Difficulty to eat healthy food and weight loss

Question

First of all a couple of background lines to my question, so you can better understand what I am talking about. I am a 31 y.o. man, working pretty much all day at my desk, with little-to-no-time at all for sports, after I've dealt with tons of other daily things.
In the last 2 years I've put on a lot of weight (92kg weight x 1.76m height) because my habits changed a lot (I used to walk to go to my job - because I had time to do it - , I went dancing every Saturday - I had friends where I lived, now where I do I don't even have discos in a 30km radius - and so on...).
I go in fitness-studio twice a week (rarely once, I always try to keep these hours as "untouchable" given the amount of other things to do), where I do in the following order: 10 minutes of cardio, 2 times a "circle" (each exercise works on a different muscle) without pause between the exercises but with a pause between the circles and at the end 20 minutes of cardio again.
I have a nasty problem with food. I can avoid eating junk food, but I cannot eat all the healthy stuff there is, since most vegetables make me really puke. Same goes with fruit and most of the cheese. I do eat a lot of carbohydrates (there is not much left in the world with all I excluded, is there?).

I may sound "polarized" wanting some answers rather than others, but I am aware of what I can and can't do and answers like "go out and run" or "eat vegetables" will just disappoint me.

I cannot find more time to do exercise. Some days I am really exhausted and I need to rest.
I cannot try to eat what I don't, because it makes me fell sick (literally) and I don't have time or money to sit by a psychologist and work that out.
Is there anything at all that could help me? I am willing to try: diets (please consider my problems with food), different training (shouldn't exceed the time I have), integrators (vitamins, fat burners, carbohydrates absorbers, proteins, ...).

Answer 1

A huge reality you need to embrace is that if you do not make sizable time and adjustments for your health now, you will make time and adjustments for long term and generally incurable health problems in the future.

You might be "busy" now with life commitments, but being on a kidney dialysis machine will make you even "busier". This isn't about having a clean or dirty car, where you still have a car that works it's just whether or not it looks good. This is about whether or not you are healthy or ill, and live long or die early. It's really just that simple. And if you don't prioritize your health now, you'll be forced to later with chronic illness.

I whole heartily disagree with the notion that "a calorie is a calorie". A lot of that stems from the Twinkie diet, but it's taken out of context. The metabolic impact of 100 calories of refined carbohydrates is much different than the metabolic impact of 100 calories of protein. Refined carbohydrates (what you eat for lunch every day, as noted in one of your comments) spikes your blood sugar, releases insulin, and promotes fat storage. The Twinkie diet study lasted 10 weeks, and people have wrongly extrapolated it's relevance.

If you keep doing it, you will become insulin resistant which means fatty acids will float around in your blood vessels, sticking to the walls, and your circulatory system will increase blood pressure to compensate for the reduced diameters.

My prescription, for whatever it's worth:

1. Watch Fed Up (this link currently works to stream for free). It does a very good job of explaining food, calories, and metabolic disorders. Buy a copy and give it to a friend as well, it's very much worth it.
2. Prioritize your fitness. Quit your job, get another one that you can walk to. Do whatever it takes to put your fitness first because you will pay the price if you don't. And it won't be at a time and place of your choosing. If someone put a gun to your head and told you to go to the gym or run every day for 45 minutes, you'd figure it out.

For most people your early 30's is really the age when you pick which road you want to go down. Your youth is going away, and you either need to work against the steady decline of health or just make excuses and let it slide.

Apologies is this isn't overly cheery, but it's the truth the best as I know it.

Answer 2

To lose weight, you do not need to eat "healthy" or eat vegetables. Weight gain and loss comes down to the energy balance equation, or net calories (weight changes) = calories in - calories out. The reason exercise helps to lose weight is because it increases the calories out number, but it is not strictly necessary with good diet (though it will increase the ratio of fat loss to muscle loss).

Try using a calorie counting app or food diary, and keeping your daily intake at or below 2,000 calories. It doesn't matter if it comes from meat, dairy, carbs, vegetables, starch, etc, so long as your intake stays below your output (at a 500 calorie/day deficit, about 1lb a week will be lost).

If you're lacking on vegetable content I would definitely recommend that you take a daily multivitamin at least, for health purposes.

Note - I do advise finding a way to fix the vegetable problem however, and what I suggest is probably not the best long-term plan for overall health. It is just what will help lose weight.

Answer 3

I'm afraid that you won't be entirely happy with the answers we give you. You will definitely have to work on your ability to eat veggies and fruit. Supplements are ok and you should take them if you really, really, really can't eat any foods like veggies or fruit. However, since you don't have time for a gym, the only possible solution would be if you just lower your daily calorie intake. Try to eat less pasta and eat more whole grains instead.