inch by inch

[Amneris]

Hi all!

I'm new here but not new to dieting at all. In 2007 I was 24 stone and via the atkins diet, various meal replacement diets and all sorts of fits and fads I got to my lowest of 11 stone about 4 years ago. I won't say life was better but it was easier, however I felt like my body looked worse at that weight than it did when I was at my biggest and I was very unhappy due to that.

The NHS turned me down for the cosmetic surgery I needed to look 'normal' despite recommendations from my gp and two surgeons that I needed it on physical and mental grounds. I got depressed. Other sad things happened and well, long story short here I am 4 stone heavier. I need to get a handle on things but I'm not in a place where I can totally put my life on hold for a diet, as I was when I had my biggest losses.

I do know I lose best when carbs are restricted, and that very low calorie diets and diets which allow 'free' pasta etc don't seem to work with me, as tempted as I am by slimming world.

SO anyway to try to get a handle on things this time I'm going to try my own sort of calorie cycling type plan. I have no idea if it will work but I've tried it before for a while and hopefully it's sustainable so I want to give it a proper go.

I'm going to be using meal replacements (similar to slim fast) to get 600 calories a day with complete daily nutrients, then having an evening meal. My plan is:

3 days a week at 1000-1200 calories
2 days a week at 1300 - 1500 calories
2 days a week - wildcard!

Wildcard meaning if I go out I can have a meal with friends and not count too closely, or I can have sunday dinner with my family for example. If I don't use both days or don't go out at all I'll stick to around 1500 cals.

Hopefully this will keep me at a weekly calorie deficit relatively easily.

I'm also going to try and keep carbs under 100g daily.

I'm not joining a group or anything as I'm quite a shy, nervous person, but I hope this forum can be a good place to get support along the way. I'm also not setting a 'weigh day' as I find they stress me out, I'll just check in along the way.

 

[Bigbear]

Hi and welcome! Wow you did amazing before. Sorry to read about not getting the surgery you needed and then the impact that had on you.
If you've done so well in the past, I am sure you will do it again. Sounds like you have a really good idea of what works for you.
I use slimfast products, as part of an overall calorie counting plan. I also need strict boundaries, as if I had 'free' foods I'd gobble them in enormous quantities!!!

Good luck!!! Look forward to watching your progress. It's a lovely supportive forum on here xxxx

 

[Amneris]

Hi Claire! I've just had a read of your diary. You've done amazingly so far. That kind of steady progress is what I'd love to achieve, though I've usually been a stop-n-starter. I'm really hoping using the meal replacements will help me out as they take so much thought & effort out of the day.

Also I get three shakes/bars a day within my 600 cal allowance (or two plus two snacks) and that means I either eat 4 or 5 times a day, depending on how big my evening meal is.

Mfp recommends 1200 cals for me to loose 2lb a week but I've read a lot about it being a bad idea to stay at that cal level long term and in practice I don't lose that well on it plus it sets me up for binges.

I'm hoping that controlled calorie cycling with some days lower some a bit higher won't let my metabolism get stuck in a rut and will give me the freedom of some higher cal meals on occasion but will overall be enough to lose. We shall see!

 

[Amneris]

I'm so mega mega tired today, with such a headache. It's probably carb hangover as yesterday was pretty carby before getting back on the wagon but I just want to lay still & do nothing. Am drinking lots to try and shake it.

That said I have rejigged my food plan a bit and today will be a 1100 cal day rather than 1500. Thought I'd need the extra on my first day back on but with feeling a bit rubz I don't seem to.

 

[Kay003]

Hello lovely, I found you . Just caught up on your diary. Well done for making a fresh start. I've not done CC before, but I know a lot of people that have and had great losses on it. Like Claire said, I too found on SW, I could go crazy on free food and it would hault my losses sometimes. CC and MFP really help keep things in check. I think 5-2 is also very popular with CC and works well together. Coming off a vlcd, I think that's one of the things I'm going to struggle with, is making sure I'm not eating to much or too little. But I'm sure your gonna do really well with this and I look forward to following your progress.

I know what you mean about the carb hangover, its hard, was going to say up the water, but your already onto that . Hope you feel better soon hun.

Kay xx

 

[Bigbear]

Thanks Hun xx until I started posting on here a year and a half ago I was a really stop starter too, but posting in my diary has somehow made me stick to it. I hope you find the same.

Hope you're feeling better. It's amazing how crap you can feel eating the kind of stuff that used to be normal everyday food!

 

[Amneris]

Well my first day was an OOPS.

I was SO tired I just fell asleep in the middle of the evening and have only woken up now - 5am. This means I didn't eat my last shake and bar which means I was at about 800 cals yesterday.

It's probs okay as it was the first day but I don't like going that low yesterday and only having one shake I wouldn't have got enough nutrition. It's just tricky when you're trying to stretch your food across a whole day so you don't get hungry. I know lots of people go lower than that on 5:2 it's just not for me.

Dinner was super filling though, I had two chicken drumsticks and a cabbage medley side dish which was huge and delicious.

Ok so today I'm aiming for 1400-1500 cals! No headache currently, at least. And yeah I always find high carb makes me sluggish but still slip into it now and then - duh me!

 

[Bigbear]

I agree that 800 is too low, but if you've managed to do it by mistake then I'm sure pill help in a 5:2 kind of way if you have more today. That ends up happening to me too sometimes when I haven't planned it, if I have a busy day I can easily get through on 900-1000 cals, but it's not what I plan for!!

What's your weighing in plan? I'm a Saturday morning girl

 

[Amneris]

I'll probably eat everything too early today and be awake all night! Yummy dinner again of lamb and courgetti, and I had a slice of livlife bread (only 4g cards) with a boiled egg earlier so provided I get my last shake and bar in I'll finish the day on approx 1462 calories. Tomorrow I'll be aiming for 1100-1200.

I don't really have a weighing in plan. I find keeping to a set day stresses me and I don't sleep right the night before or sabotage myself so there's no set day. I'll just update as and when. Realistically I'll probably weigh once a week but when I feel happy and comfortable doing so.

 

[Bigbear]

I know what you mean about weigh day stress, sounds like a good plan.

I know I need to weigh in weekly to keep my motivation going, and also cause otherwise if it's any longer I stress about it. Lots of times I've weighed on a Friday because I feel I'm getting anxious about the Saturday weigh in. Sounds so silly writing that down, but those litter numbers seem so important!! Are you taking measurements too? I never have but I wished I'd done beginning stats so I could see my progress. When I started I couldn't bear to do it though !!

 

[Amneris]

Yeah I'm kind of the same. I did a brief period of trying to get back to dieting in January before tumbling off the wagon and I kept thinking I should take my measurements, but all through my weight loss I never have. Don't really want to know!

I used to have 'before' pics of myself at 24 stone and a video diary I kept for a few years but my hard drive died and I lost it all - was a bit devastated really, especially about the diary. I do know that if I closed my eyes and pictured myself when I was 11 stone I still pictured myself at my highest weight. I never spent long enough being normalish to start to feel it. I think I now have a better idea of my size but seem to alternately assume I'm bigger or smaller than I really am...

 

[chezz]

hi and welcome

 

[Amneris]

Hi Chezz!

Well, another day begins. Yesterday was fine, I did manage to eat all my planned food a bit too early then stayed up later than expected & felt a bit hungry but that's ok. Morning & im not hungry now.

Today will be a 1100-1200 calorie day. I'm going to have my egg & livlife bread & then maybe quorn hot dogs & veggies for a small evening meal I think.

I love to read what people are eating in a day, it's a shame more calorie counters don't do it.

 

[Amneris]

Hungry today

 

[kayleigh.rebecca]

Just here to say hello
Sounds like u have got ur head in the right place. Good luck!!
I'm subscribed to follow your journey xx

 

[Amneris]

Thanks Kayleigh.

Well today's plan was to have a 1100 calorie day but this cold weather has me tooooo hungry so it's looking more like it will be 1300 maybe 1400. That's ok by me I'll hopefully manage a lower day on Thurs or Fri. Currently having 2 quorn frankfurters which are really hitting the spot. Going to have a veggie omelette as my main meal I think.

 

[Bigbear]

So hard when it's a cold day and all you want to do is snuggle up and eat yummy food!!

I find keeping fluids up helps, I often drink a pint of squash when I'm hungry and usually that keeps me feeling a bit fuller!I had a homemade soup for lunch, that also usually fills me up

 

[Kay003]

Hello hun, just been catching up on your diary, you sound like you know what your doing . I love the fact that your not a conformist and listen to your heart and do what works for you. There was a time when I used to do the weekly weigh in ritual but I'm much happier and relaxed not knowing. I know its different for everyone. My hunger pangs always kick off in the evenings too even when I've spaced out my meals and like you say, especially in the cold weather, it is hard and all you want is comfort food. I'm similar to Claire, I normally opt for a soup, or I make a hot cup of Bouillon or Bovril as well as drinking the good old H2O to fill me up. I loooooooooove Quorn , never tried the Quorn frankfurters, what are they like ?

Kay xx

 

[Amneris]

I've been drinking tea by the bucketload, don't have any good low cal/low carb soup in but covent garden mushroom soup is pretty good for that so might pick some up in my next shop. I usually find tea is good for killing hunger but if I drank much more I might have to literally camp out in the loo!

Quorn frankfurters are pretty good actually. They're very solid so have really stopped me feeling hungry, at least for a bit! They don't taste exactly like meat ones but then you don't have to wonder what's in them! They have a good smoky taste which I like. There are quorn hot dogs too which are really similar except they come frozen and are slightly lower cal. I haven't tried those as my supermarket doesn't stock them.

I also bought some frozen linda mcartney sausages to try at some point. I'm not a veggie just a bit squeamish about processed meat.

Weigh in wise, obviously I'll peek to check things are working and will update progress as I go etc. It's just the set day that doesn't work for me. Hopefully I'll have plenty to report as and when!

 

[Amneris]

got through the day on 1300 cals so calling that a win.

Is it bad that I've been idly planning for pancake day? I've decided to eat low carb that day rather than have my shakes and then I can stay within my calorie limit and not much over my carbs. I just love pancakes! But eating this way is actually fairly flexible in that I always have between 600 and 900 calories to use on 'real' food, so even if eating out I should be able to stay under the 1500 calorie limit most days. Staying under 100g carbs will be trickier on a couple of occasions coming up (my graduation and a funeral) but tbh I think I'll just happily go off plan on those days without worrying about it.

Otherwise I can choose relatively low carb options when out and be fine. It's really important to me that this diet fits in with the way my life is right now and fingers crossed this will.