Post by krwPost by Clive ArthurHe could run a weight-loss clinic too.
Oh thanks.
Had the doctor on the phone today. Well seeing one is impossible as
they have locked the surgery doors to keep people out, at least so they
tell me - if I actually thought the doctors were inside I might think
there was a different reason.
Anyway based on the test results so far she has consulted Boris Johnson
and I am "overweight" and the solution is to lose weight which is best
done by apparently being more active and less consumptive (do I mean
that?) maybe consuming less. Had I heard of the Atkins diet -
apparently you find a lad called Atkins and eat him at one sitting and
carry with the rest of the family at subsequent meals.
Oh and could I cut out bread and pasta because those pesky carbohydrates
are not good for me and tut tut. I clearly remember being told when
diagnosed with diabetes that the dietician said I had to eat some of
those pesky carbohydrates at each meal to ensure I was eating a balanced
diet.
I advise the doctor that I will consult my wife on my diet.
The wife indicates that I will eat what I am given for the next week
because it was delivered yesterday. And the rabbit food will be
arriving next week.
The doctor did say that there was no other treatment but it was also in
the background that losing weight might not achieve anything except
having clothes that don't fit.
If I get mad on here over the next few months it will be the hunger pains.
I am vey (TWATBILI - Oy!) surprised that your GP has recommended the
Atkins diet and reducing carbs in particular. Both (have been) very
popular, but not really the answer IME and neither is exercise imo (for
losing weight, but still good to do it). Is your diabetes type 2 ? In
which case I'm surprised the weight reduction hasn;t been suggested before.
The only way that has ever worked for me [1] is to actually count
calories, literally weighing everything and recording it with the
calorific content, and putting it all in a spreadsheet. I can send it to
you if you wish - it's very detailed with columns for each day and
totals and notes of which foods I eat regularly. There are apps that do
similar things but there were too many gaps in what foods it recognised.
We mainly cook from scratch and it didn't know what I put in my chicken
stew for example. As an aside, it is horrifying what the NHS puts in its
calorie checker lists - reams of processed foods, hard to find raw food
sometimes.
e.g.
<https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/calorie-checker/?tabname=weight-loss-support>
and type in tabbouleh. Yes, you can find what you want by putting in
couscous, but really #firstworldproblems
I first did this about 3 years ago, restricting myself to 1900 kcals/day
to start with and soon reducing to 1700. I kept it up for about 6 months
and lost over 10Kgs. This gradually crept up back to where it was over
the next couple of years with the move back to the UK, away from the
Mediterranean diet somewhat and towards stodgy British favourites.
Lockdown has put the cherry on the cake and I went another 2-3 kilos
over my previous high and was feeling awful, so I started the diet again
5 weeks ago and have already lost 5Kgs. Still in the 1900/day phase as
it's particularly hard to diet when on holiday and with lots of
birthdays in the summer (mine and others !), but I'll move down to 1700
again soon as it's not hard.
1Kg/week is not going to be maintained I'm sure, but the aim is to lose
15Kg by Christmas. I don't eat "rabbit food", but anything I want, just
less of it and measure it all - yesterday I had a fry up for breakfast
and a small fish and a few chips for lunch from the chippie, but then
just fruit in the evening.
I still drink, but it's only 1 a day, either a beer or a very small
glass of wine.
I also occasionally do a fast, either from Lunch 1 day to Dinner the
next with only black tea and coffee in the intervening 28 hours, or even
from Lunch or Dinner 1 day to Breakfast on the day after next for a 36
or 40 hour fast.
[1] The first time I did Weight Watchers that worked too, but not the
subsequent times. I think that was largely down to the girls who ran the
classes. The first one was brilliant, the others not so much.