HUGE Platefuls

[beigeotter]

Hey everyone!
I am a first time poster and started Nos this past tuesday. I am just trying to get other people's perspective on my eating habits. Currently a student in college, I pile up my plate very high to fit in all the things I want to eat. Usually these would be spread over several plates, but since thats not how NoS works, I try to get them on one.
Usually I get salad with olive oil and vinegar with maybe a table spoon of pasta or some similar junky carb on the side. On the occasions I abstain from salad, my plate is loaded to the sky with steamed or cooked vegetables. In both cases, I probably place some chicken or protein on top of the pile as well.
Here is my question: Will it be harder for me to lose weight from large portions, even if calorically they are not abominable? I fear my stomach won't shrink and I will need to keep eating the same great amounts just to fill it? Does it seem like I intensely focus on cutting down my portions?

For the record I am female, 5' 10" tall, and weight about 150. My goal is around 140-142.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL REPLIES!

[rose]

You don't seem to be eating a lot of carbs?
Could the lack of carbs be the cause of the need for huge platefuls? (If I don't have enough carbs at breakfast and lunch, I feel tired around 5pm... so I would probably try to avoid that tiredness and hunger by loading up my plate with lots of "healthy" veggies... which are fine for vitamins and fibers but don't provide the slow acting sugar required for brain and muscle activity during the long hours between meals.)
As a general rule I try to fill my plate with 1/2 carbs+protein, and 1/2 veggies+fruit. The exact proportions vary. There are several threads on this site and lots of websites regarding the "ideal" proportions of the various food groups.

Generally speaking, you can try to decrease the amount of food slightly and see what happens.
This is what I am doing right now after recommitting to NoS in January (after 2 months of poor compliance and lots of overeating). For instance in January I felt that 7 spoons of noodle soup (dry) were necessary to keep me from hunger until the next meal. Now I tried 5 spoons and I find it works fine. If I had felt hungry enough to be seriously tempted by a snack I would have upped it back to 6...

[ShannahR]

beigeotter,
No offense but you weigh a perfect amount (BMI=21) for your height. I've heard from other people that it's very difficult to lose weight when you are already at a healthy weight.
Why do you feel like you need to go on a diet?

[beigeotter]

150 is high for me. I feel better when 5-10 pounds lighter. Being in college and pretty stressed this semester has made me gain weight that I am unused to carrying, and the numbers on the scale have been steadily rising the past few months. I am just trying to reach my normal weight.

[wosnes]

What/how did you eat before you started No S -- normally, that is?

[beigeotter]

I ate fairly healthy but NoS is perfect for me. For although I ate salads and healthy foods, from force of habit and because I actually like the taste of veggies, I often had an excessive amount of snacks, sweets, and seconds, or thirds. My snacks consisted of mostly m&ms and other small chocolate sweets. I always avoided soda and juices and abstained from bread and eating carbs too often. At the same time, I could not resist desert after meals I ate alone. In fact eating alone is what did me in. I have had since childhood an unrestrained impulse to binge and eat whatever is before me, I consistently consume all my roommates food, and would eat 3 servings of pasta from the cafeteria when nobody was watching. So now, I am trying to figure out the most effective way to lose weight on NoS and whether in addition to staying away from my vices it is imperative to change the actual volume of my portions. Sorry for the long long rant. Thanks for all advice.

[oolala53]

It's not a long rant! This one will be.

No S is not about being very thin, or training to be an athlete, or anything like that. In a paradoxical way way, it's not even about losing weight. It is about abstaining from people's most offensive eating habits, learning to respond to hunger with discrete meals, and living so that food and weight don't rule your life.

I think you've answered your own question, in a way. You saw that snacking and sweets were the real problem, and your desire not to eat alone. I'm 56 and single. I've overeaten plenty in secret in my life. There is an emotional element in eating too much, but personally, I've come to the conclusion that the solution is the same no matter what. Just don't do it. The continual lack of reinforcement of those emotional urges will extinguish or great reduce them over time. And don't enforce low calorie diets. I read diet boards and the pattern is so clear now. Young women get into this cycle of eating very little and then bingeing. This will go on for YEARS! Don't get caught in the cycle. Counteract thoughts of eating and of loneliness with moderation and the recognition that you are fine alone or with other people. And do pursue either other compelling pleasurable or productive activities instead of eating.

As others have said, eat your pile of veggies, but make sure you have about 50% of your volume in more dense foods at each meal. Have some fat, too. Otherwise those between meal snacks and candy are going to look a lot better. Also, don't look for quick weight loss. At your weight, it may take a few months. And it's possible you'll just "feel better" eating more sanely rather than weighing less.

[Cassie]

Hi Beigeotter & welcome to the boards.

I agree with every word Oolala said.

You're young, you're at a relatively healthy weight. So that's a very good place to be starting from . Be glad, as a first step, about that.

Second. There's loads in eating that has to do with emotions. You already know that from your experience. Bingeing in secret & then undereating is a pattern that certainly can carry on for years. And believe me if you allow it to continue, I'm telling you from bitter experience: it'll only get worse! I'm almost 37 now, have lost & put on 10 kilos at a time since my early 20s, always in response to emotional upheavals e.g. new relationships etc. This was ok (ish) in my 20s but in my 30s I found I couldn't lose what I was putting on that easily, and the emotional bingeing got more entrenched, & my metabolism was not responding well. So you have a good chance to tackle this problem now that it's just beginning!

Its good, I feel, that you've turned to NoS & not to some crazy faddy diet (been there done that too, doesn't work). I think that, since you only have to lose a little bit, you have to accept it may take a bit of time. Its more about building good habits & cutting those snacks than anything else. So I wouldn't worry too much if I were you if your portions are too big at this early point in the diet. If they are too big, so be it, just make sure you include some protein / carbs too in your plate. Gradually your portions will become smaller, you'll be amazed to watch it happen naturally if you allow it to. Concentrate, instead, on cutting out snacks / sugar, that's the main step. As I said, I feel portion control is NOT the first step.

Good luck, please come back with any questions you have.

[ThomsonsPier]

I fear my stomach won't shrink

The stomach doesn't shrink. It has an inherent size and will distend to accommodate excessive intake of food. You'll know if that happens, because it's extremely uncomfortable. When the food is digested, the stomach returns to normal size: there's no way to make it physically smaller without surgery.

Your diet sounds largely fine to me (though I'd personally add some more starch) and sounds like mine. I am roughly the same size as you; slightly shorter and heavier, in fact. Vegetables take up a lot of space on the plate, and that's good. It crowds out the unhealthy stuff. They also shrink a lot when you eat them (being mostly water), meaning that they don't take up as much space in your stomach as you think.

One issue I do have is your apparent perception of starches. Carbohydrates are not junk. Complex carbohydrates are the best and most efficient source of digestible calories you can eat, which is probably why most diets seem to view them in a poor light: it's the incorrect perception that calories are bad, without any qualifiers as to the source of those calories.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant. Anyway, the important thing is to listen to your body. If you're reasonably active and you feel well on a certain combination of foods, that chances are that you are well on those foods.

[Too solid flesh]

...don't enforce low calorie diets. I read diet boards and the pattern is so clear now. Young women get into this cycle of eating very little and then bingeing. This will go on for YEARS! Don't get caught in the cycle.

I couldn't agree more.

[Cassie]

Yes I definitely agree too (as I said before). You're young, take advantage of the fact that your metabolism is responding, I'm sure, perfectly well at this stage, your body is at its peak, don't ruin it with yo-yo dieting which I PROMISE YOU, you'll come to regret. You've turned to NoS: that's a really great place to be in order to work on your eating habits long-term. Its a sustainable, logical eating plan that you can keep up for life.