Eating advice to compliment my new running 'bug'

[Feelingfab]

Hello

I'm on week 6 of the C5k. Any advice re. Eating. I am enjoying the running but have a fair amount of excess weight to shift ... about 3 stone. Female 5,4 😁😁

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

I have never had to lose weight, so others will be able to give better first hand advice but firstly, do not be tempted to eat more because you are exercising. You actually burn very few calories doing C25k, which disappoints some folk. However, if you measure yourself before you start you will notice loss of inches and firming up in just a few weeks.

General advice on diet is eat a broad range of fresh food and cut out processed crap completely. Make sure you drink a minimum of 1.5-2litres of water per day.

[TkdMum Graduate]

Hiya. Well done for getting this far on C25K. I am the same height as you and have just lost 4.5 stone. I go to Slimming World. It seems to work with running as there are no restrictions on dried rice and pasta, boiled potatoes, all lean meats and fish, fruit etc. Sometimes the support you get going to a club/group session is what you need to keep you motivated just like this group here. It is worth losing the weight as you get so much more energy and I am sure my joints are grateful too. Oh and the clothes shopping when you have lost the weight is good fun too!! 😉

[HelplessSpectator]

Hiya, I'm no dietitian or anything and as iannodatruffe says we don't burn many calories on C25K to being with, but a general rule of thumb is to eat less calories than you are using in the day.. I think from when Mrs HelpessSpectator has done slimming world they will give you an allowance of calories per day?? Keep to it and the C25K and the weight will soon come off.. 😁👍🏻

[Hidden]

Find a diet you can stick to. Michael Moseley fast diet works for me. My partner found the fasting too hard but lost loads on slimming world. I found the points counting too annoying. Bit like running it's about finding what works for you.

[Feelingfab]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Starting to feel that my weight is impacting too much so a different approach is needed. 🍏🥒🍇

[Nibor5 Graduate]

My "new me" journey started after I had a high cholesterol reading and realising that at 18 stone I was borderline obese. I actually started cutting back on calories and eating better with no thoughts or intentions to start running. I use an app called "MyFitnessPal" to log what I eat and drink. This has worked really well for me, I have found it is helping me to set good eating habits in place. I'm almost down by 2 stones over the 2 months I have been doing this. For the first 5 or 6 weeks I logged everything carefully. As the good eating habits have set in, I'm not quite so fastidious about logging everything.

The running for me started after I signed up to the NHS weight loss program, which suggested exercise and lead me to C25K.

[Rignold]

Track your calories in My Fitness Pal or a similar app. Establish your daily calorie use (there is a calculator for this on the app), and aim to be about 500 calories below that figure.

Get your calories from foods which have high nutrition value: veg, meat fish etc rather than processed foods and sugar. Drink water not processed drinks.

Personally I would give groups like Slimming World and Weight Watchers a very wide berth. They may get short term results, but they have a recidivism rate of over 95 percent. Their scam, I mean plan, is entirely designed to keep you coming back again and again and paying.

All you need to do to lose weight and be healthier is eat less, move more and make grown up food choices. That you can do free.

[Feelingfab in reply to Rignold]

I'm really interested in nutrition that eliminates more sugar and processed food. Any advice would be appreciated as unsure where to start. I lost lots of weight through a group a few years ago but I've put it all back on. It works for many people but not me so I need to try a different approach. Thank you .. will try fitness pal too. Just got app. Thanks for your help