*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

Despite cycling over 220 miles in Mallorca this weekend just gone... I put on almost 4lbs due to the all you can eat breakfast and dinner :cry: I'm expecting that will probably drop back down over the next couple of days. Also interesting I had a lower body fat % measurement than I've had in some time...
 
barmyllama said:
Personally I'd try a diet break and going back to maintenance calories.

Last summer I set myself a target of 70kg from about 74kg, just for holidays. I upped my gym work to 7 days a week from 4-5 and added around 40-60 minutes walking per day. Lost a couple of kilos but didn't get to 70kg.

Same after Christmas. Lost the holiday fat during January, with diet and weights. Then basically plateaued through February, despite adding in walking and calisthenics core exercises daily.

So for March I'm eating maintenance calories and not getting on the scales or measuring myself.

I have to say I don't think I've gained any weight judging by my clothes fit, may have even lost a couple of inches. I'd also say I have far more energy during weight training sessions, than at anytime in the last six months.

Although I say I'm eating maintenance calories, some days I just can't get there, without ditching my macros. But weekends are more relaxed and so I generally go over maintenance and stay chilled out over the macros. But still eat the required protein for the day.
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So for anyone that's interested.

Weigh in this morning was an increase of half a kilo, from 71.5 to 72kgs.

Which wasn't too disappointing until I got the tape measure out.

That reveals no loss from belly and no gains in chest, arms or thighs.

All I will say is my wife says I look more muscular and couple of people at work made comment on my arms when wearing a t-shirt.

From my own perspective I can can honestly say I do look more defined than before and it's certainly visible when I'm lifting in the gym.

I'm going to carry on as I am and see where it goes.
 
barmyllama said:
So for anyone that's interested.
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Nice to hear its going well for you. I did a couple of days at maintenance just after these last replies, and it helped me go until now. Still dropping weight but im now feeling my recovery between workouts, even at the weekends is falling behind.

I have 1 more week at work and then off for a week, so from Monday i will be upping my cals for 2 weeks and eating much closer to maintainance.

Last couple of weeks ive been on around 1750, prior to that 1850. I will increase things back up to 2050-2150 for the next 2 weeks. If i can get to the end of those 2 weeks without gaining then im going to hopefully be nicely refreshed for the final push.
 
Just thought I'd add a little update, I've been significantly increasing my exercise recently (past 6-8 weeks) and starting to get to understand just how hard it is to understand the impacts of various exercise, calorie intake and weight levels. For reference I'm now about 73kg, 6'2 and I do about 3.5 hours of strength training (combination of heavy weights and Les Mills body pump) and around 6-7 hours of running per week (at about a 5'20 per KM pace). There's a few observations I'd make (I hope it might be of some sort of help to you AndyCr15 because I can totally understand the 'but I'm cycling forever and it doesn't seem to have the impact I want').
[1] The more comfortable with an exercise you are, the lower your heart rate during it is, the lower the calorie burn is and that at that point things like smart watch / app calorie burn indicators / website estimates I think are off. When I was new to running I could feel (and the scales reflected) a one hour run was burning a LOT of calories, now not so much.
[2] Post exercise meals are the hardest to be sensible with, and the highest risk. I'm pretty good at selecting the heathy option, but mentally after you've worked hard physically, it's easy to say 'oh I'll just have <insert terrible choice> after a long run / weight session. Sometimes I'll actually plan what I'll eat post run so I don't just grab something unhealthy straight after.
[3] It can be useful to baseline. Don't adjust your diet, and see what your max performance / stamina levels are, and adjust based on that. I will notice when my 5K times are routinely down and add something more to my diet now.
[4] Mix it up. When you switch around sports it definitely seems to help boost calorie use (and side effect of better overall muscle conditioning), even random things (throw in a few hours at the driving range for example).

Ultimately I'm of the honest opinion that HR is a much better indicator of calorie burn than time / distance. I think that most of us, no matter what weight level would lose weight with one hour a day spent in zone 3+ with a calorie intake of 1800-2000, keep those calories in low-fat, decent protein and that's even better.
 
ultralaser said:
(I hope it might be of some sort of help to you AndyCr15 because I can totally understand the 'but I'm cycling forever and it doesn't seem to have the impact I want')
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I'm a bit confused by this? I lost 6½ stone cycling?! It had a massive impact on my weight?! (Okay, I made a joke above, but that was about how much buffet food I'd had!) When have I said it doesn't have the impact I want? :confused: I just dropped 19lbs in a couple of months ready for this latest cycling trip, it's having exactly the impact I want and expect...

ultralaser said:
Ultimately I'm of the honest opinion that HR is a much better indicator of calorie burn than time / distance.
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This also confuses me and maybe you mean just that HR is important. Surely It's HR over the time that counts. (Or you could argue power over time. It's making the power that makes the body burn calories to produce more power. Power and HR are very closely linked anyway, so either works well enough.) You say HR is the better indicator, but then state raise it for an hour.... so clearly time does matter?! I would still say time is the more important factor. 170bpm for 10 minutes, or 130 for 3 hours? Clearly the latter will burn a lot more calories.
 
Sorry Andy it wasn't meant in nasty way, I just saw a few comments which around you cycling lots and not seeing the impact straight away, no offense at all intended. Yes I meant HR over time / distance matters most (or it does for for my work outs). The time factor is a bit of an odd one for me, a high impact 30 minutes seems to burn more than a lower impact 60 minutes.
 
ultralaser said:
I just saw a few comments which around you cycling lots and not seeing the impact straight away, no offense at all intended.
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Not offended, honestly confused. As I see the impact, I know exactly how it effects me and I have great control over my weight. I can only think you just saw me saying I'd put on weight while cycling loads of miles in Mallorca, but as said, that was more of a joke about how much buffet food I ate! :cry:

ultralaser said:
The time factor is a bit of an odd one for me, a high impact 30 minutes seems to burn more than a lower impact 60 minutes.
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I think it depends how low the low impact is. I do trust Strava quite a lot (I usually give it HR and power data to help). I remember going for an hours ride with a neighbour who turned out to be a lot slower than me. Looking at the numbers after, my average heart rate was around 106 and Strava said I'd burnt something like 300 calories. Normally in an hours ride I would burn 700+ cals with a HR of 140iish, so it was a really good lesson learnt for me. Low intensity is fine, as it allows longer 'fat burn' sessions (I'm talking 3 or 4 hours) but too low and you might as well just go for a nice walk!

I think Strava's 'Relative Effort' is quite interesting too. This is a number that suggests how much stress you put on your body and therefor how much you might want to recover. I can go for a nice steady 3½ hour ride and have an RE of 93 (this Sunday) or a high pace 3½ hour ride with an RE of 385 (the day before!) OR... a high intensity hour workout indoors and have an RE of 100. So Strava is saying I put more strain on my body in a high intensity workout of an hour than a 3½ casual ride. Which I completely believe. As for calories, the hour was still only just over 700 but the casual 3½ was 2,200. All really interesting stuff, but if your sole target is to loose weight, I would still recommend steady and long... (Mind you, the fast pace 3½ from Saturday burnt almost 3,500 cals, so intense and long is even better! :cry: )
 
Josh said:
May 2021 - 19st2
Today - 16st 5
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Actual today - 16st 0.6

Christ that's annoying but should be safely in the 15s next couple of weeks.

Started the 18/6 fast last week and doing some LISS cardio which seems to have worked.

So I'm over the 3st hump, but need to keep focus now, gym strength seems to be maintaining also which is lovely.
 
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Meh, fair few years ago I was 19st, hit the gym, sorted my diet, got down to 13st and looking pretty decent. Now back upto 18st. Time to do it again. :cry:
 
I am currently losing weight and the best way for me is to avoid junk food completely. I have cleared everything out of the house and didn't spend time in the supermarket near the cakes and sweet stuff. Eat more fruit and vegetables, only whole grains, pulses, but absolutely no processed food and no high-fat or high-sugar foods like suggested by link

There are plenty of ideas for healthier treats if you do need to have an indulgence
 
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RianBB said:
I have cleared everything out of the house and didn't spend time in the supermarket near the cakes and sweet stuff.
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It sounds obvious and almost silly, but you're right. Just not buying the wrong stuff in the first place makes it much easier not to eat it :cry:

Mind you, to my credit, I've had a bag of chocolates in my cupboard for a month or so now. I'm waiting for a time to treat myself :)
 
AndyCr15 said:
It sounds obvious and almost silly, but you're right. Just not buying the wrong stuff in the first place makes it much easier not to eat it :cry:

Mind you, to my credit, I've had a bag of chocolates in my cupboard for a month or so now. I'm waiting for a time to treat myself :)
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That's very impressive.

I went to one of those scoop places at the weekend, where they have the huge barrels full of food stuff, and you use it like a pick n mix place. I stocked up on loads of nuts/dried fruit/cracker things on the basis that it's a great snack that's relatively healthy and high in calories and thinking it'd last me ages. Spent around £20 in total
However my wife looked in the cupboard yesterday and noticed i'd already eaten far more than i should have! Mainly because some of it was salt and pepper cashews, and the flavouring has coated everything else making it extra delicious!

This is my problem with small high calorie foods. I crave volume for grazing and so it's easy for a small bowl of nuts/dried fruit to hit 500kcal and yet can be gone in a few handfuls. I need to find a better alternative really. Maybe i just need to cut up loads of carrot sticks!
 
Martynt74 said:
This is my problem with small high calorie foods
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One thing I think about is calories per cubic cm AND calories per minute. So, rice cakes are a reasonable size and take a little while to eat at only 70 cals for a couple = GOOD. Even those low calorie ice creams. Half a tub is 160 cals and takes me a good 10 minutes to eat (I'm very slow with things like ice creams and yogurts) = GOOD.

Handful of almonds, although healthy are 100 cals and literally gone in seconds = BAD :cry:
 
I'm not massively overweight but I have gained a stone and a half that I'd like to lose.

I find it really difficult to cut the rubbish foods out.

Being at home at the minute and it's easier to sit here and eat a bag of crisps and chocolate out of boredom.

The biggest annoyance is once I finish eating I'm always full of regret, and don't even enjoy the food half the time.

Anyone been through this sort of phase? What worked for you to change?
 
I think most of is go through that tbh. Personally, tracking EVERYTHING meant I just had to stop snacking. It does come down to will power though. For me, seeing the numbers clock up makes me just not snack, but this might not work for everyone. I don't think there's any secret to it, it's going to be hard.

Having said that, often when I'm hungry I have a coffee or a glass of water and it can stave off some of the hunger.

I actually find working from home makes it easier, but then I used to work in a supermarket where it wasn't uncommon for nice things to be given away or sold so cheap you might as well buy them! I have better control and less temptations at home.

Can you throw a little exercise in too? Even if it's just a 20 minute brisk walk? Work up from there?
 
ChocAndGray said:
I'm not massively overweight but I have gained a stone and a half that I'd like to lose.

I find it really difficult to cut the rubbish foods out.

Being at home at the minute and it's easier to sit here and eat a bag of crisps and chocolate out of boredom.

The biggest annoyance is once I finish eating I'm always full of regret, and don't even enjoy the food half the time.

Anyone been through this sort of phase? What worked for you to change?
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that's me all over !!
 
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