Dude, you can't keep taking this medication forever. When you stop taking them, your weight will be back.

I have just started to take oats in the morning recently. Has anyone ever tried taking oats as your dinner? Or replace rice with oats instead? Wonder if it will help me lose a little weight if I consistently take oats + milk for dinner.

Hello, it's time for workout + diet. Uhhh I don't think chicken will do you that much harm (gives you can ugly chest). Fats will.

What are your plans? Remember, no pain no gain.

Did you force yourself to run too much on the treadmill? If you have not been exercising for more than a year and overdid it on your first workout, it may be the cause of your dizziness. Anyway take it slow and don't force yourself. Although workouts is partially about pushing yourself but never overdo something when it causes pain or dizziness.

Kinda agree but I would root for wholly brown rice

Btw I would think that taking rice is better than eating bread (whole grain, multi grain or white etc) because rice is natural food. Factories add additives, food chemicals etc into bread when they process it.

Yeah replace noodle with cornflakes and lowfatmilk for breakfast is certainly a good step.

As long as it's not 3-in-1 coffee. If you can take normal black coffee with very little sugar (1 teaspoon?) that would be good. If want to add milk, go for low fat milk.

skycrawler>> your aim should be to lose fat and eating fried chicken for both breakfast and lunch is excessive (especially if you do this everyday!). Regardless of it being chicken breast, taking too much fried food is bad because of the oil content. And I hope you don't eat the skin.

Secondly, Daging Masak Merah is also oily (because of the chili oil - sambal) used in the cooking. If I'm not mistaken, the meat is also fried before cooking in gravy?

Your "large spoon" of rice refers to a 'tablespoon' or the 'rice spoon' to scoop rice? there's a big difference.

What I think:
- you need to stop taking so much fried chicken! replace it with steamed chicken breast or baked chicken breast. If not, then grilled chicken breast (with very little oil)
- you can still take your favourite fried chicken or daging masak merah but limit yourself (eg. only take them once every 2-3 weeks)
- if you take the diced fruit - guava - i assume you bought it at a restaurant/ fruit stall. avoid eating the guava with asam. Only guava alone is not sufficient. go for papaya, apples, oranges, watermelon and other variety of fruits
- For breakfast, instead a heavier meal (rice, meat, vege and coffee) try to go for something more plain at times - eg. oats with milk/ raisins/nuts, bread with boiled eggs, porridge etc. TBH, it should be plain for most of the days but at times you can "cheat" a little (like I do - once a month!) and go for nasi lemak if you really want to - although it's best if you can help it.

So all in all, in terms of your food - increase your vege & fruits intake while cutting off fried and oily food. With this, I believe you'll start to see good results and healthier body.

Nestum is cereal, not oats. They are different. In fact, here's some quote from another topic on LYN:

"Nestum is a refined junk food. Don't believe that, get a diabetic to eat this junk everyday and his sugar level will shoot up. Or ask an obese guy to eat it everyday and his weight will shoot up."

"Nestum is generally not a good idea as it is heavily processed and mixed with high amount of sugar whereas muesli sugar is mainly from its fruits which is far easier to burn or process compared to Nestum."

NESTUM vs OATS full thread: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/674727/all

For your breakfast - I think you're consuming too much sugar. And can you elaborate what you mean by "walking around a lot"?

1. Chocolate cream bread - the cream is fattening and full with sugar. Replace this with white bread or oats+milo or boiled eggs+milo. If you can, take your milo plain.
2. Oat biscuits - instead of taking this, why not take oats instead? Oats biscuits are nothing more than commercial cookies/ biscuits where they add a couple of oats and market it as "oats biscuit". It's excessively sweet, unhealthy (processed) and oily. Avoid biscuits/ cookies if you're planning to lose fat.

It seems that you're consuming sugar and fats (with the same food for dinner as breakfast) double in a day. Doesn't seem so good, does it?

Lunch
1. Hot dog? Aiyo~ any idea how hot dog is made? they blend meat, fats and some other parts (possibly internal organs - which is edible of course) together and insert them in a 'skin'. Yes they taste good but absolutely bad for health, especially since it's processed meat.
2. Recommendation - instead of eating hot dog, take steam or oven-baked chicken. Or, just tofu + vege & rice if you're okay with it. Throw in an apple if it's still not enough.

Bottom line, you're not eating enough yet each choice of your food are high in calories. In fact just eating few biscuits and 1 bread each for breakfast and dinner, you're somewhat "starving" your body from vege, fruits and protein - all the other nutrients necessary for a balanced body. Trust me when I say your current diet is bound to fail and instead of losing weight, you might even put on some weight.

What I think/ recommend:
Breakfast- milk + eggs/ milk + oats/ cornflakes + milk or eggs / bread+eggs etc (you get the idea, do whatever combo you want) if bread + jam is too plain, you can always toast your bread to make it tastier

Tea break - a piece of bread/ an apple/ a banana

Lunch - brown rice or white rice/ noodles, vege, meat/chicken/tofu/ egg (protein)

Tea break - a piece of bread/ an apple/ a banana or simple a cup of oats. Sometimes I take a small cup of cornflakes + plain milo

Dinner - brown rice or white rice, vege, meat/chicken/tofu/ egg (protein)

Supper - (if you must) 1-2 slice of fruits

And that should do nicely. Reason? You've got carbs, protein, fiber and even sugar all covered in a balanced manner. This is just an idea for you to kick start, feel free to improvise or replace some of the items as it suits you. Have fun and throw in chapatti & tandoori chicken at times. Pizza? Why not! But just 1 slice Anyway different people have different eating habits. On days I plan to go to the gym, I actually have 2 tea breaks in the evening. One would be around 3+ to 4pm and another time at around 7pm - before I hit the gym. It's because I need energy to keep me going when I workout.

Also, on days I want KFC - I go for it. Just that I limit the number of times I eat it (eg. only once a month) and watch what I eat - chicken breast with no skin. Yet i'll make sure that I can only cheat if I'm going to the gym that day. Suppressing your appetite is not going to help in long run. I've tried that and it bounces each time. So eat what you want but plan ahead.

I think you're eating too little and yet using pretty high level of energy when you workout. Errr basically I don't see any carb in your meals? Where is it? You need to eat carbohydrates, don't cut them off your diet completely. 1-2 slices of bread, some potatoes and 2-3 tablespoon of rice is alright. Since you're pretty active (about 5 workouts in a week) you have got to eat more or else your body won't be able to take it.

I'd recommend you take rice + vege + protein (chicken etc, lean meat) for dinner. If you're not comfortable with the idea of rice, then by all means eat more vege and protein for dinner. At least some form of carbs for lunch or tea breaks.

Might wanna cut down on your cheat days (if weekend meaning 8 times a month? haha) to once every 2 weeks. What do you eat on your cheat days? Not ice creams and junk food right?

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Jan 31 2013, 03:35 PM

Hey, I can tell you from my personal experience on what happens after I avoided taking carbs - strong cravings. And these cravings can "kill" in many ways, especially your diet. That's when it crashes.

Fruits contain 'good carbs' (as what the sites say : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...09111246AAsZ0Sr and http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/whatfruit.htm) and it's very nutritious. Don't be afraid to take a little excessive fruits (eg. eat more than 2 apples a day or extra slices) and vege.

It's definitely beneficial to eat more fresh salad with veges but as Asians I believe you'll somehow get bored of it after awhile and would want to eat rice or other carbs. Take brown rice of quinoa instead of white rice, it will help to keep you filled and nutritious.

Yes you can replace your carb with protein but not completely. A mix of everything is necessary for a balanced diet. Carbohydrates are good and they give you the much needed energy for your daily activities and workout.

Is there no other option of store/ cafe/ restaurant other than the one the makcik opens?

Spaghetti is alright, as long as it's red sauce based with little cheese if the portion of the spaghetti is big, you can bring a container and pack home half of it for dinner. Not comfortable with rice? 2-3 tablespoon of rice won't make your waist grow sideways, don't worry. Excessive eating of rice with no exercise will.

You're in check of what you eat, that's good

And yes, very true about 'binge eating' it's dangerous when you lose control. CNY is coming and my mum bakes biscuits and cookies almost everyday, imagine the torture. Another thing I do is "guilt check". When I have the tendency to cheat, I'll ask myself "will I be guilt-ridden after consuming this?" if the answer is yes, I'll just skip it and replace with something more guilt-free. Doesn't work all the time (in times it doesn't work, I'll just eat half of the whole) but at least it helps me manage at times

There is a difference between eating "heavy" and eating unhealthily. If you need more energy for workouts, you can take some coffee and energy drinks. You can eat more chicken (increase your portion) but as long as they are not fried (as recommended - steam, broiled, baked etc). Eating heavy could also mean you double your vege portion and have eggs (or other protein) along with your rice and chicken.

I believe you know that fried chicken contains a lot of calories and oil, even if you don't eat the skin. Just my 2 cents worth of advice.

From campus to hostel... very far? is it a 5min walk or 20min run? "Walking a lot" doesn't really count as workout in my terms ^^ unless you're walking few km each day.

1. Yes it sure is fine to take milo + oats. Try to take your milo plain if possible (with no sugar). Sometimes you can have milo + bread or boiled eggs + bread, or even boiled eggs + a cup of milo. To have a little variety, at times you might want to take cornflakes with milo or other breakfast drink (eg. tea, coffee, horlicks) but minimize on the sugar.

2. Yup tea break is optional but since breakfast is light, you will get hungry in 1.5 hours to 2 hours' time and it's probably still far from lunch. Reason for tea break is so that you don't starve yourself out before lunch. When you force yourself to hold in hunger, your body goes into starvation mode and subsequently it slows down your metabolism (experts, please correct me if I'm wrong). For working people like me, breakfast at 8am and at 10.30am i'm already hungry so I'll need to take something since lunch is 12.30pm or sometimes 1pm.

3. <It is ok if I take : white rice + vege + fried egg/chicken ?>

White rice + vege is okay but no other option than fried egg/ chicken ka? Fried stuffs - don't take it too often. In my opinion, eating fried chicken twice a week is bad enough but if you really must/ want, then go with chicken breast and don't take the skin. If you can help it, go for some other food option (tofu, egg tofu, boiled or steamed eggs etc if it's available).

In fact you can eat chicken rice if you want. Substitute the chicken 'rice' with white rice (since chicken rice is cooked with butter, chicken fats and oil) and again, go for skinless breast meat. Also note the portion/ serving size that you're eating. If it's pretty big portion of rice, I go for half plate of rice or less - lunch. Dinner I'll take much less (usually 2-3 table spoon of brown rice).

<<Breakfast : Milo + 3 tablespoons of oat OR 1 slice of whole grain bread + jam + milo (instant)
Lunch : 2 1/2 scoop of rice + large portion of vegetable + fried egg or meat
Dinner : same with breakfast ( + fruits that is easier to keep such as apple,orange )>>

Seems okay to me but 3 tablespoon of oats enough ka? you can take more oats, it has fiber (which will keep you full for a longer period) and nutritious. I take at least 5 tablespoon of oats in the morning. Then again, it's different for everyone - go with whatever works for you.

Your 'instant' milo is 3-in-1? As I mentioned, if you can - once your pack is finished - try to go for plain milo or just add a little sugar for taste.

Is your dinner enough to keep you full till you go to bed? Don't be afraid to eat vege, rice and meat/ chicken for dinner. If you do not want to take carbs at night, you can go for vege + chicken, and fruits. Or, optionally - some oats + vege + chicken.

Hope it helps

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Feb 1 2013, 11:16 AM

skycrawler>> check the link below, it can be a good guide to you~

http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?fil...0460&sec=health

Make smart choices and plan your meals ahead.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Feb 1 2013, 11:24 AM

You can still workout during weekday though you're not at the gym. Check YouTube for workouts you can do at home and try them out. Personally I like FitnessBlenders' videos - but they are mostly Cardio/ HIIT.

I'll be traveling for a week soon, am pretty worried that my fitness level & stamina will drop when I get back ...Will still find time to work out at least 2-3 times through the week if I'm not burnt out from all the walking

Hi, first of all before we help you with your diet, you gotta tell us what you've been consuming on daily basis. With that, then only the forumers are able to comment.

As for exercise, do you have any equipments at home or do you go to the gym? Without furnishing information it's really hard for anyone to give advice.

If you like dancing, go for it. Since you have asthma, hold back a little. When you start taking up dance class or sports, start with a slow pace until you are comfortable then gradually increase a little. For example, walk for 10min per day for several days. After you're okay with it, walk for 5 min then brisk walk at the last 5 min. Then brisk walk for 10min, and finally brisk walk for 5min then jog for 5min. This is to allow your body to adjust and make progress slowly. Don't push yourself too hard since you're not well. It might be hazardous rather than do you good.

Secondly, you need to check your body fat % and muscle %. Focus on losing fat and increase muscle, not on the weight. You will lose weight as you lose your fat.

My suggestion is that you can do both - go to gym AND dance. Why restrain yourself? Gym offers dance classes like Line Dancing, Zumba, Belly Dancing etc and you can participate. Just that you shouldn't push yourself too hard - you know your own body best.

As for meals, you have to tell us what you've been eating on daily basis then only the forumers can provide advice. If everyone ask "What should I eat?" the general advice is definitely: more fruits, vege and lean meat. Refrain from fried, go for steam, grill (with no butter), bake, broil and boil.

Remember, Winners Don't Quit and Quitters Don't Win! Never give up and enjoy the journey!

Again, you have to tell us what's your daily meal is like and whether you have any equipments, or goes to the gym etc.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 4 2013, 10:05 PM

You don't have to worry about building muscles. By doing weights and such, you won't develop muscular arms and legs like men. Apart from only doing cardio/ HIIT, you'll need to do toning exercise as well otherwise you'll be left with flabby arms/ legs.

I'm still going back to the same point... what do you normally eat in a day? i'll be good if you can give us an idea:

Breakfast - ?
brunch - ?
Lunch - ?
Tea break - ?
Dinner - ?

The forumers are your best guide. There are a lot of people here who have been there, done that.

When you said you start eating healthy with food like fruit and vege, it's important to note that you need to eat meat as well. A balanced and healthy diet also consist some form of carbs so don't cut it off your meal completely. Again, will need to stress the point that you have to cut down/ reduce/ stop (depending on your choice) oily and fried food. Restrain from junk food, sweets, carbonated drinks and any food that is high in fat & sugar content. Without knowing what you've been eating on daily basis makes it hard to point out to you what are the things you're doing right and what is not.

Walk 30min per day? Push yourself to double it to 1 hour instead if you can. Start from normal walk, then brisk walk and finally jogging when you can do it. You can't expect to do jogging and push up right away when you haven't been working out before this. Jogging requires stamina and push up requires strength - your core, arms and legs.

Take it slow but work on it. You will progress. For example, Day 1-5 you can only do 3 push ups. But Day 6 you might be able to do 5, so on and so forth.

Well dumbbell is good, use it well. Go YouTube and Google, search for workouts that you can do without equipments/ with dumb bell. There are plenty of such workout that it'll keep you busy for a long time.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 5 2013, 05:28 PM

Are you 'too comfortable' with your current workout? Add some spice to your routine or change it. After our body had adapted to the workout/ routine, a plateau might happen.

Seems like you're doing fine but you can have varieties to make it less bland/ boring. Diet should be fun and enjoyable so that you can keep up with it, same goes with workout. Don't take kueh too often, I think they're too sweet. But it also depends on what sort of kueh you're taking. My mum made them sometimes with very little sugar and I would take one or two piece.

For breakfast, you can have varieties like: wholemeal bread with jam/ low fat peanut butter, low fat milk, boiled eggs, half boiled eggs, tuna sandwich, egg sandwich, chicken sandwich, oats with fruits/ honey, corn flakes, pancakes, bread with kaya (no butter or little butter), garlic bread, toast with jam etc

Tea break: an apple/ banana, slice fruits, some nuts/ beans, 2 slice of bread, a small bowl of cornflakes (1 serving), corn, eggs, a glass of milk, soya bean (preferably with less sugar), oats, toast, sandwich etc

Lunch/ Dinner: Tandoori chicken breast, brown rice, soup, grilled chicken/ fish/ meat, stir fry meat/ chicken/ fish/ vege, eggs, roast or baked chicken/ beef, beans, mixed vege, steamed or pan fried tofu, japanese curry, home made fried rice/ fried noodle, pizza, pasta/ spaghetti (tomato sauce) etc.

Don't deprive yourself of other food like nasi lemak and chicken rice if you must have it. The trick - eat white rice instead of the nasi lemak or the oily chicken rice. Preferably have the chicken without skin.

Basically you can eat a lot of things but control your portion. I understand what it's like when friends/ colleagues insist on going to Mc D or KFC, or even Pizza Hut. Just go with the flow but be smart in choosing what you're going to eat there as you wouldn't want to consume too much fat. It'll be wise to plan your meals ahead. Salad with heavy dressing, croutons and fried chicken may be an even worse choice than grilled chicken.

However, as I've mentioned earlier, don't hold back too much or your diet won't last. Someday you'll find yourself so deprived that the bubble just burst. Have cheat days occasionally and take a step back. By occasionally I mean once or twice a month and I usually make sure I'd have at least 2 hours workout on my cheat days to wash down some of the calories (or the guilt).

Btw it doesn't matter what time you have your dinner. Your calorie count is still the same. Just make sure you don't eat your dinner/supper and then go right to bed because when you go to sleep, your body switch to inactive mode and food consumed will be stored as fat. I eat my dinner at 10.30pm on most weekdays - after I got back from the gym, can't be helped but I sleep around 11.30pm or so.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 7 2013, 11:30 PM

You'll need to eat to recover from the energy used up so eat up after your futsal! It won't be stored into fats as long as you don't go sleep immediately (leave about an hour of leeway) right after your dinner - that's what I know.

Btw, interesting read

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 9 2013, 01:12 PM

Obviously I don't. Unfortunately many articles talks about this and also otherwise, not sure which to believe so I'd usually play safe. Anyhow, as long as it doesn't harm me in any way and I'm comfortable with the way it is (not restraining myself on not eating at night), it is fine with me.

Very often, it's hard to tell how solid/ trustable the source is. And in fact, research improves every year and they would release new findings that may contradict with what they said earlier

End of the day, as you said, some are outright fad, myths, partially dubious, and solid advice yet how do we (layman web surfer) know which is which? Thus I understand the confusion that some advice seeker have. Even when I speak to the PT at gym, they would sometimes tell me otherwise (of things that I read online and thought were true). Even class instructor (eg. for body combat/ attack) and PT also provided different comment on the same thing. Anyhow, I can understand PT's standpoint of 'promoting their service'.

Lastly, thanks for the reference links!

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 11 2013, 11:10 AM

How far are you cycling each day? Eg. How many km. And how long does it take for you to get to Uni from home?

Eating more meat (aka protein) helps to keep you fuller and with that you can reduce your rice (carbohydrate) intake. Meat doesn't "help in weight loss". It is also dependent on how you take your meat. Eating it fried is definitely going to increase your calories. Go for healthier options.

Biscuit contains a lot of sugar. Recommend that you replace with something else and Maggi is bad. Suggest that you have tea break on a fruit/ low fat milk/ tuna sandwich/ oats etc.

Also, eat your regular meals and I mean taking breakfast, lunch and dinner. By skipping meals (as you indicated - no lunch/ dinner), your body is starving. If you notice, you're not consuming enough protein, fiber and vitamin. Your current food intake is high in sugar, fat and sodium. Eat your lunch and dinner - take rice, meat, vege but don't consume in excess.

I think a lot of forumers had already answered that rice is way better

If you're only doing 10min of cardio, make sure it's intense enough to burn more calories.

Nothing wrong with increasing rice intake if your workout is regular & intense as you're burning more calories. However don't take in excess (eg. double it - unless your workout is also doubled/ tripled!). Eg. if you go to the gym 5-6 times a week and workout approximately 2-3 hours each time, you'll definitely have to eat more as replenishment.

Btw do go for brown rice rather than white rice, or you can mix them.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 15 2013, 12:39 PM

My cheat day is usually - fast food eg. KFC/ Texas Chicken/ Shih Lin/ pizza sometimes Mc D and/ or dessert - cake, brownies, ice cream, choc mousse (and anything else in the category of dessert, simply love them). Personally, nasi Lemak, curry mee, char kuey teow etc is also in the cheat category.

For me, if possible, cheat day = same day as workout. If can't then the next day work harder. I only 'partially' take care on cheat days. Try not to overeat but will eat whatever i want. But for dessert, I'll share with friends if I'm out with them. Well, gotta share the guilt right?

Nothing is impossible! Dieting doesn't mean strictly no access to your favourite food. Losing weight is where you choose your food smartly, indulge at times and enjoy your workout. It's not as bad as it sounds. You have got to start somewhere.

When you see the fruit of your hard work, you'll understand how rewarding it is.

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 22 2013, 10:17 AM

1 problem I face when I track my daily calorie in vs out is that I'm not sure whether my estimation is right. Several days ago I started recording and estimating the calorie intake (through sites like: myfitnesspal, fatsecret etc) on a daily basis. On Day 3, it seems that I have exceeded a little on my needed calories intake but when I went for workout, I felt tired and weak. I find it a little unbelievable because I stacked on protein - HL Milk, eggs, some chicken and yoghurt.

Due to what happened on Day 3, I increased my meat intake on Day 4 and felt better afterwards. But because of this, I again exceeded my calorie allowance. If I eat less, I will feel weak and couldn't push myself during workout. I wonder if it's related/ somehow caused by menstruation

I'm left wondering whether my calculation/ estimation is wrong... is there any other site that would provide an accurate estimate to calories intake?

This post has been edited by sweet_pez: Apr 26 2013, 11:26 AM

You'll need a variety to your meal intake. Boil/steam everyday is boring you'll get tired of it someday. Don't restrain yourself so much. Diet meaning choosing your food smartly while enjoying it and it's something that you can do for long term, not short term.

There's hardly any meaning left if it's so mundane you don't look forward to eating. Someday your restrain will break.

Or, do it the natural way - which is working out in the gym WITHOUT the help of ANY PRODUCT.

Please stop promoting your product here, this is NOT the thread for it.