Obesity(bariatric) surgery

Perhaps we should be turning this on its head and asking for an honest a answer to the question from those who have a problem with overeating and weight gain.

Just what would influence you to get a grip on your eating habits? And would you consider batiatric surgery if all else failed? But that would have to be a very brave person to put themselves forward.

Rosequartz they do.

If you didn't refer to pasta but to Heinz canned spaghetti in tomato sauce, she wouldn't call it posh!

So it is about education!

Nonnie these are grown adults we are talking about. Can we impose knowledge on them if they don't want it?

Taking up Rose's point about ignorance of where food comes there's no excuse for that these days, is there? But I was watching a Jamie Oliver programme a couple of years ago and so many did not recognise any vegetable beyond carrot and peas. Very depressing.

I cannot help but detect a bit of self-satisfaction with all you thin GN's. Perhaps you need a challenge like myself and any other GN's who would like to join in a devise a diet and exercise routine for those of us who have such difficulty in trying to shift those extra pounds.

I'm 5' 4" and a size 14 so I'm not thin Whitewave I struggle to keep to a healthy weight and I deny myself many treats to do so.

What would you describe as treats then?

I do not think any of us is saying we are thin, and you do not need to be. Recent research has shown that actually having a few extra pounds on you has very little effect on your health outcomes. Indeed for older people it can be a positive advantage as we have more reserves to call on to support us if we are ill and cannot take normal nutrition.

A friend of mine, when diagnosed with liver cancer and accepted for a transplant was told to try to put on at least a stone before the operation and she was not underweight at diagnosis. She was told the more she had to draw on in the aftermath of the operation the better she was likely to do.

Yes perhaps that is true - My mother who is still going strong-ish at 96 and although much thinner now was about 13st at my age (68) and only about 5'4" at least I am taller! But oh to lose some of it!!!

Hope I'm not walking into a trap, I sense an abyss opening up at my feet

To answer your question, a 'treat' is anything over and above what I ought to put on my plate and in my mouth.

I eat a frugal breakfast of home-made yoghurt, soup (no bread) for lunch and dinner follows the 'hand rule'....a piece of protein the size of my palm, carbs to fit on the four fingers and vegetables to fill the other hand. I allow myself a drink with the meal and a piece of fruit.

Sometimes I slip up and the weight starts to creep up. So it's back to eating what I need to eat rather than what I would like to eat. It's b***y hard and I have 7lbs I'd dearly love to shift

I exercise most mornings and walk about 1.5 miles a day. In addition I look after the grandchildren most days.

aka no trap but interesting. What I find really interesting is that yes your diet is by most peoples standards really frugal and yet you find it very difficult to keep the weight off. Previous generations did not apparently have such difficulty and ate what seems to be much more than your allowance. I remember a pudding with every meal for example, although no wine etc (something that I have cut out)

I exercise by walking the dog for about 1hr 20mins in the morning, puffing up on the Downs, Hub does the evening stint. I do not look after the grandchildren every day but infrequently - we are just taking them off to Cornwall for their annual surfing week - but I do look after Mum. So I am not inactive.

I have lost over a stone and a half in the last six months and am now in the normal BMI (however flawed as a measure) category. A couple of inches gone from bust, waist and hips. Five foot four and size fourteen clothes a bit baggy. Cholesterol down and BP lower.
For breakfast I have home made muesli with nuts and dried fruit, full-fat yoghurt, toast, butter and marmalade. Bread is 70% wholemeal, 30% spelt.
Lunch is soup or salad or sometimes roll with egg, tuna or cheese as a rare treat, plus two pieces of fruit.
Dinner is small portion, meat, fish or vegetarian dish. Carbs will be low GI, pearled spelt, red rice, quinoa or new potatoes as a treat.
No sugar apart from breakfast marmalade. No cakes, puddings or biscuits ever. Carbs below 150g a day. Two small glasses of wine four days a week, milk on other days. Tea and coffee as normal. Use butter, eggs, olive oil (freely) and semi-skimmed milk.
All food freshly cooked making use of veg from the garden. Currently very excited by Iranian cuisine, use lots of herbs and spices and try new stuff all the time.
We love food and cooking and feel we have lost weight without compromising on quality or flavour.
Exercise is gardening, managing our large property, walking and keep fit class.
It seems to be working, weight loss has been pretty much a steady 1lb a week.

mamie sounds good to me! Really I am on line but think I need to tweek lunch as I think I have been overgenerous at that meal, perhaps having bread with the soup. I am with you with regard to food being freshly cooked - we never buy anything processed , and like you try all varieties of world cuisine.

Yes I am not really prepared to compromise on quality or flavour as I think cooking and eating are one of the great pleasures of life, and skills if it is done well.

mamie can I come and live with you that sounds perfect.

I have taken to making double quantity salads and eating the second half for lunch the next day. Last night and today's lunch was pearled spelt, preserved lemons, pistachio nuts, griddled courgettes, mint and goji berries in olive oil and lemon dressing. I used 100g of spelt so 25g per person per meal. Tonight's dinner is minestrone with about 50g of pasta in it. (We have a bit of a courgette mountain crisis).

Whitewave You must have magical powers to be able to tell from the postings who is thin and who is not.

Since you ask, I am a size 12 now, (I was 16 two years ago)but to maintain that I have to be really careful about what I eat.
My rules are
1. As little added sugar as possible - a very small glass if fruit juice with breakfast and a small home-made pudding with dinner, usually less than 10g sugar.
2. I eat 4 times a day. Main meals + 1 snack which is usually a banana, or cheese scone,taken either mid afternoon or last thing at night, depending on when dinner is. Absolutely nothing apart from that - no crisps, biscuits, cereal bars etc
3. Portion control.
4. Like Mamie I use liberal quantities of butter and olive oil.
I don't eat low-fat anything. The low-fat advice is now increasingly discredited, partly because low-fat stuff contains a lot of sugar and salt to make it palatable, and partly because it doesn't make you feel satisfied, so you feel hungry and snack before the next meal.
5. I drink lots of water.

This may not work for everyone but it works for me.

Aka I have this picture in my mind of you holding fat people down and lecturing them! Sorry but you made me laugh.

No idea how to educate people, I'll leave that to the experts but I don't think there is any other way of making people lose weight.

Mamie that sounds like a lot to me, I'm sure I would put on weight if I ate all that. This proves that each of us has to eat what is right for us. I love fruit and would eat far too much if I let myself go. Perhaps if we thought of ourselves as a car which needs an amount of fuel to work but if we overfill it pours all over the road. It depends on our own metabolism which we can't do a lot about. I go to the gym on average two or three times a week and work very hard for nearly 2 hours, mostly aerobic and at the highest heart rate for my age. I also do the garden which is quite big and go to pilates. This still means I can only eat less than most people so I do as I like to be healthy and like to look as good as I can. It is so easy for the fat to creep on and not notice it until you see a photo of yourself.

Nonnie, I think the point is that if you go really low carb and pretty much cut out sugar, then you will lose weight. Some diets cut out carbs completely and then you get dramatic weight loss, but I think that would be hard to sustain. You can keep eating butter, oil, meat etc. The quantities of carbs we eat are really small and the low GI helps as well. We have between about 1200 to 1400 calories a day in total.
We have continued to lose weight slowly over six months, so it seems to work.

My DH has just learned that he is now the same weight as a friend whom he considered rather fat. This was his wake-up call and he is now in the mood to lose weight. I think you need something to make you realise that it is time to take control rather than being told by the government.

Actually Nonnie just out of interest, and if you don't mind telling us, what do you eat? I think this sharing is quite helpful.

Yes mamie you are right I think sharing ideas is a really good idea, but also looking at what people do eat is making me think that we are all different in our needs as something like jane's diet would see me exploding.

I have been following a 1200 calorie by following mostly Good Housekeeping recipes which all give the calorie amount, but that hasn't been working so I am interested to hear everyone's experience and try out one that may work for me

I read quite a bit of Zoē Harcombe's stuff, but didn't actually use her diet. I can't help wondering if some people are buying low-fat stuff and thereby taking on a lot of extra sugar?
I firmly believe that sugar is the enemy, not fat.

Here's an example of the sort of thing I have been eating

It states that it is 350cals per serving so in line with my 1200cals per day

1oz pasta
1oz each carrot and asparagus
2oz broccoli
50g artichoke hearts
about 65mils cheese sauce
1/2 oz breadcrumbs mixed with tiny amount of sunflower seeds (it says 1/2 oz for 4) mixed with tspn olive oil topped with tspn parmesan

I will be having this tonight as I already have the ingredients but it is obviously not working for me