Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[hellymedic]

I usually lose wight from my belly first. I think that is normal.

Belly fat is more harmful than fat elsewhere so if you have less, your risks of obesity-related illness is reduced.

My fat is behind me....

[Ham]

If anyone has lost weight and is curious what happened to it, I've found it.

[Butterfly]

If anyone has lost weight and is curious what happened to it, I've found it.

me too

[Blodwyn Pig]

If anyone has lost weight and is curious what happened to it, I've found it.

would you like some more?

[adenough]

I don't understand all this calorie counting stuff. At 6'2" and 14.5 stone I am supposed to need 2000cals a day just to sit on the couch for 8 hours and walk  upstairs now and again. I consume about 1800cals a day. I run a regular 4 mile route, ride 100 miles over a week and often do a 70 on a Sunday. Work out hard with heavy weights at the gym. swim a bit. I never lose weight. My belly is my most loyal friend. No matter what I do it is still there every day. It will not leave my side.
My wife says "Women don't care if a bloke has a belly, It's the whole package that counts."  Hmmmm...  Can't work out if she is just being kind. Plus where can I get one of these packages?

[hellymedic]

Try the same total Calorie intake but cut the sugar, carbs and booze.

See what happens...

[Wowbagger]

I don't understand all this calorie counting stuff. At 6'2" and 14.5 stone I am supposed to need 2000cals a day just to sit on the couch for 8 hours and walk  upstairs now and again. I consume about 1800cals a day. I run a regular 4 mile route, ride 100 miles over a week and often do a 70 on a Sunday. Work out hard with heavy weights at the gym. swim a bit. I never lose weight. My belly is my most loyal friend. No matter what I do it is still there every day. It will not leave my side.
My wife says "Women don't care if a bloke has a belly, It's the whole package that counts."  Hmmmm...  Can't work out if she is just being kind. Plus where can I get one of these packages?

If your belly won't leave your side I reckon it might be something else.

[adenough]

Try the same total Calorie intake but cut the sugar, carbs and booze.

See what happens...

I drink less than a bottle of red wine over a week. Don't have sugary drinks or take sugar in beverages, never have. I do like the odd piece of cake and eat about three slices of bread a day. There must be hidden sugars somewhere.  Well hidden.

[adenough]

I don't understand all this calorie counting stuff. At 6'2" and 14.5 stone I am supposed to need 2000cals a day just to sit on the couch for 8 hours and walk  upstairs now and again. I consume about 1800cals a day. I run a regular 4 mile route, ride 100 miles over a week and often do a 70 on a Sunday. Work out hard with heavy weights at the gym. swim a bit. I never lose weight. My belly is my most loyal friend. No matter what I do it is still there every day. It will not leave my side.
My wife says "Women don't care if a bloke has a belly, It's the whole package that counts."  Hmmmm...  Can't work out if she is just being kind. Plus where can I get one of these packages?

If your belly won't leave your side I reckon it might be something else.

Well it won't leave either side. Likes to spread itself about. Those damned love handles.

[hellymedic]

IMHO three slices of bread is two too many.

Alcohol can only be converted to fat.

My suggestions may seem draconian but I think you should try this for a month, possibly January.

[Wowbagger]

Since joining Slimming World 5 weeks ago I have now lost 18lb. I think the vast bulk of it is down to all but removing bread from my diet.

I make almost all of our bread in a machine. The loaf I make the most often is a "rustic French" which includes only 400 grammes of flour but rises enough to make it look like an 800 gramme loaf. Each slice therefore contains less bread and more bubbles.

[teethgrinder]

Since joining Slimming World 5 weeks ago I have now lost 18lb. I think the vast bulk of it is down to all but removing bread from my diet.

I make almost all of our bread in a machine. The loaf I make the most often is a "rustic French" which includes only 400 grammes of flour but rises enough to make it look like an 800 gramme loaf. Each slice therefore contains less bread and more bubbles.

I've heard of good results from cutting out sugary foods and foods containing wheat. That's pretty much what I do now, among a few other things.
For carbohydrates I stick to porridge (or oatcakes because I can carry those in my pocket) brown rice, potatoes with skins or rye bread (though I often go for Ryvita)
It's surprising how much food does contain wheat but there is still a lot that doesn't. I do eat wheat sometimes. Mainly from pork pies when I'm riding because the mini pork pies are very easy to eat while riding and practical

If you have a bread machine with the dough hook for making rye bread, maybe give that a try as a substitute for wheat? You don't get quite as nice a loaf from rye. Shop bought rye bread often contains wheat but there's always pumpernickel.
I also wonder if you're weight is dropping because you are sleeping better.

[hellymedic]

I am AMAZED at WB's weight loss!

TG makes a valid point about sleep.

[woollypigs]

Since we started to follow the Whole30 diet*, we both have slept much better. I think it is linked to the weight loss** and not having all that bad food.

The days were we fall off the wagon, other than also feeling crap - stomach upset, lack of energy, somewhat like coming down with a bug - we both don't sleep well at all.

Going out to enjoy a meal is rather limited on choice now. Peli suffer more than me, but she used to react to a glass of coke and other sugary things before we followed the whole30. Indian and Fish'n'Chips we have found that we both can enjoy without suffering after.

Thai and Chinese is totally off the menu, went out and had a lovely meal on our anniversary at a local Cantonese. Half way tru' Peli started to feel it, I started to feel it when walking home. We both just flopped on the sofa that evening and the next day both of us were totally drained. I felt like I was about to have a backlash to the three years I was sick (CFS/ME, if it was?!?!).

Going for some pub grub, again the menu is utterly narrowed down, if it is a sweet meal, got wheat in it, desserts totally off etc. So often Peli is down to Fish'n'Chips, which do become a bit boring to a have every time we go out.

Pizza, pasta and so I can go on is off, we used to go out and enjoy food like that, but since we have cut sugar so much and other stuff, we can't. Lucky Peli is a wicked cook so we are not starving.

* Strict at first to find out what is not playing ball with us, but now a little laxed
** I have woken up fewer times with a bad lower back. And when I gained some weight this spring the lower back and hip pain came back.

[teethgrinder]

** I have woken up fewer times with a bad lower back. And when I gained some weight this spring the lower back and hip pain came back.

Anterior Pelvic Tilt?

[Wowbagger]

I am AMAZED at WB's weight loss!

TG makes a valid point about sleep.

Bear in mind my first comment on this about Shoes. (my first weigh-in was in shoes & fleece, subsequent ones not. I think it's more like 14lb in 5 weeks. That first week, I was accredited with a 7.5lb loss!) But SW have recorded 18lb. This was outdone by Hazel, another member, who yesterday received her 2 stones lost certificate after only 6 weeks' membership. Without wishing to be too personal, she's quite a large lacy with two... significant attributes. But she was dead chuffed yesterday because she said that her clothes were now too big. I had to tighten my belt yesterday in order to stop my trousers slipping southwards.

I don't think the CPAP machine has helped significantly. I've been on it, and getting good results, since mid-July. My weight loss has entirely been since I joined SW in early October.

The "rustic French" loaf I mentioned above has some rye in it, but not a great deal. 12.5% IIRC (50 grams out of 400). The rest is 275g strong white, 75g wholemeal.

[woollypigs]

** I have woken up fewer times with a bad lower back. And when I gained some weight this spring the lower back and hip pain came back.

Anterior Pelvic Tilt?

No I solved that by sitting on a yoga ball and stretching my hip flexors. I had that pain/issue for years and only after 1.5 years of pilates someone told me what the hip flexors did and then since doing stretches that pain is gone.

The hip pain I get now when gaining weight, is often felt by pregnant woman, because their unborn weight is pulling them around while laying on the sides. Was told by our pilates instructor. So a beer belly can do that too and that is where weight lands first on me when gaining. And I sleep 100% on my sides, cause on my back I'll snore and wake myself up and on my belly my neck hurts and I get the pain in my arms/hands.

To solve that pain it so drop the fat or sleep with a pillow between my knees.

[teethgrinder]

The hip pain I get now when gaining weight, is often felt by pregnant woman, because their unborn weight is pulling them around while laying on the sides. Was told by our pilates instructor. So a beer belly can do that too and that is where weight lands first on me when gaining. And I sleep 100% on my sides, cause on my back I'll snore and wake myself up and on my belly my neck hurts and I get the pain in my arms/hands.

To solve that pain it so drop the fat or sleep with a pillow between my knees.

I seem to be doing well with mouth taping. I simply put some bandage tape over my mouth before bed so that I breathe through my nose, which reduces or eliminates my sleep apnoea. It's enough to make breathing through the nose the path of least resistance but not so bad that it will stop you breathing if your nose gets blocked and you have to breathe through your mouth.
I also use nose vents and other devices to keep my nose clear. I got myself a device that records my blood oxygen, heart rate and movement when I sleep and gives me an oxygen score from the results. It also vibrates if my oxygen drops to a level that I can set it at. The idea is that it prompts you to breathe before your oxygen drops too low. You can switch the vibrate on or off. I haven't had it long so I'm seeing what gives me the best results.
My tongue stabiliser did seem to work. The trouble is that I often woke up and it was no longer in my mouth and it's not that nice to have in your mouth in the first place. Mouth taping seems to be more effective and reliable, at least for me.

[Von Broad]

The hip pain I get now when gaining weight, is often felt by pregnant woman, because their unborn weight is pulling them around while laying on the sides. Was told by our pilates instructor. So a beer belly can do that too and that is where weight lands first on me when gaining. And I sleep 100% on my sides, cause on my back I'll snore and wake myself up and on my belly my neck hurts and I get the pain in my arms/hands.

To solve that pain it so drop the fat or sleep with a pillow between my knees.

I seem to be doing well with mouth taping. I simply put some bandage tape over my mouth before bed so that I breathe through my nose, which reduces or eliminates my sleep apnoea. It's enough to make breathing through the nose the path of least resistance but not so bad that it will stop you breathing if your nose gets blocked and you have to breathe through your mouth.
I also use nose vents and other devices to keep my nose clear. I got myself a device that records my blood oxygen, heart rate and movement when I sleep and gives me an oxygen score from the results. It also vibrates if my oxygen drops to a level that I can set it at. The idea is that it prompts you to breathe before your oxygen drops too low. You can switch the vibrate on or off. I haven't had it long so I'm seeing what gives me the best results.
My tongue stabiliser did seem to work. The trouble is that I often woke up and it was no longer in my mouth and it's not that nice to have in your mouth in the first place. Mouth taping seems to be more effective and reliable, at least for me.

Not wishing to divert the thread away from weight, but I spent a while listening to podcasts by Patrick McKeown on You Tube [loads there to listen too], author of The Oxygen Advantage - his expression of a breathing technique initially developed by a Russian Scientist, Buteyko.

My schooling in basic biology was woefully inadequate, but I found it really fascinating to try and get to grips with what is going on when we breath - especially the significance of carbon dioxide in the releasing of oxygen from the hemoglobin into the cells, and how deep breathing can be detrimental to this process.

Patrick talks quite a bit about sleep disorders in the various podcasts I've listened to - most of the podcasts are interviews.

Here's one...he talks about sleep apnea about halfway through, worth listening to the whole thing though [matey interviewer has to go a bit of product plugging halfway, but it's not long].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owMDBJtoZ9U

[Wowbagger]

Another week, and another 5lb lost.

Actually, that took a fair bit of doing. On Sunday Jan and I spent the day rehearsing for and then singing in a concert, so we were out of the house for more than 7 hours. Dez was put in charge of food, which turned out to be garlic bread and pizza. Not what I am supposed to have. Then on Monday we had haggis. Dez let us know late in the day that he wasn't going to be with us for dinner so someone had to eat his...

Tues, Wed and today I have tried very hard. In fact, today I went on a 12ish mile walk (the fitbit says 13) with Her Welshness, so I suspect I was probably a bit dehydrated this evening. I was Slimmer of the Week*.

So that has earned my me 1½ stones certificate, and a fridge magnet. 

Onwards and downwards...

*It's very unfortunate that in a group consisting largely of ladies of a certain stature, as it were, that the organiser has the initial "SOW" on a basket where the SoW's prize resides (food).

[hellymedic]

Well done WoW!

[Wowbagger]

Well done WoW!

Thanks! Katie commented on my observable reduction in beer gut.

[simonp]

I think it's more about fat loss for me just now. I had an 8-site caliper check today; 15% body fat.

Weight is static but someone at the rowing club commented at the weekend that my shoulders look bigger. They are bigger, but given static weight I've lost weight elsewhere, and it seems to be fat.

[hellymedic]

I think it's more about fat loss for me just now. I had an 8-site caliper check today; 15% body fat.

Weight is static but someone at the rowing club commented at the weekend that my shoulders look bigger. They are bigger, but given static weight I've lost weight elsewhere, and it seems to be fat.

A mean, lean, rowing machine...
Well done Simon!

[DrMekon]

Have been in a plateau, where despite running a 500+ calorie deficit, I was stuck at ~76kg. All of a sudden, I've dropped to 73kg. My gf had been claiming I'd lost some flub and was looking more toned, but it's nice to see the weight actually coming off.