Posts by abunaimah

Original Post by gi-jane:

It's a pity the coroner couldn't point the finger at the starvation diet as being the likely cause.  The spokesperson from LighterLife sounds a little too complacent in the circumstances.

I agree, I think they were glad the coroners report couldn't point a finger at them.

The coroner said: 'The evidence cannot point one way or the other as to whether her indulging in that diet has in any way caused or contributed to her death,' he added.

LighterLife said: We were very sad to hear the news about Samantha. However, we must emphasise that the coroner has stated the LighterLife Programme could in no way be associated with her death.'

Its interesting how they reword what the coroner said in their statement to make it seem like the coroner dismissed any link between the death and the diet.

Sad.

This is the very thing that puts most people off when they try to lose weight. We all want to do it quickly. This is why people do crazy fad diets, which often end up being harmful to your health and you end up putting weight back on and then some. Even now I sometimes get tempted to click on adverts that promise quick weightloss methods. I have a few more pounds to shift but now I'm a lot more realistic about reaching my target.

The thing is, it took me years to put on the weight. It wasn't a sudden process and it had a lot to do with the fact that my lifestyle had gone from very active to sedentary. My food in take remained the same as it was when I was very active. By the beginning of 2005, I was classed as obese and weighed in around 190lbs (I'm only 5'2 and so that was very bad for me).

Things were not very good, I found it difficult finding clothes that fit because I was short as well as being fat. I used to wake up at night gasping for air as I would stop breathing in my sleep. Sometimes I would get out of bed and sit on a step trying to shake that feeling of suffocation. I had become lazy and lethargic. I was reluctant to do anything and this affected my lifestyle.

I tried losing weight by attempting some diets (like Atkins), but I couldn't stick at it. Changes were not happening fast enough for my liking. Actually the reality was I wasn't ready. When I gave up smoking I had got myself all clued up on the pros and cons and made a firm decision to quit. I managed to kick the habit. This was back in 2001 after which I put on some weight because of it.

A friend of mine is a fitness instructor and back when we were younger we used to train together. He tried to get me motivated many times to get moving but it didn't work. I came up so many excuses, I think back and wince at how lame they were.

Eventually in 2005, I moved to my current job and I knew I had to do something about my weight. That first year I actually increased my intake of food, especially junk food as some of my colleagues enjoyed eating out for lunch. I had tried the atkins diet and others prior to this but failed. I knew I had to get myself in the same frame of mind as I did when giving up smoking. This process took me about a year before finally I decided to make some changes. This time it was gradual, I had started to read about dieting sensibly and spent a lot of time doing some research online (as I had done for smoking). I looked at various diets, bought some books but didn't make a start until the summer of 2006.

I started by joining my colleagues in 5-a-side football (soccer), which is a fast paced game. I also joined some of them on a charity bike ride. I started to cut down my food and make changes in food choices. I wasn't dieting but I started to cut out junk foods and eat it less frequently. I am a foodie and love food which includes healthy stuff, so that kind of change is not hard for me.

I was still researching and hadn't made a serious commitment to tackle the weight. By the end of 2007, I had lost around 16lbs, which had made a whole world of difference already. At this point a friend of mine became a Herbalife distributor and he convinced me to try the shakes. Well it did work and for about 4 months I took them and I lost the bulk of the weight I wanted. I discovered in reality all the shakes did for me was to make me fell fuller for longer and was nothing more then calorie control. I discovered CC in January 2008 and started logging calories. I found that I wasn't eating enough. I had already lost 13lbs after the first month of drinking the shakes. So I continued and also started logging the calories.

I reached an interim target and stopped with the shakes.I continued calorie counting now realising that the shakes were useful but I was better counting the calories and making sensible food choices. By May 2008, I had gone from 173lbs down to 138lbs.  The lowest I reached was 135lbs by August. My goal at that time was to lose 2lbs more. A trip to Paris and relaxing on the calorie counting I gained some weight and lost it again. After being on a strict diet my body seemed to be rebelling a little and I was diet fatigued and so stopped counting. I gained weight back slowly and by early part of this year I had gone back up to 148lbs. I have started to tackle that and now I've dropped down to 142lbs.

I've learned a lot of things in that time. One of them is that it will take time. I want to reach a goal of 126lbs, which was my weight when active. I am a lot fitter now and my food choices are healthier. I am changing my lifestyle and that is what takes time. To break those bad habits, to put in place good habits. You get many Aha moments.

Stick with CC and people on the forum, they are great source of support. My life has changed around greatly. I am so glad I have taken this journey and now I'm happy to continue the journey, its one that is going to last a lifetime because I don't want to get up 3am in the morning scared that I can't breath, worried about the onset of diabetes (there is family history), not being able to run around with my kids etc.

So please don't give up!

I apologise for the long post.

Avoid curries with cream, butter, ghee etc. I wouldn't necessarily avoid Naans but know that they are heavier in calories. I usually make an estimate based on information I could find on CC and other places online for a curry.

Take away food always tends to be worse then the curries we make at home.

Here is a brief list of calories in curries: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories /calorie_content/indian_food.htm

If you want to try curries at home, try recipes from www.recipezaar.com

I think we should all aim for a diet that is balanced and moderate. It would be sad if we could not enjoy take aways occasionally. Just do some damage limitation by eating light the rest of the day, try to keep within your maintenance level and things should be okay.

Congratulations Zack! This is how we are all trying to do it here on CC.

You don't mention exercise in your article, what exercises were you doing? Or was your calorie deficit all it took to lose the weight?

If walking at 3mph burns approximate 200 calories or so, then dancing in a night club should easily burn 300 cals. So I can believe that figure quite easily.

I guess the best thing about this activity is that you are doing something you enjoy and it isn't seen as 'exercise'. Although when people go clubbing it is accompanied with alcohol (lots of it in the UK - binge drinking etc), which probably defeats the object.

Are you referring to Satay Chicken? They come on a stick. See wikipedia reference here.

In which case it would be approximately 135 calories per stick. See: http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calori es/food/generic/chicken-satay-stick

so no it wasn't a gazillion calories, closer to 300 :)

Portion sizes depend on the individual. It takes time to figure out the portion size that satisfies you.

For those of us who have become overweight often we are ignoring the signals our stomachs are giving when we are satisfied. It takes time to retrain ourselves for that.

Initially I just made up portion sizes according to the calories I intended to have. If that failed to fill me up I tried to find things that would fill me up without impacting on the calories. Things like salads and vegetables are good as fillers.

As I am originally from Bangladesh (I live in the UK), I eat a lot of rice and curry. I used to have several cups of rice per sitting. Now 1 cups worth (as listed here on CC) is sufficient - actually sometimes it seems very filling now.

I am also trying to eat slower as I find that I can eat more if I eat fast. This gives the stomach time to signal the brain that it is satisfied or full. I think it takes around 10-20 mins for the stomach to send this signal.

If you observe your slim friends and family you will notice that they do exactly this, eat slowly and then stop when they are satisfied. Rarely do they overeat. However we can relearn this and I'm finding that over time I started to have some success at this.

After all who wants to log their calories forever to regulate what they eat? I certainly dont. I want to be able to regulate it like all those naturally slim people.

However, until I learn to do this properly and have reached my target weight I will be logging my calories. The tools here on CC are a vital part of my diet regime.

Soup is a great diet food. It has been shown that soup helps stay fuller for longer. You shouldn't have it exclusively but having it once a day is not going to do any harm. Just make sure things like salt content etc is low. Most soups are a great low calorie meal. I have soup most days at work, its convienient and great with a bit of bread.

Of course I would never do a diet such as the cabbage soup diet. That is crazy, very boring and detrimental to your health. You should aim for a healthy balanced diet which contains all kinds of good food.

I love soup. I just haven't got round to making my own yet but there are some great recipes here on CC :)

I lost most of the weight I wanted and once I got to my initial target, which was to be in the normal weight range, I must admit I started to relax a little. I was elated that I was in the normal weight range, clothing fit me a lot better and my lifestyle and general health was good.

However I started to gain weight again, albeit slowly. It was due to eating more again and things like going on holiday - still eating healthy but indulging in a few desserts here and there. Although unlike the OP I didn't gain as much, only around 12lbs and now after a few months of shifting 2lbs and then going back up, I have decided to tackle it again through the usual, exercise and eating healthy.

This is has been a long learning process. I think that once I get to my new target I need to learn to maintain. When I gain a pound or two I need to tackle it straight away. At least thats the plan.

The thing is this is a lifestyle change and therefore once we reach the target we need to ensure that keeping us there is part of our lifestyle - there is no going back to the old ways because we will just end up where we started. Fortunately due to the length of time it has taken to shift the weight my habits have changed a lot and so the areas I need to now tackle are fewer and I have already had the practice in losing weight in a healthy manner.

It is important to have a healthy outlook in the mind and soul as well as body. Just don't give up, the end result is worth it.

Like everyone else is saying, stop eating so little. You need to use the tools on this website in order to lose weight in a healthy manner.

I think everyone who is trying to lose weight has similar thoughts. We all want a quick fix and in reality what we need is a change of lifestyle. For years I was looking for a quick solution to weightloss. Eventually you come to a point where you realise that there is no quick solution.

Why are we overweight in the first place? Due to our lifestyles. We are eating too much and not burning it off. So we need to make changes that are going to stop us from returning to this point.

You need to find out how many calories you need a day according to your activity level and create a deficit in that. If you create a 500 calorie deficit a day you will lose 1lb in a week. 1-2lbs a week is the kind of speed you are looking at in order to lose weight in a healthy manner.

All of this advice is available on this site. Just go read up on it. There are no quick fixes. We didn't get into this mess overnight we can't get out of it overnight.

Most of these things are down to habit. You can stop yourself, it will just take some time to break the habit. It will be easier over time. If it helps don't buy the biscuits in the first place. If it helps then don't have tea to break the association between the tea and biscuits.

I did this sort of thing when I gave up smoking. I used to drink a lot of coffee throughout the day and it would normally mean I would have a cigarette with it. So when I gave up smoking, I stopped having coffee for a little while. I knew that if I had it then I might crave a cigarette.

I understand the biscuit thing, my wife and I have the same issue. It has become such an ingrained habit to have something with a cup of tea. Why not explore other low calorie alternatives with your tea. I have tried low calorie bars (such as Alpen bars we get here in the UK). That seems to help minimise the effects of the biscuits.

Ultimately its about will power, you have to try and resist it as much as possible. When you do cave, try just having one biscuit and then put the rest away. Over time you will be able to gain more control. It's like any thing else, it gets better with practice.

I'm amazed that after having changed my lifestyle I am able to resist a lot of the foods that I used to snack on. When you count calories it helps to see the effect of these things. Depending on the bisuits you are having, the amount of calories can vary. Some of my favourites are around 70 calories each! Before I couldn't just have a biscuit, I was likely to have half the packet. Thats why I explored all these other low calorie sweet snacks which would satisfy the occasional chocolate craving and actually help me fill satisfied (Sugary products doesn't seem to satisfy me for long).

So I sometimes have things like this. It's only 125 calories and doesn't impact too much on my daily intake.

In theory we can put on weight at the same rate we can take it off. Its all to do with the amount of calories. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. If you eat 500 less a day, you will lose a 1lb a week. If you eat 500 more you will gain 1lb a week.

I guess when we put the weight back on we are not trying to control the amount of calories we are consuming. However when we are trying to lose weight we are doing that and therefore its harder.

At least thats me trying to rationalise it. I hate the fact that I can put weight on so quickly and it takes sooo much effort to lose it. Still its worth it in the end!

As usual gi-jane is right, you may be eating more then you think. I would try out her advice too :)

Anyway just wanted to say that I've gone through a similar scenario. At the end of 2007 I weighed 173lbs (I was around 190lbs at my heaviest). By June 2008, I had lost 38lbs to be within the 'normal' BMI range. Having hit this target I relaxed a little on my diet. I think I was a little tired of watching what I was eating. I retained my healthy habits and was still exercising. But I put on about 12lbs altogether over the next few months.

I made attempts to drive it down but have had limited success. I've been stuck around the 147lb mark for a few months now. So I had to make a renewed commitment again. I've upped the exercise and reduced the calories and I'm seeing the benefits. Well so far anyway, its only been a week.

Good luck with the weight loss. Just don't give up!

Any movement burns calories. It may not be as significant as other exercise but it can add up.

There was a recent documentary on the BBC (here in the UK) called "10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight"

In it there was a Radio DJ (also a comedian) who was asked to go through her normal routine one day and then the next to move around more. They wanted to compare the amount of calories she burned. So she made small changes like going up and down the stairs more when doing housework and doing her radio show standing up and moving her arms around etc. She burned an extra 240 calories a day by doing this. That would equate to a 1lb of weight in 2 weeks!

So I would say yes you can count walking on the spot as exercise and it definitely burns calories. When I first started on my weight loss journey I used to just get up and jump around with my kids. They enjoyed it as well. It certainly made a difference to me.

Original Post by newdays18:

To accomplish this, I will need to eat in the 1600-1900 range and sustain an exercise program.  Weights 3x/week and walking/biking/stairmaster/elliptical for 20-60 minutes 5x/week.    This is doable.  I can do this. 

Yup you can definitely do it! With that kind of exercise level, you may even do it faster but to have the goal to lose 6lbs by August should be easily achievable. Don't worry if you fall off the wagon just get back on and keep going.

My aim is to lose 10lbs by July 20. I think that is doable but if I don't make the entire target as long as I get close, I'll be going in the right direction :)