Anyone want an easy way to lose weight without pills exercise or strange foods?

[Sarge]

Hi Sarge,

The most important advice of all is that if you have a medical condition, then you must listen to the doctor's advice about your eating habits,, of course ,and especially with diabetes.
So don't follow my tips unless that matches your strict and sensible diet!!!

I am glad that you have found a routine that works for you, that can be hard to do, so well done.

My brother had type 1 diabetes and completely ignored the medical advice about food, he dies at the age of 38 due directly to him deliberately ignoring the doctor's advice.

So stick with it and stay healthy.

I will buy a copy of my own book, sign it and send it to you. It is the least I can do for all of the help you contribute to this great forum.

Steve B

Very sorry to hear about your Brother Pal, 38 is far too young to go, very saddening.


Thank you for the book offer.



Cheers
Sarge

 

[Birchall]

Hi,

I just thought I would add another section on the diet.

The following does NOT apply to anyone who is Diabetic, or thinks they may be.

Sugar !!!!!!!!!

Most diets see sugar as the worst possible thing you can eat and blame it for weight gain.

There is SOME truth in that but not for the reasons you might imagine.

Some facts

Sugar is a plant extract (sugar cane)
Sugar contains no fat
Sugar is almost pure energy and the body cannot store it as fat.

The last point helps to explain why some children become hyper-active after eating sweets (too many sweets).
Since it is almost pure energy and the body cannot store it, when there is too much of it the body finds clever ways to burn it up. In adults it can mean that you just become irritable and can't sit still. With children they feel this only more so (because of their smaller body weight sugar affects thenm eben more and so they tend to become active while the body it trying to burn it off)

But sugar DOES make you fat, but not in the way you think.

Firstly, lets look at a very important scientific fact that can't be disputed. That is that it is impossible to create mass (weight) from nothing.
So if you eat ANYTHING (sugar included) that can only add a MAXIMUM of the weight of that to your body.
So for example, having two spoonfuls of sugar to your tea can only ever add the weight of the two spoons of sugar to your body weight!!!
There is no way that it can multiply into more weight, that is scientifically impossible.

So if this is true, how can sugar harm a weight loss program? Well if you were just eating the sugar it can't (but it wouldn't be very good for you healthwise).
The way that sugar can harm your weight loss, is as follows.

It depends on what you have to eat WITH the sugar that is the problem.
So if you have a large meal and then follow it with something with lots of sugar in it, your body can use the energy that it gets from the sugar and so it can store the food (as fat) for later!!!

So a chocolate bar is not a bad thing (within reason) assuming that you are not diabetic of course.
But your body will store the fat in the chocolate and use the energy from the sugar. having said that, fat is a fuel for the body and so there is no need to avoid fat altogether, just be sensible.

The beauty of a little sugar, in moderation, is that it contains so much energy and can't add fat by itself, therefore it is actually good for a diet, if used correctly.
For example a boiled sweet would give you energy without adding fat and so it is a great way to keep you going in between snacks / meals. It gives you the energy you need as fuel and does not store any more fat.
A chocolate bar (a small one) is OK when you crave it, as long as you don't eat anything with it and wait until you feel hungry again before eating anything.

If you are diabetic, sugar is almost like a poison and has to be balanced against insulin, which, as a diabetic your body is not producing in the right quantities.

But if you are not diabetic, sugar is a pure form of energy.

In fact I had a few colleagues who had problems putting weight ON, no matter what they did they just couldn't increase their weight and they were embarrassed about going to the beach etc.
So I recommended that when they have a meal, have something sweet with it. After all, that is why we crave a desert after a nice meal, our body is trying to ensure that we have enough energy and fat to keep us healthy!!!


So use sugar wisely and don't avoid it just because you are trying to lose weight.

Again, unless you are diabetic or have been told to avoid sugar by your doctor!!

next subject will be WATER and how excessive water is actually BAD for weight loss (eat when you are hungry and drink when you are thirsty and you won't go too far wrong)

Steve B

 

[Teresa]

hi Steve. I've come over to here
The science Side of things is very interesting. I started working in a science institute this year (I'm in HR rather than a scientists, I hasten to add), and they do lots of research into this. There's so much they are finding out and you are right that sugar is a key issue. it's absolutely fascinating and I have started reading their papers and trying a few things out.
I am very Taurean though and we do like our social lives and fine food

 

[Birchall]

Yes,

The reason I developed this diet is because I LOVE my food and don't eat diet foods (they seem a waste of time, also I am not "into" Exercise. SO the normal diets were no use to me.

Also I am not one to just follow advice blindly, I need to know WHY I have to do whatever is advised.


So I wrote the diet and published it!

Steve B

 

[Mightyleader]

Before anyone asks what this has to do with A2s (or any car) I have posted this in the "Relaxation room" section !!!!

What I have done is as follows

I LOVE my food (almost as much as I love A2s !!!) and that lead to me to tip the scales at 16.5 stone (that is 105 KILOS!) so I decided to lose some weight.

Firstly I had tried exercise but became bored of it very quickly and gave up, so I wanted to lose weight without exercising. Exercise is VITAL for health but not a great way to lose weight, especially if you get bored of it easily.
Secondly I LOVE my food, it is one of life's pleasures and I was not going to eat "cabbage soup" etc. (what happens when you have lost your weight, what do you eat then to keep it off!!!

So it dawned on me that, as a computer software consultant I have to analyse problems every day and so I analysed the reasons for gaining weight.

I tried it and lost over 3 stone (around 20 kilos !!) in three months, with NO PILLS, no fierce exercise regime but being active, no weird foods, no calorie counting etc.

The calorie counting is absolutely a waste of time, do you know how they calculate calories in foods etc?

THEY BURN IT !!! So for a can of coke (for example) they freeze dry it, put the solids into a glass container, set fore to it and measure the heat given off !!

Your body doesn't do that, and it will not always convert calories etc.

Using the calculation for calories, do you know what contains the most calories !!!!!

Petrol, Dynamite etc. !!!

Drink petrol and you won't put weight on !!!!

This is an example of how I applied simple common sense to view weight loss and gain in a different light.

But the MOST important thing I analysed was the sensation you feel when you feel hungry.

Basically we all see this as a sign that we need to eat something!! But no, think about it like this.

If you over eat the body stores the extra as fat (agreed?) and when you don't have any food left in your stomach, your body converts this fat to energy by "burning it off" instead of via the stomach. Also pretty much widely accepted?

So if your body is consuming itself (converting the fat) I am pretty sure that this would feel uncomfortable?

This was a turning point. Now I can use the hunger sensation as an indicator that my body is consuming my fat. Which is EXACTLY what I want it to do, if I want to lose weight.

Most diets would say, if you are feeling hungry drink some water or have a diet yoghurt etc. Does that stop the hunger sensation? Absolutely yes, so therefore it is stopping your body from doing just what you want it to.

I then went on to analyse why sugar makes you put weight on, when there is no fat in it and it is a plant extract!!!
The answer is simple, sugar is high in energy (don't use the calorie word!) so if you have sugar AND a meal, the body can store the meal and use the energy from the sugar (which it can't store anyway because it does not convert to fat) This also helps explain why kids go hyper when they have had a lot of sugar, the body can't store it so it makes then use up the energy by being hyper active!!!

I also analysed why beer / wine makes you fat (it is not the reasons that you think.
I figured out why in the last 50 years we are at a period in time where we really DON'T need meals any more.
I also figured out how you can eat whatever you want and lose weight (more to the point why you SHOULD eat what you want !!!0

and lots of other things.

I tried it out on a very pretty but overweight girl in our office who had trued to diet and failed MANY times. She lost 55lbs (over 20 kilos) and turned into a STUNNING young leady that turned heads!!!

So I wrote a book about it (I am not trying to advertise it on here, I am just finding a distraction for my current situation and I LOVE talking about my diet.

If I haven't bored everyone silly and you want me to go on I can post the odd portion of it on here, so you don't have to buy the book and so I don't get accused of trying to profit from the forum.

Steve b

I’d love to hear more, have been in a constant battle since lockdown with this.

 

[Birchall]

I’d love to hear more, have been in a constant battle since lockdown with this.

I am happy to help, I can post a few short excerpts from the book that are the main points and you can ask me any questions you have.

In a nutshell your body can already control its own weight, it is just that we don’t listen to it.

Instead we listen to people telling us what to eat and when. Our body knows better.
For example, when you are hungry it is a specific hunger, sometimes you are hungry for something sweet ,something salty, something dry or something wet.
So why eat something that doesn’t match you specific hunger. Your body is indicating what it needs. If you eat something else, you body will still be wanting what it needed and so you will eventually eat the right thing. But you arte something else first.

When you are hungry, eat whatever it is that you genuinely feel like.
Most people say “ok but if I do that I will live off chocolate”. But if you crave chocolate, eat some!
Eat a small portion of it and come back to the rest in about 10 minutes. Your body won’t still be craving chocolate. If you don’t eat the chocolate when you crave it, you body will continue to crave it until it actually gets some.

The other basic thing is, if you are not hungry, don’t eat, wait until you get hungry.

The “hunger sensation” replaces the need to calorie count.
If you are not hungry then your body still has some food to process.

Think of it this way, if you eat more than you need, your body will store the excess until it needs it.

When you no longer have any food in your stomach to process, your body will start to consume your fat reserves. Isn’t that exactly what you want? Your body is converting your fat into energy, you would feel that sensation when it happens. That is the sensation that we call hunger.

So forget calorie counting.
Do you know how they calculate calories? They put the item into a glass test tube surrounded by water then set fire to it. They measure the rise in temperature. Calories are a measure of heat!!!

Your body doesn’t actually burn food. Some of those calories come straight out without being used.

What would be a substance that contains the most calories? Try burning petrol, dynamite etc and measure the heat given off, it would be huge. But if you ate dynamite or drank petrol, you definitely would not put weight on!!! I rest my case.

I can send more things like this, such as why sugar is not fattening (bear with me on that) and why we put weight on when we drink alcohol.

I hope this helps.

Steve B

 

[Howey]

Superb info! Should be a sticky as keeping us all healthy has to be better for the cars by consequence!

I was lead to believe the brain can only use sugar as fuel?

Feeling hungry really should be part of everybody's routine just like you said its how are bodys are designed to run!!

Many thanks

Howey

 

[Birchall]

Superb info! Should be a sticky as keeping us all healthy has to be better for the cars by consequence!

I was lead to believe the brain can only use sugar as fuel?

Feeling hungry really should be part of everybody's routine just like you said its how are bodys are designed to run!!

Many thanks

Howey

Sugar does not contain any fat and your body can’t really store it.
It is basically pure energy.

It is one of the reasons why kids become “hyper active” when they have had too much sugar. Your body can’t store it so it makes you active so that the energy is burned up. For the same reason, you can feel “twitchy” after eating a lot of sweets etc. Sometimes it makes your legs feel strange and irritable. .

Sugar is only fattening if you have sugary things after a meal. Notice how you normally feel like a dessert after a meal?
The reason that sugar can be fattening is that if you have eaten a meal and then have lots of sweet stuff, your body will use the sugar as energy and it can then store the meal as reserves (as fat) and it burns up the energy from the sugar instead of the meal.
Steve B

 

[Howey]

Sugar does not contain any fat and your body can’t really store it.
It is basically pure energy.

It is one of the reasons why kids become “hyper active” when they have had too much sugar. Your body can’t store it so it makes you active so that the energy is burned up. For the same reason, you can feel “twitchy” after eating a lot of sweets etc. Sometimes it makes your legs freel strange.

It is only fattening if you have sugary things after a meal. Notice how you normally feel like a dessert after a meal.
The reason that sugar can be fattening is that if you have eaten a mean and then have lots of sweet stuff, your body will use the sugar as energy and it can then store the meal as reserves (as fat) and it burns up the energy from the sugar instead of the meal.
Steve B

I agree that backs up what I have been listening too recently although a load of contrasting info out their, I have tried to eat and live healthier physically and mentally since my world was blown apart recently, keep up the great work!

 

[Birchall]

I agree that backs up what I have been listening too recently although a load of contrasting info out their, I have tried to eat and live healthier physically and mentally since my world was blown apart recently, keep up the great work!

Food should be a pleasure. Your body rewards you for eating healthily and in the right quantities.
Most diets make you eat less. Or low fat food. Just eating less is tricky to do because you must eat enough. By waiting until you feel hungry before you eat anything means that you can enjoy your food without piling on the pounds.

Steve B

 

[Birchall]

As for why we put on so much weight from wine and beer?
It is not really the wine and beer that causes the gain in weight.
Whenever you have a few beers or glasses of wine, your body tries to balance out all of the extra fluid and so it makes you want something dry, salty and savoury. Hence the presence of Crisps, pork scratching, kebabs, pizza etc either in or near pubs.

The food you eat after a few drinks just balances out the extra liquid in your stomach. So the food is something extra that you only had because of all the liquid you just consumed.

If you didn’t have all that liquid, you probably wouldn’t have craved the kebabs, crisps etc.

The more that you understand about how your body works and how intelligent it is, the easier it is to control your weight and STILL enjoy your food.

Steve B

 

[johnyfartbox]

This is the first time I've read this thread and it's very very interesting.
Now I have the total opposite problem.
I can't seem to put weight on.
Ever since I was around 20 years old up until around 3 years ago I was always around the 64kg mark.
I'm 64 now and don't do any heavy work as such.
The vast majority of my working life as included heavy lifting apart from some driving work.
I've now dropped to around the 58kg mark and I've put that down to my muscle mass shrinkage just due to my age.
My mum and dad were never big.
So what I'm asking is how would I put the weight back on.
Regarding the hunger pangs, I tend to ignore them and instead of suddenly grabbing some food I will wait until a set meal time .

 

[Birchall]

A friend of mine had a similar problem. I gave him a copy of the book and explained that it would help him understand how his body works and he could then use it to put on weight.

One important thing to remember is the feeling that people get when they are hungry. It is uncomfortable because your body is actually converting fat to energy.
The problem that you have if you are under-weight is that you don’t have any fat to convert. So basically you rarely feel hungry. Your stomach has also shrunk because it is used to dealing with smaller volumes of food, and so you feel full on small volumes.
One tip that helped my friend was to use sugar to help (as long as you are not diabetic).

Having a small amount of chocolate or similar about 30 minutes to an hour before you have a meal can help.
As explained earlier, sugar gives your body instant energy and so it can use that and store the food for later (as fat).

Do this occasionally and it will help you get started with a small increase in weight.

My friend used this and he is now no longer afraid to take his shirt off on the beach. He didn’t become fat but he was no longer skinny.

I wanted to come up with a title for the book that indicated that it was a way of controlling your weight. To be able to remain steady, to lose weight or to gain weight. But I couldn’t think of one..

Steve B

 

[Birchall]

This is the first time I've read this thread and it's very very interesting.
Now I have the total opposite problem.
I can't seem to put weight on.
Ever since I was around 20 years old up until around 3 years ago I was always around the 64kg mark.
I'm 64 now and don't do any heavy work as such.
The vast majority of my working life as included heavy lifting apart from some driving work.
I've now dropped to around the 58kg mark and I've put that down to my muscle mass shrinkage just due to my age.
My mum and dad were never big.
So what I'm asking is how would I put the weight back on.
Regarding the hunger pangs, I tend to ignore them and instead of suddenly grabbing some food I will wait until a set meal time .

Also, by ignoring your hunger pains you are ignoring the fact that hunger is your body converting fat to energy.
In fact you are living proof of what I am saying.
The minute you start to feel hungry you know for a fact that you are loosing weight. You body is telling you that you are converting the fat into energy. So if you are trying to lose weight just allow a few minutes of hunger. IMPORTANTLY do NOT starve yourself, this is dangerous and when you do eat, you will probably overeat naturally.

If you want to GAIN weight have a snack when you start to feel hungry to stop the hunger (I.e. to stop your body consuming your fat).

I hope this helps.
Steve B

 

[johnyfartbox]

Thanks Steve.
It makes sense really.
Now where's that packet of biscuits.

 

[Birchall]

That is what I tried to do.
Instead of saying do X, eat Y
I wanted to do it in a way where I explain WHY to do it rather than WHAT to do.

If you can understand the logic behind it then you will be in control and less likely to get to a target the suddenly stop doing everything that got you to that target.

Let me know how you get on.

By the way I recommend weighing yourself DAILY. It is like turning a tanker around, you need to know if it is working for you.
By daily weighing you can spot when it is working or not and adjust it before it is too late.

Good luck
Steve B