*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***
- Thread starter AndyCr15
- Start date
I made the black forest ice cream today although I forgot about the cocoa powder! It was very nice, more like a berry Mr Whippy ice cream with a hint of chocolate.
I blended:
300 ml of semi skimmed milk (starting with half and adding the other half partway)
50g of chocolate whey protein
500g frozen black forest fruit mix
1 sachet of Hartley's no sugar raspberry
This could easily serve 4 people at 150 calories each and 15g of protein.
I blended:
300 ml of semi skimmed milk (starting with half and adding the other half partway)
50g of chocolate whey protein
500g frozen black forest fruit mix
1 sachet of Hartley's no sugar raspberry
This could easily serve 4 people at 150 calories each and 15g of protein.
Sounds great! Could you use skimmed milk instead out of interest? Or perhaps almond milk? Just wondering whether the calories could be reduced and keep the overall protein levels.
Blending frozen fruit to make smoothie/ice cream is awesome!
Yeah, I guess at that volume it would make quite a difference in calories. I'm tempted to switch some of the milk for water and use more protein powder, next up is strawberry and blueberry so I'll update with the results!
Caporegime
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Thought I’ll post in here to give myself some accountability and tracking my progress.
My weekly routine is (when it’s not raining), I would walk 2.7km each way to and from work. Starting weight photo below from last Wednesday. The initial lost is just water weight so the real progress starts now.
The plan is simply watch what I eat, using MyFitnessPal and create a calorie deficit (1600 cal per day). Will post once a week to show progress.
I have a Withings Scales which keeps track every time I step on it.
My weekly routine is (when it’s not raining), I would walk 2.7km each way to and from work. Starting weight photo below from last Wednesday. The initial lost is just water weight so the real progress starts now.
The plan is simply watch what I eat, using MyFitnessPal and create a calorie deficit (1600 cal per day). Will post once a week to show progress.
I have a Withings Scales which keeps track every time I step on it.
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Here’s something that really helps for me.
I take a picture on my phone of everything I eat, good or bad.
I’m massively consistent at eating the same thing or variation do the same thing most days. Breakfast is basically always 65g oats, 150ml milk, small banana and 10g raisins.
Lunch is a pre seasoned chicken pack from Tesco cooked (split over 2 days), microwave veg pack, air fried potatoes - sometimes I change the meat or the veg type.
I take a picture on my phone of everything I eat, good or bad.
I’m massively consistent at eating the same thing or variation do the same thing most days. Breakfast is basically always 65g oats, 150ml milk, small banana and 10g raisins.
Lunch is a pre seasoned chicken pack from Tesco cooked (split over 2 days), microwave veg pack, air fried potatoes - sometimes I change the meat or the veg type.
In the week I try to do similar consistency (without the photos). Weekends are my issue!
Breakfast - 80g oats, 300ml almond milk, scattering of frozen summer fruits. I upgrade to whole milk at the weekends with the kids but don't have anything on top.
Lunch - 130g oven cooked chicken breast, 85g packet brown basmati rice and 100g broccoli. Add hot sauce to keep it interesting! Also bring an apple, an orange and a Kvarg yoghurt.
Still a bit stuck above 90kg, but I think I've had an inadvertent bulk which is no bad thing. As long as I'm drifting down rather than up I'm happy. Bit of a treat week with birthday celebrations last week so not looking too bad overall.
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It's been about a month since I last posted, I'm 44 and 192cm. I was 99.4kg at the beginning of Dec and now down to 86.9kg which is slightly lower than my pre-pandemic weight.
I'm not working currently so this process has been at the absolute forefront of my headspace / mental focus for the duration.
The key things have been the strict calorie counting, no stir frys/ crisps etc., and also the consistency of the food. I'll fast most days till around 12/1pm and then have a huel black shake which is 400cal. I then normally have some homemade soup which is absolutely packed with veg around 3pm with some wholemeal bread and then have a fairly simple dinner and light snacks. Usually track in at 1800-2000cal each day.
I'm using my pressure cooker a lot for making batches of pulled chicken. I can season or spice this as I please and it's been a brilliant alternative to frying meat.
I'll usually do 1/1.5hrs of zone2 cycling a few times in the week and I time this to take place around 10am before I come out of the fast.
If I plan a more intense cycle or if I'm playing golf, then I ditch the fasting and just have porridge and bananas for breakfast so that I'm fueled up for the extra exertion. The huel is a decent recovery drink afterwards.
I'm not working currently so this process has been at the absolute forefront of my headspace / mental focus for the duration.
The key things have been the strict calorie counting, no stir frys/ crisps etc., and also the consistency of the food. I'll fast most days till around 12/1pm and then have a huel black shake which is 400cal. I then normally have some homemade soup which is absolutely packed with veg around 3pm with some wholemeal bread and then have a fairly simple dinner and light snacks. Usually track in at 1800-2000cal each day.
I'm using my pressure cooker a lot for making batches of pulled chicken. I can season or spice this as I please and it's been a brilliant alternative to frying meat.
I'll usually do 1/1.5hrs of zone2 cycling a few times in the week and I time this to take place around 10am before I come out of the fast.
If I plan a more intense cycle or if I'm playing golf, then I ditch the fasting and just have porridge and bananas for breakfast so that I'm fueled up for the extra exertion. The huel is a decent recovery drink afterwards.
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Fantastic progress, good sustainable habits as well so hopefully no big rebound
Thank you very much. Yeah things will be very different when I'm back at work in a few weeks so I'll need to take a more balanced approach to it rather than staying "all in".
I think if I can get to 85-86 I'll try to stick to around that for a while, will see what happens though!
I guess it's closer to 3 months and 13kg, which isn't that abnormal. I dropped 35-40kg in 6½ months for example.
I try and plan my day so Huel is after exercise and I honestly really look forward to it as a meal if I've just been sweating for an hour! Thirsty and hungry? Huel hits the spot!
Kind of dreading the scales on Monday when i'm back at my rental again. I know i said i was hopeful of getting under 100kg, but i've treated this trip as a bit of a holiday with booze as we're in a small tourist village by the coast, so lots of restaurants and bars to visit.
For those of you who have had extended periods of wanting to sort things out, but putting it off and not doing what you know is needed. How did you snap out of it? My main issue is that i had great success years ago coming from around 110kg down to 93kg, then did so much exercise each week that i ended up eating a lot to replace lost calories and generally was able to out train a poor diet. Along with also having the mindset of someone who enjoyed running a lot and so was so excited at the thought of getting up at 4am on a Weekend morning to go and run in the mountains for 10 hours that there was no time to consume unhealthy food or alcohol at the times when there's usually the biggest risk. I'd often then come home and eat a takeaway pizza, but it didn't matter as i'd have burnt more than enough calories.
Since my injury i just can't motivate myself. I do bits of exercise of maybe 2-3 hours a week in total, but not like i used to, and low enough volume that i could easily drink over a bottle of wine one night and then do an hours run or 2 hour bike ride the next morning. So there's not that side of things to motivate me.
I know that there's a good chance that losing some weight and doing strength work might actually help my foot and allow me to run a bit more, but i just don't seem to be able to snap my brain into being healthy for more than a few days at a time before i lapse and have a day of consuming around 5000kcal and undo everything that i've done the prior week.
It was certainly easier in the UK where it wasn't as easy to go out for a bit and drop over a bar where i can have a cold beer sat outside and then order some fried chicken wings or something and only pay around €3 in total, but it's been 5 months now and i need to get into a routine which is sustainable, so that's not a valid excuse.
I do go through phases of calorie counting as i know it's useful, and it has been for me in the past, but even there, my brain just doesn't seem to care like it once did. If i look at the app at the end of the day and it says i'm 1000kcal over my target, i just kind of shrug and lie to myself it won't happen again.
I know something needs to change, and that it's 100% mental. I just need to try and understand what that is. I've even been the same with actual exercise, i think i'll do a long bike ride/hike at the weekend and look forward to it, and plan out routes etc, then Friday night rolls around. I'll finish work, open wine, have rum, then wake up and put it off till the next day, only to spend the day drinking and being super unhealthy again!
Reading the above makes it sound like it's an alcohol dependancy thing, but i'm fairly sure it's not that. I'm happy to have a single beer in isolation or have 0% beers as a choice over alcoholic ones. Likewise i can easily not drink if there are reasons not to, and have cut down a lot from where i was and now it's probably more a case of binge drinking causing the issues at weekends rather than regular consumption. It's something else that's missing that seems to be causing it. Partly i think it's me mourning not being able to do something i loved, but that i need to snap myself out of and just accept it.
For those of you who have had extended periods of wanting to sort things out, but putting it off and not doing what you know is needed. How did you snap out of it? My main issue is that i had great success years ago coming from around 110kg down to 93kg, then did so much exercise each week that i ended up eating a lot to replace lost calories and generally was able to out train a poor diet. Along with also having the mindset of someone who enjoyed running a lot and so was so excited at the thought of getting up at 4am on a Weekend morning to go and run in the mountains for 10 hours that there was no time to consume unhealthy food or alcohol at the times when there's usually the biggest risk. I'd often then come home and eat a takeaway pizza, but it didn't matter as i'd have burnt more than enough calories.
Since my injury i just can't motivate myself. I do bits of exercise of maybe 2-3 hours a week in total, but not like i used to, and low enough volume that i could easily drink over a bottle of wine one night and then do an hours run or 2 hour bike ride the next morning. So there's not that side of things to motivate me.
I know that there's a good chance that losing some weight and doing strength work might actually help my foot and allow me to run a bit more, but i just don't seem to be able to snap my brain into being healthy for more than a few days at a time before i lapse and have a day of consuming around 5000kcal and undo everything that i've done the prior week.
It was certainly easier in the UK where it wasn't as easy to go out for a bit and drop over a bar where i can have a cold beer sat outside and then order some fried chicken wings or something and only pay around €3 in total, but it's been 5 months now and i need to get into a routine which is sustainable, so that's not a valid excuse.
I do go through phases of calorie counting as i know it's useful, and it has been for me in the past, but even there, my brain just doesn't seem to care like it once did. If i look at the app at the end of the day and it says i'm 1000kcal over my target, i just kind of shrug and lie to myself it won't happen again.
I know something needs to change, and that it's 100% mental. I just need to try and understand what that is. I've even been the same with actual exercise, i think i'll do a long bike ride/hike at the weekend and look forward to it, and plan out routes etc, then Friday night rolls around. I'll finish work, open wine, have rum, then wake up and put it off till the next day, only to spend the day drinking and being super unhealthy again!
Reading the above makes it sound like it's an alcohol dependancy thing, but i'm fairly sure it's not that. I'm happy to have a single beer in isolation or have 0% beers as a choice over alcoholic ones. Likewise i can easily not drink if there are reasons not to, and have cut down a lot from where i was and now it's probably more a case of binge drinking causing the issues at weekends rather than regular consumption. It's something else that's missing that seems to be causing it. Partly i think it's me mourning not being able to do something i loved, but that i need to snap myself out of and just accept it.
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Finding something else that you love doing which is less impactful on your foot might help - perhaps you could make a list of different things to try and give them a go?
It doesn't necessarily have to involve intensive exercise but I'd stay clear of anything that's too sedentary and lets you snack while you're doing it.
Yeah, i do a few other things. I fairly enjoy cycling, just don't have the same love if that makes sense.
Walking/Hiking in the hills is another option, but again that could be impactful on my foot. Especially in the mountains where i'm most happy due to the rocky terrain around here.
I did buy a mountain bike to try and combine cycling with being in the mountains and off road, but similar to the above, i'm limited to ability, and naturally lack a lot of balance/agility which gives no confidence for some steep rocky descents which are inevitable around here, even if only trying to do "cross country" style riding.
Swimming has never really interested me, i do a few laps but get bored. Similarly i don't mind paddle boarding/kayaking, but proximity to the sea stops that being a regular option. It's also a bit slow which gets boring. Especially on the coast where the scenery never changes.
I've got weights and an indoor rower, and i do use them, maybe a few times a week.
I do think cycling is the best option. My main issue that due to weight and the hills here, they wipe me out. With running that was always fine as it was easy to just stop and walk but keep the momentum for a break. With cycling i often have to pull over and stop to rest my legs, which then makes setting off again difficult.
I think that eventually, i'd get the weight off and the strength in my legs to make it more doable in a low gear, and so could spin my way up without much power. It's just the effort to get to that ability level i'm lacking the motivation for, although i cycle maybe 2-3 times a week.
The main benefit is that it gives me the potential for big endurance sessions which i love.
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Any chance you can see a physio? They should be able to give you advice on how to protect/strengthen your foot whilst keeping the exercise up.
In the absence of talking to people who actually know things, my suggestion is that you try strapping your ankle up with kinesiology tape and wearing boot style walking boots to give extra support and see if that helps. Walking should be reasonably low impact and help build your fitness until you can comfortably talk on harder exercise.
Yeah it's not really anything that can be fixed (without surgery) as it's a nerve issue between my toes. I've had a few cortisone injections but the knock on impact is it erodes the fat pad in the foot which reduces impact protection! With my toe socks i can generally walk around the house ok which is decent as it forces my toes apart and reduces the compression on the nerve.
Strength wise, i'm generally ok. I do loads of calf raises with weights, split squats and tib raises to try and strengthen the general area, along with some hip flexor stretch/strengthening. Along with toe spreaders, foam rolling and ice on the sole of the foot. It's helped me get to where i am able to do short bits of running and fitness is generally ok, but it just takes something aggravating the nerve to immobilise me for days.
There's the option of surgery, but reading facebook groups, there's just as much risk as growing a "stump" neuroma which is worse than the actual neuroma in the first place! Which is why i've been taking all the steps above to try and fix it manually.
Cycle but don't "cycle" - do away with thinking about your FTP, Total watts on the session etc and just get kicking about on your bike as much as possible. Treat that as your walking if that causes you pain.
In terms of diet... I always struggled with being either all in, or going crazy... finding a middle ground where I eat sensibly as much as I can seems to be working for the best
In terms of diet... I always struggled with being either all in, or going crazy... finding a middle ground where I eat sensibly as much as I can seems to be working for the best
Yeah, i think that's kind of what i do. Maybe i need to stop taking the computer out with me, or at least having it locked on the navigation screen. It's too easy to see avg watts and then push yourself a bit!
It's not helped that the roads around me here are so busy. Hopefully can enjoy it again more when i'm back in my place at the weekend.
What size cassette do you have? I have a 34 on the back of both of mine. No shame in gently spinning your way up the hills.