Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[Butterfly]

I managed low carb when out by having steak/chicken with vegetables - most pubs can manage that! I wasn't really cycling much at the time, but I was horse riding and so on a lot. At home, I restricted myself to 1 slice of bread a day and ate a lot of the same things. My diet was pretty limited because the only meat I eat is chicken breast and steak. I sometimes had poached egg. It is much easier to do if you like more meat (and I think you do! ) and fish. I think it needs to be coupled with low fat/calorie intake as well. If you eat as much green veg as you possibly can, it helps . I did have a diet sheet from a Harley St Doctor, but it is extremely restrictive (if effective).

Per day:

Green veg
3 tomatoes
1 slice of bread
1 low fat yoghurt
lump of meat (about the size of a steak or a chicken breast) or fish
piece of cheese (edam, gouda, brie or camenbert)
I think I drank skimmed milk in tea, but I'm not sure it was on the list.

That is all I can remember, there were possibly other bits that I didn't like. I used to have marmite on toast for breakfast, salad for lunch with the cheese and then meat and green veg for dinner (or the other way round). It wasn't exciting, but it was pretty easy! I kept it up for months. I drank tea, coffee, diet drinks and water.

Good luck. 

[zigzag]

I've got to try everything in the hope something will work. Calories in calories out only works if you can stick to it, and clearly, I can't.

i sincerely hope you will achieve your targets next year. reading about the struggle to stick to a diet, i wonder if there are any foods in your diet that contain msg, yeast extract or similar vile ingredients? they play havoc with our brain and make us think that we are hungry even when we're not. it may not be easy to avoid "bad" food whe you are out and about, but at least at home it's important to ensure that everyday food ingredients are raw, natural and healthy (which abundant mass consumption food, sadly, isn't..)

[L CC]

I wonder if there are any foods in your diet that contain msg, yeast extract or similar vile ingredients?

I «heart» marmite. But I don't think my love of yeast extract and msg is anywhere near as detrimental as my love of bread, sugar and more sugar.
There's a limit to how much I'm willing to restrict what's in the house, that's a bit unfair on No2Son who at 16years & 172cm weighs around 60kg.

[madcow]

In for a penny etc. Dont mention the pounds(weight).
For the last 10 years I have struggled with excess weight, even when piling on the miles in 2011.
Too many business meetings with ad-lib food available and too many nights away from home has led to a serious gain over the last 12 months. Added to that my motivation levels have been so low that my cycling and other exercise has been pretty minimal.
I now think it is affecting my knees, so something has to be done.
The target date is when we have booked a holiday and I want to enjoy it. End of.
Expect a slow start due to backlog of food from Xmas but hope that posting on here will focus my attention, or at least divert it from snacking.

[Marmitegeoff]

Thank you for the new thread, boabacca!

+1

Lost 17 kg's and have now found 7 of them over the festive season.  less in, more exercise.

Geoff

[mcshroom]

Hmm, I was doing well until I finished my big tour last year and lost all motivation.

I'm back in for another year. Hopefully I'll hang on longer this year than last.

This year I'm going to stick with the myfitnesspal diary as it's the only thing that has ever seemed to work for me, and following on from reading the hacker's diet book* I'm going to try trending on a 7 day average weight which should hopefully stop me giving up in the face of a few positive weigh ins and hiding from the scales like I usually do


*not really a diet but more a way of explaining things to scientists and engineers in terms we are used to.

[Pippa]

OK it's time I published my efforts (or lack thereof) in the hope it forces me to take weight loss a bit more seriously. I started last year my heaviest ever (88kg) and lost a couple through watching what I ate for a bit, then another couple through alternate day fasting later in the year. I then lost another 8kg during November when I was travelling in Thailand, through significantly less alcohol i.e. basically none, and I was being fed rice 3 times a day, which isn't my favourite. I've put 2kg back on over xmas  so now it's time to try again for real this time.

Being 10kg down already on what I was last year, and the lightest (ha!) I've been in the last 3 years might work as a motivator. Hopefully Dry January might help, in combination with eating less and more healthy (my OH has basically become pescatarian so we're eating a lot of fish and veggies now, rather than meat), plus more exercise. I don't really snack anyway and I don't like chocolate much so there are no "easy" cuts I can make apart from booze, so I'm also going to have to learn to limit portion sizes.

If I ever get to goal then I'm allowed to buy a new bike. Fingers crossed.

Good luck everyone!

[Wowbagger]

I've already lost 1kg thanks to the vagaries of our bathroom scales!

[shyumu]

I'm in.

Last year (2012) I reached 72.5kg in June, down from 97kg in December 2011.  Then between June and December I bounced back to over 90kg.  It was a slow bounce.  Anyhue; I'm going to lose it again using the same technique I used last time - a technique which I use in cycling... I'm logging everything I do.  I use a commercial website and when I do actually use it I lose weight and when I stop using it and try to eat sensibly I usually get it wrong.

I've signed up for the BCM in May and hope to get as close to my target weight as poss by then.

[Andrij]

Started this year 2kg less than this time last year, and just below my upper limit.  Unfortunately, I'm still 5kg above where I'd like to be.  Lot's of work to do, but I know my target is achievable.

[clarion]

I just had a look through 2012 logging before it gets cast adrift.  I thought that about half of the posters didn't complete the year, but it's more like two thirds who didn't get to November.  I know I'm a bit of a quitter, so I'm going to try to stick with it again.

My starting weight was done 31/12/2012, and I've lost 1kg from that.

[TimC]

I am bloody useless at sticking to this sort of thing, so I am doubly determined to make a difference this year. Got every gadget I can find monitoring weight etc, so no excuses!

[hulver]

I'm doing LEL this year, and dragging 127kg around the UK doesn't appeal to me, so I need to lose some before the ride starts.

I dislike being this large, hopefully I can actually stick at losing it this time.

[simonp]

I added the 2013 thread to the graphing script and by some miracle it still seems to work.

[clarion]

Well done.

[hellymedic]

I lost about 7kg last year without entering the weight chart. I'd like to lose the same this year, then stabilise. We'll see.
Still to come:
Three days in Christchurch, hotelling and eating with Davids Dad. (Jan 6-8)
Edgware CTC New Year Dinner (Jan 13)
WOLAS Dinner (Jan 28)
Nephew's Bar Mitzvah (Feb 16)

I like eating!
Realistically, I can't see a huge weight loss for a few weeks but I'll try to be sensible.

[Wowbagger]

I like eating!

This, ultimately, is the root of my problem.

I recall, after one particularly good lunch at my parents', when my older brother was visiting, my mother had prepared a superb meal of something-or-other. After eating my fill I remarked how food the food was and added "There's very little I enjoy more than stuffing myself!"

My brother retorted "I prefer stuffing other people." His wife made no comment but his preference could explain why he's 11 stone or so and Im 6 stone heavier, despite him being a god inch taller than I am.

[clarion]

I like eating!

This, ultimately, is the root of my problem.

I recall, after one particularly good lunch at my parents', when my older brother was visiting, my mother had prepared a superb meal of something-or-other. After eating my fill I remarked how food the food was and added "There's very little I enjoy more than stuffing myself!"

My brother retorted "I prefer stuffing other people." His wife made no comment but his preference could explain why he's 11 stone or so and Im 6 stone heavier, despite him being a god inch taller than I am.

You must tell us which one that is.

[Wowbagger]

I like eating!

This, ultimately, is the root of my problem.

I recall, after one particularly good lunch at my parents', when my older brother was visiting, my mother had prepared a superb meal of something-or-other. After eating my fill I remarked how food the food was and added "There's very little I enjoy more than stuffing myself!"

My brother retorted "I prefer stuffing other people." His wife made no comment but his preference could explain why he's 11 stone or so and Im 6 stone heavier, despite him being a god inch taller than I am.

You must tell us which one that is.

The one that moves in mysterious ways its wonders to perform, quite obviously.

[Andrij]

I like eating!

This, ultimately, is the root of my problem.

I recall, after one particularly good lunch at my parents', when my older brother was visiting, my mother had prepared a superb meal of something-or-other. After eating my fill I remarked how food the food was and added "There's very little I enjoy more than stuffing myself!"

My brother retorted "I prefer stuffing other people." His wife made no comment but his preference could explain why he's 11 stone or so and Im 6 stone heavier, despite him being a god inch taller than I am.

You must tell us which one that is.

Begging the question 'how many god particles you need to line up to get a god inch?'.

[mcshroom]

Well that should be some motivation I suppose - I apparently have the highest BMI of all the participants

[hellymedic]

Well that should be some motivation I suppose - I apparently have the highest BMI of all the participants

Oooh look SimonP has joined in so I won't have the lowest BMI of the yacf slimming club!
Point is all are welcome, however much or little weight is going.
Losing the last few kg can be difficult...

[Ham]

Well, 2012 saw me finish the year pretty much the same as I went in. The vertiginous graph is only because it just shows 6 months, I'm actually quite happy with that. 2013 is where those cussed extra Kg finally go.

But tonight..... we eat drink and be merry.

oops.

Ah well.

[rr]

My end of year chart:

Christmas festivities taken their toll this month, must get back on track.
The two spikes in the last week corresponded to roast ham dinners, the wonders of salt and water.

[mcshroom]

What software are you keeping that chart in rr? That's the sort of graph (with ties from the point to the trend) which I've been trying to persuade excel to do without success.