It's not always as easy as "move more, eat less"

[Mermaid3011]

Hi everyone! 

I just wanted to put it out there - we are humans and every human is different, so what works for one, doesnt necessarily work for another. There are so many metabolic hormones involved... plus diseases that have an impact on our metabolic system.

I just read the book "The Diet Fix" written by a Canadian MD who specializes in Obesity Medicine. (www.thedietfix.com)

He is quite renown and part of the Canadian Obesity Network (http://www.obesitynetwork.ca) and knows his stuff - on a psychological and physiological level.

The messages I took from the book are: 

- you have to be HAPPY while losing weight. If you are not, you wont be able to sustain it longterm.

- eat when you are hungry

- chocolate is part of life

- you can't outrun your fork
(i.e. workout is great for your health, but weight is lost in the kitchen, how you cook, how you eat)

- eat every 3.5 hrs min to avoid hunger pangs and overeating at your next meal.

- don't save calories up for later in the day, you will likely overeat if you starve yourself during the day

So... for the next month I will be kind to my body. I will listen to my needs and wants and try to change my expectations from "short term loss" to "long term loss and happiness".

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Hey thanks! This was motivational! For me, my diet and activity changes aren't just about losing weight, it's about creating a better, healthier lifestyle. 

[DaniellaH · Accepted solution]

I like this.  Thanks!

I agree that being happy while losing the weight is soo important. 

And yes chocolate is part of life.  🙂 Be great to yourself this month 🙂

[DominicJ]

"IT'S NOT ALWAYS AS EASY AS "MOVE MORE, EAT LESS""

Yes, it is.

Everyone of those points boils down to "You are eating too much"

They arent bad lessons, although some are contradictory, 

[Mermaid3011]

🙂 I am glad move more, eat less works for you. It just doesnt work for everyone. I know it doesnt work for me.

[RobinH · Accepted solution]

@Mermaid3011 I totally agree. For me losing weight and (working to) stay in shape has been a 10 year journey. When I hit 40 my metabolism waved bye-bye.

It's been 10 years now, and I prepare healthy foods and seek them out as well. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Maybe because it was easy before. I am lucky that I had that first part.

Ms. Mermaid I totally agree--you have to treat yourself. It's okay to eat quinoa and whole grain bread as long as I have dark chocolate once in a while. ; ) Thanks for sharing the info--

[Proudpatriot]

For me, WHAT I eat is as important as how much I eat.  

[Mermaid3011]

Yup the quality of food seems to make a HUGE difference! 

In the book that I mentioned above the author was describing a Danish/Canadian study where they gave testers 2 kinds of sandwiches to eat. Both had the same amount of calories!

One of made with white bread, american cheese etc. the other was made with whole grain, whole sunflower seed bread and Cheddar. 

Then they measured the thermodynamic effect of the food eaten. 

And it turns out that (some will say "of course") that the whole grain sandwich needed 80 cal more to digest than the white bread sandwich. 

So WHAT you eat IS important! Because you can influence how much your body will burn by digesting it.

Also, the testers who had the white bread sandwich were hungry earlier, but that was only a side info of the study.

So... whenever I order a sandwich I always ask for the darkest, grainiest bread they have 😉

[DominicJ]

"- you have to be HAPPY while losing weight. If you are not, you wont be able to sustain it longterm."

Because you will go back to comfort eating, that would be in violation of eat less

"- eat when you are hungry"

Otherwise you will get really hungry and eat half a packet of biscuits, that would be in violition of eat less

- chocolate is part of life

"- you can't outrun your fork"

Thats just flat out eat less

"- eat every 3.5 hrs min to avoid hunger pangs and overeating at your next meal."

Dont starve yourself otherwise you pig out, that would be in violation of eat less

"- don't save calories up for later in the day, you will likely overeat if you starve yourself during the day"

Again, eat less

"Also, the testers who had the white bread sandwich were hungry earlier, but that was only a side info of the study. 

So... whenever I order a sandwich I always ask for the darkest, grainiest bread they have"

Which rather neatly fits in to "eat less"

How you go about eating less is your concern, if you find eating two slices of grainy bread can replace 3 slices of white bread thats absolutly fantastic, if you find you can eat less in 6 small meals than 3 big ones, thats fantastic too.

But if you dont accept that what you have found is a way to eat fewer calories, its likely to work for three months, and then you will be back to old habits.

[jwis86]

It is calories in vs calories out.  Calories are a unit of energy the body burns energy.

If you consume 2000 calories you will loose weight if you burn more gain weight if you burn less.  It is a simple as that.  Anything else would violate the laws of thermodynamics.

While I agree there are some good points in there, it is just another doctor trying to sell somthing.

[WineBelly]

Great post. The Diet Fix is a good read. Have you read "Why We Get Fat?" by Gary Taubes?

[Trooper]

Doctor Nowarzdan will say the same exact thing on "My 600 Lb Life." It is all about, Calories taken in, and Calories taken out!"

[Gabie]

I just read "the Diet Fix" and I learned a lot and think he makes a lot of sense. 

One of the things I learned from him - and I won't quote it exactly - is to look for the food with the lowest calories that will satisfy you at any given time. I just finished dinner and was still feeling hungry - like I wanted to eat. I was just about to convince myself to have something that was very sweet and calorie dense when I remembered what he had to say. So, I looked in the fridge and asked myself what is the lowest calorie thing that I could eat that would satisfy me. I ended up eating something that was about 50 calories and am now satisfied. The question I would have asked before was - what is the food that will best satisfy this craving not even recognizing that I could be satisfied with less. 

I don't imagine that it is completely life changing but if it can prevent a few bouts of mindless eating then it is definitely useful!

[divedragon]

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Mermaid3011

The messages I took from the book are: 

- you have to be HAPPY while losing weight. If you are not, you wont be able to sustain it longterm.

- eat when you are hungry

- chocolate is part of life

- you can't outrun your fork
(i.e. workout is great for your health, but weight is lost in the kitchen, how you cook, how you eat)

- eat every 3.5 hrs min to avoid hunger pangs and overeating at your next meal.

- don't save calories up for later in the day, you will likely overeat if you starve yourself during the day

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some of this I agree with, others I don't.  Motivation for loosing weight has to come from within and be sincere.  So many people will want to lose weight to appeal to someone else and in that case you won't be happy.  Lose the weight for yourself, not an external stimulus.

Eating ever 3.5 hours is a myth and something I think is contributing to the type 2 diabeties epidimic.  I eat once a day and limit my calories to between 1500 and 1800.  I exercise on top of this for 40-50 min a day plus being more active.  It's really not about starve vs binge, but about control.  I've advocated for years that you must keep a food diary.  I"ve had many tell me they don't need one.  Those same people have problems losing weight.  Bottom line, keep a food diary and stick to your calories.

I practice intermittent fasting by choice.  I think it helps with digestive health, insuline sensitivity and trains our bodies back to the point wene our gnome was created.  I eat once per day.  I eat the calories I've alloted myself for loosing weight.  When I've lost the weigh upt (10 more pounds), I'll continue fasting, but up the calories to 2k-2.3k.  Bottom line is that the idea that skipping meals makes you binge is related to control issues, not biological conditions.

I'm not much of a sweet eater and actually had doctors tell me to eat more chocolate, so go for it.  don't care for it all that much myself, but I force myself (don't take this as a high and mightly attitude, put a bag of chips in front of me and my willpower is tested).

I've always known these facts and practiced them, but inconsistently.  For the past year I have been consistent along with exercise.  I've lost 49 lbs with 10 more to go.  I've hear them all, but in my experience it boils down to calories in, calories out in terms of weight loss.  In terms of good nutrition and healthy weight, it's good calories in, moderate exercise and self control.

[divedragon]

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@RobinH wrote:

@Mermaid3011 I totally agree. For me losing weight and (working to) stay in shape has been a 10 year journey. When I hit 40 my metabolism waved bye-bye.

When I hit 40, I didn't notice as much as I was a part time SCUBA instructor and active all the time.  When I hit 45, i went back to school and became a computer programmer.  When I was a scuba instructor I weighed 175.  Last year, I weighed 240.

It's not really our metabolism, it's our energy.  We do less, feel lazier and gain weight which makes us feel lazier and we gain more weight.  I'm down to 190 now and feelinhg better again.

[Grumpy1]

I  don't see the Calories in vs Calories out working for me.......I am tracking my calories burned with my Fitbit Surge and I am weighing/measuring everything that goes in my mouth and I am keeping a 300-700 calorie deficit each day and am STILL not losing weight!   I do CrossFit, run, bike, hike, walk, yoga, etc and have been seeing a registered dietitian----still no weight loss!!!!  Doctor wants me to lose a minimum of 25 pounds!!!  HELP!!!!

[Heybales]

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@Grumpy1 wrote:

I  don't see the Calories in vs Calories out working for me.......I am tracking my calories burned with my Fitbit Surge and I am weighing/measuring everything that goes in my mouth and I am keeping a 300-700 calorie deficit each day and am STILL not losing weight!   I do CrossFit, run, bike, hike, walk, yoga, etc and have been seeing a registered dietitian----still no weight loss!!!!  Doctor wants me to lose a minimum of 25 pounds!!!  HELP!!!!

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It works for everyone.

The problem is the accuracy on either side of the equation - and the fact that how much you eat can effect the other side of the equation too.

For instance, HR-based calorie burn you are getting for cross-fit will be inflated.

The farther the exercise is away from steady-state aerobic, same HR for 2-4 min, the more inflated it will be.

So if any of that cardio is intentional intervals the whole time - inflated.

And if you spend a decent amount of time doing non-aerobic stuff - the worse the effect.

Or, the foods you measure are the ones that a little inaccuracy has a big caloric effect - only liquids should be measured, everything else weighed.

Like how many times weekly do you eat out? That is highly inaccurate usually.

If 25 lbs is what is left to healthy weight, then indeed a 500 cal deficit is reasonable - for a healthy body.

But if body is stressed under disease, or life is highly stressed, or terrible sleep - then that is too high probably.

[Paradise555]

I know how you feel. It isn't always "eat less, move more." There is a balence between both for everyone and once somone finds that then it makes it more easier. Motivation from your friends and family makes the whole weight loss process better.