Losing weight

Looks like you are only just over the ideal BMI...can you cut out any unecessary carbs?

get used to being hungry.

It may sound stupid, but most people these days are used to having a full belly most of the time.

My target weight is around 65kg for running, but since I've gone on insulin it's gone up to 68. I've managed to start taking some off, but it's been hard work. I've been doing it by
1) cutting back on refined carbs, bread no more than once a day i.e. 1 slice of toast with PB for breakfast this morning
2) exercise - both cardio and strength - more muscle burns more calories
3) more protein
4) snacks - limited between meal snacks, adn limit them to low carb i.e. a small handful of nuts

I've spent the last three weeks with an empty belly and just over the last week I've seen myself drop to 67kg.

One last thing, don't over obsess with the scales, you're looking for a long term trend. I record my weight once per week, Sat or Sun morning, naked after waking and peeing - same every time to make it consistent.

See what carbs you can cut out even if you phase them out slowly

Have you tried intermittent fasting? Yes this means you go hungry for some periods but this trains your mind to overcome the hunger signals. It has worked for me but I appreciate everyone is different.

Nicola Ann
latest research shows that a low carb diet is the most effective way of losing weight. It also has the benefit of improving blood chemistry. You need to cut back to around 30 - 50 grams of carb per day. You won't feel hungry on this as long as you keep your fat intake up. Basically Atkins is best. Get one of the basic Atkins books if you need a book. You can lose a significant amount of weight quite fast and despite what some people will try to tell you, it's perfectly safe and there's no benefit in losing weight slowly.
It's definitely worth a try.
Hana
Ps more exercise makes little or no difference to weight and calories are irrelevant. It's which foods you eat that matter.

hanadr said:

Nicola Ann
latest research shows that a low carb diet is the most effective way of losing weight. It also has the benefit of improving blood chemistry. You need to cut back to around 30 - 50 grams of carb per day. You won't feel hungry on this as long as you keep your fat intake up. Basically Atkins is best. Get one of the basic Atkins books if you need a book. You can lose a significant amount of weight quite fast and despite what some people will try to tell you, it's perfectly safe and there's no benefit in losing weight slowly.
It's definitely worth a try.
Hana
Ps more exercise makes little or no difference to weight and calories are irrelevant. It's which foods you eat that matter.

Click to expand...

How much weight have you lost?
If you can eat unlimited amounts of calories, and still lose weight, what do you eat when you reach your ideal weight, how do you stop weight loss, as you can't go back onto carbs?

hanadr said:

Ps more exercise makes little or no difference to weight and calories are irrelevant. It's which foods you eat that matter.

Click to expand...

Whilst it is true that it is very hard to burn off fat by exercise, exercise does nonetheless affect the way food is metabolised. 'Walking off a meal' or taking a 'daily constitutional' is good practice.

That's a good amount of exercise and doing more won't help your lipid profiles. The limit for that seems to be about 1500 cals per week, spread out over 7 days. To 'burn off' calories, you'd have to start doing more intensive workouts, rather like cyclists or swimmers who are doing a few hours per day. You're going to have to do it by diet as well and the two options are calorie restriction, eating less calories than you need or a diet which restricts carbs and causes fats to be burned off.

My wife and I tried what was called a protein only diet 30 years ago. It required that no carbohydrates were ingested at all. Food was just proteins, bacon and egg being popular. You could only do this diet for 14 days and then one needed a break because it can make you feel quite unwell. Nonetheless 3 x 14 days with 2 x 14 days breaks in between resulted in a couple of stone weight loss. My wife more recently has done the Atkins diet which works on the same principal but is an easier regime and of course slower weight loss.

My prefered method is to avoid all the obvious sugary foods, refined starches like white bread and avoid all ready meals and sauces in pots, jars, tins and packets. I still eat well but have completely changed the foods I eat. I prepare and cook everything from scratch. I try to have two meat days, two fish days, two poultry days and one vegetarian day every week. But, it takes time and one reason why people eat too much of the wrong foods is because so many of us have too little time with long commutes and long working days and frankly, at the end of the day, it is just easy to take a pizza out of the freezer and stick it into the oven. But, if you can organise your time to plan your weekly meals, buy the correct ingredients and cook it all properly, you will do yourself a big favour. Taking time to eat it too, makes a meal seem more satisfying.

People who glibly say 'change your lifestyle' don't understand how impractical that can be sometimes. What are you supposed to do, move house? It's not even as if there's much room in the kitchen if there are 8 mouths to feed. Temptation is all around you too. It would be easy to say, just eat half portions, but difficult to do. You are going to have to plan carefully and work hard at getting an individual diet that suits you. I should imagine that there is a lot of competition even for space in the fridge and/or freezer.

As far as low carb foods are concerned, best ask in the low carb forum, viewforum.php?f=18

I eat a lot of carbs by this board's standards but stick to low GI foods like brown rice, wholewheat pasta and so on. There are those here who would see me as in league with the devil himself. However, I do stick to smaller portion sizes too, 50 to 60 g of pasta rather than 70 - 90 g of pasta and so on.

An important question is what are you bs readings like.

Do you take medication to control your diabetes.
And what sort of food do you eat at present?

I have lost nearly 3 stones in the last 5 months, on a low calorie diet, avoiding carbs that I know affect my bs, avoiding the classic diet foods, like potato, bread, rice, pasta, etc, and avoiding any fat. I will probably increase my fat intake when I want to maintain my weight, but I have another stone to go.
bs is much better, as is HA1BC.

I still eat with the family, for example, sunday lunch, some of the white chicken breast, not the underside soaked in fat, a lot of veg, steamed, no roast veg, no potatoes, gravy (small amount) made without the chicken fat.
Other meals are much the same format.

You're simply just going to have to leave the chips on the plate.
If they insist on putting them on, let them go to waste.
They'll get the message eventually.

They're a "bad" food, and you do need to look at getting your numbers down.
My wife had a similar style of cooking (still does) I now cook my own food, she cooks hers and the rest of the families. Still chips and junk for them all.

Go for more green veg, or any veg that isn't a root veg for a start.
You know what junk foods are, so you know what to avoid.
Any time you eat a better food is a good step, so don't get depressed if occasionally you don't, any reduction is better than none.

.

Hi,

Try the Atkins diet, low carb does wonders for you BG and loses weight. I have over the years tried allsorts of diets and Atkins is the only one that didnt leave me feeling hungry and i have lost 2 stone since the begining of June.