*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

[AndyCr15]

I will try and add cardio into my daily life as I'm sure that will help.

I would agree with @Martynt74 that this is what you're likely missing. Long, fast walks, jogging or cycling. You can add it into MyFP and it will credit you with the calories burnt.

Daft question should I be aiming to meet that 2000 calories or should I pat myself on the back that i don't feel hungry despite being 800 short.

I went pretty hard core with restricting calories and it worked okay for me (not as low as 1,200 tbf). I think there's a balance of staying fuelled to allow the cardio work, but doing it efficiently and not consuming too many. IMO the short answer is, if you can cope on 1,200, go for it, but that might not be the healthiest way and it might not be sustainable?

 

[bakes0310]

I would agree with @Martynt74 that this is what you're likely missing. Long, fast walks, jogging or cycling. You can add it into MyFP and it will credit you with the calories burnt.



I went pretty hard core with restricting calories and it worked okay for me (not as low as 1,200 tbf). I think there's a balance of staying fuelled to allow the cardio work, but doing it efficiently and not consuming too many. IMO the short answer is, if you can cope on 1,200, go for it, but that might not be the healthiest way and it might not be sustainable?

The 1200 calories is me being realitively normal diet apart from turning away pudding and a couple biscuits in the evening as I visit my grandparents often for my dinner. Today is my first day of dieting and tracking so I'll see what it's like over the next week or two but I wouldn't be surprised if I do actually eat about 1300-1500 a day.
But I may need to look into upping it as I'm not having a lot of protein in my diet, today I have had 80g when I need a 100g according to the app.
Also Its my day off from gym tomorrow but I've set an alarm for a morning walk.

 

[Somnambulist]

Down about 4kg since 21st of June when dieted started - initial 2kg drop from water/glycogen blah blah then settled into a fairly steady rate of loss of about 0.7kg a week. Down about 4cm on my main measuring sites, can see my abs again in good lighting. Energy levels okay, gym performance okay too - mainly looking to maintain lifts but if I have a good day I'll take a PR.

Knocking volume down has proved quite useful for energy levels too whilst maintaining weight on the bar - the amount of work required to maintain an adaptation is a lot less than the amount of work required to create that adaptation in the first place - so instead of 3 sets I do 2 and stuff like that. Still ticks the 'use it or lose it' box without creating as much needless fatigue as progress. No point doing extra work to elicit gains like you would in a surplus when you're in a deficit, particularly as a non-noob.

 

[bakes0310]

Woke up nice and early before the alarm went off and went for my first walk. done about 45 minutes including a quick 10 minute dash into tesco to pickup ingredients for scrambled eggs. Walked at a fast pace and had quite a sweat on but wasnt out of breath as im actually still pretty fit person that just needs to lose the body fat.

@Somnambulist thats loads of weight lost, good for you.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Quick update!

Down around 14kg so far through sticking to 1800kcals a day and the last month have been doing a lot of miles on the bike and a few 10+ mile walks.

Weight loss seems to have slowed slightly but still feeling skinnier so I think im just packing back on the muscle due to the extra exercise!

Thinking about trying the gym again with a PT session a week next week when they open up properly, see if I can make it stick this time! I usually get bored after a few weeks due to me much preferring being outside

 

[Somnambulist]

Woke up nice and early before the alarm went off and went for my first walk. done about 45 minutes including a quick 10 minute dash into tesco to pickup ingredients for scrambled eggs. Walked at a fast pace and had quite a sweat on but wasnt out of breath as im actually still pretty fit person that just needs to lose the body fat.

@Somnambulist thats loads of weight lost, good for you.

I’m joining in because this is the weight loss thread but at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I’m pretty well educated in nutrition in both the academic and applied/practical sense. Dieting is easy for me and I’ve done this before several times as I do the slow-motion yo-yo between gaining weight over time to gain muscle and then having comparatively briefer periods of dieting to get the accompanying fat off.

I keep my protein intake the same, I’ve reduced fat intake a bit and because it’s by far the biggest source of calories I’ve more or less halved my carb intake (although it’s by no means ‘low carb’ now) and hey presto, about a 5-600 calorie deficit is created.

 

[bakes0310]

End of day 2 of my dieting, I have had 1090 calories out 2000. I compared it to yesterday's diet and I had 1290 calories so 200 less than yesterday. I have had the following today:
Breakfast coffee.
Lunch huel black.
Dinner 2 large scrambled eggs with 1 tin of Princes tuna with some Tabasco sauce sprinkled on.
Added a rump steak to it as well as it's in the fridge.

Ive gone over my limit on my daily protein by 13g and compared to yesturday it's 30g more protein.
I'm a novice to dieting as mentioned in my previous posts, am I doing it correctly will I lose weight and should I be concerned that I'm eating knowhere near 2000 calories?

Edit: just changed my goal setting on my fitness Pal too losing 2lbs a week instead of 1lbs, that's changed my limit to 1500 calories a day instead of 2000. Going by today and yesturday I'm still under the limit, should I keep this goal instead then?

 

[nlel1975]

You’ve got a bit further to go than I did. I started out dieting on the 24th April and weighed 12.23 stone at that time. Today I was 10.57 stone when I weighed myself this morning with a BMI of 21.7

I presume your target weight is around 11.50 stone with a BMI of 21.7. I’m only 5 foot 9.5 inches compared to your 6 foot.

 

[Somnambulist]

End of day 2 of my dieting, I have had 1090 calories out 2000. I compared it to yesterday's diet and I had 1290 calories so 200 less than yesterday. I have had the following today:
Breakfast coffee.
Lunch huel black.
Dinner 2 large scrambled eggs with 1 tin of Princes tuna with some Tabasco sauce sprinkled on.
Added a rump steak to it as well as it's in the fridge.

Ive gone over my limit on my daily protein by 13g and compared to yesturday it's 30g more protein.
I'm a novice to dieting as mentioned in my previous posts, am I doing it correctly will I lose weight and should I be concerned that I'm eating knowhere near 2000 calories?

Edit: just changed my goal setting on my fitness Pal too losing 2lbs a week instead of 1lbs, that's changed my limit to 1500 calories a day instead of 2000. Going by today and yesturday I'm still under the limit, should I keep this goal instead then?

What I look at is the actual rate of loss occurring and base intake off that. It looks like you’re almost (bar the Huel and fatty protein sources) doing a Protein Spared Modified Fast which is actually the only sort of rapid fat loss diet that works, although it’s not something most people can hack and it’s the sort of diet you tend do for short intervals with breaks between rather than for months on end. I’ve seen adult men on around 800 calories doing this with 4-6 weeks, so it’s not a concern because the high protein intake is muscle-sparing. Just realise if you go too low for too long you’re likely to see all the negative hormonal adaptations (test crashes, non-existent sex drive, poor sleep, etc) that come with chronic low energy intake. More moderate deficits are sustainable for longer before this sort of stuff happens.

I usually advise losing between 0.5-1% of your total bodyweight a week on average as it’s is sustainable for most and is unlikely to result in the loss of anything other than fat (unless your diet is low protein and you stop whatever physical activity you do - ‘use it or lose it’). The lower end is really only necessary once you get pretty lean so I usually aim for around 1%. You can up this rate of loss to 1.5% a week if you have a lot of fat to lose. Once you’re reasonably close to ‘beach body’ is when I usually advise to slowing the rate of loss down - unless it’s one of these 4-6 week hyper aggressive diets where you get in and out.

So basically, if 2lbs a week still puts you in that 1-1.5% band then it’s cool.

 

[randomshenans]

End of day 2 of my dieting, I have had 1090 calories out 2000. I compared it to yesterday's diet and I had 1290 calories so 200 less than yesterday. I have had the following today:

That's just not enough fuel to keep your body going long term. What are your body stats? Height, weight etc?

As previously mentioned, I'm 5'11 and now currently sat at 91kg, down from 107kg and I eat probably 2000-2500 calories a day. I workout 5-6 times a week, either HIIT, weights at the gym or bike ride. I have previously done the whole 1200kcal a day and sure it stripped me down but it's not sustainable. I had no energy and didn't build any muscle, so just made me weaker with way less energy and so found myself craving stuff I didn't actually want because my body needed more fuel.

 

[booyaka]

End of day 2 of my dieting, I have had 1090 calories out 2000. I compared it to yesterday's diet and I had 1290 calories so 200 less than yesterday. I have had the following today:
Breakfast coffee.
Lunch huel black.
Dinner 2 large scrambled eggs with 1 tin of Princes tuna with some Tabasco sauce sprinkled on.
Added a rump steak to it as well as it's in the fridge.

Ive gone over my limit on my daily protein by 13g and compared to yesturday it's 30g more protein.
I'm a novice to dieting as mentioned in my previous posts, am I doing it correctly will I lose weight and should I be concerned that I'm eating knowhere near 2000 calories?

Edit: just changed my goal setting on my fitness Pal too losing 2lbs a week instead of 1lbs, that's changed my limit to 1500 calories a day instead of 2000. Going by today and yesturday I'm still under the limit, should I keep this goal instead then?

jesus man - 1090 Calories isn't enough to function.

Think LONG term changes.......Is 1090 calories a day doable for the long term....Absolutely NOT. Changing your eating habits to loose weight.

Simply put the average calorie burn per day is around 1800, up or down depending on age/weight etc - that is doing nothing. Just standard daily movement.

So even doing some light exercise say 300/400 calories - that's 2200 a day. and your only feeding your body with 1100 calories.....

Think longer term eating habits.....Not short term diet. All that happens is people loose some weight to start with, then it levels off/slows down, they get frustrated and "diet" goes out the window and the weight goes back on.

Changing your eating habits longer term makes things so much easier - slowly dropping a little weight but still eating 3 meals/2 snacks a day makes it way more manageable longer term.

As @randomshenans points out - it's just not sustainable at all.

I maintain my weight with around 2600-3000 calories a day. Don't move much more than 1lb either way but I do crossfit/golf/walking most days and that burns around 600-900 calories a day so I need the extra food. I know by tweaking that (3 meals, 3 snacks a day) - dropping a few hundred calories I could loose weight if I wanted but happy with current situation.

1090 calories isn't sustainable long term....Stop thinking short term weight loss - Think longer term health body.....

 

[bakes0310]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll take on board to eat more and go back to just losing 1lbs a week. According to my 2 days of dieting, I don't snack so I think that's where I need to add the calories. I been recommended peanut butter (whole earth organic crunchy peanut butter) to snack on. I've had to Google healthy bread as I always thought it was unhealthy. It came up with sourdough bread as it's full of good nutrients and vitamins etc.
If I had 2 slices of that bread with peanut butter would that be a good snack?

I am 6ft 0inches and weigh according to gym scales this morning 99.80kg.


Despite being very low on my calories I done amazing in the gym this morning, I've been stuck on my PB for bench for literally years and it went up by 5kg, I couldn't believe it. Can anyone explain why, all I can think of is either before I was on a diet I was actually eating less than I am now, which can't be right as I'm gaining weight hence the diet. Or could it be I had more protein in my diet than I normally have?

 

[nlel1975]

I am 6ft 0inches and weigh according to gym scales this morning 99.80kg.

You’ve a BMI of 29.8 which is overweight whereas 18.5 to 25 BMI is healthy. My aim was to get to a BMI of 21.7 which is in the middle of the healthy range, for me that was 10.62st and for you 11.50st as you are taller than me.

BMI calculator here https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/

 

[Somnambulist]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll take on board to eat more and go back to just losing 1lbs a week. According to my 2 days of dieting, I don't snack so I think that's where I need to add the calories. I been recommended peanut butter (whole earth organic crunchy peanut butter) to snack on. I've had to Google healthy bread as I always thought it was unhealthy. It came up with sourdough bread as it's full of good nutrients and vitamins etc.
If I had 2 slices of that bread with peanut butter would that be a good snack?

I am 6ft 0inches and weigh according to gym scales this morning 99.80kg.


Despite being very low on my calories I done amazing in the gym this morning, I've been stuck on my PB for bench for literally years and it went up by 5kg, I couldn't believe it. Can anyone explain why, all I can think of is either before I was on a diet I was actually eating less than I am now, which can't be right as I'm gaining weight hence the diet. Or could it be I had more protein in my diet than I normally have?

If you have plenty of fat to lose the plus side is that you have a lot of easily available energy for your body to utilise. Getting stronger in this scenario is more realistic than it is for someone with low body fat on a diet - you can grow a little muscle (less than you would in a surplus obviously) or just get stronger from improving your ability to recruit your existing muscle fibres (efficiency) - it’s not unusual!

 

[ic1male]

You’ve a BMI of 29.8 which is overweight whereas 18.5 to 25 BMI is healthy. My aim was to get to a BMI of 21.7 which is in the middle of the healthy range, for me that was 10.62st and for you 11.50st as you are taller than me.

BMI calculator here https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/

It makes me chuckle at this year's effort from me. I've been hovering between 24.9 and 26.1 BMI for the whole of this year. I can't seem to shift down at all. But then again, it's hardly surprising when I'm scoffing cake and chocolate every other week.

 

[nlel1975]

But then again, it's hardly surprising when I'm scoffing cake and chocolate every other week.

I was 10.51st when I weighed myself this morning, since then I had a beef stew for lunch and also had a magnum white ice cream which I probably shouldn’t have had.

Despite this I’m going to have a Chinese tonight consisting of boiled rice, special foo yung and chicken and sweetcorn soup for starters.

Predicting my weight tomorrow morning to be around 10.60st but we'll see.

 

[bakes0310]

Day 3 it's the most calories I've had so far at 1563 calories.

Huel black.
4 rashers of bacon in a pita bread with salad.
2 scrambled eggs with tuna and Tabasco, I added just over a mug full of green beans to it.
Steak
Red gala apple.
Strawberries and raspberries.
2 coffees.

 

[dowie]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll take on board to eat more and go back to just losing 1lbs a week. [...]
I am 6ft 0inches and weigh according to gym scales this morning 99.80kg.

I wouldn't worry about losing 2lbs a week, most of the dietary advice suggests that losing 2lbs a week is healthy too.

Likewise, a low-calorie diet is there to lose weight, once you want to maintain weight then you can just steadily increase the number of calories up to say around 2500 for the average man (or perhaps a bit less, closer to 2000 if you're working from home, not out and about much aside from some gym sessions).

I don't see why reducing calories to 1500 for a bit is necessarily a bad thing, have seen stuff by bodybuilders who reduce them down to 1300 even when they want to start cutting fat.

There are some diets that involve far lower calorie intakes - for example, 800 calories even, which they claim can be followed for up to 12 weeks. That would likely cause weight loss at an even greater rate than 2lbs a week.

https://thefast800.com/

Though the NHS mentions this is only recommended for obese or severely obese people in particular circumstances + to talk to your GP. As per the other poster, it seems you're at the far end of the overweight range but not quite obese so perhaps not suitable.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/very-low-calorie-diets/

I guess the point I'm making though is that cutting to 1500 is fine if you're happy sticking with it as is losing 2lbs a week - that's often mentioned in literature etc.. as a healthy rate to lose weight and 1500 allows for plenty of food, no skipping meals etc.. without having to go hungry.

One thing to do (aside from cutting out the obvious like junk food/snacks and sugary drinks etc..) is perhaps just to cut down a bit on the carbs and eat more veg - you can still end up with a full plate but you've just changed the balance of it a little with a bit less rice/potatoes and more carrots, broccoli, peas etc..

 

[Martynt74]

It makes me chuckle at this year's effort from me. I've been hovering between 24.9 and 26.1 BMI for the whole of this year. I can't seem to shift down at all. But then again, it's hardly surprising when I'm scoffing cake and chocolate every other week.

Same here, mines actually been creeping up, but i've been so unhealthy for such a long time now that it's hardly surprising.

The other day i ate a full cake at 1700 calories because it was out of date and would've been thrown away otherwise!

 

[AndyCr15]

The other day i ate a full cake at 1700 calories because it was out of date and would've been thrown away otherwise!

Love it This is the problem though, isn't it. You make reasons for yourself to eat things you shouldn't.

"Well, it's the Euros, I'll have an ice cream and some chocolate. It's a special event"

"Well, I've had a good few days, it's fine to eat this entire bag of giant chocolate buttons..."

"Well, I just stubbed my toe, I deserve something nice to balance things, I'll order a kebab"