Advice

[helenamarra]

Hi

Wanted to know where can i get advice on portion sizes and calories that is appropriate for my weight, age etc. There are to much conflicting advice out there and i want to make informed choices about my food and how to loose and maintain my weight the correct way.

I would prefer to go to dietician but have not got a clue on how to go about doing so as i am have no weight or serious health conditions. I would just like to eat healthy and loose a few pounds. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

[Julie Thompson]

Hi Helen

A dietitian would help you to calculate what calories you would need to facilitate weight loss or in fact maintain your weight if you don't have a problem with managing your weight. I would be inclined to ask your GP if you would like to see a dietitian although some areas might not have facilities available if you do not have a problem with weight management or health conditions that affect your diet. But there is definitely no harm in asking. You could try NHS Choices for information - check out the following link http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/healthy-eati ... ating.aspx there is lots of information on this site and it is trustworthy.

Hope this helps.

[Gary Turner]

Hi Helen, hope you are well!

To help you before you get to a dietician, I would completely forget about 'calories'.

Calories and calorie counting is almost impossible to do outside of a laboratory. The calorific values assigned to macronutrients (carbs, proteins and fats) are 'averages' - not every macronutrient of the same source has the same calorific value, and were rounded to whole figures for 'ease' of calculation. Yet even small roundings can make big differences.

We are often told that “1lb of fat is 3500calories”. It isn’t. It is actually somewhere between 2,843 and 3,752calories. Not every fat cell is equal.

Then there is the calorie deficit model that is an incorrect application of machine science applied wrongly to the human body. It doesn't work in application or science.

Again working out what your energy requirement needs are is almost impossible to achieve, outside of a laboratory that is. It changes day to day, moment to moment. Your metabolism is always changing.

The best way of working out what your energy needs are is by the advice I'm popping out all over the place - eat when hungry, only when hungry, stop eating when no longer hungry (not when full), never eat for emotional needs, and drink water ONLY when thirsty. This way your body will tell you exactly what it's energy requirements are.

Hope this helps give a bit more info for you!

[helenamarra]

Hi Julie

I will look on link. Thank you very much for advice. It helps to make an informed choice.

[helenamarra]

Hi Gary

Thank you for advice. I know there are so many "grey areas" in diet and weight loss world. And i tend to agree about counting calories. It is hard work and time consuming.

But my next question is how do you get back to eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full? I tend think my natural mechanism is a bit "wonky" or out of order. Any tips or suggestions

[Wendy Green]

Hi Helenamarra,

Here are a few tips to help you get back to eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full:

Learn to recognise when your body is telling you it’s hungry. For most people, hunger manifests itself with contractions in the stomach, but some feel it in the chest or throat. You may have similar feelings when your appetite is stimulated by the thought, sight, or smell of food. However these sensations are usually temporary, whereas real hunger doesn’t fade. Generally, if you have to ask yourself ‘Am I hungry?’ you’re probably not!

Try to identify why you eat when you're not hungry. If you tend to eat when you're bored, plan ways to beat boredom that don’t involve food. Read that new novel you’ve been meaning to read. Catch up with the friend you haven’t seen for ages. Find a new interest that excites you. That way you’ll ‘eat to live’ rather than ‘live to eat’.

If you tend to overeat or binge on junk foods when you feel stressed, try to find other ways to relax. For example try deep breathing or meditation, take exercise, listen to music, or have a cup of chamomile tea. After a stressful day at work, enjoy a long relaxing soak in the bath, rather than heading straight for the fridge.

If you often eat to suppress emotions such as anger, or hurt, find other ways to express and deal with your feelings, such as talking them through with an appropriate person, or by writing them down. Identify any underlying issues or problems and look for solutions, so that you can treat food as fuel for your body, rather than an escape from your emotions. Food might give you a temporary distraction or comfort, but the emotions or problems you’re trying to distance yourself from will still be there, probably with the added problem of weight gain.

If you eat too fast you can end up eating a lot more food than you need, before your brain registers that you're full. So try to eat slowly and focus on each mouthful. Putting your knife and fork down while you chew each mouthful will help. Notice the smell, taste and texture of your food. You’ll enjoy it more and find it easier to recognise when you’ve eaten enough, because your body will have time to release leptin, the hormone that signals satisfaction. You’ll probably notice that as you fill up you stop enjoying the taste of the food as much. This is your body’s way of saying that you’ve eaten enough. Aim at stopping eating when this happens.

I hope these tips help you to start listening to your body and eating what and how much it really needs.

Best wishes,

Wendy

[ericdeeson]

Excellent posting, that, Wendy, and great support for Gary's devastatingly simple message.

But I'd like diffidently to ask Gary and you whether any overweight but healthy adult in Britain is ever hungry? I wonder how many days one would have to fast before feeling really hungry?

But very good advice there to eat slowly and methodically. Put down knife and fork or whatever after each (small) mounthful, yes - and then pick up your glass of water and take a sip before the next (small) mouthful!

Cheers, all - Eric

[Gary Turner]

Hi Eric, great question!

Fat cells in adipose tissue (our 'fat') are constantly moving - fatty acids are being released across the cell membranes and back again constantly, they're always in flux. This takes energy. This energy fuels hunger. They then eat, and the excess (in certain conditions) gets stored as increased adipose tissue and cell sizes.

There's the fun of stem cells and how they can form additional adipose tissue cells under certain conditions - therefore requiring more energy, and fuelling the hunger further.

I would suggest that to a large extent it is being fat that makes you eat! Moreso even than eating making you fat, if you're with me!

Take that further and if the body and mind has adjusted its 'set point' to this new weight, ie. balancing out the metabolism, then yes, this person would still really feel hungry same as anyone else.

So yep, fat people get hungry!

I agree with your last statement too - eating slowly - gives you a chance to recognise when you are no longer hungry...gives the body a chance for the signalling process of hormones to let you know its time to stop.