Lose Weight 32

fredsnail

Welcome to our new thread :j :beer:

Spring is on it's way - time to shift the winter blues and Christmas gains

There is still time to become more stunning than you already are :j

Welcome to the place where we encourage you not to save £'s but to lose Lb's instead

So you wanna lose weight? Whether you want to lose a few pounds or several stone - you've come to the right place! Need a chat, a shoulder, encouragement and advice perhaps or even some downright silliness (even late at night or early in the morning)??

Pull up a chair and join in the chat, whatever plan you're following to lose weight, be it SW, WW, RC, or just plain old reducing what you eat and increasing the exercise, there'll be someone here that can help and advise, or offer moral support. The more you join in the chat more support you will get from the thread.

There are plenty of regulars here who follow all types of plan and will be willing and able to help you out or at least point you in the right direction.

During the course of the week, feel free to post your weekly loss, gain or no change, and see your results in a chart that's updated every Wednesday evening. To help me quickly spot the losses late at night, please post the loss as BOLD and Colourful as possible (Its helps those of us with bad eyes )

The chart is currently maintained by me, so if you can post your result before 10pm on a Wednesday you will be included on the chart.

Also you can take part in the 5lb monthly challenge - This is a fun mini motivational monthly challenge, in which the goal of losing 2lb per week, is spread out to 5lb per month. Next one has just about started so get your name down quick and post your name and start the new list. You could be Slimmer of the Week, or Slimmer of the Month! :j:j

We also currently have a slimming plan challenge so if you want to join the weightwatchers, slimming world, other plan or DIY (eating healthy & more exercise) it's not too late . Send me a pm with the team you want to join and your starting weight. Then post your loss (or gain) each Wednesday :j

A few abbreviations:
STS ~ Stay The Same (No change in weight)
HHA ~ Half Hour Activity, 30 minutes of whatever activity you choose, as long as it gets you moving it's good for you!
HHSS ~ Half Hour Sofa Slumping
SOTW ~ Slimmer Of The Week
SOTM ~ Slimmer Of The Month

We have plenty of recipes to help you in the recipes thread (link below) and there are links to useful websites below.

• Suggs' Story :j
• Starlight_xx 's Story :j
• Various SW and WW style recipes can be found HERE
• Sarymclary's Dino Rod Soup Recipe can be found HERE
• Victory's Hints and Tips for Newbies
• BMI calculator
• BMR calculator
• Daily calorie needs
• Calorie intake to lose weight
• Food Focus Website
• 20 ideas to get started
• Slimming World
• Weight Watchers
• Rosemary Conley

• Lose Weight 19 - Before and After Suggs
• Lose Weight 20 - Before and After Starlight
• Lose Weight 21
• Lose Weight 22
• Lose Weight 23
• Lose Weight 24
• Lose Weight 25
• Lose Weight 26
• Lose Weight 27
• Lose Weight 28
• Lose Weight 29
• Lose Weight 30
• Lose Weight 31

There are some friendly peoples 'Before and After' Pics on Lose Weight 19 and 20

So come and join us, we're a friendly bunch! There are even one or two gentlemen hiding amongst us! You might even enjoy it :rotfl:

fredsnail

Welcome to everyone in our shiny new thread :j

beanielou

Cant believe its time already for a shiney new thread but here we are! :j
Thank you as ever fred

victory

Crumbs how many new threads have I been in?:D

teecee46

Thanks Fred for the shiny new thread!

calamity-j

I've never even travelled down to these depths of the forum, but this may well be what i need.

Fellpony_2

Thanks for the new thread Fredsnail.
I have been lurking again, nice to see so many new people,(welcome :beer:) and the regulars .

KierNet

Hello! Thought I would pop in and say hello, never posted in here before! Post in a fitness thread in the Arms as well, hope thats OK! xD.

In October 2010 I weighed 21 stone 5 lbs and 6ft 3", giving me a BMI of 37.4! I know weigh 18 stone 13 lbs, BMI of 33.1! Around 2 and a half stone lost .

My aim is to join the Army, so need to have a BMI of under 28, which will put me at around 16 stone - 16 and a half stone.

At the moment I'm going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week, tend to just go on the cross trainer for 40 minutes, and can burn around 440/450 calories in that time.

Also working on getting my run time down, need to run a mile and a half in around 12 minutes...first time I did it (before Xmas) was 24 minutes!! Got that down to 18 minutes so far, but really hate running!

Been working on press ups as well, need to do 44 in two minutes, so been doing 20 a day for the last 4 days, then going to increase them, trying to do decent ones as well.

The thing I struggle mostly with is my diet, before I would think nothing of eating 4-5k calories a day! I work shifts as well, so can be a bit tricky, does anyone have any ideas on simple food that I can make at home, take to work and eat in my 15 minute break?

I got a couple of sessions with a personal trainer for Xmas, so should be able to get some ideas on what to do! Know I'll be doing some kind of circuit training, so fingers crossed with that!

Frogletina

I've not been that good today - 2 fried egg sandwiches and a jam one. I usually make my own bread and never have that much.

I've also booked a holiday and messed up the return transfer so I have had to send an email and hope they don't charge me £20 admin charge to amend the details for a transfer that cost 12.99 in the first place! If they do I'll remind them that last year the return coach didn't arrive and I had to find a taxi at 3.30 in the morning!!!

In my defence, I'm still suffering with my rash and feel dreadful. Doctors appt in the morning

Frogletina

Hello and welcome calamity-j and KierNet :j Hi to Fellpony as well, who I've not met before

Eric_Pisch

The basic premiss for the rewrite

Something has changed recently with our diet that has made us out of sync with how our bodies evolved over the last 2-3 million years which has lead to the epidemic of obesity, diabeties, metabolic syndrome, elevated blood pressure and CHD/CVD. 100+ years ago they where uncommon to rare conditions.

Whilst there is no doubt we are eating more there is pretty strong evidence to support that is more than simple greed, the balance in what we are eating has shifted drastically to a very high carb diet, by as much as 400%.

We know that carbs create a physical addiction as the pleasure centre of he brain releases a reward hormone for eating them and that high levels of carbs affect the blood stream and can cause wildly fluctuating insulin / glucose levels which again can lead to rabid carb cravings.

Worst of all thou high levels of insulin in the blood turn the body into a very efficient fat storing machine and actively block fat burning. A double whammy for those trying to loose weight, especially if your getting carb cravings.

So the idea is pretty straight forward, try to revert our diet back to how our bodies are evolved to eat but do it in such a way that is sustainable given the availability of modern foods and without going as hardcore as say atkins.

This means eating things that come from the water, walk (or fly) above the ground and grow above the ground. ie whole unprocessed foods that are not high in starch where ever possible. Cut back or avoid grains if you can as we only started eating these very recently. Look at the foods around that match the criteria and eat the ones you enjoy.

Where you do eat carbs stick to slow sugar release low GI carbs like veg (I eat 500-800g a day) with smaller amounts of fruit as in the wild they would have been seasonal and not available in huge quantities (the body metabolises fructose very differently to other sugars) Ideally you want to be eating 25% of your cal intake from low GI carbs, about 100g a day.

The cals in cals out is not very accurate when it comes to the human body but it is worth keeping some form of a food diary as this helps you to keep focused and teaches portion control. It is critical to eat when trying to loose weight. Eat too little and the body will just go into starvation mode and you risk muscle loss which is very unhealthy and will reduce your BMR.

Protein should be eaten with every meal as it is an appetite suppressant and it helps resist muscle loss. 30-40% of food intake should come from protein.

Fats are healthy for us, its now been completely debunked that fats are bad for us. We need fat and cholesterol to survive. We spent the best part of 2.5 million years eating a very high fat diet (about 60% of our diet), low fat diets can cause depression and constipation. Eating healthy fats does reduce the risk of CHD/CAD thou so make sure you get some oily fish and nuts in your diet.

Booze, this is the tough one, there just empty calories with no nutritional benefit (maybe not red wine, but then you could just eat red grapes ) and often very high carb. It you are on a very low carb diet you should carb up the day before going on a session as it can make you very ill.

Sticking to the above should remove carb cravings in 2-3 weeks and stop most hunger pangs. I am 58 weeks in now and find it pretty manageable with out much effort.


The older verision, some info needs to be brought into the re write

(this needs a massive rewrite, i will do it one day honest ) Some quick tips from my copyrighted system of brilliant weight loss

99% of all diets fail it's a terrifying fact. The reason why we keep failing is simple, if your overweight before you start to diet something is wrong your either getting too little exercise or eating too much or more than likely both. If you go on a Diet and lose weight and then when you are finished you go back to your old eating habits guess what you will put the weight back on. Most of us do this and we keep YoYo'ing because of it.

Being overweight does not necessarily make you a piggy, to be 50lbs over weight at age 40 you only need to eat 25 cals a day (half an apple) to much every day starting when you are 20. Although many of us comfort eat through stress / depression in an ever downward circle of despair which is not helped by the addictive nature of some foods. Eating junk food can certainly add to feeling low and make a bad situation worse.

To lose the weight and keep it off we are going to have to make permanent lifestyle changes, this means eating controlled amounts of food and taking regular exercise. Once you are at goal weight you will be able to eat more with the occasional bad thing but most of the time you will need to stay eating healthy foods and follow a reasonable exercise regime. It's important to accept we probably have eating issues and to resolve them we are going to have to make permanent lifestyle changes.

There's no quick fixes, no magic tablets and no matter what you read no wonder combinations of food that will make the weight fall off. All the research to date has shown that no matter what dieting system you use it comes down to the basic laws of thermal dynamics. If energy eaten is less than energy used you lose weight.

Before you even think about losing weight it's important to realise that weight loss is 90% in the mind. You have to really want it, if your only half committed then you will fail as we all have many times. You need to be in a good place mentally before you start as you will need to be focused on the task at hand most of the time. If you have external distractions and stresses it's going to make your journey very much harder, remember this is about you and that means most of the effort involved is going to have to come from you alone.

So which diet system is best? The simple answer is they can all possibly work, the best way to go forward is to find a system that you can follow and fits in with your lifestyle be it calorie counting, WW, SW, the hardcombe diet etc. Try to avoid the dangerous diets that let you eat the dangerous fats (cholesterol and hydrogenated / trans fats) or diets that replace meals with a "shake" (which are ultra high refined sugar) or replacement "meals" with packets of dog knows what.... An important part of the journey is training yourself to learn what is the right amount to eat and when, and to literally relearn when we are actually hungry and not respond to stress, depression or addictive behaviour.

Now here's the horrid bit your brain could be chemically making you crave "bad things" and working against you, the human brain is large and needs a lot of energy to feed it, and as a defensive message against starvation we have evolved to release hormones from the pleasure centre of the brain to reward the eating of high energy foods (sugars and fats). The downside is after a short "high" we feel a much longer "down" which can lead to eating just to crave the high again. We can kick this behavioural pattern no one is holding a gun to our heads saying eat these bad foods, we need to look in that mirror be truthful to ourselves and let our own will power and determination just say no! After a week or two of avoiding foods with addictive like properties most if not all cravings should go and weight loss should become much much easier. The tough bit thou is those first two weeks and avoiding the addictive type food but once "detoxed" there should no longer be cravings

The addictive type foods are:

Fatty foods - A difficult one since some fats/oils are very good for your health. Try to avoid any food with 3% or more saturated fat especially if the fat cannot be removed (and avoid totally hydrogenated / trans fats). It is however important to eat healthy fats / oils (polyunsaturated / mono-unsaturated) as they have a very positive affect on health and even lower cholesterol. Nuts and cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil are great sources as well as oily fish (plus you get omega oils!). However you need to be careful on the amounts you eat as they are very energy dense.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8673208.stm

Refined sugars - nasty over processed stuff, not to be mixed up with natural sugar in fruit, etc. Avoid it, there's a reason that diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions and this stuff is it.

Chocolate - really trips the old pleasure centre into overdrive, ultra energy dense with loaded fats and sugars. After two weeks you wont miss it, trust me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8644016.stm

Cheese - the surprise contender, again causes hormone release and many types contain opiates! No wonder I was a class one cheese junkie

To also be considered

Caffeine - causes a release of sugar from the liver (the energy kick) but you then get insulin production which could cause sugar cravings. Going cold turkey from caffeine causes most people headaches, there's a hint if ever one was needed.

Alcohol - tasty and fun it maybe but it's just wasted calories with almost no nutritional benefit.

The nasty E word Exercise, It's important, in fact it's extremely important to do at least 3 seasons of 30 mins a week of exercise or more if you can, you need to be working at a level where you are breathing heavyish (from the lower part of your lungs) but you can still talk. Warm up and down for 5 mins before and after, build up to this level slowly and see a Doc beforehand. Anything will do, jogging, bike, elliptical trainer, aerobics, wii fit etc. Make yourself build it into the natural part of the daily life, remember this is a lifestyle change forever, not a quick fix. Exercise not only burns calories whilst being done but also whilst you recover. Regular exercise will also speed up your metabolism and if some strength / resistance training is built into your regime it will increase the amount of calories you need each day, yummy we can eat more

So how much should I eat, unfortunately we are all very different and have very different amounts of muscle and our activity levels change greatly. Here is one of many good websites that can give you a guide as to how much you need to eat a day. It should be noted it is critical not to eat too little, this just causes the metabolism to shut down and go into starvation mode (it can even start to consume your own muscle and organs!) and weight loss will become extremely hard.

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

What to eat, where ever you can avoid processed food (and the nasty muck they put in it). Eat simple healthy natural foods (often called whole foods) with lots of fruit and veg, natural carbs and lean protein. Carbs can be good for you but generally we eat to many especially late at night when we do not really need the sustained energy they give. You should eat about 30%-40% of your diet as carbs, their best eaten before periods of heavy physical activity like exercise or physical work such as in the morning or at lunch. Bread /Wheat /Rye can be a problem for some people (gluten). Eat lots of lean meat as this acts as an appetite suppressant and don't forget those healthy oily fish. Avoid where you can energy dense high calorie foods, anything over 200 cals per 100g as these will be high fat and or high sugar which also means you get very little to eat. But don't forget to eat those healthy oils and fats, try to get 30% of your calories from them. Generally it's better to eat a large plate of fruit and veg than one small snack bar for the same calories and actually be full.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8688104.stm

Where you can make your own food, this should not only be vastly healthier and you can control what's in it but it should also be cheaper and you use calories in the actual cooking process so its win, win, win . Where you can avoid putting salt in anything, we get more than enough.

Some people like to give themselves little treats / rewards during the week. In my mind those treats, that night drinking, or that unhealthy meal out are just self defeating. Not only are they keeping the cravings alive but they are going to slow down your weight loss and may lead to weeks with no loss or even a gain which is just going to demotivate you and lead to more disappointing weeks and maybe even failure. I think it would be better to just to set yourself a realistic amount of weight to loose in a sensible amount of time and then in your mind commit 100% to eating healthy all the time. It may help to be honest to partners, friends, family and work colleagues for the next X weeks please do not tempt me with bad things ... Staying focused on your goal will help keep the losses coming in which in turn keep you focused on the task in hand.

When it comes to weighing yourself always use the same method. That is the same place, the same time, the same scales. ONLY ONCE A WEEK !! as its easy to become demotivated with the natural gains your body can make over the week. The ideal time is first thing in the morning after your ablutions, naked and before you drink (a mug of tea can add 0.6 lbs!!) but however you do it always use the same system.

And finally there are no quick fixes no magic tablets / drinks that will work (or everyone would be super slim) I am afraid it's down to basic physics, if calories used are less than calories eaten you will lose weight. Accept this is going to be a permanent lifestyle change, "detox" from the addictive foods, eat normal healthy unprocessed food, take that exercise and look forward to enjoying the new healthier you



Gadgets and software that can help

The wii fit has had some great comments by some of our members although I have not used one as I prefer my treadmill.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wii-Fit-Plus...9331702&sr=8-1

Actifry, my saviour makes ultra healthy chips / wedges (use cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil (which is so yummy)), mines 18 months old and gets used like a work horse, also can do other healthy meals.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tefal-ActiFr...9330573&sr=8-1


VidaoneOne Diet and Fitness, is ideal for anyone who does not want to join a club but wants to accurately monitor calories and exercise (it also does points)

http://www.vidaone.com/vodf_win.htm

MyPersonalDiet, my second saviour, allows for accurate monitoring of calories and exercise on your phone!!! Available on several phone formats and syncs with the Diet and Fitness desktop software for printing charts etc. The ultimate aid for the truely geeky dieter

http://www.vidaone.com/impd.htm

Body fat calculating scales, The standard BMI calculation is very inaccurate, with these types of scales when used as directed will give you a far more accurate idea of how much fat and how much muscle you have. This will allow you to set your goal much more accurately.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omron-BF508-...d_i=B001N064JW

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omron-BF508-...6498953&sr=8-2


Disclaimer: I am not a doctor / scientist, I am just an above avg IQ nerd who reads far too much, I have no affiliations or links with anyone or any company mentioned, Always seek medical advice before undertaking anything, never run with scissors. We accept no liability if you lose too much weight, fail to lose weight, put on weight, remain ugly, your leg falls off, aliens invade your house and kidnap your cats, your lottery tickets do not win, you die or any other bad thing happens to you, copyright Eric Pisch 2010