[jmh6251]

Hi everyone i thought i would introduce myself. I am a retired grandma of 11, and a proud Mom of 4 grown children. We recently lost a beloved kitty who was a member of our family for 12 years. He just left a few weeks ago and we never found him. I have about 50 pounds to lose and have tried every diet in the book, and some that nobody else has thought of LOL. Nothing works permanently. So what I have done, is figured out how many calories it will take to maintain my ideal weight, and that is how many calories I eat in a day. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be!!! You take yesterday, I was on track but starving. So I ended up 200 calories too many. How long does it take to tame your stomach? My daughter says 6 weeks (((UGH))). I sincerly hope she is wrong. that means i have 5 weeks to go. I know some of you have been doing this for awhile so it has to be doable. Any help will be appreciated. Judy

[Brandis]

Hi! The quality of your calories matters. Try to pick whole foods with denser nutrients but fewer calories (veggies). The closer to real food you pick, the less hungry you will likely be. If you eat a lot of processed "diet" foods, you will be missing out on all the good things in real foods. Planning your meals in advance helps, too. Cooking your own food with veggies, proteins, legumes and some grains like quinoa can help fill you up. Don't drink your calories, either. Limit sugar to the smallest amount you can tolerate and cravings will subside tremendously. Good luck!

[jmh6251]

Thankyou for your advice, I appreciate your helpful suggestions

[Snoofie]

I second the suggestion about limiting sugar as much as you can; it helps keep your blood sugar stable. I'm currently trying to wean myself off sugar as much as I can, and it's kind of hellish. :/

I've decided to eat the way you describe as well. A reply to a thread I started got me to download "Calorie Queens: Living Thin in a Fat World", by Jackie and Diane Scott....mind you, I *just* downloaded it and have yet to read it, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to say (they're a mother and daughter who, between them, lost 300 pounds by pretty much doing exactly what you're doing.)

I've done WW, I've done VLCDs, I've done bulimia. I'm so tired of trying things and not having them work in the long term. I lose the weight, yeah, but then it comes back...and I need something that will make weight loss actually livable on a long-term basis.

[jmh6251]

Me too, I've tried Atkins, Low Glycemic, starving by only eating about 400 calories a day( I don't recommend that one LOL). I've tried McDougall, and I have tried calorie restricted diets of around 1200 calories. needless to say I have quit after a couple of days. So I decided if I figured out how many calories I needed to maintain 130 pounds that's what i need to be doing. I think it is going to work. As long as this is not something I am going to stop doing I am off the diet mentality. I can become anal and a pain in the behind when I am on a "DIET". I hope one of these days to get used to it so I don't have to count the numbers all the time. I won't quit anytime too soon though. I should probably get a phone app it would be easier then writing it down.

[jmh6251]

Things seem to be getting better. I haven't been as hungry last couple of days. This morning I got up early and took a 2 mile speed walk. My joints seem to be doing better the last couple of days so I was able to. I am thinking this won't be as hard as I thought

[Bilbi]

I'm also a, well not so proud member of the I tried it all club. I also tried vegan and paleo, no magic bullet there either. So I'm going back to the only thing that worked for me before. Writing down the calories on a piece of paper and telling myself how much I want it.