Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

This is true, alcohol calories are really empty calories

I was/am a serious drinker, I mean serious. I gave up all alcohol for years but started again 4 years ago. Conned myself with the red wine. Like everyone drinks wine, its good for you, its perfectly acceptable to have a glass. Weren't long before my glass was two bottles a day - so now you understand how much weight I can put down to the booze

Right now Im motivated to stay off it because I can see Im losing weight - long may it last

One thing that might help you with the battle with the weight is,

"if you bite it, you write it"

it was a very trite expression learned many moons back in WW where you counted points. Everything you ate or drank you had to write down and point. However the thinking behind it works. Everyone of us can eat mindlessly, we see food and eat it. We take no notice of how much, what, or when we are eating. Keeping a food journal really helps concentrate the mind on what we are shovelling down our throats and it helps to see where the extras are sneaking in

Today for instance I can put my hand on heart and say all Ive eaten today was a small portion of muesli and yoghurt and two eggs scrambled with two toast. I forget to mention the huge dollop of butter I added to the eggs and I have completely forgotten the two wine gums I found whilst clearing up so popped them in my mouth instead of finding a bin Today those little extras won't make a difference, but its those forgotten little extras every day that do. when its written down, you cant 'forget'

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

Here you go Aerolor, have a look at this.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-52-diet


That Dr. Michael Mosely started it, I like him because he tests things on himself instead of guinea pigs.

I have also got Kate Harrison's book about it too.

I think different things suit different people.
I think you've got to be prepared for long term dietary changes though.
People say diet's don't work because they pile all the weight back on again, but that's their own fault for slipping back into their old eating habits again IMO.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

That's one thing I do drink a lot of - water. All day long. I love my ice water and can't live without it. At home, work, and even on the go. If I start to pull away from the house and realize I've forgotten my bottle of water, I'll turn around and go back to get it. It's like an addiction of mine. I even have a bottle of water sitting on my nightstand every night when I go to bed.

I suppose it's probably a good addiction

Drawback: I'm in the bathroom a lot

Wow, two bottles a day. That's a lot of calories!

I agree with you on the food journal. When I was logging pretty much every single thing I put into my mouth, I lost a lot of weight and kept it off for several years because I continued to log my food even after I had hit my goal weight. When I stopped, back came the weight. Not all of it, but most of it

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

Hi

I make big bowls of vegetable soup.

The base is fish sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and ginger paste and Thai Curry paste.

This lasts 3days.

For protein I do skinless chicken thighs or fish in the air fryer.

Dessert is yoghurt with fresh fruit.

I love it.

Sunday is pigout day.

A full fried breakfast, local dry cured bacon, free range eggs, homemade low fat sausage and black pudding.

A full Sunday Roast and then cheesecake.

Absolute bliss.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

Thank you Mups. I got it mixed up - five days normal and two days fasting. There are so many diets to go at. I like the idea of the 5:2 and when I get stuck or fed up with SW I'll give it a go.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

I love making homemade soups.

I too save Sunday for "comfort food" day. I always make a nice dinner and just eat what I want of it.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

This is the thinking of so many sadly. Flip from one diet to the next or from club to club in the vain hope that one of them will see results.

Diets just do not work. They can not work because they are all TEMPORARY eating regimes. Once the regime stops, which it always will, the weight will pile back on with more besides.

Noone is going to make you lose weight. There is no magic diet or club that will do it. The only solution is to eat good food, stop concentrating on weight and be healthy.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

Well it's flexible too, you can do 5:2, 4:3, or 6:1 even.
But as I said earlier, different plans suit different people, so it's best to find one you are happy with, else it's doomed from the start if you hate every day of it.

Also as I said before, once you've reached your target weight it's important to carry on eating healthily else it's all been for nothing if we go back to our old habits again.

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

Fasting isnt a diet, its a lifestyle choice

Eat normally for 5 days and two days of the week you drop to 600 calories

Or you can even do 16:8, which is fast for 16 hours a day and eat in the eight hours

This is my preferred method of eating on non work days. Non work days I might not eat, like today, until 3pm. I had some hummus and two pittas. Next thing will be dinner tonight at 7:30 and then thats it till the same time or thereabouts tomorrow when the earliest I can eat will be 1pm. I do this for four days a week as it suits my life style. Its the one reason Ive not totally ballooned over the years

Re: I just can't do it without counting calories

And there's the rub and the reason diets do not work.

If a person is able to "carry on eating healthily" then they could have done so beforehand and not needed the diet at all.

Diets are a temporary change in eating regime and thus can never work because eventually that regime will change back.
Were that not the case the dieter would already be on the right eating regime.