AHB Biggest Loser Challenge!

[matho]

At the end of Febuary I weighed 98kg, had a resting heart rate of over 80 and my waist was 113cm, by all measurements I was obese so I decided to lose weight and exercise. I now weigh 65kg, resting heart rate of 60 and my waist is 82cm. I did this by reducing my kJ intake and bike riding at least 3 times a week, taking the stairs instead of the lift and other simple changes. I feel a lot better, I sleep better and a good bike ride makes me feel a lot happier. To anyone thinking that they should lose a bit of weight I would say do yourself a favour and do it, once you start, it becomes easy.

cheers steve

 

[mosto]

I started the exercise program on Monday night after jumping on the scales that morning.

Starting weight (2/12/13) - 123.5 kg
Current weight - 121.5 kg
Short term goal - Under 120 kg by Xmas
Long term goal - 90 kg

No grog since Sunday night, snacking on fruit instead biscuits/chips and watching portion sizes at dinner. Half hour exercise in the morning, half hour in the evening.

Being as big as I am, I know the first few kg's shouldn't be hard to lose, but I'm still pretty happy with 2 kg in 4 days.

Going camping this weekend with a mate so beers will be back and exercise gone. Will still try to watch what I eat though, so hopefully I don't put it back on.

 

[Diesel80]

Chipped away a little more since Wednesday. For the official weigh in.
Started 102.x
93 even now.
In search of sub 90.

Onward and downward!
Cheers,
D80

 

[Bribie G]

Not surprisingly, very much so.

A British and Irish inquiry into BSE concluded the epizootic was caused by cattle, which are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy

Mate of mine is a vet at Forster, funny but we were discussing it last night as we are both Poms and miss the British Cheeses and the real oxo cubes that they stopped importing during the BSE crisis (check the label, OXO doesn't have any meat in it any more).
He said that BSE probably came from Scrapies, a sheep disease and they were incorporating sheep brains and spinal columns into the cattle pellets. Nice.

I'm grass fed all the way now, luckily in the Manning Valley every spare paddock seems to be full of cattle so I buy local and get grass fed.
NZ Westgold butter is grass fed, as is Woolies own brand if you can find it in the Westgold shaped block. If it's in the regular Aussie shape block it's probably not.
Quite apart from BSE that's really no danger nowadays, grass fed butter has an excellent Omega 3 / 6 ratio, almost as good as fish oil.



Now, back on topic;

My right knee siezed up a few days ago (bursitis / tendonitis) and I've been on high doses of Prednisone and have bloated out about 3k. I also have to have a fairly substantial meal or snack with each dose to prevent my stomach dropping out through my botty. And of course my exercise regime is up the shyte.

So I'll skip the weigh in this week, hopefully back on track next week.

 

[OzPaleAle]

I knew i'd been avoiding those scales for a reason..... 104.5kg

 

[Bribie G]

Fellas...what's your secret to gaining weight? (not sarcastic, being serious.) I drink a fair bit and naturally eat crap whilst doing so, yet im still 60kg on 6'0 frame. That's nearly underweight...

TELL ME YOUR SECRETS YOU FAT BASTARDS

I had a six foot skinny mate in Brisbane who just couldn't put on weight, we were both Rothmans Reps (non smokers actually) and when we went on a joint trip out to the country for a few days his eating regime was astounding:

2 full English breakfasts
2 counter meals at pub for lunch
He always stayed at Kilcoy on his run because he could get two Yowie Burgers and a family sized portion of chips to be washed down with 2L of Coke.
He had developed the knack of steering with his knees so he could eat bowls of noodles while driving.

 

[wbosher]

I had a six foot skinny mate in Brisbane who just couldn't put on weight, we were both Rothmans Reps (non smokers actually) and when we went on a joint trip out to the country for a few days his eating regime was astounding:

2 full English breakfasts
2 counter meals at pub for lunch
He always stayed at Kilcoy on his run because he could get two Yowie Burgers and a family sized portion of chips to be washed down with 2L of Coke.
He had developed the knack of steering with his knees so he could eat bowls of noodles while driving.

That sounds a bit like me until about a decade ago. I was skinny as a rake, use to munch on chippies, chocolate, KFC, pies, you name it, I ate it. Also, I was a lazy bastard who did basically no exercise at all (although I was a panelbeater at the time so was a fairly physical job) and drank a shitload of piss. For dinner I would eat massive meals. One example is when I'd have steak, I'd have two huge pieces of steak and a few fried eggs on one plate, an a separate plate for my chips because I couldn't fit it all one one plate, every meal was like this!......then I hit 35.....

Now I eat a LOT less, drink a couple of beers a night, walk every lunch time. Still skinny as a rake, but a six months pregnant rake. :lol:

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

Was 114kg (6-2) in mid-January this year when I had a Doctor's checkup. Apart from borderline hypertension (which I'd had for years, always promised to fix it by losing weight) I was also informed that since my mum was now diabetic I had 'family history' for the first time which pushed me into a whole new risk category.

I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old and finally got scared enough about seeing them grow up to do something.

My wife and I did the Dukan diet and I was down to 92kg by mid-May. Easily the lightest I'd been since my mid-20s when I was playing rugby, footy and cricket (42 now). I've ridden my pushie to work almost every day I've worked this year, it's a 25km round trip and I've clocked up over 4400km doing that. The ride has gotten so much easier since dropping the kgs.

Unfortunately this year I've also started to get serious about homebrew again, so I'm back up to 95kg now and about to enter my most troubling time of year with three work Xmas parties coming up and all the rest. It's going to be a lifelong battle I think.

 

[spog]

I checked my weight on the flash digital scales in the chemist shop.
Came in at 88 kg,thought I would do an experiment to get a proper reading.
So I removed my clothes,had a root,then a ****
Lost 1.2 kg,
But gone done for public nudity,rape and shitting in public

Next time I'll do it at home..
I

 

[argon]

For anyone interested in Exercise data logging, I made an AHB Strava club.

Found here;
http://www.strava.co...ussieHomeBrewer

Everyone welcome to join.

 

[joshuahardie]

this link should work better

http://www.strava.com/clubs/AussieHomeBrewer

so you guys roadies, or MTB. I am guessing road, with the amount of ks you guys have logged.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

and do you shave your legs?

 

[joshuahardie]

Well this just got awkward

 

[bradsbrew]

Guys Argon provided a link to a bike riding group/app, whichever fits into this topic. Please do not lead this thread astray with your opinions on bike riders, move it to the off topic and play nice.

Cheers

 

[brewdrew]

Hey guys,
Check out this app/website
Myfitnesspal.com
It is a calorie tracking tool, with a good database of foods. I used it and was surprised at how much I over ate and under estimated food volumes. I used a scale to weigh everything for a month to get a good feel for servings and how much to eat.

Sadly beer has calories, the good news is that you can include it in your diet/calorie budget. But you need to track it to know how much.
For example, a LC IPA has 156 calories (in the database). So if you ate nothing all day you could drink 13 beers and be under budget.


Exercising is an option. But diet is far more effective. A 75kg man would have to run 12km at 10km/hr to burn off a 6 pack off LC IPA. That is pretty much why I run. To drink the beer.

 

[donburke]

guys there seems to be a bit of finger pointing at the beer, and whilst excessive beer consumption can increase your stomach bones, its also the binge eating that goes on during the time of inebriation that contributes to packing on the fat

there is plenty to show that moderate alcohol consumption is better than abstinence, so sensible drinking is key here

i'll say what everyone already knows, moderation in everything, eat fresh healthy food, drink fresh healthy beer but not to excess and live an active life

read some bodybuilding articles, yes they will tell you that increasing lean muscle helps increase metabolism, but they also know how to feed and maniplate their bodies with bulking and cutting diets, in particular controlling their insulin levels through diet to achieve it. it will be hard to lose weight whilst you have high levels of insulin in your blood.

leave one meal a week a binge meal if dieting, have no limits, its good for keeping sanity and also shocks the system to help avoid your body shutting down its metabolism, if its a high carb binge, then work out before the meal

dont skip meals and dont ever leave home without having eaten breakfast (a former mr universe kept telling me this and kept on stressing how important this is)

 

[edschache]

dont ever leave home without having eaten breakfast

Working in an office makes this one a bit easier. I keep a stash of breakfast options at work and it's part of my daily routine. It's not exactly not leaving home without eating in my case but I don't let it get to 8am without breakfast in me.

Exercising is an option. But diet is far more effective. A 75kg man would have to run 12km at 10km/hr to burn off a 6 pack off LC IPA. That is pretty much why I run. To drink the beer.

Yeah but who wants to do things the easy way, we could all just buy beer For me personally I'd rather run the 12k than miss out on food/drink that I want.

Thanks for the link though, even if you're not going to reduce the amount you take in through diet it's still a good idea to know what you're taking in so you can match it with exercise.

Exercise wise, I swapped the long runs for very short bursts of high intensity interval training (3 x 30 secs each on a rowing machine and stationary bike - yes literally only 3 mins of exercise with 1 min break in between bursts) twice a week, with a bit of core strength to fix my back and a few free-weights for bone density. Still ride to work about 3-4 days a week.

Interestingly there is mention on this in the latest "Ride On" magazine, a cycling mag that comes out once a quarter. I haven't had a chance to read it properly yet just gave it a quick skim yesterday. I've been doing both long slow workouts and high intensity bursts which is working well for me. I find that Strava helps with the bursts as you see segments where you want to beat your mates.

As an aside the "Ride On" mag gets sent out to all members of bicycle Queensland as part of their membership. They provide insurance (not sure on the details but I think it's 3rd party insurance for cycling accidents), organise group events and push for improved conditions for cyclists. Well worth being a member IMHO. http://www.bq.org.au/

 

[shaunous]

I'm not an exerciser, I'd rather watch my energy intake and stay well under the average daily recommended. Probably ok if you work in an office on your arse all day, last thing ya wanna do as a tradie on your feet all day is run around the street when you finish work, unless your the new style metro tradie .

Even If you do work in an office, biking or walking home serves a purpose, I've tried but I cannot just run around or ride around for the sake of exercising, or head to a gym, ***** me to tears, tried the gym and found I was cheating myself just to get the hell outa there. Making yourself walk or ride to and from work, hit stairs, park up the furtherest end of the shopping centre car park. Forcing yourself to work harder to do the normal things, then actual exercising my be more tolerant once the weight starts dropping.

 

[edschache]

I'm not an exerciser, I'd rather watch my energy intake and stay well under the average daily recommended. Probably ok if you work in an office on your arse all day, last thing ya wanna do as a tradie on your feet all day is run around the street when you finish work, unless your the new style metro tradie .

If you're a tradie then you're probably already doing heaps of exercise. You could always take Snow's advice of doing bursts of 100% effort. Need a batch of concrete? Don't worry about the mixer, grab a barrow and a shovel and mix it as fast as you can. For laughs you could always bet the new apprentice that you can mix a load faster than he can

Surely if you're watching your energy intake and not having a pie for smoko then you are one of those "new style metro tradie"s.

 

[shaunous]

If you're a tradie then you're probably already doing heaps of exercise. You could always take Snow's advice of doing bursts of 100% effort. Need a batch of concrete? Don't worry about the mixer, grab a barrow and a shovel and mix it as fast as you can. For laughs you could always bet the new apprentice that you can mix a load faster than he can

Surely if you're watching your energy intake and not having a pie for smoko then you are one of those "new style metro tradie"s.

Haha, I don't part my fringe that covers my eyes. And I wear black on black, night bright greens, pinks and yellows, just a man staying away from meat pies, most days....

 

[bradsbrew]

Need a batch of concrete? Don't worry about the mixer, grab a barrow and a shovel and mix it as fast as you can. For laughs you could always bet the new apprentice that you can mix a load faster than he can

Not a very good way of mixing concrete, it really needs to spend time being turned to allow the chemical reaction to take place for both slump and MPA. But yeah you could have a shovelling comp or get the blend dropped a distance from the site.

I am a tradie that now works in an office most days.

 

[manticle]

Team sport is another option for exercise. Doesn't have to be unmanly/sensitive gym stuff - you can maintain your macho image with footy (of whichever preferred kind).

Also has social benefits.

 

[bradsbrew]

Team sport is another option for exercise. Doesn't have to be unmanly/sensitive gym stuff - you can maintain your macho image with footy (of whichever preferred kind).

Also has social benefits.

Your right Manticle, I have got back into indoor cricket and found the short bursts whilst batting are probably harder than doing an hour on the treadmill.

This thread has shown me that the way I was using the treadmill was in the wrong format.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I used to enjoy touch footy every week. At the end of the game I felt stuffed but at the same time felt great. Exercise helps both the mind and body.

 

[shaunous]

Was thinking bout playing rugby again this season, but likely I won't be able to run for a long time after the accident. I was an every game spectator last season instead of playing, if you want to lose weight, do not join a 3rd grade union team, you drink booze then you can sweat out.

Soccer good for exercise, many formats of the game getting around now, even in our little country town there is normal league, over 30's, oldies, 7 a side, mixed gender and then indoor soccer/futsal, so you should be pretty well catered for.

 

[manticle]

Futsal is what I play (keeper) and it definitely is a game that makes you fit, keeps you fit or makes you want to be fit.
Short, sharp bursts of intense, reactive exercise.

I play with a fellow brewer who weighed maybe 120kg when we first started kicking around. Between futsal, weight training and watching diet, he's lost well over 30 kg since we started (in our 4th season, 2 seasons per year) and is continuing with his regime and subsequent loss. Awesome to see the difference in physicality and psychology.

The weight sheds when you are bigger quite easily - when you reduce a bit , the results are less visible but the benefits are beyond measure so don't stop if you get from 120 to 90 in 6 weeks, then take 6 more weeks to drop to 87.

 

[shaunous]

Yeh I love anything to do with soccer, but I'm biased with that sport .

 

[davo4772]

The fasting or 5.2 diet is working for me. Eat what you normally eat for 5 days (without going overboard) and on fasting days restrict yoursef to 600 calories. No beer on those days of course.

Fasting appears to have some health benefits which is why I do it, the weight loss is a bonus.

Makes sense. We never evolved eating how we do. Regular meals 7 days a week. Was more like eat well for a day, go without for a day or two.

The Medical Journalist Michael Mosley did a documentary on fasting which is very interesting. He did another one on exercise which is worth a look as well.

Here is the link to the original doco,

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms

 

[bradsbrew]

This topic has been pinned. The health and well being of members is important and this thread has shown that exact thing.

 

[shaunous]

The fasting or 5.2 diet is working for me. Eat what you normally eat for 5 days (without going overboard) and on fasting days restrict yoursef to 600 calories. No beer on those days of course.

Fasting appears to have some health benefits which is why I do it, the weight loss is a bonus.

Makes sense. We never evolved eating how we do. Regular meals 7 days a week. Was more like eat well for a day, go without for a day or two.

The Medical Journalist Michael Mosley did a documentary on fasting which is very interesting. He did another one on exercise which is worth a look as well.

Here is the link to the original doco,

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms

Mates finances brother designed and runs some thing in Melbourne close to that, and I've seen in Doco's about starving the body for a day and it has proven to assist in health and longer living. His thing is a bit fancy, Himalayan Salts and grass shots, but asides from that ******** every Tuesday is a fast day, but you have a blowout day so you don't go insane and eat normal low portion healthy meals the other 5.
I'd have to be real occupied and busy to not eat for an entire day like his thing, but if you actually look at the high protein low carb foods you can stick to real low calorie days. Boiled eggs, turkey, chicken, red meat.

One thing forgot.

Drink shitloads of water, if your not thirsty, scull water, if you are thirsty scull water, keep drinking drinking water, aids in digestion and keeps the belly full.

Just incase some don't know, you DONT actually lose weight by crapping it out in the toilet, weight is burnt and lost via breathing, confused me when I was losing a kilo every 2 days and not going to the toilet, then done some research and I was using way more energy then putting in and breathing the burnt energy out (but that was wading through mud in PNG for 12hrs a day 6+weeks at a time.) scares you at first when your only going to the toilet once a fortnight though.