Nutrition and exercise advice.

[splinterdream]

Ayup me ducks.

 

Maybe a long shot but I'm after advice for the above.

I'm on a self fitness programme since having covid 19, I gave up alcohol for a year in October and have lost a stone and a half to 15 stone (I'm 5ft 10 and 46 years old). 

I'm running 6km every other day in 39 minutes, and have a rowing machine which I've started using along with some floor exercises.

Trouble is I find myself looking to replace those calories with sugary snacks, what can I use to keep my energy levels high, replace fluids quickly, stopping me from feeling hungry so I can lose that stubborn belly fat? 

 

Younguns seem to know this stuff but I'm at a loss.

 

[MPH]

High protein but low fat snacks/ foods

 

chicken  roasted not fried 

 

protein bars

 

protein shakes

[MPH]

Just remember though that muscle is heavier than fat. You might ‘ slim down’ but may not necessarily lose weight. Replace your scales with a tape measure.

[ALC Fox]

Sugary snacks and refined foods are highly addictive so our capacity to just keep eating them is very high.

 

Try replacing as much of those as you can with fresh, nutritious foods like leafy greens, fruit, veg, and complex carbohydrates (brown rice, wholewheat as opposed to white bread or pasta, sweet potatoes, etc.).

 

Storage is a definite problem when eating more fresh and less refined foods, so consider batch cooking one day a week and freezing a load of different meals that can be warmed through when you need them.

 

And keep a good load of easy-to-cook, long-life but healthy things in the cupboard like brown rice, quinoa, couscous, wholewheat pasta, lentils, chickpeas and tinned tomatoes. You can always rustle up something decent with scraps if you have a cupboard of things ready to go. Risotto rice is also a nice thing to have around for an easy but indulgent dinner when you're feeling like a treat.

 

The spice cupboard is also one of your best friends. Healthy can be just as delicious with the right herbs and spices. Speaking of which, investing in a herb garden or even just a pot or two on your kitchen windowsill will make a huge difference to a lot of recipes.

 

By eating healthier with less heavily refined and processed foods, you should, in theory, find that you'll feel fuller despite eating less.

 

I'm no nutritionist though, so there will be plenty on here who are far more knowledgeable than I am about this kind of thing.

 

Also, don't berate yourself if you fall off the wagon. Better yet, give yourself a cheat day where you can allow yourself a chocolate bar or a takeaway or a frozen pizza or something. It may give you the motivation to keep going the rest of the week.

[Scotch]

Snacks were always my problem. I have no issues eating healthy meals but habits made me look for snacks whilst watching telly at night. 

 

A bowl o natural or Greek yogurt with some fruit and occaisionaly a small nest of broken up meringue, roasted chickpeas seasoned with some paprika or garlic or a bowl of a decent cereal like weetabix with some fruit....

 

Those seemed to do me alright. 

[MustardTiger]

I keep a bag of mixed dried fruits, soft dried apricots and mixed (unsalted) nuts in the house. I portion out some of both in glass ramekins from posh desserts to have as a snack. They are filling, and have natural fats and sugars to replace chocolate and sweets. They are pretty expensive though, the nuts last about 2 weeks and the fruit a bit longer.

 

You can still eat chocolate etc, but just limit yourself to 3 times a week and/or portion out the chocolate in a bowl and take it to another room rather than taking the whole bar / Easter egg or whatever with you. I think going cold turkey will just set you up for failure and self loathing a lot of the time.

 

You can also try cutting out one thing at a time as a lifestyle change, for example I cut out sugar in my tea and haven't gone back. Easier that way rather than cutting everything out at once.

 

In terms of losing weight, I think that it is no more complicated than calories in v.s. calories out. If you exercise more and cut down your portion sizes and snacks you should lose weight over time. Just stick with it.

[Tommy G]

Try Huel

[Nick]

22 hours ago, MPH said:

Just remember though that muscle is heavier than fat. You might ‘ slim down’ but may not necessarily lose weight. Replace your scales with a tape measure.

A kg of muscle weighs the same as a kg of fat...  

[MPH]

20 minutes ago, Nick said:

A kg of muscle weighs the same as a kg of fat...  

 

dont confuse the fella

 

to explain, you might feel like you are slimming down but when you weight yourself you could be the same weight or possibly even heavier.

Edited 1 June 2021 by MPH

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Intermittent fasting gave me the best results I've seen from any programme or diet. I ate between 13:00 and 21:00, nothing outside of that other than water and black coffee. Could really put any food away during the eating period as well, didn't have to worry too much in terms of what I was eating. 

[Unabomber]

7 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Intermittent fasting gave me the best results I've seen from any programme or diet. I ate between 13:00 and 21:00, nothing outside of that other than water and black coffee. Could really put any food away during the eating period as well, didn't have to worry too much in terms of what I was eating. 

I also do this. Means you don’t really go hungry or feel like you are dieting too.

[MPH]

Don’t anyone ever get an iPhone X btw  It’s keyboard and predictive text is super annoying..