*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

[barmyllama]

@R.O.S.S.I

Swap the protein powder and almond milk for 250g 0% Greek yogurt or Skyr. More protein and more satiating than drinking a protein shake.

I'd also agree that 1000 calorie diet isn't sustainable and you'll end up back were you started at some point.

As I've suggested before to others. 5/2 fasting worked for me. 600 calories a day for two non consecutive days a week. You say you're already fasting until lunch time, so you could do and have two 300 calorie meals a day or one 600.

I found that easy to maintain as well, to the point that I did it for around 10 years and maintained a 72kg weight for all that time. Other than holidays when I didn't fast.

 

[Syla5]

Those are all very fair points, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think i've always just associated a high caloric deficit to being the quickest way to drop weight. i.e a 1000-1500 deficit is going to lose me weight much quicker than just being 500-750 deficit, for example.

I have also never really tracked calories properly previously and may start doing it now so was thinking about trying 1200 calories to get started. What kind of macro split would you recommend on 1200 calories?

My goals are to drop the 10-12kg I have put on in the last 12 months and then try and get myself down to 70kg. I used to box a couple years ago and was training pretty consistently, getting myself down to 72kg at one point but have typically hovered around 74-76kg for a long long time which I was quite happy with.

Ask yourself why youve put the weight back on, if you have previously done high deficits, see my comment on crash dieting and the studies of those that partake, with the majority of those putting all the weight back on.

Really a start point is heavily dependant on your stats, and activity levels, how active are you, how many steps do you do per day for example? how many gym sessions per week.

Tracking everything down to the splash of milk you put in a tea or coffee and sources you have with dinner etc. You probably dont realise just how full of cals mayo, sweet chilli dips etc are! 20-30g 200-300 cals!

As a really rough guide I would suggest starting out on 1800-1900 calories. Protein you should aim to hit 1g per lb of realistic target bodyweight so lets take 76kg you want to be focusing on 168g protein (round up for ease), the i would suggest 30-40g fats, then you fill the rest of your calorie balance with carbs.

This would be something like:
170g Protein = 680 cals
40g Fat = 360 cals
190g carbs = 760 cals
Thats 1800 cals, add on an extra 25g carbs to go up to 1900 cals.

Ive just dropped 11kg from 77kg to 66kg in the first half of the year. My lowest cals were 1650ish and i had 6 weeks at maintenance where i averaged 2.3k.

Again whats the rush? why start down a path that will have a high likelihood of end back where you began?

**edit**

A bigger deficit will also lose you muscle mass faster as well, and have a quicker affect on your metabolism as well. All negative when you go back the other way, a lower metabolism, and less muscle, will mean a lower maintenance that you might breeze past once you stop your deficit.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

@R.O.S.S.I

Swap the protein powder and almond milk for 250g 0% Greek yogurt or Skyr. More protein and more satiating than drinking a protein shake.

I'd also agree that 1000 calorie diet isn't sustainable and you'll end up back were you started at some point.

As I've suggested before to others. 5/2 fasting worked for me. 600 calories a day for two non consecutive days a week. You say you're already fasting until lunch time, so you could do and have two 300 calorie meals a day or one 600.

I found that easy to maintain as well, to the point that I did it for around 10 years and maintained a 72kg weight for all that time. Other than holidays when I didn't fast.

Oh yeh, I have just Googled the yoghurt and didn't realise they were both calorically equivalent. Can just pop a bit of banana on top of that and it would be super filling I bet, great shout.

Ask yourself why youve put the weight back on, if you have previously done high deficits, see my comment on crash dieting and the studies of those that partake, with the majority of those putting all the weight back on.

Really a start point is heavily dependant on your stats, and activity levels, how active are you, how many steps do you do per day for example? how many gym sessions per week.

Tracking everything down to the splash of milk you put in a tea or coffee and sources you have with dinner etc. You probably dont realise just how full of cals mayo, sweet chilli dips etc are! 20-30g 200-300 cals!

As a really rough guide I would suggest starting out on 1800-1900 calories. Protein you should aim to hit 1g per lb of realistic target bodyweight so lets take 76kg you want to be focusing on 168g protein (round up for ease), the i would suggest 30-40g fats, then you fill the rest of your calorie balance with carbs.

This would be something like:
170g Protein = 680 cals
40g Fat = 360 cals
190g carbs = 760 cals
Thats 1800 cals, add on an extra 25g carbs to go up to 1900 cals.

Ive just dropped 11kg from 77kg to 66kg in the first half of the year. My lowest cals were 1650ish and i had 6 weeks at maintenance where i averaged 2.3k.

Again whats the rush? why start down a path that will have a high likelihood of end back where you began?

**edit**

A bigger deficit will also lose you muscle mass faster as well, and have a quicker affect on your metabolism as well. All negative when you go back the other way, a lower metabolism, and less muscle, will mean a lower maintenance that you might breeze past once you stop your deficit.

I've put the weight back on because i've not paid muchj attention to my date in recent months due to moving back from another country and then moving around the UK quite regularly so found it hard to get into a rhythm. I'm settled somewhere now so shouldn't be too hard to get into the swing of things.

In terms of my job I'm pretty sedentary however I do try and get to the gym 3-5 times a week in the morning before work. I used to do F45 quite regularly when I lived in Australia but the classes in my gym over here aren't quite as good and I cant justify the spend of F45 here! I'm thinking about trying to do more resistance and strength training again, any recommendations for a program to follow?

What sort of training were you doing alongside the calorie counting to drop the 11kg?

 

[Syla5]

I've put the weight back on because i've not paid much attention to my date in recent months due to moving back from another country and then moving around the UK quite regularly so found it hard to get into a rhythm. I'm settled somewhere now so shouldn't be too hard to get into the swing of things.

In terms of my job I'm pretty sedentary however I do try and get to the gym 3-5 times a week in the morning before work. I used to do F45 quite regularly when I lived in Australia but the classes in my gym over here aren't quite as good and I cant justify the spend of F45 here! I'm thinking about trying to do more resistance and strength training again, any recommendations for a program to follow?

What sort of training were you doing alongside the calorie counting to drop the 11kg?

I train 4 days a week doing weights and i make sure i get in 10k steps per day. No missed sessions, no mega binges. I made a post of my progress a couple of pages back with some of the details in it as well.

I followed jeff nippards fundamental hypertrophy program, the upper lower split. Its obtainable via a quick google search.

I cant stress enough how important the tracking was, out of all the parts it was the biggest for sure.

 

[AndyCr15]

Have you thought about not dropping the calories so low, but upping the exercise instead? I dropped to 1,700 cals but cycled 30-50 minutes a day for a couple of months and lost a stone each month. I then started increasing the calories, but also increasing the cycling and continued to lose a stone a month...

 

[barmyllama]

Been back from holiday 5 days now and this morning's weigh in was a 2.5kg loss.

So there's the water weight gone, which hopefully I won't gain back over the weekend by cheating.

Definitely going to try hard to stick to the 1800 calories a day I've been on all week. I find it so easy to be disciplined in the week and a lot of the times over the weekend too. But the minute I start on biscuits, cake, crisps or chocolate I get triggered and eat to excess.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Brother in law came in last night with a Dominos 'absolute banger' pizza for me (he often does this but normally asks first and I generally say no) - I unashamedly said **** it and ate the whole thing over the evening, shudder to think of the calories but one day isn't going to kill overall progress.

Weight up 400g from yesterday morning - that's probably all the water I drank all night as dominos make me thirsty as hell.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

First day back on MyFitnessPal yesterday. Hopefully last more than a few days this time....



Didn't feel hungry as that dinner was huge, didn't eat my gym calories either so that's a good thing. Back at gym again tonight for a long sesh which will include cardio, weights and swimming.

 

[SixTwoSix]

Didn't feel hungry as that dinner was huge, didn't eat my gym calories either so that's a good thing. Back at gym again tonight for a long sesh which will include cardio, weights and swimming.

I always feel it's worth switching off activity calories in the daily calculations as it can tempt you to eat more as you've 'earned it'.

I'm assuming that 2601 goal includes extra activity calories and isn't the baseline

 

[Liquid_Entity]

yes base line is 1690

thats a good point, I shall do that now

edit: I have no idea where to turn it off.

 

[SixTwoSix]

yes base line is 1690

thats a good point, I shall do that now

edit: I have no idea where to turn it off.

Diary, 3 dots next to Exercise, disable exercise calories - assuming using the app - hope this helps.

edit: or Goals, bottom of page, switch off exercise calories.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

ahhhh, locked behind the paywall.

 

[SixTwoSix]

ahhhh, locked behind the paywall.

I'm using basic - definitely haven't paid for premium.

 

[Syla5]

Just don’t track exercise in the MFP app. Fitness trackers are woefully inaccurate for calorie burn and it should have never been an implemented feature, especially when calorie calculations factor in activity levels already!!

 

[NickK]

Checked my weight this morning. Although the BMI isn't great as it ignores muscle mass, 85.5Kg 6'4 puts me bang in the middle of 'normal' now. I've lost a stone since the retreat. I also eat healthier - although I now I need to adjust to keep where I am. Without caffeine or sugar, the Mrs finds I have less tiredness better sleep and less snacking. I can't eat the portions I used to eat and my taste had changed and more sensitive to fat and sugar, to the point they don't taste good (forget fish & chips, crisps and most takeaways).

 

[NickK]

First day back on MyFitnessPal yesterday. Hopefully last more than a few days this time....



Didn't feel hungry as that dinner was huge, didn't eat my gym calories either so that's a good thing. Back at gym again tonight for a long sesh which will include cardio, weights and swimming.

Where are the veggies? Try to make a meal that is 1/2 veggies, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carbohydrate (sugar & fat being carbohydrates). Protein will make you feel full. You may loose weight but intake is unbalanced.

As a snack suggestions: a thin rice cake + 1 level teaspoon of peanut butter and 1/2 a banana sliced on top. Also another easy snack is to have a easy pealer clementine.

Pretty much every cereal is packed full of sugar. Try 100g of unsweetened coconut yogurt + 25g of unsweetened muesli, then add 3 sliced strawberries, 4 sliced grapes and 4 blueberries then sprinkling a pinch of sunflower seeds & chia seeds. Another breakfast is make a unsweetened oat porridge with almond milk, add the fruits and have a normal glass of smoothie with kiwi, kale, spinach, pineapple etc.

 

[barmyllama]

First day back on MyFitnessPal yesterday. Hopefully last more than a few days this time....



Didn't feel hungry as that dinner was huge, didn't eat my gym calories either so that's a good thing. Back at gym again tonight for a long sesh which will include cardio, weights and swimming.

Personally I'd swap the breakfast for either scambled eggs, (2 whole eggs + 2 whites) and maybe a kiwi (averages around 80% of Vitamin C for the day + the eggs are 160% of Vitamin A for the day ) or Maybe 250g 0% fat Greek yogurt/Skyr with 100g mixed berrries or any fruit you prefer, sweeten with zero calories syrups or even the real deal. Maple syrup or honey is only 50 cals per tbsp.

Both option are far higher in protein and keep you fuller for longer. Plus the thermic effect of protein means you burn 15-20% of the calories consumed in protein just to digest and abosrb them.

Lunch is ok, but why not eat the whole can of tuna and swap your mayo for a ligher than light version. You'd consume the same amount of calories but add 10-12g of protein to the meal. I mean it seems counter productive that the mayo is more calories than the the protein on your plate.

Here's a typcal day for me



I add protein powder to the yogurt to sweeten/flavour as well as boost the protein content

Turkey stew is homemade is bascally a turkey thigh (skin removed) celery, carrots, leeks, onions, water and a chicken and vegetable stock cubes slow cooked. Then I add peas, spinach and kale at the end.

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Wasn't prepped for food diary's really. This is using up all the current food. We run a tight ship in the kitchen. Only had half a tin cos the wife had the other half.

I'll be switching to yoghurt and fruit for breaks and stuff this week.

 

[azazl187]

Ask yourself why youve put the weight back on, if you have previously done high deficits, see my comment on crash dieting and the studies of those that partake, with the majority of those putting all the weight back on.

Really a start point is heavily dependant on your stats, and activity levels, how active are you, how many steps do you do per day for example? how many gym sessions per week.

Tracking everything down to the splash of milk you put in a tea or coffee and sources you have with dinner etc. You probably dont realise just how full of cals mayo, sweet chilli dips etc are! 20-30g 200-300 cals!

As a really rough guide I would suggest starting out on 1800-1900 calories. Protein you should aim to hit 1g per lb of realistic target bodyweight so lets take 76kg you want to be focusing on 168g protein (round up for ease), the i would suggest 30-40g fats, then you fill the rest of your calorie balance with carbs.

This would be something like:
170g Protein = 680 cals
40g Fat = 360 cals
190g carbs = 760 cals
Thats 1800 cals, add on an extra 25g carbs to go up to 1900 cals.

Ive just dropped 11kg from 77kg to 66kg in the first half of the year. My lowest cals were 1650ish and i had 6 weeks at maintenance where i averaged 2.3k.

Again whats the rush? why start down a path that will have a high likelihood of end back where you began?

**edit**

A bigger deficit will also lose you muscle mass faster as well, and have a quicker affect on your metabolism as well. All negative when you go back the other way, a lower metabolism, and less muscle, will mean a lower maintenance that you might breeze past once you stop your deficit.

Are you really short? 78kgs is light for me and I'm 6ft. Relatively slim too

 

[Syla5]

Are you really short? 78kgs is light for me and I'm 6ft. Relatively slim too

Not sure on how this fits in to the context of those specific replies but yes, 5'7", my suggestions were for Rossi whos 5'8"/5'9" and wanting to do extreme low cals 1k-1.2k!.

I would expect 78kg to be lightish for someone who is 6'