Diet and Weightloss

[Seat68]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

Yeah I found eating healthy to be expensive in both the UK and Germany, especially if you're single, it's hard to compete with a frozen pizza, you need a big freezer and to buy in bulk to start to spread it all out over a lot of meals 

Especially if you then try and cut out bread, rice, pasta and potatoes too

Trying to replace a sandwich with yoghurt and fruit for example, it takes more effort and costs more money if you go for the half decent 0% fat yoghurt, which I have to do to move away from it feeling like a punishment, I'm currently yoghurt, bananas, museli for lunch 5 times a week and it's a slog, the alternative would be a cheese sandwich or cheese on toast, it's half the price 

The US I've seen recently some good 10 minute short docs on what they call food deserts, shocking stuff, basically supermarkets are not interested in putting stores in poor areas leaving poor people, most of whom can't drive, to only shop in basically corner shops, as a result their diet is shit 

 

 

I stayed in a hotel in New Orleans. Nice place and near it was basically a corner shop. Just a normal place but in a corner they sold fried chicken. Its the best fried chicken I have ever had. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

2 hours ago, El Zen said:

I think obesity is very much becoming a class/poverty issue in Norway too. It’s more complex than just prices, although processed crap is cheap. You have to consider the time, knowledge (and money) it takes to plan, purchase and prepare a healthy family dinner. When both parents (or the single parent) work incompatible shifts for low wages, sometimes all you can do feed your kids is to get a frozen pizza and have the older sibling stick it in the oven while you rush to get the bus to work and your partner won’t be home for another hour. 

I’m very much on the «anyone get get fit and eat healthy» end of the scale, but I fully appreciate it’s a lot easier for me than for people who really struggle to make ends meet. 

It's a poverty/education issue all over the world, but it definitely isn't that in Norway. I just can't agree with that. People are mostly obese here cause for a whole bunch of other reasons. IMO. I'd even bet you'd find a higher BMI amongst the middle class group living in the country side than any other class or group here. 

There's a small group of poor people here and that group is rising, but relatively speaking I'm not sure it is. Personally I don't know anyone that fall into that group, even if I know people who are poor. I think saying it's a becoming as issue here is sort of mocking the real world issue. 

The statistics show that around 10% of the children are in households defined as poor, and 60% of those are immigrant families. Since 2006 children in Norway has increased by 2,7% while the children in the low income families have increased by 71%. How this related to immigration I'm not sure, but it's a very relevant question.

Low income families is defined by 60% or less of the median income. The median income is roughly £ 4400, thus these kids and families operated on £ 2600 or less per month and are defined as poor. 

AFAIK, Somalia is the country that's dominating the stats on this. It's also worth considering they aren't in reality operating on £ 2600 month as they tend to get a LOT of extra benefits. I don't have children so I'm unsure on this, but I think they get around £ 150,- per child, and these families normally have a lot of children.  

The women in the family often don't work either, and that's another benefit they are awarded which isn't included in the income numbers afaik. 

So while this is a very complicated debate, I think on the whole there's no chance you have this issue in Norway in any way that's comperable to the rest of the world. 

Secondly, I'd argue you can make a healthy dinner cheaper than a frozen pizza here. A frozen pizza most people buy, is around £ 6-10 I think. You can buy eggs, peas, rice, bread, pasta, vegetables and what not for the same money. 

Edited June 26, 2021 by KenjiOgiwara

[villa4europe]

Here probably the simplest thing I can think of is frozen fish fingers or chicken nuggets, powder mash potato and a tin of peas / carrots 

You can feed a family of 4 for €4

Dont get me wrong if you knew how to cook you could also get pasta, passata, tinned mushrooms, maybe some other veg, my wife could make carbonara from scratch for about €4

But you can't get meat other than maybe bacon lardons, even mince meat would put you over, you can't get a pepper they're crazy expensive, can't get fresh mushrooms, definitely couldn't make a salad for a family of 4 for under €4 and then all the fruit and veg is seasonal anyway 

You cannot compete with the frozen food aisle, you can compete with McDonald's obviously but not with home oven cooked nuggets and chips or pizza, it's the cheapest food available and the easiest to prepare 

I would say that out of 7 main meals a week maybe 4 of mine are "healthy" and even then that's me classing pasta bake with feta and tomatoes as "healthy" and it's probably not 

[KenjiOgiwara]

You touch an interesting matter though when you say 'if you know how to cook'. It's a pretty neglected, old fashioned thing, but it sure is important.

You don't have to go too many years back and mothers were at home cooking every dinner, and not working.

Edited June 27, 2021 by KenjiOgiwara

[TheAuthority]

Anybody had any success with keto? I know a lot of people who are really digging the weight results and the overall mental clarity.

[El Zen]

4 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Anybody had any success with keto? I know a lot of people who are really digging the weight results and the overall mental clarity.

Personally, I swear by calorie counting and have had incredible results with that.  Basically, eating less is the safest bet to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, cutting calories will work. 

I know people who have had good short term results on keto, but I also know people who have lost less weight than they otherwise would have because they think they can eat and drink any amount of anything as long as it is «low carb». 

[Rds1983]

4 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Anybody had any success with keto? I know a lot of people who are really digging the weight results and the overall mental clarity.

As @El Zen says calorie counting works. I've done it a few times and I'm currently using the free version of Myfitnesspal and it helps. You'd be surprised how many calories are in some foods. 

[villa4europe]

I didn't go full keto but knocked crisps on the head for over a year, pretty much reduced potatoes, pasta and rice to maybe once a month, no bread for a long time, found it worked

Lots of meat, lots of veg, fair few eggs

Calorie counting was a pain in the ass for me, even with my fitness pal, also never ever going to be someone who weighs out food in plastic tubs and does meals for the week, **** that 

Did intermittent fasting too, found that stopped me late night snacking 

Mixture of that, eating around exercise and that diet worked for me 

[El Zen]

The thing is, by cutting a lot of carbs, you are cutting a lot of calories. Eating less crap is what calorie counting is all about, really. The counting (and weighing, and measuring) is just a control mechanism. You don’t have to do that to cut calories. I haven’t done a single daily calorie count in the four years since I lost my excess weight. I really only counted rigorously for one-two months. I now just know roughly how much and what I can eat. It’s actually kind of easy, once you’ve done the hard work of getting into a new diet. 

[Rds1983]

6 hours ago, El Zen said:

The thing is, by cutting a lot of carbs, you are cutting a lot of calories. Eating less crap is what calorie counting is all about, really. The counting (and weighing, and measuring) is just a control mechanism. You don’t have to do that to cut calories. I haven’t done a single daily calorie count in the four years since I lost my excess weight. I really only counted rigorously for one-two months. I now just know roughly how much and what I can eat. It’s actually kind of easy, once you’ve done the hard work of getting into a new diet. 

It's also when you start thinking about foods in a different way if you have a limit on what you can eat. If you're only eating 2000 calories a day and you see that a single sausage is 350 and you'd normally have 3 or so at 1000 odd calories. Suddenly those 3 sausages are half of all you can eat that day and a chicken breast at 160 calories looks a lot more appealing.

I eat a lot of pickled gherkins or unsweetened popcorn as I know I can stuff tonnes of it into my mouth if I want and it's only a handful of calories. 

[El Zen]

50 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

It's also when you start thinking about foods in a different way if you have a limit on what you can eat. If you're only eating 2000 calories a day and you see that a single sausage is 350 and you'd normally have 3 or so at 1000 odd calories. Suddenly those 3 sausages are half of all you can eat that day and a chicken breast at 160 calories looks a lot more appealing.

I eat a lot of pickled gherkins or unsweetened popcorn as I know I can stuff tonnes of it into my mouth if I want and it's only a handful of calories. 

Exactly. It’s all about awareness, really, more than anything. 

[Rds1983]

23 minutes ago, El Zen said:

Exactly. It’s all about awareness, really, more than anything. 

Completely, I did a proper double take when I saw how many calories were in olive oil and thought how much I'd been splashing on my 'healthy' salads. 

I actually eat a LOT of food. People would probably be surprised if they saw what I've eaten today but because I'm careful what I choose I'm currently 850 calories below my target (I've done a fair bit of exercise today too). 

[Vive_La_Villa]

It’s beer that piles on the calories. Then you have the snacks with it. I mentioned how we need to wary of calories in beer to a friend and he called me a wrongun! He is obese though to be fair. 

[maqroll]

Every time I am at the grocery store I'll see at least one overweight or obese person with a cart loaded with soda, potato chips, cookies, ice cream, bags of candy, etc. It is unbelievable. 

[maqroll]

I've lost 30 lbs over the last year and I've done it without much exercise and without starving myself. 

Firstly, I stopped boozing. No at all since November. Secondly,  counting calories like @El Zen. It works. I can eat a big bowl of pasta with cheese if my total count doesn't exceed 2500.

Also, hardly any added sugar. Brown rice over white. Olive oil over corn oil, Roasted over fried, Oat milk over regular, etc. 

Make smart substitutions whenever possible.  

Exercise will help but it isn't the end all. 

 

[maqroll]

Also, the less I eat, the less hungry I get. It's counterintuitive but its true. Once you get into the routine you will likely experience the same thing.

[Rds1983]

5 hours ago, maqroll said:

Also, the less I eat, the less hungry I get. It's counterintuitive but its true. Once you get into the routine you will likely experience the same thing.

I've noticed this too. Apparently down to less sugar crashes making you hungry and also possibly because you're filling up on low calorie but filling foods.

[Xela]

6 hours ago, maqroll said:

Every time I am at the grocery store I'll see at least one overweight or obese person with a cart loaded with soda, potato chips, cookies, ice cream, bags of candy, etc. It is unbelievable. 

Sounds like shopping basket! Although there is healthy stuff in there as well. 

[Rds1983]

58 minutes ago, Xela said:

Sounds like shopping basket! Although there is healthy stuff in there as well. 

Something healthy like this... 

Fruit, nuts, milk... Sounds good to me. 

[Xela]

32 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

Something healthy like this... 

Fruit, nuts, milk... Sounds good to me. 

All the major food groups sorted.