Need to lose half a stone to start. Help please

[Benamy]

I haven't tried running outside as I think it will be too painful on my back and knees is the treadmill enough to be actually help me lose weight and tone up I'm on week 7 running feels good but want to lose a few pounds. Can anyone recommend a diet plan to go with please?

[Jane-M]

Okay - if you run 3 times a week and don't increase your food intake you will lose weight. But this will be very gradual. I would have expected by week seven you should have dropped maybe 2lbs. How much do you need to lose? If you have back and knee pain then I suspect it might be a little more than a few pounds? But you should check with your GP or physio.

To speed your weight loss you simply have to reduce your calorie intake. The simplest way to do this is to moderate your portions and limit your fat and sugar. Check out with a little food diary exactly what you eat at the minute and reduce the calories in your "bad" foods keeping up your veg and protein. However, unless you are a body builder and you are an adult you need far less protein than you might think. Lots of advice on the NHS website, links from C25K page.

And running on a treadmill is just the same as running on the ground! Set the treadmill to track your calorie burn - you need to use an extra 3500 calories to lose one pound, so make sure you aren't replacing your exercise calorie expenditure with a snack when you finish

[Hidden]

calories counting! go on my fitnesspal.com,enter your details and follow the program! did wonders for me!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Second this approach lost over 1.5 stones this year upto now with this app and reducing what I ate

[crox Graduate in reply to Hidden]

I'll third this, lost 4 stones since March last year.

[Cazvs Graduate]

Yes, was going to suggest myfitnesspal too, my husband is using it and has lost lots of weight. Very easy to do because you become much more aware of everything you eat.

Try running on grass if you think tarmac will be too hard. Is your local parkrun on grass?

[Rollertoaster Graduate]

Another vote for myfitnesspal here too

[Dellacat Graduate]

Weight watchers works for me and there is a very supportive online community. Whatever you do it is sticking with it that makes it work!

[GoogleMe Graduate]

Depends what you mean by 'outside' - you could be pounding the pavement or you could be calf deep in mud or snow or water (did all three of those this afternoon at times, it was lovely, although I was glad to get on a track too!) or running on grass. If you can realistically get yourself somewhere pleasant to run outside there are a whole heap of other benefits awaiting you. (Although even I could see the merits of a treadmill in some of our recent weather) Sometimes it is about shoes too - the only time my knees have hurt (due to running that is) was when I got a new pair of more 'normal' (cf minimalist) shoes, they just don't agree with me.

I'm using myfitnesspal too (it has its limitations but it does the basic calorie counting) just to track calories (worth having a look at the NHS Choices 12 week plan), plus the run for fat loss plan with runkeeper (as I've graduated - but it follows on well from C25K and C25K+) I am also doing yoga - Ekhart Yoga/Yogatic on YouTube and some free sessions on their website which does seem to be helping with my back.

Good luck!

[PastyMan Graduate]

MyFitnessPal worked really well for me too but in combination with FitBit which recorded how active I was and shared that with myfitnesspal. This was a real incentive and reward as it gave a really accurate target calorie count to aim for and achieve that 1-2 lbs a week. So like Jane-m said you need a calorie deficit of 3500 to lose a lb so for 2 lbs it means eating 1000 cals fewer than you are using up. I did this from Jan and till start of march I averaged 3000 calories out and the target of 2000 calories in wasn't too hard to stick to. I lost 18lbs quite comfortably and also took a couple of minutes off my 5k time.

[gingernut49 Graduate]

I've lost three stone (42 pounds) since August following the 5:2 plan featured in the Horizon programme (Eat, Fast and Live Longer) with Dr Michael Mosley. If you search for 'The 5:2 Diet' on Amazon there is an excellent book (paperback and Kindle) by Kate Harrison and she runs a Facebook group with the same name. Totally free to do so no weekly fees. Once I'd lost two stone in January I started the C25K programme. I'm 63 and haven't felt so good in decades!

[Benamy in reply to gingernut49]

Hi I have put Kate Harrison in the search on facebook but so many come up which one is her please

[gingernut49 Graduate]

It's 'The 5:2 Diet' page rather than her own personal page.

Here you are facebook.com/groups/the52diet

It's absolutely brilliant!

[OlsBean]

Half a stone is not a lot and I would imagine could be easily achieved by making a small change in your diet.

Good Luck with it!

[Hidden]

I do fasting 5 2 too! you can watch the program on here ,1 hr long but well worth it!

dailymotion.com/gb/relevanc...

[Hidden]

you will find a 5;2 group too on the forum on myfitnesspal!

[lycranotlikely Graduate]

Yes I agree with bipbip 5:2 is fantastic! I've lost 49 pounds with it since last June. Exercised as well with Lesley Sansone's 2 mile walk...an indoor walking program but I think it was mostly the 5:2 cos on hols I didn't exercise and still lost.

[Hidden]

Hi, how are things going?

For weeks I ran round and round a football field, up and down the white lines. The grass was a great natural cushion.

Running outside is different to the treadmill, I'm lucky really, where I live there are fields everywhere with bridlepaths, walks, farm tracks etc so I can chose whatever surface I want (generally I cover everything in a run, mixes things up)

Diet (hate that word) I use MFP, but not their calorie goals, I used TDEE - 20% scoobysworkshop.com/calorie... It works out calories much better. I haven't cut out anything from my diet just trimmed down portions.

Good luck.

[jonut Graduate]

I lost two and a half stone on weightwatchers and have kept it off for the last 12 months.

I did the online version, using an app on my phone, as I did not have time for classes. The online resources are pretty good though. The recipes are brilliant.

In my opinion this, and programs which follow a similar counting ethos, is the only sustainable way to lose weight. Any faddy diets, e.g. protein only, liquid only, etc, do not teach you anything about healthy eating on a long term basis and the respective values/merits of what you are cooking and putting into your mouth.

Hope that helps - good luck!

[xxcazaxx]

Scottish Slimmers works for me.

I was advised that when running on a treadmill that you should increase the incline to 1 to mimic running outside.

[Benamy in reply to xxcazaxx]

Hi I did this you can really feel the difference, Thanks