Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[woollypigs]

Thanks wow.

Here's a helping hint, do weigh in after evacuation as you know as a cyclist all grams count

[Wowbagger]

I weigh myself every morning before and after*.This morning, despite spending 20 minutes solving a Killer Sudoku, I was otherwise unproductive.

*I have yet to ask for a receipt.

[Beardy]

Day 2 of the 5/2. The weekly grocery order has just arrived and as I’m not the only person in the house, there are some of my favourite processed sugar products in there. I think it might be time for another glass of water!

[citoyen]

I’ve had something of an epiphany this morning. Being signed up to a fancy food tracking service and tracking your meals doesn’t automatically cause weight loss. I think you’re also supposed to reduce the amount you eat and, well, avoid eating some of the crap 

True that.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of using myfitnesspal. What I find useful about it is not so much the calorie counting but the way it keeps you honest - or at least, it does if you are honest with yourself... and log everything. I'm finding it's making me think twice before just cutting of a slice of cheese to nibble on as I pass the fridge, or scooping a spoonful of peanut butter out of the jar... these bad habits add up very quickly. And then having to enter them into mfp is like doing the walk of shame.

Although, that said, the discipline needed to keep up the logging is perhaps even harder than the discipline needed to resist snacking. I got to the point where it was a habit a few years ago but then I lost it. Still not got to the point where it's part of the routine yet. I can't afford Noom.

Cutting down how much I eat is the only way I'm going to get back anywhere near the weight I want to be. I'm not particularly fussing about what I eat, but I am trying to reduce portions of carbs - and even going without a carb element in some meals (ie leaving out the rice, potatoes or pasta). Sunday night, I had steak with a big pile of broad beans. Simple but delicious and filling. Would have loved a side order of chips but have to remind myself I didn't need it.

It's tough.

[L CC]

I can't stand MyFitnessPal and it's calorie counting obsessive ways.
I just found it fundamentally depressing to see my supposed 1600kcal input vs supposed 2500kcal output result in no weight loss at all.

I think I'm going to have 'a weight problem' my whole life. I don't think counting calories is the way to solve it.

Noom advertises itself as working on your psychology- but the thing you have to do? Log calories.

Surely it's more important to look at why you(one/I) eat what you eat and when you eat it, rather than just measuring inputs.

[Paul H]

I can't afford Noom.

Just on this point - I signed up for the free two week trial last year, decided it wasn't for me and cancelled, they then bombarded me with offers till I unsubscribed.  I can't remember what the best was, at least 80% off a years subscription.  I'd already decided it wasn't for me at any price.

I'm calorie counting on and off, and the weight is fluctuating accordingly.  2kg up, 2kg down... I think I'm going to have to settle for that, basically dieting alternate months.  For the calorie counting I'm using nutracheck, I don't have the experience to compare with the others, but this one is UK based and simple enough via app or website.

[citoyen]

I can't stand MyFitnessPal and it's calorie counting obsessive ways.

Tbh, I don't pay much attention to the numbers. They're usually wildly inaccurate anyway. I only look at them for a broad brush picture, but don't let it worry me if I'm 500 calories over one day, or even more.

Quite understand what you're saying about the calories in vs calories out being demoralising though. And it's the kind of thing that could be seen as encouraging eating disorders.

Surely it's more important to look at why you(one/I) eat what you eat and when you eat it, rather than just measuring inputs.

It is very much for this reason that I use mfp - as a way of monitoring what I am eating, and when, and holding myself to account for it. Also for keeping a record of weight etc.

The killer for me is those fridge-dipping moments throughout the day. I'm just trying to be honest with myself about my bad eating habits, and logging them is a way of acknowledging them. Having it in my mind that I have to log that piece of cheese I'm nibbling on makes me think twice about cutting it off the block.

Also I tend to lose track quite easily of how many treats I've had, so logging them helps me keep count. A reminder that I had a Cornetto I had at lunchtime helps me decide at teatime that maybe I shouldn't have that iced bun as well... the number of calories in a Cornetto or an iced bun is not important, it's overall number of treats per day I'm trying to control.

Glad to have my suspicions confirmed about Noom. I won't be signing up.

[geraldc]

A lot of meals you eat, you don't enjoy.

One of the things I remember as kid was being told to finish food, and not enjoying a lot of food. Somehow in becoming an adult, finishing food hasn't been a problem, and when I get to choose what I eat, I eat too much and too quickly.

I can maintain a steady weight, but it's with a higher than recommended level of fat. If I try to shift that fat through diet, after I'm off the diet, my body puts the fat back, and then my weight is steady again. It's maintaining a steady weight coupled with a reasonable amount of fat that's the hard bit for us tubbies.

Eating through boredom is a big thing for me, also most meals in the day are eating through habit rather than hunger. I've got to do some work to reset all this (mainly fasting) and it should reset the level of fat that my body thinks it needs, but my wife is worried about giving my daughter bad ideas about food, so I'm banned from fasting and dieting for a bit, and so we are all still eating meals together as a family.

[Wowbagger]

At the start of the year I set a target of 100kg by 31/12/21. I achieved it today, less than half way through the year. I have set myself a new target of 90kg by 31/12/21.

I don’t think I have weighed less than 16 stones in the past 30 years. In this current spell of weight loss, which I started in early July last year, I have now lost just over ½ cwt, or 25 of your new-fangled kilograms .

I’m feeling just slightly smug this morning.

[De Sisti]

At the start of the year I set a target of 100kg by 31/12/21. I achieved it today, exactly half way through the year. I have set myself a new target of 90kg by 31/12/21.

I don’t think I have weighed less than 16 stones in the past 30 years. In this current spell of weight loss, which I started in early July last year, I have now lost just over ½ cwt, or 25 of your new-fangled kilograms .

I’m feeling just slightly smug this morning.

Did your GP advise you to lose weight (after consulting their bmi charts)?

[Wowbagger]

At the start of the year I set a target of 100kg by 31/12/21. I achieved it today, exactly half way through the year. I have set myself a new target of 90kg by 31/12/21.

I don’t think I have weighed less than 16 stones in the past 30 years. In this current spell of weight loss, which I started in early July last year, I have now lost just over ½ cwt, or 25 of your new-fangled kilograms .

I’m feeling just slightly smug this morning.

Did your GP advise you to lose weight (after consulting their bmi charts)?

My GP has been encouraging me to lose weight for years. I'm still obese according to BMI.

The trigger for this was two events happening pretty much simultaneously: me being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in early July 2020, and my son moving out at about the same time. This latter enabled me to take complete control of the shopping. My philosophy is very much that if you don't buy it, you can't eat it.

I took some very good advice from Sgt. Pluck otp and also from my daughter: she's not medically qualified, but works in health care at a high managerial level. She suggested joining Noom. I did, and, as I have mentioned above, I found it very good, despite the strong USAnian slant. Judging from the comments above, I must have landed a pretty good deal as I paid £139 for 8 months' worth. My term with them ran out on 17th April, but in that period I had changed my "relationship with food" (I hate that expression!) to the extent that I have lost a further 5kg since I left Noom. If I had renewed, it would have cost £40 a month. That's ridiculous. But - their schtick is that they will change your habits and to me the test is whether you can maintain those newly-established habits without the daily input from them. At the moment, I am doing.

I think lockdown has helped. It didn't at first as eating and drinking were two of the few pleasures left. But I've come to realise that I quite enjoy the simplicity, even though the days are very repetitive.

[citoyen]

Well done, Wow!

[Wowbagger]

Thanks!

I was delving in the archaeological site which is known as "My Wardrobe" yesterday afternoon - it was so warm I felt much more comfortable sitting around the house in the buff but was looking for something to wear on a walk in the park - and found a couple of shirts I hadn't worn for some time because they were too tight. They are now generously proportioned! I also found a shirt which Jan and I used to laugh about it was so impossibly small on my obese torso: it was my standard issue shirt when I officiated at the World Chess Championship at the Park Lane Hotel in 1986 and has the date and FIDE logo stamped on the pocket. It is now easily big enough, but seems to have shrunk vertically, as it were. I don't think there's enough to tuck into trousers.

[hellymedic]

[OT] but...
You might find that ironing a shirt increases its dimensions.
(Awful suggestion in this weather, apologies!)

[ravenbait]

I have mentioned, somewhere in this thread, that one of the factors causing the increase in weight of the population as a whole is that our built environment is a lot warmer than it used to be. Double glazing, central heating and insulated houses all help.
Yesterday I had a concrete example of this. MrsC and I were manning a voting station in our village hall and, due to Covid, we had to have two doors open all the time. The station is open 7.00-22.00, so cold at both ends of the day and being a village hall--they have their own laws of thermodynamics--it was colder inside than out even when the day was at its best.
For a normal working day, if I don't go for a run, I very rarely hit my 'move' calorie target on my Apple Watch. I find it fairly easy to get the 30 minutes of 'exercise' in though. Yesterday I was well over the calories, but the exercise score was only 17 minutes. The only real difference between yesterday and a normal work day (apart from the hours thank $DEITY) was the temperature.

How on Earth does your watch measure your calorie expenditure if not by movement? Or could it tell you were shivering?

A combination of ill health, injury and lockdown has meant I'm the heaviest I've ever been right now. But I'm also now very aware of my obsessive tendencies, and that I have to be careful not to stray into anorexia or orthorexia. So I am collecting Garmin badges and have built myself a nice spreadsheet with some fancy statistics so I don't get depressed by day-to-day variation. It seems to be working. Slowly. Slowly is good.

Sam

[Clare]

Heartrate? If it was cold maybe his heart was faster to get the warm around the body.

[SteveC]

I have no idea how it worked, but that was the result.
I've just checked the heart rate log and that shows nothing unusual.

[Clare]

Were you standing up a lot? My Fitbit doubles the calories used when I am standing up compared to when I am either sitting or lying down.

[SteveC]

I was probably standing up rather more than usual. We were very quiet for most of the day and I wasn't, for once, latched to a computer screen.
I may have been shivering as well.

[L CC]

They calculate calorie consumption with an algorithm which includes heart rate and the accelerometer and barometric altimeter readings.
So higher heart rate and changing atmospheric pressure will lead to increased calculated calorie burn.
No 'smart' watch measures exactly what's happening, it's always an inference.

[CommuteTooFar]

When my mother went into hospital on the Easter Monday bank holiday I was approaching 100Kg.  I did not feel fat although obviously I was.  My mum died in June.  Since Easter I have been eating basically the same stuff but less of it. I characterised my new sustainable, I think,  eating pattern as mum fed me what I wanted, I feed myself what I need. Now I am 84.2Kg my clothes are loose I am down one belt size. I am still a long way from my 75Kg target.  Oddly although I am objectively better I feel fat now.

[hellymedic]

Sorry to read about your mother!

You are about ⅔ of the way there on your weight loss journey, which is pretty amazing.

Keep going but don't weigh yourself too often!

[Wowbagger]

I'm quite interested in the recommended frequency of weighing oneself. Noom was definitely into a daily weigh-in in the first instance. I think as I had been using the app for somewhere near 6 months, they started to lighten up.

I still weigh myself every day. It's just part of the routine now. I don't count calories any more. But I know what I've eaten because every day is just a minor variation on a theme. The best analogy I can think of was that when I was a regular bridge player, I learned to assess a hand by counting points. Then my pal Mel, my most regular partner, picked up a copy of Eli Culbertson's book (or one of them) in which he assessed a hand by counting the "quick tricks". Food-wise, I do that now. Much more "broad brush" but just as useful.

[hellymedic]

I don't know if it really matters.
Take a look a my charts from 2012 and 2013...

[Kim]

I'm weighing myself every morning when I do my peak flow reading (I found morning weight was less noisy than evening weight, which changes a lot depending on whether I've been cycling that day).  I've written some code so I can punch the readings into a spare TV remote in the bathroom, they get written to appropriate CSV files and I can immediately forget about them.

Since I'm not trying to gain or lose weight, I'd otherwise get out of the habit.