Weight loss diary

[Sheff]

Last Summer I lost a load of weight by doing cardio, bodyweight exercises and reducing my carbs - but over Christmas I added most of it back on - so since March/April I decided to try slimfast for several reasons:

• I'm lazy
• I love milkshakes
• It's cheap (less than 55p per meal)
• If presented with a choice, I'll likely pick a less healthy option
• I'm lazy

Now you'll really start raging - for the last 6 weeks or so I've also been using Hello Fresh, mostly to get ideas for meals that the family will all enjoy but also to relearn portion control (I've got enough recipes that I'll be ditching this soon!).

In terms of calories this amounts to between 1500-1800 a day with a bit more on the weekends and since I've been measuring, over the last 8 weeks I've lost 25 pounds to take me to 301 (I'm 6ft 2).

I know this doesn't give me much room to cut calories further down the line but so far I've done very little exercise this time round, I thought that I should concentrate on enforcing the change in my cooking and snacking habits and then slowly add in other lifestyle changes. My main concern is that I won't want to keep this up during the Winter as that's when I usually struggle.

 

[Sheff]

I've lost 3 pounds over the last week, taking me to 298.

I had a takeaway pizza over two days on Thursday/Friday, the first one in a long time - I felt really dehydrated and rubbish.

 

[Uther]

You might want to post in this thread:

*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

Rowing is my bag, although my JTX died a few months back and i've been eyeballing a concept 2 lately - even though I can't afford it, my CC is calling. You animal! I can happily run/cycle for hours (or at least i could when before my fitness was higher), but put me on a rower and 5k absolutely...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

 

[Sheff]

You might want to post in this thread:

*** Big Fat Weight Loss Thread ***

Rowing is my bag, although my JTX died a few months back and i've been eyeballing a concept 2 lately - even though I can't afford it, my CC is calling. You animal! I can happily run/cycle for hours (or at least i could when before my fitness was higher), but put me on a rower and 5k absolutely...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Thanks!

I'm going keep this one going too as I want to start logging what I'm doing with regards to fitness.

Currently it's just a few miles of walking every other day, then in between - 3 sets of squats, 3 cheaty pushups, 3 dumbell presses, 3 hammer curls and hip bridges.

I think the next step is to go to a gym and get a proper routine in place, but I wanted to improve my overall fitness a bit first.

This week I'm at 295, 2 more pounds to get under 21 stone.

 

[Sheff]

294, I was briefly under the 21 stone mark at around 292 for a couple days but I had a fairly carb heavy weekend - under my allowance still but I'm guessing I've taken on more water weight.

I struggled a bit to stick with the exercise routine; mainly the walking due to time. But I do generally feel better than when I started a couple weeks ago.

 

[Sheff]

291 and I'm under 21 stone now - almost 40% of the way to my goal weight for April 2024 of 238 pounds (trip to Alton Towers).

The routine I've been sticking to is getting a lot easier, I'm doing 12 reps instead of 8 in each of my sets.

 

[Sheff]

291 this week again which isn't terrible considering that I took a couple days off for my birthday - cake, custard, burgers, pizza, onion rings... in hindsight I should have made up some salad or coleslaw and bought less of the rest; I only needed a little to enjoy it, for the rest I just didn't want to waste the food.

I'm not feeling the benefit of my dumbbells nearly as much so I think I'll have to visit the gym soon.

 

[Sheff]

288, this week I've walked a lot more and focused on my upper body - my knees were starting to get a little sore from all the squats.

I've definitely improved my strength, I struggled to pick my daughter up before (to be fair she's very tall for an eleven year-old) but now I can lift her easily.

 

[Sheff]

I took just over a week off for the Summer, I didn't eat to excess but I didn't record anything either so I'm fairly happy with remaining at 288.

 

[Sheff]

I finally managed to go to the gym! It was the first time I've been so I mostly tried the different machines.

Treadmill
Leg press
Bicep curls
Lat pulldown
Leg extensions
Arm press?

3 sets of 8-12 reps, 5 minutes on the treadmill as a warmup.

I didn't record the weights but the leg press was 240 pounds and it felt like I could go higher - I guess all that weight I'm carrying helps!

My arms are definitely my weak point but I want to keep my leg strength up as I continue to lose weight.

 

[Sheff]

285, one more pound to get to three stone lost then four more to get under 20! I've definitely felt hungrier over the past week, I'm not sure if it's because of the increased exercise or the couple of weeks I took off in August.

 

[Sheff]

283 exactly, I've got 24 weeks to lose 38 pounds as a minimum but ideally I'd want to lose 42 - still less that 2 pounds a week but it doesn't leave much of a margin.

 

[Sheff]

281 pounds, I know 2 pounds a week is still quite a lot to lose but it feels like a snail's pace.

 

[Sheff]

279, it's good to finally get under that 20 stone mark! The next goal is 266 before Christmas (early December ideally) and then maintain that into the new year.

 

[Sheff]

279, I think I've lost less than half a pound. I've recalculated tdee and I was eating a couple hundred calories more a day than I should have been when comparing it to the myfitnesspal app.

Hopefully I'll see more of an improvement next week!

 

[xiphrex]

I dont know how I stumbled upon this thread, but keep at it!

I been there with 1800 calories, its hard. I also tried intermittent fasting, that seemed to help keep calories down and have a more filling meal at the end of the day when I was allowed to eat (being at work all day also helped).

One thing that helped a lot for me - consistently going to the gym! And changing my reasons for going to the gym - it was weight loss to begin with, but then it quickly changed to "I need to get stronger!".

I started doing stronglift 5x5 - it was brutal, but after a couple weeks I could already start seeing changes in both strength and how I looked. The weights I was lifting were going up. As I got stronger it made me want to go to the gym more and more. I started getting people come up to me in the gym seeing what I was doing and appreciating the effort and consistency. My body composition changed, the weight rapidly fell. The stronger I got, the more I wanted to train, and then the more I could eat to fuel my workouts and metabolism.

The key is consistency and progress with strength - gym session to session something was improving, either number of reps, form, the weight went up, volume, something!

7 years later I still lift and cant do without it. Went from 105kg down to 73kg in the first few months then back up to 85kg where I hover around most of the time.

Summary is - the effort in the gym is key, along with consistency and a clear goal and plan of what you want from each session. For me it was getting stronger, and its still my goal today. The body is stubborn, it will adapt and cling onto fat reserves. Force it to make changes with hard effort in the gym. I would advise starting a program, like stronglift, or some other program, any will do. The program itself isnt that important, its the execution - you have to push yourself. Doing sets of 8-12 does not guarantee anything - you have to do sets where those last few reps you are pushing yourself to limit (without getting injured - its a fine balance). I almost guarantee if you go back with this mindset you will find that weight where before you would stop at rep 12, you will be able to go past 12 reps and go to 16, 18, maybe even 20+ reps. Then you need to increase the weight! Those last reps create a physiological bodily response that your body has to respond to.

Keep at it!

 

[Sheff]

I dont know how I stumbled upon this thread, but keep at it!

I been there with 1800 calories, its hard. I also tried intermittent fasting, that seemed to help keep calories down and have a more filling meal at the end of the day when I was allowed to eat (being at work all day also helped).

One thing that helped a lot for me - consistently going to the gym! And changing my reasons for going to the gym - it was weight loss to begin with, but then it quickly changed to "I need to get stronger!".

I started doing stronglift 5x5 - it was brutal, but after a couple weeks I could already start seeing changes in both strength and how I looked. The weights I was lifting were going up. As I got stronger it made me want to go to the gym more and more. I started getting people come up to me in the gym seeing what I was doing and appreciating the effort and consistency. My body composition changed, the weight rapidly fell. The stronger I got, the more I wanted to train, and then the more I could eat to fuel my workouts and metabolism.

The key is consistency and progress with strength - gym session to session something was improving, either number of reps, form, the weight went up, volume, something!

7 years later I still lift and cant do without it. Went from 105kg down to 73kg in the first few months then back up to 85kg where I hover around most of the time.

Summary is - the effort in the gym is key, along with consistency and a clear goal and plan of what you want from each session. For me it was getting stronger, and its still my goal today. The body is stubborn, it will adapt and cling onto fat reserves. Force it to make changes with hard effort in the gym. I would advise starting a program, like stronglift, or some other program, any will do. The program itself isnt that important, its the execution - you have to push yourself. Doing sets of 8-12 does not guarantee anything - you have to do sets where those last few reps you are pushing yourself to limit (without getting injured - its a fine balance). I almost guarantee if you go back with this mindset you will find that weight where before you would stop at rep 12, you will be able to go past 12 reps and go to 16, 18, maybe even 20+ reps. Then you need to increase the weight! Those last reps create a physiological bodily response that your body has to respond to.

Keep at it!

Thanks! I have a bit of a goal with the gym where I'd like my upper body strength to better match my lower - I can do over 300 pounds on the leg press but barely anything at all with my arms.

Stronglift looks interesting!- I've been thinking about a personal trainer for a few weeks to work on my form because I've no idea what I'm doing. Do you do any type of cardio at all?

 

[xiphrex]

Thanks! I have a bit of a goal with the gym where I'd like my upper body strength to better match my lower - I can do over 300 pounds on the leg press but barely anything at all with my arms.

Stronglift looks interesting!- I've been thinking about a personal trainer for a few weeks to work on my form because I've no idea what I'm doing. Do you do any type of cardio at all?

For weight loss cardio is a great tool at your disposal. To be honest my peak weight loss was when I was doing a 10min jog on the treadmill just after warming up and right before my weight lifting session (in hindsight, probably not ideal to tire myself out doing a jog just before lifting weights - I changed to doing it afterwards subsequently).

On rest days you can do 30 mins steady state cardio, nothing too intense, just a casual walk or go on the bike machine or treadmill and do an incline walk at a sustainable walking pace.

Stronglift is great for beginners because its gets you doing the fundamental movements of squat, bench, deadlift and barbell row. You will find you can do much more on the leg press than you can doing a free weight barbell squat! You can look at some tutorials on youtube on how to squat with good form etc and then just start with the barbell and work your weight upwards. Once you get the hand of those movements you will then progress rapidly and can then start venturing into other movements and isolation exercises. I would also say pulls (if you can do them, if not do pulldown machine) is a great exercise to add to the 4 others.

 

[Sheff]

For weight loss cardio is a great tool at your disposal. To be honest my peak weight loss was when I was doing a 10min jog on the treadmill just after warming up and right before my weight lifting session (in hindsight, probably not ideal to tire myself out doing a jog just before lifting weights - I changed to doing it afterwards subsequently).

On rest days you can do 30 mins steady state cardio, nothing too intense, just a casual walk or go on the bike machine or treadmill and do an incline walk at a sustainable walking pace.

Stronglift is great for beginners because its gets you doing the fundamental movements of squat, bench, deadlift and barbell row. You will find you can do much more on the leg press than you can doing a free weight barbell squat! You can look at some tutorials on youtube on how to squat with good form etc and then just start with the barbell and work your weight upwards. Once you get the hand of those movements you will then progress rapidly and can then start venturing into other movements and isolation exercises. I would also say pulls (if you can do them, if not do pulldown machine) is a great exercise to add to the 4 others.

Thanks! I'll have a go at those, I tried switching to 5x5 on what I'm currently doing and the 4th and 5th sets were much more difficult - even though I'd done less reps!

I'm at 276, thankfully the calorie reduction didn't lead to any hunger problems - I just reduced portions slightly and cut down on my snacks.

 

[Sheff]

274, 4 more pounds to 4 stone lost in total this year. I found my old weight from 2019, 345 pounds - no wonder my jeans could fit another person in with me!

In terms of fitness, I'm building up my endurance on the bike and cross trainer and I'm lifting more with the free weights (though not much more, I'm still working on increasing protein intake which is probably slowing progress).