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

I lost 10kg in about five months last year. There aren't really any "hacks" but this helped me:

1. I started tracking my intake - at first I didn't change anything, I just noted down what I was eating so that I was more aware of my overall diet
2. I meal plan for the whole week, I tend to stick to Pinch of Nom, Jamie Oliver and Joe Wicks recipes as the nutritional content is often available and they tend to prioritise whole foods
3. Stopped eating ultra-processed food (well, I really, really try to)
4. Started exercising, a little at first but now I exercise everyday, strength training has changed my body more than anything else
5. Go to bed early if I can

Diet wise, I tend to eat porridge/overnight oats most mornings, eggs/sardines/soup for lunch with a small amount of wholemeal carb and fruit/veg, dinner whatever I've meal planned (curry, ragu, traybake, pie, chilli...etc.). Snack on protein (tuna/chicken/greek yoghurt) and fruit. Obviously I have the odd day here and there when I do whatever I like, then I get back on it!

Don't eat heavily processed food (crisps, chocolate, biscuits, chips, sweets, ice cream, ready made food like chicken nuggets, pizza, etc). Cut carbs to a third, i.e. if you had toast for breakfast don't have rice or potatoes for lunch/dinner ...

I learnt recently that the thermic effect of digesting protein means that we only absorb 70-80% of the calories we consume from it. Now THAT is a diet hack.

I also read we need to disrupt our metabolism and do carb cycling.. e.g. day 1-2 low carb, same protein, more good fats. Day 2 high carb, same protein, low good fats.

Basically our metabolism gets used to being on one diet and adjusts to manage with the calories it gets, this is why eating 800 calories a day eventually stops working.

Alot of information out there, some will work for some and not for others

That must be why it works so well for me. I can be an utter pig some days and Gwyneth Paltrow on others 😆

Double the amount of veg you’re putting in every meal to bulk it up and feel more satisfied, plus your gut will thank you!

If you’re a snacker, make sure you have low calorie snacks easily available e.g. popcorn for mindless eating, skinny bars if you need something with sweet/chew, fruit if you need sweet/crunch, lollies or frozen yogurt. Don’t expect how your body is programmed to want food to change overnight, just make sure you’ve prepared to put the right stuff into it.

Fruit or herbal teas are also good for having something sweet and comforting to occupy the hands and tastebuds. Make a massive mug of it whenever you remember. Also extra hydration so your skin will look great!

Emphasise fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, protein, lowfat dairy
Don't buy snacks like crisps, biscuits, sweets - snack on things like berries, carrot sticks, popcorn, pickles, sugarfree gum
Have a bath/go for a walk in the evening so you're not tempted to snack

Very interested / curious re this.

Can I ask what an average day's diet looks like for you, to achieve the correct amount of protein? I would need 128 gms and have been contemplating how to achieve this on a daily basis 🤔

I always lost more weight on the weeks when I ate more apples 🤷‍♀️

I swapped sandwiches/wraps at lunch for chicken and veg

Completely quit alcohol.

IF 16:8

Drink more water

Walk every day

MFP or similar tracker

Go to bed early

The 'hack' you need is whatever enables you to eat less.

Everyone will have their own tried and tested method, others havent found theirs yet

for some people they can have a little of everything in moderation, some people cant do that and have to reduce particular items so that they dont end up craving them and eating them. Others cut down the times in the day when they can eat, others do it by week days or weekends. Some people have lower carbs or low carbs and high protein or fat, others find carbs fill them up and need to include them more.

So its about working out which foods or food routines reduce your hunger/cravings and enable you to eat less. Every single method of weight loss involves a calorie deficit even if they deny that is the purpose of their method, but its hard to have a deficit unless you find a way to enable you to feel satisifed on a lower amount of calories than your body actually needs.

I’m on 120g protein. I find it easy. I don’t use protein powder. I eat 3 meals and one snack of protein yoghurt eg kvarg 18g protein or Aldi protein yoghurt.
I usually have eggs or Greek/skyr yoghurt for breakfast. Sometimes heck chicken sausage.
Lunch lean protein eg tuna, prawns and salad. I might have wholemeal pitta bread or jacket spud too. Or omelette.
I cook from scratch for dinner I eat decent portions of lean meat and fish. 1/3 minimum plate veg.
I also have cheese daily, I like the eatlean tasty mature it’s 10g protein for 30g serving.
I sometimes have an Aldi protein mousse or pudding.

Today I’ve hit 120g and had
Breakfast lemon & blueberry baked oats (contains an egg & 0% Greek)
Lunch burger in bowl - 2 x 3% fat burgers, cheese and salad - 56g protein
Dinner - med veg risotto
Snacks - fruit salad and 0% Greek with frozen cherries

I've lost 16 kilos in just over 4 months. It's been really easy and I've never been hungry. Slimming World. I do it on line,not sure I could face a group,nit my sort of thing at all.

I know... but telling the OP that I plaster crumpets with the stuff isn't going to help is it?!

When I want to lose weight I don't eat after 6pm. 5pm if I can manage it.
I eat my carbs earlier in the day and not for my evening meal.

I'm not sure if I'm reading this right as it sounds as if you are saying you only eat on the days you exercise ?

Genuinely not being goady, I'm just interested to hear more about intermittent fasting- those that say change when you eat not what you eat, I don't get how it works? If I eat 12-6, that's plenty of time for a sandwich, crisps, chocolate bar and yoghurt (lunch of preference), maybe an afternoon snack, and a hearty dinner at 5pm. I'd be way over cals eating normal food just in a window. Surely you do actually need to change what you eat at least a bit?

My tips have probably already been said:
Eat slowly. Takes me a good 30 mins to eat my evening meal.
Don't cut carbs, but priority goes to protein and veg.
If you hate cauliflower rice (I did at first, soggy!) try cooking it in the microwave then dry frying it to crisp it up and get rid of the excess liquid.
Crisps are tasty but empty cals.
Eating sweet stuff late on makes me wake up ravenous.

@Dixiechickonhols Thank you! I never knew 3% fat burgers were a thing 😊

M & S 3% in a four pack . Aldi do 5% and I think Lidl too.

Fasting, much more protein than carbs, lots of salads and leaves and veg with proteins. Boring, but works.

Check out slimpod

In reality, if you eat your sandwich, crisps, chocolate and yoghurt at 12, you're less likely to want something in the afternoon anyway, thats quite a lot at 12

If you did eat your afternoon snack, thats going to impact on what you can put away at 5pm, so over time, you eat less and less in that window because it would be too much to eat a whole days worth in that short window

By the time you've finished lunch, you're probably only 4 hours away from dinner

But if you have a snack at mid afternoon, then you're only a couple of hours away from dinner, so it would mean less room in your tummy to eat a massive dinner.

Write down everything you eat and drink for a week and then think if there are any changes you can make.
A decade ago, when the DC were small, I was surprised when it was written down how many biscuits I was having at other people's houses out of politeness, how many leftover fishfingers or bits of pasta of the DC's I was eating and things like that

Makes sense to think about it "over time" @bellac11 thanks. I suppose I'm just thinking with my greedy tummy 'all the things I could eat, I'd just have to cram it into 6 hours!'.
When I started calorie counting I struggled because I used my calories up on nutritionally rubbish food- I soon learned my lesson. I suppose its the same thing!