I’m trying to shift a few pounds so I thought I would monitor my calorie intake (no fad diets excluding food groups for me).

If you go to livestrong.co.uk then you can enter what you’ve eaten and it has all of the calorie details and also gives you a breakdown of sugar, carbs, protein etc etc. I was a little shocked to see that by lunch time I have already exceeded my recommended sugar intake. You are only meant to have 50g a day! Having had 1.5 apples, a banana and a muller rice I am on 63g, I have had no sugary drinks at all, just tea and water. As I tend to eat a lot of fruit I don’t think 50g is achievable, anyone out there manage to do it?

See if you can find another calculator some of these on line clalc can make strange assumptions.

Yeah be careful there.

Sugar from fruit is NOT the same as refined added sugar. Fruit JUICE is along with the refined category, not the fruit category.

Fruit and yoghurt is not bad for you.

I would just go with the sucrose deffinition.

too much sugar

Almost certainly. Im just about to embark on Krispy Kreme Donut 2 of 3.
Bring coffee in 10 minutes to take away the cloying please…

gahhhh!

I cant do it.
Spare donut going if anyone fancies it.

Don’t worry too much about sugar intake.

Stick with this simple formula: Calories used greater than Calorie intake = weight loss.

3500Cals in a pound of fat – so for every 3500 you use more than you consume you lose a pound.

Keep away from sat fats and salt, eat plenty of Veg.

Like Lance says, ‘Winners don’t do drugs!’ ahem.

The Tesco Tracker is surprisingly good:
http://www.tescotracker.com/

Stick with this simple formula: Calories used greater than Calorie intake = weight loss.

Oh christ, not this again.

Yes it’s true, but the question is how to stick to a low calorie diet, and how do different foods affect your body?

DO worry about refined sugar and carb intake, but don’t worry about fruit.

3500Cals in a pound of fat

is that all? Im amazed.

Isnt a daily calorie burn for a normal chap about 2000-2500 a day?
How much variation will exercise have around that average? or even starvation?

Does it imply that every day and a half of starvation you lose a lb of fat?

There’s TONS of variation in the 2,500 calorie figure. There are loads and loads of factors involved.

There are hormones that inhibit fat formation and that control metabolism.. and then there’s the question of how much muscle mass you have.. loads and loads of issues here.

That’s why some people put on weight easily, and some can eat whatever they like and stay thin.

Sugar from fruit is NOT the same as refined added sugar

Why not? “Chav fruit” (apples, oranges, bananas) have been bred and selected for hundreds of years to cram them full of as much sugar as possible, and there’s no difference to your body between 10 grams of sugar from a granny smith and 10 grams from a choccy biscuit. Sure, the apple provides useful fibre and vitamins alongside, but you’d be better off getting them from some broccoli instead.

If you want to reduce the amount of sugar you eat but still snack on lots of fruit then berries are the lowest in sugar.

I understand that you need to put less in to loose weight and it’s easy enough to work out how many go in and how many are burnt from exercise, but how many calories are burnt just running the human body etc. It’s not as simple as food – exercise is it?

and there’s no difference to your body between 10 grams of sugar from a granny smith and 10 grams from a choccy biscuit.

Yes there is!

Apple = fructose = low GI
Choccy biccy = sucrose or glucose = high GI and possibly other brain and health issues.

Hmm, okay. But juicing fruit doesn’t turn fructose into glucose, does it? So why is whole fruit okay but fruit juice not?

DO worry about refined sugar and carb intake, but don’t worry about fruit.

Can’t agree with that.

For someone wanting to drop from 8% body fat to 5% body fat maybe, but if you look at all the ‘points based’ diet systems (that aim to re-educate people into healthy habits) they all do the same thing:

Reduce Calorie intake to below the level being burned.
Reduce Sat fat intake.
Eat lots of veg.(salt was just a general health issue).

Healthy, low calorie, low fat diet. Refined sugars and carbs are only a problem in excess, but you can’t eat them to excess on a calorie controlled diet.
If you stick to it.

But juicing fruit doesn’t turn fructose into glucose, does it?

It does actually. Fructose is a glucose molecule and a sucrose molecule afaik. It’s a bit unstable so when you juice the fruit it starts to break down into those two. Again afaik.

Twin – there seems to be a current school of thought that suggests that refined carbs can affect your metabolism and appetite control systems in a particular way. Although it doesn’t appear to be clear, and even if it were I would not be an expert on it.

See the original iDave diet thread.

You can get your body to behave differently by eating different things and doing different kinds of exercise. So it is a complex and subtle area.

DO worry about refined sugar and carb intake, but don’t worry about fruit.

Can’t agree with that.

why not ? Perfect advice. exactly what I do and I’m skinny as a rake. 58-60kg. The same shape and weight I was twenty years ago, when I was 21.

But juicing fruit doesn’t turn fructose

It does actually. Fructose is a glucose molecule and a sucrose molecule afaik. It’s a bit unstable so when you juice the fruit it starts to break down into those two. Again afaik.

Oh, I stand corrected. Ignore me then 😀

Yeah but Kev, I bet you are genetically predisposed to skinniness.

I’ve recently lost some weight, but I also seem to have gained loads of muscle. Not entirely sure that’s what I wanted.

As well as having too much sugar, it looks like I will be way under on my RDA of Cholesterol and fat! This is quite a good way finding areas where your diet is lacking.

Yeah but Kev, I bet you are genetically predisposed to skinniness.

possibly, on my fathers side they’re all skinny but my mothers parents grew to be obese and died in their early seventies from poor diet related illness – pies, pastries and cakes etc. Mother however is 70 this year extremely fit and healthy, swims most mornings and plays tennis three times a day sometimes 😯

It does actually. Fructose is a glucose molecule and a sucrose molecule afaik. It’s a bit unstable so when you juice the fruit it starts to break down into those two. Again afaik.

Sucrose is one glucose + one fructose look it up!

If your going to go on a diet (ie loose weight) then sugar is sugar is sugar, and you can pretty much ignore Molgrips’ over complication of what’s essentially a simple message.

Eat less than you do now, and more about more.

but the question is how to stick to a low calorie diet,

It’s simple. You get to feel a bit hungry.

So you are saying GI has no effect nick?

Not really true.

You’re asserting it’s really simple, and therefore by implication anyone that can’t do it is stupid. Really not helpful.

I suppose your answer to poverty is ‘spend less, earn more’ is it?

Molgrips, in terms of a short term eating plan to loose weight, then yes it really is simple.

If you choose to make it complicated, by perhaps doing loads of cycling or other exercise in order to get very very fit at the same time, then yes you have to pay attention to certain parts of your chosen diet, but essentially yes, any-one can loose weight.

I’m with nickc on this, molgrips. You can mess about as much as you want, but ultimately (as with bike weights…) the laws of physics can’t be messed with; if you use more energy than you consume, you will lose weight.

It is that simple to express, but is of course much, much harder to do in practice, he said, eating two chocolate biscuits while drinking a cup of tea after a 40 mile road ride.

i’ve just lost 3kg in a week. here’s how i did it.
most importantly: NONE OF (bread, beer, spuds, pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, sugar) are allowed
then: eat the protein first, drink lots of water. eat every 4 hours
e.g. grilled chicken, steamed salmon, egg tinned tuna in water and lots of veg but green veg like spinach. small amount of fruit but not banana

in my experience, if you don’t remove the high glycemic index carbs, you won’t lose any weight. especially if you had the weight you want to lose for a long time.

Anyone can lose weight, sure.

Some people find it difficult.

Some people find it so difficult as to be nigh on impossible for them.

Some people can lose a bit of weight and still end up chubby.

Some people look like rakes regardless.

Still – not really all that simple.

I for instance have lost a very small amount of weight but gained muscle recently. Good or bad? Why did this happen? Was my calorie balance positive or negative? I’m certainly always hungry.

You can mess about as much as you want, but ultimately (as with bike weights…) the laws of physics can’t be messed with; if you use more energy than you consume, you will lose weight.

I’m not trying to mess with the laws of physics (or biology for that matter). However there are ways of making it easier and ways of making it much harder, or even too hard.

Saying ‘eat less move more’ is unhelpfully over-simplistic. The question is HOW to eat less and feel ok, and HOW to move more and maximise fat loss – at the same time.

High GI foods make blood sugar spikes and troughs – most us know this. The troughs make us yearn for more food – this is the bit that makes people fail diets.

Its fairly obvious that if you want to avoid the peaks and troughs of the sugar rush, as well as help yourself to lose weight by managing cravings, its best to go for low GI foods.

best to go for low GI foods

Or to simply, eat healthily ( I know there are some exceptions but largely that holds true).

The question is HOW to eat less and feel ok, and HOW to move more and maximise fat loss – at the same time.

Eating less will make you feel bad because it’s not something you’re used to, that’s a mental challenge not a physical one. Hunger pangs are just your brain telling you to eat, you can ignore it.

Just move more. Stop worrying about ‘maximizing’ fat loss, it’ll take a while anyway, and it’ll come off eventually.

Eating less will make you feel bad because it’s not something you’re used to, that’s a mental challenge not a physical one

Sure about that?

Hunger pangs are just your brain telling you to eat, you can ignore it.

Not talking about hunger pangs.

And I move as much as I can afford the time to. 1 hour running, 8 hours biking each week. Given I work away from home all week that’s not bad going. I only have 2 evenings off.

I agree wholeheartedly that it isn’t simple, but the basic bottom line fact is that ‘eat less, move more’ is correct.

You can dress it up, you can make it more complex, you can attempt to make it easier to do, you can be more or less scientific about it, but that basic premise is correct.

Whether it is unhelpful or not depends very much on the individual, and from where I’m sitting, ‘don’t have another biscuit’ is far simpler than ‘choose something according to its GI rating’.

Diets are a case in point; make it fun, make it sciencey, make it celeb endorsed are all appeals to psychology, instead of the deprivation that we know and can prove actually works.

Simple theory, hard in practice.

Lovely, I run 40-50km a week and do anything from 40km -150km cycling a week.

I eat a normal diet. Although I don’t drink alcohol which makes a difference (sugar…)

the basic bottom line fact is that ‘eat less, move more’ is correct.

But almost entirely unhelpful!

and from where I’m sitting, ‘don’t have another biscuit’ is far simpler than ‘choose something according to its GI rating’.

Yes yes yes of bloody course, but what happens when you DON’T have another biscuit (or even any biscuits), and you still don’t lose weight?

FWIW I weigh 91kg and am 5’11. I’ve got about the same fat percentage as I did when I was 85kg. I am working hard riding and running (with a coach) and getting fitter for the running, but all summer long I hardly lose weight. Last year I spent June and July cycling from Cardiff to Bristol and back for work 2-4 times a week. I gained weight, didn’t eat a lot and felt utterly sh*t. I can eat less, but my ability to keep up my training goes out of the window.

Like I say – UNHELPFULLY over-simplistic!

Lol!

with all that shouting the weight should fall off you!

It may well be unhelpful, but that unhelpfulness doesn’t make it untrue.

It does focus the mind on the fact that if you aren’t losing weight with all that exercise, you need to eat less.

‘But I can’t train if I eat less’ …then you wont lose weight.

It’s not difficult to understand, but it is hard to do.

It may well be unhelpful, but that unhelpfulness doesn’t make it untrue.

It does make it a bit pointless to bring up though.

The point is there are things you can do that will make it much easier, and things that’ll make it much harder.

Understanding those things is not ‘dressing up’, it’s important and possibly crucial to success.

do you ever get let yourself get really hungry Mogrips ? I eat lunch anytime between midday and two o’clock usually… believe it or not I’m feeling pretty hungry by four, I call it boredom hunger. A glass of water or a coffee and a damn good coat of ignoring it usually does the trick.. Just ’cause I feel something doesn’t mean I have to react to it. Also funnily enough, if I’ve got a load of work to do and immerse myself in that I soon forget about it, I can ride my bike home at the end of the day and not eat again until seven or eight in the evening… a good six hours after my last meal.