Shocked at my face in the mirror

unitedrover

I'm male, in mid twenties, 5 ft 8 and weigh over 14.5 stone. I was in the barbers lately and when I saw myself in the mirror I was actually shocked at how big and fat my head actually looked. Ive always been overweight since the start of secondary school and over the past 7 or 8 years my weight has been between 12.5 stone to 14 stone. I admit my daily activity is a lot less than what is was in college while my food intake has increased since then. I have quite a lot of body fat around my stomach and back.I would love to weigh around 11 stone eventually but have no idea of how to actually get there. I know you move more,eat less but I'm one of those people that without some sort of a plan and seeing results I never get going on anything. My diet is quite poor( far too many biscuits). If I could just have some idea of a proper diet and an exercise regime ( running or something). I've tried the gym but I get bored too easily and tbh 1 day of gym in a month makes no difference. I need some plan that I can actually stick to. Thanks.

Alf Veedersane

Your diet is the most important element. It's far more important than exercise but that's not to say you shouldn't include some form of exercise.

A good rule of thumb is to cut down on the amount of processed food that you eat. Meat and veg is always a good start.

But post up your diet and that will help people advise.

As for exercise, the best exercise to do is the one that you will continue to do in the long term. If that's the gym, walking, jogging, zumba, gardening, so be it.

If walking/running does it for you, then you could try the Couch-to-5k programme. There are a whole host of apps on it and it's a programme that is made up of walking with an increasing amount of running over time. It's useful because of the structure.

Bruno26

Get all your food in the butchers, fish shop or fruit & veg shop or only from those areas in supermarket. If buying lunch out only buy foods that would come from those shops.

For breakfast try eating something made from eggs (include some meat / bacon the odd time). Greek yogurt with berries is another option.

For lunch eat meat / fish and veg or meat / fish and salad.

Eat the same for dinner.

Drink lots of water.

Do weights and sprints.

Boskowski

Start by cuttin out the biscuits and similar. They're a nothing, just comfort food. Serves no purpose just feeding the habit monkey. It's surprisingly easy to get over them.
Then have a glass of water instead a can of coke. You can still have the odd one just make sure your regular drink is water instead of sugar fizz.
Make sure you have only one diner a day and maybe have one spud less than usual.
Did I mention beer? Not an issue typically but if you have 8 pints twice weekly it would be a factor.
Do this and expect results in weeks rather than days. Don't be staring down the scales every morning.
Eventually youll notice the weight falling off you.

Fresh Pots

You sound very similar to me two months ago. Was about 14 and a half stone. With virtually no exercise and just changing my diet I've lost 2 stone since. I try to keep it to 3 meals a day and have cut down on the snacking. If I do have something small in the evening I try to make it be a yougurt or an apple.

Download my fitness app onto your phone and keep track of your food intake. It'll help you see where your going wrong.

As mentioned above drink plenty of water. Sometimes when you feel the urge to have a snack you might just be thirsty. Green tea is also good for the metabolism.

SPM1959

Had a similar barbers experience a few years ago.

All good advice posted above and once you make a start you will be pleased with the results.

Good luck.

unitedrover

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm going to show you my food diary for your suggestions on what I should be eating.


Typical daily food diary-
Breakfast= bowl of cereal( cornflakes/ weetabix). Tea.

11am snack= 1 or 2 cups of Tea. 2/3 biscuits.
Lunch/ Dinner= Most days- Large deli baguette chicken, lettuce,cheese.
Rest of days= Cottage pie/ Meat( chicken,bacon) with Veg
1 Tea. 2 biscuits.

5pm- 2 Sandwiches of ham. ( white bread)

8/9pm- supper some nights. Fish/ chips mostly.
Other nights may be sandwiches.
1 or 2 Teas + 2 biscuits.

I do have water but probably 1 cup in total in a day.

kingshankly

unitedrover wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm going to show you my food diary for your suggestions on what I should be eating.


Typical daily food diary-
Breakfast= bowl of cereal( cornflakes/ weetabix). Tea.

11am snack= 1 or 2 cups of Tea. 2/3 biscuits.
Lunch/ Dinner= Most days- Large deli baguette chicken, lettuce,cheese.
Rest of days= Cottage pie/ Meat( chicken,bacon) with Veg
1 Tea. 2 biscuits.

5pm- 2 Sandwiches of ham. ( white bread)

8/9pm- supper some nights. Fish/ chips mostly.

Other nights may be sandwiches.
1 or 2 Teas + 2 biscuits.

I do have water but probably 1 cup in total in a day.

Seems fine

MightyMandarin

unitedrover wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm going to show you my food diary for your suggestions on what I should be eating.


Typical daily food diary-
Breakfast= bowl of cereal( cornflakes/ weetabix). Tea.

11am snack= 1 or 2 cups of Tea. 2/3 biscuits.
Lunch/ Dinner= Most days- Large deli baguette chicken, lettuce,cheese.
Rest of days= Cottage pie/ Meat( chicken,bacon) with Veg
1 Tea. 2 biscuits.

5pm- 2 Sandwiches of ham. ( white bread)

8/9pm- supper some nights. Fish/ chips mostly.
Other nights may be sandwiches.
1 or 2 Teas + 2 biscuits.

I do have water but probably 1 cup in total in a day.

It's not terrible but there areas which could be improved. If you want to lose weight, you need a caloric deficit. Have a look at myfitness pal or a similar app, input this and see how many calories this is. Then look for your tdee from a calculator like this. You want a 300-500 calorie deficit a day, so you'll lose about 1lb a week.

As for nutrition, stick to brown grains where you can (brown bread, wholewheat pasta etc.); they have more fibre and leave you fuller for longer. Try porridge for breakfast, oats are probably the best for breakfast. Stop eating the cottage pies, fish and chips and deli rolls everyday; they're ok the odd time, but they're loaded with calories and have poor nutritional value. If you bring food with you to work, you'll be able to avoid fast food and other stuff for lunch. A proper dinner each day is very important too. Stuff like chicken breast, spuds and veg or steak and rice is what you want, not chips or sandwiches. If time isn't available, make a load of it one day and heat up some of it quickly on busy days. You can google/ youtube all of this stuff either, losing weight is quite easy as long as you have a rough idea of what you're doing.

Bruno26

unitedrover wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'm going to show you my food diary for your suggestions on what I should be eating.


Typical daily food diary-
Breakfast= bowl of cereal( cornflakes/ weetabix). Tea.

11am snack= 1 or 2 cups of Tea. 2/3 biscuits.
Lunch/ Dinner= Most days- Large deli baguette chicken, lettuce,cheese.
Rest of days= Cottage pie/ Meat( chicken,bacon) with Veg
1 Tea. 2 biscuits.

5pm- 2 Sandwiches of ham. ( white bread)

8/9pm- supper some nights. Fish/ chips mostly.
Other nights may be sandwiches.
1 or 2 Teas + 2 biscuits.

I do have water but probably 1 cup in total in a day.

Eliminate / limit corn flakes and weetabix, biscuits, baguette, all bread (brown still contains all the crap that is in white),ham ( if it's a packet from supermarket), chips.

Breakfast try eggs - some omelette perhaps or Greek yogurt with berries and cinnamon. If you drink coffee have one with cream and coconut oil. You will be full until lunch.

For lunch / dinner eat meat/fish / chicken with veg / salad. Eat mostly green veg. If eating fruit eat berries. Alternate it. You may even find eating a good lunch you won't need a dinner.

If you want a snack choose nuts preferably macadamia. Some Greek yogurt is a good snack. Have another coffee with cream and coconut oil.

Eat foods like cheese, avocado.
Eating this way there is no need to ever count calories. If you use that app just make sure you eat under 150 grams carbs daily.

I suggest a clean sweep rather than gradual changes. It may be hard for first week but soon the cravings for crap food will stop.