Weight loss accountability/support 2024 edition

(Back in May)

Next major goals are 95kg early June and then 90kg by the time I go on holiday mid August.

Ha. Fucked knee puts me at about 103kg again. Running outdoors starts again next week along with the rest of the get fit strategy, will start my stats again then.

If I'm 103kg now then I generally have about 1 month of plateau once I start (new muscle offsets lost flab), and then 0.5kg/week loss after that gives me:

• End of Nov: 100kg
  
• Early Feb: 95kg
  
• Mid Apr: 90kg
  
• Late Jun: 85kg
  
• Early Sep: 80kg
  
• Late Oct: 76kg
  

I went from 91 down to 84 pretty easily but have plateaued there for a while.

Making a bit of a push now to see if I can break through. More exercise, being more watchful of intake and trying to do some planks and pushups in the morning to build muscle and metabolism.

We shall see.

I started a weight loss programme in mid July.

I use a food diary - MyFitnessPal - and have a personal trainer. I am cycling around 2-300 Km a week and working out 4 or 5 times a week in the gym, two of them with the trainer. I only do weights and stretching in the gym. No cardio.

I am restricting my calories intake to around 1500 calories a day however many I burn. I have porridge with oat milk at breakfast but no other carbs. I eat chicken, eggs, halumi and non oily fish as protein as well as veg, salad and fruit.

I have lost 19kg so far with another 7kg to go.

Losing weight is easy. The difficulty is (1) starting the process and (2) keeping it off.

The second challenge will soon be facing me.

Bloody hell, congratulations

Without wanting to sound too negative, I'm not sure the process you have described to lose weight would count as easy for many. How much does the personal trainer and gym subs cost? How can eg. a parent to a young child, working full time, find the time for 5 gym sessions and 300km of cycling a week?

Not to mention that 1500 calories a day, especially with that amount of exercise, would leave most people feeling extremely hungry, all the time?

I would suggest a better description might be that losing weight is simple - your picture of a very strict diet and lots of exercise is after all not revolutionary - but still, very difficult

Ditching this last little roll of tummy is proving to be bastard. Just saying.

Nice work @cliveo - for part 2 do you plan to continue working with the PT? As you mention the keeping the weight off can often be the hardest part but hoping you are feeling better for all that work!

Not to mention that 1500 calories a day, especially with that amount of exercise, would leave most people feeling extremely hungry, all the time?

Yes it does. Although I used to do 2000kcal a day and do loads of exercise meaning I was at a minimum of 750kcal/day deficit.

It takes about 3 or 4 weeks to bed in. Once you start to get used to it it's generally ok but still a bit grim.

The hard bit is a) not giving in, as that sets you back weeks and (b) knowing the tricks to staving off hunger. Sometimes it's as simple as just having a glass of water to stop yourself feeling hungry. Exercise suppresses my appetite too in the short term, so I'd often time my runs for when I started to feel really hungry and even a 30 minute run would put off the hunger pangs for another 4-5 hours. Feel hungry at the end of the work day, perfect time for a 30 minute commute. Then it's a case of portion control, as deciding how much to eat when ravenous is always dangerous.

Fasting also helped me. Actively planing to go ~36h without food (well, mostly) helped my brain understand it simply wasn't getting more than 500kcal. I used to do:
Tuesday: eat normally, play 5-a-side at 8pm, couple of pints in the pub afterwards
Wed: WFH. A glass of OJ in the morning and maybe some steamed veg (broccoli/carrots usually) at lunch, nothing in the evening
Thu: No breakfast, run 11km into the office, resuming eating "normally" at lunchtime with something I'd taken into work on Tuesday and left in the fridge - something like lasagne, steamed broccoli/carrots/new-pots. 5-a-side after work and then pub for too many pints.

During this I was still cooking for Mrs and Mini GB, but I'd had years of working in catering where I'd be preparing lots of food I'd never get to eat, so I was quite well mentally conditioned for cooking for people but not eating it.

Now that my knee is pretty much repaired (~4 months recovery from a "high grade MCL tear") I'm back running outside (yay! a whole 2k today!) and will be back on the 5-a-side pitch in a few weeks. I've got a metric fuckload of weight to lose (~30kg to go from 104kg to 76kg) so it's going to be a long old slog. I'll restart the Wednesday 36h fasting after a month or so (want to give my body a chance to get used to the increase in exercise first) - it'll need a lot of protein to replace lost muscle/gristle.

I think you can find the time but you would need to prioritise this over other activities. I have a 2yr old and I manage 3 x Gym and 4 x runs (60km per week). The calorie deficit Clive is running is deffo on the edge and I’d struggle but working for him. Also using money to help solve the problem clearly isn’t an option for everyone but if you can then why wouldn’t you prioritise your health and well-being.

I do understand your point though and everyone is different.

I have pretty much succumbed to the fact that my last roll will never leave unless I just go full strict mode. That strikes me as no fun and isn’t really going to aid my functional fitness. If you’ve been bigger and are the wrong side of 30 then the skin will have lost elasticity anyway so will take time and effort to tone up

Yeah, not taking anything away from him, that is an incredible achievement

Just saying that doesn't quite seem fair to call something easy when it has required a not insignificant amount of money, loads of time and presumably high levels of physical discomfort (hunger). It in fact sounds hard

Without wanting to sound too negative, I'm not sure the process you have described to lose weight would count as easy for many. How much does the personal trainer and gym subs cost? How can eg. a parent to a young child, working full time, find the time for 5 gym sessions and 300km of cycling a week?

Not to mention that 1500 calories a day, especially with that amount of exercise, would leave most people feeling extremely hungry, all the time?

I would suggest a better description might be that losing weight is simple - your picture of a very strict diet and lots of exercise is after all not revolutionary - but still, very difficult

Gym £23 a month because i am over 60 and it is a council leisure centre. Trainer £50 an hour. I am self employed and so do what I want when I want. The summer months were good as work was less pressing. Less easy now.

would leave most people feeling extremely hungry, all the time?

Empty, fatigues, occasionally lightheaded but I am over hunger. The rive to lose weight and the results trump hunger. I find I can exercise without worry.

In the past I tried Ozempic which was a disaster and didn't work. I feel less hungry now and have fewer cravings.

First week of new regime done.

Coming back from "high grade MCL tear" that has stopped me doing most stuff for 4 months. Ballooned up to ~103kg. Target is 76kg (last seen in 2009, but I did see 83kg in 2016).

All under guidance from physio, so I'm not risking anything.

This week I have done:

• 2k run outside (first outdoor run since May) to test the knee, and another 3k run.
  
• Back in the pool - only 400m today but I'll soon be back to 3k three times a week
  
• Ramp test on a Wattbike in the gym. Puny results given my weight, but a baseline at least.
  
• 2 x Mini Leg Blasters (Mon/Wed/Fri) in prep for skiing in the New Year
  
• 100 pushups challenge Week 1 Col 2 (Mon/Wed/Fri).
  
  

Food intake hasn't been too bad, nor has booze intake. Trying to give myself smaller portions at meal times.

Giving myself another 3 weeks before I expect to see the weight start to fall. I tend to have a 4 week plateau when I start something like this, body shape changes but weight stays the same. Almost certainly it's fat being replaced by muscle, but muscle being more dense (and in different places) means I look a bit thinner even if the scales don't say anything.

Also takes me about 4 weeks to get the routine embedded. Any wobbles during this time and it's unlikely to stick, so it takes a lot more mental energy to force myself to do things even though bits of me are aching/tired. If I make it past the 4 week mark it usually sticks for a good 6-8 months, as I generate a lot of heat it's nicer doing my runs in the autumn/winter.

Back to 5-a-side in a couple of weeks too. Really missed that.

1/1/23 - 77.1
16/1/23 - 75
24/1/23 - 73.9
7/2/23 - 73.3
14/2/23 - 72.8
14/3/23 - 72.6
15/5/23 - 73.7
12/6/23 - 71.3
23/7/23 - 74
3/8/23 - 72.5
20/9/23 - 72
9/10/23 - 71

Riding lots and Big Salads (c) doing the trick. It must have been 2020 when I was last at this weight :)

Woo, I'm 6kg down already!

Unfortunately in the last 3 days.

Ugh.

Feeling mostly better but managing to keep most of it off but that's because my booze intake has gone from a pretty steady 20 units/week to 8 units in the last 2 weeks.

Update. Now 600g off my original goal. 24.4kg gone or about 20% of my bodyweight. Since 24 July.

I have a hospital appointment next week about an anti-arthritis drug that I have to take for the next year in an attempt to avoid surgery. Side effects include possible loss of hair and, more worryingly, appetite suppression, a tendency to gain weight and foggy headedness for a couple of days after each weekly dose. Will ask what I should do to maintain my new trim figure.

Although I have almost hit my goal, there is still work to do on some belly fat and in building muscle. That is more in the arena of fat loss than weight loss.

I am now down to a weight that I suspect most of you would start from!

Great work on the weight loss @cliveo and best of luck with the treatment!

Thank you. Due to the vagaries of fluid content of my body, I hit the target this morning but need to go a little further.

My body fat ratio is 26.2% and I think I need to edge that down closer to 24% to be healthy.

Started paying attention to my weight properly in the late summer. Started around 107kg. Have been about there since my mid 20s (15 years)

Partner is heavily coeliac and pescatarian so most of our food is pretty healthy, one bottle of wine between us over the course of a weekend, every couple of weeks.

I actually hit 99.65kg today. First time under 100 in 15ish years. It's a small thing overall but actually quite motivating.

The only main changes I've made is being much more aware and conscious of portion sizes given much of the food was already healthy. Less cheese. Having 2 meals a day instead of 3 given I'm fairly sedentary in work. My partner swears she needs 3 meals a day every day, this is causing a little friction as I am seeing losses and she has plateaued. (I'm not saying she should follow as everyone is different but the friction is more about me making less meals for/with her and having to buy stuff she can make just for her as single portions.)

Anyway. Double digits! Woot!

Top work Clive!

Ditto!

I'm managing to maintain at 83 at the moment. Focusing on habitualising portions sizes and not snacking appears to be paying dividends. It's only occasionally I need to moderate my food intake explicitly now.

Thanks to cryptospiridium (4kg) and now a dental abscess (2kg) things are going in the right direction!

Think I might need amoebic dysentery or an amputation to accelerate towards my goal.

Yeah when I'm in the office I've settled for no breakfast and as small a lunch as I think I can.

One main difficulty is getting away from the office at a decent time in order to not eat late once I'm home. Even leaving at 5, I'm not home till half 6 which means dinner is started later. (Rarely get out at 5, 6 is more common meaning dinner started at half 7.