The *Official* FretBoard Celebrity Fat Club Weigh In and Diet thread.

Handsome_Chris

Who remembers this bit of fun?

axisus

Success!!!!!!

I've been trying to get under 14st for well over a decade, right now I am just over 13st 7lb. Can't believe it!
I still think I need to get down to 13st, and I keep thinking that I'm going to go up again but for now .... I'll take it!

1) Dietry change - ditched white bread, eat less evenings especially carbs    
2) upped my running kms
3) ill last week and ate less

I'm a happy bunny right now.

Handsome_Chris

@axisus great news mate. You've put in the effort and you've got the results.  I hope that this success sore you, and other, on to getting you to where you need to be.

strtdv

Handsome_Chris said:

I don't think I'll worry about the BMI target and just focus on the road ahead.   I've just got to get to 15 stone by Saturday 1st July 2017.  I don't have to do it all at once. 

I suppose I'm treating it a bit like a video game. I beat these little targets in the weight and the C25K and I get on to the next level and unlock new things. The new things being looking better, physically performing better and feeling better. 

@strtdv , you must be feeling fantastic? Also thank you for the encouragement.  

Yes I've definitely got a lot more energy, and it's also nice buying buying trousers with a 6" smaller waist than I used to.
The biggest benefit I find is that regular exercise improves your mood and really clears your head, so I'm less stressed and moody than I used to be.

I'm happy with just keeping my weight as it is now, and TBH I'm getting to the stage where for longer cycles I really need to eat a lot before and during it to keep me going so not much weight loss there, but I am still losing a little (about 1-1.5 lbs a month)

Snap

octatonic said:

Handsome_Chris said:

@GuitarAndy2 , nice work mate.  

I think @octatonic was telling me that scales only tell one side of the story.  In other words scales only indicate your weight: not how that weight is made up.

With the swimming you may be putting on "muscle weight" while losing "fat weight".  Of course  the weight may come off faster if you didn't have indulgences, but do you want to do that.

The bottom line is that you've made some progress, it's still progress. Be happy, you're moving in the right direction.

To clarify, exercise does build muscle but you might have to exercise for a full year to gain about 5kg in muscle and you would need to lift weights.

This brings me to the issue of 'scale weight'.
It is fairly meaningless.
What matters is body composition.
You can be 100kg and look awful at 40% body fat or look awesomely muscular at 6% body fat.
The difference between those two bodies is a ridiculous amount of dedication and a strict diet.
You will fluctuate about 2kg day to day depending on what you eat.
Weighing yourself daily is going to be counterproductive and will knock your confidence.
Trust me, I've been there.

Advice for normal people who want to get healthy, drop weight and then stay healthy- throw away your scales!
Or at least only get on them a couple of times a month.
It doesn't matter what you weigh from day to day- it matters that you are losing body fat and that doesn't have much to do with what the number on the scale says.
You are going for a look, not a number- look in a mirror, notice how tight or loose your clothes feel.
At 3-4 months of doing this if you have the right approach then you will need new clothes- that is a measure of success, not the number on a scale.

Just eat 1700-2000 calories a day, eat a lot of vegetables, exercise regularly, stay away from alcohol and junk food and be patient.
I give a range of calories because IMHO you should tailor your calorie intake to your activity.
Are you exercising today- then go for 2000.
Not exercising today, then eat 1700.
(if you want you can load calories the day before you exercise, so 2000 today if you are exercising tomorrow but that is an extra layer of complexity that most people can't cope with).

It took a long time to get into the condition that caused you to feel as though you had to lose weight- it will probably take about at least half that time again to lose the weight.

Look at it as a 2 year personal project.
It took me about that long to get most of the weight off me once I finally buckled down and stuck to it.
It took me about 8 years of trying though to get to that point.

all this.^

I have a body fat target, that's it. Have a monitor at the gym (boditrax) and I track it at the start and end of the week. The thing that affects things the most is reducing alcohol, for me. fat drops off.

Also I make sure I don't pig out on massive portions of food. Breakfast is a smoothie of somehing like spinach, kale, banana, ginger, chia seeds, spirulina, maybe add some other fruit in, and almond/coconut/soya milk. also started adding a pit of protein powder (whey isolate) to it recently as I am doing a llot of weights. I have that drink, and one or two slices of wholemeal toast. Lunch is something like a salad, or some hearty soup. Dinner could be any sort of fresh cooked vegetarian stuff.

I'll sometime have a few eggs diring the week too, or a baked spud with beans.

Don't eat cakes, biscuits, any of that shit. I replace that sin with booze at the weekend.
Plenty of water.

Exercises are 3 days of heavy weights on large muscle groups - 3 sets of 5 reps, squats, shoulders chest, woodchops, stuff that requires stability and lots of different muscle groups. All free weights. then interspersed with 2 days boxing, circuits and abs. Each session is about 50 minutes.

Body fat currently 13.5%, and I am tentatively aiming for 10%.

I am in a full blown mid life crisis and am obsessed with it, no apologies, lmao. I'm coming up 48 years old, with a proper Peter Pan syndrome. Fk it.

Handsome_Chris

Is there some decent at home device for measuring body fat?

Snap

Handsome_Chris said:

Is there some decent at home device for measuring body fat?

Hi Chris, I believe so, but they ain't cheap if you want a good one. Omron do some good stuff. You need to make sure you don't have any metal on you when you take a reading -like rings and that. Affects the current.

Or you could go old school and get the pincer type things!

You know, really, (and I am saying this to myself as much as anyone really), its all bobbins: the real gauge to how fat or not you are, is how your clothes feel, and how you feel in yourself.

Some days I feel hefty, but I find a reet good fart or six sorts that out.

axisus

Handsome_Chris said:

Is there some decent at home device for measuring body fat?

A mirror

monquixote

Handsome_Chris said:

Is there some decent at home device for measuring body fat?

No 

There are various home techniques, but they are all largely inaccurate.

If you want accurate you need to go for something like a DEXA scan and they are going to cost over £100 a go.

GuitarAndy2

One week on from my last post & I've lost a couple more pounds, now down to 12 stone 1. Also swam 64 lengths again with a more consistent routine (4 length warm up, then 12, followed by three sets of 16 as opposed to various blends of 6-12 to make the whole the previous week), realise it's not a big step up, but it's progress I can measure.

Panama_Jack666

I started just before the thread was initially posted but I never actually posted in it.

Started at 19st6lbs. Weighed 17st3lbs on Saturday morning. Boom!

Clarky

Panama_Jack666 said:

I started just before the thread was initially posted but I never actually posted in it.

Started at 19st6lbs. Weighed 17st3lbs on Saturday morning. Boom!

fk yeah…. that's awesome news...

Handsome_Chris

@Panama_Jack666 , I started at 19st 6lbs a few years ago, as @Clarky and others who may remember me at that stage can testify.   Nice result on dropping the 2¼ stone.  

Wow, this little corner of the forum is filled with doers.

thecolourbox

It's great to hear so many of you are swimming as part of your healthier regimes, it's the only exercise I've ever been any good at so quite relieved to see that people think it's a good worthwhile method! 

When I started on my regime I joined the new Birmingham Uni pool, which you have to  become a pay monthly member of rather than going ad hoc, which in itself has been a better move for me because it's forcing me to go often to get my money's worth. They always have lanes open, from 8am till 10pm I think which is also good - previously there was only Tuesday night at a pool on the other side of the city where you could swim in a lane before 9pm. I tend to favour the 50m sessions (it's a 50m pool but they can swap it to 2x 25m with a boom), and because they now have a slow lane, medium lane and fast lane, I can swim in the fast one amongst people of a similar pace to me so I push myself a lot harder than before where I felt there was no point trying because I'd catch up the crazy old cat lady within a third of a length and then be stuck. I'm sure that wasn;t very nice for the crazy old cat lady either with me swimming around like Shamu the angry killer whale.

Started the first few sessions doing about 2km during my hour, but last couple I've stepped up to 2.5km to keep pushing myself. I'm hoping that a regular calorie burn like that will help the weight come off but also be a good stress reliever

Dopesick

Stupid question time re: water.

Is flavoured water alright? Volvic Touch Of Fruit (Sugar Free) to be precise. During the week, it is literally pretty much all I ever drink.

It's the weekends which do me in, although the last couple of times I've worked on a formula - a mandatory soft drink between every pint....and make it last as long as a pint as well goddammit.

ThePrettyDamned

Two weeks ago, 14 stone 3. 

Today, 14 stone 1.8 

Still going in the right direction, I wasn't expecting a loss to be honest as first week of work has been a bit stressful, and last week I had some celebrations but I'll take it! 

Handsome_Chris

@ThePrettyDamned you're having some nice results on all fronts. Congratulations on the job and even more weight loss. Your success is building upon itself.

monquixote

Two pounds off this week and down to 15 5.

I think the Ghrelin is well and truly kicking in now as I'm in full on hungry mode in the evenings now. 

ThePrettyDamned

Handsome_Chris said:

@ThePrettyDamned you're having some nice results on all fronts. Congratulations on the job and even more weight loss. Your success is building upon itself.

Fanks. 

I'm slowly turning into a good, contributing human being.  

My legs are a bit achey though, averaging somewhere around 6 miles per day. I used to do it all the time but apparently the last few months have made it much harder again! 

Handsome_Chris

monquixote said: just

Two pounds off this week and down to 15 5.

I think the Ghrelin is well and truly kicking in now as I'm in full on hungry mode in the evenings now. 

@monquixote , would it help to go to bed earlier?   :P