Cheap/Free ways to lose flab

2

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  • Intermittent fasting works great. Good luck with your journey!
  • singhini
    singhini Posts: 553
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    OP - Remember to chew your food slowly (a lot of people don't chew their food enough). Chewing adequately means you generally eat less, absorb more nutrients from the food and digest the food easier.


    when I lost weight, I started chewing "sugar free" gum most of the day to get into the habit of chewing and as a reminder mechanism
  • shayshay
    shayshay Posts: 202
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    Losing weight and losing fat are two very different things. Most PTs hate the likes of slimming world because they offer nothing in the way of nutritional advice. You lose weight, that’s it. No control over if that’s fat or muscle mass.

    If your doing these weights you want to be having plenty of protein in your diet, this aids with muscle repair making those rest days ultra efficient.

    Even ignoring the scales. They won’t tell you what your body fat is and that ultimately is what will prevent you from being as active in the future. With your weights ensure you are mixing up your programme so as to not hit a plateau every 6-8 weeks and maybe even buy a tape measure. Losing body fat whilst increasing muscle won’t show on a set of scales in fact you may even gain weight however the tape won’t lie.

    In terms of actual exercises there are loads that can be done with just bodyweight or even the dumbells you own. A couple of clients have just that and a resistance band.

    Aside from that fair play for being dedicated, it’s not easy on your own but it can be done.
  • Shoxt3r
    Shoxt3r Posts: 169
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    Thanks for all of the replies everyone - very helpful!
    I've decided against getting some new scales since as people say it doesn't take into account the increase in muscle mass so I'm just going to concentrate on how large my belly is (using the tape measure - good tip!).

    As I said I'm adding cardio into the mix now and have increased my dumbbell weights to 10kg. I've also looked at my calorie intake and have reduced the amount of fruit I eat drastically. It's been quite difficult recently as we have a baby on the way so I haven't always felt like exercising, plus have been to a wedding so ended up eating/drinking probably more than I should have haha.

    Trying to get back into a routine again now which I think is the key.

    As I said I have put chicken into my diet now by having it with my daily lunch salads - any other tips to get protein into my diet? I'm not one for protein shakes and to be honest they would probably break the bank from what I've seen of the price of mixes!

    I've started having a small portion of seed mix every couple of days (i.e. the "shot" packets) but trying not to have them too often because of the fat intake they also bring. They mainly interested me as Morrisons were selling a load of them for 5p each (down from 50p each) so bought the whole box (saving of around £8) to keep my snack supply going haha.
  • Andyjflet
    Andyjflet Posts: 534
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    edited 17 September 2019 at 4:54PM
    Hi, I have become a bit of an expert on this. I lost 3 stone in 3 months by basically cutting out carbs and sugar and increasing my healthy fat intake.
    Technically a Ketogenic diet. Issue with your list of products is the sugar in fruits which then mean your blood sugar levels are constantly plummeting and increasing. So as well as Keto I did IF for one day a week, Friday lunchtime until Saturday teatime usually. The fat dropped of me, I still rand and played football 3 times a week.

    I'm 6ft 3 and 13 stone 7, reduced from 16 stone plus !
    Baby Step 6/7 - £63000 saved for emergency fund DEBT FREE !!!
  • Fire_Fox
    Fire_Fox Posts: 26,026
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    edited 19 September 2019 at 12:19AM
    Shoxt3r wrote: »
    I also walk during my commute (I train to London every day) which is about 1 1/2 hours in total including tube per day.

    As for my diet it's fairly average - a mix of home-cooked meals, salads and some (admittedly) junk food, usually on a Friday night. I've completely cut out having bread for lunches and on weekdays have a lunch which consists of:
    • Salad - made up of fresh chicken, lettuce, spinach, celery, tomatoes, green olives and cucumber, with a spoonful of sauce for flavour
    • Cereal bar
    • Small chocolate bar
    • Apple
    • Banana
    • Orange
    • Pear
    • Small packet of crisps (Fridays only)

    Evening meals are usually things like lasagna, chicken pieces with potatoes and veg, and Fridays just to be a bit lazy I have freezer food (e.g. pizza, chicken goujons with ketchup/mayo).

    Now the obvious thing is to completely cut out any junk food which I'm aiming to do but is there anything else I can do? My aim is to lose flab around my sides and generally tone up my stomach. I feel relatively fit in myself (fully able to do short sprints without getting too out of breath) but just want to feel a bit more comfortable, but also to be able to run around with my child when she arrives without getting too out of breath.

    Any thoughts please?

    Thanks!

    Read up on the official healthy eating guidelines, and consider keeping a detailed daily food diary (with weighed and measured portions).

    Your lunch is (was?) very heavy on sugary fruit and on processed snacks. You would be better filling up on mineral/ fibre rich foods - wholegrains/ beans/ lentils/ seeds/ certain nuts - than these.

    Not clear why you eliminated bread first. Most people who try to cut out starchy carbohydrates end up with a diet that is less well balanced and more restrictive. If you wish to go lower carb follow a healthy plan such as the ones by Dr Michael Mosley.

    Ensure you eat plenty of oily fish, other seafood and whole organic eggs because these are more nutritious than chicken breast (see Self Nutrition Data website).

    HTH. :)
    Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
  • Andyjflet wrote: »
    Hi, I have become a bit of an expert on this. I lost 3 stone in 3 months by basically cutting out carbs and sugar and increasing my healthy fat intake.
    Technically a Ketogenic diet. Issue with your list of products is the sugar in fruits which then mean your blood sugar levels are constantly plummeting and increasing. So as well as Keto I did IF for one day a week, Friday lunchtime until Saturday teatime usually. The fat dropped of me, I still rand and played football 3 times a week.

    I'm 6ft 3 and 13 stone 7, reduced from 16 stone plus !


    Cutting out carbs will only work in the short term ie for as long as you can stop eating them. Significantly reducing carbs is more sustainable.
  • MyFitnessPal app is great and free. It’ll guide you on how many calories to eat each day and you can scan food bar codes and log what you’re eating to really ensure you’re not eating more than you should. It also alerts you if you’ve eaten too much sugar, fat etc.

    I quit Weightwatchers and now log using this instead.

    I pay for Les Mills on demand, £9.95 month and they do a month free trial to see if you like it. Some of the classes need equipment but several don’t and my husband likes Grit (interval training) and body combat. I do body attack, grit and body pump but you need a barbell for pump.

    I also purchased a bike and cycle regularly, bought it on tredz and it’s interest free monthly payments so another option to think about.

    You need to add some higher intensity cardio to your routine in my non expert opinion. If paying for a fitness app isn’t for you then YouTube has tons of free videos and there are several HIT videos which will give you the high impact and calorie burn in a short amount of time. Lots of articles online about the benefits of adding HIT to your routine.
  • Niv
    Niv Posts: 2,460
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    Over the years I have tried a number of diets, I only wanted to lose a bit of belly flab (the rest of me is surprisingly lean). I don't drink much, I eat a relatively healthy diet (lets face it 99% of peoples diet could be improved) but was not particularly active due to my job.


    I started working out similar to what you have described - it did nothing flab wise (I was stronger, fitter and my back pain went - but little to no 'flab' difference).


    Honestly all that I have found that works is running. No other cardio that I can do easily / cheaply comes close when you take into account time taken (e.g. cycling is rubbish for calorie burn compared to running - swimming may be better but in practice is so inconvenient I would rarely go).


    Everyone is different so what works for some will not work for others, overall I would say, you need to do cardio but do something you like (or learn to like) or you will stop in any case.
    YNWA

    Target: Mortgage free by 58.
  • ianbar0
    ianbar0 Posts: 379
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    i certainly have no official training but in nearly 18 years i have tried, read up etc on all sorts of training and diet. i basically lack the staying power and i am an emotional eater...basically consistency is very I'mportnant. remember you can't out train a poor diet. there are lots of rules i try to stick too..like if you can't grow or kill it you can't eat it (no processed foods basically). fasting is good for some people usually missing breakfast. keep an eye on you carbs too. i have started to do park run on a saturday, quite frankly its brilliant and even if you walk it all no one will look down at you.
    £18 for my old mobile.
    new proper meal planning to cut spending.
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