I need to lose some weight however i live with my wife and 5 year old who will not be dieting.
Work, home and hobbies keep me busy so I will struggle to prepare 2 meals each day and don't want to put that pressure on my wife, therefore the meals need to be simple to prep.
I don't mind if it's aggressive as the sooner I shift this ring of horrific fat around my gut, the happier I will be.
Eat the same food you were eating before, but in much smaller portions.
My advice: do not diet.
Sign up to https://myfitnesspal.com (free) and start monitoring your Calories In vs Calories Out.
Set a weight loss goal and it will tell you what calorie deficit you need to hit it.
Increase your Calories Out with some exercise, decrease your calories in with moderation.
My advice: do not diet.
decrease your calories in with moderation
I think that's called dieting.
healthy diet with fewer calories. Not a "Diet"
Eat less, move more is the only answer and it needs to be a permanent lifestyle change. Aggressive very low calorie diets do not work longterm
I have been doing "meal prep" this past month, and have lost 4 kilos.
Basically I make 12 meals on a Sunday afternoon (Usually 2 recipes divided into 6 portions each) this week it is bolognese with brocoli and sweet potato, and red thai curry with quinoa. That way I know I have a non junk food meal ready to put in the microwave whenever my meal time is.
I also track the recopies and meals on myfitnesspal.
I don't follow any particular diet plan, other than making sure there is plenty of veg and protein in each meal. I guess it would be close to low GI or paleo, but that is just because most of my meals are bulked out with "colourful" vegetables, so not much room left for simple carbs.
Microwave meals & only eat one. Worked for me, dropped 22lb since may with no other lifestyle changes.
Used to cook healthy, but ate far too much of it!
Irish Dave's diet is good and effective, Mike. The way I try to follow it is:
During the week, cut out ALL of; dairy (milk, butter, cheese), fruit, white carbs (potatoes), cereal (bread, pasta, rice) sugar, soft drinks.
At the weekend, (in my case, Friday night to Sunday dinner) have what you want.
Admittedly it's a pain trying to find something for breakfast and lunch that is simple to prepare, and if you don't like drinking plain water during the day. Stock up on supermarket chicken pakora, onion bhajis, pepperami, scotch eggs etc. and make your own baked beans once a week and have them for breakfast.
Instead of spuds and pasta with evening meals, just have more vegetables.
You don't need to starve yourself as you're cutting out the foods which create an insulin spike so it tends to suppress the appetite. And because you can have whatever your taste buds tell you at the weekend you're not going short of anything. And if you're doing any hard exercise during the week (over an hour in the gym or a night ride) you can fuel up on some simple carbs beforehand.
The theory is that it works on your insulin, which determines how your body lays down and uses fat. All calories are not equal! And before anybody says it, yes, you will consume fewer calories with this way of eating, because you won't get cravings for sweet and fatty foods.
I think Molgrips is also an advocate, although I realise that's not much of a recommendation :o)
My experience is. Cut out the cakes, biscuits and chocolate. If you eat a lot, they pack more punch than your daily meals. Then just be sensible with your meals. No ginormous portions. Natural wholemeal foods. Lean meats. Find some low calorie snacks if you're a serial snacker like I am.
It's a funny thing. Losing weight can sometimes feel like an impossible task. But once you get the balance right, I've personally found it drops off quite easily.
I'm no cook either. Frozen fish from Aldi is done in 4 minutes in the microwave. I recommend the smoked haddock. Whip it up with some microwave rice and jobs a good'n.
Stop eating whatever your 5 year old leaves on his plate.
It's a vicious circle.
It starts with a single fish finger or a chicken nugget.
"Go on son,..... Finish your dinner....Loook , it's delicious,..... Daddy really likes it (gulp) .....yum, yum.......See?"
Before you know it, you have three kids and you're eating one full dinner and three partial dinners every night and you can't tie your shoelaces without holding your breath.
Microwave meals
Processed meals, not healthy long term Shirley?
GrahamS and TJ(!!!!) +1
Whenever I've been trying to cut weight for racing I just track calories and serve smaller portions of the same stuff.
Tracking calories is a bit of an eye opener. Makes you realise what you are eating - pretty sure this is why people who cut out foods like gluten lose weight. You have to put more effort into finding food so you become very conscious of what you eat.
Look to see what you are snacking on is the only other easy win. I tend to eat through boredom more than hunger. So, I used to go make nice coffee, loose leaf tea etc. if I felt peckish. That and I found low calorie snacks - normally veg (and some fruit). carrot sticks, radishes, sugar snap peas etc.
Eat less, move more is the only answer and it needs to be a permanent lifestyle change. Aggressive very low calorie diets do not work longterm
This.
IME preparation is the key, absolutely, and it's really not hard, do it while you make dinner, or when you nomally watch shite on telly, or when you bugger about on faceboak.
We know what we're eating for dinner all week, I batch bake oat and fruit muffins 3 times a week, so that we have breakfast sorted, wife makes us 2 days big healthy lunch salads at a time, and my daughter eats everything we eat too.
I work with folks who are too busy to prep food, but in the next breath will tell me how they binge watched 3 series of some US series pish at the weekend. Hmmmm.... 🙂
healthy diet with fewer calories. Not a “Diet”
From Wikipdedia
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated and supervised fashion to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases, such as diabetes.
If you're deliberately selecting or restricting what you eat in order to control body weight, you are dieting.
Also, I don't eat take away food, except the odd fish n chips.
hols2, technically you are correct, however, that's not the general perception of a 'diet' IMO. When I think of a 'diet' I think of people doing something different for a period of time, that will ultimately stop, ie going on holiday, or to get into a wedding dress etc.
Which is bloody pointless.
My gf has lost 3 stone in 12 weeks & is maintaining by eating healthily. She did this with a broken arm.
The following advice has worked for her
1 - portion control. Weigh your food before cooking & eating. That way you wont eat too much.
2 - Cut out sugar, drink diet coke etc, no squash, no fruit juice, no fruit, no cake, no biscuits.
3 - Realise food is fuel.
4 - Find 30 minutes a day to do HIIT
5 - Prepare - make sure you shop wisely & have a meal plan prepared.
Her diet is roughly as follows, every 3rd day is a carb day, so on this day she'll have a smoothie for breakfast (oats, peanut butter, banana, almond milk & protein powder) then a lunch meal with rice/sweet potato, & an evening meal with rice or sweet potato.
On non carb days as a guide she'll eat for breakfast - diet greek yoghurt, dark chocolate drops, with flaked & chopped almonds. Lunch either leftovers with green veg something like chicken sausages & mashed brocolli. Dinner - steak, greek veg & halloumi.
Snacks = popcorn (carb days only), dark chocolate (min 70%), pork scratchings, nuts
The rule of thumb is non carb meals contain a portion of protein, portion of veg & a portion of fat. The carb day replaces fat with clean carbs, ie no processed pasta etc.
I generally eat the same as her adding carbs to my meals. The food is tasty & fresh.
The diet will mean nothing tho if you don't find time to do the HIIT. It is a bit Joe Wicks, but it works.
The most important thing of all tho - is you must be ready to make the change in your head. A friend of hers decided to try it, went about it completely half assed & didn't even manage a weekend.
MFP and an activity monitor to have a better idea of what you are expending. Once you know what you are consuming and using you will be better placed to know where you are. So time to get the scales out and sort out portion control.
2 – Cut out sugar, drink diet coke etc, no squash, no fruit juice, no fruit, no cake, no biscuits.
I'd disagree, a lifestyle change needs to be something that is sustainable.
I’d disagree, a lifestyle change needs to be something that is sustainable.
Why isn't that sustainable?
Eat a healthy diet, nothing faddy just lots of fruit and veg, cut down on processed stuff, cut down on takeaways, all the non-rocket science stuff you know already and...
Don't eat breakfast, it's an easy way to lose calories out of your diet, plus running on lower blood sugar, like you have first thing in the morning, promotes the burning of fat for fuel.
And its completely sustainable. Takes a few days to get used to it, but after that it's just the norm.
Why isn’t that sustainable?
No fruit, or cake, ever?... Go for it.
Is there any point in getting bogged down in the semantics of exactly what constitutes a 'diet'. I think it's clear that what the above posters are getting at is that some diet plans advocate cutting down on particular foods or food groups, whereas perhaps a better approach is to focus on eating less of a balanced diet.
I'd echo the sentiments of many of the above posters that one of the best things you can do is monitor your calorie intake / expenditure, and MyFitnessPal does this very effectively (although take calorie expenditure with a pinch of salt, especially if not using a heart rate monitor / power meter to calculate this).
You have to be rigorous with it though, including all the little things like cooking oil, butter on your toast, etc., and weighing the food that you prepare. It's a bit of a pain at first, but soon becomes easy as most of the things you will want to enter will pop up in your recent foods. You'll soon learn how much you can eat and stay within your calorie intake goals, and more importantly you'll learn what foods you can eat and that will leave you satisfied while meeting your goals and what foods will leave you hungry and craving bad food. You end up with a diet that works for you and your lifestyle rather than trying to adapt to a diet plan than just may not be suited for you.
Without fail, whenever I've monitored my food/exercise in this way consistently over a significant period of time I have lost weight. As soon as I stop, I stay consistent for a while but then the inevitable slip in diet and weight gain starts.
I used to weigh nearly 25 stone, I now weigh just over 13. I did get down to under 12, but then I stopped monitoring and combined with low-level illness (endless colds) leading to poor eating because I was feeling sorry for myself, and lack of exercise, my weight crept back up to 15 over the course of a year! As soon as I started monitoring my calories again the weight started coming off again.
It works both ways. As well as knowing when you shouldn't be eating any more, it allows you to know when you have enough calorie deficit in the bank to treat yourself a little.
Counting calories doesn't mean that you shouldn't think about the types of food that you are eating though. It's possible to lose weight on a very unhealthy diet (and I have done so in the past). You'll feel better if you eat healthier foods. That's just common sense though - keep processed foods to a minimum, lots of fruit and veg, healthy fats are good, avoid saturated fats, etc. Experiment with your meals, trying to use healthy ingredients and you'll soon find a meal plan that you enjoy, is healthy, and helps you lose weight.
Well done qtip btw, that's a phenomenal weight loss mate!.
+1 to MFP. Very interesting to see what has the calories and what keeps your macronutrients right
What works for me to lose weight (same things don't work for everyone) is:
1) Skip breakfast (intermittent fasting innit)
2) during the week (where I have more control) eat high protein low carb for lunch. Generally raw veg, cottage cheese, tinned fish, yogurt. A few nuts and dried berries
3) normal evening meal don't go mad with portions, especially carbs.
4) allow myself a relatively healthy evening snack depending how much exercise i have done eg. Yogurt, a peanut butter and jam sandwich etc.
5) don't try to over control what I eat at weekends due to inconvenience, just try not to eat loads, and keep in control of the booze.
Another thing to consider is sleep, I pretty much always get 8 hours, and firmly believe that a good nights sleep results in a clear head and more energy, so I'm more likely to make better choices, exercise more and generally feel better.
Alcohol messes up my sleep, so I've pretty much canned that, been threatening to do it for years really, and that certainly helps with weight loss!!! 🙂
Cheers nobeerinthefridge. It wasn't all in one go, and there have been a few slip-ups along the way, but each time I've caught it before I reached the previous proportions of lardiness and gone on to lose the weight again plus a bit more.
Another tip is to weigh yourself often. At the moment I weigh myself every day. It has taught me that there will be periods when I stay the same weight, or gain weight, even when sticking to my calorie goals. However, as long as I stick to my goals the trend is always downwards, so I don't get disheartened by this. It's easy when weighing yourself infrequently to see a massive drop in weight that may just be a fluctuation - you then think you can treat yourself and quickly undo the work that you've done.
I'd ignore anyone who's been lifelong "in shape" and not been a fatty themselves, there is a large psychological element IMO to losing weight when you're obese. Likewise it is totally different to someone who's already fit & doing a large volume of exercise dropping a few pounds to get down to "racing weight"
I had a lot of success with the iDiet (if you google search there's loads of threads on here). That is not the only method you, you have to find what works for you. Yes ultimately to want to transition to a healthy, sustainable lifestyle but IMO before that you need to do something that involves a bit more sacrifice as otherwise you will spend years getting to the maintenance point rather than 6 months or a year. (IMO)
The eat-less-do-more diet tends to work, but they all require commitment.
Another tip is to weigh yourself often.
It's funny the PT who was advising my gf wouldn't let her weigh or measure herself for 8 weeks. I think this was so that she could see a massive improvement towards her goal.
No fruit, or cake, ever?… Go for it.
Not ever - but due to my gf's healthy eating I now hardly ever eat cake & she only eats it on very rare occasions. To be honest I would miss alcohol more. We both feel way more energised now too.
The amount of crap you can consume as a human is truly frightening.
She did this with a broken arm.
Seems a bit drastic, but ok I'll get the sledgehammer.
I will struggle to prepare 2 meals each day and don’t want to put that pressure on my wife, therefore the meals need to be simple to prep.
Use your freezer.
It's almost as easy to make food for 6 as it is for 1. Next time you make, say, a spag bol, make half a dozen portions then eat one, stick one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Do that for a week and you've got zero-prep dinners for the rest of the month.
If you can't find half an hour a day to make food then either you're lying to yourself to make excuses, or you need to take a serious look at your life / time management.
It’s funny the PT who was advising my gf wouldn’t let her weigh or measure herself for 8 weeks. I think this was so that she could see a massive improvement towards her goal.
I'm in the weigh yourself often camp myself. Otherwise it's out of sight, out of mind, and it's easy to stray... The weighing is a daily reminder of what you're trying to do and gives you motivation.
It can sometimes be demoralising, when the gains don't come quick, or you find you've actually put on 4lbs in a couple of days.... But if you do it a lot it becomes routine, and you learn how to interpret that data. Your weight can easily fluctuate a few lbs from one day to the next, so it's a good idea to weigh yourself at the same time each day, and if you want a really accurate number, record every single day and take an average for the week.
It’s almost as easy to make food for 6 as it is for 1. Next time you make, say, a spag bol, make half a dozen portions then eat one, stick one in the fridge
Tried that. Didnt work. Mmm that was tasty, might just have a little bit more ..
Work, home and hobbies keep me busy so I will struggle to prepare 2 meals each day and don’t want to put that pressure on my wife, therefore the meals need to be simple to prep.
If you're cash rich/time poor, you could try one of those meal ingredient delivery service thingies. There was a good thread them a while ago. Just ignore all of Drac's posts.
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/hello-fresh-and-other-food-delivery-companies/
... is the only answer
Other only answers are available. I am not an Instagram influencer.
The opposite of this:
My gf has lost 3 stone in 12 weeks & is maintaining by eating healthily. She did this with a broken arm.
Is your fridge door hard to open?
I'm just holding out for a magic pill (ffs scientists hurry up), one that doesn't cause you to crap yourself unexpectedly.
I really struggle with portion control (I'll just end up snacking later) and general boredom snacking between meals (mostly on weekends). Add the fact I don't really like the taste of most healthy stuff and just convince myself life's too short to eat like a rabbit. Then I see myself in the mirror and start reading threads like this hoping someone's found an amazing way to lose weight without any of the common drawback - unfortunately I always end up disappointed...
It’s almost as easy to make food for 6 as it is for 1. Next time you make, say, a spag bol, make half a dozen portions then eat one, stick one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Do that for a week and you’ve got zero-prep dinners for the rest of the month.
Unless there are five of you in the house , in which case you'd have to make 30 portions of each meal in one go and then store it all. It doesn't really scale up very well unless you have multiple massive freezers.
My gf has lost 3 stone in 12 weeks & is maintaining by eating healthily. She did this with a broken arm.
Restricted to cakes that can be lifted with one hand.
If you can’t find half an hour a day to make food then either you’re lying to yourself to make excuses, or you need to take a serious look at your life / time management.
This.
There are lots of ready prepared stuff that you can buy to help out, ready cooked brown rice is cheap as **** and very good, I actually prefer it to my usual basmati, Aldi also do really good frozen superfood mixes, a few different flavours, I just mix it through some salad, tuna, maybe some feta, makes a great lunch.
Eat less move more.
I've started commuting as much as possible (which generally works out about 3x a week if I want to get some sociable rides in too). 50miles a day and the weight soon starts to shift!
Couple that with just moderating my carb's intake, so with last nights roast dinner I had masses of chicken and veg, but only 4 small-ish roast potatoes.
Breakfast I don't count, as most days I'm cycling so almost immediately burn off any carbs and the other days it's usually just a couple of slices of toast or small bowl of porridge (50g of oats).
Lunch I'm lazy so often get a value microwave meal from sainsburys, they're typically only 400 calories and feel a bit more substantial than a sandwich (which often has more calories!).
Snacking I proportion to the cycling, so if I've ridden in then I don't feel guilty eating a whole packet of hob-nobs because I won't do that every day and if I spend all day craving biscuits I'll end up miserable and probably binge on something else. In reality I end up doing that once a week (and it's still a calorie deficit) so that's 2x days with a massive deficit.
I also bought a load of whey, creatine, BCAA & psyllium which I make up with about 200ml milk and 300ml water/ice. That's my second breakfast when I get to work on a cycling day.
Processed meals, not healthy long term Shirley?
Substitute the word "processed" for "cooked".
There's probably more than an average amount of salt and fat in them, but then if you counted everything that I put into a spagbol or chilli at home there's probably a comparable amount, especially when we're talking a 400cal ready meal portion Vs 2x to 3x that if I'm dishing it out myself.
Not everything that comes from the supermarket is bad, and not everything I cook at home is good (I make wicked tempura chilli'd pork balls, they probably have enough calories to power the NASA space program and are very moreish!).
I really struggle with portion control (I’ll just end up snacking later) and general boredom snacking between meals (mostly on weekends). Add the fact I don’t really like the taste of most healthy stuff and just convince myself life’s too short to eat like a rabbit.
Every time I have lost weight none of my food looked like salad all the time, still did it with bread, eggs, sausages, bacon, pasta, rice and all that. Just a bit less, as for snacking it's easy to fix by not buying the crap, a bag of apples by my desk was a great substitute for when you feel hungry.
I found a load of decent recipies with all the nutritional info in the feed zone table book, was a good read and some inspiration for good health eating.
If you can’t find half an hour a day to make food then either you’re lying to yourself to make excuses, or you need to take a serious look at your life / time management.
Half an hour? Every day?
I can't even get five minutes uninterrupted to go for a shite in peace.
IME best solution (and helpful with cutting food prep)
5:2 diet
+
MyFitnessPal diary so you dont go overboard on the other 5 days.
Just grab a soup and oatcake on the 2 fast days. Apple for breakfast.
Additionally, if you want to help things along in the gut fat dept start with a few sit-ups a day. Add 2 or 3 extra each day.
