UKC

Hi All,

Got exactly two months to lose a few pounds, I find it tough because i haven't got an awful lot to lose! (I'd be happy with 1lb a week)and total weight loss of 8lb

I cycle a fair amount and climb as often as I can so asking more for dietary tips. What's worked for you? One meal a day, a few small things throughout the day?

Any tips and experiences would be great.

GB

In reply to GingerBread22: Is your weight static? If so stop eating until you've lost 8 pounds, then return to your normal diet.
What happens in 2 months?

In reply to GingerBread22: lost about 6lbs wasn't fat just makes climbing easier, dropped sugar and milk in coffee, no treats such as cake ect, not difficult really..

In reply to GingerBread22:

Swap your normal lunch for a protien only lunch, up your daily cycling distance.

In reply to GingerBread22: eat more fruit when hungry, not cakes.. less alcohol.. 4 nights of the week no drink at all.. reduce carbs,

In reply to GingerBread22:

Lose bread from your diet. That lost me about 1st 6lb in a little over 6 weeks at the beginning of the year. It's not a hardship and unless you bake your own bread is probably better for you generally.

In reply to Sir Chasm: Yes, I don't fluctuate too much. I'd like to lose 8 (at least) pounds in 2 months.

Few climbing weekends/trips away and would like to get rid of a little fat to make things easier, give myself the best chance of climbing well. Hopefully keep it off also..

In reply to EZ: 1st 6lb?! That's great going? Did you have a lot to lose? My BMI is currently quite high (about 24. something) So i probably have more to lose than i think.

In reply to GingerBread22:

Most people (in the UK) either skip breakfast or dont do it properly, eat crap for lunch and have a big dinner.

I reversed this and had good results, but be careful it is easy to endup having 2 massive meals morning and night!!

Typical breakfasts in the andic household are: Kippers/mackerel with bread and butter, Chinese dumplings, salmon and scrambled eggs on toast, sausage, bacon and egg burritos, fried rice, Chinese meat filled buns.

Lunch: a nice salad with plenty of trimmings to keep it interesting

evening: Cheese and fruit/ george forman fish/ckn breast, noodle soup, steamed/baked sweet potatoes and veg

In reply to andic: I typically eat the following;

2xWeetabix with milk and sugar (or often nothing) for breakfast

Lunch would be a sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch- This would be the main area i can improve..

Eat a wide range of dinner types, portions i'll cut down.

Replacing the bread would be good. What do you guys do for lunch instead? Soups? Salads?

In reply to GingerBread22:

Weight Watchers. Proper food (not talking the prepackaged stuff)with sensible portions.

In reply to GingerBread22:

I was 14 1/2st (ish) and went down to just touching sub 13st. I had no ill health from the action and now find that bread is a very pleasant treat that I don't avoid but also don't habitually include in my diet. It wasn't like dieting at all. I don't believe in diets. I believe in diet!

In reply to GingerBread22:


Home made Cole Slaw works well as it fills you up and takes a while to eat.
Have a big bowl of this with a small bit of cheese and you feel like you've eaten something more substantial.

Make a dressing of mayo mixed with low fat natural yogurt and wine vinegar to keep the calories down.

You can add a few sultanas & sunflower seeds to make it more interesting

In reply to Hat Dude:

Salamis are good as well (I don't endorse Pepperami as they have monsodium killyoufastermate in). And pickled gherkins are a good snack.

In reply to Hat Dude: That sounds like an interesting lunch! Low fat mayo etc and i bet it's much healthier than sandwiches!

Also gherkins could work too.

Just trying to cut a few pounds, not really interested in a ridiculously strict diet, just steady 1lb a week would be good. I do like to have an interesting healthy diet so it's just trying to find that balance.

Thanks,
GB

In reply to GingerBread22:

I personally wouldn't bother with low fat anything. Generally it is eating carbs that we don't burn off that are converted to fat stores in the body for future use that cause us to put weight on. If your diet is fairly balanced then you'll be fine with non 'low fat' options. They are tastier and less processed.

In reply to GingerBread22:

If you've got a smartphone, My Fitness Pal is a useful app. It allows you to tot up your daily calories with some degree of accuracy, although their estimates of calories burned in exercise are a bit generous, I think.

Can be a nasty surprise when you see exactly what you're consuming.

In reply to GingerBread22:

Why add more sugar? weetabix already has sugar in it. What sort of milk? full fat?


bin the crisps and add some raw veg (carrots, celery, coleslaw, salad)


up the veg and reduce the carbohydrates and fats

and don't eat so much gingerbread!

In reply to GingerBread22:

Also - what are you drinking? beer and fizzy drinks and fruit juice and squash can add a lot of calories if you are not careful.

In reply to tlm:


Blasphemy! You'll be saying stop eating shortbread next, mental....

In reply to tlm:

Agree about the sugar. Especially white sugar. It is pure processed carb. If you want a less processed more natural sweetener try rapadura. It is hard to find but is basically unprocessed sugar. It has all of the natural nutrients still in it and has a slightly toffee taste as it still contains the molasses.

In reply to IainRUK:

Crazy talk.

In reply to GingerBread22: I could definitely cut the sugar from the Weetabix, only ever have skimmed milk on cereal in tea etc

Never drink fizzy drinks like coke etc but do like a drink which i could cut down on and do drink robinsons fruit juice a fair amount.

In reply to tlm: Lunch is definitely something i'll be fixing, replacing bread with a salad or similar.

Post climbing Gingerbread must stay though

In reply to GingerBread22:

What about changing to a low carb beer? http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art14302.asp

In reply to EZ: An option but i could do with cutting down on beer in general, not only for the weight issue. Perhaps just have a few beers on a Friday/Saturday night rather than most nights.

To All; How bad is fruit squash, i tend to drink it by the pint, like it nice and cold, quite refreshing?

Has anyone lost a similar amount? How much will a notice being 8lbs lighter whilst climbing?

GB

In reply to GingerBread22:

Make sure the squash is very dilute, not what the manufacturer recommends. High juice is full of sugar so I'd avoid that. 'No added sugar' squash means aspartame, so depends how you feel about that.

In reply to GingerBread22:

Weight (fat) loss for climbing is about your power to weight ratio.

If you have 10 units of power and 10st and then (without losing any power, say through a stiff training regime) lose 1st, you now have 10 units of power against 9st. That is a high percentage improvement.

Fruit squash isn't really a carb issue I don't think. I personally don't trust the aspartame, acuslfame k, sucralose type sweeteners (I am looking forward to UKC's opinion on this) and so I drink Rocks Organics squashes as they don't contain them. Even Robinsons and High Juice have them in.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/o/cochrane/mainSearch?mode=startsearch&p...

In reply to aln:

agree!

In reply to GingerBread22:


I lost about 3/4 of a stone in 2 months recently by cutting out milk in coffe, only having a banana for breakfast, upping my cycling from 60 miles a week to 100 miles a week, cutting out alcohol completely, having protien rich foods only for lunch. so instead of a sarnie i would have a pot of low fat cottage cheese and some beef jerky or lean chicken. You can lose loads of weight really quickly by eating food with no fat and loads of protien but it's not exactly balanced. (i didnt alter my eating habbits in the evening as my wife is an excellent cook and i like to eat good food!)

It worked pretty well but ive put most of it back on by spending 3 weeks in spain doing no excersice, drinking beer and eating like a king!

In reply to tlm:

Apart from water, are there low calorie cold drinks that are actually nice?

If you're trying to lose weight and your mates all go to the pub for an evening, what do you drink?

In reply to doz generale: I'm pretty much of the same mindset, i like to cook and like to have nice meals so not too keen on altering main meal habits- already pretty balanced and healthy anyway.

Definitely happy to alter breakfast/lunch habits and cutting out some beers and squash etc

How did you notice the change in your climbing?

In reply to Ramblin dave: Spirits i suppose, much less calories than real ales etc

In reply to GingerBread22:

2 weetabix with or without sugar is no kind of breakfast at all; Honestly if you want to use weight get up early and cook something wholesome!!

Weetabix followed by egg soaked crumpets fried with bacon and served with maple syrup would be more like it!! that'll set you up for the day then eat progressively smaller and plainer meals through the day.

In reply to andic: Syrup and bacon? Call me old fashioned but tomato sauce sounds far more appealing.

I could probably stretch to scrambled egg..

In reply to andic:

I agree. The high carb cereal breakfast is a misnomer. Why, otherwise, is it that we always have a full english everything before a day on the mountains?

In reply to GingerBread22:
I was about 5lbs over my ideal weight recently and lost it in 10 days.
No silly celebrity-endorsed milkshakes or fad diets. I just had a healthy breakfast of porridge with nuts, honey and banana. A small bowl of soup and 2 or 3 ryvita with tahini for lunch and a good plate of healthy veggie food for dinner with a piece of fruit for desert.

No cheese, no bread certainly helps. Oh, and an hour and a half of yoga each day and a few walks, runs, cycles

In reply to GingerBread22:

Ketchup is humungously all sugar and a little bit of spice to make you think it is a foodstuff!

In reply to GingerBread22:


I don't really do all that much climbing at the moment, too many familly comitments but i did notice a difference in my cycling. And i had to start wearing a belt. The hardest thing is sticking to not drinking. a pint of beer has the roughly same ammount of calories that you would burn on a 40 minute cycle so if you want to lose weigh quickly and you currently drink a couple of pints a day then you should concider dropping the booze altogether for a while.

In reply to EZ: I guess i could do french toast or scrambled eggs or maybe kippers or something like that. Infact i'd probably enjoy having a nicer breakfast.

In reply to GingerBread22:

The thing that struck me most in China (provincial industrial cities, not tourist traps) was 500 million women with super-model figures. There is a lesson for us all in that.

Here is the lesson. A bowl of boiled rice and a cup of green tea twice a day is enough. A few chopped veg or cubes of meat or a few spices with the rice is good tasty embellishment occasionally. Eating it with chopsticks also has several advantages in the way it slows your consumption and tells your mind you've eaten a lot.

Exercise isn't automatically a fix for weight-loss. Works for some and not for others.

If you don't like rice then wire your jaws.

In reply to Jim Fraser:

I'm personally not convinced either that rice [nearly] alone provides the correct balance of food groups for a westerner's dietary needs or that a supermodel's figure in and of itself is something for anyone to aspire to.

In reply to GingerBread22:

If it was me i'd change that for porridge. I'd read/heard from a few sources that it can be helpfull for losing weight as part of a bigger plan.


You could replace the crisps with an apple or two.



If you have white bread you could have brown brown bread instead, if you have sandwiches which are four slices you could have three slices folded over style sandwhiches?

In reply to Timmd: Breakfast I think i'll have maybe scrambled eggs/porridge or similar for breakfast.

For lunch i'm definitely going to dump the bread as it seems to be a big source of calories. Replace it with salads or perhaps a small bowl of soup.

Lose the daily beer intake as well.

GB

In reply to GingerBread22:

I think i'd go mental without my bread, though I walk or cycle most places, and volunteer outdoors.

It might be less traumatic to lose the daily beer and keep the bread? Hats off to you if you manage it though, think diets you can keep at are ment to be the most effective.

Looking at your lifestyle as a whole might help (if you've posted that you are doing, i'm tired and it's slipped my short term memory), to see if you can slip in little bits of activty where there aren't any at the moment.

In reply to Timmd:
Such as the obvious cycle or walk to work instead of bus or car, or park farther away or get off the bus one stop shorter. It all adds up.

In reply to EZ: I could possibly cycle more often, currently use bus/cycle every other day so could easily up the amount I cycle to daily.

I love dried fruit, could be a good think to have as a lunch thing of a snack instead of being tempted to a biscuit with your tea or whatever.

In reply to EZ:


Tradition?

I find a full english breakfast leaves me feeling sluggish, and much prefer a nice bowl of porridge, flavoured with cinnamon, with sultanas and cashews added to it.

If I'm going to have protein, then it's at the end of the day, to aid muscle recovery after a day in the hills.

To the OP: take a good look at what you're eating and drinking, and find out where the calories are coming from. Then try to get rid of the sugary rubbish, like low dilution squash, or sweet fizzy drinks. Don't snack; find something else to do so that you don't think about snacking.

In reply to EZ:

But it's Mecca for a climber if you retain the power. Of course we need a more varied diet but considering the piles of processed manufactured crap on our supermarket shelves that feeds our overweight nation I think there's value I the point.

In reply to GingerBread22:

You could definaty improve your breakfast as alot say its the most important meal of the day with kick starting your metabolism, 3 egg white scrambled and 2-3 pieces of wholegrain toast is quite a safe bet,

As for the weight loss its all about having a calorie deficit, if your burning more calories than your ingesting you will lose weight, for weight loss its good to go for a higher protein lower carb diet as everyone has already mentioned, good luck, sure you will have no probem shedding it

In reply to GingerBread22:


Be cautious with dried fruit - it's packed full of sugar. I think you've got a bit of a sweet tooth there! and cos it's fruit, you end up thinking you can eat as much as you want to, so you end up eating loads of sugar.

I've personally found (having a sweet tooth) that if I really just cut out all the sweet stuff, I end up craving it a lot less. If I get hungry I have some proper food, like a sandwich or something - there is only so much proper food that you will want to eat. I cut out all the snacks, and in particular high sugar and fat snacks, and watching what I drink.

I find it almost easier to have nothing at all that is sweet than just trying to have a little bit, which just makes me want more.

In reply to tlm: That's true, lot's of sugar i guess. I do have a sweet tooth but not for sweetie things- if that makes sense? I like Orange squash to keep hydrated, nice and sweet and refreshing, dried fruit, flap jack/ginger bread kinds of things. Rather than cakes,chocolate, fizzy drinks kind of sweet.

So this is definitely something to look at. The juice could be changed to sugar free (but who knows what crap is in that instead).

Bigger/better breakfast will do me good as i get peckish around 10am due to not eating/having a small breakfast, cut out the bread at lunch will save loads of calories. The rest should look after itself.

Thanks all!!

In reply to GingerBread22:

Try it.

I'm just trying to impress on you the need to fuel up in the morning, rather than of an evening before you go to sleep. Surely that makes sense?

You havn't let on much about lifestyle in your OP but this is probably the most important thing when planning meals do you have an active job, you say you cycle is that commuting or recreational? So can you eat after or only before your main exercise? It makes a difference!

In reply to Jim Fraser:

The thing that strikes me the most about the Chinese is what they pack away at brekkers!!! Lady c insists on a cooked breakfast of epic proportions and it hasn't done me any harm, although I have stopped eating huge mash potato based feasts of an evening to compensate

And the chopstick thing is only for westerners if you lift your bowl and scrape everything in its very efficient.

In reply to Jim Fraser:

It is worth noting that obesity in City is rising at a very fast rate as the country gets richer.

In reply to GingerBread22: My mate Andy lost three stone overnight.








He had his right leg amputated.

Orange juice is full of calories and soft drinks are full of sugar - what's wrong with water?

Give up the bag of crisps at lunch time - they're full of fat. Give up sweets, biscuits, cakes, they're all empty non-nutritional calories. If hungry during the day eat an apple or a banana. Cut right down on beer. Reduce the size of your portions and don't have seconds, you will soon get used to the smaller amounts. To prevent yourself from snacking in the evenings go and floss and clean your teeth after supper. Eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, nothing fried.

From a bloke aged 56 and still with a 32" waist and 72 kgs.

Oh, and don't have Bisto on your evening meals; it's pure carbohydrate (maltodextrin).

In reply to :

Hmm, carb reduction

Breakfast - bowl of cereal
7m cycle to work
Lunch - bowl of couscous, with some veg, meat or fish through it
7m cycle home from work
Dinner- generally rice with some meat/fish or veg through it

Carb reduction, hmmmmmm
Cereal, couscous and rice - perhaps need to look at alternative to lunch - but what else is so easy to prepare and so versatile?

In reply to tlm:



This reminds me of a colleague who was on one of these silly diet systems. On certain days she could eat as much fruit as she liked, because it was "free calories"...she must've gained 1/2 a stone after the first month.

In reply to Rigid Raider: I take my hat off to you sir.

In reply to Voltemands:

Yeah but he's only 2'6" tall

In reply to Pids:

That's way more discipline than one is capable of...