Shifting the pounds

[Mr_Danger]

Has anyone actually ever gained more muscle than fat they've lost in a week? I find that fairly hard to believe, it seems more likely that it'd be water retention and glycogen stores adding the extra weight. 

[Rey_Piste]

Has anyone actually ever gained more muscle than fat they've lost in a week? I find that fairly hard to believe, it seems more likely that it'd be water retention and glycogen stores adding the extra weight. 

It's more down to the fact that weight loss will plateau at points due to various reasons and if you're into measuring your weight to that amount it will become more noticeable even though you are still getting leaner.

[Reborn]

Similar to Maverick I went from 19 stone down to 12 in under 2 years but just by changing my diet. I made a point at the very start not to try and use exercise as I knew the chances of me sticking to it were slim, so I just concentrated on controlling what I ate, and how much.

 

I used an app called myfitnesspal as a calorie counter and tracked EVERYTHING I ate or drank. You put in your stats and target and it calculates how much you can eat each day to achieve your goals. I quickly found that just understanding the impact of each type of food I ate was a massive help. Fizzy juice was the first to go and I'd say made the biggest difference as I had always drank a shit load of it. I replaced it with nothing but water or non-fizzy juice for a good 8-10 months, then slowly weaned myself back on to Diet/Zero versions. Bread was the other biggie. Beforehand I was having a breakfast roll, sandwiches at lunch, and then a load of toast at night as a snack. I literally had no idea how bad bread was for you until that point. I cut out pretty much all bread save for one or two breakfast rolls at the wkend as a treat. Other than those it was just the usual unhealthy snacks that I had to watch out for, and I found having the app really helped with that too. Just seeing it in black and white that I can't have any more calories today (or, just as importantly, only having so many calories left and having to make better choices on how to use them) was such a benefit.

 

As it stands I've been steadily around the 21st mark for around 18 months now. I no longer track everything I eat but have a much better understanding of what I'm eating and it's impact. I put on around half a stone at Xmas and was able to lose it all by the end of January just by returning to my normal diet.

 

Good luck, it's definitely doable!!

Just out of curiosity mate, how many calories were you eating per day to see your weight drop?

[Finbar]

The idea that you need to eat every 3 hours or so to keep the metabolism fired up is completely outdated bro-science. A calorie deficit is what is important, take in less than you use and your body will use stored energy to make up the difference. Your metabolism takes weeks to slow down, not hours, and even then only if you've maintained a huge calorie deficit for the whole time. Various types of intermittent fasting work extremely well for many people.

 

Using the Harris-Benedict equation will give a reasonably accurate estimate of your total daily calorie use, reduce that by 500 and maintain that intake for a couple of weeks and you'll likely see consistent fat-loss, if not reduce it by another couple of hundred calories until you do. Using Myfitnesspal can be extremely useful for tracking calorie intake but be wary of adding your exercise to it as it greatly overestimates how many additional calories you can eat. Obviously getting more exercise is of great benefit to most people but it's effect on fat-loss is minimal, ultimately calories in vs calories out is what affects(effects?) body composition. 

[Reborn]

The idea that you need to eat every 3 hours or so to keep the metabolism fired up is completely outdated bro-science. A calorie deficit is what is important, take in less than you use and your body will use stored energy to make up the difference. Your metabolism takes weeks to slow down, not hours, and even then only if you've maintained a huge calorie deficit for the whole time. Various types of intermittent fasting work extremely well for many people.

 

Using the Harris-Benedict equation will give a reasonably accurate estimate of your total daily calorie use, reduce that by 500 and maintain that intake for a couple of weeks and you'll likely see consistent fat-loss, if not reduce it by another couple of hundred calories until you do. Using Myfitnesspal can be extremely useful for tracking calorie intake but be wary of adding your exercise to it as it greatly overestimates how many additional calories you can eat. Obviously getting more exercise is of great benefit to most people but it's effect on fat-loss is minimal, ultimately calories in vs calories out is what affects(effects?) body composition. 

 

 

I've been intermittent fasting for the past month, eating 1800 calories a day using myfitness pal app to track.  I basically dont eat until 6/7 hours after i've woken up.  I've lost 1 stone and 3 pounds in 40 days.

 

For anyone looking more info on intermittent fasting i'd advse checking out a channel called "kinobody" on youtube.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqCPhSMsU0&index=8&list=PL4893906E7525FC0E

[Mr.E]

I find the old mindset of "eat less, move more" does it for me.

I'm currently on a crash diet, (Most drinks replaced by 0 calorie pop or Water....lots and lots of water, and Small potions of brown rice + something else for tea, along with pasta each day for lunch), which normally works out fairly well. in the past I've eaten + drank pretty much exactly the same stuff, but altered slightly. So instead of like a huge pile of chip/full tin of beans/two chicken steaks, it'd be a handful of chips/half a tin/1 chicken steak, and again switching to water/"zero" drinks, i lost 2 stone in almost 2 months. The only extra thing I was doing was walking everywhere.

[CTXRussomark]

Just out of curiosity mate, how many calories were you eating per day to see your weight drop?

I can't remember off the top of my head. When you put your weight/target etc into the app it calculates the calorie limit for you based upon how much you want to lose and how fast, so I just stuck to whatever the app was saying (it gradually decreases the limit in line with your weight loss). When I use the app now (like after Xmas) my limit is 1730 per day but it would have been much higher than that when I first started.

[Stunner]

Cheers everyone! Taken it all on board - especially with regards to eating better... I know if I diet too strictly I'll give up as soon as I'm in a bad mood, so I'm just gradually taking things out that are unhealthy: my serious addiction to Cofresh Balti Mix (I wish I was kidding) is being challenged. Almost all snacking is gone (except an orange or banana in the evenings), takeaways are out, though I will make the odd exception for this blinding Korean place about a ten minute walk from me - providing I go and collect it!

 

Sugary drink was never a serious issue with the exception of one tea and one coffee a day (though I'm down to one sugar from two) - practically my favourite drink in the world is sparkling water anyway.

 

So without going on too much, I've done the 30 minutes exercise (that excludes the fact I'm walking more often too) every day for ten days, and the dietary stuff for about a week or so, and I'm already almost half a stone down, and I already feel much better!

 

Thanks again, everyone!

[Keith Houchen]

Brilliant! Well done and keep us updated.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I'm finding food easy, I quite like 'diet' food. It's fizzy drinks that are killing me, particularly energy drinks.

 

It's Thursday, and I've only had 1 sugar-free relentless this week. I'm calling that a win.

[Reborn]

I'm finding food easy, I quite like 'diet' food. It's fizzy drinks that are killing me, particularly energy drinks.

 

It's Thursday, and I've only had 1 sugar-free relentless this week. I'm calling that a win.

 

That brilliant mate.  I went cold turkey on fizzy drinks on 1st Jan. Teh only thing i drink now is black coffee, water and fizzy water, All calorie free!  Fizzy water is great as it makes you feel full when you start getting horny!

[Rey_Piste]

 

I'm finding food easy, I quite like 'diet' food. It's fizzy drinks that are killing me, particularly energy drinks.

 

It's Thursday, and I've only had 1 sugar-free relentless this week. I'm calling that a win.

 

That brilliant mate.  I went cold turkey on fizzy drinks on 1st Jan. Teh only thing i drink now is black coffee, water and fizzy water, All calorie free!  Fizzy water is great as it makes you feel full when you start getting horny!

 

What the hell is in your fizzy water?

[Reborn]

Hahhaha brilliant. Sorry, start feeling hungry

[MungoChutney]

How bad for you is bread, in terms of losing weight?  I hear quite a bit said about it being the one thing to avoid when dieting no matter what plan you're following.  I have 2 x small wholemeal brown bread slices per day and 1 x large white flour tortilla per day.  Couple of folk in work reckon this is too much still?!

[Mr_Danger]

Bollocks, as long as you burn more calories than you consume you'll lose weight.