Weight Watcher's Thread

[wafter]

Well, it did take a near fatal illness to finally convince me to take my health and fitness more seriously. I gave up alcohol after that in 2012, which was a huge help, but it took another few years to kick the chocolate and cake habit that took its place!


I already take one cod liver oil capsule a day, and I have been meaning to eat more oily fish. I really like mackerel, but I don't like the smell of it lingering in the house!

TBH, a slightly saggy waistline doesn't bother me that much. I only aim to lose another 4-5 kg so I don’t think the sagginess will get horribly worse. The saggy skin won't be hanging down over my waistband!

I think it's like that with a lot of us - I've certainly experienced a "switch flicked" moment preceding my more successful health drives. With the weight it was seeing myself in a mate's wedding photos where the line had clearly been crossed between "a bit chubby" and "proper fat b*stard".

Again likewise I've managed to slowly, systematically eradicate unhealthy habits.. the ongoing ravages of time are also another sobering factor IMO - the stark reality of the situation driving you to at least try to mitigate the decline!

Good work with the cod liver oil; although while universally good the brief bit of research I did suggested that there were better supplements just for collegen intake. Mackerel would probably be a great source though; wish I could train my tastes to be more amenable to such things.

Glad to hear the sagging's not too bad; having seen folk who've put the work in to lose 50, 60% of their obese body mass it must be a crushing caveat to their efforts to be stuck with the same amount of skin they started with!

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Just had two consecutive days weighing 94.9Kg for the first time in over a year!

Just 14.9Kg to go to get back to my pre- long covid weight in Sept '22!

 

[YMFB]

My weight has been fluctuating the last few weeks, two weeks it went up slightly but on the way back down again, albeit not my lightest, very close.

90.5 kgs, BMI 27.1 and according to my scales my weight is slightly high.

I have been lucky (open to interpretation) to fit the criteria to be prescribed Mounjaro and secondly to have had no side effects (so far) the common problem is feeling nauseous.

I'm eating significantly less, which also means less waste and probably lower grocery bills. There are cycling gains as well as long term health benefits.

 

[wafter]

While historic progress seems good at about 0.8kg lost per week over the past month, in reality things have slowed and I seem to be stagnating at around 72kg.

This appears due to the typical failure mode of the low-carb diet - the slow, insideous creeping in of carbs again; this time my nemesis apparently coming in the form of greek yoghurt, fruit, carrots and hummous. While hardly a crack habit and absolutely fine if I were seeking to maintain a constant healthy weight, it's no good for loss and needs to be reined in if continued progress is going to be made..

On the up-side from the front I now have an actual waist with only a small roll of bonus blubber hanging around above my belt line; combined with the modest amount of muscle gained on my upper body I probably look the least-worst I ever have and am keen to drive this to a point where I am, for the first time in my life actually happy with the appearance of my physique.

Aiming for a session on the rings tonight if I'm not too knackered and will try to curtail my intake of things I shouldn't be eating; although I suspect this will be easier said than done...

 

[wafter]

In the face of the great fruit and yoghurt habit mass loss has continued to be pretty non-existant over the past three weeks; maybe ticking down ever-so slightly but at nowhere near the solid 0.8kg/wk I was managing for the first couple of months of the very-low-carb, much cardio regime.

However, in this time my waist measurement (and to a lesser extent chest and hips) appear to have continued gradually tracking downward - the belly having fallen by a modest but apparently legit 0.8cm in this time..

As such I'm hoping that I'm managing some mythical tightrope walk of gaining a bit of muscle mass while continuing to lose a modest amount of fat; which I'm happy to take

While I try my best I'm pretty much led by the nose by my weaknesses so for now will just try to keep my diet clean with low carb intake and keep on top of the cardio (cycling) and strength training (body weight on the floor / rings and arm curls with dumbells).

As long as I'm losing fat and / or gaining muscle mass I'm not complaining. Seems the waist measurement is the best way to quantify that in combination with my mass - although I have noticed some pretty good development in my abs (both in terms of how they feel under all that fat and the amount of knee-raises I can do) so perhaps the measurement alone downplays progress.

I guess time will tell

 

[cyberknight]

Down to 140 lbs pre holiday from 150 lbs a month ago even though I haven't been doing as much , weight loss linked to serotonin syndrome from meds which I stopped taking.

 

[simongt]

Principally due to the aneuryisms I had which have now been fixed, my weight had dropped to about 59 kg., around 3kg. less that my normal weight of around 62kg. Yup, I'm a skinny malinky - !
However, in my enforced stay in hospital due to complications after my op, I lost another 8kg., so when I was discharged, I was 51kg., so apart from the three month post op healing process, I also have to put on around another 11kg.
And I thought Albert Steptoe was skinny - !

 

[ColinJ]

Principally due to the aneuryisms I had which have now been fixed, my weight had dropped to about 59 kg., around 3kg. less that my normal weight of around 62kg. Yup, I'm a skinny malinky - !
However, in my enforced stay in hospital due to complications after my op, I lost another 8kg., so when I was discharged, I was 51kg., so apart from the three month post op healing process, I also have to put on around another 11kg.
And I thought Albert Steptoe was skinny - !

I am glad that you are recovering now, but... 51-62 kg - blimey, that's light!! I was very skinny when I left university but I was still 68 kg (10 st 10 lbs). That is at a height of 1.86 m (6' 1") though. Please don't tell me that you are tall as well!!

 

[simongt]

That is at a height of 1.86 m (6' 1") though. Please don't tell me that you are tall as well!!

Nope. I'm about 1.75cm., so about average for my age I suppose.
But I put on 2kg. last week, so I'm getting there - !

 

[wafter]

Diet continues to slide somwhat with overall intake up compared to the summer and a greater proportion of carbs, although for the most part the less grotty / simple / processed end of the spectrum.

Over the past couple of months mass has pretty much bottomed out and flatlined for 4-6wks at around 72kg, before creeping up over the past few weeks to around 73kg currently.

The good news is that it appears that at least some of this is muscle mass, since comparing my measurements to those from about 10wks ago (while mass was still on the way down) I'm a shade heavier (73.2 v. 73.0kg) but my chest, hips and most importantly / significantly waist measurements are all down - by 0.7cm, 0.7cm and 1.8cm respectively on the 7 day average.

While it's undeniable that my diet's degraded (at least from the perspective of driving towards weight loss) t's worth noting that I started taking c 5g of creatine daily about six weeks ago, so some of the weight gain can potentially be ascribed to this.

I've read that one might expect up to 2.5kg mass increase once fully on the creatine wagon (which acts to draw water into the muscles, apparently taking 4-6wks to reach saturation) so it's not been as bad as it might be. Mass gain probably scales with existing muscle mass so it's no surprise that my growth in this area has been modest.

For the record I'm currently doing about 150 (fairly leisurely) utility miles on the bike weekly, along with 1-2 sessions on the rings / bars and two kickboxing classes which include an amount of isometrics / body weight exercises.

Subjectively while I still have a long way to go I'm fairly happy with the gradual aesthetic changes; the waist slowly shrinking while the upper body bulk creeps up. "Dad bod" by some definitions is probably the best description of where I am currently - some visible muscle with an amount of excess fat; although instead of this resulting in decline from a better level of fitness in youth I'm going the other way

I'm particularly impressed by the effect of the hanging knee raises - having progressed over12-18 months from 10-12 on the first set to 35-40, while I now have visible definition in my obliques which (if I pull the remaining belly fat out of the way) can be traced all the way down to my pelvis.

I bumped into a mate a few days ago whilst wearing a base layer (which while leaving little to the imagination is also pretty flattering) and one of his first comments was "you're looking hench"; which relative at least to how I've always been in the past, I suppose I am

Progress is slow but I cling to the knowledge that it is, at least, progress; I'm doubtless in the best physical condition I ever have been and after thirty years of feeling absolutely powerless to address my flabby, weak body it still feels a little surreal to look at myself in the mirror and not totally hate what I see.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Been very aware of evening snacking getting worse recently, went up over 94Kg for a brief time.

Weird one yesterday, scales reckoned I'd dropped 0.8Kg overnight to be 92.9Kg, first time under 93 this year.

Back to more expected 93.5Kg today.

 

[wafter]

Been very aware of evening snacking getting worse recently, went up over 94Kg for a brief time.

Weird one yesterday, scales reckoned I'd dropped 0.8Kg overnight to be 92.9Kg, first time under 93 this year.

Back to more expected 93.5Kg today.

Yeah, that tends to happen as the temperature drops and the nights set in, does it not..?

You'll lose a good chunk of mass overnight through dehydration - 1.5kg isn't unusual for me, but with a history of congestion I tend to breathe through my mouth which probably doesn't help.

Also note that mass will vary daily with stomach / digestive system contents, hydration and various other factors so it pays not to read too much into daily figures. I chuck mine into a spreadsheet and average them over seven days to get a more stable picture of what's going on.

Good luck with the snacks - if you can wean yourself off the hard stuff I find flavoured greek yoghurt with fruit is a nice treat (admittedly less easy to find domestic stuff at this time of year), while I've been absolutely smashing carrots and hummous of late too

 

[YMFB]

I’m now 89.6 kgs, for the first time decades less than 90 kgs. My exercise has been a little haphazard with work and holiday, but Im getting a few longer rides in. A 105 miles a few weeks ago and two more over 50 since with another planned for this weekend. I’ve started using my spin bike in the garage, less than an hour at a time, that needs to increase.

 

[wakemalcolm]

Just when you thought the science was dragging us all in 1 direction.....
https://theconversation.com/fat-but-fit-what-the-latest-study-reveals-265305
Having said that, I don't see anyone on here expressing a desire to be on the danger side of ideal.

 

[ColinJ]

While it's undeniable that my diet's degraded (at least from the perspective of driving towards weight loss) t's worth noting that I started taking c 5g of creatine daily about six weeks ago, so some of the weight gain can potentially be ascribed to this.

I have started on 5g creatine daily too and have also noticed a slight weight increase. (I am now hovering just below 80 kg.)

I don't mind as long as it doesn't go much higher than that. I want to try to get 5 kg off by next spring.

Over this year my weight loss has stalled, but I haven't gone back to the wild fluctuations that I used to see so no problems there.

I have probably been having a few too many snacks. Cutting down on them should let me average a loss of about 0.4 kg/week through the winter and finally reach my target of 73-75 kg.