Your Weight Loss Tips?

C

Carl1978

Member
I know these threads come up all the time so apologies if its boring 😂.
I'm 43 and weigh about 13st, I could do with getting to 12st ideally.
I do a good amount of exercise (5 a side twice per week, two runs on the treadmill and a couple of decent dog walks) so I think its mainly about diet for me. Although I might also look at doing some boxing training for something different - not that I would ever want to have a boxing match against anyone 😂
I can't be bothered with calorie counting etc, so I wondered if people had some good basic tips?
I know the main one is quit or cut down the booze 😩
Any good tips that you recommend?
 
Eat eggs as your first meal - preferably around lunchtime. This will kill your appetite until later.
Eat more protein
Make your last meal 8pm and your first 12 noon, giving you 16 hours in a fasted state.
Don't eat carbs when you don't need them. Limit their intake to pre workouts

Bodies are built in the kitchen - not in the gym ;)
 
There is only one tip that is relevant and you've already ruled it out. The only thing that matters is using more energy than you consume. You need to know how much you can consume to maintain your weight and then eat less than that. Counting calories is easy. Just use myfitnesspal and log it. You'd be surprised how many calories you consume if you are already doing all that exercise and still putting on weight.

You can't outrun a bad diet.
 
I’ve cut out sugar (as much as possible - where I can’t I’ve allowed natural sugars) and added walking 30 mins a day. Lost 6kg since January
 
As much as you don't want to track calories, the simplest way is make sure you burn more calories than you eat.

I spent years trying various 'diets' with a wide range of results, all of which were short term. I've always been very active but always struggled with my weight.

Then a couple of years ago a friend of mine talked me through how macros work and how to measure calorie intake via MyFitness Pal and the weight just dropped off and more importantly has stayed off.

Monitoring calories is a lot easier than you would imagine once you get into the routine.
 
As mentioned above being in a calorie deficit is the main concern. Work out your calorie allocation on a calorie calculator like nutracheck or mfp and set to lose a pound a week. Weigh and log EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth .
Exercise is a very small percentage of weight loss - around 10-15 % but is obviously great for your health and fitness.
 
Nano said:
There is only one tip that is relevant and you've already ruled it out. The only thing that matters is using more energy than you consume. You need to know how much you can consume to maintain your weight and then eat less than that. Counting calories is easy. Just use myfitnesspal and log it. You'd be surprised how many calories you consume if you are already doing all that exercise and still putting on weight.

You can't outrun a bad diet.
Click to expand...
Cheers everyone.
I'm not really putting on weight, I've been a steady weight for ages which is a bit too heavy. I guess I eat more than I should and the booze wont help, but I do decent exercise so I'm not massively overweight or anything.
 
Nano said:
There is only one tip that is relevant and you've already ruled it out. The only thing that matters is using more energy than you consume. You need to know how much you can consume to maintain your weight and then eat less than that. Counting calories is easy. Just use myfitnesspal and log it. You'd be surprised how many calories you consume if you are already doing all that exercise and still putting on weight.

You can't outrun a bad diet.
Click to expand...
100% this

Fad diets, fasting, avoid set foods etc just burn more than you consume, light exercise to begin with or even do it with just diet
 
I would agree with those who talk about calorie counting. No diets or special exercise needed, just ensure you eat nutritious food and burn more energy than you consume.

Also, try and eat more fish, though probably not salmon which is fatty. Remember the adage "If it swims, it slims"
 
Have a look at the 5 and 2 Michael Moseley.

It’s not a fad diet, and becomes more a way of life.

The recipes are very good, we tend to eat them outside of the 2 fasting days too.

I’ve lost around 5 kgs so far and down to 90 kgsw.

Would like to get under 90 and then maintain
 
I'd definitely recommend calorie counting mate. If you don't know the amount you're eating, everything else you do could end up being a waste of time if your calorie intake is huge.

Even if you don't want to calorie count forever, I'd recommend utilising MyFitnessPal for a few days, and just track your typical diet. Will give you a great indication of where the calories are coming from, make it clear where things could be cut down (portion size is usually a big one). Once you've done this, I find you can give really good guesstimates just by looking at what/the amount you're eating.
 
Seeing as no one else has mentioned it yet, I will have to say make sure you are getting sufficient sleep. You would be very surprised by how poor sleep can affect your weight.

I read 'Why We Sleep' by Matthew Walker recently and I can honestly say it has changed my life. I was getting about 6 hours, if that, of sleep every night for the past two years (since covid, really) and looking at how my body, mood and attitude towards life had changed for the worst, it's no coincidence that the lack of good quality sleep was happening at the same time.

Honestly, give it a read, couldn't recommend it enough.

Also, calorie counting is really, really helpful for starting off until you get into a good routine of knowing what's what, despite how tedious you might think it is.
 
I would listen to the podcast series Feel Better, Live More. In particular episode #291 with Tim Spector.

Here is the synopsis:

"For the last in the current series of Feel Better Live More, I’m welcoming back someone I know you’ll love. Professor Tim Spector was my first-ever guest, and he returns for the third time today, with the very latest on gut health and personalised nutrition.

Tim is a professor of genetic epidemiology and Head of the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London. He’s a world-leader when it comes to the gut microbiome – and Director of the British Gut Project – whose research has transformed what we know about food and health. Tim is author of two excellent books, The Diet Myth and Spoonfed: Why Everything You Know About Food Is Wrong.

This conversation will bring you up to date with all Tim’s most recent findings and practical advice. But don’t worry if you’re new to the subject of gut health, as we also provide a need-to-know guide to get you up to speed.

We start by discussing why gut health is such a hot topic. Tim explains that, unlike our genes, it’s something we can influence, thereby improving not just digestion but almost all aspects of our wellbeing. He reveals the gut-friendly properties of plant fibre, polyphenols and fermented foods. And because diversity is key, Tim shares some of his own food hacks for getting to 30 different plant foods a week.

Tim believes the obesity crisis is more of a food crisis, fuelled by ultra-processed foods. We discuss a move towards counting quality instead of calories, and why the new mandatory calorie labels are unhelpful for most people. We also talk about personalised nutrition and the revolutionary PREDICT studies, carried out for Tim’s ZOE nutritional science company, which found people can have dramatically different biological responses to the same foods. The results have led him to develop a personalised nutrition testing kit and app that you can try too.

Our conversation covers much more, including the benefits of time restricted eating for gut health, why skipping breakfast isn’t bad for you, and the pros and cons of health trackers. Tim also reveals the gut parasite that 1 in 4 of us have, which rather than making us ill, can actually have huge benefits for our health.

This is a fascinating conversation; full of practical and actionable information."
 
Agree with what’s been said about calorie counting. However one thing I would add to that is not to over estimate how many calories exercise will burn.
Far too many people think because they’ve done an a bit of exercise they will then reward themselves with a treat, that ends up containing many more calories than they’ve burned.

For context.
20-25min 5km run = 300 cal
1 pint of premium lager 250-300cal.
 
gramercy said:
Agree with what’s been said about calorie counting. However one thing I would add to that is not to over estimate how many calories exercise will burn.
Far too many people think because they’ve done an a bit of exercise they will then reward themselves with a treat, that ends up containing many more calories than they’ve burned.

For context.
20-25min 5km run = 300 cal
1 pint of premium lager 250-300cal.
Click to expand...
I was a big advocate of calorie counting until I listened to the above podcast.

Essentially, because not enough people are adequately informed about nutrition, calorie counting can be very dangerous to the body in the long term.

By trying to avoid high calorie foods, people often opt for low calories ultra processed foods as an alternative, which have been proven to cause a whole host of devastating diseases.

For example, a dish of salmon, nuts, sweet potato would turn many people off due to it's high calorie content when in actual fact we know that all those ingredients have a high nutritional value.

Only calorie count if you know what you're doing.
 
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