Podgy and poor

Gloomendoom

SandC wrote: »

My 2.5 stone + weightloss actually IS down to exercise, but it's taken me over a year to get to this point. The only dietary tweaks I have consciously and purposely made is less alcohol - but less alcohol in turn for me means less comfort food the next day.

With respect, by cutting down on the alcohol and associated munchies you have reduced your calorific intake so your weight loss is not solely down to exercise.

The rest of what you say I fully agree with and is pretty much the way that I lost my weight.

SandC wrote: »

If you've ever watched those boot camp type programmes it's always quite amazing how little food is required to sustain the levels of activities that the people are being put through.

Exactly, you have to do a lot of exercise to use up 500 calories a day... which is widely accepted the deficit needed to lose just one pound a week. Interestingly, the heavier you are, the less you have to do to use up the calories. It gets progressively harder as the weight comes off.

Having said that, ten miles a day is a lot. At 2mph that is five hours a day walking and, according to the chart below , that is a lot of calories.



Source

SandC

Agreed, but the reduction in calories from food was not enough to lose weight, it was merely enough not to continue to put weight ON.

My wrist monitor which counts my swim laps tells me that 100 lengths, which is the usual number I do in one hour of non stop swimming, is just under 600 calories. The mistake a lot of people make is reading something that tells them how many cals per hour such and such an activity does, but not realising you have to be doing that activity for the whole hour constantly.

Anyway, we are agreed, the exercise was required as far as I'm concerned and was and still is the core issue for me but generally speaking most people will have neither the time nor inclination to do enough or keep doing enough of it to lose the weight they want.

pinkteapot

I know you said that weight loss clubs are too expensive... Have you looked into Weight Watchers Online? It's all done online (you can't go to the meetings) but it's £9.95 per month which I believe is cheaper than the classes. I thought I was eating healthily and I was in terms of what I was eating but my portions were too large. I lost two stone and two dress sizes on Weight Watchers and found it easy to stick to (though I was very motivated). It's very similar to calorie counting. All foods have a points value and you record everything you eat and drink on the online tracker. You have a fixed points allowance and can also earn extra points from exercise. With WW you can eat anything (you could eat a Big Mac if you want but you'd have hardly any points left for food/drink that day!) but do have to be disciplined about logging it all.

Biggest shock for me was alcohol - those innocent 1-2 glasses of wine a night are a lot of points (and hence calories).

Everyone I know who has used Weight Watchers has found it worked. Those who said it didn't work did admit they weren't honest in tracking all their food.

You don't get the social aspect of the meetings but the website has message boards where there's lots of support.

consultant31

There's also a Slimming World thread on the boards which includes recipes and support from other posters who're struggling with weight issues.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3205350

It's not a good idea to miss out meals as this can interfere with your metabolism - eating several times a day is much better for you

You have to be committed in order to successfully lose weight, it's not easy but so worthwhile when you can see your clothes getting too big for you

The cost of a healthy diet is likely to be less than buying ready meals and is infinitely better for you. If your OH is holdng you back in regard to losing weight, you can still eat the same food but cook it differently......my favourite (syn-free) Slimming World meal is chips, egg and mushy peas, yum!!!

Silverbackape

Is there any such thing as quick weight loss? Any fad diet I've tried has NO permanent effect. The only thing that worked for me was changed my lifestyle. By this I mean counting calories and exercising.

It seemed like a bit of a chore at first, but you really do get into the swing of things quite quickly. Most people hate counting calories, but I realised (after reading a combination of thousands or websites, books, magazines, and articles, that basically to lose weight you have to burn off more calories than you consume! At the end of each day, you have to be in calorie deficit, otherwise for that day you put on weight!

So the only way to be able to lose weight is to track the food you put in your mouth and the calories you burn each day (which you can estimate relatively accurately).

And exercise needn't be expensive. There are plenty of exercises you can do at home without ANY equipment. Mostly bodyweight exercises. There's thousands of good websites on this. Just google 'bodyweight exercises' and 'home fitness'.

You could even go to you tube and just type in home fitness or bodyweight exercises and watch some videos on it.

Motivation is the key, like you said. Easier said than done, but you can do things to help you self motivate.

Persevere, you can do it!

Swinstie73

nzmegs wrote: »

Another thing i have learned is that it is best to keep your weightloss journey to yourself - at least at first. You need to do this for yourself and noone else. it is none of your husbands business. Don't let his bad habits pull you down, just quietly make changes to your own life and let him get on with his own. Once he starts to see the changes in you he might start to ask if he can come along for the ride. other people are great at putting doubt in your mind about your weight loss jpourney and mostly it is because they don't want to see you succeed. this is particularly true if they themselves are overweight. Just do this for you and keep it to yourself. of course you can get motivation and advice here!

This rings true with me, I'm forever been slagged off in work by one guy in particular about what I ate - ok so I used to constantly say I was dieting then be eating sweets/cakes but anyway I've been seeing a personal trainer (not a huge indulgence as he's my cousin and I get a big family discount) and have lost 9lbs so far. I weigh almost the same as I did 3 years ago and guess what, he is watching everything I've been eating and is now copying me - for free but hey ho. Now he's seen me lose weight it's like he's trying to do better. I'm on a high protein, low carb diet and have found it works. Only thing is I'm probably spending more on food, but not wasting it as I buy exactly what I need.