No More Diets

How can I stop feeling hungry? I have hunger all the time even after a real meal.

This type of hunger is quite a common problem if you are trying to cut down on food. You see we are programmed to want to eat - it is part of our survival and if we don’t get enough food (or feel we are depriving ourselves) we just want to eat and eat.

So more often than not this kind of hunger is generally not physical but psychological.

You are fighting your natural instincts to want to eat as much as you can.

In fact even if you are not trying to cut down on food, the causes may be psychological - you may be trying to fill some kind of “gap” that exists in you or in your life. You are eating for comfort - and as food can never offer more than temporary solace you can never quite fill the space in you.

This “gap” can be caused by loneliness, boredom, unhappiness, stress, anger - any emotion which you would like to get rid of, you may try and mask with food.

The answer, of course, is to tackle the root of the problem and not the symptoms - often easier said than done - but until you do something about the root cause of your emotion, you are likely to continue to try and plug the comfort gap with food and remain hungry all the time.

If you feel you can’t tackle the root cause and just have to live with the situation then it’s important to work out how to identify difficult situations and patterns when these emotions will occur and look for other ways to feel better.

See also this 7 part series Hungry all the Time on my Think Slim blog as this may help you too.

What is the best exercise for losing weight and for firming skin?

The best exercise for losing weight is one that you will actually do. You see I could prescribe a whole fat-burning program but if you hate it you will never do it (or at least you won’t do it more than a couple of weeks).

So just do more of the exercise and sports you love and you won’t go far wrong.

Changing your eating habits is by far more effective in losing weight in any case - you have to run more than a marathon to lose a pound of fat just with exercise!

If you are still at the stages of exploring what you like to do however, here are some pointers.

Losing weight by exercising basically boils down to this:-

• burn as many calories as possible with strenuous aerobic training
• keep burning calories after you finish your workout by using metabolism boosting activities such as interval training as part of your workout
• keep as active as possible during the course of the day outside formal exercise sessions - the more you’re on your feet the better
• include strength training in your routine as muscle burns fat even at rest and it will mean that you lose fat rather than muscle when you are dieting

To keep your skin as taut as possible as you lose, ensure you keep the underlying muscles strong - strength training will help here - and lose weight slowly to give your skin a chance to keep up with your body as it shrinks - especially if you have a lot to lose. For more about keeping skin firm see how to avoid loose skin after weight loss.

By the way, you’ll also find there’s no shortage of information out there on the web about exercising to lose weight.

But take care, some of it is plain misleading. See my article about the fat burning myth for more information on that.

How can I stop thinking about food? I can’t stop thinking about it until it is all gone.

This is a fairly common problem which can lead to massive weight gain if you don’t learn to control it.

That’s because the essence of weight maintenance (never mind weight loss) is to eat only when you are hungry and stop when you have eaten just enough - well before you have stuffed the last cookie in the packet in your mouth.

So how can you control this problem?

1. First of all you need to reduce your opportunities to overindulge. This starts at the store. Buy just enough food for proper meals for those in your household and absolutely stay away from giant packs of anything or two-for-one offers. Let others grab those “bargains”. They are no bargain for your figure.
2. Do not buy snack type foods unless they are super healthy such as raw vegetables or fruit - the less you have to indulge with the better.
3. Cook just enough for the people you are serving and if you “miscalculate” and there is any left over, offer it to others rather than taking it yourself. If there’s still any left put it straight in the trash - better wasted and in the trash than on your hips. Remember to cook less next time.
4. Don’t keep food in sight where you will be tempted.
5. Get involved in other activities and get so busy and so engrossed that you don’t have time to hear the food calling from your name from the kitchen.
6. When you think you are about to indulge, use the strategies for stopping a snack attack I just put on my Think Slim blog 3 Simple Steps to Stop a Snack Attack

I tore a ligament in my knee a while ago, what exercises will maintain a trim waist?

If you do any sort of damage to yourself, it’s wise to consult a physiotherapist to get some exercises that will

• build up the injured part of your body once (or while) it heals
• allow you to work on the rest of your body without further putting pressure on your injury.

Apart from that, my general view on exercise is just to be sensible.

If something hurts then it’s not doing you any good. (And I don’t just mean if something is hard work - I mean if it hurts!)

So I would look at all the traditional forms of stomach exercise such as crunches and sit ups as well as the free course you can get from me of easy stomach exercises to do standing up and see what works best for you.

If traditional crunches AND standing exercises are both unsuitable for one reason or another, do as much as you can of the standing exercises seated in a chair. You won’t get the full benefit but you will get some.

How Do You Lose Weight with Hypothyroidism?

Hypothyroidism is a medical condition caused by insufficient production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland.

About 1 in 7 women (and a large number of men) will suffer a thyroid condition at some point in their lives which will cause them to rapidly gain weight (without eating any more or exercising less than usual) and make it pretty much impossible to lose weight.

These conditions tend to go undiagnosed for years as many of the symptoms are those found in the general public - putting on weight, feeling tired and so on.

Although I’m not a medical doctor - so I am not able to provide 1-2-1 advice or treat your symptoms and I’m not an expert on thyroid conditions, I have come across a couple of excellent resources recently which may help you.

Just make sure that you involve your doctor if you decide to make any changes which may affect your health as a result of what you read.

The first resource is a good general overview of hypothyroidism at wikipedia which clearly explains the causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment although it does not focus that much on the weight gain associated with an under-active thyroid gland.

For the weight management issue there is an excellent book which I think will help you a lot - I read it a while ago to improve my understanding of the condition and it is extremely comprehensive.

If you have really tried to lose weight and you’re finding it impossible despite eating a limited number of calories and taking exercise then take a look at the Thyroid Diet by Mary L. Shomon. She has a thyroid condition herself and explains in clear English and in great depth all about the condition and the various ways to manage it.

Unfortunately it’s not a simple case of taking a medication for your condition to resolve the problem with your weight but Mary explains all the strategies which will help as well as those which won’t.

The version of the book version I read is available at Amazon.co.uk or there’s a version under a different cover on Amazon.com (see below)

I usually eat only lunch or dinner - I feel because of my size I shouldn’t be eating much at all. But I have since learned that I have put my body into starvation mode. However I am still struggling with the concept of three meals a day. Do you have any advice?

The best way to keep your metabolism stoked and burning food at a high rate is to eat little and often.

By eating only twice a day you are saying to your body “I’d better conserve as much energy as possible, because it doesn’t look as if any more food is coming my way”.

And when you do eventually eat, your body will be saying “Food at last. Better hold onto this in case the next lot is a long time coming just as it was yesterday and the day before”.

If you want to lose weight I recommend 5 or 6 mini meals a day if you can possibly fit that into your lifestyle. i have to admit, it’s not for everyone. If your style is to eat large meals with others at lunch and dinner then this would not be easy to do, but work towards a compromise but including some of the ideas below.

• Always eat a healthy breakfast when you want to lose weight - so many studies have shown that it helps and this is even the case when it means you eat more calories in total! See a recent report confirming that breakfast helps you lose weight from the BBC.
• If you feel you can’t face breakfast right away, take something healthy to work and eat it as soon as you can face it.
• Don’t keep yourself going with coffee and tea. Keep yourself going with proper nutrition.
• Eat a small healthy snack mid morning - for example, an apple and 5 or 6 almonds
• If you take you lunch to work (a good idea when you want to lose weight) you can try eating part of it as your mid morning snack save part of it for the afternoon
• Always eat something healthy mid-afternoon so you do not over-eat at dinnertime
• Reduce portion sizes so that you are hungry within 2 to 3 hours of each meal. You should not be eating more than two fistfuls at a meal in terms of quantity with smaller snacks in between
• Eat the bulk of you food while you are most active - for most people this is during the day and not after 8pm.
• Reactivate your metabolism with exercise - if formal exercise is not for you then just keep as active as possible during the course of your normal life. Your metabolism does not know if you are at the gym or if you are cleaning your car but it does know if you have not moved from your seat for the last 3 hours.

I have totally neglected this blog for ages and for that I must apologize - the usual story of life getting in the way - too many things happening at home and online.

I know many of you have found the info here useful so I’m planning on adding regular posts over the coming months again - let’s see if I can manage my time a bit better.

Due to not posting recently, I have a backlog of questions to answer so I’ll just get on with it starting today!