Weightloss - Doctors Orders.

AlabamaWorley

Hey Guys,

I'm 25, F, 5ft 5/6, 16 stone.

Under doctors orders and own realisation it is time to make some changes.

Where do I start? How often should I work out? and what exactly?



Thanks

Alf Veedersane

The changes start with your diet. Get that sorted and then worry about working out.

What would a typical day of food and drink look like?

AlabamaWorley

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The changes start with your diet. Get that sorted and then worry about working out.

What would a typical day of food and drink look like?

Some days quite well - The main problem is fizzy drinks and craving things like wedges/chips, rolls, burgers etc. which is proving difficult to kick this addiction.

I have no issues with fruit + veg but get cravings for the above even when I'm not hungry.

coffee_cake

What you think is quite well might not tally with the rest of us

Give us full details, everything in a typical day

AlabamaWorley

Generally fruit bowl for breakfast (If I make time for breakfast) Banana, Apple, Grapes (Whatever else is in the house that at that time - berries, pineapple, pear)

Lunch can range from a roll with wedges (lots of sauce) or a roll with Chicken, Salad, Stuffing and Sauce, or a Burrito or nothing. sometimes Salad.

As I am living at home dinner can range throughout the week - Sometimes stirfry w/ fish, chicken w/ veg (greenbeans, turnip, potato etc) or salad.

A bottle of coke or two depending on the day too.

I would say afternoon time is the worst as I rarely make time to prepare anything and as I am in college in the city it is too easy to eat crap. Takeaways happen occasionally but not every week - this can either be pizza/chinese.

Finding it hard to be honest about what exactly I am eating, as some days are better than others - a huge problem is that I know what is wrong and I know what is right to eat but choose to succumb to cravings.

caviardreams

Also if you are looking to add exercise into the mix to complement your diet, good brisk walking for an hour or so is a good start for the first couple of weeks - free and you can do it anywhere. Then take it from there in terms of ramping things up.

bilbot79

1st thing to go should be the Coke. Just cut it out forever, all sugary drinks. You don't need them for anything and if you give them up permanently the craving will go away permanently.

Otherwise, unless you're holding back about the quality of your food I would say your portion sizes are enormous. I'm not a big guy but I do get hunger pangs and shoot for the junk food. Best thing I find is to learn to tolerate a carrot, couple of tomatoes, cooked beetroot or something like that on its own, once you're able to stomach those sorts of things (and you will if you put your mind to it) you can eat them to deal with hunger pangs while you're working out your dinner plan.

The other thing is (and I know this sounds crazy), when you're eating healthy food, THINK about how good it is for you. Honestly it will make the taste more palpable and will motivate you. Healthy food is giving you life, junk is making you die. If you're eating healthy, you are safe. Find comfort in that.

Good luck

AlabamaWorley

caviardreams wrote: »

Also if you are looking to add exercise into the mix to complement your diet, good brisk walking for an hour or so is a good start for the first couple of weeks - free and you can do it anywhere. Then take it from there in terms of ramping things up.

That's the plan, I also have a gym membership have been going on/off (mostly off) over the last couple of months

Alf Veedersane

You could start with making up lunches at home that resemble a better option than any of those above.

Carbs are lovely things altogether but a lunch that consists of a roll of carbs filled with carbs, some more carbs, bit of meat and some other muck isn't brilliant. Preparing something with a big more protein and fat will give you a better lunch that keeps you fuller for longer.

Prep doesn't have to be hugely time consuming but a bit of effort is required.

All that said, the doctor has told you to improve things but unless you want to make the changes it doesn't matter what the doctor said.

lyinghere

In my unprofessional opinion:

• You need to get a track on what you are eating. The app “Myfitnesspal” is great for this. If used correctly you can track everything you are eating and see if you are eating more calories than you should. This would be a great starting point to frame any changes you need to make going forward.

• Once you have worked out this I think you should set to makes smart changes to your daily diet. I think a radical overhaul while beneficial might be demotivating and I think you have lot of areas where you could make small improvements to your diet.

• I favour the idea where you get out and spend an hour walking per day for now. An intense exercise program might leave you exhausted the next day and even a little stressed and you might not have the energy to focus on your dietary change. A brisk 1 hour walk, EVERY day is manageable for now. Put some music on or listen to the radio on your phone and it can be very enjoyable.


You say "If i make time for breakfast". Reading between the lines I’m guessing you miss breakfast a lot. I read something once about it taking 20 days for a habit to stick or soemthing like that, with that in mind set out to create the good habit of eating a breakfast every day. I'm no professional but apparrently its very important to eat a good breakfast EVERY day. The fruit bowl sounds good. Personally i eat quick oats porridge. Takes 2mins to cook and is delish. Set aside the time to eat your breakfast. Don’t make it something you are trying to fit in. It can very enjoyable to have that 10 mins to yourself before your day starts.

A roll with wedges is not good and your lunch options sound like your major problem area. I think the best approach is to prepare your own lunch. Try to find something to prepare that isnt time consuming but that you do actually enjoy eating, It shouldnt be torture. Sometimes i make myself a wrap with chicken, lettuce, tiny bit of grated cheese and some light mayo, I find it really tasty and look forward to it and I don’t thin its wildly unhealthy.

The dinners sound reasonably good!

The bottle of coke just has to stop, theres no way around it. If you really must let yourself have one treat can of coke per week. Just one though. i think it will be a bit of a shock at first but definetely a habit worth kicking. Force yourself to drink a pint of water everytime you want a coke, maybe some of the desire for the coke is to quench a thirst. Don’t have the bottles of coke in the house, avoid that section of the shop, out of sight out of mind!

You mention the afternoon is the worst. The details are vague and maybe this is where the problem lies. I thinkk you might need to get a handle on whats going on in this time. The “myfitnesspal” app would help with that. You say you already know what is wrong. I think you need to be honest and document your eating habits so that you cant ignore the bad stuff anymore. Writing it down will help with that.

If you fall off the wagon get right back on it the next meal.

Good luck! Looking forward to hearing how you get on!

MightyMandarin

As others on this thread have said, diet is the key to solving your problem and losing the weight.

Myfitnesspal is a great suggestion, and I suggest using a TDEE calculator like this one to calculate how much you need per day, and then subtracting from that in order to lose weight. A 500calorie deficit might be the best option considering your stats.

Just from glancing at your average daily intake, I'd get rid of the fruitbowl in the morning and stick to some plain oats. Forget about the flavoured quaker ones, just get the cheapest rolled oats in tesco and add a bit of sweetener to it. Fruitbowl generally means lots of sugar, which is not what you want for a big meal like breakfast; porridge oats will keep you satiated for much longer.

The most important thing though, is to stick to your calorie deficit and avoid sugary carbs as much as you can. I always loved coke and fizzy drinks, but now I always stick to coke zero and I find it works better than giving up a few hundred calories just for a drink.

quaalude

Congratulations! You've taken the hardest step - admitting that you need to make a change. From now on, it's just a matter of doing it and making some changes.

I lost a lot of weight from January 2013 and I'm happier and healthier than I've ever been, and having no problem maintaining.
But it all started that one night when I really faced into the fact that I had a problem. I was hungover, eating horrible nachos from Pizza Hut, and fatter than I'd ever been in my life. That's when I decided to do something seriously about it.

I suggest you just start with downloading MyFitnessPal and *honestly* recording everything that you eat.
Don't get hung up on making big changes just yet, just be honest and input everything single thing you eat. Do this for a week.

This one step will show you exactly what you're eating, when you're eating it, and why you're making the choices you do - the good and the no-so-good. This will point the way to the simple changes you need to make to get healthy and happy.

Zillah

AlabamaWorley wrote: »

Finding it hard to be honest about what exactly I am eating

This is a very good realisation to make. I've frequently thought before that "excuses make people fat". So many people who are overweight lie to themselves and everyone around them about what they eat, and make excuses as to why it is not their fault - so it's great that you have an awareness of the rationalisations that are going on in your head that make you avoid rather than confront the problem.

So that's great and try to stay on top of that. Sometimes you eat too much, it doesn't mean you're a monster; just acknowledge that it isn't how you want to be behaving and try to do better.

At 16 stone I really don't think the gym is a great idea. Try to do some brisk walking, but if you hit exercise hard now you're probably going to hate it and feel terrible and give up. This isn't about paying a penance, exercise isn't a punishment through which you earn forgiveness (weight loss). It should be a positive experience and if you force yourself now I think it would be counter productive.

You're overweight because your food choices are not good and because you eat too much. You can make massive changes there, and it will be a little frustrating because it is so passive (not eating doesn't feel like you're achieving much), but it is the best way to get you on track. Once you've lost a couple stone maybe some tougher exercises would be worth it, but that would be more for overall health rather than weight loss.

Exercise burns shockingly few calories, you are never going to work yourself to a health weight, you have to fix your diet. Here are a few broad ideas:

- Ditch coke. If there is one thing you can do now and forever that will have the biggest impact on your life it is to never touch another sugary drink ever again. That stuff is horrible for you. It makes you gain weight, it screws with your liver, messes with your appetite, destroys your energy levels, and leaves you hungrier than you started. They add salt to soft drinks to make it so that they don't really satisfy thirst so you'll drink more. Seriously, dump that stuff and you'll be well on your way to making positive changes. They're almost as bad as tobacco companies and it's infuriating how slowly the world is coming around to that realisation.

- Drink water. I don't mean x litres per day the way some people advocate, I'm just saying learn to like water. It is what your body actually wants when it says its thirsty, you've just trained it to expect other things. Other liquids should be only on occasion, as a rule the most prominent liquid in your diet should be water (and just tap water at that, bottled water is stupid).

- Eat lots of good food. It would be better for you to eat a second helping of proper dinner/lunch that to snack on sugary things later. If you've got a plate of non-starchy veg in front of you eat all that you want. Better to satisfy your appetite now with real food than feel cravings later and gobble sugar trying to satisfy them.

- Starving yourself is no better than gorging yourself

- Related to the above, eat things with lots of fibre and protein: they will satisfy hunger so you don't have to fight hunger as much.

- "Fat free" is absolute bullshit. A healthy diet has lots of fats in it, and most fat-free foods have tons of sugar, which is far worse.

- Bear in mind that you'll probably feel worse cravings at first, but that's mostly because your body has gotten used to huge amounts of food. Once it starts to adapt your appetite will decline. It gets better. Changes become habit and eventually you'll realise it's less of a willpower battle than it used to be.

Well that turned into an essay. Best of luck!

jennyjoy

Eating healthy and exercise is the way to go about weight loss. I would look into finding an at home workout program. They come with schedules to help keep you on track and also come with meal plans. This will help you learn how to eat better. They helped me get into fitness when I was just starting and really helped me find my motivation to keep going all these years.

Firefox11

bilbot79 wrote: »

1st thing to go should be the Coke. Just cut it out forever, all sugary drinks. You don't need them for anything and if you give them up permanently the craving will go away permanently.

Otherwise, unless you're holding back about the quality of your food I would say your portion sizes are enormous. I'm not a big guy but I do get hunger pangs and shoot for the junk food. Best thing I find is to learn to tolerate a carrot, couple of tomatoes, cooked beetroot or something like that on its own, once you're able to stomach those sorts of things (and you will if you put your mind to it) you can eat them to deal with hunger pangs while you're working out your dinner plan.

The other thing is (and I know this sounds crazy), when you're eating healthy food, THINK about how good it is for you. Honestly it will make the taste more palpable and will motivate you. Healthy food is giving you life, junk is making you die. If you're eating healthy, you are safe. Find comfort in that.

Good luck

I slowly weened myself off the coke by by using the lower sugar versions (coke life, coke zero) until I eventually went on to sparkling water. I found out that it wasn't so much the sugar that I was addicted to but that fizzy feeling on the mouth.

lyinghere

lyinghere wrote: »

unprofessional

Speaking of which, OP; Did your GP not give you any advice or a heads up on what to do or where to start?

16 stone, whilst heavy, isn't exactly massively obese.. can't imagine your GP bringing it up unless there was an issue that was somehow affected by it (or went there with the weight itself being the issue)?


Did your GP give you anything to go on at all? Seems a bit shoddy?

lyinghere

Deleted User wrote: »

Speaking of which, OP; Did your GP not give you any advice or a heads up on what to do or where to start?

16 stone, whilst heavy, isn't exactly massively obese.. can't imagine your GP bringing it up unless there was an issue that was somehow affected by it (or went there with the weight itself being the issue)?


Did your GP give you anything to go on at all? Seems a bit shoddy?

Doesn't sounds shoddy at all to me. I am aware that BMI has its limitations but a quick calculation using the OP's dimensions provided would indicate that the doctor was correct to instruct some changes. OP has also made this realisation and is ready to do this so not sure what you are getting at.

The key now is to tackle this straight on and use this realisation as motivation. I think you've got some good advise on here mostly focused on making improvements to your current diet combined with some light excercise until you have got to grips with that.

Hope all is going well OP. Keep us posted how you are getting on. :-)

lyinghere

lyinghere wrote: »

the doctor was correct to instruct some changes.

Absolutely.. but the Doctor doesn't seem to have actually done anything!?

"Lose some weight" isn't exactly on par with what I would consider to be detailed advice from a GP.

I talked to my GP about weight loss before and although he was no personal trainer, and didn't sit down working out fitness plans, he had some basic printouts to give me and a quick chat about calories and their effect on diet, and a basic advice on a distance to walk in the local area.

Spent about 10 minutes talking just about different approaches. When I left, I wasn't as clued in as Stallone, but I had a starting point and some basic advice behind me from someone I could trust.


This GP seems to have started and ended the conversation with "you're too heavy".