Slimfast!!

[sasguru]

First off weight and BMI is bollocks. Don't measure your success by either!! When I was 19 I used to spend about 2 hours a day exercising and I was also entering Kung Fu competitions. I had a 30" waist and could squeeze into 28" jeans fairly easily but I had a BMI of 27 (30 is clinically obese) and I did not have much muscle bulk, I just looked like your average everyday Joe.

The first thing you need to do is get rid of the weight obsession. Weight means nothing and never has!! The best advice has already been stated, drink lots of water, eat proper home cooked meals, not pre made carp and eat slowly so your brain has time to register that your stomach is full.

Another tip is always make sure you leave some food on your plate when you finish eating. Many of us (myself included) were brought up to eat up all our dinner because a) it is good manners and b) you didn't get pudding unless you ate everything. Break that habit by always leaving some food on the plate and making sure you don't eat more than you need.

Secondly go down to your local gym and get a session with a personal trainer and get them to set up an exercise plan. You only need to see them once and you can then just use the plan they have set out for you. You have to know what exercise to do because it is far too easy to go into cardio work and not fat burn, especially if you are fairly unfit to start with. The level of exercise required to burn fat is a lot lower than you think, doing cardio work will get you fitter but won't burn nearly as much fat.

As others have said it is a change of lifestyle, not a diet. it sounds hard at first but once you start eating proper home cooked food you won't want to go back.

The last thing to remember is that you may be eating a whole load more calories than you need. If you are sitting on your bum all day tapping on a keyboard you can probably shave a few hundred calories off the recomended daily allowance because you just aren't doing enough to burn them.

Finally you shouldn't be starving yourself, it won't help. Sitting there feeling hunger pains just means you are pushing your body too hard and the body will change your metabolism to store as much fat as possible to make sure you can survive as long as possible without food.

I would expect that for a lot here, alcohol provides a significant amount of calories ....that need sto be sorted too.

[Bagpuss]

First off weight and BMI is bollocks. Don't measure your success by either!! When I was 19 I used to spend about 2 hours a day exercising and I was also entering Kung Fu competitions. I had a 30" waist and could squeeze into 28" jeans fairly easily but I had a BMI of 27 (30 is clinically obese) and I did not have much muscle bulk, I just looked like your average everyday Joe..

It's just a rule of thumb isn't it, by the sounds of it you must be quite a short fella hence the BMI, but 27 is only marginal, and allowing for the crudeness of the measure is OK. In reality anyone 25-30 shouldn't be that worried, they're either a big build (possible weights) or have a few surplus pounds that are easy to shift. However, anyone >30 (who isn't a midget weight lifter) needs to start doing something. >40 they need to do something quick before you have serious health problems. So weight isn't insignificant when a certain boundary is crossed.

[The Master]

If you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding...

How can you have pudding if you don't eat your meat?

Don't worry, it's all part of the plan.

[The Master]

How reassuring, Oh Evil One... we're trying to make all so fat they explode like Mr Creosote?

Shhhhhh... don't let the cat out of the bag.

[SallyAnne]

While I appreciate the fact that you may want to genuinely give me some advice Ardesco, you clearly haven't read through this thread at all, and have quite a lot of your facts wrong here.

I dont have a weight obsession at all. I weigh myself to make sure that over the course of each week I am going in the right direction.
Weight means nothing when you're inthe healthy region - but when you're nearing 20 stones, it means a lot. What a ridiculous statement.

I drink about 7 or 8 pints of water a day now.
I have a home cooked meal every single night.
I'm always full half way through it, and I naturally eat slow now as my habits have completely changed.
I have't really felt hungry throughout the last 4 or 5 weeks - I certainly have never felt starving.

Leaving food on a plate when you are stil hungry is the 2nd most ridiculous comment you've made. I'm in the habit of filling my plate 3/4 full with veg anyway now...nothing bad gets on my plate, so I can enjoy every mouthful!

Local gym - I've explained before in this thread that I dont have time for that. I work 100 miles away from home, and I dont have a car, so it just isn't feasible. I walk back and forwards to work now (20 mins fast walk each way), and try and get out at lunchtime. Also I've been on the treadmill (in the garage) a couple of times, but I dont really enjoy it, and at my weight it's simply not healthy. I need to shift a couple more stones first.


If you think its appropriate to criticise the way I have lost 18lbs so far, then knock yourself out sweetheart. If it makes you feel better about yourself to belittle someone who is genuinely trying to change their life, then good for you.

Like I said though - I appreciate it if you are trying to genuinely offer advice, it's just that you have instead came accross as a patronising know it all who actually hasn't even taken the time to get up to speed with the subject matter.

[DimPrawn]

Congrats SA.

If you keep this up, you will weigh less than Kylie by Dec 2008.

[Ardesco]

I forgot to mention why weight/BMI is bollocks. It is because muscle weighs more than fat and you invariably build muscle when exercising. Secondly if you don't have a huge carb intake you don't gain a huge amount of muscle bulk so you can in effect be healthier, slimmer and slighty
heavier all at the same time. Best thing to do is select your ideal dress size and aim for that, forget about the weight, just measure your success by getting into smaller clothing!!

You're a contractor SA buy yourself one of those air walker machines to put in the spare room/sitting room. You then get a impact free workout at home in front of the telly and can do it at any time (just before a shower/bath is always good)

[sasguru]

Congrats SA.

If you keep this up, you will weigh less than Kylie by Dec 2008.

And less that that monkey woman Posh Spice by Feb 2009. Aaaargghhh don't do it, a woman needs some curves

[Ardesco]

While I appreciate the fact that you may want to genuinely give me some advice Ardesco, you clearly haven't read through this thread at all, and have quite a lot of your facts wrong here.

I dont have a weight obsession at all. I weigh myself to make sure that over the course of each week I am going in the right direction.
Weight means nothing when you're inthe healthy region - but when you're nearing 20 stones, it means a lot. What a ridiculous statement.

I drink about 7 or 8 pints of water a day now.
I have a home cooked meal every single night.
I'm always full half way through it, and I naturally eat slow now as my habits have completely changed.
I have't really felt hungry throughout the last 4 or 5 weeks - I certainly have never felt starving.

Leaving food on a plate when you are stil hungry is the 2nd most ridiculous comment you've made. I'm in the habit of filling my plate 3/4 full with veg anyway now...nothing bad gets on my plate, so I can enjoy every mouthful!

Local gym - I've explained before in this thread that I dont have time for that. I work 100 miles away from home, and I dont have a car, so it just isn't feasible. I walk back and forwards to work now (20 mins fast walk each way), and try and get out at lunchtime. Also I've been on the treadmill (in the garage) a couple of times, but I dont really enjoy it, and at my weight it's simply not healthy. I need to shift a couple more stones first.


If you think its appropriate to criticise the way I have lost 18lbs so far, then knock yourself out sweetheart. If it makes you feel better about yourself to belittle someone who is genuinely trying to change their life, then good for you.

Like I said though - I appreciate it if you are trying to genuinely offer advice, it's just that you have instead came accross as a patronising know it all who actually hasn't even taken the time to get up to speed with the subject matter.

More along the lines of suffering from reading the first page and posting without looking at the date and then reading through the rest ops:

Not trying to critisise at all and congratulations on how
you have done so far, it sounds like you are doing an excellent job. The fact remains though that a lot of people insist on using weight as a measurement when it is not a good measurement by any means. You can have a 7ft tall bloke at 16 stone and a 5 ft bloke at 16 stone. On will be perfectly healthy while one will be overwieght.

At the end of the day it is what you are happy with that counts, but you will reach a point where the weight becomes meaningless and what you will really be aiming for is a certain body shape/the ability to fit into clothing of a certain size. Once you have hit your perfect body shape/clothes size you may still be over the accepted ideal weight, but who cares.

I for one am over my accepted weight and last time I weighed myself I had a BMI of 32. I accept that I am a bit overwieght (mainly because I don't do any exercise nowdays) but I can still fit into 34" jeans so i'm not clinically obese in my eyes not matter what the doctor says (low cholesterol and completely normal blood pressue would back me up as well).

[Bagpuss]

I forgot to mention why weight/BMI is bollocks. It is because muscle weighs more than fat

Muscle weighs the same as fat