Diets - got any that work?

New Year - new me - well that’s if I can find a suitable diet to accompany going to the gym and swimming.

Got a good diet? share it with the fat bloke please. lol;)

Cut out biscuits, crisps, sweets, deserts, and cut down the alcohol.

Generally eat less and exercise. I’ve lost a lot of weight this year but still have more to loose.

1/1/2009 my mass was 107.2KG (16st 12lbs)
1/1/2010 my mass is 90.1KG (14st 2lbs)

Another 10KGs is the target.

Lots of fresh fruit and veg, cut out saturated fats as far as possible - use olive or sesame oil for cooking
Red meat once a week, with the fat removed.Lots of fish, shellfish and chicken.Use plenty of garlic and chilli and anything tastes good :slight_smile:
I was told at the end of october I had to sort myself out or I’d be diabetic in 10 years and probably have heart disease too.I lost over a stone in the first 10 days of the new me.It has slowed a fair bit the last couple of weeks with all the drinking… but now back on track.I weigh 18.5 stone right now, and am aiming for around 15 stone by the start of TT practice week at the end of may.I have more blood tests in february to see if what I’ve done has (literally) saved my life and if a glutton like me can do it then anyone can.You don’t need to go for any faddy diets, just change the way you eat.Make sure you know the levels of fat in the foods you eat, and try to stick to unsaturated fats.Avoid processed food - good home-cooked food is cheaper and tastes better anyway.Cous-cous is a good staple…
Good luck !

I have tried diets in the past and they are ok if you stick with them but once you stray off a bit the weight goes back on.
What i am doing now is eating sensibly, no cakes, biscuits and inbetween snacks.

If you are training on a regular basis, ie 4-5 times a week then you will need to make sure you eat. Not a good idea to cut out a meal a day for example.

If you are just concentrating on cardio work, running, cycling, swimming then make sure you have plenty of carbs, pasta, chicken, tuna etc

The hardest part is keeping to the exercise if you can keep to a regime for more than 3 weeks then you should be ok, get yourself a heart monitor to wear while your exercising and try and keep your heat rate in the area tha fits your age and weight this will help you monitor the amount of calories you are burning off.

You arelikely to see a big lose in the first couple of weeks, it’s not always going to fall of that easily, stick with it and you will definately see the changes.

Good luck

Thanks people, all taken on-board, 2010 the year of the “fat bloke slim”! lol

Also, try and measure your progress and set yourself some goals.

Don’t jump on the scale every morning as your weight can vary a lot from day to day - rather do it once a week.

Depending on how serious you are you could also go out and buy a body fat caliper (manual or electric) and some myotape and then take notes every week to see how it’s working out. Oh, a weekly picture also is not a bad idea.

I found quite a bit of inspiration following www.johnstonefitness.com - check out his monthly pictures www.johnstonefitness.com/all/front/m.php - pretty impressive.

Throw away the scales, and just use a tape measure once a week

Don’t throw them away, but don’t become obsessed either. Weigh your self once a week, at the same time ie first thing Monday.

That depends on whether you are using weights, if you are and start bulking up your weight will increase but your fat levels are likely to reduce so you will not see the true effects. If you are just purely looking at loosing weight then concentrate on cardio work and use the scales once a week as mentioned. About 75% of weight lose will be down to your diet but will only work with regular exercise.

This is what im going to be doing as from next week, it maybe what your looking for [ Beachbody Insanity Workout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLK28BHJDd8 ] my mate is doing it at the mo and its working for him.

Any American informercial for a diet package makes me thing “bullshit”… but I’m kind of tempted ;[

eat less, exercise more.

No i was just on about the workout lol

Reduce your fat, sugar intake…you can also reduce carbs (depending how heavily you are gymming tho!) Increase protein and veg & fruit…Do a lot of cardiovascular exercise!

And give yourself plenty time to lose weight…don’t think it will happen overnight…stick to it at least 4 to 5 months.

Good luck!

Its a balance. You should only eat the calories you are going to use…and in fact a little bit less in your case to lose weight.
I eat whatever I want whenever I want but I know that I go to the gym enough to allow that…and when I go to the gym, I do lots of cardiovascular exercise to burn calories.

If you have never done so before, I would recommend looking at the calorie and fat content of the food you eat as you may be surprised by some stuff eg I would think nothing of eating a chocolate muffin for breakfast from a petrol station but actually the calorie and fat content is horrific so I know I need to eat better or less during the rest of the day. I wouldnt recommend applying that principle to mean you can eat a whole packet of biscuits and starve the rest of the day as your metabolic rate will slow down…its better to eat small healty meals/snacks every 4 hours when you are awake.

In my opinion diets are a waste of time…they recommend food that you dont like, cant be ar5ed making and cant get easily…and you will almost always put the weight back on when you start eating normal food again. Just change your diet to cut out processed foods, fats, unnecessary sugar and have less of the bad stuff that you dont need eg mayonnaise, extra butter on your bread.

Eat less, move more…its simple. Good luck

Swine flu, 2 stone in 2 weeks.

one of the best ways you can improve your nutritional intake is to focus on what you’re going to ‘do’ in positive terms. i.e. what good food can i get for breakfast, midmorning, lunch, mid-afternoon and evening.

most diets and weight loss tend to be focussed on what you’re going to remove - ’ I’m not going to eat bread, i’m going to avoid chocolate’ etc. the issue with this is that the brain cannot process a ‘dont do’ instruction/thought without visualising the very thing you’re trying to remove from your food routine. you think about it, then you want it.

as anita mentioned food intake can be very deceptive and studies have shown that most people underestimate their intake by as much as 50%. understanding what you eat will make a big difference in making contructive changes. As will taking the time to work out what a portion size should actually be.

Also try to make improvements gradually to the way you eat. going from your current habits to some idea of food perfection the following day is tough and most people will struggle to keep it going (and is very much a ‘diet’). Make changes that you think you can live with long term and try substituting better foods for some of the more calorific parts of your diet. that can be as simple as switching to brown rice/pasta etc initially.

(oh and skipping meals is one of the worst things you can do for a whole host of reasons, especially missing breakfast).

Brown rice, fish and veg, olive oil, no sugars or junk food, alcohol twice a year. Gym 3 times a week. I did that for 8 years cos I was on the broo, nowadays a full-time job means I’m a fat git. Weigh about the same, just no muscle tone :slight_smile:

Cut out carbs in the afternoon, i have em for breakfast and lunch but meat and veg for dinner, seems to work for me.

If you’re going for regular exercise try and find someone to do it with, you can keep each other going.

If you want something naughty, have it. Just have a smaller portion, so for me… instead of a whole packet of jaffa cakes, i’ll have 4 jaffa cakes. :smiley: