Is it possible to lose 2 stone in 6 weeks?

The main driver is a couple of years of getting progressively more lardy, coupled with the need to squeeze into a wetsuit for the Great North Swim on 16th June.

If you think this weight loss is achievable, could you recommend a diet based on a 7-day cycle that will not leave me dangerously famished and does not involve 24hr fasting. If I think I could stick to your suggestion, I’d like a weekly shopping list for one (just to ensure I am being strict about it – I won’t eat anything that is not on the list).

In return, I will happily donate £5 for every pound lost to a charity of your choice, will stick religiously to the diet, and will post weekly updates.

I’m 6’3″, heavy built (ex rugby playing type), 37 years old and 19st7.
As far as exercise goes, I shall be swimming 1 mile 5 times each week, and riding to work 3 days, but it’s only 4 miles each way. I could fit in a bit more once the kids are asleep, but knees aren’t pretty fragile from meniscus tears etc.

Let me know your suggestions!!

Probably. Healthily and sustainably? I suspect not though I’m sure some will claim you can…

A quick google suggests 1-3lbs per week is reasonable. You’re talking 4.7

Why does it need to be 2 stone?

Because I was 2 stone lighter last time I got into my wetsuit, and that was a squeeze 😉

🙂 I think you might be better off looking for a new wetsuit!

have one the missus did, you will probably need to stick to the lady calorie numbers to make it work that quick and exercise like hell without building muscle – 3 months shopping list and recipes for 30min meals in PDF.

I can loose 8-10Lbs in a 24hr race, so should easily be doable in 6 weeks.
Try the diet suggested by Tony Hawks, it works on a 5 day cycle.
Day 1 Eat less and exercise more
Day 2 Eat less and Exercise more
Day 3 Eat less and exercise more
Day 4 eat less and exercise more
Day 5 is difference though, you exercise more and then eat less.
.
Seriously though, it’s much easier to be good in the shop than it is when looking in the fridge, if you don’t buy the cakes and bniscuits you can’t secumb to temptation in the middle of the night.
I would recomend cutting out completely any ready-meals and as much processed food as possible, eat the same stuff but make it yourself. Also, if you drink (and I guess a rugby type would) cutting that back can have a huge impact on your weight

I can loose 8-10Lbs in a 24hr race, so should easily be doable in 6 weeks.

How much of that is dehydration and therefore replaced once you rehydrate – eg not ‘real’ weight loss?

I tend to cook all the meals in our house, from fresh ingredients, although double cream and mature cheddar fall very much into the fresh ingredients list at the moment. The kids treats get a bit of a hammering when I’m bored in the evenings too.
I don’t tend to drink much though, maybe half a bottle of wine a week, and 5-6 beers once a month.

I basically need this public forum declaration to make me stick to the 6 week stint though. Self regulation is weak in my family.

iDiet would be a good place to start, then lots of riding without having eaten for several hours first and not eating within 45 mins of starting.

mail in profile for a copy of 12 weeks worth if you promise to donate.
thought just pay direct and you get the winter food (summer in UK) and a lady on the video telling you to eat less
http://www.12wbt.com/

Mike, does the 12wbt involve any silly sachets of powder or protein shakes?

Good luck.

But you don’t actually have to lose two stone to get in that wetsuit.
Wetsuit size depends on measurements, inches not pounds. Don’t get too caught up in focussing purely on weight.
You can lose fat, and gain a little muscle, and end up with a body re-composition that fit’s in the wetsuit without neccesarily having to be that much lighter. If you focus too much on weight loss, and calorie restriction, you could derail your training and go in to the swim too weak.

Guessing you’re probably originally talking about shifting some size from your belly.
Take your measurements now, and aim to knock what you need to knock off of them.
But don’t be afraid to throw in a couple of weight training sessions. They’ll help tone up everywhere, burn fat, and could raise your metabolism. Go for the big “compound exercises” you used to do for rugby. All useful for reducing those measurements. Probably won’t help so much to change the values on the scales, but will on the tape measure.

Besides, “overwieght” isn’t as big an issue with swimming as it would be if you were training for a run. The water helps. 🙂

nope and when you pay you actually get something 😉 Missus did it and I went along (or have to do heaps more shopping) was OK just top up on some stuff, hit the gym and get going. I was just off the bike with broken hand so helped not to balloon up really. She was doing 100km off road race weekends at the end of it Your target is ambitious though for the numbers but not the fitness.

I started the iDave diet about 3 weeks ago. I’m down about 3.0-3.5kg. I expect to lose about 6kg in a total time of 6-8 weeks.

Feel free to send me an email if you want a copy, but it’s remarkably straightforward and I’m not at all hungry. Takes discipline though 😉

I’d welcome the charity donations towards Macmillan – I’m cycling the Etape and RideLondon100 to raise funds for them.

Cheers,
Nick

EDIT: BTW, I started at about 77kg, I’m now about 74kg. 5’10”, so not overly lardy to start with, but not carrying an extra 6kg or so up the Alps should make life marginally easier!

Molgrips, iDave thing looks interesting, but it is more of an automaton approach I am looking for…

as in…
“If you buy this food and cook these meals, this is the weight loss you should expect.”

I just want to avoid making food decisions for 6 weeks, because I know I will make the wrong ones! My nutritional knowledge is (evidently) poor.

I know I am being super-lazy not doing my research, but I am hoping the charity angle will encourage someone to do that bit on my behalf 😳

Yes, that’s possible.

If you just go for an extremely low calorie (<500 calorie) starvation diet you will drop the weight. This will be a combination of fat, muscle, everything really. Not recommended. If you add a load of chronic cardio exercise on to that then you’re going to put your body under a lot of stress and feel pretty rubbish at the end of it.

Doing it properly by changing body composition (losing fat not muscle mass), and not completely stressing your body, is also possible I reckon. Just.

Couple of scrambled eggs made with a bit of butter for brekky.

Small portion of something that once had a face with non starchy veg for lunch.

Small portion of something that once had a face with non starchy veg for your evening meal.

Diet is the major way to drop body fat. Don’t go mad on the exercise or your body will go into starvation/survival/recovery mode and your metabolism will go through the floor and you will crave carbs.

If you are going to exercise then either some low level stuff like walking or gentle swimming/cycling. Or do some high intensity/low volume stuff to get the body firing like hill sprints or lifting some heavy weights.

Oh yes, and sleep, 8 hours minimum. You wouldn’t believe the positive effect this has on things.

Girls in the office have had great success with the Dukon diet.
It’s very similar to the Atkins one.
There are menu plans etc (google will help here) but in summary you eat mainly meat and veg.
No sugars allowed so very limited fruit and no carbs in any form and not alcohol. None. Not even wine :o(
I did do the Atkins about 10 years ago and lost 2 stone easily and didn’t feel hungry once.
Because it is successful and cuts out a food group there is a lot of negative press generated from that food industry so it does have its nay sayers.

Otherwise I would suggest to cut out the beer and wine. Eat what you have made yourself, using ingredients that closely resemble the plant or animal they were.

5:2 fast diet working well at the moment for me, along with getting out every other day on the bike for at least an hour.

Not a complete fast – on “fast” days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I limit myself to 600 calories – black coffee for breakfast, 2-egg omelette for lunch, bowl of soup for dinner. You get used to the gnawing hungry feeling on the fast days quicker than you’d imagine. Rest of the week I eat what I like.

Down from a notch of the scales under 14 to a notch above 13 since beginning of April.

Also, if you use the myfitnesspal app on your smartphone it’ll give you a rough idea of the balance between your energy out through exercise and energy in through food. It might make you think twice before hoovering up a couple of handfuls of the kids’ treats.

I say all this as someone who hasn’t had much joy sticking to diets in the past – the novelty of this one has yet to wear off.

Molgrips, iDave thing looks interesting, but it is more of an automaton approach I am looking for…

as in…
“If you buy this food and cook these meals, this is the weight loss you should expect.”

It really is that simple. You just don’t eat white carbs, fruit or dairy. That’s really it – couldn’t be simpler. Eat as much as you want, and whenever you are hungry – just don’t eat white carbs, dairy or fruit.

So what shouldn’t I eat on this iDave diet?

Atkins does work because it cuts out any carbs entirely. But that’s a bit over simplistic in my view.

We do need carbs, just nowhere near as much as the modern diet that’s based on grains, stachy veg (spuds, carrots, parsnips, etc), legumes, etc gives us. The nutrients in fruit and veg also help.

Assuming you don’t need an athletes style diet to compensate for masses of training, you should be able to get what you need from normal non starchy veg.

Are you being sarcastic or is that a genuine question?

Cheers for the advice loum, hmanchester, stef, miffy and all. I’m mulling over the 12wbt and the iDave at the moment.

Nick, do you have a justgiving page for your sponsorship?

Molgrips, when you say

Eat as much as you want, and whenever you are hungry

I am worried that you may be underestimating some people’s capacity for feeling hungry 😉

For the 2 stone in 6 weeks, I am assuming that, even on the iDave, strict portion control will be necessary? I imagine this is one area where I would fall down without having it spelled out to me with a meal list. I know I probably sound like I need my hand held, but that is for good reason. You don’t get to 19st7 without having an improper relationship with food 🙂

With a low carb (or as I would prefer it “normal”!) diet it’s more what you eat than how much.

Eating full packs of butter is not entirely recommended, but chowing down guilty free on a big old steak is part of the joy of it.

Work it out for yourself molly 😉

Orman – work out the difference between hungry and bored – that can make a huge difference to weight loss…

As does drinking plenty of water FWIW.

Clubber, you have hit the nail on the head with the ‘bored’ comment.
Three young kids and hiding behind the excuse of knee ops have turned me into a right lazy arse.
Okay, today is the first day of the rest of my life (when I’ve finished the trifle in the fridge).

Okay, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life 😆

Tell me about it.

Strict portion control is not necessary – just don’t take the mickey.

In case you’ve missed the discussions about this, it’s all about insulin. When you eat high GI foods your pancreas produces insulin to control all that sugar entering your blood stream. It makes your cells take up glycogen, which they will store as fat if they are full, and it also inhibits the burning of fat for fuel. So you burn up all that sugar. But there’s lag in the system, so there’s insulin hanging around in your bloody after the extra sugar’s gone, so you are still burning sugar for fuel, your blood sugar goes low and you get hungry again.

If you eat foods that minimise the release of insulin (as I mentioned before) your body happily burns much more fat for fuel, and you don’t get anything like as hungry. I do, a bit, but it’s really manageable and I can go all day on two eggs without ever getting particularly hungry. Hoewver, two biscuits during that time and I can get starving – despite having eaten slightly more.

I’ve found that if I feel hungry after a slow-carb meal, it goes away after a bit. Also, eating smaller portions doesn’t have much of an effect, I still feel the same as if I have larger ones.

The only issue I have is that I am also trying to do high-intensity training on the bike. For me, given my physiology, that uses up a lot of carbs, and I struggle to replace them with the slow-carb foods. So I’m trying a balancing act between reduced training performance and weight loss. Most people don’t seem to have this issue though, and I don’t have it if I’m not riding much.

There’s a boatload of other effects going on surrounding appetite and metabolism mind. Sugar for instance is effectively a drug for our brains – think of sugar like a smoker would fags, and you start understanding it a lot better.

I lost 2 stone in 8 weeks ages ago by switching to a diet of mostly pot noodles and diet coke, I’m not sure it was exactly healthy though :p Just add in a tape worm and you should be fine though

Whilst I’m trying to lose a similar amount I’m not trying to do it that quickly. I think the question is, if you do lose 2 stone in 6 weeks will it stay off?

As others have mentioned to alter your body composition and to change the way it uses the nutrients available to it takes time.

I must admit to being a bit of a gadget fiend so have gone the tech route to help me. Fitbit One to monitor how much I move (desk job so helps me see just how sedentary I am) which also hooks into myfitnesspal.com to track the calories and the Fitbit gives me bonus calories is I do sufficient exercise.

Hook in a some Withings scales so my weight etc is fed straight in as well and I can monitor exactly what I’m eating, how much exercise etc and make sure that as well as not eating too many calories I’m not eating too few either.

Looks like I’m losing 2-3lbs a week by doing this…

Cheers

Danny B

If you revert to the same conditions that created the extra 2 stone, then they will again recreate the extra 2 stone.

If you don’t, it’ll stay off.

The only issue I have is that I am also trying to do high-intensity training on the bike. For me, given my physiology, that uses up a lot of carbs, and I struggle to replace them with the slow-carb foods.

racing weight is worth a read. I ‘top up’ on slow carbs with refined (wholewheat if poss) carbs during periods of heavy training and still lose weight.

I did it last year and its mostly stayed off, low carbs but not atkins more low GI, regular exercise (lots of runnng)but not too much. I actually stopped losing weight when i got to long distances as i needed to eat to fuel uo

Okay Molgrips, you have inadvertently nominated yourself as my personal lifestyle coach for the next six weeks 🙂

Having read up some more on iDave, here is my menu and shopping list…
[/url] iDave menu by OrmanCheep, on Flickr[/img]

Am I on the right track then? Seems like a big shopping list to me. I guess I am going to need a LOT of exercise.

Get yourself on the STW fat club weekly weigh in.

Link bellow.

http://www.editgrid.com/user/thisisnotaspoon/STW_Fat_Club

The only issue I have is that I am also trying to do high-intensity training on the bike. For me, given my physiology, that uses up a lot of carbs, and I struggle to replace them with the slow-carb foods. So I’m trying a balancing act between reduced training performance and weight loss. Most people don’t seem to have this issue though, and I don’t have it if I’m not riding much.

Assuming that the high intensity also has some decent volume to it, then I also have this issue when training hard. Brocolli isn’t going to give you all the carbs you need in this circumstance!

This is where this kind of diet needs modifying. Maybe look at some non inflamatory (wheat/gluten/HFCS I’m looking at you) carbs that you can add in pre and post training. White rice, oats, sweet potato, even pure glucose powder are all options. Working out how much and when is a bit trial and error. Total guess – maybe 20-30g before/during and 50-80g after and go from there.

Okay Molgrips, you have inadvertently nominated yourself as my personal lifestyle coach for the next six weeks

o m g

good luck with that one then.

Have I made a mistake?

Anyone know where I can get a XXXL wetsuit then? 😀

iDave did say that if you were proper training you had to have more carbs. However we never concluded what proper training actually was! I’m glad to see that other people support my findings though – last time this came up I was derided for being weak, making excuses, and thinking I was ‘special’.

I’ve mostly been supplementing with recovery drink and sometimes wholewheat toast. Seems to do the trick.

OrmanCheep, that menu looks fantastic 🙂 You don’t need any help from me.

How much riding will you be doing and what kind?

Fo anyone that’s feeling charitable, I’ve just set up my Virginmoneygiving page (on OrmanCheep’s suggestion in an earlier post). I’m cycling the Etape and the LondonRide100 – for me, both very challenging, and raising money for Macmillan.

Any donations gratefully received!!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/madnick

Cheers,
Nick

I was challenged by a female friend to lose 1 stone in a week. At the time I weighed about 12.8stone (5ft 11)so not really heavy to start. The bet was that she would get naked if I managed it.

I weighed in at the exact time the next week and had 3-4 lbs spare.

Can you lose 2 stone in 6 weeks? – I would find it rediculous to say no, just depends how much you want to.