Exercise and losing weight...

[RockChick1984]

Sorry, not sure if this is best place to post! I need to lose as much weight as possible in the next 4 weeks before a party where I need to look my best. I'm useless at sticking to a diet, but will try my hardest. I've signed up to a 4 week gym trial, if I go 5 times a week, and get as sweaty as I can, how much weight can I lose through exercise alone? Or will I really have to diet as well?

I am currently a size 12/14, still carrying baby weight (not sure if I can still call it that!) was always a comfortable size 10 pre baby, without needing to diet or exercise, so I'm new to all this!

link

I use an egg timer so it takes me at least 20 minutes to eat stuff. I used ti wolf food down and was always hungry Now I dont feel hungry later and have curbed my two flake a day habit. Down to three a week, if thats any good??

Walk everywhere. I have an organic carrot on the go. I e just wash it, no need to peel. Especislly in the morning first thing. Gets your bowels moving and it always makes me feel loads lighter if i am non constipsted. Dont want to go into too much detai!!

IMO it is 10x easier to change what you eat than to exercise.

They say 1 lb of fat is equal to 3500 calories. When I used the gym I was running for an hour and that burned about 350 calories according to the machine and I was ravenous afterwards.

I'd go for low carb plus the shred DVD.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! If I was to eat low carb, what sorts of things can I eat? My usual day (without trying to diet) would be toast or yogurt for breakfast, butty for lunch, and something like spaghetti bolognese or curry & rice for tea. Probably the opposite of a low carb menu! That's excluding all the snacks I eat!

Also, I'm always starving in the evenings and find it really hard not to pick at things in the evening once DS is in bed, any tips???

Meat fish loads of green veg

I have - eggs and bacon for breakfast, usually veg or tomato soup for lunch with chicken on the side, tea maybe prawn stir fry or I do something like a stew with veg and beef, no potatoes. I like cottage pie but with cauli mash instead
I snack on eggs, chicken, tuna, cucumber, carrots and drink loads of water

For low carb I always fall back on:

Big breakfast smoothie with banana, berries etc and bulked out with some ground nuts or seeds

Lunch - graze all day on a big box of nibbles a la 'The Lunchbox Diet' - I have found this approach really works well for satisfying your appetite all day long

Dinner - Omelette or soup (although soup with no bread does take a bit of getting used to!)

oh yes and sweet potatoes are a godsend if you want something stodgy!

Low carb day something like...
Breakfast: fruit & yog or porridge, no sugar, so carbs are front ended to give you energy for the day
Lunch: soup
Dinner meat, fish with salad or veg, no spuds, pasta, limited brown rice
Fruit or small lowfat cheese eg babybel light for snacks

You get v used to it v quickly, dh on other hand misses pasta teas!!

I'd like to lose weight too and would like to try to do it at the same time as you RockChick1984.

I know that I need to eat better, exercise more and stop snacking on silly foods. The problem is more about actually doing these things. At the end of a hard days work I always feel that I have the 'right' to treat myself to crisps and a glass of wine or something of that sort. When I think about not snacking like that, it's really hard not to feel that I'm depriving myself. I have a rebellious voice that pipes up saying ' Oh, forget it. Just do what you fancy !' And there I am again in the same scenario ...

I would really like to lose weight quickly though. At the moment it's cold weather, but in about 8 weeks it's going to start getting hot and I'll really be fed up about my bumps then. I'd love to get into my spring wardrobe when the weather changes. For me though I think I need iencouragement through the hard times if I'm going to get anywhere.

Also, I can't stand the people around me commenting on what I should and shouldn't eat. That's why I'd prefer to be able to get some support here :)

1200 calories a day x 30 days. I have an app that allows you to food journal.
I find that porridge for brekkie and then soup for lunch, meat and veg for dinner and the weight drops off.
Extra exercise just shifts it faster but makes me starving...
I can't resist temptation so only allow haribo in the house when dieting
The more water I drink the better, the less refined carb the less hungry I feel. No matter what don't go over 1200-1300 calories and you'll see a massive difference.
So boring though

OP, I can highly recommend the Food Doctor Diet by Ian Marber. My mum, my sister and I all lost half a stone in a week on the initial seven day diet plan and then carried on losing 2-3 pounds a week when we moved on to the next 'plan for life' stage. The seven day diet is quite intensive and you will feel hungry for the first day or two but it gets easier as your body gets used to having less food.

Oops, posted too soon! I was going to say that as diets go, it's very healthy as you don't go for long periods of time without eating and the recipes are mainly protein with vegetables. The meals are really tasty in their own right actually, you just have to get used to not having very much of them.

Also, i know it's old fashioned but Callanetics is brilliant for toning your body up super fast. Honestly, if you do the exercises for a few days you'll see quite dramatic results. It won't help you lose weight but your figure will look much, much better.

I don't do 'diet' as I find that just the word makes me reach for the biscuit tin. However when I wanted to lose my baby weight quickly and whenever I need a quick fix I look at my portion control. I'm sure that most of us eat portions too big so if you cut down a bit it will make a difference. You'll be hungry initially but will soon get used to the smaller portions. I find I can eat pretty much what I want just not much of it. I ate lots of salads with things like sweet potatoes and beans and lentils to fill me up. And substituted yogurts for fresh fruit.
That combined with exercise should give you a trimmer figure in 4 weeks. Good luck.

Fuck, I just read this whole thread with interest, thinking it was a new one, then realised it just an old one that's been spammed and bumped to the top. Annoyed!

Still a good thread though

Second no carbs then spinning and body attack.