Weight / Fat loss

3122! Rawr!

man mountain alert.

my gf bought some scales a couple of months ago so i've bene keeping an eye on myself whilst (what i laughingly refer to as) training for a triathlon.

i started out in june-ish just over 80kg and dropped to pretty much bang on 80kg where i've remained ever since. two weeks of no exercise bar light swimming and healthy food while on holiday = 80kg. a week of heavy drinking, junk food and taking up smoking again = 80kg. two weeks of quitting fags again, relatively healthy eating and running four times a week = 80kg.

which isn't so bad but i'd prefer it my weight would stabilise and stick just a couple of kilogrammes lighter so i didn't have to breathe in while wearing a wetsuit in a vain attempt to hide my love handles.

[/middle class problems]

Yup, or anything else you fancy. Having a high calorie day when dieting stops your body thinking its starving and slowing your metabolism down to survive. I have a cheat day once a week, had over 6000kcal yesterday :-) Pizza and Cornetto Enigmas ftw!

That's good to know I'd imagine my cheat day will be at the weekend.

...
It is very hard to get all your nutrients with such a calorie deficiency, especially if some of those calories are coming from supplements. Also your body will adapt its metabolism to accommodate the hypocaloric state.

Aim no lower than 1500 calories per day and keep them clean. Chuck in a cheat meal 1-2 times a week to help delay your bodies adaptation to the calorie deficit .

Cheers for that. Always good to have more info.

Yesterday I did 1,485, so that's pretty close to what you recommend. I feel like I'm being a bit obsessive, but I'm 14st when I should be 12ish and I've developed a belly. Plus I'm going to Grease in sept, and I'l like to be 12st without a belly.

I ended up with that as I just put in the 2lb a week(I think) setting and that's what it gave me.

The cheat day sounds nice. I am starving today, and having a fat steak and french bread sounds like an awesome reward some time down the week.

myfitnesspal tends to lowball you on calorie allowance. you need to find your BMR (as above) and work out roughly how much exercise you do daily. add them together to get your maintenance amount.

then to lose 1lb weight you need a rough 3,500 calorie deficit (so drop 500 calories off your daily amount to lose 1lb in one week).

Cheers for that. Always good to have more info.

Yesterday I did 1,485, so that's pretty close to what you recommend. I feel like I'm being a bit obsessive, but I'm 14st when I should be 12ish and I've developed a belly. Plus I'm going to Grease in sept, and I'l like to be 12st without a belly.

.

Two stone in one month isn't as radical a weight drop as Ed's kamikaze crash diet, but it's still a biiig push. Back when I was getting slim, I managed an average of half a stone per month (over an eight month period) and felt very satisfied with that. It's about as fast a pace as I felt was achievable without hurting myself or leaving me likely to binge when I stopped (and hence yo-yo back up).

myfitnesspal tends to lowball you on calorie allowance. you need to find your BMR (as above) and work out roughly how much exercise you do daily. add them together to get your maintenance amount.

then to lose 1lb weight you need a rough 3,500 calorie deficit (so drop 500 calories off your daily amount to lose 1lb in one week).

Are you sure that's true? This is what mines come up with;

NUTRITIONAL GOALS TARGET
Net Calories Consumed* / Day 1,330 Calories / Day
Carbs / Day 183 g
Fat / Day 44 g
Protein / Day 50 g
*Net calories consumed = total calories consumed - exercise calories burned. So the more you exercise, the more you can eat!

FITNESS GOALS TARGET
Calories Burned / Week 580 Calories / Week
Workouts / Weekends 3 workouts
Minutes / Workout 30 minutes
If you follow this plan...
Your projected weigh loss is: 2.0 lbs/week
You should lose 10.0 lbs. by September 8

So according to this I should lose just under a stone in a month. Even though I'm only burning 580 calories a week through exercise, which is quite frankly fuck all, cycling to work will probably cover this, let alone my weekend miles and weight training every other day.

I took a year to lose a stone, you lot are all in a real hurry.

qwe

I think if I'd not been going to the gym (at first, a lot- five, six, soemtimes seven days a week for 1-2 hours) I'd have lost a lot more weight than I have done.

I've got consderably more muscle on board than I did this time a year ago, as well as a lot less blubber.

But then I did approach training wiht the kind of autistic devotion common to those who are kicking a bad habit I guess.

You see this is the thing that confuses the fuck out of me:

[INDENT]- If I exercise (cycling, climbing, running, push/sit ups, dips) how can I not put on muscle?[/INDENT]

[INDENT]- If I eat less calories than I use, how can I not *visibly *lose weight?[/INDENT]

So my logic, based on the fact that I have a fair bit of muscle under my podgy belly and love handles, is...

• if I slash my food intake (especially shit food),
  
• don't drink for a bit, and
  
• actually start doing all those exercises almost every day for a decent period, as opposed to sporadically like now...
  
  

...then when I go to the beach I won't have to buy new board shorts and will be able to breath out.

Am I missing something?

I kept eating the same stuff I'd always eaten, just cut out the booze and started exercising with cold, grim joyless* enthusiasm.

*Actually I quite enjoy it

I'm still doing weight training and cycling as well as cutting my calories down to circa 1500 this should be a right amount for me to gain muscle but not lose too much fat.

Note most of my weight training isn't to get bulked up just to tone up. Hence lowering my fat %.

You see this is the thing that confuses the fuck out of me:

[INDENT]- If I exercise (cycling, climbing, running, push/sit ups, dips) how can I not put on muscle?[/INDENT]

Aerobic exercise doesn't help much to build muscle. It depletes your calorie reserves and it will improve muscle efficiency and tone, but it will usually actually deplete muscle if you are at a calorie deficit, as in the short term it can be easier for your body to consume muscle tissue to reclaim energy than to recover it from fat (which is long term storage). Resistance exercise (weights, resistance machines) builds muscle, but that also requires sufficient nutritional input (and the right ingredients). Aerobic exercise can disrupt muscle building by disrupting the resting/recovery time after strength-building exercise. Also, fat is an essential ingredient in tissue growth, so a low fat diet can make it hard to build strength.

[INDENT]- If I eat less calories than I use, how can I not *visibly *lose weight?[/INDENT]

The two most common causes for this are incorrect calculations and an inaccurate perception of how much you are actually eating (most people filter out snacks from their perception).

So my logic, based on the fact that I have a fair bit of muscle under my podgy belly and love handles, is...

• if I slash my food intake (especially shit food),
  
• don't drink for a bit, and
  
• actually start doing all those exercises almost every day for a decent period, as opposed to sporadically like now...
  
  

...then when I go to the beach I won't have to buy new board shorts and will be able to breath out.

Am I missing something?

Cutting out shit food is good. Slashing... well, I'm against crash diets but you may or not be eating more than you realise, so you do need to do some clear homework on that and some reasonably accurate calorie counting. Exercising every day, yes, very good. It will become easier with time, and may even become fun.

Do you have a Wii? Wii Fit is a very clever game (with some quite fun mini games inside it), because it uses the traditional computer game lures of reward and progression.

Toning with something like bodypump works a treat.
You don't really loose/gain weight, but you get loads stronger and trimmer. Tis brilliant. That and a bit of cardio and jobs a good un.

I don't believe in diets or calorie counting. Eat well and generally homemade (so you control sugar/salt/fat). Lots of fresh fruit and veg. Cereals, eggs, grained bread, whoelmeal pasta, lentils, couscous, yoghurt, meat 2x a week, a bit of cheese.
Life isn't supposed to be a chore, just stick to the good stuff and cut the crap.

For me its about being healthy rather than slim or whatever. I know with what I eat I'm not deficient in any vitamins/minerals/protein etc.

...lots of useful info..etc..etc...

Cutting out shit food is good. Slashing... well, I'm against crash diets but you may or not be eating more than you realise, so you do need to do some clear homework on that and some reasonably accurate calorie counting. Exercising every day, yes, very good. It will become easier with time, and may even become fun.

Do you have a Wii? Wii Fit is a very clever game (with some quite fun mini games inside it), because it uses the traditional computer game lures of reward and progression.

Cheers for that. I read and am going to re-read.

You've also highlighted my appalling mixing of terms which I feel bad about (especially as I'm stupidly anal about it at work). So to get more on track I will try and put my aims better.

My aim is purely superficial. Recently I've been a bit shit at looking after myself, but over say any 3 month period in my life I do exercise and I eat a fairly well balanced diet (albeit too large portions). I like food and the activities I do. Right now, all I want is not to have love handles, and take the bulge out of my belly. I also want to get back to where I was a while back.

As I said I'm fairly well build and can put muscle on really easily so even loosing a chunk of muscle wouldn't bother me. The reason for referencing my weight a the moment because it seems a bit high relative to my exercise levels. For eg when I was in the 1st XV at school I was 14st, but I was training for 45mins-4hrs everyday bar matches and Sunday, so didn't care. Now I'm not and I do.

As for what I eat, my diet has only be going 3 days, and I've only recorded it for 2, but this is what it looks like: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/hugo7

...is there anything there that looks especially bad?

Thanks again for all the advice.

qwe

Call me naive, but its simple. You get out on the bike and train. You eat a balanced diet. No fads, not reading into it too much.

On June 15th i was 15st 7llbs (I'm 6'4!). Changed my diet, three times a week in the gym and doing three 45 minute cycles a week of a high intensity. I'm now down to 14st 3llbs and i feel a million times better for it.

Just remember, there is no miracle cure, no cheat. Just hard work and discipline.

The more mirrors around you whilst you exercise the more calories you burn, trufax.

qwe

Sleeves hold fat in

Coffee contains magnets

The coffee my boss drinks contains staples as well

Toning with something like bodypump works a treat.
You don't really loose/gain weight, but you get loads stronger and trimmer. Tis brilliant. That and a bit of cardio and jobs a good un.

I don't believe in diets or calorie counting. Eat well and generally homemade (so you control sugar/salt/fat). Lots of fresh fruit and veg. Cereals, eggs, grained bread, whoelmeal pasta, lentils, couscous, yoghurt, meat 2x a week, a bit of cheese.
Life isn't supposed to be a chore, just stick to the good stuff and cut the crap.

A lot of people are a little delusional about how much they actually eat. Calorie counting, at least at the beginning, forces them to confront the reality. I don't believe in diets either; I believe in diet. That is, your diet is what you eat, not some short term regimen that you hate but endure until you can drop it. So if you're eating crap, you need to change your diet, not go on one.

qwe

As for what I eat, my diet has only be going 3 days, and I've only recorded it for 2, but this is what it looks like: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/hugo7

...is there anything there that looks especially bad?

Yes. Drink some water, or you will die ;)