What diet should I follow?

[BatF1nk]

I want to lose two stone. ASAP but I know these things don't happen overnight

But there's just SO MANY diets out there. I don't want to do WW or SW so that's ruled out for me. But do I low carb? Full on keto? Cambridge type diet? 800 calorie blood sugar diet?

What do you think gives the best and quickest results?

Why not join us on the Mumsnet Low Carb Bootcamp

I'm also vegetarian but I can manage low carb pretty well on the whole.

God do you think low carb is the way forward? Is it quick ish? I feel so huge right now

Thanks stunt nun I shall take a look

The one you'll stick to.

If only I knew what that was @ragged because right now the only one I'm sticking to is the bloody cake diet and I need to stop

Do you have any record of sticking with some way of eating before? What helped you do that then?

But there's just SO MANY diets out there. I don't want to do WW or SW so that's ruled out for me. But do I low carb? Full on keto? Cambridge type diet? 800 calorie blood sugar diet?

Weight Watchers and Slimming World can work well for people, especially if you would benefit from the weekly meetings. I personally can't manage diets that involve cutting calories as I just end up hungry and grumpy all the time.

The keto diet is really designed as a medical intervention, e.g. for people with epilepsy that doesn't respond to medication. I don't think there's any need to go keto unless you have a health condition that might benefit.

I favour low carb because it's the one diet where there's no need to be hungry. On the Mumsnet Low Carb Bootcamp we encourage you to eat when you're hungry. At the start of Bootcamp we insist on three meals per day PLUS snacks if you need them. Once your body adapts to eating low carb then you will naturally eat less and shouldn't need to snack.

I'm not a fan of the 800 calorie approach because some people find it difficult to transition back on to a normal calorie intake. They can end up temporarily gaining weight as the body replaces lost muscle mass. If you feel you can cope with drastically cutting calories then the 5:2 diet might be a better option as you only need to cut down on two days per week. It takes surprisingly little time to get used to fasting and there are lots of different types of fasting diet such as OMAD (one meal a day), 24-hour fasts, alternative day fasting. One significant advantage of fasting is that loose skin is much less likely to be a problem.

I regard the Cambridge diet, and the similar Newcastle diet as most suited to people that need to lose weight really quickly - for example to reverse diabetes or if weight loss is required for urgent surgery.

Ultimately though, the best diet is the one that you will be able to stick to. Do any of these appeal to you more than the others?

BatF1nk do you find that you get hungry too soon after eating? For example you have breakfast and then you're hungry again an hour later? If so then it's likely that you're insulin-resistant and your hunger is being driven by your insulin levels going up and down like a rollercoaster. If that's the case then low carb or intermittent fasting would be best for you as they are the quickest to lower insulin levels.

Weight loss on low carb depends on how well you stick to it and how you were eating beforehand. It's quite possible to lose half a stone in the first week then continue losing 1-2 lb per week. I can personally recommend the Mumsnet Low Carb Bootcamp though. I joined it in June 2012 and lost 30lb in five months to reach my target weight. Have a look around the threads and you'll see plenty of success stories. We're on week 6 of the current Bootcamp but you can start any time and there's a lot of support available. It is slightly trickier when you're a vegetarian if you decide to keep eating beans and pulses - they're good for their protein content but higher carb than ideal. Have a look at the Bootcamp vegetarian recipe thread for some ideas.

Sugar and carb fiend unfortunately

Never hungry as never give myself chance. I snack all day long. If I have a 'filling' breakfast - so high fat, low carb, for example - even though I'm full, it seems to flick a switch in me. I'll be full of 'good foods' but I'll crave sweet stuff.

A plan where I'm not tightly controlled means I blow it very quickly. Once in the right mindset, I've seen good results with Cambridge and blood sugar diet.

But this weight is now having an effect on me. Only slight issues but issues none the less. I've suddenly started snoring at night if I'm on my back - never ever done that before. And I'm feeling really sluggish due to the huge amounts of sugar I'm putting away

I'm 3 stone overweight and it's making itself known now. All put on in last few years and it's depressing

Long-term dieter here - and I agree with Stunt-nun.

My advice: Choose the plan that you can live with long term. Diets are not short-term fixes. They have to be based on your real life and they have to fit in.

My looooooong experience shows:
-fast diets (shakes/VLC/sticking to 600 calories a day) all work initially but lead me back to the same (or a higher weight) equally fast. This is sad because who doesn't want to lose weight fast?

• Counting calories leads me to think about food and trying not to eat it -all day! I have will-power and can sustain this for perhaps 12 weeks but am mad to eat after that. (MFP is a really helpful site if this suits you.) Sweets seem like magnets and portion control of them is torture.

-SL - seemed to have too many processed foods for me. I really like food (this was at the root of my weight gain) and end up missing the real things in addition to feeling hungry. I craved sweets and sweeteners don't work for me.

-WW - long ago I lost weight and kept it off on one of their old plans. (It really limited bread and potatoes and pasta and rice and sugar... and it worked.) The new plans that arrived after my next child (and weight gain) didn't work in the same way and again, I seemed to be thinking about food and feeling hungry all day. There seems to be much gain for WW in my suffering - because I buy their products in order to follow the plans. Craving sweet stuff really took off on this one.

-I found the blood sugar diet and it worked but seemed a bit too extreme for real life. (I'm not a diabetic yet.)

• I tried the various fasting plans (5:2 16:8) - and they work for a while but unfortunately I am well capable of making up any lost calories in limited hours so have to calorie-count and end up feeling hungry and deprived quite often.

HFLC -The Low-carb group on here has been my saviour. It turns out that this (seemingly mad) way of eating fits my life. I've read the theory and can see why... but it is still amazing. Done right it is very healthy too.

So far it seems to suit me. I'm 30lb down over two 'boot-camps' and plan to stick to this. My whole body feels better and I am fitter than I've been for years. I can imagine this being a way of eating that is simply my real life.

I'm not thinking about food all the time - not craving sweets or cakes or desserts (though I would have lived on them before) - not feeling deprived. I even had a 'turn to food at time of stress' day, and stuck to the low carb rules even while feeling that I was eating out of control.

One size fits all ? If it did there would be no need for dieting!
Losing weight is difficult - or we'd all be slim but it can be done. Different methods suit different people. Choose your pain - but be prepared to make it your real life and not a quick fix.

I’m doing Metabolic balance. It was an initially expensive outlay. However it works. DH has lost 10 + kilo. I’m two weeks in and 3 kilos down.
It’s quite prescriptive but I feel much better and DH has stopped snoring.

@Wildheartsease can I ask what you eat in a typical day or two? Do you keep an eye on calories or just track carbs?

You've done so well

BatF1nk - I don't count anything! Counting just makes me obsess about food. I've noticed that the slim people in my life don't do it.

Now I know what to steer clear of, I don't need to think about food any more than a normal person does.

In order for this to happen I've done a bit of re-learning (fairly minor changes) about how to put together a meal and navigate when eating out -but all is fine now.

The first two weeks are a strict diet. You follow it to stop craving sweet things and to adapt to eating good fats. (This worked for me - though I had no faith in it.)

After that you can continue in this way or adapt to long-term living. I've done this.

The 'rules' are all on the spreadsheets that are on the low carb bootcamp site. There are many recipes on threads in the bootcamp threads.

Breakfast - eggs (boiled/scrambles/omlette with or without veg and cheese/ham /creamcheese and egg pancakes with cinnamon) or Greek yogurt with cream and some raspberries
Followed by coffee with double cream.

Lunch - veg soup or chicken soup with veg / or smoked fish/cold meat/selection of cheeses - and salad (avocado / olives etc are fine in with green leaves etc.) - lots of olive oil or mayo with the salad

Dinner - steak/roasted belly-pork/sea bass/salmon with baked and roasted veg (add olive oil/butter and cream) or minced lamb with celeriac-cheese mash served with veg baked in olive oil (shepherd's pie) or my favourite just now: a dish made of layers of fried aubergine, home-made tomato and herb sauce, mozzerella cheese and slices of hard boiled egg. (Apparently it is Italian - and it is certainly delicious.)

Most of my normal recipes can be adapted to fit the plan. I can serve the rest of the family more carbs alongside my meal without doing extra cooking - but they often prefer to eat as I do. (My son is really into gym/running etc. and he thinks that my diet is me just learning to eat like him.)

I am no expert. I've been following low-carb bootcamp and have found it really supportive and informative. ( There are some really selfless people on there.)

Another one for the low carbing. It's a revelation. You're so full off the protein, fat and veg you don't crave sugar.

James smith academy
Sensible and long term advice

KTD27 I haven't heard of that academy. SEnsible and long-term sound good.

A way that works for you is a good way.

When choosing, I worry that the motivation for slimming businesses isn't in the interest of the slimmer. (They sometimes earn their money when you buy their products or weeks of connection to them... so they need you to keep getting fat again and to keep buying.)

I honestly think you have to forget about quick results.

The people I know who have had the longest term success just aim for much healthier eating overall - more vegetables and salads, fewer carbs, less booze, fewer snacks and treats, smaller portions of everything except protein and veg. They team that with a lot more walking or running (none of the dog owning people I know seem to have a weight problem).

What about Paul McKenna or The No S diet? they aren't really diets at all, they just give you ideas and tools to eat less and eat better.

I also agree with others that it all depends on what you find you can stick to in the long term. For me, that's low carbing, precisely because I was a fiend for all things carby beforehand - which is how I gained weight. LCHF keeps me full, there's no counting anything involved, and I'm no longer obsessed with what I'm going to eat next. It may be a little harder to do as a vegetarian (I'm not one), but if you eat eggs and cheese it's perfectly do-able. The first two weeks are a bit of a bugger, but after that I find it easy.

I've gone for the high fat low carb thing so will see how I get on with that! Popped over to the boot camp thread where they've been most helpful

I'm at the non counting though of, say, cheese and butter. In fact, I apparently can even butter a piece of cheese so I'm all over that!

I apparently can even butter a piece of cheese so I'm all over that!

Go for it! It''s what gets you through the first two weeks, after which your appetite really will shrink, and your intrusive food thoughts will..erm...not intrude any more. Now you've decided a way to eat, I can heartily recommend making loads of crustless quiches - eggs, cream, cheese plus whatever you fancy as a filling - easy to grab a slice if hungry - as saved me from many a sin!

just eat appropriately for the amount of calories you are burning . its not difficult.
if you are doing lots of energy burning exercise then eat more, if you sit on your bum all day eat much much much less.

I'm a firm believer in there's a diet for everyone, I've tried and failed at every conventional diet in the past and only have success on Cambridge, I've just finished my 7th week and am a pound off two stone, I had worrying blood test results so wanted it off asap to get back to my formerly healthy self.

I find I cheat on food based diets and get bored of only losing half a pound a week.

I have a friend though who's lost almost 4 stone on sw since January so it clearly suits her.

@MrsDeanWinchester75 yep Cambridge works for me too - or has in the past. I suspect because I dont have to think about bloody food - just what flavour shake or bar I want

@Toothfairee wow that had never occurred to me. What a startling insight

Of course it IS difficult toothfairee! If it were easy we wouldn't have 60% of adults overweight in this country. What a ridiculous comment.