I’m currently on a bit of a diet. After gaining a couple of kilograms over the Holiday season I’m trying to eat more healthy foods that give me more energy.
I’ve heard that cutting out carbs later in the day helps with weight loss. Obviously it’s a bit too early to see any results in myself, so I was wondering if any Dopers have tried this method and seen results? Also, if anyone has any other tips I would really appreciate them. Exercise tips would be really good as well.
Thanks everyone… gonna go eat breakfast now… and dammit, we have bacon! I’ll try to enjoy my oatmeal…
I’ve lost about 25 pounds since August or so. What I did was:
Switched to Weight Watchers meals for lunch, though about once a week I lunch with a friend at McDonald’s.
Breakfast is a granola bar instead of a pop-tart.
Snacks are saltines, low-fat graham crackers, or cinnamon rice cakes
not as much evening snacking.
The main thing I did was eat on a schedule. On weekdays,
7:30am (arrive at work) have a cup of coffee (with Equal) and granola bar.
I can’t have a second cup of coffee until after 9:00 am.
I can’t have a snack until 10:00 am, and then I can have a rice cake.
12:00 eat lunch
I can have another snack at 2:00 if I want, as well as a cup of coffee.
Then I eat dinner between 5 and 6 or so and try not to eat anything at all after 8:00 pm. (If I must, it’s something small.)
I know that such a schedule is tough for some people, but it’s really the main thing that helped me. Also, I’ve done small things like, if I eat chips, instead of bringing the whole bag to the sofa and trusting myself to stop eating after a while, I just put some in a tupperware bowl and then when that’s empty, I’m done.
Lots and lots and lots of fruit. I’ve heard it said that if you’ve had a proper dinner you don’t really need anything but fruit for breakfast, and I tend to agree. Several years ago I started having nothing for breakfast but coffee and smoothies (fruit (eg a banana or two, a peach and some strawberries) and OJ or milk mashed up in a blender) and it’s changed my life: lots of energy and I’m not hungry again until noon. If I miss one in the morning I really miss it.
(If you have the smoothie over a bowl of granola or muslix it’s even more filling.)
It’s delicious, very healthy and fills up your stomach so you’re not tempted to put an Egg McMuffin in it. Also it will mean you have lots of fruit in the house for evening snacking and sweet cravings.
Weight Watchers here. I’m down 61 pounds since July 2002.
I end up having:
a Lender’s bagel for breakfast (3 points)
Two tuna sandwhiches (low-cal bread and lite mayo (8.5 points)
a sensible dinner (depending on what my wife makes. Some examples:
– cooked chicken (1 breast - 5 points) with brocolli (free)
– baked chicken cutlets (about a point and ounce)
– Rice (4 points per cup) with steamed flounder and vegetables (about 2 points per fillet).
– Baked ziti (about 7.5 points).
For snacks, I usually have a bag of BBQ flavored Soy Crisps (about two points) and for dessert four Miss Merengue cookies of various flavors (two points).
Supplement with a lot of free vegetables (I love sour pickles.
20-30 minutes aerobic exercise first thing in the morning 6 days a week, cutting right down on fatty, sugary snacks and increasing fruit and veg intake is working well for me so far. 2 weeks in, and I’ve gone from 37% body fat to 34%.
Exercising first thing in the morning makes me feel awake and alert. Making it every day instead of every other day means I’m not tempted to skip an extra day. I’ve tried to exercise more a few times in the past, but this time I’m finding it a lot easier to stick to. 3 or 4 times a week I do more exercise during the day, say a walk in the afternoon or evening.
Whoa, pickles are free? I’m taking a note of that.
I just started Weight Watchers online two weeks ago. I find the very accountable style of online journalling perfect for me. If I know I’m not allowed to do something, I won’t. It’s only when there’s wiggle room that I make excuses.
I’ve found that if I eat a good breakfast, I’m less hungry the rest of the day. The biggest adjustment for me was, as I had been warned, portion control. I mostly eat the same things except I’m eating much less of them.
Also, it’s gotten me cooking far more than I ever did before, which is great, cause I love cooking but I’m lazy.
I have cut back on Carbs. I haven’t gone whole-hog on the Atkin’s thing, but I eat much less chocolate, don’t eat fries or that kind of stuff and have cut back on beer. Since Early November I have lost 8 lbs (Dr. weighed me this morning.) Since I usually GAIN over the holidays, I’m pleased. I also started lifting weights.
Sorry about the delay in my response… I was at work!
I’ve been trying my best to get up in the morning and exercise, but I find that I hit the snooze button too often when I know that I can sleep in for an extra hour. And at the end of the day (I sometimes work 12 hour shifts) I just feel too exhausted.
I’m finding your advice very helpful and inspiring. I hope I can keep myself motivated like the rest of you are. Any tips for motivation? That bacon was really beckoning to me this morning!
Around the holidays I got news that I was to travel to India in February to teach a 3 week course. To my horror, the casual khaki slacks I like to wear while training were mighty snug. So, since I returned to work on Jan. 6th, I’ve tried to eat better.
A typical day:
Breakfast
2 scrambled eggs with salsa and a banana
Lunch
BIG salad with low fat dressing and an apple
Afternoon snack
cup of yogurt, rice cakes, all the carrot sticks I want
Dinner
BIG SALAD with low fat dressing
small portion of whatever entree is for dinner at my house. We’re vegetarians, so I just asked my boyfriend when he cooks to watch the cheese so much stuff is pretty low fat (a lot of carbs though, pasta, rice, etc)
I hate hate hate working out, but I know it’s important and a habit I really need to improve on, still trying to get up early enough in the morning! I work on the third floor and I haven’t taken the elevator since I started my new regime (a small step in the right direction).
This is my first time experimenting with low carbs and I have to agree, I have a lot more energy. Of course, it could just be the adrenaline of getting my course ready for delivery under short notice!
On a positive note, after two weeks, my slacks no longer look like hoochie wear and I still have another two weeks to lose a tiny bit more!
Good luck to everyone else attempting to eat better and get fit and healthy, the temptations are everywhere.
Diet: I’m consuming 1,200 calories per day, with no more than 20% of calories from fat. Trying to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. Vowing to cook and not rely on frozen dinners. I’m also taking a multi-vitamin and mineral pill each day.
Exercise: I’m doing two hours of aerobic exericse per day, every day, usually on a elliptical cross-trainer. What saves me from boredom? Either my iPod, a good magazine, or the television set. But I feel so good and energized afterward, not exhausted. It’s not exercising that makes me feel sluggish and unproductive.
Results: I’m losing up to 7 pounds per week. Yes, I’ve heard that weight loss should be 1-2 pounds per week. But neither the diet or exercise above is extreme, so why argue with success. (No, I do not feel my lean muscle mass decreasing. If anything my leg muscles are improving.)
I should add – “These results are not typical”. I am quite overweight (too embarassed to say how much), and the more you weigh, the faster the weight comes off due simply to high basal metabolic rate. A fat person burns many more calories just sitting still than a normal person of the same height and sex does. I expect that as I approach my goal weight, I will be losing 3-5 pounds per week on this regimine, not 7 pounds.
Weight Watchers. Back story: about a year and a half ago I got on the scale and discovered that I weighed 158 lbs. I am a small boned 5’1" and have typically weighed 125 or less. I had been in denial about the creeping weight gain – wearing baggy sweats to disguise the fact that my clothes didn’t fit or wearing some old jeans of my husband’s and pretending not to notice the size on the back, etc. So I tried various methods of cutting back and had no noticable luck until my mom (who was on Weight Watchers) came to visit. I didn’t join a chapter at that time, but just followed the program using my mom’s stuff. It is really a good program and I lost 35 pounds in 4 months. However, I didn’t do the maintenence (since I wasn’t actually going to meetings) and I gained back about 15 pounds. So I went back on the program over Thanksgiving – really going to meetings this time – and got back on track. I’m now 126 with a goal of 120 and I definately plan to do the maintenence this time. A typical day (yesterday, actually):
breakfast: scrambled egg sandwich on light bread (4 points)
V-8 juice (free and a veggy)
lunch: taco soup with WOW tortilla chips (3 points & a veggy)
skim milk (1 point)
sugar free ginger snaps (3 points for 7!)
snack: grapes (1 point and a fruit)
dinner: saurkraut (free and a veggy)
small lean pork chop (3 points)
'taters (3 points)
applesauce (1 point and a fruit)
snack: Healthy Choice ice cream sandwich (3 points and my second milk)
So that’s 21 points, 5 servings of fruits/veggies and 2 servings of milk. Oh, and if anyone’s interested, my recipe for taco soup is excellent – really easy and only 3 points a cup (1 point a cup if you leave out the chips and cheese). I’ll post the recipe if anyone wants it.
I have been using a meal replacement program called modifast (optifast) and for me it is working brilliantly. Diets are hopeless in my case, I am far better off not eating at all.
However I do have 2 bowls of tossed salad per day for keeping the intestines healthy. I also cheat and eat an occasional meal and an occasional chocolate. And I walk. 30 minutes brisk walking every morning, and most evenings a 15 minute stroll.
Maybe not ideal for everyone, but great for me. My sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides are all back in normal range.
Jess - please do post that recipe! I am trying to lose weight, but since I am hopelessly lost when people start talking about fat grams and ratios and such, this is my program:
During the week:
Breakfast: instant oatmeal, juice
Lunch: soup - tomato or veggie or tom w/rice only
Dinner - eh, not so sensible - hubby and I both work frantic hours, and I can’t cook - so we try to eat sandwiches, salad, etc.
BTW, can’t stand chicken or fish. I’ll do small pieces of chkn in salad, but can’t stand to touch it or prepare it - phobia thing - so most standard diets don’t appeal to me…
auliya, while I’m happy the weight is coming off for you, I’m a tiny bit concerned about your method of weight loss. The best way to take off weight and keep it off is to adopt a more healthy lifestyle. As soon as you resume your former eating habits, the possibility that the the weight will return very quickly is high. By keeping your caloric intake so low, you wreck havoc on your metabolism.
The optifast diet failed spectacularly for Oprah Winfrey, who lost 67 pounds in the 80s and gained it all back (and more) very quickly.
Once again, I don’t want to sound preachy, but you’re right it’s easier NOT to eat than to learn the habits of healthy eating which quite frankly, is a lot of work.
Weight loss and maintaining a healthy life has been such a struggle for me, I emphathize with anyone who is trying to be healthier. Your daily walks sound like a fabulous idea and I wish you all the luck and the best!
If you hate chicken (which I do too) how do you feel about the packaged fake crab? I’ve been buying it a lot lately and using it on salads. It’s high in protein, 90 calories a serving and fat free, I love the stuff!
My favorite salad dressing in the world (well, okay, full on fat caesar salad dressing is probably my REAL favorite) is Maple Grove Farms Lite Lemon and Dill. It tastes great on salad with crab.
Here’s the recipe for a great, light pasta dish I made this week (it has green olives which are high in fat, but it isn’t a bad fat):
1 package of fettucini
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 small onion chopped
garlic, chopped (I like a lot of garlic)
1/2 cup green olives sliced
2 portabello mushrooms diced (depending on size, some of those things are HUGE)
salt/pepper to taste
Start the water for the pasta and while it’s coming to a boil, chop the onion and the garlic. Heat the oil in a large saute pan, and toss in the onion and garlic and cook til translucent. Add the olives and the mushrooms and saute briskly!
Once the water boils, toss in the pasta and cook and drain according to pasta directions.
Add salt and pepper to taste to saute mixture. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice. Stir, stir, stir.
Dump pasta back into pasta pot and dump sauce on top. Mix well and serve with a little grated parmesan cheese and a big salad.
I know that a lot of people are anti pasta/carbs right now, so I eat a small portion and a big salad. I just love pasta and can’t give it up I love this dish, it has a great lemony taste and I love green olives.
Too few calories, especially if you are overweight. At this low intake, unless you are 4’0 and 180lbs or something, your BMR is much higher than this. You never want to go below your BMR- If you want to lose weight and you lay in bed all day, find a way to burn 500 additional calories and eat your calories to support your BMR. This is IMHO forum, but I can give you some facts why it is not smart to eat below your BMR if you like.
At 7lbs a week, you are losing alot of water weight, fat and muscle, whether you feel it or not, there is no way you can lose that much weight and not lose muscle. Especially since you are starving yourself. Muscle is a luxary (extra that is) and your body can adapt its neuro system to keep the strength it needs, yet shed off extra pounds of muscle from the body to conserve energy in it’s panic.
It is your body though. I suggest to the readers that are considering a diet to NOT do this. It may shed off the weight, but if you want to be healthy and not damage your body or have a chance of rebounding when you stop dieting- this isn’t the answer.
Most Dietitians and fitness advisors suggest losing no more than 1lb a week because it is HEALTHY- which should be the goal of a diet. Not shed weight at any cost to the body. (i.e weaken the heart, skeletal muscle, bone density, immune system, etc, etc, etc)
800 calorie diets don’t work, and 1200 is not any better, unless you are a petite woman eating to sustain the weight she already has. From here:
And
With 2 hours of intense exercise like you are doing, you probably burn 1200 calories there. (900- 450 calories at my bodyweight per hour of running at 5mph, more for somebody bigger) So where is all those calories it takes to run your body coming from? You know what your body does in times of starvation? It conserves energy by slowing down the more expensive functions. It parses out energy from luxuary items like muscles, bones, and slows down things such as immune system functions, body temperature, and stores body fat from any extra source it can get. (your cheat day) It does what you don’t want it to do- slows down your fat utiliztion in an effort to ration it for the future it is striving to make you exist in.
I restarted my diet on Jan 1. So far I’m down 9 pounds.
I’m using the same home grown approach that I used before. In 2001 I lost about 45 pounds using this approach.
Be aware of the mass of what you’re comsuming. Try to limit it.
Eat 2 meals per day: Lunch and Dinner (I never eat breakfast in the first place).
Wat what you want at meals but make sure the quantity is reasonable (no fifteen tacos or somesuch).
Absolutely no between meals snacks.
Absolutely no sugary sodas.
I love this dish, it has a great lemony taste and I love green olives.