I’ve been slowly losing weight over the last few years, MTB’ing has got me down from 20st 10lbs to 17st in two years, but the last couple of stone is proving difficult. I’ve tried a few ‘diets’ which have helped contribute but now I need to concentrate more on changing my lifestyle to prevent the bounce back…..

I’ve done weight watchers for a bit and did fairly well on it but the problem I had was within an hour of exercising I was wasted, totally knackered and out of fuel. I lost a stone in a month last year purely by stop drinking full fat coke and eating chocolate. So now I’m going to try eating fairly balanced meals, cutting out sweets and treats but keeping an eye on my calories.

Question is, what should be a calorie target? I exercise a lot every week, four nights I’m roller skating as I play roller derby and I ride my bike. It’s pointless setting myself a 1000 calories a day target as I’ll die!

I’m 6’1″ and stocky build so will never be light, just want to get more lean. Roller Derby is a brutal sport and whilst I’m really fit I’m still hauling a gut with me.

Any advice on what foods are best to get energy from too are appreciated.

I lost a stone in a month last year purely by stop drinking full fat coke and eating chocolate.

What did you replace these with, if its Diet Coke then stop that too.

Its difficult though working out your calorie need, as I’m just a bit taller than you and weigh 12st… I eat for Britain, and always have.

A simple one would be to avoid eating anything with a list of ingredients on it – so just eat meat, cheese, veg, fruit and drink water, milk, pure juice.

Time and patience mate.

It’s not a quick game… it took me the best part of 5-6 years to get down to the 14st bracket from 20st. If you rush it, as you’ve found you’ll end up going back up….

What worked for me (ymmv) was using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

They work out your basic daily calorie allowance based on your BMR: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

You record all the food you eat via their website or smartphone apps and that comes off your daily allowance.

You record any exercise and that adds to your allowance.

Try that for six months and see how you go – it has worked for me and several other forum members.

avoid eating anything with a list of ingredients on it – so just eat meat, cheese

Cheese?

Use something like MyFitnessPal to log your eating habits, it can be linked to your Endomondo account too so that exercise shows up there too. This will give you an idea of how much you eat and how much you should be eating depending on your Basal Metabolic Rate (it’s an estimated value based on very few factors so you might need to tweek things to meet your needs).
After a month or so you’ll have a good idea what you can get away with eating and the weight should be reducing steadily.
Their recommendation to drink 64 fl oz of water a day is a good one as a lot of eating is due to being thirsty. Getting into the habit of water drinking has helped me loads (coffee and tea don’t count).
It’s helped me lose 23lbs so far this year and I’ve maintained my weight last week without exercise, due to illness.
Slow but sure is the way to do it otherwise you’ll end up on Embarrassing Bodies asking for a skin reduction operation 😉

I’ll get flamed for this, I always do, but just as important as how many calories you eat is where those calories come from. Your body handles different types of energy completely differently.

Low fat foods, for instance, make losing weight a lot harder.

+1 for the MyFitnessPal thing, and I say that as a complete and utter technophobe.

I’ve only been using it for 2 weeks, and whilst it’s made ***-all difference to my weight yet, I am now obsessive about not eating anything that might disrupt my daily calorie-target. I stated what weight I wanted to be in x weeks, and it gave me a calorie target of 1860 per day. Just to speed thing up a bit I am trying to hit 1600 a day. The first week was hard but getting used to it now. I have also just started going to Military Fitness things which are brutal, and upping my riding, walking further to work etc. Blasted weight hasn’t shifted a jot yet though, but I am sure that it will.

I was absolutely horrifed to find what my actual calorie intake was before using it when I thought I had a “good” diet. Put it this way I more than halved it overnight.

MFP is good but I find it makes me obsess too much. Really helpful for my keto diet though so I get the macros right and make myself eat more fat. fwiw I lost a whole person in weight just by cutting calories and portions a bit and riding my bike at least 5 miles every day. I don’t think you need to get too obsessive about it until you get to the stage where you’re just cutting the last bits which are pretty stubborn!

If you want to trim the last bits of fat then a ketogenic diet is good. Similar to iDave but less carbs so you’re actually in ketosis. And it’s much easier to fill yourself up on much less calories on this kind of diet (I’m taking in about 1600-1700 and don’t feel hungry like I would on a normal diet). The first week or two are awful for riding but after that it’s all good! Nothing better than tucking into fried bacon, cheese, chicken, steak, gammon etc and still losing fat. Do a CKD if you don’t want to lose muscle mass.

+1 for MyFitnessPal

Low fat foods, for instance, make losing weight a lot harder.

That’s a bit inaccurate. ‘Low fat’ foods where they’ve replaced the fat with sugar then yes – low fat foods like salad and vegetables are exactly what you should be eating loads of to lose weight though.

Ok well if you get the same calories from a low fat diet, it is likely to have more carbohydrate in it. This used to be considered A Good Thing but it may well make it harder to stick to reduced calories.

molgrips – Member

I’ll get flamed for this, I always do, but just as important as how many calories you eat is where those calories come from. Your body handles different types of energy completely differently.

Low fat foods, for instance, make losing weight a lot harder.

Not going to flame you molgrips, sounds interesting, do you have any links with more information?

Ta.

[edit]

I used the myfitness app for three months on my iphone, then lost the phone, changed jobs!

The bar code scanner worked really well for logging in what you ate, lost a pound a week on avg, while I used the app.

Agreed on not trying to reduce your calorific intake to low levels, it’s pointless and unsustainable.

Just eat plenty of natural, unprocessed foods and you’ll be fine. Avoid sugar as much as possible, keep the carbs low, don’t eat things you have to open first. Fat isn’t a major issue, it’s an important part of your diet and provides you with long term energy reserves. Don’t get too hung up on calories, focus on good food.

Personally I’d recommend a Low Carb High Fat diet. It’s relatively simple, you don’t need to watch calories and can eat loads. It’s not for everyone though and does have some controversy around it.

don’t eat things you have to open first

So stay away from bananas and oranges, but pies and pastries are okay?

I like the sound of that diet 😉

Your Basal Metabolic Rate is the calories you need – loads of calculators on the net. You need to learn to eat to match your actvities and eat the right things at the right time of day. Well done on the progress so far.

I haven’t got specific links, the internet is awash with nutrition advice – some good, some awful. But a low-GI diet is probably a good place to start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-glycemic_diet

Or the iDave diet.

I’ll get flamed for this, I always do

No you don’t, you get people disagreeing with you as their experience is different to yours. It’s not the same thing

try not to use processed carbs as a staple. when you do have processed carbs (bread pasta etc) go for wholegrain. eat more pulses, legumes etc.

If we are going with rules of thumb i find ignoring the advice of colleagues quite effective….. Im always being told i eat too much.

The lighter you are the less calories you need so unless you

a) eat less
or
b) do more exercise

you will always level out

Listen to the above advice on low GI and try to understand what your body is doing with the stuff you eat. ime once you’ve made that connection its much easier.

No you don’t, you get people disagreeing with you as their experience is different to yours. It’s not the same thing

People seem to think I’m saying ‘eat less move more’ is wrong. I’m not, I’m saying it’s more complicated. So ELMM will undoubtedly work for some people, it doesn’t work for many others, and it can be improved upon for most people.

So ELMM will undoubtedly work for some people, it doesn’t work for many others

I would argue that if ELMM doesn’t work then you should try EELMMM
(Eat Even Less, Move Much More) 😀

But I certainly agree there are more sophisticated methods which may prove more effective – but you* do have to be careful that you’re not just slipping into the realm of making excuses and thinking you are a special snowflake for whom the normal advice just does not work.

(e.g. see just about any episode of Secret Eaters where some bloater thinks it’s medical mystery why they put on weight despite eating “only 500 calories a day and going to the gym”). It is very easy to lie to yourself.

.

* by “you” I don’t mean particularly you molgrips, or the OP.

I would argue that if ELMM doesn’t work then you should try EELMMM

The issue is that if you eat even less, you may not be able to move much more, you may up moving less too, and more slowly. So you’ll not lose any more weight, feel like shit and not get any faster. And keep it up for a short while before thinking ‘sod this’ and giving up entirely. Quite possibly.

but you* do have to be careful that you’re not just slipping into the realm of making excuses and thinking you are a special snowflake for whom the normal advice just does not work.

But also don’t beat yourself up if you do the same as a skinny person and don’t get skinny. We ARE all special snowflakes to some extent. Lots of variations of bodies out there.

I feel like a lamb to the slaughter here but we’ve had some success in our house with some intermittent fasting.

We’d not read the books or anything fancy scientific like but one day a week we’ve been eating our porridge for breakfast then not eating until breakfast the next day, black coffee and water to keep us going.

It sounds grim but after the first couple of times it gets easier, it was supposed to earn guilt free grazing at the weekend but has turned into more of a Monday penance thing 😀

lovin the term special snowflake!

But also don’t beat yourself up if you do the same as a skinny person and don’t get skinny. We ARE all special snowflakes to some extent. Lots of variations of bodies out there.

Yeah that’s fair too.

I hear plenty of people say things like “I eat the same as him and he is skinny.”

Well don’t eat the same as him then – he clearly has a different metabolism to you.

I’m now 11st 12lb. 😀

lovin the term special snowflake!

“You are not special. You’re not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We’re all part of the same compost heap. We’re all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”

? Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

The issue is that if you eat even less, you may not be able to move much more, you may up moving less too, and more slowly. So you’ll not lose any more weight, feel like shit and not get any faster…

don’t try to both diet and train at the same time then. Try eating less and doing ‘less intense’ exercise so that your body isn’t craving a refuel after each ‘training’ session. How about seeing if taking moderate exercise within your fitness levels works instead. There’ll be plenty of time to train hard afterwards.