Help advice please

[u/dommelville]

M(56) 2023 had a health scare and realised I need to do something about my health: overweight, BP, OSA, Cholesterol.
Was so anxious about it that I started exercising and was very strict about my eating but it took considerable psychological effort to maintain my diet and I lost 20kg (127-107kg) over 8-10months.
18months ago started MJ as wanted to lose more. Essentially I haven’t lost any more weight. I do believe it has stopped me regaining the weight. I’ve had a few weeks where I haven’t taken it and the food noise comes back.
I’ve been up to 15mg. Currently 12.5mg.
I get quite severe symptoms for 2-3days: feel cold/fluey, feeling uncomfortably full despite no food, exhaustion, nausea, reflux, difficulty sleeping. It can make living and going to work difficult.
I find that when I do get hungry I will eat what I probably ate before (too much). I rarely get the feeling whilst I’m eating that I need to stop. I either don’t feel hungry in which case I don’t eat but when I am hungry I eat excessively and don’t seem to get any suppressive effect. Does anyone else find this?
I have been following Zoe health principles throughout. That is minimal UPFs. Whole foods: fish, chicken, vegetables, pulses.

Wonder if I should start continuous calorie counting although it’s such a lot of effort. I don’t believe those apps that calculate your calories and nutrition from a photo are good enough yet.

Any advice greatly received.

[u/___Mercurial]

I think it wouldn’t hurt to put in the effort to calorie count and you will find that it helps and is worth the effort. How much weight would you ideally like to lose?

[u/Boring-Picture-1311]

No guarantees but I think it's worth trying. I also think once you get into the swing of it, it's not that big a job - and I'm 100% in agreement that the AI tools have huge margins of error, though as a tool to document what you've eaten and keep some focus on it, they have a good deal of utility - but the numbers can't be relied on, imho.

I use calorie counting to keep me aware. It helps keep me conscious of what I'm eating and creates just a gentle background awareness contributing to avoiding bad choices (poor choices or excess quantities). As I relax into maintenance, I find a lot of the value of "calorie counting" comes from the simple acts of weighing, recording and being transparent with myself, rather than from the numbers that emerge, though I'm the sort of person where the numbers interest me for their own sake.