To ask you all a question about weight?

[Onceinabuemoon]

If you are slim and in good shape. What's your diet like? Do you eat a healthy diet, do you exercise regularly and so on? What I mean is do you work at keeping in shape, even if it's not difficult for you personally? Or are you slim but live on coffee and fags?!

If you are overweight or know you eat a bad diet and don't exercise, do you feel a bit rubbish? Or are you bigger but feel healthy and great?

The reason I'm asking is although I've never been overweight, I've always been bigger than I'd like upper end of a healthy weight. I eat what I want and don't really exercise and I don't really feel particularly healthy. Tired a lot, bad pms, feel unfit.

I can lose weight ok if I try and have often lost a stone but find it a real drag, hate limiting calories, hate cutting out food groups. Always put it back on. I figured I'm going to try a different way. Instead of disliking my body and trying to change it, I'm going to try and forget altogether but try eating better and exercising to feel healthier in the hope things will fall into place.

I'm just interested to hear how others manage their diet/weight really.

[NeverTooOldForAnything]

OP please don't decide on a random amount of calories to eat, you could cause more harm than good.

Try this zstrengthfit.com/wp/rmr-tdee-calculator/ as a starting point to work out how much you burn, I find it usually accurate.

Exercise, although not essential for weight loss, is a smart option. It helps increase your calorie expenditure, with the added benefit that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest (and don't worry about getting bulky, most women just don't produce enough testosterone for this to happen).

[BagelGoesWalking]

I did a 1200 calorie thing for about 18 months and lost 13kg (2st). I've put 2kgs back on because I had about 6 weeks of eating crisps and chocolate too much.

I am probably eating about 1400/1500 now but I try to limit snacks and bread. I usually have 2 pieces of toast on the morning, but I won't have anything carby at lunch (sometimes just a banana or yoghurt with fruit and then a larger supper. I'm 51 and there's no way I need 2000 calories a day as I'm not very active either.

I'd suggest you try for about 1400 calls a day, just by reducing your portion size. Weight out 100g of cooked rice so you can see what it looks like, same with potatoes or pasta. I find it much easier to reduce portions when I know what I'm looking at, IYSWIM.

MFP is really useful as well

[WomblingThree]

I was very slim a few years ago, but I'd had an eating disorder for probably 10 years. I looked great, but it's not a diet I'd recommend!

I started a whole bunch of meds and coupled with hypothyroidism, menopause and ED recovery, I piled on 5 stone . I was probably 1-2 stone underweight for my height, so I'm not as overweight as I could be. I'm now trying to lose it sensibly, without slipping back into ED territory again, which is quite difficult.

I've cut out most alcohol and reduced my portion sizes. I've lost a stone so far, and I'm aiming for 2 more, but slowly and steadily. I find with most people of around my age that it's the alcohol that does the most damage weight wise. So many empty calories that just don't get burnt.

[HotNatured]

I'm slim and fit. 5ft 5, 9 stone and toned. I've always been slim but since hitting 40 I have to work at it. I'm v active, I cycle to work everyday for an hour, play tennis, ride, do weights at the gym, swim.

I eat v healthily, 80% vegan but will have butter at the weekends and fish / seafood at a restaurant, otherwise I find that no animal products really works for me health wise. I also only eat between 11am - 6pm and mainly low carb. So as you can see, I'm pretty strict!

I have a huge appetitive so this requires a lot of willpower, and I love food (but I relax and eat pretty much what I want at the weekends). If I'm honest I'm vain and that's why I'm so disciplined.

[BagelGoesWalking]

Do you eat processed food, fizzy drinks etc? If so, that's a really easy way of cutting out things which aren't good for you.

Also, avoid low fat products. They're just full of other crap like sugar to make you feel full. I think the not being afraid of feeling hungry or eating out of boredom are important points.

[AdoraBell]

I have ballooned due to stress scoffing am currently overweight but when I'm not it's down to no fizzy drinks, crisps, biscuits, booze and cheap sugary chocolate.

If I can keep off that lot, apart from small amounts of naice vino and dark chocolate and pack loads of veg in, I can keep in shape. I hate the gym but love Pilates and walk as much as possible.

[TrueLove83]

I'm overweight. I'm obese.

To get to this I ate a lot of sugary foods. My core three main meals were healthy and home cooked BUT I would have large portions and then eat like a whole sharing bag of m&m s on my own. I would also eat puddings every day. Think a whole family trifle over a couple of hours continuously sneaking to the fridge.

This last month I've cut out the shit. I'm an all or nothing sort of person. I've cut down portion sizes on my healthy meals and I'm exercising 2-3 times a week and I've got a PT.

So I'm obese cos I eat crap but I'm working on it.

[WomblingThree]

Oh and like others have said, I find that not eating just because it's a meal time, and eating less the day after a meal out are helpful too. I do agree that it is important to learn to be hungry, but also not to eat if you're not hungry just because it's dinner time or whatever.

I cook for the family and they eat at about 6.30-7. If I'm not hungry then, I will leave mine for later. Sometimes I will eat half or all of it later, sometimes I won't eat it at all and my husband takes it for lunch. My teenage daughter does the same. A lot of us are so conditioned to not waste food, but I'd rather "waste" it than eat it just for the sake of it.

Understanding what a portion size should look like helps too. A lot of people say they only eat three meals a day and don't snack, but each meal is big enough to feed three people.

[revolution909]

Hey bagel I'm finding it funny we're replying to each other in different threads LOL! Anyways, have you checked your thyroid? You should have lost more weight than that with such a low calorie intake over that length of time

[SuperVeggie]

I am 30, I weight around 9st 8 and I'm 5'10" so my BMI is around 19-20. I'm a size 10-12 but I used to be bigger, more like a 12-14 and I always hovered between 10-11 stone (closer to 11 for most of my twenties, if I'm honest). I used to have quite a bad diet but it improved and I lost weight when a) I became vegetarian and then b) when I found out I had a gluten allergy, which forced me to give up bread, cake, pizza and lots of treats. Although you can get GF stuff it is often expensive and nowhere near as nice as the normal stuff, so I usually don't bother. It means I now have a diet which is very unprocessed, although I do eat a fair bit of dairy and probably more cheese than is healthy. At the moment I'm doing hardly any exercise but will get more into walking again when I move house next month. I hate the gym and find it better to just stay active and get out and about than to try and force myself to go to spinning classes etc.

[KatherinaMinola]

I've always been at the bottom end of a healthy BMI - currently 20.5.

I don't restrict my calories but I seem to have a high metabolism compared with most - no problems burning 2,000 a day, even with minimal exercise.

I generally eat a "clean" diet because that's what I like to eat - so plenty of fruit and veg, wholegrains, not very much sugar, good fats. I don't eat meat.

No formal exercise at all these days although in the past I've done a reasonable amount - about one block of exercise a week - which has probably helped to keep up my muscle tone (hence burning more calories).

I don't work at it consciously, but I think I have good habits.

[CosmoClock]

I went out with a man who struggled with his weight and I noticed that he didn't dislike the feeling of being full. If I was full nothing on earth would make me squeeze in cheese and crackers but he would find room. In fact I think he needed to be uncomfortably full at least once a day. Although I don't know what it felt like to him obviously but I will say that even though I love food I really dislike the feeling of being 'stuffed' and I don't know if overweight people hate that feeling as much as slimmer people.

[astrantiamajor]

What worked for me was eating during a 7 hour period. The first month I did not change my diet. I timed my meals so that whatever time I had the first meal I would stop eating 7 hours later. If I knew I was going out for the evening I would have my first meal at about 11am.
I kept a brief food diary. After the first month I had learned what foods kept me full and which ones made me want to snack or have cravings.

When I started I would find it easier to have an early night to stop the evening munchies. Then after a while my body found its own rythm. I wake up early because I think I am hungry and I have a big breakfast. I certainly feel better for it and don't count calories. It was not a massive weight loss just 2 stone over a year but I feel much healthier. Also the weight has stayed off for the last 18 months.

[elevenswan]

I'm 5'5 and around 8 stone 2, I've never gone over 8 stone 5. I eat a lot tbh but most of it is healthy. At least 2000 calories a day, weekend days a lot more. Today I've had: low sugar granola with almond milk, raisins and a banana
bit of dark chocolate
seeded wrap with salami, chicken, humous, and rocket. Yoghurt and blueberries
nakd bar
for tea I'll have brown rice pasta with salmon, peppers, spinach, pesto, and cheese, then later I'll have a couple of peaches and some dried apricots

Weekends are more like pizza, sausage rolls, and cake. But 80% is healthy and 20% unhealthy which I think is fine. I walk 40 mins a day and go on the exercise bike for 30 mins twice a week- I need to do a lot more and could be loads fitter but I'm lazy. I'm thin but not toned enough. I think a lot of it is just the luck of your metabolism, 2000 calories would be way too much for some people but its what I need or I feel ill! I don't ever diet but eat food I like and find tasty and that includes some nice healthy stuff. I don't calorie count and have stuff if I want it, but balance it the next day with healthier stuff. So a weekend of eating cake= next week I'll up my fruit and veg

[toffeeboffin]

To be a healthy weight and to feel good I need to eat 1400 cals per day and be fairly active I. E. Exercise 3 times week.

If I eat whatever the hell I want I am 14 stone and look and feel atrocious.

1400 per day is hard at first but you get used to it.

[TheSeaTheSkyTheSeaTheSkyyyyyy]

I'm thin. I eat fairly healthily - I'm a vegetarian, if that means anything -and I exercise semi-regularly, but this is all because I worry about my health. Weight/looks has never had a part in it (maybe because I've never actually been overweight in the first place). I LOVE life and want to live as long as possible! And as healthily as possible! I want to see my kids get old. I don't want to die young or be sick all the time!

Oo I avoid eating much crap, I eat lots of vegetables and pulses, etc. I walk the dog for at least an hour every day and go for bike rides at the weekend, etc.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

I'm 49, 5'6" and weigh nearly 9 stone. I aim to eat well 80% of the time and eat/drink what I like the other 20%. At the moment I'm eating cheese stuff crust pizza but when I've finished it I'm making a heap load of heathy meals for the freezer. I try and keep cake/crisps/chocolate etc as treats (because that's what they should be really IMHO) rather than everyday items as it's easy for the weight to sneak on. I don't eat desserts unless dining out; again, I think they're treats, they can be habit forming, and usually I'm full after the main course anyway so why keep eating. I don't snack, especially when watching TV/online as it's so easy to eat loads that way without realising, and unless I'm having a treat I pretty much only eat when I'm hungry. No comfort or boredom eating.

[ShotsFired]

I have always had a sturdy build, although looking back, what I wouldn't give to have the level of sturdiness that I had then

I was very active and played a lot of sport in my teen years and was toned and strong, but with wide hips, so was always a good solid size 16.

I am now hugely overweight/obese and very sedentary largely thanks to a desk job career. However I am still strong and sort of fit.

I also loathe the 80:20 fact that it's 80% diet to lose weight. If it were 80% exercise I would be killing it, as I like doing things to make a change, not not doing (eating) things, if you see what I mean?

[BagelGoesWalking]

Revolution I haven't had my thyroid checked for quite a few years. I was pretty pleased with losing 13kg! Although it's now 11kg loss as I've gone up a bit again. I'm now 65kg (5' 8" and 51). I want to try to lose the 2kgs again.

I was aiming for 1200 a day using MFP but I wasn't weighing stuff every day (did at the very beginning) so some of it was guesswork (harder to estimate home cooked meals, easier to know with a bag of crisps). So I was probably under estimating some of the time and eating more than 1200 daily.

[JiminnyCricket]

I'm fat and fit

At christmas I was 19st 1lb (I'm 5ft 5) and at the time, was on weight watchers so high carb, very low fat and about 1500 cals a day. I'd been between 19st 1 and 18st 1 for the entire year of weight watchers and lost the same 14lbs over and over.

At the time though I could (and still can!) walk 15km in a day with the dogs and even ran a bit until I got shin splints and had to stop. An average week would be a 5k walk in the morning with the hounds before work and the gym 3 times a week, then at least 12k at the weekend walking maybe more although this was usually treadmill or other cardio not weights. I wouldn't have called myself fit, but looking back doing that amount of moving with that level of weight was probably pretty hard.

In Feb this year I was 18st 5 (down 10lbs from new years day) and I gave up weight watchers and started a low carb, high fat diet. I've dropped down to 15st 10lbs ish (that was a couple of weeks ago, I've stopped weighing) and did it all with diet.

I'd now absolutely say I'm fit. I walk 5k every morning still, my gym sessions are now high intensity heavy weights classes plus 1 spin class a week instead of farting about on a treadmill .. I also do 50 mins of yoga per week and even squeeze in extra gym sessions if I don't feel achey and tired enough on my rest days This usually means I do 2 spin classes and 3 weights classes (it's like high intensity boot camp type stuff, tire flipping and prowlers etc plus deadlifts and effing burpees)

I'm still obese but now I don't care, the gym stuff means my focus is being able to do more there not on how much i weigh. Like I said I stopped weighing myself because my measure of success has changed :) First time in my life I haven't hated my body. Sad really!

I want to be about 10 and a half stone I think, I'm 15 and a half ish now and in a size 16 so at 10st something I'd be in a 10/12. That will do!

[HalleLouja]

I am 5 foot 3 and 9.5 stones. I am a size 8 / 10 and exercise most days. Have just done a low carb diet and lots just under a stone as my weight was creeping up.

I probably look like I weigh less than I do as legs are muscly and large of nork.

I do love exercising though and in the last few years have caught the bug.

[ShotsFired]

Oh, and I also inadvertently do the intermittent fasting diet too. I generally don't eat all day and then have a (normal) dinner. I might feel the odd hunger pang in the afternoon but it doesn't bother me - but I know some people say they will faint if they have no brekkie etc.

(But if I have so much as a single banana in the morning, I find my stomach actively growling and I feel so much more hungry very quickly, so I will then eat more during the day)

Feels like I can't win

[Rafflesway]

I am quite slim for my age - early 60's/size 12 - but have to work pretty hard to keep that way.

When I went through the menopause I developed a then undiagnosed under active thyroid at the same time and my weight ballooned! I have never been so miserable and spent nearly 10 years like that until I finally went to the GP who suggested I start taking hrt - menopause was dreadful - and quickly diagnosed thyroid problem and put me on thyroxine.

The weight fell off me in 6 months but I live by the 5:2 way of eating now plus I exercise in my home mini gym for around 10-15 minutes /7 days per week. I also am a neat freak so do lots of housework which also helps.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

Forgot to mention exercise...
Exercising doesn't seem to influence my weight but I feel better for it, so I go for a walk for at least 30 minutes every day if I can, and when I have time I like to go hiking for a few hours 1-2 times per week. I also do a few squats, sit ups, push-ups at home, but am not religious about it. If a car journey is less than 2 miles I tend to walk it as being sedentary really makes me feel sluggish after a while so I make myself keep active.

[revolution909]

bagel I'm hypothyroid and did a 1200 calories (although more like 1400 I would think) diet. In 5 months I dropped around 3st. I do run quite a bit, but exercise surprisingly doesn't burn that many extra calories (plus I eat and drink like a pig at least one day a week). I don't know I just feel you should have lost a lot more, unless you've never eaten that much anyways...