Sick of being fat

Deise boii · 10-07-2018 8:00am #1

Hello

I'm nearly 36 just under 6ft and in and around 15st 8lbs. I am fed up of being on the big side.

I used to play gaa and would go for a run once a week. I know I need to increase that. I can go for 10k in under an hour which I know would be quite slow but suppose it's a start.

Basically I'm here looking for advice about ways to get down to under 15st maybe closer to 14. I want to change my diet as sometimes it can be good but when work is busy and working long hours I notice it goes to pot

I had ideas that other people would join in here and we support eachother to try and loose a bit or just for encouragement.

Any takers?

iamtony · 10-07-2018 8:40am

I'm 35 5 foot 11(and a bit:)) and weight 100 kg which is very similar to you.
I woke up about a week ago and had a blood spot in my eye which led me to get my blood pressure checked and it was very high. If that isn't enough to make you diet and exercise I don't know what is.
I'm now off the drink and stopped ordering food in the evenings etc. This alone will help a lot for me but I dont know what your problems are.
I've gone on to a low card diet. I'm still eating them but just in much smaller portions.
Lots of green leafy veg. Plenty of lean meat, fruit for snacks loads of boiled eggs etc.
Yesterday for dinner i had 4 seasoned airfried new season potatoes with a pack of tender stem brocalli and half a cooked chicken, minus the skin for dinner.
You could be under 15 stone in 2 weeks if you eat right and clear out of the heavy slow moving foods from your gut.

kubjones · 10-07-2018 8:54am

Good luck on your fat loss. I think the most important thing is to start slowly, if you go full-on all at once, you'll lose weight very quickly but it rarely lasts long term, as soon as one thing interrupts your schedule its very easy to fall into bad habits.

Diet is fine, but honest to god exercise is the only real way to lose a significant amount of weight, plus has a plethora of other benefits too.

Depending on what you're interested in, get out there and start out easy enough, 20 minutes is even fine so long as you're keeping a fairly steady pace the whole time, bring your heartbeats per minute up and keep them there. 3 to 4 times a week would be fine for this.

Try and mix it up too in regards to your exercise. Personally, I find jogging all the time really boring, so I'll go swimming one day, rock climbing, cycling, different martial arts. Mix it up, it will all stand to you and you'd be surprised how well these things translate into one another.

There are loads of different diets out there, some work really well for some people and then fall flat for others. Whenever I'm giving anyone advice I'll always just say eat healthy and put your main effort into exercise. Try and get your 2 litres of water a day, keep a bottle beside your desk at work and just sip away whenever you get any kind of urges. Supplement your dinner with some sort of greens, anything that grows out of the ground rather than in the ground is better. Again, drink water during your meals too.

But as long as you're keeping fairly active, you can enjoy a social life too, you don't have to worry too much about sitting there eating a light vegan salad while your friends chow down on a burger, you don't have to stick to straight whiskey while you're hanging for a few pints. Obviously though moderation needs to be considered too.

Hope this helps. Was in the same boat there about 7 months ago was a little over 16 stone. Down to 13 now so it worked for me.

Xcellor · 10-07-2018 8:57am

Ive never been fat but being told I suffered from high cholesterol and high blood pressure runs in my family at the age of 35 I decided to try and control it through diet before needing a pill. That was a year ago and my latest blood work ups now show my cholesterol is normal and my blood pressure is good. All other counts were fine also.

The key is to massively increase your fibre intake which gives you the feeling of being full while having no calories. Processed foods today tend to be quite compact meaning they can be eaten very quickly and take up little space but have huge calories. e.g. "There's always room for dessert" at the end of a substantially calorific meal.

If you can't cut out animal all together look at your diet and aim to eat 80% plant based. Everyone says how hard it must be but faced with taking pills for the rest of my life, which have side effects or having the ability to control this myself, the choice was easy.

Whatever you decide make sure it's sustainable and best of luck

Alf Veedersane · 10-07-2018 9:04am

kubjones wrote: »

Diet is fine, but honest to god exercise is the only real way to lose a significant amount of weight, plus has a plethora of other benefits too.

Diet is the primary way you will lose weight. Exercise is important for overall health but the old saying "you can't outrun a bad diet" applies to everyone.

OP, there's also a General Weight Loss Support thread in this Nutrition & Diet forum that might help.

But start addressing the areas in your diet where you already know you're going wrong.

Also, cooking up large portions so you have lunches/dinners for a few days made in advance will help cut down on ordering food because there's nothing there.

Hitman3000 · 10-07-2018 9:07am

Cut out the junk food for a starters. Eat fresh veg and fruit. Reduce your portion size. Also start walking 3 days a week, then after a few weeks turn these into a jogging session followed by turning them into running. Avoid convince foods and if you drink cut down on the alcohol.

iamtony · 10-07-2018 9:11am

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Diet is the primary way you will lose weight. Exercise is important for overall health but the old saying "you can't outrun a bad diet" applies to everyone.

OP, there's also a General Weight Loss Support thread in this Nutrition & Diet forum that might help.

But start addressing the areas in your diet where you already know you're going wrong.

Also, cooking up large portions so you have lunches/dinners for a few days made in advance will help cut down on ordering food because there's nothing there.

Was just going to say that, exercise does help of course but it's probably 80% eating right 20% exercise.
I would say try stick to diet you can realistically stick too. My missus does a lot of the slimming world meals for herself but I find they are usually hard to prepare and it's easy to get too lazy and pick up the phone.
That's why I find changing the portion sizes around works well. Instead of 50% of you dinner consisting of cars like potato rice pasta etc. Make it 20% of the plate and the veg 50% and the rest protein.

Alanstrainor · 10-07-2018 9:29am

Log all your food in a diary. Download myfitnesspal and use that to log what you eat. You can then track calories and make better dietary choices. Ultimately it's going to involve cooking your own meals more, and weighing portions. Which is honestly a complete pain in the hole, but it's the best way to know exactly what you're eating.

Often people think they eat 'grand', when there's just enough surplus to gain weight and maintain it. And honestly, you might be eating healthy stuff, but just too much of it.

Mokuba · 10-07-2018 9:33am

If you're trying to have a low carb diet then filling yourself with fruit doesn't achieve that goal.

While obviously nutritious and filled with health benefits, most also have a decent amount of sugar.

_Brian · 10-07-2018 9:36am

Biggest thing to learn is you can’t exercise away a bad diet.

Exercise is a key part in your journey but getting your intake under control takes priority.

Please don’t get sucked into fad diets, you should be looking at a balanced diet with plenty of fresh veg and fruit.

The MyFitnessPal app is free. It takes a bit of effort to get to grips with using it and it coordinates with a webpage which is handy.

I found once I got used to entering foods and seeing which choices were driving my excessive intake I was able to make more sensible choices going forward. Some foods shocked me.

I dropped 12-13kg easily and have managed to maintain a better weight with what I learned.

As regards running, brisk walking is very similar in expenditure and results but will seriously reduce risk of injury and soreness, it just takes a bit longer to cover the distance.

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silverharp · 10-07-2018 9:53am

there are lots of ways of approaching a diet , find one that you think you will click with, it will work best if you can see yourself continuing with it indefinitely as opposed to something more fad like that you could only tolerate for 6 weeks, apart from the standard calorie counting focused diets, a 5:2 diet for instance will have the advantage of not feeling like you are living a prison sentence because the main focus is only restricting your calories 2 days a week. Intermittent fasting is another one to look at , this is basically time restricted eating. If you work late you should look into bringing your food into work and eat there so that you are not snacking to tide you over, being busy anyway should mean you have your mind on other things so you should be able to avoid mindlessly snacking.

Exercise will be your last 10% or 20% , don't beat yourself up over it but obviously it feeds into a virtuous cycle of feeling good, getting some Vit D perhaps. Walking is a very underrated activity, make time at work during lunch for example, at the moment somedays I just bring in a hard boiled egg so I can get a full hour's walk in or I make a smoothie that I can finish in 2minutes, do some grocery shopping on foot if that's an option, go for a walk first thing over the weekend.

While you are processing what to do cut out the obvious crap in the meantime and you might already be halfway there.

kubjones · 10-07-2018 9:55am

_Brian wrote: »

Biggest thing to learn is you can’t exercise away a bad diet.

You absolutely can. The thing is depending on your diet, you'd need a lot more exercise. And rather than burning fat through cardio (which you would, your body will gradually regulate whatever diet you're on, be it high carb low fat, high fat low carb, etc) you'd put on considerably more muscle depending on your carb intake. Proteins obviously help, but when it comes to high intensity training you NEED high carb intake for maximum muscle production.

In saying that, if you're looking to burn fat faster, obviously eating well will help this out considerably.

Keto has been the best diet I've tried in relation to fat burning, but you NEED to consult with a nutritionist before you try this, as there are several health or genetic issues that can get in the way.

As I said, for anyone starting I'll always just recommend a healthy, natural diet. Don't worry too much about counting your fat and carb intake, just be sensible with your portions and understand that if you're taking a lot of carbs, keep your fat intake minimal, because your body will burn carbs first and store if you achieve optimal energy from carbohydrates.

This also means stay the F*&^ away from processed sugars.

HappyAsLarE · 10-07-2018 10:00am

The best way to lose weight in my opinion is to measure and log everything you eat (myfitnesspal app recommended).

In the good auld days, humans did not have the same quick and cheap access to food, especially processed food that are calorie dense.

We never had to really track what we ate, so we are not very good at knowing intuitively how much to eat.

silverharp · 10-07-2018 10:09am

kubjones wrote: »

As I said, for anyone starting I'll always just recommend a healthy, natural diet. Don't worry too much about counting your fat and carb intake, just be sensible with your portions and understand that if you're taking a lot of carbs, keep your fat intake minimal, because your body will burn carbs first and store if you achieve optimal energy from carbohydrates.

This also means stay the F*&^ away from processed sugars.

probably an underrated point, an approach is decide if you want to be a sugar burner or a fat burner and restrict the other category and you will be less likely to overeat

seamus · 10-07-2018 10:17am

iamtony wrote: »

Was just going to say that, exercise does help of course but it's probably 80% eating right 20% exercise.

It's 99%/1% tbh.

Unless you're doing 10+ hours of training a week, you won't see significant weight loss from your exercise and you definitely won't out train a bad diet.

A bottle of full-fat coke is 200kcal. A 20 minute jog (6min/km) burns about 200kcal.

Which is easier - dropping the bottle or going for the jog?

Weight is lost in the kitchen, not in the gym. It's a mistake you see time and time again. People "treating" themselves after a gym session or thinking they can up/maintain their intake just because they do some training. Bank your training, train to feel good. Diet to lose weight.

Tefral · 10-07-2018 10:41am

Op,

I hear ya, no amount of training the average joe will do will outtrain a crap diet.

I followed the below for 6 weeks and lost 2 stone. I went from 17stone to 15 stone. Its pretty severe and unsustainable to be eating like this for longer but it will get you on the right track. Id do it for the 6 weeks and evaluate where you are then. I think i lost about 7lbs on the first week due to dropping water weight.

The biggest thing i took away from it was to look at everything i was eating. I was utterly shocked at the amount of sugar i was consuming (mostly hidden in sauces etc)

on this plan I ate an awful lot of stir fries, its amazing how much veg can fill you up. On this plan you can eat an unlimited amount of green veg as a portion.

iamtony · 10-07-2018 11:50am

seamus wrote: »

It's 99%/1% tbh.

Unless you're doing 10+ hours of training a week, you won't see significant weight loss from your exercise and you definitely won't out train a bad diet.

A bottle of full-fat coke is 200kcal. A 20 minute jog (6min/km) burns about 200kcal.

Which is easier - dropping the bottle or going for the jog?

Weight is lost in the kitchen, not in the gym. It's a mistake you see time and time again. People "treating" themselves after a gym session or thinking they can up/maintain their intake just because they do some training. Bank your training, train to feel good. Diet to lose weight.

I'm not an expert but is it not true muscle will burn more calories and use more protein etc.
There's a also a big psychological effect if your running or cycling etc. That makes you want to be lighter to make it easier.

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iamtony · 10-07-2018 12:12pm

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I think your mixing me up with a previous poster, I said 80% diet 20% exercise, rather than 99% to 1% another poster suggested.
If course you could loose weight fast with just diet alone but I think exercise is very important also.

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spurious · 10-07-2018 12:19pm

Slimming World works. Essentially (if you follow it correctly) it gets you to cut out processed food, cut down on oils and breads and eat much more fruit and veg.

Of course you could just do this yourself, but it's far easier have a sly packet of crisps if you know you're only weighing yourself at home, not going to a meeting.

iamtony · 10-07-2018 12:26pm

Ok op I just weighed in. I'm 101.5kg which is 15 stone 13 poundish.
I challenge you to a duel...a weight loss duel! First to loose 10 pounds wins round one!
P. S your bmi says you obese.

iamtony · 10-07-2018 12:28pm

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StringerBell · 10-07-2018 12:31pm

I'm in a similar spot to you OP, allowed myself to get very out of shape over the last few years. Was up to just over 117kg and I'm 5'9 (and a half on a good day

) Confidence was on the floor and getting out of breath going up a few flights of stairs.

Started working out in April, joined a gym and been going regularly. At the start I managed 4/5 days a week for about a month then had to scale back to about 3 times a week with work and home stuff. Couldn't be on a treadmill at all at the start so cycled the bike instead, now I'm jogging for 10-15 minutes at a time without needing to stop at a decent enough clip considering where I came from.

Still quite big, last time I weighed myself was 111kg, I have changed my shape a good bit though, cut a lot of fat from my chest, my waist and stomach and while far away from where I want to be I would recommend taking pictures every couple of weeks or something to track your progress that way as depending on what you do (I do quite a lot of weight training) you may not feel like you are losing weight and the eye test will help show you where you are trimming the fat.

Diet is huge though, I am quite good for a lot of the time and then fall off the wagon and pig out which I know if I cut out I would drop the weight even quicker. It doesn't matter how much you work out really if your diet is still poor once you get to a certain age for sure. I try not to deny myself but I do always try to make smarter choices and again the progress pictures help in this regard. The disgust I have when looking at the first picture for a start tends to make me leave the bag of Dortios on the shelf

The other thing I would say is to take it slow, you don't let yourself go and get out of shape over night, it takes years generally of bad habits and bad diet so you really need to be aware that for long lasting results it is going to be a slow process. Don't be too hard on yourself if you have a slip here or there just keep trying to make better choices going forward and look to cut out the slips as you go.

You will get there, plenty of greens, broccoli green beans etc. Lean meats, no fizzy drinks/cut down on sugar etc. Look to make a little change in diet each week too is something I have found good rather than trying to make a drastic change in one go.

Sorry for the length of this post, just feel like I can relate to a lot about where you are right now! Good luck

Macy0161 · 10-07-2018 12:32pm

What worked for me was working out you daily calories for maintenance (your tdee), and eating to a 500 daily calorie deficit. I then tried to "earn" 500 from exercise. Weekly weigh in, and then adjust the tdee and target calories.

My experience is at the start you can make progress with small changes and largely with portion control, albeit starting a lot heavier than you. It's more sustainable then too in my experience. For example I see people in work go from a breakfast roll to a tiny fruit salad, and they can't sustain the change, when they could've had a decent scrambled eggs and grilled bacon and not feel like they're really missing out.

Tracking with myfitnesspal does need you to be honest and accurate. A few extras here and there over a day or week add up and can kill the deficit even before you have a cheat meal.

Also, don't forget teas, coffees and alcohol. I didn't stop any, but still counted them.

I'd somewhat caution about relying on exercise, because any apps, trackers, websites and watches are just guestimates. I see big differences even on the same data, with the same activity with heart rate monitor and now a power meter! That's between Garmin, Wahoo, Strava.

[Deleted User] · 10-07-2018 12:39pm

iamtony wrote: »

Ok op I just weighed in. I'm 101.5kg which is 15 stone 13 poundish.
I challenge you to a duel...a weight loss duel! First to loose 10 pounds wins round one!
P. S your bmi says you obese.

Oh I like this idea.

I'm 95.6kg. I want in on this

JaMarcus · 10-07-2018 12:41pm

I want to change my diet as sometimes it can be good but when work is busy and working long hours I notice it goes to pot

Two words - batch cooking.

Oven chips, microwaveable meals, take-aways etc. are a godsend when you're home from work and are just too tired to cook. Get that excuse out of the way and have your fridge and freezer stocked with meals. Pile those meals up with green veg too.

somesoldiers · 10-07-2018 12:46pm

In 2016 I turned 40 & was 20st (scale only went to 19 13 I could have been more) . years of sitting on my arse in work and doing no exercise got me to that point.

Joined a gym, thread mill (walk then eventually run- 4-5 times a week), made some diet changes, moved the 10 pints of Bulmers a week to 6 every 4 - 6 weeks by 2017 I had lost 4.5st.

Then I hit a wall. had to scale back to 3 times a week but nothing moving for a long time. Wife joined slimming world late last year and I started eating the dinners she makes, while staying sensible about my intake.
Have lost another 1.5st since another 1 and that's me done.

Am still at the gym 545am 3 mornings a week as its the only time I can fit in with family life. Mostly just do weights now.

the first step is to start- best of luck with it

iamtony · 10-07-2018 12:47pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh I like this idea.

I'm 95.6kg. I want in on this

Your in!

I think working in kg is better so 10 pound is 4.5kg

Ha poor op hasn't even responded and he's now signed up for a weight loss challenge he inspired but probably doesn't know about yet:)

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Sick of being fat

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