Anyone got any good tips for losing weight, obviously i need to eat less junk and excercise more :) but what about when the motivation starts to flag.

Ive decided that by my 21st in November i am going to be able to go out and buy all those clothes that don't fit now and look good and feel even better! Its 24 weeks until my birthday and if i could loose 2lbs a week until then i would lose over 3 stone at a reasonable rate.

I just know that after a few weeks Mc'd's will look so tempting and im a real chocoholic

Im a Chocoholic too :D the start of this year i was a lil chubby size 14 ive just got into a size 8 top so im pretty pleased how i did it was i would eat as much salad as possible in the day and i buy tesco healthy living icecreams ,I have one everyday at the time when i really want chocolate it has a nice chunk of chocolate at the bottom just enough to get your fix :d but not over doing it . at 135 kals its a ok treat i find that if you take away things you like the more u will want , so figure out what you cant go without and hunt down a low kal version :)
Oh and excerise where possible short bursts of activity do count , so if your feeling guilty dance about mad for a lil while or skip for 15 mins thats 100 kals burnt thats nearly that icecream gone . the more u do the more you burn .
oh and make sure you have a day of dieting but try to do some kind of activity to keep you motivated :)

I have a picture of myself looking hideous taped to my fridge - that keeps me out!

Also, my diet lady told me to have a picture in my head of my "ideal" figure and to picture it whenever I want to pig out.  Finding an activity you like is half the battle - walking my dogs works really well for me!  :D

Set yourself easy and regular goals - rather than say that you want to lose 3 stone break it up into achievable chunks - say every 4lbs.  I started off this year at 13 stone 4lbs and am now 11 stone 6lbs - my next target weight is  11 4lbs meaning that I'll have lost 2 stone so far.  My finish target weight is 11 stone but if I can get even 1lb under that I'll be doing handstands!!!!

Also, drink gallons of water - it helps to flush the body though.  I've also found that cutting out carbs helps - not full blown atkins but keep in mind how much your eating, I only have 2 slices of bread once a week now (bacon buttie on a Saturday morning) as my weekly treat!!

walking the dog is good - Leo will be a super fit sheltie by the time im finished with him lol and hopefully it will do the diet some good.

This sounds ultra geeky i'm sure but for the targets Ive set up a spread sheet where each monday i am going to weigh myself and see if ive lost my 2lb target for the week. I figured this might work, a weekly weigh in is a target and i will want to see a weight loss every week.
The gym i use is excellent too, your program is all stored on a key and if you try and log out before you have finished it makes you guilty by saying you have not finished and are you SURE you want to log out.
Once i've lost a bit of weight i want to go swimming, but its a bit of a vicious circle, swimming is good for you, so you should do it as exercise, but i hate myself in a swimming cosy and i want to lose weight to go swimming!!

Drink a glass of water before a meal I tend to eat less then. Good luck! I'm useless at diets, am 10 lbs overweight and have been trying to lose it for the past 3 years but just keep going up and down like a yoyo.
It must be the chocs because I eat the right stuff, chocs are my downfall. Have found that you can get a good fix from just a single square of Green & Blacks 70% cocoa solids chocolate, aww it's sooo chocolatey!

i discovered a few months ago that i actually lose weight when eating thorntons champagne truffles. which was the greatest discovery in the world. i assume i must be allergic to them or something. i LOVE allergies :)

sarah
x

my other weakness is crisps :-( i think i might be more addicted to them than chocolate but i am definitely cutting down.

Ive just had some additional motivation though - my brother is going to give me £10 for every lb i lose.

Find out how many calories you can eat for your size and write everything down - then even if you have a mad choccie day, you can still eat say, soup and a roll for dinner to make up. I was surprised to learn that i can actually eat nearly 1600 calories a day and still lose weight! But i used to think "oh, damn, i've eaten 1500 and i won't lose anything." and give up and re-start the next day. I did one week on 1600 and upped my exercise levels a bit (just faster walking and mroe of it, i'm not your aerobics type :D ) and lost 4 pounds and it stayed off too.

Also get a copy of Jason Vale's book "Chocolate Busters" which has helped me lose a lot of my love of chocolate. I still enjoy a bar here and there but not every day like i used to ;)

Let me know if you want to work out your optimum calorie allowance, PM me if you want.

Lindsay
X

I have an idea, does anyone have a labrador i can borrow? lol When i take the OH's aunts dog Ellie out we dont have 2 walk far but my whol body feels it with the pace she walks and the amount she pulls, I might have to borrow her.

Is Chocolate Busters the book that tells you all about chocolate? and lots of things to put you off eating it?

Best tip - Don't eat between meals! 
I decided to diet when I was told my Son was getting married, I have been very determined - the wedding is in under 2 weeks now and I have lost 3stone(over 21 weeks), I am eating 3 times a day that's it - boring yes!! result yes! Sorry if I sound bigheaded, but hubby said I would never do it and stick to it.  I too loved chocolate/crisps/biscuits but have cut them all out rather than cut down, have more energy, also increased my dog walks too.

Sweep

Well done you Sweep! Really wish I could do it, would love to know what my daily calorie allowance is but I've sneeky feeling it will only be about 12. LOL  I know it's pathetic but it doesn't matter how much or how little I eat just can't shift the spare tyre.

I went back to weight watchers last week after many failed attempts at doing it alone at home.  I lost two stone with them a couple of years ago but put it all back on when I quit smoking.  I lost 4lb in my first week and I had takeaways about 4 times in that week :D :D :D  as well as sticking to my points (and saving them up for drinking sessions) I havent been snacking between meals which my doctor reckons ill help.  Lets see what this week brings !!!!!

Well done sweep, i hope i can say the same in 21 weeks time! That's what im trying the only thing i am eating between meals is fruit and im trying to explain to OH that i cant just say oh is soup for lunch everyday because i get bored out of my mind, so i'm coming up with different lunch ideas and dinner of course.
Its funny how much those couple of biscuits here and there and a bag of crisps and just a little chocolate actually make you put on so much weight.

apparantly eating even fruit between meals can make a difference :)

The 'average woman' has to eat 2000 calories per day to maintain weight. for weight loss 500 calorie equals half a pound. If you reduce your calorie intake by 400 calories per day, you will reduce your weekly intake by 2800 calories, which may help you lose 2.5lbs per week. Do not lose any more than this per week, as well as being unhealthy you will be more likely to put it back on. Excersise will help tone the muscles but beware that you may actually gain a little weight if you build up too much muscle, muscle is heavier than fat, so although you may gain weight you will change the shape of your body. Running a mile and walking a mile only burns up the same amount of calories, so dont worry about having to jog or run, just walk an extra half mile per day, you will be surprised at the difference it makes. If you enjoy swimming, this burns up more calories than any other excersise. Protein builds muscle, carbohydrates build stamina. Simple carbohydrates like chocolate, crisps and sweets, give you an instant 'hit' but you need more of it. Bananas are simple carbohydrates but made into a sandwich with low fat spread change them to a complex carbohydrate, meaning you dont get the immediate fix but a longer, slower effect will mean your energy levels stay highter and you wont want to eat again a soon as you would normally.
Sorry to ramble, but good luck and let me know how you get on.

Kay

its very hard to bulk up with excerise , alot! of hours hard in the gym and alot of protein and you might .Muscle weights more then fat so you will end up looking slimer but may weight more , not only that it burns alot of cals trying to maintain it so once its there its actully helping you burn those kals ;) so dont be scared of geting those weights out :d just dont do hours a day
also try to change what you do , dont do the same old thing day in and day out .
and only work out in the gym every other day this will give your body  time to repair . you can do arobic activity most days just to keep you going most people do 4 to 5 days of doing somthing :)
swimming is good as it wont stress joints and is good for people with injuries :)

You could try what im doing.....

It isnt a diet as such......

I binge eat, AND to make matters worse, i usually only eat rubbish (ie crisps etc).

So ive had to change my eating pattern from 'meal at 3pm, eat crisps all night' to 'small breakfast, small snack, small lunch, small snack, small dinner, small snack'

Now that i am eating every three hours, im finding i am losing weight slowly, and im not particularly craving any kind of food.

Obviously if you do this and just eat rubbish food, then you wotn lose weight, but its definately helping me!

Em