to wonder how the hell she stays so slim??

[SequinsAndSparkles]

My BIL is engaged to a spanish woman, and we spent the weekend at MIL's, all of us together.

She is very slim, I'd guess a size 6/8. Her skin is glowing and she is stunning, yet her diet perplexes me?

On the first morning, we were all having breakfast, MIL made a fry up for everyone, but I am on a diet so I had special K and some toast. SIL prepared her own breakfast (they are currently staying at MILs while they have some work done on their house), and she had some kind of cheese, can't remember what she said it was, about 10 olives and a slice of ham! Yet she said that my breakfast of Special K and toast was stodgy and apparently English women have 'very strange ideas about nutrition'.

For lunch, she had a chicken salad, but it involved lots of extra virgin olive oil, all over the peppers and a big dollop of salsa. And then for dinner she had chicken smeared in pesto, with green beans in salt, more salsa and a slice of cheese.

How is she so slim??

I didn't have a particuarly healthy weekend in the end, we ended up having a takeaway on the Saturday evening, and SIL wouldn't eat any of it, she wasn't rude, she politely declined but I just find it hypocrytical that she eats all this fatty stuff and made the comment about England having strange ideas about nutrition when I was eating Special K and toast!!

And, if you are a runner, or very active, this explains why we do need carbs here

And, if you want to contribute to our Mediterranean recipes here

Cheese actually assists with dieting. It cannot be broken down by the body and it collects fat as it travels through the body, disposing of it in your poo.

So, cheese is not as an unhealthy option as people think.

The other stuff she is eating is digestible, natural food. I am similar to her actually. I eat loads and am a 10. I don't avoid fat, I avoid processed stodge. Eating early in the evening is also really beneficial. Eating any takeaways is a no-no especially late at night.

Salsa, btw, can be totally fat free.

She sounds as if she has it all going on tbh. It isn't a mystery to me.

Keep away from anything that has been meddled with by the human hand (except cheese). Bread and cereals are bad options.

"Cheese actually assists with dieting. It cannot be broken down by the body and it collects fat as it travels through the body, disposing of it in your poo."

Really?

I thought wax was one of the few things that cannot be broken down by the body? Do you mean BabyBels if they are still in their wax wrappers? I expect that would be good for diets, if swallowed whole.

Do you think eating early makes a difference? I eat quite late and would be very open to making a chance if it'd get results

surely it's got fuck all to do with carbs/proteins etc? Carbs are NOT more fattening, it's all about the number of calories you consume not their source.

I can tell you that wankery-woo about cheese is not true. Some of you have no clue about basic biology and chemistry.

Calcium is also important for losing weight so the cheese isn't a bad thing and agree with others that there is a lack of carbs and processed food in her diet.

Totally off topic, but DiscountTents your name made me .

glad to be of service

winter - current tests are showing that dairy calcium binds with fat to make it indigestible and you excrete about twice as much fat as you would with teh same calorie diet wihtout the dairy calcium. For some unknown reason as yet it doesn't work with outher forms of calcium only milk yoghurt cheese.

cumbria as several people have explained, its not just as simple as calorie intake, its also the effect refined carbs have on your insulin levels.

I am was insulin resistant and could bore for england about the effects of refined carbs and insulin. And as I have lost 6.5 stone (so far) I think I am pretty clued up about both how to put on weight and how to lose it

Carbs are more fattening! It's not as simple as just counting calories.

I only eat cheese or egg for protein-rich foods. Occasional (once a month) bit of fish though. Lots of raw and cooked green veg. Tomatoes and olives galore.

I rarely eat bread or pasta. Never cereal.

Love this thread. I drink and smoke but I am so happy to discover that perhaps I do one thing semi-right

uh-huh. Which tests is that then?

Kewcumber!!!! If I lost all the weight you've lost, there'd only be 2 stones left of me. Wow.

hang on winter I'll look for it - was announced a few weeks ago from memory. OF course it could have been finded by the milk marketing board for all I know!

beauty - sounds impressive doesn't it but just as impresive that I managed to have that much (and more) to loe in teh first place so nothing to crow about!

"A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition shows that the nutrient combination of calcium and milkfat present in dairy may play a key role in reducing fat absorption and may have the ability to maintain good cholesterol (HDL) while minimizing any increase in bad cholesterol (LDL).

February 7, 2011"

will look some more

I've been reading this thread with interest and have to agree that low carb = best way to lose weight.

I am currently doing weight watchers and the weight is falling off me, mainly because I've cut out lots of bread, crisps, potatoes etc. I've never been one for cereal but do love bread/toast and used to be able to eat slice after slice. However now I have a couple of slices of weight watchers bread (just like eating air ), toasted, for breakfast each day, salad and protein of some kind or soup for lunch, and then protein with veg minus potatoes in the evening. And of course I'm cutting out the other bad carbs such as biscuits and cakes. I feel a lot less sluggish now too.

Copenhagen, Denmark?In a recent meta-analysis, researchers concluded that the more calcium included in the diet, the less fat will be absorbed.
The study, published in Obesity Reviews, compared the effect of calcium from dietary supplements or dairy products on the amount of fecal fat excreted.
The researchers estimate that an increase in daily dairy intake of 1,200 mg can be expected to result in a 5.2 g per day increase in fecal fat excretion?45 kcal per day, or 2 kg body weight over a year.
Although the effect was statistically significant, its importance for daily energy balance and body-weight regulation may be minor.

June 2009

interesting, I'll have a proper look at the journal later, thanks. It doesn't mean though what Polaris is asserting though, not least because it would seem that cheese would need to be broken down by the body in order to have those effects on fat absorption in the first place.

Science can be interpreted into wankery-woo so easily!

www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n4/full/oby200467a.html 2004 study

Conclusion

Results: Patients assigned to the standard diet lost 6.4 plusminus 2.5% of their body weight, which was increased by 26% (to 8.6 plusminus 1.1%) on the high-calcium diet and 70% (to 10.9 plusminus 1.6% of body weight) on the high-dairy diet (p < 0.01). Fat loss was similarly augmented by the high-calcium and high-dairy diets, by 38% and 64%, respectively

None of the studies were large scale but they all seem to point at the same conclusion. I wasn't supporting the cheese isn't broken down but my (rather rushed and marginally inaccurate) statement "dairy calcium binds with fat to make it indigestible" (in fact it makes a product which is indigestble).

I remember because I saw the experiment on telly with ALex from Blur (so it must be true) who is a cheese producer in his spare time and they put him on a high dairy diet and tested his poo before and after and showed the higher fat content in the second.

Interesting study, though its a very small sample size and only a moderate effect size to explain the variance.

x-post.