Another weight loss thread… (with financial incentives)

I am worried that you may be underestimating some people’s capacity for feeling hungry
For the 2 stone in 6 weeks, I am assuming that, even on the iDave, strict portion control will be necessary? I imagine this is one area where I would fall down without having it spelled out to me with a meal list. I know I probably sound like I need my hand held, but that is for good reason. You don’t get to 19st7 without having an improper relationship with food

Chipping in again if thats ok, OC:

Looked at that menu/shopping list you posted. If you’re worried about hunger, eat more Veg.
Suspend your traditional “beliefs” about what is a breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Add an extra veg portion (or 2) to every breakfast. Caulli, broccolli, spinach, cabage, tomato, anything – get a few bags of frozen stuff and stick them in the freezer to be ready anytime. You won’t get fat from it, but you will get more full and so be more likely to avoid the stuff you will get fat from. If you’re hunger is later, add veg to lunch. One other thing, packs of beans can be a real faff with pre-soaking them. Adding a few cans of mexican refried beans can be a lot easier and convenient for getting started, and when you haven’t done the pre-preparing.
Not sure if it’s been emphasised already, but no cals from drink. No milk, no juice no squash, no beer. 🙁
Although red wine is, apparently, the least worse if you really want alcohol.

I’m currently doing something a bit similar to you. I’ve tried this eating plan before, 2 years ago, and know it works. But circumstances changed and i got fat again. Started again early april and down 12lbs now. Not quite as drastic as you’re aiming for but worth it for me. Current favourites for adding bulk to meals are pickles, beetroot, red cabbage, onions, gherkins. Always ready in the fridge, and as far as I can tell, “idiet” compliant.

If your interested in a bit of background reading on this, a lot of its covered in a book, “Four hour body” by tim ferriss. He makes a bit of sense of it all and explains why he reckons it works. Well worth a read of the first 100 or so pages. Good luck again.

You don’t have to eat just because you are hungry.

Suspend your traditional “beliefs” about what is a breakfast, lunch, or dinner

This is cracking advice, especially at breakfast. If you don’t want/don’t have time for bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, etc then almost all other breakfasts are grain/carb or dairy based. It’s just social conditioning, there’s no reason not to have veg, fruit, chicken, steak, whatever for brekky.

You don’t have to eat just because you are hungry.

You don’t have to eat, but your body wants feeding and so it’s going to chow down on anything it can get it’s hands on be it muscle or fat. Also if you stay hungry then your body will go into survival mode and your metabolism through the floor. It’s also bloody miserable! No need to be hungry and lose body fat quickly if you do it right.

Also if you stay hungry then your body will go into survival mode

What, In between lunch and dinner?

You don’t have to eat just because you are hungry.

this is the greatest piece of advice.
if you want to lose that much weight, you need to get used to being hungry. after that it’s easy.
think of being hungry as your body’s way of congratulating you for losing weight.

If your interested in a bit of background reading on this, a lot of its covered in a book, “Four hour body” by tim ferriss.

iDave consulted on that book.

Also – re ‘needing to eat’ when hungry. Your gut is actually part of your brain, so when you get hungry, it can have a very profound effect on you. That’s why it can be such a problem.

Body and brain aren’t as separate as some people make out.

If you then don’t eat dinner then yes, that process will start to happen.

Your gut is actually part of your brain

Not really. But I can’t be arsed arguing, and it gets away from the point of the thread

If you then don’t eat dinner

Easily solved that then.

Not really.

Ok so it was badly worded.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain

when you get hungry, it can have a very profound effect on you

like what?

I’m sorry nickc, you’re comment came across to me as: ignore hunger pangs, ie don’t eat, as a good weight loss strategy.

Your bluntness may contribute to people misunderstanding your posts.

Your gut is actually part of your brain

Massively linked and I’d agree with this statement 100%. My guess is that molgrips was speaking figuratively rather than literally.

Molly’s well researched interests aside for a minute, lots of people gain weight because its easy to do so, and some modern food is calorie ( yes, I know, Mol) dense, especially the stuff that is yummy.

Lots can be done very simply by not eating between meals and drinking plenty of water. Your grandfather would scoff at the idea of a mid-morning snack. Eating normal food for breakfast lunch and dinner, and avoiding snaking goes a long way.

I am now on week four of changing my eating habits and have lost in the region of 4.5/5kg (sorry gone metric but you can work that out).

At 103/4kg and 180cm the motivation to change was twofold, improve my road fitness and feel less lardy in general.

With absolutely no scientific insight I have done the following-

Bought some digital scales, weighed myself morning and night and record the results.
Reduced alcohol to a couple of glasses of red on a Friday night, none through the week.
Cycled to and from work everyday, 6 miles,ish.
Done my regular week night and weekend rides.
Drink loads of that posh sparkling water,

Eaten a mix of-
Salad leaves various types inc spinach.
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Salad croutons
Boiled egg
couscous(dont even know what that is)
roast chicken(in the salad)
smoked mackeral(in the salad)

toast with butter and lashings of marmite. (on a morning usually when i get to work).
Couple of cups of nice coffee no sugar in the morning.

Bananas as snacks on rides or late afternoon.

Theres also been a couple of occasions I have had piece of pizza or a rib at a BBQ and maybe the occasional biscuit with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

The outcome of this so far is I,m down to 97kg this morning and that’ll probably be nearer 98kg this evening.

My jeans are all feeling pretty slack and the difference is notable even according to my hard to impress GF.

Lastly and of course most importantly last night on a short local road ride I set 10 personal records for the segments(thats all of them) which included 2 top 3’s.

So no science but it seems to work and no energy problems so far.

I have been on the Herbalife diet since 11th February when I weighed in at 96 kgs.

As of this morning I weigh 84.4 kgs

Typical weekly weight loss of 1 kg.

Feel much better, would like to get to around 82 kgs.

Eating normal food for breakfast lunch and dinner, and avoiding snaking goes a long way.

Yes it does, of course. There’s a bit of confusion here as to what people are talking about.

If you stuff your face with pies all day, then you start eating normally, of course you’ll lose weight. No-one’s saying that’s not true.

However there are lots of other situations. For example, if you already eat normally but are 5kg heavier than you’d like, what’s the most effective way of losing that without making yourself feel too miserable? If you always try to cut calories but always fail – why? What different approach may make it easier to continue eating healthily? If you are a fit cyclist who already eats well but can’t somehow manage to get down to racing weight, what can you do?

Etc etc.

Too many carbs was my downfall.

Eat much more protein now – NO snacking.

Mrs Grips just lost 5kg in 4 weeks on the iDave diet.

Nick,
I will donate the £5/lb to your site after my weigh in on 15th June.
Will be so embarrassing when you only get a tenner from me!
Orm and Cheep

Ormancheep – any and every donation is hugely appreciated!

Good luck with the diet – feel free to drop me a line if I can help (not sure how!)

Cheers, and thanks in advance,
Nick