Where to from here?

Mitten29

Hi everyone,

First poster on here so go easy on me!
I have recently lost 3 stone with a meal replacement diet - taking me from 18.2 to 15.2 stone. I am a 29 year old female and 5'5" so still very very overweight. It is very tempting to stay on the meal replacement diet but i think i need to find a more sustainable and life long way to loose weight from now on. Please can you give me some ideas as to what i need to do to loose weight (i want to get to 10 stone 10, BMI 25) and tone up. I have joined a gym but what sould i be doing there and what's a good diet to loose a couple of pounds a week as i tone up?

Thanks in advance!

BossArky

Welcome

Create an account on www.fitday.com to track your daily calorific intake and expenditure.

Don't eat/drink these:
sweets
chocolate
biscuits
take-aways
alcohol
fizzy drink
spuds/rice/bread/pasta (...or try to have none of these every second day)

Eat these:
fresh veg (carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, peppers, onions, etc)
eggs
tuna
chicken
nuts e.g. almonds
avocado
lots of water

Move more --> walk in the morning for 45 mins. Walk a lunchtime. Walk to the shop, etc.

This is lifestyle change so think long term, not meal replacement shakes.

Good luck.

edit - ask a staff member at the gym to do up a program for you. At the moment anything is better than nothing. Once you are comfy in the gym come back in a few weeks and people can give more specific advice on that.

Mitten29

Thank for your reply. I have just re-read my OP and realised i sound a bit clueless. I'm not but i guess over the last few years have been brain washed by various diets and have been on and off one scheme/plan or another, with very little success. It's finally dawning on me that diets don't work and i need to re-assess where my life is going and how i will live it.

So, i was thinking something like this -

Brekkie - bowl of porridge made with water and some sweetner
snack - apple/any piece of fruit
Lunch - large salad - chicken/tuna, leaves, cucumber, sweetcorn, pepper onion and low fat dressing or maybe soup with Ryvita
snack - Fruit
Dinner - stir fry, protein & veg, try and avoid carbs.

How does that sound, any suggestions?

At the moment in the gym i am doing a 45 min fast walk and then 10 mins on the cross trainer, what about toning. Should i ask for some free weight exercises?

Thanks

Parsley

Mitten29 wrote: »

Thank for your reply. I have just re-read my OP and realised i sound a bit clueless. I'm not but i guess over the last few years have been brain washed by various diets and have been on and off one scheme/plan or another, with very little success. It's finally dawning on me that diets don't work and i need to re-assess where my life is going and how i will live it.

So, i was thinking something like this -

Brekkie - bowl of porridge made with water and some sweetner
snack - apple/any piece of fruit
Lunch - large salad - chicken/tuna, leaves, cucumber, sweetcorn, pepper onion and low fat dressing or maybe soup with Ryvita
snack - Fruit
Dinner - stir fry, protein & veg, try and avoid carbs.

How does that sound, any suggestions?

At the moment in the gym i am doing a 45 min fast walk and then 10 mins on the cross trainer, what about toning. Should i ask for some free weight exercises?

Thanks

Diet seems pretty ok, but i wouldn't know as much as some of the others around here so i'll let them comment on that.

As for doing weights exercises, it is definitely something you should do. As BossArky said, ask a gym instructor for a basic programme to get started and get comfortable using weeks for a few weeks, and we can help you out a bit more when/if you need it.

d'Oracle

Mitten29 wrote: »

Thank for your reply. I have just re-read my OP and realised i sound a bit clueless. I'm not but i guess over the last few years have been brain washed by various diets and have been on and off one scheme/plan or another, with very little success. It's finally dawning on me that diets don't work and i need to re-assess where my life is going and how i will live it.

So, i was thinking something like this -

Brekkie - bowl of porridge made with water and some sweetner
snack - apple/any piece of fruit
Lunch - large salad - chicken/tuna, leaves, cucumber, sweetcorn, pepper onion and low fat dressing or maybe soup with Ryvita
snack - Fruit
Dinner - stir fry, protein & veg, try and avoid carbs.

How does that sound, any suggestions?

At the moment in the gym i am doing a 45 min fast walk and then 10 mins on the cross trainer, what about toning. Should i ask for some free weight exercises?

Thanks

You might consider ditching the sweetner and make your own dressing. (If that is not what you are doing). You need fats to function and most "low fat" stuff is probably worse. Extra Virgin olive oil and cider vinegar make the dressing of winners.

Also what boss and Parsley said about personal trainers.
They will be able to help you get the most out of your Gym time/fees.

Mitten29

Thanks for all the advice.

am using a low fat kraft dressing, never thought of making my own. Surely one with olive oil would be mega calorific though? Will ditch the sweetner, any natural sweet alternatives?

I think i will just have to get the bravery up to ask for help in the gym, am totally mortified about some young fit hottie weighing and measuring me. Guess i need to get a grip!!

d'Oracle

Mitten29 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.

am using a low fat kraft dressing, never thought of making my own. Surely one with olive oil would be mega calorific though? Will ditch the sweetner, any natural sweet alternatives?

I think i will just have to get the bravery up to ask for help in the gym, am totally mortified about some young fit hottie weighing and measuring me. Guess i need to get a grip!!

You need fats to live.
Good Olive oil has good fats, without going deep into it.
The whole low-fat thing is killing people. (DRAMA!)
Its not the fat but what type of fat.

Like you need calories, but all calories are not the same.

Fruit is probably the best thing to put into your porridge.
Sweetner makes your body think you are eating sugar (sort of) releasing the hormones to start storing.

Thats a really bad explanation, if I find an article I will post it.

All things considered, a good Trainer will be able to explain these things better.

TommyKnocker

Hi Mitten29

Not an expert here, but just to add my 2 cents worth to the excellent advice you have received already.

From your OP and using this site http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

and also guessing that you workout 3 times per week?? I gustimate your daily calorie requirements at around to be around 2,400.

The generally accepted advice seems to be that you drop between 300-500 calories from this number if you are looking to loose body fat. I say body fat rather then weight, as this is the figure you should be tracking.

This should give you around 1-2lb of weight loss per week, which hopefully most will come from body fat. You might find that you lose a littlle more in the beginning and after a while it will taper back to around this level. Also you will need to redo your calorie requirement figures on a regular basis , as each time you drop weight, you daily calories requireemtns will also drop. And if you do not constantly adjust, then you will get to a point where you will be eating the amount of calories you require to maintain your weight, and weight/fat loss will stop.

I personally think that this is what leads a lot of folks to get demotovated and give up.

The reason I mentioned this is because I am not sure that the diet you posted will supply the required number of calories, and creating too big a deficit can be counter productive to your goals.

As for a more natural sweetener for your breakfast, try some berries. You can get strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in the shops at the moment and these are not too calorie dense. Frozen berrires will also work well.

On the salad dressing front, some extra virgin olive oil with some wine/cider/balsamic vinegar will make a much nicer and healthier dressing then the one you are currently using.

Your fear about Fat is down to marketing. Your body needs a certain amount of fat to function normally. But it is important where this fat comes from. It should come from the like of extra virgin olive oil, fish oils, nuts & seeds, advacados, oily fish etc and most of what I have read on the subject estimates that around 20% of your daily calories come from these healthy fat sources.

Finally you should bite the bullet and get one of the gym instructors to check your body fat level. Then have this checked every 3-4 weeks. Once this figure is gradually decending, the you are on the right track to reaching your goals in a healthy and sustainable way.

I have just finished putting together an Excel spreadsheet to track my own diet, whcih I would be more than happy to send you a copy of, if you wanted. Of course you would need to modify it some for your own needs. So if you are familiar with Excel and would like a copy, send me a PM with an email address and I will send it on to you.

Best Regards,

M

Mitten29

d'Oracle wrote: »

You need fats to live.
Good Olive oil has good fats, without going deep into it.
The whole low-fat thing is killing people. (DRAMA!)
Its not the fat but what type of fat.

Like you need calories, but all calories are not the same.

Fruit is probably the best thing to put into your porridge.
Sweetner makes your body think you are eating sugar (sort of) releasing the hormones to start storing.

Thats a really bad explanation, if I find an article I will post it.

All things considered, a good Trainer will be able to explain these things better.

Thanks for your post. Have been reading a few of the stickies on here and they are real eye openers! Have done every diet plan in the world - WW, atkins, outh beach, unislim and lipotrim and thought i was pretty educated on the diet front - guess not!! So how much oil for the dressing? Like a tablespoon? So maybe some avacado in my salad and oily fish for dinner? With nuts e.g. almonds etc i would be afraid that i would eat too many of them so the benefits would be gone then?

B-Builder wrote: »

Hi Mitten29

Not an expert here, but just to add my 2 cents worth to the excellent advice you have received already.

From your OP and using this site http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

and also guessing that you workout 3 times per week?? I gustimate your daily calorie requirements at around to be around 2,400.

The generally accepted advice seems to be that you drop between 300-500 calories from this number if you are looking to loose body fat. I say body fat rather then weight, as this is the figure you should be tracking.

This should give you around 1-2lb of weight loss per week, which hopefully most will come from body fat. You might find that you lose a littlle more in the beginning and after a while it will taper back to around this level. Also you will need to redo your calorie requirement figures on a regular basis , as each time you drop weight, you daily calories requireemtns will also drop. And if you do not constantly adjust, then you will get to a point where you will be eating the amount of calories you require to maintain your weight, and weight/fat loss will stop.

I personally think that this is what leads a lot of folks to get demotovated and give up.

The reason I mentioned this is because I am not sure that the diet you posted will supply the required number of calories, and creating too big a deficit can be counter productive to your goals.

As for a more natural sweetener for your breakfast, try some berries. You can get strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in the shops at the moment and these are not too calorie dense. Frozen berrires will also work well.

On the salad dressing front, some extra virgin olive oil with some wine/cider/balsamic vinegar will make a much nicer and healthier dressing then the one you are currently using.

Your fear about Fat is down to marketing. Your body needs a certain amount of fat to function normally. But it is important where this fat comes from. It should come from the like of extra virgin olive oil, fish oils, nuts & seeds, advacados, oily fish etc and most of what I have read on the subject estimates that around 20% of your daily calories come from these healthy fat sources.

Finally you should bite the bullet and get one of the gym instructors to check your body fat level. Then have this checked every 3-4 weeks. Once this figure is gradually decending, the you are on the right track to reaching your goals in a healthy and sustainable way.

I have just finished putting together an Excel spreadsheet to track my own diet, whcih I would be more than happy to send you a copy of, if you wanted. Of course you would need to modify it some for your own needs. So if you are familiar with Excel and would like a copy, send me a PM with an email address and I will send it on to you.

Best Regards,

M

M,

I have replied to you via email! Thanks for the help.

Do you really think the cals could be too low? I just have it ingrained in my head that to loose weight you need to starve yourself and suffer! Also i am quite impatient and a pound a week seems like a very long journey for me. I guess i really need to adjust and change my mindset.

Will have to bite the bullet and ask for help at the gym with a programme, yikes!!

TommyKnocker

Mitten29 wrote: »

M,

I have replied to you via email! Thanks for the help.

Do you really think the cals could be too low? I just have it ingrained in my head that to loose weight you need to starve yourself and suffer! Also i am quite impatient and a pound a week seems like a very long journey for me. I guess i really need to adjust and change my mindset.

Will have to bite the bullet and ask for help at the gym with a programme, yikes!!

Hi There

There is not enough detail in your OP to be sure, but I would be surprised if what you listed is near the number of calories you should be eating.

You should not be "Starving" yourself and suffering This will lead to cravings which are more often than not fulfilled with not so good food choices. The trick is (and I am still working on this myself) is to eat wholesome foods which are nutritious but are not calorie dense. Porridge for breakfast and Salads are a good example of this.

Every body would like to get to their ideal weight/size in a week but as the weight creeps on gradually it also comes off gradually also, if you want to lose it in a healthy and sustainable manner.

If you lose weight too quickly, then you will be losing muscle alson with fat. This is not good. Muscle is know as "active" tissue adn I have read that each pound of lean muscle you have burns something like 4 or 6 calories per hour while resting. This is good.

Dropping you calories too much it is said causes your metabolism to slow down and your body starts to store fat which is not what you want.

So be patient. 2lb per week is 1 st every 2 months. Hopefully as I said mostly body fat while maintaing or increasing slightly your % of lean muscle.

Also don't be afraid of "Bulking up" this is hard enough for a guy who naturally produces testoserone. For a female without resorting to steroid use you will not get the Arnold look. Think more Jessica Ennis (UK Heptathlete)

Best Regards,

M