Can anyone recommend a diet?

craker

I've had a fairly loose 'eat sensibly' plan going for the last decade, during which time I've turned all flabby.

Can anyone actually recommend a specific diet? Is calorie counting the way to go, I'm 39 and fairly active - two half marathons last year + 40 miles a week commuting on a bike, didn't do anything for my figure.

Suggestions?

supersonic

I'm in the same boat. I worked out that by cutting out 5000 calories a week I should lose 1.5lbs of fat per week.

1 pint of beer = 180 calories
Big pizza = over 1000 calories.

And so on. Eating big things late at night makes you tend to store more fat.

OliverHerdsman

I got a hernia in march of last year and read that shedding a few pounds and reducing the volume of solid food i consumed would reduce the stress on that area and prevent it worsening. Rather than explain it to you, you could just google hernia bile and read for yourself... but basically I don't eat til lunch time, and then i eat easily digestible foods, so NOT dairy products, switch everythign from white to wholemeal...drink more water...i'm bad at explaining, it's very late - but the point is i quickly but painlessly lost over a stone and now i'm a stable healthy weight and am lookign pretty toned! check out the hernia bible, I think it's a diet that can help anyone, regardless of whether you have a hernia! Might even reduce your risk of getting one!

The Northern Monkey

Eat healthy and exercise. Best diet going.

tlw1

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Eat healthy and exercise. Best diet going.

Agree!

But I still have issues with the amount I eat

asdfhjkl

matthew h wrote:

bigbenj_08 wrote:

Eat healthy and exercise. Best diet going.

Agree!

But I still have issues with the amount I eat

Eat a lot more green vegetables. Very little calorific value, but they'll fill you up pretty quickly. Drink lots more water as well. A lot of the time you aren't hungry, you're just thirsty.

NommaG

I agree with bigbenj 08.. I've lost 10.5 stone over the last 4yrs by eating healthy + exercise. I actually eat more food now than when I was 24 stone.

flemingcool

Have a look at Arthur De Vany's Evolutionary Fitness. There you will find out why counting calories is dumb. Why lowering your insulin is key. And (aside from the first month) it's easy and simple to follow.

Diet with some decent science behind it.

firey1509

As someone who works full time and runs a growing Private Investigation company and having endured a year of recession which meant more hours sat in cars or in front of computers rather than out training, my weight crept up. I get all the eat less and eat greens and prepare your meals before but I'm pretty sure anyone who reads these forums and works unsociable hours will agree that it is not always that easy at three in the morning to buy a mung bean salad.

The thing I have used twice to quickly shift weight and then phase return to "normal" eating is a low carb diet, or ketogenic diet similar in principal to flemingcools suggestion. The easiest one to use is by a Company called Go Lower, a web search will find them. they effectively send you an entire months worth of food and you stick to it. I'm not saying it's easy and there is a lot of self research you should do on the pros and cons of a ketogenic diet. Also it can adversely affect endurance training as the body lacks carbs to fuel long session but by god does it work! Several friends having laughed at me for doing it are now firm fans who just schedule a month of go lower in every three or four months of normal eating which allows for a steady maintenance of weight. A rally driver friend of mine has dumped three stone over six months and is delighted at the results.

Surf-Matt

Do tonnes of exercise - then you can eat what you want.

tlw1

Surf-Matt wrote:

Do tonnes of exercise - then you can eat what you want.

what do you count as tonnes?

specializedone

Chew each mouthful of food ten times.

This will slow your eating down and give your body time to work out that the food is not going to disappear off the table i.e that "panic" eating like a dog feeling will subside and you will get a message that you have had enough before you have bolted the plateful...

Surf-Matt

matthew h wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Do tonnes of exercise - then you can eat what you want.

what do you count as tonnes?

Four 13 mile hilly MTB rides a week, three hilly 4-5 mile trail runs, two weight sessions and lots of surfing if there is any. Might not be much to some but to most it's a fair bit!

Homer J

they all work as long as you stick to them

flowpro

mr_si wrote:

I've had a fairly loose 'eat sensibly' plan going for the last decade, during which time I've turned all flabby.

Can anyone actually recommend a specific diet? Is calorie counting the way to go, I'm 39 and fairly active - two half marathons last year + 40 miles a week commuting on a bike, didn't do anything for my figure.

Suggestions?

I was 2 stone overweight for about 10years I got a new GF and she wanted it gone. I thought it couldn’t hurt so set about it. I carried on eating the same food but about 1/3 less quantity.
I cycle loads but never lost any weight so took up running. I ran 30mins everyday for about 10weeks. I didn’t mess about, I ran hard with interval sprinting and never missed a day except 1 rest day a week. After about 4wks I had dropped 1stone and it took another 6wks to remove the other. I carried on cycling to work and doing the rest of my sports as normal.
Running is a little boring but if you do it in summer and run somewhere mildly interesting like a river bank or canal tow path it’s not too bad. On the plus side it toughens up your legs which helped on the bike.
Summers (well spring) is coming. Give it a go if you don’t like it quit and try something else.
I don’t run anymore rather be on my bike.

ArroyoDave

Paleo diet............meat,fish,fruits,vegetables,nuts.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com

Basically cut out bread,pasta,cereals,sugar and dairy products...........yeah i know what your saying,goes against everything the so called experts tell us.

If you check out the Garmin slipstream site you will see that they avoid pasta among other things.

Anyway,its working for me,felt crap for the first weeks,but now lighter and felling great out on the bike.

a900ss

I'm not an expert but I've been on a diet since the turn of the year. Simply I've been eating smaller portions, cutting out the 'wasted' calories (coke, crisps, biscuits, etc), eating more fruit and veg and finally exercising more. It's working for me.

Right or wrong, I AM counting my calories in and calories out. If the former is lower than the later, I tend to lose weight...

craker

yep, in the end that's what I've been doing. Less dairy foods, no snacks between meals, bit of exercise.

6kg so far

26 to Life

Sorry for the late jump in, but here's what I like.

Go Paleo.

Eat as much (lean, real cuts of) meat, green veg, fruit and nuts as you like. Milk is good (but outside the Paleo menu) as is/are peanuts/peanut butter.

Avoid like the plague - Bread, rice, bread, spud. Processed meats, heavily processed food.

If you wanna lose weight, add more veg, subtract some of the calorie heavy stuff (peanut butter, whole milk). If you want to gain weight, go to town, eat as much as you can.

This still relies on you doing a decent amount of exercise as well, for me that equates to 3x heavy workouts in the week and at least one proper riding session at the weekend.

Keep a log of what you ate and how much work you are doing, educate yourself, and tune your own routine.

nosnevets_semaj

I'm am always trying to loose the 'gut'. I go through stages when I really want to. Only eat carbs when needed. If your on a ride your alowed to chew carbs. Eat food when you need it for fuel. Do other sports too. Indoor climbing is mint for stomach muscles. Even stretching burns calories. My most important thing was to bring down my portion sizes. I eat half the amount for dinner I used to. Eat breakfast. And eat fruit for snacks.

tvi_82

This is a great book CLICK
I know the "6 weeks plan" will put many people off as it sounds like a fad but if you follow the principles in the book its a great eating plan!



If you want the knowlege for free there are many many articles on T-Nation for diet/fatloss.

tvi_82

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_nutrition/7_habits_of_highly_effective_nutritional_programs

Brocade

Calorie counting. The only way to go. Diets are useless and really just account to the same thing. Maybe you can finesse it by also watching your body fat %-age but that's about it.

Really easy now with all the free apps on iPhone, like myfitnesspal .

Take it really slow... like aim to lose 0.5 to 1lb per week and not more.

santacrews

Erm, I,m New here ! but i felt like i had to post on this TOPIC.
Been away from biking for nearly 4 years and struggled with my weight.

been looking at this site on and off for a couple of weeks and decided to Jump in yesterday,
Back On Topic, I went to see a Doc about 2 Months ago as i could not loose weight,
Exercise was only moderate at this point but i felt like i had loose some girth before i hit the trails.
I was advised to have my bloods tested and have a dietician look at my daily intake of food etc etc, she came back to me with a plan which looked and sounded ridiculous,
In the end i bought a book called "eat right for your blood type" which i looked into a lot on the web and jumped in head first,
I,m 6 Foot, An ex Squaddie, well built and normally hover around the 14 St mark, after teetering on and around 16 Stone i decided enough was enough.
I could go into detail but i dropped a stone in 3 weeks, been hard at it on the trails covering 12 miles Minimum 5 times a week ! and lost another 3llbs in the past week.
Quite a contraversial method to loose weight but i can guarentee the results on the inside and out !
Everyones different tho so Dont have a POP at a Newbie.... :shock:

craker

santacrews wrote:

I could go into detail but i dropped a stone in 3 weeks,

Please do! Are you only eating certain types of carb. for example? I imagine eating right for your blood type doesn't allow you to go mad in the sweetshop.

santacrews wrote:

Erm, I,m New here

and welcome. Glad your regime is working for you.

I lost a couple of kilos a week throughout January and February.

Now in March I'm cycle commuting 100 miles a week, running 20 + a week but it's not making any impact on my weight anymore and I'm not sure why... :shock:

santacrews

mr_si,
essentially, i,m O Neg, which "Apparently" thrive on a high protein diet, There are certain foods which an O Neg blood group should stay away from "Suposedly"

i,m being a bit loose with the apparently and supposedly because many people have deemed this hocus pocus.

I now do not eat Pork, bread certain veg, fruits nuts etc However i have been told to eat other things and introduce these into my diet / lifestyle.
I can eat any ammount of Red Meat as my blood group has a high content of Acid in the Stomach where as Type B should be Veggies and stay off meat and relax with Yoga And Meditation where as Type O thrive on Cardio activity and are natural risk takers and thrive on stressfull situations.

It all sounds crap i know but i gave it a go as i had exhausted all avenues with feeling podgy and bloated after meal times.
There is loads of information on the web relating to this, i think every one can make their own minds up on what the results may be but it shifted the extra few llbs for me.