Hi all , just want to introduce me and my partner,

im dean im 30 years old and current weight is 17 stone!!

my partner lisa is 28 and she weighs 14 stone

We have decided to go on a diet, starting today

We really need some help on food to eat so we constantly loose weight , not just for the first few weeks.

we will be exercising, ( treadmill, swimming, excersie bike)

just wondering without being spooon fed, if someone could help us with a diet plan, and exercise plan, or point me in the right direction to one , with normal foods. ie no mozzerlla, cous cous , hummus ect..

we will try new things, but prefer to eat foods we know like vegetables, chicken ect, we will cut out bread and potatoes and other bad foods.

we just dont know where to start, could do with a food plan to follow, for certain times of the day.

Thanks in advance

Welcome to you both!

It's difficult to know how to advise you on food without knowing what you eat currently. A lot of people here keep food diaries, because they can be very helpful. If you both keep one for, say, a week, then you'll be able to get an idea of what you can change to make a difference. Just make sure to be honest and write down every bite.

Vegetables and chicken are very good, so that's an excellent start! You're not going to want to live on nothing but chicken and veg for the rest of your lives though, are you? To lose weight and keep it off you'll both have to change your eating habits in a way that's sustainable, so make sure you get some variety in there.

As for bread and potatoes - everyone's different, and not everyone copes with them in the same way, but carbohydrates are an important part of a balanced diet. By all means reduce them, but I'd be wary of cutting them out entirely.

And then of course there's the obvious rules: limit your intake of junk and processed foods; aim for a healthy balance between the various nutrient groups; eat less and move more. And spend some time poking around here - there's a wealth of information and a lot of lovely and supportive people to help you along the way.

Hi Brid, thanks for your reply

Our diet currently consists of, kfc mcdonalds, pizzas, toby carvery, and the odd freezer birds eye meal., currys , and takeways, so its very bad at the moment but we want to change this so much

We went swmming this morning for the first time in 15 years for me, i was tired but it felt great,

i had a small bowl of cornflakes for breakfest before we went swimming, and an apple and coffee for lunch

for tea im having grilled chicken breat and vegetaables, no potatoes, or gravy

i know we cant stick on this forever, but its took us alot of years to put this weight on , but if we go on to eating normal cooked food after the diet im hoping the weight will stay off, surly cutting out them takeways everyday will be a huge difference.

im abit confused about my body storing fat if i dont eat as much, and i dont see any loss, what would be the best way to keep loosing the weight and my body not going into starvation mode (storing fat)

im not sure how this works, hopefully someone can shed some light on this

thanks again for your help,. very much appreciated

Well, now we can see why you've put on weight. Those takeaways will have to go! The occasional carvery I wouldn't worry about though (just go easy on the roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings).

Switching from a diet of mainly fast food to a diet of whole foods certainly sounds like it'll help you both. Be aware though, all those takeaways have quite the effect on your body. You may find yourself getting pretty hungry and craving unhealthy foods as your body adjusts, so consider healthy snacks too. If you have a look in the Calorie Counters forum, in the sticky posts at the top there are a variety of 400 calorie or fewer recipe ideas, which would be well worth checking out.

If you lose weight by eating very low calories, then go back to "normal" eating afterwards, you're pretty much guaranteed to regain, because "normal" tends to mean "more, and more calorie dense". But you're right that cutting out the takeaways will make a big difference. So that's the bit I'd advise you to focus on - don't worry about making your breakfasts and lunches tiny too just yet. Just switch those takeaways for healthy, home-cooked food, and I'm sure you'll see a difference, not just in your weight but in your health too.

There's also a thread in the Weight Loss Support forum at the moment that you may find interesting, about why 1200 calories a day is generally recommended as a minimum. Your cornflakes, apple, chicken and vegetables aren't going to come anywhere near that amount, and if you're eating that little every day, you could be setting yourself up for a host of health problems.

"Starvation mode" is a bit of an odd one, and I'm not sure what the received wisdom on it around here is. You're not going to gain fat if you eat very little - where would it come from? But to lose weight efficiently and consistently, your body needs to be operating efficiently, and that means it needs enough nutrients. You'll do better in the long run by working with your body on this one.

How tall are you both?

im 5ft.7 and mrs is 5ft.4 appreciate your help never really thought about joining a forum before, we have dieted in the past but give up after a few weeks even with weight loss of about a stone each, but we are very determined this time a summer holiday next year is what we are aiming for
i will have a look on the low calorie meal idea section you sujested thanks again

I've just put your ages, heights and weights into an online calculator. Assuming you're totally sedentary, Dean, you're looking at around 2600 calories a day to maintain your current weight. Lisa, you'd need around 2000 a day to maintain. Knock 500 a day off, and you'll lose a pound a week. (Well, you would in a perfect world in which our bodies obeyed the maths perfectly. It tends to be a little more complicated than that.) A pound a week is a very respectable amount to lose, and would have you both almost four stone lighter in a year's time, assuming you adjusted your calories downwards a little from time to time as you got smaller.

Obviously this doesn't mean you necessarily have to calorie-count strictly. Some people don't do it at all and still lose weight. But it does show that you really don't need to be, for example, only eating an apple for your lunch every day. You can eat proper meals and still lose weight, so long as you're making healthy choices.

Giving up after a few weeks - an awful lot of us here have been there, time and again. One of the major causes of giving up is feeling like you're too restricted and can never enjoy food again. That's why it's so important to make sustainable changes, that you can keep up for life. Another big problem a lot of us have is feeling like we're not losing fast enough, and so giving up because it doesn't seem worth it. You must have seen those magazine articles about people who've lost a hundred pounds in two months or whatever. Ignore them. Ignore all those adverts you see for miracle pills that will make you lose twenty pounds in a fortnight. What they don't tell you is their test subjects were very large to start with, and after that initial high loss they settled down to a couple of pounds a week loss. This is a marathon, not a sprint. But believe me, it's worth taking a long time over.

Am I right in thinking you're in the UK? You'd be very welcome to come join us in the UK Challenge Chat thread, or perhaps check out some of the challenges in Weight Loss Support. Might help you to stay motivated. Good luck!