Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need it?

Leading a healthy lifestyle ain't that easy...

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Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need it?

Post by Aliya » 5th Mar, '08, 11:40

An interesting point for me, something I knew but thought my great weight loss was related more to grief and all that from when Mr A died rather than what I wasn't eating.

To take a step back I lost about 15 kgs when he and my mother died so close together and have been slowly putting about 10kgs of that back on over the past 2 years. I went to a Ball the other night and saw a pic of myself, getting back to the puffy old Aliya, horrors.

Well, I thought, time to sort this out.so I have been eating my normal brekkie, weetbix or vogels toast and marmite. Then I just have lunch which is generally either vegetarian or fish/chicken, no fatty meats with a salad consisting of quinoa and normal salad stuff, no dairy and lots of fruit for morning tea. Drinking lots of green tea during day and water. For dinner I have a huge glass of home made vege juice. I have done this before but not in such a controlled fashion (ie no binging or booze)

Now, I have not been feeling hungry at all and have been losing weight in a very nice manner and feeling very good. A bit of a totter with the beags at night or on my crosstrainer is always a good thing as well. I think this is interesting because it shows that I was eating too much before but I have never been a cake or fatty food person (apart from hangover cures) so if I was eating so healthily why was I putting on weight? Sure I havent been exercising like I used to but I am not couch bound. It appears to me that I was simply eating too much for my body and therefore the old weight was coming back.

My question is - do we really need to eat at night if we are getting a well balanced breakfast and lunch (assuming there was more of a protein base to the lunch or breakfast than I am having)?.

I mean does our body need three meals a day v do we want it, are used to it.

Obesity and general overweightness is a worldwide issue and so are we eating too much? If we cut our diet down to say 75% of what we eat then weight problems should reduce shouldn't they? So why do people eat so much if we don't really need it?

I think part of the problme is we are used to eating until we feel full. If we ate until we felt OK but not stuffed then we would feel alot better. Have people been "trained" to eat too much?
"I really love you" she said. "Is that the champagne talking" he asked. "No" she laughed. "That's me talking to the champagne"

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 5th Mar, '08, 12:13

Your body can be in one of two modes. It either stores excess food or it excretes it. It decides which mode to be in by monitoring drops in blood sugar levels.

If your body detects a rapid drop in blood sugar then it considers itself to be starving and responds by storing excess glucose as fat.

Your body does not know what the acual level of blood sugar is, nor does it detect increases in blood sugar. It only detects drops. So if you drink a can of coke and eat a plat of rice you will get a rapid increase in your blood sugar which your body doesn't detect. Then you get a rapid decrease in your blood sugar which your body does detect and thinks you arestarving. It sends out hunger signals and begins to store excess sugar as fat. It doesn't know that your blood sugar is jus returning to normal levels. It didn't evolve to cope with rapid influxes of sugar.

So if you eat things that give you a large sugar spike then you will feel hungry most of the time and you will lay most of it down as fat.

If you eat things that do not give you a massive sugar spike then you will not feel hungry and will not lay down fat.

If you eat nothing then your body will try to lay down fat, and if there is no sugar there to lay down it obviously won't lay it down. It will start to burn fat since it now needs fat to heat your body because it hasn't got any suar. You will feel hungry.

The glycemic index is a measure of things that cause spikes (high GI) and things that don't cause spikes (low gi) You can look up a GI table on the internet.

If your body doesn't detect a drop in blood sugar over a period of time then it says to itself. Bugger me, I have lots of food, no need to waste energy storing fat. So we'll just excrete the excess.

High GI foods are things like sugar, bread rice etc.
Low GI foods are things like meat, vegetables, some fruit, and pasta (believe it or not, the structure of pasta is resistent to digestion and in fact is a slow release food.

Got it?

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by slinky » 5th Mar, '08, 12:20

Out of curiousity and probably because I don't feel like looking it up [smilie=icon_e_wink.gif] how much better are things like brown rice and whole wheat bread with regards to the high & low GI?

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Satellite » 5th Mar, '08, 12:52

Burbage wrote: So if you eat things that give you a large sugar spike then you will feel hungry most of the time
Why then if say I were to snack on chocolates at tea time I don't feel hungry at all at dinner time and until the next day?

Edit: oh I am talking about huge amounts of chocolate like 100g or more, if that makes any difference

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 5th Mar, '08, 13:14

Your body only detects a drop in sugar levels. If you keep them high then it won't detect a drop. But you'll probably develop diabetes eventually.

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Aliya » 5th Mar, '08, 13:17

OK so because I dont eat sugar, white bread, or rice etc I am losing weight as no discernable sugar drops. Interesting.

Slinky they are slow release foods, so no sugar drop
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 5th Mar, '08, 13:17

Techncally there shouldn't be any difference between brown rice and white rice. A grain of each will contain the same amount of starch. However, brown rice can be more indigestible, so you probably absorb less.

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 5th Mar, '08, 15:19

Brown rice also tastes disgusting, just like anything else brown (aside from sauce and beer) so you end up either spitting half of it out or leaving it on the plate in the first place.

Aliya: eat less, keep up the same exercise lifestyle, you'll lose weight. Where's the eureka moment in that?
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by slinky » 5th Mar, '08, 15:22

I think brown rice tastes fine - not really all that different from white. I also don't mind whole wheat pasta - provided it's cooked long enough (it seems to take longer to cook than regular).

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Aliya » 5th Mar, '08, 15:33

FB, none for me but it is something that I dont think many people realise.
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by daffodil » 5th Mar, '08, 16:46

I suspect most people realise that the general rule is "eat less, move more" :roll:
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 5th Mar, '08, 17:10

Fat Bob wrote:Brown rice also tastes disgusting, just like anything else brown (aside from sauce and beer) so you end up either spitting half of it out or leaving it on the plate in the first place.

Aliya: eat less, keep up the same exercise lifestyle, you'll lose weight. Where's the eureka moment in that?
Are you saying that if I eat 24 kilos of sugar a day instead of 25 I'll lose weight.

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by expat yorkshire » 5th Mar, '08, 18:07

Eat slowly , and stop eating when your full . ....i know it sounds obvious but it does work

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 6th Mar, '08, 10:46

Burbage wrote: Are you saying that if I eat 24 kilos of sugar a day instead of 25 I'll lose weight.
Ooooo....good question there. Why don't you put yourself on the 25kg of sugar a day for a while until you reach a constant weight, and then drop down to 24kg of sugar a day and we'll see the difference. It'll be an experiment, and I am a scientist afterall! So are you!

It'll be like "Supersize Me" but instead we could call it "One Lump or Two, Burb"! Cool!
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 6th Mar, '08, 11:18

Aye. Well then, as scientists, let's agree that if we are going to use a relative term then we have to relate it to something. Less than what?

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 6th Mar, '08, 13:39

So what did you honestly think I meant when I said "eat less"?
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 6th Mar, '08, 13:47

I don't know, that's the point. It could be less than you ate yesterday, less than you normally eat, less than the calorific requirement for the day, less than 25 kilgrams of sugar, less than a bag of potatoes, less than a horse, less than the atlantic ocean.

Anyway, thinking quantitatively is not helpful. If you seriously want to lose weight you need to think qualitatively. It is not how much you eat, it is what you eat that is important.

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by BFG » 6th Mar, '08, 15:17

According to the diet Mrs BFG has me on, it seems quite simple.

Make a list of anything you have ever liked and stop eating it...

Sigh...

:cry:
Life's too short...

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 6th Mar, '08, 16:03

Burbage wrote:I don't know, that's the point. It could be less than you ate yesterday, less than you normally eat, less than the calorific requirement for the day, less than 25 kilgrams of sugar, less than a bag of potatoes, less than a horse, less than the atlantic ocean.

Anyway, thinking quantitatively is not helpful. If you seriously want to lose weight you need to think qualitatively. It is not how much you eat, it is what you eat that is important.
Well, most people would normally think "I need to eat less. I'm currently eating 400g of food a day, I need to make that less, make it 350g or 300g" or something opf that ilk.

Aaaah, I see the problem, I'm basing this on what normal people would think......
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 7th Mar, '08, 05:53

Fat Bob wrote:
Burbage wrote:I don't know, that's the point. It could be less than you ate yesterday, less than you normally eat, less than the calorific requirement for the day, less than 25 kilgrams of sugar, less than a bag of potatoes, less than a horse, less than the atlantic ocean.

Anyway, thinking quantitatively is not helpful. If you seriously want to lose weight you need to think qualitatively. It is not how much you eat, it is what you eat that is important.
Well, most people would normally think "I need to eat less. I'm currently eating 400g of food a day, I need to make that less, make it 350g or 300g" or something opf that ilk.

Aaaah, I see the problem, I'm basing this on what normal people would think......
Or possibly what you think normal people would think, which may not be the same thing.

I question the existence of "normal people".

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 7th Mar, '08, 07:24

We sometimes qustion the exsistence of you, Burb. And sometimes we just don't care!
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Burbage » 7th Mar, '08, 07:31

Fat Bob wrote:We sometimes qustion the exsistence of you, Burb. And sometimes we just don't care!
You get used to that, being a god.

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 7th Mar, '08, 09:31

But as you're usually very quick to point out, God does not exsist, therefore neither do you. So, go away, words on my screen (which I suppose is better than voices in my head!) :D
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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by BFG » 7th Mar, '08, 09:50

Bobbity, Bobbity, Bobbity...

It's only other people's gods that don't exist...
Life's too short...

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Re: Been thinking - How much do you eat - do you really need

Post by Fat Bob » 7th Mar, '08, 09:56

So if I think I'm a god in my own underpants, that means I do exist? Cool!
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