Diet/weight

[Ravens Nest]

It's a bit easier to keep your weight down when your younger, i'd think that if you can get yourself out of bad habits early it will be less of a pain to keep that 11 stone or above and not add a couple of stone later..

I myself am 5 foot 5 and weigh between 12-13 stone it's really hard to lose the weight and my metabolism isnt that great anything i eat go's straight on my stomach and under the chin

A good habit i have got out of is buying 2 bottles of 2 litre coke a week and drinking it to myself over the next 3-4 days, i now just have dilutable and/or fruit juices.

That took away 1/2 a stone of my weight with-in two weeks

Now just to find a way to lose the other couple of stone to go with it, and not get it back on again.

At 19 i was 9 1/2 stone and im 30 in two weeks and i weight 12 stone 8 at the moment.

[Tumble]

I believe Tumble is obliged to give that response

well.. yeah.. but really i hadn't noticed.. THE TRUTH!!! partly because I think we've both been bitten by the belly monster...

[lynni]

right ok this is what we both look like, this was taken in october last year...

.... before we bitten by the belly monster!

[Lujan]

You can be fat at any weight. I was 6ft1 and weigh 90kgs. This doesnt sound a lot for someone of my height. However, a full 25% of that was fat. I looked skinny enough but the fat was mainly around my waist. Too much cheep booze at the union

If I weigh 90kgs with say 10% bodyfat, i'll be a happy man!

With regards to BMI, I dont value that measurement at all. You get a good rating as long as your waist is smaller than your hips, irrespective of actual waist size. Bodyfat %age is a far better indicator imho. Also, following your weight using scales is not that worthwhile either as your weight can be greatly affected by things such as hydration levels as well as muscle glycogen stores.

The Atkins diet may be extreme but the general principle is sound imo. Cut down your overall levels of carbs to a moderate level. I.e. not low. BUT, these carbs that you do eat should come in the form of complex carbs. Porridge, sweet potato, wholemeal or granary bread (stay away from wholewheat bread - it's a con), brown pasta and veg should be your main sources of carbs. These carbs take longer to breakdown and so provide a slow-digesting and longer lasting energy supply.

Stay away from crisps, biscuits, chocolate, white bread, white pasta (in short, all the really nice stuff). Anything highly refined is generally not what you want. Aside from containing tons of crap stuff in them, in large quantaties they create insulin spikes in the bloodstream causing the storage of fat.

Also, the idea that you need a low fat diet to lose fat is a myth, once again imo. What you need to do is eat the right amount of fats that are healthy for you and stay away from the bad, heart disease causing ones. Avocado's and dry roasted peanuts are good sources of the good stuff. Try to have a bit everyday. Believe it or not the fat contained in these foods helps to kickstart fat metabolism.

Drink loads of water, ice cold if you can manage it. Since the body can only absorb water at a warmish temp, if you drink ice cold water, the bosy needs to spend calories warming it up. Aim for at least 2litres per day. I drink 3. An easy thing to do would to buy a 1.5litre evian bottle. Fill it once in the morning and make sure it's gone by say 2pm. Then refil and make sure that's gone by the time you go to bed.

[fondie]

lean protein + veg + fruit + some carbs

as zak says, drink lots of water, it's amazing how fluid sorts out that hunger you thought you had

eat often, but small and healthy, as well as helping to curb the hunger, stops you from feeling bloated and aids digestion

an hour in the gym a day is great, for so many reasons!

i feel a bit silly saying all that though i'm sure as a nurse you know all that already

it's difficult to get into the habit of eating the right stuff at the right times and dragging yourself along to the gym, and for that, just need will power, though the support of friends can help, making the gym a regular date with friends, who probably need dragging along anyway helps to keep you going on a regular basis

and then it all becomes second nature

you're obviously not fat, but keeping fit and healthy can only be a good thing, makes you feel better in yourself, you have more energy, and once you do get into that kind of routine, it just becomes the normal, rather than an effort. a diet and going to the gym for a month in the long term doesn't get anybody anywhere

bob

[Elmo]

With regards to BMI, I dont value that measurement at all. You get a good rating as long as your waist is smaller than your hips, irrespective of actual waist size. Bodyfat %age is a far better indicator imho. Also, following your weight using scales is not that worthwhile either as your weight can be greatly affected by things such as hydration levels as well as muscle glycogen stores.

ur BMI is based on your height, weight and bodyfat % iirc (i could be wrong, it was last year)

we did this last year. We had small groups in a room set free with the calipers measureing the skinfolds - oh that was fun :/

but i turned out at exactly my ideal weight... shame i'm now overweight according to it *sigh* oh well, when it starts getting sunny again i'll lose it, it always happens. Everyone gets podgy over winter - it's to keep us warm!

[Lujan]

Ah crap

I thought it was the one where you divide your waist size by your hip size?

My bad. Sorry

[scottyman]

don't worry - I'm 186cm (about 6ft 1 I think) at 100kg... I'm doing plenty of light weights and walking 2 hrs a day... but I'm putting on weight. the spare tire won't go away as I'm not doing crunches anymore - but it doesn't look like it's there as I've got overdeveloped shoulders and legs.
I'm 5kg over my ideal weight, but not worried about it too much.
Don't know what that is in stones, but I'm fairly sure it's not great.
If I can drop the tire I'll be a happy chap, but priority is getting diet sorted and getting enough variation in there so you're not tempted to eat junk food. I've just replaced puddings and icecream with yoghurt, and started eating breakfast again.... but forgetting about lunch (bad idea) - if you can remember to have a decent sized lunch and just a snack for dinner, you'll end up burning calories during the day rather than metabolising to fat overnight.

It's that same old chestnut... when I was working in an office with a caff, I'd have brekkie at 6am, lunch at 1 then practically nothing for dinner and the weight just came off me like water off a duck's back.

[lynni]

u know how yesterday we had a discussion about my weight? i weigh according to the boots scales, 12stone!!!! im off swimming, now this weight will come off

[Zak33]

swimming....much much better than the Gym...

[steve threlfall]

NO CARBS AFTER FIVE!



Sounds like you just need to regain control of the waist lynni. Everyone knows fad diets are for lazy buggehs who want to lose 14 stone in a day . Atkins is apparently fairly safe as long as its only done for the two weeks starting a diet- that is according to 'top dieticians' dont trust those medical types personally

Healthy eating and exercise is key of course Go for the swimming, early as possible as soon as the swimming pool opens- burn more calories that way.

Snack on fruit and veg- boring for sure but you can pretend its choclate

Work out at the gym too, to look good naked, works for me

Dont eat bread with meals or overdose on the carbs at all really.

Will power... good luck

I have a recipe for making so called 'fat burning soup' from a dietician. I can dig it out if anyone wants it. Involves cabbage- tastes erm unpleasant but does really work.

[scottyman]

stay away from the soup is my advice! Mate of mine was on it for a couple of weeks and he reeked! We were working in a CAR (Central Apparatus Room) which is on seperate cooling systems and aircon - it just stunk to high heaven!

Good for dropping the pounds - but it's like atkins, where you're replacing meat and starch with cabbage!

[Zak33]

nothing wrong with meat...in moeration.

Besides...Lynni is a nurse....she needs a good balance of diet tokeep her concentration levels high....

she'll be good she's a bright lass

[Kezzer]

I'm 5`6 and weight about 9 and a half stone. I've got quite a bit of fat on me but I don't really mind, i just have to try hard to keep it off. Also I have this thing where I can't bloody cook! So healthy foods are hard to find! lol.

[scottyman]

well kezzer - there's plenty of advice in here! just ditch those junk foods and get some exercise! Since I took up golf that helps loads also... mate of mine has dropped about 10kgs from playing twice a week!

[lynni]

I'm 5`6 and weight about 9 and a half stone. I've got quite a bit of fat on me but I don't really mind, i just have to try hard to keep it off. Also I have this thing where I can't bloody cook! So healthy foods are hard to find! lol.

That isnt fat!! ive just been swimming, not sure how many lenghts we did cos it was full of scally kids splashing about possibly 15-20, we was there about 20 minutes.... thanks zak, im bright huh? cheers!

And funnily enough i feel so much better now, we didnt do much but its helped tons