Ok folks. im wanting to loose some weight. Recent house move / marriage / job changes amongst other excuses have meant that im not getting out a lot and as such me and the mrs are sitting down on an evening with a beer and some pretty fattening food. Lack of exercise for both of us means that we are piling on the weight (i gained about 6 lb last week alone!) but im still sat here at my desk scoffing gallons of coffee and 2+ choc bars a day.

So it needs to change. I know that but I only seem to want to be excising when im at work. I get home and its house work or sofa.

So im wondering if you can give any tips to change the lifestyle a bit? apart from eat less move more? it just seems a lot harder than it used to be?

If you don’t lost weight… you will die….

Being dead isn’t something you come back from.

If you don’t lost weight… you will die….

hate to be the bearer of bad news but you’re going to die either way….

Get your arse in gear fatty and sort it out. There’s no silver bullet – you’ve just got to stop eating sh1t and do a bit of exercise. Routine is they key – get out of the routine of sitting on your ass and get into a routine of running/riding/walking – whatever, just move!

Move it soldier! 🙂

lol some nice responses there.

I guess routine is the key. Only thing is last time i started eating healthily and going to a gym (some time ago i must admit) i turned into a bit of a bore.

You’ll be even more boring if you have a stroke and can’t wipe your own ars£

Get a big mirror ,then both of you strip off and stand in front of the mirror. Ask each other if you want to change what you see.
Do this every day till the answer is no.
Help each other to change your shopping,eating and cooking habits till they become the norm.

😉

Set some goals. Get into some sort of racing (Tri’s, local TT’s, local XC races.) Get the missus into it too.

Where I live there are a number of Fitness Bootcamps, run by ex army. They run sessions pretty much every other day in the local park. Now the weathers turned, book yourself up. NOW!!

Step 1) Use http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ . Log everything you eat with it. You will be shocked.

Step 2) Reduce your intake to your goal amount (as recommended by MFP).

Step 3) If you can, commute to work by bike. Log the exercise in MFP too.

Job done. (Worked for me!)

A bit simplistic I know but …
Calories in < Calories out – it doesn’t need to be a massive change to get the balance right. A bit less food and a bit more exercise.
And make sure that the food on the plate is multi coloured (no, not a bag of MnM’s) ie different veggies, and a bit of stuff that’s brown or white.

A good motivation is riding with mates. They will be faster than you uphill due to the ballast. Lose that and you’ll keep,up with them.

Or enter a hilly event on the bike in a few months, there’s nothing like sweating up a hill to motivate you to lose weight.

I’ve done both, I ride with a mate regularly and I’ve entered the etape Cymru in September. It’s keeping me off the biscuits and on the bike because I don’t like being a slow sweaty mess!

Good luck mate.

+1 for the myfitnesspal thing too. I did that from new year until Easter. Very interesting if you are totally honest with yourself and shows where the excess calories are coming from.

Been here doing that.

Health is a great motivator.

Swimming was the the thing i found, and now addicted to it, only takes 40 mins out of my day to do a mile. join local pool or some other sport.

Snacking is yr enemy, so is bread. Cut out bread and change snacks. Walk fast, run, bike, kayak to the pub, things like that.

Yes, standing naked in front of a mirror will own all of your bases and the solutions will present themselves in one mad rush 😉

Once you feel the energy returning it gets progressively easier as you enjoy feeling yr body move around again, and want to do more. Habit can also be hiding (or resultant) of other issues, ie emotional eating, avoidance etc. Doing different things is not the end of socialising, more often the beginning of more socialising.

one thing I found is that carb and sugar loaded snacks just wipe me out, to the point where i got checked for diabetes. so getting in of an afternoon/evening and eating sausage roll or pork pie, chocolate bar etc just made me want to snore on the couch.

Gotten massively into blending good stuff – basically this:

Fresh beets, carrots, apple juice, kiwis, ginger, chillies, apples, kale, lemon juice – whizz it up, chill in fridge, slop some into a glass and eat with spoon, go slow and small eating at first as a lot of fibre might not agree right off the bat. My energy levels have soared now have one of these with mixed nuts rather than choc or pastry, or toast etc. was nearly 17st at barely 5′ 10″ less than a year ago, now nearer 15 and heading back to medium clothes via a short stop in large. So nice to throw thos XXL blimp threads into the garbage where they belong 🙂

Always have one day a week when you can indulge yr ‘bad foods’. Choose one day. choose one meal, and never cross the line.

2 years ago I weighed 16st (I am only 5’7″) and realised I had to do something when I got out of breath going upstairs in our house.

I started doing some running – I could only run for 20s without stopping to have a minor heart attack.
I used to run in the freezing cold, my muscles screaming for me to stop and my belly wobbling up and down, with tears in my eyes chanting to myself “I don’t want to be fat”.
It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

I used MyFitnessPal to track my eating and it worked very well, losing 1-2lbs a week. I say no to everything that is offered me at work (cake and biscuits) and I’m used to it now.

I’ve had a few hiccups along the way, went back up to 15st at one point.

Positives:
I now weigh 13st4lbs.
I ran my first ever 10k race in 59mins, can now do 5k in 26 mins.
I have stopped snoring (I would have done it all just for that alone!)
People keep saying how good I look.
My wife thinks I’m more attractive.
I now wear medium clothes and I am hoping one day to wear a slim fit shirt!
My riding is more fun as I can get up the hills with my friends.
I can’t eat as much now so it’s easier to keep the weight off.
“Bad” food tastes AMAZING – when you do have a treat it’s so much more enjoyable than when you are scoffing it all the time.

Negatives:
It’s so hard. It really is. Running in agony with tears rolling down your face is not a nice place to be. There’s a lot of people on here think its easy but they may find it easy to keep weight off and stay fit. I don’t. But the feeling you get when you stand on the scales and you’ve reached a goal you’ve set, or you notice your trousers are massive on you, or someone doesn’t recognise you as you’ve changed so much is worth all the effort.
You do get into a routine but it isn’t always easy to keep to it. People say first few weeks are the hardest but even after a few months you can have miserable periods where it’s hard not to reach for the chips. It happens so you have to just accept it has happened and get back to what you know you should be doing as quick as you can – DONT GIVE UP COMPLETELY.

My tips:
No fad diets. Track what goes in and the exercise you do. Simple as that. You need to change the way you eat on a permanent basis and quick fixes don’t do that.
Do what works for you – some people like early morning workouts. I just can’t get up and do that so I run in the late evenings. A very experienced runner friend of mine says the best time to run is when you want to – yes sometimes you have to force yourself out to do exercise but if one time of day works better then just do it then.
Lose the fat before doing muscle work – yes more muscle burns more calories but don’t make the mistake of building load of muscle which still has 10cm of far covering it – you’ll just look like a beer barrel!
Weight yourself when you want to – I weigh myself twice a day as that works for me for motivation. Might not for you so try different things.
TAKE RECORDS NOW – photos/measurement etc. I didn’t do this but having a “before” pic and numbers can help you see how far you’ve come and remind you to not go back there!

I am aiming for 12st eventually – 25% weight loss and 8 inches off my original waist size of 40inch. I need to get rid of my larger clothes now so I don’t have anything to wear if I put weight on!

MFP was interesting for me from the PoV of seeing what, in my notionally healthy diet, was piling on the calories. Luckily I’m pretty active, and though I work from home and so don’t have the commute option, I walk a lot – to get somewhere, to the shops, for relaxation.

Little by little, cut down (not even out) the oatcakes, the peanut butter, and the evening snacks with a beer or dram, and upped the exercise a bit (if you’re out exercising, you’re less likely to be inside scoffing).

Worked for me, didn’t need to lose a lot, but reckon it was a few pounds which was a good result. Be warned though, it didn’t happen instantly, took a week or three for the tide to turn..

A very experienced rubber friend of mine says

😯

I’ve always been fairly fit and been middle of the pack in time trials and amoungst my mates when riding.

had a very lazy December and i ate and drank a lot pretty much every day, weighed myself and was shocked to see the scales reading 87kg (i’m 5’10). went out that weekend with the lads, about 10 of us, 50 miles on the road, and i was way off the back every slight climb. very humbling day.

weighed myself today and i weigh 75.8kg, just under 12 stone. My time trialling has gone through the roof this year, and i’m always front of the pack (amoungst mates) on climbs. still get whipped to pieces on races like.

you need to want to do it. and if you want to do it, well, just do it. stop eating shite and don’t laze around on the sofa at nights. have one 24 hour period a week of eating whatever you want, and i always have a bad week every 6 weeks or so, you’ll put on a kg or so, but i find the weight drops off in a day when i’m back in the routine.

Start smoking, and snorting coke

Jambo – I edited that pretty fast but I knew someone would spot it!

Great post rob dob.

And one more thing OP – schedule the exercise sessions. Put the rides, walks etc that you want to do this week on the diary at the beginning of the week. Feels really shit when you don’t do it then.

I get home and its house work or sofa.

No problem!

For me, it’s breaking the cycle. Once you start to change, get more exercise, eat healthier stuff, you’ll desire more exercise and healthier food and just generally feel a load better.

Turn off the TV and do something, especially with the lighter evenings, even if it’s just a walk to start with.

To be fair binners i tried smoking and i couldnt hack it. Thought i would draw the line there tbh.

Rob thats what i feel like but every time i try something it just seems to last a week. Then its a bag of chips or something. It feels like everyone else finds it really easy.

Take your clothes off and stand in front and look in a mirror, jump up and down 10 times then take another look, then shower. Return and repeat and if all that fat hasn’t disapeared do it all again and again and again..

Should be enough motivation watching all that fat wobble I’da thought 😉

Then its a bag of chips or something

nowt wrong with a bag of chips after a good week, you don’t have to give anything up. 🙂

hunger is a signal that you’re losing weight, not that you need to eat.
hunger is a signal that you’re losing weight, not that you need to eat.
hunger is a signal that you’re losing weight, not that you need to eat.

It feels like everyone else finds it really easy.

OP
As robdob put very well,regardless of your size or how much you want to lose ,it is not easy. Once you are in the right mindset and routines,it gets easier ,but there are any number of things ( work,family life,injury ) that will make it harder . Break it down and go for TATs ….> Tiny..Attainable..Targets ,you will get there.

Big up robdob, knowing how hard it can be that is an excellent result more power to you sir.

Step 1) Use http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ . Log everything you eat with it. You will be shocked.

Step 2) Reduce your intake to your goal amount (as recommended by MFP).

Step 3) If you can, commute to work by bike. Log the exercise in MFP too.

Job done. (Worked for me!)

This is exactly what I did (I logged the intake but not on that website). I went from about 2500 calories a day to 1200 on a non-bike ride day and 1500 on a bike ride day.

I lost about 10kg just by dieting – no exercise (I was broken at the time).

I’ve gone from 110kg in January last year to 88kg now (I managed to get to 90kg by the end of summer 2013, since then it’s been a much slower process).

Commuting is a great way to exercise because at the end of the day, you have no choice but to ride home.

First of all you need to want to do it, or you’ll never be motivated enough to change.

You need to find something that you enjoy doing, with regards to exercise.

You need to do something before you settle down for the evening. If you get home and think ooooh, I’ll just have a cup of tea and a bun before going out for a 30 mile bike ride in the pouring rain, you will never get out the door. Get your kit ready the night before, plan what you are going to do (even if it’s just a 20min walk round the block) and do it as soon as you get in. Do not sit on the sofa, do not put the tv on…..

Once you start noticing changes in weight/improvement in fitness you will probably feel more motivated and more likely to want to continue.

Forget goals. Goals can be achieved, at which point you stop, or fail to be achieved, at which point you give up.

You need to foster a state of mind, that state being complete and utter self loathing. You must hate your body. You must loathe the site of it, the feel of it. You need hate to motivate you to work. You need hate to motivate you to inflict pain. Every set of reps is a punishment you deserve and yet is never punishment enough.

The moment you think you’ve done enough, the moment you’re happy, you’ve lost. You are weak, you are scum, you are pathetic, you deserve to suffer.

Best of luck and all that. 😀

LOL

It feels like everyone else finds it really easy.

We don’t, trust me on this. It was way easier for me to quit my daily drug habit than it was to change my eating and lifestyle habit. If you want to do it, I mean really really want to do it then you will. However this

but im still sat here at my desk scoffing gallons of coffee and 2+ choc bars a day.

suggests you don’t.

The coffee is fine btw 😉

Commuting is a great way to exercise because at the end of the day, you have no choice but to ride home.

There’s something about those 2 kicks to your metabolism that works extra specially well, definitely. I never have The Hunger like I do when commuting a few times a week.

Running also works well to bang down the calorie count in a short time frame, which works for me – I still eat a fair bit of good stuff, but create the deficit with exercise. Others find it easier to eat less and maybe use resistance training.. find what works for you (and most importantly what you can maintain).

I use MFP too. I find it doesn’t tell me much that I don’t already know (except that some unexpected foods are higher in calories than you would think) but it keeps me honest seeing the figures on the screen.

I also did weight watchers about 8 years ago, a bit like the little britian sketches but also gives you some motivation as you go and get weighed once a week. Sadly I put all the wight back on so started using MFP 😕

Once you start noticing changes in weight/improvement in fitness you will probably feel more motivated and more likely to want to continue.

2nd this. I f****** hate running. So I entered a 10K to force myself back out as I know it works for me, far better than cycling in the time I have available. A couple of weeks of running every other day and I’m almost enjoying it now 🙂

Take your good lady from behind then slap her arse and say ‘whoo, watch that blubber wobble!’

Then, as she will then be trying to lose weight*, it will be easier for you to join in and do it together.

*Or will have killed you to death then you won’t have to worry anyway

Seriously though – get up 30 minutes early, go for a little jog then go home for the normal routine – gets you exercising and gets your metabolism racing for the day.

It can be a bit difficult to get motivated sometimes so get Strava on your phone and track your runs – I have recently started running again and just yesterday I took 30 seconds off my 1 mile average pace. And that makes me motivated not to slip slower tomorrow when I go again…

johndoh – Member

Take your good lady from behind then slap her arse and

call out the name of her sister and see how long you can hold on for.
Sex rodeo! 😀

My overall goal was to get to 12st from 16st as I thought it would be cool to say I’d lost a quarter of my body weight! However that goal was put under “never going to happen” a long time ago as it was too much to hope for…..

I went for half stone goals, that seemed to be easier and you can lose 7lbs at a time within a month or so and there is a real achievement with that. I am 13.4 now and want to weigh 12 “something” as my next goal – thats only 5lbs away.

Rob thats what i feel like but every time i try something it just seems to last a week. Then its a bag of chips or something. It feels like everyone else finds it really easy.

Some people find it really easy, that’s true. I don’t, it’s miserable and hard and painful. I was at a point where I was miserable about my weight and was eating to feel better. A lot of people on here won’t understand this but I know what it’s like and it’s a hole that is very very difficult to climb out of, it affects you mentally.

I would say if you are hungry – go and eat something – but get something that is a bit better. A good example is crisps – I love those deep ridge salt and vinegar crisps but they are over 200 calories and a lot of fat. A lot of diet crisps are nasty but I found that a 25g of Hula Hoops is only about 125 cals and not much fat (close to the diet crisps actually). As a 30 min run might only burn 300-450 cals then that is a change in choice that will make a big difference.

I have had to find things that fill me up but are healthy. For lunch today I have had some slices of ham/carrots/watermelon/crisps/banana/0 cal jelly and a diet choc mousse. I’m pretty full now!

However you don’t need to feel “full”. You just need to feel “not hungry”. Once I realised this it really helped me and now I don’t like feeling full as it’s uncomfortable – when I was heavy I didn’t feel like I’d eaten enough until I had to undo my belt a bit – crazy really!!