's healthy and reasonable depends on many factors, including the person's fat stores, activity levels, protein and vitamin intake. It's not reasonable or healthy if it leads to excessively rapid weight loss, or. Deprivation and binge cycle. It's also completely unnecessary if her BMR is 1600. She will easily, safely and sustainably lose weight never going under 1600 without losing muscle mass or feeling miserable and deprived as she clearly does.

know how you feel. Im 5ft6 and was 16 stone.

One day something just clicked with me, and I changed my eating habits which was difficult as I love crisps. My husband is tall and slim never will need to diet, so I get why its disheartening

The things I changed.

1. I stopped snacking (so hard and so much willpower).
2. Started the 16:8 Fasting
3. Changed my diet, no potatoes, bread, or pasta, no more take aways. Instead im eating salad, tuna, pork, chicken, and beef for tea, and im having a heul complete meal drink for breakfast.
4. I started the couch to 5k
5. Trying to drink more water than pop
6. Stopped drinking tea with two sugars. Now I drink peppermint tea with liquorice

I have lost in a stone in just over a month. Not going to lie and say it was easy, but if you are in the right mind set it can be done.

I am starting the wegovy pill in August after my holidays, but I plan to keep with food im eating and Im determined to complete the couch to 5k so I can just go out for a run.

Make little changes and it all adds up .

I am a reformed fatty and have a BMI of 28. I’m not slim but I’m definitely not massive. About 11lbs overweight.

Some people can't diet. Sounds like you are one. I am. I just get hangry and tearful and dizzy and weak and can't concentrate. I can either diet or function. Not both at the same time. Years ago I asked on MN how other people cope at work when feeling like this and was amazed at how many people said they don't have these problems when dieting. They just feel a bit hungry. I guess, like people do on WLI - far less food but not too bothered by it.

If it just doesn't work for you, try a different approach. I suggest you eat your 1600 calories and lose weight by doing strenuous exercise four times a week, and gentle exercise 7 times a week. That's what I did, (actually, I ate more like 2,200 a day) and still lost 15lbs in six months. If I'd stuck to 1600 cals, I'd have lost twice that. I started doing weight training, bootcamps, yoga vinyasa flow (which is a lot more physical than people think) and walking everywhere. People online everywhere say you can't lose weight through exercise alone. I'm living proof you can.

You could get a bit clever about calories, though. Butternut squash tastes similar to sweet potato but has half the calories. I always use it instead, in any recipe that calls for sweet potato. Bulk out dinners with lots of steamed or grilled veg. You can fill a plate with sweet grilled peppers and red onions, fresh steamed broccoli or chard and barely reach 100 calories.

Ok but no need to armchair GP at me, is there.

Unless you are a doctor or scientist of some sort, which specialises in all that you're saying here, your assertion is just as invalid or valid as someone else, by your own reasoning.

I appreciate that weight loss etc can be emotive for people but I don't want to be dragged into a conversation that is going to derail the OP post.