Weight loss – can I do it?

😆 😳

Stomach – you will soon be taken!

Go for it O.P.

Lost 30 kg in 3 months through brutal training and diet.

Put a 6kg back on and already working on losing another 10kg.

So that’s about 2.5kg a week – 1 a week should be a doddle!

Good luck, I’ve far less to lose this year also used MFP had a 1000 day streak up to the mid point last year, then took “time off” from it and maintained weight give or take a 1kg or 2!, in reality I’ve 10kg to loose to complete the job, so just started again and pretty focused too.

There was a STW group on MFP if your looking for like minded people to follow on MFP though not sure how many are still active.

I went nuts and to be fair I was in Australia and did nothing but train, eat soups, DIY for friends and dig holes for old people – for their gardens – ahem.

It’s totally different when you are busy and working.

Take it easy and be patient – 1kg a week is much healthier to aim for.

Have a long term goal as well as weekly achievable goals.

Stay positive and look forward to reading about your success!

Right then, that’s the first week done. From 131kg down to 126.8kg, so 4.2kg which is 9 and a bit pounds. Happy enough with that.

Using the formula I mentioned in my original post, which takes account of age, weight, height and activity level, I reckoned I needed around 3100 kcal a day to stay the same weight. I therefore set a daily target of 2000 kcal, since a deficit of 1100 a day should result in the loss of 1kg a week.

However, it was clear early on in the week that I was going to exceed the 1kg loss, as predicted by many on here and as is evidently common when starting a diet eating less. I also kept reading a range of articles on weight loss and there was support for the idea of easing in to the reduced food. So I took a relatively relaxed approach to the 2000 kcal target, in that I didn’t worry if I exceeded it a little. Over the last 7 days I averaged about 2500 a day. This wasn’t difficult and even after a week I would say I have noticed a reduced appetite, in so far as I think it may be fairly easy, or at least quick, to get used to eating less.

Factoring in two big walks and a 1.5hr bike ride, and what the app reckons I would have burnt doing them – my gut feeling is that the app is a little optimistic on this – 1590 kcal for 1.5hrs of mountain biking 😕 – on top of the normal dog walks, it estimates that I have used an average of approximately 3440 kcal a day. That makes the average daily deficit 910 kcal, which I’m happy enough with for the first week.

I read up a bit about why you lose a lot in the first week, and it’s to do with how your body stores glycogen in the muscles and liver (which for anyone who is interested, is vaguely along the lines of it binds to water, so when you burn up 1 glycogen then 3 waters are no longer required and, literally, piss off out of there). I’m well aware that this rate of loss is not representative of what’s achievable longer term, but it’s a few kg in the bank!

The calorie counting app is a very helpful tool in seeing how much one eats, and how the little things add up.

Good on ye.

Good work keep it up!

Well done, great start!
As you’re aware, don’t get disheartened when the weight loss slows a little.
I don’t think it’s bad if you are a little less strict occasionally, as long as you are monitoring the calories you can compensate by doing a little more excercise when you have exceeded them.
Plus it feels a bit less of a chore. I think it’s important to keep it as practical as possible as its a long term goal you’re aiming for so you need to be able to stick to it.

Remember, you can’t out fizz a bad diet. Exercise and good diet is key. But dont assume that as you’ve done a load of exercise you can eat more.

Personally I find small changes to diet work in the long run. It’s pretty obvious what’s bad for you and with smaller portions you will lose weight.

fantastic well done, wk1 of a new you!

😀

Surprised it’s not been mentioned here yet, but the Body Coach method is excellent. It’s basically low carb, high lean protein, loads of veg, healthy fats. The portions are enormous, so you never feel hungry, and you do get to eat carbs when you’ve earned them, so after exercise etc. Worth a google.

Good work 🙂

I lost 12KG over 2 months beginning of last year (95KG – 82KG)

When you first start reducing calories your glycogen stores deplete. glycogen is stored with four times its weight in water. So this is what you see initially. So don’t be despondent if this rate slows when you start losing the fat at a slower rate.

I used MyFitnessPal to count my calories.

I also did a Mifflin – St Jeor calc for my weight height etc. My empirical evidence would show its either a tad high for the amount of weight loss or MyFitnessPal underestimates calories. But you will build up a picture over time of how this works for you.

Good luck, you can do it !!!

Good luck OP, sounds like a great start.

For the record, 15 years ago I went from 17 to 12 stone over the course of a year or so by buying a bike (the start of the addiction) and cutting out the crappy foods. Not much science, but it worked. I’ve kept a pair of my original 42″ waist trousers 🙂

No doubt diet makes the biggest difference vs exercise, I have seen this before. I am very sceptical of the calories used figures it gives for the exercise so don’t intend to use that as justification for scoffing lots extra – obviously lengthy exercise may need a moderate bit extra.

I’m happy enough with this week’s progress, and I think the 2000 calories a day is perfectly reasonable to aim for.
And in any case a year comes by quite quickly these days.

Well done.

I don’t intend to say ‘no more sweeties, crisps, chocolate or coke’ because that’s setting myself up for a fall.

Have them as a treat, for a targeted weight loss. I’m going for a chicken donner and chips when i’ve lost 5 kg. Maybe monthly?

Hi Kenny, send me an email, I have some snippets that helped me that I can send over

Cheers will do.

Hey Kenny,
good on you. I was nearly 20st around ten years back and this year i went from 15.5 down to 13st (I’m 6ft)

It really is a great feeling to do it. Things like being able to wear 34″ jeans rather than 44″ back at my tubbiest

One thing I’d suggest is having some healthy targets to work towards. Start off with things like the Parkrun each week then have an eye for doing a 10km at the end of the year (or 3/4 through) when you’ve been losing the weight.

Also you’d be surprised how much you can eat within 2000 calories if you go for the

It’s basically low carb, high lean protein, loads of veg, healthy fats.

approach cbmotorsport mentioned. That’s what i did, you end up full without the bloat of carbs.
Finally have a big breakfast like porridge with fruit in it (made with water) to start off the day right. And don’t starve yourself at any meal, it’s not worth it and becomes demoralising.

One of the best things i did for my mental wellbeing was lose the weight

^body coach? looks like the idiet, just with a price tag

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.

Gotta say that is one helleva target, wish you luck.

But, when was the last time you weighed 12.5 stone, as you mentioned you weighed 16.5 stone when you stopped playing rugby – which is well overweight at 5’10” already. I’d be having the 12.5 stone as an aspiration, and be looking at somewhere inbetween that and your rugby weight as an aim.

And yes, far easier to eat less calories than to exercise them off.

^body coach? looks like the idiet, just with a price tag

Similar. You don’t have to pay for it, just follow the principles. They make sense.

How do you find the principles?

That’s a good effort spawnofyorkshire, and encouraging to hear it can be done. One aim for me is to start playing squash again, which I used to love but wouldn’t do myself justice at the moment. Another is to start running again. I did the GNR in 2012, my second half marathon, but had horrendous problems with my Achilles tendons before, during and after, and haven’t done proper running since. I’m hoping if I can get a good bit of weight off I can run again without the Achilles problems.

br – I’ve never been 12.5 as an adult, the lowest was 14 stone, which was after a long expedition in Africa. That (14) is my interim target which I hope to reach by my birthday – this still works out at 1kg a week until then. It may be that 12.5 is not achievable for me, I will have to see, but I would be content to get to 14, and delighted to get to 12.5.

How To Train And Lose Weight On A Bike

Great work Kenny. Sounds like you’ve got a great mind set and are already putting in the checks and balances to ensure you don’t fall into the common traps (I’ve done 5k = I’ll eat 137 doughnuts)

In respect of the bodycoach stuff above, his principles are just above what could be considered to many to be common sense,. It’s essentially a macro based approach, 40/30/30 carbs, protein and fat (MFP is useful for this). There’s more calories in a g of fat than you’d imagine so you quickly rinse through your allowance!

eightyeight – Member
There’s more calories in a g of fat than you’d imagine so you quickly rinse through your allowance!

Yes, interesting as IIRC 1g fat = 9 cals

Then when you consider:
bazzer – Member
glycogen is stored with four times its weight in water.

Where as IIRC, 1g of carb = 4 cals but requires 3g to 4g of water to store. So possibly 5g weight for 4 cals. Which makes body fat look like a very efficient form of energy storage.

I only found this thread this morning. Discovering that Liam Neeson has found the time to drop by and say hello was great 😀

OP. Good work, I hope all the encouragement on this thread will help. Best of luck, I hope you reach your goals.
🙂

Cheers. The science of it is quite interesting actually.

Nothing more to add other than stick with it.

On my commute I quite often see a guy who runs to and from work, probably a good 4 miles each way.

He started doing it probably 2-3 years ago. The only reason I know was because he stood out so much. 3 years he was a big big bloke at least 25 stone +. He looked like each step would kill him, and I could walk faster than his run.

But yet you would still keep seeing him day after day. Now he really slim, looks a changed man, and probably can run faster than I can.

I had upmost respect for him 3 years ago seeing the pain he was going through, but when you see him now it is amazing what he has achieved.

I have been there (about 21 stone) and done that (now about 12 stone) – not an easy thing to do but it can be done.

For my tuppence worth, I’d recommend myfitnesspal as it can monitor calories consumed and burned and also syncs to strava, mapmyrun/cycle/fitness etc.. Also recommend thinking of it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. Your current lifestyle has a balance of calories in > calories out and you just need to shift the amounts of each to make a deficit. I did cardio 3 times a week mix of cycling and running and then weights 2 times a week (mostly bodyweight stuff at home rather than the gym) and that worked for me.

Finally, I struggled for motivation because of hunger – this goes away after about a month but do allow some cheat days as otherwise you’ll resent the lifestyle. Also I motivated through the hunger by thinking about all the times I’d been out for meals etc and felt stuffed to the point of not being able to move – my logic is you need to feel hungry the same amount of times and that kind of worked.

Best of luck, I am sure you’ll smash it!!

Thanks – how long did it take you to go from 21 to 12 stone?

Good job on the weight loss so far, and good luck for the future. And another vote for My Fitness Pal!

About 3 years but I kind of lost my way about a year in and started maintaining at about 16 stone then had another push a year later. So would have been 2 years but for my laziness in the middle.

Was drinking quite a lot (every weekend) during that year too but still maintained the fitness routine.

At least you got there in the end.

I’ll have a look at it then, see if it’s different to the one I’be got now (FatSecret)

OP,

I went from 26st to 15st 3lb in 3 years.

Stats were

5ft 11ins tall
50in Chest
48in waist

I am now

44in Chest
36in Waist

More than happy to talk, no mirricle cures but also no nonsone fad diets either.

Simple calorie defecit maths and slowly upping excersise.

br – don’t confuse the weight of someone muscular – with that of someone fat.
The BMI charts are useless when it comes to anyone who does sports.
On my last check up (2 wks ago) – I have a BMI of 34 (1.67/5’7′, 77kgs/12st2lb).
Calipers show me with a body fat of less than 18% and a 13″ drop – the doctor just laughed and said she was more than happy with my weight GAIN!!

Kenny – 1kg a week should be very sensibly achievable the way you’re going about it.
Try not to weigh yourself every day though – I know its tempting but all you’ll be seeing then is water/poo fluctuations mostly.
Pick a specific time of day – before bed or first thing AFTER the morning drain down for instance and then do that on the same day once a week.
I had to move the scales to the OH’s place as it gets on your nerves when you see changes “the wrong way” (for me going down 😯 )

Appreciate all the kind words and advice. Let’s see how this week goes, back next Friday!

Strangely I find it better to weigh myself everyday. That way I can see the trend. If you weigh once a week and you happen to have a full bladder/bowel or better hydration that day you have to wait a week to see if it was a blip or you really have gained or not lost weight.

So I record my weight every morning along with resting HR etc.

I’d set my sights more around 14-15 stone if I were you. If you were 16 stone when fit and playing sport it’s likely you still have some of that muscle mass (or could get back to it). I too am on a pie restricted diet but based on my build I’d be surprised if I could get south of 14 stone in a year only because the last couple of stone would be so much harder than the first few. I had some success calorie counting, it was surprising just how many calories I was getting through in things like my coffee, butterish spreads, bread and so on. When you’re used to shovelling food in it’s hard to retrain for the right portion sizes so smaller plates and some kind of calorie guide were very useful for me. Also much much more water helped as did thick soups for lunch.

Strangely I find it better to weigh myself everyday. That way I can see the trend. If you weigh once a week and you happen to have a full bladder/bowel or better hydration that day you have to wait a week to see if it was a blip or you really have gained or not lost weight.

So I record my weight every morning along with resting HR etc.

I prefer once a week, and to minimise the full bladder etc thing I always do it on a Thursday or Friday when I haven’t had anything to drink the night before, and empty said bladder before weighing myself 🙂

I’m not sure there’s really any advantage either daily or weekly – by the time you’ve got a couple of months worth of data the minor changes get smoothed out anyway.