Everyday Systems

I've been posting on this board a few times recently as I'm struggling as three months in I've not really lost any weight I've learnt that I was going through an extinction burst and I know that I need to keep to the rules of No S to hopefully, sort out my disordered eating and I know this is perhaps the key to making changes to my weight BUT after three months I've not really lost any weight 😩😩. What am I doing wrong. I must still be eating too much - I don't really snack nor am I too bothered about eating sweets, I don't eat seconds but I put my seconds on one plate at one meal - I load the plate up, if you get me. I don't really go mad on my S days either.

How can I make myself eat less? I feel deprived if I make myself eat less - I start wanting to raid the fridge. I'm only cheating on myself.

Will this improve? What's the matter with me? I wish I could lose weight by osmosis.

It sounds like your N day plates could use tweaking. You could load up a smaller size plate if you need that full-plate visual effect, or just put a little bit less food on your plate for a while. Then, when you get use to that, then take a little more food away, this way your stomach will learn to adjust to the smaller portions.

It's great that your S days are satisfactory to you; you need only look at your N-day meals.

I would suggest upping the ratio of less calorically-dense food to more calorically-dense food (i.e. vegetables to fatty foods) on your plates. You still get the same amount of food, and the fiber will keep you just as full.

Also, it may be time to add some movement if you don't already. My weight didn't budge until I started walking.

There is nothing wrong with you, and congrats on sticking with it for three months!

Good advice, above. If you haven't yet lost weight, it's because you're still not burning significantly more calories than you're consuming. It sounds like you're aware of what needs to change (piling up second helpings onto a single plate). Don't lose sight of what you have accomplished, though: Congratulations on establishing the habit of just eating three, 1-plate meals... that's a positive accomplishment ! It's time for you to take it a step further, and start changing what you put on those plates. I suggest you try covering at least half of your plate with vegetables, and split the other half between a good protein source and a healthy starch. Just one layer, though ! Don't be afraid to add a little fat, either (a pat or two of butter, a drizzle of oil, etc.)... it's good for you, and will help keep you feeling satisfied. Drink a big glass of water before you start eating, and again when you've eaten what's on the plate. I can practically guarantee you'll feel full at the end of the meal if you do this.

Also, I noticed you said that you don't "really" snack, and that you're not "too" bothered by eating sweets. Does this mean you're still sometimes snacking between meals and/or eating sweets on N-days? If this is the case, I recommend simply going back to square one with "vanilla" No-S, and focusing on getting the basics strictly down pat.

You can do this!

Hi Nell12!

I'll add my $0.02 to everyone's advice. I'm coming from the perspective of trying vanilla NoS in the past with limited success, to doing a modified version of NoS, finally reaching (and surpassing--yay!!) my goal. So right now, I'm maintaining and refining.

1. Like Shuggernaut said above, weight loss is all about burning more calories than you consume. Since you have the three-meal habit down, don't worry too much about changing the make up of your plates, just eat less of what you like. No piling!

2. To get through the desire to eat more, or when you get "the hungries" between meals, you can try one of my most effective visualization tools: mentally tell your body that if it's hungry or wants more food, it can delve into the fat stores! I've mentioned this before, but as long as you're not at or below essential body fat (12% for females), there is no danger of starvation, starvation mode, or any of that. Your body will use the fat in its fat stores if you let it!

Hope this helps!

Thanks all of you for wise replies. Sometimes you can't see "the wood for the trees" as we say in the uk - do they say this in USA too? You need people to help you get into focus. Yes I should cutdown my quantities and up the exercise - like getting out on my bike now we've got some summer here. Whenever I think of eating less I start to panic somewhat, but as you all say, it's a short term 21 day habit change and not forevermore. So, yep I'll give it a try - one day at a time .....😀😀s

First of all, well done on establishing the habit! There are some great suggestions above.

Everyone's different, but I found that I could easily, EASILY eat enough to wipe out a deficit over three one-plate meals. I've found it easier to cut down the earlier meals, because then I'd feel I had a bigger meal in the evening to look forward to. So usually I try to have a small breakfast, bigger lunch and more normal sized evening meal. I have got used to the small portion at breakfast and usually don't feel hungry till lunchtime.

Hi Nell12, I'm also fairly new to No S myself, but it might be helpful to others if you show what your actual meals are for a week or so. Also what added activities you're doing on which days. I remember being surprised at what my actual food diary looked like when I kept it verbatim. Same thing for exercise logs. Good luck.

Good idea! Whatsonfirst, I'll try to give a picture of what I eat: on an average No S day breakfast is uncooked oats or muesli, no sugar, dried fruit - apricot, figs , maybe some blueberries and raspberries, plain Greek yogurt and milk, 2 coffees. Or I'll have toast and poached egg. Lunch 3/4 oatcake biscuits and cheese with Brie or cheddar, or I'll have a chicken salad sandwich; dinner is chicken, beef or fish veg or salad potatoes or pasta or rice. Every night I have 1 or 2 max glasses of wine that's my treat and its acceptable in the NoS diet. S days are similar with maybe some crisps and perhaps a dessert or sweet like cheesecake and cream or tiramisu or fruit pie and cream and a piece of dark chocolate.

Exercise is a 2 /3 mile walk with our black Labrador once sometimes twice a day. .
How does this sound to you? Where might I be going wrong?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm going to read all these posts in more detail tomorrow and work out a plan to eat less and start it Monday as a 21 day challenge

Nell12 wrote:I don't eat seconds but I put my seconds on one plate at one meal - I load the plate up, if you get me.

Hi Nell-
I love a full plate, too! Sometimes my "plate" is a small serving bowl, if I'm eating mostly stir fried veggies in a sauce.
I can get away with a large volume if it is not dense food- I like cauliflower "rice" as a base, and pile stuff on top of that, or I make zucchini "noodles" with a spiralizer, and that feels psychologically like having a pasta dish, but it's all bulk and not anything rich/heavy.
Well, that's my 2 cents. It's sort of like the "volumetrics" approach.
We in the US say you can't see "the forest for the trees".

Nell12 wrote:Good idea! Whatsonfirst, I'll try to give a picture of what I eat: on an average No S day breakfast is uncooked oats or muesli, no sugar, dried fruit - apricot, figs , maybe some blueberries and raspberries, plain Greek yogurt and milk, 2 coffees. Or I'll have toast and poached egg. Lunch 3/4 oatcake biscuits and cheese with Brie or cheddar, or I'll have a chicken salad sandwich; dinner is chicken, beef or fish veg or salad potatoes or pasta or rice. Every night I have 1 or 2 max glasses of wine that's my treat and its acceptable in the NoS diet. S days are similar with maybe some crisps and perhaps a dessert or sweet like cheesecake and cream or tiramisu or fruit pie and cream and a piece of dark chocolate.

Exercise is a 2 /3 mile walk with our black Labrador once sometimes twice a day. .
How does this sound to you? Where might I be going wrong?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm going to read all these posts in more detail tomorrow and work out a plan to eat less and start it Monday as a 21 day challenge

Hi Nell12, I hope we get folks commenting with more dietary knowlege than me. On the surface your food selection looks okay to me(after saying I'm no dietician). In my case, 7-14 glasses of wine per week would pack on the weight. I love wine, but the year we drank it with dinner almost every night added 20 lbs. I have 3-4 craft brewed beers a week, or else it negates the hard work that sticking to No S or Atkins , etc. achieves for me. As I'm still waiting for my copy of No S to arrive in the mail, I wasn't aware that No S says 2 drinks every night was okay. I thought that was an occasional thing.

As to your activity of walking your retriever two-thirds of a mile, does it take 30 minutes? Or was that 2 to 3 miles? We've had goldens for almost 30 years, so I know how they love their walks. As an engineer, we'd say only change one variable in a system(experiment) to see if it has the desired effect. By that I mean try tweaking only one thing with your diet, and/or maybe one thing with your activities. Good luck, you'll get there.

Also not an expert, but what you are eating looks absolutely fine to me and not excessive (and appetising!). I love wine, but have found that whereas in the past I could maintain a healthy weight while drinking it regularly, that's no longer the case for me. I usually limit it to weekends now, and I suspect even that it too often for me. I'm not saying to give it up, but just that it sounds like you are eating just the right amount of calories to maintain (which isn't a bad thing!), and to lose you'll have to cut something down. The wine might be the easiest. One large glass (I don't know what size you have!) can be over 200 calories. I try to replace wine in the evenings with herbal teas or decaff coffee. The other alternative, would be looking at portion sizes.