Wanting to lose a beer gut

chuckley

gabriel1980 wrote: »

Through several years of drinking too much and not watching what I eat, I have developed a gut.

So you overdose on sugar. Therefore you need to rectify this first then work on an exercise regime.

gabriel1980

I certainly don't overdose on sugar. I don't eat any sweeties, not chocolate, ice cream. Not because I can't, but because I don't like anything sweet. I never have puddings and not had since I was a young boy.

macca1974

I've no idea about the 5:2 plan, but having done exactly the same thing as you, I decided after seeing some rather unflattering holiday pictures it was time to sort out the gut. What has worked pretty well for me has been getting a food tracking app (i used MyFitnessPal, but I'm sure there are many others like it).

What it does is give you a daily target of calories and then you just record everything that you eat. Its quite cool in that you can scan the barcode of the food that you eat and put in the portion size and it calculates it all for you. Its a pain in the backside doing it all initially, but once you've done it for a week or two, then most of the meals that you eat are already on there and its quite quick. You can also record your exercise. The thing that it has done for me is to change how I eat (mainly cutting out beer and crisps / snacks / jaffa cakes etc) and hopefully it will be a permanent change. I've lost 1 1/2 stone so far and it hasn't been to tough.

What surprised me (although it probably shouldn't have) was the amount of calories in nice things. Once you realise that a couple of beers, half a bottle of wine and a big pile of crisps is about 1,000 calories then its quite straighforward to cut the really damaging things out and you can take it from there.

Pollycat

gabriel1980 wrote: »

I certainly don't overdose on sugar. I don't eat any sweeties, not chocolate, ice cream. Not because I can't, but because I don't like anything sweet. I never have puddings and not had since I was a young boy.

There's sugar in alcohol.
And in lots of things that you wouldn't expect to find sugar.
It's not just in the sweet things that you say you don't eat.

Try looking at the labels on food.

chunkytfg

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Oh good grief.

Op, I know I am probably going to be outnumbered here. But please dont waste time with the 5:2. It might be a short term fix, but do you want that or a long term solution?

Just cut out junk food/beer as much as you can/want to and do more exercise.

Unless you plan to do the 5:2 until the day you die, please done bother. It is not sustainable and it certainly does not teach you good eating habits.

This is the absolute truth.

As other have said spot reducing your fat stores can't be done only reducing the overall fat content of your entire body.

Weight loss is nothing more than simple physics and anyone who claims to have the 'perfect method' is over complicating those physics.

All you have to do is burn more calories than your body needs to sustain itself and you will lose weight. How you choose to achieve that is entirely up to you. Either eat/drink less or move more, or a combination of the two.

Personally when I started my 9 stone weight loss cutting out the alcohol was the easiest step to reducing the calorie intake. Second was MyFitnessPal as others have suggested, and thirdly was the addition of some cheap digital scales so I could properly count the calories. Once the weight started shifting I got out on my bike more, I started jogging a bit as best as I could and quite simply I made sure I was forever in a calorie deficit.

I still ate doughnuts, pizza, chocolate, etc etc but I couldn't end it all and just moved more if I needed to to keep those net calorie numbers negative.

Good luck to you both :T

chunkytfg

macca1974 wrote: »

What surprised me (although it probably shouldn't have) was the amount of calories in nice things. Once you realise that a couple of beers, half a bottle of wine and a big pile of crisps is about 1,000 calories then its quite straighforward to cut the really damaging things out and you can take it from there.

The thing that surprised me was the calorie content of seemingly 'healthy meals or foods.

Things like fresh orange juice at 200 odd calories a glass

AlTheElf

Stop drinking as much, eat a bit better, and walk 2-3 miles a day and you'll start to see the difference.

Calories in vs calories out.

Retrogamer

chunkytfg wrote: »

The thing that surprised me was the calorie content of seemingly 'healthy meals or foods.

Things like fresh orange juice at 200 odd calories a glass

Healthy and good for weight loss aren't always the same thing.
Avacados and nuts are dense in vitamins & minerals and may have some good health benefits but they aren't great for people who want to lose weight because they're dense in calories.

gfplux

I believe sit ups can do the job. I also love beer.
I do them knees bent, hands touching my ears.
Start slowly, do them everyday. In my opinion people who say they don't work are WRONG.
I started with 20 and now can do many, many more. After 5 months the sticking out belly has gone but I still have a thick waist as I have not done any dieting.
Also get a step counter on your phone. I use Google Fit on my Samsung.
Good luck

Newdirections

what about replacing the beer with a spirit and calorie free mixer? Ideally, cutting out the alcohol altogether would be better.