Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

Fitness tips, Relaxation, Mind and Body
AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388046

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 19th, 2021, 8:27 pm

The Rules

  1. There are none
This is simply a support thread. Anyone can join in. You can say what you want about plans, successes & set-backs. Offer advice or thoughts and support.

Heck if you want why not talk about financial stuff too. I may just go out and buy shares in the foods I propose to eat :)

Please feel free to join in.

AiY

AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388047

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 19th, 2021, 8:29 pm

I would like to lose about 2 ½ stone over the next 24 months. I think initially it will be quite easy as I will be increasing the amount of exercise I have, reducing snacks and cutting back a little on alcohol. I currently favour a high protein low carbohydrate approach. I also have to have a gluten, lactose and avenin free diet. I will still allow carbs in my diet but vastly reduced and no sweets, chocolates, Fruit Gums, Fruit Pastilles, Jelly Tots, crisps, ice cream … the fridge is currently rammed with Peperami’s, lactose free cheese, ham and chicken.

I don’t propose to detail my current weight. It’s not my fighting weight by a long way. But I’m hoping once a month to weigh in and record some reduction in weight.

Today my good lady made me a home made beef burger. We’ve struggled to source gluten free beef burgers. She’s also done some home made potato wedges. Very tasty.

AiY

swill453
Lemon Half
Posts: 7962
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 6:11 pm
Has thanked: 984 times
Been thanked: 3643 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388078

Postby swill453 » February 19th, 2021, 11:11 pm

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:We’ve struggled to source gluten free beef burgers.

I don't understand this. We tend to buy standard Tesco quarter pounders. They're just beef, salt and pepper.

Scott.

Lootman
The full Lemon
Posts: 18681
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:58 pm
Has thanked: 628 times
Been thanked: 6563 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388079

Postby Lootman » February 19th, 2021, 11:15 pm

swill453 wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:We’ve struggled to source gluten free beef burgers.

I don't understand this. We tend to buy standard Tesco quarter pounders. They're just beef, salt and pepper.

Maybe he meant just that they are not labelled "gluten free". My wife has to avoid gluten and so I always look for the sign.

With burgers, how about just 100% beef? I can add salt and pepper to taste. My wife doesn't like pepper and I avoid salt. It is hard to stick to health routines with processed food sometimes.

AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388089

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 20th, 2021, 12:49 am

Lootman wrote:
swill453 wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:We’ve struggled to source gluten free beef burgers.

I don't understand this. We tend to buy standard Tesco quarter pounders. They're just beef, salt and pepper.

Maybe he meant just that they are not labelled "gluten free". My wife has to avoid gluten and so I always look for the sign.

With burgers, how about just 100% beef? I can add salt and pepper to taste. My wife doesn't like pepper and I avoid salt. It is hard to stick to health routines with processed food sometimes.

Yup. I think we are rapidly coming to the conclusion that "processed foods" don't suit my "butterfly" tummy :lol:

I love beef burgers though - I just don't think they love me :shock:

The beef burgers we were buying from Morrisons were really tasty. But when my good lady told me they contained gluten I could have cried. So here's the plan
  1. Buy beer
  2. Develop tasty gluten free beef burger that doesn't cost a fortune to make
  3. Take it on Dragon's Den
  4. I know Deborah Meaden will say "I'm out"
  5. I know Tej Lavani is leaving so he's out
  6. But Peter Jones is in as he can sell them from his camera shops
AiY
I love beef burgers

AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388092

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 20th, 2021, 12:54 am

swill453 wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:We’ve struggled to source gluten free beef burgers.

I don't understand this. We tend to buy standard Tesco quarter pounders. They're just beef, salt and pepper.

Scott.

Sir, this information has been conveyed to the chief quartermaster in our house :lol:

I will of course update you :)

Thank you Scott

AiY

88V8
Lemon Half
Posts: 5769
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Has thanked: 4098 times
Been thanked: 2560 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388206

Postby 88V8 » February 20th, 2021, 2:57 pm

The Blessed Waitrose has venison burgers. May be found satisfactory.

They also have alcohol-free Doombar.
When I saw that I thought 'we're doomed'.

V8

WandleHens
Posts: 21
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:13 am
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388208

Postby WandleHens » February 20th, 2021, 3:12 pm

Hi, after finally getting around to retrieving my login details after a few years of lurking, I find a topic that I have a strong interest in!

I had a couple of health issues in the autumn of 2016 which lead me to investigate a diet to lower inflammation. Whilst it was beneficial, it was very expensive and not sustainable, so I began looking for an alternative. I found a lot of presentations by Endocrinologists, Cardiologists, GPs, Dietitians, etc. This lead me to start reading scientific papers online about the benefits of using a Low Carb/High Fat approach. My local gym had recently closed so I used the couple of hours each day that I had previously spent there doing research. In November 2016 I started this way of eating (WOE) & was completely amazed at the side effects.

I had been suffering from acid reflux for years, it would sometimes keep me awake, it would hinder my ability to weed my garden (bending down after breakfast or lunch was horrible). After a few days it was GONE.

I had been suffering from a few joint issues, they are much better.

My mood seemed better.

I used to get hungry/angry HANGRY if I missed breakfast, by midday I would be very cranky. That's a thing of the past. I can now manage of just a couple of cups of coffee until 3pm if I wish.

The other side effect was that I lost 33lbs. I am very lucky that my husband has joined me in this WOE. He also lost a fair bit of weight, not as much as I did, but that will be because he refused to give up beer(liquid bread) whereas I drink red wine.

Sadly, during lockdown we have both allowed carbs to creep back into our diet. Not every day, but enough for us to have both gained 10lbs. Yesterday I decided to get back on the horse. As as tool to keep me accountable I sometimes use MyFitnessPal.com to log my carb, protein and fat intake. I pay no attention to the calories (they are recorded there by default, but I don't pay them much attention).

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Hope you don't mind me joining in.

WHens

ReformedCharacter
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3120
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Has thanked: 3591 times
Been thanked: 1509 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388245

Postby ReformedCharacter » February 20th, 2021, 4:57 pm

WandleHens wrote:I found a lot of presentations by Endocrinologists, Cardiologists, GPs, Dietitians, etc. This lead me to start reading scientific papers online about the benefits of using a Low Carb/High Fat approach. My local gym had recently closed so I used the couple of hours each day that I had previously spent there doing research. In November 2016 I started this way of eating (WOE) & was completely amazed at the side effects.

WHens

I've followed a similar approach but having had a recent series of blood tests was warned about my cholesterol levels so that is something to consider. Having said that I'm not entirely persuaded that high cholesterol levels are in themselves a bad thing but that goes against the prevailing 'wisdom'. Doctor David Diamond has made a few interesting videos on the subject of cholesterol and statins (which I have so far avoided), viewable on Youtube. Humans certainly didn't evolve to consume high carbohydrate diets because they weren't available to most people until relatively recently.

RC

WandleHens
Posts: 21
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:13 am
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388256

Postby WandleHens » February 20th, 2021, 6:27 pm

I've followed a similar approach but having had a recent series of blood tests was warned about my cholesterol levels so that is something to consider.

When I first embarked on this WOE a lot of my friends (especially a few who are retired nurses & one whose father was a GP, so she thinks she is the oracle!!) were skeptical & very worried about my cholesterol. I'm not someone who bothers my GP very often, but last year I changed GP surgery and had an extensive panel of blood tests. All markers were considerably improved from the last time I'd had had them done in 2013. Total Cholesterol was down. HDL improved up, LDL was ok, & Trigs down. HbA1c was amazing & liver function in the good range.

With Low Carb/High Fat (LCHF) it can be quite individual with regards to lipids. Some find their HDL goes up, but so does their LDL. The question is what type are those LDLs, this is not a test that GPs normally order. In any case, for women, my research leads to believe that as we age higher LDL is more protective for all cause mortality.

ReformedCharacter
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3120
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Has thanked: 3591 times
Been thanked: 1509 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388261

Postby ReformedCharacter » February 20th, 2021, 6:59 pm

WandleHens wrote:The question is what type are those LDLs, this is not a test that GPs normally order. In any case, for women, my research leads to believe that as we age higher LDL is more protective for all cause mortality.

That's interesting. If you could post a link explaining the different types of LDLs I'd be most grateful.

In case you are interested, here's a link to one of David Diamond's videos, entitled 'Deception in Cholesterol Research: Separating Truth From Profitable Fiction'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inwfSkSGvQw

RC

Fluke
Lemon Slice
Posts: 609
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 8:51 pm
Has thanked: 61 times
Been thanked: 137 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388408

Postby Fluke » February 21st, 2021, 1:36 pm

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. As Michael Pollan succinctly put it after a couple of years of research. He goes on to explain that there is ‘food’ and ‘food like substances’, that’s an important distinction which can be summarised as; if you grandmother wouldn’t recognise it it probably isn’t food.

Shift the emphasis from weight loss, which has all sorts of negative connotations, to getting your gut microbiome in good shape. This is the community of bacteria, fungi etc that live in the digestive tract, mainly the large bowl, and does most of the work to break down the food we eat into something that the cells of the body can do something useful with. There are trillions of them, there are good ones and there are bad ones, feed the bad ones what they want and they will thrive leading to all sorts of chaos including weight gain, and will wither and die if you don’t. Ditto the good ones, feed them what they want and they will thrive resulting in a reduction in excess body fat and an improvement in all manner of other conditions, and a stronger immune system.

There is a lot out there about the gut microbiome and the role it plays in our health, but one guy in particular who carries a lot of cred in my mind is Tim Spector, a professor at Guys and Tommys. He’s done a lot of interesting research on this, you’ll find him on YT too.

I’ve been reading around this subject for the past couple of years and played around with different diet regimens and have alighted on this one which seems to be working well for me so far. In the 6 months I’ve been following it I’ve lost 7 kilos, and that wasn’t even my main objective. I’ve been reading a lot about longevity, not because I want to live to 100 but because I don’t want to outlive my physical or mental health. Diet and lifestyle are 2 things we have in our control to help achieve this.

This covers the diet side of things, adapt according to your own wants and needs but this is where I am at the moment.

A) Make plants (fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses etc) at least 90% of your diet. Organic/home grown even better.

B) Make meat/fish/seafood the other 10% (optional) but cut meat out if you can/want to*

C) cut out all processed food, or if you must make sure there are no more than 5 recognisable ingredients on the list, eg for pasta. If you can’t pronounce all the ingredients don’t buy it.

D) Cut out processed vegetable oils (abundant in most processed food). These are harmful to the gut. Vegetable oil should have 1 ingredient, e.g. olive oil, and be cold pressed, that’s it, and have lots of it. Don’t fry with it btw, sauté yes, bake yes, but don’t fry. If you really want to fry use coconut fat but only in very small amounts. You don’t need much fat to fry onions or whatever.

E) you can supplement with about 20ml of flax oil a day which is rich in the omega 3 you may not be getting from meat/fish. It is inexpensive and widely available.

F) Cut out dairy, or at least cut it right down. Cheese can be heavily processed although not always, and is high in saturated fat. Those milk proteins are pretty harmful too, by all accounts.

G) cut right down on sugar, make what you do have come from small amounts of fruit/dried fruit, good honey/maple syrup.

H) Cut out wheat products, or at least make it gluten free, even if you don’t think you are intolerant. You can always introduce them later if you want.

i) Good coffee is high in polyphenols which is good. Ditto red wine.

J) The only supplement I take other than the flax oil (which isn’t a supplement as such) is vitamin D which seems to be generally accepted as a good idea.

*Aside from the saturated fat that comes with meat there is growing evidence that it has an ageing affect at cellular level.

Drugs and especially antibiotics are generally bad for the gut.

After 6 months I’m feeling pretty good, I don’t get the downers I used to get, particularly first thing in the morning. 90% of serotonin is made in the gut apparently. I had developed an alarming habit of snoring in my sleep this past couple of years, that has completely gone, ditto joint pain which would flare up sporadically and for no apparent reason. Lots of veggies = lots of fibre = healthy and regular poops. Plus I absolutely love my diet and I eat loads.

Re fasting, again there is plenty out there about the healthy benefits of this but I found I couldn’t stick to anything like the 5:2 so what I now do is I tie it in with a voluntary job I do once a week or sometimes less. It’s an outdoor job and eventhough we have tea and lunch breaks I find it easy not to eat while I’m there. I get home at about 3pm and have free rein to eat what I like. So if I finish eating the night before at say 8pm and don’t eat until 3pm the next day, that’s a 19 hour fast with little effort. But do whatever works.

AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388492

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 21st, 2021, 5:58 pm

So tea tonight was one of my favourites.

But given all the talk about how food is cooked and other considerations such as cholesterol I just wondered if I'm doing anything fundamentally incorrect.

Two poached eggs
Two rashers of bacon - fried in Fry Light
Two sausages - fried in Fry Light
A small homemade beef burger - fried in Fry Light with a small amount of lactose free cheese on top
A small number of homemade potato wedges - baked in the oven

All gluten, lactose and avenin free.

I just wondered if the "fried bits" are ok?

Feel very full after that lot.

I'm staying off the vegetables currently as I'm not entirely sure which ones I can cope with. So I'm going to reintroduce them one at a time over the next month or two.

First weight recording tomorrow.

AiY

ReformedCharacter
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3120
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Has thanked: 3591 times
Been thanked: 1509 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388641

Postby ReformedCharacter » February 22nd, 2021, 10:00 am

There's one of the better articles on diet in the DT today written by Herman Pontzer who spent some months with the Hadza who are hunter-gatherers in N Tanzania. The article is paywalled, so here are a few excerpts:

Although the Hadza lead far more active lives than ours – routinely walking long distances, they undertake more physical activity daily than the typical American does in a week – their energy expenditure was no greater. They were burning the same number of calories as men and women from industrialised populations. Our bodies, concluded Pontzer, seem to maintain daily energy expenditure within a narrow window, no matter what lifestyle we lead. So while obesity is largely caused by overconsumption, it appears there’s little we can do to change the calories we burn.

It’s hard to measure metabolism and until recently we lacked the scientific techniques to do so. Public health strategies stubbornly cling to the simplistic armchair engineer’s view of metabolism, hurting efforts to combat obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and the other diseases that are most likely to kill us.

Those 10,000 daily steps you’ve been trying to achieve? A typical 150-pound (10st 7lb) adult burns about 250 kcal while doing them, he explains. This is roughly equivalent to half a Big Mac. Climbing one flight of stairs burns about 3.5 kcal – less energy than you’ll get from a single M&M

“What particularly is it about the food? Is it sugar? No. Is it fats? No. It’s the fact we engineer our foods in labs and focus group test them to make sure you eat too much. That’s literally the point of these big industries: to make sure you buy as much as you can. That’s how they make money. Obesity has come up right alongside the availability and engineering of processed foods.”

Although he’s amused by the modern obsession with eating like our ancestors did, in the form of so-called paleo diets, Pontzer says we can learn from the Hadza. “They stay thin because they eat a diet that doesn’t have these processed foods in it. I think 90 per cent of it is that simple.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitn ... se-weight/

RC

88V8
Lemon Half
Posts: 5769
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Has thanked: 4098 times
Been thanked: 2560 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388652

Postby 88V8 » February 22nd, 2021, 10:30 am

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:So tea tonight was one of my favourites....First weight recording tomorrow.

Yumyum, although we don't fry anything other than own juices.
But it seems rather a lot.
And no veg.... I mean, arrgh. Not even a tomato.

Also, depending when tea happens... 'tea'... one of those slippery words - .... eating late puts on weight.
Sumo wrestlers eat late deliberately for that purpose. https://www.lingualift.com/blog/what-su ... lers-diet/
You're not in training are you?

To lose weight - big breakfast, moderate lunch, small dinner. Your 'tea' at lunchtime, better.

V8

88V8
Lemon Half
Posts: 5769
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:22 am
Has thanked: 4098 times
Been thanked: 2560 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#388797

Postby 88V8 » February 22nd, 2021, 4:36 pm

As a footnote to the above, OH tells me that as regards frying, if you have a non-stick pan and if food has its own fat - bacon, sausages etc - there is no need to add oil or anything for pan frying.

We use Circulon pans, other brands are available.

V8

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8912
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3667 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#389113

Postby redsturgeon » February 23rd, 2021, 11:47 am

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:So tea tonight was one of my favourites.

But given all the talk about how food is cooked and other considerations such as cholesterol I just wondered if I'm doing anything fundamentally incorrect.

Two poached eggs
Two rashers of bacon - fried in Fry Light
Two sausages - fried in Fry Light
A small homemade beef burger - fried in Fry Light with a small amount of lactose free cheese on top
A small number of homemade potato wedges - baked in the oven

All gluten, lactose and avenin free.

I just wondered if the "fried bits" are ok?

Feel very full after that lot.

I'm staying off the vegetables currently as I'm not entirely sure which ones I can cope with. So I'm going to reintroduce them one at a time over the next month or two.

First weight recording tomorrow.

AiY


That meal above is not great...in fact it is pretty bad.

Read the post from Fluke above, what he describes is a very sensible and healthy way to eat. Compare that to what you just ate.

Poached eggs...good.

Bacon and sausages not great but then fried...worse...why not grill?

Beefburger, homemade is good and probably better than the bacon or sausage but having one of those meats not all three in one meal would be so much better.

Potato wedges in oven, good, better than fried chips.

But lacking in any other attempt at vegetables...not good. Even some baked beans would be better than nothing although some issues around sugar and salt content with them. How about some frozen peas, quick and easy and most people like them or as alrerady suggest tomatoes, either fresh grilled or tinned.

John

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8912
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3667 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#389115

Postby redsturgeon » February 23rd, 2021, 11:55 am

As an additional suggestion, cutting down on bacon, ham and sausages like salami and pepperami (some UK type sausages are OK) is considered a sensible approach to lower risks of bowel cancer.

John

AsleepInYorkshire
Lemon Half
Posts: 7383
Joined: February 7th, 2017, 9:36 pm
Has thanked: 10514 times
Been thanked: 4659 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#389146

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 23rd, 2021, 12:37 pm

redsturgeon wrote:
AsleepInYorkshire wrote:So tea tonight was one of my favourites.

But given all the talk about how food is cooked and other considerations such as cholesterol I just wondered if I'm doing anything fundamentally incorrect.

Two poached eggs
Two rashers of bacon - fried in Fry Light
Two sausages - fried in Fry Light
A small homemade beef burger - fried in Fry Light with a small amount of lactose free cheese on top
A small number of homemade potato wedges - baked in the oven

All gluten, lactose and avenin free.

I just wondered if the "fried bits" are ok?

Feel very full after that lot.

I'm staying off the vegetables currently as I'm not entirely sure which ones I can cope with. So I'm going to reintroduce them one at a time over the next month or two.

First weight recording tomorrow.

AiY


That meal above is not great...in fact it is pretty bad.

Read the post from Fluke above, what he describes is a very sensible and healthy way to eat. Compare that to what you just ate.

Poached eggs...good.

Bacon and sausages not great but then fried...worse...why not grill?

Beefburger, homemade is good and probably better than the bacon or sausage but having one of those meats not all three in one meal would be so much better.

Potato wedges in oven, good, better than fried chips.

But lacking in any other attempt at vegetables...not good. Even some baked beans would be better than nothing although some issues around sugar and salt content with them. How about some frozen peas, quick and easy and most people like them or as alrerady suggest tomatoes, either fresh grilled or tinned.

John

Hi John,

Yes really appreciate the feedback. Currently I've omitted vegetables and fruit from my diet and will add them back over the next month or two as my original diagnosis of IBS didn't really say "no gluten". So I'd omitted anything which made me feel crap. Also I've read that I shouldn't add "fibre" back into my diet quickly as that can overload as well. So it's part of the plan going forward to eat more healthy. But yes do really appreciate any advice. Take your point about grilling though - I'll speak to the head chef and get her onboard (My bad).

Thank you again :)

AiY

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8912
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3667 times

Re: The Trials & Tribulations of Being a Dieting Angel

#389176

Postby redsturgeon » February 23rd, 2021, 1:36 pm

Yes AiY I'd forgotten about the no veggie bit to start with.

Another thought...no mention of fish. Things like tuna are an easy substitute for meat and oily fish like sardines an even healthier choice.

Good luck with the journey.

John


Return to “Health & Wellbeing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests