Please please help me find the right diet.

[Imtoooldforallthis]

So I need to lose 2st. I decided for February I would stop all drinking, no chocolate, crisps, biscuits and snack. I upped my exercise and I've put on 1/2 St. To say I'm gutted is an understatement. So here's what I need, breakfast I'm happy to have the same thing everyday, currently it's bran flakes or shredded wheat, something easy I can make at 6.30 to have in bed with my coffee. Lunch which I have at work, while I'm working customer facing so no hot food or anything strong smelling, again happy to eat similar thing everyday. Dinner, I'm a real foodie and cook everthing from scratch so need something really satisfying that will suit the whole family Inc DH who has a massive appetite and doesn't need to diet.

Things I've tried, fasting didn't work for me. I don't mind calorie counting but it's a bit of a pain even on an app when you cook everything from scratch with lots of ingredients.

Here's hoping for a miracle. TIA.

I've only ever been able to lose and keep off weight with fasting. I know it's not what you want to hear, but could you try again? Not sure what type of fasting you did, but 16:8 helped me drop 3 stone last year. I eat a samey lunch (salad, hummus, bit of fruit) and whatever I want for dinner but go easy on pasta. I've found it easy to keep off for a year so far.

I tried 5:2 and stuck to it strictly for a month literally nothing, obviously I eat too much the rest of the time.

How frustrating, OP!

Like you, fasting does not work for me any longer than a few months.

I eat 3 meals a day, no snacks but veggies and no sweets, but the key to this is calorie counting and portion control.

I also cook a lot from scratch, and I do not bother to log the ingredients of every homemade meal. That does kinda suck the joy out of life!

Instead, I calorie count where I can - I weigh out cereal in the morning, I measure out the milk. If we are having pasta then I measure out a portion, same with rice, or potatoes. So I watch portions very carefully. No seconds.

I am losing weight very slowly this way (roughly a pound a week, sometimes half a pound). But it is sustainable. I don't let myself get really hungry, which for me only triggers snacking or overeating.

I do snack while I cook dinner - but I only snack on raw veggies. On the nights when dh cooks, I don't find that I need to.

Good luck!! It is tough to get started, but really much easier when you get into it. And when it works!

I'm currently doing WW. It worked for me a few years ago, but then I slipped back into bad old habits. This time I've really changed my outlook, not so much about loosing weight but I want to get fit. I have cut out nearly all alcohol since January.
I'm 53 and also have 2st to loose. They have three separate plans . The App is excellent and very helpful in tracking food, even restaurant food ( when they reopen) . I've heard good things from slimming world as well .

Keto really worked for me. And you can still have lots of tasty things as long as you cut out carbs.

Calorie counting is really the most effective way to go, and making sure you are eating more protein (which keeps you full) and fewer carbs (which make your blood sugar spike then crash).

e.g. try having cold hard-boiled eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. Tuna or beans with a salad instead of bread at lunchtime. Meat/tofu with vegetables for dinner, no potatoes. Weigh everything out and keep your portions under control.

Otherwise I agree with the PP who recommended Weight Watchers online, that has worked for me in the past and is easy to follow. Good luck!

Please look up pahla b on you tube. ok it's for the over 50's but I think her approach will work for anyone.

I guess it’s finding something that works for you and your body type. Something that drops the weight off slowly and in a way that you can live with long term... aka The Holy Grail

I did the 5:2 for 6 months but like you, I’m sure I ate a bit more to compensate. I’ve never been v hungry at breakfast, so now I just don’t eat it. Then I have lunch - mainly veg based - and a normal supper.

So, I eat roughly at 1.30 and 7.30pm. No snacking.
And I used to do a lot of cardio, but now just walk most days. So I’m not sure if it’s the stopping breakfast or the extra walking but it’s slowly coming off. Maybe half a pound a week? I’m very middle aged which doesn’t help.

It might be an idea to try a low carb diet for a bit and see how you get on. It didn’t work for me, but it could do for you!

So I'm over 50, I know I want too may carbs that is probably my downfall, I need something that is easy to maintain as a lifestyle that I can keep coming back to. I know when lock down is lifted we will be hosting bbqs etc and I love to cook for friends so need to be able to come back to a regular eating pattern inbetween. I will look at all your suggestions.

Calories in vs calories out. Try again with the calorie counting. I also cook from scratch using a lot of ingredients but I make recipes on my fitness pal and this saves inputting the ingredients each time. I weigh the whole final dish and input that number as the number of servings in the recipe and then all you need to do is weigh your portion. I've lost 6lb in the past 2 weeks sticking to between 1500 and 1800 calories a day, exercising 4 times a week and walking 15000 steps per day.

The thing that has worked for me is significantly reducing my carbs, especially refined carbs. I still eat things like sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables (peas, carrots, parsnips, squash, tomatoes etc). But no pasta, sweets, cake, etc, & only very rarely do I have a slice or two of sourdough bread, as a treat meal. I'm also combining this with 23:1 fasting, I don't count my calories at all & eat quite a bit of oil, fat etc in my one meal per day, but you could probably combine it with calorie counting or something similar. I'm basically doing a version of primal, except for the cream. You could cook family meals & just add extra sides for them for your DH etc - bread, rice, chips etc. You could have extra salad, veg etc if you wanted. Or just more protein.

I have about 1 day a week off of the 23:1 fasting, eat some carbs in the morning on those days. I would eat low carb in the evening or I want to snack after dinner & I struggle the next day. I'm finally losing weight, & not feeling like I want to give up either.

Full keto didn't work for me, I felt really ill. But I did lose weight on it - it does work if you can stick to it.

I would start by logging everything you eat through an app. They have pre-set calories for every meal you can cook from scratch, and you can add in butter on a sandwich, oil on a salad etc.

You need to work out how much you are over waiting by and become aware of why you put on weight when you excluded certain things from your diet/fasted.

Before I did this, every time I fasted or excluded items, I felt I could compensate myself with other food.

This is the only thing that has ever worked for me to loose weight and it was a revelation!

So decided to try Keto as deep down I know its probably down to carbs as in my head that's what I think makes me feel full. It's the easiest thing to eat when I'm hungry which I need to get out of the habit of. If I am home for lunch I have no idea what to make that doesn't include bread apart from maybe an omelette, not sure I'd even enjoy soup without bread. I've ordered a keto book so will give that a go for a month.

I’m over 50, and have lost 2 stone since June last year, the results being really noticeable from autumn.

I also had a family of ravenous teen boys (back at Uni now) for family meals.

I cut out all snacking, cut down drink, and upped my healthy eating. Cut my portion size of carbs by half at meals, avoided anything very oily or high fat. I enjoy a 100 Cal slice of creamy Brie, for example whereas before I would have eaten loads.

Typical day:

Spoonful of granola, big spoon of Greek yogurt, lots of frozen blueberries.

Lunch: lentil soup and one slice of bread or toast. Or half an avocado on toast with salad. Or an egg, tinned sardines, etc. A whole meal sandwich with a non-calorific filling would be fine.

Mid afternoon: carrot sticks / satsuma / small piece of cheese and a cracker / miso soup

Dinner; regular dinner but on the healthy side. I stopped eating the whole 800 cal pizza for example, and now have half one of the nice M&S £4.50 pizzas at about 500 cals and lots of salad.

Occasional few squares of choc, scoop of ice cream etc.

I have found this very easy to live with once I got used to it.

The 1lb a week thread is good!

I have lost my weight at about 1lb a week and felt good on that.
( there have been some big variations to that rough daily diet. I have had occasional fish and chips / major choc blow out / crisp binges etc, but not every week, and made sure to just get back on track and not let it deter me)

OP, what do you mean by 'coming back to a regular eating pattern inbetween'?

Because the trick is, you need a new regular eating pattern. One you adopt for life. Whatever you choose, it needs to work for you such that you don't need to take the weekends 'off', for example.

Obviously there will be times when you overeat, but it can't be a weekly thing. Find a balance you can stick to.

Everyone's different - lots of good ideas on this thread. For me, cutting carbs did not help - it doesn't matter that I eat carbs, just that I stay under a certain number of calories.

I think it’s worth getting Ranjan Charterjee’s loose weight feel great. It doesn’t recommend a particular diet, but is very good on the principles of weight loss. It’s very sensible and that is unusual.

By coming back to I mean I wouldn't give guest a low calorie/low carb meal. I also would hate to eat out and have to choose a meal depending on what diet I was on. And there lies the problem.

Calorie counting is a faff but is much more effective when done properly than any fad diet that asserts you can eat as much as you like of X or under Y circumstances - the people who get success under such plans are consciously or unconsciously restricting what they eat of those 'as much as you like' things and are effectively doing calorie-counting anyway, but those who believe the "as much as you like" guidance and don't restrict, do not lose weight.

I am achieving steady weightloss with calorie counting although I have been doing it for nearly a year now and don't actually do the calculations very often now because I have got used to what an ok meal looks like.

Breakfasts - ditch the cereals they only satisfy if you have way more than the "portion size" on the box, and are too high calorie. I try to stick to a savoury breakfast because if I have something sugary I get snack cravings by mid morning. Aim for 300 calories. I tend to have things like soft boiled eggs with ryvita-cracker soldiers, or an omelette with lots of fry-lite mushrooms. However I see you want to have something in bed so that probably won't work for you. How about rice cakes with marmite or houmous, perhaps with a banana?

Lunches - again aim for 300 calories. I tend to have ryvita crackers with a bit of pate and lots of lettuce, tomatoes and carrot sticks with a little bit of houmous or other dip. Occasionally I will make a wrap using the mini-size "wheat and white" wraps that are only 93cal, making sure the filling is mostly salad with just a modest bit of whatever yummy I would previously have used loads of.

Snacks - popcorn, carrot sticks, raw button mushrooms, rice cakes, dried apricots. Only if really needed. Only 100 cal worth max at a time.

Dinners - like you I like to cook from scratch. I use a lot of adapted "hello fresh" recipes which can be freely downloaded from their website without a subscription. I double up the veg and halve the carb (and any other higher-cal ingredient like cheese) for each recipe. I make a batch big enough to feed 4-6 and calculate the calories of the whole batch then portion myself out a modest serving - what I consider a reasonable dinner size will depend on how well I have stuck to the above earlier in the day. DH has more than me as he isn't trying to lose weight any more (he has achieved a healthy weight). A 400-500 cal portion is typical.

A couple of hours after dinner I will have a little supper of no more than 300 calories - might be something "pudding"-like, like fruit &yoghurt etc. Or a bit of bread and jam. Or might be some cheese and chutney if I have been very restrained earlier in the day and am on-track.

I keep a lock-and-lock box of really expensive high quality chocolate on a high shelf that I can only reach if I stand on a chair. If I have stuck to all my calorie limits without excess and have done a good amount of exercise then I will have a square or two of chocolate last thing before bed. Keeping it difficult to access is vital for making sure I don't reach for it too often. Making it really expensive means I would feel too guilty scoffing a whole bar.

I agree I need to calorie count and will combine this with keto I think. As I love my food so much it really feels like the joy life will be sucked out of me. I do realise that I can't have it all I either lose weight or eat what I like, I can't have both. In normal times I would regularly cook Sunday lunch for 10 or 12 so to have to not eat the pork cracking, Yorkshire puddings or desert would drive me mad after spending the day in the kitchen. And then to not be able to have a couple if glasses of wine in the evening. This is one if the reasons I am overweight.

In the rnd everyone can eat what they like. Just not as much of it as they would like.
Portions are usually the biggest and most common downfall.

I recommend watching some videos by Dr Jason Fung and reading Feast Fast Repeat. I think over 40s requires a different approach. What worked in my twenties and thirties just doesn't shift the weight now.
For example, I never seen to lose if I drink any wine, regardless of the rest of my calorie intake that week.

pahlabfitness.com/weight-loss-over-50/
I know you said you are doing keto.but I will leave this here.I am 52 and finally my weight is shifting.

I'm not going to comment on which method, but I do agree you need to at least track your food intake to gauge how much you're eating.

And I'd like to leave this podcast here:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/esgfitness/id1360394675?i=1000509967811

I tried all sorts of diet, low carb, super low cal, 5:2 fasting. Nothing worked until I followed her. You don't need to pay for her coaching but this podcast made so much sense. Don't look for miracle solution but work on your mindset change in terms of your relationship with food and exercise.