Which diet plan are you on?

Welcome- every subject can be covered as you have probably gathered! You can dip in and out as you fancy.

Welcome sherish, I'm not on a diet plan, just cut down if my weight goes up a few pounds till it comes off again...

I have reduced my sugar intake as much as possible.
I don't believe in low fat diets, I think they are potentially harmful and I love things cooked in butter and olive oil.
I have lost over a stone since I retired nearly two years ago, but I think this is more to do with doing a lot more exercise that I was able to do when working.

Hi sherish, fairly new myself, and already hooked

Must admit to a see-food diet myself, but all in moderation, and with plenty of running about after children thrown in (TA in a SEN school).

Am rather chuffed that I only weigh just half a stone more now, than I did when I got married in 1979, although it was rather less at the time of the divorce in 1990.

Not so keen on the shape though...gravity is winning, but that just makes me more cuddly and snuggly I think

I'm on a cunning new plan. I have to eat less and move more. It's working really well.

Welcome sherish, I hope you will enjoy Gransnet, but be warned it can be addictive!
I have had good results with intermittent fasting. I do alternate days, others do the 5.2 version. There are several threads in the dieting section which will give you all the info if you are interested. I have tried many diets in my time and this is the only one that has worked well for me. I have maintained the weight loss for nearly a year, it is now a way of life and not at all difficult. I eat as much as I like of any food every other day and the days in between I have 500 calories for weight loss or up to 1000 to maintain.

WelcomeSerish. I can agree with everything Shysal has said. The alternative day diet is great, it becomes a way of life and so easy to maintain. I suggest you read the diet threads. Good luck.x

Hello and welcome sherish I am not officially on any kind of diet. I have been there and done that in the past and did manage to lose a quite a lot of weight with weightwatchers many years ago. The down side was that I was skinny and miserable and lived my life around points and calories. Once I had stopped the weight just piled back on.

A few months ago I decided, like janeainsworth to drastically cut my sugar intake. I was having sugary tea, sugary cereal, cakes, biscuits and the odd chocolate bar too. I have given up the sweet cereal and now have sugar free muesli, no sugar in tea and only the very occasional biscuit/cake. I am eating normally but healthier (I think) and I can measure my success not in terms of weight loss but by how better my clothes fit me.

Good luck.

I'm on the 5:2 diet. Today was supposed a 500 calorie intake day. For a number of very good reasons I've decided that tomorrow will be one my fasting days. gillybob Like you, I do not weigh myself. If the waistband is comfortable then I know that I'm okay and I'm happy. When it becomes uncomfortable, then I know that I must take care, or else...

The UMCTYE diet! It is proven to be the only one that actually works, scientifically proven..no doubt at all.

Pen I suspect a wind-up, please will you enlighten me! Google has proved useless on this occasion!

Use More Calories Than You Eat perhaps?

I like the 5:2, which amounts to the same thing!

Ah! Thank you Maggie

Thank you all. I know that the common sense approach is the one that works but I'm always curious to see what others are doing. I have more or less conquered my liking for sweet and fatty things it's just that I have an enormous appetite even if what I'm eating is fairly healthy now!

Ah well, Sherish, the 5:2 suits a lot of people with enormous appetites and a love of good food (like me), because you can eat whatever you want on 5 days a week if you want to maintain your weight. I soon got used to the 2 fast days, but some people find them impossible to keep to. I suppose you've just to find what suits you. Watching what I ate 7 days a week just made me miserable. The thing about the 5:2, if the publicity is to be believed, is that it's healthy, and can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure. My bp went down significantly after a few months on the 5:2, so I'm a happy customer!

I'm doing 5:2 too, or, when I can, 4:3. It seems to have worked in that I have gone down one size in trousers, but I rarely weigh myself (keep forgetting to buy a battery for the scales!). I've been following it for about 10 months now, but not slavishly - abandoning it for holidays etc. The things I most miss on the fast days are all the snacks that my OH seems to fit in during the afternoon!

Maggie I eat 500 calories on Tuesday and Thursday. Should I be fasting on two consecutive days? Or does it not matter?

As I understand it, soop, the idea is not to fast on consecutive days, so I think you're doing it right. I tend to fast on Mondays and then on either Wednesday or Thursday. I must admit I hate it when, like this week, I'm going out on Wednesday and Thursday, so have to do the fast on Friday. Friday's just not a day for restraint!

Maggiemaybe I should have said that I fast on Monday and Thursday. As it was my son's 50th birthday on Monday, I treated myself to extra goodies. Today, my rations are meagre. I need to shift ten pounds in order to feel comfortable. When I was able to do long daily walks, I had no problem with my weight. The exercise bike has developed an irritating clonk...very off-putting.

I am working on losing some weight at the moment and honestly believe that the best way to do it (for me anyway) is by counting calories and upping the regular exercise done. Currently I am on 1400cals per day as a food allowance, plus I aim to use up 335 calories each day by exercising. To help achieve this I fill in an on-line food diary and input my exercise every day. It has been calculated for me that 1400 calories, together with the exercise calories spent should achieve a weight loss of about 1.5lbs per week. I think whatever regimen you use to lose weight it has to be something which can be adapted when you reach the weight loss you need and then what you are already doing to lose weight can be adapted so that it can be utilised to maintain your weight once it is stabilised to an appropriate weight for your BMI. This then becomes something you can live with ad the lifestyle change which will ensure permanent success.

Sounds sensible, if you know the amount of calories in everything that you eat. Meeting a friend in a coffee shop, any "add ons" could get tricky.

You go for the carrot cake, no calorie listing shown per slice, and you can claim it as part of your 5 a day!

Well, I've tried almost every 'diet plan' going and few of them have worked. The one which worked best for me was Dr Dukan's: meaning, I lost most weight on it. It isn't meant to be long-term, though, and I really disliked not being able to have one slice of bread or any fruit at all in the early stages. Once I was past the early stages I stopped losing weight and, as Dr Dukan said, the weight started to creep back, little by little by little.

I've recently discovered a book by Dr Charles Clark 'The New High Protein Diet' and this makes more sense to me than anything. It does involve keeping carb intake very low. I can have my slice of wholemeal toast with butter but only one slice per day. I can have an orange daily for the Vitamin C, but only one. Basically, the rest of it is protein, normal fats like butter, eggs, and a lot of veg - no potatoes, of course.

I am giving this one month. We're going to an Anglo-Saxon dinner late May and we'd already chosen our food. I shan't have a glass of mead, though! And yesterday, St George's Day, I didn't have a glass of beer. Wine and spirits are apparently OK - a glass of red wine contains less than 1g of carbohydrate.

Just got last years summer clothes out; off for a bit of Spanish sun tomorrow. The shorts are a bit tight. Back to serious 5:2 when I get back! X

Life's too short for dieting. My Pilates teacher says the best way to lose weight is just eat less! Easier said than done but better than all this fiddle fiddling about and 'I mustn't eat this' or 'I shouldn't eat that'. What a pain. There are some things I can't eat because they make me ill so I'm blowed if I'm going to diet as well!