Weight / Fat loss

It's been sustainable for almost 8 weeks now, and unfortunately isn't abating. I think I'll need to increase calorie intake to slow it down.

To be fair... I'd done nothing to manage my diet or exercise ever. I ate whatever I felt like eating, I commuted by bike most days, I occasionally did longer rides, just your average really. I enjoyed ice cream, lots of wine, cake, etc.

I'm, 6'2" tall and when I was racing crits 9 years ago, I was around 68kg... thin for my height. 5 years ago I was around 75kg... slim but perfectly normal for my height. This summer I peaked at 84.9kg having put on 4kg after 2 weeks in Italy.

My goal was simply to get back to BMI 22, it's as good as any other goal I could conjure. I hit this a couple of days ago... 84.9kg down to 77.6kg in just over 7 weeks.

I did no additional exercise, all I did was:

1. Weigh everything, never exceeding recommended portion sizes on packaging or from recipes.
   
2. Avoid carb heavy meals... this basically means not focusing too heavily on potatoes or pasta. Once or twice a week = fine, just not every night.
   
3. Max 1 glass of wine, no more than twice a week.
   
4. Avoid all processed foods, including cured meats, smoked salmon, etc.
   
5. No snacks, biscuits or cakes... except at the weekend, in moderation.
   
   

What this looks like:

Breakfast: 40-45g of granola with 2-3 spoons of yoghurt.
Lunch: Baguette from Paul or burrito from Benitos, no soft drink, no meat or fish in the lunch... Nuun for office drinks.
Dinner: Fresh salmon with a rice or bean based salad, or tuna steak with cous cous, or butternut squash curry with rice... occasionally a fresh pasta with pesto or something with new potatoes.

That's it. Just 2 measured and regulated good meals per day and a single portion of lunch with no snacks.

And I think it's extremely sustainable... I eat cake and ice cream at the weekend (but only ever to a single portion size with the lunch or evening meal).

I've just stopped treating food as a comfort item I can reach out and consume whenever I wanted.

I was hungry for the first week, but then I adapted and it's fine. I've also not had the post-lunch slump for the last 6-7 weeks... so the lack of sugary snacks has made me way more alert and productive.

All good.

I've been tracking this in an Android app called Libra, and it tells me that the weight loss is equivalent to me consuming 823 calories fewer per day. But I find that hard to believe, I think that changing what I ate as well as watching the quantity is what did it.

and how sustainable is it?

Kept up that rate for 8 months, some years ago. Tails off as you approach ideal weight, ofc.