Speaking from experience, there’s an aspect some people often miss after losing a bunch of pounds… it’s what comes after.
The body adapts. Losing mass means that, calorically-wise, you need less to maintain that same mass. To me, it’s just maths (energy input vs energy output), and it’s an equation that has its parameters evolve over time. You see a bunch of “1 month, 3 month, 6 month weight loss programs” on the internet… but in fact I believe a weight loss program should be planned to be a lifetime thing.
I agree mate - the good thing is up to now, when I lost weight through eating less I would continue to eat less because eating what I used to would make me feel uncomfortable. I get a lot discomfort if I eat a full dinner plate - I get my Mrs to put my food on a half-sized plate instead.
I have to get the weight down and keep it down - for the first time my GP has warned me that my liver won’t hold up if I don’t.
So true. I would change that to “all”. I am unsure that there is a huge difference between sugar sources of similar strength. But no question it’s a killer. I read a theory that America’s obesity epidemic began with a perfect storm of 2 coincident events: the closure of REAL school kitchens and the move to “low-fat”. Fat tastes good. So when you reduce it, you must replace it. Sugar is the first replacement. Sodium is the second.
The one thing about sugar theory that made sense to me is that the body expects sugar to come with fibre. We evolved with that expectation because the only source of sweetness was fruit. When the body gets the sweet without the fiber, it treats it in ways that I don’t claim to understand but scientist say that the reaction is almost purely harmful. And that harm exists in “sweetness”, not just sugar. That’s why sugar-free products are really no better. In some cases, they’re worse. The body gets more confused when the sweetness comes not only with no fiber, but with no energy either. In a panic, it stores calories and craves more.
I’m lucky in that I can’t have “sugar free”, which usually means added sweeteners - and those give me problems.
It’s actually very frustrating - due to the amount of morphine I have to take daily, I can’t drink much in the way of alcohol - a drop of Drambuie in my coffee or a shandy is the most I’ll have. But my local supermarket (Tesco) has stopped stocking lemonade with sugar - it’s all “sugar free” or “zero” as they like to call it, and has mostly sucralose, which is the worst kind of sweetener for me, as I also have a thing called Sjoegrens, which is where the bodily fluids dry up as well as the skin, which causes nasty rashes and itching where nothing is visibly wrong - and especially saliva and the eyes dry up. Sucralose and similar sweeteners make this far, far worse than anything else.
I’ve not found any 100% fruit juice. A few years ago when I’d been drinking apple juice (in the ‘healthy drinks’ section of the local supermarket) for over 10 years because I thought it was doing me good, I realised it had 14% sugar content and stopped drinking it, changing to bottled water as my sole cold drink - I try to drink 3 litres a day and easly do that and more when it’s warm. Over the next 10 months I lost 12kg in weight.
I do drink the odd shandy now and drink alcohol-free beer when I’m out with my biking buddies, but water is still my main daily drink.
I’ve been weaning my way off sugar but, man, its been hard. I used to eat a fair bit of it - often commenting that I didn’t have a sweet-tooth, but a full set of them. I am down to, mostly, just a small amount of chocolate and I try to watch what I eat and I have to get my carbs back in check (I think that they metabolize into sugars?).
It’s a struggle though. After every meal I have a hankering for desert.
Well done - as @Poneybirds says, nuts are a good alternative. There’s a “Grape Tree” in a nearby town and they sell large bags of cashews - which I really like - and I now go there and buy two bags regularly, along with their delicious dried cranberries (to go in my porridge and on my cereal/shredded wheat) and red berries and it’s far cheaper than the supermarkets. The cranberries list a high sugar content, but overall it works out far better than actually using refined sugar - and I still lose weight as I’m not using many of them per day, just enough to slightly sweeten the meal.
Okay, down to 101.9kg today - that’s 5kg gone, but I’m not getting carried away because I got to 101.8 a couple of weeks ago and a few days later it went back up a few hundred g.
I noticed that whenever I go out for the day, I lose more, even if it’s just driving or riding the bike, so I aim to do as much of that as I can in future. Well, while we have good enough weather.
Thanks - I do seem to have breached the plateau and now it’s dropped to 101.3kg so very hopeful I’ll finally break the 100kg barrier before long.
I’m not missing the sugar at all, which has really surprised me. I’ve been using jaggery in my tea and coffee at home, but on Sunday I had 3 lattés with no sweetening at all and they were delicious, so that’s given me a good morale boost.
…and there we go - stepped on the scales this morning and I’m back up to 102.5 - so in one day it’s jumped 1.2kg
I have my suspicions why, but it still seems a lot. Takes 3 weeks to gradually work down from that weight to 101.3 and then jumps back up in a single day. Depressing but I’ll keep on it - this has happened a few times and I’ve still ended up with a net loss so not the end of the world. Just a kick in the nuts.
Don’t sweat day-to-day changes too much. It’s just water, salt, your body working, errors in measurement.
Instead, take an average of a few days and observe trends. One of those new digital scales can help a lot with this, but doing it yourself will make sure you do it consciously as well. Which is a very powerful tool to achieve any change in self behaviour.
If you absolutely want to compare one day to another, use the size of your belt or your fitness when walking stairs instead. I find it’s a much better and more motivating way to measure short term changes. Especially in the beginning you might just lose fat and gain muscles. The scale won’t move a bit, but your progress will be incredible! Be sure to measure the right thing.
Oh yeah, that’s a given - I only log my weight once a week, on Thursday. I chose that day cos I tend to have a larger meal (still about half of what my Mrs eats and she’s not exactly big!) on Friday and Saturday and sometimes my ‘processing’ can be a bit slow if you know what I mean - I’m on meds that cause constipation and am on daily laxatives - and therefore want to avoid a misread due to that.
It’s just when I’m doing well that I sometimes jump on more often (it’s a calibrated digital scale with all sorts of things that can be measured if you input the relevant info).
I do expect fluctuations but normally I can work out why it has varied form the expected or wished path. This time I’m puzzled - but with that slower metabolism it’s just possible this is a hangover from the weekend.
Mrs during her exercise hour: ** I’ve been ordered to remove this photo - sorry!
edit: While I’m at it - this was us when we met, in 1996:
Ah, 1996. A good year for music! You guys look good!
You seem committed to the long game, that’s very good. Just like good rain it has to sink in slowly. Getting back into old earing habits is what gets me the most. Still trying to figure out that one.
Cycling is great, I want to do it more often. Right now I go jogging to keep a minimum amount of fitness, but I wonder for how long that will work. Love my e-bike as it’s a range extender and enabler. Too bad it’ll rain here now over the long easter weekend. Need to catch some sun rays.
Thanks - I can’t cycle, unfortunately, which is why I try and exercise using VR and getting out on my motorbike.
I have osteo-arthritis in my knees. In fact, if you want to make a list, I also have Reiter’s Syndrome, Fibromyalgia (after work accident), ankylosing spondylitis and my nervous system is so naff it makes the mind boggle. The outside halves of both my legs are numb and my left foot is clenched up permanently, (“make fists with your toes” style). I also had what was called iritis (arthritis of the iris) but is now called something else, which gives me headaches daily, mostly due to light sensitivity, due to the Reiter’s.
In recent weeks my right hand has become very weak, and since last week I’ve suffered a pinched nerve between my left shoulder blade and my spine, which has made my left arm from shoulder to fingertips throb non-stop. I struggle to do up buttons, hold cutlery (spoons are especially difficult and I can’t cut any food - even soft stuff - with a normal dining knife) and can’t even squeeze a tube of toothpaste, in addition to struggling inserting and turning keys.
So there ya go - the truth laid bare. That’s why I’m stuck at home almost all the time and can’t do - or struggle doing - so many things. Maybe also why I don’t have a lot of patience, though I honestly do try very hard at that. Now I won’t mention it again
I am so grateful that I can ride my motorbike without any pain and very few problems - it’s such a fantastic thing. I do regularly get cramp while riding and every time I get on and off the bike - but at least I no longer keep dropping it, like I did a few years ago.
