Need your advice guys- Female dieting advice

Steedie

Steedie

Steedie

Man of Honour
Joined
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Oxfordshire
Hi all,

My girlfriend is getting very down about her weight recently, she thinks she's massive and "let herself go". This couldn't be further from the truth, she has a great body, and it's just because we've been on holiday this last month and she went on a few big weekends away that she's feeling a bit like she's put on weight

But anyway, she's got herself a crosstrainer and does 10-15 minutes every morning, but what she's really concerned about is her diet. She doesn't really stick to anything at the moment. She eats fairly well, she's a vegetarian, so she eats plenty of fruit and veg and other healthy stuff, but she just doesn't know what she should be eating and how much. At the moment she has the 3 meals a day which I've told her is where she's going wrong for a start, should be eating 5-6 smaller meals a day.

The fact she's a vegetarian and combine that with my lack of nutritional knowledge outside of mass building, means I can't really help her like I'd be able too.

So if anyone could help come up with a plan for her, I'd appreciate it big time :)
The goals are just to lose weight really.

She is a vegetarian, but eats fish (I know :p) but other than that, she's not fussy

Thanks again guys, you'd be helping me out big time :D
 
get her on the cross trainer for 25 minutes - 10-15 minutes isn't worth bothering with IMO, it'll barely raise her heart rate

too long though - and she'll probably die of boredom

horrendous machines
 
Best advice I can give (limited) would be to do some research on the food that she currently eats, and what's contained within them - IE cals etc.

At least then she will have an idea of what she's actually eating, which will give her an idea as to how much she should/can be eating.

Having an understanding of nutrional contents of food is vital when cutting weight imo.
 
Just watch the calories and carbs, she's doing the right thing by exercising. I wouldn't go near a "crash" diet.

Upping the exercise after a few weeks could be the way to go aswell.
 
Oh no I'm not after a crash diet at all. I was hoping to set her up with a healthy diet to make sure she's eating enough to keep her metabolism working throughout the day, but eating the right things
 
If she is slightly overweight, then dropping the sugars/white carbs would be the way to go.

If she eats fish, thats fine, the fat in fish is healthy and keeps the body working, protein, fish = good. Lower portions of pasta's/rice/potato, stick with lower gi carbs, brown pasta/rice, sweet potatoes are lower GI than normal potatoes and taste better too. taste sweeter, odd :p

As someone said, do longer in any exercise if she wants to lose weight via exercise. The first 10-15mins you generally run on stored carbs as it takes a while for fat burning to really kick in, however it doesn't make a huge amount of difference, if you burn off those carbs in exercise your body should burn more fat after exercise when it would normally burn off the carbs.
 
What the guy above said. :)

A lot of people don't realise that carbs are a big contributer to weight gain, especially if you're not using it. Not saying that you didn't know this, mind.

Maybe she could also ditch the car in favour of cycling? This is a good easy to do exercise, that the majority of people can do.
 
She just probably needs to cut the the carbs as most people have said ..... reduce things like bread or switch to brown, high grain bread ..... reduce the amount of cheese (low fat dairy still recommended) ..... less pasta (pasta great for marathon runners who need stored energy).

Also a eat small meal for dinner as when you sleep you're body turns excess energy into fat ..... generally a big lunch or breakfast is better.
 
I agree with Bagdi, although would disagree about cycling.

It's a perfectly good form of exercise, no doubt about that, but only utilises the legs which results in less energy being used which means less calories are burned. Whilst X-trainers may be boring if you actually push/pull with your arms as opposed to just grip the handles/arms you'll use more energy = burn more calories.

If she want's to see so quick progress get her to drop her carbs, swap slices of bread for wholemeal pitta. Get some eggs in her for breakfast instead of cereal. Lots of vegetables with a lean meat (whatever veggie alternative is available) and mixed vegetables.

She can also do some bodyweight circuits along with her X-trainer in the morning, push ups (on knees if need be), jumping jacks, high knees jogging, mountainclimbers, burpee's etc. This can be a form of interval training if done correctly.

If you can log her current diet then it'd be easier to see what she's getting too much/too little of. Usually it's carbs, pasta predominatly, as people mistakenly think it's healthy, which it is but not every day of the week twice a day.

She doesn't need to starve herself to look good just eat well and move lots. Tell her not to let it get her down and use it as motivation/excitement for all the progress she's going to make.

I'd also be using this 'more cardio' as an excuse to have copious amounts of sex btw.

ps. glad to see you're back together?
 
the cutting out carbs works well (for me anyway) I eat jsut about anything I want thats under 5g per 100 of carbs and have now lost almost 17kg in 2(ish) months...
 
As said already, bring in the wholegrains to replace whitebread, pasta and rice.

Get her on the scales, take some measurements and just find out roughly what she needs to be taking in calories wise to maintain her weight.

You need a proactive mentality towards your diet to be healthy, If you do a weekly shop, Sit down and figure out what it is you're going to be eating daily. Check it's coinciding with your girls maintence requirements.

Then once you're set on the diet, 30 minutes on the stepper in the morning, plus do more walking. I know this isn't the same for everyone, but local to me is a shop, and I see loads of people jumping in the car for what is essentially a 10/15 minute walk! That's 30 minutes calorie burning right there!

If she catches a bus atall, Dont get on the stop that's closest to your house, walk to a stop further away! And also get off at that stop on the return journey and walk the rest of the way home

The sex advice above, its true! Turn the bedroom into the sex olympics!! It's an amazing calorie burner, And i guess it can be fun too :p
 
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BennyC said:
ps. glad to see you're back together?
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Yeah :p break up lasted a long time didn't it? :p

She admitted she made a rash decision and cut a story short, it didn't take her long to realise she made a mistake. So we shall see

But thanks for the advice guys :) knew you'd come good as always

And unfortunately, I tried the 100x more sex thing, she didn't buy it :(
 
Steedie said:
Yeah :p break up lasted a long time didn't it? :p

She admitted she made a rash decision
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Always better than having to make a decision because of a rash ;).

Of course to be able to give better tailored advice, first would would need her weight, age, heigh and a pic wearing only shorts for umm, body fat assessment, yes that's right ...

What... What.... we suggest the same for the guys looking for advice :D.

Weight, height and age would be helpful TBH.

Photos are optional, with or without hovis (or should that be buns ??).

A little exercise and lowering high GI foods will help (white pasta, potatoes, sugar, white bread etc). Whole wheat is more expensive but better (bread, pasta) Beancurd (tofu) is good for protein as are eggs and fish (eggs and veggie ?) which will help to keep any muscle mass she already has. More muscle, more calories burnt to maintain. Lose muscle and you can find yourself in a calorie deficit without even realising.

Depending on the local environment and whilst I would agree with Benny that X-trainers are better, cycling still exercises the bodies biggest muscles, gets you out and about to try and beat the boredom factor and can be done socially. Of all the gym cardio machines I have tried I prefer the cross trainer.

You could see if she wanted to take up a bit of fitness boxing (boxercise or the like) which should be great for fitness but remember to ask for the photos first :D.

RB
 
BennyC said:
I agree with Bagdi, although would disagree about cycling.
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I didn't mean it as an alternative, sorry if it came across like that, I meant as an additional exercise, plus there's the added bonus of saving money on travel expenses.
 
Badgi said:
I didn't mean it as an alternative, sorry if it came across like that, I meant as an additional exercise, plus there's the added bonus of saving money on travel expenses.
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V.true. You could spend the day cycling somewhere as a day out. Would come in handy when you're cutting for your comp steedie.
 
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