I Ain't No Dieting Dummy!

[tctnc]

I ain’t no dieting dummy!
26, female, 5’2, ideal weight 119 lbs
*not a nutritionist or fitness coach either – my thoughts are my own; believe at your own risk.

I hate the word diet. Honestly, I truly despise it. Why? Because a diet might help you shed the pounds fast, but I guarantee you it is not a healthy way to go about losing weight. Don’t get me started on the high risk of putting double the loss back on and the fact that you most likely will either be dependent on excessive calorie-counting (Weight Watcher’s in my opinion unnecessary points-system included) for the rest of forever or will never ever have a natural feel for portion sizes. Well done…NOT!

For me it was an episode of the show Supersize versus Superskinny that made me realize what I was doing. I was destroying my body, my health; I was sabotaging my whole life by eating junk food, instant meals and lots and lots of sweets whenever I was feeling stressed out. And if I just wanted my high-calorie, fatty fix I simply made up an excuse as to why I felt stressed out. Fruits, veggies, whole grain products – what’s that? It didn’t really matter that I could barely walk down the street without turning bright red and had trouble breathing. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t shop for clothes in any store and had to order online. It didn’t matter that my skin suffered from my bad eating habits and it also didn’t matter how tired I always was. Nope, I didn’t think about it at all until watching forty minutes of a UK reality show that had me taking a long hard look at myself in the mirror – metaphorically and literally.

On March 1st, 2012 I started my weight loss journey at over 250 lbs and as of now, June 30th, 2013 I have lost around 111 pounds. I now weigh 148.15 lbs at 5’2. It’s a work in progress, but I’m confident I’ll reach average weight and after that my ideal weight soon.

I ain’t no dieting dummy. Be aware! Cliché ahead! I changed my lifestyle and my eating habits. However, I don’t want to start out by going into detail just now. I’d rather point out the one trait that will make your weight loss journey a success. If you don’t have it there’s no way you’ll ever succeed. Please remember that we are talking about a life-changing amount of weight I had to lose and not about the not-so-bad 15 pounds overweight. Now, what trait am I babbling about? Discipline! It might not be for everyone, but the first three months I didn’t eat anything processed, I ate no sweets and no junk food and absolutely didn’t drink any soda. I did it cold turkey and focused on trying every vegetable and fruit I could think of. I even ate the healthy food I didn’t particularly enjoy just to give it a fair chance. What happened was that my taste buds were revived (yes, I had offed them with my atrocious eating habits) and stuff I had wrinkled my nose at suddenly tasted mighty yummy (seafood for example). I didn’t eat butter or chocolate spreads, didn’t eat salad dressing or any other fatty sauces. I didn’t eat cake on my birthday, I gave away the cookies one gets for free with your coffee at a café, I didn’t go on a chocolate bender on Easter and I certainly didn’t overeat during Christmas time.

I ate plenty though; I wasn’t starving myself (that would have resulted in my body storing fat – starvation mode) and I had a super fun time trying out various recipes; still do, that is. Whole grain bread with cucumber or oats with low fat milk and an apple for breakfast, a banana-strawberry smoothie and fresh cherries for dinner, various veggies with bulgur and tofu for lunch – the list is endless. And no, I didn’t drown my food in oil or the veggies in cream. YUCK! Seafood, tofu, lean meat: Go for it! I discovered my love for cooking.

"I’m confident I’ll reach average weight and after that my ideal weight soon"

I ain’t no dieting dummy. I wasn’t axing carbs from my list and I’m no fan of axing anything from your list of eatable food in the long run (although, as I mentioned before, I had to go without certain things for a while at first – almost like detoxing). What I did was focus on whole grains and the deliciousness that is bulgur, couscous and quinoa. 30 grams did the trick for me. You can fill up with veggies! I went with three meals a day with breakfast and lunch being roughly the same amount and dinner being the smallest portion of the day. Sometimes life gets in the way and I adapted accordingly by always pre-preparing healthy snacks-to-go like carrot chips or cucumber slices or an apple. You have the time to do so. Don’t tell me you don’t. Excuses, excuses!

"My stomach adjusted automatically and my brain now gives me valid feedback"

I ain’t no dieting dummy that believed changing what I put into my body would do the trick. No, no and no. I made it a point to be more active, go out for walks (amazing, supportive friends make it easy) and all that good stuff. I also started to work out regularly. 5 days a week. Mostly I did it at home. I picked a couple of good songs and danced for 45 minutes. Mind you, in the very beginning I didn’t even last 10 minutes. After the dancing part I did my dumbbell exercises and switched it all up with my exercise bike. With time it got easier and I could easily work out an hour +. I’m still sticking to my routine by the way, even though I don’t work out every day. During my final exams (graduating from uni) I wasn’t able to keep up the 5-days-a-week workout sessions, but I took walks in the evening after a long day of studying. The most I gained from time to time (weight loss curve) was a little under 2 pounds due to building up muscle, digestion, water and so on. I haven’t had a setback yet.

Half a year into my weight loss journey I started to enjoy low fat chocolate spread on my whole grain bread once or twice a week max. Same with low-cal banana pancakes for breakfast once every two weeks max (1 egg, 1 banana, a bit of cinnamon, low fat milk). Also, I sometimes treat myself to a cup of hot chocolate. I’m in full control and don’t ever go over the max per week limit. In my opinion it helps to maintain a healthy relationship with food as a whole (including the not so healthy things).

I ain’t no dieting dummy counting calories before every meal. I used a small pan for cooking and smaller plates to control my portions. My stomach adjusted automatically and my brain now gives me valid feedback on when I’m full (not the fake “still hungry” message one constantly gets when living on junk). I use Noom Weight Loss Coach to keep track of my food intake, but only approximately and most importantly only at the end of the day (it’s more like a safety net and so far my naturally developed natural feeling (natural being the word of the day) for portions and calories has not yet led me wrong. I also use Noom’s Weight-Log option and save my workouts. There are many other great, free weight loss apps on the market, just make sure not to depend on them or an unnatural points-system. Helpful tool? Yes, please! Center of your weight loss universe? Thanks, but no thanks.

I ain’t no dieting dummy. How about you?

[CandyCornCat]

Just wanted to stop in and say thank you for posting this article. Even if there are mistakes-I read the comments-you Aren't a professional and I respect that. Your ideas/ perspective are along the lines of what mine has been my entire life. I don't believe in dieting in the least, adjusting yourself to a healthy diet? Best choice. There are different ways to do it but starving yourself to lose weight can be detrimental to your health if you go to the extremes and usually is a temporary fix.

[serp777]

Want to know the actual super secret solution to losing weight fast? Exercise, drinking water, and not eating as much. Wow that was a genius insight.

Throughout human history, humans have had to put up with being hungry. This is why there were no (or very few) morbidly obese people during the first 200,000 years of our history. hunger is normal, and if you have to keep yourself from being hungry because you're too weak willed, then that's the problem right there.

[tctnc]

...(no I won't eat breakfast, but my tummy hurts and so on) results in your body wanting to store everything as soon as you crack and eat (overeat that is; lack of control as I said). While the "storing fat" aspect is something I'm gonna do more research on, the effect would be the same either way up to a point. Going without food and then overeating = not losing weight or most likely gaining. That is what I meant by "I ate enough; didn't starve myself". I learned to control portions and my...

[tctnc]

Wait for it ;-)...ok, here it comes...I agree. Not the actions of a damaged metabolism. But when you have to lose a huge amount of weight like I had to your eating habits are atrocious and your self control zilch. At the beginning I mean. So had I gone hungry or not eaten enough (enough to maintain functions but ALSO continue to lose weight) I would have gone overboard first chance. And as I understood my doc, the going overboard part right after "starving" yourself for a bit...

[tctnc]

...when you say "storing sth that is not ingested" it's not exactly what I meant before when talking about survival mode. I meant that when you go hungry as in don't eat at all or don't eat enough your body will hang on to every little thing it EVENTUALLY gets (and when you have to lose a lot of weight it's hard to go cold turkey so going hungry will most likely lead to a nom nom bender sooner or later; which can be avoided by eating enough but with portion control).

[tctnc]

@Chris I was referring to the "learning to go without for longer stretches" part. While I agree that it can be helpful to learn to go without food for a while, I DON'T think it would be a good idea to make that a goal for your weight loss journey (hence the "wholeheartedly disagree"). Focus on portion size control and once you hit average weight go for the "longer stretches without", but not before.

Abt the storage issue: As I wrote before...will check with my doc & read up on it, but...

[tctnc]

I see where you are coming from but wholeheartedly disagree. And please read the very first paragraph of my article (*...not an expert...believe at own risk). I'm just sharing what has been true / working for me. And I lost the weight so I must be doing sth right. Bottom line you haven't convinced me at all but hey...everyon else on here can form their own opinion. That's the beauty of GaG. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

[tctnc]

I usually dance, but when I hit a plateau I went with spinning and running one day and dumbbell workouts the next. Bottom line is that by changing things up you counteract the plateau. Now, keep in mind that I am no expert. I'm just sharing what has been working for me. Good luck!

[tctnc]

@brownchic I do. First of all...keep it going no matter how long the plateau phase lasts. It will stop eventually, I promise. The longest for me was the first plateau and it lasted over a month. Then I made sure to slightly change eating patterns (not portion size or food)...as in I ate lunch in two parts or half an hour earlier or dinner half an hour later. That is, if work & such allows you to do that. Most importantly I came up with a new workout routine during those plateau phases...

[uuhhhh]

So... you didn't go on a diet you just ate less and healthier. Ok. You don't count your calories you just... keep track of your food intake. I see. I mean, really, you're not fat anymore so you'd think you'd stop needing to make yourself feel better this much. This could have been just an informative article about your experience losing weight but this angle of you being smarter than everyone else really makes it arrogant and obnoxious.

[bobatkinsonisback4u]

Hi, I haven't read this all the way through, as I have a reading problem, a bit dyslexic, but just wanted to let you know that my sister lost an incredible amount of wait, in a reasonable short time, it was the, Lighterlife, diet plan, it's not easy, and not that hard, but seeing the results, it is very safe, and works well.

Anyway, good luck.

Bob, xx.

[ChristopherLosRivera]

The physiological adaptations aren't just dependent on rate of fat loss but total fat loss. Dieting may get harder when you lose X lbs regardless of how fast or slowly you lose it. Fasting or large caloric deficits are just a tool that some people can and have used successfully. All that matters is that what you are doing works and that goes for everyone else.

Thanks for your appreciation and good luck with dieting.

[ChristopherLosRivera]

a healthy metabolism to keep you from starving to death (physiological adaptations).

To reverse these adaptations you should eat enough calories to maintain (not lose or gain) weight so that calorie partitioning is optimal/preferred. Calorie partitioning has to do with where calories are stored and from where they are utilized, fat or muscle, affected by levels of testosterone, growth hormone, cortisol and leptin.

[ChristopherLosRivera]

"Your body will hang on to every little thing it EVENTUALLY gets." This depends on the duration and intensity of the diet. The body cuts down on caloric spending when funds start to diminish by lowering production of fat burning hormones (growth hormone, testosterone and leptin) and increasing hunger and alertness hormones (catecholamines, cortisol, peptide YY and ghrelin) while raising protein oxidation (to provide glucose). This is not necessarily a damaged metabolism but the actions of

[ChristopherLosRivera]

I am not saying that to lose weight it is required that you fast/starve all day long, I am saying that there is NO POSSIBILITY of you storing energy when you are not ingesting it (calories from protein, fat or carbohydrate). For additional education, which you lack, read: The Energy Balance, Metabolic Rate Overview and What is Body Fat, since you must not know why we have body fat if you "wholeheartedly disagree" with the fact that if no energy is coming in then it is impossible to store it.

[ChristopherLosRivera]

"Either way, going hungry is not the answer." I am not saying starving is the answer but learning to go longer stretches of time without eating can be useful and it can be part of some people's busy work schedules. No need to spread false information like "not eating will make you fat". Think of it like this, if you are not eating then you have no fat to store and energy must be coming from somewhere... or you die.

[ChristopherLosRivera]

"I ate plenty though; I wasn’t starving myself (that would have resulted in my body storing fat starvation mode)". That is a myth. Starving yourself will not store body fat, a caloric deficit will always result in fat loss and larger deficits will result in greater fat loss. Read Martin Berkhan's Diet Mythology, Myth #4. "the earliest evidence for lowered metabolic rate in response to fasting occurred after 60 hours (-8% in resting metabolic rate)."

[tctnc]

brain eventually stopped telling me "eat the cake now, you are still hungry". So NOW I'm at a place where I'm not at risk of overeating. I hope I made my thought-process a bit clearer. Appreciate the time you took to explain!

[tctnc]

@Christopher The very first time I'm hearing this. Even my doc told me not to make the mistake (starving = storing at first) but I'm certainly gonna double-check to make sur.. Either way, going hungry is not the answer.

[3336PS]

Congrats. :) perfect process for weight loss. hope more people follow these "routines" and not get discouraged.

since I am not where you are, I would not have the same exp. as you. but this is what works. good job!

[tctnc]

@Candy Thanks so much! You're speaking my mind. As you said, I am not a professional and stated so at the very beginning of my article. The only thing I can say is that the way I did it has been working for me 100%. Slow and steady wins the race.

[tctnc]

And just be make it clear: That is the way my doc explained it to me and it made complete sense, but I will read up on it. Promise. I put your rec on my to read list.