want to loose a bit of weight/fatness

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 21:15

Had a twinge in my stomarch which I think is related to me being 2-3 stone overweight (I weigh around15 and a half stone and am 6 foot 1) and I think it may be a good idea to try to loose some weight so I thought I'd ask for some pointers. I don't look fat in the face, for example (as my profile photo shows) but I'd like to be a bit thinner as it all shows round the middle.

The obvious answer would be exercise but I do walk a lot (7 miles return trip around 3 times a week) without stopping and cycle a bit too (same difference which includes an uphill) but I still seem to be overweight.

As for my diet, I have started to eat a bit more balanced in recent months. Far more veg than before plus I started to have a banana for breakfast each morning which helps further with the fruit/veg intake, and have cut down on the bread which I know is a fattener. I don't smoke and apart from alchohol when I go out with friends, say once a week, all I drink is water - no tea, coffee/fizzy drinks.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

#95306Fri 02/11/07 21:20

All sounds fairly healthy. Maybe you just need to reduce your intake an ickle bit and let it come off slowly.

gaza1810Fri 02/11/07 21:27

oh my god, oh to be 15 and a half stone again you lucky bugger

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 21:28

I think you have a point there as I sometimes do eat more than needed. However I've tried to do that a bit as well and I eat late in the day far less frequently, and maybe my banana first thing is one reason for that.

I should also add that I very rarely eat chocolate, rarely eat biscuits and never eat crisps.

#95306Fri 02/11/07 21:29

Well your diet is far better than mine! I find it boils down to increasing output, i.e. exercise, and decreasing input, i.e. eating less..of everything.

Easier said than done of course.

deleted:coleukFri 02/11/07 21:30

Rob, i'm in the same situation as you. I went to get fitted for a dinner suit and I've always worn 34 waist trousers, only to be told by the tailor i'm a lot bigger.

Now i'm going to the gym times a week and the thing I've really cut down on is the booze, boy does that make you put on weight.

Good luck mucker.

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 21:36

Thank you Cole. I recall the same shock when my tummy was over a meter a few years ago. I weighed 18 stone then and got down to 15 stone.

Charles, you are so right about eating less. However by trying to eat that banana first thing I feel less hungry at night and I have foiund myself eating far less frequently at night which can only be a good thing.

Just wish I didn't weigh as much and look as fat as I did. My mother thinks I am dead cert for a heart nattack in my 40s.

#205631Fri 02/11/07 21:38

I've just started again but I went scientific. I opened up a spreadsheet and honestly wrote down in calories what I was eating. For everything. No, even that biscuit.

I limited myself to 1500kCal per day and have been going to the gym 3 times per week, burning (the machines say) ca. 600kCal. I don't take that into account in the daily calories (i.e. I don't eat 1500+600).

As a result over the past four weeks I have lost about 2.5 - 3lb per week. I'm hoping to keep it up for another four weeks before relaxing to about 2000 - 2500 kCal per day.

Boring? Definitely!
Works? Absolutely!

#95306Fri 02/11/07 21:38

You don't look fat to me. I'd be tempted to suggest your mother being negative might not be helping...

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 21:41

Thank you Charles. I'm not fat but I know I'm overweight and it does show a bit round the middle and I'd like that not to be the case.

That's impressive Adam. I remember loosing weight at that speed when I was 18+ stone when I started wallking rather than using the bus. I got down to less than 15 stone but have been around 15 and a half stone ever since.

markx1Fri 02/11/07 22:15

Big thumbs up to adam_ski; it's more calorific intake per day balanced against how much you expend, rather than what you eat. If you reduce the amount of calories you eat per day to around 2000 and exercise too, I'm sure you'd lose weight.

#207066Fri 02/11/07 22:27

Too true..cut down on intake, increae the exercise. I regularly burn of 1200 calories about 4 times a week and eat sensibly with lots of fruit, fruit juice etc. Worked for me...lost almost 4 stone so far and almost at my taret weight.

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 22:36

That's an amazing weight loss Andrew.

I think the volume of food may not help which is one major reason why I started eating a banana first thing as obviously eating food in the few hours before sleep time isn't idea and hopefully your advice about more fruit may help but it hasn't thus far but I've only been eating a banana first thing, meaning less food later on, for the last few weeks.

Also, I do eat quite a lot of tuna, making sure I buy tuna in water which has basically zero fat (ie tuna in water) and I've even found mayonaise with far less fat content percentage for a meal of pasta, mayo, tuna and sweetcorn which I find is enough for an entire day or food and not just one meal which is part of my campaign to eat with more variety and with less meat, less potato and less bread.

#205631Fri 02/11/07 22:51

The important thing is not to go mad. I had a friend who was very overweight. He would go on those cabbage soup diets and be raving about how much he lost. Then, after a (non-alcoholic) time in the local gay bar he would leave, eat a bag of chips and then declare himself a failure, jumping onto the cream-cake bandwagon. He would end up bigger than he started.

I get ratty when I don't lose weight (you always think 'OMG! I haven't eaten anything all week!' (except that chocolate bar that you honestly thought was only 50 kCal, honest!, etc. etc.)) but the main thing is to do it slowly and when you fall off the wagon, dust yourself off and get back on.

An old friend always used to say "How can you manage something when you don't measure it?" You need to know what you are eating and what you are doing to be certain.

Good luck!

rillingtonFri 02/11/07 23:11

Thank you for your comments Adam.

I agree and what your mate did is not the way to go. It needs to be a gradual reduction so that I don't make myself ill in other ways and make small bit significant changes such as my daily banana and less bread alongside last year's massive increase in vegetable intake which came about from a new year's reolution and only cost me financially the price of a steamer.

I'd love to be more thin than I am now and a stone lighter.