How do I lose weight?

[Vieja245]

I've put on over a stone in recent months mainly due to excessive carbs and lack of activity.

I want to start losing the weight now but not really done a weight loss plan before and feel clueless. I'm also genetically high risk for diabetes so want to maintain healthy lifestyle and not gain anymore weight.

I was planning on cutting out refined carbs completely and doing mostly low carb vegetarian but still eating complex carbs like lentils and wholemeal pittas etc. Sticking to three meals in a small window so there's a bit of intermittent fasting and no more sugary snacks. I will eat meat once a week and take a supplement if needed.

Plus doing 10000 steps a day.

So nothing extreme, just healthy diet and lots of walking. Will this be enough? I'm not looking for quick fix but sthing I can do long term.

Sounds like a very healthy way to loose weight. And a way of eating you might actually be able to stick to. In fact, I might even do it too.

Are you also cooking for your family? That's the bit I struggle with. Oh and a DH who's constantly buying sweets and crap, plus a lot of baking goes on in our house. Whenever I'm on a good run, it's one of these that makes me fall off the wagon. Sugar addiction is real!

Sounds good. I would put it all into My Fitness Pal too.

I think it's the fasting element of your plant that will help you lose weight. If you want the low carb element for weight loss I think you need to eliminate them completely. But I understand your other motives for lowering your carbs (pre diabetic, consistent blood sugar levels).

You could do a proper low carb diet plan for say, six weeks, to loose weight then introduce the complex carbs for the long term. If you do that, you'd need it to be high fat as well as very low carb.

Your original idea does sound better, you'll just have more gradual weight loss.

Read the Glucose Goddess Method. Rooted in science. I'm going to give it a go.

Yes your plan does sound good. The only suggestion i would make is to really monitor how you feel. Reducing carbs nut not going low carb can cause a cycle of moving in and out of ketosis and keto 'flu' with its head aches, dizziness and tiredness. I hope it won't be the case as your carbs are slower release types but something to be aware of. If you feel like this for more then 5 days then it might be worth reducing carbs down below 50g per day or upping them. Consistency is key.

I had a friend who had an awful time on low carb felt awful for weeks. Turned out she was having a couple of glasses of wine a day which kept her on the edge of ketosis. Once she dropped the wine she felt muuuuch better and started losing weight.

Vegetarian low carb doesn’t leave you with many food groups. I’d be wary of not enough of the right sort of protein.
The reason every culture has a version of rice-and-beans is because if you’re not eating meat, you need the aminos from both together for the plants to be a complete protein source.

If I were veggie low carbing, I would look for a complete protein powder and use for porridge or smoothies 5x a week.

I’m not a protein bore I swear, just a very long term vegan who has lost 7.5 stone !

Actually when I did it it I included fish. I've still got a list of meals if anyone's interested. There was a lot of cream and cheese, and eggs obviously.

I’d be interested.

Your plan sounds great, essentially undoing what you did to put the weight on.

Go for it and keep us updated with your meals and steps.

@Pancakebatter

(Sorry no links to recipes but try googling?
Courgettes Parmigiana

Stir fried Asian veg with seeds
Haddock and celeriac
Thai veg curry, cauli rice
Frittata
Creamed spinach
Hearts of palm, avocado parsley salad
Jack Monroe's cauliflower passanda
Simmered leek cabbage mushroom trio
Terriyaki salmon with spinach
Prawn, brocolli & Pak choi with soy, chilli dressing
Apple peel & beetroot salad
Waitrose love life chunky minestrone soup
Griddled courgettes with feta, lemon, mint, puy lentils
BBC good food Salmon & spinach with tartare cream
Veg chilli with avocado & sour cream
Asparagus omlette
Zuppa Toscana
Root veg spicy gratin

I've just lost 2 stone recently by doing the following;
1600 calories per day of which is made up of 120g of protein
8000 steps per day
2 litres of water
4 gyms sessions per week

The gym sessions helped but I was already doing 3 a week when I'd put a stone on.

Download my fitness pal and keep track of your food intake as portion size can be a factor.

And remember water, lots of water.

Good luck!

Yes I'll have to still do some carbs for DH as he likes his pasta and rice and also buys loads of sweet! Might ask him to hide them so I'm not tempted. Sugar craving are my weakness

Interesting about the ketosis, I'd like to go a bit more low carb but I do find lentils and chick Peas are great to cook healthy recipes with. Although in recent months I've eaten them so much with big serving of rice and I think this could be main reason for weight gain. I'm hoping cutting out rice and reducing portions etc will help

Yes I will look into a powder or supplement to help definitely!

I think lentils have a lot of nutrients although maybe not as low carb as I thought...

Thanks for this!

Look into fasting and Dr Mindy Pelz (she has a book and a youtube) its the only long term thing that's worked for me (and a ton of other health benefits)

Well done! Will get the app as so easy to slip in extra calories here and there

Thank you, I will! I've done a bit of intermittent fasting and notice my cravings aren't as bad. Before I'd need something every 2-3 hours and blood sugars just seemed to go up and down!

This is a brilliant, simple, sustainable, effective plan.

My view is do not cut out whole macro nutrients, eat plenty of protein 25 - 30 g at each meal. So build meals round protein and go for volume of food that’ll keep you full. Eat the same breakfast and lunch eg to remove decision fatigue.

120g (raw weight) chicken breast, 45g dried rice and 150g of mixed veg like peppers, cherry tomatoes and asparagus is only around 320 calories and 33g protein. Fewer calories than a pot noodle. Have something like that for lunch. Plus you can bulk prep it so you have your own ready to go meal

My personal view is that ‘personalised’ diets like Zoe (remember they’re trying to flog you something and you’re paying for the privilege of taking part in their research) are tinkering around the edges.

You can still overconsume and the only way you’ll lose weight is by creating a calorie deficit by whatever means you chose.

Cut out as much Ultra Processed Food as you can. Try and eat whole food whenever you can.
Steps/ exercise will help with fitness but not really contribute to weight loss.

Thanks everyone. First day went fairly well aside from a bit of a crash in the afternoon. That usually when I would have had a sugary pick me up before so I just had a small bit trail mix instead then stuck to three meals.

Why are you eating veggie? There’s nothing wrong with meat and the protein is good. I ask because you said you’ll still be eating meat once a week anyway.

there’s nothing wrong with rice or potatoes, but really if you want to reduce carbs it should be pasta and bread you drop due to the processing (and how shit wheat is now, it’s been so heavily genetically modified).

I'm not vegetarian but I don't like meat very much so usually only have it in a roast dinner or burgers. I don't really like things like Grilled chicken but I may have to try that or maybe fish as I'm not sure veggie will fill me up

Also trying to save money as meat is expensive!