I've lost approx 8 kilos since the start of March with normal riding and 1500 calories a day, keto style. Starting to come off keto periodically now, mainly because I don't want to lose much more weight and it's bloody hard to to eat the sheer volume of calories I need to cover my riding without busting my carb limit, or having to gorge myself on avocado, which I still don't like all that much.
Also, just don’t have cereal for breakfast. Terrible idea. Sugary and starchy, you produce insulin, then you get hungry later. Protein for breakfast with some fat.
Not to mention it's ****in rank.
I think it's reasonable to crash diet for a short time, but then switch to a more manageable and less drastic eating lifestyle afterwards. Not going back to your previous diet obviously.
Totally, but no one ever does it.
tinned fruit for the win - really fills you up, hardly any calories, and comes in nice predictable portions so you don have the problem of working out how much you can have.
Frozen fruit too, aldi et al sell it now too, Joe Wicks oat and fruit muffins loaded with frozen rasps and blueberries are wicked for brekkie, between Mrs Nobeer and I we must eat about 20 odd a week.
I'd be eating a lot of homemade chicken and rice noodle based Thai soups. Tom Yum Gai is particularly good, especially if you use Galangal instead of ginger - it cleans you out as well as tasting great.
The 5:2 Fast Diet is your friend:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/52
https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/healthy/best-ever-easy-52-recipes-under-500-calories/
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/15-52-recipe-ideas/
Lots of homemade food; lots of fruit, veg and eggs. It's not actually that hard – just stay off the snacks. We did it for about six months - the dahl in the book is a particular favourite.
Vegetable soup - I'm not a fan of vegetables or the additional hassle it takes prepping them to add some veg to an otherwise OK meal but I've just started doing vegetable soup and it's pretty low hassle (just peeling/chopping) and tastes really good (at least when done in a pressure cooker and blitzed afterwards).
My last one was:
2 red onions
3 mid-sized potatoes
4 mid-size sweet potatoes
1 large head of Broccoli
1 butternut squash
bag of baby spinach
500ml carton of tomato passata
water to top up to max fill line of pressure cooker (makes about 4.5 litres of soup in total)
salt/pepper/oxo cube/herbs
Takes 20-30 mins to prep everything and 20 mins cooking. I eat the lot to replace all meals on one day (I added various beans the first time around and that turned out to be a mistake :p ). I have no willpower and binge eat a fair bit but find it's easy enough to eat soup for a day - no clue on the total calories in the above (I'm more just trying to gradually sort my diet out with more veg and less processed food) but I'd be surprised if it were much over 1200 calories but soup is generally more filling than the equivalent of whole foods.
Mrs DB is a bit of a feeder and a fabulous cook, having been 90kg virtually the whole of 2017 despite having signed up to stw chub club I lost nothing, decided on 5/2 diet in December and restricted myself to about 600 calories on two days a week, I'm now down 6kg in 4 months - just need to find whatever works for you really ☺️
+1 for veggie soups too
"I’m sure there are plenty of people on here that have a triple serving of cereal!"
Quite true - if I have a small bowl! 😉
In work I have a large bowl of cereal and a little muesli for breakfast and lunch. Outside work I eat what I want, mostly low fat plus weight train and ride. Lost my winter weight 2 lbs/week last Spring and kinda doing the same this year though riding has only really started getting going in the last few weeks.
Soup, spinach, fish and eggs are pretty much the winners for me in operation low cal, plus whatever green stuff i find in the fridge that looks like it might go off if I dont eat it.
Yesterdays lunch was a ropey iceberg lettuce, couple of handfuls of spinach, tomatoes, half a red pepper, half an onion and a tin of tuna. Little bit of lime juice, honey garlic and apple cider vinegar as a dressing. It was massive, filled a mixing bowl and I ate the lot.
Today is a rather boring two bowls of covent garden carrot and butternut squash soup at a whopping 180 calories for both bowls. Then had two boiled eggs and a handful of spinach.
If you use my fitness pal how do you calculate the cals form home made dishes??
Weigh the ingredients, add the recipe to your DB and then you can reuse it. In our house we only really cook about 10 things on rotation 😀
If you want to eat cereal for breakfast pay attention to the portion size; you'll soon discover that the 30/40g portion the details are provided for looks like bugger all for most of them.
Meanwhile the equivalent portion of Weetabix is 2 biscuits, or a pack of ready portioned Porridge, which bore you into eating no more than 1 portion!
Today is a rather boring two bowls of covent garden carrot and butternut squash soup
Rather delicious, but looked it up out of interest and...3,200mg of sodium (150% of your daily recommended) per carton. Bloody hell!
EDIT: That might be a My Fitness Pal boo-boo - claimed is only about 50% of rda...
Fuzzy
MFP says your soup is around 1800 cals
i can do less with zero fat Greek yogurt and strawberries and blueberries for breakfast 65 cal
greek salad with 50g feta for lunch 280cal
and a chicken kebab for dinner. 500 cal
allow another 150-200 for drinks.
995-1045 cals leaves some snacking space.
This one and the product information has it roughly the same (180ish per carton). The sodium score shows you should probably take what you read on MFP with a pinch of salt, though.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/new-covent-garden-carrot-butternut-squash-soup-589742017
Also, just don’t have cereal for breakfast. Terrible idea. Sugary and starchy, you produce insulin, then you get hungry later. Protein for breakfast with some fat.
Not necessarily. At night I make up tomorrow's breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats, some cinnamon and a scoop of whey protein (vanilla surprisingly tasty) mixed with almond milk and a handful of berries. Hardly any sugar, loads of fibre and protein keeping you full of slow release carbs for ages.
Yep, whey protein in porridge is a winner. Just stir in after it's done for those disorganised microwave-porridge fans.
Not necessarily. At night I make up tomorrow’s breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats, some cinnamon and a scoop of whey protein (vanilla surprisingly tasty) mixed with almond milk and a handful of berries. Hardly any sugar, loads of fibre and protein keeping you full of slow release carbs for ages.
I think he means the shite that comes from a big box, tastes of nothing and did I mention it's rank?. 🤔😀
Cut out carbs and eat what you want. You’ll lose weight so fast people will think you’re ill! Try it. It’s scary.
+Salmon fillets
Surprised me how high in protein and low in fat they are. Pink Chicken.
+Treats which work for you with low calories (egg. Moser roth 85% choc from Aldi. 125 cals but i break it into bits and nibble with a pint of water)
+chewing gum - to help fill the gaps between meals.
I'm currently going for -750g / week = 1,750 cals + exercise. Would struggle without near daily exercise, even gym + a 15min walk can make a day more achievable by adding ~300 cals. +800 cals for my run this morning 😉 Syncs with strava too.
Re the MyfitnessPal question on homemade: Whatever you have made is usually already in their ...6 million entries or something...pleasingly easy to find just about anything with a small investment in learning to use the search.
True that boxed cereal is the worst. But replacing the porridge even with eggs and bacon will help more, IMO.
BUT
There are many ways to do this. Low carb/low GI is a good one, but whatever works for you.
Re treats - couple of squares of 85% dark chocolate is good for me. So rich, slightly sweet, takes the edge off but hardly any sugar.
"Assuming actually what you want to do is lose fat rather than just ‘any’ weight, Don’t cut too much or you will end up losing not just fat but also muscle. 10 percent calorie deficit is about what you need for long term FAT loss. Look up basal metabolic rate and calculatioins around this. Also to avoid muscle loss lift heavy weights so your body realises it still needs them (and doesn’t prefer dropping the muscle in preference to fat)
Oh yeah and myfitnesspal.
And look up macronutrients and ‘cutting’ for how the bodybuilders do it (i.e. scientifically)"
This. So much this.
OP,firstly well done on tackling it head on. However, how did you come to the conclusion that 1200 calories daily was:
a) sustainable (spoiler: it isn't)
b) not going to contribute to muscle loss (spoiler: it will in all likelihood)
c) not going to impact your hormones, sex drive and/or testosterone levels? (spoiler: you will feel like crap)
Unless you are an 8 year old girl, 1200 calories is an astonishing low daily amount. You truly only need a SMALL deficit over a LONG period of time. You didn't gain fat over night, nor will you lose it over night. Give yourself many months if not years to get there, accept it and keep consistent-fat loss is not a linear process, it fluctuates. Spend time working out your TDEE, Lean Body Mass and BMR to give you an accurate defect. And diet is NOT more important than exercise- both are important. My Fitness Pal for me has been very eyeopening on my own health and body composition journey- the basic food tracking is effective. Its good for beginning this process before you become more adept at 'eyeballing' portions- dont think you have to calorie count for life , but you need to get your head around how the calories in vs calories out process works. MFP or any food tracker does help. Oh and keep your protein intake up but not at the expense of overall calories.
Good luck!
