[Anonymous]

I'm 5'4 and I weight almost 10stone, I know my BMI is just within the healthy range but I dont look great, and I'm going on holiday with my friends in a couple of months and wanna look as good as them in a bikini ideally i would like to lose around a stone

I run 3 times a week, and I've tried eating healthily but the problem is, my mum always cooks me whatever she's having for dinner and although its not unhealthy, I cant follow specific diets about eating super-healthily. So recently I started skipping meals and eating less (around 1000 cals a day) and lost a few pounds, but I know it's not good for me and doesn't seem to be working much anyway.

I dont have time to exercise more, and I dont really know what else to try. Anyone got any suggestions? and just out of interest, how long would it take to lose a stone ish by following a diet? any advice would be much appreciated

[PinkMobilePhone]

you're not eating enough. Up your intake to at least 1,200 cals.

As for how long it will take you to lose weight, it really depends. I lose weight very slowly these days - maybe half a pound a week.

Incidentally I'm 5'4" and almost 10 stone myself. Not that it matters, just thought I'd say.

[I Kant Spall]

The key to weight loss in four words: eat less, move more. Yes, it is that simple. Don't over-think things. I lost over 5 stone by doing just that.

You never want to eat less than 1200 calories; it's the bare minimum for sustenance. You should also start taking a daily multivitamin since it's easy to miss out on some necessary vitamins & minerals when you're cutting calories.

About the exercise portion: there are people out there who have much busier schedules than you and still find the time to exercise/go to the gym. It sounds harsh but really, no excuses. Find the time to do some cardio at least every day. I sometimes revise as I ride an exercise bike, or listen to an audiobook as I jog. Make the time.

Lastly, weigh yourself once a week at most. Your body weight fluctuates quite a bit at different times of the day, and your motivation will likely be affected by no noticeable change on the scale or, even worse, an increase. I like Monday mornings, personally.

[facdroit]

Lots of broscience going on in this thread.

Weight loss happens when the calories that enter your body are less than the calories that leave it.

There is as much truth in BMI as there is in a crystal ball.

You need to exercise. Not to lose weight, you could lose weight without exercising but if you want to look great you need to lift weights to gain muscle and burn fat. Other ways what is most likely to happen is you will lose muscle and look skinny fat.
This is the harsh reality many people don't seem to accept.
There are literally a million ways to lose weight and most of them work as long as they follow this rule : calories in<calories out

Since you don't have much to lose here is an easy ''diet'' for you to follow(I hate the word diet because you need to change your lifestyle to have the body you really want).

Calculate your BMR(google) and substract 500 calories.
Add 3 cardio sessions of 30 minutes per week and 3 weight lifting sessions per week.

You will lose weight and look great. You can lose 2 pounds a week on the above. This will work if you have 5 pounds to lose or 150.



Someone who's lost more than 100 pounds this past year and a half and has tried literally everything before finally finding something that works.

[marlb]

to add to all the useful things people have said dont beat yourself up by comparing yourself to your friends. your not them. this extra stress you will put on yourself will make it more difficult for you to loose weight if your anything like me because you have started your diet on the basis that your friends have more worth than you because they look different to you, it will make those foods you know will make you fail at losing weight more tempting because thats just how unhelpful the human brain can be. think about how much you eat on a normal day and im sure cutting to 1000 calories is not sustainable because your not used to it!! start slowly based on how many calories you would normally eat!! id say you could lost a stone in a few months but dont mess it up by putting too much stress on yourself! you can always look awesome on an even better holiday next year......

[JosieG]

Thanks for all the advice guys

(Original post by I Kant Spall)
The key to weight loss in four words: eat less, move more. Yes, it is that simple. Don't over-think things. I lost over 5 stone by doing just that.

You never want to eat less than 1200 calories; it's the bare minimum for sustenance. You should also start taking a daily multivitamin since it's easy to miss out on some necessary vitamins & minerals when you're cutting calories.

About the exercise portion: there are people out there who have much busier schedules than you and still find the time to exercise/go to the gym. It sounds harsh but really, no excuses. Find the time to do some cardio at least every day. I sometimes revise as I ride an exercise bike, or listen to an audiobook as I jog. Make the time.

Lastly, weigh yourself once a week at most. Your body weight fluctuates quite a bit at different times of the day, and your motivation will likely be affected by no noticeable change on the scale or, even worse, an increase. I like Monday mornings, personally.

I run 3 times a week, should I be exercising more? I'm at school every day from 9-5 and then I work after school 3 days a week and sundays, so when I say I dont have time for much more, Im not really exaggerating..

[Holz888]

Yeah, skipping meals will only make you binge, then it's easy to get in a horrible eating disorder cycle (which is horrible to get back out of). I had this problem. My mum would make lasagne and steak & chips. All homemade, but not exactly low calorie. So, I started cooking. I found healthy and easy recipes for stir fry, salmon and potatoes, prawn salads, chicken breast, and now my whole family are happier and healthier. I taught my mum how to make these healthy foods (and now MUCH smaller portions), so when I'm busy with exams or get home late from sixth form, she will cook, but we eat healthy foods, and only have the high calorie stuff a few nights a month

[Old School]

(Original post by JosieG)
Thanks for all the advice guys



I run 3 times a week, should I be exercising more? I'm at school every day from 9-5 and then I work after school 3 days a week and sundays, so when I say I dont have time for much more, Im not really exaggerating..

lol yes you are.

Anyone can fit in 20 mins of high intensity intervals 4 times per week. It's not hard.

[muddywaters51]

Create a calorie deficit through exercise, diet or a combination.

A deficit of 500kcal from your maintenace will results in approximately 1lb per week of weight loss.

Get a rough idea of your maintenance by finding out your basal metabolic rate by using online calculators (google it). This gives a rough idea of what it is and a good place to start. Then use a scale from there on. Measure yourself on the same day at the same times on the same scale once per week. If you arent loosing weight you need to either eat less calories or do more exericse. or both

good luck

[McHumpy92]

If you're a healthy weight but look like crap you're probably skinny fat....start lifting weights and sculpt your body to look how you want it to look, rather than cutting calories and doing cardio and hoping for the best.

In a couple of months there is going to be a big realisation of this for many females on this section....Christeen(sp) is about the best transformation I have seen and she polished it off with weights, many are just calorie counting and doing cardio and will be disappointed with end results. That method will get the BMI they want, but not the body they want.

[Bimbleby]

(Original post by I Kant Spall)
About the exercise portion: there are people out there who have much busier schedules than you and still find the time to exercise/go to the gym. It sounds harsh but really, no excuses. Find the time to do some cardio at least every day. I sometimes revise as I ride an exercise bike, or listen to an audiobook as I jog. Make the time.

Sorry, but this kind of advice annoys me. One, it's really harsh... the OP might have better things to do than run around the block or go to the gym. I certainly couldn't read the kind of things I need to for my course on an exercise bike. Good for you if you can, but there's no need to take it that far.

More importantly, it's just not necessary to exercise to lose weight. I lost the most weight I've ever lost when I spent all day sitting down (and I was already underweight so it wasn't easy for me to lose weight at that point). Exercise will make you more toned and it's good for your health, so it's cool to do it, but it's just not necessary for weight loss, I have no idea where people get that idea from. Do you honestly think if you sat on your ass eating nothing your body would go 'nope, sorry, you're not exercising so I'm going to magically sustain your weight from nothing!'

Exercising for some people is detrimental to weight loss. It is for me. I exercise when I want to gain weight because it increases my appetite disproportionately to the calories I burn. When I used to exercise to lose weight I'd just override my hunger with willpower, but really it would have been easier to not exercise and eat a bit less, instead of working out for an hour, burning like 500 calories and being ravenous and tired for the rest of the day.

I'm not saying exercise isn't great, but you have to do what works for you. If you're busy doing other things and you don't enjoy exercise, it's probably a lot easier to eat a little bit less at dinner than it is to run round the block 5 times. Exercise takes time, it makes you sweaty, you have to change clothes.... also it's hella boring. Walking is great because you don't have to get all changed and have a shower afterwards, I find, so if the OP can work more walking or cycling or something into her daily schedule that's great, but there's no need to set aside time to exercise, it's much better to work it into your day. Failing that, just eat a bit less at meals, you'll be less hungry than if you exercised so that won't be too hard.

[Bimbleby]

(Original post by Old School)
lol yes you are.

Anyone can fit in 20 mins of high intensity intervals 4 times per week. It's not hard.

'lol', no she's not. She's already running three times a week, and interval training might take 20 mins once you're ready, but it takes longer than that to get ready, get changed, find somewhere to do it. She has work to do, and more importantly she's probably tired once she's done with all the school and work. I would be.

You could make this argument for anything 'oh, it only takes 20 minutes 4x a week, that's not hard lol', well no, not when you put it like that, but most people's schedules are pretty full as it is, especially when they're studying and working at once, and as much as she probably has some free time in there, weirdly, it seems people actually need that free time and would have ****ty lives if they filled all of it with pointlessly running between cones.

[laura94]

I'm 5'2 and used to weigh 10 stone 7 (ahhh). Anyway, I also don't have that much time to exercise but just tried to get as much done as possible just during my normal day (like walking the longest route and not taking the bus etc). I think the best thing to do as well is to cut down your portions. Don't skip any meals. Try not to snack. And most important of all, drink LOTS of water. I usually drink about 4 litres of water a day. Not only does it help you to lose weight but it also is good for your skin
Anyway, it's been about 8 months since I started losing weight and now I weigh 8 stone 10 Luckily while I don't have much time for forced exercise I have horses so have to do the mucking out and stuff all the time so I'm sort of toned.

[Old School]

(Original post by Bimbleby)
'lol', no she's not. She's already running three times a week, and interval training might take 20 mins once you're ready, but it takes longer than that to get ready, get changed, find somewhere to do it. She has work to do, and more importantly she's probably tired once she's done with all the school and work. I would be.

You could make this argument for anything 'oh, it only takes 20 minutes 4x a week, that's not hard lol', well no, not when you put it like that, but most people's schedules are pretty full as it is, especially when they're studying and working at once, and as much as she probably has some free time in there, weirdly, it seems people actually need that free time and would have ****ty lives if they filled all of it with pointlessly running between cones.

There is a reason I think that 'I'm so busy and have no time' is a crap excuse.

I'm at uni at the moment and my 60% of my course is placement based. Shifts are all 12hrs (but often overrun) and my placement location is around a 45-50 mins drive away. Most shifts start at 05:45 therefore I have to get up at 03:30 in order to get a decent breakfast in. I do 4-6 shifts per week.

In addition to this I have the academic side of the course to get sorted (essays, general studying etc.). It's not all that taxing in terms of difficulty but there is a lot of it to do. The academic stuff is constant throughout the year- we are expected to (and need to) do self-directed learning when on placement.

I lift 4-6 days per week for around an hour to an hour and a half. I also do 3 conditioning sessions (HIIT essentially) that last around 20-30 mins. I also prepare all of my food for my 5 or so meals.

I also find that I have plenty of time to go out with friends, read, watch TV and troll TSR.

Point is, if you want it badly enough you'll do it and find time to do it. Of course, getting to the point where you are efficient enough to maintain this sort of lifestyle takes time but it's pretty obvious that the OP (and others who make similar threads) can't be bothered to even try to do more and want the results without doing the work.

EDIT: Take it the negs came from insecure fatties/skinnyfatties. Lol.

[cuckoo99]

eat a balanced diet. make sure you eat every meal of the day. Excercise atleast 1 hour a day. No more chocolate or takeaways. THe fat will fall off soon friend

[YetAnotherMember]

(Original post by Bimbleby)
More importantly, it's just not necessary to exercise to lose weight.

Are you mad? You're basically telling her "right, go on and become the fat-skinny type'' which I'm sure she doesn't want to

You made exercising sound like it's the most boring thing in the world to do...when it's actually not. And if you're looking into losing weight permanently, exercise is the thing to do. Everyone can eat 1500kcal a day and easily lose the weight, but are you gonna keep that diet for the rest of your life? No.

Besides, honestly, anyone can fit 20mins for exercising into their daily routines. I've seen mums with 2 children and full time jobs doing it and achieving great results. It's not THAT hard afterall, I mean look around youtube, there are tons of people who went from obese/overweight to normal BMI JUST with their own willpower.

[yothi5]

Liposuction.

[Bimbleby]

(Original post by Old School)
There is a reason I think that 'I'm so busy and have no time' is a crap excuse.

I'm at uni at the moment and my 60% of my course is placement based. Shifts are all 12hrs (but often overrun) and my placement location is around a 45-50 mins drive away. Most shifts start at 05:45 therefore I have to get up at 03:30 in order to get a decent breakfast in. I do 4-6 shifts per week.

In addition to this I have the academic side of the course to get sorted (essays, general studying etc.). It's not all that taxing in terms of difficulty but there is a lot of it to do. The academic stuff is constant throughout the year- we are expected to (and need to) do self-directed learning when on placement.

I lift 4-6 days per week for around an hour to an hour and a half. I also do 3 conditioning sessions (HIIT essentially) that last around 20-30 mins. I also prepare all of my food for my 5 or so meals.

I also find that I have plenty of time to go out with friends, read, watch TV and troll TSR.

Point is, if you want it badly enough you'll do it and find time to do it. Of course, getting to the point where you are efficient enough to maintain this sort of lifestyle takes time but it's pretty obvious that the OP (and others who make similar threads) can't be bothered to even try to do more and want the results without doing the work.

Good for you, but some people don't want it that badly, and there's nothing wrong with that. I find time to do loads of stuff, too, but I wouldn't say everyone who wants to do the same things I do ought to run their lives like I do. Losing weight should not be a main focus in your life. That's not a healthy thing to focus on. If you really enjoy lifting and focusing on your body and strength, good for you, I personally don't enjoy it at all, so I don't do it. If the OP wants to lose weight but doesn't want to spend loads of time in the gym, what's wrong with that? It's totally possible. I've lost a ton of weight by accident over the past few months sitting in my room and eating mainly junk because I was stressed and not hungry (and I'm thin anyway, unpleasantly so now). That's not a good way to do it, and I certainly wasn't aiming to do it, but the point is you can easily lose weight without making it a big deal and without setting time aside for it. If you eat food which is more filling, or cut out eating when you're not hungry, most people who are a little over their natural weight will easily fall back to a slimmer weight. Yes, if she wants to be an athlete or a body-builder then fair enough, she lacks the determination to really make a go of it, but she just wants to lose a bit to go on holiday with her friends. We don't need to start playing a theme tune and telling her to go to boot camp.

[Bimbleby]

(Original post by YetAnotherMember)
Are you mad? You're basically telling her "right, go on and become the fat-skinny type'' which I'm sure she doesn't want to

You made exercising sound like it's the most boring thing in the world to do...when it's actually not. And if you're looking into losing weight permanently, exercise is the thing to do. Everyone can eat 1500kcal a day and easily lose the weight, but are you gonna keep that diet for the rest of your life? No.

Besides, honestly, anyone can fit 20mins for exercising into their daily routines. I've seen mums with 2 children and full time jobs doing it and achieving great results. It's not THAT hard afterall, I mean look around youtube, there are tons of people who went from obese/overweight to normal BMI JUST with their own willpower.

No, I'm saying that exercise is good, but that it's wrong for people to say 'you CAN'T lose weight without exercising.' Or suggesting that you should be doing cardio every day. It's just a false statement and that annoys me. Plus, the stuff about doing cardio every day is not only false but harmful. No one should be doing cardio training every day. My Dad's an athlete, and a hardcore one at that, but he would never do training every day because you need recovery days.

I do find exercise the most boring thing in the world, which is why I would never stick to an exercise regime for the rest of my life. Who said you need to eat 1500 for the rest of your life to maintain weight loss? I find it far easier to just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full than I would to exercise all the time, and my BMI was about 19 before I accidentally lost weight recently, and that's my permanent weight, I don't need to stick to a diet to stay there... it's just not true that you need to either restrict what you eat or exercise in order to be slim. And before you say I must be skinny fat, I'm not. I have a naturally muscular build, I'm from a muscular family, and I walk around a lot, so my legs and my stomach are rock hard. I never run, I never lift but I cycle to lectures and I walk around town in my daily life.

I know people could fit it in if they really wanted to, but some people don't want to and it would be far easier for those people to cut back a bit, eat a little healthier and work some walking or cycling into their day than it would be for them to set aside time to do the kind of exercise people are suggesting. Besides, the OP already does exercise, she just doesn't want to do any more.

[YetAnotherMember]

(Original post by Bimbleby)
No, I'm saying that exercise is good, but that it's wrong for people to say 'you CAN'T lose weight without exercising.' It's just a false statement and that annoys me.

I do find exercise the most boring thing in the world, which is why I would never stick to an exercise regime for the rest of my life. Who said you need to eat 1500 for the rest of your life to maintain weight loss? I find it far easier to just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full than I would to exercise all the time, and my BMI was about 19 before I accidentally lost weight recently, and that's my permanent weight, I don't need to stick to a diet to stay there... it's just not true that you need to either restrict what you eat or exercise in order to be slim.

I know people could fit it in if they really wanted to, but some people don't want to and it would be far easier for those people to cut back a bit, eat a little healthier and work some walking or cycling into their day than it would be for them to set aside time to do the kind of exercise people are suggesting. Besides, the OP already does exercise, she just doesn't want to do any more.

I just don't think that your advice to ''cut back a bit, eat a little healthier'' is gonna bring her any significant changes tbh...If she really wants to look good on that holiday, this is nowhere near enough of what she could do to achieve that. Besides, even sticking to ''eating less and healthier'' might be hard for her, since she said her mum cooks the meals