hey ai am new here. i have been on a healthy eating diet for about three weeks now and have not lost any weight. i thought that by cuttting out all the shit i would have done so. i eat loads of fruit, fresh vegetables etc. what am i doing wrong? anyone able to help me? thanks gem

If you've been on a diet for a while, then you know that in order to lose one pound a week, you've got to lose 3500 calories weekly (500 calories a day). Some do that through diet alone, but it's probably best to do that with diet and exercise. I'm sure there are many other people on this forum who can help you, but that's the basic gist that I know.

Welcome Gemma! Congrats on changing your diet. But, like Emer said, it is all a numbers game. Do you know how many calories you are consuming vs. how many you are expending daily? Diet is just one part of the equation. Exercise is the next. Do you have any kind of exercise routine in place?

Good luck, I am sure you will find all the advice you could want in these forums.

I don't know your age, but if you're like me - 58 - be VERY patient! I've only lost 21 pounds since last July, and have 50 to 60 more to go. The past 2 weeks, I've had a great diet, worked out 6 days a week for an hour a day, and haven't lost an ounce! Talk about frustrating!

It is a numbers game, but you also have to let the numbers "sink in." I'm still faithful that eventually I'll break through this plateau, although I'm starting to think that for me, a pound put on is actually 2500 calories, and a pound lost takes 4500 calories!

When I first started dieting, I tried "eating healthier". I gravitated towards low fat or non-fat foods. I ate fruits and vegetables. But when it came down to it, I found I was eating *more* calories than I had been before, because the caloric difference in non-fat foods is usually negligible. Also, because I thought they were healthier, I was eating larger portions than I had been normally.

The calorie game is a surprising one once you start looking into it and counting them. Foods you thought were rich in calories might not be, foods you thought low cal actually set you back significantly. Start using a site like calorieking.com, and track your daily calorie intake for a week to see where you are. If you aren't exercising, you should probably aim for something around 1400-1800 calories a day.

Losing weight through dieting alone is not as successful (and requires eating very little) as adding exercise. Plus exercise has other benefits, like improving coordination, bone mass, ensuring you lose FAT instead of just weight (weight training, that is), etc.

So, the way to lose fat would be #1, eat healthy, #2, eat less than you need to expend throughout the day, #3 get off your bum and into the gym (or wherever).

Lifting 2-3 times a week will ensure you don't lose muscle mass and that you lose mainly fat.
Cardio a few more times a week if you'd like, it'll help improve your aerobic threshold if you train in the right zones, burn some calories, and sometimes speed the fat loss.

Track what you're eating to be sure you're eating enough but not too much. If you eat too little your body will think you're starving it and hold on to the fat, making weight loss frustratingly slow. If you're eating too much you won't lose weight.

Also WHAT you eat matters, not only how much. Just because something is healthy doesn't mean it's always the right choice. The corollary is: just because something seems healthy doesn't mean it is.

For instance: juice is "healthy" in that it has lots of vitamins and minerals. It's ok to have occasionally, but really it's a lot of calories, mostly fructose (sugar) with very little to no fibre. A piece of fruit would have more fibre and less sugar and fewer calories.

On the other hand, "low fat" candy isn't actually good for you, and energy bars are usually very dense in calories (usually lots of sugars) and those 200-400 per add up quickly without providing you with a filling portion.

Keep a log of what you eat and how much for a week or two. Find out how many calories you need to maintain your weight at your height and age and activity. If you're not working out, do so... at least a couple times a week. If through all that you can maintain a caloric deficit, you are on your way to losing the fat.

It may not always come off as fast as you like, and you can try tweaking your diet (some people really are better off going low carb, etc), but at least get the basics down and see what that does for you.

Gemma,

Stop looking at the scales!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know what, after being on a diet for a few weeks, not eating shit and getting healthy, you probably feel a whole lot better then when you started, yes????? Take this as success, you have managed to change your dietary habits - the biggest problem, so now you can move onto the next goal. You want to shift a few pounds . When are you doing cardio, are you doing weights, what are you eating?????? Let me know and I'll see if we can help.

natalie

i don't look at scales but i do know how small i've gotten by my clothes sizes, i went from size 23W (about 220lbs) to a size 5(about 125lbs)! i did this in just 3 months. the best part is, i didn't have to spend one red cent! (well, at the end of the diet, i did need a whole new wardrobe because none of my other clothes fit anymore) now, i had a lot of extra time on my hands and i also had an incredible amount of detrermination but now i'm a lean mean vegan machine! it wasn't just a vegan diet that allowed me to lose the weight though, i had to go through a lot of stages

First stage, i ate 1/4 serving of any nutritious food once every hour. (my choices were activia yogurt, go-lean protien shakes, and boca-burgers (no bun or condements))before i ate anything in the morning, i drank a 20 oz bottle of water and did something, anything that would work up a sweat for 45 min.(the more weight i lost, the harder i had to work to sweat) i began eating every hour after my first workout. i did the same thing (drank a bottle of water and worked up a sweat) at noon and right before i went to bed (nothing is eaten at least 2 hours before bed) i usually worked out a little harder before bed because if i didn't exhaust myself, then i'd be up all night on the endorphins and sleep is key to this and any diet. anyway, this goes on for no more than 40 days and 40 nights (the amount of time that Jesus fasted before satan tempted him) or whatever. . .and it's best to have a vitamin of some sort (i took fish oil and pre-natal vitamins, i was trying to get pregnant)

my body was completely detoxed, and eating anything unhealthy or processed would have killed me, but the next stages are recovery stages, i slowly introduced more and more food back into my diet, and backed off on the strenuous exercise routine.

Second stage: i ate nothing but fruit and vegetables (as many as i liked) and only exercised twice a day for 4 days (remembering i still had to work up a sweat)

Third stage: i added some lean protien (tofu . . .or for those of you not going vegan, turky, tuna, and chicken, red meat such as pork and steak should only be eaten once in a while as a special occasion thing) to my diet of as many fruits and veggies as i could eat, and i knocked down my exercising to once / day, (i chose to alternate one day, in the morning and the next day at night before bed) i don't know what would hapen (if anything) if i exercised only at night or only in the morning. again, 4 days.

Fourth stage: i added some low-fat, unprocessed dairy (milk, cottage cheese, yogurt. .etc) to my diet of lean protien and all the veggies i could eat, and knocked down my exercising to one full hour four times/ week. (three of those exercises were now weight training) the other was still aerobic exercise. this time, 1 week.

Fifth and final stage: i added some whole grain breads and nuts to my diet and any other food i liked (it's best to keep your diet healthy after this with just the occasional treat or you'll gain all the weight right back) my favorite treat is non-sweetened super dark chocolate (about 1 sq. in. ) for dessert. and i exercise three times per week now (sometimes more) but i make sure i at least get two hours of aerobics and one hour of muscle development in per week.

i'm now a partial vegetarian and only eat sushi as meat but i've kept the weight off for about a month now so i guess i'm doing good, i also just found out i'm pregnant! so the diet didn't screw with my hormones or anything else important, i'm also drawing my inspiration from Demi More, she's vegan, she's in her what? 50's now i think but she still looks in her 20's! it sounds like she knows how to stay healthy.

I'd talk to a doctor before going about ashley's diet. It sounds a bit crazy. But congrats if it works.