25 stone to 19 stone in 8 months.

[Estameme]

Chinese takeaways have a ridiculous amount of salt in them. Even when I used to eat them regularly I could tell that they made me retain fluid, so that could be why. It's not the quantity of food, it's the type of food that's causing you to gain scale weight.
My body aches after exercising, the other day I could hardly walk because the muscles in my legs were killing me as I'd done a workout that used muscles that had been asleep for 4 years! Swimming would be a good form of exercise if your body is aching, and I know you like that. Once you start gently exercising on sore muscles they loosen up a lot, but keep it low impact. Just don't let it defeat you.
To get rid of that takeaway drink 3l of water everyday (for every drink of tea you need to drink that in water too because tea dehydrates you) and steer away from junk for a week.
Most people try to eat healthy for a whole week and then weigh-in. After weigh in they might choose to have a treat meal (not a cheat day). And repeat. We all have food addictions here, yours is no worse than anyone else's. It's a struggle to make good choices and of course our bodies are going to scream out of its usual poison, but aiming to limit yourself to this one meal per week of something you fancy might be manageable on the whole - im pretty certain that's what a LOT of people on here aim to do.

 

[Stackhead]

Exactly what Estameme said - Chinese = salt heaven

You'll be showing a gain for a couple of days, you just need to drink lots and lots of fluid to flush the salt out.

Plus, you're exercising, so holding water for muscle repair.

It's not a real gain (and another reason why you should stay away from the scales!)

 

[broadsbean]

i joined slimming world , started going back to the pool and worked three back to back 14 hr shifts in one week and low and behold gained 4 lb in my first week. i was devestated but worked through it. up until that point i had been steadily losing 2 lb or so a week and while i knew it was a fluid retention gain i was really upset.
I have plotted my weight over a 24hr period as well as a week and can fluctuat by up to 10 lb, i have learnt to ignore it and focus on that one official weight. the second week i lost a lb and sulked but this week i lost 4.5 so finally back into -ve figures.

Try to limit the weighing daily as it really is no reflection, your weight will go up and down over the week. my husband has hidden our scales this week

keep doing what you are doing, listen to the advice of the professionals and you will see the changes xx

 

[ladyfelsham]

All very good advice - I am a daily weigher but am going to put my scales away too and just rely on the weekly SW weigh on

 

[366to266]

Chinese takeaways have a ridiculous amount of salt in them. Even when I used to eat them regularly I could tell that they made me retain fluid, so that could be why. It's not the quantity of food, it's the type of food that's causing you to gain scale weight.
My body aches after exercising, the other day I could hardly walk because the muscles in my legs were killing me as I'd done a workout that used muscles that had been asleep for 4 years! Swimming would be a good form of exercise if your body is aching, and I know you like that. Once you start gently exercising on sore muscles they loosen up a lot, but keep it low impact. Just don't let it defeat you.
To get rid of that takeaway drink 3l of water everyday (for every drink of tea you need to drink that in water too because tea dehydrates you) and steer away from junk for a week.
Most people try to eat healthy for a whole week and then weigh-in. After weigh in they might choose to have a treat meal (not a cheat day). And repeat. We all have food addictions here, yours is no worse than anyone else's. It's a struggle to make good choices and of course our bodies are going to scream out of its usual poison, but aiming to limit yourself to this one meal per week of something you fancy might be manageable on the whole - im pretty certain that's what a LOT of people on here aim to do.

Thank you for your thoughts, Esta. I'm puzzled about the salt content because if you put too much salt in your food it tastes vile and is inedible, so how come we don't notice it in Chinese takeaways? Is it because they put in loads and loads of sugar, and they cancel each other out (taste wise)?

I never plan my cheats, ever. All my plans are for perfect, on-plan meals. All my cheats and binges are committed on impulse.

You have given me considerable comfort with your comment that "the other day I could hardly walk because the muscles in my legs were killing me". That makes me feel that maybe I haven't done any damage, it's just "normal" post-exercise problems. Mind you, I'm not in pain when I walk; it's more stiffness. I only get pain going upstairs. I shall play the shower on my legs tonight, see if that helps. I shall have to do upper body exercises only tomorrow.

I get confused with litres. I drink pints and today I have had 4 pints of water and 2 pints of tea.

 

[366to266]

i joined slimming world

Try to limit the weighing daily as it really is no reflection, your weight will go up and down over the week. my husband has hidden our scales this week

keep doing what you are doing, listen to the advice of the professionals and you will see the changes xx

Cheers Mandy for the reminder. I tell other people this, then get all upset when MY scales show a gain!

A question .... I assumed Slimming World was just another way to count calories, but someone just told me that it works by food combining and that it often works for people who find calorie restriction does not cause weight loss. Is this true or has she got the wrong end of the stick?

Someone on here said she'd send me a SW book ... I must chase that up!

 

[TracyGWill]

That gain will definitely be water retention, Helena. Just carry on as usual and drink lots of fluid - your big mugs of tea will do the trick, lol. xx

 

[366to266]

Calories eaten this week...

Sat 1010
Sun 1730
Mon 1490
Tues 3215
Wed 1378
Thurs 1578

Total 10401 divided by 6 days = 1,733 calories per day.

Surely I should have LOST weight on that, especially as I've done at least 3,000 calories-worth of exercise (over 2 days) that I normally don't do. My BMR is 2000 and my TDEE is 2,400 totally sedentary and 2,800 if I do moderate exercise 3 days a week.

Therefore I am running at a deficit of (TDEE of 2,800 minus 1733) 1,000 calories a day x 6 days. If 3,500 is a pound of weight loss, I should have lost nearly 2lb, not gained 5lb.

So, what is this about Slimming World being more successful than calorie counting? I really should buy the book (is there a book?)... I will go and look at online resources.

 

[Stackhead]

Helena you WILL have lost weight. But Chinese food by nature IS salty, but not necessarily just from salt, think oyster and soy sauces.

The very molecule of salt requires a lot of water for processing in the body, 1 pint of water = roughly 1lb in weight.

So combine the saltiness of your Chinese with your exercise water retention = EASILY 5lb on the scale



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[Stackhead]

SW works by restricting certain types of food at certain times, RED days your strict carbs, GREEN days your restrict protein, all plans restrict fat and sugar, EE restricts calories by insisting on 1/3 veg - it's creating a calorie deficit without counting BUT the key to SW is stopping when your full, a concept I personally struggle greatly with. I need my calories to tell me when I should be full.


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[broadsbean]

SW works for me as i am a self confessed food addict and have a nasty binge eating habit i am learning to control, i have previously lost a large amount of weight with sw so i know it works.

In brief the EE plan i follow gives a huge list of free foods that can be eaten until you are full, you have a fibre option to use ie bread, cereal and a calcium option either mik or cheese and then you have 5 to 15 syns to use a day on any thing else. the only things you count/measure are syns and healthy extras if you look on the slimming world pages on here

it basically encourages you to cook from scratch with freash ingredients

meals for me are often overnight oats ( 35g porridge oats layered with syn free yog and frozen fruit, left overnight so the oats absorb the moisture) for breakfast
lunch is either homemade soup with 2 slices of wholemeal bread and fruit or a salad or an omelette with lots of veggies. Dinner any sort of meat with potatoes or rice or pasta homemade sauces with lots of salad or veg. a third of your plate must be 'speed' food ie most veg and fruits.
For my tea tonight i have had a pork chop, all visible fat removed, salt and pepper chips cooked in the actifry with no oil and a huge salad followed by 2 choc snack a jacks.
i have used 6 syns( the snackajacks)

if you look in the slimming world section on here it explains the plan in full

pop in and have a look at my food diary in the weight loss section of sw and see what you think it is called 'its never to late to start again '

alls i can say is it works for me xxx

 

[366to266]

Helena you WILL have lost weight. But Chinese food by nature IS salty, but not necessarily just from salt, think oyster and soy sauces.

The very molecule of salt requires a lot of water for processing in the body, 1 pint of water = roughly 1lb in weight.

So combine the saltiness of your Chinese with your exercise water retention = EASILY 5lb on the scale

Thank you Stackie; that is a great comfort. It's just those damned scale numbers that make me miserable. No wonder last year I threw out the scale!

 

[Estameme]

It's sodium rather than salt which is hidden in food - thickening agents, flavour enhancers etc. cheap chinese food (used by Chinese takeaways) are packed with it. Bread has a lot of sodium in it too.

As for your calories - you will not have gained fat from that if you're calculations are correct. The gain will be from sodium/fluid retention. So don't worry about it too much. Go for a week on plan, drinking 2-3l water per day, try to watch your sodium intake and see what happens. But try not to put too much emphasis on the scales if you have a cheeky weigh in. Plan a treat meal for weigh in day if that will help you get through the week.

How are you working out your calorie burn? I walked 3.2 miles today and the lowest estimate for that is 350cals - highest 770 (won't know accurately until I have a heart rate monitor/fitbit band).

 

[366to266]

How are you working out your calorie burn?

MFP.

 

[366to266]

if you look in the slimming world section on here it explains the plan in full

pop in and have a look at my food diary in the weight loss section of sw and see what you think it is called 'its never to late to start again '

alls i can say is it works for me xxx

Cheers Mandy. I will definitely look all this up tomorrow and take notes. Your food intake looks like more than I usually eat!

So you are saying that this idea of combining certain foods on certain days is more efficacious for slimming than just counting calories, or just that it's the same weight wise but just easier to follow?

 

[Grumpy Space Princess]

This is just me, and may not work for you, but I don't use MFP (or anything, for that matter) to work out calorie burn. They overestimate, in my opinion. I stayed the same weight for months upon months by listening to them. According to the numbers, I should've been losing weight that whole time. I think right now I have my stats set to "lightly active," even though I lift weights 3x per week, walk 5 miles daily, and use a standing desk. I never record exercise on MFP; I just focus on recording what I eat.

Also, I found that if MFP said I could have x amount of extra calories because of my exercise, I was a whole lot more likely to eat those calories! It contributed to the "go on, you deserve it" voice in the back of my head.

 

[Estameme]

Where have you heard that SW is more successful than calorie counting? There are loads of women on here that have lost a stack of weight by calorie counting. It's all calorie counting at the end of the day. Regardless of what plan you do, if you'd eaten that chinese on any of them you would have retained the fluid and would show a gain on the scales. SW may well suit you better, but in this instance it would not have made one drop of difference.

 

[Instant_Karma]

Hi Helena,

I'm just dropping in to mention a TV programme I saw tonight - part of a series called Fat: Fight To Save My Life. It featured a woman with a starting weight of 25st 7lbs, and her weight loss has been absolutely amazing and inspirational. She started swimming 5k, 10k and eventually a half-marathon, hiking, walking etc. She lost 11st 7lbs in just over a year and is 14st now and looking fantastic. All we need to do is focus on the success stories and remember that it CAN be done.

 

[broadsbean]

I agree with estamme, cal counting is a very successful way a dieting , it works, but we are all different, sw works for me but not everybody.
Its suits my mentality but you do have to exercise a level of control.

Every diet works if you follow the rules x Its a matter of finding what works for you. some people manage total meal replacement diets and i am in awe of them but for me they don't work because i can't stick to them x

I don't think sw is more efficient than any other diet its just the one that suits me better, they are phasing out the red and green plans which were more about not combining carbs and protein, the basis of the EE plan is that you naturally restrict calories by filling up on 'speed' foods salad veg and certain fruits.

No diet is an easy fix, all require a lot of effort. We will do it this time helping each other, supporting each other no matter what plan we choose xx

 

[366to266]

It can't be ALL about calorie counting though, can it? I'm UP another 1lb today, making a gain of 6lb in 3 days, despite keeping to average 1700 calories daily for a week.

Clearly, water/sodium etc also has an effect, though on reflection that cannot possibly make a woman stay at over 300lb if she's working on a calorie deficit every day for a year!

Goddess I feel awful being 6lb up since Tuesday. That "whoosh fairy" had better turn up soon or I will sink back into a depression.

Yes, I KNOW, I shoulda kept off the scale, but I woke up feeling SO hungry and empty and light and fit that I just HAD to see if the fairy had arrived.

I was going to start SW today but after watching a few YT videos and being shown a bowl of curry and rice and the dieter telling me we can eat as much as we like, because it's "free food" I don't believe it can work. How can eating as much as you like... even if it's only 400c a portion, possibly work? I'm just not getting it .... yet, and I'm not going to try it till something convinces me that eating 3,000 calories of curry in a day instead of 1,500 will cause weight loss!



(I have not updated my stats on here or on the ticker by the way ~ that is way too depressing!)