Originally Posted by amazing
Hi there,
I am also trying to lose weight and I eat nothing but mostly raw foods and fruit but I also seem to be putting the weight on but will tell you why in a moment!. I have been around now for 34 years of life and only began seriously watching my weight just recently and being my age, is normal for women to be overweight if they are hour-glass or pear shaped because fat is stored in the body in ways that it isn't in long thin people. So, I have come to the conclusion and what has usually worked for me, is exercise with or without food reduction involved. Exercise and tons of it will make you lose enormous amount of weight because you will burn calories and fat. It doesn't matter what you eat but how much you eat that counts and obviously the healthiest the better for you but doesn't make you lose weight on it's own. All dairy products are fattening except for eggs which are great boiled so avoid cheese, yogurt and all fatty protein from dairy foods.
Always eat breakfast like museli or shredded wheat with raisins, one apple and skimmed milk as that will fill you up I guarantee!. For lunch, eat a green leafy salad with some tuna fish or boiled eggs (no sauces or extra's at all). Drink herbal tea and water only (no diet coke,fruit juices or calorie drinks). For supper, eat a plate of mixed raw vegetables (you can grate or blend in a food processor to make consumption of this food easier), this vegetable mix includes sweetcorn, broccoli, green cabbage, carrots, onion, celery, kale leaves - whizzed all up in the food processor. This is what I eat everyday! drink a glass of water before the meal and serve yourself as much of this vegetable mix as you can but don't be tempted to put sauces etc on it - you can eat five grams of skimmed chicken or fish with the raw food but be very careful to weigh out exactly how much you are eating.
The size of your meals should all roughly be the same so try buying smaller plates than dinner sized ones because portion sizes matter a lot. The trick is to eat less of what you normally would eat and to eat enough only until you do feel full (not bloated full, but full). Drink water with every meal, eat a piece of fruit an hour after every meal and drink herbal tea instead of tea or coffee. NEVER NEVER be tempted to eat sugar, salt found in all junk foods like biscuits, sweets, crisps, ready meals, cake, pop, pies, pastries etc etc................
it will be quite tough to stick rigidly to this kind of healthy eating but sadly this is what is vital if you want to lose weight. If you need to snack, eat a large banana or drink water. The idea is to get your body used to less calories than you would normally eat (about 300 - 500 less a day). Exercise is the key to the weight loss more than what you are eating so running for 30 mins a day is very important or aerobic workout. Swimming will quickly shift the weight!.
Try to aim for 4 hours a day of movement (never sit for longer than two hours) as this is why I am not losing the weight despite taking some amount of daily exercise. Walking for an hour very briskly will do amazing things to your legs as long as you do it everyday not just a few times a week and you do other exercises too. Keeping fit is so important when trying to lose weight and it is this and not so much the food you eat that really does shift the weight. You have to sweat and sweat for at least two hours a day to burn around 600 calories!. This is why eating very healthily is not enough by itself and you end up just eating more food (even though it is healthy) but you gain weight. If you are starving hungry, it means that your body is losing muscle not fat and because your body is not being fed enough (eat enough a day but keep within your 1'200 calorie a day limit) so never starve as that doesn't work either.
Eat 1'200 calories of as much healthy food as you can but just exercise and at least four hours a day of keeping active (hoovering stairs, walking, skipping, swimming, just keep busy for a good half of the day doing chores, walking to and from work to town etc etc - it's all in the movement more than anything else. The food won't make you lose anything if you only move for an hour and sit for ten (this is why I am not losing but gaining) - you have to move to lose as I have discovered. I have been eating raw for days and days and drinking water (cut out all junk) but am missing my breakfast or dinners sometimes and so I am hungry later on and eat heartily and don't exercise enough.
You will be amazed at how easy it is to retain weight if you are only expecting the food to make you lose it, but the bad news is that if you want to lose lots of weight without real physical exercise throughout most of the day, then living only on a bowl of cabbage water a day will do it. Nothing but movement and plenty of it will do the weight loss thing but eating less and a lot more healthily will guide the way!.
I hope I have helped, but this is what I have discovered for myself.