Thread: Fat Challenge

Scott,
I'd always been overweight except for a few years in my late 20's where I did some serious dieting and exercise. It didn't last, takes more discipline than I possess to maintain what was considered an 'acceptable' weight.
Now I getting older (OK, gotten old), I'm lighter than I've been for years. No special diet or exercise regime, just reasonable eating and a bit of gardening.and shed work.

My doctor probably still thinks I could lose a few kilograms but he's young, what would he know?

I realise that this is not what you wanted to hear but I appreciate the challenge that losing a serious amount of weight can be. Keeping it off is as much as a challenge, both require support from family and friends.
Keep a diary of what you actually eat compared to what your diet says you should be eating. It's the only way to know if you're sneaking in unnoticed calories (or megajoule kilowatts or whatever they call them these days!)

Keep us advised of your progress.

Scott, congratulations on taking the first step. BMI's aren't a diagnosis tool, just a way of grouping people into potential groups. According to BMI I'm overweight but am running at about 13-14% body fat.

Diet will be 60-70% of your weight loss with regular exercise being the icing on the cake. If you make sure the diet and exercise are something you can maintain over the long term then it will be an easy (but long process for you). People generally fall off the wagon when they make changes which are too big and impossible to maintain. I see people come into the gym that I've never seen before. They train for two or three hours a day and within a month they have generally disappeared. Their intentions are good but it's not an intensity they can maintain.

Have a long term goal and then set short term goals based on that. As an idea of the time frame for all this change, picture your target weight and then think back to the last time you were that weight/shape. I'm guessing the number you end up with is years rather than months, so think of this process taking that long rather than being disappointed in six months time when you're trying to undo 10 years worth of weight. Don't forget your progress photo's as well. It might feel hard to take a photo of yourself (or have one taken) in just undies against a plain background but you will appreciate the pictures when looking back at where you came from.

If you really want to know the state of your body, you can pay to have a DEXA body scan. These things are amazing but usually cost $80-100. They will tell you exactly what the composition of your body is right down to which arm and leg has the higher fat percentage.



Corbs

Well I'm about thirteen weeks into The inappropiately named Fast Diet where you do 2 days of calorie (600 cals) controlled eating (non consecutive) and just your normal food intake for the other days.
I am 10 kilos lighter my blood pressure has dropped out of the danger zones my nasty cholesterol has dropped and my good cholesterol has raised .The fasting days are getting easier plus I dont feel the need to eat snacks all the time and overall food intake has dropped.
I am walking 1/2 hour every day come rain or shine and its not an amble but a brisk walk to raise the heartbeat .
Lost over an inch around the neck 8 inches around the waist, man b**bs are disappearing, snoring has almost stopped and I am sleeping much better.
I am being monitored by my doctor every fortnight and he's happy with the amount I'm losing.
I will keep updating every month.
Hooroo

I once saw a BMI chart which stated that if you were 5'12" you could be one weight but you could be heavier if you were 6' tall - go figure.

BMI charts are a load of horse puckey AFAIAC.

It says I'm bordering on severley obese. Anyone that has met me would (hopefully) disagree.

Instead of snacking on biscuits and crap, have fruit and veg. Weight loss, without exercise is pointless.

Foo

IF you are worried about Type 2 Diabetes (goes with all the other stuff) then snacking - or rather several small meals - is actually considered beneficial. The trick is to add up the TOTAL amount of food you have in the day and reduce that, then just spread it around so you never get really hungry. This places less stress on you pancreas as there are less carbohydrates to process with the available insulin.

Recent research suggests that most of the artificial sweeteners as just as damaging to pre-diabetics as regular sugar. And 'Corn Syrup', also known as Karo (sp?) is to Type 2 diabetes as smoking is to lung cancer - beats me why they sell it in 'health' food shops.

At age 54 I got as high as 136 kilos....

Now I'm down to 120 kilos.... and would LOVE to be 100 kilos again!

With type 2 diabetes thats just never going to happen. Never drunk to excess and don't drink at all now (Coz the alcohol turns to sugar and I realized I'm stupid enough sober) but I have the good ol Aussie beer gut that just won't shift.

When I did my BMI etc - I worked out what's wrong. I'm just short for my weight is all - I was obviously s'posed to be 2 foot taller than 5ft 10 & 3/4".

All I need to do is figure out how to get 2 foot taller in a hurry and I'll be the picture of perfect heath.

In all seriousness tho - I have to do something - Dept TPort now have passed a law, that your patient doctor confidentiality no longer exists - if you have any form of diabetes - (even type 2 controlled with tablets cos you have a fat gut) and you hold any type of "commercial drivers license", (trucks busses taxis etc) and your blood sugar levels aren't under sufficient control top the govts set levels, the Doc by law has to inform dept of Tport who then rescind your drivers licenses.

I ended up having to go to some endocrinologist in order to keep my licenses!. (yeah at like $360 a year for just 1 visit).

This looks like being my next option.

Australia Multi-Site | EndoBarrier Therapy Australia

It's called endo barrier and involves no invasive surgery - and can be removed by the doc in 15 minutes - once your down to your target weight in say 12 months.

I tried chemical methods (Duromin tablets) but they are just a legal form of amphetamine - and mess with your brain (I reckoned Mossad were after me) - while they do help lose weight - by suppressing appetite they also increase metabolic rate burning more calories each day and motivate you to exercise more..

Whether thiws new endo thing works or not who knows.

After spending $6K for laser eye surgery to get my eyes back to 20 / 20 to keep my skippers ticket, I guess another few grand for a endo barrier to keep my drivers licenses seems on the cards.

All I can tell you is its a batsurd getting old and being born too short for your weight....I must have got the dud family gene for being horizontally augmented and vertical challenged!

Its true - I am just short for my weight - honest!

Hello Scott,


Would be happy to collaborate with you and others to collectively lose a target weight - 5 to 10 people - 100 lbs ? - before Christmas.

Approx 2.5 years ago I dropped from 101kg to 86 kg by doing the following

stopped eating snack foods - crisps etc.
significantly reduced alcohol intake
ate celery stalks and apples and carrots instead of chips and booze

Exercise (rowing machine - wonderful bit of gear) 6 days out of 7 - 1 easy day followed by 1 hard day

I read lots and lots about aerobic training and monitoring heart rate and appropriate heart rates for various types of exercise and structured training programs - its very interesting and this was helpful - got fairly serious about it - can recommend some books and web sites - concept2 indoor rowing websites in UK and America have lots of very good info and excellent forums and offer free structured programs for weight loss. This book is very good Heart Rate Training: Roy Benson, Declan Connolly: 9780736086554: Amazon.com: Books

kept a log of all my training and set tough but achievable targets relevant to my age and fitness level for various distances

Having said all that, have slipped back up to 90kg mainly due to lack of exercise due to injury. Havent used the rowing machine for 12 months.

Dont expect the weight to fall of quickly - It took a long time to accrue and will take a while to go away I was happy if I could average 0.5 - 1 lbs a week. I think maximum healthy weight loss for people in our weight range is 2lbs per week.

Keep records to track progress - this will also keep you motivated - I collaborated with others to collectively lose 50lbs before a target date and we reported in every week to a forum. pounds rather than kilos because its nicer to lose 14 pounds than 6.4 kilos - sounds bigger and better.

Would be happy to collaborate with you and any others who'd care to join to collectively lose XXX lbs before Christmas. We could use this thread to report in and I'd be happy to compile and post a weekly graph showing our combined effort.

I reckon BMI is a broad indicative guideline and tend not to stress too much about it - I know whether or not I have some excess energy stored around my waist - dont need a BMI number to tell me.


Regards

Bill

Originally Posted by steamingbill

Would be happy to collaborate with you and any others who'd care to join to collectively lose XXX lbs before Christmas. We could use this thread to report in and I'd be happy to compile and post a weekly graph showing our combined effort.

Absolutely, that's a great idea. I'm about to head off to bed however since Monday I've lost 3kg. PM if you have any ideas on how this thread should take shape

SUGAR!!!There is a book written by a Lawyer called Sweet Poison, the book that is, not the lawyer. Basically it recommends cutting out all the sugar in your diet. I gave it a go, I didn't do any exercise and I didn't watch or care what I ate, only that it had little or no sugar. I kept the sugar down to below 10 grams a day or lower. eg 1 can of Coke = 39 grams. Fat....pfft, I didn't care about.

Over a 6 month period, I dropped 20 kg, lowered my cholesterol, lowered my blood pressure. That was over 2 1/2 years ago. I am not as strict as when I started out, but I don't eat sweet crap. When I started I was 103kg, I am now 77kg. I am 178cm.

Even if you don't buy the book, do a Google, his website has interesting stuff. Make up your own mind, but back when only the rich could afford sweet treats, it was only the rich that were overweight.

Originally Posted by corbs

If you really want to know the state of your body, you can pay to have a DEXA body scan. These things are amazing but usually cost $80-100. They will tell you exactly what the composition of your body is right down to which arm and leg has the higher fat percentage.



Corbs

Also saw on telly, they throw you on a treadmill, put a mask over your face that measures your ppm CO, they (who the hell is they anyway?) can then tell at which heart rate you should be training to lose weight. Each person has a different rate at which to maximize burning calories. Some are better walking, some running as if they are being chased.

BTW Corbs, you Navy PTI's seem to have a better bedside manner than the ones in the RAAF. They would say/roar, "if you want to lose weight, eat less..run more. If you don't feel hungry, then you ain't losing weight."

Originally Posted by Soredust

Also saw on telly, they throw you on a treadmill, put a mask over your face that measures your ppm CO, they (who the hell is they anyway?) can then tell at which heart rate you should be training to lose weight. Each person has a different rate at which to maximize burning calories. Some are better walking, some running as if they are being chased.

That's measuring VO2 max which is more a test of fitness rather than body composition. It measures the volume of oxygen your body uses each time you take a breath. This is calculated as a percentage. You can also get a rough calculation of your VO2 max by conducting a Beep Test. This is a 20m shuttle run where you run 20m each time there is a beep. The test starts at 7 or 7.5km/h and increases .5km/h each minute. The idea is to run the test out as far as you can. You then cross reference the level you finished at against a table which will give a fairly accurate indication of VO2 max. I wouldn't recommend anyone who is significantly overweight to do this without supervision.

HR training zones aren't generally used in the industry much anymore. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) more often gets the best results. Have a look at sessions which use Tabata timings. They are pretty intense though and you should only do a maximum of one Tabata session per week. There are a lot of ways to do interval training though

Originally Posted by Soredust

BTW Corbs, you Navy PTI's seem to have a better bedside manner than the ones in the RAAF. They would say/roar, "if you want to lose weight, eat less..run more. If you don't feel hungry, then you ain't losing weight."

If it makes you feel more at ease I can be much less civilised... I could put on my stern face and outdoor voice and give advice along the lines of "eat a lettuce leaf and run to Darwin"