BGB are you around?

Sure - go ahead.

Thanks baron.

I've just started running (following the bupa 5k plan) and healthy eating, I have 3 stone to lose to get a healthy bmi. What I'm wondering is how do you know if you're eating enough? Is it just a case of trial and error?

A typical day at the moment is something like this:

Breakfast - Special K, shredded wheat or toast.

Lunch - Soup, salad or sushi followed by a yoghurt and fruit.

Dinner - Fish with vegetables, wholemeal spaghetti, chicken breast with salad.

I don't tend to snack but if I do then it's usually fruit.

? Not Baron, but I'm also an ELMM dieter.

Your diet sounds fine, but really it's impossible to say without knowing your portion sizes. Have you tried using weightlossresources.com? It's great for giving you a feel of the calorie content of food. Whilst I wouldn't advocate getting into obsessive calorie counting, ultimately ANY diet is about taking in less and burning more, and it helps to know the numbers.

Another thing that's worth bearing in mind is the importance of variety in your diet - if I'm not mistaken one should aim to eat something like 70 different foods each week to get a good spectrum of nutrition.

HTH ?

I guess it is a bit of trial and error because obviously you need the fuel to keep you running well. I find that low GI/GL foods work best for me.

I initially kept a food diary for a couple of weeks together with a log of the runs I did as to how I was feeling e.g. out of energy, heavy legs etc. and noticing if I'd eaten more or less that day plus the balance of what I was taking in. If you're planning to use the scales, this will also help you to regulate your intake so that the weight loss is controlled. It will probably take you 2-3 weeks to fine tune it and you'll be tweaking it as the weight comes off and you're running longer distances.

For myself, I've found that about 1,800 calories on a non running day is working at the moment. Typical day for me is:

Porage with skimmed milk and dried mixed berries/brown sugar and banana OR poached/scrambled egg on brown toast

Sandwich or salad made with lean meat plus fruit

Variety of things for dinner but carbs are usually low GI - brown pasta, basmati rice, brown rice.

I've never been much of a snacker so I don't incorporate this into my diet. My portions for my evening meal are usually larger though and this will probably mean that if you are following a similar plan (which it seems you are) you'll probably take your intake down to around the 1,500 calorie mark just with the smaller portions.

That said, I do usually have some sort of cereal bar at around 100 cals before I go out for a longer run plus a little something when I get back e.g. banana.

Now that all sounds virtuous but I can assure you that I'm not. I'll quite happily plough through a takeaway a couple of times a month and I'll drink at the weekend when I feel like it (although not to excess). Almost without fail I'll have a some dark chocolate every day as I've not got much of a sweet tooth and therefore I'm not the biggest fan of dessert. Apparently it's very good for you too ?

One thing the exercise has done is regulate my hunger at mealtimes. My portions (my biggest problem apart from the sedentary lifestyle) were always huge but now I'm happy to leave what I don't really feel like rather than hoover it up.

3 stone sounds like a really good aim and shouldn't take too long. I'm probably looking at losing the same amount before working out if I need to lose any more than that - I've been overweight since I was a teenager so I don't really have a clue what my adult build is.

Thanks Sophie. I never thought to mention about portion sizes. I'll take a look at the weightlossresources website as it will help to give me an idea of how many calories I'm eating in a day, at the moment I haven't got a clue.

I do try to vary my diet but always struggle for other things to eat for breakfast and lunch.

Thank you SO much baron that's so kind of you to take the time to write such a long reply, it's much appreciated.

I was reading on one of the running websites that a low GI foods are a good starting point. I will start keeping a food/training diary.

I usually have a couple of glasses red wine on a weekend and some dark chocolate and don't really want to give that up as I think it will help to motivate me knowing that come the end of the week I enjoy a glass of wine with no guilt.

I'm happier being almost 4 stone lighter than I am now (I put on the weight when having my baby who is now 7 months so I really can't use that as my excuse anymore). But my first aim is just to have a healthy BMI.

Thanks again for the help and I must admit that if it wasn't for reading your posts over the last couple of months I really think I would have ended up on a drastic diet and not thought about doing exercise as well.

Thanks, you're most welcome. My first aim is to get to an overweight BMI ? - thankfully only a couple of pounds off that aim now.

BGB, just thought I'd tell you that your post about getting rid of your old clothes due to running has inspired my husband. He's bought proper running shoes and is on week 1 of the BUPA 8 week 5k programme (he's done the 1st two walk/runs). I'm doing 3 times a week at the gym and we're going to eat less too and see which of us loses more inches in 8 weeks?

That's great news - hope you both do really well. How much does your husband want to lose?

baron you are so motivated, your loss is fab and you are definitely an inspiration, you should be the weight loss boards sense guru ?

Sorry for the late reply BGB, away for a couple of days. He wants to get down 6-8" around the waist I think, I'm not sure in stone (I don't ask about weight as I don't want to be asked iyswim!). I want to drop 3 or 4 dress sizes, but I'd be happy to get back into the 'teens' before I go back to Uni in September. He's now completed the 1st week and is still motivated, so a good start, and my next door neighbour has asked me to give her a lift to the gym in the mornings x3 per week, so I can't get out of it now?