If you struggle with temptation then the below simple ways will help:
- Don't buy crap when shopping, so no crisps, chocolate, cakes etc
- Don't shop when you are hungry.
- Don't keep any crap in the house (similar list to above)
- Don't keep booze in the house
- Don't take money or card/s etc when you go to work or when you go out for a walk or cycle etc. No money means you can't buy a coffee and a cake etc
- Stay out of cafes, restaurants, pubs etc as much as you can. Not great for socialising but still can be reduced to a couple of times a week or less.
- Try to get family and friends to join you on your new way of living, because in order to reap the long term benefits you need to do it long term.
Something that is changing in the paradigm of weight loss is the role of sugar particularly fructose. Not something i really understand but sugars are now seen as a greater part of weight gain and loss then they were and fats less important.
Its might be worth looking at all the sugars in what you eat. Its often added to the strangest things like bread and some stuff has surprising amounts. Maltodextrin / high fructose corn syrup is particularly bad for hidden calories and weight gain. any processed food with this stuff in should be avoided.
As for calories burnt during exercise, whenever I've been multiday cycling trips, I've actually gained weight despite being in the saddle for many hours. Because I'm on holiday - albeit a cycling holiday - I don't hold back on food and booze.
So the mantra "you can't out train a bad diet" is very true especially when you're a glutten like me.
What sockpuppet says +1
For the longest time I would ride to work and then sit at my desk all day with bent legs. So seemingly ended up with shortened hamstring/calf muscles.
Took ages to reverse this when I started running. Definitely start slowly and gently.
any processed food with this stuff in should be avoided.
Just avoid processed food, full stop. An article I read said rather than call it food, call it "an industrially produced edible substance" once you have that in your head, it's unsurprisingly easier to avoid.
Although I agree about avoiding processed foods, however processed foods also include sausage, bacon, ham, cheese, breakfast cereal and bread. Plus many more. So very hard to avoid them all plus they're very tasty.
I now fancy a full English breakfast with toast 😕
Not eating between the hours of 8pm & 8am has worked for me. I don't have breakfast in not riding that day either.
I initially cut out a lot of saturated fats from my diet since having discovering I have high cholesterol in my last MOT. I am a vegetarian and did get most of my protein from dairy. Now I have switched to tofu and chickpeas and other high plant based protein.
I am now managing to stay bellow 80kgs
So very hard to avoid them all
Yes, but you can cut a huge number of them out of your diet; as more than likely, as @tjagain suggests, they're often full of the stuff that's making you fat.
Bit hard to avoid processed food completely. Bread for example often has sugar in it. Subway bread is actually legally cake because it has so much sugar. Breakfast cereal is another than can be full of hidden sugars. Be aware also of "low fat" stuff that is full of sugar to make it "tasty"
the two things I would be looking at are booze and sugar if I wanted to lose weight
Subway bread is actually legally cake because it has so much sugar.
Yeah, heard that one before, amazing what they can get away with. I know it sounds poncy but you can often find a bakery that's making loaves more traditionally that don't have anything like the sugar content of supermarket bread. There are downsides of course, it's often pretty expensive by comparison, and doesn't last as long, but it's way better.
Minimal carb and sugar intake, quit booze, fast 16 hours a day. Watch the weight fall off
Wear a corset.
Wear one of these
Wear a corset
I think you'll find they're called "Beer Belly Fitness Belt Shapewear"
Lunch for me today - lean turkey mince, mushrooms, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, herbs, spices, lots of chilli flakes, a bit of cheese. Delicious and filling.
Mrs STR makes a big tub, bring some in a tupperware, bang in the microwave.
Breakfast I'll have a bit of fruit and some nuts.
Daytime snacking - nuts/fruit, maybe a bag (or three) of sweet chilli lentil puffs.
Hardly eat bread - generally once at a weekend I'll have seeded batch with spicy tomato mackerel for breakfast rather than a bacon butty. In the week if I wan't something to eat with a filling, I'll buy some wraps and go to Morrisons salad bar.
Tea - sometimes not that fussed, but try and have something healthy.
Maybe have a takeway or eat out every other weekend.
That along with some fairly regular exercise keeps the weight down for me
one of the big sustainable changes i made was to ditch cereals and bread for breakfast and have eggs instead. I've been eating eggs and other non cereal breakfast for about 8 years now.
Often bigger changes require initial pain and adjustment. For example if you reduce sugar intake or go cold turkey on sugar you're going to get withdrawal symptoms as you detox from it.
my own experience of going more low carb meant my body was able to utilise fat as an energy source.
I don't really 'burn' calories through exercise anymore (or at least in comparison to what i used to do as i have chronic fatigue) so it's not to do with moving more. my weight and fat loss has stayed the same
Please no “move more/ eat less” sh*te…
IHN +1, That's the only way I'm afraid.
Eating less is generally the easy way, because cutting down to what you should be eating for the target weight, and burning 500+ extra calories is really hard work. 500 calories is somewhere between a 10k and a half marathon for most people, you won't be running a half marathon every day will you?
How you eat less is up to you, cut fat, cut sugar, cut carbs, cut portion sizes, cut meat, cut white foods, cut food before 12:00, cut food 2 days a week, cut food after 5pm, fundamentally they're all doing the same thing and cutting the intake (and selling a book usually).
And you don't need to up your protein intake just because you're now being healthy. Yes it's filling, it's also potentially a lot of calories even if it is "lean".
In summary; if you decide to do some extra training remember the mantra you go to the gym to get stronger and to the kitchen to lose weight. If you try to lose weight by training you'll get bored (if it was fun for you you'd do it already). If you try to get strong in the kitchen you'll get fat.
correct oldandpastit
its easier to overeat with carbs but a low carb diet is not a particularly healthy one
most of us in the west eat far more protein than needed
My belief is its mainly hidden and not so hidden sugar
IHN +1, That’s the only way I’m afraid.
Part of the problem with a modern, western diet, is that there are a large number of calories packed into a small meal. On top of that, the way many foods are processed means you absorb them faster and become hungrier sooner. Which of course is by design because it means we buy more...
tjagainFull Member<br />Bit hard to avoid processed food completely.
Processed food is fine, we've been eating it for thousands of years. Obesity has only really become a thing since we started eating ultra-processed food, because it tends to be highly addictive, calorie dense, and absorbed by the body much more quickly. It's not possible to consume the same number of calories with natural foods.
The simple answer is a healthier diet, and that means proper food, not the stuff that has been manufactured to look like food.
You'll naturally eat less because you'll feel more full, and the food you do consume will contain less calories.
I'd also agree with fasting. 8 hour eating window each day, doesn't even have to be every day. Weight is likely to fall off.
I’m not convinced by the low carb theory. Koreans eat loads of rice and noodles and yet have far lower rates of obesity than the UK. Lots of vegetables consumed. So there’s something else going on.
vegeatables are low carb! it's low glycemic carbs
you don't have to be convinced. I guess you need to work out what works for you. For me (and i've tried a LOT of approaches) eating less high glycemic foods.. foods which don't spike insulin allows me to keep lower fat.
We have it in our power to try things out and see what works. Too many ppl will dispute something without trying it
its easier to overeat with carbs but a low carb diet is not a particularly healthy one
care to explain this one? Where the science to say low carb is not healthy?
you know low carb includes vegetables?
because most low carb diets are high in fats, salt and sugar. Veg can contain a lot of carbs.
vegeatables are low carb!
Not all of them. root veg is not low carb. check out carrots
good point. confusing low fat which is often loaded with sugar Doh!
My experience - and Im just trying to 'get back on the horse' as I'm 3 stone heavier than pre covid-kerlusterfluck (wonder if the inquiry will look at how all the other risks to life were ignored in pursuit of 1.. but I digress)
RUNNING
(and that is from someone who is a bit of a reluctant runner).
Also plenty of real fruit. That hits the need for fibre mentioned earlier.
just eaten a guilt fee breakfast for my tea.
3 grilled bacon, 3 sausages done in air fryer, 1 piece black pudding, 1 small punnit mushrooms sauted in butter, 4 poached eggs and half a tin of beans.
all good, minimal carbs.
I'm not sure creating yet another bogeyman like "ultra processes foods" really helps in the long run.
Firstly, no one can actually say what that even means, or if they do it's nothing to do with processing, usuall it ends up being a mix of salt, sugar and prejudices
What even is "processing". Quorn (or other meat free mince) is processed from either soybeans or mycelium into something completely unrecognisable. Yet you'd have to really throw the blinkers on to say it's in any way unhealthy.
Then you get to things like pasta sauce in a jar. Which people will say is full of sugar; because it is. Tomatoes are full of sugar, and then dolmio add a little bit more sugar and a bit of citric acid so that each batch has the same sugar/acidity. It's pretty much how you'd make it at home only their tomatoes come from anywhere between Teesside and Tunisia so need a bit of balancing through the year.
Saying things like "avoid ultra processed foods" is completely missleading however it's defined. Because you're either throwing the baby out with the bathwater on a lot of healthy options, or judging that my homade ice cream is healthier than Walls (and trust me, it really bloody isn't, but it is delicious).
vegeatables are low carb!
When I was a student, I mostly lived on vegetables - potato chips fried in vegetable oil, washed down with beer. I started going out with a nurse, she was utterly horrified with my diet and health and she made me start living a much healthier lifestyle.
I'm a firm believer in the disrupter influence of a 'diet' - any diet, being the main positive benefit. Something that makes you stop and not fill your face through plain habit. That in my opinion is the west's main problem with obesity - the ability, both through comparative wealth and availability, to develop a non hunger based addiction to eating. We eat because we can. There's probably something primeval about it - eat when you can, sleep when you can was a good mantra when food was scarce and exercise was a necessity but not so much now.
When I did my big weight loss about 5 years ago I did two things - went vegan and adopted a time limited diet. I've stuck to both. I'm not convinced either have huge health benefits in and of themselves, but one cuts out a huge number of food groups so you have to think a bit before shoving stuff in your gob, and the other reduces the time you can do the stuffing. It works for me.
Secondly, and connected, learn to be hungry again and discover that the world does not fall apart! OP, when were you last hungry for more than half an hour? Turn's out, you can function perfectly normally when hungry - not for days and days clearly, but it's not a sign of imminent death. Learning to not feel the need to satiate the feelings of hunger as an urgent priority and you will no doubt lose weight pretty quickly.
I'm someone who was lean and fit, then fat and now lean and fit again - so I think I've earned the right to say this - fat and overweight is a sign of a lazy over-pampered mindset - someone who has lost an element of self discipline. Your plump body will project that internal mindset to others. I know the thinner version of me, who is back on the rails with one of the most basic parts of being a living being, is a lot better at many unrelated things than the plumper version of me - it goes beyond waistline measurements and general health.
thisisnotaspoon
Free Member
I’m not sure creating yet another bogeyman like “ultra processes foods” really helps in the long run.Firstly, no one can actually say what that even means, or if they do it’s nothing to do with processing, usuall it ends up being a mix of salt, sugar and prejudices
What even is “processing”. Quorn (or other meat free mince) is processed from either soybeans or mycelium into something completely unrecognisable. Yet you’d have to really throw the blinkers on to say it’s in any way unhealthy.
Then you get to things like pasta sauce in a jar. Which people will say is full of sugar; because it is. Tomatoes are full of sugar, and then dolmio add a little bit more sugar and a bit of citric acid so that each batch has the same sugar/acidity. It’s pretty much how you’d make it at home only their tomatoes come from anywhere between Teesside and Tunisia so need a bit of balancing through the year.
Saying things like “avoid ultra processed foods” is completely missleading however it’s defined. Because you’re either throwing the baby out with the bathwater on a lot of healthy options, or judging that my homade ice cream is healthier than Walls (and trust me, it really bloody isn’t, but it is delicious).
Actually you can define ultraprocessed foods. The definition was created by scientists in Brasil as there is a big health problem over there surrounding the issue.
You point about ice-cream shows you've missed the point about ultraprocessed foods. You say your homemade ice-cream isn't 'healthier' than walls. I would dispute that because the whole point about upfs is not that they have more calories/fat or sugar than homemade it's that the extra ingredients like emulsifiers and milk powders etc could be damaging your health such as the gut microbiome (which can effect appetite regulation) and also that they have been manufactured in a very clever way to make you over eat. Personally I think If I made ice-cream at home using organic cream and sugar I'm pretty sure it would be healthier than the supermarkets stuff and I'd probably eat less of it because id seen how much cream and sugar went into it and the effort required to make it would mean I'd want to make it last longer.
I've begun to pay attention to what is in my food and reduce ultraprocessed foods and it's only observational but I am feeling much less hungry. I'm really interested in the gut microbiome so have added more fermented foods and still have some convenience foods but look for things without loads of strange ingredients so things like roasted salted cashews or plain tortilla corn chips. Desserts I stick with fruit and cream or dark chocolate so not exactly denying myself high calorie foods.
This podcast about calories is pretty eye opening and could help to make long lasting tweaks to your eating habits. The whole calorie thing is massively out dated and pretty unhelpful for those struggling with dieting and weight loss.
https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-calorie-deception-food-labels
There are several podcasts about upfs on there too which I would recommend. All science based with studies carried out to back up the claims.
I’m not convinced by the low carb theory
There's a bundle of research suggesting that it's no better than any traditional diet, but that's largely because (like most diets) folks find it hard to stick to them, and as carbs are found in a huge variety of meals and foods, it particularly hard for lots for folks to maintain it.
Where the science to say low carb is not healthy?
This report is mostly to do with the effect of low-carbohydrate diets on T2 diabetes patients, but it's relevant to folks trying to loose weight as well . It's at least reasonably rigorous and written without outside influence form the food industries.
"What even is “processing”. Quorn (or other meat free mince) is processed from either soybeans or mycelium into something completely unrecognisable. Yet you’d have to really throw the blinkers on to say it’s in any way unhealthy."
Just because your interpretation of the advertising is "healthy", it doesn't make it so. Quorn may be stuffed with all manner of shite. Lynda McCartney's sossies , also "healthy" were until recently stuffed with hydrogenated fats. They may still be...
As a treat you can make banana bread with no sugar, add some dried fruit and cover with nuts and seeds. Freezes well, toasted with natural yoghurt, diced fruit and maple syrup. About the healthiest snack that tastes good too.
The Zoe podcasts are good, lots of interesting tips.
Timely thread this one. I always thought fat people were lazy and had no control. Last week during my yearly checkout I was told that I've slipped into the obese category. Obese in my head is ' I eat babies ' territory, so it was a bit of a shock. Mrs CD has recently gone in the the catogory above obese but she's not bothered. I most definitely am.
I've always had a sweet tooth which I could control by only having the occasional bar of dark chocolate in the house. Now, with primary school kids the cupboards a full of unhealthy snacks and 'treats'. When I have a bad day I just can't resist.
Main meals are OK. Nearly all cooked from scratch although portion sizes need to be reduced.
Snacking though...
Mmm babies 😅
Its not that low carb is particularly inhealthy. Its that often people end up with high fat and salt diets which is unhealthy
I always thought fat people were lazy and had no control
Maybe not lazy but...
When I have a bad day I just can’t resist.
Sounds like you were spot on with the no control aspect 😉
Sounds like you were spot on with the no control aspect
This is an interesting, if somewhat short, overview of the modern diet and ultra processed foods. The really interesting thing at the end isn't that eh gained weight, but the changes in hormones that control hunger and fullness as well as the new neural pathways created in the brain.
I got to 46 and found I my weight had crept up to 76kg (just under 12 stone) that doesn't sound much but I am only 165cm (5ft 5).
Using my fitness pal and doing more road cycling, it took me around three years to get down to under 62kg (around 9 and a half stone), as others have said it isn't really a diet as if you stop and revert the weight will come back, and bring some friends, you need to view it as a change in lifestyle.
I'm nearly 54 now and my weight swings around 64kg +/- 2.5kg depending on time of year/alcohol and or ice cream consumption/amount of exercise - riding I do. But overall I feel healthier and fitter.
Its mainly down to will power and self control and it's easy to 'reward' yourself with something nice. You can, but you have to balance it with the consequences of too much is a bad thing.
