Weighty issues

stimpsonslostson

If energy burned exceeds energy intake your weight decreased. The inverse is true too- eat more fuel than you burn & weight increases. 

It's perfectly possible to be thin/slim & unfit/unhealthy, it's also possible to be bigger (within reason) and fit & healthy. 

As a former fatty (16stone, 5'9" with 38" waist) I found that eating only food I'D made from "real ingredients" (no processed/prepackaged stuff) was massively helpful in controlling my weight whilst still eating properly. Weighing pasta/rice worked wonders to- most people grossly overestimate what a "portion" is. 

This combined with exercise has seen me at 12stone & 31" waist for the last 8 years. 

On the exercise front- resistance training is an amazing tool: muscle burns fuel, fat doesn't. By adding muscle you speed up the process whilst changing your "shape" too- seeing a difference in the mirror is a better motivator than losing numbers on the scales. 
Running is brilliant too, a couch to 5k is a great way to start.

It's about a lifestyle change. NOT a diet. 

stickyfiddle

I think half the issue is we've had 50+ years of being told fat is bad for you but bread & carbs & sugar are no problem. In reality you *need* some amount of fat to properly absorb vitamins & minerals, and eating bread with every meal seems not to be that great a plan. Combined with distorted portion sizes and sedantry lifestyles it's a tough thing to change overnight. 

Vegetables are the answer. You have to eat a serious shitload of veg to gain weight from them, and they're actually really filling and super-tasty if cooked well. I cook almost everything from scratch as I'm celiac, so need to be 100% sure what's in everything I'm eating. 

Since early Jan we've been doing PT sessions twice a week and eating better (~half as much booze, but not significantly less food, just much lower amounts of carbs and much more vegetable content) and I've lost over an inch from my waist and feel much better already.  We're doing simple HIIT stuff, 4 sets of 8 activities. Currently 35 seconds on and 25 off. Hugely difficult by set 4 but really effective. But the biggest thing you can do for weight loss is reducing calorie intake.

Guitar_Slinger

Yes to the lifestyle change and sometimes not even a big one - could even be a bit less food in the evenings, as @Rocker wisely said. Eat less, move more.

Neill

The simple reason why many people find exercise doesn't help with weight loss is that exercise makes you hungry and most people simply don't know how much to eat so in many cases folk actually gain weight by taking up some form of physical activity.  But if you do a lot of moderate exercise or short bursts of high intensity efforts, and don't over compensate, you will lost weight rapidly.   

The best form of exercise is simply walking, and it's a lot more fun that going to the gym. As Bill Bryson put it, the UK is far and away the best place in the world to simply go for a walk. We are absolutely spoiled, wherever you live there will be a long distance footpath not far away, or a canal towpath, or a disused railway line, and now we have wonderful GPS technology so even if you can't read a map you can't get lost.    You just have to resist the temptation to eat cake every time you pass a cafe.   

menamestom

Excersise is great.  HIIT, resistance, some cardio.

I think weight loss / being trim is mostly diet.  The issue is really with calorie counting and trying to pack loads of cardio in.  Get up early on a Saturday, go for a massive run, eat a big breakfast.    Could have just stayed in bed, skipped breakfast and caught up on your sleep for the same result.

For cardio I play 5-a-side and go for  20 min runs incorporating stair sprints, which is similar to HIIT.   No need to go on massive long runs.
Walks are great as said above.  Fresh air, easy on your body, good for stress etc.

cruxiform

I've lost 12lbs since the beginning of January, which is a result of eating 3 sensible meals a day and not eating junk. Also, lots of veg and also cooking meals from scratch. I live on my own so will cook things that I can eat the day after or freeze it to reheat later. Much better than processed crap. I drink 2 litres of water a day. Exercise wise, I've been walking a lot, apart from a week when I had a gout attack, ouch. My mindset is that I'm not on a diet but just watching what I eat and doing some exercise. The biggest change is cutting out booze almost completely, I feel so much better for it. 

I still have a long way to go but it's working for me. 

57Deluxe

was a prog on telly the other week where they give you shit from a thin person to eat.to make you thin.

fields5069

Right, I'm up to 80kg. It may not seem like much to some, but I've always hovered around 73kg so a 10% increase.

I've decided I can't do calorie counting per se, so a 5:2 diet is out. I've tried 24-hour fasting a couple of times a week and that's too much, so I'm going to see what an every day fast is like. Basically, fit your eating into as short a time window as possible. Skip breakfast, and aim for lunch around 3pm if possible. That would make it a 19:5 hour ratio, I think the minimum advised is 16:8 and maximum is 20:4, so I can opt for an earlier lunch if necessary.

It helps to cut down carbs as you're basically trying to get your body used to burning fat, but I'm going to find that a bit more difficult I think.

Phil_aka_Pip

I dropped sugar a long time ago. It's not often that I eat pre-processed foods unless you count wholemeal bread as pre-processed. Sometimes I'll have a can of soup in the evening (may even be veggie soup). Lunches are nearly always home-cooked (frozen, taken to work in microwave tubs). And I'm still overweight. Must be the ale I drink ...

Phil_aka_Pip

57Deluxe said:

was a prog on telly the other week where they give you shit from a thin person to eat.to make you thin.

makes a change from eating the shit from the fat rich, then ...

fields5069

57Deluxe said:

was a prog on telly the other week where they give you shit from a thin person to eat.to make you thin.

A fatty at work keeps claiming he had a really bad gastric infection, before which he was an Adonis, and his weight problems are all because of that. I wouldn't really be prejudiced against him, were it not for the fact that he regularly goes on about it, remarks on how unfit he is, and how the NHS is over-stretched because of smokers and alcoholics.