The last few months have been a struggle weight-wise. Frustrating that after starting serious weight loss in January...all I've managed to do is GAIN weight, adding on 3-5 more pounds! It's been one step forward, two steps back.
Something finally clicked about 1-2 weeks ago though and I've finally started losing consistently again. This morning, I clocked in at about what I started with in January. So back to having 10 pounds to lose.
It's not yet easy. Most nights I fight intense cravings and often think I will give in. Thankfully, more often than not, I have been able to not give in.
...So even though I believe in Calories In, Calories Out...
Anyway, that's just a pattern I think I am seeing after over a year of almost daily weigh-ins. Anyone else see the same patterns?
elaine amj, I don't mean to pick on you, and really I don't have the right since I haven't been very active in the thread, although I have been following all of your journies and cheering you all on. I figured out pretty early on in the thread that I had to do something very different and jump off the perpetual dieting cycle following the same old advice that kept me yo-yo-ing, fat and sick.
I use to believe all the same stuff, calories in, calories, out, it was just a matter of tracking, it is just a matter of having will power, calorie counting is the way to go etc.
I realize we all have different paths to the same goal and what is right for me might not be right for you, but it seems like you are struggling so much and as the bolded parts above, it doesn't seem like it is really working, and there are a lot of other people on this thread who seem to be bouncing up and down and having the same struggles.
I've basically been on one diet or another since I hit puberty. I've gained and lost hundreds of the same pounds over the years, I've been in a constant state of worry/thinking/feeling like crap/guilt spiral about what I put in my mouth.
But You keep the same beliefs and doing what you always do, you will get the same results, over and over and over.Calories in, calories out, I've come to realize, is a catchy, overly simplistic bullshit line that doesn't do anyone any good. It doesn't hold up to any of the recent science on nutrition, addiction, or HOW those calories are metabolized in the body. Food, medicine, everything, is broken down in our bodies the same ways. How they are broken down matters, how the energy is utilized or stored matters, what by-products are created from the different foods we eat matters.
Eating "Low-fat" and "low-calorie" anything that comes in a package is not going to help us. Eating sugar substitutes that still feed our psychological addiction for sweets and still mess with our biochemistry and saitey signals isn't really going to help us. Calorie counting and "cheat days" may help give us some surface control, but they aren't going to do anything long term about "why" we eat the things we eat.
With sugar being 10x as addictive as cocaine, do we think we have the will-power to have it and it is fine if it is in our calorie allowance? I use to think that way, but I was wrong and it leads to the same cycle of giving in, and feeling guilty and thinking I was a horrible person who had no will power. Rinse and repeat, and feel a little worse about myself every single time.
Dopamine release, tolerance, addiction, psychological cravings, physiological cravings, emotional humer...none of these are considered or addressed by a strict "calories in, calories out" mentality. "A calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie regardless of if it comes from steak or soda" That is the phrase that comes from the
nutritionists lobbyists from the sugar/beverage industries. If they are recommending it, maybe we have to look twice.
Calorie reduction, tracking everything and the mental cycle that happens when you try and fail all can lead to some pretty unhealthy eating patterns that you can slip into without even realizing it. I have a friend who works in eating disorder recovery and she treats people who developed eating disorders mid-life and almost all of them were originally overweight, chronic dieters who slipped into unhealthy patterns after trying the usual and accepted weight loss methods - mainly calorie reduction, tracking, weighing everything etc.
Sorry, this became a long-winded rant. and I don't mean it to. I think seeing our patterns in a different light is important. All our beliefs need to be on the table for examination, especially if they might not be working for us. They might work for you and if so, awesome. All I know is I needed something different.
