To think I can lose weight by eating normally?

[ImFree2doasiwant]

At least for a while? I'm 14stone. 5ft 7. I eat badly, bad habits. I have 2 small children, single, and am struggling to "diet" while eating a nice variety with them. I want to model good food habits.

I don't really want to be dieting at all, but eating normally, and reasonably healthily .

I like baked oats with fruit, and Greek yogurt with berries, for breakfast.
I like thin bagels with something and salad, for lunch. Occasional packets of crisps. I like salads. Fruit.
I like normal dinners, roast, Bolognese, salmon and veg, sausage and mash with veg. I make a nice linguine. Stir fry , although the dc dont like that much. Omlette.

I'm going to curb my snacking, and eat fruit if I need to. I'm always offering the dc fruit so makes sense for me to follow suit.

I think I'll be eating less calories than I have been. And will therefore lose weight, albeit slowly.

Does this sound reasonable, or ridiculous?

In theory yes, if you are eating less then you should lose. But you might plateau and need to adjust again after an initial loss.

Throw in a half hour walk, some exercise in front of the tv at night- sit ups, squats, lunges, arm weights, bridges.
Tweak the meals- add a few healthier ones. Brown rice. I’d consider swapping out the bagel, they are full of processed high carb calories.
Do that and as long as you aren’t eating big meals you should be right i think.

Your meals look fine OP, but it's all about the portions!
I went from 14 stone (same height as you) down to 10 stone - took me 10 months.
I cut out sugar, only ate three meals a day, no snacks, and stuck to no more than 1200 calories a day.
I would suggest weighing out portions, swapping white carbs (bread, pasta, rice) for unrefined and limiting them. Fill up on green veg and lots of salad.
And drink loads of water - it really helps.

It may work for you. I hope it does. It makes sense as a first step anyway. See how that goes and then look at a next stage if it doesn't.

One thing I have learned from my battles with my weight is that most advice is useless as people are quite different. I know people who keep their weight stable on many times the calories I'm limited to.

Keep a record and then if it's not working make adjustments downward.

I've started with the water, I used to drink lots bit really slacked off lately. I'm trying to make small sustainable changes, and will definitely need to change things up after a while.

I do best limiting carbs so will add in more veg instead.

I'm really keen on eating normal family dinners with the dc.

If it takes me a couple if years I honestly don't care. I can lose weight really easily, but I struggle to maintain it, and now I have 2 DC to set an example to.

You need to work out you calorie deficit.
You need to make sure you will burn more calories in a day than you consume. With your plan you might just be at a stage where you're still gaining weight, just not so rapidly. Or plateau so you are not putting more weight on.

I would try moving more in one go. 10k steps in one go can be 3.8 miles or more if you walk fast enough. Do that in one go and you should build up a deficit of 100 cals per day depending on height which will help with initial weight loss provided you don’t eat back the calories.

Then I would work on portions. I agree eating normally is great but at 14 st it’s very possible you don’t know what a normal portion is. You could buy a healthy eating portion plate as a guide - it will help initially.

@GinAndTonicOnIt I'm not gaining weight, I've lost a stone in the past year without really trying. I feel like this way i will be eating less calories than I have been, which should mean a loss.

@GrumpyHoonMain believe it or not I am quite active, I usually manage 15k steps a day but probably not many of them fast paced. I'm on my feet a lot unless I'm at work, then I'm sitting down. I do know what a normal portion looks like, even if I haven't been eating one!

1,200 calories is what a toddler needs. No adult should be aiming for 1,200 calories!

Anyway, OP, I think that sounds good. There are actually so many low calorie snacks that aren’t fruit. Skinny whip bars, rainbow drops, snack a jacks all under 100 calories

I'm in my late 50s @StopGuacAndRoll, I maintained my weight on about 1500 calories, and lost a steady 1 or 2lb a week at 1200. It was fine, I actually ate well, lots of fresh foods, lean protein, unrefined carbs. I now maintain on 1500 calories. We're all different.

Yes but bump up the exercise a few notches and try to go for meals which have different "components" rather than all being mixed together, so you can choose to give yourself a smaller ratio of the higher-cal things whilst still having the same meal.

I'd recommend careful calorie counting if only for a few weeks to see where you're eating your calories. I do this every 5 years or so and there are always a few big surprises - things I've started eating regularly that are just not worth their calories. And it always shows me that snacking is my main problem.

I'm not aiming for 1200. I can do that and drop weight quickly but I need to eat normally. For my own sake and the DC. It would be really interesting to see how many calories they eat!

Sorry have not read the full thread.Take a look at your hidden calories. Roasting are you measuring your oil or just free splashing. Things like that add up. The same with nut butters etc

Yeah, as long as your portion sizes are sensible and you genuinely dont snack, particularly after dinner, you should get some weight off that way.

You could try 16:8 fasting so it’s only morning/evening eating you miss out, you can have healthy lunch and dinner with the kids then.

I've always been lighter and fitter when I eat how you describe and move about a lot OP. If I try to diet I tend to lose weight to start with but then gain even more in turn. I think your way could be healthiest for you and your kids. Good for you it's a much less stressful way to live.

Give it a good go and see how you get on. If it's just snacking that's caused you to gain weight, then you should be fine.

@Pissghetti thank you, I'm.really hoping it works for me!

Sounds like you simply need to avoid the snacks and alcohol, and any fattening drinks I. E. Lattes.

If you have 3 meals a day, 500 cals per meal, that's only 1500 per day. Maybe allow 100 for milk in coffee /tea.

Rupert mentioned 16:8 : this is great if you can manage it. Loads of people simply don't eat 3 meals a the day.

So 16:8. A 16 hr fast each day? I can easily miss breakfast, eat lunch at 12 with the DC. Dinner at 6. I might try that.

[quote ImFree2doasiwant]@GinAndTonicOnIt I'm not gaining weight, I've lost a stone in the past year without really trying. I feel like this way i will be eating less calories than I have been, which should mean a loss.

@GrumpyHoonMain believe it or not I am quite active, I usually manage 15k steps a day but probably not many of them fast paced. I'm on my feet a lot unless I'm at work, then I'm sitting down. I do know what a normal portion looks like, even if I haven't been eating one![/quote]
It needs to be in one go at roughly 3.5 miles an hour at least to have any benefit. If you get a fitbit or apple watch it can give you an indication of whether you are walking fast enough. I typically do 15k steps per day too as I’m always on my feet but 10k is always in one go. That’s how I manage to maintain my weight despite a ridiculously large calorie intake

Oh Mumsnet loves a dieting thread. Loves it. Someone will say cut the carbs and someone else will tell you to do some squats while the kettle boils and everyone knows the calorie content of every crappy fake bar ever sold by slimming world. If you were doing 1200 calories a day you wouldn’t be eating normally you’d be dieting. Of course you can eat normally and lose weight but you would need to know why you gained it in the first place. For me it would be portion size probably and snacks so watching that would be the key. For other people it’s booze. Don’t buy fake diet food look at whole food with loads of fruit and veg. The Medicinal Chef on Instagram is a good source of non dieting healthy food information.