Finally nailed the weight loss/diet over 40.

AllForIt

And since I'm thrilled about how easy and effective this has gone after trying a number of diet strategy's I thought I'd share my experience.

Background: Wrong side of 40, 5'10, got into fitness late in life, used to do 6 days in the gym but last 2 years weren't good for me, fell out of it completely, was almost ripped at one stage, gave up jogging and gym due to foot problems and other personal reasons, then put all the weight back on. Only did the odd leisure cycle/walk since. Once I hit 36" waist (at slimiest I'd be 31") I went into panic mode and did keto and intermittent fasting which failed as wasn't sustainable (for me). Currently the weight is dropping off me for the last 4 months or so. I haven't  weighted myself in a long time so I can only give ballpark figures - my heaviest weight would be about 95kg's and my optimal weight would be 82. So the bulk of what I have to loose is 13 - 15 kgs I'd say.
Given I dropped out of the whole exercise thing I though I really must tackle the weight with diet modification only. I believed this is the answer anyway, exercise or no exercise. I'll just give a breakdown of what I eat most of the time. Warning: Non Vegan Friendly!

Staring with main meal/dinner:

Meat, cooked on a heavy grill pan for that nice flavorsome grilled flavor, usually one of chicken, pork, steak, less often liver, burger. Usually throw on a whole onion to. With this I have one full medium sized saucepan full of mixed frozen veg. A varying mix of broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, peas, diced suede. I put a good knob of full fat butter on this. Condiments I have is dijon mustard, a teaspoon of YR brown sauce and/or Worcestershire sauce.Note: No potatoes, no thick sauces.
What I like about this is that it's quick to make, doesn't require much effort, and it's extremely tasty. Varying the meat and varying the veg makes me feel I'm not eating the same thing every day. The odd time I'll have a veg curry for the sake of variety.

Second largest meal:

1 large toasted tortilla wrap cut in quarters. Topping on this is cheese, usually cottage full fat, mature cheddar, or feta. On top of the cheese goes a varying mix of tomato, cucumber, olives, red onion and finally a splash of olive oil. I don't wrap it, I eat it open so I need less wrap.The idea is to keep the quantity of the carb wrap to a minimum, so roughly the meal is 80% topping to 20% carb base, whereas a typical bread sandwich would be the other way around.

Feeling peckish meals:
Slices of mature cheddar or feta with the thinnest crackers I can find, with slices of cucumber/tomato. If I find myself still hungry after eating 3 small crackers I'll just have more cheese with slices of cucumber, keeping the carb cracker to a minimum as a rule. Sometimes I'll have carrot sticks.
Sweet cravings: 
Frozen fruit, usually strawberries that I store in the fridge so they are thawed but still icy cold. If I'm hungry I'll add greek yogurt and If I'm feeling I want something really sweet I'll add in artificial sweetener. When I started this diet plan I used to have to have fruit after every main meal but now I only feel like having it on avg twice a week. That's what happens when you give up the sugar. I have an insatiable sweet tooth. Rarely I'll have the fruit with cream as a treat. Also I'd eat about one packet of dark chocolate per week.

Breakfast:
 
I only have breakfast if after having a mug or 2 of tea I feel hungry, which happens roughly 30% of the time. I used to always have uncooked oats with nuts/seeds/raisins and warm milk. I would tend to overeat this and it would make me feel bloated so for that reason I cut it out even though it's a healthy meal. At times over the last months when I'm feeling drained because of the calorie deficit I'll only have oats to give myself an energy boost. So by cutting out breakfast I'm sneaking in a little bit of intermittent fasting there. Occasionally and only occasionally I'll have a small fry up, an egg,a rasher, black pudding with half a toasted tortilla wrap.


So that's basically it. Generally not low fat, high protein, minimal carbs. As I said I don't weight myself but 1 month in it was clearly working and I'm making visibly noticeable weight loss progress every 3 weeks or so since. I judge this by my clothing, from ppl I haven't seen in a while and how I just feel. The thing is I've never lost weight this easily, so painlessly, and without doing strenuous exercise. I don't feel like I'm on a diet at all, my food is very tasty and I eat as much as I like. I find I go without eating for much longer than previously to the point sometimes I have to remind myself to eat. Time spent tinging/preparing food is minimal, no micro counting of calories and all that. 

Pivotal to success was that I had to address what it was in my diet that was primarily responsible for the weight gain and that was starchy carbs. Of course it's not carbs per se, it's the fact that I know myself that with starchy carbs and what I'd eat them with would lead to me overeating so it's the volume of food I was eating that was the main problem as I usually eat fairly well. Where once I'd eat bread or spuds/pasta I'd feel hungrier the more of them I ate and stuff myself till I was bloated. That had to end and now I don't miss those particular things at all.

Another positive thing is since I have had such success by 3 months in I've tackled this foot problem I have (plantar fascia) and am now back jogging again a modest 35 mins every other day. Turns out wearing flat footwear without any arch support has improved things immensely. But the reason I mention this is to make the point that the jogging is providing a nice little boost to the weight loss, I'll get to where I want to be that bit quicker, but it's the diet change that is responsible for the weight loss overall, not the exercise. I also think that for anyone intent on loosing weight for the first time it would be beneficial to tackle the diet for a few weeks first before doing any exercise at all, so that you know it's working on it's own, then add the exercise later. I think it's not easy to get the diet right if your clueless so best to tackle that to begin with and get it right first rather than doing everything in one go.

I was minded to post this because of the increasing amount of times I hear ppl blame the obesity crisis on lack of exercise which drives me spare, and hopefully to those who do a lot of exercise and aren't keeping off the pounds after all that effort. I've seen a few threads here, some by ppl in my age bracket where that seems to be the case. 
 

Spencerfreeman

It could be wheat that's causing the biggest problem with weight gain and probably diabetes. It started with the Chorley Woods process. They modified the wheat grain. Up to that point you could only use certain wheat grain to make bread.
One slice of wholegrain bread raises you blood sugar to the same level as 6 teaspoons of sugar.

Jellybaby1

Sorry to interrupt your thread but I'm curious to know exactly how you solved your plantar fasciitis problem. I'd have thought shoes without arch support would give you fasciitis! I can walk in trainers but ordinary flat shoes are painful for me. Do you do stretching excercises?

AllForIt

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Sorry to interrupt your thread but I'm curious to know exactly how you solved your plantar fasciitis problem. I'd have thought shoes without arch support would give you fasciitis! I can walk in trainers but ordinary flat shoes are painful for me. Do you do stretching exercises?

There is a thread somewhere on that specific issue - I'll go into detail on it there and will post the link to it here when done.

Jellybaby1

Thank you!

AllForIt

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Thank you!

Couldn't find the thread I was thinking of but here you go: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=111705501#post111705501

FoodC

Hello!
How are yo doing now? how is your diet looks like? I jst wrote an article about the right diet for a man over 30, and I am curious about that.

Mr Velo

FoodC wrote: »

Hello!
How are yo doing now? how is your diet looks like? I jst wrote an article about the right diet for a man over 30, and I am curious about that.

Got a link to that article?

FoodC

Mr Velo Sure!
here: https://foodclinicdiet.com/the-right-diet-for-a-man-over-thirty/

I hope no one will delete it

AllForIt

FoodC wrote: »

Hello!
How are yo doing now? how is your diet looks like? I jst wrote an article about the right diet for a man over 30, and I am curious about that.

It's exactly the same as first reported and I'm continuing to loose weight without making any further changes.

Some minor amendments - I've switched from white tortilla wraps to wholemeal ones which I find much tastier anyway. I eat less crackers in favor of toasted tortillas. That's nicer in this colder weather to. I've also discovered that a drop of vanilla essence or a large spoon of Cacao powder goes very nicely with my Greek Yoghut and fruit dessert dish. Never been tempted to eat any kind of full sugar treat since.

I've upped my running in terms of distance, I do a long one once a week and 2 shorter ones on average weekly.

One very noticeable thing with ditching all the heavy carbs is that I stop eating when I feel full, no matter how much is left on my plate. Previously I'd keep scoffing till it was all gone. I also never eat until I'm hungry and the time it takes for me to feel hungry since the last meal seems generally much longer than before which means less meals/snacks per day bringing consumption volume down. The point is this is all just happening naturally, I don't have to put any conscious effort into it (portion sizes/frequency of meals) other than just sticking to what I eat.

FoodC

That is really good you can do it! You have a good plan! The most important thing is that you sould feel good. If you feel good this is the right path