diet tips: willpower?

[Kixkal]

Yes, if you are going to eat out, I would recommend looking at the menu in advance and choosing before you get there. Temptations will be too strong if not

 

[glenimp617]

for my birthday this year (last week actually), I joined the local gym and took up the offer of some 1-1 personal training.

I've had my consultation and body composition done and will have the nutrition stuff sorted this Friday. Next week we hit the gym. I've already learnt so much about how my body works, my weak areas, where my muscles are too strong in places versus too weak in others. He's given me some tips about diet already and have learnt so much. Being an IT guy, having a spreadsheet with numbers on is amazing! Seeing my diet plan with everything listed out such as calories, protein, carbs etc etc and knowing what I need to eat versus the energy my body is burning is really amazing. For the price I'm paying, it's a no brainer.

Basically, for losing weight you need to know how many calories your body is burning each day. There's a calculation for that somewhere. I'll find it if anyones intersted. Once you know that, you either carry on doing the same each day but eating less, or eat the same and do more exercise. Just work out what you like to eat, find the nutritional information, stick it in a spreadsheet to work out the daily totals and see where it falls. Burning 500 calories a day over what you eat is doable and will see a decent amount of weight loss.

I stopped eating junk 3 months ago and have dropped to 18.88% bodyfat. That's just with cutting out chocolate, crisps, bread and making sure evening meals aren't rubbish like pizza or chips. No takeaways or eating out either. Once you go all in, it's really quite fun. I've also added in a few walks in the week just to hit 400-500 calories burnt off for good measure. My belt has had to have two extra holes punched into it so definatlely dropping the fat.

My next stage it to increase muscle mass, as bigger muscles burns more fat so it's a win, win. My bodyfat will increase through whilst I do this.

at the end of the day, if someone REALLY wants to lose weight they will.

 

[JBuk]

I find the toughest part about losing weight is having the willpower to overcome the cravings mainly caused by my body craving the sugar I'm so used to, once I'm over that hurdle I never really crave any food and I eat only when I need to rather than binging for the sake of it

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Apples and cups of tea.

 

[GTanny]

It might seem obvious but I think you need to find the diet that suits your taste. Be it a diet that restricts things or just changing your eating habits (portion size etc...)

I know its the popular thing at the moment but I am currently doing Keto and I'm absolutely loving it, I've always been overweight as an adult, lowest I have been is 14st when I was 18 and lived alone so main the I did was work.

My starting weight was 19st (waving between 18.5-19.5 st for far too long) I'm 5"9 and currently I'm 27lb down and I have no intention on changing my eating habits, it no longer feels like a diet to me, I do still get the odd craving for sweet things but there are a surprising number of Keto friendly sweets/snacks available - current favorite at mint Fulfil bars. The main difference I have found is im just not that hungry as often as I was, looking through the posts the Paul Makenna one is a tactic that helps me too - when you're hungry drink some water and wait 20 mins.

Other advice I definitely agree with is that yes you can eat out but you need to think about it more then just picking the thing that appeals to you the most - that may be different if you go for a general calorie deficit diet but being low carb means a lot of side dishes are a no for me

 

[Daff_Duck]

For what it’s worth. I got the Doc to prescribe Orlastat that linked with Swimming 3 times per week (no more than 30 mins) and not all length to length, mix it up by stretching and power walking in water has helped me lose 21lbs in 7 weeks. I will see how things go over the next few weeks as now their is a lot less fat the gains may slow down

Yes, I have cut a bit of sugar out but I still have my biscuits and chocolate. I just make sure it’s not a regular thing

 

[Tony Edwards]

Never gets old.

 

[thegreysquirrel]

I lost 5 stone by counting calories. Downloaded myfitnesspal, set it to 1600, and ate whatever I wanted.

I knew what was healthy and what wasn't, so very slowly I just transitioned to healthier options when the opportunity was there. Seeing as you tend to get far more food for your 1600 calories when you eat healthy, rather than about 3 donuts, it was a pretty easy step to take. I still have takeaways every other week, and though it knocks me back for a few days, it's worth it. I don't worry about these fad diets or keto or fasting, it's just too restrictive to me and for most people, unnecessary. I also workout every other day for no more than 20 minutes, but it's an absolutely brutal 20 minutes.

This all took about 6 years with ups and downs but I now maintain a very healthy weight and am just about getting a visible 6 pack (which has been a goal for many years).

It does take a lot of willpower but by counting calories I just let that dictate when I'd had enough.

 

[WantoN]

The short answer is practice. Rather than write a huge spiel, I’ll pop in a few bullet points that will hopefully prove impactful.

• The longer you do it, the better you’ll get. Like I said, practice!
• The more often you eat well, the less you’ll crave bad food
• The less often you eat crap food, the more you’ll enjoy good food
• Exercise increases your motivation to eat well, and the satisfaction you get from it
• Drink more water, drink less coffee
• Drink more caffeine free ‘teas’ (Rooibus, Pepperment etc) Drink less fizzy crap
• Get sweeteners out of your diet, they’re awful things
• Get a good night of 6-8 hours, get to bed early
• Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon, and don’t write off the day.
• If you must eat crap, eat less of it. Cut out a side, don’t have chips.
• Every little thing is a big win
• Aim to be consistent, not perfect

And the big one, count your calories. MyFitnessPal can be incredibly impactful. Just make sure you’re diligent even if you have a really bad day.

 

[Kixkal]

Great!

 

[DrToffnar]

Good to see a lot of these posts cutting out the BS advise. Only way too loose weight is to grind it out using a reasonable caloric deficit. You can do cardio or weight training to assist but it really is 90% food related.

It's hard. Of course it is. If it was easy everyone would be shredded. Take comfort in the challenge and make every day a victory.

 

[FTM]

Eat the correct calories and burn more than you eat and you will lose weight

It's really that simple

pretty much this...was at the docs 3 weeks ago for my annual health check, blood sugar was a bit high and I had weighed in at 14 stone 2 which shocked me as our house scales must be out a bit

I am 5'10

any way...I have cut out any sweet things, no cakes, sweets, biscuits..or any other crap
no crisps
no white bread at all, any bread I do have is infrequent and always wholemeal now ( including any wraps or pittas)

lost a stone in those 3 weeks by just eating better, portion control ( cant emphasise this enough, have you seen how many calories are in a whole 12 inch pizza??!)
and no snacking on crappy food...and the gym purely for cardio stuff twice a week

aim to get down to 12 stone hopefully...get the fat off then start building a bit of muscle again

 

[FishFluff]

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.

Motivation never lasts. Even with a big event to train for. Discipline is what you need and that's built up when you form habits.

I'm training for a ridiculously long cycling event at the moment and there are times when I look at my bike and just cannot be bothered with the whole thing. But I do it anyway because I know that eventually that motivation will come back and I'll enjoy it again and would be kicking myself if I'd become unfit in the mean time.

Same thing with diet. The more you get in the habit of eating well, the more normal it becomes and the less being motivated matters.

 

[Energize]

Using the calculator my BMR is 2,200 calories, I walk 3 miles a day which based on the best estimates is around 180 calories, and I eat 2 meals a day totalling about 1,200 calories, occasionally just the one meal a day, so my defect is about 1,200 calories which equates to about 150 grams lost a day. Not the healthiest diet so I do take a multivitamin supplement, but in the long run my health will be better when I reach my target weight.

Yes there are occasional nights out but I stick to vodka and diet coke, I know it's 55 calories per unit of alcohol so I can make sure not to ever go over 2,200 and put weight on those occasions.

I find that engrossing myself in work makes me less interested in food and exercise actually seems to reduce my appetite.

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've seen this advertised on Amazon, the name and product picture made me think of gruel and was really off putting so I thought it would be horrible. But do you find it tastes good?

 

[Luckystrike123]

Huel is a funny product. It's marketed as "not a meal replacement" when really it is. The wife and I have bought a few bags of it, and whilst it's perfectly palatable and I love the eco/low impact food production I couldn't replace meals with it long term as I don't find it sates hunger.

In terms of my own weight loss I've been experimenting with intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting. I really think that time restricted feeding (16:8) is the way to go for me, with the occasional 36+ hour fast chucked in.

I'm currently aiming to complete my first long fast of 10 days (on day 4 atm) and I feel great: light, alert, not hungry at all and energetic.

 

[BoyceyLDN]

Huel is a funny product. It's marketed as "not a meal replacement" when really it is. The wife and I have bought a few bags of it, and whilst it's perfectly palatable and I love the eco/low impact food production I couldn't replace meals with it long term as I don't find it sates hunger.

In terms of my own weight loss I've been experimenting with intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting. I really think that time restricted feeding (16:8) is the way to go for me, with the occasional 36+ hour fast chucked in.

I'm currently aiming to complete my first long fast of 10 days (on day 4 atm) and I feel great: light, alert, not hungry at all and energetic.

So your only drinking water for 10 days? You will have to let us know how much weight you lose

 

[Luckystrike123]

So your only drinking water for 10 days? You will have to let us know how much weight you lose

Yes I've just had water, black coffee and electrolytes. Unfortunately I caved in after 96.5 hours. My son is unwell which didn't help, but I feel that 4 days is a good effort.

When I've done this previously it was something like 0.8lb per day after I've re-carbed/hydrated.

 

[montymint]

Motivation never lasts. Even with a big event to train for. Discipline is what you need and that's built up when you form habits.

I'm training for a ridiculously long cycling event at the moment and there are times when I look at my bike and just cannot be bothered with the whole thing. But I do it anyway because I know that eventually that motivation will come back and I'll enjoy it again and would be kicking myself if I'd become unfit in the mean time.

Same thing with diet. The more you get in the habit of eating well, the more normal it becomes and the less being motivated matters.

This really. I've moved to a low carb lifestyle and generally I've enjoyed the past 2-3 months that I've been doing it. I found week 1 and 2 the hardest, then as habits formed I found staying keto much easier to the point where if offered, I could easily refuse chocolate, crisps etc.

That being said I've broken keto on 3 occasions. My Birthday, the mrs birthday and a large summer social event. healthy lifestyles are good, but I never want to let it get in the way of life.

 

[Angilion]

[..] I've seen this advertised on Amazon, the name and product picture made me think of gruel and was really off putting so I thought it would be horrible. But do you find it tastes good?

I found that it tasted innocuous, but I wasn't paying much attention to the taste. It's food as a fuel, not food as a taste. It's likely to taste inoffensive to everyone, but since taste is extremely subjective then the only true test for anyone is to try it.

It doesn't mix easily, so if you want it completely smooth you'll probably want an effective mixer. I didn't care - a quick whisking with a fork and I drank it down with a few lumpy powdery bits in it. I ought to get some more and use it for breakfast. I tend to either not eat breakfast or get something on the way to work and both are bad for me in different ways.

 

[MikeTheNative]

It sucks for the first few weeks but after you get into a routine it's the new 'normal' then it's not too bad. I've put on a stone from earlier this year.....
From next week I'm hitting the salad hard though.