My (and your) big, fat ass
 

Actually, in my case my ass is still pretty buff, but the rest of me is enveloped by a carpet of fat that I was pretty fucking shocked to see in a recent photo of me at the beach. Fri-ten-ing.

I also have noticed what appears to be a pronounced gut developing. This is not how I want to spend the rest of my life. This morning my BIL and I went to the local diner for breakfast and I noticed that, at 6 feet and 220# I was by far the slimmest person in the diner. Every person in there, myself included was obese by any metric.

This has to stop now.

How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time. Or a journey of 10,000 miles is taken a step at a time. (until you get to the airport and discover that the plane is on a tread mill, so instead while you are killing time waiting for another flight you go outside to do a bit of squirrel hunting...)

So, one bite at a time. I began thinking about this because it always made me feel defeated, even before I started, to hear things like "you just need to exercise" or "join a gym." All very effective, I'm sure, but vague-sounding, and in pst experinces I'd work my ass off at the gym only to discover that I hadn't even burned off one snickers bar. And the whole thing sucked.

Out of curiosity, I looked up just how many calories I need to burn to lose a pound. (3500) and I thought, well, I could certainly create a 3500 calorie a week deficit without even noticing it. Much. And if I could do that for 52 weeks, I would lose 52 pounds. In theory. I know there are adjustments to be made as weight comes off.

So that's my plan, to reduce just one pound per week, or 500 calorie deficit per day, by a) watching what I eat, and b) cycling an hour a day.

This will be my weekly check in page. I aim to keep it simple and achievable. At 220# (nearly 16 stone for you bog trotters) 60 minutes of cycling at 15mph avg equals about 1000 calories.

I'm looking at this as training for this ride, next year. I did it twice in my 20s

photos:http://100-200.org/2012Ride.htm

Leave my big fat ass outta this.

Foot, I highly recco myfitnesspal.com

You can plan, graph, count calories and see your results.

Friend me, ill try to get in on this with you.

Yeah, I used myfitnesspal.com too. It was really helpful.

I'd also recommend that if you're only a bit over weight, you'll probably drop most of it simply by knocking off carbs and fats for a while. Those are the killers. Just eat salad, veges and proteins mostly with the odd treat every now and then. It's usually a very effective way for men to lose weight and pretty quickly too.

Good luck with it. I'll be back on the treadmill as soon as this little alien pops out. :)

done

I had my annual physical last week. Doc says my cholesterol is the best its been since we started watching it 5 years ago. <w00t>

I've been getting 4 cardio workouts per week this summer 2 bike / 2 fence. My weight is okay as I've cut my portions a bit as well. Do it as simply as you can.

I went with the "bigger engine burns more fuel" approach. Slow start, but seems to be working now. They key is doing something , something that you can sustain. Me, I'm no good at dieting, but I can work out.

My weight is not where I want it either. Just that I want to gain some weight, not lose it. 180cms 68 kgs. 5'11" & 150# I've found a few things that have helped.

First is to get a set of digital scales accurate to 100 grams. I began weighing morning and night and found that the morning weights were more variable so I settled for evening weights. I write each evening's weight on a piece of paper and keep a running tally. If I did something notable, such as a big hike or missing lunch, I record that. This fairly quickly clued me in to what actually produces changes in weight, and I could focus on those behaviours. You have to be careful, though, not to mistake a bit of dehydration or a belly full of water for a weight change.

The other thing is to actually write down everything you eat for a few days, then analyse it to see how much protein, carbs, energy etc you're getting from each source. Most foods have this on the packet, but for fresh stuff, the internet has it all. Estimating portion size is a bit tricky. This allows you to target certain foods as being helpful and others as being unhelpful.

I'm just gonna throw this out here:

A Jewish mother was walking down the street and as she passed a bum he said to her, "Lady, I haven't eaten in three days." She looked down at him and said, "I wish I had your willpower."

Zen, if foot uses MFP as it's meant to be used, he'll be recording all his food anyway. It's an awesome tool which calculates your calories really well IMO. You can set it to tell you what you should be having depending on what level of carbs you want to intake etc, and you can adjust it depending on how you're going with achieving your goals. I found it to be a great tool.

I lol'd was just on FB and this made me laugh for some reason.

I just joined myfitnesspal and find it to be very cool. It made me realize I consume too many calories. :( Gotta exercise some more this afternoon to get more calorie allowance so I can eat dinner. :neutral: Anyways! Anyone who's still using this site? Let me know and I'll pm you for your screen name.

I really liked myfitnesspal -- used it a lot before I got pregnant. The iPhone app was great for making me accountable to myself for what I eat, as I seem to have a selective memory when it comes to snacking. I've been told not to worry about cutting calories right now while I'm breastfeeding, but I'll definitely join back up once I'm done!

I just got a tablet, making getting on the apps really easy. That's why I joined. I'm that lazy. Explains why I have excess fat. :p anyways, recording all my calorie intake explains my weight gain. Doh! I've ate and drank through my caloric allowance for the day by noon today. :-/ you'd think a piece of candy here, a sip of juice there is nothing. Wrong, you just consumed more than 200 calories. :(

Oh Lola, you aren't fat. Most women would kill for your figure. Plus, you eat like a bird