Weight Loss Question

Question
Hi there,
How are you doing?
I'm wondering what I can do to lose weight successfully long-term, naturally for an apple-shaped woman of 24, medium frame, former world-class swimmer, 5'6'' 142 lbs 33.5 inch waist, 36 inch hips.

Some personal background:
I quit swimming due to shoulder injury 5 yrs ago and recently took up triathlon training, where I aim to do 2 hrs swim, 2 hrs run, and 2 hrs cycle every week in addition to 1.5 hour resistance. Now, I dont always do this consistently, but 5 days a week I have a close to flawless diet consisting of egg on toast for breakfast, soup, some source of protein plus veggies for lunch, and color-rich salad for dinner...snacks in between those meals consist of an apple, 2 clementine oranges, and if im hungry enough, a 14 gram fiber bar and/or a V8 (low sodium). The other 2 days it varies but I have always tried to avoid processed foods, high-Glycemic carbs, etc. I just started my career in January and experience fairly high levels of stress at work. I weigh myself once a week, I drink a pretty good amount of water, tea all day, sleep 5-8 hrs sleep depending on how busy i am, take deep breaths if theres time, usually in the car on the way to work, and I just started drinking 3 gram fiber metamucil powder in a glass of water before meals to reduce hunger and slow absorption of food, along with buying freakin relacore which might have some bad side effects (they claim to reduce stress and the stress hormone called cortisol which causes weight gain, but studies havent yet proven their claims supposedly). This is how desperate i am...I cant work out 2 hrs a day and eat miniscule portions. My portion control could use some work. I grew up in a family where you had to clean your plate but Im getting over that. The problem is, if I'm eating as little as your typical asian woman does (i dont mean this in a stereotypical or racist way- I wish I was able to pull it off!), I emotionally lose it and start binging on carbs or cookies. How do I eat reasonable portions w/o feeling deprived and backlash binging? I feel like Im doing everything 90% right and yet Im stuck with this hideous 34 inch waist that looks like im literally pregnant, and Im tired of it b/c the only times in my life where I've been able to get rid of it were when I was working out 4-5 hrs a day or severely limiting my caloric intake (e.g. 1500 cal low Glycemic index food diet which drove me insane and led to my injury) and I just dont think it should be this hard! My work doesnt allow me to be a jock anymore, I need some tricks and strategies.

Do you know of any supplements and vitamins/minerals I should be taking that are 100% on almost all the ingredients and fully absorbable? The pill industry is very confusing - some vitamins say 1500%, others 2 %, some terms I have no idea what they mean, some brands are completely fraudulent-esp in cheaper stores, but if u go to a whole foods, u have to spend an arm and a leg just for some multivitamins and I cant afford that.

What about weight-loss teas? What can trick my body into feeling full? I already know about a high-fiber diet in terms of helping make you feel full but it doesnt always work for me, and I found these 14 gram fiber bars but I am a woman who needs variety so after several months eating 1-2 a day Im pretty bored and tired of them. Unfortunately, trying to find anything with more than 6 grams fiber in it is like trying to fin a needle in a haystack!

Other things I've researched about or tried include: Foods rich in vitamin C help fight ab flab, protein to make you feel fuller ( i feel like i already eat enough- how many grams a day do i need?), increasing omega-3s with foods like walnuts (i have them in my salad 5 times a week) or seafood (i could use more of it, is sushi safe since its raw?), low-carb diet, fish oils, conjugated linoleic acid for belly fat (I took in past, with limited to no results..hard to tell), high-calcium diets (supposedly u can lose 14 percent of your belly doing this? however dairy is usually high in fat- do calcium pills work? calcium chew are expensive), scents?, aromatherapy?, I heard the color pink beats the urge to snack b/c it increases serotonin?

If any of these techniques work or dont work or u have new ones, please let me know...or if you can suggest any natural and quick ways to get rid of stress/cortisol-related weight gain and an overall diet/supplement regimen you can recommend for me based on my stats/gender/situation, I'd be extremely appreciative of your time and input!! :)
Thanks a million and thanks for reading my long email!
Take good care.

Answer
Dear Aly,

Your situation seems to boil down to problems of controlling portions, calories, and cravings. It's very common and in my experience, the best way to handle it is to change your general idea of losing weight, e.g., forget about controlling portion leaving it to your body to decide.

To reach this goal, I suggest that you seriously restrict your carbohydrate intake while increasing fat intake and having your protein in moderation. It's a tricky business because you have to set your carb protein to fat ratio accurately.

A good news is, we at Bantadiet.com did the calculations and you might want to go to our site and look around. We have very high success rate and a big part of it is naturally occurring reduction of hunger, disappearing of cravings, increase in energy level. It's shown for this type of diets that the effects include normalization of the serotonin system.

Though we offer one of Banta versions for free, I don't think it would be any good for you since it's essentially a kind of fat fast. However, if you are serious and you like what you see at bantadiet.com, contact me from there and in exchange for your case study, we'll arrange a deal for you.

Tanya Zilberter
http://bantadiet.com  

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