Diet, Exercise and Weight loss - help!

[wylie]

I am 5'2" and was 7.5 stone before kids. (156cm and about 48kg ).

I don't look overweight, but I got up to 65kg six months ago. I did the Dukan Diet. It works very well for me. Protein works for me.

Having just turned 50 I was very reluctant to do anything "silly" but I believe five days of protein is no more "silly" than any other "fad" diet and a whole lot more healthy than some of them. It is probably healthier than many people's "normal" diets. I am now eating like a long distance trucker, and it is working very well, but it is only for a few days until I start eating vegetables.

I tried losing the 8 kilos I want to for various years by various means. I went to a nutritionist (a friend - but I insisted on paying to keep myself more honest). After several weeks of following her guidelines very strictly and not losing anything, she suggested kickstarting with the protein shakes, which worked very well.

I kept it off for several years, but slowly got slack and it crept back on. I tried the Dukan several months ago and lost about 2.5kg in a week and kept it off for months, but over Christmas I ate what I liked and I want to get down to 60kg.

I found that about 5 days of losing fast was the limit, and for the next few days on protein I stopped losing. This time, I will only do five days before introducing vegetables.

Funny how the mind works. When I was gaining weight and approaching 60kg I was horrified. Now I have been up to 65kg and losing weight I will be thrilled to get DOWN to 60kg.

I don't want to be skinny, but at 50 I want to lose the fat around my internal organs.

Because I don't look fat with clothing on, I try not to waffle on about wanting to lose weight, but I AM overweight and for health reasons want to get it down a little.

"Normal" healthy eating just didn't see any weight drop, even with a nutritionist. But with this protein for five days type diet, it falls off me, and once I get those kilos off, I seem to be able to keep them off.

There will be no more bikinis for this little black duck but I don't want to have to throw all my clothes out and start again, and I don't want to follow my aunt down the diabetes track.

 

[steveadl]

I don't look overweight, but I got up to 65kg six months ago. I did the Dukan Diet. It works very well for me. Protein works for me.

Having just turned 50 I was very reluctant to do anything "silly" but I believe five days of protein is no more "silly" than any other "fad" diet and a whole lot more healthy than some of them. It is probably healthier than many people's "normal" diets. I am now eating like a long distance trucker, and it is working very well, but it is only for a few days until I start eating vegetables.

Good on you Wylie! Muscle building aside, protein focused diets are healthy and I'll never understand the worry/fear associated with them in the general public. Lack of knowledge on the subject I guess. Much healthier than one of those shockers like the 'soup' or the 'eat nothing but vegetable' diets! But then these produce quick shock value results, which is all the promoters need to sell the idea I guess.

 

[wylie]

Forgot to say that I have for two years now (apart from 4 months when my mum was in hospital) exercised on a treadmill walking for an hour a day five days a week.

I recently changed to 20 minutes of "peak 8" on an elliptical trainer. Boy the sweat drips off me and I do some weights for my upper body, probably total 30 minutes per day on elliptical and weights combined, every day.

Hitting 50 really made me realise I need to act now or allow the kilos to keep creeping on, which I don't want to do. I don't think I'll ever have a six pack though .

 

[jaycee]

Good on you Wylie! Muscle building aside, protein focused diets are healthy and I'll never understand the worry/fear associated with them in the general public. Lack of knowledge on the subject I guess. Much healthier than one of those shockers like the 'soup' or the 'eat nothing but vegetable' diets! But then these produce quick shock value results, which is all the promoters need to sell the idea I guess.

Steve, I understand why the general pulic sees concern. Cause it sounds almost as extreme as soup or eatnothing diet, considering the normal understanding of nutrition by the general public (eating healthy godd - eating junk bad / fruit & vege's good... fruit & vege bad).

In fact if the general public didn;t question it,I'd be more surprirsed. I'm not saying it won;t work or be good (but I hvae no0 need to try it), but the initial questioning of it I beleive to be quite normal.

Only a select few will be bright enough to see th merits of eveyrthing new presented to them and not fall for con artists tricks. The rest of us aren;t that smart.

 

[steveadl]

Some good points Jaycee. From a personal stand point I just find it amazing from what I hear people say that they are so easy to fall all over a new fad 'vegetable only' diet without question that they saw in a two page spread of New Idea last week, but without knowing anything are already scared of the word protein. Protein may not be relevant for some, but the protein focused diets are better for anyone than the vegetable/soup diets - which long term would actually be quite dangerous. But again I guess that brings me back to my point that those diets are not a long term solution, just a good way to sell books/magazines/plans/memberships.

Oh well, not my problem

(and don't even get me started on the people in some of these industries. I REFUSE to even entertain the thought of a 20yo 'personal trainer' that just got his 3 month accreditation and has less muscle than me! 'Seriously mate, what are you going to teach me?' But that's a whole different can of worms! )

 

[wylie]

I should explain what I am eating. I don't think it is really extreme.

For five days I am eating (typical day)...

Brekky - poached or fried egg (no oil) with slice of ham and low fat cottage cheese.

Lunch - home made lean beef/onion patties with a poached or no-fat fried egg and low fat cottage cheese.

Afternoon snack - 1tablespoon oat bran plus some wheatgerm made into a pancake with low fat milk to mix and eaten with a tub of low fat vanilla yoghurt or low fat creme fraiche

Dinner - lean steak or grilled fish

Drink eight glasses of water a day and extra yoghurt or creme fraiche if I am hungry. I have not been hungry at all.

There is much more choice, but these foods are easy for me and suit me well.

I am getting protein (obviously ) and dairy. I am not getting vegetables.

No bread (carbo) but a little carbs via the oat bran/wheatgerm.

After five days or so I will bring in vegetables. I know that for me personally, once I start eating a lot of bread I put on weight. I LOVE bread but I limit myself (when back to normal eating) to only a couple of slices a day normally.

I was suggesting to a friend with a husband who has a weight problem that he could try a quick attack of this protein diet. She poo-poo'd the idea (she is very health conscious and knowledgeable but is also a little overweight) and said "no way - that is a silly way to go about it". She must have forgotten that she just had been telling me that for years whilst labouring, her husband lived on meat pies and diet coke during the day .

I do worry that I might be fiddling with my body's fine tuning, but I believe five to ten short sharp days of protein only that works well for me before going back to a balanced diet is probably better than carrying around 8 or 10 kilos of lard that I don't need. I hope so, anyway.

 

[jaycee]

Some good points Jaycee. From a personal stand point I just find it amazing from what I hear people say that they are so easy to fall all over a new fad 'vegetable only' diet without question that they saw in a two page spread of New Idea last week, but without knowing anything are already scared of the word protein. Protein may not be relevant for some, but the protein focused diets are better for anyone than the vegetable/soup diets - which long term would actually be quite dangerous. But again I guess that brings me back to my point that those diets are not a long term solution, just a good way to sell books/magazines/plans/memberships.

Oh well, not my problem

People don't understand nutrition, therefore have to believe what they are told, something which matches what they've heard (and ignored over the years maybe) in the past might "make more sense" to them than something that sounds so different

Anywya, if the protein diet IS just a good way to sell books / magazines
/ plans.memberships... then is it really that much better than any of the others you've described (soup etc), or are people correct to question them all ?

 

[jaycee]

I was suggesting to a friend with a husband who has a weight problem that he could try a quick attack of this protein diet. She poo-poo'd the idea (she is very health conscious and knowledgeable but is also a little overweight) and said "no way - that is a silly way to go about it". She must have forgotten that she just had been telling me that for years whilst labouring, her husband lived on meat pies and diet coke during the day . So what if he did eat meat pees and coke for a while , doesn't mean it's GOOD or something your feind would wnat to encourage / adopt.. and the diet probably reminded her of it, it does have the effect on me when I hear it, I don't think it's as strange as you and steveadl are suggesting for people qo question it.

I do worry that I might be fiddling with my body's fine tuning, but I believe five to ten short sharp days of protein only that works well for me before going back to a balanced diet is probably better than carrying around 8 or 10 kilos of lard that I don't need. I hope so, anyway.

No idea about the 2nd paragraph, which is more right , so good luck

 

[steveadl]

Anywya, if the protein diet IS just a good way to sell books / magazines
/ plans.memberships... then is it really that much better than any of the others you've described (soup etc), or are people correct to question them all ?

Oh I'm sure there's plenty of people pushing protein diets as well. However protein heavy diets are not unhealthy. The body can live without carbs, and to a degree can live with very low fat. It CANNOT live without protein for a prolonged period. I guess my issue is with the fad diets which the vegetable etc falls into which is not a sustainable way to live life if you were to stay on it. Promotion and money making aside, the protein focussed diets CAN be lived on healthily forever.

(Note: I'm not talking about extreme protein body-builder diets here - but then they're exactly that, BB diet's, not directed at the masses. Usually only in magazines with guys on the cover that send most of the population screaming 'eewwwwwwww' )

 

[jaycee]

Vegetarians seem to survive

 

[steveadl]

Correct me if I'm wrong (as it's certainly not my lifestyle ) but they also have to ensure they get protein from other sources such as dairy, eggs, nuts & seeds and God help them if they're vegan! All sources but with very minimal amounts of protein (unless you're eating plenty of it) and not that it matters as much for sedentary people - but fairly crappy sources of quality protein & and complete BCAA's to boot (with exception of milk & eggs). Which is why so many of them always look the picture of health right? Not at all gaunt, unhealthy, pale, wasting away... (sorry, now I'm being b!tchy!)

 

[jaycee]

Which is why so many of them always look the picture of health right? Not at all gaunt, unhealthy, pale, wasting away... (sorry, now I'm being b!tchy!)


much worse than compared to the look of the average western world Australian /American etc ?

 

[steveadl]

Ah, sadly too true.

 

[RumpledElf]

I still have 4-5kg and a dress size to go, but then I'm not *trying* to lose weight. I still eat more than everyone else in this house combined easily. I didn't gain anything over xmas.

The other half ... now HE gained over xmas

Edit: wow, two pages of posts since I started writing this and wandered off for a few hours ... I eat a LOT of protein and not a lot of carbs. Always have. Which might explain why when I'm not pregnant and eating a whole roast ox twice a day, I lose weight extremely easily. I have extreme difficulty *gaining* weight, it took me years to drag my weight above 50kg back before I met the other half. My weight tends to stabilise at 53kg, again barring the whole pregnant thing, I've been in the same size jeans since I was 17.

 

[Belu]

Had the official weigh in today at the start of the diet - 13kg to get to my goal weight. On Lite N Easy and will start doing some exercise - see how we go!

 

[mrsdawnrazor]

Lite n easy's factory is directly behind where I work. You can ALWAYS smell food which does make it really difficult to keep your mind off it. I must ask - does the food have lots of onions in it as that is always the smell - at 7.30am not necessarily what you want to be smelling

 

[steveadl]

Not that I've noticed and I love onions.

 

[Belu]

will find out soon! Only doing lunch and dinner and start today, so lunch is about 2 hours away - meals look a reasonable size so it is going to be interesting!

 

[redwing]

I started my new Alcohol Diet this week. It’s going well. So far, I’ve lost three days.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Correct me if I'm wrong (as it's certainly not my lifestyle ) but they also have to ensure they get protein from other sources such as dairy, eggs, nuts & seeds and God help them if they're vegan!

For someone that claims to have a good knowledge of protein, your lack of knowledge is amazing. Here is a list of vegetables and fruits that contain protein:

http://www.weightlossforall.com/protein-vegetable.htm

Meat has higher levels of protein, but to insinuate that vegetarians need to eat dairy, eggs, nuts and seeds to get protein shows a serious lack of knowledge.

For the record, I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination. I know plenty of vegetarians/vegans who are extremely healthy, your assertion that vegetarians/vegans are unhealthy based on their choices is pretty silly. As with any diet, it is vital to ensure that one gets a balanced assortment of foods in order to ensure that the body gets what it needs.

Here's something for you to think about: Peter Brock was vegan throughout his racing career. Google vegan sports stars and see how many there are.

There are even websites dedicated to vegan bodybuilders.

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/