diets

[lucifers angel]

After trieing lots of differant faddy rubbish diets, and even expensive diets, which didnt work, i wanted to go it alone, and decided to take more excersise and eat less fatty foods, and if someone does put a full plate of dinner in front of me i just eat a bit of everything, i grill my meat instead of roasting and i do a lot of swimming (every monday and thursday night) i walk every where now instead of taking the bus, in 3 months i have lost almost 3st and after being weighed by the doctor he has said that i am now at my perfect weight for my height and bone structure, and has suggested that i try to eat more, but here is why i am writting this,

i don't know what sort of things to eat and frankly i dont want to be big again, does anyone have any good suggestions?

[grazzhoppa]

Preparing things boils down to throwing main ingredients together and adding spices/flavors. As long as the central focus of your meal/snack is not primarily added/processed sugar or animal fat, it's difficult to not eat heathy with this approach.

After you're learned how to prep meals heathily, portion control is what you need to focus on. The serving size on nutrition labels is quite helpful for this, as well as eating slowly so your brain has time to register when you're satisfied before you've eaten too much.

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Start assembling your meals around a staple food

Rice (brown, white, flavored varieties like Basmati)
Wheat (flour, bread, pasta)
Potatoe (white, red, sweet, yam)
Oat
Bean (black, red, pink, so many types)

Add vegetable / fruit

Spinach, Kale
Broccoli, Zucchini, Green Beans, Pea, Cauliflower
Mushroom, Onion, Olive, Carrot, Corn
Tomato
Lentil
Pineapple, Apple, Pear

Add meat / seafood if you feel like it

Chicken
Beef
Pork
Tuna
Salmon
Egg


Then figure what food mood you're in and whip up a sauce to satisfy yourself and flavor the main ingredients.

Salt, Black pepper, cinnamon, basil, oregano
Peanut, Almond, Avocado
Garlic
Olive oil, Sesame oil
Milk, Cream, Sour Cream


All the stuff I listed is affordable & easily available and can produce healthy meals when mixed and matched with each other. Creating your own dishes and following others' recipes is another road to travel....
Here are some more ingredients to play with http://www.bellybytes.com/articles/29foods.shtml
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For snacks

Bread with a topping (there are so many types of breads..., peanut butter, jam, olive oil & garlic, cheese)
Fruit (canned fruit that's not in syrup, whole fruits)
Vegetables (raw and ready washed so you can eat them without preperation)
Nuts
Fruit juices

[Idle Mind]

Wow, congrats on your weight loss. That's very impressive.

[cosmictraveler]

i don't know what sort of things to eat and frankly i dont want to be big again, does anyone have any good suggestions?


Just eat what you have been eating, that seems to keep you fit and feeling fine so why change a good thing?:shrug:

[John99]

Take a vitamin

Cut out all cake, candy etc.

Eat only vegetables and bread (italian or similar but not soft bread) with vinegar

[MacGyver1968]

I lost almost 10 pounds over the 2 week holiday..and the only thing I did differently is not eat fast food 3 or 4 times a week for lunch. Either that or drinking like a fish and smoking weed while playing online video games causes weight loss...but I'm thinking not. :)

[draqon]

I got one very important suggestion for all the dieters out there, go probiotic. Eat that yougurt, every day...just a tiny bit helps for digestion and you burn more cals that way.

[lucifers angel]

I got one very important suggestion for all the dieters out there, go probiotic. Eat that yougurt, every day...just a tiny bit helps for digestion and you burn more cals that way.

and it also tastes like crap, no thanks

[phlogistician]

Luci, sounds like you have the right program.

Weight loss really is simple, eat properly and exercise, and you are doing that. Faddy diets are popular because people try to avoid exercise, but as you have shown, walking, and swimming, two nice low impact activities, can help.

[LadyMidnight]

Be active and watch your portions. I wouldn't even advise "cutting" anything out of your diet because that leads to feelings of deprivation, which may lead to binging. Just eat proper portions and make sure you get plenty of veggies and fiber-rich foods. Fiber helps to keep you full even though your body can't use it for calories.

I've never been on a weight loss diet, but I read that being active is very important in maintaining weight, ESPECIALLY after dieting. Dieting may slow your metabolic rate, and exercise boosts it again.

[John99]

Good advice from everyone.

For me it is pretty easy because i can eat the same stuff every day and usually do. Another tip is if you eat pizza do away with the cheese and in place add fresh garlic, mushrooms, olives etc. The red sauce is actually good for you but only if it is not very salty.

I think that if you eat the right stuff you can pretty much keep the portions you are used to. And yes lots of fiber which i think is best from cereal with no sugar and eat very little meat.

First thing is to completely eliminate cake and cheap candy, only eat real chocolate once in a while.

Unsalted seed are good too but the right kind.

Another simple thing to do is like i said before get a large Italian type bread and load it up with lettuce, onions etc and just use red vinegar as topping. It is like a salad sandwich but it fills you up.

Much of this is pretty obvious though i guess.

[Bricoleur]

I went on a diet to gain weight, including body building supplements, and it worked! Gained a whole stone, which I then shed as soon as I started push biking to work.

[Enmos]

I went on a diet to gain weight, including body building supplements, and it worked! Gained a whole stone, which I then shed as soon as I started push biking to work.

A kidney stone I assume ?

[Idle Mind]

1 stone = 14 lbs = 6.35 kg.

[Enmos]

1 stone = 14 lbs = 6.35 kg.

Oh come on.. lol I know that ;)

[draqon]

and it also tastes like crap, no thanks

you dont like yogurt? :eek:

[Orleander]

you dont like yogurt? :eek:

Luci, when was the last time you tried yogurt? There are so many wonderful flavours now, and they are even better mixed with granola.

[Idle Mind]

Oh come on.. lol I know that ;)
My e-sarcasm meter is in the shop.

[lucifers angel]

Luci, when was the last time you tried yogurt? There are so many wonderful flavours now, and they are even better mixed with granola.

i last tried it about 6 months ago, my son ahd an hazlenut yougurt and i though why not, but it was gross.

[Enmos]

My e-sarcasm meter is in the shop.

Yea.. I realize my 'sarcasm' is more like lying than actual sarcasm :D

[laladopi]

Try the lifestyle diet, I've heard it's the best.
I maintain a good weight by eating a bunch of greens, whole grains, meat and the occasionally fatty desert. Don't become a robot to your diet. Just exercise, stretch and breath deeply a few times a day. Do yoga to relieve stress and strengthen muscles. When planning on loosing weight the best way is to do it with your mind, body and spirit.

[Orleander]

i last tried it about 6 months ago, my son ahd an hazlenut yougurt and i though why not, but it was gross.

mmmm, hazelnut sounds good. It took me a bit of shopping around to find a yogurt I liked. And it has to have granola in it. Its a texture thing.

[Orleander]

Try the lifestyle diet, I've heard it's the best.
I maintain a good weight by eating a bunch of greens, whole grains, meat and the occasionally fatty desert. Don't become a robot to your diet. Just exercise, stretch and breath deeply a few times a day. Do yoga to relieve stress and strengthen muscles. When planning on loosing weight the best way is to do it with your mind, body and spirit.

and walking every day.

[draqon]

Another diet thing is that when you feel happy you loose more weight, so feeling depressed and down is negative on the weight loss. So do those social events, be merry, go around, talk to people, go jogging, be active in life. Active as in participate in as much as you can.

[Absane]

After trieing lots of differant faddy rubbish diets, and even expensive diets, which didnt work, i wanted to go it alone, and decided to take more excersise and eat less fatty foods, and if someone does put a full plate of dinner in front of me i just eat a bit of everything, i grill my meat instead of roasting and i do a lot of swimming (every monday and thursday night) i walk every where now instead of taking the bus, in 3 months i have lost almost 3st and after being weighed by the doctor he has said that i am now at my perfect weight for my height and bone structure, and has suggested that i try to eat more, but here is why i am writting this,

i don't know what sort of things to eat and frankly i dont want to be big again, does anyone have any good suggestions?

The fundamental assumptions of "low-fat" diet are that eating fat makes you fat and/or we eat too much fat.

Fat is an easy target to blame for becoming fat for two reasons. The first is that fat has a little over two times the calories per gram as carbohydrates and protein. The second is that when people gain weight and it's not muscle, it's fat... so the rational is "eating more fat won't give my body any reason to get rid of the fat I am hanging on to right now."

Fat is a MUST during weight loss, and sometimes it is needed even more. We need it to produce hormones, build connections in the brain, fuel organs, etc..

Congratulations on your weight loss. However, I have one concern... if you were eating the proper amount of fat that you needed before and then cut fat to lose weight, I fear that your "weight loss" was merely lean tissue loss (muscles, bones, water, etc) and not fat loss. There is a term called "skinny fat" which refers to those that have a perfect BMI (which your doctor based his opinion on) but are actually fat.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/spas-sport/22280/skinny-yet-fat-slim-shady

All the women pictured on that page are unhealthy as far as fat goes. They have the exact same health risks as a female with a higher BMI but the same bodyfat percentages.

Now, on the assumption that your weight-loss was, in fact, FAT-loss, I have some suggestions.

First, you need to determine your calories needs. It will take some time to figure it out but you can probably start around 2,500 calories per day and adjust because on your changes in weight. If you eat that exact amount everyday and you find that over the course of two weeks you lost and average of 1 pound a week, cuts calories by about 250-500 calories a day. If you gained, adjust in the opposite direction.

How many carbs do you need? Protein? Fat? The general rule is somewhere around 40/40/20 to 50/20/30 (carbs/protein/fats). These are percentages of your total calorie intake.

So if you need 2,500 calories per day and follow a 40/30/30 plan, then 1,000 calories are carbs, 750 calories come from protein, and 750 come from fat. There are 4 calories per gram for carbs and protein and 9 for fat, so in total you need:

250 grams of carbs
188 grams of protein
83 grams of fat

If you are working out 3 times a week or more, then this example is perfect for gaining more lean muscle (but again, everyone is different and adjustments aren't out of the question).

Eat a variety of vegetables a day and eat as many as you want (so long as they are fibrous). The cool thing about fibrous veggies is that they contain such a high percentage of fiber compared to carbs that the energy it takes to process the food is more than the energy provided by the food, so it's almost like a negative calorie food. Also, veggies will make your skin look younger in only a few days.

Eat meat everyday. I eat turkey and sirloin steak everyday. When eating meat, make sure to cut off the excess fat on the outer edges. It's pure saturated fat. Now, saturated fat is not bad and we NEED it, but we get plenty of it. What we tend to not get enough of is monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Drink plenty of water. I cannot remember the exact study but a tube was placed inside of an animal and animal cells began to grow in it. A scientist flushed out the tube with water everyday to rid the animal cells inside this tube of all toxins and waste products. Over time it was found that while all the cells outside of this tube were aging and slowly dying, the cells inside of this tube still looked young and any new cells replacing the ones inside this tube were not very distinguishable from those of a newborn animal.

Avoid drinking alcohol on a regular basis. It's a poison and your body views it this way. People don't like washing their face with alcohol-based products because it drys out the skin but they are more than willing to put it in their body's, piss a storm all night, and spend the next day recovering.

Here is what I might have in a typical day:

Breakfast: 4 whole large eggs, packet of oatmeal, 1/2 avocado.
snack: 6 ounces yogurt, banana, 1 ounce mixed nuts or 2 tablespoons of peanut butter
lunch: turkey breast with two slices of whole-wheat bread (should be about 25 grams of protein or so), 1/2 avocado
snack: protein shake
dinner: 6-8 ounces steak, veggies (as much as I can stomach), rice or bread
bedtime: peanut butter, protein shake, or if I can stomach it, cottage cheese.

I actually started eating like this almost two weeks ago and I am feeling much better.

I also take a multi-vitamin called Animal-Pak. Basically it's a palm-sized package of a lot of pills that gives me a million percent of everything I might need. In addition, I take 6 fish-oil capsules a day (making 6 to 7.2 grams of fish oil a day).