Middle aged bloke problem...

Middle aged bloke problem...

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Discussion

minghis

Original Poster:

1,569 posts

250 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
Right, I'm 49 and 5"8" and weigh just under 14 stone.

I went to the docs, took blood pressure and did the height and weight thing and she said I really should lose a bit of weight and that my blood pressure was on the high side of average. I think she said my BMI was 31.

So, I play golf, walk the dog and have 2 kids so I don't think I'm unfit it's just that I love all the wrong foods.

Less food seems to be the cure, so as I love all the wrong foods has anyone any good ideas how to lose some weight without living off salad and water? There must be a way of doing this while still enjoying nice food.. is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?

Or do I need to think about gentle running? Am I too fat to get fit?

CaptainSlow

13,179 posts

211 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
Some running would certainly help and once you're a bit fitter you'd enjoy it. Google "Couch to 5k"

Also, stay off the booze.


grumbledoak

31,499 posts

232 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
You get fit in the gym. You get thin in the kitchen.

Alcohol is usually a big culprit; it's not called a beer belly for nothing.
After that it's the obvious sugars, especially sugary drinks.

Depending on how bad your diet currently is, binning the above might be enough on it's own, though you can take it further.

Do it properly though, none of the above at all and don't judge the results at all before three weeks have passed. It will be six months before your body has had time to fully adjust.

bearman68

4,642 posts

131 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
weight FFS

chris watton

22,477 posts

259 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
I too am now 49, I decided to change my diet last May, I was over 15 stone (5'7") After almost 19 months of a change in my diet on a permanent basis (that is the important bit), and weight training in my garage (weights really help accelerate weight loss and lean muscle growth), I am now just over 11 stone. I don't miss most of the crap I used to eat, and having a slimmer, fitter looking body outweighs crap food by quite a margin.

Cut out bread, sugar and fizzy drinks (and alcohol if you're into that), and eat better wholefoods in moderation, you may be surprised just how quick the fat comes off - if you weight train too, it comes off even quicker. Plus I can now afford to have an Indian every other week without any negative effects...

Edited by chris watton on Friday 11th December 11:43

13m

26,271 posts

221 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
minghis said:
Right, I'm 49 and 5"8" and weigh just under 14 stone.

I went to the docs, took blood pressure and did the height and weight thing and she said I really should lose a bit of weight and that my blood pressure was on the high side of average. I think she said my BMI was 31.

So, I play golf, walk the dog and have 2 kids so I don't think I'm unfit it's just that I love all the wrong foods.

Less food seems to be the cure, so as I love all the wrong foods has anyone any good ideas how to lose some weight without living off salad and water? There must be a way of doing this while still enjoying nice food.. is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?

Or do I need to think about gentle running? Am I too fat to get fit?
If you are eating the wrong foods most of the time and your exercise is limited to golf and walking the dog you will struggle to be anything other than overweight. If you can eat the right foods 90% of the time you can get away with the wrong foods 10% of the time. In fact I'd recommend it because you won't feel deprived.

Exercise a bit more vigorous will help, but running whilst very over weight is not a good plan.

Have you asked your GP if you can be referred to a dietician?




QuickQuack

2,144 posts

100 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
13m said:
Have you asked your GP if you can be referred to a dietician?
Your GP can't refer you to a dietitian unless you're diabetic or have some other special need (e.g. coeliac). Certainly not at a BMI of 31.

Golf and walking the dog aren't usually enough exercise but the biggest thing is restricting calorie intake. First of all, do a food diary for a week. However, you have to be brutally honest with yourself; every sweet, every biscuit, every bit of sugar and milk in your chosen beverage, all alcohol, basically everything other than tap water has to go in with an estimate of the amount. Then you may see where you can cut down or skip on treats. Important general and specific principles are:
- If energy in is greater than energy out, you'll keep the difference as adipose tissue.
- Very, very few obese/overweight people have a problem with their "hormones"
- Reduce carbohydrate rich foods
- Eat smaller portions
- Cut out snacks between meals (biscuits with your tea, chocolate for elevenses, etc. etc.). Food should be restricted to meal times only.
- Reduce alcohol - it contains an incredible amount of enery. Remember that you can run an engine on alcohol
- Exercise doesn't actually consume much energy in itself, but physiological and metabolic responses to exercise do in the long term. You won't lose a beer belly with a couple of weeks of strict dieting. Also, exercise helps to burn fat while keeping/building up muscle. Diet alone can cause you to lose more muscle than fat.

You can eventually get to a level of control where you can have regular treats and eating the foods you like but you need to learn to implement portion control etc.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
Say for example you consumed 3000 calories a day.

If you ate exactly what you normally do but half as much, for example one bar of Kit Kat instead of two:-

Would you then be eating 1500 calories?

Or does it not work like that?.. scratchchin

Andy888

706 posts

192 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
Same here, but over 10 years younger than you!! I did the "4 hour body" thing 2 years back and lost a couple of stone of weight - the fairly rapid noticeable drops really helped me stick to it and I felt so much better as I did it. 4 Hour Body is a book by Tim Ferris btw. Worth a read for £7 or £8 on Amazon and yes I appreciate he is a fantastic marketer and some of it should be taken with a pinch of salt etc etc, but there are plenty of people out there that have had success following it, including me.

It's essentially a carb free diet that you make your new norm. That's the important bit though. The lifestyle change. I cannot describe how much better in my self. So much more energy, more confidence, more productivity. I literally was bouncing with energy and desire to do stuff. The first couple of weeks I felt a bit blah but I put that down to sugar withdrawal and not enough water intake. Once my body adjusted the desire for sugar disappeared and I found myself wanting to "eat clean" as it were. I started looking forward to stir fry chicken and veg for lunch instead of bread based products.

That said, I fell off my new wagon so to say, as I thought I'd become invinceable and starting sneaking in wee biscuits and treats here and there as I figured it would make no difference. Sure I'd dropped all this weight I thought. I'm awesome lol. Round about the same time work changed and a big house renovation project came about and I no longer had the time and opportunity to be making separate meals for myself. Started back eating pasta with the rest of family etc and the weight just went back on. Then I injured my back and got a bit miserable from the pain. But hopefully that's all behind me now.

And looking forward, at least I know what I need to do. One day soon I'm going to commit and get carb (and sugar) free again as I'm fed up being fat. I may even try and get started in the run up to Xmas despite the obvious food lures. I'd like to enter a mountain bike enduro competition next year as I'm thinking having such a goal might be good to keep me focussed. Best to start on a Monday btw...

QuickQuack

2,144 posts

100 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:
Say for example you consumed 3000 calories a day.

If you ate exactly what you normally do but half as much, for example one bar of Kit Kat instead of two:-

Would you then be eating 1500 calories?

Or does it not work like that?.. scratchchin
It works precisely like that. smile Hence the need for portion control with some added emphasis on content control. Content control regarding carbs and alcohol is due to the huge calories in these plus the lack of satiety response. But remember that you would have to halve portion size of everything including the amount of sugar and milk in your coffee. What I have found in the past is that patients reduce snacks but increase portion sizes at other times so they're still consuming as many calories as before.

PS Unless you're training heavily, 3000 calories a day is too much!

13m

26,271 posts

221 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
QuickQuack said:
13m said:
Have you asked your GP if you can be referred to a dietician?
Your GP can't refer you to a dietitian unless you're diabetic or have some other special need (e.g. coeliac). Certainly not at a BMI of 31.
Maybe things have changed, but they could about 4 years ago.

Monty Python

4,812 posts

196 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all

The Beast of Codfin

101 posts

100 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
minghis said:
Right, I'm 49 and 5"8" and weigh just under 14 stone.

I went to the docs, took blood pressure and did the height and weight thing and she said I really should lose a bit of weight and that my blood pressure was on the high side of average. I think she said my BMI was 31.

So, I play golf, walk the dog and have 2 kids so I don't think I'm unfit it's just that I love all the wrong foods.

Less food seems to be the cure, so as I love all the wrong foods has anyone any good ideas how to lose some weight without living off salad and water? There must be a way of doing this while still enjoying nice food.. is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?

Or do I need to think about gentle running? Am I too fat to get fit?
Playing golf, walking a dog and having two kids will not make you in any way fit so I'd start by upping your expectations on what fit means.

Also, if you genuinely want to be a healthy weight, you need to think about a complete lifestyle change and not a quick fix, otherwise the weight will simply come back on again when you've had enough of the rationing and hateful exercise.

First off, you need to be aware of what your daily calorific needs are. Try here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
I bet they're less than you thought.

By now looking at the calories in your current diet you should be able to easily workout how much less you should be eating or how much exercise you need to be doing to lose weight. BTW there are about 3500kcals in a pound of fat...

Last off, balance all of that out into a lifestyle you can stick to and it stops being a thing you're doing and just a new way of living.

It really is that simple, as ever though it's how much you can be bothered that will be the hardest part.

HarryFlatters

4,203 posts

211 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
minghis said:
Less food seems to be the cure, so as I love all the wrong foods has anyone any good ideas how to lose some weight without living off salad and water? There must be a way of doing this while still enjoying nice food.. is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?
Simplistically, your choices are to either eat less or move more.

I was 6' and 16 stone, so I couldn't be arsed moving more, so I ate less. I'm now 13 stone.

First off, I worked out my basal metabolic rate. This is the number of calories that you need to eat per day to maintain your current weight. I decided to eat about 3/4 of that amount.

I still eat the things I like, I just have them less often. And it's not like the things I eat daily are disgusting. Seriously, porridge, while not as nice as sausages, is still nice for breakfast. Soup, while not as nice as a steak bake, is still nice for lunch.

For dinner ideas, have a look through Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meal recipes. Whilst he's an over-tounged, mockney tossbag, these recipes are low calorie and pretty tasty.

One last piece of advice, don't think of it as a "diet", because "diets" are temporary and you'll cheat. If you think of it as a change of lifestyle, on a permanent basis, you're more likely to succeed.

Good luck

QuickQuack

2,144 posts

100 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
13m said:
QuickQuack said:
13m said:
Have you asked your GP if you can be referred to a dietician?
Your GP can't refer you to a dietitian unless you're diabetic or have some other special need (e.g. coeliac). Certainly not at a BMI of 31.
Maybe things have changed, but they could about 4 years ago.
I'm afraid it has, it costs too much and is one of the services for which the funding has been cut. A whole load of services have been cut in the last few years because the funding has been withdrawn, this is by no means the only one.

toon10

6,140 posts

156 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
CaptainSlow said:
Some running would certainly help and once you're a bit fitter you'd enjoy it. Google "Couch to 5k"

Also, stay off the booze.
Very much this. I did the couch to 5k and was doing regular 5 k runs each week. All my hard work was lost as I love the beer too much and fell out of love with running but that's my own lack of discipline. The program does work and you'll see the benefits if you keep it up.

WinstonWolf

72,857 posts

238 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
minghis said:
Right, I'm 49 and 5"8" and weigh just under 14 stone.

I went to the docs, took blood pressure and did the height and weight thing and she said I really should lose a bit of weight and that my blood pressure was on the high side of average. I think she said my BMI was 31.

So, I play golf, walk the dog and have 2 kids so I don't think I'm unfit it's just that I love all the wrong foods.

Less food seems to be the cure, so as I love all the wrong foods has anyone any good ideas how to lose some weight without living off salad and water? There must be a way of doing this while still enjoying nice food.. is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?

Or do I need to think about gentle running? Am I too fat to get fit?
Get MyFitnessPal and log everything religiously, you'll find what is the most significant problem in your diet. Address that and don't fret about the minor stuff.

Nothing beats cycling for losing weight smile

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
minghis said:
is it really a case of just eating smaller portions of what I usually eat?
To head in the right direction and lose weight that's all you need to do, a half portion of chips tastes the same as a full portion of chips.

Its not the perfect way of losing weight in the most efficient manner but gaining control is the first step. Also aim for 2 snack size meals (cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch etc) and 1 normal size meal a day. Be aware of how much sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potato, alcohol etc your consuming.

You don't have to go all out when you start to try and gain control, small steps and small victories is what you want.


ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
Echo the comments above about LIFESTYLE.

You need to work out a new lifestyle that you still enjoy but is healthier than your current lifestyle. It probably involves more exercise and eating better wink but the important point is that for it to be sustainable, you need to enjoy it.

On the running point - no one is too fat/unfit to start. Find your local parkrun and have a look at the people doing that - everyone from racing snakes at the front to people changing their lives at the back. All welcome, all supported, all free. As others have said, if you want to start running, Couch to 5k (google it) is a good entry point. I love running but not everyone does; you need to find something you'll enjoy as part of your lifestyle, not as a temporary fad.

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Friday 11th December 2015
quotequote all
Read In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan: click.
We shouldn't need to turn to a journalist for dietary advice, but he writes sense.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants