Losing Weight...

[aball882000]

When i was diagnosed with celiac disease i told myself i want gonna restrict my eating of anything else. That i could eat all the junk food i wanted since so much other stuff is restricted. Well...40 lbs later that doesnt work anymore. I crave sweets and obviously cant continue like this. doean anyone have any suggestions or tips how to LOSE wight on a gluten-free diet? I was cntemplating going off the diet, heck that got it noticed in the first place! It would work again, but then i actually thought about it and decided it wasnt worth puking for 2 straight weeks. I am starting to excercise again, but my life is so busy....thank god i dont have a goal date to lose it by. i would prefer 1 lb a week though...Help me please!

[jordanandnadia]

hey

i know where you're coming from on the whole sweet addict thingy, i'm so there with you. It hit me bad too, because now i've replaced almost all food groups with potatoes (loaded with toppings or fried) and candy. Best i can do is try and offer my best ideas ( i should follow them better, but they help sometimes). I eat the Gensoy Southern Style Peanut Butter Fudge bars almost daily. I can't eat more than about a third of it at a time without being overly sweet.

This usually stops me from eating sweetstuff, and it's actually loaded with vitamins and minerals and soy protein (which will give you energy and make you want to workout).

Right now this is all i can think of, hope this helps a li'l bit

[seeking-wholeness]

aball,

I understand the frustration you must feel over having the gluten-free lifestyle FORCED on you (with NO cheating allowed, EVER)--and your response of not limiting junk food is something I would probably have done, too, if I had come to the gluten-free lifestyle straight from the "standard American diet." As it is, I have been following the diet for my blood type (Type A)--and I have relaxed my compliance with it to a degree right now for "emotional comfort" reasons. Whatever you do, DON'T use gluten as a weight-loss tool! Beyond the inconvenience of the symptoms, the damage you would do to your body in the long run is not worth it!

My personal opinion is that "diets" don't work--but "lifestyles" do. I suggest that you do some research on different ways of eating "healthy" before making any drastic changes. I, personally, strongly believe in the Blood Type Diet, which makes a lot of sense to me now even though it sounded really hokey at first. It is also quite easy to adapt the diet for your type to be gluten-free! You can check out the book(s) on it (_Eat Right 4 Your Type_ and _Live Right 4 Your Type_) from your local library. There is also a Blood Type Diet website that offers a number of invaluable additional resources (but not the food lists for copyright reasons) Open Original Shared Link. Other diet theories to look into include the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet, among others. Read up on them and decide which of them seems healthiest, then commit to it for a specific amount of time (say, two months) and see what happens. The healthiest eating plan probably won't be the *easiest* one to follow, but it will get easier with time and experience!

In the meantime, try eating some concentrated protein like canned tuna, gluten-free cold cuts, a small handful of unsalted nuts, etc. whenever you get a carbohydrate craving. Eat as much protein as you need--we celiacs really can't get too much! And don't forget that *healthy* fats are helpful for controlling cravings, as well.

I hope you find this information helpful, and I wish you the best of luck as you pursue optimal health!

[midnightjewel40]

Hi there i too have a wieght problem (among others) i have started to eat everything from the low GI counter the lowest one there is a web site just type Gi index and it should bring you to one i have lost some weight i dont need to lose much but hope this will help you will be supprised at what you can eat and reward yourself a chocolate at the end of everymonth (yes you can have chocolate just pain or hazlenut and only cadburys)

jacque

[aball882000]

wow, thank for the advice...

~Nadia~

Those peanut butter bars sound really good. Do you have any info on where i can get them? I love peanut butter and if it is really sweete that woul be good too.

~seeking~

before i was diagnosed i think i checked out the eating for your blood type and it actaully makes sense, but i didnt know it was "ok" to do that and gluten-free for celiac. i agree with the diets vs lifestyle and got used to saying diet with being on celiac. I havent even slightly gone off the diet.

But accidents do happen...horror story about that...i cooked the wrong kind of waffles one morning before school (rushing and i was excited, i had a tv appearance that morning with my choir, plus the packages are similiar) ate my waffles thinking wow these taste soo good. on the way down to the tv station i was like omg idont feel good but didnt think i was contaminated. (my reaction is to vomit between 2 and 3 hrs after ingesting gluten) i puke on the bus, then felt better. then down at the station were lined up, and i wasnt feeling good again, i run over to the trash can (in a dress and heels) slip on the tile floor puke all over myself (in front of my choir, the entire newstation, a few teachers.....) my dress was soaked i couldnt go on tv, and it was the most embarrassing event of my life. Thank you celiac... then i had to wait for my mom to pick me up, who immediately knew what was wrong. This was only a month ago...anyways, i wont be going off the diet but its definitely tempting, and seems like a "quick fix".

~midnight~

im not familiar with the gi index but i will check it out.

good luck withyour weight too.

thanks for the replies and suggestions. sry for the punctuation here its late and im a tenager so i cant really think. some of the "brain fog" that the other posts were talking about, lol. maybe i should tell my teachers that

[enigma]

Hi aball,

I did the same as you, adding on lots of weight with gluten-free junk food once I became well again. But I just recently lost over 20 pounds following a low-carb high-protein diet. It's so easy to follow and stay gluten-free because you eat mostly meats, eggs, cheese, and low-carb vegetables. You have to stay away from starches (potatoes, rice, corn, etc.) and sugar, but the diet really works. I never thought I could drink diet Coke or leave sugar off entirely, but the amazing thing is how much better I feel now - more energy, sleep much better, etc. I've got several of the Atkins cookbooks and the great thing is I don't have to modify the recipes because they don't use wheat flour! Or hardly anything that contains gluten. It might be worth a try for you because you can lose weight and not have to go hungry! Good luck!

P.S. I'm so glad they added this forum on weight control! Hooray - celiac.com is GRRRRREATTTT!!!!!!!

[midnightjewel40]

Hi all did you know that most of the gluten-free products made are high on the glycemic index (this is the index that dieabetics follow ) so i found out the hard way that you only have something from it now and then heheheheheheheheheh but cheating is allowed

has any one looked at the GI site yet there are lots of vegetable and fruit you can eat meats like chicken beef pork and the like hope this helps

it did fro me

jacque australia

[gf4life]

Jacque, that is good to know about the glycemic index.

Do you have the website address for that site? I suppose I could find it, but to have it readily available would be nice...

I do know that when I started the gluten-free diet, without restricting carbs I don't lose much weight and feel good, but not great. When I do gluten-free and restrict carbs a bit, as well as follow the blood type food list for type A, I feel absolutely wonderful and lose more of the excess weight...

Mariann

[smack]

I joined weight watchers last Janaury, since then I have lost almost 30 poubds. Its a great way to lose weight in that it is easy to follow and also teaches things like portion control, idetifying your tiggers and how to deal with them (your is sweets, mine is salty and deep fried foods).

Weight Watchers is not just a diet, it teaches healthy eating habits, and the whole process is very supportive and I have found a real confidence booster. I spoke to my family doctor about various diet plans to follow, and the ONLY one he recommends is Weight Watchers. My borhtoer in law (okay not legally but pratically) is a personal trainer at a country club and this diet along with the South Beach diet are the only two he recommends for a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Plus nothing is restricted, you can have a treat now and them, you just have to make sure it's within your "points", this also helps curb binging - being able to have a cookie or dessert once in a while.

I get 20 points a day (because I', under 150 lbs). I can spend them however I want to, but I cannot go over (the heavier you are the more points you get, as you lose weight you get less). In addition you also get 35 points a week to use as you please, it could be a nice dinner, or evenly dispersed through out the week. You can also earn points through physical activity that you can use as well.

It's really easy to follow and a very rewarding process - and no I don't work for them!

I would recommend Weight Watchers to anyone, it's something that you can commit to and incorporate easily into your life.

[sb4480]

aball,

Whatever you do, DON'T use gluten as a weight-loss tool!  Beyond the inconvenience of the symptoms, the damage you would do to your body in the long run is not worth it!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm a perfect example of someone who did this (and why you shouldn't). As a somewhat chubby person for mose of my life, I was thrilled when I lost 35lbs during my senior year of college. My mother thought I was bulimic but it turns out I had celiac disease (not so thrilling). In reality it wasn't a surprise, my paternal grand mother had it, I have a cousin who has it on my mom's side, and my older brother has it. After I was diagnosed I went gluten-free and started to put on weight. After about 6 months of this I said "forget this I don't want to gain any more weight" so I started eating gluten again. Much to my surprise my weight kept climbing higher, and higher, and higher. Now I'm sick AND overweight.

Steph

[ILOVEOMC]

The best way to lose weight is to exercise and that can be as simple as walking through your neighborhood. If it becomes a regular part of your life you can drop pounds. It will help in so many other ways too, such as mood and heart health also.

[aikiducky]

Exercise only without changing eating habits is actually not enough for most people. Sad but true.

Pauliina

[burdee]

The simplest (but not the easiest) way to improve your eating habits so that you consume less calories (which is the principle of ANY weight loss diet) is to learn to listen to your body. Learn to recognize TRUE hunger signals as opposed to signals for thirst, desire to eat from boredom or stress or to numb negative emotions. Choose to eat ONLY when you are truly, physically hungry. Then learn to recognize your body signals that you had enough food to satisfy hunger. Obviously you must learn what satisfies your body, which usually isn't low fat 'diet' foods. A balance of carbs, fiber, proteins and fats may satisfy more than a one dimensional meal of a salad or a piece of fruit or even junk food like chips, a candy bar or a cooky, but you need to let your BODY decide what feels good. ABOVE ALL, STOP eating when you feel satisfied, long before 'stuffed', just when you are full. These techniques will allow you to eat many more types of celiac safe foods and STILL lose weight. We have enough restrictions already!! You will automatically reduce the amount you eat by allowing your body to restrict WHEN you eat (only when hungry) and to restrict HOW MUCH you eat (only enough to satisfy hunger). Add exercise for health and well-being and help you cope with STRESS rather than eat when you're not really hungry. Good Luck!

BURDEE

[ILOVEOMC]

Drinking lots of water between meals will help satisfy an empty stomach.

[PreOptMegs]

Anytime I want to eat something I know I shouldn't have, I always say this quote to myself "A moment on the lips, but an eternity on the hips..." and how true it is. I tell myself that it just isn't worth it because it is just food.

[Nantzie]

I just wrote about this on another thread, but wanted to let you know about it too because it wasn't in the weight area.

I've had a really hard time losing weight over the last several years. Yo-yo'd on a bunch of stuff, until I messed up my metabolism to the point where I wasn't losing any weight on a 1200 calorie a day diet, even though I was walking 3-4 miles 4-5 days a week. I'm serious. That was awful. Started researching The Six Week Body Makeover (yep, the infomercial). Found out they had a HUGE free message board (hundreds of thousands of posts) and you don't even have to order it to be on the message board. The address is www.provida.com and the message board area is called the Chat Forum. They won't let people post very specific stuff on there, like menus, but they let people post enough that you can kind of get the idea of how it works. One of the main parts of it is - no sugar, no salt, no WHEAT, no dairy and no oil. The only thing that I remember that would have been a problem for celiac disease that people eat a lot of on that diet is oatmeal. And I didn't really eat it because I've never been an oatmeal person. I did potatoes, rice or sweet potatoes for my carbs, so there's plenty of variety there for that food group.

For the first couple weeks, the weight comes off quickly, with quite a few people losing 7-10 pounds in the first week. They say that that is usually bloat, water weight, etc. After that it's about 3-4 pounds a week and you can see a steady consistent weight loss.

I ended up losing about 30 pounds on that diet and was able to keep it off pretty easily. I fluctuated about 5 pounds +/- and stayed that way for about six months. I was planning on going back on it to lose maybe another 10 or 20. But then my dad got cancer and passed away, so during that time I dove headfirst into fast food, junk food and candy, etc., and gained all the weight back. I haven't gone back on it since my dad died because I'm just not ready. But it's definitely become my "go to" diet.

It's been a while since I've been on that diet, but I do think I remember people on the provida boards mentioning a similarity with the GI index. You might want to ask on those boards or search to see if you can find a thread on it.

Nancy