Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[tonyh]

Fairly happy with that

So you should be! Congrats!

[jogler]

It's that ride up Tan Hill wotdunit Doosh.
 

[Doosh]

Probably!

According to the BMI wotsit I need to be 11 stone 8 just to be classed as "average" weight for my height, that's insane! I couldn't make under 12 stone with a severe case of famine/Delhi belly, never mind healthily maintaining that weight.

[jogler]

BMI
bloody misleading information

[Wendy]

You'd perhaps like to think BMI is wrong/misleading/otherwise, but it's mostly completely right.  We just love to eat too much, and with the super abundance of rich foods, it's very hard to fight that urge.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/132745785/how-western-diets-are-making-the-world-sick

[AndyK]

I've finally cracked the 80 kg barrier (79.5 kg).

Interestingly, that has happened despite increasing my calorie intake allowance by changing my baseline activity level - limit is now a fairly generous 2100 Cal / day. The addition of a short run 3 x per week has done it, I think.

I'm not surprised you lost the weight! The recommended calorie intake to remain the same weight - for a male doing zero exercise - is approx. 2400Kcal per day.

[welshwheels]

http://mindlesseating.org/images/cartoons/EatWithEyes-ME2006-Wansink-Cartoon.jpg  hi over the last year i have become this guy no matter what i try i can not seem to get in to a healthy eating habit  part of the problem I think is that when we were growing up I have 2 brothers that are over weight  We were draggedbrought up on junk food as my father worked away all week and my mother was an alcoholic . The only exercise i enjoy is cycling and the commute to work has help me keep the cycling fire burning  so here I am 30 1/2 years old 18 stone 6 pounds 6"2 I do not look fat if that is any help . I have signed up to do a tandem skydive next year and need to be under 15 stone !! My partner has said that if I am going to lose the weight why do I not try and have a good year on the bike as I will have lost over 3 stone !! so this is day one I do not have a clue what to eat but I do know how to ride  so I have upped the mileage on the bike .I just need some pointers on what to eat .thanks in advance stuart .

[Doosh]

You'd perhaps like to think BMI is wrong/misleading/otherwise, but it's mostly completely right.

Whilst I agree we eat too much, and of the wrong stuff, BMI is a bit misleading because muscle weighs more than fat. I think the entire England rugby team are classed as "obese" and yet they're built like brick shit houses!

[Wendy]

It might be misleading in exceptional cases, but I've yet to see real life exceptional cases whom we know complaining about BMI.  Everyone else does actually have a problem.  Is that fair?

I'm not casting stones, btw.  I'm in the same boat come autumn and winter, and often put on far too much weight.

[Doosh]

Everyone else does actually have a problem.  Is that fair?

Maybe. But there are plenty of people I know whom I consume way fewer calories than per day who are as thin as a rake, so something somewhere doesn't add up, especially when you consider the lack of exercise they take compared to me.

I've no problem with the BMI scale in theory, but it's like everything else that uses an average, a loose guide at best. There's very little left for me to cut out of my diet and yet I still struggle to keep the weight off so it can't simply be about a one-size-fits-all* scale.

* sorry for the pun!

[Wendy]

Do you weigh and record everything you eat, and have you compared that to the others you're referring to?  Forgive me if I'm a bit sceptical about not being able to cut out more from your diet.  If you can't keep the weight off, then you can almost certainly eat less and lose more weight.  The tough part is that you may not wish to suffer that much.

[AndyK]

  Everyone else does actually have a problem.  Is that fair?

Life isn't fair.

[AndyK]

Do you weigh and record everything you eat, and have you compared that to the others you're referring to? 

I do, and have been doing so for two years. The calorie counter, scales, and calculator are permanent fixtures on my kitchen worktop.

[Wendy]

I do, and have been doing so for two years. The calorie counter, scales, and calculator are permanent fixtures on my kitchen worktop.

I know your pain - it's such a lot of work, isn't it?

[AndyK]

I do, and have been doing so for two years. The calorie counter, scales, and calculator are permanent fixtures on my kitchen worktop.

I know your pain - it's such a lot of work, isn't it?

Not really. It's second nature now. After a while you learn the calorie content of common foods, and calculation gets quicker or even unnecessary.

[Doosh]

Do you weigh and record everything you eat, and have you compared that to the others you're referring to?  Forgive me if I'm a bit sceptical about not being able to cut out more from your diet.  If you can't keep the weight off, then you can almost certainly eat less and lose more weight.  The tough part is that you may not wish to suffer that much.

Well the second part of the comparison leads back to what I mentioned in a previous post: Whilst those people I mentioned are as thin as rakes they also couldn't lift a tin of rice pudding without asking for help, where as I've always been good at exercises that involve explosive efforts from large muscle groups.

I can dead lift, squat, press and carry a considerable amount for someone who doesn't train in those disciplines, which must mean that even though I'm obviously carrying more fat than I need I'm also carrying more muscle. For me to get to my ideal BMI weight would not simply involve me eating less and moving more, but I'd also need to reduce muscle mass which seems a bit extreme just to play along to someone else's definition of "average".

[Jasmine]

I've finally cracked the 80 kg barrier (79.5 kg).

Interestingly, that has happened despite increasing my calorie intake allowance by changing my baseline activity level - limit is now a fairly generous 2100 Cal / day. The addition of a short run 3 x per week has done it, I think.

I'm not surprised you lost the weight! The recommended calorie intake to remain the same weight - for a male doing zero exercise - is approx. 2400Kcal per day.

Not quite.  I personally hate the fact that this figure is used on food packaging, because it's very misleading.  The 2400 kcal pr day figure is for an average man (i.e. about 5'10, medium build), who is moderately active.  If you have a desk job and do no exercise, the figure is much lower.

Where a lot of people go wrong is to take the 2400 figure and then add their exercise on to this.  For example, for someone doing an hour of cycling: estimate 1 hour cycling = 515 kcal (15mph for the average male) therefore 2400 kcal plus 515 kcal = 2915 kcal.  They will then eat this much and wonder why they are gaining weight. If you are counting calories, you really need to start from basal metabolism (calories used when doing nothing at all - sleeping), then add all activities, from sitting, to walking around, to 'exercise'.  It's also important to remember that calorie figures for exercise include the portion of basal metabolism anyway, so that needs to be removed if you are addin it to your daily allowance. 

[clarion]

Oh arse!  Forgot weigh in this morning

[AndyK]

Do you weigh and record everything you eat, and have you compared that to the others you're referring to?  Forgive me if I'm a bit sceptical about not being able to cut out more from your diet.  If you can't keep the weight off, then you can almost certainly eat less and lose more weight.  The tough part is that you may not wish to suffer that much.

Well the second part of the comparison leads back to what I mentioned in a previous post: Whilst those people I mentioned are as thin as rakes they also couldn't lift a tin of rice pudding without asking for help, where as I've always been good at exercises that involve explosive efforts from large muscle groups.

I can dead lift, squat, press and carry a considerable amount for someone who doesn't train in those disciplines, which must mean that even though I'm obviously carrying more fat than I need I'm also carrying more muscle. For me to get to my ideal BMI weight would not simply involve me eating less and moving more, but I'd also need to reduce muscle mass which seems a bit extreme just to play along to someone else's definition of "average".

Food packaging? I was going by what my GP and nutritionist told me. The human body burns around 100kcal per hour just staying alive.

[Jasmine]

2400 kcal can be a useful figure if you don't want to do the full calculations, but it is assuming an average build male who is moderately active - for example, a warehouse job.

When completely inactive, the body is using much less than that.  I'm a 170 cm tall, 63 kg female.  My basal metabolism is 1350 kcal per day - this is 56 kcal an hour.  That's what I am using when asleep/lying down. For a (bigger) male, this would be a bit higher.  As you lose weight, this figure will drop a little.

If I do an hour of cycling, I can add 459 (515-56) kcal to this figure.
If I do 10 mins of walking around, I can add to the figure.
If I do 4 hours of sitting watching TV, I can add (a small amount) to this figure.

The calculations are a bit laborious, which is why the 2400 figure is used. The danger of the 2400 figure is that a lot of people reward themselves with food after going to the gym, thinking that they have worked it off by adding the exercise figure to the 2400.

[DrMekon]

  .I just need some pointers on what to eat .thanks in advance stuart .

That cartoon is from Wansink's awesome book Mindless Eating. Buy it - it is superb. Solid experimental evidence, accessibly described, with straightforward recommendations. He targets the external triggers of reflexive processes that underlie overeating, so it doesn't require willpower/conscientiousness.

[AndyK]

2400 kcal can be a useful figure if you don't want to do the full calculations, but it is assuming an average build male who is moderately active - for example, a warehouse job.

When completely inactive, the body is using much less than that.  I'm a 170 cm tall, 63 kg female.  My basal metabolism is 1350 kcal per day - this is 56 kcal an hour.  That's what I am using when asleep/lying down. For a (bigger) male, this would be a bit higher.  As you lose weight, this figure will drop a little.

If I do an hour of cycling, I can add 459 (515-56) kcal to this figure.
If I do 10 mins of walking around, I can add to the figure.
If I do 4 hours of sitting watching TV, I can add (a small amount) to this figure.

The calculations are a bit laborious, which is why the 2400 figure is used. The danger of the 2400 figure is that a lot of people reward themselves with food after going to the gym, thinking that they have worked it off by adding the exercise figure to the 2400.

Small OT point: I work in warehousing. It is much more than 'moderately active'.

[Jasmine]

But in terms of the calorie figure, a warehouse job plus no 'additional exercise' is a moderately active lifestyle overall (assuming you don't just drive around the warehouse in a forklift).  You personally probably do use the 2400 kcals, but now imagine if you sat at a computer all day - significantly fewer calories. 

[zigzag]

lost 3.8kg out of 5.2kg that i gained during all-you-can-eat-and-drink holidays two weeks ago, just by eating sensibly as usual. i will probably not reach my target weight by pbp, but won't be far from it either (1-2kg heavier).

[hellymedic]

lost 3.8kg out of 5.2kg that i gained during all-you-can-eat-and-drink holidays two weeks ago, just by eating sensibly as usual. i will probably not reach my target weight by pbp, but won't be far from it either (1-2kg heavier).

What did I tell you???