Weight Loss and Health Thread!

[Pew-Pew]

Solitaire mentioned starting a weight loss/motivational post in the Room 101 thread, so maybe it's a good time to make a new one. I originally posted this in Sly's blog, but realised it's probably better to do it here instead. How is it going with your diabetes etc., Sly?

Like I said in the other thread, I've just started trying to lose weight again. I'm 29 years old, 6 ft 3 and about 105 kg (16.5 stone or 230 lbs). According to BMI I should be 92 kg or less, or below 95 kg if you use one of those BMI calculators that adjust a bit more for height by changing the exponent. The latter sounds about right for me, as below 95 kg is a decent normal weight for me personally. Ideally I'd like to be 87 kg or lower. My weight has gone up and down over the last 5 years - I was previously this weight back in 2016, then lost it all over a year or so and got down to 88 kg. It then oscillated a bit then slowly climbed over the last year since starting my current job. For me a big motivation is looking and feeling better - when I gain weight my face definitely gets obviously chubby, and whilst I still fit into all my clothes they don't look as good.

To lose weight I have cut out eating outside of meals, and am also making sure that I don't go overboard with cereal in the morning (very easy to do...) and when I have lunch at work. Also, no pudding. In terms of exercise I have been going to a gym a bit and running, but it's not happened for the past month because of going on holiday to Barbados followed by a wedding. I can't really go to the gym very easily during a normal work day as my commute is so long (1.5 hours each way) so I tend to go at the weekend/on WFH days. I'll get back into the gym/running after this weekend.

I've decided to log my weight every day (when I'm home at least), so I can see the noise in the data and see how much it varies. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning after I've had my morning dump ( ) as it is lower and fairly consistent. I only really notice it spiking after eating a lot of salty food the previous day or when exercising for the first time in a while, as you tend to retain water in your muscles when you do that. Below is a shitty Excel graph of my weight loss in the past 10 days or so:

[Rossell]

A couple of years ago I managed to get to 15 st 10 pounds (just under 100kg) which is good for 6"5. Since then owing to various factors including laziness, I'm now back to 17 stone almost dead on.

I think once Xmas is out the way it'll start in earnest again because I saw my head on a Teams call and all the fat has gone to my face again and made me look like a scrotum (never goes on the bloody arms does it?).

My secrets? As you mentioned Pew, no eating between meals is one. I cut down massively on dairy, at least a 2 mile walk every day, and just have that fruit and veg in the diet. Don't go overboard, just be conscious. And another thing, do the scales once a week. The watching of it will take over your soul.

[Raid]

I'm 35, 6ft tall, and my ideal weight is 75-80kg. As of this morning I'm exactly 100kg, having lost 3.4kg since 8th November. I'm going by a weekly average weight rather than on individual days, as the last time I tried to lose weight my depression lead me to having a very negative reaction when it fluctuated upwards. Desperation made me do something truly stupid; drinking as little water as possible in order to minimise the water-weight variable. Your brain can make some pretty strange choices when it's perpetually unhappy. Thankfully I'm in a somewhat better place now.

I've had numerous attempts at shifting my body weight over the last few years. When I first went off work with the mental health stuff about six years ago, I put on about 15kg just from misery-eating and getting minimal exercise, and it took me two years to get into a state where I could lose it again (and it actually dropped off quite quickly). Since then I've bounced around the 95-105kg mark depending on my state of mind, but as of three weeks ago I've started another concerted effort to get it down. I've been fat for pretty much my whole life and it's never done my self esteem any good, but I feel like I may actually be properly on-track to do it this time.

My daily calorie intake is around the 1500 mark, allowing myself one treat day per week where I can exceed that. My Basal Metabolic Rate is around the 2200 mark for my age, weight and sex, based on a median of several calculators with wildly differing results. I'm exercising daily (a walk in the morning and exercise bike in the afternoon), ranging from about 300 to 700 calories, leaving me with a deficit of around 1000-1400 calories per day. The internet tells me that 1kg of body weight is around 7700 calories. Therefore I'm roughly expecting to lose 1kg per week.

I'm tracking all of this in Samsung's health app which isn't brilliant, but I'm lumped with it due to having a Samsung smartwatch for activity tracking. I'm also doing what I've seen suggested and taking a photo of myself once a week so that I can actually see the weight loss. My therapist told me yesterday there was a noticeable difference since the last session (I usually see her once a fortnight over zoom) which is always nice to hear.

[Pew-Pew]

1500 is super low! Is it difficult to maintain that? I know when I was counting calories, I basically just stuck to 1800-2000 (2-400 below my BMR) to slowly lose weight.

As for weighing every day - I know it can be easy to obsess over the small changes, but I like to see the ups and downs in the data so that you can more clearly see a trend on a shorter time scale. It didn't get to me last time I lost weight so it should be fine I think.

[Raid]

Difficult to maintain in terms of willpower or energy level? The former, I think I'll be fine, but we'll see how it goes over an extended period. I've not noticed any significant problems with the latter. To be honest I've deliberately aimed low, which will allow me to adjust upward if needed. Adjusting downward would I think be more difficult for me.

And I am weighing every day, I just don't concentrate on individual days and allow the app to give me the average. My therapist did actually suggest only weighing once per week to prevent me from fixating too much, but I'm a scientist at heart and more data points means more accurate results.

[Mantis]

I'm probably going to start doing more calisthenics and simple weight training at home soon to try and put on a bit more muscle mass. I don't really need to lose any weight as I've just come out of a long stint of half marathon training, though the race was two months ago and I have had quite a lazy relaxing period since.

The best change I ever made to my diet a few years ago was pretty much cutting out all the sugar and junk snacks. My palette has adjusted to the extent now that I can't even really stomach the flavour of chocolate bars, sweets or full sugar fizzy drinks; the taste is just too overpowering. I lost a lot of my post-uni weight gain from just doing that and adding in a small running routine. That was before I got into running as a serious pastime.

Consider cutting out as much red meat from your diet as you're willing to abide too. Get your calories from carby things, vegetables, white meat and fish predominantly. I went full veggie two years ago and it helps me keep weight off very easily when I have a lazy month off exercise, my body generally feels so much healthier for it just in general too.

[Rossell]

I agree most definitely with cutting red meat, I try to have it twice a week and that's all. May consider trying to cut that down again. I also quite like having salmon during the week as well.

I managed to wean myself off fizzy drinks about a decade ago and now it's just an occasion thing.

[Raid]

I really don't eat a lot of meat these days. My treat day meal usually has meat in it, and I have maybe the equivalent of two rashers of bacon a week spread through the egg mayo sandwich filler I have for lunch, but I think that's it. Huel is vegan. Personally I think that's a healthy way to do things; I enjoy meat and don't want to cut it out entirely, but as a species I don't think we need anywhere near as much of it as we produce.

[Solitaire]

Awesome, thanks for starting up this thread I need a bit of encouragement, honestly. btw you all seem to be tall as trees, compared to me! I'm 5'8" and coming in at around 180lbs at the moment. I've lost some weight in the last 1.5 years due to muscle loss, I'm sure - just back in the gym as of yesterday, and it's a small hotel gym so I won't be doing my usual heavy-duty stuff for the moment. I'm going with high reps and one minute intervals between. Did biceps/triceps yesterday, and yep, I'm sore this morning.

I'm gonna go easy with it since I'm just getting back into things, and I'm 53 years old - don't wanna break anything prematurely lol. I've got to do this though, to stop the otherwise inevitable muscle atrophying of aging.

I have an old "super muscle building and weight loss program" from a fellow that I bought ages ago now. I might drop it in here, see what you guys think.

[Raid]

So how's everyone getting on? How far did over-indulging at christmas set you back?

I'm down to 94.9kg as of this morning (week's average 95.8), so I'm more than a third of the way toward my goal. Other than christmas week it's been a pretty stable downward trend, losing around a kilo per week as expected. My exercise has actually increased slightly - the rubbish weather over the last month has meant I've spent less time walking and more on the exercise bike, which is burning more calories for the same length of time. On days where I don't go for a morning walk, I'm replacing it with 40 minutes uninterrupted on the bike, plus the usual 20 in the afternoon. I think I'm probably overdoing that a bit.

I'm still largely sticking to my calorie intake target, but I've allowed myself the odd little snack here and there - I'm losing enough weight to justify the odd indulgence I think. I've not had a takeaway in two months, which I'm pretty happy with considering I used to have one a week. I can definitely say I'm looking forward to getting to a weight-sustaining intake though; I'm quite liking not having to cook most of the time, but I often find myself craving something more substantial on an evening than Huel and a few crisps.

[Medicine Man]

Good for you Raid. Well done fella.

Keep at it buddy. I believe in you!

[Pew-Pew]

Nice one Raid! My weight has completely plateaued over the holidays, hopefully it will go down again soon.

I have a friend who works for Huel so I get some freebies. I have to say that I really don't like anything that I've tried from there. The pea protein really leaves an aftertaste in some of the stuff...

[Mantis]

I had it for a while when I was being lazy and a gym nut from work bought way too much and gave me a couple of bags at discount. It's horrible on its own but I did make a couple of alright smoothies out of it.

Overall though I'm not too sure of the long term health implications of the stuff and I don't think subsisting on a liquid diet is the healthiest way to get your nutrients anyway so now I just do various roasted veggie dishes all the time when I'm not in the mood to make anything complex.

Congrats on the progress though Raid.

[Raid]

I really don't mind the taste of the powder stuff, although it's only really the vanilla and banana ones that I've bought more than once. I think you really need to have some milk in there though, it's so much nicer, and I use the additional flavouring stuff they sell quite frequently. I've only actually been eating the hot and savoury range for the last few months because drinking practically freezing meal replacement drinks in winter was dreadful. I stick a bit of sriracha and a dollop of honey in those, and they taste pretty good. I also have to have a small quantity of crisps alongside just so I've got some more texture.

To be honest, I largely continue with the Huel because it just means I don't have to cook. Cooking for one person has drawbacks that you just don't get when doing so for more people. There are definitely comparisons to be made with Futurama's Bachelor Chow, but the cost, ease and time savings, plus the easily quantifiable calorie intake work for me.

I've been eating it four or five nights a week for the best part of two years now, and I can't say I've noticed any ill effect from it.

[Solitaire]

Great job, Raid! That's a fantastic pace of weight loss, honestly.

I've been stymied by having to move constantly from one coast to another. I cannot get a consistent workout plan going. I just go when I can, and use whatever is available. Not ideal at all for getting stronger. On the weight loss side, I've basically stayed steady, after losing maybe 2kg? One thing I've done - because I've got such a terrible sweet tooth - is give myself a treat every evening. I have a cup of hot tea with cream and sugar This way I'm more able to resist having sweet stuff during the day. It's quite hard at the moment, being at my mum's place, because she's got a kitchen full of pies, flan, candies, etc

Looks like I'm headed back to Cali yet again, and fate willing I'll be able to stay put for a few months and get the weight training back on track.