Has anyone lost weight themselves--not paying out to go to a slimming club?

smokybabe

Hi everyone:wave:
Well done to you all on your losses!:T :T :T I have stayed the same this week - and no excuses I haven't exactly been good.:doh: I'm back on the wagon though.
Hi there jenski, I don't know any websites that might help, sorry.
Good luck everyone in the next week. xx

Rgc_3

jenski wrote:

Just wanted to say hi to all you guys i am on the verge of joining weight watchers online as i need some help in planning meals for the week which contain the right amount of calories.
If anyone knows of a free online service that can do this i would jump with joy as i am doing a PhD at the moment and money is something of a dream but i have reached the point where i need to lose some weight as my jeans are a struggle every morning.

Ashamed to admit: 16st 3

Hi Jenski

There is a very good calorie counter book that you can buy(its £3.99)called...the hugely better calorie counter (essentials~)by carolyn humphries...(Im not connected in any way to the book)

Im a chef of 25 years experience with qualifications in health and nutrition so if i can answer any questions you have then feel free to pm me as i dont check this thread too much(sorry its a male thing i guess )

I went on a weight loss diet i formulated myself a couple of years ago (no great secret it was calorie counting weighed up against my BMI and BMR,eating at certain times of the day and eating as much fresh food and as many colours(red peppers green broccoli white meat red fish etc etc etc) as possible within my daily allowance of 2000 cals(male)and i walked literally everywhere and done some power walking as well....thats where the book came in as i found it was accurate in calculating my daily intakes and not having to worry about weighing foods out and calculating intakes.

good luck and like i say if i can help dont hesitate

cwodavids

Unfortunately there are no magic solution, pills you can take or easy solutions to losing weight. It is very simple maths. Calories used have to be more than calories consumed. That makes it sound so simple and in a lot of ways it is. The hardest thing about losing weight is motivation and determination. If you don’t have any of these then it simply won’t happen. So how can you get round this? There are a few ways.

1. You have to have goals set out. You will need short, medium and long term goals. Short - 1 month, medium - months, long - 1 year. These times are not set in stone however they are a very good starting point. What you are looking for is targets that are achievable. These don’t have to be anything ridiculous.
The first short term goal could be to have your jeans feel baggy on you. A short term goal needs to be something that you will achieve quite quickly and will spur you on for the rest or the goals.
Medium term is the big goal. This is where you have to find something that is not easy but not too difficult to achieve. For this it could be something like drop 4 dress sizes which is easily achievable in 6 months with determination. Long term has to be something that is towards your end result. This could be I want to be a size 10 by 15 th Nov 07. Now these goals I have set again are just a few random goals that I picked off the top of my head.

The main point is that the goals HAVE to be specific i.e. I will be a size 10 by 25 Oct 07. Using goals like I want to be toned by this time next year are no good. Goals that are non specific will not help you for a few reasons. The first and main reason is the fact its not specific, how do you know you have reached your goal Second how can you track your progress if you don’t have a specific end result. Third if you have a specific goal then you can make a progress chart that everybody can see this is good for motivation.

2. Be honest – There is no point in kidding yourself that your doing well when you have eaten 10 cream cakes. It goes back to the maths formula, calories out has to be greater than calories in. If you have a weak moment move on, don’t punish yourself. I know a few people who allow themselves 1 day a week to eat whatever they want. The rest of the week is sensible eating though.

3. Be meticulous with your planning – You have to forward plan what you are going to eat and what exercise your going to do. Believe it or not some people actually have to eat MORE to lose weight. When you head out to Tesco’s have a list of food you need and plan for the full week. No point in planning for tomorrow and then eat badly for the rest of the week. Make a menu that you have planned for the full week, but have this menu in mind BEFORE you go shopping otherwise you will buy the wrong things.

4. Empty all your cupboards of unhealthy things and food that has been there for ages i.e. tins of soup, beans etc. This should hopefully stop temptation.

5. Make small changes for big results – If you have a party coming up and you normally drink beer, drink bottles to replace pints. If you love milk then use semi-skimmed rather than full fat. If you take 2 sugars in your tea, take 1 instead. If you love Coca-cola buy diet Coke. All these changes add up and will make the difference from the weight falling off to trickling off.

6. Accept the fact you will have good days and bad days – Don’t worry too much if you have days where you feel it’s not going the way you want. It will happen but don’t get disheartened. Tomorrow you could feel great.

7. Exercise – there is no substitute for exercise. You have to exercise in some capacity this could be as simple as walking the kids to school or taking the dog twice round the block instead of once. Exercising for 30 mins 3 times a week is enough to kick start your body into weight loss. The more exercise you do the better you will feel and the more you will lose weight. Believe it or not but the more you exercise the more energy you will have.

8. Throw away the scales – This has got to be the single most important piece of advice. Weight doesn’t give the whole picture. The more you exercise and lose weight the more muscle you will build (don’t worry ladies you wont end up like a bodybuilder, you will end up toned though) Now if your losing fat but putting on muscle then you wont actually “lose weight”. This is very disheartening for a lot of people and that’s when most people give up. If possible get yourself to a gym and get your body fat % calculated. This is the only accurate measure of fat loss. If you can’t get to a gym then keep an eye on your trousers. After a month or 2 of healthy eating and exercise you will notice the waist getting more and more room and clothing getting baggy on you. This is a definite sign of “weight loss” even although you might not actually lose weight. If you’re feeling really brave get someone to measure your waist, hips, chest and biceps. As time goes on these will all start to reduce in size but not always with a huge drop in weight. Your body fat % can drop massively without a huge decrease in weight.

9. If you feel hungry then eat, but make sure its something healthy and with a low fat content. Mid afternoon have a banana, this should keep energy levels high and hunger at bay. Drink plenty of water, this is a great way to fill your stomach but it also flushes all the toxins out of your system.

10. You cant spot reduce fat – No matter what all the advertising videos say you cant just get rid of fat from certain areas. You body uses fat from all. If you want a six pack them I'm afraid you will need to lose it from all over your body before you will get the elusive six pack.

Now the important bit about weight loss is food. First of all a quick nutrition lesson. Food is made up of several essential parts. You have carbohydrates, fat and protein. These are the parts that you need to concentrate on. They all do different things and are all essential to a properly functioning body. Carbohydrates or “carbs” as they are known are the body’s main source of energy. There are several kinds of carbs ranging from very simple sugars to complex carb chains. All carbs are used up at different rates. The more complex the carb the longer is takes to be used by the body. This fact is important so remember it for later. Carbs are always the body’s primary source of energy and will be used up first if they are available. If you have excess carbs that are not used up then they are converted to fat and stored.

Next comes fat, first I have to dispel a few myths, fats are not bad for you, its excess fat that is. Fat is essential for your body to function, several bodily functions cant happen without fats. Some fats are actually good for you and HELP weight loss these are known as “essential fatty acids” If your body doesn’t use up fat then this is where the problems of weight gain comes from. Your body will store fat to be used at a later date. This is from cave man times when food was scarce and the body wanted to hold onto everything that it consumed. Fat will be used up secondly after carbs have been exhausted; this is another very important point in weight loss so remember this as well.

Next in the line is protein which is the basic building block of the human body. Protein is what your body cells are made of and obviously very important. So to keep yourself and your body healthy you need to eat protein which is basically animal flesh (hence why a veggie diet is unhealthy, but that another issue) Protein is used up thirdly after fat and carbs. This is not a good state for the body to be in because it will start eating away at its own muscles and tissue. Don’t worry you need to be very malnutritioned for that to happen.

Now that the nutrition lesson is out of the way how do we actually cause the body to burn fat then? Well it’s all a rather simple process; remember the calories in, calories used equation? Well that’s what we do. Use more calories than we consume. An average male needs roughly 2500 calories in a day and a woman 2000 calories. Calories are just a measure of energy the correct term is actually kilocalories. If you look on food labels it will be displayed as k/cal. now if you need 2500 calories in a day and only consume 2000 you have used an extra 500 that you don’t have the food to cover. So what happens then, simple, remember the order that carbs, fat and protein is consumed? The body runs out of carbs after it has used the 2000 calories i.e. the food you have eaten. It needs to find energy otherwise your body would just shut down and eventually die.

So where does it look to find this energy? Well if carbs have all been used then it starts to convert fat. If there is a deficit of 500 calories it will burn off fat to find the 500 calories needed to stop the body shutting down. This is how you lose body fat.

Now it’s actually possible to calculate how much fat you can burn off. For every pound of fat you want to lose you need to burn 3500 calories. Remember this is additional calories over your normal usage. To make this easier to work out you need to burn off 500 extra calories a day to lose a pound a week. That is weight loss at its simplest.

Now a few extra things to help you along the way.

1. For you to maintain weight loss and a healthy lifestyle you need to eat the correct foods. As a guide don’t eat foods that are pre-prepared or are cooked in a microwave. Cook all your own foods from scratch. Buy meat from a butchers not a supermarket this saves all the added water, sugar, salt and other nasties. Read the labels on all foods, if it contains anymore than 10% fat DON’T buy it. Avoid excess sugar, salt and additives in food. Eat plenty of fruit and veg. this will give you surprising energy levels and alertness and also help clean out your system of all the toxins and poisons. Forget counting points etc. just look at food and you can tell what’s not good for you. If it is fried, sweet, greasy, covered in sauce, bright colours (excluding things like oranges obviously, I mean things like microwave chicken tikka massala which is bright red) then don’t eat it. Use common sense. It’s difficult to start with but after a week or 2 you will get the hang of it.

2. Eat slower and chew things for longer. This sounds silly but it helps out a lot more than you would imagine. Your body takes a certain amount of time to register its full when you eat. This time is around ten mins. So as you can imagine if you have a 5 course meal in 8 mins your body doesn’t even realise its full. However if you take 30 mins to eat it you might just eat 3 courses. A calorie saving straight away. Chewing food properly causes it to be digested more efficiently and means you will stay full for longer.

3. Eat complex carbs like whole grains, seeds, beans etc. instead of simple carbs this will stop you craving more and you will stay full longer. Protein will make you feel full the longest but don’t eat too much otherwise you run the risk of eating more fat which is normally contained in meat.

4. Don’t fry food! Grill, poach, steam or boil food if you can or if you do fry it then get a non-stick pan and put a tiny amount of olive oil in the pan. You don’t need to drown things when you’re frying in a non-stick pan. Try not to make things soggy, the more raw food is the better it is for your body and the more goodness it will retain.

5. Prepare a chart that tracks your progress. Make sure the rest of your family can see it. When you exercise put a tick on the sheet. When you eat exactly what was on your menu then give yourself a tick, when you reach a goal tick the sheet etc. use it for motivation.

6. Prepare your goals and actively work towards them. Have a plan of how you want your goals to go i.e. 1st Nov I want to lose 1lb, 8 th Nov I want to have lost 2lbs. Have this going all the way to your long term goal. You NEED to have goals, without them you will NEVER manage to get the results you want.

7. Get educated, learn how your body works, learn about nutrition and know what’s good and bad for you. If you had a Ferrari you wouldn’t put the same fuel, oil or tyres on it as you would a clapped out old ford fiesta. Treat your body the same, you are what you eat.

8. Buy a good multi vitamin to help your body do its job properly. I would recommend the timed release multi vitamin from Holland and Barrett.

I hope this helps you out and gives you a bit more science to how your body actually works. Diets such as weight watchers DON’T and CANT work, they focus on the wrong things. Anyway if you need any more advice give me a shout and ill do my best to help you out. Remember diet is not a bad word, it merely means what you eat not losing weight.

For some great advice on health and nutrition I recommend “The Ultimate Nutrition Bible” by Patrick Holford. This will tell you everything you want to know about nutrition. It is quite scientific but very enlightening.

For some websites try the following links

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/

http://www.nutriline.org/main.php

http://www.bodyforlife.com/

http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/pi.shtml

http://topendsports.com/testing/calcs.htm

http://www.healthandfitnessforums.com/

http://www.patient.co.uk/

http://www.netfit.co.uk/menu.htm

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/

sammy115

Some good ideas there thanks. I am currently at slimming world and it is helping to focus my mind. Its motivation and planning that I fall down on, so I will try the tips.

go4it

I just don't get slimming world and weight watchers. I know people go for the motivation side, meeting fellow weight consciuos people, but save your money! £4 to go and get weighed, and for some 'consultant' to tell you what is healthy. If you want to lose weight go and exercise. Forget the gym, go for walks and runs in parks. Exericse for 30 mins a day. You will find that as you lose weight you can control your appetite better, as the bigger you are the more calories your body needs to function. If you exercise regularly, eating should be a doddle. As a nation we are telling kids that if they eat a Mars Bar they need to run for an hour to burn it off. This is utter tosh, as our bodies need on average 2000 calories a day to function. A mars bar is 300 calories, ok not the healhiest option but it counts towards the 2000.

gmeon

Hello everyone,
Sorry I didn't post yesterday-couldn't get to the PC. Well done to everyone on their weight losses:T I haven't lost anything this week but I know I've been eating too much!
Thanks for all of the advice on here.
See you next week.
gmeon

sarymclary

Evening All,
Meant to post yesterday, but forgot (oops! darn school holidays). :eek:

Congratulations to all you losers out there. It's hard staying motivated, especially after the first couple of weeks. I'm on week 7 of my diet, and have lost another 1lb this week. I was aiming for more, but as Ebeneezer was mentioning above, it's so hard avoiding carbs especially when you're feeling hungrier than you have done. I haven't been exercising as planned because I have so much DIY-ing to be getting on with, although that might be a little help, because my backside hasn't seen the sofa in over a week.

I've got 3 weeks until I reach my first target date of 12th November when I go to my goddaughter's christening. I want to have lost a stone by then. I've got 2lb to go, so fingers crossed and I'll be padlocking the pantry.

I do the same as MintyMoneySaver, I weigh myself each morning to keep myself on track, keep motivated, and not allow myself to lose control. If I've gained a 1lb midweek I can ensure it's gone again by weigh in day by controlling my portions, upping exercise.

I have been overweight most of my life. Even at my slimmest, I was only just within the boundaries of 'ideal weight', and it was shortlived once I had children. However, for the first time ever, my attitude to food has changed. I'm enjoying what I have, but I'm not gorging myself. I'm not depriving myself, but I AM making healthier choices, and that is the key. I am choosing not to stay fat, I don't comfort eat because I gain no real comfort only pain and guilt from it. I don't deserve that, I never really did, but I do have the power within me to choose a different path for myself now.

That might all seem a bit deep, but I'm hoping some posters might relate to it, and understand that to be successful at weightloss you have to change your attitude and relationship to food. I feel as though a switch flicked a few weeks ago, and I realised that I'd been using food to punish myself, rather than reward myself, but that I covered this up by insisting I deserved these 'nice' things. All I was doing was sabotaging any dieting efforts. Why shouldn't we succeed? All of us here feel that we'll be happier by losing weight, but I think we'll also all be happier by losing the control food has over us too.

Ooh, that all sounded a bit 'power to the people' didn't it? Anyway, here's to success for us all. :beer: , and keep on keeping on. :T

sandralovescats

I started using Paul McKenna's I can Make You Thin hypnosis Cd. and it definitely works!

lou_lou_skinty_poos

hi guys am just jumping onto ure thread getting depressed about my debts means feeling sorry for myself so i stuff my face then get dpressed about how fat i am vicious cycle !!!!!! ha ha anyway reading ure storys has give me the kick up the bum i needed to loose sum weight going to my cousins wedding next year and i dont want to look like a hippo on the photos!!!:eek:

my mum went to slimming world this week so am gonna nick her books and her password for the internet (which u get everyweek at the meetings ) and give it my best shot hoping to loose 3 and a half stone at least!!! keep u posted and good luck to everyone else :j

smokybabe

:hello: Welcome aboard lou lou skinty poos,