Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?

[PetrolHead]

I have slowly been losing weight since last November, originally started on 98 Kilos I am now down to 85 Kilos, however it feels like it is taking forever.

I need to lose about another 10 Kilos to be within a healthy weight range for my height (175cm) but I can feel myself starting to come disillusioned with the whole process, being slim feels like miles off.

I go to the gym at least 4 times a week, 45 minutes of cardio per session, usually burning about 400 calories a time.

My weekday diet consists of

8am Large bowl of Cornflakes
10am Apple
11am Small fruit pot in juice (120g)
1pm Home made sandwiches (Using 50/50 bread and low fat marg)
3pm Low fat yogurt
7pm Evening meal usually chicken and rice or similar.

At the weekends I usually will eat out once or twice but I can't see how that would slow my weight loss down to a halt.

Where am I going wrong? Any suggestions/feedback/criticisms are welcome.

[dangel]

Have you measured your body fat? Weight alone is a really poor indicator and obviously you'll put weight on if you build up muscle (it's heavy). I picked up some scales (Kardoscan or something like that) with a detachable hand rail so I could get more of a feel for how I was doing.

[kalniel]

Cardio is great for health, not weight loss. Slow down some and you'll burn cals without putting on muscle (which sits under fat anyway so might not be noticeable).

[PetrolHead]

Have you measured your body fat? Weight alone is a really poor indicator and obviously you'll put weight on if you build up muscle (it's heavy). I picked up some scales (Kardoscan or something like that) with a detachable hand rail so I could get more of a feel for how I was doing.

So there is specific scales that just weigh body fat? Didn't know they existed lol. Will look into it thanks.

Cardio is great for health, not weight loss. Slow down some and you'll burn cals without putting on muscle (which sits under fat anyway so might not be noticeable).

Ok I thought cardio was good for weight loss, If I want to lose weight quicker what should I be doing?

[dangel]

So there is specific scales that just weigh body fat? Didn't know they existed lol. Will look into it thanks.

No, they tell you you're weight but because you stand (barefoot) on metal pads and hold a metal bar (with lead) in your hands they can measure how much muscle versus fat you have (and track it). It's not hyper accurate but it's a far better way of measuring your body simply because muscle is much denser and therefore heavier than the fat you lose. I *think* this is close to what I have:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0033AGBV...SIN=B0033AGBVG

I'm no guru on this but I did shed a lot of weight (45kg) and learnt a lot in the process.

[kalniel]

Ok I thought cardio was good for weight loss, If I want to lose weight quicker what should I be doing?

It's OK for weight loss, but it's better for health/fitness, which is the underlying reason most people are interested in weight loss in the first place.

If you are specifically interested in weight loss then you can do cardio exercises, just at a lower intensity (and for longer).

But it's usually more effective (and quicker) to have a regular exercise regime and instead control your calorie intake. There are some online resources which will calculate what you need to reduce it to to hit a target weight for a given timeframe and exercise routine. Often they'll have facilities to enter your food intakes and exercises and chart your progress. My wife used one prior to our wedding and it was surprisingly accurate. Your diet sounds healthy, but you might have to control the quantities more precisely.

But as Dangel is proposing, forget BMI and go for fat/muscle ratio - it's a far better health indicator (and you'll probably find your weight settles in a more healthy range as a by product). Though there's an almost endless iteration of every more accurate health indicators (Next it's cholesterol.. then HDL/LDL ratio.. in the end you go for a bupa checkup and get a complete assessment of all sorts of things and recommendations )

[Zak33]

At the weekends I usually will eat out once or twice but I can't see how that would slow my weight loss down to a halt.

what are you talking about though? What do you eat while "eating out" at weekends? "Eating out" is not a bad thing... you can eat 5 slabs of lard at home.. or one healthy meal "out".. . so this might hold the secret.

Eating a good quality chicken salad "out" won't be it..

[ZaO]

What are you putting in those sarnies and what/where are you eating out? Also don't focus on weight, people always focus on it like it's so important. What matters is body fat percentage. You can tell by looking at yourself if you're to fat. No need to go by your weight. Weight loss starts to slow down when you get nearer to being ideal to. Muscle gain is the same when you lift weights. It always slows down just when you think it's starting to get good. Don't let it discourage you. You might wanna try different exercises and eating some different things. It often takes even harder work to burn off that last layer of fat once you've got through the thick of it.

[g8ina]

I would humbly offer "the stone age diet" as one to investigate.

I went on it a couple of months ago for medical reasons and I have lost almost a stone without trying.

No processed foods, and especially no wheat ! (ie, bread, pasta, biscuits etc)

[ZaO]

You mean the Atkins/Paleo diet? Some people do apparently lose weight quite well on on that but it's not a long term solution as it apparently increases risk of heart disease and cancer. Probably best avoiding if possible. That's my view on it anyways.

I would humbly offer "the stone age diet" as one to investigate.

I went on it a couple of months ago for medical reasons and I have lost almost a stone without trying.

No processed foods, and especially no wheat ! (ie, bread, pasta, biscuits etc)

[SiM]

My simple rules:

1) Restrict sugar consumption. 1 marginal calorie of sugar contributes more to weight gain than 1 marginal calorie of fat because of the body's hormone response to sugar. Forget low fat products - they are usually highly processed and high in sugar. Also most fruit juice is high in sugar. 90% of my sugar intake comes from whole fruit. Maybe once or twice a month I have a cake/cookie/ice cream as a treat. Only drink water, tea or coffee - no added sugar.
2) Eat natural nutrient dense food and minimise consumption of processed/low quality foods. E.g. avoid margarine and mass produced bread. Butter and sour dough bread are much healthier and taste nicer too. I'd suggest you make your own mind up about butter vs margarine, but I stick to my rule and eat the more natural, better tasting product in a sensible quantity.
3) Generally I found restricting carbohydrates intake and not worrying about fat intake works better for me. Big condition comes attached to this though, all the fats you eat should be healthy - e.g. nuts, avocado, olive oil, coconut fat
4) Exercise helps but is secondary in importance.

Edit: also cornflakes/corn is a pretty bad food. If you want something healthy for breakfast have something oat based.

[g8ina]

No Zao, definitely NOT Atkins !

Just google stone age diet and have a read, its quite fascinating, the concept being that we haven't evolved as fast as our food, so its basically fresh fruit, meat fish and veg, but nothing that wasnt around 10,000 years ago. I know thats a real generalisation, but as I said, have a read.

[kalniel]

Yeah the stone age diet is significantly healthier than Atkins. However it fails to take into account we HAVE moved away from a cave man lifestyle, so it's not all very well suited to office/sedentary lifestyles. The elimination of processed foods is great, the reduction of wheat is beneficial for many people who are mildly gluten intolerant without knowing (possibly quite a lot of people), but it contains more protein than we need in modern life so puts the liver under pressure, the high fat content isn't great for hearts if you're not really active all the time, and the simple carbs (sugar) content probably isn't good if you're wanting to prevent diabetes onset etc.

So if you're as active as a cave man (ie, trek/run across the countryside for most of the day trying to hunt food etc., and getting meat only once in a while) then it's probably fine - great even as there certainly are fewer digestive problems. Otherwise our more sedentary lifestyles are better suited to less fat, sugar and protein, and an increase in complex carbs that slow release energy. Atkins is terrible precisely because it offers the reverse of this!

If you're not gluten intolerant, then a mediterranean diet is probably the healthiest. But that's not the same as weight loss

[ZaO]

I see. Well that diet doesn't sound to bad but one thing people seem to forget today is that back then we didn't just have meat at our fingertips whenever the hell we wanted it. Our ancestors wouldn't have eaten anywhere near as much meat as people do today. Animals live such crappy lives and are pumped full of all sorts of drugs and hormones which people then consume along with the meat. Our intestines are much more similar to those of a herbivore also so we probably shouldn't eat meat more than once or twice a week. The huge food industry and expanding population has resulted in mass amounts of terrible quality food. The quality of the stuff people were eating back then must've been so amazing compared to what we have now! Keep it simple is the idea I guess. The less processed your food is the better

[OilSheikh]

These are my observations :

- That large bowl of corn flakes needs to be a medium bowl of Kelloggs specail K fruit / Kelloggs fruit & fibre with semi-skimmed milk ( you wont like skimmed ) and no sugar.
- Consider buying fresh fruits rather than buying fruits in pots
- Don't eat out on weekends. You are trying to lose a lot of weight. Eating out on weekends will nullify whole week's hard work. Remember, it is very easy to get fat.
- Don't touch Coke or any fizzy drink!
- Don't eat beef / lamb / bacon
- Don't eat anything that has chocolate in it
- Consider walking a lot during the day. If possible, get off at a train station before your stop and walk to work. ( Feasible in Central London only! )
- Drink 8 glasses of water in a day. Research proves that this washes out fat and people lost 5kg in 6 months by just drinking watr like this
- Don't sit at a chair at work for hours. Walk about round the floor once every hour
- Consider doing belly-dancing at home. No shame in it. Lots of people prefer this as an excercise to lose belly fat
- Buy a few ruby red grapefruits ( 3 for £1 in LIDL ) and drink a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice everyday.

[kalniel]

- Drink 8 glasses of water in a day. Research proves that this washes out fat and people lost 5kg in 6 months by just drinking watr like this

Have you got a link to the research paper that says this? Sounds completely wrong.