Time for diet and exercise!

[Aractus]

The long procrastination over me loosing weight this year is finally over.

Last year (2012) I went on a diet in the winter, I did no additional exercise, and over about 12 weeks despite still snacking way too much I lost 9 or 10 kilos.

This year there will be a similar crash diet that actually began today. FYI those who think crash diets are bad, don't work, unhealthy or otherwise unhelpful either do not understand how they work, or haven't tried them.

The meal plan.

Last year I effectively eliminated lunch, and eliminated energy drinks (red bull, etc) and eliminated alcohol, and eliminated fast food.

Next year will be similar, but with a more focused plan. I am again eliminating all energy drinks, soft drinks with sugar, alcohol and fast food (well most fast food anyway), and additionally throughout Jan I will trial eliminating bread too (even though I eat wheat bread), I will also eliminate unhealthy snacks which I didn't do last year. 7PM will be my final cut off time for food (so no snacks, etc after 7PM/dinner).

So very similar to last year, but this time I'm counting the calories. Consequently I will be consuming significantly less calories. Last year I did it in the dead of winter, as I consume about 2kg water per day more in summer, this will make it even easier.

This year I'm going to stop drinking Large Flat Whites altogether (224 calories), and permanently substitute it for Long Blacks (2 calories). I don't even really like Flat Whites, so it'll be easy.

The diet:

Breakfast: bowl of cereal with skim milk (avg. 210 calories). Glass of water.
Morning Tea: 2-3x hardboiled eggs + (large) glass of skim milk (300-380 calories).
5x Glasses of water.
11-11.30: Cup of coffee (2 calories).
2x Glasses of water.
Afternoon Tea (/lunch): piece of fruit (avg. 105 calories).
5x Glasses of water.
Dinner: whatever (~500 up to 1000 calories).
3-4x Glasses of water.

Calories before dinner not to exceed 750. Yep, that's what a full crash diet looks like. So with a regular "healthy" dinner, I'll be consuming 1200 calories, which is less than 1/2 the average daily requirement for men.

Before you ask, no, you don't get hungry on a diet like this, it's incredibly easy to maintain. The number of calories I ate yesterday were about 900 or so (at the most), and I wasn't even officially starting my diet. If you drink as much water as I do (avg 5 kilos/day in summer) then you'll find it fills your stomach (it also stretches it out and makes it easy to binge-eat when you want to as a bonus).

Exercise regime:

Last year I did no additional exercise. This is because the diet is easy and takes care of itself, you don't have to assign any additional time to it, and you need to make little-to-no effort. It's difficult to keep motivated for this, so I am fully aware that I may fail at following my plan here, but I already know I don't need to do it anyway, so for the moment it's the plan and if I give up on it, well, I'll still loose at least 1kg/week for the next 3 months.

This year will be a weight-training regime at home for 1 hour a day (I'm pretty slow at doing it, so I need to allocate 1 hour). I started on this yesterday. I will be trialling doing it in the mornings and seeing whether I prefer this to the evenings.

The Goal:

Last year I slimmed down to 72kg, and then maintained my weight at around 74kg. This year I'm starting slightly heavier (since I procrastinated), my starting weight is 84kg. The goal weight will be 68 kilos, and the timeframe expected to reach this is 3 months (approx 13 weeks). Whatever my weight stabilizes at again, I don't care!

[Darth]

Good luck,

I went no carb, and lost a lot of weight (the running, lack of snacking, bodyweight exercise… all helped as well) over the first 6 months of this year (26ish kg total), go nuts mate. Yeah cutting the crap (soft drinks and red bull) makes you feel a lot better, I didn't cut them initially (just went the sugar free versions) but when I did... yeah you definitely feel better without them.

Though I don't think you'll see much gains from the weight training if your calorie intake is a mere 50% of your maintenance level. I'm on 2700 at the moment (at 79 kg). With the amount of exercise I'm doing that intake has kept me at exactly the same weight over the last 3 months (with muscle gains, and therefore fat loss though cause I'm a newbie to the weight room and can pull that off).

84->68 … 24kg in 13 weeks? Nearly 2kg a week is a lofty goal.

[Dragonetti]

The food out here in Afghanistan is horrible. I cant wait to be back in the states!

[Aractus]

Though I don't think you'll see much gains from the weight training if your calorie intake is a mere 50% of your maintenance level. I'm on 2700 at the moment (at 79 kg). With the amount of exercise I'm doing that intake has kept me at exactly the same weight over the last 3 months (with muscle gains, and therefore fat loss though cause I'm a newbie to the weight room and can pull that off).

84->68 … 24kg in 13 weeks? Nearly 2kg a week is a lofty goal.

No, 1.25kg/week. I don't expect to loose more than 1.5kg a week.

Weight training is the fastest way to burn calories, I'm not trying to bulk up further.

Number of calories today (31/12/2013): Breakfast: 210 calories, Lunch: 250 calories, Dinner: 570 calories. Total: 1030 calories. I just finished my dinner (salmon + salad) - couldn't even finish the salad and I feel bloated!

[Aractus]

Total water drunk today (taking into account the further 2 cups I'll have between now and bed time): 3.5L. Although take into account that I did spend almost all the day inside except for training and walking the dog, hence I drank less than usual.

I went no carb, and lost a lot of weight (the running, lack of snacking, bodyweight exercise… all helped as well) over the first 6 months of this year (26ish kg total), go nuts mate.

For the record, I can't loose 26kg without loosing a substantial ammount of musscle. I carry about 22% body fat (that's not a BMI calulation, it's a body fat calculation). 18.5kg. I want to loose about 16kg - that would (theoretically) mean almost every ounce of fat. I should be carrying at least 4kg of fat, which theoretically means that I can get to 69.5kg before becoming underweight. But we'll see. According to BMI I could go all the way down to around 60kg before becoming underweight!

[NoraBrimstone]

Crash diets are really bad for you. They fuck up your metabolism and you'll only put the weight back on when you go back to your usual habits.

Your best bet is to adjust your lifestyle permanently to include regular and a balanced diet. You'll lose weight at a slower pace, but you're more likely to keep it off.

I highly recommend http://www.myfitnesspal.com and their handy smartphone app for anyone looking to lose, gain, or maintain.

[BrokenQuill92]

I'm one of those horrible disgusting yo-yo dieters. I keep fluctuating between the size 10 and a size 16 disgusting I know. What usually happens is I get sick I lose weight I try to get better by eating better and I lose more weight and that goes on for about six months and I get down to somewhere between eight and a 10 and then once I'm feeling better I and treated myself I balloon up to about a size 14 and then I get scared I stopped eating I go up half a dress size I get horrified try to exercise it off and then somehow end up gaining another 10 pound. And the cycle starts over again.

[Aractus]

@NoraBrimstone: No they aren't, so long as you're still eating healthy and doing it right (they're unhealthy if you're not getting enough fibre, protein, water, carbs and fats). Weight-loss dieting is dieting to around 2000 calories a day (for men), crash dieting is when you cut those calories right down to less than 1/2 your weight-neutral requirements (or when you severely cut nutrients like carbs from your diet). The aim here is low sugar, low salt and low calories (not low carbs, etc). It's a very very easy diet. People who go on low-carb diets only loose weight because it reduces the calorie intake very easily - those diets are usually bad for you. My requirements are at least 2500/day (and probably closer to 2800-3000) to maintain my weight. This type of diet is incredibly easy to maintain, healthy, and doesn't leave you any more hungry than normal since you're never starving yourself. I get hungry around 11PM no matter what kind of diet I'm on, but I'm no more hungry today than if I wasn't on this diet.

As it's now 2014 (at least here) - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FYI I usually mantain my weight, I just overindulged last year.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

I also agree that crash diets that you don't intend to maintain permanently would just result in weight gain after you stop. But if it gets your weight down really quickly maybe it's a good starting point, but you do need to develop a new lifestyle that will keep your weight at that point once you reach it.

I watch my weight with diet instead of exercise, too, though. What I do is I only eat when I'm hungry (I don't restrict how much or what I eat when I do eat), this is my permanent habit and it keeps me at a good weight (IMO, of course). But I rarely snack, I don't eat fast food, I don't drink soft drinks, and I can't handle alcohol. My snacking amounts to maybe one or two small chocolates over a week. I know it's unhealthy that I don't exercise, but I do walk a lot on a daily basis.

[mostlysilent]

I just ride the hell out of my mountain bike more days than not and eat reasonably. Works well for me.