The 2023 weight loss thread - all welcome

[Roderick Spode]

Stonecarver said:

So started at 21 stone 6lb in mid September and I'm now at 19 stone 4lb with a lot more to go.
Some clothes re fitting better, which is nice. I don't really see any difference in the mirror........still a fat tw@t looking back at me, but surely at some point I'll notice a difference
??

Good for you buddy, that's great progress. You should definitely notice a difference. One thing I did was to take front and side pictures of my corpulence before embarking on a weight loss mission, then taking pictures every month or so to track progress (or lack thereof!). That was quite encouraging, well, until I tended to plateau for a month or two, get frustrated and give up.

Jumped on the scales yesterday morning, dropped 2.4kg in a fortnight, so that's steady progress from doing OMAD & cutting out the drink. Need to clear the house of carbs and other sweet treats, then I'll get back on the keto bus. Anyone want a large tub of sweeties left over from Halloween?

[gangzoom]

Stonecarver said:

Trying to get on the peloton a couple of times a week too and managing at least once a week........ I did LEJOG back in 2009 and would love to get that fit again.

Don't just do cardio with Peloton, mix thing up with the strength work which will deliver some good results quite quickly. By mixing up strength and cardio it should be fairly easy to get into a routine with Peloton where it essentially becomes part of life versus something 'extra' you do. I do take 1 rest day a week, but otherwise its just something that needs to be done everyday.

If you can combine Peloton workouts with a drop in calories (You cannot out-train a bad diet), the results will just appear.

[gangzoom]

Last weight in of the year......0.7kg HEAVIER than the start of the year.

However BMI is unchanged, and I'm firmly blaming 'muscle is heaver than fat' urban legend. The reality is I love wine, pizza, chocolate too much. Keeping the weight around the current level is the longterm aim.

Will be joining the 2024 thread.

[75Black]

Weigh in day, no update last week because my weight was the same - 83.3kg, but weighed in today and a loss of 0.7kg! Down to 82.6kg, 3 weeks until Christmas so would be good to get down to the 81 mark, give myself room for overindulging over Christmas!

[Heaveho]

I can't see any rhyme or reason to my weight fluctuations. I'm 6ft, but my muscles are like knots in thread. Apart from having weight on my stomach and chest ( 14 stone 4 pounds two years ago ), I've never had much meat on. The only consistent thing in my life is waking up with stomach cramp after having been diagnosed with two ulcers and two other things I can neither remember nor pronounce. Supposedly cured now, but the cramp persists, and the only way to get respite is to have baths in the morning and evening that are so hot as to barely be able to sit in them.

This has the documented benefit of promoting a weight loss of up to 3 pounds per bath though. Not something I was aware of when this all started. So as a consequence my weight can vary wildly. My Saturday consisted of a small lunch ( I eat much less after the ulcer stuff ) followed by an impromptu visit to the pub at 3.30pm where I had two pints, followed by an early evening meal of chilli and rice. Followed by a planned visit to the pub at 7.30. returning home at 1.30 am after countless pints and a cheeseburger.

The next morning after a bath, I weighed 12 stone 2 pounds, 4 pounds lighter than the previous evening. I don't have an explanation for that. On occasion I'll be 13 stone after a particularly heavy weekend. By the following Friday, it's back down to about 12-4.

[Roderick Spode]

Mixing up my OMAD with a bit of extended intermittent fasting seems to produce good results. The advice is not to go longer than 72 hours, but at the 40 hour point the keto pen is telling me I'm well into ketosis and feeling much better. I was thinking last night that it would be great to get through the psychological 20 stone / 127kg barrier, and sure enough this morning - 126.9kg. Still aiming for 120kg by Christmas.

[DaveE87]

Since I hit 77kg in early November I've been hovering around 77-78kg. When I started this year at over 95kg, my initial target was 85kg, then 80, and then 75. I know I can keep going but tbh I'm really comfortable at my current weight. Bodyfat has went from low 30s to low 20s. A bit high still but something I'm happy with. For now.

I'm going to enjoy the festive season and re-evaluate in January.

[TameRacingDriver]

I'm giving up for the year too. Disappointingly I'm now almost back where I started at the beginning of the year. A truly pathetic effort on my part, and no excuses from me, all I will say is that when I started the CPAP treatment I was doing quite well up until that point, but inexplicably started to gain weight again and then after that, I will say I was disheartened enough to silently throw in the towel.

See you all next year.

Edit.....

gangzoom said:

Last weight in of the year......0.7kg HEAVIER than the start of the year.

However BMI is unchanged, and I'm firmly blaming 'muscle is heaver than fat' urban legend. The reality is I love wine, pizza, chocolate too much. Keeping the weight around the current level is the longterm aim.

Will be joining the 2024 thread.

This may or may not be my weakness too... makes me question if it's even worth trying if I love the finer things in life too much to stop...

Edited by TameRacingDriver on Tuesday 5th December 11:37

[gangzoom]

Really interesting paper, quite old but a really good read.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13...

Comparison of hunter gathers energy usage, body mass etc with ‘Westerners’ using proper scientific tools such as radioisotope labelled water. The results was that human beings, regardless of their daily activity seem to use a very similar amount of energy, far free mass seem to have a bigger impact on energy usage than daily activity. Even more surprising there wasn’t that much correlation between physical activity and body fat within groups.

Essentially whilst energy out > energy in = weight loss, real life human physiology is far more complex, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) our bodies are amazing at adjusting to both energy intake/usage to maintain a pretty stable state.

In short as they say ‘It’s complicated’, and anything any of us is trying to measure on here beyond weight is pretty much a waste of time .

[DaveE87]

How many people are going to read studies like that and understand them?

If you want literature that's easy to digest read Lyle McDonald's books. They're not cheap but they're not full of BS.

[popeyewhite]

DaveE87 said:

How many people are going to read studies like that and understand them?

Very broadly whilst initial fat loss at exercise onset is easily measurable the body soon adapts and energy demand decreases resulting in slowing fat loss. This is not new news. It is called 'reaching a plateau' and occurs with every type of exercise as performance improvement slows. Keep changing the exercise, keep challenging your body.

One aspect not mentioned in the study is the fact there are no fat Hazdas - the body reaches homeostasis where exercise becomes hugely easier as the energy consumption declines. This is the payoff and it's called 'getting fitter'.

[gangzoom]

popeyewhite said:

This is not new news.

Well the paper was published in 2012, but I've not really seen or thought about the findings described, these two lines I find fascinating, as it would suggest given enough time - Human physiology can/might evolve to 'manage' obesity.

Studies such as these, as well as results here, suggest that physical activity may be only one piece of a dynamic metabolic strategy that is continuously responding to changes in energy availability and demand.

We hypothesize that TEE may be a relatively stable, constrained physiological trait for the human species, more a product of our common genetic inheritance than our diverse lifestyles. A growing body of work on mammalian metabolism is revealing that species’ metabolic rates reflect their evolutionary history, as TEE responds over evolutionary time to ecological pressures such as food availability and predation risk

[indigostr]

Not sure if I’ve reached my goal of 90kg this year, but as a positive while jean shopping last weekend, I’ve lost 6 inches off my waist since buying last year. I do know my belt tongue has been more extended but not to this level.
My general fitness has definitely improved due to weight loss and I sustained the original loss during my off months. I’ve been back on low carb the last 4 weeks , cycling 5 days, walking approx 5 miles on the off days, couple of gym sessions. Hoping to continue to the end of the year with this regime when I’ll weigh in and see if the final effort has helped towards my first year goal.

I’ll definitely be signing up to the 2024 thread aiming towards my next goal.

[popeyewhite]

gangzoom said:

Well the paper was published in 2012, but I've not really seen or thought about the findings described, these two lines I find fascinating, as it would suggest given enough time - Human physiology can/might evolve to 'manage' obesity.

I think that's a bit unlikely. The Hazda's physiology didn't really change - it's what we know of as the 'training effect', where the human body adapts its metabolism to - basically - make life easier for itself. I think if the Hazdas stopped their foraging they would gain adipose tissue just as surely as anyone stuck in an office who quit exercise but kept the same energy intake from food.

[g3org3y]

gangzoom said:

Well the paper was published in 2012, but I've not really seen or thought about the findings described, these two lines I find fascinating, as it would suggest given enough time - Human physiology can/might evolve to 'manage' obesity.

Are you sure you're just not looking for excuses as to why you've not lost weight this year despite the many hours of Peloton?

(You like your food iirc. )

The hardest/most boring bit about trying to get lean is the consistency of diet.

[popeyewhite]

g3org3y said:

The hardest/most boring bit about trying to get lean is the consistency of diet.

For some a truism. Look at food as fuel, with the occasional weekend treat, and you're getting there. I think some just enjoy the whole food/drink thing too much and don't get it.

[Pete102]

I have been a little quiet on here for the last few weeks but all is good. This morning weighed in at 91.7, down from 118.8 for a total loss of 27.1kg / 4 stone 3lb since June 5th.

Still running regularly and training BJJ, calories have increased slightly to around 2400 per day but I have been playing with intermittent fasting for the last 6 days, 20hrs fast and 4hrs eating period. So far so good, I like the control it gives me and waking up feeling lean in a morning.

I plan on carrying on over Christmas and into the New Year, then around February will be a push to get in shape for Summer which will require losing 5kg or so.

[dirtbiker]

I don't often post in this thread but I have been tracking week-by-week in the Wiki.

I'm a bit disappointed to be almost back to where I started in January this week, I did have a big meal and a few AF beers last night though so probably an artificially elevated weigh-in this morning.

Good to see folk making progress and I hope those who want to manage to keep vaguely on track over the festive break!

[22]

I'm in full mince pie mode. Have struggled with food since the autumn really but kept my exercise up - now that is also succumbing to the same lethargy my weight is heading the wrong way - already lost a belt hole to my seasonal plumpness.

100% I'll be on the thread next year. It's been a huge help and glad I dusted myself down after previous blips rather than give up. I just hope I'm not too close to this year's starting weight by 1st Jan (all inclusive Christmas break to add to the bulk!). Being (and staying) accountable to a bunch of internet strangers works!

I also plan to keep a proper food diary as I'm sure I'd be horrified faced with what I eat if I write it down. I don't know any other diet where you can stuff yourself to bursting and still lose weight (loads of spuds and pasta, veg - then no fat), but slimming world have made a few beans out of making it work. Probably find I'd be better off smoking

To those of you still on it - consider my cap doffed. And some great results through the year.

[lizardbrain]

Started dieting about six months ago and after cutting out the basic stuff like sugar, had a decent initial drop of 10% which saw me at 27bmi. My target is 24. I got overconfident and the weight gradually came creeping back. I wasn’t eating bad stuff but was eating bigger portions of ‘good’ stuff like oats.

I identified my problem times were after dinner and after breakfast so I switched to. 16:8 diet and now only eat 11am to 7pm but am less strict about what I eat and the weight is heading back down in a straight line, about .3kg a week but very consistently.

So it’s just finding the right regime that fills in the cracks in your resolve.