Anyone follow a strict diet ?

[ton]

......or a you one of lifes lucky bastards who can eat what they want ?


health issues again here, hence my reason for asking.

[Escape Goat]

I have. It was ok, but very easy to forget and fall out of the habit.

[macinblack]

I eat pretty much what I want, though I've never had a big appetite. I am a slave to the pudding gods though and can be easily corrupted by cake.

Having completed the BB200 calorie deficient, I did nothing but eat last week and have only just stopped regarding Mrs Mac as a giant cooked chicken, like they do in cartoons.

I have stopped eating many meat products though and have the Vegan/Veggie alternatives, it has been easy to do for the most part.

[ScotRoutes]

......or a you one of lifes lucky bastards who can eat what they want ?


health issues again here, hence my reason for asking.

As long as I'm exercising I can get away with not managing my diet. When I'm not careful, I can put on 3 Kg or so before I really notice it. TBH, I'm not that bothered about being a wee bit overweight - until I go running, then I care a lot

[Lazarus]

Vegan ( don't like talking about it obvs ) but in terms of what you mean I can eat what I want without weight gain*. Weigh the same at 50 as at 15.
Injured for 4 months without riding and no.weight gain ( i do eat more when i ride ).

* Then again I don't calorie count so perhaps I do eat healthily( i do eat biscuits and crisps but probably no more than 5 packets of small crisps and two packets of biscuit a week (is that a lot or a little ? )My general diet is plenty of veg, salads and the like and more often struggle to get enough calories and am often hungry On balance i don't know (helpful post eh )

[Bearbonesnorm]

health issues again here, hence my reason for asking.

What have they told you to eat / avoid Tony? Carbs are the killer for me, so I do try and limit them but I'm not a 'foody' so find avoiding certain foods quite easy.

[ton]

nothing specific Stu. just food in general.

funny how things turn out, but i went to the docs with a chest infection, which in turn caused my heart rate to rise. and it wont come down, even after antibiotics.
so today i phone the doctors, which were shut because of training. answer phone thing transfered me to someone who was covering. told him the info. he then came to see me at home as raised heart rate is a worry.
so he turns up, does my blood pressure, which is fine. does my pulse, 119bpm. he then say's it may have stayed high because i am carrying a bit of weight. i said, could it be high because i still have some infection and the antibiotics may not have worked.
no, he says, they must have worked as you BP is fine. i then tell him it was fine when my doc took it last week on my 1st visit. well you could still do to lose a bit of weight, with your past heart issues, he says. i was getting a bit annoyed now.
i asked him what he was gonna do for my heart rate. nothing, he says, you will have to go to hospital for a ECG. his parting sot was, i will have a word with your doctor about a diet plan.

[Lazarus]

Reminds me of when I smoked Dr always said that was the reason for any chest infection.
That said , like weight, its unhealthy so they will mention it to you.
Whether you want to act or not is your decision.

[ScotRoutes]

It's an easy target for the medical profession. My daughter has suffered from Endometriosis since she was in her early teens. It's taken 12 years for them to diagnose it and most of the previous advice was to lose weight

[yourguitarhero]

I do.
Calorie counting via MyFitnessPal app synced with a Garmin Vivoactive watch.

However I also do a lot of weight lifting so have to manage protein as well. So generally aim to be in a slight calorie surplus for three months followed by a deficit for 3 months or so.

Has kept me in good shape compared to other folks my age

[Boab]

I've known people who are on proper weird restriction diets and whatnot, don't go there unless there's no other option. Personally, if I eat a pea I put on the weight, I've tried calorie counting, and while it worked, it got s bit obsessive, which has it's own issues. What I've found the easiest for me, is 16:8 intermittent fasting, I don't eat between 20:00 and 12:00 the next day, and can pretty much eat and drink what I want, as long as I also moderate my intake based on whatever exercise I'm doing. My wife tried it and didn't get on with it, she prefers the 5:2 thing.

I suppose what I'm saying is if it's just weight loss, then you'll need to try a few things to see what works for you. The easiest might just be to buy smaller plates and put less food on them, although I tried that, and it's amazing how high you can pile food... Using an app like MyFitnessPal, there are others, for a few weeks to log what you eat might be revealing enough that you can make a few small tweaks that have a big difference.

[The Cumbrian]

I'd been trying to lose weight for years, and nothing worked. This year I've found that if I stick to around 1400 calories a day (I spread it over two meals, lunch and tea) during the week with no alcohol , I can eat what I want and have a few scoops at the weekend. I've been doing this since April and I've lost 2.5 stone.

[Bearbonesnorm]

If it's 'simply' a matter of shifting some of the bacon suit, then for me, cutting back on carbs is always the way forward - obviously that means beer too

[Karl]

nothing specific Stu. just food in general.

funny how things turn out, but i went to the docs with a chest infection, which in turn caused my heart rate to rise. and it wont come down, even after antibiotics.
so today i phone the doctors, which were shut because of training. answer phone thing transfered me to someone who was covering. told him the info. he then came to see me at home as raised heart rate is a worry.
so he turns up, does my blood pressure, which is fine. does my pulse, 119bpm. he then say's it may have stayed high because i am carrying a bit of weight. i said, could it be high because i still have some infection and the antibiotics may not have worked.
no, he says, they must have worked as you BP is fine. i then tell him it was fine when my doc took it last week on my 1st visit. well you could still do to lose a bit of weight, with your past heart issues, he says. i was getting a bit annoyed now.
i asked him what he was gonna do for my heart rate. nothing, he says, you will have to go to hospital for a ECG. his parting sot was, i will have a word with your doctor about a diet plan.

Ton, request a blood test. They're reluctant to systematically do any at the moment due to limited supply of vials but from my own experience it was the only thing that highlighted to them that I had a problem.

[faustus]

No real personal experience as i'm fairly lucky with weight. But I know others who have tried/needed to lose weight and interesting to see what worked, and i think success is driven by personality to a degree. So my brother did fairly obsessive calorie counting with an app and that worked for him as he can be methodical and obsessive. But I can totally see why that wouldn't work for some (including me!). A work colleague had to lose weight due to onset of type 2 diabetes, and he did an amazing job of turning it around by cutting out some foods and substituting others. I do think substitution of certain foods works, it does for me when I eat too much crap. Eating more whole foods and whole grains and nuts is a good start, they will fill you up quicker and you can find something you like. You just need to set yourself some rules, e.g. substituting biscuits for nuts and/or oat cakes, and if you can stomach it then cauliflower rice for normal rice, things like that. You could go through your current diet and see what to swap...and some things to cut, like beer as Stu mentioned.

[Lazarus]

Nuts have a huge calorific value so not great as a substitute ( same for seeds ) as they are 600 calories per 100g biscuits about 3-400 ish which is the same as oats.

[faustus]

True about nuts, but things like almonds (raw) you're not going to eat the same weight as they are pretty filling...and there are other health benefits to them I guess?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Nuts v biscuits. Nuts are fairly low carb (mostly), whereas biscuits are full of refined sugar and wheat so very high in carbs. I've found that carbs themselves make more of a difference than the actual amount of calories.

I found this book very interesting. Plenty of easy to understand info that explains things well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eat-Bacon-Dont ... 1074819144

[RIP]

I found this book very interesting. Plenty of easy to understand info that explains things well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eat-Bacon-Dont ... 1074819144

I really hesitate to join in on this one but knowing your affection for BB's (bacon butties, not bear bones ) I can't help but gently rib you that this does appear to be rather a case of selecting what reaffirms one's own existing views . As a reviewer said, "Like anyone in this field, he "cherry (*) picks" the data that supports his views".

Just ignore me though 'cos I'm one of those annoying ones who has been 10st7lbs for the past 45 years give or take an ounce whatever I eat, so I have no right to be on this thread .

(*) "cherries: a good source of healthy compounds like fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and polyphenols, cherries may help reduce inflammation and exercise-induced muscle soreness, lower blood pressure, ease pain in arthritis, improve sleep, and help control blood sugar and lipid levels in people who have diabetes or obesity".

Cherry butty anyone?

[Bearbonesnorm]

I know exactly what you mean Reg The title perhaps betrays the message inside to some degree, although bacon does feature albeit without the bread which makes assembling a butty quite difficult.

[Richard G]

Very strict, when I'm training anyway.

...and yeah, until you get used to it, it absolutely sucks.

[RIP]

I know exactly what you mean Reg The title perhaps betrays the message inside to some degree, although bacon does feature albeit without the bread which makes assembling a butty quite difficult.

I can see how that would induce considerable trauma yes "there's some good news and some bad news about your new diet......"

Not personally convinced by this high-fat low-carb thing. For slimming mebbe, for general health mebbe not. Evidence against "Western" (fat, salt, processed) and for "Mediterranean/Japanese" (fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, pulses) diets seems pretty incontrovertible these days. Yes the high-fat one might temporarily halve your weight but it may well halve your lifespan at the same time.....

Any Eskimo 'Boners in the house by the way? Apparently Eskimos have genes that allow them to handle their "paleo" diet.

Reg 'Not A Registered Medical/Dietetic Practitioner' Perrin

[Bearbonesnorm]

Not personally convinced by this high-fat low-carb thing. For slimming mebbe, for general health mebbe not. Evidence against "Western" (fat, salt, processed) and for "Mediterranean/Japanese" (fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, pulses) diets seems pretty incontrovertible these days. Yes the high-fat one might temporarily halve your weight but it may well halve your lifespan at the same time.....

I don't really go in for the 'high fat' way of thinking but I do certainly believe that a low(er) carb intake is beneficial ... especially when you consider that most of 'our' carb intake comes from highly processed foods. My way of thinking is ... remove as much processed / refined / stuff in packets as possible and you'll not go too far wrong.

[thenorthwind]

Cherry butty anyone?

You'll have to wait til Friday

[Lazarus]

I agree( reduced processed food) but that does not require you to remove carbs
Seems diets move in fads with various things ( rather than total calories) being a baddy (!sugar , fats, carbs refined carbs) and various diets advised ( keto meat, fasting etc)
Just eat less, there is no magic bullet, but there may be individual preference to how you reduce the calories.