How do you find the motivation to keep dieting

You're welcome 

I'll have a look to see if I can get some shipped. My ex-wife is in the UK this week so I'll ask her to bring some samples to try to see how paletable it is.

Thanks for the recommendation.

PBN  whey protein was recommended to me by a friend who was into his nutrition. I had the chocolate hazelnut flavor which was pretty palatable. It's low in calories too, if made with water.

Not sure if you can get it Brazil.?

Lonehare12 said:

Also mentally if I'm not putting the right things in l can lose the motivation to exercise because I know I probably won't perform very well.

This was the reason I had a nutritionist consult before starting so I knew how much extra lard I was carrying about and how to be healthy as I reduced it.

I do get to have all my favourite foods, just in smaller portions than I like. I've started using some headology and am using smaller plates now so the portion "feels" bigger. It does actually help.

I have also been advised to start using whey as a booster to help build muscle so I'll be adding this soon - got to read up on the guidelines around this and find a reputable supplier as there are lots of fake products for sale where I live.

Im referring to my old body BTW, not yours!!

Knowing that if you want to exercise  and get the best possible results out of an old body you have to put the things into that body that help it the most. 

Also mentally if I'm not putting the right things in l can lose the motivation to exercise because I know I probably won't perform very well.

I do believe in allowing myself treats though. I think they taste better when you don't have so many of them.

A collegue of my DiL is "good" during the week, eating properly and healthily and not drinking alcohol, so as at the weekend she dosent' have to worry about going out to eat and not being able to find th "right" options. aybe this could work for you too Iain?

Stuart333 said:

2 hrs a day is likely too much by the way. It allows no time for recovery, although it depends on whether you are doing different things each day.

I do 60-80 minds of resistance on the weight machines in the morning (16 machines, 3x8 reps per machine) and push to near failure on all of them, so I am slowly going up in the weights and have maxed out on 5 of them.

I do that at 9am then at 4pm I go back for 60 mins on the cross trainer at about half way up the resistance levels - I never get to heavy breathing stage that way and keep the heart rate at 120bpm so is the fat burning range.

None of this is leaving me knackered and I still have energy for other stuff if needed like the odd flooring instalation job or a 2 hour walk when the weather is nice.

So I don't think my fitness is an issue, just the balance of calories needs to be adjusted to keep the weight dropping.

Everything is being weighed now and I'm cooking all my own food so I get the right proportions of stuff - snacks are being skipped too and it seems to be working now, but from experience in the past it gets really hard soon as the body starts to resist wanting to burn fat and will burn muscle instead.

I'm reading up on how to structure the workouts and eating patterns to make this work the way I want it to, but there will soon be a craving for a big, tasty meal which there are many great options for here.

There is also a bit of a selfish / vain reason for some of this and it is because I'm getting back into the dating scene and want to look good as age, nationality and hairline are all working against me.

I remember from early days of dating before that there are so many temptations for ordering a pizza after a steamy session or getting through a bottle of wine with a good meal - my foodie vices will be a struggle here.

I'm no expert, but 1500 calories sounds too low to me, particularly with that amount of exercise - the NHS recommends 1900 a day to lose weight for men.

It's usual to lose more in the first two weeks of a diet, and the recommended weight loss after that is about 1-2lb a week (around 0.5 - 1kg) as slower weight loss is believed to be better for keeping the weight off.

In terms of sticking to a diet, for me it was imperative not to feel hungry. A low carb diet with sufficient protein and healthy fats stopped the hunger for me, which helps prevent cravings. I didn't count calories, just ate mainly protein foods, vegetables, salad, and a daily portion of bran cereal for the fibre. I added mayo or vinaigrette dressing to salads to improve the taste - if you drop carbs, which are the usual energy source in our diets, you need to increase fats to burn for energy instead. To avoid moderation here re the medical advice rules, just to clarify I'm sharing what worked for me, not saying anyone should do this.

I understand the issue with packed lunches - I was working when I was on a diet. I packed a salad in a Tupperware type container, with some ham or tuna, but if you don't have access to a fridge you could perhaps take a small can of tuna to open and add to the salad at lunchtime. Mayo won't be a good idea, but I think vinaigrette would be ok? I also took some snacks - you could have nuts, fruit or babybel cheeses.

A weekly treat is a good idea - I had a Chinese takeaway once a week, which was chicken & vegetable stir fry with mushroom foo yung. Still low in carbs but yummy.

Try food swaps too - when you fancy a plate of ribs and chips, have the ribs with a salad or carrot fries. Then for dessert you could have frozen yogurt with fruit.

I wish you luck with your weight loss.

Thank you Cinnabar! I was going to describe my father's case, but it was way too different.

Over the last 3 or 4 years I've dropped 2-3 dress sizes just from eating less and doing more, I've gone from being obese to be a bit overweight. I've not done anything special just half a spoon less and keep reducing it until I've pretty much taken a third off my portion sizes. 

I devised my own diet, year ago, one that takes into account the things that trigger IBS and stuff like that, I doubt if it's one that any dietician would devise. One thing I did find some years ago when seriously trying to loose weight, was having a glass off orange juice, (or citrus of your choice) 10-15 minutes before eating made fatty foods much less appealing, they just didn't taste right. Also the sort of exercise you do can be important too, I found yoga better for me, it builds up long muscle fibres which apparently burn energy, fat, quicker than short ones and do it for a longer period post exercise.

I'm robably lucky that I don't like chips or sticky ribs and I can't eat ice cream unless its non dairy which is expensive and often hard to find. FOr example our tesco only started stocking daiy free magnums in september, all through the hot weather there was only one place that did them and they were almost constantly sold out. I bet by next summer tesco will ave decided not to stock them anymore, because not enough people are buying them. Just another way people with dietry needs are shafted.

Do you cook your own food? If not you might find that you can shed calories without even trying because so much pre packed food is full of fat and sugar.

That is actually probably the best idea of them all. 

I didn't believe in diets previously but the start of the year I did try it as I was so busy at work I wasn't getting exercise. I didn't really research it, just decided to stop eating between meals and eat less at meals. As I'm rules based (funny how many behaviours are screaming autistic at me now) and don't have a healthy attitude to myself, I didn't actually have a problem with hunger, I thought that just probably meant it was working and took it as a positive. 

It did make the food I did eat taste amazing though so I still really enjoyed eating, so savour the flavour. The hard bit was actually levelling out when I realised I was probably dropping too much too quickly and didn't want to go underweight again.

I think that is the major thing for people, finding the good balance with food. So letting yourself once a week have a few chips etc. and keeping the portion small is better long term then caving completely and having a huge portion. Work in the treats in small moderation will keep you going.

I thought for a while, but realised I don't quite have good advice.

Just thought of showing support.

Maybe you can share your process here every few weeks, and that would keep some motivation up.

I don't really bother with diets, I just cut down carbs, have smaller portions and do rowing.

2 hrs a day is likely too much by the way. It allows no time for recovery, although it depends on whether you are doing different things each day.

I'd go for a slower weight loss. 1.5 kg a week is stressing your body a bit.

You can let your weight yo-yo a bit as work allows. Now you know you can lose it.