*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

[AndyCr15]

My own experience is the numbers seem to add up and work reasonably well. I think the more data you can give the software, the better chance it has of getting it more accurate, so not only a HRM, I think more importantly a power meter (if applicable to your exercise). What I think can be inaccurate is the calculators that work out how much your daily allowance is. I've kind of worked that out myself, then do the maths on the activities on top of that.

This was based on my assessment of my activity level as ‘not very active’. This has previously worked (although not as fast as predicted) when my daily exercise wasn’t more than a leisurely walk.

I’ve now upped my regular activity level. Having done a short stint of cardio which the machine tells me was worth 300 calories, should I now eat 300 more to break even and still lose at the same rate?

I think one mistake people make is, you can't include your logged exercise when judging how active you are. So, if I sit at a desk all day and night, I put myself as inactive. If I then start jugging at lunch time every day, which gets tracked in Strava and I get credited with the calories burnt, but I stay sat at the desk all day still, I should leave it as inactive. If I make that more active, I'm getting credited twice with going for a run.

 

[Martynt74]

My weight seems to have jumped up at an alarming rate. I hovered around 95kg for ages, and then it feels like almost overnight a few weeks ago it jumped to 98kg and has stayed there.

I really need to try and get on top of it again.

 

[Martynt74]

My own experience is the numbers seem to add up and work reasonably well. I think the more data you can give the software, the better chance it has of getting it more accurate, so not only a HRM, I think more importantly a power meter (if applicable to your exercise). What I think can be inaccurate is the calculators that work out how much your daily allowance is. I've kind of worked that out myself, then do the maths on the activities on top of that.


I think one mistake people make is, you can't include your logged exercise when judging how active you are. So, if I sit at a desk all day and night, I put myself as inactive. If I then start jugging at lunch time every day, which gets tracked in Strava and I get credited with the calories burnt, but I stay sat at the desk all day still, I should leave it as inactive. If I make that more active, I'm getting credited twice with going for a run.

Yeah, i always set my activity levels as "not active" as outside of specific exercise i generally won't do much.

 

[TrojanWhore]

The mayo was vegan mayo and again, as I said once the stock in the fridge has gone it will be all replaced with lighter stuff.

I bought 2 x skinny Co. Sauces and they taste artificially rank. Garlic n herb sauce is not meant to be so sweet. Over my lettuce it was rank and the caesar salad dressing is also very sweet.

Yeap just a suggestion based on what I found.

Yeah some of the skinny sauces are really not nice, but the syrups are spot on

Yeah I'd agree on the skinny sauces - tried the garlic mayo one and the flavour was very artificial (but not awful), but the consistency was very strange, too liquidy and no good for e.g. dipping chips in. The maple syrup is pretty good (been having it with Greg Doucette's anabolic French toast recipe!) and is only 17kcal/bottle also been using a dash of it to sweeten coffee.

If you guys have a B&M nearby, that's the cheapest I've found them, at £1.99 a bottle!

 

[SixTwoSix]

Abused my body over the weekend, Domino's Thursday, KFC friday, BBQ/beers saturday - few more beers on Sunday/Monday (off work and gaming).

Was weighing in around 81.5KG last Thursday morning - 82.6KG yesterday - down to 81.9KG this morning - all weigh ins done same time - one bad weekend doesn't necessarily undo all the good work.

Good to just say **** it every now and then, trick is, not repeating this every weekend for a month

 

[barmyllama]

Abused my body over the weekend, Domino's Thursday, KFC friday, BBQ/beers saturday - few more beers on Sunday/Monday (off work and gaming).

Was weighing in around 81.5KG last Thursday morning - 82.6KG yesterday - down to 81.9KG this morning - all weigh ins done same time - one bad weekend doesn't necessarily undo all the good work.

Good to just say **** it every now and then, trick is, not repeating this every weekend for a month

Weekend? That's five days mate

I think if your nutrition is "clean" 80% of the time then indulging for the other 20% is fine.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Weekend? That's five days mate

I think if your nutrition is "clean" 80% of the time then indulging for the other 20% is fine.

Loooong weekend

I'm pretty militant on my food intake most of the time but when I let go, I really let go!

 

[Syla5]

Pretty sure i could undo any deficit if i was only clean 80% of the time

Im slowly creeping cals back up averaged 2150 last week, aiming for 2300 this week.

Weight at start of reverse diet 10st 6.2lb, weight this morning 10st 5.8lb.

Still wondering what my actual maintenance level will be, im hoping 2350-2400.

 

[barmyllama]

Loooong weekend

I'm pretty militant on my food intake most of the time but when I let go, I really let go!

Same here.

I find it easier to abstain, but once I start it's no holds barred gluttony.

 

[ic1male]

I find it easier to abstain, but once I start it's no holds barred gluttony.

And me. I made the mistake of going to Waitrose, which means I stock up on the stuff that they do best - most of it not good for you. Hence now I am 5lbs heavier than I was a week ago. Can you believe it!

 

[ATiRubyfan]

May I pose a question? Does a daily pot noodles diet increase or decrease weight?

 

[tom_e]

May I pose a question? Does a daily pot noodles diet increase or decrease weight?

Depends how many you're eating. If you're staying under your maintenance calories you'll lose weight if you go over you'll gain but either way living on pot noodles will leave you feeling like death.

 

[AndyCr15]

If you're staying under your maintenance calories you'll lose weight if you go over you'll gain

Isn't it odd that people don't just know this... isn't it common sense?

I put on 6lbs while cycling in the Alps... kind of amazing really, given how hard work it was, how much I sweat etc, but then I wasn't watching what I was eating at all. In fact, I was intentionally eating a lot to make sure I had the energy! It wasn't a surprise, the same thing happened after Mallorca. Already I've dropped 5lbs back off...

I'm at 15st 7 at the moment. I panicked a little at 15st 12 and thought I need to hit this diet hard again, but now it's back down again, maybe I can relax a little.

I'm also wondering if it's healthy or unhealthy to be paying this much attention to my weight? Reminds me of the Fred Flintoff BBC show where he talks about having bulimia and my friend (having watched it and telling me to watch it) says I might have it I think one of the points was it's not always about making yourself sick, it's about maybe binge eating but then going and exercising. Tracking all your calories etc, including those exercised. Was an interesting watch actually.

 

[Martynt74]

I think i certainly bother about it less, and don't use MFP too often either. I've found what works for me is to just do a bi-weekly weigh and then monitor if it's going up too much.

I would say my ideal weight is around 94kg. I'd say that 99% of the time my intake is perfect from a maintenance point of view and it hovers around that point. However i'll occasionally have the odd bad week and it'll creep up to ~97kg, at that point i put a little effort in for a few weeks to be mindful and bring it back under control, then i kind of take my eye off again. I know it's not increased due to my normal lifestyle, but just an overly bad couple days.

 

[AndyCr15]

I think my problem is, if I ate when I wanted, if I was hungry, I end up well over 3,000 calories in a day, so it's a bit of an effort to stay at a maintenance level for me. I kind of have to pay attention or I will start putting weight back on.

People said when you adjust your diet, you'll get used to it and not feel hungry. That never happened for me I'm almost always hungry still.

 

[Martynt74]

High levels of cardio do do that i find though and i believe it's pretty well documented.

My food is fairly standard each day though

Breakfast - Porridge with banana/honey
Dinner - Sandwich/Soup/Wrap of some kind
Tea - Whatever we're having

I know roughly that breakfast is ~450kcal, tea will be around 600-800 depending on what we have and then dinner will likely be under 500. I'll sometimes throw in fruit if i get peckish, but other than that i don't really eat much during the day, so know i'll always be ~2000kcal.

The reasons for my weight gain are 2.

1 - I can easily drink a lot, having 5 beers on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and you're hitting around 3500kcal just for that, and it's not even *that* much. I make an effort not to drink midweek, and try not to have that much at weekends, but it's easily done if i'm in the mood.
2 - Snacking when my wife goes to bed. I'll happily whack a load of butter/peanut butter on toast, have 3 slices and boom that's around 800kcal that i didn't need at all, but was boredom eating!

 

[AndyCr15]

i didn't need at all, but was boredom eating!

I think this is a big thing. If I can keep busy I don't notice the hunger. Last night, after work, I was meeting friends and cycling. We went out for about 2½ hours, I'd only had half a Huel before. When I got in, I wasn't even hungry and didn't eat anything else until 9pm (sometimes exercise really suppresses hunger. In fact, I just heard about HIIT type things generate something in your body that suppresses hunger and I'd certainly put in some high efforts in the ride)

If I finish work and sit about the flat, I'll eat 600 to 7600 cals for dinner, but then be hungry around 7/7:30 so might snack on some Popchips (340 cals) and then eat 500 to 600 cals again before bed, or my stomach will wake me up at 2am hungry...

 

[SixTwoSix]

I think my problem is, if I ate when I wanted, if I was hungry, I end up well over 3,000 calories in a day

I can relate to this massively - however I do snack on savoury stuff which is notoriously calorie dense rather than healthier options.

 

[Syla5]

I think my problem is, if I ate when I wanted, if I was hungry, I end up well over 3,000 calories in a day, so it's a bit of an effort to stay at a maintenance level for me. I kind of have to pay attention or I will start putting weight back on.

People said when you adjust your diet, you'll get used to it and not feel hungry. That never happened for me I'm almost always hungry still.

This is me all day long, I can eat endlessly without issue, i can do 3-5k cals per day, which makes my 2.4-2.5k maintenance important to track quick closely. Fortunately im happy tracking still, as im looking to build up a full year of data.

 

[tom_e]

Mrs and step daughter sat and ate a Burger King in front of me last night while I was enjoying my chicken, potatoes and salad.
Didn't interest me in the slightest which is a massive mental move forward for me.

The old me after being up at 0430, in the office all day, 2 hour commute and a gym session on the way home would have caved just to avoid spending the 10 minutes in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Goal is now 207lb before my wedding in mid August so approx 8lbs to go.