diet tips: willpower?
- Thread starter BoyceyLDN
- Start date
Just because two things release the same amount of energy, doesn’t make them equal, especially from a metabolic point of view, for the sake of argument try it for yourself:
Buy a McDonald’s large fries: 500 calories (150 grams of food)
Buy 500 calories of lettuce and carrots. (That’s roughly 1KG of food)
Compare how you feel after eating each one, then try and tell me with a straight face, that both had the exact same effect on your appetite.
They both have the same amount of calories, but both provide completely different sensations of satisfaction and fullness, when metabolised by the digestive system.
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Soldato
cant offer advise as i havnt a clue what im talking about in health and fitness but im 6ft 1 and 14.5 stone ,always called slim or even skinny by other people but hey ho
i tend to have a big high protein veggie not vegan breakfast about 7 am then go lighter on lunch (used to get large chips with everything but ended up half asleep)and tea
trouble is i have very long weekends and drink too nuch ,then eat junk like cream crackers with slabs of butter on
seeing the benefits of a 16 kg kettlebell its the only thing ive bought that ive kept up to ,that surfing and a physical job keep me in ok shape ,
i tend to have a big high protein veggie not vegan breakfast about 7 am then go lighter on lunch (used to get large chips with everything but ended up half asleep)and tea
trouble is i have very long weekends and drink too nuch ,then eat junk like cream crackers with slabs of butter on
seeing the benefits of a 16 kg kettlebell its the only thing ive bought that ive kept up to ,that surfing and a physical job keep me in ok shape ,
Associate
- Joined
- 11 Aug 2011
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- 682
Whilst time restricted feeding limits calories intake it's not the only mechanism at work, when fasting your body produces large amounts of growth hormone.
I've read a study where the researchers fed to groups of mice the same total number of calories with one group fed daily and the other fasted on alternate days. The fasted group had lower body fat and more muscle mass.
Also fasting promotes autophagy and reduces LDL cholesterol production in your liver. Very powerful effects in you are interested in longevity.
What is so hard to understand...
"A calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius"
I am not arguing the merit of food types, I am a arguing that a calorie is just that what i have posted above, So for the normal everyday Joe who eats 2500 calories a day and you burn/use 2700 you will lose weight. It is not mystical skulduggery its the laws of physics. If you want to be mental and eat 2500 calories of lettuce go for it.... (yuck)
You haven’t understood anything I’ve written, to simplify further:
Eating calories from junk food, does not provide a feeling of satisfaction, therefore someone who has junk food in their diet, is more likely to eat more calories, and become overweight, because the quality of food providing the calories is very poor.
So whilst it’s true, that a calorie as a unit of energy provides a fixed amount of energy when metabolised, you must be able to see from the above example, the practical difference between how calories actually end up in the body.
It is true even I was shocked and the doctors could not understand how, my BMI is 18 and I can eat what I like.
I am underweight but don't look like I am from a POW camp.
Swings and roundabouts with some people.
I’ve become a bit of a fatty compared to adonis-like self of old. I can definitely recommend Huel, the ‘meal substitution’ shake. It’s far tastier than the dire, dire whey shakes I used on and off in my youth and is a great way of limiting my calories. Simply, I have a 450 calorie shake mid morning, which fuels me to have a light lunch and a light dinner (or rather, ‘normal portions’) really quite easily.
At 16 stone, I lost half a stone quite easily over a steady period of a couple of months just by doing this and otherwise not being overly concerned about my food intake. Let’s face it, when you are a chubster losing weight is a bit a doddle if you have the slightest bit of willpower
Other strategies:
Avoid cooking unduly massive portions.
Don’t let yourself come home from work starving.
Don’t eat pointless snack foods like crisps and biscuits regularly. At a social gathering or at a friends house, fine, but if sat at home or just bored at work put it down.
Drinking coffee is a good appetite suppressant.
At 16 stone, I lost half a stone quite easily over a steady period of a couple of months just by doing this and otherwise not being overly concerned about my food intake. Let’s face it, when you are a chubster losing weight is a bit a doddle if you have the slightest bit of willpower
Other strategies:
Avoid cooking unduly massive portions.
Don’t let yourself come home from work starving.
Don’t eat pointless snack foods like crisps and biscuits regularly. At a social gathering or at a friends house, fine, but if sat at home or just bored at work put it down.
Drinking coffee is a good appetite suppressant.
Commissario
Don't go to the supermarket when you're hungry.
Associate
When you see a Mars bar or burger don't eat it.
It's easy enough to find temporary willpower and then return to previous bad habits a few months later. Do that myself fairly often.
I'm not sure where motivation that lasts comes from. Does it stem from a specific event or goal? Can you really turn it on one day and keep it up ad infinitum?
How you find and sustain your motivation is doubtless an individual thing. I don't have any answers.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2007
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- 4,093
I had this problem a few years ago and was getting bad reflux/ indigestion from being overweight.
I cut my lunches on Mon-Thurs to 5 ryvita and a banana or packet of crisps. I don’t snack and just have a normal dinner. I dont go to the gym but do go for a walk around my local park 3/4 times a week. Seems to keep me in shape these days.
I cut my lunches on Mon-Thurs to 5 ryvita and a banana or packet of crisps. I don’t snack and just have a normal dinner. I dont go to the gym but do go for a walk around my local park 3/4 times a week. Seems to keep me in shape these days.
Man of Honour
[..]
I remember reading about a study recently that meal replacement shakes (not gym protein shakes) were one of the best ways to lose weight and the NHS was going to consider prescribing them (something like that) so me and the wife have got loads of different flavours in and we've been doing that. They are really tasty but they don't fill you up like a good meal[..]
Part of the problem is that "meal replacement" doesn't have a defined, regulated meaning. So you don't really know what you're getting unless you at least look at the nutrion label for the very basics.
For a genuine meal replacement, I'd recommend Huel. The name sounds like someone being sick, which is unfortunate, but it's a contraction of "human fuel". It's everything you need in the appropriate proportions, to such an extent that it's possible to live solely on Huel and water. Since it's just powdered food, you can flavour it with pretty much anything. Or have it as is, since it tastes fine by itself. I found that it's filling. I tried it for a week or two and I didn't feel hungry. I wanted solid food, but that was psychological. I did the full monty - Huel and water and nothing else - but it also works well as a replacement for a meal or two. From what I've read, the owner has Huel for breakfast and lunch and a normal meal for dinner. It's not magic, so it won't do anything in itself to reduce your weight. It's not a fad diet, so it doesn't claim to do so. What it will do is make calorie control easy (since any given amount always has the same amount of calories) while maintaining a healthy diet.
One little caveat - most people eat much less fibre than is good for them. Since Huel has a healthy amount of fibre, it's likely that it will be more fibre than a person is used to eating. Increased pooping is quite likely for the first few days.
I think besides motivation, having sustainable habits is key. Doing things in a manner that are doable in a long term for you, rather than forcing yourself to do things over a short period of time.
E.g. Motivation to do sports. Just do something that you enjoy; or that you don't mind as much. There is no need to force yourself to run or to go to the gym if you don't like that. Play footy with friends or do other stuff that has a similar positive effect.
As for infinite motivation, I don't think such a thing exists. Almost everyone has ups and downs, unless you have a super strong goal that pushes you to your best everyday (not such a thing in my opinion).
I agree with you, Angilion, that meal replacements have bad stigma partially due to the "efinition being so liberal.
Huel is no doubt a great recommendation. I use various meal replacements, as part of my job, and right now I'm on breakfast and lunch (plus after gym snack) and have a regular meal for dinner. It helps me reaching my nutrition goals (protein), reduces hassle at lunch time, and honestly it has improved my previous breakfast (two toasts).
Huel is a very professional brand, and while the product has some downsides (perhaps not the easiest for newbies), the company does give you the insurances.
Soldato
Don't eat out. Every time someone says 'let's go to Nandos' invite them to yours. You CAN cook tastier and healthier food.
You know what's in it and you can eat more because less salt, fewer calories, and it tastes better. Win, win, win.
Edit: and better value.
You know what's in it and you can eat more because less salt, fewer calories, and it tastes better. Win, win, win.
Edit: and better value.
Soldato
I think people need to have realistic goals, if you hate doing something then is it worth doing forever if it makes you miserable?
Lots of people may not enjoy going to the gym it doesnt mean you cant replace that with a walk in the park with some earphones in....still burns calories
I've found this guy's videos entertaining and informative personally for diet thoughts, the enthusiasm is nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7k42xqVvU
He's a pro bodybuilder and diet coach, used to compete natural, now using steroids to compete at the higher end (and happily talking about it) his videos tend to be about diet and steroids, usually separately.
Very keen on eating a mentally sustainable diet and has a history of over 50 bodybuilding competitions as evidence he can keep it up, he's still doing competitions in his 40's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7k42xqVvU
He's a pro bodybuilder and diet coach, used to compete natural, now using steroids to compete at the higher end (and happily talking about it) his videos tend to be about diet and steroids, usually separately.
Very keen on eating a mentally sustainable diet and has a history of over 50 bodybuilding competitions as evidence he can keep it up, he's still doing competitions in his 40's.
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Man of Honour
I watched a video about 2 media people who went to a personal trainer who specialises in training actors to get a specific shape for a role. They had a limited amount of time (couple of months), so it was a case of "how far can we get in this amount of time?" During that time, some friends invited them out to a burger place. They phoned the trainer and asked him what they could eat at this place. 1 small beef patty, at most, if they really wanted to. Just the patty, by itself. No bun. No sauce. Nothing else at all. They didn't go.
The results were very impressive, but that was with a personal trainer always available to them and with the training as their job and the focus of their life because they were being paid to do it that way (i.e. like an actor shaping to play a specific role).
Soldato
There's no reason anyone can't learn to cook all the highstreet food types: curries, Chinese, pizza, fish and chips, Nandos, sushi, whatever. It will take practice and time, which many people will say they don't have.
Soldato
In a similar vein, I read a newspaper article a couple of years ago that said if you absolutely must eat out then choose the best options. In the curry house it was daal soup and tandoori chicken. At Nandos and the chippy, remove the batter, etc.
Makes the visit pointless, really.