Some advice need please!

fuzzywiggle

I'm looking to lose weight. So I'm looking for some advice please because I'm not to sure if I'm eating the right things?

Ok so

7.45 am - 2 Weetabix with slim line milk

11.00 am - Yoplait strawberry yoghurt

12.30 pm - Melon and some grapes

2.00 pm - An apple

4.00 pm - 2 plums

and I don't know what to have for dinner?? Any suggestions?
I go to the gym straight after work so I'm not home until about 9 and I don't want to eat that late. So what should I do?

Also I'm not in the gym every night.. so for the days where I could have dinner at about 6pm, what should I have?

Have just been swimming in the gym so far. They'll give me a program in a few days for the machines and that. Is swimming good?

btw I'd like to lose about 3 stone!

Thanks!

g'em

ok, where to start???

you say you want to lose three stone. what weight are you now? you realise that a healthy weight loss is about 1-2lbs a week? any more than that and its unhealthy and unsustainable.

Starving yourself (as you are now) will not work either. You go to the gym after eating nothing but fruit all day? where is your body getting its energy from? Where are your carbs and good fats?

Swimming is a cardiovascular exercise, just like running, walking, tennis, or anything that will raise the heart rate. As such it will help burn fat but won't help 'shape' you.

So....
breakfast should have a good portion of starchy carbs to fill you up and energiseyour body after being in a state of starvation all night. Porridge is best, or sugar-free muesli.

At lunch some good carbs again, wholemeal bread, or pasta, or rice with veg and meat, or a big salad. In the evening if you eat after a workout its fine to have carbs in there too. And of course snacking on fruit/ yoghurts/ nuts.

Honestly, right now you're doing yourself no favours with that diet. I know its sounds strange but you need to eat more!! Have you read the stickies at the top of the page for info on diet and how to eat right? take a look and let us know your current weight and height, age and workout plan so we can better guage how you can go about it.

DubNside

Does'nt look like theres enough food there to be healthy!
While its good to eat lots of fruit and lo-fat foods, you have to eat a balanced diet too!

What is your height/weight etc?

fuzzywiggle

Ok thanks! When I looked at what I typed there and I was thinking, that's really not that much food! But I'm not hungry?? I didn't realise I was ''starving myself''. I've been drinking loads of water too.

Ah yeah I don't need to get the weight off in a hurry. 2lbs a week would be great.

I haven't got a work out plan yet. HJave just been swimming so far. Will have one later in the week!

DubNside

Id say eat well, eat regularly!

theres plenty of info in the threads here about diets.

Are you in a Gym? If not join one and get a good program from one of there instructors.

Dudess

G'em, a question:

g'em wrote:

you realise that a healthy weight loss is about 1-2lbs a week? any more than that and its unhealthy and unsustainable.

I've heard of people changing their lifestyles (from really crap to really good) and they lose like seven lbs the first week and stuff. Is this because of making such a drastic change? And is it healthy?

Dragan

Dudess wrote:

G'em, a question:


I've heard of people changing their lifestyles (from really crap to really good) and they lose like seven lbs the first week and stuff. Is this because of making such a drastic change? And is it healthy?

In short, yes.

Because the make a dramtic change there body goes through an early stage dramatic change. Keeping this level of weight loss up week on week would pretty much kill you though.

Besides, a massive amount of early stage weight loss is always water weight, as they cut down on the bad and drink more water there body stops retaining so much.

g'em

Hey Dudess,

yup, like Dragan said, its the initial 'shock' your body gets that causes sudden weightloss. IT's like in all the 'lose 10lb in 3 days' diets- what you're really doing is cutting your calories and eating healthier food to such an extent that your body releases 'weight' in the form of water, when what you actually want to do is get your body to use its fat stores as energy and burn them off, making you slim down.

If you starve yourself your body thinks 'aw crap. better hold onto my fat stores' and so you end up storing the fat and burning the muscle.

Any more than 1-2lb a week is likely to be water loss, and unhealthy. Plus by doing it slowly from making small changes to your diet you are much more likely to keep the weight off, as you'll have implemented a healthy, sustainable way of eating as opposed to crash dieting.

Dudess

Cheers G'em and Dragan. But you know those stories that regularly crop up in newspapers and magazines about people who lose massive amounts of weight? They usually give a breakdown of their former eating habits - no brekkie, crisps and cream cake at 11, pizza for lunch, biscuits in afternoon, curry and chips for dinner, takeaway later, fizzy drinks all day etc and zero exercise. Then this is contrasted with their current diet, which is usually really good. They're not starving themselves and they are including all the essential nutrients (they might have been given an eating plan by Weightwatchers or whatever). This sudden change, combined with exercise seems to cause a lot of them to lose much more than 2lbs a week, yet the changes they have made are healthy. So does this weight loss stabilise after a couple of weeks down to a more reasonable 1 or 2lbs per week?

g'em

Dudess wrote:

So does this weight loss stabilise after a couple of weeks down to a more reasonable 1 or 2lbs per week?

it normally will do yes. weight loss comes down to a combination of eating well, exercising and having a positive mental attitude (corny I know, but its true!!) and very often its people's lack of determination or willingness to succeed that lets them down (if you keep sneaking in bars of chocolate or accidently on purpose let our cardio session slip your mind of course your weight loss will slow down!!). Dragan has lost over a stone in the last 6 weeks from training hard, eating clean and taking care of himself. I've lost less weight but shed inches in the same time frame using the very same principles. After an initial loss of 3 lbs in the first week my weight loss has slowed right down, but I'm losing size now, and still making gains in my strength, which is exactly how I wanted it. If I started to lose more than 1lb a week I'd get suspicious that soemthing was wrong.