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

Ice lollies for a sweet tooth.

Soup for filling. With Miso soup you can add extras and it has higher protein than most soups

Get gallstones.

My hacks are intermittent fasting, 16:8 and learning about the role of insulin response and becoming fat adaptive through eating better foods.

High protein, high good fats, high fibre etc will all reduce cravings. If you want chocolate 100% will take away the craving very quickly!

No booze or bread in the week.
Make breakfast, lunch & snacks easily calorie countable eg cereal bar/yogurt/packs of 4 crackers.
Don't snack at work or comment on food.
Nobody ever notices when I do all these & it keeps me out of the toxic diet & weighing culture that's rife at my workplace.

Swap white carbs for brown ones. More filling for less food.

Eat and drink more water. The more water in the food the more filling on fewer calories.

This is exactly the approach I had taken to weight loss last year. People over complicate it imo, I went from 198lbs to 152lbs and it really wasn't that hard.

Increase your protein. 1/3 or 1/2 plate veg each meal. 2 litres of water.
Cut the extras like coffees out, biscuits, alcohol.

@Porkandbeans1 my hack for brown rice is to flavour it according to the meal it will accompany. I love it now.

For example, for last night's chilli I did the rice as follows:
Drizzle olive oil in the pot and heat
Add garlic and ginger puree
Add turmeric, chilli flakes, paprika and onion powder
Fry spices for 30 secs before adding 1 cup rinsed brown rice
Fry rice in spices for 1 min
Add 2 cups water and stock powder before bringing to boil
Once boiling, stir, turn heat right down, put lid on pot and leave for 20-25 mins

You then have perfect, tasty rice. I make loads and save it to microwave later or add to stir frys. Just change the spices depending on what theme you are going for.

Brush your teeth/use mouthwash if you feel snacky

Put two tea bags in fruit & mint teas. It makes them taste of what they are meant to & is a good alternative to a snack.

Only drink water or black tea/coffee (or splash of milk). Shift what’s on your plate to be more veg/salad. Go as long as possible between eating overnight.

I dont eat bread if I'm wanting to lose a few pounds. The weight comes off easily then.

Tried and failed many times! Difficult when both of us are in that habit.

Eat your main meal at lunch time and then just have a small lunch at dinner time. This plus drinking more water always works for me.

I do many of the things listed here such as replacing carbs with veg (I find roasted carrots, tenderstem broccoli, peppers or tomatoes go well with most meals - spray with 1 cal spray and sprinkle sea salt on) and IF - I don’t eat breakfast or lunch now as I just don’t get hungry during the day but a good tip that helped me get into the swing of not eating after dinner was whitening my teeth for two weeks - I use a mouth guard and the Philips whitening gel that you wear for two hours - if you put it in after dinner say 7pm until 9pm it’s then bedtime and you won’t want to ruin the whitening effect by eating/drinking afterwards.

Also always have a glass of water on the go - I squeeze lime juice into mine with ice to make it more enjoyable.

If the weathers crap and I can’t get out for a walk I do a YouTube exercise video - Caroline Girvan is very good - she does 15-30 min tutorials and it’s a good habit to get into. I hate running so combing these quick routines with brisk walking on dry days works very well for me - plus it’s free!

I found fasting works really well.I don’t eat all day and I only eat an evening meal if I’ve been to the gym or for a run, I stopped eating carbs or if I do have any it will be a slice of whole meal toast with peanut butter and I class that as my meal.
I snack on fruit and carrot sticks with hummus if I’m hungry.
Chamomile and green tea seem to have really helped too.
I lost 2 stone in around 2 months, it works for me.
I also stopped drinking alcohol at home, that’s really helped me to stop snacking.

Eat whole unprocessed foods, drink lots of water, try and incorporate more movement into you normal routine

I have been in your situation recently and have sorted it out- lost a stone and a half. Slimming world, combined with alli tablets (get them prescribed online). Sign up to a half marathon or 10k and start running. It will drop off. Also 5 booze free days per week.

Put your knife and fork down on your plate between mouthfuls, and don't pick them up again until you have swallowed. Eating more slowly makes you feel full sooner.

Don't eat after 7pm.

Your body may be confusing hunger with thirst, so drink a small glass of water instead of eating something between meals. It really helps.

As other pp's say, reduce carb portion and increase veg portion.

Spread butter or marge as thinly as possible, and do without it altogether for things like beans / scrambled egg on toast.

But butter is the best food group, it's just not worthwhile spread thinly 😁

I’m similar height, and half a stone heavier so following with interest

I find I already do a lot of these things as they’ve evolved as a natural habit, drinking lots of water, intermittent fasting (aka not having breakfast),’increasing walking.

ive changed to having a half a sandwich so I don’t feel I’m missing out, but having it with a fruit, a veg and having a bag of low calorie crisps on hand for when I need a tasty snack. Pufts or ringos are my current faves

small changes but they’re adding up and the weight is steadily but slowly shifting

Would you mind sharing a typical day's food for you? I always struggle to get enough fibre.

Lifting weights and building good muscle tone made it easier to drop weight whilst reducing carbs and sugar and as you say increasing protein. I burn more just at rest because I have good muscle tone than compared to times I didn't.

Those days I eat out I can be a bit more free and my weight doesn't yo-yo anymore and the main difference if how much muscle tone I had

There has been some great advice on here already so I will try not to repeat.

• get support from people at home and another source. I post on thr weighloss chat board daily. It gives me a good place to share the ups and downs and gather my thoughts, reflect on what’s going well and what isn’t etc. The support has been amazing and whilst DH is fantastic, I do bore him with diet talk.

• declutter the kitchen of crap, if you want some treats in the house, put them elsewhere, mine are kept in a box in my wardrobe. Out of sight is helpful and if I want a snack I tend to get something else that is in the kitchen rather than going to the chocolate box.

• give up alcohol completely or limit it to special occasions. Alcohol can lead to excess snacking that evening and hangovers the next day which can mean less moving and more eating.

• understand that things have to change and if you keep doing what you have always done then you will keep getting the same results, so even when you have lost the weight, you will put it back on if you go back to the old ways.

• find an activity that you enjoy that doesn’t feel like exercise, I have had friends getting active through Pokémon go or whatever the Pokémon game was where you walked around looking for them, mud races, dancing lessons, gardening, geocaching or taking the dc to the park or pool with another adult so they can take turns in watching them and swimming.

Sure.

Breakfast in the week is usually overnight oats, made with protein powder and various fruits. I also add some psyllium husk powder and chia seeds for fibre.
Todays had grated carrot, chopped apple and sultanas and vanilla protein powder with some mixed spice added so it tasted like carrot cake.

Lunch - Today I've made a big salad with tuna, beans and lots of chopped veggies (cucumber, pepper, spring onion, sweetcorn, olives, tomatoes)
Followed that with greek yogurt with half a pouch of passion fruit mixed in.

I'm already on 32g of fibre and 86g of protein with those two meals.

Good fruits to add are passion fruit, kiwis, raspberries, apples, couple of dried apricots
Coleslaw is also good for adding fibre, baked beans (beans of any type) are also great but I have to have them in the day when I'm going to be active, otherwise I get quite gassy/bloated.