The Weight Loss Support Group - 2016

Ginny said:

Is anyone else doing Paleo?  I lost quite a bit of weight, yes even being in post-menopause (TMI?).  But that was before my mom died.  I'm a comfort food eater.  Gained it all back.  But the diet is one of the best I've ever been on.  Easy to lose weight without ever being hungry.  It's basically a high fat, mod protein, low carb diet.  I'm trying to find the motivation to get back in the swing of it.  Tomorrow is mom's birthday and it'll be hard for me.  
 

Click to expand...

I prefer to stay away from any diets as some of them go bit too extreme and might even have too low level of nutrition, but then again I don't know too much of Paleo, but at least according to this page it seems not to have big problems at least and it looks quite effective:
http://authoritynutrition.com/5-studies-on-the-paleo-diet/

Then again, some articles are pointing out at least some problems with nutrition, but they really don't show much of references for their claims:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-paleo-diet-half-baked-how-hunter-gatherer-really-eat/

Fiber, protein and fat reduces hunger, I think it was around 20-30 grams of carbs that should be low limit and around 1000 calories for girls, staying within reasonable range I think any diet will be okay if one gets all vitamins and proper nutrition.

I have read some studies about high fat diets and they can loose weight faster during first 3 to 6 months, after 12 months weight loss rate tends to even out according to many studies.

Paleo is hugely popular, if it would be horribly wrong, I would think there would be news about that, so it must do something right for sure, so I don't really have much of opinion about it to one way or another, just generally I prefer to know for sure what I really eat and what I need, so I use my scale and spreadsheet to keep tabs on what is going on with my eating, also it helps me to change my eating to be part of new way of living, which is eating healthier, moving more and keeping better care of myself.

I would think that if Paleo helps you, just do it, but also I would think that most of these diet around are such that they are perhaps not diets to follow rest of life, more like having few months of dieting and then eating by recommendations for some time, that way there would not be missing nutritional bits.

I have figured out that as long as I don't stuff my face every evening, my weight is continuing to go down. I had a big Mac and some fries last night but still saw a weight decrease this morning. I've been good about not eating fast food but I did not want to cook last night and we don't have many options here.

catlover19 said:

I have figured out that as long as I don't stuff my face every evening, my weight is continuing to go down. I had a big Mac and some fries last night but still saw a weight decrease this morning. I've been good about not eating fast food but I did not want to cook last night and we don't have many options here.

Click to expand...

Evening eating is double bad I guess, during night there is very low amount of energy expelled and only way to save installed energy for later is to store it as fat.

During the day there is usually at least some movement going on and I guess body somehow is directing part of food's energy directly where it is needed so it is less stored as fat.

I have to change from eating once to eating 3 times I think, 2 times might be still too little.

I am going to make an effort to not eat in the evening. I never really thought about it before. My fiancé is scrawny and can eat whatever whenever and not gain an ounce. He has his Breyer's ice cream at 1:00 am almost nightly. He drinks 3-4 cans of Mt. Dew daily, often more if we go to restaurants. I have weaned myself from my 6 pack a day of Pepsi or Dr. Pepper down to half that, then 2 now I've cut back to one to take my morning antidepressant pill with. The past week I've been down to one soda. I've actually gained 1 pound! I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter what I do, I'm just fat now in my old age. I do need to get active. I tried to shovel the other day, got too cold. I tromped through the snow a little yesterday, like a child and it was actually fun for just a few minutes though. I am going to ask him AGAIN to please fix my elliptical machine. The left foot pad pedal thing just needs to be tightened to make it more stable. It's an old piece of equipment, I got it probably 10 years ago but it was an expensive one. Originally $1,400! I got it on sale but still costly. Everything else works fine on it just that loose pedal makes it feel shaky & unstable. Sometimes makes clunky sound. I admit, I did not take the best care of it.
I feel like I need to detox. I feel just this general unwell feeling. Fatigue, body aches, bloated, I can't recall when I actually last felt good. I know it's this extra weight. I have no will power. My "breakfast" today & nearly everyday, 2 cups of coffee, with milk or cream! 5-10 miniature candy bars. That's it, but then I don't eat again until late afternoon or early evening when I'm famished and eat everything in sight. Then when fiancé has his damn Breyer's binge, I eat more candy or have ice cream too! The extent of my activity is washing dishes or vacuuming. Unless I force myself outside or 20-30 minutes of torture on elliptical.

Ugh, this is an unflattering, horrid pic but shows my problem areas. (My glasses are hideous!) this pic was taken late summer 2015. I am busty 34DDD or 36DD and I guess I'm ok with that but I hate my fat, potbelly, wide hips and big booty! It's as big as Kim K.! My fat thighs are hideous as well. I'm squishy and curvaceous but I'd rather look like Twiggy. I have grotesque stretch marks bc I was tiny before I had 3 children. I forgive myself and can live with the stretch marks. I just want to be sleek, lean and sexy again.

Hmm, I don't know what is wrong with quote looking funny, anyway...

What you wrote sounds great improvement to me, it is pretty much just making those better choices and weight starts to come down


@Adoringangel72, I don't know, for me you don't look fat at all, you look quite normal weight to me. Fatigue can come from many things, fast carbohydrates can cause it, that is anything that has sugar, white bread and such. Problem with those is that they give you flash of energy really fast and then it dies off leaving you feel fatigued.

Spreading same amount of what you eat and drink more evenly trough the day would help with that, but also getting slower carbohydrates, like full grain products helps a bit.

Then other thing is that during the night food gets used, during the day it is limited amount of energy you can get from your fat (fat is really needed to survive), so when you are more active during the day, you have less fuel supporting you being active and that increases fatigue.

You mentioned also antidepressant pill, what I know is that if you have depression, it tends to make your brain fool you and makes you think you feel fatigue, best way to teach a lesson to brain is some light exercise, it is enough to walk without even sweating, but just go see how world looks few blocks around where you live, if you live in such area where are blocks. I started cycling so that I wanted to see what is further away at one road, then I did go further and further as fatigue was less and less, exploration instead of exercising might be easier to start.
Idea is to start a new routine, it does not need to do much at first as one is learning to do the routine, after few weeks as routine is established it can be taken to new level by walking faster for example.

Shoveling might make back to have pain, if you have back problems, then all kind of lifting is something to be cautious about.

We actually live in 2 places, a 1920's rural farmhouse from Wednesday through Saturday, then a small apartment from Saturday evening to Wednesday afternoon. The farmhouse is an hour away from the apartment. In town, there are blocks and more places to walk. I can't wait until Spring!

(Quoting doesn't seem to be working)

I used to not eat breakfast and then eat too much in the afternoon and evening. I eat a small breakfast now every day and then I'm not so hungry every afternoon and evening. In the evening, I've been having yogurt and granola instead of unhealthy things.

Ginny said:

Is anyone else doing Paleo?  I lost quite a bit of weight, yes even being in post-menopause (TMI?).  But that was before my mom died.  I'm a comfort food eater.  Gained it all back.  But the diet is one of the best I've ever been on.  Easy to lose weight without ever being hungry.  It's basically a high fat, mod protein, low carb diet.  I'm trying to find the motivation to get back in the swing of it.  Tomorrow is mom's birthday and it'll be hard for me.  
 

Click to expand...

Sorry for your loss. Yes I've tried Paleo. I absolutely love it. Im not 100% strict these days but I'm probs 90-95%. For me it's not as much about weight loss it's about feeling terrific. I love cookies and cake ect... But wheat zaps my energy so I bake Paleo treats. They don't seem to trigger a binge response for me either like wheat does.

Adoringangel72 said:

Sorry for your loss. [emoji]128549[/emoji] I've never tried Paleo but sounds intriguing. Effective and not being hungry, sounds good. I've actually never truly been on a diet before but I'm wanting to now.

Click to expand...

Thank you.  I was desperate to regain my health when I went on this diet.  Desperate enough to cut out sugar and dairy!  At first.  Then I found this book entitled the Perfect Health Diet (Jaminet) which is sort of based on paleo principles but adjusted to fit our lifestyle better.  He and his wife are nerdy Sheldon type geniuses who had health problems which were made not one whit better by medical science, rather only worse.  They have a website which tells you quite a bit about the diet.  They allow some dairy (hard cheeses, butter, heavy cream), and even some grain (rice) but no other grain and no gluten and no white sugar.  I found out the hard way that I am very sensitive to wheat, all grain really even rice, and lactose intolerant, and sugar makes me depressed and anxious.  

Adoringangel72 said:

Sorry for your loss. [emoji]128549[/emoji] I've never tried Paleo but sounds intriguing. Effective and not being hungry, sounds good. I've actually never truly been on a diet before but I'm wanting to now.

Click to expand...

JTbo said:

I prefer to stay away from any diets as some of them go bit too extreme and might even have too low level of nutrition, but then again I don't know too much of Paleo, but at least according to this page it seems not to have big problems at least and it looks quite effective:
http://authoritynutrition.com/5-studies-on-the-paleo-diet/

Then again, some articles are pointing out at least some problems with nutrition, but they really don't show much of references for their claims:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-paleo-diet-half-baked-how-hunter-gatherer-really-eat/

Fiber, protein and fat reduces hunger, I think it was around 20-30 grams of carbs that should be low limit and around 1000 calories for girls, staying within reasonable range I think any diet will be okay if one gets all vitamins and proper nutrition.

I have read some studies about high fat diets and they can loose weight faster during first 3 to 6 months, after 12 months weight loss rate tends to even out according to many studies.

Paleo is hugely popular, if it would be horribly wrong, I would think there would be news about that, so it must do something right for sure, so I don't really have much of opinion about it to one way or another, just generally I prefer to know for sure what I really eat and what I need, so I use my scale and spreadsheet to keep tabs on what is going on with my eating, also it helps me to change my eating to be part of new way of living, which is eating healthier, moving more and keeping better care of myself.

I would think that if Paleo helps you, just do it, but also I would think that most of these diet around are such that they are perhaps not diets to follow rest of life, more like having few months of dieting and then eating by recommendations for some time, that way there would not be missing nutritional bits.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of misconceptions about paleo and frankly I'm not looking to draw any disciples after myself so it doesn't really matter in the long run.  But I have to say that that 2nd article you linked to was a bit ridiculous.  As you said "they don't really show...references for their claims."  

I think most people get to a point where their weight stops, no matter what diet they're on.  The old rule still applies: if you eat more than you burn you will gain.  

I was able to get off Prevacid while on paleo.  By the way, Paleo is, imo, a generic term.  There are numerous versions of the paleo diet.  Some are stricter than others.  Saying paleo is like saying bread.  Many different varieties, not a one-size-fits-all.  

Tammat said:

Sorry for your loss. Yes I've tried Paleo. I absolutely love it. Im not 100% strict these days but I'm probs 90-95%. For me it's not as much about weight loss it's about feeling terrific. I love cookies and cake ect... But wheat zaps my energy so I bake Paleo treats. They don't seem to trigger a binge response for me either like wheat does.

Click to expand...

Paleo is the only diet i've ever been able to maintain for any length of time.  I still can't kick the sugar habit though. That started back about 4 months after mom died.  Man it's like a drug for me or something.  Have you tried chocolate chip cookies made from almond meal? They are really good!  Also, i've tried Olive Oil Ice cream.  It's actually good but it's too rich!  One teaspoon is enough!  I notice that when I use Stevia I have no sugar cravings afterward.  But if I ever put the first granule of sugar in my mouth, it's on.

Also, wheat tears up my stomach.  When I stopped wheat and milk and sugar, it was only a couple of weeks before it looked like I'd lost about 20 pounds!  But I had only lost about 7 pounds by then.  I couldn't figure it out but my stomach shrunk like nobody's business!   Then I realized I had lost a ton of GAS!  All that bloat was being caused by wheat//milk/and sugar.  Prior to this diet I had NO clue that I was grain sensitive and lactose intolerant.  

Another thing I learned.  When I minimize sugar to only what is in fruits and just a tiny amount in dark chocolate, my mood immediately improves.  I go from depressed and almost suicidal, to hopeful and positive.  And I don't even have to try to be positive, it just happens!  Gosh, that's kinda scary when you think about it, isn't it?

Afterthought:  but the downside to limiting sugar so severly:  cravings! I've found I have less cravings if I increase my protein.

Ginny said:

There are a lot of misconceptions about paleo and frankly I'm not looking to draw any disciples after myself so it doesn't really matter in the long run.  But I have to say that that 2nd article you linked to was a bit ridiculous.  As you said "they don't really show...references for their claims."  

I think most people get to a point where their weight stops, no matter what diet they're on.  The old rule still applies: if you eat more than you burn you will gain.  

I was able to get off Prevacid while on paleo.  By the way, Paleo is, imo, a generic term.  There are numerous versions of the paleo diet.  Some are stricter than others.  Saying paleo is like saying bread.  Many different varieties, not a one-size-fits-all.  

Click to expand...

I find it very amusing how Scientific american does not quote any references and states all those opinions, maybe magazine is not very good one either then?

My diet is like this at the moment (from today's log):
45% fat
25% carbs
30% protein

Perhaps not too far from what Paleo has, but then I have an issue, to get 3500 to 4000mg of potassium, there is not many cost effective ways, eating tomatoes etc. I would need to eat close to 1kg (2.2 pounds) of those in a day and it is costly here, one of the cost effective ways is to drink orange juice, but it gives quite bit of sugar and throws those percentages off. Veggies have so little potassium for their weight.

I should try to keep my food budget around 150, but it is already more like 300 and replacing orange juice with more veggies would push it near 400 or more, I can't afford that and I'm already at lowest price possible to get proper food.

However I don't have much of issue with sugar from that, too much wheat on other hand is not good, bloats and makes me easily tired. I'm thinking about getting potassium supplement, to replace at least part of orange juice.

My nutrition spreadsheet just keeps growing, it is now from A to AE column and from first row to row 82, I need bigger screen soon.

One crazy thing about world is that sugar and carbs generally are so cheap per calorie, but also how those can be quite bit of issue if there is too much of them. Officials here push 65% energy from carbs.

I have been off sweets now more than 2 weeks and there has been no cravings either, but I did increase amount of protein intake too. I guess that I can be happy to have 50 to 75% less sugar now than month ago, that has not made big difference to one way or another actually which is bit surprising.

Protein intake has a limit too how much one can eat until it becomes poisonous:
http://www.catalystathletics.com/article/50/The-Protein-Debate-Dr-Loren-Cordain-T-Colin-Campbell/

I found about that as I was curious about Paleo and looked around, can't remember if earlier first link had page that led there.

Loosing weight really is all about eating less than one manages to burn during the day, for me most important bit has been to know how much I really eat and how much I really burn.

I heard something yesterday on a cartoon I watched with my kids. It was one of those wow things. It's from the little engine that could. 

'If you think you can then you can. If you think you can't you can't. Either way you are right.'

I thought it was cool and thought I would share.

Louann Jude said:

I heard something yesterday on a cartoon I watched with my kids. It was one of those wow things. It's from the little engine that could. 

'If you think you can then you can. If you think you can't you can't. Either way you are right.'

I thought it was cool and thought I would share.

Click to expand...

We all must think we can, so we can

Some of you perhaps already know about this site, I'm using Fineli, but this one offers nutrition data too, some vitamins are on this site but Fineli lacks them.
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/nutritionfacts/list.php

My weight did like to go down bit faster when I started taking vitamin D (D3 it says in jar), then I increased amount I eat as well as I increased amount of veggies while trying to reduce amount of orange juice and my weight is not moving much now despite deficit being 17-21%. Waist might have little change to smaller.
Problem is that cooking takes about 4 hours, then next two meals are done in about 1 hour in total, thus I can't really find much time for earlier than evening eating, which is bad.

My not so best diet consists mostly of (makes two pizzas):
122 grams of full wheat tortilla
98 grams of cheese
294 grams of tomatoes
82 grams of red bell peppers
136 grams of Ketchup
253 grams of lean beef

Still 500 grams of orange juice, but it would be double if not so much tomatoes, but then again I feel like I would need a spoon to eat that pizza or a straw.

That gives me:
150 grams of carbs
97 grams of protein
58 grams of fat

Without orange juice it would be 100 grams of carbs, I still need to tweak that a bit, but even with problems it has, it is by far best food nutrition wise that I have done and it is fast to eat, would be fast to cook too if I would have modern kitchen, I heat water by wood, I get meat from the freezer, cook meat by wood burning fireplace, then put it into oven. Some of you might do whole thing in 15 minutes instead of my 4 hours

JTbo said:

, but then I have an issue, to get 3500 to 4000mg of potassium, there is not many cost effective ways, eating tomatoes etc. I would need to eat close to 1kg (2.2 pounds) of those in a day and it is costly here, one of the cost effective ways is to drink orange juice, but it gives quite bit of sugar and throws those percentages off. Veggies have so little potassium for their weight.
.

Click to expand...

If you want to mix it up a bit, skim milk has a ton of potassium and less sugar than orange juice. Both bananas and sweet potatoes have a bunch too. I'm slightly potassium deficient, but I try to eat a banana a day to make up for it. [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Ginny said:

Paleo is the only diet i've ever been able to maintain for any length of time.  I still can't kick the sugar habit though. That started back about 4 months after mom died.  Man it's like a drug for me or something.  Have you tried chocolate chip cookies made from almond meal? They are really good!  Also, i've tried Olive Oil Ice cream.  It's actually good but it's too rich!  One teaspoon is enough!  I notice that when I use Stevia I have no sugar cravings afterward.  But if I ever put the first granule of sugar in my mouth, it's on.

Click to expand...

I am totally the same with sugar. I have a ripper choc chip cookie recipe. Even my kids prefer them to toll house. I've got an awesome brownie recipe too oh and banana bread. I'll share if you like? I had a huge day yesterday and ate pizza for dinner and three toll house cookies. This morning my weight is up of course but the worst thing is my face. My eyes are so puffy it's terrible. That's another thing that wheat does to me. It also has the same effect as sugar. A small serve and I want more and more. I have read that you often crave the foods that you are sensitive too. For me it's certainly true.

Paiger8 said:

If you want to mix it up a bit, skim milk has a ton of potassium and less sugar than orange juice. Both bananas and sweet potatoes have a bunch too. I'm slightly potassium deficient, but I try to eat a banana a day to make up for it. [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Click to expand...

I have been thinking about how to get potato to work in pizza form, maybe mixing meat with very fine smashed potato, using rye tortilla base (which does not exist yet), but then I'm not sure tomato will work with that and it would have to be bit of pie like.

Bit like Karelian pasties that don't use rice but uses potato instead, but still quite different. If I just would find time for experimenting on that.

Wheat base and potato stuffing seems not to be working too well, but rye base and potato stuffing works quite nicely.

Rye base would also have less energy and carbs than wheat base, but prebaking is quite bit of work and that has been holding me back, for same reason I buy tortilla base from shop instead of making myself, but I think there could be some interesting possibilities.