Lose Weight 15

petrichor

Anic wrote: »

Hi Petrichor,

I notice you said you calorie count. I have decided to try this too but wasn't really sure how many calories a day I should be allowed. I tried the link on the first page to the calorie count plus website and according to that I should eat 1850 calories per day to lose a healthy 1-2 lbs a week.

I thought that was a bit high and have tried to stick to between 1250 and 1500 per day but am a bit worried that this is too low. How much did you try and stick to?...

Hi Anic

The bottom line of a calorie controlled diet is to eat less calories than your body requires, it's because we did the exact opposite that got us here in the first place, and our body turned the unused calories into fat. The biggest mistake that can be made is to reduce your calories too much to begin with. The heavier a person is the more calories they can burn, so as you lose your weight you should gradually decrease the amount you consume. This is helpful not only with the weight loss but allows you to come to terms with the reduced amount of food, as a sudden drop will cause your metabolism to slow, thereby being less effective in burning the calories and so your weight loss will slow making you lose motivation. When your weightloss gradually slows, then review the daily amount of calories and reduce it by, say, 100-150.

The link that you used does give a good indication of the daily requirements, so as you are in the 17st+ region then 1850 may be correct to start with, depending on what exercise you get, but if you're unsure about this figure here is another BMR and calorie requirement calculator so that you can compare it. I found that after about 4 weeks I needed to revise the amount I ate and then continued to do this as my weight loss slowed down. I would advise you against reducing your intake to 1250 at this stage as it's not necessary, that amount of calories is for when you get close to your goal weight, depending on what that is, of course.

A book that I have in front of me gives this guide:-

Weight to lose ..........Cals Women ........Cals Men
Less than 1st ...............1,250................ 1,500
1st to 3st.................... 1,500................ 1,750
More than 3st ...............1,750 ................2,000

I would advise you to keep a daily record of what you eat, and be honest with yourself, don't estimate with your eyes (experience talking there! ). Include food that you like, give yourself some treats, and don't deprive yourself of things that you like as long as it's in moderation. You want to get into a new habit of eating healthily which can continue for the rest of your life. Diets don't fail, we fail to follow diet. It's accepted everywhere that weight lost steadily and healthily is more likely to stay off.

I hope this helps, sorry I've rambled, but I wish you luck, I'm sure that you'll succeed.

xxxx

ajaxgeezer

Suggs wrote: »

First time in donkeys years Im below a 40in waist, albeit the male waist which resides below the belly

......... hehehe I'm very familiar with this "waist". This is my 34" jeans waist.

a1969baby

Good morning!!

Well done to the losers and maintainers!!

I am going to have a bit of a challenge today.. going to an AGM for work and there will be a buffet lunch :eek: I'm hoping there will be a few healthy-ish things there!

Regarding the essential oils, I actually use these quite a lot. I mainly burn them in a burner, geranium and ylang ylang is my favourite as it smells great, bergamot and lemon are good for mood lifting or if you're low in energy, tea tree is good if you are ill as it has antibacterial and anti viral properties, Lavendar and/or chamomile for relaxing, fennel for appetite control and digestion (don't use that one much..lol!!). Peppermint is very good if you have a headache or are feeling tired. Rose smells gorgeous but is about 45 quid........the oils do last for ages though!

Okay I've wittered on enough now!

Hope you all have a good day

x

Anic

petrichor wrote: »

Hi Anic
I would advise you to keep a daily record of what you eat, and be honest with yourself, don't estimate with your eyes (experience talking there! ). Include food that you like, give yourself some treats, and don't deprive yourself of things that you like as long as it's in moderation.

Thanks petrichor.

I have been keeping a daily record - I have used the one on that calorie count plus website. It is really handy because everytime I eat eanything, wether at work or in the house I put it on the list right away - that way I don't forget about it when I try to "tally up" later on. The scales are also in constant use - a bit of a schock at first when I seen the size of some of the portions .

I suppose that is good news then if I am allowed that amount of calories - I can start eating a (little) bit more every day - I would hate to be thinking I am doing really good and the scale not show a loss as my metabolism had actually slowed down.

As for the treats in moderation - I also do this. My OH gave me a box of my favourite chocolates from Kimbles (a chocolatier in St Enoch Centre in Glasgow) with are absolutely delicious (this was before I started to cut down). I now limit myself to one or two every couple of nights and include them in my food log and find I am enjoying them more as I eat them slowly savouring the flavours instead of sticking the whole thing in my mouth in one go.

Lois_Lane

Morning all :hello:

Grannynise - you're experiences with oil burners etc did make me laugh, as I've done exactly the same things myself! I like using them nevertheless, but DH hates anything smelly so I have to enjoy it when he's not around. One of my favourite ways to relax is a long soak in the bath, with a really nice (expensive) bubble bath, scented candles and/or an oil burner, a glass of wine, and a good book! In my opinion there's nothing like it for de-stressing, but I did make the mistake of having too many smell inducing things around once and got out of the bath with a headache...!

Anic - I echo Petrichor's comments about how many calories you need. You might also find it helpful to calculate the number of calories you would eat in a normal day, as opposed to one where you're aiming to lose weight, as just reducing your daily intake by 200 calories a day can make a significant difference. It is important to calculate your intake accurately, and initially this will take some time, but it soon gets easier - it surprises me how often I eat the same food, so once you know how many calories there are in something like a slice of bread, you don't need to keep working it out.

a1969baby - buffet lunches are the devil's work! I often attend meetings with lunch included and it is really difficult, so I usually have a fairly substantial breakfast and try to eat a healthy mid morning snack such as a banana, so that I'm not as hungry at lunchtime.

Victory - is eating pre-cooked meals just a temporary fix, as I wouldn't recommend it for any length of time? Readymeals tend to have additives and hidden ingredients that you're better off without, and even WW meals can have more fat in them than home cooked food. (Not to mention the cost!) It's easy to become obsessed with weight loss and healthy eating, but now that you've got to your goal you need to relax - I know you're worried that you will pile all the weight back on, but that won't happen overnight just because you have one 'non-diet' meal, or even go off the rails for a day or week - especially as you have to consider your intake because of your diabetes. Maintaining is all about keeping an eye on your weight and making slight adjustments if you need to, i.e. if you're still losing weight, or if you gain a little.

Raphael - your meal plan looks reasonably healthy to me, assuming the chicken tikka masala is a low fat recipe? One comment I would make is that you have meat everyday, and maybe you could have 1 or 2 meat free days each week, so for example you could have pasta with a tomato based sauce, or a vegetable casserole or curry.

Have a good day everyone

LL

justmarried06

Hi Anic

Not sure if this will help at all but Rosemary Conley is based on calorie counting and percentage fat so thought I'd let you know the breakdown they work on in the 'manual' (aka 'bible' hehe) just in case its of any use?

They recommend 1500 calories a day across the board and food with less than 5% fat, so when looking at packets (my shopping takes me an extra half an hour now!) you check calorie amount in the portion size and grams of fat per 100g, not in the portion, to get the percentage. As with SW and WW, most veg is free and you can eat as much as you like, although not fruit as that has calories due to the natural sugars - and I say most veg as things like avocados and stuff are really high in fat contents and calories - gutted as I love them!

Breakdown for a day would be:

3/4 pint milk, either semi skimmed or skimmed - 200 calories
Breakfast - 200 calories
Lunch - 300 calories
Dinner - 500 calories
2 'power snacks' aka pieces of fruit (!) - 100 calories
1 alcoholic drink - 100 calories (150ml glass of red/white wine)
1 treat (can be high fat) - 100 calories

also, if you find that the milk allowance is too much, you can substitute 1/4 pint for a low fat yoghurt, which is what I do as I have 250ml of Innocent strawb/banana smoothie for breakfast on the train instead of cereal which could get a bit messy ;P and so have the yog for lunch.

Phew, sorry, that was a longer post than intended, think I got a bit carried away!!!!!! hope this has been of some use, if only to give an idea of calories at each meal or whatever - if you want any more stuff then there are some recipes and things in the booklet I can put on here for you next week if you like?

JM xx

The_Dragon

Another two weeks and I can concentrate on my health and diet again! The mortgage has been confirmed and we move on the 9th October (we had to vacate this rental property by the 16th so talk about cutting it fine!), so this will give me 10 weeks approx until Yule/Christmas and I am HOPING to lose 12 pounds by then!

So as soon as I move I am going to start tracking my food and exercise with Weight Loss Resources and I want to lose the lard!

WelshWoofer

Hello again - long time no see!:j

Some of the longer standing members of the thread may remember me - its been a while since I posted (maybe up to 6 months!)
Lots has happened - parted company finally with partner and now very happy living alone with my little doggy. As you can imagine the past few months have been quite turbulent (not all bad though) and lots of changes have gone under the bridge.
But the good news is that I'm finally happy and settled and feel better than I have done in years! I have a new boyfriend (someone I have known for years) who's just fab and work is going well too.

All of this means that I haven't even thought about food for ages - just scoffed what I've wanted to when I've wanted to. It hasn't been a total disaster weightwise - I had a go at the fancy scales in Boots last week and it reckons I've put on about half a stone - not bad in the circumstances!
So now is the time to get rid of it and get back on track. I'm apparently 10 and a half stone and 5 ft 4ish but would ideally like to be under 10 stone (possibly even 9 and a half!) by Xmas.

I'm going to the races for the day on Saturday (will involve boozing and eating) and so will start properly on Sunday.

I know it doesn't seem that bad but I'm conscious that I've put on a bit of weight again after losing quite a bit previously and feel unfit.

So just wanted to say hello again and well done to all of those that have done so well in my absence, especially Suggs and Victory. I haven't had a chance to read much of the thread again yet but will try to catch up.

It's fab to be back.....

Anic

Thanks Justmarried

That is really helpful. I will probably use that as a guide and hopefully it will help me get to a healthy weight (and stay there - something I never managed to do before).

I love this thread - everyone is so helpful and friendly - a big thanks to all of you :T :T :T

katiepoppycat

morning all!

welcome rachel - glad to hear that life is back on track for you. Hope you have fun at the races.

bb and beanie I quite agree about DT - there has been much speculation abbout whether he and richard hammond are the same person amongst my friends and we have decided that it's much more fun if they aren't.

Managed to get back on the rails yesterday and feeling better. OH has commented that he can see the difference now - altohugh he did do it in a tactful way so bless him.