Calorie conundrum

Agree entirely OldMeg

so true OldMeg!

I’m sure no one means to be flippant about those starved in concentration camps in Germany during WW2 or more recently in Bosnia.

The point they are trying to make is valid however. This idea that Baggs flagged up, sceptically I believe, is a load of rubbish. I’ve already tried to make thar point subtly but it appears that unless one says it quite brutally no one pays attention.

All I hear are excuses for overeating.

And if I can clarify the term overeating I mean eating more than you, as an individual need to maintain your weight.

So, life’s not fair. Some people can eat more than others and not put on weight. Others need to be more frugal. It’s quite simple - it’s what your body needs. Not the person sitting next to you, not your best friends, YOU

I don't eat big meals because I don't feel like it. When in SE Asia I often leave food on my plate cause I just can't eat it all and I am often asked "you no like" when I reply I am full they bag it up for me to take home. Cold curry and rice is not nice.

Jane43 would your DH consider starting a blog? I have 2 male friends, both in their 60s who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes and are really struggling with their eating. One is married to a nurse - also my friend - but he won’t listen to her advice. Their daughter, also a nurse, is staying with them at the moment and he says she gives contradictory dietary advice, eg bananas - friend or foe? I think both of them would respond to an online account of someone who is like them, has been there, done that and is currently wearing the T shirt, metaphorically at least! Since he’s making meticulous notes any way, these could become part of the blog.

Grangmama- thanks, that was what I trying to say. Unfortunately these posts don’t convey any tone of voice so sometimes some people get the wrong impression.

We went to dinner at friends of my husbands. They are Russian. I left a little on my plate as I was full. The next day they rang my husband and asked what was wrong with the food as I didn't eat it all. I was mortified as it must have offended them that I didn't eat all their food. Just a different culture.

"trying everything" = sticking to nothing.

yo yo ing makes you fat

PamelaJI: Many years ago I sent away for a free book on losing weight, written by a doctor (from Bristol I think) and flagged up in the Daily Telegraph. It was very sensible and one section dealt with self control. Some people appearing on TV say they have tried everything and cannot lose weight - the booklet used the phrase 'there were no fat people in the concentration camps' to emphasise that one can lose weight (unless there is a physical, medical condition) by control over one's eating.

its not true...

....but.....

some people dont eat enough at meals and dont REALISE the snacky/drinks calories theyre having to make up for it

or

people who go on VERY low/no carb diets & then fall off the wagon are stressing their pancreas & a stressed pancreas can have type 2 diabetes style problems.

also....a lot of people dont track their calories and mentally calculate that theyre way under and still losing weight...but actually they are over... then by eating bigger MAIN MEALS they lose weight...but had they properly tracked they would see they are eating less than before

sometimes exercising less, if someone isnt taking rest days and was working out every day, can help people get toned & lose weight cause it drops stress hormones

Thank you, peeps. Some interesting info.

polyp, I don't know if this thinking is outdated or not but I'm a success story even although I didn't do breakfast. I think my total consumption of food nowadays is probably about a third of what it was three years ago and I don't miss the overindulgence one little bit. Feel decidedly good in fact.

I don't think it is true really, We often think we are dieting but eat or drink hidden calories. I have a friend who has been careful about her diet but is still putting on weight. It turns out she drinks a couple of glasses of wine most days without realising how high the calorie count is in alcohol.

Polly Perkins this is an outdated idea now. I have always manag ed to waaait until 12 noon for my first meal.

In Weight Watchers they said skipping breakfast was bad as the body's metabolism doesn't kick in and also you are more likely to snack mid morning. Dont know if this is necessarily true!

Legs55 yes the liquid diet is awful and I don’t understand why they couldn’t have had proper food that totalled 800 calories. I agree that it is a different situation if you are on medication eg Metformin which can have side effects such as weight gain, nausea etc and I believe you have to eat a certain amount of carbs when on this medication. My DH was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in March which was a shock as he had no symptoms and it was found when he was being treated for something else. We both did a lot of reading about it and at his first appointment with the diabetes nurse she had a prescription of Metformin waiting for him. As a result of all the reading we had done he asked if he could try to control it through diet. She looked surprised but agreed. That was at the beginning of March and after trying a few ways of controlling it he decided to go low carb. Michael Mosley’s Blood Sugar Diet book has been a great help. His glucose levels gradually went down and by this Monday he is now in the normal range. He was never much overweight, just a tummy like a lot of men his age - 6 Feet tall and 196 pounds in weight. He has lost 23 pounds and feels fantastic. He has kept a record of his meals, glucose levels, weight BP and the nurse has asked if she can keep it as an example to some of her patients. Mosley suggests that many people can control their diabetes by losing 10 - 15 percent of their weight.

I know such eating plans, I try not to call them diets, are not for some people as you have to change your diet significantly and my DH’s diet before was poor, too much of the wrong foods. When he told a couple of his friends of the diagnosis they both said that once he went on the medication he would be able to eat what he wanted as they did, which caused the problem in the first place. He is now a total convert to low carb eating and is hoping he can continue to keep the diabetes at bay. By keeping his record of food and glucose readings he has learnt which foods cause a problem for him. He has also now been able to stop taking Omeprazole for acid reflux which he has been on for many years and is medication free.

Diabetes is a life changing disease and not an easy thing to live with and I wish you all the best Legs55.

I am Type 2 Diabetic, I wonder at some of these diets as I need to have a balanced diet ie 3 meals a day to stop me descending into a "hypo" (I was Hospitalised a couple of weeks ago). Also I take medication for various ailments twice a day (approx 12 hours apart) to be taken with or after food.

I did watch the tv programme where they managed to reverse the Type 2 Diabetes on the 800 calories per day, this was done under medical supervision & the liquid drinks sounded awful.

I try to keep my diet "healthy" & am trying to lose weight. My biggest weight loss recently came after I was taken off Metformin, 6 months & I dropped over 2 stone without trying, however my Blood Sugars rocketed so I'm now on a different medication & the weight just slid back on but my Diabetes is now controlled again

I didn’t mean it to be flippant. I used it to illustrate that eating too few calories couldn’t possibly make one fat.
Sorry if it offended you.

If you had known anybody who had been in, died in or survived a concentration camp you would not make such a flippant remark.

Why Maw?

You would never gain weight. You only need to look at the starving in India etc....

The recent work on fasting by Doctor Michael Mosley suggests that the idea of the body going into starvation mode when you consume fewer calories is a fallacy. He suggests that it is good for the body to regularly fast or consume fewer calories. In a recent tv programme people with type 2 diabetes were very successful in reversing their diabetes or lowering their glucose levels by having just 800 calories a day. They also lost a great deal of weight. There is a lot of science to support his ideas.

I know it is hard to take this on board when you have been told for years about starvation mode and that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However since reading Doctor Mosley’s books I have given up breakfast and only eat between 12 noon and 7pm and have lost 18 pounds.

He also says that we should not set so much store on what the scales say but pay attention to how our body looks and feels. I am trying to wean myself off weighing myself every day as it is discouraging to see I have put on weight when I have stuck to my eating plan.

My first food indulgence of the day is usually towards what most of us consider lunchtime. However I did learn/read the trick of taking a few walnuts with my first cup of coffee to kick the metabolism in. Works fine for me.

there is a facebook page called nourish by Jane Clarke she is a nutritionalist and answers all food sort of questions, its very useful. Its not a very busy page and you have to wait a day or two for an answer but she'll know.

It's not true.
Fewer calories than you burn means weight loss. In the long run.
How do we find out how many calories we each burn is a relevant question to this OP.