childoftheking wrote:I'm glad u r back. I'm new to no s only a little over a month into it. So far I'm loving the sanity although today I was talking w/ a friend & started thinking maybe I should check out something else to lose faster them maintain w/ no s. I really don't want that craziness, but I wld like to look better for my sons graduation. I'm committed to keeping up no s till may 4th (that will b 2 months). Then I may do something to lose a little faster then after graduation go back to no s. but after reading y'all's posts, I think it may be better just to stick w/ no s & lump it about the pictures.
Let my experience be a cautionary tale:
I had my second child at 41 and had difficulty losing the baby weight. All of my life I'd been a dieter. Weight Watchers got me down 20 lbs. then a complete stall. I still wanted to lose 27 lbs. to get to goal weight. I decided to go on Jenny Craig. Within 4 months, I lost 19 lbs. I was thrilled! 8 lbs. to go! I was exercising 6 days a week, 30-40 minutes a day (exercise DVDs). Well, for another year and a half I stayed on Jenny Craig ($$$$$) and never lost the 8 lbs. For about five minutes I was 3 lbs. above goal weight but my weight would fluctuate, a pound here, 2 lbs. there, bouncing around. So, I decided that's probably where my body wanted to be and began maintenance. I had lost 23 of the 27 lbs. I wanted to lose.
My plan for maintenance was as follows: 3 meals a day, all plates 1/2 veg/fruit, all meals moderate size, cooked using Cooking Light recipes and continue exercise. No junk food. If I wanted a snack, it had to be fruit. Guess what? I started gaining weight and, of course, freaking out. On a moderate, healthy, sane way of eating WITH exercise I regained. So I decided to ramp up my exercise. I added a circuit training, weight training, interval training, and increased the time to 1 hour, 6 days a week. Guess what? I started to get really hungry. I mean REALLY hungry. It was torture. Sometimes I resisted and sometimes I didn't. I didn't crave "bad" foods, just more of the good stuff. So I'd double portion that healthy Cooking Light recipe. I started having seconds (and hating myself for it!). I started snacking more, all good healthy stuff though. More weight gain.
By the first year out I had gained 8 lbs. The next year another 8 lbs. By five years (sound familiar?) all 23 lbs. were back. Even though I was an exerciser. Even though I ate healthfully.
I truly believe that low calorie diets distort your metabolism (making a person even more thrifty) and also wreak havoc on your hunger/satiety cues. The last year and a half on Jenny Craig I was not losing weight even though I was eating a low calorie diet. My metabolism just shifted downward to compensate for the decreased intake.
That's the problem with those diets, especially if you've got a history of dieting. The weight loss is great upfront and you feel so jazzed about it. Then it slows down. Then it grinds to a halt. Then you try to maintain but all those hormones, neurotransmitters and enzymes involved in regulating body weight and hunger/satiety start to do a dance in your brain and you feel compelled and driven to eat. Then regain and self-loathing.
Tread carefully.
ETA: There were times in the past 5 years that I tried to limit intake to lose weight. It would require an enormous amount of willpower and I would v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y lose 5 lbs. or so (it would take 4-6 months) but, again, the appetite would REV into overdrive and I'd start again with the snacking and seconds.
I don't know if No-S will lead to weight loss for me, but I do know it will lead to sanity. If nothing else, it will stop the yo-yo and the crazy and the self-loathing (hopefully) and that's worth a lot in my book.
Looking forward to getting to know everyone better, as we share this journey.
