[Koukouvagia]

Swimsuit season has arrived and I'm sure most of us are struggling to lose a few pounds before we hit the beach and sport our summer clothes. But the truth is that foodies like me are preoccupied with eating the foods we love all year long to think about dieting. If we had a dollar for everytime the "butter vs. margarine" debate came up we'd be rich but here I am wishing I didn't defend butter so much.

I'm always amazed how celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay seem to stay so fit while cooking with butter every day. Any tips from skinny foodies out there on how you eat all the foods you love and still stay slim?

[Ishbel]

Whilst I love food - I eat only tiny portions of anything I cook! I also love to make cakes and puddings, but seldom eat them.

Gordon Ramsay keeps trim because when he's in London, he runs home after service every night, so that he can take part in the London (and other) marathon.

[amazingrace]

[QUOTE=Koukouvagia;267268]If we had a dollar for everytime the "butter vs. margarine" debate came up we'd be rich but here I am wishing I didn't defend butter so much. QUOTE]

Margarine is not diet food [I'm not sure it's food at all]. And in the big picture, butter might be better for you than margarine. In any event, butter tastes better and it's "real". For reduced caloric intake, skip them both.

[allie]

I'm no expert on eating healthy but I have lost 35 lbs since January. I still eat the things I love but in moderation. If I know we're having a cookout or will be eating a heavier dinner, I eat light at breakfast and lunch.....staying around 300 calories for those meals. Whichever meal is heavier, I balance out with smaller meals. I try to stick between 1330-1660 calories per day to lose 1 lb per week. For a while I did lose faster than that, especially when I went from drinking coffee with cream and sugar, then sweet tea the rest of the day. Now, I drink black coffee in the morning, switch to water, glass of sweet tea at dinner, and back to water. I feel soooo much better! Of course, exercising helps and with all the mowing and stuff I do, some days I can afford to splurge on calories a bit more. I wanted a new healthier, lifestyle I could stick to and this is working out great for me (and the rest of my family). I use SparkPeople to track my calories and fitness. I was a lot better about doing it regularly when I first started but now, don't always track on a daily basis. I've learned enough to stick pretty closely without the tracker crutch.

We eat lots of salads and other vegetables. Protein servings are small....actually more the recommended sizes than we used to eat. I don't make a lot of extras either so no seconds unless it's veggies. I've been a bit surprised at some of the foods I've made like lasagna using ground turkey (the 93% lean, not the cheap chub which isn't much different from plain ole ground beef). It's not nearly as many calories as I would have thought. I also track my fat, protein, carbs, calcium, and sodium intake.

[RPMcMurphy]

2000-2500 cals a day, sometimes even more.

run 40+ miles per week. (marathon/ultramarathon training)

weight is SIMPLE math....there are NO "tricks" its calorie intake and calorie burn.....figure out how many you burn a day, and eat less than that....you'll quickly learn that "empty" calorie foods aren't worth it.

caloriecount.about.com is helpful too, although there calculated BMR's etc. are usually off (on the high side)

every deficit of 3500 calories, is usually = 1lb.

So....if you burn typically 1800 calories a day, and intake 1500 a day......thats 2100 a week, so you'll loose like .75lbs a week.




p.s. Common myth due to stupid shows like biggest loser - you need to work out to the bring of dying to loose weight. WRONG...you're actually losing LESS weight. Get a heart rate monitor and stay in your aerobic zone (~75% max HR)...for some thats as simple as walking....for others its sprinting depending on your fitness level.

[amazingrace]

Dieting or not, exercise is important. Even though exercise does burn more calories than just sitting still, it also builds muscle, which is denser and weighs more per cubic inch than fat. So, if simply getting lower numbers on the scales is the goal, don't exercise. Understand, however, that you might get skinny, but you will still be flabby. On the other hand, if you want to be physically fit as well as lean, the only way to do that is to exercise along with eating healthy foods in healthy portions.

[allie]

Yep! The exercise is super important! I have a hard time walking out here in the country where there are no sidewalks. The slant of the roads makes my knee hurt badly.,,,afraid to even think of jogging/running. I have been biking instead. I also push mow my lawn once a week and do some mowing for others every other week or so. As long as it's not the same activity you already do everyday, it helps burn those calories.

I have gotten to the point of not wanting really sweet foods. Even my sweet tea isn't as sweet as it used to be. Drinking pop is something I only do a few times a month, if that, and really I don't want it anymore. My tastes have definitely changed over the past few months and healthier lighter foods are more satisfying than heavy calorie foods.

[Ishbel]

I walk a LOT. My home city is all hills. There are cobblestones. It can kill the unfit!

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by Ishbel

I walk a LOT. My home city is all hills. There are cobblestones. It can kill the unfit!

Och. Auld reekie.

BDL

[Ishbel]

Indeed!
When we have friends/rellies visiting, they often complain of pain in their calf muscles. I assure them this is nothing unusual, walking on those cobbles causes 'Edinburgh Leg'. I seriously think I should get my husband to offer an article on the topic to the BMJ!

[oldschool1982]

When I was a kid and later in life after I initially hurt my back, weight has been or was a problem. As a kid it was because of diet and believe it or not......stress. Had a lot as a kid but from nothing I'm comfortable sharing. However, I was active in sports (mostly weights but I did wrestle and play football), rode dirt bikes and even rode 3 10 speed bikes into the ground. One was even a Viscount V3000GS!

As an adult, I got pretty healthy, and really slimmed down. Still lifted weights but not like I once did because of the restaurant industry and it's hours. Bought one more bike and rode that as often as I could but again, the hours made it impossible. Played some golf (walked and pulled my bag often) even took up snow skiing and made a couple trips out west (Utah and AZ) for late winter/early spring skiing. Stress always messed with things as did the crazy hours and skipping or crazy meal times. Then I hurt my back, yet I recovered well, took up golf again, tried to ski, even took up roller blading all to stay healthy. Meds can really screw with you on weight and I certainly took my share to stay active.

Finally, the back beat me and it's been an even more difficult struggle ever since. Meds and the basic results of not being able to move well or at all from time to time, makes weight management almost impossible. We have made drastic changes in food but as Ishbel said I love food. Chef = love of food...... go figure.

I mentioned in another post about Weight Watchers. Believe it or not this is probably the best way to go.

First off, lets get this out there for discussion or dispute. Here we believe (and are trying to teach the DD) "A Diet" is not what you go on to lose weight. Basically because it's all diet or better put.... all about diet. If you eat food..........you're already on a diet. The difference is whether you eat healthy and balanced or off balance.

Counting points is a pain in the arse but it does teach you about the choices in food we make. It's just like counting calories but there's a bit more to it. Calories, fat grams and fiber grams all figure into the equation. When you only have a certain intake a day...at the moment I get 1500 daily calories with an additional 700 weekly as a bonus........ you think twice about those tater chips, fries, a slice of deep dish pizza, a hand full of cheez-its, a couple triscuits........actually everything. Well everything except veggies.

You can eat things like celery, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, broccoli, cauliflower and green beans by the bowl full. But things like potatoes, carrots, peas, legumes, corn, mushrooms you can't. Meats/seafoods and especially cheeses, you really have to be careful with as well. We eat more chicken than anything else now. Skinless legs and thighs all grilled or baked. Marinated but very little to no oil, little to no sauce. Burgers but the beef is 90,93 or leaner, top sirloin for whole steak but we still on the occasion have ribs or pulled shoulder. Only 2-3 bones or a small sands worth of pulled.....3oz. wt. . Pastas, breads, grains like rice, are all controlled as well but then again.....all I just mentioned above should be. All things in moderation is what this is teaches you but then you're shown how to moderate things.

Even before WW we didn't go crazy too crazy....although we ate out a lot more than we do now, but when you add it up, things like a 1lb a egg sand, even with 2% cheese and low fat ham for breakfast, a sand for lunch with chips and low fat mayo and dinner would be a box of pasta split between the 3 of us, salad and a couple slices of bread or....... a run up to even a place like our neighborhood Mexican place or Quizno's.........not the best for a healthy, balanced diet. Just needed to cut back on a couple of the choices.

My personal opinion is that Fat free stuff is not the best for you. Skim milk is about the only fat free, processed product that doesn't have something added to replace the fat to keep the volume. Reduced fat is better and what we have changed to. We just use less of it and less frequently.

In all honesty, we are human here. Hence why we are monitoring things more closely than we were just a few months ago. But that's life. Maybe before we leave this earth, we'll figure it out and not have to worry anymore but......as long as we age, have physical issues and.........eat.....Eating a healthy, balanced diet, will always be a challenge.

[Koukouvagia]

Moderation is probably key and like RMP says, it's simple math in the end. What is difficult though is reprogramming your body against certain things like sugar and salt. Sugar is added to everything, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup and that stuff is not only addictive, it's poison - sounds dramatic but that's how I think of it.

I agree about the low-fat and zero-fat food labels, if you're gonna eat something eat the real thing in moderation.

Sugar is sneaky though and watch out for things labled low fat etc. Check your milk for example. Compare the carbohydrate (sugar) content between Whole milk and skim milk...... less fat = more sugar! Those tricky ba*****s!

[Mezzaluna]

Wow... it's been a long time since we had a weight-related discussion here. I've been on one weight reduction regime or another for almost 50 years. To a great extent it is a "simple" equation that you have to burn up the calories you take in.

With respect, RPMcMurphy, it's "simple" for most people. But there are some of us with genetic considerations. For instance, if I eat 1,200 calories a day, and most of it is grains and other healty carbs, I won't lose weight. If I switch to a higher proportion of lean protein to make up that 1,200 calories, I do lose. A shorthand version of that way of eating is the South Beach Diet (skipping the first phase that's very low carb). My doctor's been on it for a couple of years.

One more variation: I am on lots of medication for a condition that's like lupus. The nastiest of them is prednisone, which I've been on for over 2 years. I'm eating now more as Ishbel describes (between 900 and 1100 calories per day) and, since I'm now to just a few milligrams, I am losing weight at last. (I gained.... well, a LOT over those 2 years.) Exercise will come when asthma is better controlled. (Before all this, I was well on the way to being fit and slimmer.)

So those who want to "kill the unfit" (sorry, Ishbel) may want to withhold that judgement.

[Ishbel]

No.... Mezzalun, you misunderstood my comment - I don't want to kill the unfit. THE COBBLESTONES will do that to anyone not used to walking up our hills!

I have various medical conditions, including insulin-dependant diabetes and asthma (and a few more, but I'm not going to bore anyone with my medical history) - so I do know how bad prednisolone (as it is known in Europe) can be for dieters - I can only reiterate, the only way I can stay at a reasonable weight is to eat little portions and keep walking around those killer hills!

[MaryB]

Being a long time back pain sufferer I have gained a lot of weight even though I do eat fairly healthy. Sugar is my downfall and I am cutting it from my diet. Just had a lumbar decompression surgery on Monday so I am eating leftovers from the freezer until my back gets better.