Help with weight loss and fitness

Beckala

So, I'm 14 stone, my partner's 25 stone but we're very happy together. We've been through alot together and are closer than ever, the only thing getting us down is our weight. We're very unhappy about it, both of us.

Both myself and my partner are very determined and ambitious people. We both have great ideas, my partner just needs an incentive to get things done then there's no stopping him but where I'm great for achieving things for everyone else, I don't have the confidence to follow through when it comes to myself.

Ideally we need a personal trainer because we really try hard to avoid all the bad things causing our weight gain we're eachothers enablers. So we need someone to sort out a program and diet for us and keep a check on us.

Unfortunately, we have no money. We spent the last of our savings on Christmas. What can we do? We're very desparate now and deeply unhappy.

Oryx

Post your diet here and you will get advice on where you are going wrong with your eating habits, and where you can make sustainable changes. You say you try really hard, but maybe you just dont understand where your efforts are going wrong.

You do not need a personal trainer to keep you in check (that's just passing the responsibility to someone else) you need to take on board that this is your life, your body and your responsibility. The fact that you have in each other a supportive partner to train with and encourage is a great thing. You can do this together.

Do either of you do any exercise? What kind of exercise do you think you would like, and more to the point, would you do? There's no point in people posting suggestions here that a) you might hate, and b) you cant afford.

daithi1970

Here's a few suggestions for you:

1. Check out c25k.com its a safe and gradual way to get you running-if carried out to the letter,no injuries should ensue, and the only thing you'll pay for is running shoes and gear. Keep an eye out for running specials in aldi and lidl for reasonably priced running gear.
2. When you can run 5k (it should take about 2 months starting from scratch),check out fit4life running groups in your area-they're a great and sociable way of keeping up the running, and there is a pace for all abilities, so don't worry about being at the back of the group.
3. Keep a food dairy for you both-BE HONEST!! you will be amazed at the amount of calories you consume without actually realising it..once you take steps to eliminate empty calories form your diet, the weight will fall off..check out the sticky posts at the top of the health and fitness forum for dietary advice-remember, diet will account for 80% of your weight loss, so its vitally important to get this part right..the trick is to try to develop healthy eating habits ie change treats from biscuits to fruit, for example.. also increasing your water consumption is important for sustained weight loss- 2- 3 litres a day to start with.

hope some of this helps.

daithi

Beckala

Diet consists of: ME PARTNER

---

BREAKFAST 2 slices brown toast Big bowl special K with slim milk
with Flora and coffee

LUNCH 1x salad brown sandwich 3 x brown pittas with ham
slimline cheese, yoghurt,

DINNER Chicken fahitas/steak and chips/bacon and cabbage
usually 3 spuds each and no veg

EVENING TIME 2x bag of crisps, coke, chocolate


We both like swimming and walking and do try to get out to exercise at least once a week.
I'd love to go to a bootcamp.

Beckala

daithi1970 wrote: »

Here's a few suggestions for you:

1. Check out c25k.com its a safe and gradual way to get you running-if carried out to the letter,no injuries should ensue, and the only thing you'll pay for is running shoes and gear. Keep an eye out for running specials in aldi and lidl for reasonably priced running gear.
2. When you can run 5k (it should take about 2 months starting from scratch),check out fit4life running groups in your area-they're a great and sociable way of keeping up the running, and there is a pace for all abilities, so don't worry about being at the back of the group.
3. Keep a food dairy for you both-BE HONEST!! you will be amazed at the amount of calories you consume without actually realising it..once you take steps to eliminate empty calories form your diet, the weight will fall off..check out the sticky posts at the top of the health and fitness forum for dietary advice-remember, diet will account for 80% of your weight loss, so its vitally important to get this part right..the trick is to try to develop healthy eating habits ie change treats from biscuits to fruit, for example.. also increasing your water consumption is important for sustained weight loss- 2- 3 litres a day to start with.

hope some of this helps.

daithi

This sounds great, thanks so much, even writing out our diet there I can see straight away that night time seems to be our enemy. Food diary is a good idea and they do a couch to 5km in the local leisure centre I think.

I just needed the guidence, thanks so much, this has really helped

Beckala

Meant to say aswell, our bellies are our worst feature, that's where the bulk of our weight is for both of us, maybe suggestions as to what kind of foods we could be eating to sort this out would help also.

Thank you in advance

Oryx

OP, special K is just tarted up sugar. It is not a good breakfast. Would you consider porridge with honey , or even better, eggs?

Lunch you need more protein, less bread. Yoghurt is full of sugar too.

Dinner ditch the spuds and chips. Eat veg, lots of it!

Evening time seems to be your downfall. You need to quit the junk. Cut up fruit, have a handful of nuts (not salted peanuts!) or raisins to curb the cravings while you wean yourself off.

Your diet as listed does seem like you're leaving something out though. Don't you snack more during the day? Are your portions large?

daithi1970

Porridge in the mornings-make it (30-40g)with water in a microwave for 2 minutes, top up with milk, and add chopped apple, pear or banana to make it less grim:D
it fills you up for the day and lessens temptation to snack. Also, bread is your enemy!! if you want to kick-start your weight loss, cut out bread, biscuits and beer for 3 weeks. Completely. I know, it sounds harsh, but 2 slices of bread represents 10% of your daily calorie needs. Google Low GI foods for further info.
Ideally if it comes in a box, or foil wrapper, avoid it!

daithi

Beckala

Really appreciate the advice and guidance guys, I'll be laying down the law with himself now and getting into ship shape

So basically, cut out night eating, drink 2-3 ltrs water per day, smaller portions and porridge for brekkie and I'll make enquiries about that Couch to 5km

Sounds easy but the proof is in the pudding :P Looking forward to the challenge.

Thanks again, means alot to us.

daithi1970

best of luck and keep up posted with your progress

daithi

MrStuffins

OP, get the app "My Fitness Pal". It's a good diary app with literally millions of records in their database for you to track.

Once you download it, you enter your height and weight. It will tell you what your daily maintenance calories are. You then enter how much weight you want to lose per week (I suggest 1lb per week) the app will recalculate your target. By entering all of your food and exercise HONESTLY and meeting the simple target, you WILL lose weight consistently.

But only if you want to. Remember, it's in your hands! I did exactly what I just described to you and I'm now 3 stone lighter.

Stinicker

Male here; I was obese weighing 14.5 stone on new years day with a BMI of 30.1 (BMI of greater than 30 is obese). I changed my diet drastically and also joined a GYM, over the last 4 months I have lost over 2.5 stone and weight 12 stone today with a BMI of 25.

It was very hard work and I still have another stone or more to lose but I kept the track and am motivated and weigh less today than I did when I was 6th class in Primary School.

I did nothing fancy with diets and my rule is to just try eat less than 1,000 calories a day and when combined with exercise the results speak for themselves. Today I spent over 2hours in the GYM and burnt off 850 calories and ate 1,000 calories giving me a deficit of 1,800 calories or almost half a pound weight.

Cut out white bread and potatoes, they are the worst things you can literally eat, substitute white bread for brown bread. Cut out crisps, fizzy drinks, sweets, chocolates, biscuits and stick to the basics and you will lose weight. Last year I lost 1 stone in 2012 alone by just stopping drinking coke and switching to sparking water, swap fizzy drinks for water or sparkling water.

Cut out the trashy foods and you will lose weight it is a mathematical certainty, imagine your body as a car, your fat is the extra reserve stored fuel and by dieting you are filling it up with less fuel daily and by exercising you are burning more fuel than is available and your body has to eat into the stored fat. Your partner at 25 stone needs to act soon and even then there is a hard long road ahead but with the right attitude and belief it is possible.

Motivation is important and set yourself goals and try to keep on track, I found Operation Transformation a great motivator when I started and whilst I didn't follow any of its advice it helped motivate me to lose the weight.

good luck!

Mr. CooL ICE

OP, raid your kitchen and throw out all the junk food that is there. If you have a cupboard full of crisps and chocolate, bin them. Bin any ice cream in the freezer and anything else which you should avoid. Next time you are shopping, only buy fresh, wholesome food and avoid anything with more than 5 ingredients in it. Plan ahead and buy everything you need for the week in the supermarket so you don't need to run to the shop to buy one item and come back with chocolate.

About dried fruit and nuts for snacking: when shopping, buy these from the baking aisle instead of the snack aisle. Not only are the cheaper, but they're less likely to have additives and are therefore healthier.

Don't be attracted by the "healthy" or "low fat" labels. They are misleading marketing tools. Removing fat from most food makes it taste like cardboard so manufacturers replace it with sugary crap to make it taste nice. Classic example is Special K

Stinicker wrote: »

I did nothing fancy with diets and my rule is to just try eat less than 1,000 calories a day and when combined with exercise the results speak for themselves. Today I spent over 2hours in the GYM and burnt off 850 calories and ate 1,000 calories giving me a deficit of 1,800 calories or almost half a pound weight.

Less than 1,000 calories a day is probably not healthy, regardless of your goals