Weight loss – can I do it?

I’m posting this more as one of several motivational tools, rather than a ‘what tyres for spare tyres?’ thread.

37 yrs old, 5’10”, 21.5 stone, 47.5″ waist (measured at the proper place), so that’s a BMI of 41, a moderate diabetes risk (rising to significant once I get past 40). Don’t smoke, hardly drink. I can walk all day, swim for an hour, and I’m slow but steady on the bike. Could be worse, but should be much much better. Ten years ago I was a fit-as-a-fiddle rugby player at 16 stone. I’m not a rugby player any more so 16 stone is not an appropriate target.

I’m aiming for a weight loss of 1kg per week, and since I like both science and sums I’m going for a calorie counting approach based on my daily calorie needs (calculated using the Mifflin-St Joir formula, to be recalculated for every 10kg of weight lost) less 1100 calories. I know about processed vs unprocessed food/calories. Exercise will be swimming, walking and biking but no set programme other than at least one hour of something three times a week.

The target is therefore a 50kg loss in 12 months which, if achieved, will put me at 12.5 stone and a BMI of 25.

I thought I would post my progress every Saturday, for my own motivation .

So, here goes! Feel free to join in if you wish.

Good luck!

Your approach is more scientific than I would personally go for, as I prefer simplicity, but if it works for you, go or it.

I can testify to just how good it feels to succeed, though, as back in July, I was 95 kgs, and I am now down to 80. 5kgs more, and I shall be where I was when I first moved to the UK 13 years ago, and where I had been since high school. I am on top of the world.

Incidentally, TK Maxx is your friend when the super-large trousers start falling off you for want of anything to hold on to. 🙂

Sounds like a great plan, will watch with interest. Good luck!

Good luck, 50kg is only 4Kg less than I weigh!

Good stuff sounds a great target . Have you set a routine time for exercise though ? That’s the only tip I can give . Routine forms habits. Best of luck!

50kg sounds tough, I thought half that was a normal tough long term target so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make it

But brilliant all the same.

Good luck!
On August 18th I was 95.2kg, today I’m 72.1kg even with a bit of slippage over Christmas. I set myself a target of 1300 calories a day and use My Fitness Pal to count the calories and log my exercise. I’m aiming to be 70kg and stay there.
I walk the dog every day and try to cycle at least once a week. I’d agree that exercise habits are very useful – even the dog knows when it’s time for a walk.
I like my food and finding stuff that’s low calorie but still full of flavour really helped me – Hairy Dieters books were a good start for me.
I feel so much better in myself now, I’m sure you will too. I will follow your progress with interest.
Again – good luck 🙂

I should add that, while you should still keep your target high, DON’T get discouraged if 1kg does not come off every week. Plateaus seem to come along and last for a week or two, as if to test you. Just keep going, as they are mere speed bumps on the road.

50kg loss is just under 8 stone so should be do-able in a year.

My sister has lost 5 stone this year, through very controlled diet, but with nowhere near the exercise you are planning.

Good luck!

And this from SaxonRider…

DON’T get discouraged if 1kg does not come off every week. Plateaus seem to come along and last for a week or two, as if to test you.

My fitness pal was a great help for me, dead easy to count the calories, most food is in the database, and yiu can track your weight and exercise
Good luck

A photo a week turned into a gif for the end of the year? Not naked though please

Good luck mate all the best. Just think how fast on the bike you will be when the target is hit !

good luck, doing it publicly is going to be pretty strong motivation!

1KG a week sounds like an awful lot. It should be fairly easy at the start but as your weight begins to get closer to a normal bmi it’ll get harder and harder. You might need to re-evaluate that figure as you go along or risk getting disheartened.

Good luck with it.

Good luck, 50kg is only 4Kg less than I weigh!

If you get to your target weight you should do a lap of the local park carrying avdave2 to remind you of what you lost.

Cheers!

Your approach is more scientific than I would personally go for, as I prefer simplicity, but if it works for you, go or it.

I quite like science , and sums, so doing them is no chore. Not yet anyway 🙂

Routine for exercise will be difficult as I work shifts, as does my wife, and we have three busy kids. However, we do have dogs that get about an hour’s walk everyday by one of us, there’s a swimming pool on the way to work, and while I’m slow – 1 mile (64 lengths) in an hour – I really enjoy it, and our local Thursday night bike rides usually involve 4-500m of ascent followed by 4-500 metres of screaming and careering down again. I would like to return to playing squash but my back, knees and probably lungs are not up to that yet.

The sums give me 2000 calories a day, so I know I have to make the most of those and not consume so-called empty calories.

And I’m expecting to plateau, although I will recalculate the calories sums every 10kg to try and minimise this.

I’m using the FatSecret app on my phone which seems quite decent.

Science, maths and common sense tell me there is no reason why I cannot get down to 80kg / 12.5 stone. Underneath the fat there is a big chunk of muscle though, so I don’t know if that will limit progress if I look at it purely in weight terms? But again, I don’t play rugby anymore, so I don’t need it any more, not all of it.

Photos – the wife suggested this, maybe a before and after at the end, but not weekly 🙂

Kenny Senior
Underneath the fat there is a big chunk of muscle though, so I don’t know if that will limit progress if I look at it purely in weight terms? But again, I don’t play rugby anymore, so I don’t need it any more, not all of it.

In an ideal world you’d want to keep as much muscle as possible for burning fat.

Yes you can. Another vote for myfitnesspal. look fwd to your reports.

I’m back on 5:2 diet as of Monday as have bloated like a whale during a stressful 6 months (no excuses just acknowledgment of an issue). Admittedly only have to achieve half what you do but I do need to get there in six months so similar loss rate required.

Suggest not viewing it as ‘a diet’, it’s just repairing our evidently broken eating habits and sticking with it.

Great respect – don’t quit, and most of all enjoy your journey 🙂

*edit

A photo a week turned into a gif for the end of the year? Not naked though please

Great idea.

jimjam – Member
1KG a week sounds like an awful lot.

Yes, that’s a lot to lose in one week.

Took me a year to lose 1.5 stone from 13.5 stones to nearly 12 stones now.

I now eat to 70% full only … 😀

Yes, I read about that aspect of it jimjam – there was an analogy of a HumVee using fuel compared to a hatchback. I’ve never done weights or anything to build up what’s there, so I don’t see any reason why it should decrease , as long as there is sufficient coming from my food + spare tyre? I know that if I ate too few calories there would be a risk of using muscle for energy, but I thought the body prefers to burn carbs then fat then muscle as a last resort if there’s no fat left? Probably not that simple!

Underneath the fat there is a big chunk of muscle though, so I don’t know if that will limit progress if I look at it purely in weight terms?

Keep a record of your waist measurement too, so you can see fat loss?

Suggest not viewing it as ‘a diet’, it’s just repairing our evidently broken eating habits and sticking with it.

I think using the food diary/calorie counter is going to be quite an eye opener.

Is 1kg a week really that much? Most stuff I’ve read suggests aiming for 0.5-1 kg a week so I figured that was ok?

Keep a record of your waist measurement too, so you can see fat loss?

Will do

I’m also starting a weight loss regime I’m aiming for 4 stone by the end of the year, a few years ago wasn’t there a Stw fat club? Maybe we can resurrect the name with a new thread so we can all join you something like Fat club 2016?

as long as you honestly record everything you eat on something like myfitnesspal I can not see how you could possibly fail to loose weight.

Is 1kg a week really that much?

Not short term but long term it isn’t just science and numbers, it’s also keeping the motivation to keep the calories down to that level. I get the impression that it is better to aim for something achievable, settle on it and keep going than crash and burn on something that is too tough to keep going. But, as you read as well, it does seem to be on the upper limit of what is recommended so it might be do-able.

This is great stuff, thanks for posting up! Sounds like you are going about it in a really healthy manner. The weekly posts sound good, keep us informed!!

as long as you honestly record everything you eat on something like myfitnesspal I can not see how you could possibly fail to loose weight.

Yep. I can trace the beginning of last 6 months weight gain back to the first day I ‘forgot’ to keep the food diary on MFP.

Food diary:

Use it and lose it!

Forget it and regret it!

Good on you. Try to throw in a 2/3hr session once a week. Borrow a dog to walk briskly?

I’m no expert so this is just “wot I fink” but alongside the calorie counting, make sure you understand exactly why you are so over weight and address the cause as appropriate to give yourself the best shot at success

Best of luck – keep us posted

I have done similar before and found a subscription to http://www.nutracheck.co.uk to be great for the calorie counting part of it.

make sure you understand exactly why you are so over weight

I love sweeties, crisps, chocolate, coke and ‘forget’ that I’ve eaten them when tea time comes around! Habits that I got away with from 20-30 when I did hours of sport every week did not stop when the sport did. I don’t intend to say ‘no more sweeties, crisps, chocolate or coke’ because that’s setting myself up for a fall. Consumption of these at current/prior levels, however, must cease 🙁

Good luck!

Don’t be disheartened if you lose at irregular rates or if some weeks it seems like nothing comes off. Try and track progress with photos and waist or fat % measurements.

Once you get to the skinnier side you may see changes in these but not so much in the weight. Depending on how active I am and what I eat my waist can change by 4 in swing but my weight stays pretty much witching 1or2 kg..

Good on you. But please, please aim to supplement your walking etc with some good muscle building resistance stuff – muscle burns fat and increases your metabolism.

Best of luck – sounds like you’ve absolutely got the right attitude towards it.

Good luck, seems you’re taking a sensible approach. Doing activities that you are used to, and steadily, can make you think you’ve burnt more than you have though. The body becomes very efficient with regular practice, pro riders will use a lot fewer calories on a race stage than jobbing amateurs would for example. If you have hills though, use them as much as possible, you can’t cheat gravity.

Don’t sign in here much but I thought I would just to wish you the best.

For what it’s worth, My Fitness Pal is useful and easy to use.

yes you can do it…. the 1st fortnight will be a real pain in the arse, and very hard work, you’ll be thinking of food the whole time…. i know i was. i lost 16kg by calorie counting (in 4 months), but don’t forget to eat more calories if you do some exercise (this may have been mentioned, i haven’t read the whole thread)

also, take a before picture, damn it feels good to see how far you’ve come, which leads me on to my picture, i need little excuse to post it!!

Good effort Liam Neeson!

I did the Mifflin-St Jeor calculations to include ‘3 times per week of elevated heart rate’ – there are factors in the calculations that account, roughly, for any exercise you do.

The FatSecret app, which appears very similar to MyFitnessPal, includes an exercise diary too so I’ll log that too and review it.

^^ 😆