Trying to loose weight & Get fit, Help!

MarkDon

First off, as much as i'd like to start the p90 thing, its not really for me, i want to eat healthy & exercise regular, i'm not wanting to be uber cut, just fit. I've tried to follow the p90 dvd, but it just doesnt suit me.

Right, basicallly, i'm having one of those new year things, must be fitter this year. I've been out & bought a mountain bike, i plan to do as much as i can, in the free time i have and i would like some input as to work out times & diet.

I know its not the best, but its a start, my tools & regime...

Wii game - My Fitness coach, find it quite good, sort of helps build a workout routine, i have some light handweights (2kg, 1kg), some velcro weights (4 x .5kg), skipping rope, step, eliptical strider machine and mountain bike.

So, i'm doing a day on, a day off of 30mins upper body (wii game), 15mins on strider (3miles-ish), 15mins lower body (wii game), sometimes i do a 15min random workout on a day inbetween.

Obviously i'm going to increase the times & weights as i improve fitness, so this is just a starting point. But, if you could tell me of any specific exercises i should be doing, or a routine i could try, that would be great.

So far in 3 weeks i've dropped from 13st 7lbs to 12st 11lb, which i'm quite happy with, but i'd like to get down a bit further, but now i'm stuck at 12st 11lb, and have been for best part of a week now?

My diet is as follows...

Breakfast - 30g cheerios or branflakes with small amount of semi skimmed milk
lunch - large home made salad - mixed leaves, radish, cherry toms, celery, spring onion, pepper, sugarsnap peas (in pod), 15g light salad cream mixed in, 1 medium boiled egg, and either 300g tinned tuna, chicken breast, turkey breast. 1 medium apple. 1 bag quavers. 1 muller light yoghurt.
Tea - (changes alot, few examples) - Chicken/prawn stirfry (not much olive oil used, lots of veg), weight watchers meal with lots of steamed veg (had ww lasagne with carrots, cabbage, brocoli & a few baby potatoes tonight)

Snacks, not really snacking any more, but i have an apple, clemintine or cereal bar (quite liking the weetabix ones at the mo)

So, if anyone could help me by pointing me in the right direction regarding routine or diet, or both, that would be great.

Also, i was wondering if i should be taking anything like omega 3 oil, or other vitamins, as my joints have been quite stiff & clicky since i've started doing all this exercising.

In an ideal world i would like to get to 12 stone, i'm 6ft, so think this weight would be ok for my height? My main problem areas are gut & moobs, i have pretty toned legs from years of roller hockey & cycling, then i went to uni & it went downhill!

Thanks for any help, appologies for the super long thread!

weeksy59

You are eating too little.

Yup... really.

Your body is now storing the calories you give it as it's in starvation.

eat more of the good stuff.

Tino4444

Hi markdon,

First of all losing 3 pounds a week for 3 weeks I would say if definite progress, well done.

Because you have now stayed at the same weight for 1 week is no issue, maybe your body has found its ideal weight?

It seems to me that your main objective is to actually lose the moobs and gut. If this is the case then I would be now looking for improvements with the tape measure and not the weighing scales.

Just over a year ago I weighed 17 stones, and I am now currently 13 stone 7lbs and I am 6 ft.

When I was 17 stone I had moobs and a belly. Now although I am not 'cut' I now have pecks and a flat stomach. This has been with a combination of healthy eating, running, cycling, duathlon events and upper body training (press ups, and tricep raises).

Good luck,

Tino

The Northern Monkey

MarkDon
you'll burn a whole load more fat if you get out on the bike.

I've got the wii fit at home and don't think its great. You'd have to play it for 4 hours a day every day to loose weight. It'd be good as a toner though.

Instead of using the Wii to figure out your obesity + risk of CVD, use the waist to hip ratio. The BMI colculation has been superceded by the WHR, because BMI just isn't accurate
http://www.tescodiets.com/diet-tools/wa ... or/450000/

you're diet seems fine. for now I wouldn't recommend any supplements as you're diet looks reasonably balanced.

TBH, you just need to increase your exercise IMO. 30mins stood infornt of you're tv everyother day is nowhere near enough to start sheding the pounds!

MarkDon

Cheers for the replies guys!

weeksy59

I'm not hungry inbetween meals, so what should i do? Eat for the sake of it? And what should i eat? what would you change in my diet?

Tino4444

So more exercise, more exercise & a bit more exercise i should be ok? Anything in particular that you would reccomend?

bigbenj_08

It says i'm .92, so lower than .95 warning thing for pear shaped people. I'm not relying on the Wii to get me fit, but if the weather is crap, or i dont have the time to go for a ride, i can do a hour here & there, every little bit helps i guess?

Just need to be careful tomorrow as i'm getting the train down to Doncaster with the boys for the racing, must not go ott!

Cheers again for the help.

robertpb

To me your breakfast is a weak area, remember this is the first meal of the day and it should have more diversity.

Try oats, nuts and seeds with some dried fruit and yoghurt thrown in.

MarkDon

Like a musli type of breakfast? add some extra dried fruit perhaps?

Cheers.

Skippy2309

aim to put on some muscle mass, it raises you basal metabolic rate meaning you will be burning more calories doing nothing.

weight loss is not that difficult you just need to burn more calories than you put in.

asdfhjkl

MarkDon wrote:

Wii game - My Fitness coach, find it quite good, sort of helps build a workout routine, i have some light handweights (2kg, 1kg), some velcro weights (4 x .5kg), skipping rope, step, eliptical strider machine and mountain bike.

I wouldn't bother with the weights; you'll see much more benefit of doing bodyweight stuff such as pushups, pullups, squats, lunges, dips than lifting such light weights. Skipping is great cardio - you could get a heck of a good workout by combining skipping with bodyweight circuits. Something like 2 minutes jump rope, 20 squats, 20 pushups, 20 lunges, 10 burpees, repeat a few times (with decreasing rest periods between each complete circuit).

Riding your bike is pretty good exercise too.

MarkDon wrote:

So far in 3 weeks i've dropped from 13st 7lbs to 12st 11lb, which i'm quite happy with, but i'd like to get down a bit further, but now i'm stuck at 12st 11lb, and have been for best part of a week now?

It's not unusual to lose a few pounds of water weight after cleaning up your diet and starting to exercise a bit more. The reality is that fat is much harder to shift and will take time. You're definitely making progress though, so keep it up. Don't expect to lose any more than about 1 to 2lbs at most a week though - the first couple of weeks just seem to be that much quicker because of water.

MarkDon wrote:

My diet is as follows...

Breakfast - 30g cheerios or branflakes with small amount of semi skimmed milk
lunch - large home made salad - mixed leaves, radish, cherry toms, celery, spring onion, pepper, sugarsnap peas (in pod), 15g light salad cream mixed in, 1 medium boiled egg, and either 300g tinned tuna, chicken breast, turkey breast. 1 medium apple. 1 bag quavers. 1 muller light yoghurt.
Tea - (changes alot, few examples) - Chicken/prawn stirfry (not much olive oil used, lots of veg), weight watchers meal with lots of steamed veg (had ww lasagne with carrots, cabbage, brocoli & a few baby potatoes tonight)

Snacks, not really snacking any more, but i have an apple, clemintine or cereal bar (quite liking the weetabix ones at the mo)

I agree with the above comments - you're eating far too little. Your 3 meals are like my breakfast :P Look to eat more protein, more fruit and more vegetables. I don't know how much water you are drinking, but you could probably do with more anyway.

Breakfast - Should be the biggest meal of the day. Something like oatmeal and some eggs, just get a good complex carb in there and some source of protein. Porridge and protein shakes are convenient if like me you're too lazy to prepare anything else this early in the morning.

Lunch - looks good. You probably already know that quavers and the yoghurt aren't the best food choice though

Tea - looks okay. Pre-made meals generally aren't that good though.

Eating more is easier if you start to eat smaller meals. I have about 5 or 6 meals a day, because I'd never be able to get the food I need if I was just having 3 meals.

MarkDon wrote:

Also, i was wondering if i should be taking anything like omega 3 oil, or other vitamins, as my joints have been quite stiff & clicky since i've started doing all this exercising.

Fish oil supplements and multivitamins are helpful, but not really essential. You could get sufficient fish oil by eating salmon or some other oily fish a couple of times a week.

The key to losing weight is all in the diet. Get that nailed and you'll reach your goals Good luck.

MarkDon

MarkDon wrote:

Wii game - My Fitness coach, find it quite good, sort of helps build a workout routine, i have some light handweights (2kg, 1kg), some velcro weights (4 x .5kg), skipping rope, step, eliptical strider machine and mountain bike.

asdfhjkl wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the weights; you'll see much more benefit of doing bodyweight stuff such as pushups, pullups, squats, lunges, dips than lifting such light weights. Skipping is great cardio - you could get a heck of a good workout by combining skipping with bodyweight circuits. Something like 2 minutes jump rope, 20 squats, 20 pushups, 20 lunges, 10 burpees, repeat a few times (with decreasing rest periods between each complete circuit).

Riding your bike is pretty good exercise too.

Sounds like a pretty good routine there, but, would it be worth using the weights when doing the squats & lunges, or is that just making things too complicated / hard when they dont need to be?

Living in an upstairs flat has a major flaw when it comes to skipping, its noisey as hell, and having small kids downstairs is a pain in the backside, but i do try and do a bit when i get in from work.

MarkDon wrote:

So far in 3 weeks i've dropped from 13st 7lbs to 12st 11lb, which i'm quite happy with, but i'd like to get down a bit further, but now i'm stuck at 12st 11lb, and have been for best part of a week now?

asdfhjkl wrote:

It's not unusual to lose a few pounds of water weight after cleaning up your diet and starting to exercise a bit more. The reality is that fat is much harder to shift and will take time. You're definitely making progress though, so keep it up. Don't expect to lose any more than about 1 to 2lbs at most a week though - the first couple of weeks just seem to be that much quicker because of water.

Its just with me loosing that initial weight, i got a boost, now its been a week and its not dropping any, its quite a downer, though i'm sticking with it!

MarkDon wrote:

My diet is as follows...

Breakfast - 30g cheerios or branflakes with small amount of semi skimmed milk
lunch - large home made salad - mixed leaves, radish, cherry toms, celery, spring onion, pepper, sugarsnap peas (in pod), 15g light salad cream mixed in, 1 medium boiled egg, and either 300g tinned tuna, chicken breast, turkey breast. 1 medium apple. 1 bag quavers. 1 muller light yoghurt.
Tea - (changes alot, few examples) - Chicken/prawn stirfry (not much olive oil used, lots of veg), weight watchers meal with lots of steamed veg (had ww lasagne with carrots, cabbage, brocoli & a few baby potatoes tonight)

Snacks, not really snacking any more, but i have an apple, clemintine or cereal bar (quite liking the weetabix ones at the mo)

asdfhjkl wrote:

I agree with the above comments - you're eating far too little. Your 3 meals are like my breakfast :P Look to eat more protein, more fruit and more vegetables. I don't know how much water you are drinking, but you could probably do with more anyway.

Breakfast - Should be the biggest meal of the day. Something like oatmeal and some eggs, just get a good complex carb in there and some source of protein. Porridge and protein shakes are convenient if like me you're too lazy to prepare anything else this early in the morning.

Lunch - looks good. You probably already know that quavers and the yoghurt aren't the best food choice though

Tea - looks okay. Pre-made meals generally aren't that good though.

Eating more is easier if you start to eat smaller meals. I have about 5 or 6 meals a day, because I'd never be able to get the food I need if I was just having 3 meals.

Just been out, bought a bag of mixed fruit & nut museli type stuff, much higher in everything than my branflakes.

Water, i tend to drink with sugar free vimto, i'm not a big plain water fan, i dont make it strong, just enough to taste, i would say i go through at least 2 litres a day, possibly more.

I know the quavers and yoghurt may not be the best, though they are the best of the groups they come from, and i'm not sure what i can replace them with?

As for tea, the pre-made ones are not a regular in my diet, its just we had some veg on the turn, and didnt have anything else in at the time, the mrs normally eats the WW stuff.

Mind, with her doing the WW plan, i have been looking more at whats in foods, and cutting down on fatty stuff, i think thats why my diet may have gone too far, i think i'm eating for her size, not mine? Though i dont know how many points i should eat, and i dont count, i just eat the same, but a bit more of it.

MarkDon wrote:

Also, i was wondering if i should be taking anything like omega 3 oil, or other vitamins, as my joints have been quite stiff & clicky since i've started doing all this exercising.

asdfhjkl wrote:

Fish oil supplements and multivitamins are helpful, but not really essential. You could get sufficient fish oil by eating salmon or some other oily fish a couple of times a week.

The key to losing weight is all in the diet. Get that nailed and you'll reach your goals Good luck.

Thanks very much for your post, very helpful, i do tend to have fish at least once a week, normally salmon, cod or prawns, i'm a bit picky with fish though.

Thanks again for the help.

asdfhjkl

MarkDon wrote:

Sounds like a pretty good routine there, but, would it be worth using the weights when doing the squats & lunges, or is that just making things too complicated / hard when they dont need to be?

You could use them if you like but they'd soon be of insignificant weight to make much of a difference. There are plenty of ways you can add more resistance though - sandbags, children :P I wouldn't worry about the extra resistance though - it'll be tough enough as it is.

MarkDon wrote:

Its just with me loosing that initial weight, i got a boost, now its been a week and its not dropping any, its quite a downer, though i'm sticking with it!

It's also possible to stay the same weight, but recompose your body. So even though the weight isn't going down, you could still be losing fat and gaining a little bit of lean body mass to even things out. Don't worry about what the scales say so much as what you can see happening in the mirror

MarkDon wrote:

Mind, with her doing the WW plan, i have been looking more at whats in foods, and cutting down on fatty stuff, i think thats why my diet may have gone too far, i think i'm eating for her size, not mine? Though i dont know how many points i should eat, and i dont count, i just eat the same, but a bit more of it.

Finding out how much to eat can be tricky at first - it varies by person, their activity levels.etc I'd start by eating more, maybe trying to introduce a fourth meal in the evening and a snack while at work or whatever (handful of nuts and an apple, for example). Then as time goes on, re-evaluate and decide if you either need to eat more (feeling more tired, weaker, or notice your cycling or whatever beginning to suffer) or less (not shifting any fat [over a period of say 2 weeks]).

One of the biggest reasons for people's diets failing is that they eat too little, their metabolism slows down, and their bodies just refuse to lose any more fat. Then they give up, revert to their old ways, and their body does its best to hold on to all this extra energy in case it gets starved again. Thus they end up back where they started, if not worse. Most people won't accept that you probably need to eat more to get leaner. But in the days of fad crash diets where people purposely screw up their metabolisms, its a difficult point to get across. Anyway, I'm rambling here...

Tino4444

[quote="

Tino4444

So more exercise, more exercise & a bit more exercise i should be ok? Anything in particular that you would reccomend?

[/quote]

Well everyones training plan is going to be different depending on your specific goals etc. I found that joining a triathlon club helped with my training and diet. When I have up coming events to train for it helps me enormously. The fear of not completing the event drives me forward on days when I cannot be bothered to go out training. Plus speaking to the other members and getting tips and advice really helps too.

My typical training programme consists of the following:

Tuesday - 5 mile run.

Thursday - 45 mins on turbo trainer.

Sat - 12 mile run.

Sunday - 25 mile bike ride.

I also do press ups, bicep raises and leg raises (stomach) about 5 days a week.

Good luck with your training.

Cheers,

Tino

Sunday - 25 mile bike ride.

Paulie W

weeksy59 wrote:

You are eating too little.

Yup... really.

Your body is now storing the calories you give it as it's in starvation.

eat more of the good stuff.

To suggest the OP is 'in starvation' is a major exaggeration in my opinion. There are no exact weights of all that is being eaten but this is getting on, I would imagine, for 1800-2000 calories which is perfectly reasonable for someone looking to lose weight and who is not engaging in endurance exercise. The 'stalling' of weight may be about reaching a more realistic weight for your size but I dont think a week really counts as stabilising!

It is rare for weight loss to be consistent at the beginning of the process plus your weight can vary quite a lot depending on hydration, time of day, etc Were you always weighing yourself at the same time? Were you always hydrated? It sounds like your weighing yourself quite frequently - I wouldnt do this since it can make you focus on the wrong things. Weight should be a secondary concern to overall fitness and things like waste size are much more reflective of how things are progressing.

As others have said on the issue of diet, avoid the processed foods like WW meals, crisps (a few nuts and seeds would be better) and the muller (lo-fat yoghurt with "real" unsweetened fruit would be better).

MarkDon

I normally weigh myself once or twice a week, first thing in the morning, that way i think its consistant.

I've ditched the crisps this week, and have some extra fruit, kept the muller light yoghurt though, as i like them, zero fat too, better than most out there, or am i missing something?

I went down to 12st 9lb sat morning, then went to doncaster to watch the horse racing, diet went out of the window after a few pints (bad i know, but its the forst drink since new year), so i'm back up to 12st 11 again, % fat is 21, and i feel pretty good, done half hour on the strider machine, was going to go out on bike, but the bloody snow has been back! So going to do a few repititions of this... 20 squats, 20 pushups, 20 lunges, 10 burpees as suggested above.

Cheers for the help.

roarbut

"Starvation mode" is a myth and one that really annoys me whenever it's mentioned.

If you want to really speed up the fat loss, skip a meal now and again or go a day without food, it's easier than you think. If your doing all the exercise you say you're doing, including the body weight exercises (they're important!) expect to lose about 2 lbs a week give or take.

Green tea also helps curb the appetite!

I'd stay away from 'zero fat' too, there's no point! The only 'bad' fats are trans fats which are easy to stay away from if you read your labels. Hydrogenated anything should set off alarm bells.

FYI, all diets are HIGH fat diets. Where do you think all that body fat you're losing is going? It's going in your bloodstream! so if a high fat diet is bad for you, surely dieting would be deadly? Well it isn't so ignore all the 'fat is bad' gunk that you read every day.

weeksy59

roarbut wrote:

"Starvation mode" is a myth and one that really annoys me whenever it's mentioned.

If you want to really speed up the fat loss, skip a meal now and again or go a day without food, it's easier than you think. If your doing all the exercise you say you're doing, including the body weight exercises (they're important!) expect to lose about 2 lbs a week give or take..

What a daft thing to say.

Go a day without food and train ? FFS mate how stupid is that.

whilst it may work and weight may drop, it's idiotic.

roarbut

I'd hardly say that the OP is 'training', there's no long cardio sessions in there either. He is being active enough to achieve his goal of losing the gut/man boobs,

It won't do him any harm at all. It's like going for a run before breakfast.

Telling him he should eat more calories, when he's trying to lose weight, is idiotic.

asdfhjkl

roarbut wrote:

"Starvation mode" is a myth and one that really annoys me whenever it's mentioned.

Interesting... What makes you say that? The metabolism regulates itself and if you aren't eating enough then it does what it can to conserve energy. Without that, life would just be fucked. People are screwing up their metabolism all the time by starving themselves on stupid advice like you are giving. It's the main reason all crash diets end with the person fatter than before.

roarbut wrote:

Telling him he should eat more calories, when he's trying to lose weight, is idiotic.

Yeah, eating less than he already is would work... were he a teenage girl. The benefits of eating more are numerous, the most significant being the thermogenic effect of more regular feedings.

roarbut

What makes you say that?

Both personal experience and some reading up I did after I was sick of hearing it spouted towards me at the gym/work etc.

I often go a day or two without food, especially in the periods after Christmas and Easter where I've eaten too much for an extended period of time. There's no need to count calories anymore, when I've eaten too much, I stop.

In fact, when I go without I feel as if I have a lot more energy during a workout or run. My Blood sugar levels always remain pretty constant throughout.

People don't starve in our society. Look to developing countries, those people are starving, they're not slightly overweight and stuck in a 4 hour board meeting.

Also the 'Thermogenic effect' is marginal at best, and unless you're eating pure protein, it's pretty insignificant to consider for fat loss when compared to calories in/out.

weeksy59

roarbut wrote:

What makes you say that?

Both personal experience and some reading up I did after I was sick of hearing it spouted towards me at the gym/work etc.

I often go a day or two without food, especially in the periods after Christmas and Easter where I've eaten too much for an extended period of time. There's no need to count calories anymore, when I've eaten too much, I stop.

In fact, when I go without I feel as if I have a lot more energy during a workout or run. My Blood sugar levels always remain pretty constant throughout.

People don't starve in our society. Look to developing countries, those people are starving, they're not slightly overweight and stuck in a 4 hour board meeting.

Also the 'Thermogenic effect' is marginal at best, and unless you're eating pure protein, it's pretty insignificant to consider for fat loss when compared to calories in/out.

There's a vast difference between starving to death and what i was saying which is your body conserving energy/intakes of food and going into what is known as starvation mode.

God i despair.

roarbut

weeksy59 wrote:

There's a vast difference between starving to death and what i was saying which is your body conserving energy/intakes of food and going into what is known as starvation mode.

God i despair.

Well please, tell me the next time you manage to get into 'starvation mode' enough so that your body stops burning fat and you stop losing weight altogether. Yes BMR reduces and metabolism slows but only after an extended period of time without sufficient calories, i.e closer to a week than a day.

I just recommended going without food now and again because it's easier than calorie counting, and it does no harm.

Oh and here's a study http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food2/UID07E/uid07e11.htm which states that a short period of time without food can INCREASE your metabolism.

Google "Starvation mode" and there's lots of interesting arguments. Even the Wikipedia entry makes more sense than you.

Also look up Brad Pilon who incidentally advocates the same approach that works for me and a lot of his clients.

weeksy59

Brad Pilon is a nutrition professional with over seven years experience in the nutritional supplement industry. Brad specialty is a common sense approach to weight loss, muscle growth and nutrition.

He lives in the greater Toronto area and is the author of Eat Stop Eat (www.eatstopeat.com) and How Much Protein (www.TruthAboutProtein.com).

Brad has had the opportunity to travel the world. From China to Germany, Scotland, and England and all over North America he has had the privilege of meeting some of the world’s greatest minds in sports nutrition and exercise sciences. Brad has also appeared on National Television discussing the cultural history of fasting and the use of fasting for weight loss.

Brad is also listed as an inventor for multiple patents for nutritional compositions affecting growth hormone, testosterone and for muscle building and weight loss.

Ooooooh a full 7 years... nice... he must be the worlds leading authority.

weeksy59

roarbut wrote:

Oh and here's a study http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food2/UID07E/uid07e11.htm which states that a short period of time without food can INCREASE your metabolism.

You're actually advocating people starve themselves for in excess of 24 hours ?

roarbut

Obviously you should build up to it, but to lose weight 24 hours is fine, I'm not advocating going days without food.. but you're not 'starving' if you have 21% body fat.

Why is emphasis on me here? Have you even tried any of this? Do you have a degree in nutrition?

To the OP, sorry to hijak the thread with a stupid argument but he was spouting crap

My last bit of advice:

to lose weight - eat less

to lose weight quickly - eat a lot less

to lose weight even quicker - periodically, eat nothing.

Keep doing the bodyweight exercises and 95% of the weight lost will be fat.

weeksy59

roarbut wrote:

Obviously you should build up to it, but to lose weight 24 hours is fine, I'm not advocating going days without food.. but you're not 'starving' if you have 21% body fat.

Why is emphasis on me here? Have you even tried any of this? Do you have a degree in nutrition?

To the OP, sorry to hijak the thread with a stupid argument but he was spouting crap

My last bit of advice:

to lose weight - eat less

to lose weight quickly - eat a lot less

to lose weight even quicker - periodically, eat nothing.

Keep doing the bodyweight exercises and 95% of the weight lost will be fat.

No, however i do have a braincell or 3 to rub together ?

Am i the only one who thinks this is a bit insane ? or do you agree with him ?

Paulie W

Lots of diets, lifestyles, etc advocate periods of fast ranging from the odd meal here and there to 24 hours to a week (although obviously the week long versions are not strictly fasts). Fasting can help with weight loss but my understanding is that it is normally part of a wider regime to improve health and fitness and weight loss is incidental (i.e. it's not the primary aim). It's about cleansing the system - the colon, the skin, etc - in the longer versions. It is about not becoming so focused on the actual act of eating in the shorter versions - some would suggest that we let the act of eating dominate our lives and this has consequences for our health.

However, I think if you were going to use fasting then you need to be fully aware of the pros and cons.

trekmtb1081

Handbags?

Come on, the guy is looking for support. Not a domestic between opinions - thats all they are.

One advocates one point, one advocates another - each to their own.

Eat healty, exercise well and enjoy it! Their is always an argument for and against everything in life so some support for the chap as he asked for is needed I think?

Pokerface

Believe it or not - the guy is correct in saying that it takes closer to a week than a single day before the body goes into starvation mode and the metabolism slows down.

I personally don't advocate 24 hour fasting periods - however, I have done it in the past and it really DOES shift the weight faster.

If you are a few weeks into a diet - you are hungry less and less as your body adjusts - and I found that there were actually days when I didn't 'need' to eat.

I've personally lost 6 stone in 3 months before - so I know these things CAN be done.

However - these days I would simply recommend eating less and exercising more and losing weight gradually, rather than trying to move a big chunk all at once.

MarkDon

Phew, that was some discussion!

Thanks for the advice, everyone, i have found over the last week or two, i have been feeling full easier, and i have decided to reduce my salad size at lunch time.

I think the main thing for this is from the advice earlier, eat more at breakfast. I'm now having 100g museli with 25g extra raisins & sultanas on the top, feel full till 11am, have lunch around 1 then tea 7ish.

But now i'm feeling like im eating the same amount just beasuce thats what i'm used to, i mean my salads are huge at lunch time, i get jokes all the time, another small salad today? (i didnt say they were funny jokes)

100g chicken
1 egg
8 baby plum toms
5 radishes
2 celery sticks
1 apple
2 spring onions
handfull of carrot batons
iceburg lettuce
1/8th bag mixed leaves
few bits cucumber
1/4 bell pepper

Think thats about it, oh, and i add 15g of light salad cream, for a bit of moisture.

Still have the muller light yogurt, apple, cereal bar, but no quavers now, replaced with 100g tinned pears in juice.

Tea, i'm normally having a chicken or prawn stirfry, or something like skinless chicken breast with brocolli, cauliflower, sprouts, savoy and carrots, trying to keep mixing it up a bit, made a big batch of spag bol thats in the freezer for a quick meal if i need it.

Currently sitting around 12st 9lb first thing in the morning, not dropped for a while, 20% body fat. Nothing to write home about, but its lower than i was.

Still sticking with 3 miles a night on the eliptical strider, and 30mins on the wii, along with extra crunches, and pushups.

Mind, i can do as many crunches as i want, squats no problem either, but i'll be buggered if i can do more than 15 pressups in one go, my upper body is crap!

Ordering one of those power bars that hook onto the doorframe so i can do pullups, also getting some heavier weights, really want to increase upper body strength now i've found a weakness.

Thanks again for your replies, i always take everything thats said on board, though i dont think i could physically go without food for a full day, though i'm sure its a technique some people use.

Ghostgraphics

Hi

I am certainly no expert but I have managed to drop from 17stone to 15st10 and I am 6ft 1", my goal is 14stone.
If you are 6ft surely 12 stone is pretty thin. What kind of physique are you going for?
Are you having more of a poor body image thing going on rather than actually needing to loose weight.
If you focus more on lifting weights/resistance/bodyweight excercises it might help you body shape and give you the appearance you are looking for.

Just a different point of view

roarbut

Can I recommend doing planks instead of crunches?

Lots of reasons why I prefer them.. They're easier your back and take less time to do. Similarly I can do as many crunches as I like but I only could hold a plank for about a minute when I first started and side planks are even harder! all you need is a floor..