What amount of calories should I aim for as obese and it’s affecting my pain enormously!

[Sallyk42]

I have started to walk my dog once a day and have really pushed myself to go further each day . Even though my legs are playing me up now . I am vegetarian and I really can’t stomach spicy food of any kind . Please help as I’m in need of loosing 6 stone !! My pain is affecting all my joints and morphine isn’t stopping it so well 🙁

[Madlegs1]

Cut out all processed foods.

Particularly the white ones.

Sugar, flour, pasta.etc.

Don't get hungry- eat as much fruit and veg as you like.

Drink water- but don't flood yourself.

Don't build guilt-- if you feel you need a treat, do so. One bite of chocolate, or a macaroon or whatever! But only once a week!😜

That would be a start.

If you are up to it, get a little bit of walking into your life. Build up slowly.

You can do this. That's your mantra.

All the best.

[Deni52 in reply to Madlegs1]

slow and easy changes

[Sallyk42 in reply to Madlegs1]

Thanks so much for your reply I really appreciate what you say . I will try what you say as I know for one bread makes me feel very full and bloated. I suffer chronic constipation too and it really doesn’t help at all . Thanks again for your time

[Bevvy]

Rather than walking once a day which is causing leg pain. Suggest shorter walks 2-3 times a day. Your dog will adore you for that!

[Sallyk42 in reply to Bevvy]

I will give that a definite go thank you for your time and yes he probably will

[MSTKing]

As someone who is in a wheelchair, I realised that instead of the usual amount of food, I had to eat less. So, if dieting instead of 1,000 calories for a woman, 800 if you can't exercise. It still is hard if you can't exercise enough, but keeping an eye on calorie intake each day seems to be the only way to lose weight. Try to aim for steady weight loss over time, rather than a quick fix that might not last. I keep a food diary and make sure I keep with the calorie target each day. Hope this helps in some way.

[Sallyk42 in reply to MSTKing]

Thankyou so much . That’s what I thought about 800 . It is hard when pain stops me being active but I will try

[birdmcgee]

Hi Sallyk42, Have you tried diet clubs before?

I found slimming world really easy to follow and sustainable too. It's not about counting calories but increasing healthy foods. The premise of it is that food is divided up into three sections.

1.Free food - which you can eat unmeasured amounts of as long as you are sensible: includes pasta, rice, potatoes, pretty much all fruit and veg, beans, legumes, meat & fish & eggs.

2.Healthy extras.

Healthy extras A which are calcium rich foods, you have to have 2 of these a day ... they include a measured portion of cheese, milk, yoghurt (I'm vegan so can have soy/oat/almond milk) etc

Healthy Extras B which is a measured portion of fibre rich food such as cereal, bread, nuts, seeds or dried fruit.

3.Syns

This is every thing else .... butter, oil, chocolate, sweets, crisps. Everything not included in the foods above is allocated a 'syn value' based on its nutritional value (slimming world work it out for you, you can search for food on the app you get when you join) and you are given 15 syns a day to spend.

I highly recommend the diet, I had enormous success with it which allowed me to get CCG funding for IVf and we now have a 5 month old daughter.

Even as a veggie it's not restrictive and more importantly its sustainable because you dont go hungry and you have an allowance each day for a treat such as a chocolate or something else.

You can also join online and weigh yourself at home every week or join a class.

I hope this is helpful

Good luck

[Sallyk42 in reply to birdmcgee]

Thankyou so much ! You’ve made me so happy as you’ve said foods I love etc . Potato is my favourite ever food and boiled is good too so I will try this . Where would quorn or McCartney sausages etc be as I eat those and nuggets etc . Are they classed as protein ?

I will try myself with what you said but if not I will join on line . Really making me think now !

Thanks for your time x

[birdmcgee in reply to Sallyk42]

Plain quorn pieces and quorn mince are a free food so you dont have to measure, other quorn products have a syn value (like for example the quorn fish fingers etc).

LM red onion and rosemary sausages are free but the original sausages have a syn value... only very low syn value but you still have to count them ... I think they are like 1.5 syns each so if you had 15 syns a day, you could have quite a few.

A lot of the other linda McCartney products are very low syns. I like the pulled 'chicken' 8, a stir fry and think it's only like 2 or 3 for half a bag so enough to feed me and my partner.

Most other supermarket own brand soy mince is free.

It's really worth going along to a group and getting the proper lowdown from a group leader. They have all the knowledge and are so supportive. There were lots of people at my group who had lost lots of weight... I'm talking 10 stone plus.

I think because it's easy to stick to it's more sustainable than just calorie counting or cutting out whole food groups all together.

[birdmcgee in reply to birdmcgee]

Sorry I should say that one of the things with free foods is that although you dont have to measure, you always have to have at least a third of your meal fruit or veg. (These are called speed foods).

So if you had potatoes, linda McCartney sausages and veg, you need at least 1/3 of the meal to be veg.

Also 1 calorie spray 'frylight' is free to use when cooking. You can spray it as much as you like but dont pour it. - great for making home made chips or roast potatoes. Just spray the potatoes, put in oven and then every now and then, give them a stir and spray them a few times again.

[saj01]

Hi Sally

I can see you've had some very good reponses with ideas for losing weight. It's good you're feeling proactive and want to try to reduce your weight, especially as you are experiencing pain.

The 'joining a club' can be very motivating... nice to know everyone who is there is there for the same reason.

There's several things to remeber, 'sugar' in any form is empty calories, i.e. no nutritional value whatsever, so if you take it in tea, coffee etc, try reducing it to leaving out completely.

It takes a while to get used to, but worth the effort.

Same as fizzy drinks, some fruit juices, look at the contents.

You mentioned bread, supermarket bread is proved so quickly nowadays, it just creates gas.

If you want bread, see if there's a traditional baker near you who proves bread the old way and go for something which is high in fibre. You say you like potatoes, a small amount is okay, but togther with bread, potatoes, pasta, rice etc are high colorific and can cause constipation.

What I'd suggest is make half your plate at least, vegetables, lots of leafy greens, etc then the other half put a smaller amount of carbs i.e. wholegrain rice or jacket potato. lentils You might want to try something like quinoa as it's a whole protein. Beans & pulses are good they have a lot of fibre but also can be a bit high in calories.

Look at fruits on the net to find out which ones are lower in carb/sugar.

Often we tend to grab a couple of biscuits & a cup of tea when in fact a glass of water can take the edge off the munchies until your regular meal times.

It's shame you don't like spices as they can make a bland meal quite tasy... but try something like a blend of italian herbs or za-atar sprinkled over salad or in rice and add a good squeeze of lemon.

I used have a have a very sweet tooth but having changed my diet I find most of those 'treats' overly sweet now.I've attached a link for a website which works out how many calories you need to maintain your body weight.. What you could do is put in the weight you are now, your height, and tick how much exercise you get and it will work out the amount of calories you need to stay the same weight.... then change the weight to whatever your target weight is this year and see how much less you need.

If you can increase your exercise daily that will help too. Good luck- hope it goes well for you.

[strongmouse]

Have you heard of GI diet? the idea is slightly different to counting calories as you need to make sure you each time you eat you include food which has a hight glycaemic level and is therefore absorbed and used more slowly by the body.

My husband found he could lose weight steadily combining this with a 5 to 2 diet which meant he could diet 5 days and eat a normal (within reason) diet the other two days. There are several websites explaining both these routines.

Slow and steady is best and trying to find a diet which will help you to keep the weight off is best. Hope it goes well for you.