Isn’t there a way of checking to see how many calories you need to maintain the weight your currently at?

p.p.s I’ve just calculated with that thing that on a day with a big ass ride, I need more that 6000 calories!

Cheers glenh, was thinking about basal metabolic rate just couldn’t remember what is was! Mine is 2133 cals per day!

Start the day with porridge and it will stop you snacking mid-morning. Cut down the carbs too.

Renton

Hope this is of some help

When I gave up rugby (injury) I was around 18 stone and just over 6 foot tall. Which as a prop playing at a high level was pretty good dimensions

I took up biking to fill the void and quickly realised that if I wanted to be any good at it and keep up with my mates I needed to change shape. That was my motivation (I hate my mates beating me at anything :-)_

A few things helped me do that

– As above make sure you know in your head why you are trying to lose weight and make sure you really want to.

– Cut out some of the crap from the diet (bag of crisps and dessert with evening meal worked for me). It was a struggle for a few days until I realised that it was just habit. I quickly stopped missing/craving those things. Your list above has a few things you could quickly cut out. Just try and imprve other little things in your diet and minimise snacking.

– Drink less alchohol. I personally still enjoy a drink but I certainly cut back a little

– Give yourself a goal. Enter an event for example. Motivates me to ride more anyway.

– Move more. Not sure where I heard this but as a ‘rule of thumb’ it works – don’t drive if you can ride, don’t ride if you can walk and don’t walk if you can run.

I lost ~ 5 stone in about a year (about 4 years ago) and have stayed around the new weight ever since. Once you get going it becomes easier and you feel a lot better.

Good luck!

Make changes to your lifestyle (diet & exercise) now that you can carry out until the day you die! no fad exercise and diets just healthy living, you will soon see the benefits.

i wont list exercise routines and diets etc as theres a million options to suit your needs but the key to success is to choose things that you enjoy that you can continue with, dont be afraid to change and experiment as variety is important to keep motivated.

dont do a rocky. start off slow with the exersise as you dont want to feel tired and burnt out and be susceptible to colds all the time but it is essential that you do exercise frequently, it can be short like 30-45 mins and doesnt have to be intense but do try to get a longer actvity in at the weekend.

if you do intense activity for long periods you will have a tendancy to over eat afterwoods.

If you exercise like a nutter and have a strict low cal diet you may end up looseing weight quicker to start with but the second you stop the weight will pile back on!

This is what i got from that online thingy

1975 – BMR (Calories)

1276 – Activity (calories)

3251 – Total (calories)

that sounds bad if i’m consuming over 3000 kcal or does it mean i’m consuming 1975 kcal and burning 1276 kcal

sounds like you really want to make a change – a really good start! it’s going to need hard work, so some grit will be crucial.

despite their reputation, the PTIs aren’t out to get people, and are there to help. that’s the job the queen pays them to do! if you go in to see them with the right attitude you’ll be amazed how much help they can give – it’ll hurt though, gotta be prepared for that.

a lot of the advice above is really good. porridge for breakfast is ace. cutting out midmorning snacks is important. if you can’t go without entirely, remember there’s more calories in those sneaky chocolate biscuits than a banana… so why not have the banana; it’ll fill you up more and have less fat in it. plus it’ll fuel you up for the magic ingredient…

you really need to go and do circuits, three time a week. they must run them in the gym – pretty much every station does. it’ll get you away from your desk, plus your line manager will see you making the effort, and rather than bitching about you being away from your desk, they should be keen to do what they can to help too. should help the appraisals!

you’ll be amazed the range of fitness you’ll find at all-comers circuits; you’re not the only one in your situation. sure there’ll be so really fit guys, but the circuits are set so you work at your own pace

good luck, hth!!

my food for the day goes like this….
breakfast:-
orange juice
coffee 2 sugars
toast(2 slices)
cereal(cornflakes or readybrek)3 spoons of sugar

Breakfast isn’t too bad (don’t be tempted to go without) but too much sugar. Skimmed milk would be best (try UHT it tastes better believe it or not). Mix skimmed and semi-skimmed during the weaning-off process.

mid morning
packet of crisps
2 slices of malt loaf
penguin choccy bar

Cut out the crisps and penguin bar. Have some fruit if you’re still hungry.

lunch
4 slices of bread making chicken and coleslaw sarnies
crisps
choccy bar

Sorry but the mayo’s got to go, along with the crisps and choccy bar. Pack another sandwich, or maybe some fruit or more malt loaf. If you relly have the chocolate cravings then pack a few pieces of dark chocolate with a high (70 percent or so) cocoa content.

tea
whatever the wife cooks but usually
somthing with oven chips

I wouldn’t worry about the oven chips – if it’s processed food (eg pies) then that’s likely to be where the fat is.

Apart from that, cut out the booze (sorry) and get out on your bike. Can you ride to work – if only one day a week?

Tails, IIRC your BMR is the amount of calories your body will burn if you do nothing at all at your current weight, just by resting! your activity burns another 1276 cals, so if you consume 3000 cals you have burnt more cals than you have consumed and in theory should lose weight!

Forget the fads, like has already been said, burn more calories than you eat. But that’s not always easy to put into practice unless you’re some kind of health guru. The following works, but you must stick to the rules, the hardest part was on a Sat night and not being able to pop open a cold bad boy 😮

This will take the fat off but longer term you need to better your normal intake or you’ll just put it all back on, you can’t diet forever 😉

Good luck 😀

sorry – is it just me who finds it slightly amusing that someone has started a post with ‘forget the fads’ then posted up the biggest fad diet of all time? 😉

also loved this one:
that’s the job the queen pays them to do
pmsl.

Cut right down on the carbs, up the protein, do more exercise, as many above have posted.

Full sympathy – I used to weigh 15 stone and I’m five foot nothing and a girl ! Down nearer 9 now (it’s winter !) and trying to get weight off myself.

The only way that really works is to loose the weight slowly and change your lifestyle permanently.

Different things work for different people, we all know the physics of calories in/calories out but it can be hard to stay motivated. Best advice I ever had was to look at the times when you do eat badly and what triggers that. If you eat when watching tv then don’t watch tv, play with your kids or something instead.

Try lots of different exercise, swimming if you can’t run, do a variety of session.

Also, a friend of mine is Officer in the RAF and he mentions all the time that in spite of being given work time for it his men don’t exercise (!!) I would kill for a couple of afternoons a week in work time to train. So mebbe speak to your CO ?

And, cut out all those sugars and the chips that will drop about 800 calories a day.

Good luck mate.

Forget faddy diets. ( except perhaps take note of hi and low GI foods). Its really simple – you need to burn more calories than you eat.

You need to train your stomach to feel full on less food – this takes time as your stomach needs to physically shrink so you will have to accept feeling hungry for a while. High fibre foods can help in this.

You are a big chap so need more calories than a smaller chap as your body burns more than a smaller chap just in staying alive. You should be aiming for a weight loss of no more than a couple of pounds a week. Starve yourself too much and your body goes into famine mode which actually makes weight loss harder and weight gain easier.

My advice would be go to your GP and ask for a referral to a dietitian. DO NOT CONSULT A NUTRITIONIST Dieticians are registered and qualified, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. There are good nutritionists out there but many are total charlatans – see McKeith for one well know charlatan.

Balanced diet, ditch the sugar and exercise. Get professional help.

This is all very interesting.

I can’t really comment, at 30 I am very skinny and very active and can (and do) eat a lot of rubbish and just a lot of food without really putting much on.

Recently though I have been off the booze completely. That’s taken 5kgs off me from a starting weight of 70kgs tops. I hadn’t really noticed I’d got spare weight but I don’t now want it back.

I reckon the problem bits for me are booze, choccies, crisps and takeaway. This is all stuff that I get through when I’m feeling flat and tired, and am working too hard and really need exercise and sleep instead. I do try (often without success) to note that, and to lay off that stuff and drink water/eat fruit instead when I can bear to.

The other thing (which has stuck with me from the marvellous ST articles from t’other year about real fitness for ordinary people) was to do with accepting that you’re sometimes going to be hungry, and not feeling that you must eat immediately just because you are. If you tell yourself at 11am when you want a twix that plenty of people in the world spend all day feeling absolutely ravenous and don’t come to any huge harm then it makes getting through until lunchtime without the twix easier. 🙂

Anyway, best of luck.

Jon

I’ve gone from well toned 14.5stone down to 12stone then upto a horribly out of shape 15.5stone all over the past 5yrs.

My old suits down fit right- the shoulders are really too big yet the trousers are waay-too tight. I decided enough is enough- for the past 6weeks Ive gradually adjusted my diet (V.SLOWLY)- firstly I stopped drinking lager and redwine on a regularly basis (but kept on eating my fried butties), still have redwine as an odd treat. Then when I was happy/used to drinking just vodka again I started to cut down on the fried butties. Basically I have an addictive personality and if I tried cutting everything out at the sametime I’d bounce back again. So now I am addicted to Vodka and Porridge (obviously at different times).

I’ve also cut out all bread from my diet. I still have a big gut however I think this is a food allergy reaction. Im starting to tone up nicely elsewhere and last night I noticed that after riding to the gym I could lift alot more weights and push a great deal of reps again.

For me, its a very very slow process. Patience.

All the best Renton.

What is this ‘redwine’ of which you speak?

T’is the nectar of life.

That’s taken 5kgs off me from a starting weight of 70kgs tops

Blimey Jon, it’s a bit windy out today so you might want to stay inside 🙂

is it anything like red wine?

Here’s my take from my experience over the last year, where I have lost 21kg. I’m not an expert on diet or exercise, or anything like that.

You know what to do, you are a smart guy with access to lots of information. As most posters say, avoid faddy diets, eat well from a nutrition point of view but aim for a calorie deficit. Increase your exercise and include some resistance training ( weights etc.)

What you need is a way to stick to it. And that’s the tough part, because most of us find loosing fat hard and uncomfortable. I’m sure some people here don’t find it difficult, and they are lucky, but for most of us it’s not.

Using negative feelings about yourself as a motivation is not (IMO) the best way to do it. You need a positive mental image to work towards, one that is real and easy to picture. It doesn’t need to be a picture of how you look, it might be a mental image of yourself sprinting up a hill past your astonished mates. Finishing a race, shopping for new jeans – whatever you want. Having this image bright and detailed in your mind is invaluable when your hand reaches for the chocolate biscuit, or ask your wife to make healthier food etc.

Just my 2p’s worth.

You might think that all this is cobblers but I have found it works for me.

Feel free to contact me if you want any more of this kind of stuff.

Robert

There is an old saying

Eat breakfast like a King, Dinner/Lunch like a prince, Tea like a pauper.

I am 6’4" and I am just under 16 Stone and I want to get down to 14 stone.

Also don’t forget muscle weighs more that fat 🙂

Nezbo

Eat breakfast like a King, Dinner/Lunch like a prince, Tea like a pauper.

Swans for breakfast, venison for lunch, turkey twizzlers for dinner?

I was drinking circa 4 bottles of ridwiine (spelling for AndyP) a week and probably 8 pints of ale. Common sense says knock those empty calories in the head and within another couple of months I should naturally slim down anyway.

I still have a big gut however I think this is a food allergy reaction

Funny

I too still have a gut but this is down to beer, wine and too much healthy food.

Some of the stuff on here is good some is absolute pants. If we get everyone to type – more exercise / less calories you’d be on your way. Starving yourself does not work – IIRC ketosis uses your muscle tissue before the fat so not really very usefull if you still want to ride your bike. I know this is a bit ‘out there’ but have you thought of something like weight watchers or Slimming world? They set you realistic targets and give you advice on good/bad food choices and how much you should be eating to lose a sustainable amount each week. Just a thought.

Good luck

I am still shocked at less than 1000 calories a day comment, with my breakfast of 1 low fat yogurt, 1 serving of granola and a coffee you are at 750 odd, so you would barely be able to eat anything else all day

hugo rune – yes. I had a Colonic and the poor lass said I had alot of trapped wind (nothing else). She talked bolloxs about everything else but if I was constantly full/bloated with trapped wind then surely (common sense)- I was reacting to something I eat.

i do like my food though.

That’s all you need to sort.

Stick to salad, veg (excluding potatoes and other starchy root type things) and hunks of dead animal (and eggs). Drink water (or low cal soft drinks if you must).

That’s it. Job done.

I had a Colonic

More than we needed to know 🙂

does anyone else have the problem that they never feel full? it drives my missus nuts that I can eat a huge meal (including over christmas, the full mean + pudding) and still not feel at all full.

But do you feel full a bit later (stuffed even?).

AndyP – Member

sorry – is it just me who finds it slightly amusing that someone has started a post with ‘forget the fads’ then posted up the biggest fad diet of all time? [;)]

My irony detector blew up so it is not just you.

I read somewhere (probably Mens Health – so it must be true) That it takes 10 minutes from when you are actually full for your stomach to realise and send the message to your brain. The helpful food nazi’s out there recomend drinking a pint of water before your meal to trick your stomach into sending the full messages a bit earlier. Also if you stop eating before you feel full you won’t end up feeling like your going to pop.

I’m thinking of keeping a food diary so i can monitor my food intake better, does anyone know where i could get one i could just print off?? I’m a bit of a computer numpty so not able to make one myself without resorting to good old fashioned pencil and paper! :o(

I used to weigh 15 stone and I’m five foot nothing and a girl ! Down nearer 9 now

Hels Bells! (Sorry!)

That’s a pretty remarkable achievement, and one I’m sure could only be achieved through sheer determination and hard work. Well done. I’m sure that could be an inspiration to many people.

When I see grossly obese peole, I can’t help thinking they would be far happier, if they could lose weight. Sadly, so much ‘false happiness’ is pushed at them, through TV and the media, that they don’t know a way out. But a lot of it is simply down to pure laziness; I saw a young woman, t’other day, getting in a lift at the train station. The lift for disabled people, or those with prams, heavy luggage etc. She had a small handbag, and looked to have normal physical movement, although she was a fair bit overweight. I just thought ‘no wonder you’re fat, you’re too **** lazy to climb a flight of stairs’. Sadly, people like this just don’t realise the damage they are doing to themselves. In 10 years time, without a change in lifestyle and attitude, she will probably be well obese. And it won’t be anyone’s fault but her own.

nope not even after 30-45 minutes (which was when I heard the messages goes through) I will try the pint of water thing to see if that helps. It is a bit odd, but I can almost eat until I puke, and still not feel full until that point.

I am going to try the livestrong dailyplate to see how many calories I am taking in (793 already today)

My daily intake for the 6 weeks up to christmas:

Brekky:
1 coffee, 1 sugar. (25 cals?)

Lunch:
Baked spud or sarnies (250cals average)
Pack of crisps (~150cals)
Coffee (25)

Tea:
Stir fry chicken or turkey with 1 teasp of olive oil (210 cals), including half a bag of salad (50cals) and half a pack of sauce (50 cals). Yep, every day. I tend to forget what I’ve eaten by the next day so it makes no odds.
Pudding:Muller fruit corner (190cals).

Knocking about the house at night – apple. (50 cals).
2 more cups of coffee (50 cals)

So thats a daily intake of….

1050 cals. Explain to me how I GAINED 2lbs in those 6 weeks?!? I went out for beers once I suppose!

I’m on 270.

Bowl of porridge (170) with a little milk (50 ml)(25) and a little (about 10ml = 25) maple syrup

Apple (about 50)

don’t worry some skinny bastard will pipe up in a bit saying how he eats chips for every meal, and is still 6 stone.

granola seems to be my downfall at 598 a serving, I will switch to porridge I reckon.

Baked spud or sarnies (250cals average)
the world’s smallest baked spud?