Families need more help with tackling childhood obesity?!

[walm]

Derek Smith said:

I'm loosing less than 2lb a month but the problem is that if I have a meal out, the loss stops. I'm a fair bit slimmer since I've been back to the gym, losing 2" off my waist, but that's down to stomach strengthening exercises to relieve a back problem.

That sounds like good progress congrats! It's a kilo a month - so in a year you would have lost two stone!
However, I bet that 2in off the waist is nothing to do with your stomach muscles and much more to do with the weight loss.

Also are you 100% sure the headache isn't dehydration?

[Halb]

Yes, I think the truly obese adults have some sort of psychological problem, which they need help with.


Just had some quark and a quest bar.

[Mr Whippy]

Derek Smith said:

Mr Whippy said:

KTF said:

Derek Smith said:

There's more to this weight loss thingy than meets the eye.

What did you eat/drink over the weekend - inc snacks, etc. or on a typical day?

Not just what you consume, but what you DO.

I'd argue exercise is more important than diet.

Today, my breafast was cereal with <1/3rd pnt skimmed milk and a banana. An hour or so later I had a pear. I then went to the gym for a 50 min workout. I normally do some floor work but I've had a minor op on my arm and mustn't put any weight on it, so it was mainly cardio. I felt a bit of a headache, a sign of low blood sugar, so I had a Starburst, chosen as I don't really like them, but binned it after less than half eaten.

Coffee, meaning a medium skinny latte. Lunch was a bit of chicken breast, no skin, about the size of half a slice of normal sized bread and some egg fried rice. More tasty than it sounds as I was feeling hungry.

Around four I sometime have a very small bar, the smallest available, of chocolate, but won't today as I've had a sweet.

Tonight I'll have a bit of toast with jam probably, a sort of treat.

On Sunday I really pigged out with a sandwich for lunch, ham and cheese, and a small packet of crisps. I was watching a rugby match and was moving up and down the touch line following the play for about 60% of the time. Saturday is a normal day for food.

When I eat out I might try and pig out, say ordering a steak pie, but that means I will not have a pudding as I'll be full up. The only thing I've noticed about slimming is that my stomach is smaller.

I'm loosing less than 2lb a month but the problem is that if I have a meal out, the loss stops. I'm a fair bit slimmer since I've been back to the gym, losing 2" off my waist, but that's down to stomach strengthening exercises to relieve a back problem.

I walk into town three times a week, about a mile and a half round trip. One day or more a week we babysit two grandchildren. On those days I feel so tired I go to bed early.

My elder daughter works at a computer all day for four days a week. She is as slim as I used to be. She has what has been called a 'healthy appetite', and at a recent BBQ she ate more than anyone else there, including her husband. (It makes you wonder how she retains her girlfriends.)

My son's a personal trainer and works with excluded children, so exercise all day and every day. You would not credit his calorie intake. At a family meal I ordered a medium rack of ribs and gave him half of mine. My son-in-law ordered a large rack and gave half of his to my lad. My lad's partner ordered a large rack of ribs at his request so he could eat the majority of her meal - and she's a kick-boxer. Yet he has no fat on him.

So lots of confusing differences there.

My lad, the personal trainer, went through my food to eliminate fat, salt and sugar. All he could come up with was not eating the skin of chicken and a different make of sausages.

If I'd eaten what I eat now as a 20-year-old I'd have died within a fortnight. When I was cycling regularly, I'd eat three times the amount I do now, and a lot of chicken skin I can tell you.

I've been told by a self-style nutritionist (yeah, I know but . . .) and she reckoned that as one ages, there's a drop in metabolic rate and brown fatty tissue. I'll buy the first but I don't think I've lost any fat.

I don't drink alcohol. I drink tea without milk and I don't drink juices. If I'm out for the evening, I'll have water, bubbly stuff.

I feel I should be the epitome of perfect weight for height. I'm fat though. And more than a little irritated with slim people who suggest that they 'check what I eat'.

I'm not sure on specifics, but this seems so harsh and complicated on yourself.

If this hardly works to just sustain where you want to be, it's only going to get harder.

Now, if you're happy looking the way you do, and eating what you do, then you're winning. Yay.

If you're happy looking the way you do, but not eating what you do, then the only way to enjoy food more is to exercise more.



Two very simple options to resolve the issue, but not the only two.


Be easier on yourself and just enjoy food and life and go with the flow. Cheat days are worth enjoying once a week, if that is enough to give you the cravings you need.

Get a job where you can be really active all day, and then probably enjoy your entire life more, including the foods you eat.



Personally I believe that if you put the diet ahead of the body, then the body gives you what the diet allows.

So your BMR is probably way low because your body thinks you're living where there is no decent food.

If you starve yourself and your muscles deplete and your BMR drops, then it's a negative feedback loop?!

Especially as you get older, muscle mass drops, and so starving yourself is probably compounding the issue of muscle mass and thus BMR dropping?!


Hmmmm

Dave

[Derek Smith]

Mr Whippy said:

I'm not sure on specifics, but this seems so harsh and complicated on yourself.

If this hardly works to just sustain where you want to be, it's only going to get harder.

Now, if you're happy looking the way you do, and eating what you do, then you're winning. Yay.

If you're happy looking the way you do, but not eating what you do, then the only way to enjoy food more is to exercise more.



Two very simple options to resolve the issue, but not the only two.


Be easier on yourself and just enjoy food and life and go with the flow. Cheat days are worth enjoying once a week, if that is enough to give you the cravings you need.

Get a job where you can be really active all day, and then probably enjoy your entire life more, including the foods you eat.



Personally I believe that if you put the diet ahead of the body, then the body gives you what the diet allows.

So your BMR is probably way low because your body thinks you're living where there is no decent food.

If you starve yourself and your muscles deplete and your BMR drops, then it's a negative feedback loop?!

Especially as you get older, muscle mass drops, and so starving yourself is probably compounding the issue of muscle mass and thus BMR dropping?!


Hmmmm

Dave

I enjoy the gym. As I said, I was ill and I've also injured my back so cycling is out. I now feel better than I did 12 years ago when the illness started so the gym is great, and 150 minutes a week is hardly restrictive.

I was aware that I would have to look forward to muscle mass dropping but the odd thing is that it is partial. I started cycling 60 years ago this xmas and by the time I was cycling to the senior school my thighs were massive. I looked a little out of proportion, and after this was pointed out by a girlfriend I started to work my upper body and looked more or less balanced by the time I was 21.

My legs are still massive but I've lost a lot of the arm muscle mass, and particularly across the shoulders.

I write as a job and as a hobby but I'm still fairly active, certainly more than most blokes around my age where I live. My back problem stops me doing more so that option is out.

I eat well; good quality food, enough protein and possibly too much fruit. I don't see myself as starving as I'm not losing weight.

My best weight when a teen was 13 stone 2 and that slowly went up to 14.5 over the years. I was happy at that weight. I felt good and I had lots of stamina. So that was my imagined target. 2lbs a month means a long weight.

I accept what you say. Indeed that was the point of my first post; there is more to losing weight than simple arithmetic.

I used to be able to shed weight easily. I used to put on three or four pound over the summer and then get rid of it in a couple of weeks.

I supposed I'm complaining about getting old. I mean, my feet have gone up a size. I've had to throw four pairs of shoes away, some in excellent condition. Also my only black pair so I have no idea what to do if someone dies. Funerals seem more frequent nowadays.

[Halb]

Derek Smith said:

I accept what you say. Indeed that was the point of my first post; there is more to losing weight than simple arithmetic.

I used to be able to shed weight easily. I used to put on three or four pound over the summer and then get rid of it in a couple of weeks.

I supposed I'm complaining about getting old. I mean, my feet have gone up a size. I've had to throw four pairs of shoes away, some in excellent condition. Also my only black pair so I have no idea what to do if someone dies. Funerals seem more frequent nowadays.

Shoes have gone up a size?


Also, with a son as a PT, you probably have access to some very good advice.

[otolith]

Derek Smith said:

Today, my breafast was cereal with <1/3rd pnt skimmed milk and a banana. An hour or so later I had a pear. I then went to the gym for a 50 min workout. I normally do some floor work but I've had a minor op on my arm and mustn't put any weight on it, so it was mainly cardio. I felt a bit of a headache, a sign of low blood sugar, so I had a Starburst, chosen as I don't really like them, but binned it after less than half eaten.

Coffee, meaning a medium skinny latte. Lunch was a bit of chicken breast, no skin, about the size of half a slice of normal sized bread and some egg fried rice. More tasty than it sounds as I was feeling hungry.

Around four I sometime have a very small bar, the smallest available, of chocolate, but won't today as I've had a sweet.

Tonight I'll have a bit of toast with jam probably, a sort of treat.

Did you weigh the cereal? And the rice?

This really pisses me off. This is a still from an Alpen advert.



This is an actual official sized portion of the stuff, 140-ish calories of it - the bowl on the right.



Easy to see how people pour themselves a 500 calorie breakfast without even being aware of it.

Seems to me that you had a breakfast of mostly starch and sugar, a lunch of starch and a little bit of protein and a dinner of more starch and sugar. You might find that you are less hungry if you eat less carbohydrate, less sugar and more protein.

[KTF]

Derek Smith said:

Today

Today you are going to eat/eaten:

Breakfast - Cereal with <1/3rd pnt skimmed milk and a banana.

Mid-morning snack - A pear + half eaten Starburst + Coffee.

Lunch - Chicken breast, no skin, half a slice of normal sized bread and some egg fried rice.

Dinner - Toast with jam

Is that a normal day because that doesnt sound like a healthy balanced diet to me?

[Mr Whippy]

Derek Smith said:

Mr Whippy said:

I'm not sure on specifics, but this seems so harsh and complicated on yourself.

If this hardly works to just sustain where you want to be, it's only going to get harder.

Now, if you're happy looking the way you do, and eating what you do, then you're winning. Yay.

If you're happy looking the way you do, but not eating what you do, then the only way to enjoy food more is to exercise more.



Two very simple options to resolve the issue, but not the only two.


Be easier on yourself and just enjoy food and life and go with the flow. Cheat days are worth enjoying once a week, if that is enough to give you the cravings you need.

Get a job where you can be really active all day, and then probably enjoy your entire life more, including the foods you eat.



Personally I believe that if you put the diet ahead of the body, then the body gives you what the diet allows.

So your BMR is probably way low because your body thinks you're living where there is no decent food.

If you starve yourself and your muscles deplete and your BMR drops, then it's a negative feedback loop?!

Especially as you get older, muscle mass drops, and so starving yourself is probably compounding the issue of muscle mass and thus BMR dropping?!


Hmmmm

Dave

I enjoy the gym. As I said, I was ill and I've also injured my back so cycling is out. I now feel better than I did 12 years ago when the illness started so the gym is great, and 150 minutes a week is hardly restrictive.

I was aware that I would have to look forward to muscle mass dropping but the odd thing is that it is partial. I started cycling 60 years ago this xmas and by the time I was cycling to the senior school my thighs were massive. I looked a little out of proportion, and after this was pointed out by a girlfriend I started to work my upper body and looked more or less balanced by the time I was 21.

My legs are still massive but I've lost a lot of the arm muscle mass, and particularly across the shoulders.

I write as a job and as a hobby but I'm still fairly active, certainly more than most blokes around my age where I live. My back problem stops me doing more so that option is out.

I eat well; good quality food, enough protein and possibly too much fruit. I don't see myself as starving as I'm not losing weight.

My best weight when a teen was 13 stone 2 and that slowly went up to 14.5 over the years. I was happy at that weight. I felt good and I had lots of stamina. So that was my imagined target. 2lbs a month means a long weight.

I accept what you say. Indeed that was the point of my first post; there is more to losing weight than simple arithmetic.

I used to be able to shed weight easily. I used to put on three or four pound over the summer and then get rid of it in a couple of weeks.

I supposed I'm complaining about getting old. I mean, my feet have gone up a size. I've had to throw four pairs of shoes away, some in excellent condition. Also my only black pair so I have no idea what to do if someone dies. Funerals seem more frequent nowadays.

I'm guessing you're into your 70s, if not then getting close!

At that point I'll see every day as a blessing and enjoy food, exercise and the lot. You'll end up looking however you look

As long as you're happy I wouldn't change a thing

If I were in your position by my 70s I'd just be a miser with my diet for health and weight, alongside exercise. Then I'd enjoy a reasonable cheat day every 10 days or so!

Dave

[Justayellowbadge]

Warning - anecdotal content.

I had a busy summer workwise, and walked between 20 & 25 miles every day of June and July barring 3 rest days.

Without significantly changing my diet I lost a little over 2 stone in that period.

[Thankyou4calling]

Halb said:

Shoes have gone up a size?


Also, with a son as a PT, you probably have access to some very good advice.

Most Personal Trainers are woeful to be honest (don't know about Dereks son)

But as a job it really does attract some thickos.

[Halb]

Thankyou4calling said:

Most Personal Trainers are woeful to be honest (don't know about Dereks son)

But as a job it really does attract some thickos.

I did consider that as I typed it, but I also reckon Derek would be a good judge of whether someone was capable or not.

[Mr Whippy]

Justayellowbadge said:

Without significantly changing my diet I lost a little over 2 stone in that period.

How did your appetite change?

Did you feel like you wanted to eat more, or did you find yourself being more content with what you'd eaten?

[Justayellowbadge]

Mr Whippy said:

How did your appetite change?

It didn't really.

Long days, so my coffee intake was way up, and, tbf, booze was down, which contributed, I'm sure.

[jjlynn27]

otolith said:

Did you weigh the cereal? And the rice?

This really pisses me off. This is a still from an Alpen advert.



This is an actual official sized portion of the stuff, 140-ish calories of it - the bowl on the right.



Easy to see how people pour themselves a 500 calorie breakfast without even being aware of it.

Seems to me that you had a breakfast of mostly starch and sugar, a lunch of starch and a little bit of protein and a dinner of more starch and sugar. You might find that you are less hungry if you eat less carbohydrate, less sugar and more protein.

Not much to add, but thanks for posting that, my bowl portions of cereals was nothing like those. Again, thanks.

[Halb]

Do you know those stty lil miniboxes of cereal, the ones that you need three of for a meal..that's a portion!

[otolith]

jjlynn27 said:

Not much to add, but thanks for posting that, my bowl portions of cereals was nothing like those. Again, thanks.

Hardly anybody's are!

[KTF]

Alpen Muesli and its like is also normally loaded with sugar. It's far from the 'healthy' option.

[B'stard Child]

Halb said:

How old was the other banana to make a drink that green???

[Derek Smith]

walm said:

Derek Smith said:

I'm loosing less than 2lb a month but the problem is that if I have a meal out, the loss stops. I'm a fair bit slimmer since I've been back to the gym, losing 2" off my waist, but that's down to stomach strengthening exercises to relieve a back problem.

Also are you 100% sure the headache isn't dehydration?

Thanks for the help.

Yes, I am. I used to think it was dehydration because it started after vigorous exercise. It wasn't debilitating, just irritating. But I also used to feel exhausted after cycling the 20 miles off-road to work. I thought that was normal. I once fell asleep at work, headbutting the computer. I sat up hoping no one had noticed but I had blood running down the side of my face. I was normally OK after my morning coffee and bun. I thought no more about it. I thought everyone had the same problem but were just better at covering it up than I was. I had a secretary once who would not speak with me until after I'd had my morning break. I thought it was because she felt a bit off in the mornings but now I realise it was me. She was brilliant, running my office and eight staff with hardly a ripple. I was trying to find her on Facebook when I discovered my problem just so I could check that was the reason and apologise to her.

I got a new doctor. He hasn't had all the keenness knocked out of him by the system. Two previous doctors told me there was nothing they could do about my back. This doctor sent me for a CT scan, came back with a diagnosis and sent me to back classes. A significant improvement, although the prognosis isn't wonderful. I now have regular blood tests. On two consecutive ones the sugar levels were low. I had the month's test where you stick pins in your finger and only occasionally forget which one you did it in last. The doctor's a bit miffed that I haven't got it more seriously as there's only 5000 or so nationally.

My levels drop quite low after exercise but I can still function. So I now suck a sweet and everything's OK. I'm fine in reality. If only every problem was solved by sucking a sweet.

I used to get headaches driving home from away rugby matches. I put it down to headlight glare and used to stop at services, have a bite to eat with a coffee and then go on, feeling better. Now I eat a little bit of chocolate at the ground before starting back and I'm clear of it. I wish I'd known about it years ago, but at least I know about it now. I'm told it's unlikely to develop to the full bloodied type because of my age.

I now have at most two Starbursts a week - I chose them as I don't like them so I'm not tempted to pick - and a small bar of chocolate if I'm driving anywhere after exercise, never more than two a week. One time I'd finished exercising at the gym but felt the headache. I had a Starburst in my pocket, where I squashed in during mat work so it wasn't easy to open. I was fiddling with it then looked up to find the bloke next to me, one of the body beautiful brigade who stare into mirrors all the time, staring at me. Spooky. I popped the sweet in my mouth and said to him: 'It's one of my five a day.' He didn't react in any way.

I'm as normal as most people in fact.

My lad's a bit nervous about giving me advice due to my back problems. The trainer I've got had a view of my notes and has had a chat with the doctor at the hospital.

One thing I've noticed with the exercise; I sweat more, even when not at the gym. I used to be like that when I cycled a lot. I'd start sweating getting a bike down from its stand, presumably in anticipation. I used to drink lots and lots of water and I'm beginning to do that again. I feel younger. Not young you understand, just younger.

[otolith]

KTF said:

Alpen Muesli and its like is also normally loaded with sugar. It's far from the 'healthy' option.

And unfortunately the versions that aren't taste like rabbit food. It's the sugar and skimmed milk powder.

Like all these things, it's got to be taken in context. The sugar isn't necessarily a problem, but it is if everything else you eat is full of the stuff.

For me, it's not tasty or filling enough to be worth the calories in it.