Palestrina said:

I didn't say it, but I understand it. I have personally villainized pasta in my mind. Reason being it really is useless for me. It might sound weird to hear that I enjoy lasagna or chicken alfredo but the truth is, the things I enjoy about them have nothing to do with the pasta. I like the meat and cheese and tomato in lasagna and I like the chicken, broccoli, and cheese sauce in the alfredo. The pasta is a filler for me and it sets my blood sugar crazy. If I eat the pasta and don't very carefully restrain myself from further sugar once the sugar crash starts setting in, it won't be long before I'm eating Milky Ways. That's just how my body works.

I make chicken and broccoli in an alfredo sauce for dinner a couple of times a month. My boys (aged 9 to 17) are all slim and trim athletes. The two older ones eat A LOT. I serve them chicken and broccoli with penne. I eat as much chicken and broccoli as I want, but I don't touch that penne because 1) I don't need the extra calories 2) it doesn't really add to my experience of the meal and most importantly, 3) it would make my blood sugar go crazy and if I'm not careful it could be the beginning of a downward sugar seeking cycle. Likewise, I'll make a chicken vegetable stir fry and serve it to my kids with white rice. My husband and I will eat the meal sans rice.

It's great if you can eat things like pasta and white rice and not be in danger of heading on a downward spiral, I wish I could - it would be a lot cheaper for me. But I can't. If I liked pasta more, then it would be a once in a while treat for me. As it is, if I'm going to have some sugar, it'll be in the form of something that feels like a treat to me, i.e. Reese's cup, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, etc. - those have value to me because I LOVE the way they taste. As it is, pasta is pretty much useless to me (except as a budget and meal expander to feed my growing boys).

I love r/fatlogic

I read it everyday on the train to work! It really helps keep you in check and now I have no patience when I see fatlogic in the wild!

Sorry but half of the food you eat doesn't look healthy to me.
For eg Dunkin Donuts coffee unless it's sugar and milk free, Toast and bacon( unless you put little to no oil) , veggies (unless raw or boiled with no oil) , salad (unless it's raw without any kind of dressing), sandwich(white or whole wheat?) , veggie chips( raw or cooked with oil or processed?) . Chocolate covered peanuts??? Can't just peanuts do without chocolate or sugar?

Hi rainbowbutterfly I'm sorry you're getting slammed for the food you eat. Nutrition can be very complicated for some people and it helps them to label foods as bad or good rather than just accepting that all food is food. My advice is to stop talking to dieters, in all honesty they struggle so much with food constantly fighting food and their bodies not realizing that this behavior usually leads to more weight gain.

Instead start paying attention to people around you that have a healthy relationship with food. These are the people that are normal weight but can easily navigate food. A normal eater usually doesn't think about calories, fats, carbs, sugar or other things that dieters freak out about. You probably know quite a few people that can eat a cookie without spiraling into a binge. Or eat French fries without hating themselves. Or can skip a meal without trying batting an eye. Or can eat a small handful of nuts instead of a big dinner and be happily satisfied.

Nobody should ever tell you to stop eating the foods you like to eat. There are better ways to regulate your weight without making you feel awful or criticizing you. I wouldn't change a thing about what you eat, as long as what you eat is keeping you satisfied. Make sure you can answer yes to that question. If you're interested in making peace with food and becoming a normal eater look into Intuitive Eating, it has helped me and so many others lose weight and form a healthy relationship with food. And remember that 95% of diets don't work. In fact, the heaviest people you may know are usually lifelong dieters, diets cause more weight gain than weight loss. If this wasn't true the diet industry wouldn't be a booming multi billion dollar industry. Diets are meant to fail.

I have a very tough view on carbs.

manufactured food is miserable.

a carb from broccoli is not the same as a carb from pasta. in that one has 'fresh and other good' things around it when ingested, the other has filler, chemical and junk around it.

No one is going to have my hard stand on carbs probably like me and I say my peace as I see it. say what you want also.

but unless you take the bull by the horns and 'fix yourself' then surgery is the only way....and for most on manufactured carby junk, the surgery is not foolproof, they gain back.

so it is your menu. take a cold hard look and do what best fits you and move forward in life. to stagnate and veg is miserable. being proactive is what does it. can we figure it all out overnight, nope, but we can start learning each day and move in a positive manner and eliminate the junk. sugar/carby junk is just that..junk.

Palestrina is right that moderation is healthiest. But moderation will look different to different bodies. I have blood sugar issues. I just do. And high glycemic food makes me physically want/crave/need more high glycemic food. Sugar is like a drug to me - it gives me a rush, makes me lightheaded and then I crash. I have to treat sugars the same way I treat alcohol. In moderation. And naturally, I've got my preferences. I used to drink and enjoy beer but once I hit 40, I sort of lost my taste for it - now I just drink wine. It's similar to how I feel about high glycemic load foods. I like milk chocolate, cookies and and ice cream. So just like I wouldn't bother with the beer my husband keeps in the fridge or the Wild Turkey he keeps in the cabinet and don't bother partaking in alcohol unless it's a wine I can enjoy, I won't bother with a glycemic load that's in pasta or white rice.

My weight gain came in my 30's after horrible health issues accompanied by horrific sleep deprivation. It also came from not understanding my body (and its blood sugar issues) OR proper nutrition - Remember when bread (so long as it was whole wheat) was good for you and fat was bad? Even when I was skinny I had blood sugar issues. My family used to joke about it. I believe I have a healthy relationship with food. I believe my relationship with food is healthier now than it has ever been. Eating the way I eat today allows me not to think about calories or carbs or any of that stuff.

When I look at your daily menu, it seems you're eating something all day long which will keep your blood sugars elevated. I think it would be worth your while to see if your body reacts similarly to mine to certain foods. Try to figure out if you've got sugar issues - I never tested diabetic but I can tell you if I were to eat a Dunkin Donuts bacon, egg, and cheese croissanwich, I will be hungrier sooner than if I had just had lower calorie bacon and eggs. And if I were to accompany that croissanwich with a Diet Coke, it's quite possible that in an hour or two the Dunkin Donuts breakfast would make me ravenous -"gotta eat, gotta eat, gotta eat." My stomach would be empty and I'd have the shakes. With me, it's physical. But if I'm constantly feeding that sugar addiction - like with a handful of chocolate covered nuts - I might not even realize it's there.

If I'm rambling RainbowButterfly, it's because I'm trying to convey the idea that weight loss and more importantly, maintenance, is all about doing what works for you.

I don't see anyone bashing, she asked and is getting honest answers. I'm not a "dieter" per se but know that carbs and sugar don't help at all. I'm not a fan of no carb but definitely low carb...especially when at a weight that is causing a Doc concern to the point that he wants her to have surgery. We don't know the patient/family history. One thing we all know for sure is that when you're not losing for long periods of time; you're overestimating caloric intake.

Before I came to 3FC I had no clue about how calories worked. We're here to educate with honesty, not bash.

Hello RB,

I agree with most here that white carbs and sugars add no nutrition to our bodies but create cravings for more. In my opinion, cravings are what keep us from logically eating just what we need to live in a healthy manner, as they are so hard to resist.

All carbs are not bad, just the white carbs that are full of sugar and create those cravings such as pasta, bread, white potatoes, white rice and the like, which includes whole groups such as cakes, cookies, bagels, potato chips and the like.

Complex carbs, however, are better for us and those are the kind found in most veggies...but try to avoid the veggies highest in sugars, like corn and peas.

The mental part can be the hardest....try to think of yourself as your "Present Self" and your "Future Self". Your present self wants to do and act what gives you instant gratification, such as having a bowl of ice cream after dinner, or binge-watching a favorite show instead of going on a long walk or working out. Your Future self is what you project yourself to be after following the better decisions that you consider when making any food purchase, dinner choice, or activity choice. Project yourself into what it would feel like to LIVE as your Future self...the strong, healthy person full of energy, and rocking cute outfits of your choosing.

It takes many choices all day long to get there, but isn't it worth it? :)

We all work in different ways and restricting any food makes me want it more. It's like that for many that's why there is no such thing as a lifelong no-carber. You may be able to do it for a specific amount of time, a long time even but statistics indicate that it's not possible to do it forever. Unfortunately when one abstains from carbs for a long time the backlash is severe and weight gain is inevitable. I'm speaking from my own experience but it is easily illustrated by the hundreds of posters here that fell off that wagon. I think it's healthier to eat in a sustainable way. If you look at my diet there are carbs in it, delicious and sometimes not so nutritious carbs. But I keep the balance and keep my carbs pretty low, as low as most people who consider themselves "low carb" I just don't consider myself a low carber. It's all in the mindset. If I look back at my day and feel an ounce of smugness for eating low carb I immediately start to pine for chips. And chances are I'll slip into last -supper mentality and finish off the whole bag. Funny how restriction works. I've been heavier than I am now and I've been fitter than I am now but I've not been mentally more balanced than I am now. Those are just my thoughts.

everyone can see by their own journey how they do.

there is no plan out there that fits everyone but some make every single plan out there work for them personally for life.
they just don't happen to be chatting with people online, but they are out there!! :)

the amt. of 'reg. LCers' that don't make it is astounding and the 'moderator' eaters are usually the first to over eat their moderation.
seem it a zillion times.

one thing is for sure-----everyone has something that works for them. key is go out and find it thru experimentation. your physical body and your mind will lead you and as long as you listen, you find what works for you and you alone. Then when you go off and give advice to others, everyone ponies up their experiences etc and never 2 will be the same mostly :)

we can all give some advice, pick what suits you, go learn more info what interests you and do your own research and make your own conclusions.

There is no easy way out there to lose weight. All the people I know including people on this forum are in some way trying very hard to get rid of those extra kilos.

They stop eating one or the other food they used to enjoy in past. We see videos of people showing flat tummies but we do not know their journey towards weight loss. Lots of exercise, low or no carb diets, no junk food, no sugar, healthy eating habits and a lot more. We all crave for junk food and we all know what is healthy and what is not.

Even after following your own diet if you see no difference then there must be something wrong. This is only and only my opinion and I want to be honest, either you care about your taste buds (eat everything you like or eat everything in moderation even though you know that's not healthy) or you care about your body, you can't do both.

Your toast won't taste better without butter, peanuts will be awful without chocolates, sugar free coffee? ugghhh. But in a month you would lose a few lbs, that's my point and I know you can do this and much better than this :) Good Luck.

There's been some great advice here. I especially agree with recording your calorie intake. So many foods are labeled and thought of as "healthy", but are high in calories and will slow down your weight loss. Fruits and veggies are your best friends :) They are so low in calorie = great to eat in high volume. Try to fill your plate first with veggies then add some lean protein and whole grains. And be sure to drink at least 64fl oz of water each day!