I do something similar with veg on my main meals - for example last night, I had 3 x 80g portions of Cauliflower, Brocolli and Green Beans with my meat - barely 100 calories for them, I made a light gravy with the veg water/bisto that equated to another 50 calories - adds a decent amount of volume that'll keep you full for hours.
*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***
- Thread starter AndyCr15
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Man of Honour
Same for me with a Sunday lunch. Kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots, peas, cauliflower probably make up over half my plate. Plus a few spuds and the rest will be meat. Any spinach left gets chopped up with other salad leaves over the week. Left over kale gets steamed and added to other meals on the side or sometimes just raw.
Sorry how do the sweeteners confuse the body?
There is nothing to support negative effects (body response diet wise) to sweeteners. There are many studies however which show that using sweetener alternatives to regular products almost always leads to calorie intake reduction and weight loss.
The sweeteners replace the already present sugar tastes in products so the confusion element makes no sense?
Personally ive also found that a Pepsi Max /Coke Zero has really helped me through the tougher times of my cut, for that nice little treat of sweet taste without the insane amounts of sugar in a regular version of such a drink.
Aye ive seen this stuff like this, on deeper review they don't actually trigger any greater insulin response to the alternatives. Obviously not consuming something vs consuming something is going to have a different insulin response, however sweeteners get an unnecessary bad rep when actually their downsides (compared to normal alternatives) are almost nil, and the upsides of WAY less cals far out way any negative!
Man of Honour
Back from a 17 night holiday and the scales say I gained 6kgs.
I'm calling it a dirty bulk.
Didn't really go mad food wise, but daily feta cheese starters, chips with almost every main course, plenty of deserts and alcohol every day soon mounts up calorie wise.
Add to that, almost the entire time either sitting down or lying down and you got a great recipe for gaining nearly a pound a day.
Although we did walk at least 4km a day and according to my smart watch I swam around 750m a day too.
Back to the gym five days a week, morning walks every day and 1800-1900 calories a day. At least until I get back to my pre holiday weight of 72kgs. Depending on how the 1800-1900 calories go I might keep going and try to break 70kgs.
I'm calling it a dirty bulk.
Didn't really go mad food wise, but daily feta cheese starters, chips with almost every main course, plenty of deserts and alcohol every day soon mounts up calorie wise.
Add to that, almost the entire time either sitting down or lying down and you got a great recipe for gaining nearly a pound a day.
Although we did walk at least 4km a day and according to my smart watch I swam around 750m a day too.
Back to the gym five days a week, morning walks every day and 1800-1900 calories a day. At least until I get back to my pre holiday weight of 72kgs. Depending on how the 1800-1900 calories go I might keep going and try to break 70kgs.
Man of Honour
I put 10lbs on over my stag weekend and dropped it all within 3 days of getting home. Unless you really smashed the food in to the point you were rolling around it'll be mostly water weight especially as you were on keto before you left weren't you?
Man of Honour
Not on keto.
Used to do 5/2 fasting for about 10 years. But tried eating maintenance calories from Feb 2022 and more or less maintained weight with moderate weekend cheating and far less alcohol.
Definitely gained belly fat. Top abs were showing a bit before holiday and they ain't anymore. I think I gain weight very easily, especially if I drink beer. Managed over 8kgs last Christmas and that was probably done in 8 days.
i agree with @tom_e a decent chunk of that is going to be waterweight/glycogen store replenishment. maybe 2-4lb max of fat, but dont forget 1lb of fat is equiv to a 3.5k+ calorie surplus over a week, so 13lb of fat over 17 days would have required a 2.7k SURPLUS minimum to achieve. Pretty sure even a holiday indulgence is not going to come close to that!
Man of Honour
I'd agree that it's not all fat.
But I ball parked calories some days in MyFitnesspal and I'd say I would've easily hit 4500 calories a day, against maintenance of 2200 calories
I mean 5 beers is 1000-1200 calories easy and I had at least that every day.
I estimated that a grilled feta starter was about the same size as the packs you buy in the supermarket and they are 200g. Thats 560 calories! My other favourite starter is feta saganaki with honey which is easy 700 calories.
Assembling my sandwich for work right now and tracking in MFP:
2 slices rye bread - 237 cal
Spread on 1 slice bread, spread thinly - 25 cals (5 grams)
Salad cream on 1 slice bread, spread thinly - 9 cals (9 grams)
Leerdammer slices x 2 - 142 cals
Honey roast ham - 68 cals
481 calories for a single sandwich - I used to make 2 of these daily, with more spread/salad cream, 3 or 4 slices of cheese and lots more ham. I was probably packing away 1200+ calories easily over lunchtimes.
what's the nutritional profile like for 100g of Tofu - don't think i've ever had it but looks very dense.^^ I think my dinner turned out at around 1200 last night.
I think it was 118 cal per 100g (a pack was about 400g before being drained) - and 1g of carbs per 100g.
Ideally, you'd drain it a day before you intend to eat it and let some paper towels soak up as much of the water as possible.
Then you can add garlic, ginger, tomato puree or whatever to add flavour. Plain tofu is pretty much tasteless, it's what you add that makes the difference.
Doing something right, same scale weight I was two years ago but tried on a polo shirt today that wouldn't fit two years ago and it fits fine, actually a little looser than before.
Once again re-emphasising, don't just go on scale weight.
Once again re-emphasising, don't just go on scale weight.
Hey guys, in the past i've had some good results just really stripping back my calorie intake to around 1000 per day if i want to lose weight (About 10 years ago I dropped 3 stone by doing a sub 1000 cal diet for 3 months).
I know people recommend not cutting back on calories that much as it makes it harder to push through a stall and easier to "Relapse" when you come off the diet, but are there any other reasons why it is a really bad thing to do?
I only ask as over the past 9-12 months my weight has been creeping up and I need to get it back down again so I was considering going for my 1000 calorie approach again. I'd normally fast until lunch (with maybe a fasted workout in the morning), then have a protein shake at lunch (protein powder, banana, almond milk and maybe some peanut butter) which would roughly be around 350-400 cals and then have as healthy as possible dinner in the evening. Surprisingly I don't really feel hungry and can get by on this kind of diet pretty well.
I've never counted macros but i tended to see pretty consistent weight loss every week as long as I stuck to the plan (and didn't drink booze or have cheat meals) but i'm wondering if there is maybe a "better" way to do this?
My weight doesn't typically yo-yo, its only gone up recently as i've been quite transient and moving around with changes in work and living circumstances so have found it difficult to stay on top of. I'm normally pretty good at going to the gym and generally being healthy, booze has been the big difference of late which I'm cutting right back on.
Long story short, say I wanted to lose 10-15kg (i'm probably about 87kg atm, 5ft 8/9) what would you recommend I do diet-wise? Should i mix it up and try something new or crack on with how i've always done it? I've always wondered if i'd get better results by tracking macros and that kind of thing but not too sure.
I've just plumped for a Huel package this morning too so will try and weave this in to my diet for consistency sake.
I know people recommend not cutting back on calories that much as it makes it harder to push through a stall and easier to "Relapse" when you come off the diet, but are there any other reasons why it is a really bad thing to do?
I only ask as over the past 9-12 months my weight has been creeping up and I need to get it back down again so I was considering going for my 1000 calorie approach again. I'd normally fast until lunch (with maybe a fasted workout in the morning), then have a protein shake at lunch (protein powder, banana, almond milk and maybe some peanut butter) which would roughly be around 350-400 cals and then have as healthy as possible dinner in the evening. Surprisingly I don't really feel hungry and can get by on this kind of diet pretty well.
I've never counted macros but i tended to see pretty consistent weight loss every week as long as I stuck to the plan (and didn't drink booze or have cheat meals) but i'm wondering if there is maybe a "better" way to do this?
My weight doesn't typically yo-yo, its only gone up recently as i've been quite transient and moving around with changes in work and living circumstances so have found it difficult to stay on top of. I'm normally pretty good at going to the gym and generally being healthy, booze has been the big difference of late which I'm cutting right back on.
Long story short, say I wanted to lose 10-15kg (i'm probably about 87kg atm, 5ft 8/9) what would you recommend I do diet-wise? Should i mix it up and try something new or crack on with how i've always done it? I've always wondered if i'd get better results by tracking macros and that kind of thing but not too sure.
I've just plumped for a Huel package this morning too so will try and weave this in to my diet for consistency sake.
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@R.O.S.S.I There's a few other elements to dropping so low in cals.
Downsides:
Upsides:
It gets you quick wins. In my view thats pretty much it.
Studies over and over again have shown that crash diets work temporarily and in the vast majority of cases the weight just gets put back on. Due to any combination of the above mentioned downsides.
It might be good to get some more information regarding what your goals are, and so a more sustainable approach can be suggested, also an expectation of how long you should take to do what you want to do. Why crash diet for 6-8 weeks of utter hell, to potentially hit your goal, to then rebound in the following months, when you can hit your target over 6 months where you are only actually in a deficit for 3-4 of those, for example?
Downsides:
- Harder to sustain - mentally not just physically, food is not only important for physical activity but for cognitive function as well.
- Impact on activity levels reduce even further due to less available energy coming in
- Detrimental to your metabolic health, ie if you sustain a low calorie intake over a period of time your body will adapt and lower its requirements
- Actually difficult to hit base levels of required nutrients to sustain normal healthy function, as an example most suggest at a very very minimum 30g of fats per day, and thats 270 cals, over a 1/4 of your target, in extremely low volume, low satiating food.
- No room for manoeuvre once you plateau
- Doesn't teach a healthy respect for food, or give you an understanding of how your body reacts to different levels of calories.
Upsides:
It gets you quick wins. In my view thats pretty much it.
Studies over and over again have shown that crash diets work temporarily and in the vast majority of cases the weight just gets put back on. Due to any combination of the above mentioned downsides.
It might be good to get some more information regarding what your goals are, and so a more sustainable approach can be suggested, also an expectation of how long you should take to do what you want to do. Why crash diet for 6-8 weeks of utter hell, to potentially hit your goal, to then rebound in the following months, when you can hit your target over 6 months where you are only actually in a deficit for 3-4 of those, for example?
Soldato
I've set myself a 1700 cals target per day on MyFitnessPal and along with the gym/exercises it should drop about 0.5kg a week I'd say but that's onyl if I am good. I got a stern message from the wife last night which has shaken me up to ensure I stick to it now.
Those are all very fair points, thanks for taking the time to reply.
I think i've always just associated a high caloric deficit to being the quickest way to drop weight. i.e a 1000-1500 deficit is going to lose me weight much quicker than just being 500-750 deficit, for example.
I genuinely never really found it "hellish", I usually felt quite full off the smoothie I made and made sure dinner was bulked up volume wise (with low cal foods) whilst being overall very healthy. Don't get me wrong it wasn't the most amazing time of my life from a culinary perspective, but it wasn't too bad.
I have also never really tracked calories properly previously and may start doing it now so was thinking about trying 1200 calories to get started. What kind of macro split would you recommend on 1200 calories?
My goals are to drop the 10-12kg I have put on in the last 12 months and then try and get myself down to 70kg. I used to box a couple years ago and was training pretty consistently, getting myself down to 72kg at one point but have typically hovered around 74-76kg for a long long time which I was quite happy with.
As said, i've got a gym membership again and have been going fairly regularly for the past few weeks but my diet has been all over the place so haven't been seeing the results, hence why I'm deciding to just buckle down on diet and go hard with things.
It also makes it hard when the social calendar is quite full as most of the time they are events that involve booze, which I know I have to cut out now (apart from next weekend when we go to Silverstone).