I'm currently trying to lose weight and I'm relatively active person. However the main issue I have had all my life is my diet.
Now I have been told by numerous people you must be in a caloric deffecit to lose weight. I.agree on that however there are people that have done 2-7 days water fasting and has lost weight.
That is all good and well and I'd be up for trying that but the big issue I have is that some people say that not eating causes your body to store fat and slow metabolism.
So my main question to you all is, what is the right method and what should I do?
Written by
JordyMew
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There is an excellent app that will help you. It's called MyFitnessPal and it's basically a food Diary. You put your weight in and what your goal weight / time frame is and it gives you a calorie budget. Stick to this and you will easily lose weight at the right rate. You track all that you eat (it even scans barcodes on food for you) and you know how many calories you have left for the day. If you do some exercise your calorie budget for the day goes up and you can choose to eat a bit more or lose weight a little bit quicker.
Diet is 80% food and 20% exercise, there are no miracle cures it's basically move more and eat less. Fad diets do not work in the long run, lifestyle changes do work and do not have to feel miserable.
No one here can give you professional health advice, so you're only going to get more personal opinions that may confuse you further.
For what it's worth, I'd never consider a 'water fasting diet' unless a doctor ordered me to - and even then I'd ask for a second opinion! And I certainly wouldn't be trying to do c25k at the same time. I'm absolutely certain you'd lose weight on it though. You'll lose weight on any diet that puts you into calorie deficit. How long you'll keep it up for is a different matter.
You really need to stop thinking about 'being on a diet' - that assumes you'll stop 'being on a diet' at some point and start eating some other way. You need to think about how to change your lifestyle to start eating differently.
I can't tell you what to eat. Personally, I lost weight for good by cutting out processed food, alcohol and most meat. Then I upped my exercise with running. It's a permanent change to my life that's a long, long way from water fasting.
I don't know what else you've tried but statistically more people succeed in groups than on their own, so you could try something like Slimming World and join a sports club like running, football etc.
"not eating causes your body to store fat" that's just not possible if you are in a caloric deficit.
If you consume *too few * calories you might annoy your metabolism, but you can't store fat if you're in a caloric deficit. Consuming too few calories might cause you to pig out when you "break" and raid the cupboards.
There are a bunch of websites that will try and estimate how many calories you burn a day and therefore from that you could workout how many you need to consume to be in a deficit. Or pay someone to do it for you or use an app like Myfitnesspal or Nutracheck.
Personally, I've lost weight by being in a calorie deficit and exercising, although as Rigpig says, weight loss is mostly about what you eat. I exercise to get fit. Again, personally, I find running helps to control my appetite (no idea why, but I don't get as hungary). My lifestyle is very sedantary apart from the exercie I do (sit at a desk all day), so exercise is important for me, to get me moving.
As others have already said, calorific defecit is the only reliable, consistent way to lose weight. In my opinion all the fad diets aren't sustainable and you'll put the weight back on in the long run.
For me it's been as simple as making sure I'm burning more calories than I'm putting in.
The most useful thing I learnt early on is that there are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so over a week if I'm in a calorific defecit of 500 calories a day I should burn 1 pound of fat (500 x 7 =3500)......and it has proved to be true time and time again.
I use the Samsung Health app to record all my excersise which gives me a rough guide to calories I'm burning along with a daily BMR (the calories your body burns at rest).
Without getting really anal about it I roughly monitor my calorie intake and try to keep it well under the calories I'm burning and since July last year I've dropped 4st and counting.
Rather than feeling like I'm on a diet, I've ended up with a mindset of food being fuel and making sure I'm doing enough to burn the fuel I'm putting in.
I've always struggled to lose weight and it's because I never took the advice that you can't out-train a bad diet. Since the new year I've stuck to eating around 1500 calories per day and keeping the amount of carbs below 150g. This, along with following C25k, I've lost a stone and half and yesterday I completed week 5 run 3 which involves running for 20 minutes solid. Maybe not a big thing to some people but the thought of running 5 minutes seemed daunting a few weeks ago! I've had a few blips along the way with the diet but the progress with running has helped me get back on track.
The point I'm trying to make is that fasting and fad diets don't work, believe me I've tried! A balanced diet and exercise is the only way. As others have mentioned there are some great apps to help you, I've found the simplest is My Net Diary.
Water fasting?!!, that will just cause you to become dehydrated.
Yes the scales may show a difference, but so will your kidney function.
Seriously Jordy unless you are suffering a specific medical condition that requires fluid restriction, aim to drink 2 to 3 litres of fluid daily. Pale pee is what you should be aiming for.
Sensible steady weight loss is more sustainable, have you considered a slimming club?
The way to lose weight healthily is not to starve it but to feed it what it needs in the right quantities. If you're looking for help and support to do that I suggest checking out
I've tried lots of diets some more than once. Five yr ago I was given medication and told it would be extremely difficult to loose weight so I started C25K. It was challenging and painful to run so after 6 weeks and a few attempt at parkrun I gave up. Then last year I found the one to one diet and everything just clicked. I've now lost 4 stone and feel ready to run again. It's much more pleasurable now. The diet is hard with only 600 calories per day. It really isn't for everyone but it was just the right time for me. Good luck in finding the balance you need. Whatever it is give it 100%
Have you looked at the 5:2 diet. It's a sensible life-changing programme that's very easy to follow and doesn't involve starving yourself but encourages healthy home cooked eating of healthy fresh foods. It changed my life and is so easy to fit in with whatever you're doing. Give the book a read.
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