Weight loss

[russbeer]

I lost all of mine without exercise,in fact, they discourage it. But what malty says is true, you do crave things afterwards. I never had much of a sweet tooth before but now i love desserts and breads are not good calorie wise and that's another thing I've started to want more.

The diet i follow now is a banana or Apple for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and a normal tea under 600 cals.

Pasta, rice and breads might be reasonably low fat but are bad calories and carbs wise. Alcohol is the worst thing, any booze is bad booze. If you feel yourself getting hungry, drink a pint of water, it kills your pangs and is zero cals.

If you are fond of sweet things or sweets in general, Holland and Barratt sell packs of fruit chews called Frutus. They are 100% fruit, nothing artificial, only 95 cals a pack and count as one of your 5 a day. I've found these work great as a low cal, low fat snack.

[dalboy]

To me the original diet is still poor.

At the end of the day its about calories in vs calories out. You can get a rough estimate on the amount of calories you need a day to lose weight from here:

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Also if you are not exercising / lifting weight of some sort you will lose muscle along with fat. If you are happy with this then fine.

The original diet to me seems like you will be starving yourself. You would be better off having say 5 or 6 SMALL meals throughout the day to stop you turning to snacks. Starving yourself from food is the worst way to lose weight as bodyfat has the opposite effect i.e. your body holds onto it for energy.

Also remember dietry fat is not related to body fat. Fat doesnt make you fat its a combination of high carbs, excess calories and lack of exercise.

Oh and drop the beer!

Ive done basically the opposite to yourself - wanted to gain weight and Ive gone from 10 stone to just under 14 in about a year and a half. Proper exercise routine and diet is paramount, diet probably more than anything so I feel I have a good understanding on dietry needs to lose / gain weight.

[russbeer]

you should always remember to have breakfast too. I often skip breakfast as it makes me hungrier, sooner, but its important to wake your metabolism as early in the day as poss

[maltloaf]

If you are fond of sweet things or sweets in general, Holland and Barratt sell packs of fruit chews called Frutus. They are 100% fruit, nothing artificial, only 95 cals a pack and count as one of your 5 a day. I've found these work great as a low cal, low fat snack.

been trying to find these. Closest thing I've found is Castus Be Fruity bars. Is that the right thing ? They had 3 different ones in the store I tried.

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pag...did=3534&sid=0

edit.. actually i think i found them, but not on holland and barrett

FRUITUS Organic APPLE CHEWY BARS | eBay UK

[flumperino]

Lots of snacks and food these days has been optimized for healthy living:

Walkers Baked 25g bags - 99 calories. Lush
Breakfast bars - Very stodgy and a good replacement for breakfast cereal - usually around 130ish calories
Hob nob snack bars - 131 cal and gorgeous
Ryvita crackerbread - 19 cal per cracker
I can't believe it's not butter light - very nice, better than normal butter. 35 cal per 10g vs the usual 59 cal of fatty butter
Helmans lighter than light mayonnaise - 12 cal per 15ml vs the inordinate number of calories you get in normal mayonnaise
McCains oven chips - very low fat and calories compared to others. These chips are bordering on being a health snack
Thick bread - having thick bread over medium might add 20 cals per slice, but I find it much more filling and so less likely to snack later
Soup pots - there are loads of microwaveable soup pots available. Some almost at 400 calories, but some as little as 160 cals. These are very filling and perfect for work if access to a microwave is possible.

While it do find it very easy to overeat and exceed daily calorie intake, it's also pretty easy to be way under your normal calorific intake - you just need to be stringent and think everything through.

[russbeer]

They're not chew bars malty, they are in a little packet, and are like fruit gums. In my Holland and Barratt they are kept by the granola bars

[russbeer]

Did you find them? They are by a company called Lyme Regis. Found a piccy online of some of them so you can try and find em.

[maltloaf]

Haven't been back since, hopefully tomorrow

[Sanj[UK]]

Malty if you like sweet things in general..look at the NAKD bars, absolutely amazing stuff (I love the coca orange ones)

Also if you love chips, then get some sweet potatos, peel and fry them. They taste better and are alot healthier then normal chips!

[dalboy]

Lots of snacks and food these days has been optimized for healthy living:

Walkers Baked 25g bags - 99 calories. Lush
Breakfast bars - Very stodgy and a good replacement for breakfast cereal - usually around 130ish calories
Hob nob snack bars - 131 cal and gorgeous
Ryvita crackerbread - 19 cal per cracker
I can't believe it's not butter light - very nice, better than normal butter. 35 cal per 10g vs the usual 59 cal of fatty butter
Helmans lighter than light mayonnaise - 12 cal per 15ml vs the inordinate number of calories you get in normal mayonnaise
McCains oven chips - very low fat and calories compared to others. These chips are bordering on being a health snack
Thick bread - having thick bread over medium might add 20 cals per slice, but I find it much more filling and so less likely to snack later
Soup pots - there are loads of microwaveable soup pots available. Some almost at 400 calories, but some as little as 160 cals. These are very filling and perfect for work if access to a microwave is possible.

While it do find it very easy to overeat and exceed daily calorie intake, it's also pretty easy to be way under your normal calorific intake - you just need to be stringent and think everything through.

lol, none of that food has any decent nutritional value. Might be low on fat but thats all carbs listed above.

Might as well eat mcdonalds as long as your under your daily calorie allowance you will lose weight. Point being its not a balanced / healthy diet. Loads of better alternatives.

And please dont listen to what adverts push as being "healthy".

[flumperino]

lol, none of that food has any decent nutritional value. Might be low on fat but thats all carbs listed above.

Might as well eat mcdonalds as long as your under your daily calorie allowance you will lose weight. Point being its not a balanced / healthy diet. Loads of better alternatives.

And please dont listen to what adverts push as being "healthy".

As I said, they are 'snack foods', not meals. If you have a list of healthy balanced snacks I would very much welcome seeing it.

And yes there are a lot of carbs, but you can have a good deal more carbs than fat with a healthy balanced diet....unless you are on a low-carb diet of course.

Also, you won't lose weight simply by eating less than your daily calories allowance - eat 1800cals of Mcdonalds each day you'll likely put on weight.

[dalboy]

Nonsense.

Why would you put on weight if you are under eating. Simply impossible.

[flumperino]

I wish buddy, it just isn't as simple as that - it's not just the calorie total, you also have to watch the carbs, fat and protein that make up the calories as well. If you significantly overeat on one of them, you're likely to put on weight even if you don't exceed your total daily calorie intake.

If you just ate 2500 calories of lard every day, and nothing else, even though you're eating the standard amount of calories for a bloke, you would put on weight because it is way too much fat. Bad example perhaps, as you would also die before long as you'd be missing loads of other stuff that you need, lol.

[dalboy]

If you eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight no matter what the calories come from.

This is FACT. Theres no complicated science behind it.

Yes you need to look at carbs, fats and protein to provide a balanced diet but the above is still true. Find me some evidence to prove me otherwise.

Yet again another person who thinks dietry fat is related to body fat. Again, find me some conclusive evidence to prove different.

Even doing a quick google search will prove you wrong.

[flumperino]

Fair enough mate.

[pheonixsingh]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...5/ai_n8694278/

[russbeer]

You can eat all the fat you like in a day, but if your calories are lower than what your BMR suggests, then you will either lose weight or maintain your current weight. Fat in food means nothing other than its not healthy for some of your organs. Ever heard of the Atkins diet??? You could eat fatty meaty foods all day and still lose weight because the right kind of meats have low calorific value.

Keep your calories below 1500 a day and you will lose weight. Its up to you whether you balance the diet or not. You can eat sugary snack bars like the Frosties bars or Hob Nob bars at 100 cals a pop to help keep away the urge to eat or you can eat 3 square meals that are nutritionally and calorie balanced that will keep you fuller for longer and give you the right amount of vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy whilst losing.

Try not to snack. Drink a pint of water when hungry, you'll be surprised how this keeps the hunger away.

[flumperino]

What I was getting at is that if you have a significantly unbalanced diet, your body is going to adapt quite quickly and it's likely to mess up your metabolism, which is going to do you no good in the long term. Personally I'm not a fan of the Atkins diet - everybody I've known to use it has put the weight back on and more as their bodies become so anti-carb, which personally I don't believe is a good position to be in in this carb-infested world, lol.

Not disputing the fact that you will lose weight if you burn more than you consume on any particular day; only that the amount that you are allowed to consume is going to reduce in time if you eat an unbalanced diet and mess up your metabolism, causing you to put weight back on unless you reduce your intake.

Your body is always going to adapt to a change whatever you do.......but if you make sweeping changes like cutting out almost all carbs, or fat, or whatever, it's going to adapt more quickly no?

[russbeer]

thats the thing, you can eat low calorie food without particularly cutting out any area of carbs, fat or proteins.

[dalboy]

Thing is with all these wonder diets is that, like said, they are hard to manage and stick with long term. It shouldnt be about the word "diet" but more on eating habits and knowing whats good and bad foods.

Low carb diets have proven to be very successful for rapid fat loss (such as the keto diet).

However, in my view you are better to have a balanced diet (without starving yourself of fats, carbs etc...) which isnt so strict that you cant stick to it long term.

Its not even about "Dieting" but more on educating yourself and changing your eating habits. No harm in having junk food or high carb snacks now and again, but it shouldnt be a staple part of what you eat. Again, its about balance and eating under calorie maintenance.

So many people listen to what the government push, as well as multiple adverts telling you something is low fat, or low in saturated fat. Even the saturated fat is bad for you debate is arguable - there is no scientic proof that this is the case, yet we are told this time and time again on TV adverts - there's no factual evidence! Trans fats however are the fats to avoid.

I'd also try and avoid so called "snacking" however mixtures of fruit and nuts are a much better alternative to crisps and biscuits.