Starting over (again!)

[Mark50]

Most of this is from my intro post, but to keep it all together!

I'm starting my journey today at 22 3/4 Stone (145Kg). This is my 'go to' weight, I always end up maxing out at when I give up trying to be healthy. The picture below shows 5 years of being maxed out, with a brief glimmer of hope in 2016 when I got down to 110Kg over 6 months before maxing out again.

This time, I'm setting myself a different goal. My initial goal is to get back to the 110kg weight, and I've given myself 12 months to do it. That's half the pace I achieved last time with the hope that I can find a way to do it sustainably. I'm very good at watching calories, but I'm rubbish at being sensible - it's 'all or nothing'. If I watch calories, I'll strive for the smallest possible number, if I bust 'yesterdays' result, the whole day is a failure and I may as well eat what I want! -- I know this isn't right but it happens eventually every time.

So my approach is different (mostly).

First the bits that worked last time, without too much difficulty:

• 12 hours a day with nothing but water (usually 7pm - 7am) - this is to give the gut bacteria time to recover.
• Decent pro-biotic daily - for the same reasons above.

Phasing in the following that worked well but will kill me if I try from the start!

• Walk 10,000 steps each and every day, 30 min of which are at a brisk walk (starting with a smaller number now, building up to sometime in Feb for the goal).

Stopping what wasn't sustainable

• <1500 Cal per day, <10g of Fat per meal (this was to target a specific gallstone issue I had which prompted the weightless). I would often eat around 1000 cal per day last time, sometimes less.

and instead:

• Target a gradual weightloss by eating less and more healthily (0.7kg per week in this case). Try to eat up to the target daily calories if I am still hungry, don't aim for minimum. Current target cals to achieve this is circa 2,200 per day based on BMR excluding activities.

 

[Mark50]

One month in, and time to document progress (for my sanity if nothing else!).

Month 1: Weightloss - 10.10kg, -4.7% body fat, -3.1 BMI

So far so good, not particularly feeling hungry, so very maintainable at the moment. Pretty simple routine of:

• Peanut butter on toast for breakfast ( just keeps me feeling full!)
• Anything (within reason for lunch) - this is my main meal
• Low sugar cereal for tea
• Small bar of 85% Dark Choc in the evening.

I'm also fasting 7pm to 7am, which is helping. I'm an early riser, typically 4am, so this helps normalise the lengths of gaps between meals etc.
Finally I am drinking a LOT of water. I find this really helps.

So far, so good, and happy with 10kg in month 1
My target is a more modest 5kg per month.

 

[SweetFannyAdams]

Good work - 10kg in a month is brilliant! I'm doing similar to you - I'm fasting 16 hours a day, from 8.30pm to 12.30pm - just water or green tea in that period. Then 2 days per week under 800 calories. The rest of the week I eat what I want. I'm trying to make this sustainable whilst losing some weight. I'm 5kg down in my first month, which I'm happy with

 

[Mark50]

Good work - 10kg in a month is brilliant! I'm doing similar to you - I'm fasting 16 hours a day, from 8.30pm to 12.30pm - just water or green tea in that period. Then 2 days per week under 800 calories. The rest of the week I eat what I want. I'm trying to make this sustainable whilst losing some weight. I'm 5kg down in my first month, which I'm happy with

That's awesome! I admit I'd struggle with the fasting days, so trying to just eat less and not really think about food too much! It's typical that all you think about when you can't eat is food!

I found that calorie counting only makes you think about food even more, so I have a set breakfast and tea and snack, so I don't have to think about the calories, and really just have what I feel like for dinner (where I do think a little more about what is it, calories etc - sorry for the northern terms!). At least this way I don't have to think about food for every meal!

Pizza Express do a lovely Pizza for 600 cals if you do have to eat out with friends - on my god, the flavour!

Also started ramping up the activity - walking for me. I want to get up to 10K steps a day by end of the month, but at the moment, I'm just focussed on 'closing my rings' on this Apple nag band! As simplistic as it sounds, it does help to be reminded I've need to get up and move a little more to hit my move target (currently set to 700 active calories for those who have the same).

 

[SweetFannyAdams]

That's awesome! I admit I'd struggle with the fasting days, so trying to just eat less and not really think about food too much! It's typical that all you think about when you can't eat is food!

I found that calorie counting only makes you think about food even more, so I have a set breakfast and tea and snack, so I don't have to think about the calories, and really just have what I feel like for dinner (where I do think a little more about what is it, calories etc - sorry for the northern terms!). At least this way I don't have to think about food for every meal!

Pizza Express do a lovely Pizza for 600 cals if you do have to eat out with friends - on my god, the flavour!

Also started ramping up the activity - walking for me. I want to get up to 10K steps a day by end of the month, but at the moment, I'm just focussed on 'closing my rings' on this Apple nag band! As simplistic as it sounds, it does help to be reminded I've need to get up and move a little more to hit my move target (currently set to 700 active calories for those who have the same).

I'm timing my 800 calorie days so they come when I can have a lie in, if possible - the longer I stay in bed, the less chance I have to eat :-D I am totally bobbins on the exercise front, so need to step up (see what I did there?) on that front. But it's wet outside and it's warm here on my sofa ...

 

[SweetFannyAdams]

Ugh, didn't sleep last night for fretting about this blood pressure thing. Have been this morning and it was high when they measured it, and I've been fitted with a 24 hour monitor. It's taken about 4 readings so far, but I got an error message with the last one, so hope there's nothing wrong with it. Every half hour during the day and every hour overnight. Fun fun fun. Anyway, my blood tests all came back okay - full blood count fine, no thyroid issues, no diabetes, no problems with liver or kidneys. Cholesterol a little high at 5.5. Off out for lunch now

 

[Mark50]

Ugh, didn't sleep last night for fretting about this blood pressure thing. Have been this morning and it was high when they measured it, and I've been fitted with a 24 hour monitor. It's taken about 4 readings so far, but I got an error message with the last one, so hope there's nothing wrong with it. Every half hour during the day and every hour overnight. Fun fun fun. Anyway, my blood tests all came back okay - full blood count fine, no thyroid issues, no diabetes, no problems with liver or kidneys. Cholesterol a little high at 5.5. Off out for lunch now

Sorry - didn't check back here for a while. I hope things are settling down for you! It's excellent news about your bloods - my Wife has Hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid), so I know what a pain that can be, so good to rule that out.

 

[Mark50]

Month 2 report!

Month 1: Weightloss - 10.10kg, -4.7% body fat, -3.1 BMI
Month 2: Weightloss - 16.20kg, -7.6% body fat, -5 BMI (to 2nd March)

So a total of 16.2kg so far, around 6kg in the month, so on target, but I have to say it was a frustrating month that had me in tears at times. The first half of the month was fine, slow gradual weight loss, the second half was a lot of up and downs. The diet stayed the same, didn't indulge at all, but for days at a time, it was up, up, up!

I *think* it might have been my body saying 'hang on here, we're starving, we need to hold onto some of these reserves'. I have not really been counting calories, having the same breakfast and tea, with dinner (lunch) just being a sensible meal, but I wondered if I was being too sensible as the month went on so I did some maths!

Breakfast remains Peanut butter on wholemeal toast, as this keeps me full. This works out at approx 400 calories based on some measurements last week (2 x 100cal for the bread and on average 200cal for the peanut butter).

Tea remains the cereal - approx 50g of Cheerios (190cal) with skimmed milk (100cal), and my 85% chocolate bar for supper is 100cal, so along with breakfast, excluding dinner, that's approx 800cal.

Dinner started out as anything I wanted, with a target of 600-800cal, which would put my daily total around 1,500 - 1,700 which is still below my daily target based on BMR of around 2,000 to loose 1kg / week.

Looking back, I started a trend for smaller dinners - Chicken and Ham salad sandwiches, on two 'thins' looks to be around 300 - 350 calories even if you stack the meat in there, so somewhat lower than expected, and bringing the daily total down to around 1100 calories.

On top of that according my fitness tracker, my average daily 'Active Energy' in Oct, Nov & Dec was in the region of approx 630calories per day for each month. This increased slightly in January to 680, but I've tried to be a bit more active in February, and it's increased to 917 average per day for February, so I assume I've used on average 300 calories per day more in activity than I had in previous months (which would track based on how much extra a daily 'walk' uses up), this would bring my daily net total down to around 800, which would explain why my body might want to fight back! That's not a lot to carry a 20stone lump around even in my new 'slim line' look

So for the last few days, when I'm getting my walk in (usually around 3-5K, 3K being about 40min, 300cal active calories, 5K being just over an hour, approx 500cal Active - based on current weight, heart rate etc), I'm making sure I do eat a bigger dinner, and I have to say it seems to be working. Contrary to the popular saying, 'More really is less' in this context - at least within reason.

 

[SweetFannyAdams]

Wow, well done, you are doing really well! Think you're right about upping the calories on more active days - that's a good motivator to walk more I was away over the weekend with friends and smashed my steps target both days ... but then probably eradicated any benefits with extra alcohol!

 

[Mark50]

Month 3 report

Month 1: Weightloss - 10.10kg, -4.7% body fat, -3.1 BMI
Month 2: Weightloss - 16.20kg, -7.6% body fat, -5 BMI (to 2nd March)
Month 3: Weightloss - 22.30kg, -10.4% body fat, -6.9 BMI (to 31st March)

So a total of around 49lbs to the end of March. I followed by own advice and upped the calorie intake a little over lunch - trying to aim for around 500 each day for the lunchtime meal, sometimes less, sometimes more, but as an overall average and it worked okay. I also met my target of an average of 10,000 steps a day (over 320,000 for the 31 days in March achieved), and that meant Active energy was up from 917kcal in February to an average of 1,200 kcal in March, so another improvement, and is now double what it has been for the last year or so.

As a result weightloss was a lot more consistent in March, less of the up and down, and that helped psychologically. Generally I also feel better, am able to walk further, easier and I feel like I'm starting to feel the benefits dropping 4" waist size in trousers since Jan for example.

Which is all good, and very needed, as weight was not the only thing I lost in March! Turns out I've been 'restructured' at work, and after 30 years am surplus to requirements. It will be harder to deal with this without my old comfort blanket of food, but let's give it a go.

 

[Mark50]

A bit of an interim update because I need to speak to someone, even if it is just myself

On a positive note, not having a job to go to allowed me to step up the physical activity, with a healthy 15K average steps per day for the first two weeks of April, but then it all went to pot. Dental Abscess :-(

Takes forever to get even an 'Emergency' dental appointment, so come Monday 15th, I had to resort to Co-Codamol as a pain killer - and even though I was eating very little, the weight just piled on - Codeine can cause bloating and slows the GI tract down; 3 days on that until Wednesday, and the tooth was removed (too badly infected apparently). The removal was horrible - it was a rear molar, and the pulling, cracking of bone etc was horrific, but it came out eventually, and the searing, agonising nerve pain vanished in an instant to be replaced with a far more tolerable dull throbbing.

Since then, not really eating a lot, so feel weak, very weak actually, and far from my 15K steps I managed only 2K on the first day. Too weak to do more, but want to rest until the socket has passed the risk of Dry Socket, so another day or so now. At least the retained fluids are going! I'll need to give it a few more days to settle down as I'm sure my body has no idea what's going on at the moment with daily variances in excess of 1kg.

Overall, I am missing the camaraderie of work, having something to keep me busy, and it's a bit of a struggle to come to terms with just being dropped psychologically, but at least the suns out now I suppose.

As of today, my total loss is 28.2kg about 4st 6lb, so that's a positive, and that's what I choose to focus on. I am just amazed at how much effect a small tablet can have on weight - and am in renewed awe of those who manage far more complex medical conditions and the medicine necessary at the same time. My hat off to you all.

 

[Mark50]

So, time for a monthly recap. April was a very different month for me - the first in 30+ years where I have not had any job for the month as a whole! This should have meant more time for exercise etc, assuming the stress of losing a job didn't drive me to food, but one could say 'the Gods stepped in' to ensure that wasn't the case - two weeks in and the most painful tooth infection put a stop to that!

There was a blip in the 'curve' so to speak because of the Codeine, but that seemed to recover itself once I got off the painkillers.

I also found a new app, that gives me a month by month reports, so I've included those going back to the start and will use that as the main one going forward - it's supposed to smooth out the bumps along the road

Overall (see the last chart), and surprisingly April was a good month. 7KGs down, same as March, despite being laid up for a week or so, but the last week in April has been a bomb, with only 0.6KG lost! Very flat! It should have been better over 380,000 steps in April against 323,500 in March (229K in Feb, 146K in Jan and 128K in December by the way).

It's a bit deflating if I only look back a week - doing everything, but staying the same, but okay if I look back a month, and I suppose this needs to be a long term goal so trying to keep chin up on that front!

Last few days of December:


January 2019


February:


March:


April:

 

[Mark50]

So, May's over and as you can see from the chart below, a very 'undulating' month (the blue dots), but another positive overall with a downward trend (the blue line) and a 5.7kg loss, which means I've all but met my original goal of 110kg by the end of the year! So time for the stretch goal of being 100kg by year end to come into play.

The diet has stayed pretty much constant, same PB on toast for Breakfast, any lunch and cereal for tea, but I've probably been having 'larger' lunches more often this month; to counter that, I've upped the exercise game somewhat, and managed just shy of 510,000 steps in the month, compared to 380,000 in April.

I'm also feeling a lot better, trouser size is comfortably 8 inches less than when I started, and for the first time in a long while, I can get clothes from a normal shop!

On the downside, I had some significant lower gut pain for about a week or so, as though I'd bruised by intestines by over tightening a belt or something one day, but that settled eventually, and it seems okay.

My target for June is to bring a few toning exercises into the mix, I'll report back on that

 

[ketokitty]

Love your diary Mark, you're doing so well. I hope June's a good month for you.