Slight kink in my weight loss program over Christmas, put on a massive 2 lb over around 6 weeks (December/first week or so in January), back on track now with my diet, over 12 days lost 1 lb just cutting out treats I was eating over Christmas.
I currently weigh around 11 stone 7 lb, I think my ‘perfect’ lean weight is around 11st, so about 6-7 lb to go for sculpted perfection :-)
Started at around 13 1/2 stone a year or so ago, only problem with loosing around 2 1/2 stone in weight is having to buy new clothes, jeans size is down from a 38″ waist to easily fitting into 34″ and squeezing into 32″) even my favourite leather jacket (over 10 years old) is going to need replacing :-(((( Like many men I consider items of clothing don’t need replacing as long as they kind of fit and there aren’t too many holes, my only exception to this rule is socks, I hate socks with holes in :-) So holding off buying a lot of new clothes until I’m at 11 stone (guess my waist size will be 32″).
I don’t understand how so many people have problems loosing weight, I’m 42 years old and have health problems that make exercise difficult (spent over a year stuck in bed with back problems for example, my weight peaked at around 14 stone) and though I’ve never ballooned weight wise I do have problems with chocolate and treats, put a packet of chocolate, biscuits, sweets etc… near me and I’ll eat the lot in one go so I’ve always had to watch my diet.
Easiest way for this not to be a problem while dieting was don’t buy chocolate, biscuits, sweets etc… unless it’s as a specific treat (like at Christmas). When you feel a craving between meals and would normally reach for a quick snack to satisfy the craving there’s no snacks in the house. By the time you are in the shops buying the weeks shopping the craving is gone (never go shopping hungry doesn’t help going through the treats areas :-)) That’s how I’ve dieted for just over a year and it’s not that hard. Even if you can’t rid your home of treats, put them in a room out of easy reach. I used to keep a packet of biscuits at the side of me as I worked (like right now) and would finish the packet it hours, now if we have any snacks in the house we keep them out of easy reach and they last so much longer.
My wife has also lost around 3 – 3 1/2 stone in the same period of time. Her problem isn’t a complete lack of will power when treats are at hand, but eating meals that she thought was the right size for her age and size rather than eat what she actually needed. She was basically preparing meals that were way too much food for her, not greed, but over estimating what she needed.
In the same period of time she has lost all her excess weight and on the Wii Fit (which we use to weight ourselves/keep track) her BMI/weight is precisely in the middle of ideal. Was a bit irritating that after our Christmas weigh in 12 days ago she had lost 1 lb and had been eating treats, though as she actually has will power around sweets not as many treats as me :-( More irritating the weigh in yesterday (12 days later) she’d lost a further 3 lb which had her hit her perfect BMI/weight according to the Wii fit. Well done honey :-)
No secret to loosing weight, we’ve not been frantically jogging around town or anything stupid like that, we walk around 5 miles a day (two, one hour walks a day), but we’ve been doing that walk for over 3 years (had discs in my back fused and the exercise helps with back pain), though we had a small amount of weight loss due to the walking, it wasn’t until we actively dieted a year or so ago the weight started to fall off. For me I lost maybe 6 lbs the first two years of walking and I don’t think my wife lost even that. Because I have health problems the walks are my main activity in a day, spend most of my time lay down in bed, The vast majority of people will get more exercise than I do in their day to day activities without doing any specific exercise.
Weight Loss and Exercise
On jogging or any aerobic exercise for weight loss, exercise per se does not result in fat loss, at best if you can manage to do a lot of exercise (and I mean an hour plus hard exercise a day) it can speed up your metabolism, which basically means you burn energy less efficiently, more energy is used for doing the same activity.
We all know people who can eat like a horse and never put weight on, they have a very fast metabolism, I used to be that way when young and exercising everyday (used to weight train). I used to run hot, my body created loads of excess heat, I ate at least three times as much food as I do now. Today I can barely keep myself warm, wear thermals in summer and my legs feel cold most of the time, so I certainly don’t have a fast metabolism now :-(
If you are fat and decide to loose weight requires jogging or a heavy exercise program your life is going to suck and you will most likely fail to loose weight. For obese people the only realistic way to loose weight is eat less, that’s exactly how gastric band surgery works, your stomach is stapled into such a small size you literally can not stuff your face with food.
Weight Loss Surgery vs Dieting
If you believe gastric band surgery is your only option, it’s not true, the other option is eat less. There’s no magic in gaining/loosing weight, if you eat more you put weight on, eat less you loose weight. Remove all treats from your home, if they aren’t available you can’t eat them. Find lower energy alternatives to what you eat, don’t just look at fat content, your body can pretty much convert everything to fat (fat, sugar/carbohydrate, protein).
For example I had to switch to a different breakfast cereal over Christmas (had to add more fruit fibre) to change the fibre in my diet (was taking too much weat/oats like fibre, causing constipation: apparently doesn’t hold water like fruit fibre) and I didn’t look at the ingredients. The new cereals (a bran flake with added fruits which you’d think was a healthy choice) were loaded with sugar, my original cereals (combination of Alpen and Weatabix: normally half a Weatabix and similar amount of Alpen with full-fat milk, no sugar) had around 25% less sugar than the new cereals, probably a contributing factor to the 2 lb I put on over Christmas!
Easiest way to reduce your energy intake is read the labels, many processed foods (like cereals) list how much energy 100g contains. You will find low fat so called healthy foods are packed with sugar, since the sugars are converted to fat they aren’t healthy foods! Compare different brands to see how much energy per 100g a food item has, if the one you currently buy is much higher than an alternative brand, try the alternative. You could find loosing weight is as easy as changing the brands you eat rather than the amount you eat. Weatbix is very low energy relative to other cereals, original Alpen moderate energy, so now switched to the Swiss Recipe Alpen (low sugar), I can’t tell the difference, but it will reduce my sugar intake. To increase my fruit fibre intake adding dried fruits to my breakfast.
Between starting writing this and posting it we’ve had another weight in and I’ve lost another 3 lb in 11 days, wahoo, puts me at 11 st 4 lb so almost there.
David