[Closed] How have you lost weight?

There's only one way - Eat less, eat less crap and do more.

by eerrrmmmm......................fail

Illict substances, weight loss is followed by teeth, missus, job snd home (order interchangable).

I agree with schrickvr6, eat more of the right food and exercise. Having said that, just before christmas I had an abcess and couldnt eat for about a week, resulting in a remarkable weight loss - wouldnt recommend it though.

go on an STW ride. I lost 4 lb since yesterday morning depite eating all evening 🙂

So, at the moment, it seems that an abcess or illicit substances is the way forward... 😉

Eat good food

Exercise more.

I made a concerted effort in the summer, went from 92kg to 86kg, made a huge difference to my riding. I'm 6'3.

More excercise is fine but I was doing plenty before.....with me, it was diet. Did a sort of Atkins-lite, cut out some of the bread and pasta, upped the protein. Boiled eggs for breakfast, lots of steak, fish and cooked ham. Still have potatoes and rice, I just dont overdo them anymore. When I get peckish between meals I have some low fat yoghurt. I recommend Rachels and M+S......lovely. And protein shakes after a ride fill you up with good things that your body wants and stops you binging on cake and crap. For Goodness Shakes (Chocolate) are cheap and taste good and do the trick.

.....and get your 5 a day.....very important.

Still drink loads too much but not giving that up, no sir.

Having a boogered knee has meant I've had to stop running for the last month or two. This coupled with less riding than normal has led me to put on a little weight. As well as the obvious (eat less, do more) I'm specifically cutting out all red meat, restaurant and cafe food. By packing my own lunch I know what's what. I've also stacked up on fruit for throughout the working day so as to stop myself nibbling on anything more fat laden or carb intensive.

[url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/24/liposuction-more-popular ]Just paying for the surgery seems to be the way forward.[/url]

By packing my own lunch I know what's what

This is a good plan, we've got a really nice reaturant at work, which can often be my downfall...

going it alone is all well and good if you have very good discipline and can set and achieve/fail your own realistic targets..... even then it will work out better if you have friends or relatives that know what you are doing and can encourage you.

im going the other way however. Eating more but eating less crap, eating at the right times and doing enough or more than enough exercise.

Oh i forgot, for a bit of motivation see if Si will let you in on [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/18-bikes-fat-club-2010-anyone-interested ]2010 FatClub.[/url]

going it alone is all well and good if you have very good discipline

This is the thing, I know everyone says "just eat less" - but my discipline is total rubbish. I know, I'm an idiot...

OK all useful suggestions.

What helped me was Weigh****chers. I didn't go for long but it taught me one thing, what I regard as a portion and what a portion really is are two very, very different things.

Pasta for a quick example, a handful of dry pasta is about right portion wise. I would typically eat 3-4 handfuls at a meal + sauce - Not good.

Portion control is the key I think as is taking your time when eating rather than wolfing food down. When you are used to eating like a fatty it is really hard to cut out the crap but I still eat what I always have just less of it.

Worryingly I have lost a stone in weight over the last month, but I don't recommend how I lost it!

A&E - pool of blood, I am going to drop just here!

picolax - STW legendary drug, its all true, the drug from hell!

Camera - where the sun don't shine!

Operation - Sleep at last!

Large amount of drugs - I hate tablets!

2-3 Weeks in hospital

norovirus all around 😉

Been out for weeks now, felt so good to do my first ride, bought a 29er as a gift to myself 😉

For losing weight though you cannot beat it, just don't recommend it!

What helped me was Weigh****chers

Did you do the online thing or go to the meetings?

Blimey ski, that's a bit drastic!! Have heard Picolax mentioned before...doesn't sound like fun

No change in diet but much more careful control of portion sizes. Mine had crept up to the point where I was eating twice as much as I should have been. Drinking more water, eating until I was no longer hungry rather than until I was stuffed full helped too.

Don't try to avoid the "bad" stuff entirely, just moderate what you have and try to keep it as occasional rather than habitual. If I knew I was going to go out for dinner, I'd have a very light lunch - or if I'd joined colleagues in the pub for lunch I'd ease off on what I had later on.

I found too that getting in the routine of stepping on the scales every morning (and putting it into http://www.physicsdiet.com/ or similar, which smooths out the daily variation) meant it was a daily reminder of what I was trying to do.

I'm on the chemotherapy diet. You have no appetite, and you regularly 'evacuate'...

I'd probably recommend having smaller portions instead though ❗

Forgive my facaetious response - I'm having a bad day in the 'small' office!

I went to meetings for a month and lost a stone. I changed jobs and that scuppered that as I couldn't get there on time.

Basically it's calorie counting by another name - Points they call it. So you get 35 points a day and away you go eat what you want just do go over the points.

To give you an idea a sausage roll is 8 points a big one is 12 a Chicken Tikka Masala is 25 points without rice. Worst of the lot is Pizza one slice of commercially made Pizza is 15 points IIRC.

It's an eye opener, you get a little book and in it are most foods and point values for them worth joining just for that.

So you keep a food dairy and away you go,stick to it and you'll lose weight around 3-4lbs a week.

It works 100%. What is funny is hearing people at the meetings who are genuinely surprised that they haven't lost weight and swear blind they stuck to the progamme.

Do it right and you can drop a stone a month.

For losing weight though you cannot beat it, just don't recommend it!

Probably mostly fluids so you will gain it all back really quickly.

So i guess you know what you have to do at the start of February then 😉

I add and drop weight regularly as my interests swing between weight lifting and cycling. At the moment I'm dropping weight to have a more competitive year on the bike.

I've dropped 10 lbs in 3 weeks, which is on target (I'm dropping ~25lbs).

I've swapped to a cooked breakfast, eat more for lunch and less for supper. I've cut out beer during the week. I don't each much bread or other processed foods. If it looks like a plant of chunk of animal I'll eat it, but that's it. My intake is the same or slightly higher than 'normal' but calories are focused in the first half of the day rather than the second which is my worst habit.

I train an hour every morning (Mon-Fri), 40 minutes bike, 20 minutes weights. Walk and hour a day (2 hours at weekends) and aim to get out on the mountainbike for 2 hours in the week at some point.

I expect another 10 lbs like this, the last 5 lbs will need require a drop in calories, or more exercise (which is less likely as I don't have the time).

Motivation is easy enough. Pick some races to enter. Set a target for each. It's the only reason I race.

I'm 6'2" and with not much effort went from around 105kg to just over 90kg. I was actually surprised how easy it was. I think it was helped by my lifestyle being so terrible before.

Basically I stopped drinking in the house unless it was for a particular reason, the only thing I ate between meals was fruit or veg, when making tea I filled more than half the plate with salad or vegetables before I put anything else on it, and I made a conscious effort to miss out on as much fried food and pastry as possible when having dinner at work.

Then I went running a few times a week, or when I had a bit more time available I used the road bike/turbo trainer.

I found it was pretty easy to keep motivated and disciplined when a) you go out on your mtb and everything is significantly easier than before and b) everyone tells you how much better you're looking. I had similar thoughts to you before I started and even asked on here whether a personal trainer was worth it, in the end just a bit of effort did the job.

I've been slipping a bit lately as i've been working more and away from home, I need to take my own advice and put a bit more effort in to get sub 90kg.

Cheers, Dave

schrickvr6 - Member
There's only one way - Eat less, eat less and crap [s]do[/s] more.

Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD

If you're still hungry after a meal have a hot drink (without sugar obviously), that will tide the taste buds over while the stomach registers it's got something to work on.

Forgive my facaetious response - I'm having a bad day in the 'small' office!

Not a problem sir, we're all entitled to a bad day every now and then, especially when we're going through a lot 🙂

Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD

I thought that too, but some women in my office have said that hunger is bad, you should just eat more of the right foods??

Hunger is only bad if you give in to it and buy a dozen doughnuts.

some women

Remember -- HUNGER IS GOOD

Should have elaborated on that. Hunger for a while but don't leave yourself short overall.
A good breakfast, a good evening meal and something light and healthy in between works for me. Don't eat anything more after that evening meal or snack in between meals.

My weight fluctuates by 10-15lbs - I can burn it off in a month if I want to, and I can put it on in a month if I slacken the exercise and eat more. Although my diet is healthy, I tend to over-eat because I love food - which means portion management is key.

I quit drinking on Jan 1st and it's been surprisingly easy - the only problem is I've developed a chocolate addiction. I'm telling myself this isn't a bad thing because I'm really enjoying the booze-free mindset.

Currently snacking on a bowl of dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Tasty in a perverted kind of way, but not nearly as good as chocolate.
Now I'm just waiting All I have to do is step up the Am forcing myself to sna

Dysentry did it for me...

I managed to lose about 2 stone over the last 6 months.

I used the Rosemary Conley diet. The key things for me were that the recipes were tasty and you didn't feel too hungry.

As others have said portion size is important. Not snacking on cakes and sweets at work also helped (not really surprising).

Lost 13Kgs in 5 weeks. Stopped drinking, more exercise, ate less, drank more water. The key...my wife left me.
On the plus side it's made a real difference to my cycling.

I used to weight 16 stone and im now down to 12.5 and its been a long slow and steady process i can tell you!!

quit eating crap a choccy biscuit with your cup of tea at night is fine but not every cup of tea and your post ride cake is fine because you have earned it.

took me 18 months to drop the weight and it was simply diet and 3/4 workouts / rides a week. it can be really easy if you work it right a couple of runs during the week (or rides if the weathers good) and a long bike ride at the weekend. No beer during the week and 3 square meals a day if you have to snack have fruit, and the biggy is water drink 2L everyday min

Eat smaller meals more often. Don't allow yourself to go hungry for long or you will feed on your muscles, slow your metabolism and make it even harder to lose weight.

As an MTB'er I presume you already do some cardiovascular exercise?! Training with weights will build muscle and increase your metabolism, meaning your body will be a more efficient fat burner. It shouldn't be all about weight loss, but long term fat loss. Going hungry for a month may show on the scales, but it wont be long term loss, mostly fluid.

Did a sort of Atkins-lite

Me too - lost quite a bit of weight that way. Need to be careful doing lots of exercise though.

I've only managed to lose half a stone in fifteen years. No idea what Im doing wrong.

Cutting down on booze is one effective method IMHO - 1000 calories every time you go to the pub...

There's only one way - Eat less, eat less crap and do more.

Theoretically very simple, in reality quite complex.

Determination & hard work.
And if you love your food (like me) its bloody hard work breaking the habit.
First time you see some results is good though, gets easier from then on. What works for some might not work for you though, but the recurring theme is eat less, move more even if its just a lunchtime stroll instead of sat at your desk being on here. Like me. Right now. I'm off.

if you love your food (like me) its bloody hard work breaking the habit.

Agreed. I noticed I could easily eat all day at work. There are always cakes and sweets around from someone's birthday. I just had to stick to what I had planned to eat.

Matt Hart wrote something in STW a while back about how easy it is to put weight on (creeping obesity) and how hard it is to get it back off.

I don't every get on the scales because it's pretty irrelevant to me. No diets, just stuff in moderation, don't clear the kids plate, enjoy luxuries as just that, and make more of your own food (Pizza's are way nicer/healthier if you make them yourself).

If my trousers feel a bit tight, I'll eat less, that's about it 🙂 I know I'm way fitter than I was because I moved somewhere with big hills and ride as often as I can. That's the motivation for me, ride longer and faster and be able to do the same the next day.

I reckon if you didn't have a hobby that involved exercise that you enjoy (as opposed to trudging down the gym with a feeling of duty), it'd be harder to shift the flab.

less beer and far too much stress is doing the job at the moment unfortunately. I'd prefer it if I could say 'riding for 2 hours a day'

Don't allow yourself to go hungry for long or you will feed on your muscles, slow your metabolism

I don't think there's any evidence for either of these. Fat is your primary energy store and 'metabolism' depends on how much you use your muscles

I've just lost half a stone as a result of now being a newly diagnosed diabetic.

Not a weight loss program that i'd recommend though....... 🙁

Theoretically very simple, in reality quite complex.

Brilliant advice from all 🙂

So, from this I've deduced that I need to:

a) Cut down my portion sizes
b) Snack on fruit
c) Cut down on bread
d) Have a little treat every now and then

The Weight Watchers thing sounded good - if only to give you the 'food knowledge' about portion sizes and fat content.

One last tip. Keep a food diary, you will be surprised how easy it is to eat more than you should/need.

I use [url= http://www.myfitnesspal.com ]MFP[/url] as it has a iPhone app that goes with it and is free.

The thing I'd mention is that if you are biking lots, and you cut down your carb intake you'll start to deplete your reserves and feel terrible and/or incredibly hungry, and if you can tough those two out your riding will go to sh*t. So you want to judiciously take carbs when you need them, but not too much. Start by taking say a 2/3 strength energy drink when biking...

Eat less, properly concentrate on it. That's everything, don't fool yourself that you can eat loads of "healthy food", it's still calories, just eat less of it. Cut out the alcohol, all of it, even at weekends, sorry. Do loads of exersize, lots and lots, 100km roadie at the weekend, 40km of running during the week, that kind of "loads".

Then you'll loose weight.

Edit, oh, and drink loads of water.

40km of running during the week

That's just silly. Some folk aren't runners, 40km would kill me even if I were at my fittest. 100km road ride is nothing, but I can't run for toffee.

As for water - don't drink more than you need, it just comes straight out again.

Or... do no CV at all. Stick to lifting weights. You don't need CV to shift fat.

You don't need CV to shift fat.

That's the opposite of what all fitness trainers and coaches say..!

Theres loads of info in the Mens Health/fitness type magazines.
Plenty of water throughout the day (helps convert your stored fat into energy) eat 5 times a day, but healthy food and smaller portions (your body can digest it easier and quicker so doesnt store excess as fat).
Yes your body does go for muscles rather than fat, so if you do loads more CV but dont give yourself protein you'll lose muscle.
Never weigh yourself but look for definition in your body. There are products out there that arent just for weight lifters. Ive used maximuscle in the past and always found it good

I lost a load of weight over the last couple of weeks using this simple method:

Go away with the army for two weeks and don't drink or smoke in that period. Get five hours sleep or less a night and maintain a high level of physical activity for the entire set of waking hours.

Eat three big meals a day, but ensure that a shouty welshman is making you do press ups and punishments runs, in addition to normal PT and weights, at least once a day. It might also be advantageous to spend four days out on exercise eating rations whilst there is an eight inch layer of snow on the ground, although you should ensure that you have a maximum of ten hours sleep over this or you'll not have as much fun.

I saw the weight just fall off. Can't beat it.

If you starve yourself, you will not have sufficient energy to exercise so your losses will be minimal.

Personally, I'm a snacker/grazer and I'm happy with small evening meals.

Plenty of water throughout the day (helps convert your stored fat into energy)

Really?

102kg at Xmas.

98kg at 10/01/2010 Moobies 👿 firmed up and size 36 trousers falling down and using more eyes on belt!

Weighed in today at 95.5kg. Hope to lose 4kg end of Feb and be 90-91 Kg?

Goal: 78kg by June but it sucks training in cold weather!

Just had Special K for breakfast and 2 cups of green tea, 2 protein bars for lunch and water and now some chicken breast and water.

Bland but added garlic when cooked tika diet sauce etc but regardless o fbasic food I've lost 6.5kg (can't train until injured knee mends)

Do what the guys said-less junk food, goals and patience.

That's the opposite of what all fitness trainers and coaches say..!

Zaskar that is a shocking diet. Where's the fruit and veg? Nothing like enough carbs either.. you'll be losing muscle mass there along with your fat, and giving your body a really hard time.

Oops I meant so far today lol have mixed juiced up veggy juice in a minute for the antioxidants and fibre and banana before bed.

Eating around 2000Kcal.

I munch on bananas and love steamed broccoli if I get peck'ish I take them to work too-running late today though

When I ride I just eat anything and everything -up to a point and the weight comes off.

Then for 2 weeks I eat a bit more and do weights and after two weeks loads of cardio and change my diet again-not to let my body get used it.

My fault for getting out of shape as I had 2 jobs and too much junk food and after 6 months I quit 2nd job and my GF gave me a wake up call to get back to health and shape.

im 14 and i lost 3 stone in 2 years, (before anyone says thats bad, i was a FAT ba****ed)

Eat 3 meals a day and plenty of fruit and veg, (it is important not to cut out the meat or dairy though, just eat it in decent ammounts) if you struggle to go a whole day with no snacks, have breakfast, have dinner when you get home from work and then have tea later at night so they are spread out more.

Keep up riding and it should be no problem

good luck 😀

Jamie, apparently, but I'll obviously have to dig out the article to back up the statement!

I rode/walked/was more active.
I stopped eating crap and stopped/controlled my snacking.
I drank more water.
I have lost 1.5st in 8months.

Last January I was 14st4lb. Currently about 12st7lb, I'll probably end up just under 12st. Not specifically dieting, just a bit more thoughtful about what I eat. 3 cakes and a pie per day was fairly easy to cut out once I got used to it. I've ridden lots more this year, and will be doing an absolute minimum of 50 miles a week (normally 80+) since ditching my car.

Do you want to be thinner? If you do, then eating less crap and moving more WILL get you there. You can obviously go on a mental diet, but if you don't enjoy it you will struggle eventually. Best to approach it slowly and turn your lifestyle around IMO.

molgrips, I wasn't suggesting that 40k a week is the only route to losing loads of weight, I meant that "sort" of amount of exercise is what's needed, IME people under-estimate what they eat and over-estimate the amount of exercise they do.