Apologies if this topic has already been brought up - I am new to this community.
I just thought I'd share my experiences from following this particular guide to weight loss and it would be interesting to hear from anyone else who has tried this programme. I am a 21 year old male hoping to reach a target weight of around 12 stone which is about right for my height. At my heaviest, I weighed around 16 stone, 7 pounds and decided it was time to lose weight. After several months of pain and resistance, I managed to get down to 14 stone. Looking back on this, I have no idea how I managed it as I'm normally a sucker for both sweet and savoury foods as well as having constant hunger pangs dealt with by reluctantly tucking into cardboard textured low fat devil foods.
But anyway, since getting down to 14 stone, I tried to carry on and I would lose a few more pounds, give in to temptation and put them back on again. So it's been 14 stone on or off for the past few weeks and in search of some kind of booster to help me get rid of these last 24 pounds, I decided to try Paul McKenna's approach to weight loss - notice how I don't use the word 'diet' because his system allows you to eat what you want. The book elaborates on 4 very simple points which should be followed in the system and it claims as long as you follow them, you will lose weight, even if you choose not to exercise. They are:
1. Eat only when you're hungry
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should eat
3. Eat consciously, slowly, chew every mouthful thoroughly and enjoy it
4. Stop eating as soon as you are satisfied
I followed these points and it does require practice if you are normally a fast eater. I usually shove food down my mouth like there's no tomorrow so it did take a few days for me to get used to eating slowly. But I have to say, following these four rules allowed me to become satisfied from eating a portion of food which would normally leave me hungry for more. The book also states a true fact that it takes around 20 minutes for your stomach to send the signal to your brain that you are full which explains rule number 3 of eating slowly. I'll be honest - after 20 minutes of eating according to the rules, I still feel I could eat more and still feel hungry... unless I have a drink of water. Suddenly after the drink of water I feel full and don't want to eat anymore. I also found that this full feeling sustained a lot longer than it would normally. There is no part of the 4 rules which says you must drink with your meal but I decided to do this as it immediately stops me wanting more food until my next meal. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else also thinks this. Anyway, I have lost a few pounds since and I am going to continue following the rules and I will update you with my progress.
I tried the Paul McKenna system years ago and found the CDs didn't help me at all, although I did start eating my food more slowly. I've now read a book by Debbie Flint called Till the Fat Lady Slims which is about Freedom Eating and uses some of Paul McKenna's principles. She wrote the first book in 2002 and has now published an updated version on Kindle (not in paper format yet but soon to be) and I've read the latest one and its really focussed my mind. I'd recommend it to anyone to read. amazon.co.uk/Till-Fat-Lady-...
The book includes a bit about Debbie's weightloss journey but includes help on using the Freedom Eating principles within the framework of a formal weightloss programme like calorie counting etc. Its definitely working for me.
It's amazing how this man is able to make a career out of what he calls '4 rules'. It makes me wonder how else people eat, if not by these simple principles, which are so obvious they hardly need spelling out. This is what we are genetically programmed to do, this is how our ancestors would have eaten - when they were lucky enough to find food - throughout all the centuries of evolution since humans have been on the earth. I would only add one item to the list, # 5, always eat at a table, never on the run, in the car, at your desk, and preferably not on your own. You inevitably eat slowly when you're having a conversation with someone else.
Well at one level, that's only saying what is said on this board time and time again, it's about taking control of your eating habits and changing the bad ones for better ones.
A big chunk of the problem is that - for all sorts of "reasons" - many people just don't only eat when they are hungry, or only eat what they want as opposed to what they think they 'ought' to. Many people do eat their food too fast, which means they have often overeaten, before the body has had a chance to signal that it's had enough. And often for the reason just mentioned, many people do overeat.
And of course, myself included, many people learn from their upbringing or from other sources, just plain bad eating habits. Whether that is that feeling good / gaining other people's approval is strongly linked to sweet things like chocolate, ice cream, cakes and the like, or whether it is to eat in a rush, or to serve yourself ludicrously large portions of everything, or feel they must clear their plate and not waste food. In my time, I would have to plead guilty to all of those, plus several more too.
But at some point in time, it all comes home to roost. And the only person who can take control of it really is number one.
I quickly realised on my weight loss journey that I was overweight because I had made myself overweight. And as I had caused the problem, then there really was only one person who was going to change it - myself.
Hi George, That's great progress with the weight loss- well done. Like others have already commented, the system you described really is common sense, but sometimes we need to be told common sense by someone else to actually act on it. We shouldn't underestimate the importance of that. And it is sound advice, which is more than can be said for most of the million other celeb dieting books.
The water point is a good one - I always feel less hungry when I'm properly hydrated
It's interesting that you mentioned using this approach because you wanted "booster". I think a change of routine can sometimes jolt the body into weight loss. So perhaps you'll find that this approach works on its own for a while, but then you might have to change something else to finally achieve your target weight.
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