to be sick of diets and diet clubs...calling all skinny people to help!!!

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

I have always been, in the words of Bridget Jones, 'a little bit fat'. Three children in 4 years (and copious amounts of chocolate biscuit cake ), I am fed up of being fat and all the effects that it has on self esteem, energy, fitness etc. I have two stone to lose and am 35.

I have tried every 'diet' going and fallen off the wagon within weeks. I have been to WW and SW. I am sick of them. They are limiting, I feel hungry and then when I can't have something, I want it and the 'diet' falls apart.

I am binning it all.

And I am going to eat a normal, healthy, balanced diet with small portions. I am going to start exercising and moving more (my personal trainer started today to keep me motivated...I am lazy!).

In the park this morning there were hundreds of thin people exercising - I long to be fit, healthy and 'thin'. What I want to know is:

to all you skinny people - what do you actually eat?
how much exercise do you do?
how much alcohol do you drink? (I suspect this may be where I am going wrong!!!)
any other tips?

Hope you don't mind me posting here - I doubt there are many skinny people in the slimming club section!!!!

OK, I am a skinny person. In fact I am trying to put on weight as I am breastfeeding DD who is allergic to egg and milk. It is hard to gain weight if you can't eat egg or dairy btw!

I have a friend who is v overweight and I have noticed she tends to graze eg standing at the fridge picking things out, it doesn't seem to register that she is actually eating.

Here is what I ate today:

2 slices fruit loaf with soya margarine
a glass of pineapple juice
a banana
a 250ml carton strawberry soya milk
a six inch subway with ham and turkey, peppers, olives and tomatoes
a can of coke
a pot of pureed apple and mango (DD leftover)
a bag of salt and shake crisps
stir fry of noodles, chicken breast, broccoli, peppers, corn, spring onions, carrots.
a slice of toast with a thin scrape of jam
3 bourbon creams
lots of water

No exercise but walked with pram for about 3 hrs.

ps I don't drink any alcohol and I think you are right, this is where a lot of people have a problem. My DP is a light social drinker but is trying to lose half a stone, his diet is similar to or better than mine.

oh, and accept that sometimes you are hungry. a little bit of hunger between meals didn't kill anyone.

what strikes me as odd is that at 8 stone and too small for size 8 clothing i don't consider myself as particularly slim!

but then when i was at my heaviest i didn't think i was fat...

OP, have you read a book called 'why French women don't get fat'. The basic premise is: 'eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, eat 3 meals a day; prepare everything from scratch and be very frugal with alcohol'. Which is more or less what I do.
My cousin struggles with her weight and quite often tells ne that its not fair, I can eat whatever I like and never change weight. I think whatever I like and whatever she likes are 2 very different things. For example, she was talking about having an evening alone one night when her dh and kids were away so getting herself a read meal as a treat. I'd never consider that treatmore like a nice piece of salmon with new pots and great beans. as you eat , more healthily you tastes change and you crave more healthy food.

Another thumbs up for 'My Fitness Pal' here. The calorie counting is great and you get lots of support from others when you need it; celebrating with you when you shed weight and sympathising with you when you fly off a treadmill and put a dent in your head.

Calorie counting isn't a diet but it gives you the freedom to eat what you want within your set limits. You have the control - and the choice.

Well, from what I have seen work with friends and family (where the weight stayed of for more than a few years) they all did the same basic things.
Increase exercise (dancing, biking, swimming, running, skating, walking, all different stuff that you can still do while bigger), drinking a hell of a lot more water, and staying the fuck away from beige/white food.
I aim to do the same.
So far I have lost about 15lbs doing these things, but I have another 25 to go still

Paul McKenna thread - might be worth a look for you OP

It's a bit late to explain all as I'm off to bed, but it's very easy and definitely a non diet. Like the French women book, it's all about eating when hungry and stopping when full, plus listening to a nice relaxing CD!

CBC please join us on the Paul McKenna thread. It's all you've dreamed of and more.

For breakfast I'd usually have a piece of toast with sliced tomatoes and smoked mackerel with a little mayonnaise and some spring onions, or an avocado, or a bowl of porridge, but I got a lift to work and didn't have time to make breakfast so I bought a coffee and a bar of hazelnut chocolate instead. I ate about 3 squares of the chocolate and then thought "This is rank" and put it in the freezer at work. On my break I walked home (3.5 miles) and when I got home I had some almonds, some raw mushrooms, a handful of small tomatoes, a grated carrot, an avocado and a mackerel fillet. Then I walked back to work, did my evening shift and walked home again. I'm now having a glass of wine.

If I have a day off, lunch is usually either oily fish + a shitload of different vegetables, or fish curry made with white fish, coconut milk and loads of green vegetables, or mozzarella & tomatoes with olive oil. Dinner's something similar, or maybe baked chicken thighs with brown rice and lots of vegetables. When I fancy dessert it's usually something like lemon tart with double cream, or just a raspberry yoghurt.

I do really love burgers but I never make them at home because it's too much hassle, but if I go out to eat and a burger is an option, I'll take it. That or lasagne. And I love KFC and shit like that but I seldom remember to get it.

I'm 5 foot 8ish and I weigh 9 stone 11 at the moment. I'm a size 10.

I'm slim and have been roughly since after having DC when I started paying more attention to what I ate. I've also had some digestive problems from a crappy diet in the past. I,ve had some gallbladder attacks and started getting extreme bloating from eating too much processed foods or food in general. That made me start researching food and healthy eating/ digestion and has slowly put me off crap food. Although I still have plenty in modration. Trying to aim for 90% good and as much fruit and veg as possible will eventually push out the bad.
Oh, I don't drink much except for an odd glass for special occasions as now I turn bright red from it.
My food today was,
1 big bowl of porridge with butter& maple syrup with raisins and seeds
1 M & S cafe scone with butter& jam with tea
1 pear
Peanut butter
Tea- slow cooked pork+ loads of cooked greens, raw caul/ beans and courgette mix
Figs
Huge bowl of mixed nuts and a mini choc bar.
I usually always eat lunch but didnt have time today. It's usually veg+meat or something out like Ikea!

Well, I guess I'm fairly skinny - size 10, 5'8.

I was going to say that I eat loads but I don't think thats actually true. I have days (say half the week) where I eat whole packets of biscuits etc, but usually the following day I automatically eat a lot less and more healthy stuff. Don't do it consciously, just happens. I always eat what I feel like and sometimes it's cake or cheese, sometimes it's melon or cucumber.

But I'm active. I don't do proper exercise but am on the go all day. My job runs 9am-well past midnight 6 days a week and frankly i just can't eat enough calories to keep up with that sort of unhealthy workload!

I have a dog. Forces me out.

Um. Not much help, am I?

I'm 5ft 5 and an 8-10. I like grub.You just need to think differently about what food is for and what you gain / save, rather than in terms of denying yourself and "treats" which are just crap really.

Breakfast: full bowl of cereal. Break: tangerine. Lunch: 3 sarnies + fruit. Tea: I cook tasty food so after a meal I don't think I need a treat - my tea was my treat. Tonight, 6 new spuds, 1/3 of a cucumber, garlic, a spring onion, about an ounce of feta, basil, crushed fennell seeds and olives YUM. All fried up in a spoon or so of olive oil. Then a scoop of ice cream , not to fill me up but to make me feel like I've finished the meal. Then I don't want to snack. I also eat slowly and my plates aren't that big so it looks like plenty.

If I want chocolate I have it but a couple of squares. They taste the same if you have a half square or a big bite of a bar.

I walk 50 mins to and from work, this only takes 10 mins longer than the bus and saves £50 per month. I walk fast enough to get my heart beating and warm up. My mate does the same walk in an hour. Fast music on ipod helps. I do no other exercise as I am a lazy get :)

Hmm I never really think much about what I eat, but I suspect a small appetite, savoury rather than sweet tooth and propensity to forget mealtimes along with a high metabolism are what keeps me slim without ever thinking about it.

Today I have had:

Breakfast - half a cup of tea with 2 sugars, I made some porridge but the milk was sour. Tea wasn't very nice because of sour milk.
3 biscuits at work - they weren't mine or I'd probably have had more.
Lunch - leftover tuna/pasta/tomato thing from last night's dinner - one bowlful.
Bottle of lucozade
Dinner - microwave curry with mini naan bread
Slurp of DP's Pepsi Max, because I also had a cigarette with him earlier. I hate sweeteners as a rule though and much prefer the "full fat" version of drinks.
Will have a slurp of something else to take my pill with in a minute before I go to bed.

Nothing else as we're skint so can't really snack plus I'm not feeling that well at the moment. However, usually if I snack I end up skipping meals as I'm not hungry.

I don't tend to drink alcohol much because it's expensive, I don't go out much and DP works nights so I don't want to drink alone. I dislike feeling tipsy unless I have a reason to and I don't see the point of drinking alcohol unless it's to get drunk/tipsy, since there are cheaper and nicer tasting drinks. It doesn't really relax me.

I don't exercise at all and am really unfit, but I do walk a lot because I can't drive. I'm not interested in sports or keeping fit so I don't do anything like that.

Also often I just can't be bothered to make decent food to eat. And if I don't fancy something, then I can't force myself to eat it, even if I'm hungry. So I end up in an absurd situation sometimes where I'm too hungry to make anything substantial but I don't feel like eating anything easy, like say an apple or some toast, and I just get hungrier and hungrier until either DP makes something and I get him to make me some too, or I end up eating cereal and going to bed.

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I also weigh myself every single day so I can nip any creep in the bud.

And yes, feeling hungry. It's OK to be hungry. Not starving; hungry.

People forget that hunger, i.e. an appetite, is a good thing and never, ever let themselves be hungry. They snack and eat and pick and munch and nibble and never let their tummy properly want food. It's enjoyable to sit down to a meal and properly want it and to feel satisfied when it's finished.

OP you could be me. I have about a stone to shift and it is so hard. If I try to follow diet plans I'm always hungry and miserable. I can eat my WW points by lunch! I seem to have a big appetite compared to other people who nibble a tiny little bit of something before saying they are stuffed! What doesn't help is that DH is against dieting and weight loss in general. He says they are just ways to part fool from their money and that I'm not fat and don't need a diet (I am overweight, 11st 6 at 5'5). He hates "rabbit food" and insists on buying crisps, biscuits, cakes etc every week which are agonisingly tempting, especially in the evening. I really don't have time to do huge amounts of exercise as I'm at work 3.5 days a week and looking after DS2 evenings till 21:30 and the other one and a half days in the week, with partial child care duty at weekends too. I kind of figure if I can only make the gym once a week it's not worth it, especially as we're on a tightening budget. I walk to and from work, half an hour each way so get some activity but nothing hugely strenuous. It's so frustrating feeling fat and frumpy but finding it so difficult to do anything about it.

I was always a skinny minnie till baby#2 and now I'm finally working it all back off. I'm also using My Fitness Pal. like others here, it works, it makes me accountable for what I'm eating. I still eat the same, just watch the portions and cut some of the rubbish. I'm down to 54.8 kilos, I'm very short. I was 58 kilos a few months back that was the weight I gave birth at.
I doing Zumba three times a week and yoga once a week and it's working. I want to be back around 52 kilo I feel so much more energetic at that weight.
Today I ate a Big mac and fries, and I still have 100 cal left for the evening.

In the middle of exams, so my current diet is the stuff of nightmares!

However, a fairly normal day for me would be

• 10 mile cycle (I cycle 50-60 miles a week in summer in total, a bit less in winter, all for commuting purposes)
• Home for breakfast (2 or 3 cereal bars, often enough, or toast)
• Cycle the 2 mile commute
• Lunch (toasted baguette - usually cheese & tomato or tuna melt, or sometimes soup & a roll instead)
• Cycle 2 miles home
• Big dinner - often something like 125g (dry weight) of pasta with a liberal helping of homemade cheese sauce, made with semi-skimmed milk, butter and lots of cheese, or half a jar of ready-made pasta sauce. Or tonight it was 4 hash browns, 2 fishcakes and some soy beans dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce, followed by a Magnum. A whole pizza (I'm rather partial to the Sainsburys sourdough ones) is another option.

Interspersed throughout the day is substantial quantities of tea, and more chocolate than is good for me! I never go hungry through the day - if I'm hungry, I eat.

With regards to alcohol, I'm a student so more prone to binge drinking than anything else - I'll go out every week or two and drink 10-12 units, usually comprising spirits & mixers.

To be honest though, I'm not someone who's ever actually struggled with their weight, so this may not be of quite so much help to you!

For years I thought I had a stone to lose, turned out I lost 2 to be at 9st 6 and 5ft 7 size 10. Today I will eat:
Breakfast: special k advantage, skim milk cup tea
Mid morning: handful of almonds/ walnuts
Lunch: salad with chilli tuna
Mid afternoon: piece of fruit
Dinner: fish with broccoli and stir fry pepper and onion
May have full fat yoghurt or handful of almonds if hungry half hour after dinner

I exercise every day either gym class, run or bike ride. I don't eat carbs other than cereal at breakfast and drink in moderation on a weekend. I have one werkdnd day when i literally eat whatever i want, but usually find myself choosing healthier treats likd some fresh pineapple or goid chocolate. It has taken me many years to realise this is a lifestyle choice you have to commit to long term. I wholeheartedly agree with the poster who said being slim is nice as its one less thing to worry about. Not always feeling that you have that stone to lose is liberating. Good luck!

I'm pretty slim but it's taken me a while to work out how to stay this way. I definitely think you are doing the right thing in scrapping the diets - in my experience, they just make you miserable and most weight loss isn't sustainable.

My top tips are:

• Think before you eat. Are you actually hungry or just eating for the sake of it?

• How are you going to feel after you have eaten it? Previously I didn't feel satisfied unless I felt stuffed after eating. Now I realise that it's actually nicer to go out for dinner, choose something lighter, and leave feeling full but not so full that I wanted to unzip my trousers and lay on the sofa for an hour.

• Move more. That doesn't have to mean running a marathon every day. Just try and walk where it's possible, take the stairs when you can etc.

• Cut back for a few days if you know that you have had a bit of a blow out. If I go on holiday and want to drink wine every night and eat a three course dinner every day, I do. But then when I get back, I will try and make healthier choices and perhaps lay off the alcohol for a bit.

• Weigh yourself regularly so if your weight does creep up, you can do something about it before it becomes too much of a problem. I have a bracket of about half a stone that I allow myself to fluctuate between. When I get to the top of that bracket, I do something about it.

I have been a lot bigger in the past, but am definitely happier when I am slimmer (I appreciate this is a personal thing and I'm not suggesting that this is the same for everyone) My clothes fit better, I sleep better, I feel more confident, I am more active etc.

OP I have just realised that I have lost my first reply.

My Fitness Pal is very good.

Yes it is calorie counting however, you need to retrain your metabolism, for me going from 3000 calories per day to 1200 is unrealistic and guess what I did not stick to it, I was losing and gaining the same 7lbs.

You need to make sure that you are eating enough, if you are exercising you need to make sure that you are eating enough otherwise you will go into starvation mode and not lose weight as your body will cling onto it.

There are no quick fixes weight loss is long term.

I am losing 1-2 lbs per week using my fitness pal. I couldn't speak highly enough for it.

I don't know if I'm skinny, sometimes people say too skinny - sometimes they don't! - but anyway,

yesterday wasn't strictly typical because I'm preggers, but when I got up I made the children cereal and had some frosties myself.

Then went out for MOT and while I was waiting for them to do it, went to look for a bakery and had the only thing I could find that was almost a chicken and mushroom pie, which happened to be one of those ghastly bacon and cheese pastry thingies. Ate it in one go sitting on a plant pot, in the pedestrian precinct. I did not care.

Then after walking back to bike shop, rode home and diverted route to go past Londis for a baguette. Ate that for lunch.

Went out again briefly in car. Came back, nearly fell asleep, dozed off thinking about Mc Donalds Vege Deluxe, so HAD to walk to school and buy one on the way. Ate it while on way to school.

Then got the kids, bought a cake for each and a cake for us all later. (too much cake? never!)

Made packet of microwave rice with grated cheese and sweetcorn for supper, ate about half and the kids shared the rest. (they had other things too)

Had some cake
went to bed around 8.30 (useless)

This was in between feeling dodgy, as you do at 7 weeks, but I still managed to cram in enough to feed several people I think.

I weigh about 8 1/2 stone, normally, and indeed at the moment, but it is creeping up towards 9. I'm 5ft 7. I never exercise if I can help it.

That's not a stealth boast btw if it came across that way - I'm just writing it down for my own amusement as much as anything because I can't believe how much I ate in one day.

Normally I will probably have about half of that, and leave some of it. At the moment I finish things. It's very odd.

I think it's a question of finely tuning your own sense of what you want, really. I saw this programme once about a group of women going to a 'retrain your eating' class or something, where they had to listen to their bodies and leave stuff on their plate if they didn't want it, not feel like they had to finish everything.

I thought it was really good for people who have always been taught not to leave anything out of politeness.

I do listen to my body and if I want something, I have it - and if I don't, I stop. I also don't really do mealtimes - supper is when we're hungry, breakfast can be any time from 6am to 10, depending on what suits.

I enjoy being hungry sometimes because it means I can basically have what like without worrying about it - not in the sense of weight, but in the sense of I know I really need it and will want the whole thing, I'm not just eating out of boredom. It makes you properly enjoy it. not if you're too hungry though. Don't wait that long.

Often when you're after something sweet though it can be your body's way of telling you you're thirsty - that's interesting as well. Or if you fancy something healthy, then leave it too long you'll want something sweet insteadas a quick fix. So don't ever hold off on the sandwiches, etc. just go for it when you fancy it.