I'm lacking motivation at the moment and currently deciding whether to 'go it alone' and just eat less and exercise more, or to go with one of the online diet things (Slimming World, Weight Watchers).
So, how have you lost weight, what has worked best for you and why?
There's only one way - Eat less, eat less crap and do more.
by eerrrmmmm......................fail
Illict substances, weight loss is followed by teeth, missus, job snd home (order interchangable).
I agree with schrickvr6, eat more of the right food and exercise. Having said that, just before christmas I had an abcess and couldnt eat for about a week, resulting in a remarkable weight loss - wouldnt recommend it though.
go on an STW ride. I lost 4 lb since yesterday morning depite eating all evening 
So, at the moment, it seems that an abcess or illicit substances is the way forward... 
Eat good food
Exercise more.
I made a concerted effort in the summer, went from 92kg to 86kg, made a huge difference to my riding. I'm 6'3.
More excercise is fine but I was doing plenty before.....with me, it was diet. Did a sort of Atkins-lite, cut out some of the bread and pasta, upped the protein. Boiled eggs for breakfast, lots of steak, fish and cooked ham. Still have potatoes and rice, I just dont overdo them anymore. When I get peckish between meals I have some low fat yoghurt. I recommend Rachels and M+S......lovely. And protein shakes after a ride fill you up with good things that your body wants and stops you binging on cake and crap. For Goodness Shakes (Chocolate) are cheap and taste good and do the trick.
.....and get your 5 a day.....very important.
Still drink loads too much but not giving that up, no sir.
Having a boogered knee has meant I've had to stop running for the last month or two. This coupled with less riding than normal has led me to put on a little weight. As well as the obvious (eat less, do more) I'm specifically cutting out all red meat, restaurant and cafe food. By packing my own lunch I know what's what. I've also stacked up on fruit for throughout the working day so as to stop myself nibbling on anything more fat laden or carb intensive.
By packing my own lunch I know what's what
This is a good plan, we've got a really nice reaturant at work, which can often be my downfall...
going it alone is all well and good if you have very good discipline and can set and achieve/fail your own realistic targets..... even then it will work out better if you have friends or relatives that know what you are doing and can encourage you.
im going the other way however. Eating more but eating less crap, eating at the right times and doing enough or more than enough exercise.
Oh i forgot, for a bit of motivation see if Si will let you in on 2010 FatClub.
going it alone is all well and good if you have very good discipline
This is the thing, I know everyone says "just eat less" - but my discipline is total rubbish. I know, I'm an idiot...
OK all useful suggestions.
What helped me was Weightwatchers. I didn't go for long but it taught me one thing, what I regard as a portion and what a portion really is are two very, very different things.
Pasta for a quick example, a handful of dry pasta is about right portion wise. I would typically eat 3-4 handfuls at a meal + sauce - Not good.
Portion control is the key I think as is taking your time when eating rather than wolfing food down. When you are used to eating like a fatty it is really hard to cut out the crap but I still eat what I always have just less of it.
Worryingly I have lost a stone in weight over the last month, but I don't recommend how I lost it!
A&E - pool of blood, I am going to drop just here!
picolax - STW legendary drug, its all true, the drug from hell!
Camera - where the sun don't shine!
Operation - Sleep at last!
Large amount of drugs - I hate tablets!
2-3 Weeks in hospital
norovirus all around
Been out for weeks now, felt so good to do my first ride, bought a 29er as a gift to myself
For losing weight though you cannot beat it, just don't recommend it!
What helped me was Weightwatchers
Did you do the online thing or go to the meetings?
Blimey ski, that's a bit drastic!! Have heard Picolax mentioned before...doesn't sound like fun
No change in diet but much more careful control of portion sizes. Mine had crept up to the point where I was eating twice as much as I should have been. Drinking more water, eating until I was no longer hungry rather than until I was stuffed full helped too.
Don't try to avoid the "bad" stuff entirely, just moderate what you have and try to keep it as occasional rather than habitual. If I knew I was going to go out for dinner, I'd have a very light lunch - or if I'd joined colleagues in the pub for lunch I'd ease off on what I had later on.
I found too that getting in the routine of stepping on the scales every morning (and putting it into http://www.physicsdiet.com/ or similar, which smooths out the daily variation) meant it was a daily reminder of what I was trying to do.
I'm on the chemotherapy diet. You have no appetite, and you regularly 'evacuate'...
I'd probably recommend having smaller portions instead though 
Forgive my facaetious response - I'm having a bad day in the 'small' office!
I went to meetings for a month and lost a stone. I changed jobs and that scuppered that as I couldn't get there on time.
Basically it's calorie counting by another name - Points they call it. So you get 35 points a day and away you go eat what you want just do go over the points.
To give you an idea a sausage roll is 8 points a big one is 12 a Chicken Tikka Masala is 25 points without rice. Worst of the lot is Pizza one slice of commercially made Pizza is 15 points IIRC.
It's an eye opener, you get a little book and in it are most foods and point values for them worth joining just for that.
So you keep a food dairy and away you go,stick to it and you'll lose weight around 3-4lbs a week.
It works 100%. What is funny is hearing people at the meetings who are genuinely surprised that they haven't lost weight and swear blind they stuck to the progamme.
Do it right and you can drop a stone a month.
For losing weight though you cannot beat it, just don't recommend it!
Probably mostly fluids so you will gain it all back really quickly.
So i guess you know what you have to do at the start of February then
I add and drop weight regularly as my interests swing between weight lifting and cycling. At the moment I'm dropping weight to have a more competitive year on the bike.
I've dropped 10 lbs in 3 weeks, which is on target (I'm dropping ~25lbs).
I've swapped to a cooked breakfast, eat more for lunch and less for supper. I've cut out beer during the week. I don't each much bread or other processed foods. If it looks like a plant of chunk of animal I'll eat it, but that's it. My intake is the same or slightly higher than 'normal' but calories are focused in the first half of the day rather than the second which is my worst habit.
I train an hour every morning (Mon-Fri), 40 minutes bike, 20 minutes weights. Walk and hour a day (2 hours at weekends) and aim to get out on the mountainbike for 2 hours in the week at some point.
I expect another 10 lbs like this, the last 5 lbs will need require a drop in calories, or more exercise (which is less likely as I don't have the time).
Motivation is easy enough. Pick some races to enter. Set a target for each. It's the only reason I race.
I'm 6'2" and with not much effort went from around 105kg to just over 90kg. I was actually surprised how easy it was. I think it was helped by my lifestyle being so terrible before.
Basically I stopped drinking in the house unless it was for a particular reason, the only thing I ate between meals was fruit or veg, when making tea I filled more than half the plate with salad or vegetables before I put anything else on it, and I made a conscious effort to miss out on as much fried food and pastry as possible when having dinner at work.
Then I went running a few times a week, or when I had a bit more time available I used the road bike/turbo trainer.
I found it was pretty easy to keep motivated and disciplined when a) you go out on your mtb and everything is significantly easier than before and b) everyone tells you how much better you're looking. I had similar thoughts to you before I started and even asked on here whether a personal trainer was worth it, in the end just a bit of effort did the job.
I've been slipping a bit lately as i've been working more and away from home, I need to take my own advice and put a bit more effort in to get sub 90kg.
Cheers, Dave
schrickvr6 - Member
There's only one way - Eat less, eat less and crapdomore.
Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD
If you're still hungry after a meal have a hot drink (without sugar obviously), that will tide the taste buds over while the stomach registers it's got something to work on.
Forgive my facaetious response - I'm having a bad day in the 'small' office!
Not a problem sir, we're all entitled to a bad day every now and then, especially when we're going through a lot
Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD
I thought that too, but some women in my office have said that hunger is bad, you should just eat more of the right foods??
Hunger is only bad if you give in to it and buy a dozen doughnuts.
some women- lies
Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD
Should have elaborated on that. Hunger for a while but don't leave yourself short overall.
A good breakfast, a good evening meal and something light and healthy in between works for me. Don't eat anything more after that evening meal or snack in between meals.
My weight fluctuates by 10-15lbs - I can burn it off in a month if I want to, and I can put it on in a month if I slacken the exercise and eat more. Although my diet is healthy, I tend to over-eat because I love food - which means portion management is key.
I quit drinking on Jan 1st and it's been surprisingly easy - the only problem is I've developed a chocolate addiction. I'm telling myself this isn't a bad thing because I'm really enjoying the booze-free mindset.
Currently snacking on a bowl of dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Tasty in a perverted kind of way, but not nearly as good as chocolate.
Now I'm just waiting All I have to do is step up the Am forcing myself to sna
Dysentry did it for me...
I managed to lose about 2 stone over the last 6 months.
I used the Rosemary Conley diet. The key things for me were that the recipes were tasty and you didn't feel too hungry.
As others have said portion size is important. Not snacking on cakes and sweets at work also helped (not really surprising).
Lost 13Kgs in 5 weeks. Stopped drinking, more exercise, ate less, drank more water. The key...my wife left me.
On the plus side it's made a real difference to my cycling.
I used to weight 16 stone and im now down to 12.5 and its been a long slow and steady process i can tell you!!
quit eating crap a choccy biscuit with your cup of tea at night is fine but not every cup of tea and your post ride cake is fine because you have earned it.
took me 18 months to drop the weight and it was simply diet and 3/4 workouts / rides a week. it can be really easy if you work it right a couple of runs during the week (or rides if the weathers good) and a long bike ride at the weekend. No beer during the week and 3 square meals a day if you have to snack have fruit, and the biggy is water drink 2L everyday min
Eat smaller meals more often. Don't allow yourself to go hungry for long or you will feed on your muscles, slow your metabolism and make it even harder to lose weight.
As an MTB'er I presume you already do some cardiovascular exercise?! Training with weights will build muscle and increase your metabolism, meaning your body will be a more efficient fat burner. It shouldn't be all about weight loss, but long term fat loss. Going hungry for a month may show on the scales, but it wont be long term loss, mostly fluid.
Did a sort of Atkins-lite
Me too - lost quite a bit of weight that way. Need to be careful doing lots of exercise though.
I've only managed to lose half a stone in fifteen years. No idea what Im doing wrong.
Cutting down on booze is one effective method IMHO - 1000 calories every time you go to the pub...
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