Need to lose Weight Gradually

suzieb

So I've decided I have to try to lose weight.

Am 5'4",just under 11 stone,clothes size 12-14.
I've always been very curvy with big boobs,hips and bum which I want to keep but am getting wobbly around the middle and its depressing me.

Typical daily diet is:

Toast or cereal for breakfast. Yoghurt. Tea with milk and two sugars.
Lunch is always tuna,corn,onion,cajun spice wrap with small bit low fat mayo.(EDIT:banana or fruit after lunch most days)
Dinner is 5 days out of 7: Wholegrain rice boiled,chicken fillet,soy sauce,oyster sauce,peppers,onion,mushrooms and mixed frozen veg.

Two more cups of tea each day. Maybe packet of crisps 3 times a week and rich tea biscuit with one tea every day. Glass of Orange juice most days. One glass water per day.
At weekend I'd usually have take away once which would be either pizza or 3 in 1(shared with b/f).

I feel like I dont actually eat that much in way of calories but yet putting on weight over last year quite easily.

Oh and I hate the gym but go walking briskly every day with my dog for about half hour. Know this isnt enough but currently working two jobs and cannot fit anything else in at moment.

Any Advice or tips to help me lose 14-16 pounds?(gradually) Any opinions on my diet and what i'm doing so wrong?

thanks

corkcomp

Op if you have 30 minutes a day that's plenty but you need to make more efficient use of the time, try running and also buy a set of dumbells, these can give almost full body workout

Diet is okish but if you add up take away and crisps and biscuit etc there is prob too many bad carbs, take a look at the diet stickies. You don't. Have a huge lot of weight to lose so easily achievable if you get more creative with exercise andclean up diet

Mellor

you don't think you are eating that many calories but my guess would be that you are.
A lot of you meals consist of rice with a meat. Almost one a day. This is a lot of rice, which is quite carb dense. Try swapping some rice out for veg, instead of a portion of rice, use a 1/3 portion of rice with 2/3 veg (shredded peppers, beansprouts, pak choi all work well). This will reduce carbs and calories, yet is just as filling. Also, tea can be a lot of hidden calories. It was only when I started counting my cals that I realised how many cals can be in a cup of tea. 1 is nothing, but 4 a day and it adds up. Luckily its easy to reduce the cals, no sugar obviously, but try less milk. This might only take 50-100 cals off you daily intake, but do it every day and it adds up esp if you normally drink it milky.

sfag

Suzie,

as per Mellors advice above.

Also ....
I can recommend what currently appears to be working for my exercise hating wife who is losing weight gradually.

4 lbs of water & fat in the first week. 1 lb of fat per week after that. shes three weeks in. Shes never hungry. Remember 1lb of fat per week is a lot.


Her downfall was bread and snacking on crisps and roasted peanuts.
She hates all exercise but keeps on her feet for about 25 - 30% of the waking day.
Her biggest bonus is she eats small portions.

Her diet now – typical day.
breakfast: readybreak. (oats) & banana
Lunch: ham, scrambled eggs, salad.
Dinner, roast lamb or chicken or steak , fibrous veg or salad, a tiny bit of chocolate.
Supper toast (1 slices) and peanut butter. Maybe an egg.
Whenever: tea, milk, fish oils.
Ocassional – readybrek in the middle of the night.


The key things to note:
Diary produce - good in moderation.
Protein with almost every meal.
Portions - always small. The veg (not spuds) will really fill you.
bread - 1 slice of granary.
cereal - oats.
Tea - no sugar and shes from 6 cups to 2 day.
Fish oils - 4 a day.

So for you:
no bread - no wraps - no sandwiches - no pasta.
swap the juice (assuming it's concentrate) for a real orange.
swap the rice for basmati or brown only. small portion.
sauce - ?
frozen veg - real stuff is pretty cheap y'know.
try your tea with 1 sugar then none.
absolutly no biscuits and crisps. - lots of calories and no nutrition.
pizza at weekend is fine if it doesent blow your calorie quota for the day.
Biggest tip - get thru the weekend without falling off the wagon and the fat will go.

The above changes are all relatively minor.
Conquer your cravings - if you ahve em - with green tea.

Think about what meat you like and how to get it into your meals.
Note: a snack is a meal.

You need to lose more than the 14 - 16 pounds at your height.

Exercise will speed things up as will moving around more.

Can you make your walk closer to 40 - 45 mins. It must be done when your stomach is empty. For some reason the benefit is greater after 20 mins.
Get a heart rate monitor (eg target from argos - €30) and make sure your HR stays around 100 - 110 when you walk.

Post back here if you dont understand anything and let us know how you progress.

floggg

Hang on, i'm open to correction here, but when the blazes did tea become fattening. Its water soaked in dried leaves. You don't even consume said leaves, unless you eat the tea bag afterwards.

even with full fat milk you would want to be using a lot of it to make a noticeable difference.

by all means, lay off the sugar and biscuits, but let the poor soul have a cuppa

corkcomp

floggg wrote: »

Hang on, i'm open to correction here, but when the blazes did tea become fattening. Its water soaked in dried leaves. You don't even consume said leaves, unless you eat the tea bag afterwards.

even with full fat milk you would want to be using a lot of it to make a noticeable difference.

by all means, lay off the sugar and biscuits, but let the poor soul have a cuppa

+1 . ditch the sugar but tea is no harm, or coffee

CoachBoone

Agree with the tea.

Tea is fine. The sugar of course will have a huge effect, its empty calories and affects your insulin resistance, its also far more psychologically addictive than people realise. The milk is also ok.

One thing about your takeaway at the weekend; its fine. It keeps you sane. You have some crap food to look forward too.

BUT

Make sure you earn it. Work that little bit harder on the exercise the day you plan on having it. Be dedicated for the week previous and use your take away as an award.

sfag

didnt Transform have some advice on tea - if I remember correctly he reckons its benefits diminish when you add milk.
Certainly lots of milky tea will mix with the food in your stomach making you feel fuller for longer - which in itself is supposed to be a dieting trick - bit like the soup diet.

But personaly - for reasons I dont understand - sticking to black or green milkless tea during a diet down accelerates fat loss.
It doesent seem to affect digestion speed and you pee more. Your stomach will rumble before your next meal and if you want to lose weight thats no bad thing.... all imo.

corkcomp

im not a huge fan of dairy products as I reckon most of the nutrients they contain can be found elsewhere .. however, to keep things in perspective, the milk most people would use in four of five cups of tea per day probably wouldnt even total a full glass of milk ... green tea and black coffee are often said to speed up fat burning but IMO the effect is negligible at best, adding an extra few minutes to daily exercise would have a greater effect!

Mellor

floggg wrote: »

Hang on, i'm open to correction here, but when the blazes did tea become fattening. Its water soaked in dried leaves. You don't even consume said leaves, unless you eat the tea bag afterwards.

Nobody ever said it was fattening, nor to avoid it. Please read the thread.
I was just pointing out that, 4 cups pf tea every day is a lot. A small amount of cals saved per cup adds up. This is going to be a permanent change to lifestyle so will have long term benefits.

The difference between 4 cups of milky tea with sugar and strong tea without are reasonable. 20 cups a week,

corkcomp wrote: »

however, to keep things in perspective, the milk most people would use in four of five cups of tea per day probably wouldnt even total a full glass of milk ...

To be fair, a cup of milk has a fair few cals. If somebody (with low maintenance cals, ie alot of women, smaller men etc) could reduce each day by this amount with zero effort they its a good thing.

In isolation its no difference. Its on a few cals, but if you are drinking it everyday it can't be a bad thing.

Maybe the OP drinks it black so its not relevant, its aimed more at the 3 sugars and lots of milk crew.

tomcollins97

You actually sound quite like I was a few months ago. I had what I thought was a good diet but the weight had gradually crept up over two years to 11st 12lb – I’m 5ft 5, dress size 14. I had even gone to the doc to see if there was anything wrong and she mentioned portion size – ahh ha! A revelation.

About two weeks later I started Weight Watchers to support my mum – I didn’t go to meetings but used all the books she got. 11 weeks in and I am down to 10st 7lb, which is 1 stone 5lb lost. None of my trousers fit any more (annoying but gratifying) and I have lost the pudgy face. My goal is to get to 9st 10lb then stop – I figure I will put a bit of weight back on at the start so if I settle around 10st I will be very very happy.

I had always been very sceptical about weight watches – I had seen my mum and sister fail too often. I had done Atkins in the past but that is just too hard! The one good thing about the Atkins book it is clearly explains how to read food labels, in a factual non preaching manner. For example, low-fat mayo has twice the sugar as regular and more salt. The same goes for low fat cheese, yoghurts etc etc. So, you need to decide yourself if you are better off having less of the full fat rather than twice a much low fat??

Weight Watchers is easy – and all about changing habits. I never snacked between meals and I’m not a tea/coffee drinker so these were never an issue. My downfall was a can of redbull in the morning. I hated the taste of the sugar free but one I realised I was wasting 1.5pts of my coveted 20pts a day I quickly switched! Portion size is key – this does not mean being hungry, but learning which foods to have in moderation and which you can freely eat.

With weight-watchers you can still eat most things you have eaten before but in moderation. I had got into the habit of an Indian take-away once a fortnight, this is now only for treats and to be honest I don’t miss it! Anytime I ate out I always had chips – I had some stupid idea that restaurants/pubs could not cook decemt veg and potatoes – how wrong was I??! As a bonus I have been trying food out that I would never have eaten in the past.

My portions of foods like potato, rice, pasta and bread are smaller and I am filling up on veg. M&S desserts have been replaced with Avonmore Custard tub and sugar free Hartleys jelly for just two points (Yum). Fruit compote is another lovely ‘weight watchers’ dessert – without the crumble topping or tart pastry! For a treat a small scoop of ice-cream with it doesn’t kill me!

I don’t really use weightwatchers recipes – I find them bland, and instead have found ways to adapt food I have always eaten. A lovely real food meal for me is 1 M&S Chunky cod portion (5pts), 300g home-made oven chips (3pts) and half tin sugar free beans (100g=about 1 pt). That is a really nice non-diety dinner. Matched with a modest breakfast and lunch I can easily stay within my allowance.

Another treat on a light lunch day are chicken Fajitas – easy on the sour cream and guacamole, heavy on the salsa, peppers and onion. Works out about 16pts with 3 wraps from a 8-pack but is a nice treat.

Tomato based sauces are great – and can be virtually pointless. Good to use when saving to go out at the weekend. My spag bol (recipe in another post) works out at about 6.5pts per portion (+2.5 for 45g pasta) and is a lovely dinner – the recipe even included a bottle of wine!

Most jars of Indian sauce aren’t that bad either. For Chinese I mix a jar of Sharwoods Sweet & Sour with Sharwoods Sweet Chilli, tin of tomato puree, a few chicken filets and some veg to make a sweet and sour that works out at about 3pts per portion + rice, again a lovely tasty dinner and you won’t be left hungry.

Another staple is a home made burger – 140g lean mince (5pts), large Bundy bun (3pts) sauces (2pts) with onions fried in spray oil (0 pts) – 10pts but a super dinner! I have discovered sugar free Heinz tomato ketchup which is pointless!

For stir frys I mix the frozen Asian Stir Fry veg with some fresh pepper (about 1pt as sweetcorn is included), a chicken filet (2.5pts for 220g), a blue dragon stir fry sauce – ranges from 0.5-3pts depending on sauce (full packet) and a portion of noodles (2.5pt). So, for 6-8 pts I have a fab quick dinner. I have discovered that the best noodles are the Blue Dragon Fine Dry Egg Fried Noodle nests (50g portion). These have the lowest sat fat and modest portion size – plenty for one. Rice noodles but be nearly half the points but I haven’t found them in any shop.

I could go on and on and on – but, I think you will have got the point! WW is not a quick fix – it does take time but it worth it in the end. Best of all, you don’t really feel like you are dieting!

suzieb

Hi again,

Thanks for all the advice.

Starting to see my calories adding up when I count things like tea,wraps and carbs every day from either rice or pasta.

Today I changed my diet a bit more and ate:

Strawberry and banana crushed with orange juice when I woke up.
bran flakes with tiny bit of milk about 10.

Lunch was tuna,onion,cajun spice and lettuce.
Litre of Water./Cup of milky tea with 2 sugars(which I have to cut out completely).

Dinner was prawns,lotsa veg and tablespoon rice with soy sauce.

Cup of Tea again in evening.

I stopped smoking on Monday and found this really hard at same time as tryin to watch what I eat. Ended up smoking again tonight and feel like its just too much to do both at same time so smokes wil have to stay for now or else I'm going to be a horrible girlfriend.

Weight watchers is in my library tomorrow so going to bite the bullet and go. Think I might fare a bit better with some support around me cos the b/f is encouraging me to snack when he is even though he knows i'm trying!

Sfag, thanks for advice re menu etc I'l have look at that but I dont need to or want to lose any more than 16 pounds. It would look ridiculous on my body shape and want to keep my curves.

Thanks again!

sfag

You dont need WW for motivation - You can get it here.
That menu list from tomcollins is making me hungry. Good lengthy advice.

JerryCorbet

Lose Inches is very hard work for who are not in shape.For them,they have to do lots of hard work.This diet plan will work for you but if you have more wight,then you can prefere any of the Body Contouring techniques.

corkcomp

JerryCorbet wrote: »

Lose Inches is very hard work for who are not in shape.For them,they have to do lots of hard work.This diet plan will work for you but if you have more wight,then you can prefere any of the Body Contouring techniques.

what?