Weight loss accountability/support 2025 edition

I wish I had the spirit to eat so much Skyr/Arla/Greek yoghurt like some of you. I tend to batch cook for lunch - chicken traybakes with some kind of teriyaki sauce (soy, ginger, garlic, honey, sesame oil) are piss easy with some rice/broccoli on the side

Said to myself at the start of the year to kick off the sugar - my brother weirdly bought me a 2.5kg box of Celebrations for Christmas and it's actually not a bad thing to just stick to one of those in the evening and nothing else. Would like something else to snack on during the day as right now it's bagels for elevenses and nothing else.

Can see the last three points echo with me.

Am looking the reduce my body fat/ belly overall fatty organs. So not sure a weight is a good scale for me. As I'm looking to increase muscle but not go to the gym. So cycle more and do upper body stuff some how.

Have you tried toasting on a dry pan and then leaving to soak.

Anyone else doing the part cooking of pasta?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29629761

EDIT: this is the science behind the pasta https://www.healthyfood.com/advice/how-reheating-pasta-and-other-carbs-can-make-them-healthier/

1000 calorie deficit/day, combined with two gym sessions, 2.5 hours of cycling and a 2 hour power walk so far this week. Not sure how long I can keep it up for but I'm keen for a big/motivating dip on the scales next Monday before I settle into a more sustainable 500cal/day deficit. Hoping to have lost at least 1kg by next Monday.

Ah that’s amazing. I half felt like a plonker for posting it, but glad that it had some positive effect! The main thing I’d say is that being strict on diet is the thing that makes the biggest difference in terms of absolute leanness. Not sure I’ll ever have the motivation to get back there!

I’m definitely a lot less lean now. Gut photo incoming. I’m even sad I didn’t get a photo the other day at max weight and bloat for maximum effect.

Maintaining your weight and losing fat and building muscle is a tricky place for motivation unless you are regularly tracking your waist, muscle measurements, or how much extra that you lift.

If you've been eating on a reduced diet, you'll barely see any visible difference in 1 or 2 weeks, which can be really demotivating if you are trying to lose weight/body fat by feel.

Any metrics that you can track which show improvement is useful, whether its number of pushups / pull ups / squats you can do, weight, waist measurement, thigh measurement, whatever it is.

Cleaning up your diet while keeping the same weight might have a small impact, but your body isn't going to automatically change your body fat because you're eating more green veg. The muscle growing stimulus needs to be high so that within the same weight, your body prioritises muscle growth, and you get the body recomposition that you desire.

Eat what you do now, and do an effective 3 day a week resistance exercise plan at the gym, and as a non gym goer, you will see some impressive gains and body recomposition while maintaining weight.
But as you said you're not going to go to the gym, you can go a long way with bodyweight exercises, some dumbbells or a kettlebell, bands and a door pull up bar, maybe some gymnastic rings if you can stretch to that.

75 kettlebell swings
75 air squats
60 pushups
30 pullups (with band or not), or bar or ring/trx rows
Plank

(in as many sets as you need, whether its 3 or 6, and increase weight or numbers as you get stronger)

Consistently 3 x a week (maybe only 30-40 minutes a workout) would show serious gains if you're not used to working out. Maybe if that seems daunting, do 10-15 minutes 6 times a week, until you get into the habit.

Checking myself in this year

170cm and hit 84kg post Christmas
Goal is 76kg for June 1st, starting beginning of Feb

2kg/mo target

Its almost all diet for me, I'm stronger than I've ever been but not 'fit'.

I need to cut pastries and cakes from ~10-14/week to max 2 as a treat. Really struggle with the mental aspect of not rewarding myself with food on an average work day with nothing else going on.

Honestly, it is diet/food industry noise. The energy spent on cooking and then eating cold or reheated pasta to have a possible lower glycemic effect could be better spent on making good food choices in the first place.

It sounds like there might be some advantages to the pasta that you've already batch cooked for prepping meals for the week, but meal prepping and portion controlling your food in the first place is way more beneficial to your diet and fat loss than how you've cooked the pasta.

Also I hate cold pasta, either by itself or in salad, I would rather remove it entirely, therefore solving the problem of the carbs in a salad.

A snacking or food reward habit is hard to shift, so you could replace the food reward with something less calorific / slightly less tasty, until it is more manageable?

Protein bars, protein yoghurts, fruit, cans of diet fizzy drink.
Sure it might be processed, artificial sweeteners etc, but on balance healthier than a slab of rocky road / brownie.

Protein bars are a tricky one. I found them to be a handy, more macro friendly snack option. But I definitely found myself slipping to having them too frequently as I enjoyed them too much as a snack.

I find that there is a limit to how many I can have because of how goddamn expensive they are...

My favourite is the grenade chocolate chip salted caramel bar.

With the aim of being kinder to yourself, its better than having chocolate, cakes and biscuits too frequently as you enjoy them too much as a snack.
And if you find that you haven't met your calorie deficit because of protein bars, at least those protein bars had 40g of protein and only 2.8g of sugar. (in the case of the grenade bars)

I think the bit of meal planning/prep I find the hardest is making the bulky veg aspect interesting/delicious. My go-tos are roasted or steamed broc with chilli and anchovy, roasted cauli with indian spices (cumin seeds and tumeric), roasted squash with paprika and garlic or green beans with shallots. Oh, and slaw, either asian-y with fish sauce, lime juice, G&G or mustard, lemon juice and EVO. Any other inspiration for similar would be much appreciated!

Amazon now have their own range, with very similar macros to the grenade bars - 20g protein, 2g sugar, 200-250kcal.

I basically just always order a box off Amazon, and get whatever is cheapest with similar macros. Currently have some grenade Oreo bars, the pack of 12 was £15 posted. Usually pay £12-16 depending on offers. Have had grenade, PHD, Amazon, and Sci MX (a bit grim tbh).

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this but I find that I crave the flavour of something rather than the feeling of it in my stomach. By that I mean, if you like the taste of the rocky road or the protein bar (or the bar of dark chocolate in my case) then just have a portion of it.

I am happier with three little squares of a lindt bar than I am with the whole bar because I know I had the treat but didn't fuck up. I decide on the portion size of whatever I'm having, put it in a little bowl, put the rest back on the top shelf in the kitchen cupboard for another day and then scurry away to eat it. 99 times out of 100 by the time I've had my little portion, I realise that actually, it did the trick.

That's quite a healthy and controlled way of dealing with food cravings.
My mum and dad have always been slim, and been really good at exercising portion control for sweet treats.

She would crave something sweet, buy a small snack dairy milk bar, eat half of it, and keep the other half for another day.
I would find this impossible, knowing that there is a half eaten chocolate bar on the counter.
Granted, it would probably be easier on a non calorie restrictive diet, but weight fluctuations suggest that I'm not the best and auto regulating my food/treat intake!

I think it's more to show how easy it is to overestimate food. If I'm not weighing stuff then I can easily do 2-3x that amount.

As a fellow pastry lover I feel you!

I basically try to get my hit from protein bars. Surely Meta have some good ones?
I also have a ton of snack a jacks, apples and pears because these can be a quick snack for few calories that hit the dopamine reward

I've always tried making stuff like flapjacks that are more protein focused, but every recipe I've ever tried they wind up tasting like fucking shit

I dabbled in homemade protein bars. They were all awful and the macros worse than bought ones.

Has anyone found an acceptable low carb soft tortilla?

The carbzone tortillas were ok.
Stupid expensive though.

BFree protein wraps are but I cannot vouch for their tastiness

all the free ones have peanut in them and im allergic!

but yeah, I like @Quincy comment, for me im never hungry, like ever, im always overeating for joy, so its about getting a reward without the calories that I need to adjust to.

My other issue is that, i really like enjoying lunch, but that means im often having a 'meal' for lunch, but my partner works from home and only real meal of the day is dinner, so im having two 'large' meals (i dont have breakfast at all), on the days im in the office, so also need to figure that out

My stated aim - apart from losing weight - was to eat less pre-made soup and have more interesting lunches. So far this week:

Gochujang noodles with a boiled egg
Roast cauliflower and chorizo with hummus and a lemon chilli dressing
Roast butternut squash with roast leeks, crispy sage, mushrooms and puy lentils
Stir fried brocolli on toast with a soy / ginger / chilli dressing

Everything except the roast cauliflower I reckon clocks in at around 400 to 500 cals, which is more than I'd normally be consuming at lunch (soup at 200-ish cals, plus 1 slice of bread at 100ish cals) but tbh I'm happy to take that extra calorific hit in order to be living a less boring life. Could have made the cauli less calorific by ditching the chorizo, but it was a hangover from xmas and needed eating.

Question is, how long can I keep this up for before I start losing the motivation to think of things to eat / do the prep and cooking.