Being Fat / Getting Fat..

platypus said:
To be fair there are a lot of calories in carbs and so called "healthy" foods, but from my point of view, if they're good calories (eg not the crap you get in fast foods) then you're usually ok.

Obviously a healthy exercise plan is needed as well.
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Healthy != low calorie, this is something people need to remember. A banana can be circa >100 cals (not 50 as above, rofl, poverty bananas), so a few of them will bump up calories. Nuts are a healthy food, but very calorific. Red meats are very fatty as well as protein-based, so are high calorie. Now I know you are aware of this, but people need to realise that healthy is NOT the same as low calorie. It's just getting them from a good clean source.

Junk such as low fat yugurts should be disappearing from people's diets. Rammed full of sugar and dairy based which is not easy for the body to break down. It's junk like this that will encourage your body to retain water and make you look puffy and bloated.
 
1) body recomposition is 70% diet, 30% training. It could be 100% diet if you just wanted to lose weight, but thinking of your body purely terms of weight is retarded:

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2) don't be a couch potato, but unless you're aiming to compete professionally at something there's no need to go spending hours and hours exercising either - it can be as simple as 3 x 1 hour of resistance training a week and a bit of walking/cycling instead of taking the lift/escalator/car etc.

3) lol@this thread

4) it's not hard at all as long as you have a decent idea of how much you need to eat (including a macro split) to get x result, and self-monitor your intake and track physical changes. From what I've seen, a lot of people shoot in the dark with this stuff and then wonder why they're not getting the results they want.

Personally I've been training properly and self-monitoring since June for the first time in my life and the results have been fantastic... it's easy too - the hardest part is being patient as it's not something that happens over days or even weeks.
 
below is a screen grab from myfitnesspal showing (poorly imho) progress over a 12 month period. You can see my start weight is over 130kg and whilst it doesn't say 140, you'll have to take my word for it. Secondly (and I am opening myself up for criticism on it) is a random days food intake.

I have specifically chosen that day to show how much you actually can eat for what amounts to on this day 1393 calories. Ignore the fact that i've not logged lunch, that's a quirk of how I log food as I tend to graze over the day and log things in either snacks or breakfast (it makes no difference to the end result). Note also that on that day I did a 5K run which actually burned 540 of the 1393 calories eaten. Also note that this isnt a typical day as I usually eat much closer to my goal target its just that the Monday "fry up" dinner is quite low and some oatcakes usually make an appearance in there somewhere.

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I still have 700 calories left, BRB off to Subway ;)
 
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I'm slowly putting on weight and I know I need to lose some.

This can be attributed to:

- Learning to drive / walking less
- Playing football less as I got older (only play once a week now, used to be three times a week)
- Drinking beer, probably slightly excessively at times
- Being lazy

It gets me down, and I hate it, but I don't have the willpower to do anything about it.
 
Nice app there Loam what is it?
Loam and monkey nuts, i know you guys are passionate about fitness (me too) but try not to be too hard on von. For some people that mental barrier is extremely hard for some people. They even start to think they cant lose weight for whatever reason dumb or whatever.

Von i think if you listen to some of these guys like Loam and monkey nuts they could actually help you. Infact pop into the sports section and do some reading especially the bodybuilding thread for beginners. Might help to make a training log on there too, people find that a good motivator.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
I'm slowly putting on weight and I know I need to lose some.

This can be attributed to:

- Learning to drive / walking less
- Playing football less as I got older (only play once a week now, used to be three times a week)
- Drinking beer, probably slightly excessively at times
- Being lazy

It gets me down, and I hate it, but I don't have the willpower to do anything about it.
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You're slowly gaining weight, just make a few minor changes to your lifestyle now before you get fat and have to do some proper work to sort it out.

Do some form of exercise on the two night you would've done football (45 minute walk? Jog?).

Check your diet, make some minor changes to make it a bit more healthy.

Try and cut weekday drinking (if you do) and maybe swap a weekend night to something like red wine?

That's it, I bet you'd stop the weight gain, get a bit fitter and feel better about yourself if you did the above. I'm sure someone will be along with a more comprehensive plan, but you don't need to do much to sort yourself out by the sound of it.
 
Yeah what godinman says. Start doing some walking and maybe build up to a run. After you been doing it a while the fitness bug bites, and it just be part of your life like breathing is:)
 
godinman said:
You're slowly gaining weight, just make a few minor changes to your lifestyle now before you get fat and have to do some proper work to sort it out.

Do some form of exercise on the two night you would've done football (45 minute walk? Jog?).

Check your diet, make some minor changes to make it a bit more healthy.

Try and cut weekday drinking (if you do) and maybe swap a weekend night to something like red wine?

That's it, I bet you'd stop the weight gain, get a bit fitter and feel better about yourself if you did the above. I'm sure someone will be along with a more comprehensive plan, but you don't need to do much to sort yourself out by the sound of it.
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Thanks for the advice. My girlfriend and I did start running a few times a week (only 2-3 miles), we kept it up for a couple of weeks but she got a chest infection; that combined with it being dark out now stopped us which is annoying. You know what, I think I'll go for a run tonight though!

We're moving to Vancouver in March and we're planning on massively upping our physical activity. Biking around Stanley Park and hiking as well, I can't wait.

Fortunately I've stopped drinking in the week bar the odd occasion. It had become a bit excessive where I'd easily have 3-4 pints a two or three times a week, plus weekend drinking.

My main issue with anything in life, is my lack of patience. The one thing that really makes me want to improve my fitness now though is that I've noticed in the last 6 months my football ability has suffered so much. I used to be one of the better players in the group but now I really struggle due to fitness, I've lost that 'edge' you need to beat a player or to win the ball. I hate it :(

LOAM said:
April 6th 2012 my weight had crept up to 140kg / 308lbs. This was primarily due to being made redundant in Dec 2010 and setting up our business working from home. My daily exercise involved getting cups of coffee downstairs and nothing else. I didn't eat a great amount but I barely moved.

April 6th I said to the wife I was going to start running again, we have a treadmill and the plan was to run 10mins every night because who can't spare 10 mins a night?. When I started I could run for 2 mins / walk for 8 but I persisted with it every night.

Today, Dec 17 I run 20 miles a week, I bike 25 miles a week and do weights in between. I weigh 93.5kg/206lbs with a 34" waist, I'm 6ft 2 and don't want to lose any more. I eat more now than I ever have and tbh running facilities eating pretty much whatever I want but we still eat carefully.

I'm quite critical of people who say its hard if I'm honest because with just a bit of effort it can be done without denying yourself everything. Our saturday run blows 1000 calories out of my body and its usually followed by a beer and "treat" dinner and movie and it doesn't come close to replacing used calories plus your metabolic rate is off the chart for several hours anyway.

Start small and stick with it, its not long before you turn a corner and its literally falling off you.
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This is really quite inspiring. Thanks for posting.
 
bakes0310 said:
Nice app there Loam what is it?
Loam and monkey nuts, i know you guys are passionate about fitness (me too) but try not to be too hard on von. For some people that mental barrier is extremely hard for some people. They even start to think they cant lose weight for whatever reason dumb or whatever.

Von i think if you listen to some of these guys like Loam and monkey nuts they could actually help you. Infact pop into the sports section and do some reading especially the bodybuilding thread for beginners. Might help to make a training log on there too, people find that a good motivator.
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Its myfitnesspal available on android and iphone, tracks everything you do / eat and has a barcode scanner on and a huge database of foods (you can add your own) and make recipes etc etc. Facebook integration and all that jazz if you want it.

With regards being harsh, yeah point taken, maybe I am but only because I am/was that person that made those excuses. I know all to well its easier to think of a million reasons why it cant be done as oppose to just getting on and doing it. The key is though (or was for me) was starting with a very realistic start target.

The thought of an hour's worth of exercise was for me at 140kg enough to prevent me from ever doing it so I decided on 10 mins but 10 mins every day. In the first month from just that and a slight amendment to what I ate I lost over 1 stone. 10 mins became 15mins, became 20 mins and suddenly I wasn't thinking "OMG an hour's exercise will kill me". You can quite quickly break its back but you have to put a bit of effort in.

I dont really consider my diet / exercise that difficult ( I dont really consider it a diet ) and its certainly not something that will be hard to maintain.
 
People need to stop thinking losing weight is hard! Its very easy its all about your mind and willpower. If you really want it to happen it will happen!
 
godinman said:
Correct, but you don't drink 4 pints of wine do you?
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It's all relative mate.

I can and have easily drank 2-3 bottles of wine on a night before.

Alcohol is awful when trying to lose body fat. No point in swapping one for another in honesty. Just try and cut down in general!
 
My Achilles heal is peanut butter, I could quite easily ruin endless amounts of the stuff. I like a beer as well to a lesser extent but I like strong beer (6%+ Indian pales etc). I've never really been a cake person which sort of puts me at odds with the running crowd as runners tend to have a rather odd fascination / obsession with cake.
 
a lot of problems are caused by the Media as well. The paper would go along say eat more Peanut Butter to be heathy, so you get hundreds of people slathering toast with jars of the stuff, they dont realise although heathy its one of the most calorific foods around!
 
Sleeve88 said:
Alcohol is awful when trying to lose body fat. No point in swapping one for another in honesty. Just try and cut down in general!
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Aye you're correct, but if you don't need to make a massive change, turning to wine and keeping the alcohol intake the same lets you consume less calories while still enjoying a drunken state.:p
 
godinman said:
Correct, but you don't drink 4 pints of wine do you? :p

Bottle of red wine - 510 calories

4 Pints of becks - 932 calories

According to here - http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tips-and-tools/drink-diary/

And I didn't mention how apt your signature is, cos I'm nice, see?
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8 pints lager ~2000 calories
6 double JD and coke ~1000 calories
? bombs and/or shots - a few hundred calories
kebab / kfc to finish the night ~2000

5500 calories on a standard saturday. Nice!
 
I was embarrassed when I touched 19 stone. I decided that I didn't want to be that guy any more, and I could see and feel the consequences of it.

The first thing I did was completely revamp my diet (cut out sugar, fast food and simple carbs). This made a huge difference to my weight (dropped 4 stone in 4 months). Once the weight loss started slowing down, I joined the gym. I would agree that diet is 70-80% of your effort.
 
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