Weight / Fat loss

The content of your article advises that the test subjects had done yoga for over 5 years. As with anything, with practice, it gets easier and hence the lower calorie usage. Novices, like myself, will use more calories - depending on which calculator you use, this can go above 1000 calories. Weight also plays a factor - your figures relate to someone of 65kg. I am 88kg and will use proportionately more calories.

Find a Bikram Yoga class and try it, I suspect you will be surprised how arduous it is. I should add, it is also fun!

I ended up looking up potassium...potatoes are a great source. 5 medium taytoes does it. Some beans are a good low calorie source too.

Now for all the other stuff... ;)

This week has been a mixed bag, but progress is still being made and in three weeks I have dropped a full BMI point and shed half a stone, which feels like a real landmark. I’m starting to feel – and think I look – slimmer/fitter/lighter – still 9lbs to go to target, though, so not at the half way point yet.

17/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 11lb and 1/4. BMI = 23.6
24/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 7lb and 3/4. BMI = 23.2
31/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 6lb and 1/2. BMI = 22.9
07/09/2017 – Weight: 11st 4lb and 1/4. BMI = 22.6

Last Friday I had to WFH, did no exercise and lots of eating and drinking at the weekend and ended up with severe food poisoning (likely a contributing factor to continued weight loss) – I did no exercise on Monday, but since then I’ve been good and put in 80 miles, upped the sit/push ups to 30 a day and basically eaten a lot less than usual. My appetite seems to have suddenly diminished somewhat. Whereas I’d otherwise be starving by lunchtime or when I get home, I don’t feel the urge to gorge/snack and have been feeling full before finishing my usual portion size – I really hope that isn’t a temporary thing.

The next week should be pretty good in terms of being able to stick to the regime – some light imbibement on Saturday aside.

For some reason being on the piss every fucking night and dining on low calorie options like kebabs and tubs of Ben & Jerry's has added a couple of kg...

Perhaps a "healthy option" kebab shop is a gap in the market... ;)

Stable at 64KG.

Getting hungrier with the dark and cold weather...maybe I should up my calorie allowance instead of tucking into Toblerones O_o

The healthy option is to not go out on the piss and leave dinner until midnight.

I've just got back from 10 days in Italy 2.5kg heavier

How is that working for you? :P

I think you've earned a couple of kg this year...

I was heavier coming back from TCR so it's not all bad news. Once all these events stop happening I will go back to focusing on the healthy eating.

Just winding you up :)

A break isn't always bad, I don't count calories on holidays. Not sure I could finish a tub of icecream...well that's a lie I could :)

Easy. It was only 500ml one. I used to finish the 2L ones back in Oz.

My normal goto breakfast isn't a bad start to the day. Plenty of fibre, fats and slow carbs so I'm not starving 10 minutes later.

Plain Skyr has less sugars but tastes 😝

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I just had some fruity yog this morning. Definitely prefer eggs or bagels.

Frozen fruit like blueberries in the skyr is a good fix for that, the juice gets rid of the bitterness :)

Is there any benefit to owning something like this? https://health.nokia.com/uk/en/body - or something else that will enable me to easily/quickly track calorie input/output and relate to weight/BMI etc?

I seem to be doing fine using a digital scales, pen and paper (iPhone notes) and an online BMI calculator, but I'd be willing to consider getting something more advanced if it gave me additional, useful info, or made the weight loss process more interesting/fun/effective.

I seem to be doing fine using a digital scales, pen and paper (iPhone notes) and an online BMI calculator,

not more advanced, just easier. next model up does bioimpedance body fat measurements.

Giving fasting a go after being pointed to the Dr Jason Fung videos: https://youtu.be/ETkwZIi3R7w

I don't do any running, cycling or swimming on a Wednesday so today is my first fast day. Last calories at 11pm last night (snack when I got home from the pub). Water and coffee (take it black anyway) until lunchtime Thursday. Will see how much fun tomorrow morning's commute is.

If it works well I'll try and add another day (possibly Friday).

Good luck, might be do-able on low activity days. I dabbled with it a little but didn't find it as liveable as intermittent fasting on a 16:8 hour basis. No calories between 8pm and 12pm, and some branch-chain amino-acids in the morning so I'm not wasting away muscle on my commutes and I'm steadily losing weight.

Could be just that it stops some of my bad behaviours though - late evening snacks and morning sugary coffees?

I know my fat metabolism can cope once I get it moving again. I think I had a croissant and a baguette at 140km on PBP'11 and then the next food was at Villaines (220km). I'd often go 100km+ on other Audaxes between food.

Fridays will be an interesting experiment though.

I'm in the pub on a Thursday night for a reasonable post 5-a-side session (6 or so pints), so last calories by 11pm or so. (Interesting especially as I would have come off a ~36h fast at midday on the Thursday.)

I usually run in to work (11km) on a Friday morning on an empty stomach so doing that at the start of another fast makes no difference whatsoever. But upon arrival at work I usually have some protein (chocolate milk) to help stave off post-exercise sniffles and help the muscles. At ~350kcal that's below the 600kcal maximum suggested for fasting days. I had hoped to go both days completely calorie free but probably best not to push it on the Friday, and I don't want endless colds to ruin things.

The Friday evening cycle commute home can be taken gently and then I plan to leave it as long as I can before eating; ideally until brunch on Saturday. It'll be fun to see how I get on with parkrun near the end of another 36h fast (I'll carry an emergency gel with me, fret not) but at the moment parkrun is about getting in some high intensity exercise, not about the times (I'm ~5min off my PB given I'm 10kg heavier than back then).

If/when I get down to a more sensible weight I'll be focusing on faster times and longer runs and so I'll probably move to 16:8 rather than 2 full days of fasting.

I deal with hunger well, I can put off eating quite easily and drinking some water usually gets rid of the hunger pangs. Snacking is my problem, I don't take sugar or milk in coffee and otherwise drink water. But snacks, especially when working from home. Bah.

tl;dr:

• Tuesday 11pm to Thursday 12pm (37h) fast
  ** no calories
  ** just a gentle commute Thursday morning

• Thursday 11pm to Saturday 10.30am (35.5h) fast
  ** ~350kcal (Friday 9am)
  ** 11km gentle run (Friday am)
  ** 5km fast run (Saturday am)
  ** EAT ALL THE FOODS!

...or just cut out the 6 pints?

Heretic.

6 pints of 4% lager =~ 1200kcal

Cutting those out (and not replacing the calories elsewhere) would be worth just ~150g of weight loss a week.

I've done booze free months and the like and generally I'd prefer to create a sizeable calorie deficit with food/fasting changes than booze changes. (I'm now about ok w.r.t. government recommended booze limits.)

EDIT: A previous version of this post explained issues with the NHS BMI calculator which was in fact user error - I am not 5ft 1", I am 5ft10"...

Five weeks in now and have lost ~9lbs and have ~7lbs to go, so over halfway. Forgot to weigh last Thurs, which is probably just as well as I doubt I lost much, given how the rate has slowed.

17/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 11lb and 1/4. BMI = 23.6
24/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 7lb and 3/4. BMI = 23.2
31/08/2017 – Weight: 11st 6lb and 1/2. BMI = 22.9
07/09/2017 – Weight: 11st 4lb and 1/4. BMI = 22.6
21/09/2017 – Weight: 11st 2lb and 1/2. BMI = 22.3

Anyway, this week has been good, but overall the last couple of weeks have been another mixed bag between having my ideal routine – i.e. 30 miles riding a day, 40 pushups and situps, no alcohol and eating reasonably well (no fried food, crisps, sugar) – and days with little or no exercise, booze and eating a lot of calories. I think I’ll just have to concentrate on being more disciplined on the ‘off’ days, as I don’t think I will be very popular if I start not turning up or agreeing to social things like birthdays and planned days out. I did find that, by swapping what would otherwise have been three pints of beer for three vodka and tonics, I felt a lot better for it for lots of reasons. Beer just gives me a headache really. The next couple of weeks are going to be more mixed than the last one, so I need to make sure I’m as good as I can be on the good days.