dietary advice please

[morgan]

Having trouble sticking to diet, seem to be liking alot of chocolate at the moment.

I drink a fair bit of diet coke and although it doesn't have sugar in it, it's still sweet.

If I were to stop drinking diet coke, would it help me stay away from chocolate?

[WOM]

dietary advice please

There might be something helpful here, Morgan.

[Guest]

dietary advice please

My sister is as thin as a supermodel, and she reckons the way to do it is to eat something that isn't massively fattening (i.e. an apple, a sesame seed bar, a non-fat-loaded sandwich) every two hours during your working day, before having a proper dinner in the evening.

Diet Coke won't affect your weight but it will make shit of your teeth.

[Femme Folle]

dietary advice please

I've read a lot about how 'artificial' sweeteners make you crave carbs even more. I think there's something to it, so I would be inclined to say that the answer to your question is yes, but only to a point. I think chocolate is a separate case from sweets in general, especially for women. I think the best thing to do is to enjoy it in extreme moderation. If I try to go cold turkey on the chocolate, all it takes is one stressful day and I can undo a week's worth of being good.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

Discipline is the only way.

[WOM]

dietary advice please

Spank you for that.

[Femme Folle]

dietary advice please

Discipline is the only way. (a man writes)

[Jon]

dietary advice please

If you're having trouble staying away from chocolate, morgan, go for one with a high bean content. The higher the bean content, the lower the sugar and fats there are therein.

Anything above 70% bean content and you're laughing. I find you eat less of the stuff too - 2 squares of the stuff is probably more satisfying than a whole bar of normal milk chocolate. It's all about developing a taste for the bean, not the sugar.

Green and Blacks are having a 3 for 2 promotion at Waitrose this month if there's one by you. Go for the Dark 70% or the Dark 85% ones. Good luck.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

I can dress it up in fluffy language and point ot many online resources FF.

Addiction to sweet sugary foods is like smoking, you get used to it and get used to reaching for it when you need a fix.
Unless you really really want to give it up, there is nothing that will help.

[Femme Folle]

dietary advice please

I'm just saying, it is easier for a man (who doesn't go through the hormonal fluctuations that a woman does on a regular basis) to have this kind of discipline. Sure, it's possible; anything is possible. It's just easier said than done. And it's a lot easier done by men than by women.

Also, when a man says something like that to a woman, there is always the sense that a character judgment is being made--whether implied or inferred. It isn't helpful, mostly because it isn't something we've never heard before--and obviously, if it were helpful advice, we wouldn't be talking about this right now.

Sorry, you've just touched a raw nerve.

Jon - I don't think dark chocolate quite hits the spot the way milk chocolate does. I think the sugar and fats are part of it. In other words, if I try to substitute something that really doesn't satisfy the craving, I just end up bingeing on it later on. I think it's much better to learn to limit how much you consume over any given period of time than to simply stop eating what you really want.

[Uncle Ethan]

dietary advice please

The best reason for giving up diet drinks is the growing body of opinion that the artifical sweeteners may cause cancer.

On FF's point the other downside for some women compared to men is the forced break from exercise for four or five days each month.

I now go to the gym five or six days a week and I am accompanied three times a week by the Mrs NGNG. However, every time she has to stop for a enforced break it feels like she has to start all ove again. Very frustrating for her.

I am a convert to the basic message of eat less, exercise more but sometimes it is not as easy as that.

Why not try low fat (NOT diet) yoghurt instead of chocolate and see if it gives you the sugar hit you are craving. I have been advised two or three serves a day actually helps burn fat and my own experience tends to bear this out.

[Bill Poster]

dietary advice please

I think I might have posted this before but when I did the overnight residential trial for Diabetes research, the team told me that there is growing evidence to suspect that a lot of issues around appetite and even the type of foods we are attracted to is genetically predisposed. Meaning that some find it much easier to restrict their diet than others.

Also we still have a lot to learn about body chemistry and the regulation of appetite, but it's likely that if you're dieting, the craving for chocolate is your body compensating for the loss of energy in-take.

How you abate this is less easy to say. Try different things - foods, drinks, methods of distraction. The high cocoa chocolate I find harder to eat a lot of - but it's not true to say it is lower in fat. It's not.

So as for TG: I think it's best that you keep your simplistic, ill-informed platitudes to yourself. They don't help.

[JtS]

dietary advice please

morgan, try chocolate milk. Much lower in fat and kind of replaces chocolate.

If you like chocolate you shouldn't rule it out, just go a bit more towards moderation, make it a treat rather than a standard.

[hobbes]

dietary advice please

The best reason for giving up diet drinks is the growing body of opinion that the artifical sweeteners may cause cancer.

You know what causes cancer? Being alive. That's what causes cancer.

[Stumpy Pepys]

dietary advice please

hobbes wrote:

The best reason for giving up diet drinks is the growing body of opinion that the artifical sweeteners may cause cancer.

You know what causes cancer? Being alive. That's what causes cancer.

Yes, the link between aspartame and cancer is extremely weak.

The biggest problem with Diet Coke that I can see is that all that phosphoric acid is really bad for your teeth.

[Guest]

dietary advice please

I'm fed up of the beer gut and wanting to get a six pack so I've been reading up about diets etc. Reading a book at the moment which says that diets dont work because basically when you lower your calorie intake, your body realizes this and lowers your metabolism/ goes into starvation mode. You might lose a bit of weight but then when you get off the diet, all the weight goes back on because your metabolism is slower so anything you eat gets stored as fat.
Basically diets screw up your metabolism.

The best way to lose weight is to make permanent changes to your diet,bring aerobic exercise and weights into your regular lifestyle, as the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism will work, and just eat the chocolate and drink coke as an occasional treat.

[Femme Folle]

dietary advice please

JtS wrote:

morgan, try chocolate milk. Much lower in fat and kind of replaces chocolate.

If you like chocolate you shouldn't rule it out, just go a bit more towards moderation, make it a treat rather than a standard.

Very sensible advice, JtS.

I have substituted hot cocoa for chocolate on occasion and it works for me.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

Bill Poster.

I am 35, and have been an active sportsman for most of my adult life. I played football to a decent level and i have run numerous marathons as well as being able to some seriously heavy weights in the gym.
I am also a qualified football coach as well as being a level 2 fitness instructor.

Your qualifications seem to be an overnight stay as a guinea pig on some lab experiment and an informal chat with a couple of eggheads.

I practise what i preach and that's why i am in decent shape.
Last time i saw you, i wasn't that impressed so i would think twice about following your advice.

Personally, i don't eat a perfect diet as food is my only vice.
So i will not shut up Bill poster and i have demonstrated that i do have a fair idea what i am on about.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

Nogoalsnoglory.

I think 6 times a week in the gym is a bit excessive.
I would not reccommend that anyone who is not a full-time athlete train more than 4 times a week.
This all depends on what you do in the gym of course, but the body needs a couple of days to recover from a workout.

Chocks Away, if you wanna work your abs, get a fitness ball and check out the excersises in this video.

take note that a proper ab workout will always make provision for lower back excersises so that a muscle inbalance does not build up.

[Wyatt Earp]

dietary advice please

Tactical Genius wrote:

I practise what i preach and that's why i am in decent shape.
Last time i saw you, i wasn't that impressed so i would think twice about following your advice.

You utter tit.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

No i am not a tit Wyatt.

If i give advice on diet, nutrition and training and someone comes on and tells me that i do not know what i am talking about then i think i am within my rights to state my Qualifications to give that advice as well as pointing out that the person who not only gives advice himself, but then comes out and insults me and the advice i give isn't much cop himself.

[Brandenburger Toro]

dietary advice please

Aye, well out of order, that. I mean, the comment that prompted it wasn't the stuff of shrinking violets either. But seriously, TG, that's just not on.

[Bill Poster]

dietary advice please

I practise what i preach and that's why i am in decent shape.
Last time i saw you, i wasn't that impressed so i would think twice about following your advice.

Personally, i don't eat a perfect diet as food is my only vice.
So i will not shut up Bill poster and i have demonstrated that i do have a fair idea what i am on about.

Ooooh. Get you!

So, let me get this right - you play a bit of sport and pump some iron and that makes you an expert on diet and nutrition. You are Gillian McKeith with big muscles and ICMFP.

What advice did I give exactly? Other than "it's complicated" and "we have lots to learn".

Everybody (even the people that Jamie Oliver meets on his missionary visits Oop North) knows that to lose weight you eat less and exercise more. So if we all know the theory, why aren't more of us putting it into practice? That's what you should be asking instead of going all Daily Mail on our ass, sister. And to give you a clue, "discipline" is not the only answer.

[Wyatt Earp]

dietary advice please

Nogoalsnoglory wrote:

The best reason for giving up diet drinks is the growing body of opinion that the artifical sweeteners may cause cancer.

That, and the fact they taste of bile mixed with rust.

[Tactical Genius]

dietary advice please

Toro.

"Aye, well out of order, that. I mean, the comment that prompted it wasn't the stuff of shrinking violets either. But seriously, TG, that's just not on."

I didn't really take kindly to someone telling me that i do not know what i am talking about on a subject that i am qualified to talk about.
Especially when that person is not qualified to talk about the subject in mind.

I have no problem with Bill Poster not agreeing with my advice. What i do not like about his debating style is telling people to shut up and go away when he does not agree with them.
I wasn't rude, or patronising or insulting with my advice so i don't really see what justification he has for his original remark.

Bill Poster
"So, let me get this right - you play a bit of sport and pump some iron and that makes you an expert on diet and nutrition. You are Gillian McKeith with big muscles and ICMFP."

No, because i am qualified to tech people how to play a bit of sport and i am qualified to teach people how to pump a bit of iron.
I am not and have never claimed to be an expert, but i know enough to coment from an informed standpoint.
I will now give you the opportunity to state your qualifications and if they trump mine i will apologise and withdraw from this discussion.

Also, i have no idea who Gillian McKeith is or what ICMFP is.

"Everybody....knows that to lose weight you eat less and exercise more. So if we all know the theory, why aren't more of us putting it into practice?"

Because that comment is not necessarily correct. It is eating right and training right. Starving yourself and running on the treadmill for hours will probably make you ill before you lose much weight.

"That's what you should be asking instead of going all Daily Mail on our ass, sister. And to give you a clue, "discipline" is not the only answer."

Not going all Daily Mail, it is a simple fact, excessive sweet food and chocolate are bad for you in excess and you gotta fight the urge.
I apologise if that is not what you want to hear, but its a fact.