Just Another Weight Loss Log

[Nyvo]

Eek... I'm in desperate need of making some changes and losing a hell of a lot of weight. I'm going to keep it incredibly simple in terms of what I write in here, but myself and my fiancee have sat down and come up with a barebones plan to get started. I'm hoping people will be able to help, or make suggestions if theres anything that can help or improve things.

My Stats

Age: 30
Height: 6ft
Starting Weight: 28st 11lbs

02/03/2015 - 28st 11lbs
09/03/2015 - 28st 3.5lbs
16/03/2015 - 28st 0.5lbs

My Exercise Plan

I joined Pure Gym last night. I'm aiming to go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I'll probably stick to the suggested Routine in the starter thread at least for the time being and see how I get on.

Every other day i'll be walking. I walk about 1.5 miles per day at the moment walking to the train station and back in the mornings/evenings, and also to and from work at the other end. I'll add to this by going for an additional walk on the days I'm not in the gym.

My Diet Plan

Yesterday I ate:

Breakfast - 7.30 am

• 1 large egg, scrambled
• 1 slice white bread

Mid Morning - 10.30 am

• Wholegrain bran flakes
• Skimmed milk

Lunch - 1.30 pm

• 12 Mini chicken satays (120g)

Mid Afternoon - 4 pm

• 1 Piece flapjack
• 2 Hovis digestives w/ wheatgerm

Evening - 7 pm

• Stuffed roasted red pepper.
  
  Turkey Mince
  Onion
  Carrot
  Passata​
• Mixed lettuce leaves.

I also drank 2 litres of water, and in the evening 1 glass of Alpro soya chocolate milk.

Today has been much the same so far, other than I had 2 eggs for breakfast rather than 1 and mixed them with a little skimmed milk. Dinner tonight we'll be having marinated turkey steaks with vegetables.

I feel like I need to have something else at lunch time, and something other than flapjack in the afternoon, so once I've had chance to do a proper shop that'll change slightly. But this will probably be the basic template that i'll be working from. I'm not a massive fan of fruit, but i'll suck it up and get some.

Er... there we go... wasn't daunting at all!

 

[mrthingyx]

Congratulations on starting a log and more so for starting this new lifestyle!

The starter plan is great so all you need to work on (IMHO) is swapping in nuts for your snacks and working in a salad for lunch. Assuming you don't mind salad, of course!

Personally, I would be inclined to have at least two eggs in the morning... Reason being you don't want to drop your calories to starvation level so that all you achieve is misery, soreness and a volatile weight loss. Stick to a decent diet and gym routine and this stuff just happens.

Good luck with it!

 

[FrenchTart]

You may want to start logging with MyFitnessPal or the like - it will make it easier for you to vary your diet whilst maintaining a similar kcal intake. God knows eating the same thing all the time gets very boring very quickly

Do you have a rough idea of how many kcal you're eating per day, how many you're burning with exercise and what your rough minimum required kcal to maintain weight? Based on your current weight and height and the amount of activity described I think you may be undereating.

 

[Nyvo]

Congratulations on starting a log and more so for starting this new lifestyle!

The starter plan is great so all you need to work on (IMHO) is swapping in nuts for your snacks and working in a salad for lunch. Assuming you don't mind salad, of course!

Personally, I would be inclined to have at least two eggs in the morning... Reason being you don't want to drop your calories to starvation level so that all you achieve is misery, soreness and a volatile weight loss. Stick to a decent diet and gym routine and this stuff just happens.

Good luck with it!

Thank you. Nuts and salad sounds good, i'll work those into the plan! Yeah, I realised I didn't eat enough yesterday, so I had an extra egg this morning.

You may want to start logging with MyFitnessPal or the like - it will make it easier for you to vary your diet whilst maintaining a similar kcal intake. God knows eating the same thing all the time gets very boring very quickly

Do you have a rough idea of how many kcal you're eating per day, how many you're burning with exercise and what your rough minimum required kcal to maintain weight? Based on your current weight and height and the amount of activity described I think you may be undereating.

I've signed up for MyFitnessPal before, and I logged yesterday and today, it's a useful site!

According to MPF my daily goal is 2,490 calories, and yesterday I had 1,497. I've eaten more today, but I need to get to the supermarket for nuts/salad/fruit & veg. I've not used it for exercise though, so i'll start doing that too.

 

[FrenchTart]

I'd try and stick to your actual goal more for the time being - eating below it may feel good as you're losing weight quicker but ultimately it will make things harder. Also keep in mind that if you have spare kcal left over one day then there's nothing wrong with eating them the next. Your average over the course of a week is (within reason) the most important thing. Apologies if you already know all this

One thing to be aware of when logging exercise on MFP is that it tends to massively over-estimate the kcal burn. I'd recommend asking in here and researching online to get more accurate estimates or alternatively just do what some do and only eat back half the kcal that MFP suggests you burnt exercising.

 

[tom_e]

Be careful with nuts, they're very calorie dense and it's very easy to sit and scoff a good amount of your daily total without realising.

 

[FrenchTart]

...phrasing.

I love nuts but I absolutely can't buy bags of them as I'll literally eat them all :/

 

[Nyvo]

Any kind of nuts recommended over others? I like cashews, but no idea how good or bad they are.

 

[tom_e]

To be honest any that are plain and not salted, roasted or covered in any sort of coating are good to go.

 

[tom_nieto]

Good luck with it! A log is the first step, I've found it to be very useful for motivation. Change doesn't happen overnight or particularly easily but small changes over a long period can achieve big results - stick with it!

 

[Nyvo]

To be honest any that are plain and not salted, roasted or covered in any sort of coating are good to go.

Is roasted a deal breaker? I bought a bag of cashews this morning, they're unsalted and not coated in anything, but I've just noticed they're roasted.

Good luck with it! A log is the first step, I've found it to be very useful for motivation. Change doesn't happen overnight or particularly easily but small changes over a long period can achieve big results - stick with it!

Thank you

My day yesterday was:

Breakfast - 7.30 am

• 2 large eggs scrambled
• Semi-skimmed milk
• 1 slice white bread

Mid Morning - 10.30 am

• Wholegrain bran flakes
• Skimmed milk

Lunch - 1.30 pm

• 12 Mini chicken satays (120g)

Mid Afternoon - 4 pm

• Pink Lady Apple Slices
• 2 Hovis digestives w/ wheatgerm

Evening - 7 pm

• 2 Turkey steaks (125g each)
• Brazilian BBQ Marinade
• Broccolli
• Peas

According to MFP I went over my daily protein allowance. Calories for the day was 1,724. Noticed as well that my phone is syncing my steps with MFP... can't remember ever setting that up! lol.

This was dinner last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today

Rather than the slice of toast with breakfast, I had a slice of roast chicken breast and a few leaves of spinach.

For lunch, I went to the salad bar in Morrisons. I'm not a massive salad fan, so my choices might seem underwhelming to most, but I got a small box with mixed leaves, grated carrot, sweetcorn and Morrocan spiced falafel. They also had cous cous and pesto pasta, so if I enjoy what I got today, can mix it up a little on other days.

I also got a hot and spicy chicken leg from the hot food counter, but can always keep this for tomorrow.

Dinner tonight my other half is making, I think the plan is rump steak with mashed sweet potato.

 

[bakes0310]

Wow goodluck it seems you are starting off very well.
Steak and sweet potato is the meal of champions

 

[boxman2000]

Well done for starting this journey. Exercise and nutrition absolutely go hand in hand and tackling both at once is a great start. Good luck and stick with it!

I would say though that varying what you eat will help you stick to your planned calorie intake. Using apps such as MyFitnessPal (as has been suggested) is a very good way to do this and I found quite eye opening as to how much/little some foods benefitted me nutritionally.

Any kind of nuts recommended over others? I like cashews, but no idea how good or bad they are.

Almonds are very good for you. I tend to have a small handful mid-morning.

I would avoid peanuts or as has already been said any nut that has been salted or coated. I tend to keep non-salted cashews for toasting with salads or stir-fries. Good rule of thumb is 'everything in moderation'.

Personally I would cut out the white bread and go to wholemeal or wheatgerm as there is little nutritional value in white bread. Fruit and veg are good to add to your daily diet, particularly having something along with your lunch may help energy levels. Also I would find an alternative to the Hovis biscuits as they are not nutritionally worthwhile compared to equivalents you could eat that would fill you up more and even give you spare calories to play with throughout the day.

Do you make your own marinades and satay sauces? Reason I say that is shop bought tend to be high in fat and salt/sugar. If you don’t then rubs/marinades are so easy and much healthier and there are plenty of good recipes to be found on BBC Good Food or Foodgawker for starters. Even a basic French salad dressing is easy enough to do - 3:1 olive oil to vinegar (cider or balsamic are nice), a dash of salt and pepper and a tablespoon of yoghurt if you wish.

My wife has recently started cooking meals she found on a blog called ‘Deliciously Ella’. It covers a range of things such as main meals to drinks and there is actually some good stuff there, particularly as replacements to certain foods you would normally enjoy but are trying to cut out/down.

One example is almond milk, it's easy to make and tastes really nice with protein powder after gym sessions and it gives you that extra protein hit. There are also recipes in there for salads using quinoa (high in protein) and even for the sweet tooth there are various recipes using cacao.

Personally I get more from eating fruit than healthy brownies but if you like that sort of thing it is a good way to introduce certain beneficial foods into your diet.

 

[Nyvo]

Well done for starting this journey. Exercise and nutrition absolutely go hand in hand and tackling both at once is a great start. Good luck and stick with it!

I would say though that varying what you eat will help you stick to your planned calorie intake. Using apps such as MyFitnessPal (as has been suggested) is a very good way to do this and I found quite eye opening as to how much/little some foods benefitted me nutritionally.



Almonds are very good for you. I tend to have a small handful mid-morning.

I would avoid peanuts or as has already been said any nut that has been salted or coated. I tend to keep non-salted cashews for toasting with salads or stir-fries. Good rule of thumb is 'everything in moderation'.

Personally I would cut out the white bread and go to wholemeal or wheatgerm as there is little nutritional value in white bread. Fruit and veg are good to add to your daily diet, particularly having something along with your lunch may help energy levels. Also I would find an alternative to the Hovis biscuits as they are not nutritionally worthwhile compared to equivalents you could eat that would fill you up more and even give you spare calories to play with throughout the day.

Do you make your own marinades and satay sauces? Reason I say that is shop bought tend to be high in fat and salt/sugar. If you don’t then rubs/marinades are so easy and much healthier and there are plenty of good recipes to be found on BBC Good Food or Foodgawker for starters. Even a basic French salad dressing is easy enough to do - 3:1 olive oil to vinegar (cider or balsamic are nice), a dash of salt and pepper and a tablespoon of yoghurt if you wish.

My wife has recently started cooking meals she found on a blog called ‘Deliciously Ella’. It covers a range of things such as main meals to drinks and there is actually some good stuff there, particularly as replacements to certain foods you would normally enjoy but are trying to cut out/down.

One example is almond milk, it's easy to make and tastes really nice with protein powder after gym sessions and it gives you that extra protein hit. There are also recipes in there for salads using quinoa (high in protein) and even for the sweet tooth there are various recipes using cacao.

Personally I get more from eating fruit than healthy brownies but if you like that sort of thing it is a good way to introduce certain beneficial foods into your diet.

Thank you for the advice. The white bread and hovis biscuits are gone now. Won't be buying any more of either.

The marinade we used last night was a schwartz mix, but we do usually make our own.

The deliciously ella site looks good, one of the first things I spotted on there was a recipe for sweet potatoe brownies. My fiancee has made these a couple of times before but I found the texture to be very odd.

 

[Rids]

Welcome, I wish you the best of luck.

As somebody who is in the middle of a similar journey, I offer a few snippets of advice on things that I found worked for me. I won't try and touch diet as there are people here far far more knowledgable.

- MyFitnessPal, I live and die by this app. I log everything on here, every single sweet, biscuit, piece of fruit, the lot. Its surprising how much the little things can sneak up on you.

- Walking, I tend to clock up between 4-6 miles a day, every day. Mainly comes from walking to and from the train station, and the occasional lunch time jaunt with a colleague or two.

- Chicken, I never used to like chicken, these days I love it. Tesco do some great ready to cook chicken breasts in various marinades. Throw them in the oven for 40 minutes, roughly 400-450 calories for two chicken breasts and they taste amazing.

- Don't weigh in too often. This is something I've always struggled with, diets have always ended up ruining my life because I end up obsessing over them. This time I've tried to take things much more relaxed, I weigh in once every 10 days or so, I follow no fixed pattern, different times of the day. I'll just have a moment where I decide, hey time to weigh in. This stops the temptation to try and manipulate the result by starving myself the night before I weigh in.

 

[GSVBagpuss]

Great advice here. I think the key is consistency and just keeping it going. If you can keep it up until until it becomes routine, you'll be diamond

 

[Nyvo]

Thanks guys, all noted and advice much appreciated. About weighing in, I was planning on weighing myself every Monday morning before jumping in the shower. I couldn't resist weighing myself this morning though, more just to see whether the change in diet was making a difference this early on or not. I weighed in at 28st 5 1/4lbs. I'll resist any urges from now on!

I ate quite a bit yesterday, to the point where I struggled to finish my dinner in the evening.

Breakfast - 7.30 am

• 2 large eggs scrambled
• Semi-skimmed milk
• 1 slice roasted chicken breast

Mid Morning - 10.30 am

• Wholegrain bran flakes
• Skimmed milk

Lunch - 1.30 pm

• Mixed leaves
• 3 Pieces falafel
• Grated carrot
• Sweetcorn
• 1 Hot & spicy chicken leg

Mid Afternoon - 4 pm

• Pink lady apple slices
• Oat flapjack
• Cashew nuts (25g)

Evening - 7 pm

• Rump steak
• Sweet potato (mashed)
• Peas

My fiancee said dark chocolate can be ok. I'm not a fan of it, and I don't know whether to believe her or not, but I also had 2 small squares. Very bitter!

I'm also getting sick of eggs already.

 

[tom_e]

Good quality high cocoa dark chocolate does have some health benefits and also once you get used to the rich bitter flavour it can be good for taking the edge off any sweet cravings and obviously due to it's strong flavour there's much less chance of you sitting and demolishing a whole bar as most of us could quite easily do with milk chocolate.

 

[Nyvo]

Good quality high cocoa dark chocolate does have some health benefits and also once you get used to the rich bitter flavour it can be good for taking the edge off any sweet cravings and obviously due to it's strong flavour there's much less chance of you sitting and demolishing a whole bar as most of us could quite easily do with milk chocolate.

Ahh, this wasn't good quality. Tesco Everyday Value.

 

[tom_e]

If you're going to eat it it's worth splashing out on the best quality you can get such as the Lindt stuff as you'll only be eating a couple of squares at a time even the smaller more expensive bars will last for a few treats.