Good Diet?

[ErinsChins]

I'm wanting to lose some weight. Unfortunately, that's never been easy for me. My goal is 20lbs in 2 months. Eventually, i'd like to lose more than that. I am wanting to do a 500 cal/day diet. Exercise isn't really my thing (I get bored easily) so my "exercise" will be three hours of Just Dance a day. Any advice? Will it work? Meal plans? I'm fairly picky on foods. Don't care for italian, but could deal. Unfortunately i'm a sucker for chinese. Fruits are great, I like deli meat, cheese, deviled eggs. You name it. I'm looking for more of a snack diet than a meal diet because I feel like i'll do better that way.Thanks!

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

I eat just plain sandwiches here. I get the thin deli meats, and put on wheat bread, with just a slice of cheese(not processed cheese slices) the real deal, where you cut it yourself! Like Colby jack, etc. Then just mustard. Maybe some spinach leaves or Romaine. Just quick and simple, with out a calorie over load!

 

[AZChins]

500 Calories a day is pretty low. I'd recommend a little more than that, well, a lot more than that - 1200 Calories a day should allow you to lose weight as long as you do exercise. At 500 a day you are going to feel draggy and you won't want to move and that's going to make things worse because you won't be necessarily be losing fat, you'll be losing muscle. A pound of muscle only has about 600 calories in it, fat has about 3500...you want to lose fat and the only way to do that is for your body to get what it needs and keep moving.

Eat lots of fruits and veggies and fill yourself up, but make sure to eat because your metabolism will get very efficient and the starving won't be worth it. The only thing that works to lose weight in the long term is a healthy diet and exercise. Crash diets don't work well, so please be very careful with that.

I'm very good at losing weight but that's because I am super active and I exercise every day on top of everything else. 40 minutes of running every night and eating every couple of hours works for me. We are vegetarians and most of what we eat is fresh vegetables and fruits. I make sure that I drink at least 10 glasses of water a day, too. You can't lose weight in a healthy way if you don't stay hydrated.

 

[GorillaJTA]

yeah, 500 calories is worse than 2500. When you starve yourself, your body goes into survival mode and turns almost everything you eat into fat.
1500 calories a day is a good start, but some kind of exercise or working out is a necessity, even if it is walking a little more or lifting weights.
Without weightlifting to increase your basal metabolism, you would have to burn 1250 more calories than you take in in a day. That is a whole lot without exercise. 20 lbs in 2 months is not unreasonable if you are willing to do exercise.

BTW, Italian is not great for weight loss anyway. Lots of sugar spikes and bottoms from pasta...

 

[Rob Walker]

Exercise...if you do that dancing thing for three hours sure, but generally diets along don't work. Jeremy already hit my point about calorie intake.

Multiple meals, around 3-5 a day, you want your metabolism constantly working, hence the small meals, snacks and a normal dinner.

Its how I lost 50

 

[ErinsChins]

Thanks guys, I didn't know it was that bad. Generally I only eat about 1500 a day, but it's usually crap food. I don't mind to exercise like walking, jogging, and what not. It's the formal exercise like sit ups, push ups etc that get to me (not hard, just boring!).

So for anyone that has done a diet, do you have a recommended daily meal/snack plan? I'm pretty good about drinking water, but I do like soda (I can go without it though). I like applesauce, apples, cooked apples, pears, strawberries, cantaloupe, deviled eggs, soups, sandwhiches (I LOVE the deli creations meals <3), pizza (I know, don't tell me lol), fish, shrimp. I don't know, maybe i'm not THAT picky. Salads are fine too, but I can't usually eat them plain, I use a bit of italian dressing.

 

[GorillaJTA]

deviled eggs are not great... mayo is not a good diet food. Cokes, salad dressing, things like that can make it add up quickly. A tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories. A few squirts on a salad easily make 3-400 calories.

BTW, I am the opposite. Running and walking bore me to death, but weightlifting entertains me.

 

[Ash]

I was also told to be careful with fruits. Even though they are a healthy sugar, it's still sugar that can be turned into fat... Which may explain the 25lbs I've gained that isn't all "baby"... I love munching on fruits, but apparently, they don't love me.

 

[Pikaia]

I want to lose some weight too, Erin. Just like you, I am a big sucker for Chinese. In fact, my boyfriend and I are eating it right now! LOL! At my work, we are always wondering, "What to eat today?" We are trying to make some better choices and skip BK and Mcdonalds. The other day I went to Mcdonalds for the first time in a long time and had one of those southwest grilled chicken salads with light Italian dressing. It was pretty good and I believe under 420 calories.

I remember someone saying to me, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper." This is so backwards from our society's way of thinking. It's always little breakfast and big dinner. Breakfast is really the most important meal of the day! But Rob does have the right idea, eating more smaller meals during the day instead of three bigger meals.

A 70 year old woman comes into our shop and she looks so young and in shape! She does yoga for cripes sake! I asked her how she does it and she told me that she knows when to stop eating. She eats her meals on small plates and that way she doesn't load up. Smaller portions of better foods.. plus snaking on fruits and veggies!

 

[blue_soda025]

Exercise definitely helps.. but if you're like me, you'd also hate it when people tell you that you need to exercise to lose weight, lol!

Instead of counting calories, a good way to lose weight is to just cut off all refined carbs and refined sugars and stuff like that. Stick to eating whole foods like veggies, fruit and healthily cooked meats (no deep fried stuff). Stay away from junk food, overly processed foods, etc. If you can resist for several weeks, that's the best and easiest way of losing weight. No need to count calories, since your body takes care of that by itself. Of course that doesn't also mean you should go overboard and eat whatever. It just seems easier to me than having to count calories and being overly restrictive with portion sizes and starving yourself.

Anyways, I'm going to stop here before I write more. I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to nutrition and often read about this stuff in my spare time.. =| But that's mainly due to some health issues I've been having.

 

[Jenn]

eating a very low calorie diet will cause your metabolism to slow down even more...what you don't want. I don't count calories, personally, but 3-6 small portion snacks/meals are ideal to keeping your metabolism at a constant level. You really do need to throw in some exercise daily...a combination of cardio and weights. If you mix up your exercise routine it does make it less boring. I started an exercise plan at the beginning of this year, and it was very difficult in the beginning to want to work out...but I really look forward to it now. I love the energy it gives me and I feel much better and have been much healthier. Unfortunately it is difficult to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, but you can see a difference after a few months without having to work too hard at a diet plan. Just eat smart, and smaller portions.

 

[sheltiefan]

I use the GM diet. You can eat as much as you like and it worked for me.
here is a link about it

http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~jajoo/gmdiet.html

 

[Chinmama]

Look into the new Atkins diet or the South Beach diet. You can eat a lot of good foods and lose weight.

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

Exercise definitely helps.. but if you're like me, you'd also hate it when people tell you that you need to exercise to lose weight, lol!

Instead of counting calories, a good way to lose weight is to just cut off all refined carbs and refined sugars and stuff like that. Stick to eating whole foods like veggies, fruit and healthily cooked meats (no deep fried stuff). Stay away from junk food, overly processed foods, etc. If you can resist for several weeks, that's the best and easiest way of losing weight. No need to count calories, since your body takes care of that by itself. Of course that doesn't also mean you should go overboard and eat whatever. It just seems easier to me than having to count calories and being overly restrictive with portion sizes and starving yourself.

Anyways, I'm going to stop here before I write more. I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to nutrition and often read about this stuff in my spare time.. =| But that's mainly due to some health issues I've been having.

I'm totally with Blue_Soda on this one. Years ago I'd gained quite a bit of weight and cutting out sodas/sugars/white bread caused me to lose a significant amount of weight fast, and that was before I started major exercising. I too get bored exercising, but I love to dance, and see you do too. I have heard a ton about the TurboFire DVDS (they've got an infomercial milling around)...I'm seriously considering purchasing it (you can get it for under $100 on Ebay or IOffer). Apparently with that workout--because it's such amped up cardio--you can lose like ten pounds in a couple of weeks. I imagine the reality of that is not far off...while weight training and cardio put together is ideal in losing weight, just cardio for now might work better for you. A friend of mine was part of a weights/cardio combo class that focused primarily on weight training, and she noticed after a few months she hadn't lost much weight.....she realized it was because she was packing on the muscle, plus not having near enough cardio. What I'm trying to say is I think initially since you're wanting to lose quickly, heavy cardio might be the way to go.

As far as the Atkins diet, I've heard and read that long term it's not a very ideal diet (the heavy-protein consumption, etc.)

I have been told by numerous people that the Meditteranean Diet is great for just about everybody, so you might want to look into that.

Good luck! I'm back in the weight loss game myself, and it's such a b*$tch this time around.

 

[Megan]

Try myfitnesspal.com It will help you count your calories. You can enter a start date, how many lbs you want loose by x amount of date and it will tell you how many calories you should be eating, and will help you count your calories.

I have been wanting to loose weight, but I just don't have the motivation to do it. I try to atleast count my calories.

Maybe we should start a thread for those of us wanting to loose weight for the moral support! It always helps to have someone else in it... Maybe see who can hit closest to their goal weight by the end of summer? or We can post our starting weight (if we feel comfortable) height, BMI and then see who can get down the most in overall percentage by end of summer.... I've seen it on other forums and it seems to work.

 

[LizNicole]

I know there are more than just a handful of us who are working at the 'weight' issue..

I don't have a special diet but I cut stuff out. Pop, Redbull [was drinking two a day], and junk food. I have this awful habit of eating one big meal in the evening.. Don't do that! lol I eat little stuff all day.. string cheese, apples, etc.. I make one meal solely veggies or fruits because I live off pasta, rice and breads.. [like my son]..

But I joined the gym almost three weeks ago. I go 4-5 nights a week. I do light weight lifting to break up the muscles for like 5-10 minutes and then do a brisk walk for 2.5 miles. I know they have fancy machines other than the treadmills.. but I don't have great balance. Ha.

So three weeks.. 8-9lbs lost. Its a start.

Just cutting out all the garbage will really help. Now if.. I could just convince myself to drink more water!

 

[tati121]

Most people focus on the quantity of food and the quantity of exercise but it should be the opposite. If you do a shorter amount of solid cardio (like Zumba) it's much better than just dancing for a few hours although both are better than doing nothing! Unless I'm super motivated, I find plan exercising boring as well but try to look for classes that interest you. My personal favorite is Bikram Yoga. It's a 1 1/2 hour yoga class in a room heated to 110 degrees with about 70% humidity. The heat helps loosen your muscles to aid in the yoga poses and it also helps cleanse your body with the immense amount of sweating you're bound to do. If you're not flexible, don't worry! It's such a huge misconception that you need to be a Cirque du Soleil acrobat in order to do yoga.

And regarding food, cut out things that are bad for you (common sense right) - soda, juice, coffee, any and ALL processed foods. My brother is addicted to Pepsi and he quit cold turkey and in 1 month he lost about 15lbs. Tons of fruits and veggies, lean protein, beans and lentils, if you're going to eat bread then make sure it's whole grain (try and get as many whole grains as you can, usually around 9-12).

 

[ErinsChins]

Thank you everyone. So far it's going well. I'm having caffeine/soda withdraws though..are diet drinks considered okay in small amounts?

Megan, I think that would be a great idea! I remember being on a forum where they did that too..can't remember where though!

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

Try myfitnesspal.com It will help you count your calories. You can enter a start date, how many lbs you want loose by x amount of date and it will tell you how many calories you should be eating, and will help you count your calories.

I have been wanting to loose weight, but I just don't have the motivation to do it. I try to atleast count my calories.

Maybe we should start a thread for those of us wanting to loose weight for the moral support! It always helps to have someone else in it... Maybe see who can hit closest to their goal weight by the end of summer? or We can post our starting weight (if we feel comfortable) height, BMI and then see who can get down the most in overall percentage by end of summer.... I've seen it on other forums and it seems to work.

Yes, I agree. A weight-loss/getting healthier support weight would be great!! :thumbsup: Though I probably won't keep up with my BMI. For my height--little over 5'4"--I'm ideally supposed to weight about 120. But even at my tiniest I was about 135/140, because I'm naturally curvy. For this reason I don't use scales generally either. What works best for me is how well my clothes do--or don't--fit.

 

[Melissa]

You eat like a kid. So cut the crap.. Literally.. Stop eating sugars. Anything with more than 4 or 5 grams of sugar per serving, cut it out of your food intake. Stay away from fruits too. You are going to want lean meats and lots of greens. Not the crap deli meats. They are high in sugars, fat and sodium. You need to eat fish and chicken and pork. There are plenty of recipe site to help you cook these in a low fat way so you dont get bored with them. Then eat a vegi as your side.(no corn or carrots too much sugar) or a salad with the meat on it. You can put hard boiled eggs, cheeses, nuts, cranberries or apricots(to get your fruit fix). Try a basalmic vinaigrette. Stop eating sandwiches. The breads will do more harm than good. Go for a pita alternative. Snack throughout the day. Cheese and triscuts are great. Nuts are quick and easy too. Dont be afraid to have a muscle milk or some other high protein meal replacement when you go to work out. Have one about 30 minutes before your work out. Do not add food to this.

If you are going to do an extremely low calorie diet like you originally stated, it needs to be doctor regulated. They do booster shots of vitamins weekly to twice a week. And they test your blood and urine to see if you are processing the foods properly and make sure you are healthy enough to continue with the diet. However this can get costly depending on the demand in your area. Here for the first week they charge between $250-300 But this includes blood and urine tests, your first set of shots and dietary and supplementary vitamins, and counseling with a dietitian and psychologist. Then its $70 a week after that which includes your vitamins and 2 sets of shots.

Just remember calories in and calories out. If you want to lose weight you need to make sure you are exercising to burn more calories that you are taking in.

Also I promise you will get bored with 3 hours of Just Dance a day. 3 hours is a lot of unnecessary time that most people find to fill with something else. Its unrealistic to think you will play that much nonstop every day. And if you already do you wouldnt be looking to lose weight. Maybe join a gym and see if they have a raquette ball team. Or just a group that plays all the time. I TRY and play 1-2 times a week with a heavy work load. That doesnt happen a lot but I know if I do go on a random day my raquette ball boys are there! If raquette ball isnt your thing see if the gym has dance classes. Pilates KICKS my butt. So try that too. Getting into the routine is going to be hard.

Good Luck!