*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

[adidan]

I weigh too much.. Around 2 and a half stone too much.

I don't eat a great deal meal wise but I do have a tendency to snack, whenever I enter the kitchen I grab something and go.

I don't have any gym equipment or a gym membership but I do want to lose some timber... What is the best way? Meal replacement shakes? Walking? Running?

Help

My body deciding that I can't eat gluten anymore helped me lose weight.

Primarily I think that's been down to hardly eating any bread anymore. I used to love tons of toast but GF bread is generally awful so I hardly have any now.

 

[AndyCr15]

Yeah, use MyFP to track ALL food eaten (including milk in coffee, ketchup sachets on dinner etc) and link it into Strava... which you should record all activities on. When MyFP asks how active you are, don't include any walking, jogging exercise, so if you WFH, tell it you don't do anything! It will read activity and credit you calories for those activities so you don't want it to add them in for 'being active'. Mind you, try not to spend the calories you earn

Start with walking, but see if you can progress to 15 mins of really slow jogging, every other day. Build upwards from there

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah, i find that the best option too with regards to setting activity levels low. I WFH and set it to show that i do nothing, however i generally then eat any additional calories to help fuel my running.

I got back from Spain last weekend and set myself a goal of getting down to 90kg by Christmas. 7kg seemed achievable in 3 months, however almost 2 weeks later and my weight hasn't budged! I was expecting the usual post holiday drop as my diet went back to it's usual levels and without drinking around 2000kcal each day in alcohol. Although i also didn't put any weight on either.

I've probably averaged around 1500 net calories in those 2 weeks too. I suspect the truth is it's higher than that, as unlike Andy above i don't track milk/condiments etc and just assume over the day they'd add up to 100kcal. I also accept that any exercise calories are likely inflated.
Even at a worst case scenario though, i would expect my daily calories over 2 weeks would at most average 2000kcal/day. Given i'm 97kg and 190cm, i'd have thought that cumulatively that would've been sufficient to at least have dropped a small amount of weight!

I'm not overly stressing about it, but it continues to show the body doesn't always do what you expect! Hopefully running 40 miles on Saturday will cause it all to catch up

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

Yeah, i find that the best option too with regards to setting activity levels low. I WFH and set it to show that i do nothing, however i generally then eat any additional calories to help fuel my running.

I got back from Spain last weekend and set myself a goal of getting down to 90kg by Christmas. 7kg seemed achievable in 3 months, however almost 2 weeks later and my weight hasn't budged! I was expecting the usual post holiday drop as my diet went back to it's usual levels and without drinking around 2000kcal each day in alcohol. Although i also didn't put any weight on either.

I've probably averaged around 1500 net calories in those 2 weeks too. I suspect the truth is it's higher than that, as unlike Andy above i don't track milk/condiments etc and just assume over the day they'd add up to 100kcal. I also accept that any exercise calories are likely inflated.
Even at a worst case scenario though, i would expect my daily calories over 2 weeks would at most average 2000kcal/day. Given i'm 97kg and 190cm, i'd have thought that cumulatively that would've been sufficient to at least have dropped a small amount of weight!

I'm not overly stressing about it, but it continues to show the body doesn't always do what you expect! Hopefully running 40 miles on Saturday will cause it all to catch up

I'm sure running 40 miles will go someway to help!

 

[Martynt74]

I'm sure running 40 miles will go someway to help!

If nothing permanent, i usually have a nice little malnutritioned look for a couple days afterwards

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

If nothing permanent, i usually have a nice little malnutritioned look for a couple days afterwards

Sexy

 

[Martynt74]

My wifes a very lucky lady! Abandoned all day on a Saturday, then gets me coming home, filthy and smelly and barely able to move for days

I'm tempted to post on here that if i don't hit 90kg by Christmas then i'll give £100 to charity. I'm a cheap bugger so that might force me to really make the effort!

 

[SixTwoSix]

as unlike Andy above i don't track milk/condiments etc and just assume over the day they'd add up to 100kcal.

When I was militant on my tracking, it turned out each coffee with milk was circa 30 calories with semi skimmed milk, soon added up through the day.

 

[Uther]

Yep, MyFitnessPal is brilliant. If you're constantly snacking you'll be shocked how much that adds up over a day.
Being more aware of what I eat, wearing a fitbit that tells me to get up and move around every hour and walking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day is all I'm doing to lose weight, and it's working. No need to overthink it.
I've done more than enough fad diets over the years, keep it simple.

 

[Martynt74]

When I was militant on my tracking, it turned out each coffee with milk was circa 30 calories with semi skimmed milk, soon added up through the day.

Yeah, i only tend to have 1 coffee in the morning so i figure it's negligible. I would also say i just estimate calories for meals. Like if i make a batch of soup, i don't work out each portion i just guestimate, on the assumption some i'll be under, others i'll be over.

I figure i do enough exercise that i don't need to be too concerned about 100-200 calories per day. Calculators suggest my BMR is 2379 based on no activity. If i aim for a net goal of 1600 after exercise, i should be ~800 less each day. Even with a lack of logging accuracy, i should still be down ~400 a day at least which adds up to ~3000/week which should be 1/2kg a week at a minimum.

Will experiment more after this weekend as need to have enough to support this weekends run, after than i don't have any proper events for a while, so as long as i'm covering regular training i should be fine.

 

[ic1male]

It's actually quite scary how many calories you can shove in with a few treats here and there - this past fortnight I've been eating around 3000 kcals instead of the 1900 I should be on. And I foresee it not really improving now that all the shops are getting their Christmas goodies in. I've already eaten a box of 9 mince pies.

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

It's actually quite scary how many calories you can shove in with a few treats here and there - this past fortnight I've been eating around 3000 kcals instead of the 1900 I should be on. And I foresee it not really improving now that all the shops are getting their Christmas goodies in. I've already eaten a box of 9 mince pies.

Mince pies are amazing though and especially heated up.

 

[ic1male]

Mince pies are amazing though and especially heated up.

LOL, man ain't got no time for heating up! Out of the box and straight down the gullet.

 

[Uther]

It's actually quite scary how many calories you can shove in with a few treats here and there - this past fortnight I've been eating around 3000 kcals instead of the 1900 I should be on. And I foresee it not really improving now that all the shops are getting their Christmas goodies in. I've already eaten a box of 9 mince pies.

I just don't buy junk. If I buy it, I eat it, so it's best I don't have it in the house.

 

[ic1male]

I just don't buy junk. If I buy it, I eat it, so it's best I don't have it in the house.

Very wise. I've only got one more bad thing left to get rid of - a stollen loaf - which when gone I hope to follow your example.

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

LOL, man ain't got no time for heating up! Out of the box and straight down the gullet.

Noooo! That's just scandalous! They got to be hot!!

 

[barmyllama]

It's actually quite scary how many calories you can shove in with a few treats here and there - this past fortnight I've been eating around 3000 kcals instead of the 1900 I should be on. And I foresee it not really improving now that all the shops are getting their Christmas goodies in. I've already eaten a box of 9 mince pies.

I was out food shopping yesterday and picked a pack of half chocolate coated cookies, the extra special, fancy kind. I happened to look at the traffic light label and they were 137 calories per biscuit. I quickly put them back and moved on.


It's also staggering the calories in some "meals" that a lot of people eat regularly. For example, toast and marmalade for breakfast.

This is my mother in law's regular breakfast, whom was complaining she needed to drop a few pounds.

When I actually broke it down and showed her an actual measured portion of butter and marmalade, compared to what she actually spreads on her toast, it turns out it's over 750 calories for her small breakfast.

That's more more calories than the vast majority of my main evening meals and I have a plate full of food.

Breakfast cereal is another. Pour your normal portion into a bowl, then weigh it against the actual portion size calories on the box. Most people pour at least 4 portions into a bowl, for me it was probably closer to 6 back in the dark days of me eating Crunchy Nut cornflakes every morning. Plus the cheeky bowls late at night.

 

[AndyCr15]

Almost the opposite of what we do in this thread, I'm trying to care less about calories right now.

for me it was probably closer to 6 back in the dark days of me eating Crunchy Nut cornflakes every morning

Wow, how big are your bowls!!! I thought I was bad as mine were generally around 60-70g (so about 2 portions) but 6! About 200g?!?! Really?! I'm fairly sure a whole box is often only about 450g?

Your point is correct, but I think you might have exaggerated a little?

 

[barmyllama]

Your point is correct, but I think you might have exaggerated a little?

Probably not. I used to fill the bowl until they were piled high and spilling over the sided, pour the milk on slowly, eat until I could see the milk and then refill the bowl with cereal.

Pure gluttony, if I'm honest. When I think back to type foods and the amounts I used to eat, I'm surprised I wasn't bigger than I was. Probably lucky I had a very physical job and a more youthful metabolism to help out.

 

[AndyCr15]

But you don't count the weight of the milk. I poured until the cereal was literally spilling over and it was still just under 4 servings. I would suggest that this state is not how 'most people' eat their cereal. I don't think I would have tried to get milk into this bowl... I weighed (as I have before) my large serving in a bowl and it was 90g, so 2.25 servings. I would suggest it is quite easy for a lot of people to be doing this.

I used to fill the bowl until they were piled high and spilling over the sided, pour the milk on slowly, eat until I could see the milk and then refill the bowl with cereal.

But we're giving advice to people with normal behaviour and the point was around not realising you're eating a lot. To behave as quoted and not realise your eating a lot is frankly baffling...