Sorry for the long post but looking for a bit of advise on an isuue that really starting to worry me.

My weight over the years has always yo-yo’ed due to relavant jobs/periods of activity. Its never bothered me too much as through it all I’ve remain relativly fit and healthy from cycling and sailing and when I’ve put the pounds on I’ve never had too much trouble getting them off again. I am athsmatic but never found its slowed me too much since i got it under control through medication several years ago.

Last year I was out of work for over 9 months. During this time I mainly sat in my home office all day trawling jobs boards and making calls. I stoppped riding and exersized rarely at best. During this low period I both ate and drank too much.

Christmas just gone and I’m back in work and started cycling again, but it was hard going.

After taking a brave pill I ventured onto the scales, and after clearing the “one at a time” message, had the shock when it read a couple of pounds under 20 stone 😯

My missus also was looking to lose some weight and we both agreed to support each other.

We cut out all snacks and alchohol. Our diets are pretty much identical, a bowl of cereal (corn flakes, shreaded wheat) in the morning. Ham salad andwhich on brown bread with no butter, a bit of fuit and a fat free yoghurt for lunch and then salads, vegetables and lean meat or fish for dinner.

We both started a circuit training class once a week and a badminton club once a week. The missus started running and I started cycling to work. At first just once a week, but the past 8 weeks has been two or three times a week. Each leg of which is 15 miles and takes in 650 feet of climbing

At the start of June she had lost nearly 2 stone. I had lost a couple of pounds but I was knackered 🙁

I went to see a doctor and he immediatly said that I wasn’t eating enough from what I had told him given the exersise I was doing and that was the cause of my tiredness. He had no explanation for not losing any weight so decided to take some blood to have some tests run.

Fast forward to now and I’m still knackered. I was weighed by the doctor 8 weeeks ago at 19.55 stone and after nearly 500 miles of cyling, 8 hours of circuit training, 24 hours of badminton and several runs I was weighed again at 19.5 stone. A loss of 1/2 a pound!

The blood test have come back and, apart from being a fat b****d, i’m in great health, and to be fair I do feel very fit, but still very tired.

The doctor has basically washed his hands of me and now changed his opinion and now I’m eating too much, his exact words were that medical science can not do anything for me. My missus is getting quite worried that I’m now eating too little and i’m going to keel over (which sometimes does feel like a possibility)

Friends and familly are suggesting seeing dieticians and PT’s but both come at a price and money is very tight at the moment due to the above mentioned 9 months out of work.

If anybodies got any advice it would be most welcome.

What did they test your blood for?

Change your lifestyle, sleep more, eat better, eat less, ride better – get a HRM and train using that.

Dont eat cereal, cut out the carbs, eat more fruit / fish / meat.

Dont cheat.

Go 1×10 on your bike. Ride it for several hours, not short rides. Do 8hr rides on the weekend.

Just to be awkward, try ditching the fruit to avoid blood sugar level fluctuations.

Fat free stuff is usually full of sugar. Avoid it.

Modern ‘factory’ farmed fruit is selected for sweetness, and so is full of sugar.

‘Factory’ made bread is full of chemicals to make it keep longer/softer/etc that is not great for you either.

Cornflakes definitely have sugar added to them, I’m not so sure about shredded wheat though.

I guess what I’m trying to say is you’d be amazed how much sugar is in things. Removing sugar from my diet made me feel far better in general.

Also play squash. Badminton is for big frilly nancys 😉

Are you being honest with your intake?
Usually people who don’t lose weight on a diet are underestimating their intake and overestimating their output.

Don’t cut out carbs as you need those to train…. but certainly look at the carbs you are consuming and substitute them for low GI. Cutting sugar won’t hurt.
Try some high intensity training. Half an hour of intervals at an intensity that makes you want to puke. Not exclusively, but mix it up a bit.

Shredded Wheat contains no added sugar or salt BTW

plenty of options for you to persue.

have you got the basics covered? Food Diary, Exercise Diary.

While you do need to eat enough to keep your metabolism going, if you are (dons flame proof suit) eating/drinking more calories than you are burning you will not lose weight

Millions of books on the subject, the more radical the less sustainable. Plenty of people benefit from weight-watchers or slimmers world type group therapy sessions

Sit down and think this through properly, set a target and work out a realistic timeframe to achieve that. IMO you are not going to drop several stone in a few months.

Alternatively, go atkins and drop the lbs in no time at all, just be aware that ninety something percent is water retention……. still i reckon you can squeeze under 19st by this time next week..

Several folks including myself have found the iDave diet (or some variant) pretty helpful for losing significant amounts of weight – I’m sitting at 4st 4lbs lost so far. Threads about iDave tend to generate vigorous discussion which might be a bit offputting, so rather than trigger a big argument, I’ve sent you an email.

Did you neglect to mention that you are 7 feet tall 😉

I got told it was a surprise I carried the weight I do with all the exercise I do by the nurse who gave me a blood test recently (family history of strokes and diabetes for anyone interested).

I have to admit that I know why I don’t lose weight though, it’s called cake 🙂

I’ll prepare myself for the massacre here 😯

Why don’t you and your missus join slimming world, trust me it does work, it’s all about what you eat with what, not about cutting out food….

My good lady wife did slimming world last year after a holiday that didn’t really impress her (photo wise) anyway 8 months down the line and she’d lost 2 stone, but never went hungry…. April this year she went on to become a Slimming World Consultant, she was that impressed with the diet, how it works & the impact it can have on peoples lives!

Keep a food diary. Be honest.

Ask for a referral to a dietitian.

Shredded Wheat contains no added sugar or salt BTW

It also has no taste. Conclusion: flavour in foods is bad for you

If anybodies got any advice it would be most welcome.

Buy a set of electronic scales to measure your food portions.

Join http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ (for free) and use it every day to record what you eat and what exercise you do (the smartphone app is also free).

I’ve lost 6 kilos in a couple of months doing just that.

(i.e. basically a solution to what others said about a food/exercise diary and underestimating intake and overestimating output)

Any impact on body shape? It does sound odd but its likely you’re swapping fat for muscle which weighs more.

^^^ As Cougar said, be aware of your real caloric intake.

Any impact on body shape? It does sound odd but its likely you’re swapping fat for muscle which weighs more.

Body re-composition. Thats what has happened to me. More muscle, less fat, similar weight now to when I started.

Fast forward to now and I’m still knackered
If the Doc can’t find any reason for that, then I’d go with not eating enough.

🙂

tired all the time, not loosing weight, have they checked your thyroxine levels? underactive thyroid will do that to you, plus lots of other stuff. Just an idea as my partner has an underactive thyroid and until they got her meds sorted which took bloomin ages, she was eating very healthily and the weight wasn’t shifting. when her thyroid went bang she went up 10 sizes without changing diet before they got her levels controlled.

Just to echo what tazzy says BUT thyroxine doesn’t work for everyone and your GP will not tell you that! Have had this darn disorder for 3 years and it’s still not under control, being seen privately now. It’s seriously crap. 🙁

read “The Health Delusion” – it says some interesting things about diets and why they don’t work, what you should be eating to keep healthy and everything working well, and how exercise is crucial to health.

ditch_jockey – just emailed you

there’s a fad for fasting at the moment.
one theory being that only eating between 12pm and 8pm everyday for example encourages your body to learn and become more efficient at burning fat.

The first 2 out of your 3 meals are sugar and refined grain based.

Enough said!

Eggs with peppers/broc /shrooms/bacon/whatever for brekky.

Meat/fish and veg lunch.

Same supper.

Done.

+1 for keeping a food/exercise diary. Your diet doesn’t sound very exciting and to me (through my non qualified knowledge) looks like you might not be eating properly to be honest. Cornflakes and bread are not healthy as such and its those sorts of traps people fall into when trying to lose weight thinking they are being good when actually they arent and to be honest you probably aren’t eating enough to keep you going on all your exercise. We’ve been sticking to a paleo type diet (yes a bit fad I know) and it is working wonders.

Just a brief outline of what we have/do in a day:

Breakfast: fruit with handful of nuts, fruit tea or something like eggs and asparagus or eggs, mushrooms grilled tomatoes etc
Mid morn: nuts, blueberries
Lunch: massive salad with feta cheese or smoked salmon or chicken with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar
Mid afternoon: cherry tomatoes, fruit, seeds, carrot sticks
Dinner: either salad or veg, loads of protein of some sort. Dark chocolate for pud.

You would have to eat more depending on your size and exercise but we stick (as much as possible) to no dairy, grains etc but most importantly, no processed food (feta an exception in this case but it’s good protein I believe). Cornflakes, bread and low fat yoghurt are processed. You get the idea and it sound hideous but actually it’s really not that bad. Exercise wise we both do an hr or so 4 times a week, mix of weights, cardio etc and weve both lost weight but most importantly we feel amazing.

Read a couple of paleo books, they are a bit full on but give some good starting points to get you going. Good luck!

If the doctors are sure there is nothing wrong, be it thyroid or similar. Then it’s calories in compared with use.

If you have a smartphone my net diary is quite useful. People always underestimate what a portion actually is. So weighing food is quite useful.
A bowl full of corn flakes will most likely be 2 or 3 portions rather than 1.
And as said its quality of what you eat.

I,ve started to get in shape for racing again, and I.ve gone from 83.5kg to 81.5kg In a little over a few weeks.
1lb a week is about average for loss. 2lb for someone carrying lots extra.

Remember if it’s bigger than the size of an apple it’s too much, lost of smaller portions. Get rid of that bread and diary you will be surprised. Green tea and if you can’ stomach it a dash of honey to sweeten or try peppermint tea. i can’t give up my diary, i can’t eat eggs and asparagus for brekkie but good luck!

Non scientific questions.

Deffo being honest, no ‘this won’t count’ snacks?
Portion size?
Intensity of your ‘training’

Your other half lost two stone, and you just a few pounds which isn’t much at all for that weight.
You’re eating less than most inactive slim people I know.
Somethings not right

Yup, assuming there’s no underlying condition, getting some scales and really checking calories in your portion sizes might be any eye opener. For instance my next door neighbour’s concept of what a normal portion size is about twice as big as mine. We could both use identical words to describe what we’re eating, but his calorie intake would be twice mine.

Are you being honest with yourself over what you’re eating? You say a bowl of cereal for breakfast… well, anything more than about a quarter full is likely to be in excess of 500 calories. A ciabatta is about 800. Butter? Biscuits? Energy gels or bars on the bike?

Every time you eat something, take a photo of it. EVERY TIME. Even if it’s a grape. Only then will you have a reliable idea of how much you’re eating.

Oh, and get a heart rate monitor for the gym. £20 gets you a Polar chest strap which will link to machines.

Circuit training once a week, badminton once a week, always feeling knackered, you`ve got lethargy mate !
Triple your circuits and take the diet advice above, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get stuck in.

Look up insanity workout, buy it, beast yourself and be amazed how fast your fitness improves.

Follow the diet hints above, no processed foods and only low gi carbs.

Simple as peas

If you’re exercising a lot I’d make your diet more normal. Cut out that fat free bollocks and just eat normal, fresh food. Get some fat in your diet too. It’s needed and you’ll stop feeling knackered if you do. You’ll end up feeling like you can work harder.

Watch how much sugar you’re putting in, there’s lots of it in processed foods and it screws your body up, makes it think you need to conserve energy.

Portion sizes and diet diary would be useful too. I’m not saying it’s the same as you but there was a program on the other night about fat people who couldn’t lose weight. This one chap did eat healthyish food and said he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t losing weight. Sandwiches on brown bread and that.

The greedy bugger was eating half a loaf each time!

The best advice I can give for dieting and exercise is not to do the two at the same time, especially if you are reletively new to exercise. Vigorous exercise is demanding on the body, with a lack of readily available energy you run the risk of damaging yourself which can take time to recover. When you get more used to exercise and start to feel better in yourself then start to slowly cut out the refined sugars and processed foods. I find it’s easier to control the urges for cake and biscuits when I am feeling good about myself. As mentioned on here already eat smaller portions, more often throughout the day. If you have a particular food crutch (mine was choc digestives) find a healthier replacement. I used dried figs first and now grab a handful of salted peanuts. Also bear in mind that it probably took several years to accumulate all that excess weight. To lose it for good will also take several years. Be patient.

I think I would be pretty tired if I had to lug around an extra 9 stone through all the activity you say you’re doing.
Sometimes there’s a real medical reason for tiredness, sometimes it’s just lifestyle/stress…

Good luck though!

DrP

Think we scared him, he’s gone awful quiet. That or he’s collapsed from lack of food…..

Join something like “training peaks” which amongst other things allows you to keep a daily food diary based on your favourite/commonly eaten foods. It also allows you to input exercise and then based on calorie usage predicts a shortfall or excess of calories each day. You can use this to lose weight gradually over time and is also very useful to keep track of what you’ve eaten each day.
What you need to find out is how much do you eat per day in calories which will require you to be honest when calculating.
Alternatively loads of people have posted on here about the iDave diet and losing huge amounts of weight, I’m sure someone will post about it soon.

If you’re exercising a lot I’d make your diet more normal. Cut out that fat free bollocks and just eat normal, fresh food. Get some fat in your diet too. It’s needed and you’ll stop feeling knackered if you do. You’ll end up feeling like you can work harder.

+1 – increase your cardio fitness first and then your appetite will reduce, making it easier to lose weight.

Diets don’t work, your body will go into a starvation mode after a while and then you will stop losing weight – I think that is why the iDave diet wants an off day – to give your metabolism a regular kick.

read that book I recommended – it is evidence based and shows how our normal diet leaves you very deficient in several areas and how this can then affect other functions – like thyroid.

Diets don’t work, your body will go into a starvation mode after a while

This is why just monitoring exactly what you eat, plus the exercise you do, with something like http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ is really useful.

It sets your calorie goal to lose 1lb per week – which is a steady sustainable amount and it actually tells you off if you don’t eat enough and risk going into starvation mode.

iDiet worked for me and many others on here.

Read up on the effects of insulin.

Sorry not been able to reply, after posting my initial message work went mad, then cycled home and basically fell asleep on the sofa again.

Lots of very useful information been posted, a very big thanks, especially to those who’ve emailed me as well. It’s made me see that maybe my diet does really need work.

I kept a food diary for the doctor and was honest. Yes there were a couple of cakes at work during the 8 week period that were on there plus a few beers for a mates birthday, a Sunday roast for Grans birthday. But by and large the doctor felt my diet looked pretty good for weight loss.

A typical day would be;

2 x shredded wheat with semi skimmed milk for breakfast
handful of grapes or a satsuma mid morning.
Sandwich made of 2 bits of wholemeal bread a thin sliver of low fat chilli mayo with two thin bits of ham and lettuce. an apple or banana and a low fat yoghurt (activia, shape etc)
large salad with a bit of grilled fish or chicken. No sauces but a little olive oil.

Exercise diary is generally;

Mondays: Rest day or Cycle 30 miles commute depending on weekend
Tuesday: Cycle 30 miles commute
Wednesday: 1 hours circuits
Thursdays: Cycle 30 miles commute
Fridays: 3 hours badminton
Weekend: Walking, sailing or mountain biking

I will agree my diet could still do with some work, but I still feel that I’m expending far more energy than I’m generally putting in.

In the past I would shed weight easily with a much worse diet and much less exercise