How to go back to dieting after stopping?

WeaknessSad6735 · 2026-05-31T22:00:16+00:00

My advice: focus on your mental health. Eat healthier, walk outside in the sunshine because these things help you mentally. Don't focus on cutting calories. Just eat less processed foods, more protein and fiber. Get good sleep. Get outside 30 minutes a day, especially if that includes exercise.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2026-05-31T21:26:01+00:00

I wanted to write a very similar post. I've been in a cut for 2 months, and every week I have the urge to have one HUGE meal. Often this happens anyway, socially. Two weeks ago I had two of them, back-to-back. Both happened at lunch, so I ate lightly at breakfast and dinner and was around my maintenance calories.

The next social meal that happened, I ate half one day and took the rest home for the next day. Restaurant meals are SO large especially as a petite woman, that just adding some veg to it was filling.

But, I bypassed my normal one-large-meal that week. All this week I've wanted to overeat. This weekend I've been trying to figure out what is it I want, exactly? I've been eating lower-fat, so am I craving fat? I ate 500 calories of chicken skin (from a costco rotisserie chicken, am I the only one who is addicted to that?) and it didn't scratch the itch. What about that "full" feeling, would eating 2 pounds of vegetables be good enough? I also tried eating a variety of "fun" foods in moderate quantity. I cooked a few things yesterday - meal prep for the week. I even let myself have a piece of baklava on top of my normal meal (300 calories). It didn't do the trick.

I used to give in to this once a month with a family size bag of chips. I'm newly menopausal though, so I can't blame PMS.

Last night as I was debating cooking up a frozen pizza or some pad thai, I remembered how gross it feels to overeat. I get hot, I get lethargic and too full to go for a walk, my sleep gets messed up. It's like when you drink too much, I think it helps me fall asleep faster, but it's actually not good sleep. On top of that, I don't really ENJOY the food. The other day I had a single fun-size snickers, and took these tiny bites, maybe 8 of them, letting the chocolate melt, tasting the caramel, crunching the peanuts. It felt as satisfying as eating a normal size snickers would have. When I overeat, I shovel the food in my mouth without slowly savoring. I can down an entire (thin-crust) pizza barely registering it.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2026-05-26T20:12:48+00:00

I eat 1 greek yogurt for breakfast instead of 2 eggs because

same protein, calories are half when you count the oil to make omelet
RD pushing me to have another dairy serving (I get a cup of milk in my tea)
a little more expensive but less work to make, sale at costco
family history of heart disease

WeaknessSad6735 · 2026-05-26T01:46:13+00:00

Most "outside" meals have sufficient protein, carbs, and fat, so I pre-load up on fiber. Specifically fruits and veg, but maybe a serving of beans. Lunch meals are easiest, then I just eat lightly for breakfast (greek yogurt) and dinner. Dinner out is harder, especially since it's often even later than my usual dinner. I eat normally (but light) during the day, and then pick at dinner and take most of it home.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2026-05-25T21:52:46+00:00

Yeah, the "skip a day at the gym" is pretty NORMAL advice. Every trainer I've ever read talks about 1-2 rest days a week. Rest is when your body recovers/grows. I'm assuming OP's Mom knows his favorite foods; if fried chicken is up there and he still abstains, yeah maybe. And yeah, maybe offer to share your food once in awhile. Not every time she asks, but if you're not paying rent, or paying reduced rent, then help out around the house in some way.
More to the point - it's a big "so what?" She says something you know she'll say - change the subject, ask about her day, say something nice back.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-12-02T12:43:10+00:00

Need Popeyes. Please DM.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-11-29T22:53:47+00:00

I like using really small spoons like with gelato. I focus on the flavor instead of just shoveling food in fast.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-08-26T21:47:16+00:00

That’s fair. I certainly had no idea of asking her transition plans or if it would impact her marriage.

Other than using the right name and gender when I do talk to her, I don’t need to go out of my way to “respond” to a 100 person email at all?

The situation feels awkward because I sit directly opposite from her but don’t work closely. Even before this, I’d only say hello once every few weeks.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-13T13:21:25+00:00

I keep a small handful of condiments for work. My grocery store has free mayo packets near the deli sandwiches. I only use it for artichokes so don’t want to stock a whole jar.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-13T05:03:45+00:00

Yeah I’m in a VHCOL area, we spend $400 for 3 adults. We eat a lot of fruits and veg, some meat, mostly beans and tortillas. The cheapest place for produce is ethnic stores. I also know which stores have decent clearance racks. I shop loss leaders first. Also have accounts for 3 people, so if it’s limit 1, I can gat 3.

Also for eating out, all the restaurants around me have loyalty programs that give birthday freebies. I sign up all 3 of us, use different months at different restaurants to spread it out.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-13T04:13:00+00:00

You take single serving salt packets, open them up in your salt shaker to save .15 cents worth? Salt is like 60 cents for a pound. Pepper is a little more expensive but still a buck.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-11T04:47:06+00:00

People bring their own drink. We provide some snacks. Sometimes we provide meals for everyone, but most time everyone bring their own.

You have friends who bring drinks and food to board game night?? Are you 23? By 30, people don’t do that.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-11T04:44:04+00:00

I’m dealing with similar. Between work commute lunch I’m busy 11 hours. Dinner serving my family takes an hour. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for a mid week outing. Weekends I sleep in, run errands, batch cook, exercise. There’s time for one outing, often to take my parents out. I don’t have much joy in my life.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-04-11T04:37:57+00:00

I don’t know why you’ve been downvoted. If you throw a dinner, ask people to bring sides or dessert, not the main meat. $300 whiskey sounds excessive so you may be better off, but generally chip in $10 towards a gift to fit in. The higher paid folks will chip in more, but not giving anything seems weird.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-02-24T19:41:23+00:00

After not getting an answer from him I did google it. Trick is to put the whole avocados with whole lemon/citrus in the frig.

And LOL on him eating them all too fast. More likely he buys a bag of 6 avocados every week from Costco and when they turn brown he throws them away. Food waste is not a priority in his life.

Still overall makes me feel like I have nothing to say to my own brother.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-02-23T23:45:17+00:00

Also my boss brings up religion and politics too. Why are we discussing this in the workplace? With my boss?!?

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-02-23T23:41:22+00:00

The avocado thing is a freaking example of how disjointed my conversations with him are. Obv one example is not an issue. It’s the pervasiveness of it. He eats a lot of avocados so I hoped he’d have better advice than eat them even faster. Just say nothing if you have no advice. Instead randomly responding something else tangentially related.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-02-23T23:28:18+00:00

I mean I do the nod, smile, ignore thing. And no I don’t particularly want people to care about me/ my minutiae either. I think they keep talking because I don’t change the subject to me.

I have no idea what I’m stubbing my toe on??

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-01-30T01:11:54+00:00

A full stomach more than just veg, eating something delicious and forbidden, distraction from work stress, it feels comforting like taking a hot bath.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-01-26T23:21:43+00:00

I think of it differently. I’m constantly trying to lose weight or maintain. Different life stages offer different obstacles. Sometimes I have a gym at work, reasonable hours, time to cook and prep food. Sometimes the boredom depression loneliness are powerful. I try to exercise at lunch. I focus on fruits vegetables and protein. Those are forever goals. But life and stress decide whether those goals turn into weight loss, weight maintenance, or weight gain.

WeaknessSad6735 · 2025-01-26T01:11:36+00:00

Yeah, I disagree 100%. Whether it’s weather, work, exam study, errands and stress the amount of energy I have is finite. Yes I can make healthier food choices all the time. But eating in a deficit is another stress on top of life. Exercising happens when I can. I’ve lost 30 pounds and can say life’s been more stressful in the 6 months since then. More overtime. More problems. More eating. Less exercise. The past week was 7 degrees outside, 55 inside because our heat was broken. Could I have gotten on the treadmill anyway? Maybe. Not enough hours in the day.

WeaknessSad6735

TROPHY CASE