We've been doing the 5:2 diet for about 6 weeks and cooking Mediterranean style food. Quite like it and we've each lost about 2lbs a week.
I'm on my own designed personal diet. It's dead easy to follow. Just eat 10% less at every meal. I have also completely cut out dairy.
I stopped putting sugar in my hot drinks. Regarding food, I have not denied myself anything but instead of having a Dinner plate, I've used a tea plate. That way, you eat far less.
Just don’t eat between meals Sounds too simple to be true , but anyone who has tried it will tell you it works wonders To avoid temptation it’s best not to have those sort of snack foods in the house at all Crisps , biscuits etc Or else when get bored , watching telly... you will just grab something to eat Depending on your age your metabolism slows down as you get older. Maybe bit of exercise , go for walks If get hunger pangs , personally been trying those Graze snacks range loads of different types flavours, flat jacks , snacks ,fruits nuts, all sorts of different stuff Low in calories, Different levels of protein , depending on your level of needs to keep your energy levels up and ticking over.
Go on myfitnesspal.com (or get the app) and input your current weight and how much you would like to lose each week. It gives you a break down of how many calories, grams of protein, fat, sugar, salt and carbs you are allowed each day which means you are losing weight really healthily rather than just cutting things out. Each day, you input everything you eat and it counts down how much of each you have left until you have eaten your daily amount. When you submit the day’s log, it tells you how much you’d weigh in three weeks if ‘every day was like today’ which is very motivating. It’s impossible to not work if you are honest and stick to it. Try it, it’s free and it’ll give you a much better understanding of dieting and food in general. Not all calories are the same and when I first started using it I realised I was accidentally having only about 1000 calories a day but using up all my fat and sugar allowances by lunch time. To be able to eat tea and still stick to it, I had to change the types of food I eat so I actually had way more calories per day but in the form of protein for example rather than fat and sugar. I steadily lost a 1lb and half each week which was my goal and became much healthier. If you do any exercise input that and it will adjust your values up for the day.
Do you not feel incredibly ratty and irritable on the fast days? Not to mention hungry! I've been told a lot of good things about the 5-2, but I'm quite apprehensive about trying it as the fast days look like hell. Plus the idea of working out at the gym on a fast day seems particularly unpleasant.
Gym? Who mentioned gym?! The fast days aren't brilliant but they're not that bad. I think you can have something like 800 calories. We usually have two slices of buttered toast with two poached eggs in the morning and then a salmon fillet with peas and mushrooms for dinner. It's not too bad but you are ready for breakfast the next day.
I read it was 500 calories, which sounds completely impossible. I don't tend to be particularly hungry in the evenings unless I've been to the gym, whereas mornings when I get up I'm absolutely ravenous and again at lunch time. Reckon if I could eat something quite filling for those two meals I might be able to hack it on 800 calories.
Some good advice above. I’ve lost almost a stone in the last month through nothing more complicated than eating less and exercising more. The daft rescue dog we brought home in September has got me out walking on the moors round here. Food-wise, I’ve pretty much cut out bread, apart from a slice of wholemeal toast with some peanut butter at weekends. Branflakes with some fresh fruit or porridge for breakfast, baked potato for lunch or salad with tuna & egg, then normal stuff for dinner, but LESS OF IT! Cut out the snacking - fresh fruit if you really need a hit, drink lots of water. That’s it. Still get a bit of a low mid-afternoon, but a banana usually sorts that. Not rocket science.
The problem with diets are that they are temporary and so when you stop it all goes back on. It's much better to make sustainable lifestyle changes - eat less, move more. Find a TDEE calculator online, see how many calories are necessary to maintain your current weight then knock 10% off (either by eating less or exercising) and weight will come off regardless of what food you actually eat to reach that calorie total.
there's various versions of intermittent fasting. Some say only eat in an 8 hour window - so never have breakfast and have dinner at midday and tea before 8pm then nowt after. The 5:2 i've been on basically was nothing until 6pm then somthing simple - meat and veg - not many carbs. - don't ever count the calories just if you think it shouldn't be on the plate - dont' put it on the plate. I've also taken some changes like going to petrol stations where I pay at the pump and I only buy what's on the shopping list, etc to avoid having access to stuff that I really shouldn't be eating. It works for me - loosing 2 lb a week - and I pick my fast days when I'm on a site visit or have a meeting over lunch time so I don't notice I haven't eaten until it's getting close to going home time. I dont' stick rigidly to the 2 1 3 1 or whatever they say the rota is - I never have a fast day of a weekend for instance.
The main ingredient in any diet cannot be bought off the shelf. WILLPOWER. I lost 2 stone in 2 month and that included Xmas and its still off. Eat less plus exercise x willpower equals wt loss.
Also if you drink sugared drinks stop. That's by far the easiest way to make an effective difference to your calorie intake
Three months ago I undertook a lot of standard tests. I did this because I had not done it for a while and I am in my sixties. My glucose level in the blood was too high and was approaching type two diabetes levels. The doctor scared the crap out of me and went gung-ho to get my numbers down. Sugar you stop. Also cakes and drinks and chocs and all the obvious stuff. The body turns carbohydrates into sugar for you to burn as energy. Too much and the body stores it as fat. So you cut out the carbs, which is rice, pasta, white bread, white flour foods and spuds and beer. As you do this you don't know what the fook you can eat so you cut down your intake. Steak, chops, fish, salads, above ground veg, all good. A bread substitute is the tough one. I'm going to find a rye bread that does it for me. Dairy is okay (but maybe someone else' problem). I am the omelette King. I've been off the beer for four months (not as hard as I thought). I have just started back on red wine (not sweet whites) I'm down to 87Kg from 102Kg. And I like the look of meself... but I'm still a boring buggger..
I'm with @JamDrop - I used My Fitness Pal for a little over a year before my wedding back in 2013, and I dropped from just short of 13 stone, to 10 and a half stone. I do have a treadmill at home so it helped I was hammering that too, but having now crept back up to just below 12 stone I have started to use MFP again now. I am not using the treadmill this time though, so have to be more careful what I eat. It might not be the greatest way of doing things, but I only use it really for calorie counting. JamDrop is obviously using it as you really should, but having a 1 year old daughter at home I just don't have the time. I intend to drop a stone with a target of 1lb per week (a healthy rate of dropping weight). I still eat the same things I did before, including takeaway on a Saturday night. It's just certain things are sacrificed when you realise how many calories you've consumed in the week. Whatever you choose, good luck!
