Losing Weight

For what it's worth, I've got down to a healthy BMI like this.

1. Exercise each morning – no breakfast, just an Athletic Greens shake
2. Don't eat till 12 noon – then it'll usually be a big bowl of healthy muesli that's packed with nuts and seeds etc but no added sugar, and maybe a pear, maybe one of those protein pot things, and some mixed nuts
3. Have a sensible-sized evening meal with not too many carbs and as much fresh veg as there is to hand (I don't eat red meat, for different reasons). Maybe a yoghurt after that and then no more eating until 12 noon the next day.
4. Nice wine at weekends but not Monday-Thursday.

I lost 1.5 stone in about six weeks and have kept the weight off. I feel energetic and healthy and don't have cravings. Once you get out of the snacking habit your body seems to stop begging for food all the time.

Everyone is different and will have their own solution. This happens to be mine and it feels quite good. It's interesting to read other people's success stories.

BMI of 28 ?
They'll be plenty on here calling you anorexic with that.

I'm a type 1 diabetic of over 30 years and count [grams of] carbs to calculate my insulin dose for EVERYTHING I EAT.
My BMI has been over 30 for the last 10 years [I'm now 64] and my Diabetes clinician has put me on Semaglutide when my BMI got to 35 [17½ stone for me] - Semaglutide is aka the "skinny jab" but I'm taking it in tablet form due to current production shortages,
Takes a bit of getting used to and the dose has to increase as you do.
It effectively, mimics the "full-up" hormone and slows the gut food processing so you feel fuller for longer.

My portion sizes are much reduced and I now only eat 2 meals a day so my blood-sugar control is also much improved.
I've lost about a stone over 6 months but I'm aware of the effect of insulin injection on body fat-storing-mode so I know it's gonna be a long old process.

Been on a Keto diet since January.

Lost 2 stone.

Feel great, no cravings at all but I am eating pretty much zero carbs, no beer, no caffeine either.

I do eat a lot of protein, meat, fish, eggs etc.

I miss the beer the most but I would say cutting that out has had the biggest effect on the waistline and the wallet..

Good luck to all that are trying to lose weight, its tough, but nothing thats worthwhile is easy right?

Build working out at the gym and cutting out ultra processed foods in to your lifestyle for good.

The cheese and mayonnaise diet doesn't seem to be working for unbeknown reasons.

Weststander said:

Simply this. Plus don't consume calories between say 6pm and breakfast.

Over time you can and will adjust happily into not being obsessed with carbs, the cravings.

Fasting one day a week is a great way to accelerate the weight and fast loss, but don't binge the following day.

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But that means I'd have to drink wine in the afternoon.

If you like flavour, I have found that cucumber can be turned into a delicious low cal meal with this:

Zeberdi said:

Weight control has been a major concern for me since being diagnosed with several debilitating neurological and muscular illnesses that is resulting in decreasing levels of mobility and increasing levels of pain/fatigue as well as severe breathless. This means exercise, even walking, getting up stairs is a major challenge. Getting to work I use a mobility scooter but 3 years ago I was cycling there and back and doing a 5 mile walk fairly comfortably and swimming once a week so the weight has been piling on only since then.

Fatigue means I often end up bunging a frozen pizza in the oven because I’m too tired to cook although in the summer, I try to live on salads.

Steroids for autoimmune disease and severe asthma as well as another long term immunosuppressant have contributed to excessive weight gain - I’m about 3 stone now over what I should be for my height and age which compounds the muscular pains and fatigue..

I don’t smoke or drink alcohol and have decaf coffee and tea.

For me, it’s the lack of exercise combined with too many pizzas ( 3 a week average) rather than the actual amount of food - I don’t eat in between meals - if I’m working I’ll just have a low fat clear cuppa soup for lunch. I buy low fat products all the time - used skimmed milk, rarely eat chocolates or cake ( but do eat cracker biscuits) so not sure what else to do tbh?

Would welcome ideas. One thing I thought of was having cooking sessions and making large soups/casseroles the freezing them as separate meals to bung in microwave if I’m too tired to cook ( I absolutely hate pre-made processed TV dinners and won’t touch them with a barge pole!!)- there seems to be so few days now though that even spending an hour cooking is beyond me most days- especially if I’ve been to work/hospital all day.

I need to find a way of losing weight that doesn’t involve doing exercise beyond just getting about!

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Wow it seems like youve had a tough run of circumstamces mate. I think cooking sessions is a really good idea depending on how long you can last - energy wise. Its something I do for my family cooking and try and make it 'fun' i.e. rainy sunday afternoons listening to the radio or watching football while i do it. I generally have a rotation and batch cook bolognese, chilli, veg chilli, veg curry etc. And then just random homemade 'soup/ stew' things with a rotation of vegetables herbs and spices, ginger, garlic, lentils peas and beans lemon, fresh herbs etc. Just bunged in and experimented with to make a meal. Then I always have very small portions of those things alongside a salad. Coconut milk is a good option for thickening things and putting in curries.

I also bulk buy chicken breasts slice them into strips and marinade them with various (ideally healthyish) things as a ready made topping or protein accompaniment to other things ot on salads or stir fries. These cooking festivals do take a while but I can do enough to feed the family for a week to 10 days or more and build up extra resources in the freezer. I also sometimes make loads of burgers out of minced chicken / turkey - made with an egg, a few breadcrumbs, dollop of Mustard, fresh chopped coriander or parsely, a bit of Worcester sauce and salt and pepper. Ball em all up. Loads of em. And stick them in the freezer.

The point of all of the above is to have a load of combinable resources to make loads of relatively easy meals quickly with the minimum of fuss and effort when you're tired, fed up and hungry. I also have loads of fruit and vegetables in the house and lots of nuts and dates and things as snacks but nothing else.

In my experience its really useful to have finite shopping lists. I kind of have a fixed list of things I need to service all of the above 'menu' and I just replace these things as they run out by writing it on a whiteboard in my kitchen and then taking a photo of it before I go to the shop.

That means in the supermarket - even if I'm hungry, tired or fed up, I'm just going for specific things and don't find myself down any aisles with any crap on them or making any stop gaps with processed food. Takes a few goes to get the cycle going but we'll worth it.

Regarding the Pizza, I mean this in a non judgemental way but its absolutely one of the worst things to be eating. Well made one's are deeply unhealthy but shop bought ones are full of processed crap. If you have an autoimmune issue you should be avoiding any processed stuff as its full of terrible shìte that is simply poisonous. The same with 'low fat' stuff really. It's just a marketing nonsense. All those products are full of crap that take the place of actual fat - which is perfectly good for you and indeed necessary nutritionally- and is linked to all sorts of diseases, with little evidence of helping people to lose weight. Try more healthy alternatives - live greek yoghurt etc. Really good for you and your gut.

The best way to lose weight is to eat fresh food where you know all the ingredients which contains as many different colours and types of plant as possible. Just keep it simple.

I have Psoriasis which is an auto-immune disease and have had it quite bad at points in my lifetime. After eating much cleaner it has largely disappeared - this included removing 'inflammatory' things from my diet (booze, sugar, processed foods, some nightshades) - I still have little bits of all of these things here and there - when out - but eliminate at home. Taking care of your gut health is vital for auto-immune support. That means lots of pickled things, lots of natural yoghurt, and as many different fresh flora as you can stuff in there.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and hope some / any of this ramble might be of use to you or others in some way. There's no fixed way and my personal approach is to try and keep things simple and try and avoid being overwhelmed by trying to be perfect or overcomplicated. Just a few simple, basic common sense rules about fresh food and then being mindful and sticking to it.

Dancing Sock said:

I'm a fatty, and need to lose weight.

BMI is 28, and trust me none of that is down to muscle.

I want to know your personal experiences in how you lost weight, the best techniques you've come across ect, as I generally have no idea and am a amateur in the subject. (Before a few months back, I hadn't weighed my self in over 2 years).

So yeah, I just need tips basically, cheers.

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Make a food/drink chart for the next 7 days . Draw 8 columns for Breakfast/Snacks/lunch/snacks/dinner/snacks/alcohol / exercise hours for each day of the week.

Record your traits for the next 7 days - no cheating!

Next, make sure you exercise appropriately and stop all your snacks and have a cap on your Alcohol intake per week.

Weigh yourself once a week only and try and stick to your plan for the next 3 months to monitor the results.

Don’t cut out all “ treats” as you ideally need a plan you can stick to long term, just cut out the snacks and excesses.

Spinning classes are a good way to build up a good sweat and they aren’t too hard on the joints. Also, unlike running, you can ease off during a spin class if you need to and no one is the wiser.

Good luck!

Oh_aye said:

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and hope some / any of this ramble might be of use to you or others in some way.

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That‘s all very helpful - I’ve copied your reply into notes so I can access readily when Im up and about and ready to order an online grocery shop to prompt me to order with a cooking session in mind. (When I’ve recovered from travelling from Norfolk to get to London then down the footie over the past few days)

I actually hate processed food as a rule, including ready made sauces and tinned soup but apart from 2 or 3 frozen pizzas a week I admit to using use chutney/apple sauce and also microwave semi prepared baked potatoes and packets of rice- just because it takes too long to cook otherwise. I only ever use chicken breast fillets if cooking chicken because it is convenient and quick to prepare - I often make quick curries in wok with coconut milk, nuts and sultanas, plum tomatoes and diced chicken breast fillets browned in tumeric and various other spices then serve with whole grain brown rice ( unfortunately the uncles Bens microwave 2 minute one for convenience so probably not very healthy and not as nice as dried rice).

It’s much easier I find eating healthy food in the summer because I literally live on salads. I do love healthy Mediterranean diets. I always have live Greek yoghurts around especially in the summer as I use yoghurt as a salad dressing - speaking of which @Bozza posted a picture of a salad way back on this thread ( in 2013!) with red onion, roasted butternut, feta, peppers etc exactly the sort of meal I adore and would have if eating out with friends and also at home in the summer - Last summer I discovered that I love using diced chicken breast warm salad with chopped mango, rocket, cucumber and sweet plum tomatoes - very sticky and juicy chopping up a mango but delicious in salad and a little bit of plain yogurt on top for a dressing. Also sauté diced warm chicken salad in paprika and tangine spices with plenty of chopped cucumber served with plain Greek yoghurt - delicious! My body has difficulty digesting fat because I have had my gall bladder removed - a low fat diet or fat free is probably better for me I think - my major downfall is cheese - I love cheese especially when melted or grilled

Some great and encouraging advice thank you.

Alba Badger said:

I’m 43 now and in June 2022

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You've managed to stop aging!


PS - good work on getting in better shape

Zeberdi said:

That‘s all very helpful - I’ve copied your reply into notes so I can access readily when Im up and about and ready to order an online grocery shop to prompt me to order with a cooking session in mind. (When I’ve recovered from travelling from Norfolk to get to London then down the footie over the past few days)

I actually hate processed food as a rule, including ready made sauces and tinned soup but apart from 2 or 3 frozen pizzas a week I admit to using use chutney/apple sauce and also microwave semi prepared baked potatoes and packets of rice- just because it takes too long to cook otherwise. I only ever use chicken breast fillets if cooking chicken because it is convenient and quick to prepare - I often make quick curries in wok with coconut milk, nuts and sultanas, plum tomatoes and diced chicken breast fillets browned in tumeric and various other spices then serve with whole grain brown rice ( unfortunately the uncles Bens microwave 2 minute one for convenience so probably not very healthy and not as nice as dried rice).

It’s much easier I find eating healthy food in the summer because I literally live on salads. I do love healthy Mediterranean diets. I always have live Greek yoghurts around especially in the summer as I use yoghurt as a salad dressing - speaking of which @Bozza posted a picture of a salad way back on this thread ( in 2013!) with red onion, roasted butternut, feta, peppers etc exactly the sort of meal I adore and would have if eating out with friends and also at home in the summer - Last summer I discovered that I love using diced chicken breast warm salad with chopped mango, rocket, cucumber and sweet plum tomatoes - very sticky and juicy chopping up a mango but delicious in salad and a little bit of plain yogurt on top for a dressing. Also sauté diced warm chicken salad in paprika and tangine spices with plenty of chopped cucumber served with plain Greek yoghurt - delicious! My body has difficulty digesting fat because I have had my gall bladder removed - a low fat diet or fat free is probably better for me I think - my major downfall is cheese - I love cheese especially when melted or grilled

Some great and encouraging advice thank you.

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Phwoar - that mango salad description just made my mouth involuntarily water...

Science. The only way to loose fat is to use more calories than you consume.
If you can be arsed, you’ll do it. Calorie counting isn’t that hard and you may surprise yourself that a few little habits can change the way your body reacts.
If you have the time, train your butt off. Technology can help, body composition scales and a smart watch could be motivational.

RandyWanger said:

Science. The only way to loose fat is to use more calories than you consume.
If you can be arsed, you’ll do it. Calorie counting isn’t that hard and you may surprise yourself that a few little habits can change the way your body reacts.
If you have the time, train your butt off. Technology can help, body composition scales and a smart watch could be motivational.

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Agree this is mainly it………..think virtually all ‘regimes’ are variations of this (including fasting, keto or whatever) but the bottom line is moving more and eating less. The myriad regimes, though, are ways of making this work for the individual and we’re all different in that respect.

Whatever you choose to try to do, something like the MyFitnessPal app alongside is brilliant (providing you don’t cheat on the input). If in < out over time you will lose weight. I speak as former proper fatty (18st, 44in waist in my mid 30s and only 5’ 9”) and now hover around 12.5st with a few pounds range either side and have done for 15+ years (took me maybe 5/6 years to lose the weight, almost entirely through running increasingly and higher mileage). I don’t run as much now but I’m in the gym 5x weekly (7-8 hours minimum total, of which around 5 will be cardio) which allows me to be be a bit less careful on the intake front. I do let the balance get out of kilter from time to time and the weight drifts up (eg the last few weeks we where we went on holiday and then I immediately went to Rome), so I‘m currently being more careful with calorie intake (easily done - mostly just stop drinking) and I can quickly drop the few pounds I gained. I need to up my motivation as I’d really like to get some way under 12 (more towards 11) but I’m weak-willed and only get so far before I start ‘rewarding’ myself with more wine and cheese

London Irish said:

It's generally not down to exercise, even tho that helps motivation, you still stay fat if you run and eat a lot.

It's all down to food intake, particularly as you get old and your metabolism slows

I've found carbs and alcohol and sugar are the things that have to go if you want to lose weight quickly

Just find replacements for them as you'll want to carry on eating, various vegetables Eg sweet potato can replace the carbs. Alcohol you just have to ration carefully. Everything sugary should go, it's awful for your health anyway.

Try and avoid eating before you go to bed, have something like low fat soups on hand if you have to give into cravings

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I used to not believe the whole ‘what you eat is far more important than exercise thing’ until I changed what I ate.

I was 42 and a few months into having two children (I’m the father, so not a pregnancy thing). Exercise had gone out the window and I was overeating. I was 14.5 stone (6ft tall), not too big but more worried about direction of travel as I had definitely put a lot of weight on in a few months.

I looked at what I was eating each week and swapped out as much as I could for healthier options. I also made fruit the only snack I was going to have. I did not extra exercise. I lost 1.5 stones in a few months. Since then I’ve kept some of the changes (my evening meals are still a lot smaller than I used to have) and I’ve managed to keep myself at a steady weight.

I’ve pretty much cut out all UPF, do intermittent fasting and calories to less than 2000 a day but I still wasn’t losing weight.

The other day I noticed that a pint of Stella is about 250 calories and over a weekend I could drink up to 30 pints (weekends can start Thursday and finish Monday ha ha) so any calorie deficit I was in during the week I was more than adding to at the weekend .

Sometimes I think we are hardwired to ignore the obvious.

I’m starting again now with the calorie deficit AND not ignoring the alcohol calories

dazzer6666 said:

Agree this is mainly it………..think virtually all ‘regimes’ are variations of this (including fasting, keto or whatever) but the bottom line is moving more and eating less. The myriad regimes, though, are ways of making this work for the individual and we’re all different in that respect.

Whatever you choose to try to do, something like the MyFitnessPal app alongside is brilliant (providing you don’t cheat on the input). If in < out over time you will lose weight. I speak as former proper fatty (18st, 44in waist in my mid 30s and only 5’ 9”) and now hover around 12.5st with a few pounds range either side and have done for 15+ years (took me maybe 5/6 years to lose the weight, almost entirely through running increasingly and higher mileage). I don’t run as much now but I’m in the gym 5x weekly (7-8 hours minimum total, of which around 5 will be cardio) which allows me to be be a bit less careful on the intake front. I do let the balance get out of kilter from time to time and the weight drifts up (eg the last few we where we went on holiday and then I immediately went to Rome), so I‘m currently being more careful with calorie intake (easily done - mostly just stop drinking) and I can quickly drop the few pounds I gained. I need to be up my motivation as I’d really like to get some way under 12 (more towards 11) but I’m weak-willed and only get so far before I start ‘rewarding’ myself with more wine and cheese

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That’s an amazing result getting from 18st to 12.5st but importantly keeping around that weight for so long that it’s become your ‘natural’ weight with no chance of rebounding back up to 18st.

It’s easy for some people to say that it’s very ‘simple’ and you just have to burn more calories than you consume. Of course, it is that simple in paper. But life isn’t always that simple and unfortunately so many (me to an extent) have an unhealthy relationship with food for various reasons.

But this thread has been great the last 24 hours or so to get me really motivated to look at some simple changes I can make to loose weight slowly to ensure that those changes can be maintained long term.

Hopefully this thread can remain on the first page of NSC with updates/help/suggestions from people.

The Optimist said:

I used to not believe the whole ‘what you eat is far more important than exercise thing’ until I changed what I ate.

I was 42 and a few months into having two children (I’m the father, so not a pregnancy thing). Exercise had gone out the window and I was overeating. I was 14.5 stone (6ft tall), not too big but more worried about direction of travel as I had definitely put a lot of weight on in a few months.

I looked at what I was eating each week and swapped out as much as I could for healthier options. I also made fruit the only snack I was going to have. I did not extra exercise. I lost 1.5 stones in a few months. Since then I’ve kept some of the changes (my evening meals are still a lot smaller than I used to have) and I’ve managed to keep myself at a steady weight.

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There’s a common phrase used in the running world…..”you can’t outrun a bad diet”. Personally think exercise is incredibly important (not just for weight loss, but physical and mental wellbeing) but regulating intake will have far more impact on weight control. When I was typically running 100km a week I wasn’t losing weight (despite a BMI of around 24/25).

Been using the NHS weight loss app since beginning of September last year and have lost 2.5 stone. You track your calories and activity with a weigh in once a week. I would say the reason it's been the most effective way of loosing weight for me is you have to have a rough idea of what you're going eat / drink and plan accordingly to stay within your daily limit. For example, if I know I'm going to have a few beers in the evening, I will eat salads and stir fry which are low in calories. After 6 months I can't say I've deprived myself of anything, merely moderated the amount of naughty stuff.

The upshot is I feel great having lost the weight and loosing 4 inches round the waist. As a keen cyclist, Ditchling Beacon doesn't fill me with dread anymore.

PascalGroß Tips said:

That’s an amazing result getting from 18st to 12.5st but importantly keeping around that weight for so long that it’s become your ‘natural’ weight with no chance of rebounding back up to 18st.

It’s easy for some people to say that it’s very ‘simple’ and you just have to burn more calories than you consume. Of course, it is that simple in paper. But life isn’t always that simple and unfortunately so many (me to an extent) have an unhealthy relationship with food for various reasons.

But this thread has been great the last 24 hours or so to get me really motivated to look at some simple changes I can make to loose weight slowly to ensure that those changes can be maintained long term.

Hopefully this thread can remain on the first page of NSC with updates/help/suggestions from people.

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I wish it was ‘natural‘ and there was no chance of rebounding……………if I stopped going to the gym (I can’t profess to truly enjoying it, but I know I have to do it) and allowed myself to slip on the intake front (as I often do) I could easily see my weight rocketing…….despite the length of time I’ve managed to maintain it, it’s still a very conscious effort. I wish it wasn’t !