I’ve struggled with my weight for way too long now and surprise surprise, Diabetes is flirting with me, or i’m flirting with it. 26-41 is the range for Diabetes and I’m 42 on whatever scale used to measure it.

Three months ago I tried calorie deficit via the RH Fitness app and did quite well and then picked up a knee niggle and fell off the waggon.

I’m 21 stone, 6ft 1″ and all of my sporting hobbies stopped over lockdown and I just can’t get started again. I feel like i’m right on the verge of either getting my arse in gear (again) or giving up and being a future star in Channel 5’s ‘my 500lb Life’.

I quit diet drinks months ago, i rarely drink alcohol, don’t smoke but still eating a little chocolate but generally eating non processed foods and having balanced meals of spuds/veg/meat.

Whilst on myfitness pal i’ve been averaging 2500 calories per day and sort of in the right ratio of carbs/protein etc.

So, few questions for you knowledgable lot.

1) What’s an absolute no go at this stage?
2) What foods give good energy without killing me.

I’ve learned that a bowl of bran flakes with some raisins for breakfast seems to fuel me really well. I’d love to know what you guys consume that isn’t killing you, your motivation or your scales.

Thanks for listening.

OK, so you need to loose weight.

The key thing is don’t make drastic changes which you can’t sustain – you’ll just fall off the wagon, yoyo back and feel crap about it.

You need to make modest, sustainable changes which will slowly eat away at your weight over many months eg getting off the tube one stop early and walking an extra 500 yards a day.

Buy a fitness watch and try and get 5000 steps a day (as a start) by walking around the office every hour.

Lots of small changes which aren’t a big deal in themselves and therefore you stand a good chance of maintaining them.

Eg I have a Polar fitness watch, if I don’t move for an hour it beeps at me and I get up and walk around the garden a bit. I also try and get 10k steps every day by walking to a sandwich shop which is a mile away (just for the break) etc.

The way I looked it finally was that to lose weight I needed a 7000 calorie deficit a week either through exercise or diet. I have the time currently so exercise won, road cycling burns a surprising amount, did C25K which had other benefits, walk a lot.

Essentially stop watching TV and time on phone and move as much as you can if you have kids get them to do it with you if possible

Agree on getting a fitness watch, made a difference for me

Footflaps is wise.

(Again)

I quit diet drinks months ago, i rarely drinik alcohole, don’t smoke but still eating a little chocolate but generally eating non processes foods and having balanced meals of spuds/veg/meat.

Whilst on myfitness pall i’ve been averaging 2500 calories and sort of in the right ration of carbs/protein etc.

Can I be Frank, you’re eating too much (or too much crap) – you’re currently at nearly twice my weight for an equivalent height. Bottom line, you can’t outrun a bad diet.

My OH has been on a bit of a crash diet, running at 600-800 calories per day. Still rides her house etc, so has enough energy. Lost 2 stone in 2 months and aiming for a 3rd by late September (grandchild christening and so want’s to outshine my ex-wife 🙂 ).

My OH has been on a bit of a crash diet, running at 600-800 calories per day. Still rides her house etc, so has enough energy.

Wowsers…!!!

Firstly, unless there’s some unusual underlying condition, if you run a calorie deficit you will lose weight.

However, it’s very easy to think you’re within a certain amount of calories and eating healthily – but actually you’re way over what you thought.

I’d been stuck just the wrong side of 13 stone for a while (I’m 5’9) – and in about April / May time decided to do something about it diet wise mainly. I am exercising a fair amount (within the limitations of being married with a 4 year old and a dog and working full time) – but probably 70% of losing weight is what you eat / drink.

1) I tried myfitnesspal and found it clunky / not that user friendly. I’d recommend ‘Lose It’ – just the free version.

2) get some digital food scales and just leave them on the worktop. Weigh out your portions – it’s a game changer. Breakfast is full of hidden calories – I found my mixture of bran flakes / raisin wheats with some sultanas on was just over 500 calories. I switched this out for 60 grams of porridge it’s made mostly with water and a few sultanas. To make it nice I use ‘skinny food company’ sugar free syrup – it’s zero calorie and comes in loads of flavours.

3) Don’t restrict yourself to only healthy foods if you fancy a treat. Most days I’ll actually have some kind of chocolate / biscuits – but build it into your daily budget. You can easily cut calories out of an evening meal just through portion control.

4) bread at lunchtime with crisps is a big chunk of calories – if you can swap the bread out for a 2 egg omelette and lose any crisps this helps

5) Find snacks that aren’t wildly high calorie but take a while to eat. Popcorn is great for this, as is sugar free jelly.

6) If you do drink alcohol plan it earlier in the day from a calorie perspective so you’ve got room. I was into a bit of cider – but that’s around 220 calories a pint. I occasionally have it now – but often I make it as a shandy so 1 pint of cider actually makes 2 pints of drink. Generally I tend to drink a single rum or bourbon with Diet Coke though as that’s only 50-70 calories per 25ml measure.

To start I’d download ‘lose it’ and input all your figures. Pick a realistic measure of your day to day general activity – I’m office / desk based so broadly I’m not going to burn many calories without doing specific exercise sessions.

It will ask how much weight you’re looking to lose a week – and if I remember rightly it gave a warning if it thought that was too quick / not sustainable.

My target calories to start was 1900 a day. If I exercise I up the calories to still aim for 1900 net of exercise.

I lost weight fairly steadily for a while then stalled a bit. I then changed my target to 1800 and started moving downwards again.

I’m stalling a bit again now but I have had a couple of weeks where my defector hasn’t got brilliantly and also I’m doing a lot of weight training so my upper body has starting bulking up a bit. Will see how it goes for the next couple of weeks before I decide my next step.

How can you be on MFP with that many calories a day recommended for your BMI?

Did you make a mistake setting up yr profile and goals? I’m three inches shorter but was 17.5 stone back in May and MFP put me on 1750 calories a day for max weight loss of 2lb a week.

I lost quickly for two months then hit plateau/stasis so now having to eat more fresh fibre, drink more water, consume less starchy sugars (taters) and move more. Cutting bread and taters and upping crudites and humus is a winner.

Also look up diabetes diets and low GI foods (sounds obvious but…)

Bran flakes average 55 GI score
Steel-cut oats are 53. Lower is better.

I find porridge gives me plenty of energy. I don’t add sugar I add fresh fruit or stevia.

stick to the calorie tracking with MFP, just dont forget to log every single thing (minimal alcohol and choccies etc…)

best food i found for ‘good energy’ was to eat a planned diet of six meals a day, its not too long till the next meal – but the meals are tiny (I was aiming to intake max 1750cal/day i.e. I didnt eat 2250cals when i did 500cal of exercise)

I didnt waste a single calorie of food, licking the plate clean… and I struggled to put any significant effort into exercising

lost a stone, took me 10 weeks, first 4 weeks were hard but like everything, it gets easier.

good luck

I’d start with looking in to the Newcastle Diet.

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781780724997?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAjwj8eJBhA5EiwAg3z0m6pS7xAhXYfRbu8JtNlUMswIDDCBSGhP-BiKlC4Vwujzoj610W7mwRoC_sAQAvD_BwE

It’s been shown to work well in newly diagnosed and borderline t2 diabetes.

I’ve learned that a bowl of bran flakes with some raisins for breakfast seems to fuel me really well.

Don’t underestimate the amount of sugar in breakfast cereals, and it’s worth weighing the amount you’re putting into the bowl. Their calorie counts are on the basis of 30g, which is a thimble-full.

Try out some more veggie meals (and not just meat substitute products). Meat can be really calorie dense so you may find a decent veg curry / chilli / etc can fill you up better on fewer calories. I’d probably have ballooned a lot more over the lockdowns if I hadn’t cut out meat a few years back.

Agree about portion control, weigh everything (you need to really for MFP anyway), so easy for your perception of a “normal” portion to get out of hand.

having balanced meals of spuds/veg/meat

Do you weigh the potatoes for your portion? I always make too many, it’s easy to do.

Excercise stimulates the pancreas, loose 5 stone.

I have a damaged erratic pancreas and its a struggle at 6 foot 14 stone need to loose a stone and move even more.

If you do drink alcohol plan it earlier in the day

Beer for breakfast it is!

amount of sugar in breakfast cereals…weighing the amount you’re putting into the bowl

+1 I looked at the traffic light and think it’s ok and fill my bowl, but was probably putting in 3x the “recommended” qty.

In lockdown 1, I tried intermittent fasting on the basis that if I waivered & needed food before lunch I could get something healthier at home than raiding the work vending machine. Didn’t take long to get used to. With exercise etc, managed to go from 86kg in Jan 20 to 70kg Sep 20. New job in Oct last year buggered time to exercise up and am now at 85kg! Now starting to get back under control.

One thing to be wary, I think apps/fitness watches tend to overestimate calories burnt whilst exercising

Yeah, those hidden sugars are bastards. As soon as I saw your comment about bran flakes and dried raisins (otherwise known as sugar bombs) my little red light started flashing.

First up, exercise will make negligible difference to weight loss. And furthermore the risk is that you trick yourself into thinking that you’ve “earned yourself a treat” when you exercise for a bit. For context I flogged by guts out for an hour and a half doing the local XC loop at the weekend (no mates to hang around and gas with at the top of the hills so I just pedalled for 90 mins straight). GPS told me that I’d have been able to wipe out the calories burnt and then some if I’d stuffed a king size snickers down my neck afterwards.

Nothing wrong with eating meat (or veg) just eat the right amount of it. For what it’s worth, I’ve found that when I’m eating a mostly veg diet I get a lot hungrier in the late evening and end up eating two bowls of cereal before i go to bed.

You might find this article helpful. https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-myth-burn-calories

Good luck, man. You CAN lose weight. It won’t be fun. But having Type 2 Diabetes isn’t much fun either.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/in-depth/tim-noakes-challenging-dietary-guidelines/

https://www.virtahealth.com/people/stephen-phinney

I lost 3.5 stone and kept it off.

I Wwent the cold turkey route and found I was completely used to my radically different diet in 3 weeks to the point where I didn’t remotely miss the stuff I used to like.

Exercise is never going to burn off all that weight, you’ll need to substantially cut food. As others imply exercise is actually counter productive. Easier to run a big calorie deficit if you’re sitting on your arse watching TV.

What exercise is though, is a substitute. Fancy a treat? A walk/ride/swim is your new treat. Look at it like that.

Cauli Rice/Barenaked rice are good substitutes for near zero cals. Brewdog beer is 18cals a can.

Count calories, use my fitness Pal. Unless you do that you’re lost.

Portion size is everything. You need to reduce that. Buy some small plates and cutlery, it makes a difference. Ultimately you’ll need to literally measure what you eat.

If you know you’re going to be inactive, skip a meal.

Huel/Protein works are great for giving yourself a precise number of calories.

Weigh yourself every day.

For me oats and banana mixed are my emergy food of choice.

This all worked for me. Whether it works for anyone else, I don’t know…

The good news is when Kate Moss said nothing tastes as good as skinny feels she was spot on. I have energy, I feel great. I realize now that I was firing on 2 cylinders. That’s way better than curry and beer. The other good news is your body adapts fast and you can create new habits fast.

Good luck.

Exercise helps obviously, but it’s mostly diet, and not just calorie counting or stopping the junk food. There’s a surprising amount of hidden sugars in the so-called healthy foods.

I’d recommend looking at Dr David Unwin and Ivor Cummins work. They’ve done some interesting talks on the Public Health Collaboration YouTube channel about DM2 or pre DM2 and how low carb diets can really help.

I followed Ivor Cummings on Twitter for a long time before I got wise to him. He’s an absolute charlatan. He will say anything that sells.

Throw the scales away and get a full length mirror.
Fill two old suitcases with crap and every evening while you’re watching an half hour show on tv just stand there holding them.
Eat three times a day and never eat later than 7pm.
Avoid cakes, biscuits, chips and alcohol.
Do these things for the rest of your life.

I followed Ivor Cummings on Twitter for a long time before I got wise to him. He’s an absolute charlatan. He will say anything that sells.

I don’t follow anyone on Twitter (or even use it) for that reason, it’s full of people trying to sell stuff. Or conspiracy theory bolx. I suppose they’ve got earn a living. It’s a shame if he’s gone down that route but his older stuff is very interesting and I find his book good (so far). The science behind low carb vs low fat + carb makes a lot of sense to me.

Prior to child no2 I lost a bit, from 88kg to 81kg, I was losing about 500g a week.

I reckon with diet alone it’d have been 400g a week loss. A hard cycle a few times a week took up the extra.

Since child no2 it’s gone back on for a variety of reasons / excuses.

When weighing yourself I found it to be important to do it the same time every day. For me that was in the morning. Up, pee, scales, excel. Weigh yourself over the day and you’ll notice massive changes.

I found out I was diabetic after having load of issues – at my height , I was 141 kg.
Reading up in Diabetes I decided I didn’t want to have stokes, amputations or other cardio -vascular issue …
Fortunately the practise are helpful – and suggested the Newcastle diet.
It requires complete focus – 800 cal for 12 weeks (and no longer).
I got to 106 Kgs which I have more or less manages to stay constant (it goes up and down, I used to do a 6 week annual fast but now am on continual 5:2).
And I upped my exercise to around 80-100 kms on the Downs a week.
I am now “only” pre diabetic – Blood sugar is 6.0 ( If I get to 5.9 I am no longer diabetic). BP and kidney function are really good.
TBH you can’t play at it – either you do or don’t!

PM if you want more info / support

Do you cook OP?.

Footflaps is spot on and so is this…

The good news is when Kate Moss said nothing tastes as good as skinny feels she was spot on. I have energy, I feel great. I realize now that I was firing on 2 cylinders. That’s way better than curry and beer. The other good news is your body adapts fast and you can create new habits fast.

Read about GI and low GI diet.

Minimise starch, each loads of vegetables and no sugar. Done.

**** that.

I got told the same but with a bigger score than you.

My approach
1. Identify the biggest calorie intakes – for me it was booze, for you possibly sweet food. Stop eating it.
2. Stop the easy carbs like bread, pasta, rice and root veg, basically eat protien (Meat & Fish) and green veg. Bit of a drag but manageable
3. Try some kind of low impact, long and steady type exercise. I went swimming for the 1st time in 9 years and discovered just how slow I was but I can live with that
4. Buy your wife/partner/mum some flowers. It is nice and they are more likely to support you if you wobble from the plan

Results
Date Weight in KG Target in KG 7 Day Rolling Avg Weight in Stone
16/8/21 120 120.00 120 18st 12lbs
20/8/21 118 119.14 119 18st 8lbs
24/8/21 116 118.29 118 18st 3lbs
26/8/21 115 117.86 117 18st 2lbs
30/8/21 115 117.00 117 18st 2lbs
1/9/21 115 116.57 117 18st 0lbs
2/9/21 114 116.36 116 17st 12lbs

The numbers don’t line up with the headers but hopefully you can see I have lost 1 stome (18-12 down to 17-12) in 3 weeks. Also no noticeable difference in how I feel. Not hungrier, miserable, happier or feeling fitter but hopefully the last two will follow.

+1 outofbreath pretty much word for word. I lost nearly two stone since May this year doing all that. Then got silly and started having ‘just one bread roll’, ‘just one cone of chips’ and got stuck. Back on it tomorrow and doing the STW Xmas chub club. 3 stone to go by Jan 1st

One thing I’ve noticed is that when you get into the groove you enjoy it and don’t feel ‘robbed’ of food. I actually enjoyed the new interesting combo of calorie counting, interesting meals and weigh-ins. BUT as soon as I began shuffling backwards then the fall from the wagon was certain, and it’s since been much harder to get back in than when I began.

The backshuffle began as soon as I forgot that I was changing my lifestyle. I began thinking that I was ‘doing a diet’ and so could ‘cheat’ here and there and promise to ‘catch up tomorrow’. Soon became a habit. Obviously chips and bread and such are like hard drugs for me. So no more ‘cheating’. Lifestyle change and then a ‘reward’ in 3 months when I hit target

*With new lighter MTB oh yeeeeeeh

My mate died at my age from a diabetic coma and it’s all I need to know.

Looks like I am taking an OutofBreath-lite approach but still seems to be working. The early weight is the easy stuff to lose I guess. If not I will be back to 14 stone something in another 12 weeks!

You don’t have to avoid root veg except potatoes, I don’t think. They do have starch but not a lot compared to rice, pasta, spuds etc.

I don’t like potatoes but parsnips are as bad for carbs apparently and I like them. Squashg and other gourds aren’t great either I think

OP

what foods give good energy without killing me

this seems like a good no-nonsense diabetes guide to good foods and good habits (including top tip of ‘night fasting’)

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317225

I’m finding it relatively easy to lose weight as eat 90% plant-based and OH is vegan. I’m the primary cook so am fairly used to cooking virtually all my/our own food from scratch so know there are no hidden surprises. Once I have a big batch meal cooked up (bolognese, chilli, curry, stew etc) I just freeze it into old takeaway containers. 1 x container = 2 x meals.

Things I’ve learned while lately losing weight and making pre-emptive lifestyle changes (I’m not diabetic afaik, but obese and prob at risk as father already is already medicated for it and mother is pre-diabetes)

– Swap potatoes for sweet potatoes/and or grains

– Eat carrots raw (they are low GI but preparation of foods can raise the GI) with hummus etc

– Cook big batches of this soup/stew (it’s easy to make, satisfying and delicious, nutritious, low fat and low GI, and also economical): https://www.produceonparade.com/produce-on-parade/copycat-amys-lentil-soup

– Get a big salad tub and make a fresh salad every day. I chop salad leaves, red onion, celery, loads of grated carrot, chopped fresh cherry toms, some crushed mixed nuts (Lidl best place for pouches of these) and/or sunflower seeds, a few shakes of balsamic vinegar, caraway seeds and/or dill, garlic granules, a *little* mayonnaise, and stir up. Delicious, filling, healthy. Sliced pickled jalapeños add a kick.

– Chickpea ‘tuna’ recipes

– Lentil flatbreads. It’s so easy it’s silly. Just need a food blender and something non-stick. https://bloomingnolwenn.com/vegan-red-lentil-flatbread/

IANAD. Etc

@geordiemick00 – you need to read Dr Michael Mosley’s 800 Blood Sugar Diet. Then follow it.

parsnips are as bad for carbs apparently

Not exactly. They are high GI but very low glycemic load. The GI calculation is based on the amount of a food that contains the same carbs as 100g of glucose. In the case of parsnips that would be a ridiculous amount. Glycemic load is based on an actual serving size.