Weight loss advice

G-Money

I'm struggling a bit with my weight loss. My weight tends to yo-yo and I know this is 100% related to my diet. I'm male, 34, 5ft 10, and currently weigh 237 lbs. Although my scales seem to suggest I've put on 4.4 lbs in the last week alone. I know I've ate a ton of junk in the last week but I didn't think enough to put 4.4 lbs on. Although it's possible some of it might be water retention or something.

Here's a sample diet

Breakfast:
A 250ml glass of innocent smoothie and either 1 slice of wholegrain bread toasted with peanut butter OR 1 portion of raw porridge oats with a small tub of low fat yoghurt and a dessertspoon of flaxseed.

Lunch:
Pre-made sandwich at work (430-530 cals). Coke zero, or diet 7up or diet coke.

Dinner:
Can vary, maybe a huge portion of veg stir fried in groundnut oil, with chicken. Or perhaps the same huge portion of veg with maybe 120g of steamed white rice. I know this is two servings or more, but I often think if the calorie count is not that high it perhaps doesn't matter so much?

I usually always have a cup of tea and perhaps a 9 bar, but I can go off the rails if I have normal choc and biscuits and for instance last night, ate a 4 finger kit-kat and just over half a pack of oreos at about 82 cals each.

Exercise wise I try to walk to work every day which in total is about 2.4 miles and I've resumed running but only over the last few days and I'm aiming to start off with about 2.2 miles, four times a week. I'm not a gym member and won't be joining one either. I like cardio but hate weights.


This is just a sample. Weekends I can go really off the wagon and have chinese take-aways, two packs of sandwiches for lunch etc. Othertimes at lunch I get a fresh wrap made which has a bit of mayo or cheese and usually sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, red onion etc.

I've tried low carb things before but I find it hard to stick to and if I'm running, I'm not sure it's such a good idea to go low carb anyway?

Just wouldn't mind some tips, perhaps food to avoid completely and foods that might be ok. I need something that's maintainable long-term also. Like I could cut carbs down to once a day but I don't know if I could do that for the rest of my life.

Any tips welcome, no flaming please

Thanks

PS: One thing I forgot to mention, I'm aiming to lose about 4-5 stone and want to be 12 and a half stone at most.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Looks to be a fairly poor diet overall, not trying to flame you at all, but soft drinks daily, snacking on kit kats and oreos, take aways, they dont belong in your diet if you really wanna lose weight.

Theres a great thread in this forum Nutrition 101 take 30 mins off to sit down and read it, make notes of the important pieces, it really should put your mind in perspective.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055157091

If all fails, a very low carb diet will make you lose weight.

G-Money

Thanks for the advice.

I'm thinking of starting to have porridge in the mornings. What's the best way to make it? I've heard of people saying to use milk and others to use water. But seeing my goals are weight-loss and not becoming hungry before lunch, which would be the best to make it with?

Taste is also a factor and I'm not likely to keep eating it if I don't like it.

meijin

G-Money wrote: »

I'm thinking of starting to have porridge in the mornings. What's the best way to make it? I've heard of people saying to use milk and others to use water.

I boil jumbo oats with water and at the end add various milled seeds & cocoa, and have a portion of meat while the porridge is boiling

If you have no problem digesting milk, you could use it, but it has quite a lot extra calories, including from sugar, so you may as well go with water.

saa

I'm just going to assume its not 100% your diet tackle the pit falls that come up with changing it
It took me two months to get used to consuming less carbs, you can eat more amounts of nutritious food on your running days so you are taking care of your net calories. [see bmr and daily calorific needs calculator and know your deficits and needs while working out]
I wouldn't worry about breakfast... lunch, dinner and snacks seem to be triggering a lot of problems.
I used to be like that I would "switch back" to my old carb diet with diet drinks after about three weeks, the food I was eating was fine the problem was in my head.

Even now I find myself snapping some fridays, its a mental thing I don't give up anymore I keep going. The best thing I ever did to loose weight was to buy lots of good food rather than trying to manage junk in my house and did a lot of research into what my body needed not my other hungers (emotional, boredom, fear of getting hungry/not having enough food). I'm down 23 pounds since September, lots of hiccups it took about a year to get the courage to do it because I was afraid of never being able to eat what I want for the rest of my life, that attitude was keeping me fat, that fear.

You may not think calories matter but if you make huge portions or high calorie sambos you're taking in 500-1000 calories all at once, you're body can only process so much at a time and your blood sugar will be spiked, along with the diet coke will do that also.

I don't miss the constant chatter about food, feeling fed up, confused and when around food feeling like I have as much as possible or else... if thats your shtick you have to get over the looming fear that your life will be worse if you eat clean, it won't!

noworries

I have thought long and hard about replying to your post and indeed have made several drafts but each one does not seem to capture my empathy for your situation and my true belief that ANYONE can achieve ANYTHING that they want given the right attitude.

You have been down this road a couple of times in the past few years and you are not achieveing your goals? You need to ask yourself why not?

You have tried various 'diets' that you have proven to yourself -DO NOT WORK? Why?

If you don't mind me saying you need to change your life style. Utterly. You have to look into your soul and ask yourself - why do you want to change? What do you want to achieve? Maybe you are happy with the status quo?

You have to decide to commit whichever path you decide on? No point in asking should I have water instead of milk with my porridge... you have far bigger decisions that need to be taken BEFORE you get back to micro managing a couple of calories at breakfast time. What about the takeaways, the Nakd bars, the Big Als- have they left your diet? Have you started bringing your lunch to work, instead of someone making it for you and not knowing if there was butter in it or not?

Diet advice in all fine and dandy but G-Money, are you ready to accept the advice but more importantly act on it.

From your previous diary I detected that you were very much an emotional eater? Have you addressed this?

I strongly recommend that you have a search/read for the whole Primal/Paleo movement. Read about it, understand it - understand what food does to you and for you- armed with that knowledge, you can and will tackle your obeisty problem, finally.

I have the greatest respect for anyone who wants to transform their lives and I wish you all the success that you wish for yourself.

If you want to change, then embrace that change with a passion. It is the journey and not the destination that defines us (cliched as **** I know)

I really, really hope you do not see this as flaming or anything derogatory.... I felt I got to know you as I was reading your Food Diary and I celebrated each of your gains and groaned with disappointment when you had a bad day- you had a great set of supporters on the log but that is not what you need. You need to seize your life back and wrestle the procrastination to ground and kick its ass. You can and will do it when you are ready but don't tackle it until you know you will beat it.

Decide, Dedicate, Do it

I look forward to you updating this thread with your achievements

Regards,
Noworries

kennyb3

@ noworries - great post.

This isnt rocket science - find a couple of healthy breakfasts, 3/4 healthy lunches and dinners you like. Rotate. Snack healthily in between. You wont go hungry. Push yourself exercise wise. Overall you ll lose weight.

Eat better+exercise more = lose weight. Not hard to figure out.

All you have to do is figure out if you have the discipline and motivation to keep at it and not fall off the wagon. All the information is on here. Search for all the advice given to similar posters.

LordSutch

In a nutshell less carbs, more protein + more exercise + drink loads of water = weight loss over a period of time.

Ease off on the bread, cut out chocolate altogether for a month or two, increase your pace while walking, do more walking, try cycling or swimming if you can, (but only if you enjoy it)! Burn off more calories through exercise than you consume through eating, and it wont be long before the lbs start to drop off. For long term weight loss, you really need to look at your diet very carefully.

Think of weight loss as a lifestyle change, make goals, stick to them & enjoy the results )

stevenf17

I know your pain G-Money. You just have to keep your mind set and don't let your self get discouraged, and remember you have to make what your doing a life style change not just a temporary diet for a few months. I'll tell you about my story and hopefully it will spur you on.
This time about a year and a half ago I was weighting in at a rather plump 245lbs(17 1/2 stone) and only 19 years old as well. I had been trying for years to loose the weight but everything thing I tried didn't work, or if it did I just put the weight back on again and At the time I was following a chap on YouTube called Shay Carl and you may think its kinda cheesy but believe it or not he actually helped motivate me to lose the weight. http://www.youtube.com/user/ShayLoss Have a look and see what he's accomplished.

Anyway, after about year I had managed to loose 3 stone so I was down to about 14 1/2. (That was up until the summer last year)
I stopped going to the gym for about 6 months as I was busy with college nd stuff, but fortunatly since I made a lifestyle change(nd I have to state how important that is) I managed to keep the weight off even after 6 months of no going to the gym.
I've just recently started work placement for college so I have a bit of structure and routine back in my life(work 8:30-5) so I decided it's time to start going again as i'm still not fully happy the way I am. Now that I'm back in the gym and eating right I've lost another half a stone in the last month.

Now i'll actually tell you how I've done it because just reading back through what I've just written I haven't said a thing, ha

I've spent a lot of time researching stuff online and basically this is how I've come to understand how your body processes the food you eat. I'm not health expert or anything but it's worked for me.
It all comes down to how your bodies cells get there energy.
Your main energy is gotten in the form of fats and sugars. Your body uses sugars to give you instant energy or energy that your body can burn up easily(thats why runners drink lucozade), The Fats then are like your long term energy.

Your body only gets fat in the way of fat, but sugars are different. For example why do people say stay away from carbs? its because carbs usually contain lots of starch which by enzymes in your body get turned into sugar your body can use up easily for the energy it needs. The real killer with carbs though is what you have with them, eg, if you have a pizza(which contains carbs in the form of the bread and fats in the form of cheese and fatty meats and what not) your body would sufficiently get the majority of its needs just from the bread of the pizza and then stores the fats for a later time. Same happens for cheese burgers/chips/ice cream/chocolate you know all the nice stuff

That's not to say you shouldn't eat carbs altogether, but your should try to stay away from the simple carbs(white bread/white pasta/white rice/baguettes) and eat complex carbs in smaller ammounts(brown bread/brown rice) and if you do eat carbs try and eat them for breakfast or lunch, gives you more of an opportunity to burn them off.

At day in my life would consist of:

Breakfast 7:30
Either 2 eggs with 2 slices of McCambridges and a slice of ham or
a tin of mackrel(weird i know) and 2 slices of McCam...

Snack 11:00
Hand full of cashew nuts/almonds

Lunch 1:00 (biggest meal)
Chicken breast/tuna/(any lean meat really) salad with sweet corn/peppers/tomato what ever you like. Maybe small bit of grated cheese and dressing on top.
I use full fat ballymaole honey mustard dressing because I can't stand fake/low fat dressings and its made with olive oil so tis grand.
2 more slices of McCam...

4ish
and an apple or so.

6-7 in the gym

7:15 a bowl and by bowl I mean like cereal bowl of stir fry/salad with some more lean meat.

half 10ish - bed(I need my beauty sleep):p

Water is also extremely important, usually drink about 3 liters a day. I might be hard if your not used to it, like I was at the start but you'll be surprised how much you crave it after a while.
I could go on more about Fats(there not all bad) but I think I've said my bit for now. To really find the key of weight loss you need to educate your self about how your body works, and how it uses different foods.

As I said I'm not health expert or anything but, what I've done above has changed my life dramatically and i'm so thrilled I've done it and managed to keep it all off!!
btw All of my bloods are perfectly normal and I've loads of energy during the day(given I get my Sleep)

stevenf17

Oh and when your trying to loose the weight, drink is the devil!!! Both in the form of hidden calories and when you get the munchies being hungover the day after! haha

agore21

LordSutch wrote: »

In a nutshell less carbs, more protein + more exercise + drink loads of water = weight loss over a period of time.

Spot on! I'm 5 weeks into this kind of diet and exercise regime and I'm down 19lbs. For the first time in years I'm losing weight and feel immensely better. Once you get over your reliance on carbs it all becomes very easy...!!!