If you are nice and slim..

[moovinon]

Can you tell me what you eat each day & how much you exercise please?

I was a size8 before having kids. I gained a dress size with each baby and I'm now a size 12. I know it's not the end of the world, but I'm just not comfortable in myself at this size. I never used to gain weight and now I feel like I look at a bar of chocolate and I put a pound on.

My daily diet is:
Breakfast - porridge.
Coffee with 1 sugar.
Snack - banana.
Lunch - naked noodle or boring cheese sandwich.
Coffee.
Snack - crisps, chocolate bar, yogurt, crumpet.
Dinner - roast/chicken wraps/pasta/spag Bol.

Exercise - half hour walk each day.

We also have dinner around 7/730 as we would rather have the baby asleep. I think obviously eating less and doing more exercise would help. I genuinely don't have the time or energy to do any more exercise atm. I used to walk about an hour and a half a day to work and back etc which I why I could eat whatever I wanted.

Any tips please!!

Drop your afternoon snack and make lunch less carb-y. Double the walking and make sure you’re walking fast enough to get out of breath.

Its hard but get rid of the sugar in the coffee.

Snack on non-sugary things.

I've had 2 dcs and hit my 40s. I'm trying to lose some lockdown weight and so chocolate and cake are only for the weekends, or I have to go up a dress size.

You can be slim or have chocolate/sugary drinks/snacks everyday. Not both - unless you do a shit load of exercise, and with small dcs you probably don't have hours of spare time to do that.

Sorry. (If you decide getting back to a size 8 isn't worth it right now, that's completely fine!)

I’ve gone from a 12 back to a size 8 since beginning of March. 10st 5 down to 8st 6 where I’m much more comfortable. Here’s what I did:

Fast 800 diet for several weeks (calorie counting Mediterranean style meals)

Returned to my usual amount of exercise post lockdown ( play a lot of hard and fast netball/school runs on foot with heavy double buggy / weekly outdoor bootcamp)

To maintain my weight I now follow the principles and methods from the book Why We Eat (Too Much), which means I still eat largely Mediterranean style food, fairly low carb, no processed wheat or sugar, no processed foods really, and try to maximise my intake of Omega 3 and lower my intake of Omega 6. Cook everything from scratch using a big variety of vegetables. Drink a load of water.

It works. I feel great (and look a lot better). But I won’t lie, it takes a lot of headspace to plan/shop/cook the proper meals.

I’m 40 by the way with 3 kids, so I sympathise with how hard it is!

What seems to be missing from your diet is fruit and vegetables.
Your lunch does sound really boring!
You could try some different salad recipes. I find a salad fills me up a lot more than a sandwich, because it takes longer to eat and as long as it’s got good flavours in there and some protein, e.g. feta cheese. For me it’s using a selection of salad recipes that work to give variety instead of it being the same all the time.
It might help you not to snack too much in the afternoon.

Are slim and nice synonymous? Can you be thin and ghastly or rounded and pleasant?

I'm not a size eight and definitely have a few wobbly bits, but eat less than that routinely and certainly have far more vegetables.

My daily diet is:
Breakfast - large mug of tea x2 , no sugar
Coffee mid morning.
Snack - I don't snack
Lunch - Very rarely - sometimes a sandwich if we are out.
Afternoon - Tea or occasionally a few nuts or a satsuma.

Supper - proper meal. Various but, at the moment lots of salads as it's too warm to bother cooking much. That might be a homemade mushroom quiche and salad, a baked potato with prawns or cottage cheese and salad, homemade scotch egg and salad. Other times maybe pasta carbonara, stir fry or a biryani.

Exercise - swimming three times a week at least. Hour dog walking a day.

The trouble is, that what works for one person won't necessarily work for someone else. Genetics, metabolism and incidental calorie expenditure play a huge role in determining our weight.

I find it weird that you’re annoyed about a “boring” sandwich for lunch when you also have lots of snacks ! Your diet is the opposite of boring - you’re eating whatever you want, whenever you want.

It’s funny how you don’t mention how much water you drink, but you do mention the coffee with only 1 sugar. I mean, I drink 2l of water a day and no coffee.

I generally eat whatever I want, but I’m not trying to lose weight. If I was, I certainly wouldn’t be eating crisps AND chocolate AND crumpets AND carbs for every meal. It’s common sense surely. There’s also fruit/veg missing from your diet - it doesn’t seem balanced.

Do you snack on all those things? I think your other meals are fine but I’d only be having one of those snacks if you want to loose weight.
I did WW after my second baby to lose the weight which worked well for me as I could still have treats. Now I keep to one treat a day of something small and at the weekends only I drink wine with healthy meals

You can eat whatever you want but you do have to ramp up the exercise to accommodate what you eat. Having a calorie deficit is all you need to lose weight. Your current diet/exercise is maintaining your weight.

A 30 minute walk a day is nothing - people do that walking to and from work/school/shops. That isn’t going to help you change your figure - there’s lots more you can do like walking for much longer, joining a gym, weights, online fitness classes etc

I don’t think the OP means she eats all of those for one snack? I think she’s just giving a selection of what she might pick in the afternoon?

I’d put on weight with that, I’m mid 40s though probably age dependent

I’d drop snack and sugar and up the exercise

For comparison OP here is what I’m eating today:
Early morning : sweet potato and banana bowl with peanut butter (only on bootcamp day)
Breakfast : scrambled eggs with feta, whole meal sourdough toast, spinach and tomato
Lunch : courgette fritters, watercress and smoked salmon
Dinner : Chicken curry with roasted cauliflower

On week days I often have a snack about 4pm, something like rice cakes and marmite

I'd eat what you eat , plus fruit and the odd glass of wine , and am right weight for my size.. size 10/12

( yip crisps, cake and biscuits and peanuts as snacks most days ) ( and carbs every meal )

I do a bit more exercise but not much , run once a week , bike ride this morning

It might be portion size that needs to be tweaked ?

I’m fairly slim and that is a similar intake to me, but I wouldn’t be eating the afternoon snack.

I do more exercise though. I wouldn’t really class 30 minutes spent walking as exercise.

Cut the sugar out of the coffee for a start, the work on better nutrition especially around lunch - if you eat more lean protein and veg, it'll be more satisfying and you can probably drop the afternoon snack.
I would try and have eggs for breakfast sometimes too, which again will keep you full for longer.
Drink LOTS of water. Cut out processed foods as much as possible.

Work on getting fitter, honestly it makes a huge difference - aim to exercise 3x per week, if only for 30mins.

Don't add sugar to your coffee and ditch the snack. Cut down on carb. You have carb with every meal and every day that's why you are not loosing weight

I’m 5ft 6 and 8st 5lb
Weekdays I eat, for example
Breakfast - 1 slice of toast with marmite or a Small bowl of rice crispies ( with milk And a dollop of Creme fraiche )
Lunch - 2 pieces of fruit and 2 crackers with a dairymen triangle spread on them....l or an avocado on a slice of toast
Dinner - a chilli with rice, and a dollop of sour cream, and some salad
Supper- 2 biscuits to dunk in my cup of tea
I never eat snacks.... just never want them.
Weekends I eat same breakfast....I don’t eat lunch....but then will have a main and starter if eating out......or a main and pudding if at home ( eg a risotto and an slice of cheesecake. Again I never eat between meals.
I drink a glass of wine if going out ( thats my limit due to the meds I take) ....l at home I drink tea, water or orange .
This is more than enough food for me but I think if I ate more I would gain weight as I’m not really active....the odd dog walk....and walking on holiday....but that’s it.

It really comes down to calorie counting and portion control. You could all those things in the day though they sound carby could be the right number of calories for you and you could then be having way too many calories at dinner.

What you really need to do is meal plan and be aware of what you're taking in. Unless you know what you are actually consuming how will you ever lose weight? It is the single most critical variable involved with weight loss. You need to not wing it otherwise you will end up eating too much and not losing or eating too little and giving up.

Work out your TDEE just google TDEE Calculator, subtract 500 calories from it as a starting point and plan your food around eating that many calories a day. If you struggle, try various methods that tend to hold success for people - high protein, less refined carbs, keto, intermittent fasting, whatever. Ultimately what kind of diet you follow is determined by what makes it easiest for you to stick to that numeric value.

I’m going to go against the grain and say a spoon of sugar is literally less than 10 calories and unlikely to be the reason you’re not losing is weight

Honestly I think a lot of it is metabolism, and having children. Some women are just intended to be larger and some smaller.

My daily diet:
Breakfast: Alpen with blueberries, almonds and oat milk, with a green tea.

Mid-morning: Coffee with a pain au chocolate.

Lunch: Maybe a wrap, or halloumi on avocado toast, or baked beans on toast. With orange juice and more green tea.

Dinner: Vegetable curry with naan, pasta, maybe a takeaway once or twice a week. I try to eat lots of vegetables but sometimes fall into the trap of just eating cheese on toast due to laziness.

I'll generally eat a few small bits throughout the evening and night, rather than one big meal.

Might have a bag of crisps a few times a week. I meet up with my friend a few times a month and we always have a coffee and a Crosstown doughnut.

Exercise, I go swimming twice a week, and generally go for a long walk (2-3 hours) on the weekend. I try to do yoga and pilates but am inconsistent with it.

I'm a size 6-8, 5'5, about 8 1/2 stone.

A friend of mine is very slim and this is what she eats:
Breakfast: Eggs x2
Lunch: cottage cheese with pineapple and apple chunks
Snack : protein bar (any under 200 cals)
Dinner : meat and veg

I am not slim 😅 and struggling to follow this as the cottage cheese isn’t tempting

*Pain au chocolat (lol that'll annoy me if I don't correct it).

@YerAWizardHarry

I’m going to go against the grain and say a spoon of sugar is literally less than 10 calories and unlikely to be the reason you’re not losing is weight

This is probably correct, however the problem with sugar is that it sets you off craving more carbs or junk, by raising your insulin and messing with your blood sugar levels.

Are slim and nice synonymous?
I nearly wrote similar.
Me and my friend joke how both our mum's never say that so and so is slim. They are always ' nice and slim'😂😂😂
My nan was pleased when I was ' slim ' once when I was in my 20's. I was severely under weight and ill, but it was ok because I was 'nice and slim'

Sorry to derail, it just brought back some memories!

Honestly, I find that drinking lots of water keeps me full so I’m less inclined to have big portions of food or snack.