Unhappy with diet

[Roll]

The latest studies show that diet soda inhibits fat loss the same as regular soda.  The reason isn't calories but rather the sweetness signals your hormones, particularly insulin, to release into the bloodstream.  Your body tastes the sweetness and thinks that blood sugar is going to rise.  When insulin is in the bloodstream your fat cells do not release fat for energy.  Plus, the insulin spike may crash your blood sugar temporarily leaving you feeling really hungry.

From what I've read those studies are unable to be replicated in humans, and I'm just generally skeptical of them honestly. (Also I think the sweet taste trigger is just conjecture to explain the studies, not something I believe has been shown.) There is a lot of funding for "anti soft drink" research out there, and I worry it is ultimately a distraction at best and a witch hunt at worse, often in an attempt to justify extra taxation and bans when the "calorie" argument falls apart. Even if there are effects, they are definitively minute when compared to alternatives. The truth is most people cannot stick to a strict diet and cut out all of their previous habits that are negative. If they could, they wouldn't be overweight to begin with. Something has to give, and diet drinks are the least of the possible evils when compared to other possible outlets.

Of course water is always the safest bet, no question, but there just really isn't a scenario that reasonable consumption of diet drinks is going to be a remotely make or break issue. (The insulin issue is also nullified in the context of IF and any diet that isn't low-carb, as long as intake is within the confines of that diet. If I'm doing an 8 hour window and my lunch is teriyaki chicken, a coke zero alongside that chicken isn't going to change a single thing even in the worst case scenario.)

Anecdotally, I typically average 1 or 2 coke zeros a day (though I'll go for stretches of time with none, as I only buy them in buy 2 get 3 free sales ) and I have continued to lose weight perfectly fine. My step mother lives off diet coke and diet green tea (same artificial sweetener), consuming ungodly amounts, and she is the skinniest, tiniest person I know. Etc., etc.

[Deborah]

I agree with you that in the context of IF a lot of other dietary "sins" are forgiven and you can get away with a lot that would otherwise sidetrack a diet.  With diet soda if you restrict it in the 8 hour window then the insulin argument, true or not, becomes moot.  Where I think it might be problematic is when someone, like one of my overweight coworkers, was drinking two liters every day.


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[Dani]

There is a lot of good advise here, but since the diet industry has never found a single formula that works for everyone and still stay healthy, you must find the diet that works for you.

For me, I eat 50% of my daily calorie intake as vegetables and 25% as fruit. Fresh is best, frozen is just as good. Canned fruits or vegetables are a last result, but read the labels for added sugar and salt. I avoid restaurant food as much as possible. They cook for taste not health. Some restaurants are good, others are OK, but a few are really bad. Who in their right mind would think that a 1000 calorie breakfast burrito is healthy?

Keep in mind that fats are 9 calories per gram, while carbohydrates and proteins are 3.6 calories per gram. Sugar being a carbohydrate is only 3.6 calories per gram, but those are empty calories. There is no other nutrition other than just calories. If your goal is to reduce weight, avoid sugar, especially hidden sugars. Read the labels.

Fats are concentrated calories. Yes we need some fats, but only a little bit. Every dietitian in the world will tell you to limit fats if you want to lose weight.

The amount of calories you eat daily really depends on the weight you wish to be. There are many online calculators that will help you compute you proper calorie requirement.

Good luck in finding what will work for you. I found my diet and I have lost just over 100 pounds.  Any diet is not a short term fix. You must make a permanent change in your eating habits. After a while, it just seems natural and normal.

Lastly, I want to say something about digestion and absorption. Have any of us noticed that some people can eat anything and never gain weight? While other just look at food and gain weight. If you do not digest all your intake into something that your gut will absorb, then it will just go right through your intestines and the available calories will not be used. There is also a psychological component here as well. If something is appealing and smells good, it just seems to go down the hatch without us even noticing that we ate something. Also, daily stress will cause us to seek comfort food, that is usually high in calories even though we are not really hungry.

There are many factors in play here. We all just need to be aware of our individual needs and find the foods that are best for each of us.

[Gertrude]

Before my last blood test my diet was very similar to what you stated above with daily fat intake approaching 200g on many days.  I was also eating lots of cholesterol, somewhere around 20 to 28 eggs per week.  Besides losing the last of the weight I wanted to lose my triglycerides came in at 54 and my HDL cholesterol at 94.  LDL cholesterol was normal.  Eating lots of fat made me healthier. 


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Before my triglycerides would be 200-280. If I exercised more, it would go lower. Fish oil would help too.


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[TonyaW]

The latest studies show that diet soda inhibits fat loss the same as regular soda.  The reason isn't calories but rather the sweetness signals your hormones, particularly insulin, to release into the bloodstream.  Your body tastes the sweetness and thinks that blood sugar is going to rise.  When insulin is in the bloodstream your fat cells do not release fat for energy.  Plus, the insulin spike may crash your blood sugar temporarily leaving you feeling really hungry.


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A little over a year ago, even before I decided to transition, my weight was starting get out of hand again, up around 260 ( I'm 6'3").

I realized that I really needed to do something about it again.  I had read something similar to the study Deborah mentioned so thought I'd give that a try.

My beverage of choice was Diet Coke. Wasn't two litres a day but could be up to 6 cans easy.  Knew I wouldn't be able to cut out it completely so what I did was limit my soda intake to once a day at most and only with a meal.  I substituted in unsweetened iced tea and flavored sparkling water with no sweeteners of any kind.  Plenty of coffee also.  I also tried to eat healthier and snack less, though I wasn't totally adherent to that.

Result of my totally not controlled for variables unscientific study on myself:

I lost 30 pounds in about 3 months.  Limiting my soda was the only thing I was consistent with.  Still doing that and holding my weight around 225 (+/- about 3 pounds) with out much effort.

HRT started in late February,  after the intitial weight drop and does not seem to be affecting my weight either way. 

  I want to get down to about 200 and have been trying intermittent fasting.  So far I haven't been able to string together more than a few days in a row.  I have noticed about a pound a day drop when I have been able to do it.



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[Deborah]

I have been doing IF now for 139 consecutive days.  It may be that or may be my exercise but I find myself in the unusual place of not gaining fat weight no matter what I eat.  Most of my diet is immaculate but for the past several weeks I have been eating candy bars on top of it approaching or exceeding 4000 calories on some days and above 2500 cal on all days.  Despite that I have gained zero fat and may have even lost a little bit. 

As proposed by Dr. Jason Fung, fasting is supposed to reset one's set-point weight at a lower level.  In my case this may be what's happened. 

Most of my adult life my set point was around 200 lbs and I would stick there plus or minus 5 pounds no matter what.  With strict dieting and marathon running I could get that down to around 180.  Now my set point is around 165 to 170 with very little fat left to lose.

Unexpectedly, I haven't lost any strength and at least in my lower body am stronger than ever before despite being a lot smaller.

IF is supposed to normalize insulin, insulin sensitivity, and other hunger hormones.  It's also reported to increase growth hormone by up to around 2000%.  While there is a lot of controversy over those claims, in my case they would explain what's going on if they are true.




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[Becca Kay]

So, now that my e was tripled, I've not been able to lose weight.  In fact I've gained three pounds on the same diet.    My diet has been portion control only.  Now I think it's got to be portion control and change of food.  Boo!

If any of you have tips for losing weight while on hrt, I'd love to know.  I'm currently at 152, and my goal is to be below 140...

Bari Jo

i have had an Eating Disorder my entire adult life.  i've screwed around with every type of diet.  what i've found is that weight loss is calories in vs calories burned.  it is that simple.  WHAT you eat is important only in that some things make it harder or easier for you to moderate your food intake. Certain foods make you more or less hungry, or trigger you to eat more.   I'm not advocating you do anything unhealthy.  I'm only saying that my history of dieting has led me to view diet in a relatively straight forward manner. 

When you do lose weight your body will fight you.  HRT or no HRT your body doesn't like losing weight.  As you lose weight your body becomes more efficient and needs fewer calories to get the daily metobolic job done.  That leads to plateaus where your weight levels off or even increases.  Your metabolism will also slow over time simply because you're eating less.  It reacts to lower caloric intake by adjusting to it and burning less.  In fact, one trick a lot of people use when their weight plateaus while dieting is to INCREASE calorie intake.  Not excessively... just enough to push your metabolism up.  So if you're only eating 1600 calories per day try eating 1800 or 2000 for a couple of weeks and then lower your calorie intake again.  I've actually LOST weight by increasing my calorie intake for brief periods of time.

If you're excercising regularly your body will also become more efficient.  if your body was burning 2400 calories per day last year without exercise it may actually be buring 2000 per day a year later once it's become accustomed to regular moderate exercise.  You may read or you may be told that 30 min of a specific type of cardio = X number of calories.  But that's not really true.  If you exercise in the same way regularly what happens is your body stops burning those extra calories, and unless you're do extreme exercise (like training for a marathon) your body might with regular moderate exercise burn the same number of calories per week that it did when you were sedentary. 


NOBODY loses a lot of weight on a perfectly even schedule.  Everybody plateaus and struggles a bit.  The key is to eat a relatively balanced diet.  Change up what you're doing from time to time. 

Don't get discouraged.  Everyone goes through this. 

[Roll]

I've actually LOST weight by increasing my calorie intake for brief periods of time.

This was my plan spending the last week eating cupcakes and halloween candy all along.

[Gertrude]

i have had an Eating Disorder my entire adult life.  i've screwed around with every type of diet.  what i've found is that weight loss is calories in vs calories burned.  it is that simple.  WHAT you eat is important only in that some things make it harder or easier for you to moderate your food intake. Certain foods make you more or less hungry, or trigger you to eat more.   I'm not advocating you do anything unhealthy.  I'm only saying that my history of dieting has led me to view diet in a relatively straight forward manner. 

When you do lose weight your body will fight you.  HRT or no HRT your body doesn't like losing weight.  As you lose weight your body becomes more efficient and needs fewer calories to get the daily metobolic job done.  That leads to plateaus where your weight levels off or even increases.  Your metabolism will also slow over time simply because you're eating less.  It reacts to lower caloric intake by adjusting to it and burning less.  In fact, one trick a lot of people use when their weight plateaus while dieting is to INCREASE calorie intake.  Not excessively... just enough to push your metabolism up.  So if you're only eating 1600 calories per day try eating 1800 or 2000 for a couple of weeks and then lower your calorie intake again.  I've actually LOST weight by increasing my calorie intake for brief periods of time.

If you're excercising regularly your body will also become more efficient.  if your body was burning 2400 calories per day last year without exercise it may actually be buring 2000 per day a year later once it's become accustomed to regular moderate exercise.  You may read or you may be told that 30 min of a specific type of cardio = X number of calories.  But that's not really true.  If you exercise in the same way regularly what happens is your body stops burning those extra calories, and unless you're do extreme exercise (like training for a marathon) your body might with regular moderate exercise burn the same number of calories per week that it did when you were sedentary. 


NOBODY loses a lot of weight on a perfectly even schedule.  Everybody plateaus and struggles a bit.  The key is to eat a relatively balanced diet.  Change up what you're doing from time to time. 

Don't get discouraged.  Everyone goes through this.

On a perfect schedule, no. However, consistency with the right actions will lead to weight loss. I'm 68lbs down in 19.5 weeks. Finding out what works well is the key and that has some Kentucky windage. The only common thread I find is eating less than one uses. What you do other than that affects the rate of weight loss.


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[Bari Jo]

I lost this since it was moved, so I might as well answer here.  I think the weight loss has continued.  I've been in Japan for two weeks and I'm missing a scale.  I think I'm below 145 now, Yay?  I feel fine and continue to eat well.  It really helps that I have a goal.  What I noticed today though is I may have swollen nodes or other glands under my jawline.  I never really noticed before,/after but with the weight loss I do.  I can't believe I'm nearing on 40 lbs lost from my heaviest and most miserable.

Bari Jo

[Roll]

I lost this since it was moved, so I might as well answer here.  I think the weight loss has continued.  I've been in Japan for two weeks and I'm missing a scale.  I think I'm below 145 now, Yay?  I feel fine and continue to eat well.  It really helps that I have a goal.  What I noticed today though is I may have swollen nodes or other glands under my jawline.  I never really noticed before,/after but with the weight loss I do.  I can't believe I'm nearing on 40 lbs lost from my heaviest and most miserable.

Bari Jo

That's a huge accomplishment! Particularly at lower weights to begin with! (Easier to lose 40 pounds in the 300s than it is the 100s, since you expend more calories naturally maintaining.)

[Bari Jo]

Yeah, it really is, and makes me happy every time I out on skinny jeans.  My goal, which I might not ever meet is 135, which is what some wonk decided was the ideal weight for a woman my height.  I think it was written during the potato famine or something since I feel I'm thinner than most women my height now, except for the ones that give me GD.  That's the reason I have that goal.  I was behind a lovely lady a couple nights ago.  Best figure I've seen in years, and of course my height.  She was probably a model, and of course everything about her set off my GD.  I will never be as pretty, or thin as her, but I will be 'ideal'.

Bari Jo