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NatalieJastrow
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Default May 09, 2023 at 07:13 AM
  #1
After my 30th diet that I have been on, once again, I lost 40 lbs and gained it back. But this time I was monitoring my health with blood tests and I noticed something disturbing. Every time I would be burning fat my cholesterol was just massively elevated (400+) and my HS-CRP (10+) was also massively elevated. I noticed as well that if I kept at it, all my inflammation markers would be elevated.

Looking into it, I found studies that suggested cholesterol was elevated because your body is releasing lipids from your stored fat and inflammation can be elevated because your body calls in the immune system to help get rid of the fat. Inflammation is something that is not good for me. I have a bone marrow condition that is known to get worse with inflammation.

I concluded that dieting and "diet culture" wasn't good for me. And I probably have never had an entire year where I didn't diet in someway. In fact I was dieting in the womb. My mom was put on Weight Watchers when she was pregnant with me because she gained a lot of weight with my sister. In fact I was born at a low weight and my sister was a butterball. But as we grew my sister was super thin and I was pudgy.

I suspect that dieting could be simply a way of training your body to get buy with less food and be more efficient with the food it gets. This could explain why people who diet end up fat. I have had my BMR tested 3 times and they were all low.

So I have decided to make my peace with my body as it is. My set point is about 210. And has pretty much always been. I am mostly pretty healthy with normal blood pressure, a zero coronary calcium score, and a low A1c.

In fact one reason I came to this conclusion is that while researching health when I was losing weight, I kept stumbling on evidence that obesity was not, in fact, as bad for you (particularly women) as one might think. For instance longevity studies have shown that women do so much better with excess weight than men. So good that it almost doesn't make a difference.

One problem I have though is that the HAES and Anti Diet movements are very much all or nothing. They want you to not restrict at all and you are very censored in what you are allowed to say. Makes me wonder about them. I have tried for a few weeks to do that and it just leads to binging.

As for going to the doctor.. I have decided to refuse all weight measures going forward. I don't want them on my record. It is just a needless distraction. I have a physical coming up in a few weeks I may request a referral to a nutritionist but I worry that these movements are not helpful either. I have looked into intuitive eating but honestly, I have spent 50 years not listening to my body. I fear my body doesn't have an intuitive bit left in it.

I am also looking for exercise that is fun. When I was a kid I spent hours in sports but I looked at it as fun. Now, I hate even the thought of exercise because of so many years doing it to lose weight.
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Default May 09, 2023 at 07:39 AM
  #2
Maybe read about Set Weight Point Theory, sometimes called Set Weight Range

It stipulates that not everyone has the genetics for a healthy BMI. And everyone has a genetically set Weight range which you will always fall back to. Regardless of diet

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Default May 10, 2023 at 06:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Doffy View Post
Maybe read about Set Weight Point Theory, sometimes called Set Weight Range

It stipulates that not everyone has the genetics for a healthy BMI. And everyone has a genetically set Weight range which you will always fall back to. Regardless of diet
I will. My theory is part genetics and part dieting. My grandmother was morbidly obese and my mom was over weight. My set point range is around 205 to 217.

My mom was a chronic dieter as well.
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Default May 20, 2023 at 06:17 AM
  #4
Ok I am going to take some of this stuff to heart but not all of it. After one month of being off "diet" I have come to these conclusions.

- yes, excessive dieting is probably a problem and should no longer be pursued.
- yes, I should be a little more activist about fat acceptance.

But
- restriction itself is not a bad thing. Everyone -- even normies restrict. They just may not see it as such.
- Too much of this movement has been stolen by "fat activists" who aren't concerned with you finding what works for you. You just do what they say or you are banned.
- Food is super important in health and life and it is too important to just ignore 1/2 of. If you find restricting certain types of food is good for your health, that is something that should be done, that is not unhealthy per se just because it is "restricting".
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Default May 20, 2023 at 06:56 AM
  #5
Remember the tv commercial, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"? Thats how i look at dieting now.

If you are hungry, you should eat. But i wasnt letting myself eat real food like protein, so i would end up gorging on sweets. That is a natural reaction. But a person needs to take better care of herself and eat protein proactively, so that she doesnt gorge, as an example of not trying to fool mother nature.

My parents used to overstuff me at dinner, but i was hungry all day with little or no breakfast and a paltry lunch. I repeated that pattern most of my adult life. Now i eat do the Lucille Ball maxim of "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a peasant" and i sleep more comfortably, less heartburn, and my weight stays fairly steady, with periods of losing when i increase my activity.

You know how corporations were "right-sizing"? I think we have to do the same for meals. Having the discipline to wait 20 minutes before taking seconds has been my biggest win. I never want it. But before, i was always overstuffing myself. It took a lot of trial and error to find out how much was enough. Keeping your weight steady is a big win. Dont try to force yourself to withstand hunger - you cant win that game.
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Default May 20, 2023 at 07:28 PM
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Originally Posted by unaluna View Post
-snip-
You know how corporations were "right-sizing"? I think we have to do the same for meals. Having the discipline to wait 20 minutes before taking seconds has been my biggest win. I never want it. But before, i was always overstuffing myself. It took a lot of trial and error to find out how much was enough. Keeping your weight steady is a big win. Dont try to force yourself to withstand hunger - you cant win that game.
Last year I discovered a big difference in how much I eat if I stop when I was no longer hungry vs. if I stop when I'm full. So now I give myself much smaller portions because I hate to waste food.
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Default May 21, 2023 at 07:46 AM
  #7
I have decided to have a framework of how I eat with the option to switch certain things out based on what is happening in my life.

So I think I will have three meals a day and one snack.

I will allow things like going to McDonalds for Breakfast or lunch if I went to work and it would be easier than going home and making dinner

I will use all those gift cards for food that I have been putting off because the food was't right.

I will eat mostly low carb / keto because I just plain like it better but, if I want a non keto snack, I am having it.

I will look to add more water and supplements to the frame work.
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Default May 24, 2023 at 07:45 PM
  #8
I used to allow myself dessert on certain days. I called those days "Dessert Days."
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Default May 25, 2023 at 12:52 AM
  #9
Is that like your salad days only different?
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