Diet and Fitness

I’d say I’ve lost an inch and a half to two inches from my waist since last October just by cutting the carbs to an absolute minimum and increasing my fat and protein intake. It’s completely counterintuitive and it was never actually my intention to lose weight (rather better control my blood sugars) but it works, at least it does for me.

I make my soups so that ~600 ml is roughly 3-400 calories. 600 seems like a lot of soup- a tin is 400’ish right? That and a ~100 calorie yoghurt for lunch.

Stats at start Weight 105 Kg Weight 1.78M Waist 116cm

Some more research - I have calculated that prior to the diet starting my daily calorie intake would typically average around 5000 Calories. It’s no wonder I have piled on the pounds! With an intake of 1700 cals a day the calculator suggests that I could lose around 1.3kg a week, a little drastic but losing 5kg during Feb would be a good start for me

What’s that in English?

I think that’s a really important place to start - getting a true picture of our own intake - its always a lot more than you think, especially if you make sure that all drinks are included too.

You know your own body, but the reason I’m always anxious about dropping calorie intake too sharply too soon is that your body can start by just shifting water and muscle mass first as it tries to cope and clings on to fat! Its worse because your latent muscle mass forms part of your calorie burning so reducing it make things harder.

If it were me I’d still aim for 1700 but I would step down to that level by reducing by say 1000 kcal per day over a week, so effectively reducing by 3000 kcal after 3 weeks.

If you can gently up your exercise at the same time that also helps with metabolism and convincing your body not to jettison muscle mass - anything from walking/ swimming etc as long as its low impact at first.

OK cheers - I will try and soft start the reduction
I have over the last few weeks I have been increasing general exercise.
Walking is my primary fitness regimen but I do play squash weekly - Twice last week
My BP is around 137/80

I was weak. Lunch put on for meeting today. Far too much food leftover and I…gorged

I’m sure the odd spell of weakness is not a disaster
For so far after three days of measured portions I’m not finding things too difficult.
Unless I resort to beer and cheese in the evenings I am struggling to get more than 1800 calories in me
Today so far I have had only 1600 cals
8-11PM is my most difficult patch being used to large portions of cake and/or cheese and biscuits plus beer. But I have resisted so far. I’m considering a buying a walking/treadmill machine? Is this a good idea?

Yesterday I did have a “portion control” argument with my wife who got pikey when I asked to measure my own portion, as her respond to my request for small portion was to fill my plate much more than normal.

Do you live in bizarro world?

I noticed a while back that I could easily consume a huge number of calories in my morning bowl of granola/muesli so I now measure out the same amount each morning from a small mug. (Still 450 calories) But it’s also interesting to weigh out the actual recommended cereal portion size as shown on the packet. It usually seems an unfeasibly tiny amount.

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Yes, the 40/45g portion of muesli looks very forlorn when measured out :frowning:

not if it is on top of 3 scoops of ice cream…

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Yep, I quite like ice cream with honey nut corn flakes sprinkled on top :yum:

Completed the 10000 steps a day challenge for January. This was a real challenge for me having a desk job and involved many early morning and late evening walks. Yesterday I had to do an hour’s walk at 5.30am as had a busy day plus concert in the evening.

Got on the scales this morning and for all this effort I have lost zilch, not an ounce.

Feeling deflated, although obviously not looking it :frowning2:

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The irony in this thread is just great - all the thinish fuckers talk about losing weight while the fat cunts take the piss :laughing:

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Be interesting to know whether your fat/muscle ratio has changed though. And whether your resting heart rate has dropped. You might be pleasantly surprised.

VB

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If you added exercise which would have used up calories then the other variable at a simple level is your calorie intake and whether that was consists before and after?

Also don’t be discouraged, fat loss is not linear. Muscle gain is the same. You can work and work at either and then suddenly it happens!

Keep going but maybe track your calorie intake a bit closer? You can be anal and use an app on your phone to log them. I wouldn’t do that long term but for a week it teaches you a lot about what your real intake is!

A pound of fat is about 3500 calories iirc. You typically need 15 cals per pound of bodyweight, so for example I weigh 180 pounds so my steady state daily cals would be 2700 per day. If I adjust this by consuming less and doing more exercise each day (say 200 cals less in, 300 cals out from exercise = 500) then I would lose 1 pound every 7 days in theory.

But like I say it doesn’t work quite as linear as that and sometimes you have to push a bit longer to see the results. This is why I’m not a fan of diets to lose weight in a hurry- you’re going to be denying yourself stuff and feeling hungry, and after all that if you don’t see results then the typical response is to a) give up or b) cut more calories, which might work short term but equally could just as easily convince your body to start storing fat and junking muscle (starvation mode).

The answer is to keep at it and nudge your exercise up and get your body metabolising fat rather than hoarding it.

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True dat.

Like VB says, there will still be benefits.

…but, it takes a painfully long time, and I’m glad that I turned around from nudging obese when I did. It took me over a year to get to a “healthy” weight

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Also, 10k steps is probably burning around 500 Calories, which may be less than you anticpated? Adjust your intake accordingly.