How I lost 5 stone (70lb) - Tips

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I just wanted to share with you all how I lost the weight I once carried. When I was 19, I use to weigh 19.6 stone (274lb / 124KG) and I went to see my doctor for advice. He wasn't much help at all, and just gave me a printed sheet with little facts about why we gain weight. I was dissapointed so I decided to do a little research. Below are some tips I wish to share with you all and if you're overweight, perhaps these will help you out. They may seem obvious to you but they worked for me. When I told myself I wanted to lose weight, I wasn't in a rush and never planned to lose weight from one or two large things. I wanted to lose weight by doing many smaller things which combined, make a large difference. It took me approx 1 year to lose this weight, which is very slow but fairly easy for me, as I did it at my own pace and didn't sacrifice much. Exercise ========= The first thing is exercise. Try to exercise 30 minutes a day, everyday. For me, it was walking, not too fast but not too slow either. If you have a dog, bring him/her along :) Don't skip meals or stave yourself ================================== I read that if you repeatively skip meals, your body will go into panic mode as it thinks you are staving yourself. When this happens, your body bulks up on fat, producing more of it, which will contribute to weight gain. Staving yourself will be much worse than skipping meals, so please don't do this. Eat breakfast, dinner/lunch and tea, and never skip these. Water ===== Drink water before, during and after a meal or snack. Water is good for you, but excessive amounts (like 4 litres) in a short time can potentially kill you. Sometimes you can feel hungry not because you need food, but because your body needs liquid instead. Foods to avoid =============== Avoid cakes, sweets, chocolate, pasteries, crisps (potato chips) and other foods containing large amounts of sugar and fat. If food has more than 10-15g of fat per 100g, avoid it. Apart from the things above, I still ate my normal foods (including chips, rice, pasta, cheese etc). You don't have to eat healthly food all the time, just eat less. 1900 calories a day =================== When I was losing weight, I limited myself to 1900 calories a day and everytime I ate, I use to make note in my head how many calories I've consumed. Eat slower =========== I'm not sure on the exact figure but I think it takes 15 minutes for your stomach to signal to your brain that you are getting full, so eat slower. Break up or half meals ======================= Eat to satisfy your hunger, do not eat to become full up. If you are eating something and you start to feel full up, STOP, store away the food and eat the remaining later. Also if someone else has prepared food for you, try and half this. For example, if you had 2 jacket potato with cheese, and 2 chicken breasts, make 2 meals from this (1 jacket potato and 1 chicken breast) and eat it later. Don't eat too late ================== Don't eat before bedtime, instead, try and eat 3 hours before bed. I hope these tips have helped but it's noted that I am not a doctor or by anyways trained in this field, I am simply sharing what worked for me. Remember, too much weight loss too soon is unhealthy!