It really is this simple, and this hard. It's not about what's going on under your ribcage. It's about what's going on between your ears.
Diet ideas - what actually works?
- Thread starter les24preludes
- Start date
Weighing food is a lot less faff than firing up Excel. But maybe that's just me. I keep a book, I avoid the computer.
That's why I eat 2/3 of what I think and write down what that is. Pasta and rice are equivalents. Potatoes - you can have 150g of potatoes for every 100g of rice. Bol, chilli, curry, beef stew, shepherd's pie are all interchangeable. Do they all have the same calorie count? Hmm. Perhaps not precisly, but yeah, close enough. Don't overthink it. Calories are an approximation, but an approximation that works.
Good plan. The extra calories will be from the oil content in the sesame seeds. But I make all bread interchangeable, the difference gets lost in the noise.
I'm not sure that a Med diet is more work. One of my favourites is a Med style stew, with chicken or lamb, tomatoes, peppers, tin chickpeas, anything else I see fit. I might add Moroccan style spices, or not. Serve with couscous or rice. Go big on the veg and light on the meat. 130g/200g, in the diary, it's tasty, wholesome and nutritious. You are eating more vegetables and less meat, and its visually interesting.
One thing that I find helps is to focus on eating. Cook your own food so that you know what's in it and you have a relationship with the stuff. Enjoy eating it, turn the TV off and look at the stuff. Think about what's in it and the flavour/texture differences. I think that this helps with an appreciation of the food. Too many people just regard it as fuel and this disengagement encourages overeating.
les24preludes
pfm Member
Before I went vegetarian I loved going out for a Couscous Royal in Paris where I lived for a year. But that can still work. I should teach myself the recipe. Ideally you need the classic 7 vegetables - onions, carrots, pumpkin, courgette, turnips, cabbage, and chickpeas. But it can be simplified.
I think stews of any kind are brilliant. Pies even better, but that gets a bit more naughty.
Moroccan Couscous with Seven Vegetables - Couscous Bidaoui
Authentic recipe for Casablanca-style couscous at its best. Lamb, beef or chicken is stewed with veggies in a zesty broth then served over steamed couscous.
tasteofmaroc.com
As a lifelong healthy lifestyle person who has maintained his adulthood 78kg body weight for 35 years I would say:
a) Avoid forget fad diets. Plenty of them will work short term to lose weight. But they unhealthy and cannot be sustained for long.
b) Choose a diet with a calorie level that you can sustain forever and which maintains your desired body weight, ie not a crash/fad diet with large calorie deficit. Stay on this diet for the rest of your life. You can vary its content, but not its calories. You will never feel hungry, always have good energy levels and will always look the way you want to look as well as always having the healthy benefits of being at the correct weight. Can you see the recurring theme, the sustainable diet gives its benefits everyday and for the rest of your life, no yoyoing on and off the fad diet.
c) I agree with what others have said. Calorie content is more influential than activity level on your bodyweight.
d) This sustainable (but very healthy) diet is devoid of processed food, low in sugar, low in high glycemic index carbs, low in salt. Most of your calories will come from plant based fats and low glycemic index carbs. The blanket statement that carbs are bad is not true, its the sugary/high glycemic index carbs that are bad. You'll need protein too, avoid the high fat animal sources. This is not some special diet that was invented by click bait, monitarisatition motivated internet gurus, its what any honest nutritionist would have recommended to you for decades and its available for free all over the internet on sites like those put up by the NHS.
e) Choose an exercise that will not injure you over the long term (rowng, swimming, not running)and that you quite enjoy. Start gentle and slowly build up the volume. Make this as much a permanent part of your life as the diet in b)/d) above. Do not try to burn off the excesses of a bad diet, it wont work, there are not enough hours in the day and you'll end up overtrained and injured. Incorporate strength training too, once you develop a lte muscle your weight loss becomes a little easier as your bodies calorific requirements increase. Just like diet, no fad exercise regimes, this is not rocket science, despite what those with financial incentives to tell you otherwise would say.
d) Monitor your weight loss and make sure its slow, say 1kg a week, no more. If you lose weight faster than this you'll be throwing away good mass that comes from higher bone density and muscle (another nail in the fad diet coffin).
a) Avoid forget fad diets. Plenty of them will work short term to lose weight. But they unhealthy and cannot be sustained for long.
b) Choose a diet with a calorie level that you can sustain forever and which maintains your desired body weight, ie not a crash/fad diet with large calorie deficit. Stay on this diet for the rest of your life. You can vary its content, but not its calories. You will never feel hungry, always have good energy levels and will always look the way you want to look as well as always having the healthy benefits of being at the correct weight. Can you see the recurring theme, the sustainable diet gives its benefits everyday and for the rest of your life, no yoyoing on and off the fad diet.
c) I agree with what others have said. Calorie content is more influential than activity level on your bodyweight.
d) This sustainable (but very healthy) diet is devoid of processed food, low in sugar, low in high glycemic index carbs, low in salt. Most of your calories will come from plant based fats and low glycemic index carbs. The blanket statement that carbs are bad is not true, its the sugary/high glycemic index carbs that are bad. You'll need protein too, avoid the high fat animal sources. This is not some special diet that was invented by click bait, monitarisatition motivated internet gurus, its what any honest nutritionist would have recommended to you for decades and its available for free all over the internet on sites like those put up by the NHS.
e) Choose an exercise that will not injure you over the long term (rowng, swimming, not running)and that you quite enjoy. Start gentle and slowly build up the volume. Make this as much a permanent part of your life as the diet in b)/d) above. Do not try to burn off the excesses of a bad diet, it wont work, there are not enough hours in the day and you'll end up overtrained and injured. Incorporate strength training too, once you develop a lte muscle your weight loss becomes a little easier as your bodies calorific requirements increase. Just like diet, no fad exercise regimes, this is not rocket science, despite what those with financial incentives to tell you otherwise would say.
d) Monitor your weight loss and make sure its slow, say 1kg a week, no more. If you lose weight faster than this you'll be throwing away good mass that comes from higher bone density and muscle (another nail in the fad diet coffin).
blossomchris
I feel better than James Brown
Reducing food intake and regular exercising work best for me
Cannot remember last time I ate processed, we do munch some carbs but not much now as I no longer do manual work. We are considering eating our main meal for lunch and a snack in the evening.
Alcohol is our problem but we have reduced this and still working at it.
Cannot remember last time I ate processed, we do munch some carbs but not much now as I no longer do manual work. We are considering eating our main meal for lunch and a snack in the evening.
Alcohol is our problem but we have reduced this and still working at it.
les24preludes
pfm Member
Alcohol is almost a separate subject but it's so relevant to weight loss. I drink tap water almost 100% of the time. Bottled sparkling water in nice but then you have the bottles to dispose of.
I think wine with meals is probably a no-no because once a bottle is open...... you know the rest.
A very small whisky before lunch is nice. And for beer, a 330ml bottle a day isn't the end of the world.
Well done. I have mine where I want it but it takes work.
Absolutely. Eat normal food that you like.
Agree, but days off are important to keep your sanity.
A sustainable diet for me consists of "real" food.
Hallelujah! If only more people appreciated this.
Nutritionists still do recommend this. They recommend real food over a manufactured product. Protein bars, protein shakes? No. A cheese sandwich, a glass of milk.
As a maximum. I dont ever lose more than 500g a week. If you calculate the calorie content of fatty tissue, 500g of it is worth about 2500 kcal, which is an adult male's approx demand. So you need to eat only 2500 x 6 kcal over the week to get there.
That's around 2200 cal a day. Lose twice that, 2500 x 5 kcal is 12,500 a week, or less than 1800 kcal a day. That's tough. Lose 3 times that, forget it.
les24preludes
pfm Member
What would you guys suggest as a daily kcal number for a sustainable diet for an older adult male? I'm thinking around 1800kcal?
The NHS suggests 2,500 as a target for a male, but that probably includes exercise and doesn't account for weight loss. Here's a more accurate estimation.
Sedentary male 51+ - 2,000-2200
Moderately active - 2,200-2,400
Active - 2,400 - 2,800
Big Tabs
looking backwards, going forwards
- Try to eat your main meal earlier in the day - way back when, food would be harder to find, therefore to get the most from food i.e. put weight on/maintenance when we eat a large meal we have the compulsion to sleep. Consider the Lion - eat food - fall asleep! Therefore the more time between your main meal and sleepytime means an increased likelihood of losing weight.
- As others have said - reduce carbs, eat tons of veg, Love Cabbage!
- If you like a drink - switch from beer/wine to straight spirits on many rocks (maybe with some bitters/slice o whatever’s- a slice of cucumber is a nice) The Joy of Sipping!
- Having a glass of water with any drink and alternating glugs …. Have a glass of water with your meals - finish it!
- Don’t stream Music -
Get up and select and play physical media… every little helps x park farther away from the shops/work whatever and walk a bit, etc . Find ways to add more movement to your day, however small. - If possible involve other household member/s in your dietary aspirations.
Such a high level of concurrence from two people who have "cracked it". We both can't be wrong
I am on 3100 calories per day. BUT, what is right for me has no relation to what's right for you.
Measure what you're on now, then drop a couple of hundred calories. That's your starting point I would say. Weigh yourself now. Then as Steve says watch your weekly weight loss. if its more than 500g to 1000g/week up your calories a little, but not to your starting level of calories.
mandryka
pfm Member
One trick is to eat whatever you like, but to only eat when you feel hungry and to stop eating as soon as your hunger subsides. Hypnotherapy may help you develop the skill to be aware of your hunger sensations and to develop the willpower to control your eating.
windhoek
The Phoolosopher
Go vegan. Not counting anyone who's just become vegan, I reckon you'd be lucky to find more than a handful of overweight vegans per hundred, quite possibly just one or two, and quite possibly much less than that.
My weight is usually between 10 stone 7 to 10 stone 10, sometimes less but I've not been 11 stone or more since I became a vegan 4 years ago. I mean, I could eat loads and loads of food for days on end then bam, big jobbie and I'm back to being where I was before. It's remarkable how hard it is to put on weight when you're a vegan.
Fwiw, I weighed 11 stone 10 before I became vegan, with my heaviest ever at 12 stone 4. It's like being vegan makes your body find its natural operating weight and it just stays within a narrow window of a few pounds above or below that ideal.
My weight is usually between 10 stone 7 to 10 stone 10, sometimes less but I've not been 11 stone or more since I became a vegan 4 years ago. I mean, I could eat loads and loads of food for days on end then bam, big jobbie and I'm back to being where I was before. It's remarkable how hard it is to put on weight when you're a vegan.
Fwiw, I weighed 11 stone 10 before I became vegan, with my heaviest ever at 12 stone 4. It's like being vegan makes your body find its natural operating weight and it just stays within a narrow window of a few pounds above or below that ideal.
blossomchris
I feel better than James Brown
we do not drink alcohol for 3 days a week, if not going out out. Rarely drink whisky and I find it easier to have no beer, wine is our poison. We do have wine saver corks so a couple out of a bottle can last a couple of days between two people. we often binge at weekends and that we are trying to resolve.
Eat less exercise more. Build activity into your daily routine, walk to the shop rather than drive etc.
I ended up getting into cycling & joining a club. Changed my life, lost a lot of weight & made many new friends.
Make sure you have at least 3-4 days a week where you don’t drink.
I ended up getting into cycling & joining a club. Changed my life, lost a lot of weight & made many new friends.
Make sure you have at least 3-4 days a week where you don’t drink.
Cheese
Bitter lover
Vegetarian is already a good start, and easier to achieve without frustration (which induces jumping on sweets or burgers). If you cook well, Indian cuisine works well without meat, chances are you will need much less meat, or none at all.
Most important thing, avoid frustration at any cost, such diets will never work. I am a firm believer that having pleasure while eating is just as important as food being healthy. Forget about all those hip things like Jerusalem artichokes, kale, rutabaga, or any of those 'superfood' seeds. They are all just not good, and are labeled 'healthy' so they don't all land on the compost heap.
Locheeboy
pfm Member
Day 1...Breakfast...pint of Slimfast, with milk, any flavour. No snacks in between.
Dinner...Pint of Slimfast . No snacks in between.
Evening meal... eat normally - try to have the evening meal finished before 7:00pm
Day 2 Repeat Day 1
Day 3 repeat Day 2
Eat normally for the rest of the week. Repeat ad infinitum...
Exercise...Exercise...Exercise. Very minimum, a brisk 30 minute walk, every other day, from now 'til ye die... If ye cannot even do this very minimum then ye'll die much younger than you or yer family expect and the wood for yer coffin'll be very expensive...
PS only you can do this ...diet coach, a waste of money... counting calories, a waste of time...Ye don't havetae beat yourself with a birch rod, ye don't havetae have this at the front of yer mind always..
PPS ye can make Day 1 Mon/Tue/Wed, keeping the weekend free.
les24preludes
pfm Member
That's just not true. I had a really good diet coach who had lost a lot of weight herself. It was very motivational and got me started when I didn't believe I could do it. It was money very well spent, and I lost stones.
Counting calories? How can you lose weight when you don't even know how many calories you are consuming? You don't have to be obsessive over it but you do have to know what's happening in your food intake.
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
This is roughly along the lines that I followed too, although I kept at it all week, every week.Day 1...Breakfast...pint of Slimfast, with milk, any flavour. No snacks in between.
Dinner...Pint of Slimfast . No snacks in between.
Evening meal... eat normally - try to have the evening meal finished before 7:00pm
Day 2 Repeat Day 1
Day 3 repeat Day 2
Eat normally for the rest of the week. Repeat ad infinitum...
Exercise...Exercise...Exercise. Very minimum, a brisk 30 minute walk, every other day, from now 'til ye die... If ye cannot even do this very minimum then ye'll die much younger than you or yer family expect and the wood for yer coffin'll be very expensive...
PS only you can do this ...diet coach, a waste of money... counting calories, a waste of time...Ye don't havetae beat yourself with a birch rod, ye don't havetae have this at the front of yer mind always..
PPS ye can make Day 1 Mon/Tue/Wed, keeping the weekend free.
Diet ideas that actually worked, for me…
A couple of cookies and an espresso for breakfast, an apple for lunch. Same sort of evening meal as ever (avoiding obvious stuff like chips - but then I usually do). No puddings (again, never do.) Bread and cheese to follow. A Rochefort as an aperitif and half-a-bottle of wine as accompaniment, as usual.
A long walk every afternoon. Five or six miles minimum. Good exercise and keeps you away from temptation for two or three hours. Take another apple to eat on the way.
All done off my own bat. No advice sought, no calories counted, no logs or diaries, no deep thinking or analysis (not that I would have been capable of it in any case) - just weighed myself twice a week. I went from 76kg to 66kg in six months, BMI from 25 to 22, a clothes size down all over. I keep to roughly the same diet now and have stayed at that weight for eighteen months. I could lose more if I gave up the beer, wine or cheese but (a) I don’t want to and (b) I’m perfectly happy smack in the middle of the ‘healthy’ BMI range.
For motivation, try buying a decent shirt and pair of trousers in the size you are hoping to get to. Try them on every month. When you realise they are getting less uncomfortable you will be encouraged, as you will when you see the reading on the scales begin to decrease (which takes a couple of weeks to get underway - don’t be discouraged. That’s the hardest time.)
There really is no need to overthink this, pay for books and lifestyle coaches or get mired down in BMR and glycemic indices (whatever they may be.) As countless others have already said (and will say), it boils down to eating less and burning off more.
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