115 replies to this topic

[JayX]

Right, thought I'd kickstart the new forum with my log and hopefully encourage others to do the same.

Goal: Primarily weight (fat) loss

Progress:

Naturally, I'm a bit funny about putting down starting weight at the moment, I might go to edit this when I meet targets etc. Instead I'll log progress as time goes on.

March 1st : 0lbs lost (0 lbs total)
March 14th : 13lbs lost (13lbs total)
April 3rd : 9 lbs lost (22lbs total)
April 23rd : 5 lbs lost (27lbs total)
May 3rd : 3 lbs lost (30lbs total)
June 6th : 6 lbs lost (36lbs total)

I'm adjusting this going forwards from now, using the formula on physicsdiet.com which works out averages if you're someone that uses the scale every day. It means it adds a few pounds on to what you might see on the scale, but it's that bit more accurate and fluctuations shouldn't swing it much.

May 12th : -- lbs lost (27.23lbs total)

Methods:

Eating low carb/medium protein/high fat diet. Approx aims are 10% Carb, 35% Protein, 55% Fat. Similar to atkins, but no induction period and stricter carb intake.

Typical days meal:

Breakfast: 3 egg omelette and 3 slices of bacon
Lunch: 2 pork loin steaks, some canadian cheddar and mixed salad
Snack: Red bell pepper and houmous
Dinner: Gammon and a vegetable and pepper stir fry

Total : 22g Carbohydrates (5.6%), 107g Fat (61.8%), 111g Protein (28.5%) . Due to the eggs a few % gets lost in 'other'. Total calories eaten is 1,557.

The science of this stuff is insane and goes above my head, but any questions and I'll try my best to help or point in the right direction.

[*Lucy]

Obvious question (and a genuine query rather than a dig), but do you worry about regaining weight once you've 'finished' with the diet? Or is the intention to continue foreverrrrr......

[JayX]

I think it's something that everyone worries about, so it's always going to be a concern. I'm trying to avoid it by:

1. Never 'finishing', but when I hit a weight I'm happy with to only eat the things I know were bad for me in moderation and return to low-carb for 90% of my meals. A pizza every so often isn't an issue, but eating sandwiches and chips everyday is. I'm also cooking proper meals a lot more now and relying less on pre-packaged stuff.

2. Being incredibly anal about weighing myself. A lot of people don't like to do it daily because of fluctuations, but I found I gained weight when I wasn't weighing. Subconsciously I knew I was avoiding the scales, because I knew I wouldn't like what I saw.

3. Eating bad food was always a mental thing, I'd like to think I'll be a lot happier in general at a lower weight and won't dig into comfort food because I've had a bad day or whatever. Hard to know because I'm not there yet, and won't be for a while.

4. The booze will be the hardest thing. I can, and will, drink a lot of beer if it's in front of me. The last month hasn't been hard beyond a single night out, but that'll be the biggest challenge. Luckily I like spirits too, so I can feed my lust for alcohol without beer at least!

[*Lucy]

Cool. Good to know you have a plan. I won't pretend to know anything about the pros and cons of that type of diet (other than hearing a lot of cons over the years), but hope it works for you.

[JayX]

Yeah, it's difficult to convince both yourself and other people (who are naturally concerned for you) that the preconceptions you know about aren't generally based on fact.

The easiest breakdown is that humans lived absolutely fine on paleo diets for thousands and thousands of years, and it's only recently that obesity has been a widespread issue. It goes hand in hand with how the diet of the general populous has changed, being told 'fat is bad' and thus using grains and vegetable oils instead. Well, it's those vegetable oils that contain the dreaded 'trans fats' that really are the problem. Saturated animal fat is good, poly and mono unsaturated fats are good. Keeping your Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratios in check is the primary thing to be concerned about, but luckily I love fish and a can of sardines is 40p from Tesco. They're perfect for what I'm doing and ridiculously cheap.

I've got a documentary I'll try find a link to online that's quite good at explaining this type of diet, it's called 'Fat Head'. It comes across as a bit of a fast food shill at times (although that's not the point) but it's pretty well made for a low budget indie. It was basically an answer to 'Supersize Me', which allegedly grossly misled people with regards to his intake on that diet. The maker of 'Fat Head' checked his weight, cholesterol levels etc before doing 30 days of fast food - but importantly doesn't get ridiculously large meals, drinks diet colas not sugared ones, skips on the buns and other high carb items and checks out a month later.

Spoiler

Everything was 'better', and the reaction of his doctor is great and typical of GPs who follow the 'low fat, high carb' methods of dieting.

[Big mafoota]

Typical day looks good but that's a lot of pork dude, pork aint so great.

Since me and my wife were reuinited I've put the weight I lost back on. My achilles heel is bread and chocolate. I love them both and eat way too much of both.
I'm currently at 22 stone. It sounds alot and people are often surprised but I do have a lot of muscle naturally as well as a lot of fat so I'm rather more dense than I look.

[Amy]

Big mafoota, on 05 April 2011 - 02:07 PM, said:

Typical day looks good but that's a lot of pork dude, pork aint so great.

Since me and my wife were reuinited I've put the weight I lost back on. My achilles heel is bread and chocolate. I love them both and eat way too much of both.
I'm currently at 22 stone. It sounds alot and people are often surprised but I do have a lot of muscle naturally as well as a lot of fat so I'm rather more dense than I look.

Bread is also my downfall, i've started eating heaps of Ryvitas...i know they can't compare to a nice hunk of multi-seed brown but it kind of satisfies whatever savoury craving i'm having. I make them into little sandwiches, buttered with Pure spread (which i feel isn't crazy bad for me as it's fortified with a bunch of vitamins and made from sunflowers) as a a nice little snack.

Sorry to hijack your thread Jay!

[Chest Rockwell]

if you're trying to lose weight I'd cut out the meat completely. You dont need it and it takes longer to digest, so you're gonna be blocked up. get nailing the Veg.

3 eggs and BACON(???) for breakfast?

why not a coupla bananas and an apple?

[JayX]

Big mafoota, on 05 April 2011 - 02:07 PM, said:

Typical day looks good but that's a lot of pork dude, pork aint so great.

Are you saying that because it falls under the category of 'red meat' ? I wouldn't, and I don't, put much faith in the "studies" with regards to the problems with red meat. They're often disproven, and jump to conclusions based on the answers they want to get. Saturated fats are an easy scapegoat for these problems, and it's easy to believe because it's what we've been told all our lives. There's a good section in that 'Fat Head' documentary that discusses the research that was done in the 70s, and naturally all the papers on these things are available and discussed.

If you eat low carb, you eat high fat. It's not a high protein diet, that causes it's own set of problems. It's about replacing one energy supply for another, you have to eat meat that is naturally fatty and therefore I can't just eat lean cuts all the time. It's also cheaper to get the fatty cuts because the public is scared of them. More for me!

Amy, on 05 April 2011 - 03:02 PM, said:

Sorry to hijack your thread Jay!

Not a problem, that's what the threads are for.

I like bread, but I tend to rely on it as a food delivery system. It holds my meat and cheese and sauce and veggies together nicely, and thus easy to eat at your desk or whatever. It tastes nice but if I had the choice between the bread and what's inside it, it's an easy call.

I had a bagel a few weeks ago at NYD, at about 30g carbs that put me around my daily limit (I prefer ~20g but <30g is fine and buys me some headway), so I factored it in as a one off. The bagel contained a house brick of salami so it was all good

Chest Rockwell, on 05 April 2011 - 03:06 PM, said:

if you're trying to lose weight I'd cut out the meat completely. You dont need it and it takes longer to digest, so you're gonna be blocked up. get nailing the Veg.

3 eggs and BACON(???) for breakfast?

why not a coupla bananas and an apple?

That's completely the opposite of what I'm doing. Even if I wasn't doing low carb, why would I eat those fruits? They're known as 'natures candy' for a reason - they're packed full of sugars, which the body then stores as fat. Sure, you can lose weight by just eating small portions of vegetables and fruits, but it would be fairly negligable and you'd be depressed as all hell.

It's the 'go to' diet for people who don't know what they're doing, it mostly doesn't last and they regain whatever weight they lose.

[Amy]

JayX, on 05 April 2011 - 03:12 PM, said:

That's completely the opposite of what I'm doing. Even if I wasn't doing low carb, why would I eat those fruits? They're known as 'natures candy' for a reason - they're packed full of sugars, which the body then stores as fat. Sure, you can lose weight by just eating small portions of vegetables and fruits, but it would be fairly negligable and you'd be depressed as all hell.

It's the 'go to' diet for people who don't know what they're doing, it mostly doesn't last and they regain whatever weight they lose.

Haha Jay, I can tell you now...My diet is 90% fruits and vegetables and the more fruit and vegetables i eat the happier I feel. That is the jazzy truth. I'm not being a shit just to try and contradict you or being a hippy about it but you'd have to eat a FUCK load of fruits and vegetables for them to make you put on weight and I mean a fuck load. A woman in my mum's work used to bring in a bulging CARRIER BAG of fruit to eat every day, she was the size of a house and thought that she would lose weight by eating fruit but didn't understand the concept of moderation.

I think you can justify any kind of diet because every food has a good and bad element to it. If I was trying to lose weight I wouldn't rely so heavily in one food area (this coming from a vegan I know). No matter how many praises are sung about this diet or that diet what it comes down to is portion size. So long as you get a little bit from every food group and only eat when you are actually hungry then you can guarantee a healthy steady weightloss.

I honestly don't see any unrefined foods as bad for me so long as i'm not pigging out on anything. I'm not about to eat 12 avocados but i'll smash some guacamole every now and again.

[JayX]

Amy, on 05 April 2011 - 03:33 PM, said:

Haha Jay, I can tell you now...My diet is 90% fruits and vegetables and the more fruit and vegetables i eat the happier I feel.

The principal difference between us is, you're a vegetarian and I'm naturally very carnivorous with regards to my appetite. If you did my diet, you would be miserable as sin and me vice versa. If fruit and veg make you happy, that's awesome and more power to you. If I woke up and my breakfast was a fucking apple, I'd throw myself out of the window (If I ate it, I'd also be starving at 10am. Then what?)

And vegetables are great, I can eat shit loads of vegetables without them breaking my carb limits. I eat more vegetables than I ever did now, and probably more than a lot of non-vegetarian/vegans on this forum who aren't looking to shift weight.

[Dexter Green]

Jay - you're being deliberately obtuse on this issue. Nobody is saying have an apple for breakfast, obviously you're going to need protein within the first hour of waking up to ensure your metabolism burns quickly, but you really cannot go wrong with fruit. It's called Nature's Candyshop because it's fucking delicious, not because it'll make you spotty and fat. I don't see how you can be loathed to craft a low-carb balanced diet.

I think it needs saying again: Fruit is fucking delicious.

[Amy]

Dexter Green, on 05 April 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

It's called Nature's Candyshop because it's fucking delicious

[*Lucy]

Amy, on 05 April 2011 - 03:33 PM, said:

I think you can justify any kind of diet because every food has a good and bad element to it.

Word to that. I think it's also too easy to jump on what other people are doing in terms of diet/exercise and criticise it because it isn't what you (universal use) agree with or would want to do yourself. If Jay has done his research and believes this is a good plan, then more power to him. Personally, I think it sounds absolutely gakking, but am also jealous of the impressive weightloss.

Edited by *Lucy, 05 April 2011 - 03:57 PM.

[Andi]

*Lucy, on 05 April 2011 - 03:52 PM, said:

Word to that. I think it's also too easy to jump on what other people are doing in terms of diet/exercise and criticise it because it isn't what you (univeral use) agree with or would want to do yourself. If Jay has done his research and believes this is a good plan, then more power to him. Personally, I think it sounds absolutely gakking, but am also jealous of the impressive weightloss.

I'd agree with this. Jay's diet sounds insane to me, but if it's well researched and is working then there's no reason why it won't carry on working.

Fruit is still fucking delicious though.

Edited by Andi, 05 April 2011 - 03:54 PM.

[Amy]

*Lucy, on 05 April 2011 - 03:52 PM, said:

Word to that. I think it's also too easy to jump on what other people are doing in terms of diet/exercise and criticise it because it isn't what you (univeral use) agree with or would want to do yourself. If Jay has done his research and believes this is a good plan, then more power to him. Personally, I think it sounds absolutely gakking, but am also jealous of the impressive weightloss.

Yeah totes agree.

[JayX]

Dexter Green, on 05 April 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

Jay - you're being deliberately obtuse on this issue. Nobody is saying have an apple for breakfast, obviously you're going to need protein within the first hour of waking up to ensure your metabolism burns quickly

You think everyone gets a big dose of protein when they get up? If you have cereal, the only protein you get is in the milk, and what about people who just have butter margerine and toast? Or those who don't have breakfast? I'm not saying these people are 'right' (they're not) but you're making wild assumptions there.

Quote

but you really cannot go wrong with fruit. It's called Nature's Candyshop because it's fucking delicious, not because it'll make you spotty and fat.

Yes you can, and it's called nature's candy because it fulfills the same need as eating a chocolate bar. Also I like the 'spotty' comment, which is a complete myth. Besides it's not just low carb that says to avoid too much fruit, virtually every diet will tell you to be careful with it because of it's sugar content. It's not rocket science. Also, it's not every fruit (like GI and similar, there are scales of what you should avoid) but the specific example was 'banana' and that's one that I'm not going to have, and the one I specifically was talking about in my reply to Chest.

Quote

I think it needs saying again: Fruit is fucking delicious.

Regardless of low carb or not, I'm not a massive fan anyway. I like bananas in moderation, oranges are nice in juice (but not the stringy white bits in the actual fruit), grapes are OK. That's about it. Don't assume everyone likes the same things.

[Dexter Green]

I wish Jay all the best but it's been two years since he started the fitness thread and was talking about losing weight then. The only people I've met in my life that have lost weight and kept it off are people who have made wholesale changes to their lifestyle. I am sure we have a few of them posting here who can attest to it.

[topheavy]

Dexter Green, on 05 April 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

It's called Nature's Candyshop because it's fucking delicious

yup!

[Dexter Green]

JayX, on 05 April 2011 - 03:58 PM, said:

You think everyone gets a big dose of protein when they get up? If you have cereal, the only protein you get is in the milk, and what about people who just have butter margerine and toast? Or those who don't have breakfast? I'm not saying these people are 'right' (they're not) but you're making wild assumptions there.

I'm not making wild assumptions at all. I'm just stating that having a big lump of protein within an hour of waking up is the best way to set your metabolism for the whole day. That's just a hard, hot and throbbing scientific fact.