*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

AndyCr15 said:
I've been curious about these. What do you use and how do you use it? Is it like the Sapiens thing? (Wow, they're about £1,500 a year! And I thought my Whoop was expensive! :cry: )
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I signed up for Zoe (not for weight loss but for other dietary reasons) and you get one for two weeks. I don’t think it’s something that would be useful long term but it gave me some interesting insights over the fortnight. One, my body hates potatoes. They give me a massive sugar spike and crash. Two, short low effort rides are better fasted than with a snack before. Again, that usually just gives me a massive spike and crash. Three, if you’re going to eat dessert it’s much better to do it straight after dinner than leaving a gap. Assuming you’re having good quality protein, fats and fibre then it will help moderate your blood sugar response.

To be fair to Supersapiens the sensors themselves are relatively expensive (£96 per month) but I’m not sure it‘s worth it over the long term. A lot of the principles with blood sugar management are common knowledge and while it’s interesting to find out for yourself, I’d wager that potatoes, bread, rice and pasta are not good options by themselves at mealtimes for anyone. When it comes to riding, I think you’ll generally find your choice of carb source varies according to intensity with solid food and more complex carbs working better at lower effort and drinks/gels for harder rides.
 
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Yeah, I think I'd be most interested specifically in what happens on a 4 to 6 hour ride. For example, we'll stop for a coffee and brownie, but if we stay for maybe 40 or 50 minutes, I need to have a gel before we set off or I might be a little light-headed. I would love to know what's going on there.
 
AndyCr15 said:
SNIP(end of June, trip to Girona) SNIP
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Girona with bike I take it?
im there beginning of June ;)

been there this year already.

get ready for some HOT temps!

we've hit 40s in afternoons...not pleasant on bikes unless you really love heat LOL

great places to eat and drink.

great coffee shops for coffee and breakfast ;)

if you have any Q, give me a shout
 
bastic said:
if you have any Q, give me a shout
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You understand, we're looking at a graph of my weight over the year, I went to Girona in June... for the second time (and going back next November!) so I know it reasonably well.

Yes, it was crazy hot. Most of my times were way down due to dealing with the heat. Rocacorba in 36 degrees wasn't easy!

AndyCr15 said:
I think in 2024 (starting with Xmas) that's what I'll try and avoid.
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Hmm, with how much I ate yesterday, it's not started well.
 
Haha it’s always hard to be restrained.

I’ve been awful all month as we went to a Makro and my wife bought loads of snacks for the kids at Christmas that I just slowly worked my way through as soon as she opened them early.

Yesterday probably wasn’t too bad for food but booze was expectantly horrific.

Wife and kids still in bed. Think I might go and try a bike ride/hike.
 
Boxing day and I'm already fed up of Christmas, and the house is full of cake and boxes of biscuits.
Decided to step things up a notch for next year so have ordered David Goggins book.I shall never be David Goggins as the man is a machine and I am too old, and more importantly too lazy, but hoping to get my mindset in a better place going forward.
 
AndyCr15 said:
You understand, we're looking at a graph of my weight over the year, I went to Girona in June... for the second time (and going back next November!) so I know it reasonably well.

Yes, it was crazy hot. Most of my times were way down due to dealing with the heat. Rocacorba in 36 degrees wasn't easy!


Hmm, with how much I ate yesterday, it's not started well.
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aaahhh
misread it LOL
maybe i should be asking you for tips and routes ;)

Roca was not pleasant...
 
AndyCr15 said:
Yeah, I think I'd be most interested specifically in what happens on a 4 to 6 hour ride. For example, we'll stop for a coffee and brownie, but if we stay for maybe 40 or 50 minutes, I need to have a gel before we set off or I might be a little light-headed. I would love to know what's going on there.
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I’m not a doctor but my understanding is your insulin response will have kicked in about 15 mins after eating which will ultimately act to normalise your blood sugar levels. What it can mean is your blood sugar actually falls below normal then rises back up. If you’re setting off before it’s had chance to level off then you’ll feel hypo (aka bonking). A gel will obviously boost your sugar levels to overcome that. It can take 60-120 mins for blood sugar to level off so really you want to be eating stuff that is absorbed more slowly, or having it soon before leaving.
 
Alex_L said:
Just getting started on finally trying to get my weight, eating habits and exercise on an even keel. Trigger for this is hitting the big 40 and realised I’ve been consistently over 100kg and unfit for too long having left uni more like 85 kg. I’m 105 kg and 188cm now and starting to fear what long term damage I’m doing to my health (work medical said marginally high cholesterol) with two young kids and a stressful job. Having seen my dad’s health get worse from being consistently over weight I want to avoid that. I’d like to get down to 90 kg but more importantly stick at a weight around that number. I’ve tried exercise and diets (fasting and huel) in the past and usually manage 3 months max and then it all goes horribly wrong usually starting with off the diet with a bad week at work and then the exercise slips.

Self assessing:

Diet - I over eat and snack particularly late at night and during the work day. I’ve a terrible sweet tooth for snacks (prets chocolate bars etc) at work particularly when days are stressful (too often). I also travel a lot with work so eat out a lot. Diets been the thing I’ve never really tackled as I like food too much and stress eat. This time I’m going to tackle the diet as I think that’s been the real issue previously as I could only ever tolerate doing huel during the day. I think I need to finally have a go at proper calorie counting so looking at that now to make it easy. I’m tempted to try one of these meal prep services (Lionprep maybe) to make calorie counting easier and also control portions generally kick start things.

Drinking - I’m basically tee total so no quick wins here :( don’t drink sugary soft drinks either.

Exercise - Used to swim a lot and enjoyed that but struggle to fit it in around kids and work now. Have a peloton and peloton guide which my wife’s addicted to but I have struggled to get addicted to but when I get going I can get into good habits for a few months and find it helps with stress at work as well. I’m less worried about getting consistent on exercise. I’m going to potentially find some sports to do for the social aspect more than anything And maybe over time look at cycling to work or the station.

Anyway. Really here to give myself some accountability by starting to check in regularly with my progress (all my mates are fitness addicts so don’t get my struggle) and making some sustained changes this time.

105kg. 0kg lost.
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So first check in having buried my head in the sand following my post due to lack of progress.

Currently 103kg. So no real progress in 2 months overall but least i didn't gain any more having added 10kg in last 12 months.

i have been calorie counting and found my real issue is snacks at work during the week and post dinner snacking pushing near to 3-3500 per day. So I’m working to cut those down but definitely not easy.

Exercise wise has been streaky through a lot of work travel (3 weeks in the US = lot of dinners with clients + no exercise) so the focus now is on consistency and also exercising whilst away from home with work.
 
@Alex_L - 2 kg down over the festive season is not to be sniffed at!

You’ve identified problem areas and have an action plan to address it. Rather than cutting out snacks, look carefully at what you’re snacking on and see if you can make sensible substitutions. Good luck!
 
tom_nieto said:
@Alex_L - 2 kg down over the festive season is not to be sniffed at!

You’ve identified problem areas and have an action plan to address it. Rather than cutting out snacks, look carefully at what you’re snacking on and see if you can make sensible substitutions. Good luck!
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Good challenge on the progress. I’m trying to cut the after dinner snacking where possible or switch to fruits when I’d normally reach for something sugary or peanut butter from the tub (a weird high calorie habit!)

Daytime snacks I’m adopting the kids snacks of lentil crackers and fruit vs. Pret’s sugary treats.

On the calorie counting - have people found things like lions prep good for making it easy? I live on a diet of pret a manager etc during the week at work so interested in alternatives
 
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