To ask for your weight loss cheats/ hacks?

[Margot78]

I’m 5ft 2 and 11 stone, looking to lose weight discreetly without making a big fuss about it. I know the formula is eat less move more but I just wondered if anyone had any tips of little changes they made that made a difference? I’ve started cutting out dessert and stopping snacking between meals but are there any other subtle tweaks I can make that might help? Don’t want to make a big thing of it or I’ll be forced to join the calorie counting brigade at work and also don’t want to talk about diets at home, dd is possibly asd and funny with food. Thank you xx

In the App Store - search Thin by Paul Mckenna it’s about 7.99 and is guided weight loss. There’s also his book I Can Make You Thin. In both he admits what he says will fly in the face of what you know about diets but also proves diets don’t work.
For exercise Les Mills on-demand works best for me, transformed my figure and dissolved my stored fat.

Increase protein to equivalent of a gram per pound of your weight each day. Increase fibre to over 25g daily.

You won't have much more space for nutritionally poor food if you're prioritising these macros.

Lift weights a few times a week
Drink lots of water
Walk as much as possible

This! Intermittent fasting has been an absolute game changer for me. When I hear people talking about counting calories and giving up their favourite foods I feel so sad for them because its just not necessary! Restrict when you eat, not what you eat.

Floss and clean your teeth straight after your evening meal. Too much bother to have to do it all again, so I don't snack after dinner!

Mine was not eating after my evening meal. I got into very bad habits the first lockdown and gained weight.

The best advice I can give you is to critically look at your habits. And see where you can make life long changes or you will fall into the cycle of losing - gaining weight.

Mediterranean diet worked for me because it’s not a restrictive diet (book on Amazon by Elena Paravantes) and trying to do at least a bit of exercise for five days a week (les mills on demand mostly: doing Tone, Step, Core and Pilates).
I second having treats on special occasions - means not missing out and really enjoying it when you do!

Eat what you want when you want, but only when you’re actually hungry. I mean HUNGRY, not peckish, not crisp-fancying, but hungry.

Eat only within an 8-hour period each day, i.e. “fast” for 16 hours out of every 24.

See, THIS is a diet hack!

Echo everything that's been said already. I managed to lose 2.5 stone in around 9 months and have kept the vast majority off. I was definitely eating far larger portion sizes that I needed to and have got used to eating smaller portions, body definitely adjusts. Also I don't drink semi skimmed milk in coffee, just low sugar soya or almond. If you drink a lot of milky coffee that can be a big calorie saving.

Can I ask how you did this? This is 100% my issue - finish dinner, then start cruising for sweet things 🤦🏻‍♀️

I found that extending my non-eating period by delaying breakfast helped, and also having cauliflower rice instead of normal rice.

This is the only answer this thread needed.

I’m currently losing weight, when I get packing I drink a glass of water instead. It fills me up and gets the extra water in. I also use my fitness pal to keep track of what I’m eating

18:6 intermittent fasting works great for me too. I don't feel restricted in what I can eat.

I’ve just started doing 10,000 steps a day, as recommended by my PT friend. So drop DD at school and then do a 5,000 step walk, get an iced americano and rest for a bit, then walk back the same 5,000 steps and then eat. It’s hard, you have to do what’s best for you and your schedule and look at it as improving your health, rather than weight loss or you’ll put too much emphasis on it. I’m terrible at calorie counting so I use my fitness pal and M&S count on us to help lol

I suppose it depends on what your obvious ones to drop are. If it's the glass of wine at night, that's probably 200 cals you could cut. For me it would be my ice cream which I have most evening. For many people it could be swapping out sugary drinks for sparkling water with squash or the diet version. Changing crisps for popcorn, or like for DH I do not buy the large share size bags because they are not shared and are eat in one go! I buy the multi pack, I know you can eat more than 1, but I think it's more of a conscious decision to do so.

Making as many homemade meals as possible. You will know exactly what is in it. Jars/ packets can be full of hidden sugar/ salt.

I don't like frylight I think it's awful stuff but I do use a spray oil so very little comes out just enough to lightly oil the pan.

Increase your veg/ protein content. Don't do the egg white omelette for the extra calories the egg yolk will kept you full for much longer.

If you are an evening snacker take up crocheting or knitting or anything that keeps your hands occupied.

Read the Michael Mosley book 'The 8 week Blood Sugar Diet'. Ignore all the boring case histories he has put in to bulk it out and base your diet on that. You don't need to follow it exactly unless you are borderline or already diabetic, assume you are not as you haven't mentioned it, which means you can eat more carbs. Cutting carbs a lot resulted in a good weight loss for me.

Bear in mind that the yolk contains lecithin which helps hair and skin health if you do this.

I was a snacker so intermittent fasting works for me.

Drinking lots of water helps, I think I always thought I was hungry when actually I was thirsty.

Prep healthy foods. I'm lazy so grabbing and cake bar or bag of crisps was always my go to. I now have carrot and pepper sticks prepped and portions of nuts pre weighed.

Don't force stuff you hate. I tried to enjoy brown rice, but I hate it and would dread eating it.

Learn portion sizes. I get people don't want to weigh all their food but if you have a rough idea of how large a portion size should be then you're set. I would eat half a plate full of rice and now I eat about 1/2 a cup full and half a plate of veggies.

I would also agree that tracking what you eat as another poster has said helps enormously. I use my fitbit to track what I have eaten, you have to record EVERYTHING though, it is amazing how those calories add up

I'm trying to massively reduce processed foods including 'diet foods'. I've got tonget a grip.

A good tip I saw from a woman on instagram was just like PP said, prrtty much serve yourself the same food you would normally have but halve the amount, then fill the rest of your plate with really nice vegetables, fresh salad etc.

Cut the carbs where you can use no toast with omelette, more veg, I cut mayonnaise out or use light mayo but I mainly try to stick the spicy tomato sauces. I hav e ice Lolly's not ice cream, snack on pickled onions, olives or corn flakes

Another IF fan, I’ve been eating this way for years.

I am busy all morning so don’t usually eat anything until 1pm then I try to have dinner around 6pm or even slightly earlier if everyone’s home and I’m organised enough. Then nothing at all after 7pm except herbal tea.

Thanks, it's hard to believe it's that straight forward but I'm the fittest, slimmest, strongest and least hungry I've ever been since I took this approach.
I hate seeing women starving themselves to try and get the same effect (and often failing).

Swop wine for gin and slimline tonic, I also go for lots of tonic! It makes such a difference to me. Plus I only drink on Fri and Sat nights. I dont feel deprived of a cheeky weekend drink at all.