Who to believe?

whitewave

First off, want to explain that I'm not trolling, or out to insult anyone!

I've been trying to change my diet lately, to get a bit healthier and to lose a bit of weight, and so have been reading up on what best to do etc. But it's so hard to know what advice online is good, seeing as almost everything you read is rubbished somewhere else!

I find the nutrition 101 thread brilliant, but diet advice changes so much, how is someone to know whats the best method to follow?! Groups like weightwatchers swear by certain rules (e.g. you can eat most fruit and veg. as much as you like cos they're low fat) yet others then say fruit has too much sugar and should be avoided! Or some sites say cut carbs completely, yet others say they're important for energy?

Anyone else find it difficult to know what the best site or advice to follow is?

Hurricane Carter

At first it can all be a bit daunting.

I'd certainly steer clear of the likes of WW though. Absolutely rubbish advice.

A diet where you can eat cake and biscuits as long as your within your points - does that sound like a clean diet?

Post a typical days diet and people here can advise. I'm no expert but I can weigh in with some help on diet side of things (from my own experience and what I've read).

g'em

It can be extremely confusing alright. As a guideline, when you start out try and avoid any diet that makes you cut out a major food group. It's not that those diets don't work, they often do, but I find what they're really doing is demonising foods that are not 'bad', they just don't 'fit' that diet.

No matter what the diet is, there's a few commonalities that will almost guarantee that you are eating a good, healthy, balanced diet.

1. Cut out refined foods, bread and sugar from as much of your diet as possible.

2. Don't eat take-aways.

3. Figure out what your calorie needs are for a normal day and try to eat a little below that.

4. Make sure your main meals are made mostly from vegetables and salads. The next biggest ingredient should be lean meat.

There's lots more 'rules' than that, but those are some of the really important ones. If you follow those everything else is just tweaking.

CIARAN_BOYLE

My best advice is to figure out how many many calories you need and look at your diet and figure out many you are eating.

bbam

Few thoughts I would have

Moderation, balance and common sense goes a long, long way...

As stated before "diets" that say NEVER eat something or ONLY eat something will be hard to keep to in the long term and it can be demoralising when you fail to stick to even a bad diet plan...

Try to eat a broad spectrum of foods, reduce consumption of foods with lots of added salt or sugar, home cooked from raw ingredients will always be better than pre-prepared..

I wouldn't say never have a take away... You'll never see an overweight person who had nothing extra but a take away once a month or on a special occasion...

Just because you slip up one day/night doesn't mean you've failed... This should be a life long perspective..

Don't let it take over your life.. Don't be the person who can never have a biscuit or slice of cake.. life's for living, there'll be plenty of days to live straight.. Talk about it on here but when you're with freinds don't let it be the constant topic of choice..

Exercise... It burns more calories, tones you up, improves the mental health and your overall health..

Have patience... many (including myself) think too short term, if you make some changes t your eating and exercise a bit more it will take a few months to reap the benefit in any meaningful way..

There are no BAD foods... some people overeat certain foods which is bad for them, its quite a different thing.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Everything in moderation, even moderation. Don't become a carbophobic. Stop drinking.

bbam

Raina Quaint Snob wrote: »

Everything in moderation, even moderation. Don't become a carbophobic. Stop drinking.

wow.. the moderation didn't last too long !

whitewave

A lot of advice there! Don't think I'm quite dedicated enough to give up alcohol completely, but I don't drink that often so maybe I'll give it a try...we'll see!!

I'm happy enough with my diet for breakfast and lunch, but it's dinners that I struggle with for ideas. Breakfast is usually bran flakes with skimmed milk and tea, and I've changed lunch from a wrap and crisps to a salad and a banana. Snacks are typically grapes or a banana during the day, with the odd cup of tea (no sugar, skimmed milk). I also drink roughly 2l of water a day, trying to increase that though.

I'm a very picky eater so I find dinners difficult - hate veg, although I'm trying to introduce it slowly!

RedXIV

whitewave wrote: »

I'm a very picky eater so I find dinners difficult - hate veg, although I'm trying to introduce it slowly!

Just on this bit here, try as many new veg as you can, most of us grew up with exposure to maybe 10 different veg so try and broaden your horizons now and see if there is anything else you might like.

And try combinations too, Personally I could eat Carrot and turnip mash all day

thegreatiam

RedXIV wrote: »

Just on this bit here, try as many new veg as you can, most of us grew up with exposure to maybe 10 different veg so try and broaden your horizons now and see if there is anything else you might like.

And try combinations too, Personally I could eat Carrot and turnip mash all day

This plus: also re-try more familiar veg but cooked in a different way. can blend then into a sauce, stir fry, diced up small into a chilli.

I was never a big eater of veg, always assumed i didnt like veg. turns out I just hated how it was prepared when i was a kid. Peas, carrots, broccoli, spuds etc were all boiled in a pan and chucked on a plate where i was 'forced' to eat them

Now ive learned how to cook them in different ways and styles and it makes a huge difference.

bbam

whitewave wrote: »

A lot of advice there! Don't think I'm quite dedicated enough to give up alcohol completely, but I don't drink that often so maybe I'll give it a try...we'll see!!

I'm happy enough with my diet for breakfast and lunch, but it's dinners that I struggle with for ideas. Breakfast is usually bran flakes with skimmed milk and tea, and I've changed lunch from a wrap and crisps to a salad and a banana. Snacks are typically grapes or a banana during the day, with the odd cup of tea (no sugar, skimmed milk). I also drink roughly 2l of water a day, trying to increase that though.

I'm a very picky eater so I find dinners difficult - hate veg, although I'm trying to introduce it slowly!

Bran flakes = lots of suger added in the processing..
Maybe try wheetabix or porridge some mornings, I'm not saying don't have bran flakes, but if you alternate with some less processed cerals it would help.

bbam

thegreatiam wrote: »

always assumed i didnt like veg. turns out I just hated how it was prepared when i was a kid. Peas, carrots, broccoli, spuds etc were all boiled in a pan and chucked on a plate where i was 'forced' to eat them

Now ive learned how to cook them in different ways and styles and it makes a huge difference.

So true.. the cooking method makes such a difference with veg..

Compare the usual boiled parsnip with an oven roasted parsnip, its hard to beleive they are the same veg and you've lost none of the water soluable goodies either, win-win.

Our kids would eat roast parsnip in place of chips all day long.. its just a pain to be cutting so much of them.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

On a side note, breakfast cereals get a bad rap on here and generally with trainers, however the nutritional information on the back does agree with the general consensus that its a evil food that is laced with sugar. If you take that the average person has twice the serving amount at 100g of say fruit and fibre the breakdown is as follows

Calories 380
Protein 8
Carbohydrate 69
Fat 6
Fibre 9
Alcohol 0

Not a sin on 2000kcal per day and of the 69g carbs only a fraction is sugars. If you getting your protien from other sources, is a few bowels of cereal going to kill you? Better than no breakfast surely?

Porrage as a comparison

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
2 Serving (100g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories
384
Calories from Fat
36
% Daily Value*
Total Fat
4.0g
6%
Total Carbohydrates
75.0g
26%
Dietary Fiber
7.0g
28%
Protein
10.0g
* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

seamus

I Am Kong! wrote: »

I'd certainly steer clear of the likes of WW though. Absolutely rubbish advice.

A diet where you can eat cake and biscuits as long as your within your points - does that sound like a clean diet?

With respect, "clean" diet and losing weight are not mutually inclusive. Half of the difficulty people have with losing weight is that they're told they have to eat "clean", which involves a major overnight change to their diet. And they will fail.

One can lose weight while eating nothing but crap, and one can also eat very "clean" and still pile on the pounds.

Everyone has their own pet programme, their own "you can't eat X", "you must eat Y" biases.

It all boils down to calories in/calories out. For someone who has a fairly decent amount of weight to lose (10kg or more), then simple calorie counting will yield results. Forget about adding in or out carbs/fats/protein or worrying about sugar or salt content or wheat. You won't die if your diet is a little off-kilter one way or another. Count calories and you will lose weight.

Counting calories ultimately leads on to eating "clean", because you find that your 250kcal Mars bar doesn't nearly satisfy you as much as your 150kcal plate of vegetables. But telling someone who has never examined their diet before to cut in or out specific foods or foodgroups will lead them to fail.

Count calories and do nothing else. Counting is the underlying basis of all weight loss plans in existence and will naturally lead onto healthy eating habits. Once you've got control over your eating, then it's time to start tweaking it to get the correct nutrition.

mitosis

OP, one thing I notice, you make no reference to exercise. To lose weight you must use more energy than you consume or your body stores it. What is your exercise habit?

whitewave

mitosis wrote: »

OP, one thing I notice, you make no reference to exercise. To lose weight you must use more energy than you consume or your body stores it. What is your exercise habit?

I go to 3 gym classes a week, varying between spinning, weight classes, circuit training, yoga. So I get about 50 minutes exercise 3 times a week. I know I need to up that though, it's just hard to find the motivation!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I meant to say that I usually eat porridge during winter for breakfast, got a little bored with it so changed to Bran Flakes, but will be switching back as the weather gets colder!

BlueIsland

How many picky eaters are picky about stuff like take aways, sugar laden snacks, choc bars etc etc? Always seem to be picky about salads and veg. its an anomoly!

btkm8unsl0w5r4

BlueIsland wrote: »

How many picky eaters are picky about stuff like take aways, sugar laden snacks, choc bars etc etc? Always seem to be picky about salads and veg. its an anomoly!

Not really, unless your a liar a take away, pizza, chocolate, fizzy drink is tastier than a salad, boiled chicken breat, ricecake, wheat grass shot etc...they are designed to be tasty. I think if take aways were good for you you would have very few people choose a salad. A lot of vegetable are an acquired taste.

thegreatiam

well thats not true,
asparagus with Bearnaise sauce was one of the most amazing foods ive ever eaten, same goes for beetroot and goats-cheese salad.

some people are just 'food lazy/ignorant/prejudice' and refuse to try anything.

Stench Blossoms

Raina Quaint Snob wrote: »

Not really, unless your a liar a take away, pizza, chocolate, fizzy drink is tastier than a salad, boiled chicken breat, ricecake, wheat grass shot etc...they are designed to be tasty. I think if take aways were good for you you would have very few people choose a salad. A lot of vegetable are an acquired taste.

Just because you think they are tastier doesn't mean everyone needs to feel that way.

Tefral

Simple thing really is:

Calorie Surplus = Weight Gain
Calorie Deficit = Weight Loss.

For me the handiest way I look at it is: (Say for arguments sake you totalled up your calorie allowance to maintain your body at 2000cals per day)

Imagine that calories is like money. You can buy a load of crap and it could cost you a fortune, you could blow your budget and end up suffering by taking out money on your credit card and paying for it another day (excercise in the evening or undereating the next day), or you could keep overspending and end up with massive interest on your credit card (Fat).

In terms of my money analogy the cleaner the diet the cheaper the meal is. I find I can eat more healthy things on my calorie allowance than I could with eating crap.

I read an article during the week on the independent saying the average fried rice in a Chinese is 780 cals. That’s just one portion of rice, that wouldn’t really fill you for long and you’d be pretty let down if all you could eat in a day was 2.5 portions of fried rice.

Where as you could have some Yogurt and Granola for breakfast, an apple or some other fruit for elevenses, a chicken breast and salad for lunch, another snack at 3 and eat a dinner of steak and broccoli and other veg.

Generally I go for food that’s that’s un refined. I normally don’t eat anything if it has more than 1 ingredient in it. I generally stick to 60% protein 30% carbs and 10% fats. Working well for me I must say and it suits my gym regime. If was doing more running Id probably shift the balance of carbs and protein in favour of carbs.

purplepolkadot

I don't think WW want you to eat a load of cake, it's about moderation and the occasional treat. 1 point is about 40 calories, and my daily allowance is 31 points, so they are giving me 1240 calories to eat a day, roughly. You then have 1960 calories/49 points in addition to that over the week. You can earn points by the amount of activity you've done (or calories you've burned), but your not meant to use them. It's just an easier thing to think of something as 1 point instead of 52 calories. And I can think of a list of low-point foods very easily compared to a list of low calorie food, even though its pretty much the same thing. Obviously they're a business but I like the way they do it. And it's nice going to the classes and seeing what works or doesn't work for other people and seeing how others are getting on. The social aspect is great. Also, getting weighed by a stranger every week doesn't half incentivise me! I don't work for them or anything, but gimmicks work for some people!

Originally Posted by BlueIsland
How many picky eaters are picky about stuff like take aways, sugar laden snacks, choc bars etc etc? Always seem to be picky about salads and veg. its an anomoly!

I don't like Pizza!

BlueIsland

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Just because you think they are tastier doesn't mean everyone needs to feel that way.

+1
This backs up my point. People are "picky" because their bodies are so use to the insulin spikes crappy foods give them! I just hate the term "picky" eater. no you;re not. you just eat ****!

BlueIsland

purplepolkadot wrote: »

I don't think WW want you to eat a load of cake, it's about moderation and the occasional treat. 1 point is about 40 calories, and my daily allowance is 31 points, so they are giving me 1240 calories to eat a day, roughly. You then have 1960 calories/49 points in addition to that over the week. You can earn points by the amount of activity you've done (or calories you've burned), but your not meant to use them. It's just an easier thing to think of something as 1 point instead of 52 calories. And I can think of a list of low-point foods very easily compared to a list of low calorie food, even though its pretty much the same thing. Obviously they're a business but I like the way they do it. And it's nice going to the classes and seeing what works or doesn't work for other people and seeing how others are getting on. The social aspect is great. Also, getting weighed by a stranger every week doesn't half incentivise me! I don't work for them or anything, but gimmicks work for some people!




I don't like Pizza!

Thats a specific thing. Like somebody eaying they dont like potato or say Pork...thats grand. I am talking about the people who say they dont like all vegetables because they are picky even though vegetables dont all taste the same....

thegreatiam

BlueIsland wrote: »

I am talking about the people who say they dont like all vegetables because they are picky even though vegetables dont all taste the same....

as in:
its funny how so called 'picky eaters' are never picky when it comes to sweets, junk food, pop and ice cream. but they will gladly eat processed food with next to 0 nutritional value till the cows come home.

BlueIsland

thegreatiam wrote: »

as in:
its funny how so called 'picky eaters' are never picky when it comes to sweets, junk food, pop and ice cream. but they will gladly eat processed food with next to 0 nutritional value till the cows come home.

exactly