poptastic Member

Exercise is a great way to get some extra calories - I wouldn't be able to stick to 1200 otherwise! But eating only one proper meal a day isn't a good way to go on, you can easily eat 3 meals at under 400 calories each which should fill you up all day, eg: Breakfast: wholemeal toast/porridge/low fat (no added sugar)…

I would try and experiment with things that you know you like, for example make chilli with extra beans and veggies, or make lasagne using butternut squash or aubergine for the layers instead of pasta, you can also use low fat creme fraiche instead of making a bechamel sauce. You can also have stirfrry with beansprouts…

I used to regularly drink fruit juice in the morning, and was quite shocked to find the calorie content of that! Fruits in general actually... no more banana on my breakfast cereal! Most other foods I was always secretly aware were bad, I'd just avoid looking at the labels so as not to feel guilty when I was eating them…

The superfood scramble sounds healthy in that it's full of 'real' unprocessed foods, and even though it's 377 calories I bet it keeps you full all morning! I have granola with yoghurt and berries for breakfast which is around 320 calories but it's super filling, I'd rather do that than be snacking on all kinds of processed…

if you're working out like crazy, your hunger might actually be thirst! Make sure you drink lots of water, or even a sports drink after exercising. I used to find this a problem when I first started working out, but now I am hardly ever hungry when I leave the gym, so I think some of it is just your body getting used to…

Another good way to make Lasagne more healthy is to add in a load of vegetables to the mince - courgettes (zucchini), mushrooms, and peppers all work really well as a tasty way to bulk out the meat :)

Wow that's a lot in a month, good work!

Hi Nicole, I had a look at your diary and there are a lot of sugars and carbs... I'd try to eat less bread/granola/cereal bars and fill up on nuts or seeds instead, that way you get plenty of fibre and healthy fats but less sugar, which can be the worst thing when you only have a few pounds to lose!

Could you mix it up a bit with the types of fruit you are eating? Bananas are much higher calorie and sugar than, for example, berries.

I recommend keeping a food diary of what you eat, and what symptoms you experience - you may find it it triggered by certain foods or fizzy drinks, or even combinations of foods.

Eat something small but high in calories like some peanut butter (I eat spoonfuls straight from the jar), or half an avocado or a handful of nuts with a glass of skimmed milk.

Have bran without sultanas if you're worried about the sugar content, but really I don't think that will be making a huge difference to your progress, it's a pretty healthy cereal and as long as you don't eat a massive portion it should be fine!

The best thing is to make big batches of things that you can then reheat for several days as either lunch or dinner. You can make enough chilli for about 6 meals with this, and it's all really cheap: 2 medium onions 1 clove of garlic olive oil 2 level teaspoons chilli powder 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped…

Hi, I'm from the UK too :) If you can't cook, why don't you get a simple cookbook and start teaching yourself? I find Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food a great book to have around for basic everyday foods and it's really easy to make most of the recipes in there. Even if you can just cook pasta and stir fry, you have loads…

You don't really want to be doing 'inner thigh exercises' if you want your inner thigh to get smaller - through diet and exercise that is an area that will gradually reduce anyway! If you want firmer looking legs, do squats, lunges and cycling - I have noticed a massive difference to my thighs through the last 6 months of…

At night I have a herbal tea a couple of hours after dinner, and then after that brush teeth so that nothing else is tempting! It's just getting out of habits really, it's hard to begin with and then it's just normal.

I agree with what most others have said, you should limit your weigh-ins to once a week. Very occasionally (like if I don't believe the scales on Monday!) then I weigh myself again a day or two later. I would think soon you'll get bored of weighing in several times a day, unless you have insanely accurate scales, because…

I know you said you are eating the right number of calories a day, but what foods are you getting them from? I found that cutting down on bread, pasta etc and filling up on sweet potato or squash instead made a huge difference. Also make sure you are eating more on exercise days.

My number one lie was "well my skinny friend eats cookies, so I must be able to eat them too - if I'm fat, it's unrelated!" In reality, some people can eat cookies more than others, but my skinny friends would eat a cookie and then have a salad later, whereas I'd have the cookie, a huge sandwich, a packet of crisps, a…

Sometimes you can retain water after excercise - make sure that you are drinking plenty of hydrating drinks during and after the gym, which should help.