….Stoner 😯

Like most men over 25 (houns excepted), I eschew the mirror as far as manly possible.

But last night I caught sight out of the corner of my eye of a weeble-shaped blob, sitting on the edge of the bed puffing as he pulled his socks on.

This is not good I thought.

Sure enough, tip-toed onto the scales this morning and when the overload lights stopped flashing I clocked a magnificent sizeable 97.4Kg.

This is worse, thought I.

I can’t carry this off with the ‘ol “but I’m 6’4″ so it’s to be expected”.
*divides by height squared, counts toes, counts rolls of belly fat, carries the one*
My BMI has tipped into 26+, and at 38 if I don’t get a handle on this, it’s not going to drop back down again any time in the next 38 years.

I confess I’ve let myself go. Hardly ridden the bike in 9 months, using the excuse of “other projects” to dodge the inevitable.

I’d like to get back down to 85Kg ish, a BMI of 22. Admittedly a figure not seen for probably nearly 10 yrs.

First hour on the bike this morning – will aim to do the same each day, will trim the diet to salads and cold meats for lunch, and veg and meats for dinner, I rarely snack but will make sure its none. And will try and keep away from breads, rice, pasta and spuds. Dropping ale intake will be the hardest thing.

How much weight loss over how long is reasonable to aim for? Id like to set some kind of target for 60 days time when we go on summer hols. There will be graphs involved.

2kg a week if you idiet well. The diet you suggest will work very well but if you ramp up the exercise loads you may (or may not) find it harder due to carb cravings

Ive had the carb cravings before and a massive fall off in power oomph (But oddly no lactic burn). But Im planning on doing more geared road riding initially rather than my usual SS honking up the malverns to try and keep the load steady to start with.

I was at 13 1/2 stone until about 6 weeks ago. Being a hairy builder type, sandwiches are the staple diet for the day. However I’ve cut the biscuits and chocolate out and I’m doing two flat out rides a week. Lost a stone. I’ve not been 12 1/2 for about 10 years.

2kg a week if you idiet well.

Dunno about those low carb diets as I’d hate going on one but to lose that amount of weight implies burning 2000 calories a day more than consumed in normal terms.

My weight loss has always been based on road riding lots and eating low fat food and little sugar except when riding.

Best of luck fella

FWIW Smoking is an excellent appetite suppressant

Careful. My mate decided this at a similar age and is now ultra geeky obsessive about heart rates, zones, training, etc. He has lost weight but there WILL be graphs 😉

FWIW Smoking is an excellent appetite suppressant

When If I make to 60 I have vowed to take up pipe smoking again 😉

good numbers wrightyson, If I can achieve something like that I’ll be very happy.

It all started to go wrong when you begun referring to yourself in the third person. 🙂

Anyway, best of luck. I’m in a similar position and need to do something sooner rather than later. 🙁

Hopefully not preaching but try myfitnesspal, it helps doing the adding for you and tells you how many calories are in each meal/snack. Some “healthy” options will surprise you.

Works for me as I can still have a pizza/curry/beer if I feel like it, I just need to balance it out by eating a bit less earlier in the day or doing some cycling.

I am a 6kg lighter since christmas and 27kg ligher than my heaviest 😯

But last night I caught sight out of the corner of my eye of a weeble-shaped blob, sitting on the edge of the bed puffing as he pulled his socks on.

This is not good I thought.

have you tried standing further away from the mirror? If that works try standing further away from people too and see if you go up in their estimations. (you may have to learn to project your voice a little)

Do it! I keep falling of the the couch to 5K bandwagon. I have to get fit again before I head off to Ciclo in October.

A HRM is addictive, especially when you start looking to burn fat. Getting the revs down to that sweet spot is harder than you’d think.

To be honest maccruiskeen, unless he stands quite a distance from you, you can’t actually see his big head without straining your own neck. He’s the only human (?) to have his perception affected by the curvature of the earth. 😯

Pardon? Speak up – I’m further away than I look

Avoid unbalanced fad diets
Myfitnesspal is useful
1-2lbs (sorry lost on modern measurments) a week
Slow and steady wins the race
Exercise more, eat less (oops did i say that?)

Best of luck – first step, is to make the commitment to change.

Hopefully not preaching but try myfitnesspal

I started using this last week after it was mentioned on another thread. I still eat the same main meals but have cut out the snacks at work because seeing the figures makes it easier to ignore Tesco £1 bag of Milkybar buttons/Malteasers/Minstrels when I pop in for my lunch.

I’m actually quite surprised that by just eating 3 meals of:

Cereal
Sandwiches
Meat, veg, potatoes

with maybe the odd bag of crisps/bit of chocolate I’m not even hitting 1800 calories a day.

Really worth watching the horizon on iplayer called “eat, fast and live longer”.

Really worth reading Michael Pollan’s “In defence of food”.

Good luck, you will feel better for it.

FWIW Smoking crack is an excellent appetite suppressant

FTFY

If I make to 60 I have vowed to take up pipe smoking again

Do you intend to live up to your name with the pipe contents 😉

Exercise more, eat less (oops did i say that?)

Steady now you know what happens if you say that on here 😉
For clarity I agree with you

We are all very lucky in that we enjoy doing something that sorts out this sort of problem. Imagine if you were looking at your folds in the bedroom mirror and thinking “Bugger, I’m all flabby. I’d better take up Zumba or sign up to be shouted at in a public park by a bitter ex-serviceman while I do sit-ups“.

🙂

they do that in my local park it is hilarious to watch.
they give them different coloured bibs based on fitness
Yellow seems to mean can barely walk 😉

Stoner.

1kg a week should be a realistic figure. Anything that promises huge weight loss or a massive change in diet will only work in the short term or whilst you continue the diet. Carbs aren’t bad in small, moderate doses, your body does need some instant energy rich food. Just eat it earlier in the day before exercise.

Approaching the BIG 40 it only gets harder to shift the weight. Apart from the age thing, life gets in the way.

1kg a week should be a realistic figure.

Someone getting metric/imperial units muddled?

And will try and keep away from breads, rice, pasta and spuds.

As an aside, was reading about gluten and coincidentally my hay-fever has more or less disappeared since giving up pasta and bread, so there are other health benefits as well as losing the paunch 🙂

A familar story almost to the year, I’m still struggling a decade later, so many excuses.

Half the ale and ditch the bread, up the rides and consider swimming membership. I lost about 1 and half stone in a summer, totally changed my lifestyle and used the car hardly at all. It’s the putting it back on in winter and spring that needs sorting. Fixing bad eating habits has to stay fixed.

Ive had the carb cravings before and a massive fall off in power oomph

Some people get that, some don’t. If you do you’ll really have to watch how much intense stuff you do.

Ive had the carb cravings before and a massive fall off in power oomph

Actual or imagined?
How were you measuring this?
Over what sort of power output did you suffer the greatest loss and what sort of percentage are we talking?

I was 15st 10 & 6ft2 & had the same thoughts as the OP

I’ve been 13st2-13st6 for the last year & it’s simply down to the move more eat the right things ethos
Cheese is now a treat rather than a staple diet & if I know I’m going to eat a lot I make sure I’ve burnt calories to compensate
I aim for 1600 calories a day & use http://www.myfitnesspal.com to track the calories & exercise
It’s not easy but getting into a routine & having your partner do similar makes it more achievable

May I offer a snippet of advice:

Su
Shi

😉

It’s easy to lose weight.

Turn off the fridge.

Stoner, I decided around Easter I needed to lose about 7 or 8kg (95kg at the start) as I’m 50 and 5’11(ish).
I’ve done two things:
1) Reduce carbs – so no bread, biscuits, pasta or pastry but plenty of meat, salad, vegs, cheese, eggs, etc.
2) Excercise more. My weekly bike outing was never going to do the trick so I bought a Concept2 rowing machine.

The C2 is excellent. It sits in my home office and I can do a quick 30-45 minute session 4 times a week whether its hot, cold, raining or dark. There’s loads of support on t’web (forums, rankings, workout plans, etc) and when/if I’m done with it I’ll be able to sell it for pretty much what I paid for it.
Compared to biking it’s a better workout and really helps your core fitness. I’ve done about 145,000m since Easter, lost about 3.5kg and frankly feel fitter now than I have in the last 10 years (inc when I did a half marathon).
Biking is fine but rowing will do you more good and quicker. Combine this with a diet change and you’ll find it easy.

was making a point of talking to the woman next door yesterday because she has lost 4 stone over the last year and now is frankly HOT.. she eats leaves runs and goes down the gym..

a year ago she was no1 pie eater round here two bus seats the works but WOW..

do you think your neighbours wives will be talking about Stoner in such terms in a year?

do you think your neighbours wives will be talking about Stoner in such terms in a year?

No. The initial attraction of his lean torso will disappear as soon as he starts talking about stoves, logs, his landrover and the epic spreadsheet he just completed on his new Chromebook 🙂

😀

Good luck.
A few thoughts:
1. prioritise your health in every decision you make – always go for the choice which has most beneficial impact on your health
2. Move around more on a day to day basis – it’s about more than just doing lots of exercise after sitting down all day
3. get more sleep
4. set a target and tell everyone you know what it is. The social pressure/support and male pride of having to admit failure will be useful in moments of weakness
5. Enter a competitive event you have to trail for – desire to do well will help motivate you to sustain the effort

Thank you all, gents.
It’s nice to know Im not the only fatboy in this village 🙂

Sharkbait. That hurts. The truth really hurts 🙁

Will report back with progress if there’s any…in due course.

🙄

Last Sunday’s weigh marks the first time I’ve been below 15st in maybe 5-6 years…

Best advice I can give is commute by bike. I ride 5 miles each way to college as many days as I can and it’s great. Gives me a lot more energy throughout the day as well.

Another thing is to cut out the lunches. I find I usually tend to grab a snack when I get home anyway, so I leave the lunch out so I’m only eating when I get home, i.e. straight after exercise. Also, leave your wallet(or at least your change) at home to avoid buying unhealthy snacks.

Joshing sharkbait, Joshing 😉