Vidar's unofficially official weight loss log.

Vidar

Vidar

Vidar

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2008
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Liverpool
I am fat and have quickly been becoming a complete slob to make matters worse. Ever since my Dad passed away back in 2003 I haven't really given a toss about my body, I was okay with being a bit bigger than I should be and so the weight slowly crept up. Oh I'm not using it as an excuse, I didn't care about my weight plain and simple. Yes there where times when I'd stop and think about it like when going for a new pair of pants and realizing my waist had shot up etc. But I'd suffered depression, had gone through a really bad breakup and to be fair am still having regular stress (still in and out of court thanks to that psycho) from trying to maintain contact with my kids.

After 2+ years of being single apart from quite a few brief trysts with various girls who just didn't work out (Did you see the fog beast thread?) I started wondering why I wasn't getting the types of girls I really wanted, I don't think of myself as ugly, am a pretty confident guy, funny or at least I think so and have epic tallness going for me. So what was missing or rather what was in the way.

I believe it's because I'm fat. I don't blame anyone for not liking me because I'm fat, I don't find fat girls attractive so I don't expect girls to find fat guys attractive. Having had one woman I really hoped to have something with tell me the reason she didn't want to continue things was because I am too big didn't offend me, it gave me my first little nudge to start losing weight.

The second nudge was needing a new pair of pants and finding I'd gone up to a 48 inch waist line, I actually wanted to cry. I was genuinely disgusted.

The third and final nudge was going to the doctors for something completely unrelated to my weight, being weighed and told I was a candidate for surgery. Yeah, thanks but no thanks you crank! Yeah I maybe a candidate but surely you could suggest something a little less drastic as your first approach. I dunno, it was the way it was put across that made me think **** you! I'll do it naturally. And so I've started.


Okay so my initial motivations may be incredibly shallow, getting a girl I'm really attracted too but I have other concerns too. Like being able to do away with my sleep apnea machine, which is weight related and stops me from doing things I enjoyed like camping and going to music festivals. Like having more energy to do things with my kids, do housework and even just be motivated enough to get out of bed on some days.

I want to get back down to my RAF weight of 15st 8 initially and then take it from there...
STATS: 15/04/2015

Height: 6ft8
Age: 31
Weight: 24st 6lbs
Waistline: 48 inches


I've already started my diet and exorcise and am already noticing changes in my body, mainly my boulder like belly has become incredibly squishy instead of hard to the touch. That and bizarrely I've started dreaming regularly again when I can't remember dreaming for a very long time.

So far exorcise wise I'm only walking for an hour a day, with plans to increase things slowly but regularly as and when I can afford to buy some new running shoes or afford a gym membership again etc.

Diet wise I've cut out all the junk, no more chocolate, sweets, crisps, soft drinks, oven chips and cack processed stuff from the likes of Iceland.

Tea has been replaced by green tea with a slice of lemon and/or lime, instead of junk I'm eating fruit. I've switched to whole grains, making home made sweet potato wedges etc etc and am generally getting a lot more vegetables in my diet. All my meats are coming off of 'musclefood.com' so are lean, more so than what's typically got at the supermarket and generally better quality as well.

I aim to check my weight on the 1st and 15th of each month and update accordingly... Sorry for waffling on but it felt good to write stuff out.

Any tips like dealing with craving and stuff would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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Congratz on starting the log, best of luck with the progress :)

You've made some good steps with diet too, which is undoubtedly the most important.

With regards to dealing with cravings, I find chewing gum, coffee and water all help to suppress appetite. Swapping carbs for proteins/fats also helps as both are more satiating than carbs (with protein being the most satiating).

Have you got any plans with regards to cardio/weight lifting (when you are able to afford membership etc)? The latter is excellent to help shift weight and gain some muscle mass (who doesnt want muscle mass?!)
 
Thank you Cookeh...

My appetite isn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be, I get hungry I eat but only 3 times a day (I know 6 small pre prepared portions are more ideal but I'm just starting) and what I'm eating is far, far healthier than previous. I am eating a lot of meat, mostly chicken but a good mix of super low fat/high protein exotic meats, steak, turkey and lamb etc.

I'm allowing myself one cheat a week at the minute, usually a takeout on the Saturday night after work... It's become a tradition of sorts for me and my door staff while we chill with the bar staff.

It's my sweet tooth I'm struggling with and most likely to collapse my resolve on, I've been nailing it with fruit, strawberries, Clementines and bananas etc but sometimes I feel I could happily rip someone limb from limb for a Magnum ice cream or bag of blue M&M's lol

Eventually when I've managed to save £100 so I can get my yearly gym subscription sorted and start working on my muscle mass, strength and endurance is important to me in my line of work and with losing fat I won't be able to rely on my size as much for intimidation etc as I do now.
 
Hey man,

Welcome to the club. There is a ton of great advice available here, if ever you find yourself struggling for motivation take a swing by Feek or Maxeh's threads, they always work for me.

I find MyFitnessPal to be completely indispensable for me, as long as you use it properly and log everything you eat it will give you a realistic picture of how well you are actually doing!

Best of luck.
 
sweet tooth is by far the hardest thing to overcome for me too.
once you've been good for a week or so, it does get easier, but I've had a bit of a relapse recently (and I can see the weight piling back on already :/ ) where I've been ill and can't be arsed to cook properly or walk any further than the nearest shop, which pretty much limits me to oven pizza and things in breadcrumbs.....which is no excuse, and probably the reason I'm taking so long to recover.

other pointers I think helped me before my recent decline were drinking more water than I felt I needed, and high protien, high fat, low carb sort of meals.

I've not been all that strict with myself and even then managed to drop from 18st to just over 13 last year.

best of luck, and major props for starting the thread, I think if I'd done the same when I started trying to lose weight, there may have been a few less hiccups!

if you feel comfortable, add pics to the thread; great motivator for others (as per Feeks thread), and a pretty stark visual comparison once you've made some good progress.

if you have a bad week or 3, don't use it as an excuse ("oh well, I failed, now I can eat like **** again!"), just try to get back to good habits in the shortest time you can.

Best of luck dude :cool:
 
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Added a picture as per your suggestion in the op...

I think as I've mentioned above I'm buying all my meats from 'musclefood.com' which takes a lot of the temptation of going to the local shop (Iceland) and buying processed cack. The only things I'm need to get every couple of days are fresh fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread and the occasional bottle of fresh fruit juice, like innocent and I work that into my daily walk if needed.
 
Vidar said:
Thank you Cookeh...

My appetite isn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be, I get hungry I eat but only 3 times a day (I know 6 small pre prepared portions are more ideal but I'm just starting) and what I'm eating is far, far healthier than previous. I am eating a lot of meat, mostly chicken but a good mix of super low fat/high protein exotic meats, steak, turkey and lamb etc.
Click to expand...

If macros/calories are matched (and protein is spread out) there isn't going to be any difference between 3 and 6 meals. If anything, when dieting bigger and more infrequent meals tend to be easier for most people to adhere to, and adherence is the most important part of any successful weight loss plan.
 
Vidar said:
Diet wise I've cut out all the junk, no more chocolate, sweets, crisps, soft drinks, oven chips and cack processed stuff from the likes of Iceland.

Tea has been replaced by green tea with a slice of lemon and/or lime, instead of junk I'm eating fruit. I've switched to whole grains, making home made sweet potato wedges etc etc and am generally getting a lot more vegetables in my diet. All my meats are coming off of 'musclefood.com' so are lean, more so than what's typically got at the supermarket and generally better quality as well.

---snip--

Any tips like dealing with craving and stuff would be greatly appreciated.
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In my case, if I'd made so many changes right at the start of my weight loss, I wouldn't have carried on because I'd have hated it.

It's a long process and you're better off making small changes to start with. I didn't stop eating anything at all, I just exercised good portion control. If I look at my diet log for the first six to eight months, I was still eating chips, crisps, chocolate, pizza, takeaways etc but just in smaller sizes and less regularly. It's only been recently that I've started introducing more 'healthy' foods such as fruit and vegetables.

The mistake a lot of people make is starting off with big drastic changes and then find that they're unable to stick with it.

If you crave stuff, eat it but factor it into your daily calorie allowance and don't feel guilty about it. I often see posts on the MFP forums by people saying "OMG, I had a slice of pizza, I shouldn't have eaten it, what should I do?". These people are idiots!
 
Thank you feek for taking the time to get back to me, I really appreciate it. In both this thread and your own.

I think that's exactly where I've gone wrong in the past, trying to make too many changes too soon and hated it. This time it's different though as my eating habits don't feel like they've changed all that much. To me I'm just substituting one type of food for another and finding I'm actually enjoying it more. I'm still eating far too much in the way of meat but have finally found a truly healthy cereal I actually like.

What's different is the quality and portion sizes mainly for example, one medium potato cut into wedges mixed with a pinch of salt, some cracked black pepper and thyme and roasted for 25 minutes with an ostrich fillet, grilled with some salad. Compared to 2 chicken burgers and and a plate full of oven chips or something equally as awful for you.

I'm not even finding I'm being strict with myself now (at the moment anyway) Since the headaches and cravings have gone. I've purposefully gone through the sweet section at the supermarket and don't even feel tempted now. I think I'm just making smarter choices, I needed to get breakfast on the run yesterday morning and had a choice between going hungry, going to Mcdonalds or going to subway, I got a subway breakfast melt thing (footlong) as I had a full on day doing wire fences and wooden posts for a conservation trust I volunteer with sometimes. I didn't really enjoy it, which is odd as i used to love them and it just felt like I had a brick in my stomach.

By the way you look great in your new suit mate!
 
Cookeh said:
It's not, mint is used an appetite suppressant. Chew some mint leaves, or some mint gum, or drink some peppermint tea and you'll have the same effect :)
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Very true, but it also tricks my brain into thinking it's bedtime and therefore I'm done eating for the day. Pretty sure I picked it up from Paris Hilton :eek: (which is not the ony thing you can pick up from her badoomtshhhh)
 
So I'm 4 days away from my first weigh in since starting on this weight loss journey and maybe I'm being silly but I'm wondering why I'm not seeing a changes yet in the mirror. I mean apart from two cheat meals at the weekend with it being my best friends birthday my diet has been absolutely solid still.

Okay so my vegetable intake dropped a bit but as soon as I realised I added more to my meals. I'm still getting a minimum of an hours walk a day done too and yet apart from my legs, bum and stomach going squishy I can't see any changes.

Oh I'm not going to give up and go back to that god awful mostly processed diet I was on as I know even if I'm not seeing changes, what I'm doing is having a positive effect on me but yeah I would have thought there had been some slight visual difference already...

I guess I'm just being silly.
 
Vidar said:
So I'm 4 days away from my first weigh in since starting on this weight loss journey and maybe I'm being silly but I'm wondering why I'm not seeing a changes yet in the mirror. I mean apart from two cheat meals at the weekend with it being my best friends birthday my diet has been absolutely solid still.

Okay so my vegetable intake dropped a bit but as soon as I realised I added more to my meals. I'm still getting a minimum of an hours walk a day done too and yet apart from my legs, bum and stomach going squishy I can't see any changes.

Oh I'm not going to give up and go back to that god awful mostly processed diet I was on as I know even if I'm not seeing changes, what I'm doing is having a positive effect on me but yeah I would have thought there had been some slight visual difference already...

I guess I'm just being silly.
Click to expand...

Don't expect too much too soon mate, especially when it comes to just looking in the mirror. It's something you'll probably be doing every day so you won't notice the small subtle changes.
 
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