Thank you so much
@Sid Bonkers . I have no doubt at all that what you say is true and it worked for you.
Simply counting calories worked for me at first too. Then it stopped working, so following the logic of the day I consumed less calories and did more exercise. Then that stopped working. Eventually I couldn't cut what I was eating down any further because I was constantly ill with chest and throat infections.
When I had flu in 2007 I ate nothing for 6 days and an average of 300 calories for the next 5 days. I lost only half a pound. My already slim son lost 11 1/2 pounds during the same illness.. He looked emaciated. I was still morbidly obese. It was then that I realised that my metabolism had stopped working properly. Simply eating less and exercising more was never going to help me lose weight. I began to each as much as I liked, just cutting out bread, pasta, sugar, rice, potatoes and other flour products. I didn't hear about this type of diet from anyone else. It was something I was simply trying for myself. I was sick to death of trying other people's diets that didn't work. I really thought I was the only one in the world who tried so hard to lose weight and couldn't manage to do it. So I was on my own and a lonely place it was too, but for the first time in about 25 years I wasn't hungry. I ate 3 meals a day and increased my calorie intake greatly. I stopped counting calories and ate as much cheese, bacon , butter, cream etc as I wanted. I had always loved fruit and veg, but not snacking meant I still had lots of veg but a lot less fruit, because I had often snacked on banana or pear before. I didn't need snacks now that I was eating plenty of nutritious food. Amazingly with all these platefuls of food I lost a pound a week for 7 weeks! Who would have thought you could increase calorie intake so dramatically and lose weight?! Unfortunately other health issues kicked in and I was knocked off course for a while, but when I got back on course I was more focused on what I then learnt was called LCHF.
Sid you are so wrong. When I have the time (and I don't have time this week, sorry) I read all the links that are given me, whether I think I will agree with them or not. How else can one learn? I have an open mind, whilst yours seems rather closed. Have your read my fat fast thread which I quoted? Don't you think it's amazing that I can lose 6 pounds whilst almost doubling my calorie intake from my usual level? I have merely maintained my weight for over 6 months, then I doubled the calorie intake for 5 1/2 days and lost 6 pounds! Awesome I call it! I didn't get this diet from a guru. It's my own. I have never heard of anyone else deciding to substitute their 3 meals a day with a tub of cream for each meal before. I tried it because I thought it might work for me and I'm desperate to lose weight. Don't you think if I could lose weight your way I would? You are so fortunate that your weight went after only around a year. Please don't scorn those of us for whom your chosen diet failed. If willpower and self control were all that was needed I would be slim and would never have got fat. I simply didn't know that carbs were always a problem for me until I tried that initial diet after that bout of flu. I have only been diabetic for 4 years. I have been battling with my weight for so much longer.
For the lucky ones any type of weight loss diet will work, including LCHF, which would have worked for you too, if you hadn't believed the lies about fat and calories, You don't believe it because you didn't try it. Why would you? You didn't need to. I did. I know that your way doesn't work for me because I have tried it. You don't know that my way wouldn't work for you because you have never tried it. I don't have a problem with you or anyone else controlling your weight or diabetes any way you please as long as it works. I don't understand why you keep telling me that my way doesn't work when it's my last hope. It may be the last hope others have too. So you go on encouraging those who want to follow low GL and help them, but please don't tell me it will work for me. I did a low GI diet before you even gained your 5 stones. I had been putting on weight at a rate of 7 pounds a year back then. My GP gave me the GI diet along with recommended portion sizes years ago. I weighed everything and stuck to it to the letter. I gained 8 pounds in 2 weeks. You are so lucky that basically any diet would work for you, please don't try to make life harder for those of us for whom weight loss is extremely difficult.
Well done Gary on finding the right plan for you.
@azure I started typing this a long time before your post came up. I would be gratetful if it could stay since I was tagged and I am supplying an answer. I will leave the thread now. Thanks.