I lose more weight when i don't diet?

14 Comments

I have tried everything to lose weight and I've been big all my life. Even when I was at my smallest, I was a starving artist living on my own and walking 5 miles a day. But the moment I moved back with my family I gained it all back within about 3 years. Since then, I have tried every single diet under the Sun. I have been paleo, vegan, keto, caloric restrictions and even low carb and more. Then I've even tried just a 2,000 calorie diet with nothing but healthy, meal planned foods. I never ate any sugar and I completely stayed away from processed carbs. It seemed to take about 3 weeks for even a few pounds to fall off which I guess is normal and healthy. But the weight would come backup within a week or 2 and I was fluctuating within the same 7 pounds of loss and gain. I gave up and got discouraged and quite literally I couldn't do it anymore. From then on out instead of having a scrambled egg breakfast with spinach and tomatoes, I opted for just plain Cheerios with milk. I got sick and tired of doing all that cooking and all of that prepping and it wasn't getting me anywhere. I still felt hungry all the time. Then instead of something like whole grain rice with chicken and broccoli for lunch I would cook myself up a lean Burger with grilled hamburger buns and a homemade potato salad and I would allow myself a can of Coca-Cola. Of course I wouldn't go on a complete binge but I started allowing myself chocolate every day, or a can of soda or even a pizza. Believe it or not I've started to eat a little bit more processed foods although not nearly like what some people do. I haven't even been walking or anything and I feel a lot more satisfied throughout the day, my energy levels are higher, I can focus more clearly and I've lost 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Have any of you ever had this happen? I lose more weight when I don't diet. Keep in mind I am still being conscious about what I eat and making healthy choices for my health. But I have been having better exercise times when I do and my muscles aren't as sore. I can't find anything about it on Google so I thought I'd come here. Does anybody have any experience with this?

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Comments ( 14 )
  • howaminotmyself
    3 years ago

    Are you a 200lb man with an active lifestyle? Because 2000 calories is a lot of food.

    Dont count calories, check for vitamin intake and quality of the nutrients.

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    • CuriousGirl2005
      3 years ago

      I'm at 234lb woman who's 33 with a moderately active lifestyle. I spent hours researching and many articles said that someone my age and height needs about 2,000 calories a day. Whereas someone at my WEIGHT requires 2,567 just to maintain weight. So I thought by eating 2,000 calories a day I'd lose weight

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  • Boojum
    3 years ago

    One diet you don't mention is 16:8 intermittent fasting.

    For what it's worth, my experience is that sticking to a schedule of eating only during an eight hour period every day is a good way to slowly lose weight and keep it off. Obviously, it would be daft to gorge on sweet, fatty stuff or constantly nibble during those eight hours, but you don't need to count calories or eat any particular sort of food; you just try to stick to healthy (or healthyish) food you enjoy, and eat as much as you want. Another important element is paying attention to what your body is saying about being hungry or full. A lot of people have problems with their weight because they eat when they're bored or unhappy or because of social pressure on them to eat.

    If you wanted to try this diet, you could pick whatever eight hours you wanted. What works for me is noon to 8 pm. Since you seem to be someone who regularly eats breakfast, you'd probably find that you felt hungry in the morning if you tried this eating-style and lunch was the first meal of your day, but your body should soon adjust and that feeling would fade in a few weeks.

    Don't worry about how skipping breakfast flies in the face of the old saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Companies trying to sell us sugary and fatty breakfast foods would like us all to believe it's true, but there's no solid scientific proof that eating breakfast is good for us or even necessary. In lots of places, breakfast as Americans and northern Europeans understand it doesn't exist. Italians, for example, normally have only coffee and a small pastry for breakfast, and the statistics for the obesity rates and general health of Italians compare favourably to those of the UK and USA.

    If you wanted to keep your breakfast and you decided to go for, say, 8 am to 5 pm, you'd need to think about whether you'd have problems with social pressures on you to eat after that time, since that's pretty normal in our culture. (BTW, you can't split that eight hour period into two; it would be pretty pointless to decide that your eating hours were from eight to noon and five to nine!)

    You need to think about the calories hidden in soft drinks and alcoholic beverages when you're on this diet. You should also be aware of the studies suggesting that artificial sweeteners screw with our body's blood glucose regulation mechanisms, and the possible link between an increased consumption of diet soft drinks and rising rates of Type II diabetes.

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    • CuriousGirl2005
      3 years ago

      Wow! Thank you for such a detailed and helpful response! I'll try that. Thanks!

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  • McSorley
    3 years ago

    Honestly couldn't tell you. I've been slender my whole life and I eat like a pig. Never been on a diet, before. If you lose more weight if you don't diet, then...I don't know, don't diet.

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  • Tommythecaty
    3 years ago

    Damned wall of text, did you eat the fucking spacebar as part of that diet.

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    • Mammal-lover
      3 years ago

      Most likely. I donf get why people diet. It's so stupid. Like detox formulas. What exactly are they detoxing? I mean my insides do a pretty good job of expelling toxins like they are supposed to

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      • howaminotmyself
        3 years ago

        No they don't. You need potassium to rid yourself of sodium, not just water. Our bodies hold a lot. Kidney stones are a perfect example. And heavy metals don't go anywhere. I am sure you are healthy but most people haven't a clue and marketing has made them ignorant about what healthy actually is.

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        • Mammal-lover
          3 years ago

          Who doesnt eat a banana once in awhile though? One if the best fruits eva!

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      • CuriousGirl2005
        3 years ago

        I've never been able to stick to a diet. Or a detox. Anything that isn't just sensible eating makes me feel like garbage

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        • Mammal-lover
          3 years ago

          Yea exactly it's all stupid. I wat till I'm full and move on with my day. Then again I dont work a 9-5 office job so I burn what I eat

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      • Tommythecaty
        3 years ago

        Or like just put down the forky

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  • hauntedbysandwiches
    3 years ago

    I'd rather be healthy than eat shit that's gonna give me a heart attack but that's just me.

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    • CuriousGirl2005
      3 years ago

      I totally agree but I'm losing weight not being so strict. I'm not saying I binge i specifically stated that. Can't being severely overweight cause problems too? That's my confusion.

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