Help me get fit/lose weight !!

Hi all,

I am after some help guidance from all you fit lads(and lasses) on here to lose my belly and also to get a lot fitter…..

here is my situation, I weigh in at around 17.5 stone and am 6 foot 1 tall, 38- 40 inch waist.

not done much exercise for the past 6 months and dont really watch what I eat, also do a lot of “boredom eating”

Ive done a lot of yo yo dieting in the past, in 2010 I lost 3 stone in 4 months but put it all back on with interest within a year. earlier this year I lost a stone and a half in 12 weeks but have already put it back on as I just stopped training.

Im in the RAF and currently out in Afghanistan doing 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for 14 weeks, the heat is unbearable, yet Im sure if I was fitter it would be more tolerable.

Ive been here for 2 weeks and have been trying to go to the gym but as its so hot and Im doing long shifts Im knackered by the end of my shift and sort of attempt a half arse 30 mins in the gym(at midnight when I go the gym temp is still in excess of 30 degrees!)

As a start I would ideally like to lose a stone and a half in the 14 weeks Im here and then continue when I get back and keep it off this time.

gym wise what is best to target fat burning?? long slow runs, fast quick runs or weights etc???

what about diet too, someone said cut out carbs like pasta etc but spuds are ok??

give us a clue !!!!!

cheers

Steve

Go speak to your PTI. It’s what they’re there for!

To be honest I dont think there are any out here !!!

the main gym is civvy run and ive not seen a pti around the camp

So RAF servicemen are allowed to just sit about getting porky?

Must be someone there to kick your arse into shape?

there are some bigger lads in the RAF than me, and also the Army/Navy !!

Anyway I do not want this to descend into an unfit military thread I want to sort my self out for good, kind of a big lifestyle change !!

dont really watch what I eat, also do a lot of “boredom eating”

I think awareness is the first priority then.

Try logging what you eat on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ – its free and there are smartphone apps to make the logging as painless as possible.

Do it for a month and see how what you actually eat stacks up against your recommended calories and fat/protien/carb.

Do what you can to move about more. Don’t obsess about high intensity vs low intensity just do anything to increase your output- preferably something you enjoy. You know you are boredom eating so do something about the boredom or make sure there are no stickies and crisps around when you do get bored. Cut back on carbs including spuds or just eat what you are eating now but eat less of it. Try putting your normal portion on a plate then removing a large spoonful. Make sure that any soft drinks are diet and cut down on the booze if you are allowed any. Be honest with yourself when you are eating a meal and stop eating when you are full. Excess food is just as wasted inside you as it is in the bin. Realise its OK to feel hungry sometimes. Not rocket science is it but it means a lifestyle change if you are going to keep the flab off forever and you’ve got to want it.

Graham S has it. myfitnesspal.com

read this thread to calculate your calories/ protein/ carbs/ fat recommended intake, and myfitness.com to log what you eat. its faaaar easier to lose weight through eating less than exercising it off.

i dont know how easy you find it to ‘eat less’ but i hate having to watch what i eat, so a method i found successful was intermittent fasting. sounds harsh but its easy really, and believe it or not its sposed to be healthy too.
different ways of doing it, either eating all you calories in an 8hr window, and zero cals for the other 16, or as i did, have 2X24hr periods of no calories per week, and eat normally the rest of the time. that way youre sort of only eating 5/7ths of what you would have done.

if youre jobs quite physical, that may not be the best way of doing it, but if you have days where youre just sat around, it may be easier. just drink water or black coffee. sounds hard to do, but the way i look at it….. have tea, then dont snack for the night. miss breakfast, get hungry at dinner time, push through it, drink more water, then eat tea again. bingo, 24 hrs. and it works! 🙂 google it for lots of info, its quite popular out there.

but, like i say, it may not be for you. whatever method you choose, you need to eat less, and log it against your needs, to see success. still not losing? recalculate down and eat less cals for a while until you see results.
yes, the gym will make you fitter, which is good, but if you really cant be bothered, then its easier just eating less 🙂

good luck mate, and im sure once you start seeing results from a good plan, itll become easier to stick to.

After a thread on here that I think molgrips started, I downloaded myfitnesspal & have been using it most of the time.
I have gone down from 175lbs to 169lbs in about 6/8 weeks or so. I’m not really trying to lose weight massively quickly, but am trying more to change the way I eat as I had got into bad habits. Using myfitnesspal really makes you realise how many calories some foods contain.

I now take a large box of chopped up veg to work and comp on that whenever I feel hungry. Not sure how practical that is for you though. Just make sure you are honest about calorie intake. Some stuff on myfitnesspal is laughable – people have put something like a ham & cheese sandwich – 156 calories on there.

Regarding exercise, I’d say just do anything to get started. If the heat is an issue, start by walking briskly on a treadmill or pedalling a bike – or can you just go for a walk, rather than using the gym? Make sure you drink lots of water & build it up slowly.
Oh, and I would concentrate on cardio rather than weights.

Realise its OK to feel hungry sometimes

This is key. Once you get used to not eating a huge bag of crips when you start to get peckish you will find you are cutting the daily calories significantly. See above for the details but 3 balanced meals a day and some fruit and nuts for snacks worked for me. Fish, chicken, loads of veg……you already know what the crap is so don’t eat it!

I’ve stayed pretty thin this year for the first time by having regular events in the calendar. Sportive here, odd XC race there…am going to race once a month through the winter to stop me piling on the weight again. Doesn’t have to be stellar competitive, just something that you know you won’t enjoy if you have let yourself go.

+1 find a PTI……they’ll be there and they love helping people with this type of thing.

I’m currently on a measured weight loss mission, following a year of just being sensible (but not weighing myself, but it deff had an impact). Not sure how much freedom you have over your food there but things that made a difference for me.

That following are absolute no nos : crisps, biscuits, cake, chocolate bars. Replace with fruit. The biggest thing I find with fruit is starting to eat it. I never feel massively enthused for an orange until I start to eat it, then I remember they’re bloody lovely.

Breakfast. Porridge/meusli (proper no sugar stuff, not alpen, and not breakfast cereal)

Dinner, avoid lots of carbs in the late afternoon/evening unless you have a reason for them (a bike ride, or prolonged exercise), heavy up on veg, at least half your plate.

Obviously this sounds life boring way to live. Have one day a week off, don’t go nuts, but have biscuit and some toast and jam for breaky if you want. I actually find i usually don’t want to any more.

As above, hunger doesn’t mean eat, I am always hungry, all the damn time. But yesterday I was going to the dentist early aft, I was at work, so didn’t have lunch until much later, and I wasn’t ‘hungry’ hungry because I couldn’t have it anyway. hunger is at least part psychological. If you can avoid it don’t have your lunch with you, rather have it somewhere you know you will be at a certain time. Do Not Take Money for snacks to work. This was always my weakness. chippy, pie shop, bakery all round me all day, I just make sure I don’t have any money with me. I find this has the effect of training the stomach to not distract through the day.

Drink good amounts of water.

don’t be sedentary, if you’re on the phone pace about, I you need to get to the other end of the camp – jog (in my head all military camps are full of people jogging past in the background, so this should appear natural), do little things to up your level of activity through the day.

None of this is strict science, or adherence to one diet fad thing or another, a bit of cherry picked science/dietry that i find works well for me.

something like scrambled eggs for breakfast, sandwich for lunch(doesn’t mater what) regular tea. NOTHING ELSE.

Don’t snack, just get used to being hungry. Drink water.

First thing to sort out is the eating. Making sure that the calories don’t get into the body in the first place is a lot more productive than trying to work them off through exercise.

Personally I’d get the calories down to around 1500 for a day with little or no exercise and then give yourself a bit extra on the days that you do some worthwhile exercise (for say half an hour at a reasonably high heart rate you could allow yourself an extra 300-350kcal).

If you find 1500 calories means you lose weight too quickly then add a 100 (ish) on, weight coming off too slowly take a 100 (ish) off your allowance. Record what you eat as you go along, it takes a few weeks to get into the pattern but it becomes second nature after a while.

Initially I wouldn’t worry about what the exercise is just so long as it gets the heart rate up near the point where you can just about maintain the pace for 45 minutes or so.

Surely some of your friends/colleagues out there are into their fitness? A few years ago (before I returned to mtb) I changed jobs to a place where there was a culture of keeping fit. It made me realise how out of shape I was (similar size to yourself) so I got involved with gym sessions on a regular basis and watching what I ate. They took the piss at first but that just made me more competitive. I lost 3 stone in around 8 months (although did put a bit of that back on after a few injuries). A bit of friendly competition / determination worked wonders for me.

I guess that your work is not physical, otherwise you’d sweat it off 😉

So its diet, stop been lazy and think about what you eat/drink – and when someone offers you a cream cake/Coke etc, say no. I’d also be tempted to ignore the gym, and just walk/run before work.

To put it in perspective, you weigh half as much again as me, and I’m taller…

Couple of colleagues in the office, desk based jobs, are on the intermittent fasting regime and they are dropping weight consistently.
Apparently, because it reverts to our traditional animal eating patterns – kill or harvest, eat, period of hunger, repeat – our bodies respond well and kick in using our fat reserves – I’ll ask for some links to the science stuff and post them when I get in to the office.

To be honest I dont think there are any out here !!!

the main gym is civvy run and ive not seen a pti around the camp

Ask someone then?
there will be unit PTIs, akais etc on tour and they’ll be happy to help if you catch them at the right time. The military PTI training is very high standard and with all due respect, I reckon that they’d give you a lot better advice than a bunch of IT programmers 😀
Good luck

🙂
For your consideration.

http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/

The Paleo diet is the healthiest way you can eat because it is the ONLY nutritional approach that works with your genetics to help you stay lean, strong and energetic! Research in biology, biochemistry, Ophthalmology, Dermatology and many other disciplines indicate it is our modern diet, full of refined foods, trans fats and sugar, that is at the root of degenerative diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression and infertility.

Myfitnesspal plus eating low GI is working for me.

you’ll drop a stone during your posting easy through the heat.

However, keeping it off is the hard part. The thing is (and this isn’t a dig at you!) most people want to make quick changes, see results and then go back to normal, and as in your case, you lose weight fast and it soon comes back on.

simple changes make differences, so first off, think about what you are eating. For every meal make sure your plate is equal parts carb/protein/veg. If you have to increase one part, consider reducing another. Avoid empty calories/fat, if you’re not going to enjoy it, don’t eat it.

Eat a starter before meals. E.g have some fruit before breakfast, some soup before lunch, a salad before dinner. This will stop you eating large portions for meals and also less bad stuff (obvioulsy make these starters as healthy as possible, no dressings, no bread rolls in soup etc).

Eat dessert. Yeah, cake, ice cream, chocolate, whatever you fancy. but only for dessert. No sweet snacks at any other time. Enjoy your food, eat plenty but only when you are supposed too! If you must snack, eat dried fruit or nuts or fresh fruit/veg. eat one handful and then put it away for 5 mins, if you want more have more but wait for 5 between mouthfuls (I tend to stuff my face with fruit, then not want my dinner, then get hungry later on and scoff chocolate etc!)

obviously in afghan your diet choice is somewhat limtied, so is up to you to pick the healthiest option and eat as much good stuff as you can and reduce bad stuff!

Exercise wise, don’t go nuts as you’ll tire yourself out and not want to do it! when you get up, don’t shower. Go for a 15 min run and then shower and start your day. just 15 mins every day. as that gets easier try it with a bergan on with water bottles in, or run faster/uphill etc. Once you get into the habit of that, go for “military fitness” type exercises. press ups, sit ups, pull ups. Doesn’t take long, knackers you at the time but wont stop you doing your job and does get easier (also requires no kit and can be done anywhere/time.

Also, don’t weigh yourself, measure your waist instead, its less depressing and weight will fluctuate a lot with dehydration and muscle mass increasing.

Hopefully this will help a little, I was 17stone, now 14 and going for 13 using this.

Simplest:

High protein breakfast (eggs, meat, beans, veg).
Whatever you normally have for dinner and tea, but replace the rice/pasta/potatoes with extra veg.
No snacking at all.
No alcohol, just water and black tea or coffee.

Exercise that you enjoy. You don’t need to slog your guts out for hours on end, short sharp intervals work. Could be on a bike, sprints, picking up heavy stuff and carrying/throwing it.

miketually +1

simple, effective, and you get to eat your weight in whatever veg you enjoy.

as of now i’m back on that.

A wise man once said, eat less and move more.

….just with a bit more gratuitous swearing.

although, you can’t ignore the calories in vs calories out rule… its all very well eating the right foods but if you sit on your arse all day then 3000kcals of whatever food wont help in the way that 1200kcals of food will.

by sticking to water or black coffee you’re not having to worry about the extra sneaky kcals from drinks.

move, lots. even if you end up sitting at your desk wriggling about like a 4yr old that needs the toilet… its burning more than sitting there like a sloth.

Eat carbs in the morning

and only protein and veg for lunch and dinner.

Don’t snack.

Get a HRM and use the bike at the gym to get in your fat burning zone for 30 mins a day.

And don’t snack or slack.

tell everyone you know to call you a big fat fatty and shame you into being thinner. it works for me

careful you don’t end up with issues like my imaginary girlfriend though, the ‘trying to maintain weight for the wedding dress to fit’ thing has really messed things up 🙁

You tell ’em, Phat Phil.

that was my nickname in school. cheers for bringing it up.

*reports jamie*

Thanks for all the replies and tips.

I work mid day to midnight out here and am fairly active lifting weapons and boxes etc most of the shift so by the end of it Im quite tired. get back from work at around 1 in the morning after handover etc then speak to the wife on the computer/shower and then bed for half 2, getting up at 10 so miss breakfast.

due to this im only eating 2 meals a day,drinking at least 6 – 8 litres of water a day to.

will try and cut down portion sizes and try and have a snack between meals so I dont feel tired.

printed off the couch to 5k program for the treadmill today, cant do the road version as have to run with my gun on my back is a pain in the arse !!!

is it ok to have potatoes or is it time to knock carbs on the head completley??

cheers

Steve

Is there a static bike in the gym? Why not cycle “home”. Plot your position on a map each week. More fun than just thrashing. We have a virtual cycle around our European sites going on at work. Seems to keep motivation levels high.

Go out and fight the Taliban.That should get you moving and losing weight.I mean have you ever seen a far jehadi?

Lose weight: stop eating. (you’ll eat sommat when your body is desperate cos you’re not in a concentration camp and won’t die). You’ll lose weight. The rest is will power

Get fit: Do a shitload of exercise all the time. This takes will power.

none of the above will get you anywhere without the will to do it, so focus on real powerful reasons to do it, make posters and stick em on the fridge, add loads of links to your browser, tell all your mates you are trying to hit a goal, etc, your own will alone can be very faliable, get some back up hoo-a bro!

the above post was slightly tongue in cheek btw before the stw logic descends.. but basically, eat as little as poss to get you by, harder than you think unless you live in a poor country. You’ll probably feel hungry doing your thing and thinking you’ve starved yourself to nothing, meanwhile in some other country far away people are incredibly active all day looking for food and water, expelling calories on a very simple diet. That probably sounds wrong, but I think we just consume too much (in every way), and we want to look nice n slim like someone who has to scrape for food or a commercial. There’s something wrong there.

Renton.

Weigh yourself once a week, same time same scales. Record the weight, don’t lie don’t skip.

SORT out your eating. It’s all about the pies Renton. Cut out the treats, sugar mainly. Eat whole grains etc.

As for exercise why not just try walking, 3 mile walk every morning 7 days a week, keep that up even when you get back, but stick to it. It’s not high impact so you should be fine with it.

Give yourself time to loose the weight and adjust to your new eating, well over a year. You should be targeting 15stone or less at your height.

Renton, all this advice above is spot on. BUT its all about changing your lifestyle to make it work long term. Ive been out in afghan 3 times and i know its extremely hard when you are doing mental shift patterns to motivate yourself to get out of bed and train but thats exactly what you have to do. Plus as you progress and get fitter you adapt to the new routine and it gets easier.

Running with your weapon may be a pain in the arse but so what, run 200m, walk 200m etc for a few miles. Just get it done mate.

Tell the good lady that you wont be on the phone that night. Do that run. Do that walk.

Self motivation is all in your head and nobody can do it for ya. Good luck bud. Its all worth it in the end 🙂

is it ok to have potatoes or is it time to knock carbs on the head completley??

There are more sources of carbs than just potatoes. Start playing around with this site to see what you’re eating.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/