Mastodawn

Okay I'm going to say I'm 100% convinced that my recent weight struggles were BECAUSE I gave up chocolate.

My work trousers are size 12. When I first got them, within the first few months, I had to take in the waist about 8cm.

Last summer I gave up chocolate and crisps. My weight ballooned until not only did I have to take out all the tucks in my waistband, it got so bad that I couldn't even zip it up anymore. I had to just lock the zip halfway.

Since giving up chocolate wasn't making me lose weight, a couple of months ago I went back to buying chocolate and crisps. My trousers now fit. I'm pretty sure I'm consuming more calories now than I was when I gave up (the only other junk I bought was the biscuits I have at breakfast). I eat pretty much the same meals in the same portions every day, I am a creature of habit. My tummy hasn't gone down enough to take in the waist again, but I can do up the zip comfortably. And I've been keeping chocolate in my room, so I'm eating a lot. 200g bar in less than a week.

Before I started eating chocolate again, I was having to basically skip lunch for several days to get any weight off my tummy. I would just play video games all day until dinner. If I didn't, it was back to not being able to zip up my trousers.

I don't know how this works. Has anyone else had such an experience? A web search brings up a study showing that eating chocolate doesn't make you gain weight, but nothing about it making you lose weight, or at least lose tummy fat (my weight never evenly distributes. I have twig arms, and all the weight goes to my tummy).

#diet #chocolate #weight

@actuallyautistic

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Silver Arrows Aug 14, 2025

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5nrBw8X5NhXxv04J7H1vn2J/the-body-fat-that-can-make-you-thin

A discussion on Lemmy reminded me of this story that Dr Karl told about 38 billion times on the 5Live Science show. One thing that really does speed up your metabolism is the cold. Like really cold, Antarctica cold. It turns your fat into brown fat which gets burned for energy. Dr Karl had a story about some women who put on extra weight before a trip to Antarctica, but even with all the extra fat they put on and the extra calories they were eating, it all melted away during that trip.

Also, the body burns more or less the same amount of calories a day, whether you're active or sedentary. So exercise isn't an effective way to lose weight, as your body will just reduce the calories it burns on other things. The amount of energy you use just to stay alive outweighs how much you'd burn from doing a run. Anyway. #Exercise is really good for other things! Not weight loss, but it has *loads* of other benefits, so try to stay active.

I'm now going to guiltily look at my 5kg weights that haven't seen much action lately. And my bike that I haven't been able to ride because I don't know the cycle route to work and the bus route goes on a motorway.

#weightloss #diet #health #DrKarl

BBC Two - Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, Series 9, Episode 4 - The body fat that can make you thin

The latest science on 'brown fat', a type of body fat that can help burn more calories.

BBC

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Silver Arrows Aug 15, 2025

I wonder if chocolate has any kind of effect on cortisol levels?

https://mastodon.social/@SilverArrows/114115302330265335

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Silver Arrows Sep 14, 2025

Update.

So if you keep up with my alt account @SilverArrows (which is where I post my vegan finds), you'll know I've been buying a lot of junk lately.

I've really been indulging, comfort eating. I could almost say, bingeing on junk food in the last week or two.

And my work trousers still fit, with some space to spare in the waistband.

I still can't understand how easily I put on weight when I gave up chocolate, but now I can indulge all I want and not have to worry about weight gain (the other negatives of highly processed junk is another matter).

I suppose the real test would be to keep a food diary for a month and keep track of everything I eat, including how much CBD I'm taking. Then repeat for a full month, but go cold turkey on the chocolate.

But that requires commitment and effort and I don't got enough of that.

#chocolate #weightgain #weightloss #health #diet

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VulcanTourist Aug 12, 2025

@SilverArrows @actuallyautistic

The nature and quality of the chocolate likely plays a large role... if there's an actual role at play here. MILK chocolate is essentially garbage, phytochemically. Can't really draw any conclusions beyond your personal experience without repeating it enough under vaguely controlled conditions to confirm patterns. I'd like to see it investigated.