When Do you Stop 'Dieting'?

[saraloo2000]

This may sound very daft but i need some advice. At what stage do you stop dieting or trying to loose weight. I suppose the typical answer would be when you reach the 'norm' weight for your height etc or reach a reasonable BMI or is it when you're happy with your body. I am 5foot 6 just and weight 9 stone. I am not happy with my weight. According to my BMI this is a normal healthy weight. Im completly not happy with my size. I don't know if its a case of needing to loose more weight or needing to do toning? If it is a case of toning can anyone suggest any good dvds, excercises etc? I workout 5 days a week for atleast 25mins and vary kettlebells, DVDS, stomach workouts and exercise bike. I don't feel i can cram much more in with working out, but it may be thats not the answer and weight lose is

 

[Becca1993]

Try a bit of both? I've decided i want to go down to a weight where im considered healthy, but i've said to myself if i get down to a size that i'm happy with I will stop, but if i go past my target and am still not happy, im gonna carry on until i am.

It's whatever you want to do, your the one in control.

 

[Yambabe]

This may sound very daft but i need some advice. At what stage do you stop dieting or trying to loose weight. I suppose the typical answer would be when you reach the 'norm' weight for your height etc or reach a reasonable BMI or is it when you're happy with your body. I am 5foot 6 just and weight 9 stone. I am not happy with my weight. According to my BMI this is a normal healthy weight. Im completly not happy with my size. I don't know if its a case of needing to loose more weight or needing to do toning? If it is a case of toning can anyone suggest any good dvds, excercises etc? I workout 5 days a week for atleast 25mins and vary kettlebells, DVDS, stomach workouts and exercise bike. I don't feel i can cram much more in with working out, but it may be thats not the answer and weight lose is

I don't think the answer for you is diet OR exercise to be honest.

I think your problem is with your head, not just your body.

You are slap-bang in the middle of the healthy BMI range at the moment but don't forget that BMI is just a guide, it doesn't take into account factors such as age, frame size, muscle/fat percentages, all sorts of things.

You say you are not happy with your "weight" but is it that or is it a particular part of your body you don't like? If so what don't you like about it?

I think perhaps you need to do some reverse thinking. Which bits of you do you like, and why? Which bits of you would you change, and why?

Seeing the number on a set of scales go down isn't the answer to all of life's problems.

 

[Lhotte]

Truth is you never do stop "dieting" I think with you is you need to find the right balance and then you will feel alot better in yourself, losing weight isnt going to fix that. You just need to get your modd up, and the right diet is a perfect start

 

[saraloo2000]

Thanks for your replies. I think getting to a size/weight that im comfortable with is the solution rather than what 'numbers' im meant to be. Im at a size im 70% comfortable with but im not sure how to reduce my weight more or what training i can do to improve my muscles and tone them. I feel i do more than the recommended working out and i certainly dont eat badly or large portions. In response Yambabe, i think your talking a lot of sense! I'm 23, when i was between the ages of 9-15 i was overweight. At my worst i weighed nearly 12 stone and i lost it all by 16yrs old. I was always a savoury snacker, which I still get seriously tempted by nowadays! In response the parts im not happy with is my stomach i suppose. My legs are getting there, apart from the inner top thighs but the stomach never seems to have that 'look i want', which is pretty flat and no bulges etc. This is rather embarressing to describe, but I find there two types of stomachs you can have when you're slightly weighty. Either you have a pop belly which generally is rounded and protrudes evenly or you have a stomach which is large around the middle and then goes in and then you have a larger bulge underneath and then the rolls start! I have the latter of the two. Its not bulging or large but i worry/wonder if the lower part is never going to reduce as its permenant excess skin from when i was overweight for so many years? I think also that mentally im still in a larger body than i actually have, from when i was overweight. If it is a mental issue rather than physical im not quite sure where to go from here!?

 

[Yambabe]

At your age you shouldn't have too many problems with loose skin, but I think what you need to do is concentrate on exercise far more than diet.

Make sure you are eating healthily (I'll get back to that in a minute) but other than that start looking for stuff you can do to improve your "bad" bits.

Tops of your legs you can work on with lunges and squats, probably other stuff as well, swimming will help.

Re your tummy you need to google exercises for core stability. It's not all situps although doing those will help, there is loads you can do that will improve the muscle tone and overall appearance around there. Once the underlying muscle starts to firm up you should find that the skin will follow too.

You don't necessarily need to be joining a gym or buying the latest celeb fitness dvd, the internet is a really useful tool for stuff like this and you will find loads of helpful and free info if you go and look for it!

Going back to diet, you need to be eating at least enough calories to cover your base metabolic rate (BMR) which you can google to work out. You may well find if you start to do some serious exercise your weight will drop without you really trying to diet, but you may also find that as you tone up your weight increases slightly but your shape improves at the same time. Don't panic about this, it's cos muscle is denser than fat so 1lb of muscle takes up less space than 1lb of fat, or looking at it from the other way round in the space needed for 1lb of fat you can fit more than 1lb of muscle!

Don't forget if all else fails there is always the option of Big Knickers - lycra ones can hide an awful lot of tummy if you get them in the right size and hold-it-all-in underwear is very easy to get hold of these days........

 

[Becca1993]

Oooh, thankyou, this will help me too