Help! How to get thinner!

flutterby_lil

In 2003 I lost 6 stone doing WW - I got to my goal of 9 stone 13, 2 children later (plus a weight gain of 4 stone each pregnancy) and lots of dieting, I am now 10 stone 8 - I just cant seem to shift the last stone to get to be 9 stone something. My weight has gone on my hips, I can feel it when I wear my jeans.

I go to the gym twice a week but concentrate on cardio, was under the impression that was the best thing for losing weight - it now appears I was wrong.

I need a bit of guidance on what I should be eating as my way of eating for the past 10 years is the opposite of what you say to eat - so what would be a good typical couple of days meals? Can you help me please? I do eat lots of veg, potatoes and pasta as on SW it is free!!

Thanks in advance guys.

pirateyqueen

Maybe you should check out the book Rules of Lifting For Women. It has planned out work outs and meals plans too if I remember correctly. The thing with diet (I mean this is an in the food you eat, not "I'm on a diet") is to make sure you're not over or under eating. It's all about the amount of calories you put in your body. You need enough protein too, to help your muscles repair. Chicken, veg and rice is something you can't really go wrong with!

paulineb_2

Assuming you are moderately active (OP), this calculation could be out by 100 cals or so, but 2577.6 is your BMR with a factor applied given that you are a moderately active female. That is, the number of cals you need to maintain your weight with a factor added in for exercise that you do.

Without the exercise it would be around 1600 cals for your height and weight, but thats just the amount of cals youd burn by staying in bed all day.

1200 is far too low

I wouldnt be advising people to cut out food groups either, what works for one person wont work for another, what I will say is that white bread, white pasta has very little nutritional value. Even wholemeal bread and pasta is basically white stuff with some wholemeal added back in.

Around 30-35 per cent of carbs a day is sufficient, people dont need to eat 60 per cent of their daily cals in way of carbs. Id eat less fruit and more veg if I wanted to lose weight. Sweet potatoes rather than potatoes. Stuff like oatcakes, porridge, slow release carbs that dont make you crash after youve eaten them.

The slimming world diet works for a lot of people and yes they tell people to eat a lot of fruit and veg, but a plan where people can eat as much fruit, pasta, rice (I do understand that they also say sizes must be realistically portioned as well), its not going to work for everyone.

I did the slimming world diet about 20 years ago when it was still red day green day. My friend did the red diet, she lost stones. I was on the green one and I lost about ten pounds and it took me ages. I was sick of pasta, rice and baked potatoes by the end of it.

It helps a lot of people eat in a healthier way but I think theres far too much emphasis on white carbs. Those packets of pasta in sauce for example, they arent very healthy. When I was on the plan supernoodles were free (Im sure thats changed now). Its not the worst diet but I think the people who eat more meat on it and less carbs will have on the whole a healthier diet than people whose diet on the plan is very carb heavy.

paulineb_2

flutterby_lil wrote: »

In 2003 I lost 6 stone doing WW - I got to my goal of 9 stone 13, 2 children later (plus a weight gain of 4 stone each pregnancy) and lots of dieting, I am now 10 stone 8 - I just cant seem to shift the last stone to get to be 9 stone something. My weight has gone on my hips, I can feel it when I wear my jeans.

I go to the gym twice a week but concentrate on cardio, was under the impression that was the best thing for losing weight - it now appears I was wrong.

I need a bit of guidance on what I should be eating as my way of eating for the past 10 years is the opposite of what you say to eat - so what would be a good typical couple of days meals? Can you help me please? I do eat lots of veg, potatoes and pasta as on SW it is free!!

Thanks in advance guys.

Get someone to make you up a gym programme. Dont do it yourself, you could end up doing stuff that just wont do anything for you. Lift weights. Nothing wrong with doing some cardio either, but Id always lift weights first and then do cardio after. If I were going to do cardio first Id do that, go home and go back out a few hours and lift weights. 2-3 times a week in the gym lifting should be enough, do a couple of cardio classes as well, preferably high intensity ones.

And get some advice on your diet. I think the problem with slimming world is, although it means people can diet and not have to count calories which is good for some people, you lose sight of what you are eating and how many cals you are consuming. You could be eating more than your body needs and if you've hit a plateau, you need to shock your body out of it.

Gloomendoom

pirateyqueen wrote: »

Maybe you should check out the book Rules of Lifting For Women.

Unfortunately, that book seems to be out of print now.

Mrs G has used it to good effect. Following its guidance, she won one of the six month challenges on an associated US based lifting forums.

mattyoung1990

I lost 4 stone, from 17.5 stone to 13.5 stone in about 5 months at the beginning of last year. I always considered it a lifestyle change, in for the long haul rather than a diet and i've still kept it off now.

How? Started with MyFitnessPal, as you did and logged EVERYTHING. This includes the pint down the pub and the odd biscuit from the office tin. Also, I weighed everything out when I was cooking to get an idea of how much a good portion should be. I had no idea what 100g of potatoes looked like etc. It also meant that everything I was putting into MFP was completely accurate.

I changed my diet from nuggets and chips/pizzas/McDonald's/ready meals to all fresh foods. Piece of meat, small amount of carbs and a lot of veg. I do not believe that eating less carbs makes you lose more weight, I believe that as long as you are in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. (You could lose weight on skittles and coke if you were in a calorie deficit! You'd be very unhealthy though, obviously).

Then there was the exercise, which I still do today. I tried to exercise 5 days a week (I am a 23 year old single man - you probably don't have the luxury of free time like I do!) but the more you do the better, obviously. I signed up to the 5km swimathon in March so was regularly losing 1000 calories through exercise a day. I also signed up to Park Run (a free 5km race every Saturday - google it!) and this really helped to get me into running. Finally, I attended a lot of classes on at my gym, particularly circuit training. This gave me the opportunity to get some weight lifting in while not sacrificing my cardio sessions.

quidsy

Here are some of the links I use to help me focus

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-phase-1.html

http://www.fitstream.com/exercises/?term=dumbell+rows&related_category_id=&category_id=&searchtype=exercises

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/15/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/fitness-workout

http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-ultimate-female-training-guide.html

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/total-body-transformation

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

http://scoobysworkshop.com/

http://www.barbell-exercises.com/index.html

pirateyqueen

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Unfortunately, that book seems to be out of print now.

Mrs G has used it to good effect. Following its guidance, she won one of the six month challenges on an associated US based lifting forums.

Oh no! There is a new one, called the New Rules of Lifting for Women, maybe that's about?

And good on Mrs G!!!

Gloomendoom

pirateyqueen wrote: »

Oh no! There is a new one, called the New Rules of Lifting for Women, maybe that's about?

And good on Mrs G!!!

Actually, it was the New Rules of Lifting for Women I was referring to.

There seem to be plenty available second hand though and new on eBay...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=new+rules+of+lifting+for+women&_sop=15

jeddentad

I've found using MyFitnessPal, in conjuction with FitBit (I don't have a fitbit, I use the site for numbers), gives decent numbers, but every minute of every day should be logged in your activities. And of course ALL your food.

With my average level of activity (swimming, walking, cardio, 5-6 days a week), according to fitbit, I should be eating 1600-1700 calories a day to lose 1-1.5 pounds a week. Which is turning out to be about right.

The best part is, no feeling deprived or hungry or food-anxious.