Weight loss target: -3.5 stone in 5 months

[FoxEye]

Didn't want to crap up the other guy's recent thread who made some amazing losses in just over a year. Guy lost 14 stone something in a smidgen over 12 months. That's frankly a Herculean effort, which I'm not attempting to replicate.

I'm posting this before starting on this journey, because it's more fun this way! Will I achieve, won't I?

Unlike the £50k thread (oft quoted/mocked) I actually plan to see this one through. But... I look forward to the "You'll quit," "Never do it" posts, and in fact welcome them! Be mean, people! Be heartless. It can be like a roast! Hmmmm, turkey roast.

Feel free to post anything from advice to mockery in this thread, which I will update (at the very least) after 5 months with my new weight of 11 stone.

Day 0: 14.5 stone; 38' waist.

 

[FoxEye]

I've done it once, without going to the gym, by eating 1200 calories a day (most days).

For sure I'm not going to the gym (zero chance) or increasing my exercise levels much (probably).

 

[FoxEye]

I'm 5'9 (ish). Slightly taller with my blonde afro, when I'm allowed to grow it and not hounded into submission.

 

[FoxEye]

Why do you want to lose that much weight ...

11 stone for 5'9 is a good weight, given that I have very little muscle mass making up that figure. I don't particularly want to be buff but I would like to be agile/spritely.

... and that quickly? (over half a stone a month).

Without any exercise you will look (no muscle) and feel (no calories) terrible after it.. Good luck.

Why hang about...? I need to get it off for summer so I don't feel so much like a human slug.

 

[FoxEye]

Water fasting will have fat melt off you.
Takes a lot of mental fortitude to pull off though.

I'm doing alternate day fasting, which I've tried before with some success. Starting with your evening meal, you eat three meals, skip three meals, eat three meals, skip three meals... you always eat at least one meal a day, but in a 48 hour period you fast for 24 hours.

Liver cancer. Can't beat it.

Thanks but I'll pass (hopefully!)

 

[FoxEye]

You should really post about these things once you've achieved them, opening yourself up to nothing but pain

Also the psychological effect is that talking to others about how you're going to do this / that is that it gives you a feel good factor about the things you are "going" to do even though you haven't done anything. Talk about your achievements once you have achieved them and earn that nice warm feeling.

I like to do things ass about face. It's who I am Other people can do things properly, that's boring

I did fruit for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch and meat and veg for dinner.

I ate a bit of rice couple times a week and a square of dark chocolate when I wanted to but I stayed away from all junk food.

I want to lose 2 stone by September...new challenge set, did it once, I can do it again.

Yeah I'm quietly confident because I've done alternate day fasting before. Did manage to lose a stone in the 1st month, but did hit a wall after that.

Then I got demoralised and let everything slip. This time I will just push through it. If I hit a wall I'll adjust my approach.

Will be good to see what happens in any case.

 

[FoxEye]

Too late for that, target has been set and will be achieved. No deviation, no excuses. Just tunnel vision until I get the outcome I want.

This time it's about being dogged and determined and getting this done.

The lifestyle change can come about as a consequence/ during the process.

 

[FoxEye]

Then you are going to fail.

Listen to the advice from the people who have done this before.

See you in 5 months, then We'll see about that.

Get a Fitbit.

Actually those have been on my radar. I just haven't got around to looking at prices/thinking about buying one yet!

 

[FoxEye]

Listen to this man.

Yup I am listening

I'm planning on making myself miserable for a month doing "alternate day fasting", and then review. And discuss/debate doing that for another 4 months or changing tack slightly, but keeping to the original timeframe.

This project is as much to stick at something and see it through as it is to lose weight.

ADF does make you hellish miserable tho, lol. Grumpy too. I found that out last time The advantage is that I don't need to count calories to know I'm in deficit. I can also feel the effects very readily. The first three meals I skipped were Tues/Weds, so the hunger pangs have well and truly kicked in right now.

So to sum up, this isn't necessarily about doing things the "right" way. It's about doing something I know I can do (actually for me it's minimal effort, starving myself is no effort at all, lol). The amount of willpower it takes for me to skip meals is surprisingly low, compared to the amount needed to go for a run. I'd say it's about 10x harder to make myself do exercise than to just stop eating.

 

[FoxEye]

Quoted for rubbishness. If you don’t count the calories, you have no way to know whether you’re in deficit or not.

I think it's unlikely (whilst not scientific) that halving my food intake would leave me with a calorie surplus. I'm not changing what I eat (apart from cutting out entirely snack food - so actually less than 1/2 of previous intake).

Otherwise I'd have been eating over twice as many calories as needed, and surely I'd be a whale by now if that was true?

e: I should also say this is not my first rodeo. I've done ADF before and lost 1 stone in the first month. The 2nd month I was sloppy and ate between meals, sabotaging myself.

But I'm going to assume that I must have been running a calorie deficit in the first month of fasting. I didn't count calories either.

 

[FoxEye]

Extreme diets nearly always fail as it is very hard to keep them going and they have various negative side effects.

In my case, fasting has been done for thousands of years and is generally considered to have health benefits, no?

 

[FoxEye]

What kicked this all off anyhow? Let alone the rush to do so in a short time frame.

Somebody I know decided to go on a diet, I said I'd join them and we'd motivate each other. The next day they said they'd changed their mind, but I decided there was no reason for me to back out; I can do it so I will do it. There is no other reason. Just felt like doing it.

I'm an outcome-focused person not a journey-focused person, which is probably a character flaw I know. I don't much care for journeys, I just want to get somewhere/do something (the sooner the better). So the time-scale I set was a reflection of that. You might say I'm a bit of an idiot, and I might agree

 

[FoxEye]

Just to give some indication of what I'm eating (it's not any particular diet..)

This morning had two Weetabix with about 15 currants on top (plus ss milk).

For lunch a 3cm cube of cheese, a handful of crisps (not many, ~10), a couple roasted Jerusalem artichokes, and a bowl of beetroot soup.

Now I won't eat anything at all (no snacks) until tomorrow's evening meal.

 

[FoxEye]

That is no where near enough calories to intake over a 48-hour period. Alternate fasting might be an option, but you've barely consumed 500 calories today. You'll put your body in starvation mode. Where is the protein?! Your body wont burn fat, it will burn muscle with such a low calorie intake!

You need at least 1000kcals per day to meet your BMR. If you dont achieve that, your body WILL burn muscle before fat (it is a survival mechanism). At least add some chicken breast / eggs to your meal if you have another day like that.

Yeah I don't think today was good. Feel like ****. It's a learning experience...

I wonder why he creates these sorts of threads when he just ignores the advice provided, does his own thing and fails spectacularly never to post in that thread again.

Don't like it don't read it. And don't post in it. Thanks.

 

[FoxEye]

Well to prove I am listening (kinda), I was supposed to skip breakfast and lunch today but permitted myself to have a boiled egg and a single slice of toast for breakfast. Hopefully that will address the chronic lack of calories yesterday.

Now will skip lunch and have dinner, breakfast, lunch as per the next cycle. Only tomorrow's breakfast/lunch will be more substantial.

 

[FoxEye]

So increased insulin sensitivity and lowered risk of diabetes are not for everyone, then? Just religious folks and athletes. Well documented for years, btw.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394735/

Why don't you butt out and go find some other thread to crap in. OK?

And before you get all bitchy, I'm listening to everyone in the thread who isn't being a dick. Sadly that doesn't include you.

 

[FoxEye]

Let me worry about falling off the wagon. It isn't happening.

I'm not counting calories this month; I'm not going on any special diet. I will keep in mind the need for protein and have more of that.

I will keep doing the ADF because that's the plan for this month. After this month I'll review, as said. There's no discussion about that until next month.

 

[FoxEye]

Believe me I want you to succeed, just seems silly to me you're embarking on the hardest way to lose the pounds. But good luck regardless.

That's because I'm a dick Once I've got a bee in my bonnet someone is getting stung. Or... however that phrase goes.

No, seriously, I appreciate that I'm not doing this to best practice standards. I'm doing a month of ADF because I want to put myself through that pain. I want to be a dick to myself. For gits and shiggles.

After this month is up I will be more open to suggestions. And hopefully I'll have lost a stone in that first month, like I did last time.

 

[FoxEye]

Strange. Don't ever expect it to be smooth sailing.

Well I'm a couple years older but apart from that I'm expecting the same result. ~1 stone loss in the first month. Of which maybe most of that is water weight? I found the losses in the second month (trying to get below 11.5 stone) to be much harder going. This time I'm starting from 14.5 not 12.5 but I'm still hoping for 1 stone in the first month.

We'll see. Three more weeks to go!

 

[FoxEye]

Huel is not a short term meal replacement. You could live the rest of your life on nothing but Huel and water. It's also a change in your eating habits, obviously. So "just no" to your "just no".

The main advantage of Huel in this context is that it's a very easy way to control your calorie intake while maintaining a healthy diet. You want a balanced meal with 250 calories? Huel. A balanced meal with 500 calories? Twice as much Huel. It makes it very simple.

I lived for a week on Huel and water and nothing else. I felt better for it physically, but felt a psychological need for solid food.

I still want to eat for pleasure, not purely to provide energy and material to sustain my existence And for that I need variety of flavours and textures. A single powdered food diet is not on my list of things to do before I die, no matter how effective.

About the other point... I enjoy this suffering I am inflicting upon myself. So don't you worry about that, let me worry about blank.