Soldato
@uncle_rufus you have to take measurements (I should take my own advice really)
@uncle_rufus you have to take measurements (I should take my own advice really)
Measurements of what? (serious question, although... hue hue hue )
Waist, biceps, legs etc. Anything that would give you something to confirm that your gaining muscle and losing fat. Dependent on where you are (still porky and getting stronger like me, or already thinner and stronger) different measurements would mean different things. For me, if I measured my waist or my stomach, and that was getting smaller but my weight was staying the same then I'd know that I was adding muscle. (literally the opposite of what is happening to me right now)
Dick also, of course.
I suppose that makes sense, though it's not really something I'd thought about doing... I will consider it though, suspect it's important to be consistent about when the measurements are taken as well
(p.s. just spotted you're in Woking - my condolences, I grew up there )
Woking is good, thanks though! It's developing probably more than we should be comfortable with.
Indeed - pretty crazy, drove through the town centre last time I was visiting my folks - that new project by the old bandstand is insane
But anyway we digress... hitting the gym tonight, hopefully make good progress!
I never really intended to meticulously record every single thing I eat with the calorie counting, I just wanted to get a very rough idea of where my consumption actually sits... e.g. am I getting through 100s of excess unneeded calories every day or am I running a slight defecit? Do I need to make a few small changes or something bigger type of thing. For me it's complicated by the fact that I don't think I can work it out from my weight, because I'm building muscle at the same time which will be cancelling out the weight of any fat lost I expect...
The fact that I'm not obviously looking any fatter (or thinner) around my stomach makes me think I'm probably close to being balanced in terms of calories in/out, so hopefully it won't take much to tip myself into a slight defecit (either by cutting out a few small bad things like maybe the kit kat I have with my lunch, or by just not increasing how much I eat as I put on a little more mass)... Target is to lose the gut by my holiday in September so fingers crossed!
You're saying, they keep their calories below a limit for 3 years and the weight comes back?
I doubt my genetic-based set weight was as heavy as I went. I get the whole 'your metabolism changes', so keeping the weight off will still take work. More work than maintaining the heavy weight someone had before.
I've only read the first bit, will try and read more later. Surely this doesn't mean dieting doesn't work, just that it's hard work to maintain long term?
In my opinion, the only way to lose weight and keep it off for good, is to fix the root cause - which is in almost all cases of obesity, permanently cut out junk and fast food - because there's no other way if you want long term success, there really isn't.
Carbs Are Really Bad Sugars
People eat too many carbs which leads to diabetes. I'm ready to go on Thursday when my cupboards will be empty of bread, rice, pasta. Although I'll probably mess it all up by eating too many vegetables which are carbs themselves.
Worth noting fat loss can occur vastly quicker than muscle can be built, so even a rank beginner 'recomping' will generally find their weight is going down as they build new skeletal muscle tissue, assuming they're not dieting at an unnecessarily glacial pace. A safe/manageable range of weight loss for most individuals is an average loss of around 0.5-1% of total bodyweight per week, but for most people training, outside of being a (total beginner or very advanced) the goal for weight gain should be around 0.5-1% of total bodyweight per month... and not all of this weight gain will be muscle as some fat gain in a surplus is an inevitability.
The other thing is people always, always underestimate how much they have to lose, so given your time frame of 3 months I would start tracking your weight daily first thing and calculate the weekly average (or use an app like Happy Scale) to make sure it's going the direction you want it to, and taking bi-weekly measurements, since water retention can sometimes mean the scales remain unchanged even if you're down a bit on one of your measurement sites. The main places worth measuring are bust (around the nipple line), 2" above navel, navel, and 2" below navel. You can also do hips (widest part) as well as mid-arm(s) and thigh(s), but generally these are unlikely to change much - at least downwards - if most of your fat is around your midsection.
Great tips, thanks! I do track my weight on the Fitbit app, but I don't have scales at home so I only weight myself at the gym (Monday and Wednesday currently) so not ideal but better than nothing... I am down very slightly today at 89.4 kgs but that's well within retention/noise I'd have thought (I am usually bang on 90 kgs with virtually no deviation). I'll think about taking some measurements and see how it goes... Am I right in thinking a little supplementary whey isn't going to hurt provided it is within the calorie limits? Or should I ditch that? (I don't take very much, one small shake maybe ~20gs immediately before the gym on both days)
If you're going to weigh yourself after eating the best you can do is try and be consistent with what you're eating beforehand (salt and carbohydrates have transient effects on water retention, some foods are more voluminous than others etc), your fluid intake and that sort of thing to keep the readings from jumping about a bit.
As for the whey it largely depends on your current protein intake. When dieting, especially for those training hard, higher protein intakes have a protective effect on lean body mass, (assuming you don't slack off on training as muscle is very 'use it or lose it'), because in a deficit not all the protein your consume is going to be used for the growth/repair mechanism. As long as you're sticking to your caloric goals, having some supplementary protein from whey might have a slight benefit, especially if it's a convenient means for you of getting some in before training if you're saving a proper meal for afterwards.
Pic one 14 months ago at 24st. Pic two last week at 13.5st.