I've been relying on calories to work out how much I can eat, but even though I've been at 1k calories and been walking up and down hills for 2 hours a day I haven't lost any weight
So someone told me calories are misleading so I decided to just get a list of diet food and go from there. So I've already decided what to eat for my tea but I'm still deciding on breakfast
On the one hand I could have a boiled egg, but I'd rather have porridge and I want a bit of advice on this
So, if I fill a bowl with about 1/3 of porridge oats, put some semi skimmed milk in and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stir it and put more milk in, do it again for 1 minute, then afterwards it's thick with hardly any fluid (as I like it) and then put a tablespoon of honey and stir it in. Will fattening is that compared to a boiled egg?
Please don't give generic advice like "Just eat healthy... exercise..." or "breakfast is the most important meal..." I only want to know if this is ok for my diet or not
Actually let's put it like this. Hypothetically speaking if I ate that 3 times a day and spent 1 hour walking per day then would I lose any significant amount of weight?
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kirikaneko
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My plan for tea is salad and either 2 boiled eggs (without yoke), 2 chicken leg meat (without skin) or a portion of boiled fish. I don't like salad dressing I'll squeeze a grapefruit quarter on the salad.
Also I can eat a grapefruit quarter at lunchtime, and if I'm hungry I'll drink more water and munch in some celery. Considering bananas or raw carrots as snacks but I'm not sure yet
OK, I'll tell you what I do. I eat Porridge every morning with full fat milk, I've done this whilst being on my diet most of last year and lost 4 stone. I weigh 40 grams of original Quaker wholemeal oats out, tip them into me cereal bowl, add my full fat milk, stir it in. Then I microwave it on full power for 3 minutes, take it out and add a little more milk then add a tea spoon of Lyons syrup and stir it in. Ive just checked on myfitnesspal, which I have used religiously for 495 up till and including today and allocated 333 calories for it. Hows that for a precise answer lol. I suggest strict use of myfitnesspal, set it to what you want to loose a week, I set it to 2lb, everything I ate or drank I logged and to date I lost 57lb, I have now set it to maintain my weight and have stayed at 12stone 7lb for almost 1 year now. Are you being strict at counting calories? Also, it adds back the calories you have gained from exercise, so I use then for any goodies I felt like. I ate KP dry roasted nuts, cadburys mini rolls, cadburys wholenut chocolate etc oh and a couple of pints of Guinness at weekends and still lost the 57 lb. Hope this helps, like C25K it works if you are disciplined with it. Also to date, using runkeeper I have done 1774 miles either running or walking since last May.
By the way, calories are not misleading, although manufactures are not always accurate as to how many calories are in their products. Government guidelines allow a margin of error, some are more accurate some less, but you can only go off what they say on the packet. You will be surprised how few calories walking up and down the hills burn, I'd guess 2 mile would burn around 250 calories on hills, maybe a little more. I think you should be a little higher than 1000 calories per day, but myfitnesspal will tell you how many when you set it up.
I've recently switched to soya milk, but still make my porridge in much the same way. I don't have a microwave so I use a small non stick saucepan. My recipe is 200ml soya milk (works the same with any type of milk) + 25g oats, heated on mid heat until it thickens. Stir a few times to stop it sticking. While it's heating mash a banana in the bowl you're going to eat the porridge from (saves washing up). Tip this into the porridge when it's finished heating up and mix in. Then pour the whole lot back into the bowl. The sweetness of the banana is enough to stop you needing any sugar or honey, and it's a really good filling combo to keep you full until lunch. And low calorie etc too. A marathon-running friend originally told me about this
What about using water instead of soya? Or homemade oatmilk (the easiest non-dairy to make at home.. Sorry but I am on a mission - old Alpro's "you make me feel" is such a load of ****...
or just plain good old fashioned milk that we've used for 100's of years
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Ive been warned off dairy recently for health reasons, and its helping. But still working out what to replace it with. Porridge with water gives me flashbacks of tasteless stuff I had as a child...
Breakfast is not necessarily the most important meal , some people think that is all thanks to Mr Kellogg's...
Honestly, all that is being done about food is directed by big food corporation and economic interests - take the latest on the idea that teacher can search kids bags - it's not punishment of the kids that will solve the obesity problem, it is stopping companies from producing junk - but the economic powers of these companies are behind the governments decisions - sorry, rant over!
PS and stay well away from "diet" food!! Full fat doesn't make you fat, sugar (simple carbohydrates) does get metabolised into fat unless is used on the spot (read energy gels for marathon runners) ...
How long have you been on 1000 calories per day? I agree, that's too low, your body might even go into starvation mode, slowing your metabolism down. Not to mention that it will be so difficult to cover vitamin and mineral needs...
Have you worked out your TDEE so that you can cut down by around 300 calories per day in order to lose weight in a safe and healthy way?
I have never had to count calories and never intend to, but am staggered by your sweet tooth.......one whole tablespoon of honey!!!!!!.........which got me searching and one tablespoon of honey has 64 calories against one tablespoon full of table sugar which has 46 calories. Why not try cutting down on the sweet stuff. While honey does have many benefits over refined sugar, it is still calories and just because it is a natural product does not mean it is healthy to consume so much. I always have unsweetened muesli for breakfast.
I am sorry if I sound preachy, but you did ask for advice.
I agree on the honey. I have a small drizzle if there is no banana in my porridge. Favourite combos are; porridge with almonds, strawberries and honey or porridge with almonds, raspberries and half a banana (I eat the first half before I run. Strangely I also love porridge with pineapple!! For an occasional change I'll have Sugar free Alpen (in the blue box!) .
As some have said on here, diet and calorie counting do not help you lose weight. You should be eating balanced meals, little and often is best. Eating too little causes your body to harvest everything it can out of what you eat. You will also retain water in your body as it trys to reserve for what it perceives to be a temporary intake shortage.
Try to balance your meals to include a good amount of carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Try to reduce your carbohydrates for protein, but not too much or you will be left feeling hungry within a few hours which causes you to snack more. Balanced diets are all about moderation. Eat healthy and exercise and your body will find a new balance and adjust accordingly. Drink more water also.
If you haven't exercised much then I would suggest you do some other form of exercise a long with the C25K to help build some other muscles in your body. Look for the '7 minute scientific workout' which works all your major muscle groups and increases your metabolism. Slow jogging alone does not burn a lot of calories(around double of what you lose just sitting down) or increase metabolism much unless you add some intensity sprints into your run.
you are the end product of 3 billion years of evolution. If calories go into your body they will be used. So find out your Base Metabolic Rate, the number of calories required to keep you going all day. Take off 500-1000 calories and that is the number of calories you can eat and lose 1-2 ponds a week. The trick is to eat the right calories. If you are a low fat freak, then eat no fat calories. If you are a keto freak - no carbs etc. In the end it doesn't matter all calories are (almost) the same.
If you exercise then that's a bonus, but you'd have to run a 10k each week to lose an extra pound a MONTH, provided you didn't increase your intake to compensate. Exercise makes you fit, it doesn't really help you lose weight.
myfitnesspal is good. Record everything (even black coffee) and see how you get on.
Someone mentioned drink water, yes. Lots of it. At worst you'll spend a few calories running to the loo, at best it'll keep the hunger at bay, and keep everything working nicely. And fibre is good too. If you don't get much add psyllium husk powder to your breakfast.
I'm no expert and have no qualifications, but I have lost 70 pounds over the last year, which must count for something.
I love porridge. I make mine with water. I use proper, good quality oats. I like Flavahans. It usually gets some rasps and blueberries in at the end
Trying to lose weight is not difficult. The important bit is to eat good, healthy, nutritious food and enough of it to get your metabolism moving. If you eat too little you'll not lose anything. You can eat an egg salad but leave the yolks in, you need to be fit if you want to exercise more.
The NHS healthy eating plan is on the NHS Livewell site I understand, and it looks good from what I've seen of it.
You don't need to buy "diet" food at all. Eat lots of healthy fruit and vegetables, modest portions of meat, fish, modest portions of wholegrain rice, wholemeal bread, wholegrain pasta etc, or stick to fresh veggies for your carb intake, eg lots of green leafy veg with lots of iron, kale, cabbage, broccoli, spinach. Modest portions of nuts, seeds too. The more varied your diet is (excluding junk) then you will be getting sufficient nutrients to stay healthy. Eating boiled fish and just egg whites will soon have you completely bored. I put my fish in a hot frying pan and put some colour on it. Had that for my tea in fact with griddled courgette with mint and a squeeze of lemon and some oven roasted sweet potato, oh and some home made mayonnaise
If you keep your food interesting you're more likely to stick at it. I've lost 60 pounds, 4 of which I lost over the past two weeks.
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