Weight loss accountability/support 2022 edition

Should have added, plan to:

Cycle more - want to do longer rides.

Get back into swimming - 2/300 lengths per week.

Eat more fish.

Drink less alcohol.

Sorry for recording my weight and height in imperial units - kilograms and centimetres just don't translate into human equivalents for me.

Well Jan 1 didn't start well, in that I drank and ate crisps with the family yesterday.
On the plus side I did go for a (brief) swim

All still a bit holiday mode, which is fine

Great idea and signing up as, after 18 months of indolence and too much booze, TubbyTed needs to revert to BigTed if only to regain confidence to wearing cycling clothes in public/daylight.

I’m aiming for 10kg loss by end of March. My Garmin tells me that I routinely average using 3,000 calories a day so cutting right down on booze in particular with more routine exercise should mean it’s within range.

This thread is busier than I thought, great stuff!

Official start today, yesterday my wife and I spent the day hunting for and eating all the left over junk in our house, including approx 400g of chocolate, and drinking beer.
I now don’t want to look at or eat chocolate for ages.

Started by skipping breakfast, aiming for an eating window of 12-8, high protein, low carb today, get down to the true starting weight rather than holiday carb bloat.

Having done dieting far more times than I care to admit (though sometimes for martial art competition weigh ins) my general recommendations regardless of your diet or plans:

1) willpower is overrated. Remove all snack/domino foods/drink from your house. If you must snack or eat junk, make it a conscious choice.
2) don’t drink calories. Diet drinks, sugar free squash, black coffee/tea are acceptable. Not drinking a large latte and an after work pint might save 500 calories a day.
3) Meal variety is overrated. Stick to a couple of meals/choices that fit your diet. You really don’t need to vary the type of nuts and fruits you have in your morning oats.

3000 is impressive!

I hope my watch is not gaslighting me!

Meal variety is overrated. Stick to a couple of meals/choices that fit your diet. You really don’t need to vary the type of nuts and fruits you have in your morning oats.

Evenings are different (for me) but breakfast and lunch I'm pretty happy to eat the same thing most days. As much as I hate the concept of "food is only fuel", if I don't have a plan I can keep going without using much brainpower, it'll be petrol station pastries on the way to work and then whatever food truck is outside for lunch.

I track on my Apple Watch and do often wonder if its just making shit up.

A 180cm 100kg lightly active man needs 2700 calories to maintain body weight, so 3000 calories for a large person isn’t that far off.

No science backing, but, in my last weightloss period, I was intaking 1500calories and always aimed to burn 1000. Did it with relative ease and relative good fitness.
Garmin tells me 1hr walk, 5.5k is 660calories. 90min cycle 1000calories.

Ah so maybe the Garmin calculates the basic at rest calorie burn. Think my Apple Watch calculates 'active calories' - so only calories burned above those the body uses to maintain itself at rest. So my daily calorie average is about 1000-1200 with a decent 1hr workout at the gym plus 10k steps etc.

194cm - Currently 100kg
90kg Goal by October 14th (10th Anniversary + my wedding day...!!) 85kg stretch target.

My partner has started back contracting so our kids in nursery full time now. Should mean flexibility for daytime rides / exercise is greatly increased as I'm not restricted to nap time only - which was always when some delightful person inserted a nonessential meeting. 12-2 meetings should be banned but that's another conversation.

The Garmin also does active calories too although I accept that I need to up these (and 2 hour hilly walk today was a decent enough contribution) while avoiding using Belgian sports drink to rehydrate afterwards.

Fitness wake-up call today. Rode into town to take back the unwanted online sales shopping. 8 miles each way. Didn’t kill me but it certainly wasn’t easy and I had to use a couple of extra gears to get up that hill in Windsor. Definitely feeling it now in the lungs and chest.

Should be riding to work 2-3 days a week from next week though, so hopefully the cardio will bounce back fairly quickly.

Less variety works for me. Exact same mean every day helps keep me on track.
Also weigh your food!

Weigh your food is defo the way. Makes a big difference. Fucking pain in the ass though

I appreciate that it’s a discredited metric hence it’s not been mentioned, but the BMI is pretty brutal!!

Too end for the acceptable zone for my height and age is more than I weighed in my early 20s when I was running competitively and playing tennis seriously (and, from looking back at photos, I didn’t have any spare).

Is there a better/more realistic metric to consider?

As you probably know, BMI works for the majority of the population but falls down at upper or lower extremes of height or if the individual is carrying a lot of muscle. On an individual basis, you can’t go too far wrong by measuring your body fat and considering your aerobic fitness level. If you don’t use a body fat analyser, the ‘pinch an inch’ method round your middle is a pretty good indicator of body fat.

I'm waiting for the heated discussion about analogue/digital/connected scales.

I need to lose 20% which is mostly from too much bad food and sugary drinks.

I find myself in a very weird spot where I train and I am as fit as I’ve arguably ever been but I have what the masses call a “dad bod” these days as I eat like absolute horseshit and live permanently bloated.

The sugar withdrawal is REAL.

Moving back home meant I was able to redevelop a healthy Irn Bru addiction.

BMI is pretty harsh for me.
Based on my height, it puts me in the obese category.

49.2 to 66.4kg is healthy range supposedly.

I look a bit chubby at the moment but definitely not obese. I have a decent amount of muscle, particular in my legs and I still (just about) fit in small t shirts.

It’s a workable metric, not so much for the more muscly outliers.

They do sugar free Irn Bru.
Doesn’t taste quite the same, but a reasonable approximation.

Would you kiss your mother with that mouth?

Sugar free irn bru tastes worse than actual human faeces.