Diet recommendations??

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Hi everyone. I am trying to shed 10kg and I am in need of a good easy diet to try. I am going to the gym but just want to help it along with diet too. I am not a junk food or chocolate person but my main problem is carbs, we have pasta and rice meals which we all love but if anyone has had success on an easy to follow diet, that would be great!

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  • trud72
    trud72 Posts: 1,912 Member
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    You don't need a "diet" you need a lifestyle change,you KNOW in your head the difference between good and bad add in a bit of exersice too and you will lose! :wink:
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Doesn't get any simpler (or more effective!) than this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
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    Your on a calorie counting website!! lol It is your very own diet! Just weight, measure and count everything you eat, drink lots of water. You can eat what you want as long as you maintain a deficit in your calorie consumption.
  • caz83r
    caz83r Posts: 6 Member
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    I know all about the calorie counting and stuff, but I'm just looking for anyone who has followed a particular diet such as a no carb one or something like that and has had success.
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
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    I know all about the calorie counting and stuff, but I'm just looking for anyone who has followed a particular diet such as a no carb one or something like that and has had success.

    But it doesn't matter? All your doing by cutting out food groups is lowering your overall intake to create a deficit.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    If you regularly eat and enjoy healthy carbs, why deprive yourself of them? You're just setting yourself up for failure.

    Use MFP as designed, set yourself to lose no more than 1lb a week, do exercise you enjoy rather than exercise you find punishing, and you're golden :flowerforyou:
  • akj_25
    akj_25 Posts: 244 Member
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    if you don't plan on cutting carb for the rest of your life then you shouldn't do it for a diet, you will just gain the weight back.

    learn to eat the correct portions of the foods you already enjoy. - less calorie intake and more calories burned equals the best 'diet'
  • DaveHuby
    DaveHuby Posts: 175 Member
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    Tried all sorts from WW cabbage soup.

    The one that worked for me - and continues to work is based on - calorie defecit calculation. It boils down to making choices but nothing is forbidden, nothing removed from the available foods.

    See it, check the label, measure the portion, log it, decide if it fits your own goals, if it does enjoy it, if it doesn't fit the numbers consider reduced portion.

    I am not ON a diet I am LIVING a different, exciting, enjoyable and sustainable life.

    I too lived on pasta and rice dishes, I still eat them regularly but the ratio of pasta/rice to protein and veg has changed. And you know what.... The pasts tastes so much better when you savour every mouthful.

    Good luck :smile:
  • celebrity328
    celebrity328 Posts: 377 Member
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    Hello Caz,

    I am on a low carb diet for medical reasons, I follow a sort of "atkins induction phase 1" and have lost 65 Lbs 9 months following a doctor approved diet. 90% of my diet is clean eating all the veggies, salads, and meat I want. I stay away from fruits high in sugar/carbs. Again this is for a medical condition and If you have any questions/concerns I would contact a doctor about any diet changes :)

    PS: We have a low carb group on the forums and they are awesome people :)!
  • gettingfitnana303
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    My doctor recommended the Mediterranean diet. It's not really a diet but food choices that result in weight loss. Look it up on the internet. But in a nutshell the diet looks like a pyramid. The most foods to consume are fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes, olive oil, whole grains and herbs and spices. The next group (which is somewhat smaller) is fish and sea food. The next group which is smaller yet is poultry, eggs. cheese and yogurt, and the smallest group is meat and sweets. It's eating habits for long term. To lose weight and to be healthy.
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
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    I second everyone who says track your food and stay within your calories. I'd also recommend changing the macronutrient (protein, fat and carb) goals from the MFP default so you're getting more protein and also a moderate amount of healthy fat and healthy carbs. Mine's usually set to 40% carbs, 30% protein 30% fat or something close to that (I change it up depending on my goals)

    Regards carbs, no need to cut them out altogether, just have smaller portions. If you want rice, pasta and bread, have them, just have less of them and more lean protein. This helps you to feel satisfied on less food and stay within your calories more easily.

    Of course people with allergies should give up what they're allergic to altogether (which goes for pasta and bread in the case of wheat allergy) and some medical issues such as diabetes or PCOS call for being a lot more careful with carbohydrate, and in those cases maybe seeing a dietitian would help.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    I know this isn't what you're asking, but I've had a lot of success while eating pasta and/or bread every day (and oats, and chocolate...) It's a very easy diet! If you don't have a medical condition that means you shouldn't eat carbs, then it seems a shame to cut out the meals you love when you don't need to do that to lose weight.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    You dont have to cut out pasta bread etc. If you like, you could try eating smaller portions of those things. The food diary on here is a great way to track what you eat and let you see where the big calories are mounting up.
  • CrazyTrackLady
    CrazyTrackLady Posts: 1,337 Member
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    I watch my calories, AND I basically eliminated wheat and grains from my diet. I'm sensitive to gluten. A lot of wheat/gluten products are also high carb products, so it makes sense that what I'm doing is "low carb". I'm still eating good carbs.

    All else is in moderation.

    :laugh:
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
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    The thing about going low carb from everything I've read and heard is, you better really like those low carb foods because if you just go low carb and lose weight and then go back to eating bread and pasta you're likely to gain it all back and then some.

    Of course to some extent this is true of any diet. Go back to your old eating habits and you will gain the weight back.

    But ask yourself, can you truly not moderate your portions of these foods? Do they make you crave or create excess hunger? If so, low carb might be right for you. I'd hesitate to try it just because some people lose weight on it, though. What works for me might not work for you and vice versa.

    I have lost a lot of weight on low carb, and I love it and plan to stay low carb for life, but I lost a lot before I went low carb, too, using MFP and sheer, desperate willpower. It was simply much harder for me before low carb because of that hunger and cravings. I'm a binge eater. Are you? If not, maybe you don't have to completely cut out things like bread and pasta.

    Low carb can be a bit of a pain. Eating out means expensive restaurants that serve steak and such or cheap nasty drive thru burgers with no bun, no fries, no flavor, and too much salt, or stay at home and cook. This is great for me, I needed to break the drive thru habit as much as my other bad habits and I mostly have. But it is not always easy.

    Low carb can mean a very simple diet, and it is not cheap. I buy no bars, no frozen dinners, no shakes. I buy meat, and lots of times I'm reduced to eating eggs way more often than I want to because eggs are cheaper than meat.

    The first two weeks of low carb are rough and for me it was rough to exercise even weeks later. I even tried having post or pre-workout carbs but nope, as soon as I started that up again I started binging and feeling voracious hunger.

    I'd never say to someone healthy 'don't try low carb', but do know what you are in for.

    Oh, one more thing, something that was not happy news for me because I can be pretty darn lazy. Dr. Atkins said in his book, if you aren't exercising, you aren't doing Atkins! I have lost weight on low carbs with periods of no exercise but I felt awful and I lose much easier and faster when I work out. So low carb is also not a way to lose weight and not work out.
  • hazelohoheight
    hazelohoheight Posts: 16 Member
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    I know all about the calorie counting and stuff, but I'm just looking for anyone who has followed a particular diet such as a no carb one or something like that and has had success.
    Read Dr. Fuhrman's book: Eat to Live, and join the Peer Trainer Point of no Return Program. Both will change your habits for good.
  • bryonysten
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    Hi
    If you love carbs then you might find cutting them out is tough, depending on how you eat them. A diet you might find that works for you, and particularly if you only have 10kg to lose (aka 20lbs) would be slimming world.
    I haven't done it for a few years, but they have a lot of 'free food' which includes things like pasta. They used to have 'red' (meat) and 'green' (vegetarian) days too, and most fruits / veg are free. You have a certain amount of 'syns' you can eat every day too. If you are not in the UK there is an online option

    http://www.slimmingworld.com/

    As I said, I have used it, successfully, in the past. I've also been to WW and Rosemary Connelly classes plus flirted with numerous other sites. I could never understand how Slimming World worked with such large portions of food. However, a word of caution, as with every other diet you need to follow the rules, if you don't then the weight will go back on. So if you've got used to eating huge plates of pasta and then try to pair it with oily fatty pesto instead of low fat passata the difference will soon show on the scales!

    The other option, as everyone else is pointing out, is to use the calorie counting aspect of this site to track your food, but if you want to measure less religiously then SW might be for you.

    Good luck
    B
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    Just to add one point about carbs - measuring them is very, very, VERY important! I found my portion size was about twice what I was tracking for pasta, rice and potatoes until I started weighing them. You can eyeball it after a while, but it's worth re-checking every now and then.