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[Sappho]

When I was younger, I had that kind of metabolism that made most people hate me (or accuse me of being anorexic). I was CRAZY thin and I ate ALL the time. And not healthy food. Oh, no, no. Fast food, chips, soda, ice cream... Just absolute garbage, all the time. And I was always thin. Always hungry, in fact.

Now I'm 31, and a few years ago, my body changed. It wasn't gradual, either. Within a week I went from Olive Oyl to not being able to button my pants and having to go buy new clothes. I am told this is known as "getting older", an apparently irreversible process.

I'm still far from fat. But I still have super thin arms and a tiny head, so the fat that's built up in my hips, stomach, thighs, and butt really stands out. I don't like it. I'm trying to lose a bit of weight. I know I'll never be as thin as I used to be, but I'd like to slim down a little bit. I try to exercise, but due to various health problems mostly related to breathing, joints, and tendons, my ability to exercise is severely restricted (by doctor's orders). I play Kinect Sports and Dance Central 3. I do sit-ups and various simple exercises at home that don't cause me any damage. But they're really not enough to make up for a high-calorie diet. I need to eat less.

I've been trying to eat healthy for the past year or so. I eat a shitton of vegetables every day - I always have. I love veggies. Great big salads, steamed veggies, roasted veggies, all kinds of veggies. I have switched from eating eggs and buttered toast for breakfast, to eating oatmeal. The bread I eat is dark and full of seeds. I cook at home as much as possible, and when I have to order food, I always go for something low in salty fatty stuff. I very rarely eat meat - it's expensive and I prefer beans, tofu, etc. I don't use salt at all - the only salt I get is what's already in the food I eat (bread, etc.). I try to snack on nuts and raisins instead of sweets. When I pack a snack to take to work, it's apples and carrots and cucumber. I drink green tea with no sugar added to it, or on rare occasions, black coffee, and tons of water.

I am, without a doubt, still getting plenty of calories and nutrition. Today, for breakfast, I had two small pieces of dark toast with peanut butter and a cup of plain full-fat yogurt with chia seeds in it. Between breakfast and lunch I downed an apple, a carrot, and half a cucumber, all cut up into manageable pieces for me to much on while I worked. For lunch I had leftover roasted vegetables and tofu - a pile of roast potatoes, peppers, carrots, zuchinni, and mushrooms, along with a big slab of fried tofu which I cooked up and tossed on there this morning to make the lunch more filling. There was a LOT of olive oil in that lunch, and it was mostly potatoes and tofu. All together, this should be more than enough nutrition to get me through until I leave work in a few hours. I'm not running around, here. I'm sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen, literally all day. And based on the current size of my gut, I know I'm getting plenty more nutrition than I need.

And I am STARVING.

I'm so hungry it's making me dizzy. It's giving me a headache. I can't concentrate on my work. All I can think about is how badly I want to eat. It's always this way. All day, I'm hungry. I fantasize about french fries and hamburgers and ice cream. I'm so hungry I can't do my job. It seems that until I eat something unhealthy - fatty or sugary, generally - I never feel satiated, no matter how much healthy stuff I eat. Presumably, after so many years of eating crap, I'm addicted to the fat and sugar - but even after a year of trying to give it up, it still won't stop. Inevitably, at least a few times a week I cave and eat something really bad for me. I feel like it's undoing all the healthy eating, and I haven't managed to lose a single bit of weight. But if I don't do that, I can't even function.

I have to be able to do my job. It is a job of the "thinking of new ideas, solving problems, being creative on demand" variety, and I can't do it if I'm dizzy or have a headache or can't concentrate. I'm under pressure to meet deadlines. In the end, I often have to give in and just eat a candy bar or something, just so I can get my work done.

Does anyone have any advice, here? I really do want to get healthier. If it were simply a case of "gotta feel hungry in oder to get healthier", I could deal with that - but the hunger interferes with everything in my life. The hunger screws up my head, and I need my head to be working.

I am not interested in a short-term diet, a fad diet, or some "quick fix". I know that in order to be healthy and look good, I need to find a permanent way of eating which I can keep up forever. But I keep trying and failing. I think I need some help.

[FallacyofUrist]

First of all, kudos to you for your current diet. My own preferences may be different, but not very much. ((Just a bit more meat and cooked food.))

Now then.

Minor disclaimer: I'm certainly not a professional with this sort of thing, what I'm giving you is entirely my own opinion.

Step one: count the calories. Doesn't need to be extremely accurate, just reasonably accurate. Maybe you're getting the nutrients you need, but not enough of the calories.
If you're getting enough calories: Step two: Is it psychological, or physiological? Go see a psychologist and/or a nutritionist. Actually, seeing a professional tends to be good advice in most to all situations.
~~~
And: quick fix warning: From what I've heard, there's a method of dealing with alcoholism involving drinking some booze, but taking a nauseating pill with it, so the brain associates that with the booze. Maybe you could do the same, but with horrid food?

[Thief^]

I'd like to add, it sounds like your diet is really carb-heavy. It's much healthier to cut a bunch of those carbs (yes, less fruit!) and add in some fats and proteins. Added bonus: fats keep you feeling full for longer than carbs. Subbing carbs for fat can actually make you lose weight!

"Fat" gets a lot of accusation over "making you fat", but there's been a lot of research that suggests that actually it's carbs that make you fat, and ingested fat goes mostly undigested if your body doesn't need it.

Snack on cheese, rather than sweets (and raisins aren't much better). Eat meat!
Eggs for breakfast!

Personally I used MyFitnessPal.com to calorie count, and even when I was within my calorie allowance to lose weight I was often over my carb/sugar limit. We eat way too much carbs and sugar.

But seriously, get the advice of a real nutritionist.

[Tiruin]

But seriously, get the advice of a real nutritionist.

I'll drop the note that Sappho does this because of really reasonable reasons given the context of her area ; she would do that if that was more reasonable, but she searches for internet advice in a general manner too.

Of course she'd go for the specifics with a professional. Hit her with advice here within reason!

[Sappho]

Yeah, thanks Tiruin for the link: seeing a nutritionist (or any kind of doctor beyond emergencies) is beyond my financial capability right now and will be for the foreseeable future. Hence the general asking-around-for-advice. I'm really not concerned that I'm unhealthy here, this isn't a medical emergency, I'm just trying to make some changes and hoping someone might have some suggestions that I can try.

I'm quite sure that I'm getting plenty enough calories. I used a calorie-counting app (two of them actually, for balance) for a few days and was shocked at how high my calorie intake was. Eggs, yogurt, and meat, along with stuff like chips, burgers, and candy were really pushing me way over the amount I needed. Foods that I had always thought of as "healthy" were extremely heavy on calories. In order to burn fat (without a lot of intense exercise) and lose weight, don't I need to take in at least a little bit less calories than my body is typically using?

I don't think that fat is unhealthy in and of itself, but it contains a really high amount of calories, which adds up quickly. Eating more calories than you use, in a basic sense, will lead to weight gain, surely.

A little over a month ago there was a free health assessment thing that I went to. They used one of those fancy scales to scan my body and had me answer a questionnaire. Then I got 10 minutes of free consultation with a nutritionist, who looked over my papers and gave me some advice. He was horrified that I ate eggs almost every day and pointed out that my cholesterol levels were too high. The magic scale thing rated me as being "in poor physical condition" and he said my diet was a big part of that: if I couldn't exercise more, I had to cut back on all the unhealthy stuff. (At first I thought maybe everyone got a negative rating, but I asked my friends there and everyone was rated as WAY healthier than me. Of course, they all play sports, which I can't do.)

Now, at this point I should probably mention that I'm opposed to nutritionists in general, because every single one of them will give you different advice based on their own personal biases. There is no universally accepted science of nutrition, and everything you find will have things like "some evidence suggests" and "it is widely believed" attached to it, in other words "we are making it up as we go along suckas". This particular nutritionist was a vegan who said that the only way to be truly healthy was to be vegan and eat lots of nuts, and that anything containing caffeine was automatically unhealthy. So I took everything he said with a grain of salt. But there was no real arguing with the numbers from that machine's report: they all seemed about right, based on what I know about my own diet and exercise routine, so I resolved to try harder to get healthier.

Now, onto specifics. I should probably have mentioned that I'm lactose intolerant. I can eat yogurt because it breaks down the lactose by itself, but I have to avoid other dairy products. They make me gain weight really fast, and they make me gassy in just the most horrible way. Seriously awful. So that limits my options.

I don't believe for a second that meat is good for you, sorry. Every vegetarian I know is super thin and healthy, and every meat-eater over 30 is chubby with high blood pressure unless they do nothing but work out. I have been trying to cut back as much as possible on meat. I do eat tons of beans and tofu though. I get plenty of protein, for sure. And the whole "carbs are bad for you" thing doesn't make any sense to me. I live in Europe, surrounded by people who eat almost nothing but bread, potatoes, and cabbage, drink beer every day, and almost everyone is very thin. If carbs made you fat, everyone here would be fatter than Americans. They aren't. Another reason why I doubt all the nutritional pseudo-science. In any case, I usually have mainly carbs for breakfast (oatmeal), sometimes bread or potatoes with lunch but not too often, and maybe an apple or two during the day... How is that "carb-heavy"?

I'm definitely getting enough calories. The yogurt and peanut butter alone from today's breakfast should sustain me for half the day, based on what's on the labels. I still think the reason I'm getting dizzy and headaches is because I'm just addicted to sugar and saturated fats. And that is what I'm trying to cut back on, as much as I can. But I can't find a way to do that without screwing up my performance at work. I don't have the willpower to push through it without breaking down and eating fried chicken or french fries or ice cream (which I should NOT be eating due to lactose anyway, but it's SO HOT outside...) at least a few times a week. I definitely eat too much sugar. But not only do I crave it all the time, people all around me are constantly trying to give me chocolate. Whenever I say no, I'm trying to cut back on sweets, they all give me dirty looks like I'm being rude by refusing their generosity (or by calling attention to how unhealthy it is when they snack on it constantly).

To round out my list of what I've eaten today, I managed to last until the end of the work day, then went to a tea house to have my sign language lesson. There I broke down and ordered some food: a falafel sandwich - 3 pieces of falafel (frozen and reheated) on a single folded, very thin flour tortilla, stuffed with mint and arugula and toasted. Not super healthy (fried falafel, after all), but not too bad either (I nearly went out and got fast food instead, so this is obviously better). I'm still hungry, though. And it's only 7 pm, so I'll probably end up eating something else... I literally cannot sleep when I'm hungry, no matter how tired I am. Not sure what I'll eat, though. I have a fridge full of vegetables but I'm too tired to cook. At least I don't have any junk food in the house anymore.

I will give the MyFitnessPal.com calorie counter a try and see what it comes up with. Couldn't hurt. But I think my main problem is probably addiction rather than nutrition. Perhaps a more difficult problem to solve. :/

[ancistrus]

I cant give you a terribly good advice, just a few things I noticed in your post and in my own struggles.

Oatmeal - are you sure it is helping you at all? I tried it, but in my opinion it is a stupid overhyped food. It actually has plenty of calories, and it never, ever satisfied my hunger for more than 20 minutes.

As good as vegetables are for us, they have a lot of mass and we are not terribly good at digesting it. Maybe your digestive system is constantly filled with stuff and that makes you feel and look fatter than you actually are? I know I get bloated when I try to eat a lot of veggies.

Bread - dark bread may be an improvement over regular one, but personally I would rather eat something that is healthy and has a taste. We have been conditioned to eat bread, but I stopped with it completely and I dont miss it now. I am not a health freak, I just literally dont see why I should eat it again.

If you never tracked calories you may be in for some surprises...or maybe not, I dont know how much you have educated yourself. But nuts for example can have a lot of calories.

Meat expensive.... give me a break. 150czk for a kilogram of chicken breast. Add 1kg each week to your diet instead of more veggies, maybe it will help you.


In the end, the best motivation is fear. The fact that it isnt a medical emergency is probably your biggest obstacle.
I know how we humans are...it is hard to get motivated if we think we still have time:(
But you already have joint problems, maybe think how much worse they can get because of the extra weight.

[ancistrus]

Every vegetarian I know is super thin and healthy, and every meat-eater over 30 is chubby with high blood pressure unless they do nothing but work out.

I live in Europe, surrounded by people who eat almost nothing but bread, potatoes, and cabbage, drink beer every day, and almost everyone is very thin.

So... most people you know are vegetarians? In Prague?

Come on, give meat a chance.

[Sappho]

I appreciate the advice. I am not overweight though. Just not as thin as I used to be. I'm in poor cardiovascular condition because I can't run, but I can't change my exercise more than I already have, just my diet. I am in no danger due to my weight. In fact, when I tell friends I'm disappointed about my current physical condition, many of them get annoyed because I'm clearly not overweight at all. I just hate having a visible gut when I used to have such nice abs.  As for the price of meat, cheap meat is terrible quality. And I don't know how to cook it anyway. And I'm still convinced that it's not healthy. All my vegetarian friends are SO healthy it's nuts. (And YES, most people I know, in Prague, are vegetarians. They're mostly hippies. And the non-vegetarians are all at least a little overweight.) Chicken is full of salt and fillers and hormones. Beef and pork are even worse. I do eat it sometimes, mostly at restaurants (at work, I frequently wind up going with my coworkers to the little restaurant down the street for lunch, and it's almost always chicken as the main part of the food - that's at least 2-3 times per week).

I just signed up for MyFitnessPal.com and entered all my food for the day. According to it, I am:
87 calories OVER my limit
14 carbs UNDER my limit
36 g of fat OVER my limit
23 g of protein UNDER my limit
1411 mg of sodium UNDER my limit
4 g of sugar UNDER my limit

And I am still starving. Carbs and sugar are clearly not a problem. I'm surprised about the salt, but it's true that today I didn't have much. Normally I get loads just by various snacks, restaurant food, etc., so I'm not worried about that. Even if I'm low today, I'm definitely well over that on most days. No deficiency risk whatsoever. I am pleased to see that they have Czech bread in their database - I LOVE Czech bread. It's SO delicious. I restrain myself from eating too much of it, but I usually have at least 1 slice, toasted, whenever I make a big vegetable salad (which is most days), and sometimes I'll have a toasted piece with peanut butter in the morning, as today.

I didn't get as much protein as I'd thought. I thought the tofu and mushrooms had more than that, and the peanut butter as well. I am not surprised that the calorie count is already so high. But it's a little depressing - especially considering I really feel like I need another full meal in order to sate my hunger. I was considering making a little pasta to go with a can of tuna salad (it's awfully unhealthy stuff I'm sure but it's tasty and quick and easy and has lots of protein in it). That would surely fill my sodium right up as well. But that's already too many calories! How am I supposed to lose any weight? Maybe I have no choice but to eat meat... Yet every single meat-eater I know is less healthy than me.

EDIT: Hm... If I eat just the can of tuna, I'll be almost 400 calories over, 1000 mg of sodium over, 48 g of fat over, 13 g of carbs over, and still 1 g of protein and 4 g of sugar under. I am considering it... I could still do a bit of exercise before settling in before bed... And I'm SO HUNGRY........

[andrea]

about the meat eaters you know being less healthy than the vegetarians you know, it is probably worth mentioning that most meat eaters likely don't pay much attention to what they are eating, while being vegetarian implies attention is paid. That alone can play a big part in the difference.

anyway, good luck. I have no advice to offer, but I'll follow the thread. I am afraid I'll be in a similar situation in a few years.

[nenjin]

Heh, I'm right there with you Sappho. Between 15 and 25 years old I never weighed more than 150 pounds. People always told me I'm too skinny.

Now I'm 35 and 200. Arms are still a fairly skinny, legs are right where they need to be...but that belly, it's well on its way. I've always had that metabolism people were kind of jealous of...but I think that dog won't hunt anymore.

I don't exercise and I've yet to really alter my diet. In fact, my diet has probably never been worse. I've always loved fast food, pizza, salt, sugar. Never been wild about most vegetables, and I like a good feast. I routinely put away more food than people much larger than me, to their shock and dismay. I quit drinking as much (read as: more than 1 or 2) sodas a day and I often skip meals. Truly the only thing that has probably kept me looking thin at all is that I'm a smoker and that is its own form of (self-destructive) weight control.

----

Anyways,

I WOULD have suggested some fasting. I can go a really, really long time without eating if I need to, a whole day in fact. I don't do breakfast. I don't do snacking for the most part. I get stomach rumbles but it doesn't dominate my mind.

Clearly, that ain't going to work for you. You obviously need the energy.

I'd suggest some portion reduction because the vocabulary you're using is making me think you do large portion sizes. But again, you say you're hungry to the point of distraction so it's not like you can eat less.

So here's my suggestion then: snacking.

Reduce your breakfast, lunch and dinner portions and replace the lost calories with smaller things throughout the day. A bag of unsalted nuts. Rice crackers. Protein shakes. Granola bars or trail mix (the kind that aren't loaded with salt and sugar.) It may meet your cravings enough that you can stop thinking about food.

Truth is though....we're just getting old You have to work hard to maintain that body you enjoyed 10, 15 years ago because your metabolism has you at a net loss. I pretty much had a six pack going when I was 20 because one day I decided I was just going to start doing sit ups. It's still there, just hidden under an increasing amount of viscera.

If your current exercise routine to burn fat cannot expand or change and it's not addressing the issue, chances are eating differently is really only going to prevent more weight gain, not improve it. Short of having a damaged cardiovascular system due to illness or injury, perhaps that is what you should work on because it seems to be the current bottleneck. You can't really burn significant amounts of fat without getting a good cardiovascular work out as well, at least as far as I'm aware of.

Alternatively, I have a very large (300 pound) friend who is now taking a medication to suppress his appetite. By your description though, that sounds both like an extreme and possibly dangerous solution to your issue.

TBH, you kind of sound like my cousin, who is German (which I suppose puts her in roughly the same environmental/cultural/nutritional area as you.) She is my age and is also starting to get a little fleshier than she wants (she had a relatively normal body weight compared to me growing up), and is also trying hard to exercise and eat well but feeling like she's not getting results. In her case, I think the problem is alcohol. She drinks a lot (by my standards anyways, who measures months between drinks.) Perhaps 7 or more drinks a week. That is where I think her extra weight comes from that she feels she has to work hard to get rid of. And for what it's worth, booty fat is (from what I'm told anyways, I don't have an ass to speak of according to most people) really hard to get rid of. It's hard to target it without increasing muscle-mass, which just makes it look bigger.

[Sappho]

Thanks so much for the helpful post, Nenjin. It is actually very helpful to see that someone understands my current feelings and where I'm coming from, and what my goals are. I used to weigh 53 kg, and now I weigh 60. It's a big change which happened over the course of just a few months or so. I'm definitely not overweight, I just miss my old body and really want to try to get it back, if at all possible. I see photos of myself with this chubby gut and thighs and it just doesn't look like me anymore... You are probably right that without exercise it will be almost impossible. I don't want to whine to the world about my health problems (any more than I already have), but as it may be helpful, I'll spoiler a list of the issues here. I'm definitely open to suggestions. And while I admit that often when someone makes a new suggestion, my instinct is to reject it (human nature to resist change I guess), I usually do think it over and often later decide to try it after all.

Spoiler: Health Issues (click to show/hide)

Problems which seriously interfere with exercise:

-Vocal Cord Dysfunction. This looks like asthma but is a problem in the vocal cords. They're damaged and when they should open to let air through, instead they clench shut and I can't breathe. There's no real treatment for it. There are breathing exercise which can help a little bit, but I've tried them for years and they've never helped much. I keep hoping someday they'll come up with a cure or at least a treatment for it, but for now, I can't do anything that requires me to breathe hard for any extended period of time. If I try to run for ten seconds my throat already starts closing off. I miss running so much.

-Tendinitis in my wrists. They were both damaged years ago during teamster work at UPS, stubbornly continuing to lift heavy packages even once my wrists started hurting. By the time it became intolerable, the doctor told me there was permanent damage. Much of the tendon tissue had been replaced by scar tissue, which is weaker and more easily damaged. I was strictly forbidden to do anything that puts strain on my wrists, lest I lose use of them entirely. That includes pushups, pull-ups, weight lifting, anything where my wrists are put under pressure. I used to LOVE pushups...

Other problems that make exercise difficult:

-Scoliosis which in my case includes a pinched nerve somewhere in my spine. I haven't had this properly looked at by a doctor (yay insurance) but if I stand up straight for too long, I can feel a burning/freezing nerve pain coming from a specific spot along my spine. No amount of exercise or stretching seems to help it, and as a result I wind up slouching a lot, since it relieves the pain.

-Sleep disorder, again thanks to insurance not properly diagnosed. The last doctor I talked to about it asked me about all my symptoms and a few other questions, then decided I most probably have narcolepsy (no, it is not like it is in the movies). Essentially my brain is confused about how sleep works, I skip cycles of sleep at night or go through cycles of sleep during the day or even while awake. I regularly fall asleep on public transport or at work, and pretty much every day I am overwhelmed with a need to sleep for at least 10-20 minutes in the afternoon, like I've been drugged. Even when I'm "wide awake", I'm always tired. My body always feels heavy and groggy, like if I could just take a nap, it would be all better... But no amount of sleep ever helps. Neither do stimulants like caffeine. Even when I tried drugs like speed and MDMA, I still felt sleepy. It's kind of a bummer, but without the insurance (or fat stacks of cash) for a sleep study, I can't get any treatment.

-Extreme hypersensitivity. This is hard for most people to understand, but my nervous system is quite literally more sensitive than a normal person. A hundred years ago I'd basically have superpowers, but in the modern world of sensory overload, it just cripples me. I can hear sounds humans aren't supposed to be able to hear, literally, outside the normal hearing range of humans. I have to wear ear protectors just to travel to and from work (and sometimes at the office as well). I see, hear, smell, and feel everything at an amplified level. This includes things like pain. Something which would only be a minor annoyance (or even completely unnoticeable) for a typical person can be excruciatingly painful for me. For example, I can feel the seam on the toes of my socks all day, and if it's not in exactly the right spot, the pressure it puts on my skin is painful. I am not exaggerating here - hypersensitivity is probably my biggest hurdle in life. I credit myself with being very strong and having a high pain tolerance due to a lifetime of pain, but it means when I try to do something uncomfortable like exercise, I suffer a hundred times more than a typical person would. It's not insurmountable, but it sure makes everything a lot more difficult. I also get sensory overload, when I expose myself to too much sensory stimulation for too long (and sadly, it doesn't take much) – this leads to meltdowns, which are like seizures in that they can't be stopped once they start. It's extremely embarrassing, not to mention painful, so I do my best to avoid them. This also means I can't swim, because the water on my skin causes sensory overload – which is a huge bummer, since people often tell me swimming would be a good exercise for me.

Spoiler: Exercise I CAN Do (click to show/hide)

-Sit-ups and crunches – I try to do at least one set of 50 per day, and I strive for more. I know that's not much, but I'm hoping to increase it over time.

-Planking – It hurts like hell and I can't do it for long, maybe 30 seconds at a time, but I know it's a good exercise similar to pushups in many ways. I'm trying to make myself do it more, but I admit I don't do this one very often.

-X-Box – I've got a Kinect and Dance Central 3 and Kinect Sports. They are the only games I have on X-Box, and they are the reason I bought one. I can do these because you never have to go for more than a few minutes without a rest, so I'm able to keep my breathing under control. Of course, that probably also means it's not really burning a whole lot of calories, but it does get me to work up a good sweat and feel tired after, so it's better than nothing. I try to use it at least 2-4 times per week, for at least 30 minutes each time.

-Calisthenics – I have my own little routines that I've come up with to try to use as many of my muscles as possible and get my heart beating faster. It includes some things like arm exercises my old taiji teacher taught me, jumping jacks, fast-walking in place while bringing my knees up to my chest with each step, etc. I think these are probably actually pretty good, but I never manage to go for more than 10 minutes before I can't breathe or just can't move anymore because my body gets too heavy. This is another thing I hope will improve with time, if I stick with it and push myself a little.

-Walking – Seriously, I do a TON of walking. One of the advantages of living in a European city is I can walk pretty much everywhere, and whenever I have the time to walk, I walk. On a typical day, I'll walk anywhere from 3-8 km (between 30-120 minutes) which according to that MyFitnessPal web site burns a surprising number of calories. So at least I have that going for me!

So that's what I've got so far. I know the exercise isn't enough, but I don't know what else I should do. I've thought about buying a bike and trying cycling, but I don't have anywhere to store the bike – I have a teeny-tiny apartment on the second floor of a building with no elevator. Carrying the bike up and down the steps would probably be good exercise, but I have literally no space in my apartment to put the bike. I've thought about one of those folding bikes, but they are expensive. Still, might be worth considering. I've never tried one, no idea how they feel to ride, but surely it's better than nothing? Anyone have any experience with those? I see quite a few people with them these days.

[Moddan]

Normally I'd say go lift, swim and count (calories) but without wrists the lift part seems kinda hard. What about swimming? A female friend had weight problems in both directions (psychological problems). She goes swimming every other day now for two years and this seems to fix her weight problem.

[Sappho]

Normally I'd say go lift, swim and count (calories) but without wrists the lift part seems kinda hard. What about swimming? A female friend had weight problems in both directions (psychological problems). She goes swimming every other day now for two years and this seems to fix her weight problem.

Yeah, that's explained in the "health issues" spoiler under hypersensitivity. Unfortunately, the feeling of water on my skin causes sensory overload, which can lead to meltdowns (which could be deadly if they happened in the water and are extremely painful and embarrassing even under normal conditions). I have heard many times that swimming would be good for me. I may try to find a way to make it work, but I can't count on that as an option, sadly. Stupid nerves 

[NRDL]

Stationary bikes are really good, especially spin bikes that allow you to control the resistance so you can alternate between being able to go faster for long periods of time and just gruelling uphill feeling bursts.  I've also seen yoga being used in a weight-loss/body strengthening context, particularly in this guy's wonderful story.  Worth giving that a shot?

As for the meals, do you only eat three meals a day?  For fat loss and hunger problems that gets rather problematic, eating smaller meals 5 times a day, every 2 hours or so, is something you may want to try.

Also, walking's great, and the fat loss effects of it can be improved by walking first thing in the morning without eating anything.  Fasted cardio causes the body to immediately try and find stored fuel, and since walking's so low impact and non-intensive, your body'll choose to consume fat over muscle, which is ideally what you want.

Really hope you find something that helps.

[Sappho]

Stationary bikes are really good, especially spin bikes that allow you to control the resistance so you can alternate between being able to go faster for long periods of time and just gruelling uphill feeling bursts.  I've also seen yoga being used in a weight-loss/body strengthening context, particularly in this guy's wonderful story.  Worth giving that a shot?

As for the meals, do you only eat three meals a day?  For fat loss and hunger problems that gets rather problematic, eating smaller meals 5 times a day, every 2 hours or so, is something you may want to try.

Also, walking's great, and the fat loss effects of it can be improved by walking first thing in the morning without eating anything.  Fasted cardio causes the body to immediately try and find stored fuel, and since walking's so low impact and non-intensive, your body'll choose to consume fat over muscle, which is ideally what you want.

Really hope you find something that helps.

Ohhh, walking before breakfast, I wouldn't have thought of that. That's very helpful, thanks. And certainly doable, at least some days. I don't need my head to be on straight to go for a half-hour walk before breakfast, just need to be conscious enough to not get hit by a car.

I usually eat three or four meals a day, and I do snack in between (usually fruit/veg or nuts/raisins). That nutritionist I saw a while back ranted about how you MUST only eat THREE full meals a day and NEVER snack, but he also said green tea was unhealthy so, um, not super persuaded by him. I think I prefer eating slowly over the course of the day. I'm definitely a grazer by nature. It's not always possible thanks to work, etc., but I probably tend in that direction at least some of the time. I'll try to pay better attention to it.

I don't have access to any exercise equipment, but I'm seriously considering the folding bike... For a few thousand crowns, it would be cheaper than my X-Box and probably even more helpful as long as I actually use it. Health should always be an investment priority. I'm also considering, for the first time in my life, finally investing in a smartphone, so I can play Pokemon GO. It would motivate me to walk a lot more. Very expensive though.

I can't do yoga because I need to move all the time - I've tried it a few times but holding still increases my sensory overload (that's why autistic people are moving all the time). I did taiji for a while, but I don't have time now and I don't remember most of it anymore. I am trying to persuade myself to start going to that again, as I'm sure it was healthy... I got frustrated though, since holding a position with good posture for so long really caused me a lot of pain due to that pinched nerve, and I never felt like it was making me any healthier. Anyway, it's a possibility for the future, though I definitely wouldn't be able to start that at the moment due to time constraints. (The lessons are only held at certain times and I'm always busy.)

I just had a long chat with one of my coworkers, who is eager to help me out with this. She went through a similar period not long ago and she is very conscious of food and exercise and such. She pointed out to me that tofu is actually not very high in protein, which I thought it was, oops, so I'll have to find better substitutes for meat. I'll focus more on beans and hummus, and try to eat more nuts. (I'm snacking on pistachios now - yum!) She also helped me brainstorm some alternatives for bread with some meals, since I do eat quite a bit of it (so delicious). Her theory is that I'm hungry all the time because of a combination of addiction to greasy fatty sugary crap and a lack of protein, which is what makes you feel full fastest. So finding a good source of protein should be a priority, and I'll see how much that helps. She's pushing me to try to eat more fish. I don't really like the taste of fish (except tuna, which I know you shouldn't eat too much of due to mercury), but she recommends trying smoked salmon, which may work. I'll buy some on my way home from work today and see how I like the taste.

I suppose I could also learn to cook chicken and have it once a week or so. I do like chicken, and it's not TOO expensive, though I have to try to block out of my mind how full of hormones it is. Any suggestions for super-simple recipes?

By the way, a big thank-you to everyone who has offered suggestions, even the ones I can't use. Much appreciated, seriously.