Off Topic Weight loss tips

A mate is a little Obise and asked me to reach out to the not606 community for tips on losing weight.

Apart from 'eat less' you fat knacker and 'move more'... anyone got any more detailed tips?

 

Run Fat Boy, run.

 

Join Slimming World, seriously.

 

Don't shop at Greggs

 

Tell him to join in the prediction league, and then he can start sweating over the results each week!

 

Small dog. These take a lot of walking. I have lost shedloads since getting one. These little buggers need between six and twelve miles a day.

Stephen Fry lost a ton by getting a load of audible books on his phone, plugged in the headphones and walked and walked and walked. The book took his attention from the walking and he just walked forever and the pounds dropped off.

 

The Sunderland diet seems to work well, apparently many Mackems have lost 10lbs of ugly fat in a day.

They've cut their heads off.

 

Put a picture of yourself topless on your fridge.
Won't change ewt, but it gives everyone a good laugh when they come round, in my experience

 

I gained a fair bit of weight last spring and then moved to America - not a good combination. However, I've managed to lose the weight I've put on and stay in shape. I'm also now confident I'll stay that way. Can't speak for anyone else, but here's what works for me:

1) Losing weight is 90% diet 10% exercise. I use MyFitnessPal - a phone app where you log what you eat each day. It takes about 30s to log each meal. It really opened my eyes to how many calories are in each meal, and the act of logging my food - even on days where I eat more than I should - means I eat less than I otherwise would have done.

2) Step 1 is all about being honest with myself. It's OK if I have a **** day - as long as I keep logging my diet and being honest. I also have to avoid lowballing foods - it's tempting to just pick the lowest calorie option, but then I underestimate what I'm eating. I'm now at a point where I challenge myself to try and pick the highest option (as it's most likely to be accurate!) I've used MFP before and it's always worked - but when I stop using it I put it back on.

3) Start slowly. For the first week or two I just aimed for a 'maintenance' diet (i.e. not losing weight). Got used to eating less, and recording what I was eating honestly. Then slowly stepped the daily allowance down until I was losing weight. Then stepped back up a little - technically I'm still eating at a level where I should be losing (probably because I'm not 100% following step 2), but I'm maintaining my weight here and I'm happy with that.

4) I don't count fresh veg or apples as food. Mainly because they're an arse to log - and that way I'm actually incentivised to eat them because it's 'free' food. I tend to have some veg/salad without a dressing for lunch, which frees up enough calories to actually enjoy dinner.

5) Exercise wise I try to avoid overestimating the calories I burn. I have a semi-active job, but still record my lifestyle as sedentary. It's all too easy to 'reward' myself too much for exercising - better off to just eat less. However, going for a run or something in order to earn enough calories to have a couple beers with dinner is a big incentive, so it's a balancing act.

6) If I dread exercise, I'll do it a few times and then stopped. I started out running slower and shorter distances than I know I can because otherwise I'd dread going. The audiobooks technique mentioned above is brilliant - takes your mind right off what you're doing. BBC radio app is bloody great too - loads of free comedy/crime dramas etc that are good at taking your mind off exercise. Even better is playing sport because you do far more exercise without thinking about it than a visit to the gym.


Hope that helps - good luck to Obi/your mate.

 

Fab advice. I'll tell Obi and 'my mate'.

My 'mate' started using that app last week. He get's you.

 

So isn't that the same as my suggestion?

 

1. Not just focusing on calories, and more on caliber for food.

Calories are the determining factor, in a manner of speaking, in losing weight, but making it feel like you're not starving yourself from eating less calories, you need to make sure the food you're eating has high nutritional value. It's not the calories in food that fill you up, it's the nutritional density. The higher the nutritional value, the fuller and more satisfied you'll feel for longer periods.

2. Plant based diet - WHOLE FOODS.

This may be biased because I'm Vegan, but WHOLE plant based foods are the healthiest foods a human can eat, and they're the foods that will give you the most slow releasing, longer lasting energy.

Oats in the morning. Fruit for snacks. Mid and late meals - Beans, rice in low cal wraps with potatoes. Nuts for the late snack.

This touches on the point above. You eat foods that your body is more physiologically designs to eat, you will feel better and more satisfied.

But if you are going to eat a diet that include meat, just remember... WHOLE FOODS. Not processed. Minimal processed foods. Some are ok, but you mainly wanting to be eating the foods that conventional nature has provided us.

3. Stay away from "diet" options.

Diet foods and drinks are not healthy. It's not just losing fat that should matter to you, but being healthy in general, which brings me to my final point

4. Don't just focus on melting lard.

Make this a lifestyle change not just a temporary solution to burn fat as quick as possible. Focus on becoming healthier in general, and you will feel the benefits of being healthy and thus maintain motivation.

Forget about Dieting, focus on just eating healthy most days of the week, and keeping junk food and booze to a minimum, and you will feel great.

 

What you need is a meal replacement. I find cocaine works the best

 

I think the trick is to not "diet" as such but to try and incorporate something that is sustainable that your mate feels comfortable doing long term. Dieting will shift weight but as soon as you start eating "normally" again the weight will pile back on. There are of course numerous things to try to kick start the process such as fasting or juicing etc which is great to get going and see good results quickly. I did a GI eating plan a while back and lost about 3 stone in 5 months (swimming,cycling and running as well), the GI thing is a good thing to look into. The less processing of food your body has to do the bettter, your digestive system is one of the biggest drains on your body so the less it's doing the better. It's a very old cliche but if you put crap fuel in your car it'll run like a dog, your body works in pretty much the same way.
Wish your mate best of luck, I don't envy anybody embarking on this sort of stuff, it really ain't fun but sometimes needs must.

 

Find foods that keep you full which aren't loaded with calories. For me for example..... a couple of eggs and a couple of slices of ham with some tomatoes and mushrooms can keep me going from breakfast to lunch - c.300 calories if grilled/poached/fried with spray oils. One of those large pots of chunky soup for lunch - again c.300 calories (some have a lot more calories so check the labels). Evening meal, something substantial but healthy, e.g. rice/boiled potatoes/sweet potatoes, broccoli, fish/chicken/turkey (loads of Cholula sauce for a bit of flavour) - c.600 calories. Minimal cheese, bread, alcohol. Treats every so often so you don't go nuts - these don't need to be high calorie, e.g. an ice lolly, yoghurt/mousse. I normally get hungry late in the day so something quick like a Mug Shot - c.200 calories.

Exercise 5-7 days a week. Find a time to fit it into your day. Walking for an hour is a great way to start out for the first month.

The absolute hardest thing for me is to get past the feeling of saying "**** it" and going off script when you have a hard day or can't be arsed. I think that comes down to a clear view of why you are doing it and therefore having the motivation. Easier said than done though.

 

I was once 15 stone when I stopped playing football... Im Now 12....for me I just cut out the rubbish and started to run I know it's not everyone's thing but I lost **** loads of weight... I started walking first and gradually built up to running plus I cut back on the ale.
For me it was 90% mentally... Coming in from graft on a November's night getting changed and going for a run it wasn't easy I could of just come in TV on bait bed but I challenged and pushed myself... Im 46 now and on average run about 20 miles a week and walk at every possible opportunity... Like today dumped car on Scotswood road yesterday and had a few so I'm walking into toon to get it from greenside about 7....miles....i don't really want to as I'm hanging but I'm going to.

 

Tabata training. Short sessions high intensity. Takes up less time and has the biggest benefit.

Try to eat four times a day. Just smaller meals. Helps trigger your metabolism. Eat high protein, low sugar, low carbs. Plenty of greens particularly broccoli. Keep as much variety as possible in your source of protein - ignore bollocks about fatty meats. Your body can process that type of fat. So pork, lamb etc are all fine. Turkey is excellent source of protein as very lean. Eat plenty of fish like salmon, mackerel etc.

Keep alcohol out of your diet as far as possible. At least until your body fat lowers. People who get down to 12-13% body fat can have a drink and it makes no impact on their waistline. Indeed once your body is lowered a binge day can actually make you leaner. You gotta commit for a few months to go quite hardcore in discipline.

Exercise wise also just getting up early doors and walking a mile or so before you eat is a good starting point.

 

Use something like My Fitness Pal app to track what you eat and how you exercise - helps motivate you.

 

Also avoid 'diet' or 'low fat' foods. These are usually loaded with other crap.

Start to look on tins and packets of food and look mostly at the carb and the sugar content.

One of the better losing weight diet methods is to have a high fat content as fats eaten isn't necessarily fat loaded. The damage comes from the sugars and carbs. So cut out wine (boo, hiss!) move to gin (hoorah!) and avoid tonics (full of fake sewwetners which are frigging bad), cut out bread and have meat, veg, eggs and lots of other stuff.

Yes, diet drinks are bad for you too. They're loaded with other ****. Black coffee is good for losing weight (mind you, I live on espresso) and, of course, no sugar. Cheese is good in moderation (get the stuff with rind on and not processed stuff).

 

Or........

Tell your mate to say "**** it!" It's not about how long you live, it's about how tasty that steak bake is while you're still alive.