Top weight loss tips

secretsam

OK, so am abandoning the "2 day fast" diet as I become immensely sleepy, irritable and headachey on my 'fast' days.

So has anyone got some realistic and achieveable tips on just shedding some lard from my 45-year old frame? I've tried many things, Weight Watchers included :oops:

Would make a change if the skinnier members of the community could refrain from making "Hilarious" comments around "laying off the pies", etc. - I know it's hard to find activities other than counting your ribs but hey.

t4tomo

cycle more, eat a bit less.

I moved so my commute went from 9 mile per day to 18 miles. shed 1/2 stone without any bother.

Kieran_Burns

It's Lent. Give up snacks.

I'm banning crisps now as I've ballooned stupidly since my work related hiatus. Smaller portions works well I've found, it really doesn't take much and I found if you make big changes you don't stick to them.

secretsam

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I found if you make big changes you don't stick to them.

There may be something in that, it feels like a punishment.

MaxwellBygraves

I don't want this to come accross as a 'hilarious' comment, but I don't really get the fuss that comes with dieting and stuff like that.

At times in my life when I've eaten better food and less crap, combined with more exercise, I've lost weight. Times in my life when my diet hasn't been as good, combined with doing less, I've gained weight.

I'm far from being a paragon of health at the moment and I realise that it's not easy to just 'do more' and 'eat less'. But nevertheless, the idea is simple, it's just about finding a way of doing it that works for you.

mrfpb

I'm 46. I lost a lot of weight working for the post office for 3 months when I was "out of regular employment" sorting parcels in a depot or out on a postal round. Both involved being on my feet for 5 - 7 hours a day. Got a "proper" job at a desk and put it all back within a year, despite training for L2B.

Last Autumn I started running Parkruns on a Saturday mornings with my kids. 5k (~3miles) and I've lost 4kg since September. I don't even go every week, though I might have a half hour run on my lunch hour instead, and most times I run with my 7 year old, so it's not exactly fast paced. As it involves the kids, I don't feel guilty, like I would going for a long ride on my own. I'm hoping to get a 50 runs t-shirt this year. (Free from the corporate sponsors) my oldest child has got his Junior 10 runs t-shirt.

So my tips - spend about 6 hours a day on your feet or join a Parkrun http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

cyclingprop

When you eat, use a smaller plate. Subconscious temptation is to fill whatever plate you use, so if its slightly smaller (even 1"), it will make a difference. Also go back to basic portion control, I find that winding back to cooking only standard portions, the weight falls off.

notsoblue

Running is the only thing that really works for me. If you're already cycling a fair bit, and you manage to fit in a few runs a week too, then that'll help.

meanredspider

I'm losing weight for AD6 - currently at about 5kg in about 5 weeks (from 95kg to 90kg)

Breakfast on porridge and banana to fuel me for the day
Cutting out refined carbs (bread, pastry, pasta etc) and focusing on protein most of the rest of the day
Cut alcohol mostly (beer in particular)
Snacking on nuts between meals
Still counting the calories (aiming at a daily deficit of 500kcals - much easier to do on days with long bike rides)
Drinking lots of water.

Mentally embrace hunger.

mattsaw

The best tip is to don't diet but change your lifestyle.

There is no point on embarking on something that is unsustainable or you won't stick at.

Focus on both exercise and your diet, things aren't any more complicated than calories in - calories out < 2,500 (approx) and over time you'll lose weight - guaranteed.

spasypaddy

meanredspider wrote:

I'm losing weight for AD6 - currently at about 5kg in about 5 weeks (from 95kg to 90kg)

Breakfast on porridge and banana to fuel me for the day
Cutting out refined carbs (bread, pastry, pasta etc) and focusing on protein most of the rest of the day
Cut alcohol mostly (beer in particular)
Snacking on nuts between meals
Still counting the calories (aiming at a daily deficit of 500kcals - much easier to do on days with long bike rides)
Drinking lots of water.

Mentally embrace hunger.

this basically.

MRS has seen my spreadsheet which has a huge amount of detail as to how to drop weight and improve strength, it works.

weight lifting helps more than cardio to burn fat.

i only have carbs up until about 11am and even then its a small amount. i have protein 6 times a day and a meal every 2 to 3 hours.

protein and carbs for breakfast
protein and carbs mid morning
protein and salad early lunch
protein and salad late lunch
protein and veg mid afternoon
protein and veg/salad for supper

by carbs i mean complex unrefined carbs, so breakfast is oats and midmorning is either sweet potato or rice. and small amounts!! not a massive bowl of rice but 40-50g pre cooked, and not a huge amount of oats about 50g.

it works.

its not dieting as such its a lifestyle change. eat clean, eat protein, get lean

asprilla

I'm skipping breakfast five days a week.

I'm starving by mid-day but then I have a reasonable lunch (burrito and popcorn today) and then a reasonable evening meal (Green curry and brown rice last night).

Whenever I think about having a snack or a pudding I remember the hunger I went through in the morning and how I don't want that to be all for nothing. Serbs to be working so far.

rick_chasey

Your weight reflects your calories in minus calories spent over a rolling 6-8 week period, roughly.

All chat about when or what or how to eat all boil down to ways to make sure you consume fewer calories.

Eat less and/ or cycle more.

Anonymous

Smaller things like - what are you snacking on, what are you drinking - can you change them?

During the day I only drink water - I hate coffee and tea, and with lunch i'll have one of the small Tropicana things as part of my 5-a-day.

I used to destroy 2 massive galaxy bars a day (and fortunately can with little ill effect) but now graze on a mix of plain nuts, raisins and a big back of milky way stars I chucked in there to cure the boredom.

Think of what you are eating is processed, fatty, heavy in refined sugars etc and try to swap things out. No point punishing/starving yourself, but you may as well go for a lifestyle change rather than changing everything.

Also - can you extend your commute? A few more miles twice a week?
Smaller plates makes a huge difference. In the last *pluck a number* 70 years, plate size (thus portion size) has massively increased.

steve6690

I'm shedding weight really well (2.8kg in 9 days) by doing the Slimming World thing (supporting my wife whose idea it was). I do "Green" days on workout days so I can eat unlimited carbs, veg, fruit and only a very small amount of meat. You can get enough protein easily though as eggs are "free foods" ie you can eat as many as you like depending on your personal view around their cholesterol.
It's basically cutting out all the crap, but you have to be a bit clever with getting enough healthy fats. Baked spuds with a tbsp of olive oil seems to work, but I had butter on them yesterday which is also ok.
I want to get from 94kg to 85 and then I'll relax it slightly.

meanredspider

Rick Chasey wrote:

Your weight reflects your calories in minus calories spent over a rolling 6-8 week period, roughly.

All chat about when or what or how to eat all boil down to ways to make sure you consume fewer calories.

Eat less and/ or cycle more.

Yes -when and what does boil down to ways to make sure you consume fewer calories (also a bit on how they are used - the insulin response) but that does make a difference to success. As the OP is finding, he can't manage on one method. What I like about the approach I'm currently using is that it's pretty easy to achieve. No real gimmicks or big challenges - really just a case of simple meal selection.

jamesco

There's some recent research indicating that a diet 'rich' in animal protein may be harmful, so getting rid of the carbs might be a risky.

Dieting with someone else certainly helps. For me, the 5:2 diet works better than a daily calorie deficit because it's less likely I'll feel guilty after eating something 'bad' and then just throw in the towel. I love sweets so to get around that I picked a brand that I 'allow' myself to eat with the rest being off limits; it's just a bit of friction and it works better (for me) than trying to be good all the time.

That said, I've dieted twice in my life and the first time was when ephedrine was legal over the counter, which made it a breeze

wandsworth

Asprilla wrote:

I'm skipping breakfast five days a week.

I'm starving by mid-day but then I have a reasonable lunch (burrito and popcorn today) and then a reasonable evening meal (Green curry and brown rice last night).

Whenever I think about having a snack or a pudding I remember the hunger I went through in the morning and how I don't want that to be all for nothing. Serbs to be working so far.

Everyone is different, and if that works for you, then that's great, but I would suggest that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A decent breakfast can fuel you for a good part of the day, and doesn't have to be high in bad calories (could be porridge, etc). Then eat less at lunch and dinner.

Plenty of good advice in this thread. I lost lots of weight (83kg down to about 72) in about a year by just cycling 9 miles each way, most working days, without even changing my diet. Then I started getting more serious, extending my commute, sometimes up to 18 miles, when I could, and being more careful about what I eat and drink, and I've lost even more. I've found that it's actually quite interesting to look into nutrition and eating healthily.

spasypaddy

jamesco wrote:

There's some recent research indicating that a diet 'rich' in animal protein may be harmful, so getting rid of the carbs might be a risky.

Dieting with someone else certainly helps. For me, the 5:2 diet works better than a daily calorie deficit because it's less likely I'll feel guilty after eating something 'bad' and then just throw in the towel. I love sweets so to get around that I picked a brand that I 'allow' myself to eat with the rest being off limits; it's just a bit of friction and it works better (for me) than trying to be good all the time.

That said, I've dieted twice in my life and the first time was when ephedrine was legal over the counter, which made it a breeze

that research said that a high protein diet was more harmful than smoking.

protein a natural food source that your muscles are made of and need to rebuild and strengthen is worse for you than inhaling a smoke based toxin.

great research

fucking bullshit.

simple as.

ddraver

We haev to be honest and say that cutting out the booze really does help. there's no point having a salad in place of a bacon sarnie if you chase it with 4 pints of beer. This year i ve tried hard to not drink unless there's a good reason. e.g. I had many skinfulls over the weekend as it was my cousin's stag, but when I living in NL I would frequenly have 4-5 beers of a quiet evening just becasue of the cafe culture. Now I'm trying to maybe have one nice beer and then some (low sugar) soft drinks.

The other thing i need to start doing is eating supper as I get home from the commute rather than having a small feast when I get in cos i'm ravenous and then having a proper tea later. I got the Hairy bikers (shudder) book which has a few good ideas in and also the Feed Zone book which has some good snacks for cyclists and some good ways to have good food but not too much of it.

I was speaking to someone who spoke to a Nutritionist who rejected the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" thing as he says it kick starts your digestive system which will actually start you feeling hungry. better to wait until 10 30 or so (depending on your personal situation) and THEN have a low GI breakfast. that makes a lot of sense to me as I can last till 10 30 fin, but if I have something at 7 30 when I wake up (pre commute) I ll be ravenous by lunchtime and struggle to rein myself in...

meanredspider

The truth of this and of the climbing thread is that we're all different. Over the last 8 years working in diabetes and blood glucose measurement has taught me how complex something as seemingly simple as blood is and how our blood is incredibly different in its makeup. It's no wonder we all find different things work for us with regard to food and training. Anybody that says they have THE answer is wrong.

Anonymous

Is it because only Smarties have the answer?

jamesco

spasypaddy wrote:

that research said that a high protein diet was more harmful than smoking.protein a natural food source that your muscles are made of and need to rebuild and strengthen is worse for you than inhaling a smoke based toxin.great research ******* bullshit.simple as.

Dunno if it's BS as it's a proper study by proper scientists - the CDC - but I can understand the cynicism; just wait a week and the headlines will be for a new study which claims the opposite...

Ben6899

spasypaddy wrote:

jamesco wrote:

There's some recent research indicating that a diet 'rich' in animal protein may be harmful, so getting rid of the carbs might be a risky.

Dieting with someone else certainly helps. For me, the 5:2 diet works better than a daily calorie deficit because it's less likely I'll feel guilty after eating something 'bad' and then just throw in the towel. I love sweets so to get around that I picked a brand that I 'allow' myself to eat with the rest being off limits; it's just a bit of friction and it works better (for me) than trying to be good all the time.

That said, I've dieted twice in my life and the first time was when ephedrine was legal over the counter, which made it a breeze

that research said that a high protein diet was more harmful than smoking.

protein a natural food source that your muscles are made of and need to rebuild and strengthen is worse for you than inhaling a smoke based toxin.

great research

******* bullshit.

simple as.

I guess the research was alluding to the fact that a protein-rich diet probably consists of a fair amount of animal fats. Too much of those are bad for you... as bad as smoking? Arguably.

But, FWIW, I understand where you're coming from.

bigmat

Need to eat less, exercise more. Not always easy though. Need to make simple lifestyle changes to make it work. Easy to say "I won't eat cake" but then if people bring them into the office I'll seldom say no, so better to just scoff the cake but then call it lunch. Soup is good - get the low fat ones (waste of fat eating it in soup) and they fill you up with minimal calories. Work out when you tend to snack unnecessarily and make yourself busy then. Cut down on booze - its a shame, but it makes a massive difference.

I've had a bad day today - double lunch and cake this morning

Oh yeah, the no-carb thing is bad - maybe as a short-term thing its OK, but that's no way to live. Learn to just eat a healthy balanced diet and control your portions.

graham.

The basic problem is that;
This hole............. (Points to mouth.)
Is bigger than
This hole............. (Points to bottom.)

hegyestomi

You can also try the lot's of little but often exercise where you do 3mins 3-5 times a day. I should be strenuous enough to break you in sweat around 80% or above of your max HR.
Try if for three weeks and report back

twist83

Have a look into the HiPACC 'diet'. Not really a diet more a sustainable eating plan that can be varied according to the situation etc. Worth a look and works well when followed and combined with exercise.

But put simply for most people. Eat less and move more. I don't think sometimes people realise quite how much they eat or how big portions are.

meanredspider

There's no doubt that measuring what you eat is important. That's half the battle.

WindyG

+1 to everybody that has mentioned lifestyle change, diets are pointless they only work short term and don't change your thinking. You need look at what you eat and decide what you need over what you want and keep up or increase the cycling. I went from 82kgs to 64 kgs in a year. First thing I did was cut down the portion size then cut out the crap foods, worse for me was snacking on biscuits and cakes and too much fizzy drinks.

meanredspider

WindyG wrote:

diets are pointless ................... First thing I did was cut down the portion size then cut out the crap foods, worse for me was snacking on biscuits and cakes and too much fizzy drinks.

Isn't that just a diet.....?