RickyR is a fatty! Time to lose weight BLOG

[RickyR]

Thought I'd make a blog to motivate my weight loss, and in case anyone else joins in. You might have noticed in my signature that there is a little graphic showing my progress.
I'm 182cm (5'10") and 94kg (15 stone) and should be about about 76kg.
I was 82kg in March this year and through negligence and laziness have just piled on the pounds.

So far i'm going to the gym 5 days a week and eating less. Any advice from anyone who has lost weight would be good.

I cut out the Fast Foods, Soft Drinks, Candy and goodies. I have a sweet tooth and love sugar.
have stopped with the alcohol again.

The only thing that I keep reading is that you should plan on a permenant change, and I don't have any intention of being alcohol free my whole life...

Anyone else fancy losing some weight for Christmas?

[ConfusedMe]

Good luck Ricky! Christmas is going to be harder... Lots of food, sweets and lots of booze...

[grahamw48]

Alcohol is a big factor. Lots of calories.

I'm 6'1" and 80kg....same weight since I started smoking at 18.

Down to 5 cigs a day now and no weight increase, but then I do exercise, am virtually t-total... and worry a lot.

[Englishman2010]

All the best Ricky. There's no need to completely abstain from treats, everything in moderation

I'm 6 foot tall, medium build, 10 years ago I was 14 and a half stone and decided it was time to do something about it.

Now I'm 11 stone, 31 inch waist and have a 6 pack. This hasn't been easy and has taken a lot of will power and hard work over the years, but I'm determined not to slip back into my old ways and eat sugary junk all the time. That's not to say I don't treat myself to a few goodies every now and then.

[lastlid]

Thought I'd make a blog to motivate my weight loss, and in case anyone else joins in. You might have noticed in my signature that there is a little graphic showing my progress.
I'm 182cm (5'10") and 94kg (15 stone) and should be about about 76kg.
I was 82kg in March this year and through negligence and laziness have just piled on the pounds.

So far i'm going to the gym 5 days a week and eating less. Any advice from anyone who has lost weight would be good.

I cut out the Fast Foods, Soft Drinks, Candy and goodies. I have a sweet tooth and love sugar.
have stopped with the alcohol again.

The only thing that I keep reading is that you should plan on a permenant change, and I don't have any intention of being alcohol free my whole life...

Anyone else fancy losing some weight for Christmas?

Keep it going. It doesnt happen overnight. It will work, but over a period of months. The gym 5 nights a week should do the trick.

[Pete/London]

Ricky, I am 5`11" and 5 weeks ago weighed 16 stone, due to age related laziness bad back, hip and knees and a sweet tooth.

I decided to do something about it as my 40" waist trousers were beginning to get too small and my coat sizes were getting bigger to accommodate my belly.

The Ducan diet worked for me, 2 weeks of protein plus low fat yoghurts and other dairy, no sugar, sweeteners instead. Most fish and shellfish are also Ok, low fat ketchups and cherry tomatoes every other day. You can eat as much as you like, it just gets boring. In the end i was dreaming of mince tart.

When I stopped I weighed 14stone 6llbs and have maintained it so far with the intention of having another couple of weeks on the protein soon. Want to aim for 14 stone. Since then I walk around London at the weekends and usually cover about 6 to 7 miles and 45 min walk most nights.

Also I have started to cook, when I started to check the food I was eating I was surprised at the amount of junk in it. I make our bread, cook a lot of cakes, and enjoy some vegetarian dishes. I am surprised the amount of energy I now have. On that diet you can keep yourself in check by just having a all protein day. Good luck

[sars_notd_virus]

Cook your own food and dont deprive yourself of what you fancy
if your doing work out in a gym, you should eat more so you build up those muscles and make it firm

good luck RickyR!!

[les_taxi]

Yes me too in the weight loss club
What works for me best is the excercise bike and cutting down a bit on high calorie foods.
I try burn off about 600-700 calories at least every other day and now take sweetners (yuk) in my many cups of tea
It's working though and I'm down to 12st 12lbs from 13st 8lbs
Another 12lbs to go and that should do it
I'm still having a couple of takeaways a week and not giving up on some ciders and beer a couple of times a week though.
I would never give everything up

[grahamw48]

You know you need to lose weight when your belt is now below your tummy instead of above it.

[subseastu]

The following is what I 've done / learnt over the last year, it worked for me but it might not for you. We are, after all different.

Protien shake and or high fibre cereal in the morning helps to surpress appetite and kick starts the metabolism, also a shake after any exercise is good to help build muscle. Small meals during the day but increase the number of them so that your metabolism maintains a level and isn't dipping through the day, I think this causes it to store carbs.

A brisk walk (say 7km/hr) for an hour will burn more calories than a running at pace for 30 minutes (I found this to work for me). There are two schools of thought on this. Some say you should maintain a target heart rate of 60-70%of your maximum heart rate for fat burning. Other say the high intensity works for say 30min at 80-90% burns more calories overall. To work this out:
Subtract your age from 220 (this is your maximum heart rate) now work out your 60 - 70% and 80 - 90% heart rate values depending on which method of exercise you find works for you.

There is also a thing called high intensity interval training. You sprint (or cycle or what ever) flat out for 30 - 45 seconds then reduce your pace to a jog or fast walk for 90seconds and keep repaeting it for as long as you can. Obviously this takes alot of commitment as it will get harder and harder to sprint etc at full pace the futher into the exercise you get. Normally do this to fail but aim for atleast 30mins.

Eat healthy - fish, lean meats, veg etc. Reduce ale (the hardest thin in my mind) maybe move onto wine or spirts to reduce calories? Reduce intake of bread, rice, spuds
If your feeling hungry trick the stomach by drinking water.

Increase your fibre intake but be careful of cerals in the supermarket, even the "heathly" ones are loaded with sugars, better off with the likes of weetabix or that one that looks like little brown sticks (can't remember what its called)

In 10 weeks I've dropped from 105kg (I'm 6"4) to 95-96kg, which I'm fairly comfortable with. Mainly by keeping reasonable active, not drinking ale (I switched to vodka and tom juice!!), increasing my fibre ( I very rarely eat any sort of veg) and trying to avoid snaking.

The trick is to make so that you don't really notice that your doing it, don't deprive yourself of things you want to eat or drink, just maybe cut down on them a bit, like half a teaspoon of suger in your tea instead of a full spoon, a pudding after dinner 3 times a week instead of every night. Simple little things like that. That way you shouldn't fall back into the old routine because your craving things that you've stopped having whilst trying to lose weight.

Hope any of that helps / makes sense and good luck to you mate

[subseastu]

Oh yes I forgot, its important when exercising to keep the body guessing. Meaning that if you do the same exercise week in week out your body gets used to it and you sort of plateu out. So try to mix it up a little. Go for a brisk walk one day, then rest, then go for a swim, rest then a bike ride. Then the next week change to order. The same is said for aerobic exercises. I train 3 times a week using 3 different programs. No weights involved only my own body weight and its high intensity stuff, resulting in 500 - 900 reps in 45 minutes depending on which particular program i'm following.

[RickyR]

Wow, some really really great responses. it's good to know that other people are in the same battle. Some amazing stories of how people have managed to lose so much weight and how to do it. I appreciate all the advice, and will take heed.
Certain jobs attract the challenge of dieting (truck drivers etc), and I know on the ships like subseastu it really isn't easy because you don't have a great deal of control over what is available and when something tasty is put in front of you it's hard to resist.

Now i'm living at home and commuting to the ship on a daily basis (wierd huh?) I can control a bit of the diet.

Englishman, Pete, Les and Stu, I'll try to follow in your footsteps!

[grahamw48]

After reading subseastu's post I've had to have a lie-down to get my breath back.

- But thanks from me also for the reminder about EXERCISE....so easy to get lazy at this time of the year.

ps: The 'brown stick things' are 'Albran'.

[mickcant]

I too could do with loosing weight, they say making love is a good way of burning it off, so in that case I am looking like putting even more weight on
Mick

[rusty]

Good luck Ricky.

I too am looking to lose weight (6'2" and 17 stone ), and I have recently been told I have high blood pressure so losing weight will help lower that also.

[subseastu]

After reading subseastu's post I've had to have a lie-down to get my breath back.

- But thanks from me also for the reminder about EXERCISE....so easy to get lazy at this time of the year.

ps: The 'brown stick things' are 'Albran'.

Albran - thats the one. on here its just kept in a tupperware tub so you never really know what your eating!! As ricky says its quite hard on ships to be careful what you eat as food makes up such a big event of the day. It really depends on the cooks, I've sailed with blokes who only really vary the amount of oil they fry stuff in!! Not really very good for keeping healthy. Plus stuff like fruit and veg starts to go bad after a couploe of weeks in the fridges so they become less and less appetising.

Rick try looking in Men's health magazine, every so often they do come up with realistic exercise programmes.

[stevewool]

i just lost a few pounds, taking all the family on holiday

[Englishman2010]

Good tips on exercise Stu I've got a bit lazy since I returned from the Phils at the end of Aug.
8 weeks to go till my next trip, so should be enough time to get toned up again if I start now. Nothing too serious, 10 - 15 mins a day.
60 -100 sit ups (25-30 a time)
60 - 100 press ups (20 a time)
40 - 50 bicep curls and shoulder extensions with a 10kg dumbell (15 - 20 a time)

Dont want to look like a fat yank when i get on the beach I must remember to pack my white socks and sandals this time

[grahamw48]

Come on guys...impress those ladies !

.

.

[Englishman2010]

nice one Graham

[subseastu]

Good tips on exercise Stu I've got a bit lazy since I returned from the Phils at the end of Aug.
8 weeks to go till my next trip, so should be enough time to get toned up again if I start now. Nothing too serious, 10 - 15 mins a day.
60 -100 sit ups (25-30 a time)
60 - 100 press ups (20 a time)
40 - 50 bicep curls and shoulder extensions with a 10kg dumbell (15 - 20 a time)

Dont want to look like a fat yank when i get on the beach I must remember to pack my white socks and sandals this time

Just read back everything i've wrote, it seems I talk a good job!! Truth is i've been a bit slack myself recently since i got back onboard my ship as they've dismantled the gym and its near impossible to exercise anywhere due to the vast amounts of heavy construction work we've got going on 24/7.

[subseastu]

Come on guys...impress those ladies !

.

.

I hope i'm wrong about what poking out the leg of his shorts!!!

[grahamw48]

No you're not.

[subseastu]

Thats put me right off my boiled egg