[kate36]

Originally Posted by Aly1

It is a carbohydrate so will release some energy and some people eat protein only and manage.

its not nutritionally sound to restrict yourself to limited food groups, you need a good balance overall; the key is to choose your carbs wisely, you dont need to give them up altogether, just choose the more nutritionally balanced ones..ie brown rice, wholegrains etc, your body needs balanced nutrition and you need carbs for energy and metabolism!!
as long as you put out more than you put in and eat a balanced diet you will be fine and the weight will come off!!

[kyresa]

Originally Posted by kate36

i didnt really do red, as i was eating mainly veggie stuff then, so i did more green and extra easy... i do eat a bit of meat now but the red plan never really appealed because i had to weigh my carbs, whereas on extra easy a lot of the carbs are free!! and im more for my carbs than i am for meat
i did the extra easy a fair bit too

Don't know if you like chocolate (not everyone does..)

I used that old "favourite" Quark tonight, mixed in a sachet of options chocolate (2 syns per pack I think..) and served it up with a load of strawberries It went down a treat and no one could believe the ingredients of the sauce

[striing]

Originally Posted by molliepops

Because it's high calorie and fills you up temporarily, I come crashing down after pasta or rice and want something else to eat a hour or too later, protein and vegetables keep me much fuller for much longer and no crashing after I have eaten it.

What do you mean by 'crashing'?

[WinterFire]

Originally Posted by striing

Why would you want to cut out rice/pasta etc though - isn't that the bit that fills you up / keeps you awake / stops you being dizzy etc? If I ate a plate of cauliflower I'd have to have a proper dinner afterwards.

As Molliepops says, there are a lot of calories in bread/rice/couscous/potato etc. For myself, I like rice/couscous/potato. But in terms of allocating my daily calories, they an be inconvenient. 100g dry couscous = 367 kcal or so. That's a fair chunk of my daily allocation. (Admittedly that is a generous portion). Sometimes it annoys me slightly that I can make a spaghetti bolognaise with fairly low calorie 'mince' (I'm vegetarian) and sauce/veggies mix, but then I add the spaghetti - oh dear. Same applies for chillies/curries and rice, etc.

If the cauliflower 'rice' worked, then it'll be an option for me for some days when I want to eat something like frosted and filled chocolate cake after dinner. I'd have to save calories from elsewhere, and substituting cauliflower 'rice' for real rice would help achieve that.

[Darcy_]

Originally Posted by molliepops

Because it's high calorie and fills you up temporarily, I come crashing down after pasta or rice and want something else to eat a hour or too later, protein and vegetables keep me much fuller for much longer and no crashing after I have eaten it.

You crash because you aren't eating complex carbs.

[striing]

Originally Posted by WinterFire

As Molliepops says, there are a lot of calories in bread/rice/couscous/potato etc. For myself, I like rice/couscous/potato. But in terms of allocating my daily calories, they an be inconvenient. 100g dry couscous = 367 kcal or so. That's a fair chunk of my daily allocation. (Admittedly that is a generous portion). Sometimes it annoys me slightly that I can make a spaghetti bolognaise with fairly low calorie 'mince' (I'm vegetarian) and sauce/veggies mix, but then I add the spaghetti - oh dear. Same applies for chillies/curries and rice, etc.

If the cauliflower 'rice' worked, then it'll be an option for me for some days when I want to eat something like frosted and filled chocolate cake after dinner. I'd have to save calories from elsewhere, and substituting cauliflower 'rice' for real rice would help achieve that.

Oh right. Yeah I'm aware that in some ways you don't get much rice/pasta for the calories. But in my case I'd much rather have a proper meal of rice and veg (or whatever) than 'save' the calories to eat a chocolate cake. A chocolate cake wouldn't fill me up at all so rice is a much better option.

[WinterFire]

Originally Posted by striing

Oh right. Yeah I'm aware that in sme ways you don't get much rice/pasta for the calories. But in my case I'd much rather have a proper meal of rice and veg (or whatever) than 'save' the calories to eat a chocolate cake. A chocolate cake wouldn't fill me up at so rice is a much better option.

Nearly every day, I go for the rice/pasta/potatoes. But not every day

[molliepops]

Originally Posted by striing

What do you mean by 'crashing'?

Loads of energy for short time then lethargic and no energy.

Originally Posted by Darcy_

You crash because you aren't eating complex carbs.

Exactly.

[striing]

Originally Posted by molliepops

Loads of energy for short time then lethargic and no energy.

Ooh that sounds strange. I can't really imagine it but I can see why you avoid certain food if it does that.

[molliepops]

0.7lb this week had a bit of a blip over the weekend - husband seems determined to give me treats ! My fault I know I should have said no.

[Jerrica09]

Does anyone on here have experience of the Harcombe diet? It seems initially similar to Atkins - no sugar or carbs (even fruit) to starve off any underlying undiagnosed conditions like candida, food intolerance or hypoglaecemia. Eventually you end up eating what you like but with the rule of not mixing carbs and fat (my favourite combination)

Has it worked for anyone? I'm looking to budge a stone, but it's so awkward. It feels like my body is refusing to lose anymore weight!

[molliepops]

Never even heard of it but my husband did quite well on atkins a few years ago, the rest of us suffered though as he battled with breath that could fell an elephant and wind you wouldn't believe ! Much better to not exclude too many foods as you need to be able to follow the eating plan for life when you reach your goal. Not as he did put all the weight back on when he started eating carbs etc again.

[Gloria Fandango]

Originally Posted by Jerrica09

Does anyone on here have experience of the Harcombe diet? It seems initially similar to Atkins - no sugar or carbs (even fruit) to starve off any underlying undiagnosed conditions like candida, food intolerance or hypoglaecemia. Eventually you end up eating what you like but with the rule of not mixing carbs and fat (my favourite combination)

Has it worked for anyone? I'm looking to budge a stone, but it's so awkward. It feels like my body is refusing to lose anymore weight!

I'm on the Harcombe diet at the moment. I've lost 21lbs in 5 weeks. I have never felt hungry, I have a few glasses of red wine a week. I have completely lost my addiction to bread and wheaty/carb type foods.

The diet is brilliant, easy to follow, and the site forum is excellent. I can't recommend it enough.

The first five days are rough though - but very worth it!

[Jerrica09]

21lbs in 5 weeks? Well done!

I didn't know there was a forum, I'll have a look now thanks!

[jabbamk1]

This probably isn't the right place as I started in 2012 but ive lost 5 stone/70 lbs in the past year. Finally down to a healthy weight. Ive had a few fluctuations of my weight both ways recently but ive been able to control and maintain it so far.

So yeh, can be done. Took a lot of determination and self control though! But im much happier now and its much better than how it was affecting my life before.

Oh and I didn't join a gym to do it. Did it all at home/outside. So cost me next to nothing. But like I said... really hard work. Basically I made myself excersise/stretch/run for at least 20 mins about 6 days a week. Stopped snacking or eating fatty foods (you know what I mean) and I never weighed myself. Only once at the beginning, and then again after about 4 months. I knew I was losing weight anyway so didn't feel the need to weigh myself and stress out over not seeing results

[Amasis]

Well after joining up to SW online on friday and getting weighed in today (I am still currently a WW memeber as didnt want to leave incase i didn't like SW) I've lost 3 1/2 lbs. Quite shocked by that as I feel like ive eaten loads. I'm sure there are other factors involved but still it has made be very positive for this week which is a very good thing indeed.

[Ocado]

Has anyone tried the 5:2 diet? My community diabetes nurse has recommended it to me, saying the diet does wonders for diabetics. I was given to understand though that fasting was bad for diabetics, but am keen to reach my final goal by the end of this year. Have already lost 30 kgs since Jan 2012, and still have another 20 to get to my goal before next Jan.

[Logon]

Originally Posted by Ocado

Has anyone tried the 5:2 diet? My community diabetes nurse has recommended it to me, saying the diet does wonders for diabetics. I was given to understand though that fasting was bad for diabetics, but am keen to reach my final goal by the end of this year. Have already lost 30 kgs since Jan 2012, and still have another 20 to get to my goal before next Jan.

Am into my 6 th week of the 5-2 diet, and am very positive about it. I have so far lost 10.6 lbs , but I think the main thing with me is that it is teaching me that I don't need to overeat.
Can't give you advice about diabetics, but should hope the nurse knows what she is talking about, they don't always

[GoodLuckCharm]

7 days of shakes and no carbs and sugar and I'm pleased to report I'm 7lbs lighter!! Will try to go gym this week as that should make a difference I'm hoping!

Good luck with the weight loss everyone! x

[WinterFire]

Can I say welcome to the new joiners to the thread, and congratulations to those who have lost lots of weight.

I don't have much of anything to contribute to the discussions of specific diets such as the 5:2, as I follow a simple and boringly normal diet where I simply restrict calories I eat in terms of eating mostly what I ate before, only less. Resulting in a (so far) modest weight loss per week. Hence while I'll be reading people's experiences with diets such as 5:2, I don't have anything particularly consequential to add to those discussions, and hence won't

BTW: I had a diet fail yesterday and ended up about 200 calories over. So, 1600 calories for me today, which will require a specialist dinner as I'm still eating the chilli pasties I made with Jus-roll reduced fat pastry, don't want to waste them, and nobody else at home likes the spicy stuff.

[kyresa]

Originally Posted by Amasis

Well after joining up to SW online on friday and getting weighed in today (I am still currently a WW memeber as didnt want to leave incase i didn't like SW) I've lost 3 1/2 lbs. Quite shocked by that as I feel like ive eaten loads. I'm sure there are other factors involved but still it has made be very positive for this week which is a very good thing indeed.

Isn't it great No diet, just eating differently

[striing]

Originally Posted by kyresa

Isn't it great No diet, just eating differently

I wish I could do that without being starving but I just can't. I think it's probably to do with the fact that as a matter of course I don't have most of the things people automatically say to cut - so I have to cut how much I eat, resulting in being very hungry.

I don't really get this weight thing at all - I can eat absolutely masses of whatever I like and stay the same weight (ie not put on at all) but to lose I have to cut dramatically (which I can only sustain for about a month). Weight is weird.

[kyresa]

Originally Posted by striing

I wish I could do that without being starving but I just can't. I think it's probably to do with the fact that as a matter of course I don't have most of the things people automatically say to cut - so I have to cut how much I eat, resulting in being very hungry.

I don't really get this weight thing at all - I can eat absolutely masses of whatever I like and stay the same weight (ie not put on at all) but to lose I have to cut dramatically (which I can only sustain for about a month). Weight is weird.

Have you looked at the SW 7 day plan which is free on their website? The amount you can eat is huge!

[WinterFire]

Originally Posted by striing

I wish I could do that without being starving but I just can't. I think it's probably to do with the fact that as a matter of course I don't have most of the things people automatically say to cut - so I have to cut how much I eat, resulting in being very hungry.

I don't really get this weight thing at all - I can eat absolutely masses of whatever I like and stay the same weight (ie not put on at all) but to lose I have to cut dramatically (which I can only sustain for about a month). Weight is weird.

I thought about this for a while to see if I could come up with any good ideas. Bulky low-calorie food may help with the hunger. E.g. there are plenty of vegetables with less than 32kcal per 100g. E.g. carrots, mushrooms, courgette, cabbage, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, leek, swede, pepper, celery. A combination of those with stock, spices, and herbs can create tasty stews, soups, be baked, be mashed, etc. Salads can also be low calorie for the weight/portion size, and I was surprised how few calories there are in some low fat dressings. In fact, I think I'm going to cook something low calorie now to nuke for my lunch tomorrow. BTW: I'm not supposed to be reading certain posts, but I think that the slimming world web page had some interesting and useful recipes. E.g. the shepherds pie topped with mashed swede and celeriac instead of potato.

I've read that drinking low calorie drinks, e.g. water, between meals helps keep your stomach full and keeps snacking temptation at bay. Certainly I've been doing this, and it seems to help. Here's a web page that mentions this: http://www.livestrong.com/article/39...y-but-dieting/

From the same site, here are some low calorie density foods. http://www.livestrong.com/article/46...gry-on-a-diet/

As for the weight not coming off, I wondered whether you've discussed this with your doctor, and what the response was. Just my inexpert feeling, but I wonder whether someone with real expertise who could go through what you eat, do during the day, etc., could find what the problem is and make detailed advice.

I suspect that I'm not really able to come up with anything you won't know already, but I'd like to at least try.

[striing]

I am actually losing weight at the moment (hence still posting on the weight loss thread ) but not by following any 'diet'. I do tend to live off things like leeks, peppers, mushrooms (with rice/pasta) and that's fine. But there will come a point where I have to eat less of it or cut out something (that's why I was asking if anyone had used cooking spray a few weeks ago as I always cook with olive oil - but then WW says you should have healthy oils...).

I had a quick look at the SW free 7 day plan but hated it instantly for 2 reasons: 1. the idea of planning food for 7 days - urrrggghhh no way! I don't know what I'll want this evening let alone for 7 days. 2. one of the first things is ham with laughing cow cheese - um nice - not! On a larger scale it looks like an awful lot of faff to cook all those different meals - I don't do that now so there's no way I'm going to sustain something like that.

On a different note - I was watching Supersize v Superskinny last night and noticed they said one girl put on 3lb and 2 inches on her waist. 3lb and 2 inches!! How is that even possible? Oh and at the other end someone lost 1 1/2 stone and 8 inches off her waist. I lose or gain about 1 inch for a stone.