Nutritional advice, diet and weight loss

[black ripped skinnies]

Just that really! I've been on some sort of diet since the age of 14...
I've done WW (not much success at all)
Slimming world several times (most recently lost 4.5 stone, gained 2.5stone back) cabbage soup, slim fast, one meal a day, Atkins, keto, and just not eating

I've tried to educate myself about food and nutrition, and am aware of counting calories etc, but seriously, how do you control your inner fatty? What is the secret to losing weight, and keeping it off? I'm really getting sick of myself, due to move to a hot country very soon and need to shift this 2.5 stone I've gained sharpish!

So please... Anyone that's lost weight and maintained it for a while, or is just aware of how to control their diet, or even if you're naturally slim... Please tell me what you eat in a day? Share your wisdom and top tips I beg you. I'm getting to the point of thinking I need to do something drastic like that Cambridge plan to start me off

 

[SunshineDreamer]

This is going to sound counter productive to what you want to achieve but the best advice is don’t diet.

I’ve never really dieted but my day usually consists of:

Breakfast (7am): 2 weetabix and milk
Snack (10am): Fruit
Lunch (12pm): Salad - with chicken or tuna
Snack (3pm) Carrot or cucumber sticks with dip of hummous
Dinner (6pm): jacket potato with salad and some type of protein.

I also try and make a conscious effort to move for an hour a day. Even if it’s just running around the park with the kids.

I would say if you are struggling aim for 6 smaller meals than 3 big ones and try to drink as much water as you can.

 

[black ripped skinnies]

Thanks for replying @SunshineDreamer ! Do you ever have chocolate or crisps? I can definitely eat what you do in a day easily, but by the time it gets to evening I want to eat all sorts of junk currently eating cherries to satisfy my sweet tooth!

 

[Orange Creme]

Great thread I have always wondered what slim people eat in a day. I'm always hungry

 

[black ripped skinnies]

Great thread I have always wondered what slim people eat in a day. I'm always hungry

Same! I'm dead nosey too and love seeing what people eat in a day

Today I've had the chocolate Weetabix with strawberries, 4 ryvita with low fat cheese spread and tomatoes, a diet coke, spinach trottole with pesto and salad, a protein yoghurt and some cherries.

I'm still hungry, could literally raid the kids cupboards and inhale everything

 

[Yoghurtpots]

I am currently on Exante (cheap Cambridge). Its great. I lost 2half stone this time last year in 11 weeks (from 11stone to 8half). I have out 1 stone back on but have had 2 all inclusives holidays, Disney, New York, Christmas weight and just generally treating myself. I am currently on day 15, its easy after day 5 and I love that food gets taken out of the equation. So many people around me tried it after my success and failed so it certainly isn't for everyone but it is 100% for me.

 

[Mayday]

I really like Fitness Blender for both workouts and recipes! A lot of their workouts are free too and only around 30 minutes.

Recipes

Fitness Blender provides free full length workout videos, workout routines, healthy recipes and more.

www.fitnessblender.com

They focus a lot on healthy living as opposed to dieting. I think a lot of diets can be quite restricted, which then leads to binging due to undereating.
She talks about it more here: https://www.fitnessblender.com/blog...ow-i-lost-40-lbs-and-beat-my-eating-disorder- but basically, she lost more weight/maintained her smaller frame eating 2000+ calories and exercising more smartly, instead of doing hours of cardio like she used to do.

 

[SunshineDreamer]

Thanks for replying @SunshineDreamer ! Do you ever have chocolate or crisps? I can definitely eat what you do in a day easily, but by the time it gets to evening I want to eat all sorts of junk currently eating cherries to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Chocolate - not so much. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it!) I’m not much of a fan, but I definitely have crisps. I would never stop myself from having something if I want it - I tend to stick to baked crisps. Still get the junk food hit but it’s slightly on the lower aide of calories. I also try not to bulk but things like crisps. Half the time the effort of having to go and get them puts me off!

Have you tried freezing some fruit? I absolutely love frozen berries. I also keep lots of nuts in the house. Although they can be a little higher on the calories side, I’ve found if I have a handful around 10/11 I’m much fuller for longer.

 

[StillMe]

The Easy Way to Lose Weight (Allen Carr's Easyway) is a great start. It works to change your mindset around food, how diets don't tend to work long term, but how to adjust your relationship with food for long term results. I found it incredibly helpful, and although i didn't follow it to the letter (for example i wouldn't ever stop eating meat), i took what i wanted from it and made some changes and found it successful. It speaks about becoming in tune with your hunger signals, what food is going to satisfy you, and also allows for 'junk' here and there. Its not a diet, but really addresses people's unhealthy relationship with food, whether that is overeating, not eating enough, and junk food/cravings.

 

[Onepotatotwopotato]

Increasing activity also really helps you to be able to get away with eating more

 

[BettyCrocker]

You need to change your eating habits and increase your activity.
You can’t view it as a diet or “I’m going to do this for 3 months to loose weight”
It has to be a lifestyle change. Accept that it will take time.

3 sensible meals a day -mainly protein & veg
Fruit/veg as snacks
No booze
Limit carbs
No crap (chocolate/cake/crisps etc)
Minimum 30mins exercise a day - a brisk walk is all you need to start loosing weight. Or try doing HITT sessions (millions on you tube) Toning up will require resistance exercises/weights etc

 

[Moonstone]

The only thing that’s ever worked for me has been using the app MyFitnessPal to track what I eat & really being mindful of the carbs I eat. Once I got a better idea of my calories in / calories out situation (I was even weighing my food to see how many ounces), I no longer use the app as I can tell how much is too much.

I cannot lose weight if for instance I eat bread, pasta, potatoes, processed foods or drink alcohol. They’re fine (in moderation) when I want to maintain but if I’m trying to lose weight, I have to temporarily cut those things out of my life completely and replace them with veggies. I also only drink LOTS of water, coffee with unsweetened almond milk / tea.

I think all in all, it’s really about figuring out how many calories a day you should eat to lose weight and try to track your food so you can see how many grams of carbs, sugar, fat, protein, fiber etc you’re eating - MyFitnessPal shows you that. At least until you get a better idea, it doesn’t have to be obsessive.

I should add that I’ve never lost weight just by exercising, for me it’s always been a super clean diet 90% and 10% some exercises at the end after losing a few pounds to tone up. I do try to walk often but I never lose weight if I don’t also eat clean.

So MyFitnessPal app, low carb meals, water only (coffee and tea is fine but with unsweetened almond milk). I do make sure I eat enough though so I don’t binge eat from being hungry.

 

[StillMe]

You need to change your eating habits and increase your activity.
You can’t view it as a diet or “I’m going to do this for 3 months to loose weight”
It has to be a lifestyle change. Accept that it will take time.

3 sensible meals a day -mainly protein & veg
Fruit/veg as snacks
No booze
Limit carbs
No crap (chocolate/cake/crisps etc)
Minimum 30mins exercise a day - a brisk walk is all you need to start loosing weight. Or try doing HITT sessions (millions on you tube) Toning up will require resistance exercises/weights etc

Spot on, diets instantly make you want what you cant have. Viewing it as a lifestyle is much better, and it really does lead to long term results. Diets will drop the weight, but as soon as you get sick of the restriction the weight piles back on, sometimes more than what was lost. If you are hungry, you should eat and stop when you are full, but replace the junk with veg, fruit, nuts - any natural healthy food. It will keep you full for longer and you will lose weight. Remember an occasional treat is fine, but the majority of what you eat should be a healthy choice, avoiding processed high sugar foods. And drink water, sometimes we think we are hungry, when actually we are thirsty. Also drop empty calories, like fizzy pop, alcohol, lattes that kind of thing, but its ok to have them the odd treat here and there. There is no magic diet or pill or drink that can fix weight problems, it really is just less calories in (healthy choices), and move more.

 

[Onepotatotwopotato]

Intermittent fasting is also great.
If you can skip breakfast and morning snacks and have coffee, tea, zero calorie drinks until say 12/1pm instead you can then have a big ish lunch, 500/600 calories, and the same for dinner and then 300ish for evening and afternoon snacks. This means you can have around 1500-1700 calories a day easily.
If you combined this with reaching 10,000 steps the weight will come off.
First few days are hard but you do get used to it! I much prefer my calories in the second half of the day

 

[Blondie]

One of the girls in work literally keeps no junk food in the house at all. No Biscuits, no crisps, no sweets, no chocolate, nothing at all unhealthy and if she fancies something then she will walk to the corner shop but 9/10 she doesn't go because

A) too much effort
B) if its too late at night and its closed

So thats one way to stop eating crap at night

 

[Bellaboo83]

Intermittent fasting (stop eating at 8pm and start eating again at 12pm the next day, so 16 hours fasting per day) and use my fitness pal to track what you are eating (set your goals to a calorie deficit, and moderate / low carbs.

I laughed at your post because that's exactly me the only time I stick to anything is when I exercise because I think omg it's such a waste of all that gym pain if I eat a Mars bar now so can control myself better if you know what I mean.

Oh and never let yourself get too hungry during the day, if I skip a meal I go on an uncontrollable food rampage

Good luck!! And if all else fails you might find when you are in the hotter climate you feel less like lots of heavy food anyway and the weight you want to lose will just come off naturally xx

 

[Moonstone]

Intermittent fasting has worked wonders for me as well! I don’t even think about it anymore and I don’t feel bloated, either. I typically do 16 or 18 hours and there is an app for it called ‘Zero’ if you want to track your time.

 

[Moonstone]

So this isn't nutritional but it seems to work to motivate me and I don't know why I haven't thought about it before.
I need to lose about 15 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I decided to take some pics for myself to see if I was progressing. I weighed myself again after about 4 weeks of being consistent with my healthy eating & I saw that I lost 5 pounds and I almost felt like ughhh, only 5 pounds (idk what I was expecting honestly) but when I took my progress pics, I noticed a huge difference when I put them side by side. This is really going to keep me motivated to keep going until I reach my goal.
So take pics! Every small change matters.

 

[StillMe]

So this isn't nutritional but it seems to work to motivate me and I don't know why I haven't thought about it before.
I need to lose about 15 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I decided to take some pics for myself to see if I was progressing. I weighed myself again after about 4 weeks of being consistent with my healthy eating & I saw that I lost 5 pounds and I almost felt like ughhh, only 5 pounds (idk what I was expecting honestly) but when I took my progress pics, I noticed a huge difference when I put them side by side. This is really going to keep me motivated to keep going until I reach my goal.
So take pics! Every small change matters.

This
Weight loss isn't just about numbers on the scales. You can lose inches and it only show a few lbs on the scales. This is because as you exercise and tone, muscle mass increases (which weighs more than fat). I would measure your body, and weigh in less - the inches lost are just as rewarding. I try not to weigh myself too much, because my scales and bmi say i'm overweight, even though i'm a size 10 but i'm quite toned from doing body pump 2 times a week. When i first started my weight loss, i dropped 35lbs, but then i got to a point where my weight was going up but i was still losing inches. It was disheartening at first until i read up about it. I did get obsessed with weighing a certain number, but now i try not to weigh in too much.

 

[Moonstone]

@StillMe exactly! It also made me realize that a 5 pounds loss is great I thought ohh only 5 but I could see the difference in pictures. If I didn’t have the pics, I would have felt discouraged even though 5 pounds in a about a month is a normal weight loss. I think you want to lose about 1 pound a week, slow and steady.