Rosemary Conley - how to lose weight and get fit

A big thank you to everyone at Gransnet for your lovely comments and questions. I hope my answers will help you and I wish you well as you stay fit and healthy in this exciting time of our life.

shysal

Hello Rosemary, you are still looking fabulous!
After weight gain due to a thyroid problem, I successfully lost 3.5 stone a couple of years ago, by dieting on alternate days. I then reached a plateau and have maintained since. I still have more to lose, so managed to shed a stone before Christmas by the same method, but again have reached a standstill. Do you have a strategy in your plan to kick-start weight loss again when it grinds to a halt?
I walk 12-15,000 steps a day and do 4 or 5 main-stream exercise classes a week, which is probably as much as I can manage, at almost 70 years of age.

First of all, very well done for achieving so many steps each day. That is brilliant! Also well done for losing your weight and I wish you well as you work toward losing that last bit. I think you will find the 3-2-1 Diet very helpful to you. The light days are very manageable and with your levels of activity I honestly think you can kick-start your weight-loss once more. Just go steady with your food on the ‘normal’ days.

dirgni

I've always tried to eat a healthy diet and recently have lost about a stone by cutting out sugar,cutting back on fat and reducing portion sizes. However I've never managed to get rid of my porky stomach. I do Pilates but have to be careful with exercise as I have a bad back. ( herniated lumber disc) Any suggestions?

Well done for losing a stone so far. We can help reduce the fat on our stomach with stomach exercises but due to your back problems you have to be careful. I would suggest you get into the habit of continually holding your stomach in and developing you stomach muscles that way. By so doing, you will also help to support your back. So, sit up or stand up tall, and pull in as often as you can anywhere, any time!

WilmaKnickersfit

I have bought so many books and videos by Rosemary - even managed to buy the same book twice some how!

The 'Look inside' option is not available (yet?) for the new book on Amazon and I wondered about the format the new diet. Is it shown as a meal plan for each day for a set number of days, or are meals grouped for a pick and mix menu option?

I hope it's the pick and mix option!

^Rosemary do you think supplements are a good idea for older people following your diets?^

The 3-2-1 Diet is definitely a pick and mix type diet. And whilst there are three diets within the book (for Grazers, Feasters and Comfort Eaters) they are all interchangeable so you can just choose which ones you want.

On the subject of supplements, yes, I am a fan. I take glucosamine, omega 3 and multivitamins, plus a probiotic. I buy mine from healthspan.co.uk.

etheltbags1

I just want to be able to resist sweet things, I have put on a stone over xmas and I have a habit of eating chocolate every hour. At night I don't have a huge meal but can eat 2 cream cakes, a bar of chocolate, a bag of nuts and several biscuits. I excersise every day but just cant stop the craving for sugar, if I don't eat sugar I get dizzy and shaky. Anyone have any ideas why I get this apart from a sugar addiction.
Tonight I have had no snacks and am almost 'crawling up the wall' for a fix of sugar.

Please read my answer to marionh above. Try having a bit of sugar in your tea or coffee and I am sure you will find you can manage your cravings much better. Eat three meals every day and try to avoid snacks between meals. You might like my Comfort Eaters diet in my new 3-2-1 Diet as that is designed for people like you.

gram6169

Having been a vegetarian for over 40 years, I am finding that lentils, chickpeas and other staples like nuts now tend to give me wind! Quorn is also rather bloating, and as I suffer from migraines I had to give up cheese and chocolate many moons ago.
My question to Rosemary is:
I wonder if she could come up with a modern diet book for veggies as I loved her hip and thigh book, but the vegetarian recipes are now a bit dated. I also am finding joint pain is stopping me from prancing about too much which is adding to the bulk around the middle. A more gentler routine to start like gilliangillian suggested would be great too. Many thanks.

My new 3-2-1 Diet offers lots of lovely vegetarian recipes so please do have a look. They are very modern and very scrumptious.
Eating lots of high-fibre legumes and pulses will, unfortunately, tend to produce some wind and our body does seem to make more as we get older which can be a nuisance. The joys of advancing years! On the exercise front, all of my videos offer an easy option throughout the workouts and my Ultimate Whole Body Workout does include a chair workout. Check our website for more details. www.rosearyconley.com. What is really important though, is that as we get older we must keep moving and keep ourselves fit. As the saying goes - If we don’t use it we really will lose it!

bazandclare

You look amazing Rosemary. Is this because you always practice what you preach - or do you have the occasional splurge? Are there any things you just couldn't give up? And if so how have you been able to work around them. I think this is the problem with many diets is that they are too forbidding which makes you crave other stuff all the more

Thank you for your kind words. I do practise what I preach – I eat healthily and I am quite active though I enjoy a glass of wine or two and the occasional treat but the bottom line is I want to be slim more than I want that chocolate bar. I agree that some diets are just too strict which is why I have created the 3-2-1 Diet as I hope it will encourage people to be more confident in their eating and create a healthy lifestyle without really thinking about it.

marionh

I have a sweet tooth and although I eat well I find it impossible to get through the day without a sweet treat. I have managed to lose weight by working around this but I would like to ask Rosemary two questions if I may

1) how hard is it to educate yourself to not feel like this? I have tried and failed many times

2) is sugar really the evil that everyone says when consumed in moderation? Giving up sugar seems to be 'the thing' these days but I don't see why it has to be all or nothing

Thank you

I too have a sweet tooth and I manage my cravings by having sugar in my tea. Shock horror I know but it works for me – and it isn’t making me fat as I weigh 8 stone and am a size 8! The sugar debate is an interesting one. A bit of sugar is fine but the problem that is trying to be addressed by the government is the vast amount of sugar contained within high-sugar soft drinks, in confectionary and many other products.

I suggest you try having half a spoonful of sugar in your tea or coffee and see if that is sufficient to satisfy your cravings. We burn that little bit of sugar off very easily if we are active – which I am – as it is just pure carbohydrate which gives us energy.

chewit

My question was similar to chelseababy's about the 5:2 so I am interested to see the answer to that.

I would also like to ask how to manage the low calorie days without getting hungry or (more importantly) feeling unwell. I eat a pretty healthy diet generally and try to stick to 1200-1500 calories as I am trying to lose a stone and this seems to work for me. I feel fine doing this. But if I eat less I get light headed and feel nauseous - this has put me off the 5:2 but I think 800 calories would have the same effect

I do understand that some people can feel light-headed or even nauseous on 500 calories. You will find 800 calories very different and as you are only doing one light day at a time - between normal eating days - I am confident you will find it easier than you think. Also, the foods I have included for the light days are very carefully selected to help keep you feeling fuller for longer.

chelseababy

Just been looking online for a local RC class but there only seems to be online membership now. Is this nationwide or just where I live?

We no longer run classes nationally. When we ceased running our franchise business in 2014 the classes were handed back to the instructors who may still be running them but they will not be called Rosemary Conley classes. If they were one of our franchisees and are running classes you can be confident that they will be very competent instructors.

chelseababy

The new diet sounds a bit like the 5:2 with 6:1 for maintenance. Higher calories but are there any other differences Rosemary?

My new 3-2-1 Diet is quite different from the 5;2 Diet insofar as it includes diets designed for your eating-personality-type. With a quiz to help you find out whether you are a Grazer, a Feaster or a Comfort Eater, you will find the diet that is perfect for you. The ‘light’ days of 800 calories, rather than 500 calorie fasting days, are infinitely more generous but offer very carefully designed menus to keep you feeling fuller for longer and to give you enough energy every day. The 30 minutes of exercise recommended will really help speed up your weight loss too. Another big difference between the 3-2-1 Diet and the 5:2 is that on the ‘normal’ days in between the ‘light’ days I recommend you eat healthy foods and not just anything you fancy. This helps to re-educate followers toward confident healthy eating in the long term.

geordiejock

hi, iam 60 yrs old been dieting since age 16, used to be able to loose weight around 7lbs in three weeks. I am quite active do 5 aquafit classes a week, line dancing, dancersize class. all last for 45/60 mins . also on a day its not raining I walk to classes. I watch what I eat eat healthly, also been on various well know diets. I know feel no diet works for me at all. don't really like sweet foods. My son is getting married on 17th sept this year I would dearly loved to be 9st 10. by the way I'm 11st 9 and 5ft 1. can you help me rosemary please.

It sounds like you already do a lot that’s really healthy and you obviously love exercise which is great. If you are doing all that activity and eating healthily the only thing you are doing wrong is eating too much of the good healthy food. Why not try my new 3-2-1 Diet? (Available from Amazon or rosemaryconley.com). I think it would fit in well with your life and you would be able to lose your unwanted pounds in time for your son’s wedding.

gilliangillian

would Rosemary consider bringing out an extremely low impact exercise video?

Some of us suffer joint pains etc, and cannot start from scratch with a jumping about video. I used to follow her videos where some poor woman would be sat at the back of the video doing the exercises from a chair, but I would rather that all the participants were equally slow and gentle on screen.

some of us just need something to start with something slow to build up our muscles and stamina and confidence.

I already have a chair workout within my Ultimate Whole Body Workout DVD which is available from rosemaryconley.com. In addition, all of my DVDs offer a very gentle option for those who are less mobile or fit. We also offer a variety of videos to members of Rosemary Conley Online which offer workouts for members with a bad back, women who have had breast surgery or even just had a baby. There really is something for everyone.

appygran

I am another one who found the combination of diet and exercise classes worked well for me. It was a shame that the local RC groups no longer exist. The one I attended was taken over by the local franchisee and I continued to attend for a while but it changed quite significantly. The diet recommendations kept changing in line with current thinking and the exercise classes now seem to be dominated by competitive gym bunnies.

However I notice that Rosemary Conley still has an on-line club, perhaps I should rejoin and give it another go. (Originally lost 3.5 stone but have regained 1.5). I also have a load of RC dvds, Just going to hunt them down and then dance round the living room.

A question for Rosemary:

How successful are people who use an on-line slimming site compared to those who attend a weekly class?

It’s an interesting question – and it’s a bit like asking someone if they are more successful going to a supermarket to shop or ordering online. They are different. Classes are very effective but you only go once a week and whilst being with other members and being encouraged by everyone there, it is only once a week. At Rosemary Conley Online you have access to the site 24/7 anywhere in the world providing you have wifi. We have a team of qualified coaches available at the click of a button to answer your questions and give you encouragement and we have over 2000 videos of exercises, cookery demos, interviews and advice from top experts such as Dr Hilary Jones, Prof. Susan Jebb and Prof. Raj Persaud plus you get my daily Motivational Minute and my Daily Fitness Challenge so there’s something new every day. The weight losses achieved by both classes and online are significant but in the end it boils down to convenience and choice. Both work really well.

Tegan

Same here; got her books and videos all over the place. As someone who has never been particularly overweight I found the diet interesting because my weight has always been in my thighs and, no matter how thin I was [7st at one point] my legs were always huge. I did find that sticking to the diet resulted in my skin, hair and nails becoming very dry though so moved on [theneverendingdiet] and someone did tell me to actually put on weight which would make me more in proportion. Need advice on where to go now as a 64 year old that still has huge legs .

Low fat eating and exercise are the only way to shift those inches from our thighs. Low fat eating will help keep your body leaner as the fat we eat is very easily stored as fat on our body. If we eat less fat, we store less. Next, really work those legs. We burn body fat through our muscles and the stronger the muscles in your legs the better they will be at fat-burning. I have seriously trimmed my own leg through ice-skating but you can do it through walking, cycling, Pilates, playing sport like tennis, and dancing. They all help.