because everyone’s body reacts differently to their caloric intake?
I’ll still maintain, it is very easy - eat less and maybe do a wee bit if exercise. It is not magic or rocket science.
Yes - for you it may be very easy to maintain a weight you are happy with.
For people with a different hormonal and genetic make-up, following your advice simply will not and does not work. One catch all piece of advice does not apply to everyone.
This is why the phrase “everything in moderation” is so bogus. What is moderation ? Is moderation the same for a 20 year old bricklayer and a 60 year old post menopausal woman?
more importantly it depends where you start.
If your nowhere where near a healthy diet to start with just cutting down on mars bars will probably have the opposite effect, when you start feeling hungry you’ll probably go for 2 mars bars rather than one.
If your on a healthy diet then you probably wouldn’t be fat in the 1st place.
I find such comments as it’s easy as completely unhelpful, so much so that I can’t find the words to reply to it. That’s why I say, it’s not my place (as I’m someone who doesn’t get fat) though i presume it’s like me trying to give up smoking (it isn’t easy at all quite the opposite).
I feel it would be useful if we went down the route Limie suggested and discussed ‘what does a healthy diet look like’?
Also ‘what helps stave off hunger’ or the feeling of being hungry and do the 2 go hand in hand?
I think the modern definition of moderation is somewhat closer to a gluttony level of consumption; >2000 calories/day for most people is just way too much. For someone like me moderation should be consuming on most days below 1800 calories (w/o exercise).
“It”, i.e. staying fit and not gaining swine like, has been (and continues to be) a massive struggle for me. This was particularly true during pre-teens, teens and into my late 20s. At 170 cm it is very easy to put on weight. I have fluctuated between >72 kg to 56 kg. For the last 15-17 years I’ve managed to keep my weight between 58-64 kg and even then it wasn’t ever the chiselled figure that is often portrayed as an ideal but mostly a sad and tired dad-bod constantly struggling to fight the belt strain. What helped me was coming to the realisation that if I wanted to be fitter, it was up to me to figure it out. Eating 3 meals - not needed. Eating when bored - watch out for it. Size of meals - reduce. Exercise - every time the body and time allow. Before that, and it took a long time to come to that actionable list, my fatness must have been acceptable to me and I mustn’t have “needed” to apply the changes. I guess this is the tricky and somewhat controversial part. Is there the pressure to be fitter and is the pressure enough to force one to make the changes needed?
I maintain, it is not rocket science or magic. There are some (not me for sure) that can eat like hogs and not put on weight. If you don’t fall into that category, then you have to eat less and or do more exercise.
There are products that on the market that reduce weight by 5-10% and which are approved by the FDA - I think it regulates insulin signalling. Currently they can be given to obese people (without diabetes) with an additional co-morbidity. Once it has been around for a bit and the safety profile s fully realised, it will become more easily available. I think that the market will be huge, as most people would be really happy with a 5-10% weight loss. It is likely that there will adaption processes but these will just fuel more products… These types of of products will become better and more sophisticated (i.e. by use of combinations) but what is the end game? Is it to allows us all to be gluttons and sloths? Is that a good thing?
Running the big 26.2 (my first) on Sunday, a hell of a long way from where I was 3 years (and 50+ lbs.) ago. Picked out my LFC shorts to go with the singlet and thought the club has undergone a similar transformation. 10 years ago, when I’d wear Liverpool stuff I used to get nothing but banter (and the occasional sympathy) from fellow PL fans over here, they’ve been pretty quiet the last few years…and have been replaced by LFC fans (two of whom are my friends)! Funny how that works.
Anyway, I’ll have to run under 3:45 to not miss the City game. That would be a decent day, although I guess I might just watch it on reddit (I have all my Liverpool friends silenced with notifications on my phone so they don’t ruin stuff).
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Good luck, mate! 
Hope you beat 3’45 and get home in time to watch us spank City. 
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Smash each mile at a time and have a cheeky smile knowing they’re shit :). Good luck!
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Best of luck to you. You’re making me feel guilty, and rightly so.
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You and me both. We should shake our respective arses into shape.
Ok, something in me snapped mentally on Friday night. Fridays are generally not a great diet day for me. School runs, trying to cram work and end of the week fatigue just leads to face stuffing.
Over the last month I’d also caught up with some friends I haven’t seen in ages. We’d all chunked up a bit and obviously discussed our respective mental woes of lockdown etc. We also did some wakeboarding and kite surfing. I struggled, not physically but technically. My old kites had deteriorated through lack of use and that combined with them having to haul more than a few extra pounds led to a sub par experience. We also were taking photos of the weekend and they really hit home that I needed to do something. I tried kitesurfing again a week after, same result.
I’ve been toying with the idea of joining a gym. That could work with a new job I’m hoping to finalise in the next couple of months but then the dreaded work email came through put an end to that idea for now. Back to the office 3 days a week. Fuck. I feel trapped.
So I’ve started starving myself. One or so meals a day. Once I feel / see some progress I’ll need to factor in some exercise somehow but for now I need to start losing something and mentally feed off that progress. It’s wrong and it’s desperate but I see no other way of breaking the mental rut at the moment.
I recommend not to. There is a prevailing thought out there that, since one has paid for the gym membership, then the motivation to make your buck worth is there to exercise. I think this is a clever marketing gimmick by the companies. In the end, it all boils down to one’s personal motivation. I have seen my friends and colleagues sign up for gym memberships (some very expensive ones I might add) just to motivate themselves to exercise. More often than not, this only lasts for the first three months before the motivation dies out.
Instead, a more sustainable method would be to find exercise buddies for a regular workout. It is free, you get to meet new friends and work on common goals together. Of course, the group should have at least one (very) committed member so that he can nudge the rest to exercise. Locating such buddies might be harder now given the pandemic situation but no harm starting from the work place.
On a related note, I realised that less sleep does make me drop a couple of kilos easily. Not my choice though; it has and will be a busy period for me. But I really do not recommend depriving oneself of meals or sleep just to attain the acceptable weight. In the long run, other parts of the body would be affected.
While I agree but I’m pretty much a loner at the moment so finding buddies isn’t exactly easy. Most of my friends live a distance away and we’re all busy with work, families etc.
Many moons ago, when I used to play rugby I was in the gym 3 times a week, sometimes more. It was an easy habit to get into provided I wasn’t pushed with other commitments like work and family etc. A new job is ultimately what I need, one that is local and structured. Currently my work is just chaos under the guise of we know what we’re doing because we have resource meetings. This job is properly screwing me up.
I know such a diet is extreme and not sustainable but I need to kick start something. That will help me build momentum and work off that. In
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There is nothing wrong in doing that and as long as you are getting all your nutrients you will be fine.
You are practicing a form of intermittent fasting which has been proven to have beneficial effects not only on weight loss but also on aging, mental awareness etc. An easy rule of thumb for beginning fasting is - Do not eat anything between 8pm and Noon. Then be careful what you do eat between Noon and eight. Avoid carbs and sugar. This eating pattern is easily adopted as a lifestyle - not a “diet”.
I am sure you will see results pretty quickly. Good luck.
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Thanks. I’ve tried intermittent fasting before and it was ok but this is a little more ruthless. Basically trying to kick myself into some form of mental discipline. I need to crack this.
I managed to get to 4pm yesterday before needing something. Doing DIY at the time and I started to flag a bit. Before then I felt good, quite lovely in fact. I probably ate too much at my evening meal and that will be my biggest challenge. Eating at night when relaxing after the day. Its become a kind of stress release mechanism which I need to shake off.
EDIT. Just weighed myself - 85kgs which is a little lower than I was expecting tbh. I will shame myself on here if necessary. Target weight is sub 80kg’s. 76kg would be wonderful
Update. Managed to get through to 7pm yesterday after eating only a stick of celery and a mandarin. I struggled between 12 and 2pm with a bit of a hunger pang but otherwise it wasn’t too bad. Felt quite good all day.
I ate my meal and I confess I probably ate too much from then on so that is my next challenge on cutting that down.
I’ll resist weighing until next week. Struggling a little more today as I am hungry but mentally I’m sticking to it.
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A handful of almonds or other nuts (not peanuts) a couple of times a day helps with the hunger pangs. And green tea is often reported ab an appetite suppressive.
I’m finding the days reasonably straight forward, while the evenings a more difficult nut to crack (pun intended). That’s a mental battle I’ve got to sort.
Drinks wise, I’ll have coffee in the morning, some herbal teas or the odd cup of black tea in the afternoon and some more herbal tea (chamomile / stuff that helps me relax / sleep). A good slug of water in between it all as well.
It hasn’t helped that her indoors made a massive bread and butter pudding the other day but I’ve managed to resist. I have a solid target where I want to be at 12 stone for the end of February where we are hoping to have a skiing holiday (Covid permitting).
Some good news is the local swimming pool is due to open soon as well. Not my ideal choice of exercise but I might try and push that a little, provided there’s some evening slots available. Getting out the house for exercise works best for me, especially when it’s somewhere like a gym etc. Some forced discipline.
good luck! that’s some real incentive to make 3:45h
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bahahaha I’m not having a good week.
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