After a year of becoming less active for various reasons ive put on a bit of weight and want to lose this. Probaly like to lose about a stone. Due to my job and current situation im often out on the road or staying at various places which makes fitness planning and healty diet quite difficult. Ive started taking my running stuff with me but this is ‘as and when’ with no real plan and structure to help facilitate weight loss. Also struggle with what foods to eat which are healthy and dont require lots of preparation and planning. No real calories are burned in the day as I am either sat at my desk or driving to meetings etc. I’ve lost weight in the past but it seems to take forever, though i’ve probably being doing things incorrectly!

Here’s my tips if its worth owt. Write a food diary and look at what you actually eat. I’ve lost 3 stone since January and looking back I was astonished at what I used to put away. It really helps focus the mind.
I have a bowl of cereal in the morning (Fruit and Fibre or similar with half a Banana chopped into it, but check sugar content on ceral you’d be amazed how much is even in stuff like Special K. I have a Turkey or Ham salad sarnie at lunch, ditch mayo / salad cream etc you really dont need it( mustard isn’t bad if you really need sauce) and I used to get through loads of the stuff. For snacks I have a box of cup a soups in my desk but get something really tasty so it feels like a treat.(My current favourite is Ainley Harriot’s hot and sour Sezchuan soup.) I’ve dropped to half a sugar in my tea, I probably drink 8 cups a day so if you think I was dinking 60ish cups a week I was having 60 spoons of sugar a week, I’m now having 30 which still sounds bad if I think about it too long, but it seems a different drink without it!

Also portion size is something I’ve reduced massively. I drink a pint of water before my evening meal so I get full quicker. I was a bugger for seconds or clearing the kids plates. I read somewhere in one of my wife’s celeb mags about somebody who used to squirt washing up liquid on the remains of food so she wasnt tempted. We dont waste alot of food anyway, but again I’ve done this occasionally and it’s quite effective. I’ve gone from 16 stone 7 to 13 stone 10, The difference in my energy levels and bike performance is incredible and really helps me stay motivated to behave with my eating.

I’m not so strict at weekends and I think I can sustain this. For the first 3 or 4 days I felt like I was falling out of my knicker leg but you do adjust I promise. Good luck!

Ive looked at my portions and my daily intake is very little.

Typical day is:

Breakfast – Belvita
Mid morning snack – Nakd bar
Dinner – Oat cakes with soft cheese spread or peanut butter (if im in the office)
Tea – Anything(but I guess portion size could be reduced)

Ive highlighted that I could easily cut out the chocolate I have in the evenings at weekends and already cut from two sugars down to one in tea, none in coffee which I probably drink more of.

Cant you go on a dating site,work it off that way !

you do seem to eat very little based on that list, unless anything means ‘everything’ ?

Ive looked at my portions and my daily intake is very little.

Join MyFitnessPal.

Join the Singletrack group on MyFitnessPal.

Record everything you eat and drink using the MFP app. You will be surprised.

You dont eat proper meals you just snack . belvita biscuits as a breakfast….

You need to start having proper meals and slow and steady weight loss is the key fast weight loss is not fat its mucle as well.

LOL dont think my missus will appreciate me losing it through dating sites!!!

Normal evening meal I guess, no desert.

Just a quick point I’ve noticed if it’s a coincidence or I have lost weight cos of it I don’t know. But here it is anyway…

Drink water…

I have started drinking a lot more water (Just water), and lost a good amount of weight. I started off by noticing I was quite dehydrated and needed to drink more water. I have noticed I regulate my body temperature better, have more energy, and have lost weight.

Goes off to grab a couple of pints of water!!!!

With regards to the running is it better to do more short runs or less long ones?

more short runs or less long ones?

Err…aren’t those the same thing?

Probably short if they’re higher intensity
As said above your diet is pretty poor, mostly calorie dense snack stuff. Do you generally feel hungry? Are you snacking on stuff not listed? Unless the evening meal is very high calorie I can’t see you putting much weight on with your current diet (assuming you are recording snacks as well).

in my opinion there are three aspects to losing weight:
1) willpower and being honest with yourself about what you eat
2) an ability to ignore your hunger and realise that you don’t need to eat just because you’re hungry
3) consume less calories than you use

No, what I have listed is honest, albeit an extra item on some lunchtimes may be an apple or banana.

Please advise what ideal food replacement items would be.

Breakfast – Belvita
Mid morning snack – Nakd bar

Have you tried porridge to start the day off? Bit boring, but can vary it with nuts and seeds. Have a large portion, so it will fill you up until lunch time. Having something low GI will have a slow release sugar hit, and you won’t get hungry during the morning and want a nakd bar. I occasionally do porridge with a scoop of protein powder (myprotein.com stuff – low carbs, high protein).

High protein and low GI diet is the way to go : http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/

The best way I have lost weight is using food substitution – i.e. identifying the foods that are unhealthy and cause me problems, then finding an healthier alternative. Yet to find a chocolate replacement 😉 Stuff like sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes (sweet potato wedges are awesome, and I am going to now have them for dinner!)

My weakness is portion control.

Please advise what ideal food replacement items would be.

“eggs not carbs” is my mantra

Oh yeah and my fave lunch thing at the mo. Tescos (non boycotter here) chicken chilli noodle salad, good portion, proper tasty and healthy, 195 calories.Brilliant.

So are we saying the nakd bar is unhealthy? Made from 100% natural ingredients e.g. dates, nuts and equates to 1 of the 5 a day.

So are we saying the nakd bar is unhealthy? Made from 100% natural ingredients e.g. dates, nuts and equates to 1 of the 5 a day.

Whilst it is full of good foods, dates are high GI, so gives a sugar high/low. Which is likely to lead to you feeling hungry shortly afterwards. Hence the reason high GI breakfast cereals are not ideal if your aim is to control your appetite.

I was going to Google “nakd bars” but thought it was a bit risky.
Instead I’m going to suggest that you replace it with a boiled egg.

I personally dont think i’m eating too much though?!

I personally dont think i’m eating too much though?!

Depends what numbers you are using to measure too much. Without knowing what you have for main evening meal, it’s hard to say. You say you travel around a lot – do you get stuff to eat from service stations/food places? I try hard to avoid processed foods, but that takes stacks of planning and prep.

Belvita – http://www.comforteatingcoach.com/food-offence-2-belvita-breakfast-biscuits-or-how-to-overdose-on-sugar/

I personally dont think i’m eating too much though?!

It’s quite possible you’re not eating enough – theory being that this causes your body to “get worried” that food is scarce so it lays down as much as it can in fat.

Really try MyFitnessPal for a week. It has helped lots of people here.
It is free and (if you are 100% honest with it) it will give you a good idea of what is really going in your mouth.

I personally dont think i’m eating too much though?!

If you’re putting on weight or struggling to lose it then the obvious answer is that you are eating too much. Personally I struggled with weight loss for a long time until I learnt about the insulogenic properties of certain foods and how that affected fat burning, etc.

Err…aren’t those the same thing?

obviously not a runner then! 😆

I personally dont think i’m eating too much though?!

maybe it’s the wrong stuff.

I’ve lost a decent amount of weight by having eggs & bacon for breakfast.

Apologies if this has already been posted. To busy being amused by some Lance Armstrong bashing over on Cycling News, oh and clamping is now illegal.

Anyway; http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040503#pone.0040503.s004

Basically, stop eating pies(over simplification I know). Oh, and the drinking water thing I believe is correct.

I’ve lost a decent amount of weight by having eggs & bacon for breakfast.

Yep, me too. A lot better for you than any breakfast cereal! Eggs & smoked salmon a good option too. Having said that though these days I usually skip breakfast altogether.

I’ve spent 4 months eating normal people food (bread, biscuits, pasta, breakfast cereals, etc.). I’ve put on 1.5 stone.

I’m going back on the eggs and bacon – great way to feel full and lose weight.

Anyway, aren’t we all skirting round the real issue here? You all know the one. It’s five letters long…. It’s time for the idi-t!

Ok then, if you’re not convinced its your diet, start to look at activity. With my weight loss I started to try a Dave Brailsford/marginal gains approach. Try and change lots of little things during your day which add up to a big change. Write a list of stuff you do to try and find gaps in your daily routine that you can fill with activity. For instance, how fast do you walk, do you walk enough? People often say “I never have time” but look at your day, can you honestly say you havent got time? I used http://www.hundredpushups.com which takes about half an hour a week tops. I do it while I’m watching telly/slobbing out. Have you got flights of stairs at work, how long would it take you to walk up and down stairs twice each time each time you use them?( you could make out you’ve become forgetful if you aren’t already?)Could you eat your lunch while you are out on a walk? Maybe buy and wear a Pedometer, try and trump your previous days milage/paces? I found its about trying to find fun or motivating ways of doing more whilst making it realistically achievable so you commit to doing it.

Can’t for the life of me remember where, but I was reading recently about a link between nutritional requirements not being met and overeating. No idea whether it’s true but seems to make sense

A bit like when a dog engage in coprophagy, needs some more nutrients so the snacking continues. Hopefully not in the same way as Rex though.

Seriously use one of those calorie counter websites or app’s. There a great free one for the iPad that I have, just can’t remember the name at the moment. If your interested I’ll let you know later when I’m home from work.

Anyway, I’m not overweight at all, just downloaded the app for free out of interest (actually to see if I had a few spare calories I could tuck away each day). Big shock, I was 500 calories over the recommends level on a very regular basis! I consider my diet healthy – bowl of shredded wheat for breakfast, sushi, 100 calorie pack of crisps and a fruit do lunch then a regular home cooked dinner. What I found was my Achilles heel – portion size in the evening. I could be loading up over 1500 calories easily in one sitting with supposedly healthy looking foods!!!

Like I said I’m not overweight at all, but just highlighted to me how important my daily bike rides were to make up for my over indulgence.

Download one of those apps or websites – it’ll soon open your eyes to where your diet is going wrong (and big tip, be very honest about potion size. If for example like me, you load up your breakfast bowl and dont eat the small amount of cereal as dispensed in those tiny individual packets, put times 2 or 3 in portion control. Honesty is the best policy!)

There a great free one for the iPad that I have, just can’t remember the name at the moment.

MyFitnessPal??

No one’s mentioned idave yet?

My fitness pal. Also good if you do lots of exercise, to make sure you’re eating enough.

Water. Drink it.

50% energy from carbs. The rest 50 – 50 energy from fat and protein.

That’s the one, my fitness pal. You don’t need to know the calories of the food, just what you ate, how much and it’ll work it out for you. Even down to different brands of food, so you can look up your nakd bars and belvitas on there and get an accurate tally of your daily calorie intake. I’d recommend anyone to do it, even if like me a diet is not on the cards. Just makes for interesting viewing of your normal daily diet