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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your best tip for losing weight. My best one is...

142 replies

mameulah · 27/02/2015 23:17

...on another thread someone said that anytime you lose any amount of weight you should always double it. If you hadn't been eating sensibly you would have probably put that much on!

I also like the Kellogs advert about, 'it is not what you lose, it is what you gain.'

Any other inspiring thoughts out there?

tia

OP posts:
AnotherGirlsParadise · 28/02/2015 10:56

Walk everywhere, within reason. Twice a week I walk the 12 miles home from work, the rest of the week I walk the 4 miles to the city centre and bus the rest of the way home. If you walk to somewhere like the supermarket, if there's a longer route available, go that way.

No alcohol, or if you really can't go without, save it as a Friday/weekend treat. I absolutely piled the weight on through booze and I'm really trying to shift it, but in all fairness I was drinking seriously questionable amounts - far, far more than was healthy.

As others have said, cut out processed food. Don't be afraid of cheese and butter, but be mindful of how much you're consuming.

I drink loads and loads of fizzy water, as plain is a bit boring. Also fruit/herbal teas are good.

Eat lots of fish - I find a mackerel fillet in a wrap with some spinach, cucumber and hummus is good for breakfast, the protein keeps me going til lunchtime, which I was amazed at as normally breakfast makes me ravenous within the hour!

Homemade meals like chickpea and spinach curry or 3 bean chili are cheap and quick to make, really filling, and even though there's no meat in them (both recipes I use are vegan) you don't feel deprived. Eat either with rice or as a jacket potato filling. I'm not vegan myself but I do find that a lot of vegan recipes are inherently low in fat, and it encourages me to try foods I wouldn't normally consider.

I think it's important not to deprive yourself though. If you want chocolate, eat the chocolate, but once again just be mindful of how much you're eating. Eventually it gets to the point where just one chocolate is a lot more enjoyable than a whole box even though I could still happily eat a whole box.

Iseesheep · 28/02/2015 10:59

Jillian Michaels DVDs 5 days a week combined with 'clean' eating has done the trick for me. Oh, and limiting alcohol to two days a week. 6 weeks in and I'm down a dress size and my clicky hip seems to have been cured. The thought of eating rubbish now makes me feel slightly sick.

florentina1 · 28/02/2015 11:01

Fizzy water, it fills you up. No bread. Alcohol gives you an appetite so drink after eating not before or with.

Silvercatowner · 28/02/2015 11:04

I started putting weight on when I started my periods and now, 40 years later, I am achieving some weightless success with 5:2. Nothing else has worked long term - I can lose weight but have always piled it back on again.

Totality22 · 28/02/2015 11:08

My tips are very boring.

  • follow the low GI plan
  • move around more (be that regular exercise / walking. .. basically do more than you do now!)
  • no booze
  • don't keep anything that will lead you astray in the house. I buy treats for OH thay I don't like / dont buy any treats.
  • be patient - so things gradually. Losing weight should be done slowly and surely over a period of time.
  • don't let a bad meal become a bad day or a bad day become a bad week. You can fall off the wagon but need to get straight back on.
Loyse · 28/02/2015 11:10

Breastfeeding awful for me. I put on eight which went when I stopped. Just one of the reasons I didn't manage it for long.

I'm overweight since I hit 40 so I'd advise staying young to be honest.

mypoorbottee · 28/02/2015 11:10

"Would you rather have 2 minutes of pleasure eating this chocolate bar, or feel miserable having it on your hips for months?"

Usually works for me.

storynanny2 · 28/02/2015 11:21

Agree with keep fidgeting, move around all the time.
Write everything down you eat
"Chocolate is just a lump of fat"
Cut out yeast, eg bread.
Get rid of clothes which you wore when you were bigger, buy some new smaller ones. I can't put my weight back on as I can't afford to replace my new clothes!
Learn to knit so that you keep busy in the danger times, eg evening watching the telly. It doesn't need to be tricky patterns, maybe scarves for the children.
Learn which food you simply can not give up , eg Cadbury mini eggs, wine, etc and have them as a weekly treat.
Give up completely the food you find that you don't miss at all on a diet, in my case it was pasta, bread and biscuits.

mameulah · 28/02/2015 11:22

This is great, thank you everybody!

OP posts:
arethereanyleftatall · 28/02/2015 11:27

Id rather have the 2 minutes of pleasure eating the chocolate bar unfortunately.

Lazybones80 · 28/02/2015 11:35

I lost 3 1/2 stone in 6 months through breast-feeding. Easiest diet ever! Now I've stopped I miss those extra 500 calories a day. Sigh Sad

RonaldMcDonald · 28/02/2015 11:40

I~ didn't lose a lb breastfeeding

my top tip is stop eating breakfast or lunch
skip one meal a day and you need do nothing else
suddenly it is easy to lose weight or keep it in check, once off, by doing it every other day

OhFlippityBolax · 28/02/2015 11:45

So if like me you don't eat processed food, chocolate, or drink alcohol or caffeine or dairy and exercise portion control

And you're still 4 stone overweight what tips do you have for me?

dalekanium · 28/02/2015 12:00

Secretly Petition Cadburys to change the recipie of your favourite chocolate. Then every time you eat it, instead of a lovely chocolate hit - it will taste like poo.

You will eat a lot less chocolate as a consequence

Bastarding bastards.

DutyFruity · 28/02/2015 12:00

I've discovered the 16:8 fast...it's NOT a diet, it's just an eating schedule and I've lost 11lbs since 5th January, without changing my diet or exercising more.

It's also supposed to be good for your body, helping to regulate your metabolism and give your cells chance to renew etc.

It's SO easy...no calorie counting or dieting. You eat whatever you like, you just do it in 8 hours a day only...so it's supposed to be more 'natural', like we used to eat back in caveman times...you eat when food is available and not a constant stream of meals and snacks.

I eat between 12pm and 8pm every day...then the only thing I can have between 8pm and 12pm is water, black coffee or black tea.

Would highly recommend to anyone struggling to lose weight.

dalekanium · 28/02/2015 12:05

flipitty

I think objectively:

Check that my 'smaller' portions are genuinely small enough, or if they are just small compared what I used to eat ( been through that one myself, just because I'm eating half what I did, dosent mean it's still not twice what I really need)

Exercise/ more excercise? The advice about incorporating it into your daily life is good. I never weighed less than when I was a waitress. On my feet for 12 hr shifts, and not in the mood to look at any more bloody food when I did come off for a break. Might be a bit extreme, getting a job in your local wacky warehouse, but just making the effort to walk about, be restless etc is goood.

windchime · 28/02/2015 12:07

Go to bed slightly hungry.

SaucyJack · 28/02/2015 12:07

Best tip so far dalekanium.

Kraft are bastards.

TheCowThatLaughs · 28/02/2015 12:15

Oh and also, don't think that just because you're exercising, you can eat what you like and still lose weight. You can't.

fatlazymummy · 28/02/2015 12:20

flippity try keeping a food diary, writing down every single thing you eat/drink then enter it into my fitness pal. You are taking in too many calories for your energy requirements. It is possible to eat too much 'healthy' food.
My fitness pal will help you work out how many calories you need to lose weight.

Branleuse · 28/02/2015 12:43

log what you eat.

Eat calorie counted, portion controlled ready meals

give up alcohol or only drink occasionally, and eat less on that day

kewtogetin · 28/02/2015 12:59

Don't use food to reward or treat yourself. You're not a dog.
Have a bit of love and respect for yourself. Do you really think so little of yourself that you shovel the kids leftovers in or secretly gobble biscuits in the kitchen? Really? You're worth a bit more than that.....

MaryWestmacott · 28/02/2015 13:05

another saying log what you eat - MFP is good for that.

Walk alot. This has a double effect, it's exercise that doesn't really feel like you have to make specific time for (as you'd be traveling to where ever you are going anyway), but also keeps you out of the house more. I pick when at home all morning. If I've had the same amount at breakfast but gone out for the morning, I tend to not feel the need to eat anything until closer to lunchtime.

Drink black coffee without sugar or water during the day.

Aquire thin friends and/or colleagues.

Bambambini · 28/02/2015 13:09

For me - get pregnant and BF. Was always lighter after than before (till about a year or so later).

Now I'm older and pregnancy and sticking to a 1000 calories a day is no goer - 5:2.

Been roughly following it for a yr and a half and lost weight, maintained the loss and still have a life eating out and drinking without being obsessed with every calorie and weighing myself twice a day.

OttiliaVonBCup · 28/02/2015 13:10

Heartbreak works.

Not recommended though.