Losing weight

[novocaine]

funny, I see the whole burnt toast thing as a diversion tactic, which means our government is about to do something really silly and they want to hide it behind a daft story like this.

Steve, losing weight is great, but you can still be skinny and unfit, a bit of exercise won't help with weight lose (as previously stated) but can do wonders for your health, even walking a bit more will help.

good luck with it, be warned though, once you can see your feet you'll never be able to stop seeing them.

 

[Jacob]

..

I've never smoked. Not a good idea if you're asthmatic. If others choose to, that's their business entirely.

No, it's all our business - other peoples' illness and death affects us in various ways - not least the burden on the NHS. This is why the state's various intrusions into our personal liberty to do stupid things, is generally a good thing

The FSA are going further with their war on well-done chips and roast potatoes. Now they're going to start prosecuting pubs and restaurants for serving well-done food. Understandably, the catering industry isn't too impressed, given the lack of scientific evidence to support the FSA's assertions, and hopes the FSA won't adopt a 'chip-fat controller' approach.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01 ... ants-will/

It does seem to me that the FSA are rather over-reacting, here. They are in danger of making themselves look a little over zealous and slightly foolish.

No it's the telegraph exaggerating wildly. You shouldn't read rubbish papers like that if you can't read between the lines - you will end up confused and agitated.

 

[DennisCA]

.......
The next is the mixed messages from the likes of the FSA and other health nannies about what we should and shouldn't eat, and how often. It's now all so confusing (is chocolate OK in moderation or not?), and confused ('don't eat burnt toast' being the latest scare - despite there being no scientific evidence that it's damaging to humans, apparently), so most of us are not sure when they're giving good, supportable advice, or just scare-mongering. It also seems that their response is sometimes a bit dictatorial (tax sugary drinks) rather than informative (sugary drinks are best avoided, or at worst consumed in moderation).

I do wish the health authorities would just stick to a fairly simple, clear message about what constitutes a good, wholesome, balanced diet, and the consequences of departing from it, then leave us to make our own minds up about how we choose to live our lives.

They do give a fairly simple clear message - everybody nowadays knows what constitutes a healthy diet and I'm sure you do too.
They don't "scaremonger" - what would be the point of that, but they do have a duty to pass on details of research such as the toast thing - which isn't news anyway it's been known about for a long time.
They aren't sufficiently dictatorial about sugar - it's now seen as the biggest modern dietary problem in the world, cause of obesity, diabetes, rotten teeth, and a host of other things. Google it you may be surprised!
Chocolate is OK in moderation but not excess (google it) except for the sugar which is really bad, and the use of palm oil which is a health hazard and a major environmental problem. The problem is that sugar, chocolate, palm oil, feature often together in cakes, confectionary, puddings, biscuits etc but anybody wanting to lose weight wouldn't touch these with a barge pole. A very occasional treat would be OK but in fact if you stop using sugar a lot of stuff ends up tasting sickly sweet.

Turned on Radio 4 this morning, to hear that the Food Standards Agency is advising people that well-done starchy foods such as toast, roast potatoes and crisps could cause cancer, because the blackening contains a chemical caused acrylamide. Reading the Telegraph later, it seems that the acrylamide is dangerous to mice if fed in large quantities, but there is no scientific evidence that it's dangerous to humans, especially if consumed in 'normal' quantities. Either someone at the FSA has jumped the gun, or it's an over-reaction bordering on scare-mongering. Quite a few people have already criticised the FSA for their approach to this - and it's certainly not the first time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01 ... rreaction/

The FSA needs to calm down, look at the evidence carefully, and stop being scaremongering, dictatorial nannies. Otherwise, increasing numbers of us are just going to ignore (or deride) their pronouncements. It's for individuals to determine how they live their lives, not government agencies.

I dunno who the FSA is but I think the Mass media reporting of stuff like this often makes them a lot like the fake news sites. Like the milk thing a while ago, totally overblown and still not as clear cut as they like to make it out as either.... It's always written by some journalist ignorant of the scientific method and the subject he writes about and is mainly done for attracting attention.

I never bother with whatever the latest scare is anymore, I usually check this swedish skeptics blog instead to see what he has to say since he approaches everything empirically and cites sources galore and knows the differences between epidemiological and interventional studies.

 

[Woodchips2]

My concern about a new type of diet that is a major change from your normal one is the hidden downsides to your health when the whole purpose of the diet is to improve your health and wellbeing.

I have found a very easy and cheap way to diet that works for me. Before I serve up a meal I drink a glass of water which makes me want to eat a much smaller portion plus it ups my fluid intake and keeps my digestive system working better.

Regards Keith

 

[thick_mike]

I've always been skinny, but Christmas 2015 (at age 48)I had put weight on so I was 1/4 lb short of 14stone. I'm 6'1", so I wasn't huge, but considerably heavier than I had been historically and my BMI was just "overweight".

I bought a Fitbit and started logging my steps, calories burned and calorific intake. I aimed for a calorie deficit each day (which often involved walking laps of the village after dark). I tried to cut down on carbs, which was difficult for me as I like making my own bread, and eat a higher protein diet, again difficult being vegetarian. I found converting my weight into kg made it less emotional and I managed to go from 86kg to 75 kg in five months. I found eating nuts and omelettes really took the edge off my hunger and helped me avoid snacking.

I decided I felt a bit too lean at 75kg so I've tried to keep it at 78kg and I've stayed there since. I feel much fitter, and my new weight feels natural now.

 

[skipdiver]

I found this to be an interesting article as some say that BMI is not the best way to measure obesity. Rugby players for instance would be classed as having a BMI that is too high, yet they are fit as fiddles mostly.

I am now aiming for what this article recommends and am getting there slowly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/ ... tists.html

I'm 5'9" so aiming for 34"

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Something that is worth bearing in mind is that a 'diet' (in the broadest sense) is much easier to stick to if eating is fun. For example, most supermarkets stock several different varieties of apple; in the autumn, it's also fun to look out for and try other varieties. My favourites are Cox's Orange Pippin, but I've had about ten different ones from Sainsbury's and M&S (Tentation are good if you find them - I think they're a fairly new commercial variety, and the ones I had came from Herefordshire).

Eating things in season is fun too. The 25th is Burns night, so it's haggis season again - yay! Then in a couple of months, we'll be thinking about asparagus, and the first salad crops, then the first strawberries. They're all cheaper and tastier in season, and when they finish, you move on to something else and then by next year you're looking forward to them again.

It being winter at present, I'm on soups quite a bit. Pea and bacon, winter vegetable (lots of carrot for extra sweetness) and curried parsnip go down well, especially home made and extra thick. A nice bowl of steaming soup and a warmed bread roll - just the thing to inprove morale on a dark, rainy January evening.

It takes a while to get into the mindset, but when you do, food becomes something to really enjoy, and in just enough quantity to be satisfying without being to excess. I think everyone has to find their own foody pleasures, though - but it's fun experimenting!

 

[skipdiver]

With you on the soups, leek and potato is lovely and very filling, also butternut squash and sweet potato is very nice. Celery soup is surprisingly good as i am not a big fan of celery.

As for haggis, it's just offal. (pun intended)

 

[Mr_P]

Looked into my BMI today the range it gave me was a bit of joke.

10st 4lb - 13st 14lb

Currently 14 stone and BMI is 25.1 so just overweight. A long time ago I was in a car accident, nothing too serious but I was in hospital for a bit and left a complete rake of a man at 11 stones, so by using that logic I'm not just overweight I'm overweight. Bit like the 5 a day campaign aparently thats just a made up number and they think if they are honest we won't even try. Think in Japan they have a target of 8 a day.

Good Luck with diet Steve, think I might give the cauliflower rice a try.

 

[Steve Maskery]

The cauliflower rice is surprisingly good, and I speak as a foodie. As long as you add some flavour to it (tonight was caraway and fennel seeds) it is excellent. I would not have known it was cauliflower.
I have friends coming for dinner on Saturday. I'm going to do a chicken curry and serve it as rice and see if they say anything.

Desserts are more difficult. Sugar substitutes are phenomenally expensive.

 

[Jacob]

....
Desserts are more difficult. Sugar substitutes are phenomenally expensive.

My theory is that substitutes are a mistake - not least because they are nothing like the real thing. Trying to mimic the gross meals of yesteryear with artificial alternatives is difficult and unsustainable.
Instead, Steve if you want a pudding have one - but use a lot less sugar in the recipe and only have a very small portion.
Make a steamed treacle suet pudding but with less treacle, and make it see you through the week. If you aren't sharing it with visitors just make a small one for yourself.
It's about changing what you eat but also more importantly - how you eat.

 

[bugbear]

I found this to be an interesting article as some say that BMI is not the best way to measure obesity. Rugby players for instance would be classed as having a BMI that is too high, yet they are fit as fiddles mostly.

I am now aiming for what this article recommends and am getting there slowly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/ ... tists.html

I'm 5'9" so aiming for 34"

BMI is fine for most of the population; it fails quite badly for extreme athletes - body builders, weight lifters, gymnasts.

But most of the population don't have the fat/muscle ratio of these anomalies, and BMI works well enough.

BugBear

 

[transatlantic]

I agree with most of what has been said, I personally decided not to bother with any of these crazy diets. They're short term, unhealthy, lots of side effects and are usually very expensive. I've opted for something I know I can keep doing indefinately ... it just makes a lot more sense.

Some of my changes include :

- Doing half an hour of exercise before any meal.
- Cutting out desserts/puddings. I haven't missed them at all. I now just have a cup of tea instead
- Cutting out sugar in my tea. Over this year I've gone from 1 teapsoon, to half, to none. Don't miss it at all.
- Try to have half of every meal be veg/salad. I don't always get this right, but I'm pretty good.
- Cut out fizzy and alcoholic drinks in the house. I now keep a plastic container of squash in the fridge. Love it! .. very convenient
- Several times a day, I will try to find something to increase my heart rate, if only temporally. Luckily, I have my own little indoor gym for this. I find short burts of exercise like this to be very good, especially before bed (which I know sounds odd as you would think it would stop you sleeping?)

I was pretty bad with snacking, but now, whenever I'm tempted to snack I always say to myself, ... am I hungry enough that I would eat brocolli (a veg I don't love)? ... if the answer is yes, I'll have the snack, if not, I don't. More often than not, the answer is no, and the thought of having to eat the brocolii puts me off the snack ...silly I know, but it works for me.

 

[John Brown]

That wouldn't work for me, as I love brocolli.

 

[DennisCA]

We all love broccoli in our family, if we're making broccoli we have to hide it or the kids (age 3) will want to eat it all before dinner is ready and then not want any dinner.

 

[Jacob]

That wouldn't work for me, as I love brocolli.

That's OK you can eat as much of it as you want. You can have mine as well.

 

[Steve Maskery]

One of the things I am finding is that my appetite is reduced. A couple of times in the last week I've made my dinner "normal" size (normal for Steve, that is) and only eaten half of it. That is not like me at all, I was brought up with "you'll eat what's given you" attitude. But that means eating the leftovers the next day, which is not what foodie people like me want to do, the cooking is just as pleasurable as the eating.

My theory is that substitutes are a mistake - not least because they are nothing like the real thing. Trying to mimic the gross meals of yesteryear with artificial alternatives is difficult and unsustainable.

I have some sympathy with that view, Jacob. But that assumes you take sugar to be the real thing. Other sweeteners can be as good if not better in taste. For example, although I don't drink fizzy soft drinks very often, when I have to I would always choose Diet Pepsi over Pepsi.
And anyway, my meals are not, and never have been, gross!

Instead, Steve if you want a pudding have one - but use a lot less sugar in the recipe and only have a very small portion.
Make a steamed treacle suet pudding but with less treacle, and make it see you through the week. If you aren't sharing it with visitors just make a small one for yourself.

It doesn't really fit with a low-carb regime. It's not just the sugar, it's the flour, the treacle, all pure carbs. But I have never really been much of a dessert man, if I need two courses I would usually have a starter. But dinner parties are different. I think I'm going to try a low-carb lemon-meringue pie at the weekend. I've done almond pastry before and it is fine. As for something low-carb to sweeten it, I'll have to see what I can find.

PS Broccoli has long been my favourite veg! Easy to overcook though. The best way I have found is to pack the florets into a tiny saucepan, so that the stems boil but the rest steams.

 

[Jacob]

...
I have some sympathy with that view, Jacob. But that assumes you take sugar to be the real thing. Other sweeteners can be as good if not better in taste. For example, although I don't drink fizzy soft drinks very often, when I have to I would always choose Diet Pepsi over Pepsi......

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole - dreadful synthetic stuff!

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Too many power tools :wink:

 

[skipdiver]

I found this to be an interesting article as some say that BMI is not the best way to measure obesity. Rugby players for instance would be classed as having a BMI that is too high, yet they are fit as fiddles mostly.

I am now aiming for what this article recommends and am getting there slowly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/ ... tists.html

I'm 5'9" so aiming for 34"

BMI is fine for most of the population; it fails quite badly for extreme athletes - body builders, weight lifters, gymnasts.

But most of the population don't have the fat/muscle ratio of these anomalies, and BMI works well enough.

BugBear

Most of the population yes, but not someone like me who has a lot of muscle mass. I have always been stocky and years spent cycling, playing football and doing building work have given me quite large muscle groups, which adds weight without fat. Even at my absolute fittest, i always weighed more than the recommended parameters and health professionals just look at the numbers. I have a mate who is a chiropractor and when he was working on my damaged shoulder, he said i had shoulder and back muscles like a gorilla. All those years of hand digging footings.