I'm new to this site so I thought I'd say hello. Are there any others from the UK here, or is everyone from the US?

I'm currently on the slimming world plan, I don't know if you have this in the states but basically you make a choice each day of 'red' or 'green' options for the day. On a red day you can have as much lean meat/fish, fruit & most veg but no carbs. On a green day you can have All carbs with fruit & veg, but no Meat/fish. If you want you can stick permanently to either plan or switch every day.
It seems pretty balanced to me but the weight loss is slow.
I'm currently 285 lbs & I've only lost 13lbs since February.

This week I'm doing the cabbage soup diet just to give me a kick start, its OK at first but I'm already sick of the taste of the soup.

I do a fair bit of exercise like cycling, swimming, walking, & go to the gym (when I have the energy!) but my problem is I love to slob out in front of the telly with a couple of bottles of wine & a pizza or curry.

I havent set a target yet I just want to lose this bulk thats holding me down.

Cheers,
FB

HI FB.. welcome to diettalk.com. We do have many from the UK and around the world.

I'm not overly aware of what the "Slimming World" diet is.. but as long as it stresses healthy proportional eating and exercise, then it can't be too bad.

Hey Bear:

First off, ditch the soup..any diet that claim that eating one particular food will do it is an absolute crock!

Second, try this. Try 3 red days in a row. On the fourth, have a green afternoon. This is essentially the plan I've been following for 5 months now and so far I'm down over 40 pounds. Alot of it I attribute to the eating, because, unfortunately, I don't have much time to work out....unless you count chasing two small boys around our house..

The problem with flipping every other day is that you are not giving your body a chance to really get the carbs out of your system before you add more carbs to it. A high carb diet elevates your insulin levels which will dictate that your body stores fat, regardless of how much "low fat" you are eating.

The basics of my plan are pretty similar. On "red" days, my carb limit is 60 grams, no more than 20 per meal. I eat every few hours, probably 6 or 7 times a day. (A large meal will elevate your insulin regardless of whether it's protein or carb based. But fat doesn't elevate your insulin...interesting, hmmm??? )

On green afternoons, I eat high carbs, low protein meals. Usually I eat two carb meals. Eating these towards the end of the day means that my insulin level will spike when I'm sleeping and should fall to normal by the next morning. That way, breakfast the next day doesn't turn out to be a permanent addition! Plus, any sweet tooth, which is just the body's hormonal craving for sugar, will occur while I'm still pretending I'm lifting the Stanley Cup over my head for the record 14th time!!

Good luck, Bear! Let me know how things work out!