Weight loss- disapointed friend.
Discussion
Hello all
I have come here to ask about a friend of mine, bit of background info- he has been big all his life, and has made half hearted efforts to reduce his weight, until now.
He is basicly doing cardio at the gym for 1 hour, 3 times a week, and boxing with me 3 times a week, and despite 8 or 9 hours of exercise a week he isnt losing a massive amount of weight after 3 months, currently he has lost about 5 kilos, which has reduced his weight to 130 kgs. He is also eating what I consider to be healthy meals, in decent sized portions.
I understand some of the fat will be replaced by muscle, and I also understand that it is a long, hard process to change a lifestyle, but I am curious as to how long it will normally take to reach a healthy weight, I am asking as I am concerned that if benefits arent noticed soon then he might lose momentum.
Fwiw I have noticed he is now fitter than ever, and appears to have lost weight, however the scales suggest otherwise.
I have come here to ask about a friend of mine, bit of background info- he has been big all his life, and has made half hearted efforts to reduce his weight, until now.
He is basicly doing cardio at the gym for 1 hour, 3 times a week, and boxing with me 3 times a week, and despite 8 or 9 hours of exercise a week he isnt losing a massive amount of weight after 3 months, currently he has lost about 5 kilos, which has reduced his weight to 130 kgs. He is also eating what I consider to be healthy meals, in decent sized portions.
I understand some of the fat will be replaced by muscle, and I also understand that it is a long, hard process to change a lifestyle, but I am curious as to how long it will normally take to reach a healthy weight, I am asking as I am concerned that if benefits arent noticed soon then he might lose momentum.
Fwiw I have noticed he is now fitter than ever, and appears to have lost weight, however the scales suggest otherwise.
Agree with the tape measure 
At the age of 16 I was a bit of a fat s
t but fairly fit with it (prop rugby), I started doing fitness training each day and although the fat was shifting, my weight increased for a couple of months as due to the increased exercise, the muscles in my body bulked up a fair bit. In the end when I was at a lower body fat percentage, I was roughly a stone heavier and converted to playing wing 
At the age of 16 I was a bit of a fat s
t but fairly fit with it (prop rugby), I started doing fitness training each day and although the fat was shifting, my weight increased for a couple of months as due to the increased exercise, the muscles in my body bulked up a fair bit. In the end when I was at a lower body fat percentage, I was roughly a stone heavier and converted to playing wing I'd recommend he write everything down he is eating and also weigh food as a lot of folk eat decent(ish) foods but drastically overeat.
Doing the exercise he is doing arguably isn't the most efficient way to reduce weight however doing that number of hours of cardio based work should yield rapid results.
That leads me to suspect he is simply eating/drinking so much he is negating the effects of cardio.
Doing the exercise he is doing arguably isn't the most efficient way to reduce weight however doing that number of hours of cardio based work should yield rapid results.
That leads me to suspect he is simply eating/drinking so much he is negating the effects of cardio.
Well first off weight watcher point system to track how much he's eating. I do this and some foods are tiny but have point values of a full meal!
Next off go to GP and ask for a blood test for hormone levels. For example low testosterone will cause weight gain even if eats hardly anything.
Next off go to GP and ask for a blood test for hormone levels. For example low testosterone will cause weight gain even if eats hardly anything.
About a year ago I started walking into work (a hilly three miles each way) for fitness.
In the first two weeks I put on half a stone - of leg muscle!
I lost the weight again as I steadily got thinner, but the muscle remained... I think it was about 8 weeks before I was the weight I was, if that makes sense... The tape measure is a much better guide, as has already been stated.
In the first two weeks I put on half a stone - of leg muscle!
I lost the weight again as I steadily got thinner, but the muscle remained... I think it was about 8 weeks before I was the weight I was, if that makes sense... The tape measure is a much better guide, as has already been stated.
PainTrain said:
Hello all
I have come here to ask about a friend of mine, bit of background info- he has been big all his life, and has made half hearted efforts to reduce his weight, until now.
He is basicly doing cardio at the gym for 1 hour, 3 times a week, and boxing with me 3 times a week, and despite 8 or 9 hours of exercise a week he isnt losing a massive amount of weight after 3 months, currently he has lost about 5 kilos, which has reduced his weight to 130 kgs. He is also eating what I consider to be healthy meals, in decent sized portions.
I understand some of the fat will be replaced by muscle, and I also understand that it is a long, hard process to change a lifestyle, but I am curious as to how long it will normally take to reach a healthy weight, I am asking as I am concerned that if benefits arent noticed soon then he might lose momentum.
Fwiw I have noticed he is now fitter than ever, and appears to have lost weight, however the scales suggest otherwise.
He has lost an average of 1 pound per week. That's good, achievable, consistent weight loss. Good on him. Doubling that to 2 lbs per week shouldn't be too hard. To get to that stage I would look at what he is eating. It may appear healthy and decent size portions to you but you don't know what he eats the rest of the time (he probably doesn't even realise either). Even if he is far better than he was before it's still easy to rack up the calories with occasional treats. Get him to keep a food diary as mentioned above.I have come here to ask about a friend of mine, bit of background info- he has been big all his life, and has made half hearted efforts to reduce his weight, until now.
He is basicly doing cardio at the gym for 1 hour, 3 times a week, and boxing with me 3 times a week, and despite 8 or 9 hours of exercise a week he isnt losing a massive amount of weight after 3 months, currently he has lost about 5 kilos, which has reduced his weight to 130 kgs. He is also eating what I consider to be healthy meals, in decent sized portions.
I understand some of the fat will be replaced by muscle, and I also understand that it is a long, hard process to change a lifestyle, but I am curious as to how long it will normally take to reach a healthy weight, I am asking as I am concerned that if benefits arent noticed soon then he might lose momentum.
Fwiw I have noticed he is now fitter than ever, and appears to have lost weight, however the scales suggest otherwise.
swerni said:
Bet he's eating a lot more than he's telling you.
This. 100%. Even if he thinks he's telling the truth, it's been shown time and time again that people are truly terrible at estimating the amount they eat.If he's serious about losing the weight he absolutely has to keep a food diary, weigh everything he eats, and be totally honest. Otherwise he's just wasting his time, as clearly the softly-softly approach isn't working.
deckster said:
swerni said:
Bet he's eating a lot more than he's telling you.
This. 100%. Even if he thinks he's telling the truth, it's been shown time and time again that people are truly terrible at estimating the amount they eat.If he's serious about losing the weight he absolutely has to keep a food diary, weigh everything he eats, and be totally honest. Otherwise he's just wasting his time, as clearly the softly-softly approach isn't working.
I personally never understood why I was not losing weight despite lots of exercise. Turns out I was basically compensating for the lost calories by loading up after the gym (as I assumed I had worked hard so I could eat more)
Therefore I was fitter, but never lost any weight.
Try carefully writing down what foods you eat - its incredible how little adds up to 1500 calories a day.
The problem with Dieting is that everybody is affected differently and like any form of addiction you have to be mentally ready to do it or you will fail.
I had my own personal epiphany at Xmas when I got gout in my right knee. I started my weight loss program at 355 lbs / 25.5st / 161 kilos. I know, I know a proper fat bd. I am an ex Rugby player and I have agreed with my gp that 17st would be healthy (I'm naturally a big fella anyway).
My chosen method is to go swimming 3 times a week to the gym 2 times a week and to eat a reduced fat diet of no more than 1800 calories a day. It is no more complicated than that. In the first two weeks I lost 15.5lbs / 1st 1.5lbs / 7 kilos. I know that this approach wouldn't work for everybody and that I cannot sustain this level of weight loss. I think that more than the diet you have to help your friend get his mind in the right place.
I just had a bad weekend (my birthday) and I got pissed on the Saturday and had Pizza on the Sunday (cos I was hung over and couldn't be bothered to cook) and today I feel like crap, sluggish and with zero energy which has had the effect of spurring me on and making me less likely to cheat again even on a special occasion.
At 1 lb a week that is 3.5 st in a year which is great. Remind your friend of this and just give him encouragement but do not nag this could push him in the wrong direction.
I had my own personal epiphany at Xmas when I got gout in my right knee. I started my weight loss program at 355 lbs / 25.5st / 161 kilos. I know, I know a proper fat b
d. I am an ex Rugby player and I have agreed with my gp that 17st would be healthy (I'm naturally a big fella anyway).My chosen method is to go swimming 3 times a week to the gym 2 times a week and to eat a reduced fat diet of no more than 1800 calories a day. It is no more complicated than that. In the first two weeks I lost 15.5lbs / 1st 1.5lbs / 7 kilos. I know that this approach wouldn't work for everybody and that I cannot sustain this level of weight loss. I think that more than the diet you have to help your friend get his mind in the right place.
I just had a bad weekend (my birthday) and I got pissed on the Saturday and had Pizza on the Sunday (cos I was hung over and couldn't be bothered to cook) and today I feel like crap, sluggish and with zero energy which has had the effect of spurring me on and making me less likely to cheat again even on a special occasion.
At 1 lb a week that is 3.5 st in a year which is great. Remind your friend of this and just give him encouragement but do not nag this could push him in the wrong direction.
Nothing really to add that hasn’t been said. I started off October of last year at a similar weight to your mate. Started exercising without paying enough attention to what I was eating over a month passed and I plateau so I thought hell with this I’m not happy with the results for the amount of time and effort I’m putting in exercise wise. My Fitness Pal or similar is your friend here, if you look back to the early pages of the transformation contest Ordinary Chap has some links to work out Calorie intakes- MFP for a 2lbs loss per week seems to come up with low figures. But if you exercise you gain calories this is particularly effective in getting into the mind set of ‘do I really want this bag of crips-it’s 15 mins on the treadmill or whatever to burn that off’.
I went out for a meal on Saturday to celebrate a family birthday, I had a steak with the works, onion rings etc but I was still under my calorie goal as I did a good cardio workout earlier that day.
The proof is in the pudding anyhow, I’ve lost nearly 3 stone now and in the best shape I’ve been for years. I get about 1700 cals a day, you can eat very well and be full off that, it’s all about making the right choices fire the wrong things in and it goes to st very quickly, it’s very easy to get under that particularly with daily exercise. No faddy diets required just common sense, burn more than you put in and you’ll loose weight.
I went out for a meal on Saturday to celebrate a family birthday, I had a steak with the works, onion rings etc but I was still under my calorie goal as I did a good cardio workout earlier that day.
The proof is in the pudding anyhow, I’ve lost nearly 3 stone now and in the best shape I’ve been for years. I get about 1700 cals a day, you can eat very well and be full off that, it’s all about making the right choices fire the wrong things in and it goes to s
t very quickly, it’s very easy to get under that particularly with daily exercise. No faddy diets required just common sense, burn more than you put in and you’ll loose weight.deckster said:
swerni said:
Bet he's eating a lot more than he's telling you.
This. 100%. Even if he thinks he's telling the truth, it's been shown time and time again that people are truly terrible at estimating the amount they eat.If he's serious about losing the weight he absolutely has to keep a food diary, weigh everything he eats, and be totally honest. Otherwise he's just wasting his time, as clearly the softly-softly approach isn't working.
I've got a colleague who makes out that he wants to lose weight, and he does go down the gym. But his weight (and more importantly belt size) don't ever seem to change. For close on 12 months I've suggested he comes with me down to the boxercise class for an intense workout, but he's used every damn possible excuse (need another couple of months, got too much work, etc.) I'm now going to give up - you can only go so far.
And as others have said, the tape can be as good an indicator. A mate that I hadn't seen for a few weeks commented that I appeared to have lost weight - the scales made out that I was pretty much the same 98kg that I've been for the last few years. But I'd manged to go down another notch on the belt, which was obviously showing on my face.
Carrot said:
deckster said:
swerni said:
Bet he's eating a lot more than he's telling you.
This. 100%. Even if he thinks he's telling the truth, it's been shown time and time again that people are truly terrible at estimating the amount they eat.If he's serious about losing the weight he absolutely has to keep a food diary, weigh everything he eats, and be totally honest. Otherwise he's just wasting his time, as clearly the softly-softly approach isn't working.
I personally never understood why I was not losing weight despite lots of exercise. Turns out I was basically compensating for the lost calories by loading up after the gym (as I assumed I had worked hard so I could eat more)
Therefore I was fitter, but never lost any weight.
Try carefully writing down what foods you eat - its incredible how little adds up to 1500 calories a day.
OP if your friend has a posh phone as many do, tell him to get Myfitnesspal. Its really easy to use, and you can log foods with calories (it has thousands and thousands of foods from all types of places including branded and supermarket) plus you can log any excercise you do each day.
It works wonders and you can choose to set how many pounds you want to lose a week which adjusts available calories you get for the day. It makes you feel bad for eating a sandwhich as a snack when you realise it can be HALF of your daily allowance!
vescaegg said:
Carrot said:
deckster said:
swerni said:
Bet he's eating a lot more than he's telling you.
This. 100%. Even if he thinks he's telling the truth, it's been shown time and time again that people are truly terrible at estimating the amount they eat.If he's serious about losing the weight he absolutely has to keep a food diary, weigh everything he eats, and be totally honest. Otherwise he's just wasting his time, as clearly the softly-softly approach isn't working.
I personally never understood why I was not losing weight despite lots of exercise. Turns out I was basically compensating for the lost calories by loading up after the gym (as I assumed I had worked hard so I could eat more)
Therefore I was fitter, but never lost any weight.
Try carefully writing down what foods you eat - its incredible how little adds up to 1500 calories a day.
OP if your friend has a posh phone as many do, tell him to get Myfitnesspal. Its really easy to use, and you can log foods with calories (it has thousands and thousands of foods from all types of places including branded and supermarket) plus you can log any excercise you do each day.
It works wonders and you can choose to set how many pounds you want to lose a week which adjusts available calories you get for the day. It makes you feel bad for eating a sandwhich as a snack when you realise it can be HALF of your daily allowance!
I'd get him to stop counting calories(sp?) and start counting carbs and protein. For building muscle he should be aiming for 2g of protein a day for every kilo he weighs, and carbs the less the better. I'm currently following some diet my mum read about where you are limited to 20g/day of carbs which intern increases protein as you basically live off eggs and meat/fish, the average day works out about 1500-1800 calories but I tend to burn 2000+ calories in a gym session alone so don't bother worrying about them. 20g is quite extreme but is the best way to burn fat or so I'm told.
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