Eating + Conditions

[Guest SaraNetherlands]

Hi, I haven't written for a while on these forums for personal reasons but here goes. In short, I'm Sara, 22 and chubby with a BMI around 30. I am in a wheelchair permanently.

For a decade nearly I've been overweight. I tend to eat healthy but often I take a snack for enjoyment. I have a tendency to eat it fast as I only find my snack to be tasty if the flavour is constantly in my mouth (in contrast, when I don't like a flavour or when I find a flavour strange, I take a sip of water between each bite). Often when I do not snack I get very moody and other healthier substitutes do not satisfy. Snacks are often chocolate and similar rich 'in-betweens'. It is therefor not hunger but the addiction to the enjoyment of nice flavours. A lack of that feeling makes me grumpy and restless.

Currently I've lost nearly 10 kg's (roughly 20-22 pounds) by eating fewer snacks, but at the cost of being easily agitated and often 'roaming' for something I'd enjoy to eat. I try to not think of how hormones will make it even harder to lose weight as that would not aid me in my quest to lose that weight. Being in a wheelchair and being limited to exercise is also a factor making it more difficult. I am however getting a new handbike from the state (where in my country disabled persons have a right for exercise and sport utilities), a device which is a cycle driven by arms, attached to a wheelchair. This should help me a bit but it is not the ultimate solution.My goal is to settle for a weight of 70 or 75 kg's (that is about 150-165 pounds). Being curvy bordering chubby is fine, but being obese is, I wish to stay realistic with this.

Learning to feel beautiful while being overweight is no solution. Hiding the fact that I am large is not helping my health and neither do I wish or intend to remain large. Losing weight is the only option. I always say good doctors cure the problem, bad doctors just help you hide it. The mentioned side-effects however have made me sway away from a proper eating habit repeatedly. Living at home may be a factor, where if I'd (be able to) live on myself, I would not buy the snacks in the first place, although this does still not counter the off-behaviour I get when not snacking.

Does someone have similar experiences or advice on how to counter such effects? At times I nearly compare myself to smokers who get agitated after quitting their smoking. However, this feeling does not subside for me even after 4 months (up to half a year taking into account an earlier attempt to lose weight). I currently snack on a lower level, although this keeps my new weight steady instead of still losing any.

- Sara.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I might have some ideas on this. I diet because I have to being diabetic (typeII -not a huge deal) but I have been on a specific food diet for four and one half years now. In the USA it's called 'Sugar Busters' and it was developed here in New Orleans - so we know a lot about it. That is not the reason for this post. you can Google Sugar Busters and look to see if it is for you. BUT the snacking hits home.

Right now I am starving. Being diabetic I am supposedly to eat five small meals a day. I have been trying that and it doesn't fit me well. I will abandon it and go back to my three custom designed full meals, but I don't want to overeat in response, so I will finish out the day. The point is I guess - it takes experimentation to discover what food pattern intake works best for you. Your "Snacking' shows the routine you are in now is NOT WORKING!

Snacking is the 'killer' in food habits. DON"T DO IT! That is where you gain weight. Sometimes eliminating snacks helps you lose, not always, so that is frustrating.

WHAT TO DO?

If you are snacking? What is causing it? Your body is craving something - sugar, carbs, protein - or sweetness or salt - or - are you ready? WATER

So check to see when you crave food, if drinking water helps. Not tea, nor coffer, not diet drinks - pure water. And remember it takes 30 minutes for your body to hydrate. Often our hunger is the body saying "PLEASE" eat something with moisture!

Okay - what if it is sugar you crave? It could be a need for energy (sugar is like a BURST of energy - like a drug, and like a drug, 30 minutes later it's worse). If you need energy try protein. It is harder to digest, takes longer to get into your system BUT it STAYS there - no bad effects. If you need energy and use protein, after about 10 minutes you will stop feeling hungry. Proteins are not just meats and dairy products but also nuts (not macadamia).

Or you want something sweet for the taste... probably the most common problem of snacking - yo crave something GOOOD tasting! A reward maybe for doing something... well, a trick. You body won't agree at first because it is rare to crave fruit,BUT it will INSTANTLY cure a sugar craving (except babanas) if you eat a peice of fruit. Plus fruit always need to be pealed or depitted or something, so you have to focus on it - so when you get it ready - hey! Pretty good!

Or salt? Yes - if you are older (not a teen) you sometimes really want something salty. So - BAD FOR YOUR HEART or BAD FOR YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE - or YOU WILL RETAIN WATER - if all this keeps you from a snack with salt (peanuts? Double purpose - protein and salt) just know a salt craving WILL NOT GO AWAY! You might eat a ton of nostly unsalty stuff to get the salt your body craves - and HOW GOOD IS THAT? for your heart or your blood pressure - et cetera. So you can give in to a salt craving (unless your doctor has you on a salt-free diet) and just use MODERATION!

Hey - there is an idea - eat what you want BUT in smaller quantities - what a novel idea? Why does it never seem to work? Because tastey food makes you gorge yourself! You aren't really hungry anymore - but the food TASTES SO GOOD. You clean your plate - you want to go back for more...

YIKES - if you want to lose weight - never eat past where you are satisfied... you aren't really eating to fill yourself up after a certain point.

And finally - the size of your stomach - not the girth, the voulume inside you. The larger meals train your stomach to expand to a larger size. Note that when you are successfully dieting, you can eat smaller portions before you fill up. The BAD part of this, if you REWARD yourself while dieting by having an occasional big meal - darn - you lose that advantace of the shrunken stomach!

So stop snacking on empth calories. If you are going to eat? Eat something of value. So eating chips? Salty? - has carbs? BUT all that fat and stuff is SOOO full of calories! Expend you 'calorie budget' on fun, delicious food, that isn't just "empty calories" - fats and stuff like that are also bad for cholesterol and such anyway.

And buy EXPENSIVE food when you diet - just not as much of it. Okay - fast food hamburger's - relatively cheap - fill your up - BLOAT YOU LIKE A BALOON! To much fat - sometimes loaded with transfats - bad bad bad.

So instead? Eat a small steak - more expensive - but 'right tastey' and if lean enough, good protein and pretty much good for you - maybe not every night of course. And red meats mess up your digestive system. So chicken? Good quality fish? OKAY!

And if you have a great meal in mind, you can wait to the time to prepare it, knowing if you snack - you will ruin your appetite!

Tricks!

And I am transsexual and in transition. I was 236 pounds, and lost ten pounds, so I started out 226. I realized (a post op friend clue me in) that female fat is verrrry difficult to shed. She also said to really do redistribute on HRT, the new fat is in a female distribution pattern, but the old male fat stays until you lose it. I HAD to lose my spare tire! So I wanted to go from 226 to 198. I stared in October and reached my goal by CHRISTMAS - The HRT stared 10 December - so I made my goal. BUT I did it in a most horrible way - I fasted! I don't recommend it . Being diabetic - I could have had really bad results! But I guess because I was obese anyway (well at 6'-1" tall not tooo bad) my diabetes actually got better.

BUT when I put on ten pounds (I went down to 192 - now at 202) it came back in a female pattern - grin - so it worked.

I let it stablize for a while - making sure everything is okay healthwise - now I am shooting for 182-186 as my maiden weight. BUT I am doing it very slowly.

So that's my story. I hope it helps.

Just get your habits under control - the good news is it can be done. The bad news is - hummmm.... as a woman, you can never get off the diet. NO RELAPSES!

Lizzy

[Sally]

My biggest problem has been that all of my friends, family and interests have let me down at one time or another so the only consistant comfort that I ever had was food and niow at well over 300 pounds and fighting against that I still turn to ffod for comfort and I don't know why, I need to but look in a mirror to know that food is not my friend either.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Jean Davis]

Hi Sara

Personaly I never had trouble with my weight , but I have friends that do .

I have observed the difference in our eating habits.

My friends tend to eat no breakfast and a large meal at the end of the day.

I tend to eat a large breakfast and reduce the size of my next 2 meals.

I think that eating at the end of the day is where most people have their problems. When this happens the body has no time to burn the calories and turn them to fat to use at a later time. If you eat early in the day your body will work to burn the calories and increase your metabolism. This takes time though, don't be discouraged if results are not seen, you may have to change other aspects of your life such as types of food you eat, snacks, exercize and sleeping habits.

Hope this helps

Jean Davis

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hi Sara,

Good to hear from you again!! I wondered where you had gone.

I am a devotee of the Atkin's diet... 0 carbs!!

At the start of the diet, you have to be hardcore... no carbs period!!!

That lasts a few weeks or so until you achieve your desired weight.

After that you can easily maintain your weight after you are used to dieting.

Oh, and stay away from the "midnight" snacks!!

Hope this helps

Brenda

[Guest SaraNetherlands]

Well, I've read the posts here. I have seen dietists in the past and since for years already do eat proper food. After several checks the sugar or full stomach was not the problem. As silly as it sounds, to me good food is almost as pleasurable as an orgasm. While surely a few of you giggle now, that is not overexadurated. The real problem lies in the increasingly mean demeanor I have when I am not having certain foods, like a junkie kicking his or her drug. Franky, I don't eat much already:

- A proper breakfast of two slices of bread or one slice and two crackers, with tea(no sugar). A strong breakfast like Jean said keeps you going.

- Coffee (light coffee-milk and a sweetener, not sugar) with a small biscuit, sometimes even without.

- Lunch with three slices of bread (with less I lack the energy to perform tasks).

- Tea at 4, with usually a larger cookie then a biscuit, but nothing huge. A sugar coated biscuit or a sweet cookie.

- Dinner concisting of meat (often pork, sometimes beef, at times chicken and enough fish for a healthy life).

- Coffee (light coffee-milk and a sweetener, not sugar) with no biscuit.

- A small bowl of crisps or similar (counting the crisps, there's 15-20 small crisps in there top).

I don't drink soda or anything, only tea without sugar and coffee with a sweetener and light coffee-milk, not a lot. I don't drink alcohol except for half a glass of champagne (disliking both white and red wine) sometimes if in company and never more than half a glass. I never drink beer or similar alcoholic drinks.

I guess it's wisest I first handle other problems before I devote to pulling myself through maintaining weight, so that nothing can demotivate me.

[Guest Charlene_Leona]

Hi Sara

I too am in a wheelchair not full time though and know the problems you are having, I can't really say much about losing weight because I'm 243 lbs at the moment but I'm down from 260 a couple months ago. Recently I have totally kicked junk food for fruit's & melon's and have lost that weight slowly which is the only safe way to do it. I also have heart problems and have had to have three stents placed in the last year. Let me tell you thats the best incentive to eat healthy you can ever get, fear of death does allot to motivate a gal. I do have a couple of suggestions though size your portions down and eat off of a saucer and not a plate, wait 12-15 minutes between servings. It takes that long for your stomach to signal your brain your full.

The hand bike you said you will be getting will be allot of fun for you as well, my partner Larry has one and is always beaming when he's out on it. I haven't gotten on my bike but once in the last year due to extreme leg pain but once you get on one you will see allot of your weight melt away.

Take Care

Charlene Leona