Following on from my thread about new career prospects, even more importantly I need to improve myself physically (a lot)

I’ve just kind of accepted being overweight and kind of laughed it off the last few years but now it is time to change, as I want to set a better example for my kids and hopefully it will lead to me being around longer for them. My missus recently had to cut some things out of her diet for medical reasons and has lost a lot of weight so I feel even more fat and lazy

I currently weigh 16.5 St which is a lot because I’m not very tall. BMI chart says I should be 11st…

I ride my bike to work and back most days (1hr riding time) and take the dog for 1 or two walks, so it’s not like I do no exercise but more isn’t going harm me.

I’ve reverted to a technique which gave me some success in the past of using my fitness pal to log what i eat make sure I don’t eat too many calories and obviously try to cut all the crap out of my diet.

Just rambling here but please regale me with your stories of success in weight loss to inspire me.

It’s as simple as eating less (calories) as you use daily at this stage. I went from 76kg to a current 66kg (I’m 5ft 8inches) by simply exercising more and eating a bit less. There is no magic solution- you just need to work at it.

Similar weight to you – except 3x a week into work (~50 min each way).

My biggest changer was not drinking (I’m a bit of a lush) and not eating stuff in the evenings after a main meal.

I mainly changed shape rather than weight though.

I lost 0ver 10kg recently and still have another 5 to go before I reach my target of 80kg.

All I did was avoid simple carbs (bread, cereals, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugary stuff) and switch from drinking beer to red wine.

That was it. Simple as that.

I still go out for post ride beers on occasion and will still eat pizza etc but much less often. I find I appreciate it much more now I have them less often.

Biggest thing to losing weight is perseverance. You have to stick at it. It’s not just a diet to shed a few kg then go back to old habits. You’re changing the way you eat permanently. It’s no good starving yourself for a few weeks, you will lose weight doing that but you can only keep that up for so long.
Better to find out the foods that are your weaknesses and swap them for something healthier.
For me it was pizza so I now make cauliflower crust pizzas at home.

please regale me with your stories of success in weight loss to inspire me.

No doubt this thread will get derailed at some point, but before then and to answer your question- I’m 5′ 11″ and was nearly 16st a couple of years ago.!I carried it off but a photo of me one day made me realise I had reached tipping point! I did all sorts of things to lose weight but eventually realised, with some words of wisdom…ready?….it’s what you do regularly that makes you.

So, it really is a case of eat good food and just a bit of exercise (swimming for me). It’s the “what you do regularly” thing that’s key. Don’t have sarnies, cereal etc every day. I eat kebabs, pizzas and crisps, but 5 days a week I eat muesli, make my lunches of pasta/salad/protein and have healthy dinners. I swim for half an hour, on average 4 days a week. Not hard, just a routine you get into.

That’s all I’ve changed and I could still kebab or crisp anyone under the table! 10st 10lbs now.

If you want to get trim, you can – it’s not hard and there’s no science…It’s just what you do regularly 🙂

Good luck, please do it – you’ll feel so much better!

I’ve reverted to a technique which gave me some success in the past of using my fitness pal to log what i eat make sure I don’t eat too many calories and obviously try to cut all the crap out of my diet.

This x100
Also measure/weigh stuff and make sure you have portion size under control

I lost 0ver 10kg recently and still have another 5 to go before I reach my target of 80kg.

All I did was avoid simple carbs (bread, cereals, pasta, rice, potatoes, sugary stuff) and switch from drinking beer to red wine.
Dropped 5kg and still had the bread/rice/pasta/spuds sugary stuff is already out of my diet mostly. Moderation is key, you can only burn what you put in so conversly if you don’t burn it, it stays somewhere. Beer is probably the big one for calories that get missed too. Still plenty in the red wine too.

Also getting a realistic assesment of your expenditure is key. I ticked the sit at a desk all day on MFP but in reality I walk to and from work and try and ride 3-4 times a week. Garmin Vivosmart HR gives me a fairly consistent track over the day. I know when I’m up or down and the difference between walking both ways and not is a significant one.

After doing my back-in and realising what bad shape I was in, I’ve had a similar wake-up call 😥 lost 6kg so far, 8 more to go.

The non-sexy stuff:
As you say, monitoring calories-in on MFP is probably the single most effective thing you can do.
I found that monitoring expended calories was also very motivating. Get a activity band with an HR monitor in – this’ll give you a more accurate count of your calories burned while exercising, and motivates you to push a bit harder.
Eat the same breakfast and lunch every day – that way you are guaranteed that 2/3rds of your meals are foolproof, and it helps you avoid falling off the wagon.

The sexy stuff:
Consider getting a personal trainer. This was part of my “lets take this seriously” approach. Spend some time finding the right one and it will pay dividends. If it doesn’t, you’ve got the wrong trainer. Mine focused on building core strength to support my back and improve my surfing – I’ve honestly never felt better.

Lots of people now focus on lifting weights, rather than doing cardio for weight loss. Whereas I’m still doing plenty of cardio, I am beginning to come around to this way of thinking. The caveat is that you have to work hard… d*cking around on the weights machines in the gym for an hour is not going to cut it. I’ve really noticed the biggest benefits from movements that engage lots of muscle groups, like sled push/pulls, pull-ups, and lots of squat/lunge variations.

Write yourself a list of small rewards for each mini milestone (I have one for each kg), plus some larger ones. I now feel like I can’t buy myself anything unless I have “earned it” first – bike bits are perfect for this.

I lost 25kg at the beginning of the year, but I’ve slipped a bit and put about 5kg back on again – arrggh.

What I’ve found does work is making positive habit changes, often smaller changes are better as they are more likely to stick. e.g. in terms of your exercise you could try sprinting a couple of segments of your ride home, or do a bit of running around with the dog when walking him. This way you are just making a bit better use of existing time rather than introducing overheads/faff in your life.

Something I read recently that seemed to make sense is not to feel guilty about a single indulgence, as this negative feeling is likely to make you lose motivation to curb future overindulgence. article here

I lost 25kg at the beginning of the year

Holy macaroni – that’s nearly 4 stone! Awesome.

The liver converts excess carbs into fat. Sugar is a carb, so excessive sugar consumption will make you fat. Cut down on sugar and also make yourself aware just how much sugar is in a bowl of cornflakes etc.

From this

to this

You turned into a hot lady??

OP, just eat less, if you want encouragement, go find something 20kg pick it up, then imagine not carrying everywhere.

All of the above.

Consistency is key, I aim for 1 cheat meal a week, but exercise as much as possible.

I’ve said this before, but for me…nothing strips the fat away like 30 minutes HIIT before breakfast. I’m in the habit now of doing an Insanity at 6am, sets you up for the day and balances the weight training in the evening.

Loads of water, prepare your meals before you go to work (to avoid shitty sandwiciches and vending machine junk)

It’s surprising how quickly it all works if you are consistent.

The nights are drawing in & the weather will inevitably take a turn for the worse, so have you thought about a turbo trainer for the bike?
They aren’t fun, you will sweat like you’ve never sweated before – but you WILL burn calories on it.
Winter is a bad time for those of us who exercise outdoors, there is less daylight in which to ride & its usually raining, plus comfort foods are far more attractive. Count your calories, wear a fitness band (I use a MS Band2) and build yourself a fail exercise regime.
Half an hour of intensive work on the turbo will certainly help even if you hate the damn thing!

^ Why is it that everyone in that pic has ill-fitting trousers?

Fail = daily (doh!)

Lost 2 stone this year.
Eating what I like un-tracked but cutting out the crap (eating ‘clean’, natural, non processed foods, no bulky carbs; bread, pasta), and weight training.

I focused hard on changing habits, get rid of the idea it’s a ‘diet’, it’s a habit you need to change. And play the long game too, concentrate on changing your habit, not on the results. The results will come in time.

Remove friction and resistance; get the weights in your house or garage, avoid gyms – they suck money and time both will be friction especially in winter. Keep it simple, so you only need to bring the will to get it done.

Only good foods in the house – I got my own fridge and cupboard space.

Be realistic, we’re only human. If you have cake on a weekend, it will make no difference. Eating cake every day does make a difference. The effect of habit over time. This is why fad diets fail.

You do not need to run to lose weight or get fit. You need to run to get better at running.

Set some small goals.

Get up early and get after those goals. Good luck.

This has worked for me:
Plan your meals each week. I make lunches made for the week ahead and know the meals I will eat.
Don’t snack. Yes, I get hungry but that’s OK occasionally.
Stop eating crap. Make food from scratch, cut out the processed crap.
Cut the carbs. I don’t eat carbs after 2pm.
Remove the crap food from your house/office. If I have beer in, I drink it. If I have biscuits in the house, I eat them. So I buy neither.
Drinks loads of water. It helps stop the hunger and also is generally good for you.
Plan your exercise for the week and stick to it. Today for me is bike day, I will do this whatever happens even if it’s only 30 mins in the turbo.
And make sure at least twice a week you have a hard exercise session. Something that really pushes you, for me that’s a fast run for a 30 mins HIIT session on the turbo, others may use a hard gym session.
And finally, have a goal or at least a reason for embarking on the journey. It helps keep your focused.

It’s easy.

Get a road bike and beast yourself from your front door twice a week.
Give up beer during the week.
Floss and clean your teeth after supper to help you to avoid sweet temptations and snacks.
Give up marge on your lunchtime sandwich.
Don’t have sweets, biscuits, cakes and nuts in the house.
Don’t drink any carbonated sugar drinks like Cola, at all.

For me it was realising I was just simply eating too much. When I was at my heaviest, I was running, playing squash and doing gym circuits. I was 16.5 stone at 6′.

I started to eat less, having to teach myself what an actual meal looks like. I lost most of my weight like this, the rest came off when I started entering big cycling events in Europe and needed to lose weight for the big hills.

All these approaches are officially endorsed by molgrips for the OP.

I managed to put on nearly 4kg over a fortnight in Majorca in early July. Combination of all the Leffe Brune I could drink, crisps, chorizo and no excercise and bam.

I wasn’t overly worried. Water weight I thought. Nope. Wouldn’t bloody shift. Couldn’t make a dent in it.

But this last two weeks it started to come off again, lost 2.8 Kg. I decided to fast for a day to “reset” my idea of hunger and it helped me get a handle on snacking etc.

For me it was realising I was just simply eating too much.

To be fair, this is really simple and damn fine advice. Cut your meal sizes down, worst case you get a bit hungry.

one of the carb problems is actually realising what they contain and not eating too much of them, for instance

Great work Weeksy!!

Question re the portion sizes – what’s the acceptable muesli portion? Is it 1/2 cup like porridge?

Question re the portion sizes – what’s the acceptable muesli portion? Is it 1/2 cup like porridge?

What musli, how much do you need from it, how many are you eating….
The portion size is the amount that you should eat to give you the right balance of stuff (techical shorthand for all the diatary components) for that part of your balanced diet.

I think we’ve established what weeksys motivation was!

Some encouraging stories on here. About to embark on the annual cycle of wanting to lose weight over the winter and failing dismally.

Doesn’t help when carb craving is a side effect of medication, and my GP has me on a low dose of the better ones for that.

I lost 1/2 stone, over a period of about 6 months by making one simple change…

For lunch at work, so 5 days a week, I used to have a big bowl of granola. One day I poured out the my usual bowls worth and weighted it. From memory it was over 100g. Then I looked at the suggested portion size, 35g (from memory) (utterly unrealistic, less than a mouth full). I chose somewhere between, 75g. From that day onwards I weigh my granola out every work day, to 75g and stick to that. Genuinely made no other changes to lifestyle.

For 6 months I lost weight, tapered off to about 1/2 a stone lighter than I started. Result. That was 18 months ago, sill weighing out the granola, still at lower weight.

This exact scenario may not work for everyone, but could be used as the basis for a technique of very easy calorie reduction.

I’ve lost 17Kgs since March.

It’s easy and not easy all at the same time. My biggest problem is denial.

For years I’d never admit I was fat, enough though at my worst I was 20st. I must have looked ridiculous, squeezed into ill fitting clothes, gut hang out of the bottom of my XXL riding jersey.

It took me years to admit I was fat, then I wouldn’t have a scale in my house, if I stepped on it, I’d be unhappy, so I didn’t – I tried a few things, but denial was always there – I could have an XL kebab for dinner because I’d been out on my bike 3 days prior.

Finally I admitted I was wrong, spoke to my doctor she gave me some pills to help, made me an appointment with a dietician who gave me some good, but not terribly exciting advice and a diet to follow. But I told myself if I took the pills I could eat whatever I liked, because I did loads of exorcize.

At every stage I’d lose a bit, some would go back on, some would stay off – my doctor was concerned and gave me loads of tests, and I had some problem with my liver – so I told myself it wasn’t my fault, it was a ‘condition’ a year later it seems the ‘condition’ was caused by me being fat, not the other way around.

Finally, 2 or more years into it, this spring, after a brief flirtation with a fitbit that was a waste of time and money – I think most if not all of my denial is gone, but I have to keep an eye on it. It’s like being a drug addict in a way – in the same way addicts are always addicts, even years into recovery I’ll always be fat, it will always be there waiting to attack whenever I drop my guard.

Once I got past that, it was just the ‘easy’ bit of losing weight.

I personally have found MyFittnessPal and a simple calories in, calories out system works best, but I have to be careful not to lie to myself – I count everything, even if it means I got over target that day, otherwise what’s the point? Carbs, Sugar, Alcohol, they all play a part and maybe if you’re a couple of lbs over and want to trim a bit change a few things around – but there’s not magic fix, if you want to lose weight you’re going to have to eat less. Cutting out sweets, and other bad foods is ‘easy’ on MFP, because once you’re used to it, you’re not going to blow 250cals on a Mars bar, sod that you can have a decent sized bit of food for that.

For me it has to be a no BS factual thing, I have a kitchen scale and use it, I’ve got a set of bathroom scales – digital one work best as some of the old mechanical scales you can’t see the smaller increments well enough – You weigh your food honestly, you log your food honestly and you weigh yourself, every week, at the same time, on the same day, honestly and it’s ‘easy’ if you **** up, record it, move on, tomorrow is another day, but you don’t carry over or under scores over.

Don’t be afraid to speak to your GP, people with high BMIs are statistically likely to cost them fortunes in the future so a bit of an investment now is a non-brainer – they can put you in touch with a dietician who can offer you a internet bullshit free diet to follow and there are pills that can help, you won’t lose any weight taking them, but if you loose weight though diet they can help you loose more – don’t abuse them though, the side-effects are quite unpleasant.

Finally, if it’s not about losing a few lbs to get into a swimsuit for a holiday, but proper life changing loss, you can’t ‘go on a diet’ you have to ‘change your diet’ it’s not a fix and forget thing, for me it’s rest of life sadly, but I’ve proven to myself that left unchecked I’ll over eat myself ill.

2 years ago i was 16 stone at 5′ 10″ despite cycling 10 miles to work and back every day. The problem was my diet was poor. I used to eat a big bowl of cereal before setting off to work and by the time i got to work i was hungry again so would then have a scone or toast (i work in bakery so baked goods are everywhere).

I now only eat breakfast when i get to work (either scrambled egg, poached eggs or a large bowl of natural yogurt with blueberries/strawberries).

I also eat better at lunch, i.e. homemade chicken or chickpea curry, tuna and sweet jacket potato with salad. I used to eat sandwiches every day and was always hungry by 3pm and would be eating chocolate or more baked goods.

I am now 12 stone and i enjoy what i eat more now than when i was 16 stone.

PMK is spot on.

Six months ago, I was overweight, paunchy and lethargic. Working in London meant that although I was exercising as much as ever before, my diet had gone to hell. I was subsisting on carbohydrates – pasta, bread, etc. I reduced my carb intake and I’ve lost about a stone and a half.

I’m fitter, I seem to suffer fewer injuries and I can power up climbs that previously had me gasping.

The next step is to cut out ale…

Why is it that everyone in that pic has ill-fitting trousers?

Weight Watchers wedding…?

Molgrips » All these approaches are officially endorsed by molgrips for the OP.

Comedy genius!

Don’t rely only on the BMI chart though as it does not take into account muscle. Somebody with an athletic build can also be overweight or even obese from the BMI chart although it would be obvious to a doctor that the chart is not relevant to that individual.
I am using the gym a lot more these days and currently eating a high protein diet and eating portions regularly during the day. It is working for me and I even have cheat days when I eat whatever I like, usually pizza 😈

Just shy of 18 stone in Jan, now down to 15.5. Started just eating less, bit of a hiccup a couple of months in have lost 18 lbs since the start of August. Cut out carbs from bread, pasta, rice, pastries, cut out alcohol, watched the calories . .

Had an all inclusive holiday abroad last week, swam lads but still put on 12lbs although I have managed to shift that extra in the last week.

it was a pasta and alcohol fuelled break!

For all the carb avoiders did you retain the same calorie intake or did the absence of carbs also coincide with a big drop in calorie intake?

Matey has lost 5 stones in just under than a year by the simple expedient of not eating and drinking everything he sees

Our culture and the way we’re bombarded with food at every opportunity really is crap sometimes

Four or five times a year I go on a two-week trip to Africa, staying in hotels and only walking from hotel to car to office. Hotel gyms are dismal and I actually fear injuring myself on the awfual exercise machines. So I finish work, drink a couple of beers with some nuts, do some work then eat dinner and go to bed. By the end of the trp the belt has tightened considerably but luckily reverting to a normal home lifestyle soon sees it all off again. I guess being fit my calorific requirements are lower anyway so those beers go straight to the gut.

Remember that you want to lose fat, not weight. Do strength work whilst dieting and you’ll maintain or increase your muscle mass, which will help you burn calories.

Key thing to keep in mind is that losing the weight is only part of it. The vast majority of people who lose that much weight put it all back on again and then some within a short period of time after. What are you going to do to make sure you are one of the successful minority?

You cant approach it as if losing the weight is the end of the process. There is no end of the process. Make the changes you need to make, but make them in a way that is sustainable for the rest of your life. When you have succeeded in losing the weight and feel great about it, keep asking yourself what are you doing to keep it off and is it enough.

Treat it like alcoholism. Alcoholics are still alcoholics even when sober and successfully off alcohol for a period of time. That’s the mentality you need to have IMHO. You are fat, ok you have lost that fat, but you are still fat. You can never go back to lifestyle previously that resulted in getting fat in the first place.

mikewsmith – huge drop in calorie intake once I dropped the carbs. I average approx. 1800 kcals a day now, was probably consuming nearer 4000.
My partner is also losing weight – but dieting her way and attends weightwatcher each week for a public weigh in!. The support and encouragement of doing this together cannot be understated – its been a huge help.