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!!

My apologies to @moovinon for accidentally derailing your thread. I didn't mean to, was just feeling sorry for myself. Generally, though, I eat well and enjoy my food. An average day would be:
B: Greek yoghurt with berries and nuts
L: a big salad with some kind of protein (meat, cheese, eggs) and an olive oil dressing, or maybe an omelette with loads of veg.
D: whatever I'm making for everyone else, but with extra veg instead of carbs. So cauliflower rice instead of normal rice, courgetti instead of pasta, roasted asparagus instead of chips, etc.

I appreciate everyone else's concern, but I'm honestly fine. My weight is well within the healthy BMI range. My casting type is depressingly average - I'm not thin enough to get the lead roles, nor big enough to be the "fat friend". It just sometimes depresses me how hard I have to work at being "normal" - or at least, "actress normal".

I calorie count using the free app MyNetDiary - basically log everything I eat. You set your goal weight and it works out your daily allowance for you. It helps keep me on track.

I eat some carbs because in the long term I wouldn’t find a very low/non carb diet sustainable (for me). I eat the occasional treat too but generally try to cut out sugar.

I also swear by soups too! Vegetable soups (I make my own so no added cream, salt etc) are very low calorie but filling - try having them for lunch.

Skip breakfast. It's good to do a 16:8 fast
Cut out bread
Eat lots of vegetables and fibre and cut out mist sugar.
Exercise every day, even fast walking is good. Move whenever possible.
I'm 55, 2 kids, BMI 19,5.

Do any of you with restricted diets worry about what you're doing to your children? I don't want my dc to think it's normal or desirable to skip meals, or to be terrified of eating a potato. Kids are so impressionable and they notice everything!

@tiredanddangerous

Do any of you with restricted diets worry about what you're doing to your children? I don't want my dc to think it's normal or desirable to skip meals, or to be terrified of eating a potato. Kids are so impressionable and they notice everything!

I understand what you are saying about impressionable kids, but the reality is that childhood obesity is more of a problem these days than starvation.

In the UK, almost one quarter of children are overweight by the time they are 5 years old, and more than 30% of 10-11 year olds are overweight or obese.

I work in the acting industry. I'm not denying that there's pressure on actresses to be slim, but Spotlight absolutely does not list actresses weight or dress size (only height), nor do any of the major talent agents websites, and I've never seen an actress's CV that had her measurements on it unless she was also a model or maybe a dancer.

This is what a Spotlight CV looks like (Spotlight is the industry standard that all actors and all CDs use for casting), there's nowhere you could put your dress size or measurements even if you wanted to (actress is not me, just happens to be the most recent CV I was looking at):
www.spotlight.com/1418-7866-5326

I've never in 20 years of being both an actress and working in casting been asked or seen an actress asked for her dress size, except under very specific circumstances which is basically stuff like panto or long-running MT shows where they need to hire someone to fit into the existing costumes.

Modelling is different, and maybe it's different for dancers/MT performers, but it's not the norm for 'straight' acting. IME the most gruelling pressure on actresses is when they're at drama school, where there's often competitive dieting between students.

I'm a size 8, I weight train 5 days a week
My diet is usually:
Breakfast: porridge with milk but no sugar, or 2 slices whole meal seeded bread toast with two boiled eggs, or to 2 slices toast and two fried eggs with bacon and tomatoes.
Lunch is usually fish and salad, or left overs from dinner, always with a lot of veg
Dinner is usually chicken/beef/lamb with what ever green veg I have in or salad.
I often eat an ice cream such as a mini magnum for dessert.
I have a few cups of tea with milk and no sugar, with protein bars during the day
I weigh 149 lb and I'm 5 ft 6. But my body fat is at 19 %, and I. Very muscular. I base my diet around eating a lot of protein and vegetables.
My children eat healthily, and stay away from sugar, although they do get treats sometimes, just not every day. They understand the importance of making healthy choices and not eating fast junk food.

I'm 57, 5 ft 3 and a size 8-10, and eat what I want. I rarely drink alcohol though, only if I go out to eat and feel like it.

Yesterday I ate scrambled egg on toast for breakfast, with a couple of cups of redbush tea. A banana and a packet of crisps, then out for dinner which was minute steak and veg, shared a chocolate tart for pudding, plus one glass of wine. Lots of water all day.

I walk a lot - at least 3 miles a day (work) and also do weights or Pilates. I think a lot of it is genetics.

@Moorlander you are very welcome: I have a lot more practical tips rattling around in my brain somewhere! Well done on your weight loss; what an amazing achievement!

I also eat carbs! I don't eat artificial sweeteners though. Yesterday wasn't especially representative of my daily diet - I normally have a big lunch and will then not eat dinner (I've always eaten breakfast, I love it). And I eat more fruit and veg. But if I want something, I eat it.

I am a size 8-10 at 5'6. I tend not to eat breakfast just have a cup of tea with milk. For lunch an omelette or hummus with veg. I eat quite a bit of fruit throughout the day. Evening meal I eat whatever as this is when I am hungriest - risottos, pasta dishes, curries, whatever. I often have seconds.
I don't snack in the evenings and I rarely drink unless celebrating something.
If I want cake or something I will have it but usually for a meal instead of as well! If it's a birthday or something I don't deny myself but will usually feel bad for ages after.
It's light eating and I wish I was more relaxed about food but I'm not.

Late 40's with 2 children, size 8, weight 8 stone exactly. Managed to lose the baby weight and a dress size by purely controlling my food intake. I was shocked at how calories build up so easily. A handful of nuts or kids sweets as I'm passing is massive! So I switched to eating mostly fruit and veg, with protein and fat free dairy each day. Now I've lost the weight I’ve been able to reintroduce stuff I'd cut out, but not all the time, and not all of them everyday.

My brother is a multi-marathon runner and complains of his beer belly through middle age. It seems that training for marathons only strengthens and tones you, but doesn't reduce weight and size. Eating does that.

I use my fitness pal, it's a free app and is shocking when you weight and register every single thing you eat. Do it for a week and you'll see what I mean! But you have to log every single food and drink. A poster earlier spoke about 4 chips off her kids plate, that would have to be measured and entered for complete accuracy. Each cup of coffee you drink is likely to be about 50 calories if you have milk and sugar, more than that if it's a latte or you have 2 heaped spoons, etc.

The only way to significantly lose weight it to eat less than you burn off. Once you've lost weight you can eat equal amounts (with occasional treats) for maintenance.

Your stomach shrinks, your tastes change (ever switched from 2 sugars to 1? If you accidentally have 2 again it's very sickly!), your habits change.

I now skip breakfast most days, have porridge for brunch, 3pm is my dangerous hour as I always used to snack huge amounts then, so now I have olives and smoked salmon, iceberg lettuce and some fruit or Total greek fat free yogurt with sprinkled nuts on top. Dinner I eat with the family, but normally skip pudding as I'm full up.

It's an effort to start with, but it becomes a way of life if you stick at it long enough.

Thank you so much for all of the advice!

I will have a proper read of them all later.

I think I'd be happy if I could get to a small 10. Wish I could get back to an 8 but I'm worried o would have to put in too much effort to maintain it.

I definitely eat too many carbs, but they are so tasty 🙈. Will have to eat way less of those. Have downloaded a calorie counting app and diet plan!

Thank you so much

Still in shape size 12 at 60, despite significant disability/health issues

I typically eat..

Breakfast... black coffee, with 1/2 spoon of sugar

About 9 ish... 1 slice of seeded wholemeal toast with mashed avocado or banana

Lunch ... most likely wholemeal pasta or a seeded bread mature cheese sandwich heavy on the spinach & rocket salad & light on the cheese - you need less with strong cheeses, or tuna or egg salad etc .. I don't eat meat or poultry

Maybe a bit of fruit or vegetable crisps mid afternoon, but I'm not generally hungry, so this isn't everyday

Tea... something like roast fish & vegetables or salad

I generally eat a clean non processed, whole food, pescatarian diet & I don't snack often, because I'm not hungry

I live by a 95% rule in that I don't deny myself anything (bar meat), but eat very well 95% of the time.

I can't exercise much for health reasons, but I find stretching & core strength moves fit into my day, rather than stop for exercise is enough & much easier than setting time aside for an exercise regime. Things such as planked press ups against my kitchen workbench, when waiting for the kettle to boil, that sort of thing. I also swim when I can. My osteopath is surprised by my general fitness, which surprised even me given how little classic exercise I actually do, especially with lockdown & no swimming

I also lost a lot of what I guess was fluid with a course of candida treatment from my GP after a harsh lot of antibiotics for a gut infection left me with thrush everywhere. I was shocked to drop inches around my middle in weeks & it stayed off