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

[mameulah]

...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

Kew - avoiding the food as a reward one is hard for most people, but OP - find a new reward if you do that. Books, make up, a long soak in the bath, trashy magazine, watching an episode of your favourite programme, whatever you like.

Find something new for treats. and then ideally make yourself walk to get whatever it is!

oh and another one, if you have a bad habit of snacking at set times, find a new thing to do in that time, if it's in the evenings once hte DCs are in bed, painting your nails then is a good plan, gives you something to do with your hands and while it's drying, it's too fiddly to go get snacks...

Not eating until midday (something small) and having dinner at about 6pm. Nothing in between apart from tea and cigarettes

Walk everywhere you can.

Take up a competitive sport. Train hard for at least two hours a day. Eat only protein and raw vegetables. Become tetchy and miserable from constant hunger, so noone will want to be around you. More time for training. Look in the mirror one day and realise you look like some sort of insect. With hair.

skip breakfast and don't eat anything till lunch time. I know it's contraversial but only ting that ever really works for me. Breakfast makes me more hungry and more inclined to snack.

apple cider vinegar with water before meals.
3 small meals
get a juicer if you feel hungry make a juice smoothy.

Im a size 10 im not really big but im not in shape, loads of wobbly bits so i gotta hit the gym. When i work out tho i do feel so much more confident and my skin looks great just tight on money right now so thats why i havent signed to a gym yet.
You know when you cut out chocolate n snacks you crave them less. Also instead of fizzy drink get sparkling water and sqeeze lemon into it.

My friend failed at every diet and was really obese. She lost 6 stone by using smaller plates!
She still are the same meals, but only used tea plates do sue could portion control. Her plate always looked full that way!

Stress worked for me before even though it goes against what we're told about the effects of cortisol.

Smaller plates - yes.
Not eating breakfast - yes.
5.2 - Appears to be working but so far I'm a novice but I can see the potential.

Previously I've put 'fat' photo's in the kitchen, on cupboards and fridge, and wrote stuff like -
''Keep out fat bitch'' Not for everyone but made me laugh.
''Your fat arse is forever NOT just for christmas''
''Thinner feels better than how cheese/crisps/nutella/whatever taste''

Self-discipline.

The thing common to every post on the whole thread is people lose weight when they take in fewer calories than they expend. Easy to say but hard in practice. I have always been between about 9 and 10 stone, sometimes a bit more, rarely less since I was 14 and am now just before menopause age.

What works? Changing how you eat for life. I largely eat paleo - basically healthy foods I love. I drink water. When I have time I do bikram yoga. I do quite a bit of lifting but it tends to be massive boxes of files at home and when they were younger huge twin toddlers rather than at a gym.

My view is if you can be "natural" - that's all you need. Our ancestors lifted rocks, they ran for short periods getting out of breath, they walked. (So all of that is some lifting, some stretching like yoga and HITT ). Secondly they ate normal good foods like roots, veg, meat, fish, eggs, shell fish, sea weed - all that stuff will make you feel good and be good for your health. They drank water. All that works for me in keeping me happy and healthy.

Eat what you want, just less of the crap food. Often getting too serious about eating perfectly leaves you so miserable and craving everything in sight you eventually relapse.

Be adult about your choices. One or two full fat lattes a day may be perfectly ok but there is no justifying cans of coke, chocolate bars and crisps. If you want chocolate, eat proper chocolate rather than Cadbury's style sugary goo.

Force yourself to eat strange new foods, raw vegetables, unfamiliar fruit etc. Familiar food is often eaten so uncpnsciously your brain barely registers what you are doing, and hence you take forever to feel full. If you have to think about what you are doing, your brain registers how much you have eaten more quickly.

Eat your food from a plate with a knife and fork without the television being on.

Drink before meal but not during it because fluid helps you wash large amounts of food down without registering the quantity.

Stick to eating 3 meals a day (including breakfast) and be sensible about portion sizes. It works for me and I have never been overweight.

My friend would vouch for the divorce diet.

She stopped eating, took up smoking and drinking loads of red wine.

She lost 4 stone and ironically, never looked better.

Eat mindfully , we tend to shove food done without really tasting it. No phone, tv or distraction just enjoy every bite and your feel more satisfied .

My tip may not be right for losing weight but it may help maintain a loss: only eat foods that are WTC ("worth the calories"). If, for example, my family and I are out for a walk and we stop in a pub for a meal, the chips have to be really fantastic (triple-cooked is a good sign) for me to give them a second glance. I adore good chips, but if they are soggy or mealy I have no interest and won't eat any beyond what is necessary to make me not hungry anymore (it doesn't take much). The rest go to the dog and/or the kids, or are left on the plate. There are very few pubs that make chips to my WTC standard.

The principle is the same with anything really: don't waste calories on crap wine, cheap chocolate and over-processed ready-meals. I'm not saying there is no place for food that is less than Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall standard, but consider it carefully. There is a pleasure/thinness trade-off in almost everything you eat, and sometimes the garbage takeaway wins, but it can't every time. Develop your palate for the finer things and the rubbish will win less.

Simple thing, really, but found this very effective: add an extra portion of veg to every main meal and reduce the carb/meat portions a little. Just as filling, but healthier and slightly lower calories.

That and finding some form of exercise that you can bear (running/karate in my case!)

Go veggie and remind yourself to drink water before meals.