Weight loss accountability/support 2022 edition

Went full binge mode last night. Went out for great pizza and ice cream, should have left it at that....but didnt. Cracked open a box of Xmas quality street and went to town. Woke up this morning like I'd been hit by a bus, full on hangover. Dairy and sugar super combo.

Did weigh in at 81.9kg the day before so no ish, but extra motivation to maintain. Blerrrgh

I have held of weighing myself for a month & just trusted in the process.

the last time I weighed in I was 99.8 kg on Feb 4th and now I am 98.4 on March 4th.

I am dropping about 500g a week. If I continue like this I will be at my first target of 95 kg in 6 weeks.

My aim is once at that point to step up my exercise routine from fat burn to higher intensity fitness work.

this may not ne dramatic progress, but it is progress I am happy with as it encompasses changed eating, exercise, work and hobby patterns.

Awesome!

Enjoying reading everyone’s results but also the positive vibes being brought 😎

Last night I decided to treat myself and had 3/4 bottle of wine, beyond burger and chips, 1.5 crosstown doughnuts.
Today 1.1kg heavier :(
#nodaysoff

Weighed in at 85.2 this morning, which is the lowest I’ve been on my home scales. Which is over 7kg since Jan 3rd. Would really love to see 80kg again. Leaning out well, adjusting to lower carbs a lot better than usual. The key seems to be managing to be 90% strict, and not going wild when I do have a treat.
Generally the day’s eating is:

630am: black coffee, cheapo berocca in a pint of water.
10am: black coffee. Some nuts if I’m struggling
1am lunch: 4 sausages, canned tomatoes, mushrooms and 3 eggs (greasy spoon special). Or some kind of cooked meat from the supermarket paired with a bag of salad eaten like a packet of crisps.
8pm dinner: usually a combo of meat and green veg. With a couple squares of dark chocolate for pudding.

Will grab some cheese, nuts or pork scratchings in the evening if I’m desperate for a snack before dinner.
I’ve also been adding a smoothie in the evening if I don’t think I’ve had enough fibre - mostly frozen spinach with frozen mixed berries (they’re sufficiently low sugar/minging), and some ginger which makes a lovely brown sludge. It’s not nice to drink, but it serves a purpose.

Written down, it does seem to make sense why the weight is coming off - it’s not loads of food when you’re doing a physical job all day. Honestly feel a lot better than when I was chinning loads of sandwiches every day.

This is truly inspirational content. A successful weight-loss program including a greasy spoon fry-up and pork scratchings. You should write a book....

It is the magic of keto/low carb.
Sugar is a hell of a drug!

And puffed pork scratchings are a perfect low carb swap for crisps. I reckon my salt intake is likely pretty worrying tho.

Another perk is that my climbing is definitely starting to see the benefits. Not much of a surprise that dropping 7kg makes it easier, but I reckon cutting sugar does a decent whack for athletic performance too.

1.1kg heavier after salty food and carbs is nothing!
Once after a cheat day, including a buffet, I weighed in 4.6kg heavier the day after...

Keto/low carb definitely works if you can keep it going!

Climbing seems like it wouldn't be affected too much from low carb, due to less impact on cardio?
High tempo running/cycling or other endurance focused sports however...

As an example of what I do / eat daily going by yesterday:

Breakfast: Black coffee and effervescent vitamin drink (Berocca or equivilent)

35 minutes fasted cardio (turbo zone 2)
Mid morning coffee

Lunch: 225g rump steak, peas, 200g of french lentils, flavoured with duck fat and herbs (666cals)

100 burpees and stretching - 170 calories

Taekwondo: 2 hours

Protein shake
Cheeky post training pint of San Miguel

Dinner: 260g chicken breast cooked with herbs, 300g of ratatouille (717cals)

Total food: 1814 cals
Total exercise: 1402 cals
Approx. 1500 cal deficit.

Food intake hovers around 1500-1800, exercise hovers around 500-1500 daily.

Reducing sugar aids certain CV functions IIRC. Sugar reduces red blood cells ability to transport oxygen. Having done a bit of digging it seems that low carb athletes often do top up carbs depending on training/performance needs. For a fat biffer like me, it doesn’t make any difference. I’d love to get back to running, especially with the weight coming off, but I just don’t have the time at the moment.

As for keeping keto going, I really think the key is to have carbs/treats regularly enough that you’re not losing your mind. Eating keto/low carb 90% of the time and managing to maintain it long term is definitely better than going full extreme keto and burning out after 3-4 months (which is precisely what I used to do). No point fantasising about pizza for weeks on end, when one cheat meal a week isn’t going to massively upset progress and will keep you sane/motivated to stick to the diet.

And you may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

1 Attachment

January goal was to convert the 3kg gut I’d gained from eating 60+ mince pies in November back into lean Jonny69 fitness. Seem to have managed this. Kept a food diary for a few weeks and it’s not too bad, though it did highlight a few areas that could be improved.

I think the tricky thing for me is a wildly swinging appetite. I’m riding into work on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and my appetite is huge on the day after riding. I’ve just got to be careful not to go too mad on those days.

heart emoji

When losing weight, I tend to dramatically reduce carbs, but still keep some in as bonking during a martial arts session normally means getting kicked in the face.

Cheeky checkin time again

Jan 4 - 91.5
Jan 8 - 89.8
Jan 15 - 88.6
Jan 22 - 87.5
Jan 30 - 87.2
5 Feb - 86.9
12 Feb - 85.5
19 Feb - 84.1
25 Feb - 82.4
05 Mar - 80.8

GW - 82
Stretch - 80

Goal weight hit & sustained through the week, and it still feels pretty sustainable. The mirror, camera and belt are telling a positive story, even if I'm carrying a bit of stubborn back fat.

We're going to take it sub-80, folks.

Gave myself a treat last night, and made sausage burgers, blowing through my current daily calorie limit.

Felt a bit cheaty, until I realised I was still under my BMR amount, and definitely under given the 45 minute heavy bag session earlier today.

We're having people over for dinner next weekend, which I think I shall use as a convenient end date.

Onwards and inwards.

Confession: I'm terrified of stopping dieting. I've shaken out from 93.5kg at the start of the year back to 80kg now, which is a much better size for me. I've actually done it really painlessly through a small consistent breakfast, huel for lunch and then a 'normal' dinner of 6-1000 calories leaving me at 15-1800 calories a day, good for a 500ish deficit, more if I exercise.

So far so good.. I'm a very habitual/impulsive eater so getting into a diet routine which psychologically worked was really transformative. I'm very concerned that once I start giving myself an inch (as I've very much earned the right to!) I will start taking a mile, and end up right back where I started. I don't really even crave junk/snacks at the moment, but I do know how hard it is to stop once I start..

Any advice beyond regular weighing from people who have successfully avoided the dreaded yoyo?

I feel a bit the same tbh. I went from 72kg all the way back up to 100kg (where I was for most of my 20s) over three years so I have form for it.

Even last year, I went from 92kg back to 100kg.

Feel like that’s kinda the point of this thread. Also i think of it like this - maintaining is so much easy than losing it all!

Just because you’ve gone up after losing in the past doesn’t make it inevitable. After losing the weight, switch focus on how to maintain the weight in a way which is sustainable. So maybe your next 6m goal is to stay at the goal weight and keep checking in and being honest

I have / had the same concerns, and I have invested a lot of thought into sustainability.

For me, that means what I eat during dieting is, by and large, the same things I will eat afterwards (and before, for the most part, less bags of crisps, bars of chocolate, all the patisserie, and butter with everything).

When I come off the diet, all I'm doing is being less exact on my meals - no more weighing and logging, but still keeping an eye on portions.

It helps that I'm a big CICO proponent - eat less, lose weight.

Diets that substitute and radically change what you eat are antithetical to good dietary practice, and while they work (because restrictive diets mean less calories in...) they're not so great for ongoing maintenance, unless you keep them up in perpetuity.

Everyone's MMV, of course.

Actually, I’m not sure that is true.
Maintaining isn’t easy either, because maintaining has no end goal.

Staying at a new steady level of weight involves a different level of food intake to that which got you to the higher weight in the first place, so you can’t go back to what you’ve already done.

I lose weight pretty easily, gain weight pretty easily, but find a weight difficult to maintain.

As a counter-point, my mum has been slim and pretty much exactly the same weight all her adult life. She instinctively eats less after big meals, and eats more when she’s been more active.

Having said that she’s not particularly sporty or active, and it’s harder to modulate your weight as a cyclist, as the amount of nutrition you need for long rides for example might be double or triple what you’d need on a sedentary day.

My plan after the bulk of the weight is off and I’m at my goal weight of 68kg, is to do bulk, cut, bulk, cut and stay within a range of 67-69kg.
Extending the duration a bit longer to get the habits to stick better.

If I see a 69kg, then eat cleaner and lower calorie for the following week

Some good sample sizes we’re throwing around here! 😂 2 individuals and a mum

I just think about it as a mindset - I got here, it was hard, I don’t want to do that again so my mindset is to not have to. But everyone is different ofc

2 Jan 92kg
28 Feb 87kg
07 Mar 86kg

I am very pleased with this. The last time I weighed this low was 2013 and that was an all-time low (started weighing myself in 2007).

Did a medium ride yesterday and it was noticeably easier to get up the hills.

Hah, my Korean mum’s self regulating habits are likely the same as all small slim East Asian mums/grandmas of a similar size. Quite a few of those around!

I was commenting on maintenance being easy, which if it was, a dieting industry would be much smaller than it is!

Though I will also tell myself that maintenance is easier, so I’ve got something to look forward to once I’ve got to my goal weight.

Anyone particularly recommend a set of scales? Bought some cheap salter ones but the readings vary wildly.
Just after an accurate digital set.