As Boba Fatt descends further into a pit of tasty treats, the time has finally come to get off my backside and do something about it.

I’m not into fad diets, i see how they work in the short term but I’m looking for something a bit more long term than starving myself on cabbage water for a fortnight.

One of those offer sites is cutting the cost for 3 months in half for WW online gubbins and I thought it might be worth a punt.

(feel free to tell me to **** off to mumsnet) 😀

I’ve lost a stone in 7 weeks with Slimming World on their ‘Extra Easy’ programme and it’s the most sustainable and simple to follow diet I can think of. A couple of years ago I did the Dukan diet for about 6 weeks then got bored of it as it was restrictive in stupid ways, eg. no fruit at all. Several years ago I had a go at weight watchers but that was a ball-ache as you had to work out a point value of everything that went in your mouth. With SW, you can eat all the fruit and veg (“super-free food”) and meat,fish,pasta,rice (“free food”) that you want without having to measure anything out, and then keep an eye on other stuff.

So in summary, I’d say join Slimming World.

EDIT: I had a look at that iD*ve diet ‘new way of eating’ but that was too restrictive to keep to forever IMO.

Save your time/money and just cut down your portions/stop eating unhealthy crap and move more. It works.

MyFitnessPal website/apps seem to help those who go down the traditional route.

I’m using My Fitness Pal app to lose a few pounds before my Christmas binge eating starts in November.
I’m losing half a kilo a week for the last four weeks. Another four weeks and I’ll start stuffing my face again. Hooray!

@_tom_

That advice just drives me nuts. And sounds incredibly smug.

About ten years ago, I dropped two stone after weeks and weeks of hard work, and I was proud t have kept off the weight for more than two years by a combination of running, riding, and being conscious of what I put in my mouth.

Once I began to slip, however, that became impossible to maintain due to my lifestyle etc. The fact is, I find it extremely difficult to lose weight, and I suspect that any forum member with a name like ‘boba fat’ will as well. There are all sorts of psychological reasons why one might turn to food and eat more than they need, and as often as not, it is finding the right psychological inspiration to get on track with weight loss.

That advice just drives me nuts. And sounds incredibly smug.

Maybe, but if you want to do it then its best to just stop pussyfooting around, have some willpower and go for it. I know all about the psychological problems etc, I was 23 stone at my biggest with that vicious circle of comfort eating etc.

What weight are you now _tom_ ?

The MyFitness app has been downloaded and I might try that too

12 stone, and from size xxl to a small. I think My Fitness Pal would be good to get you going as you can track what you’re eating/calorie intake. After a while you should have a rough idea of what you can and can’t eat and how many calories your “usual” stuff has. I find it better to do that rather than be meticulous as I found myself obsessing too much when I used to write down daily lists of all the calories I’d had (this was before I knew MFP existed). After a while it just becomes your normal diet rather than “being on a diet”. And to me it seems better than some kind of points system.

If I remember right, Tom is about half the size he used to be.

MyFitnessPal here too. It’s excellent, simple and free.

Try it, do it properly, stick with it for a few weeks, see how you do.
I’ve lost 7.5kg so far (99kg down to 91.5kg). Another 4 to go before I’m “Healthy” 🙂

I’ve lost 19lbs in a couple of months or so using my fitness pal. I also use a fitbit to track my steps each day, it’s a gimmick, but it makes me move more when I’m at work. I now do laps of where ever I am when I’m on the phone, which is a significant part of my day

I’ve lost 19lbs in a couple of months or so using my fitness pal.

Blimey! Well done. Take it you ignored the 1lb-a-week recommendation then 😀

i use slimming world but its a bit woman-centric for me. I log exercise and food on the livestrong website, which is of questionable accuracy but at least encourages me to do more exercise if I’ve over eaten and breaks down my carbs/protein/fats etc.

I used weight watchers years ago and couldn’t get on with it and apparently it’s got quite complicated although I haven’t looked into it for a while, I just try to be healthy as much as possible and it seems to be working. Slimming world however, lost quite a bit of weight on and off over the years with that one but I now know I relied far too heavily on pasta and potatoes. Still though, weight dropped off. I’d go for slimming world…..

I know quite a few (men & women) who’ve had amazing results with the Slimming World Exta Easy thing – it seems to concentrate more on balance than out & out dieting.

seems to concentrate more on balance than out & out dieting

Yeah that’s what I like best about MFP: no gimmicks, no points or plans, no special foods or shakes, just simple Calories In vs Calories out and aim to keep you Carb, Fat and Protein in balance.

Most importantly it isn’t “a diet” it is just eating reasonable amounts, avoiding too many snacks and doing a bit of exercise to pay for the ones you do have.

Blimey! Well done. Take it you ignored the 1lb-a-week recommendation then

Not really, I’m just fat so I can lose it quicker 🙂

_tom_ post some pics to shut the doubters up. I remember being amazed when I saw what you had achieved.

If you’re planning on doing Weight Watchers online only, save your cash and do Myfitnesspal instead. I’ve done WW in the past and lost 2 stone, but switched to Myfitnesspal as the tools are remarkably similar, and they both subscribe to the same theory (don’t eat more than you can burn off).

My Mrs is a Slimming World Consultant, and its the future………. That is all.

just downloaded myfitness pall I think I am going to be obsessed with it LOL

Myfitnesspal has been good so far I have been doing it for 31days now and have lost 5.3kg

I had a look at that iD*ve diet ‘new way of eating’ but that was too restrictive to keep to forever IMO.

iDave is not something you need to do forever; once you’ve reached your target weight you can add back in fruit, potatoes, rice, dark chocolate, whatever you want. In fact I don’t even think of it as the “iDave diet” anymore, just the “don’t eat crap” diet. It’s super simple cos you don’t have to count calories and even better you don’t have to pay anyone a penny.

Love MyFitnessPal – just been for a 7 minute run round the garden so I could eat a packet of Mentos!

I lost over 2 stone using exercise and my fitness pal. Their database is impressive and you can set up meals as an item. I rotate about 5 different breakfasts so just selecting 1 item was helpful. Combined with couch to 5k and lots of cycling it went well. Don’t forget to drink the recommended amount of water as some of the snacking is thirst being misinterpreted.

ANother ++ for Myfitnesspal. It takes the basic calorie input/outputidea and makes it foolproof. I started using it about 20th July at 86kg and am now down to 75kg. The hardest part was the initial cutting down of calories and understanding what was to be avoided and what was ok. It set me an initial target of 1300cals per day intake to reach my first target. First week or so I was always a bit over but now I can easily go under without any great effort.

As long as I plan I can still drink beer, eat curry etc, (especially if you’ve done a decent ride) – I just have to be a bit more selective.
In the past I’d half-heartedly tried “cutting out the unhealthy stuff” approach but MFP gave me the structure that I needed. I’ve always been pretty weak-willed with this kind of thing but it soon made me realise how simple it was to get sorted.

If you go for it I’d be a bit wary of the “calories burned” levels for exercise as it seems a bit excessive. I normally input about 3/4 of what I actually did.

Started WW at the end of april and although it’s not been the easiest thing I’ve done it does work.

2stone off and feel so much better for it.

_tom_ – Member
Save your time/money and just cut down your portions/stop eating unhealthy crap and move more. It works.

I’m with Tom on this. I appreciate you may need an app or WW programme for inspiration and if so that’s fine but it’s not necessary.

I out on 8kg over 18 months in Singapore, too much eating out, too much beer no excersize. Have returned to the UK and lost it all and a bit more by reversing that trend.

Eat less, eat better, excersize more.

I lost 2st on WW last year. Found it very easy, & I honestly wouldn’t call it a diet as such. Biggest thing was using the online thing to log food intake. Seeing it written down really brings it home, how easy it is to eat too much. Put a few pound on over Xmas & then they closed the group I was attending as there weren’t enough people turning up. Just can’t make the other group meeting times, so let it slip. Over this year the lot has gone back on. It’s comfort eating for me. Like a drug. Not even hungry, just find myself shovelling the crap in, but can’t seem to stop.
Going to give this My Fitness Pal thing a shot, see if I can get back on track.

After two stone I looked & felt a million dollars. Was so proud of what I’d achieved. Can’t believe I let it slip.
Good luck OP…

I’m with Tom on this. I appreciate you may need an app or WW programme for inspiration and if so that’s fine but it’s not necessary.

For me it has been more about education and structure, rather than inspiration particularly.

The simple process of just logging exactly what goes in my gob has been hugely eye-opening, especially with regards to portion sizes and “harmless” little snacks.

It gives you that moments pause for thought when you’re pouring nuts into a bowl or reaching for Twix instead of a banana.

Not sure if this will work… 🙂

I’m in

Singletrack group. Good plan. I’m in. 🙂

(Might be worth posting another thread to highlight this group)

Done. CLICK

http://www.scribd.com/doc/65680796/Nutritional-Concerns-in-Recreation-Exercise-And-Sport

367 pages?? I struggle with long sentences. Summary please?
Or at least some indication why you posted it?

From the Preface and Contents it seems to be about “athletes” anyway, so I think most STWers are probably exempt 😀