Losing weight: Top 5 foods to cut out (or eat more of)?

[Grockle]

I exercise as much as I can (walking, swimming, physical job etc) but am unwell with a chronic condition that makes it difficult for me to exercise more than I already do.

So, I guess I need to cut calories fairly substantially. I know I need to not eat cake, biscuits, crisps etc but what else should I avoid? Or what should I eat more of? I'm veggie if that makes a difference & I have little willpower.

I'm 5'3 & have always been an 8-10. I am now a good size 12+ & weigh over 10 stone. I'd like to get back to 9 1/2 ish.


I've never really dieted so don't know where to start.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I would cut out wheat and sugar. Seems hard but GOD I feel good.

[HumphreyCobbler]

You could have a look at the low carb bootcamp threads? that is what has helped me enormously.

[timidviper]

Many people assume that fruit is healthy in any quantities, it has a lot of sugar in and is a healthy food in moderation only

[Grockle]

Ok, wheat and sugar. I guess there's quite a bit in milk too? I seem to live on cereal & milk. I will pop over and look at the low carb threads, thank you.

It doesn't help that I find it very hard to eat hot food. I can manage toast but other than that, I really don't want to eat it. Which is why I end up with cereal.

[SueFlaysAgainstTheDaleks]

Cereal is generally a bad choice (though tremendously convenient!)

If you take. A look at the side of the box it'll give you nutritional info for an "average" serving (usually 30g). Try measuring out a 30g bowl of cereal, and you'll see how little food it is for a high amount of calories etc.

Is the hoy food issue due to temperature or convenience?

If it's temperature could you swap yo something that doesn't need cooking or can be eaten cold? Eg salad & cold cuts?

[BlackAffronted]

Grains (bread, cereal etc) Sugar, Pasta, Potatoes, Rice.

[Grockle]

Thanks for all the ideas.

I know cereal isn't the best. It's just the easiest! But yes, good to be reminded that it is high calorie food.

I don't know why I can't eat hot food any more... I just don't like the texture or the smell and cooking is often quite difficult for me.

If I don't eat meat or grains, sugar, pasta, potatoes & rice what DO I eat? Mik, cheese, eggs & veg?

[tigerdriverII]

Don't go for low carb, it's unsustainable. Go really low fat, it's easy to do. Use low cal sprays like fry lite (sounds yuk, but it's fine).

Would cut out:

Fat, eg butter, marg, olive oil (sobs), lard, goose fat etc
Processed food
Ready meals
Cheese apart from a small bit a day if you have to
Booze (I am a hypocrite here but it is high cal and zero nutrition. I like to think of it as grape juice but that is plainly bollocks)

[tigerdriverII]

Oh and bread. Just cut it out. One big slice or two toy slices a day max

[tigerdriverII]

Toy? Tiny!

[SchmancyPants]

Can I ask what you currently eat on an average day? Would make it easier to help see what to cut out.

[Grockle]

Tigerdriver, that sounds more doable. I love butter & cheese but could easily cut those out in the short term. I don't drink much anyway and we rarely have ready meals/ processed food although more now than ever before.

Maybe I need to start doing a veg box thing again. I can cut out bread, although I like the idea of toy slices

[Grockle]

On a typical day, I'd eat:

Cereal with milk (blue recently but now green/ skimmed)
Small biscuit/ apple/ satsuma for snack
No lunch
Dinner (small amount of pasta/ soup/bread)
Snacks in the evening... I reckon this is the killer. probably a couple of biscuits or small bowl of cereal or toast or something.


I need to up my water intake as I drink very little but I do have at least 2 cups of coffee & 8 cups of tea a day (most with milk)

[tigerdriverII]

Grockle. I am doing Slimming World. It sounds boring and meh but in the last three months I have lost 18 lbs, I have another 46 to go but it's manageable I am just using low fat stuff, cutting out rubbish, and I could probably lose more if I didn't drink so much. However we do what we can do. It's an easy way of eating, my DH has lost more weight than me . SW is very good for home cooking. We have never eaten better than in the last few months. And I got the first 12 weeks free through my GP - unbelievably no one was taking it up, so I thought what the heck.

[Startail]

Reading that I know I'll always be over weight.

Chocolate, cake and biscuits I can reduce.

But potatoes, rice and the odd bag of crisps no way.

I can take or leave lots of bread or pasta, but it would be so awkward given DD2 would live on pasta and DH on bread.

[tigerdriverII]

Startail. If you eat spuds that aren't cooked on fat, and pasta, and rice, you'll be fine. Just keep the fat down and the veg high and it all works out. You can make low fat chips, sauté potatoes, roast spuds, baked spuds, rice of all sorts, pasta of all sorts. Use tomato based sauces, use 0% yoghurt to make dips. It's all fairly easy, takes no time to work it out. I am not an advert, I really think this does work

[Grockle]

That's interesting tigerdriver, I had no idea GPs could refer to that sort of thing. I have friends who do slimming world but because I'm not vastly overweight, people laugh when I say I need to lose weight but I am a lot bigger than I used to be and am now more than a healthy weight. It's so hard to reduce my calories when I don't eat a huge amount anyway & can't increase my exercise. I will cut out as much as I can & see how that goes. Drinking water should help too because it will fill me up and bit & mean I can't fit so much food in!

[tigerdriverII]

Grockle. To be referred I believe you have to have a BMI of 30 or more (technically obese). I was over 35. At my GP I went to see them for something else entirely and the GP said I should see the dietician. I held out for months, being affronted by this, but am delighted I went in the end. She gave me some rubbish info about where the sessions were near me but I went online and then took the prescription to the first meeting and then it all worked out. I should say that I don't need the free sessions but honestly no one was taking them up and at SW no one said anything about my first sessions being free. Also, you could just go to the free ones, then take the books home and follow them, so you don't have to pay anything if you don't want to

[Sleepwhenidie]

Grockle, sorry but you are on a very low calorie diet with that kind of food intake, you will lose weight, but once you start eating normally again the weight you lost, plus more, will come back and you will have made your metabolism more efficient, so less calories required to maintain weight. This is why "diets" do not work!

If you are overweight, you need to change your eating habits permanently and it neednt be hell, but weight loss will happen slowly and should stay off if you eat sensibly 80% plus of the time and move as much as possible.

Much more sensible to cut out sugar, which has only bad effects and useless calories. DROP the cereal completely, sounds like this would make a huge difference to you OP, replace with porridge or greek yoghurt and berries or a slice of granary/rye toast with unsweetened nut butter and a banana, better still with eggs, however you like them.

Cutting out wheat is very hard but some people swear by it. Personally I would minimise processed carbs (pasta, white bread), any kind of ready meal/takeaway food and starchy carbs like rice and potatoes. Try not to have any carbs (other than those in veg) after lunchtime.

Eat more- eggs, fish, lean meat. Lots and lots of veg, as many different colours as possible. Avocadoes, a palmful of olives/nuts as a snack once a day. Dark chocolate for sugar cravings. Don't be afraid of milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter or cream but don't go crazy either. Alcohol as a treat if you can't quite give up completely like me

Try and think of it as eating the best you can for your health and body, not purely fighting fat

[Sleepwhenidie]

Sorry, just realised that you are the OP Grockle! Seriously though, that typical day's food is shocking, more than half your calories must be coming from sugar! Where is veg, protein, good fat? You will make yourself ill - please, if nothing else, ditch the cereal and biscuits, start eating some protein and veg.

[Grockle]

I know, sleepwhenidie... my diet is awful! I used to have a really good diet (loads of fresh veg, plenty of fruit etc) but as it's been hard for me to prepare veg, we've not been eating as much.

As of tomorrow, I will be eating porridge for breakfast & minimising intake of all other carbs as much as I can. I am veggie so don't eat meat & fish & I don't like eggs but will try to up my protein.