*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***
- Thread starter AndyCr15
- Start date
After watching my weight creep up, especially at the start of my furlough i decided to try the keto diet.
Started in June and 82 days later i had lost 3 stone
.
Went from 16st7 to 13st7
.
Back to work and thought the extra movement in the day would help lose some more.
1 month to lose an extra 7 pounds, i put it down to not being able to eat at the right times to keep it effective.
Xmas drinking and eating has taken its toll and I've crept up about 7 pounds.
I'm jumping back on the keto today, fingers crossed in not tempted by all the chocolate that's hanging around the house atm.
All diet and no exercise so I've always got exercise as back up if things don't go to plan.
Started in June and 82 days later i had lost 3 stone
.Went from 16st7 to 13st7
.Back to work and thought the extra movement in the day would help lose some more.
1 month to lose an extra 7 pounds, i put it down to not being able to eat at the right times to keep it effective.
Xmas drinking and eating has taken its toll and I've crept up about 7 pounds.
I'm jumping back on the keto today, fingers crossed in not tempted by all the chocolate that's hanging around the house atm.
All diet and no exercise so I've always got exercise as back up if things don't go to plan.
Same thing with me - I went up 3lbs on Christmas Day alone. The house is full of chocolate - Cadbury Roses, Cadbury Oreo Big Taste, Cadbury Oreo White, Tony’s Chocolonely, Belgian Chocolate Yule Log, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Celebrations, Lindt Lindor, Mince Pies, Lebkuchen, Chocolate Waffles. Dear god.
I’ve given myself until 1st Jan to eat as much as I like then I’m giving the remainder away to the first person that comes through the door. Last year it took me until the end of February to get back on track so I want to avoid that.
Oh and congrats on your keto weight loss!
Yesterday morning I weighed in at 15st 13lbs, so I think I've put on about 8-10lbs in the last week of eating whatever I wanted. I'm going to try and really restrict calories until the new year (about 2,100 yesterday with a 10k run thrown in) and hopefully get back down 6 to 8 lbs and then go back to 'normal' calories (around 3,200) from that point.
I also finally got round to watching Freddie Flintoff - Living with Bulimia, which was quite interesting. I watched it as someone said so many of the things I do (strict calorie counting, almost addicted to exercise to 'pay for' the calories I might over eat, the occasional binge eat) actually line up with being bulimic. It's not just about making yourself be sick after eating. I think they were half joking, but having watched it I'm confident I'm not, but it's an interesting watch all the same.
I also finally got round to watching Freddie Flintoff - Living with Bulimia, which was quite interesting. I watched it as someone said so many of the things I do (strict calorie counting, almost addicted to exercise to 'pay for' the calories I might over eat, the occasional binge eat) actually line up with being bulimic. It's not just about making yourself be sick after eating. I think they were half joking, but having watched it I'm confident I'm not, but it's an interesting watch all the same.
Well, I just about did it. Just weighed in at 15st 4.5lbs, so pretty much back to where I was before my Xmas binge. It's interesting, it's just all about your will power. I remember a couple of months back I just couldn't understand how I managed to stick to 2,000 cals previously, but I did it without too much difficulty for the last four days, mainly by just skipping a protein bar at each meal and only having porridge for breakfast. I didn't even feel all that hungry through the day.
Yeah my appetite is still monstrous for most part, relied more on strategies like not having temptations at home to begin with rather than willpower 
Have my new target for 2021 but that will be a tough one as it's getting harder the closer you get to your desired weight.
Have my new target for 2021 but that will be a tough one as it's getting harder the closer you get to your desired weight.
Put on just shy of 5kg in 10 days over Christmas. I'm surprised I haven't sent my pancreas into diabetic shock frankly. The amount of carbs in pure sugar terms must have been astronomical - easily over 500g per day. Oh well. What's done is done. Now back to it. Current = 82kg, target is 68kg. I expect to arrive there by the summer solstice.
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Thought I'd share, so started at somewhere just north of 114KG in August, I quit smoking and started a pretty firm diet and upped my exercise significantly, as of today I'm 89KG at 6'2, body fat around 21%. I'm still wondering what to aim for in 2021, but would like to look a little more 'buff' so maybe try and get body fat closer to 15%, but my goal before was a healthy BMI so it's a good time to share. I've been reading this thread even though I've not been commenting and well done to all those trying to lose weight and become more healthy, props to you all.
Stuff I learnt in case it helps:
[1] Make it really easy to be healthy - if you can make your meals in as little time as you would when eating less healthy that is really useful (for me at least). *this was totally key for me*
[2] Routine, and patience - at the start I had to force myself into a workout routine, straight when I got back from work - cycle weights dinner (quick heathly one as above), after a couple of weeks I just got used to it and it was easy.
[3] Try not to worry about within week fluctuations, at the start I did get a little worried nothing was happening, because when weighing myself every day there'd be 2KG differences all the time :0
[4] Change yourself. As you get more used to eating right or exercising more, you'll feel the desire to do more of the same, embrace it, go cycling do the things you might have been embaressed to do (E.g. swimming) or never before thought you'd want to.
[5] Watch your mood for signs of deficiencies. About 2 months in I started to feel pretty down (which isn't like me) and (I think) it was down to a lack of protein (as soon as I added a little more things where fine also a daily multivitamin helped too).
[6] Don't give yourself excuses. The internet is full of threads where BMI is wrong or body fat calculators are rubbish or some other none sense. Deep down we all know when we're bigger than we should be.
[7] Treat yourself - there are times during this where it was hard, and motivation was pretty low, that seems to be when a lot of us give up and go back to old habits, I found giving myself mini goals and *GOOD* rewards helped, E.g. when you get to a new clothes size treat yourself to some new threads, even if no one notices you feel great in new threads at a lower weight. I know there's a trend for 'cheat days' but I honestly feel that's a bad path to go down.
[8] Watch your stress. This is the one that took the most resilience, unlike the celebs of this world we have lives and jobs, and a lot of stuff will try and push you back to old ways, and stress is a major trigger. First bit is recognising when you're feeling stressed and the second is to come up with alternative strategies to cope without ordering a Dominos.
[9] Don't think you need shiny stuff to lose weight. I'm terrible for this, as a defence mechanism to actually doing what I know needs doing I'll invent a need for a million different devices that I need before I start to train / lose weight. It's all none sense, linked to [6]
Ultimately, if you do commit to change yourself rather than just diet for a while, when you come out of it your health will be something that is a positive in your life and will really help you out.
Just a final comment again to say well done to those going down this path and best of luck to you all in the future.
UL.
Stuff I learnt in case it helps:
[1] Make it really easy to be healthy - if you can make your meals in as little time as you would when eating less healthy that is really useful (for me at least). *this was totally key for me*
[2] Routine, and patience - at the start I had to force myself into a workout routine, straight when I got back from work - cycle weights dinner (quick heathly one as above), after a couple of weeks I just got used to it and it was easy.
[3] Try not to worry about within week fluctuations, at the start I did get a little worried nothing was happening, because when weighing myself every day there'd be 2KG differences all the time :0
[4] Change yourself. As you get more used to eating right or exercising more, you'll feel the desire to do more of the same, embrace it, go cycling do the things you might have been embaressed to do (E.g. swimming) or never before thought you'd want to.
[5] Watch your mood for signs of deficiencies. About 2 months in I started to feel pretty down (which isn't like me) and (I think) it was down to a lack of protein (as soon as I added a little more things where fine also a daily multivitamin helped too).
[6] Don't give yourself excuses. The internet is full of threads where BMI is wrong or body fat calculators are rubbish or some other none sense. Deep down we all know when we're bigger than we should be.
[7] Treat yourself - there are times during this where it was hard, and motivation was pretty low, that seems to be when a lot of us give up and go back to old habits, I found giving myself mini goals and *GOOD* rewards helped, E.g. when you get to a new clothes size treat yourself to some new threads, even if no one notices you feel great in new threads at a lower weight. I know there's a trend for 'cheat days' but I honestly feel that's a bad path to go down.
[8] Watch your stress. This is the one that took the most resilience, unlike the celebs of this world we have lives and jobs, and a lot of stuff will try and push you back to old ways, and stress is a major trigger. First bit is recognising when you're feeling stressed and the second is to come up with alternative strategies to cope without ordering a Dominos.
[9] Don't think you need shiny stuff to lose weight. I'm terrible for this, as a defence mechanism to actually doing what I know needs doing I'll invent a need for a million different devices that I need before I start to train / lose weight. It's all none sense, linked to [6]
Ultimately, if you do commit to change yourself rather than just diet for a while, when you come out of it your health will be something that is a positive in your life and will really help you out.
Just a final comment again to say well done to those going down this path and best of luck to you all in the future.
UL.
Really useful advice, well done. Your starting weight is around what I am now, did you cal count? How did you keep track of your eating habits? What exercise? I'd love to get down to that weight, I've been a yo-yo dieter for the past decade.
As said above, a good post with some good advice, although this point 9, I used my new hobbies as an excuse to buy some new shiney's. Cycling has literally cost me thousands! But I love it, so money well spent, right?
I'm sure Ultra will reply soon, but I would say, yes count calories. I don't really know how you can be sure/happy you're in a deficit if you don't? If you use MyFitnessPal and link it in to Strava, for example, if will import exercise too, so you can see cals burnt vs cals consumed.
In time, you get to know what exercise is best/works for you. For example, I can't really run for more than 40 mins to an hour, so it's a max of maybe 500 to 800 cals from a run. This morning I cycled 40 miles and burnt around 2,000 cals. Clearly cycling is a better option for me, but then it's time and weather dependant. (I also know I can get by on about 2,500-3,000 cals eaten today, so a decent deficit)
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Thank you and straight to your questions
[1] Did I calorie count. No and yes, I just found a very small number of meals I like (mainly pasta based) and I just rotate through them. I did a little check to make sure there wasn't too much fat in them and they where legit healthy. They did change over time (so the sauces I used became more healthy as an example) but tried to find a small number of meals that where quick to prepare that I enjoyed eating that I knew where healthy and stuck to them.
[2] Did I keep track of my eating habits? No, I just made sure to rotate through the meals as above. I think that's why some people like Huel or whatever because it takes the fuss of calorie counting out of it. The hard part is cutting out things you love, so a greggs (I know bad!) bacon roll in the morning was painful to stop having.
[3] What exercise: indoor cycling (with a cheapo bike at first) worked for me, and some light weights. The cycling was for weight loss (and post smoking super difficult!), and the weights to make me feel a bit better about myself and do really help more in a toning way if that makes any sense.
@AndyCr15 I remember reading your posts through out all this and honestly well done for what you've done and your posts really did help
And hell no on the cycle costs, it's like a healthy reward , but legit early on I felt I needed a £1500 bike (I remember thinking I needed pelaton one!) before starting out or a full indoor gym or a £100 month gym subscription that's more that I was aiming at UL
Thank you and straight to your questions
[1] Did I calorie count. No and yes, I just found a very small number of meals I like (mainly pasta based) and I just rotate through them. I did a little check to make sure there wasn't too much fat in them and they where legit healthy. They did change over time (so the sauces I used became more healthy as an example) but tried to find a small number of meals that where quick to prepare that I enjoyed eating that I knew where healthy and stuck to them.
[2] Did I keep track of my eating habits? No, I just made sure to rotate through the meals as above. I think that's why some people like Huel or whatever because it takes the fuss of calorie counting out of it. The hard part is cutting out things you love, so a greggs (I know bad!) bacon roll in the morning was painful to stop having.
[3] What exercise: indoor cycling (with a cheapo bike at first) worked for me, and some light weights. The cycling was for weight loss (and post smoking super difficult!), and the weights to make me feel a bit better about myself and do really help more in a toning way if that makes any sense.
@AndyCr15 I remember reading your posts through out all this and honestly well done for what you've done and your posts really did help
UL
Thanks. I understand the cal counting part, its easy to get in a routine of your breakfast, lunch and tea and just know what each are. I'm going to start the couch to 5k later this month and hopefully this will add more exercise to my usual 10k steps a day.
My biggest flaw is late night eating, I will have my tea at 6ish but come 10/11 I'm starving and usually binge a load of carbs
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Best of luck Andybtsn I really mean that.
Thanks, I'm determined this year, but I say it every year
It's getting easier piling it on and harder removing it the older i get too!
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Thanks, I'm determined this year, but I say it every year
On the late night carb raids, I've been using these for the last few months, now bare with me lol they seem terrible but they are really tasty and definitely when playing cyberpunk later on in the evening stopped me from wanting more. Healthy snackage!
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/297682889
My biggest flaw is late night eating, I will have my tea at 6ish but come 10/11 I'm starving and usually binge a load of carbs
Same here and there's definitely a correlation between going to bed hungry and me not sleeping well/getting up during the night. I had set myself a resolution for 2020 to eat less after 7pm, but tbh that just meant I needed to eat more before 7pm to get me through, so binned it. I often find it easier to go very low on cals through the morning and lunch, so I can load up a little later in the day... so I sleep better and still hit my cals target.