TL;DR: swapped brewing tackle, ate more, exercised less.
I don't expect anyone to read this. In fact, I know none of you will. I just wanted to share my joy; and this sub required me to post a text body to post the title. So... here goes!
Mid-December of last year I decided to change a few things to see if it worked. Spoiler alert... it did!
The first thing I did was STOP weighing myself, and just followed my weight loss plan.
I knew I was good at numbers. And I knew that the numbers SHOULD work. So I decided to ignore the scales. They could be wrong, and if they were, the incorrect over weighing would make me give up.
Next up was the weight loss plan. It was simple: CICO.
I needed to find a way to CLOSELY monitor my calories, so I went onto a "meal replacement" product. Basically, it's low-carb high protein shakes. This was good for me because I'm diabetic, and a grazer. (basically... carbs are bad. M-kay?!"
If I could portion out ≈ five 400cal meals, I would have enough to keep me going, and with a ≈ 700 calorie deficit each day on top of that too! (my TDEE is 2700 approx.).
I used to hate cooking, so I would cook three large meals a day and graze between. But... Thanks to this constant supply of food, I stopped grazing. It was as if my gut shrank because it knew it didn't have to stretch to hold large meals. I literally started to eat more... or so my gut thought!
On top of this I decided to cut out all milk and 75% of the sugar in my brews. It turns out that five lots of half litre brews with a total of 20-30 sugar cubes and half a liter full fat milk (between them) equated to ≈ 1000 calories. So, I changed to fruit/herbal tea and dropped the sugar to two cubes a brew; and that ≈ 1000 a day is now ≈ 160. Don't get me wrong... it wasn't an immediate change. I dropped the sugar by one cube per brew, every two days.
It's true what they say... the little changes add up!
So... so far there is a weekly ≈ 3500 calorie deficit on the meals, plus ≈ 5,800 off the brews. That's over four days worth of calories saved each week!
I also decided to walk more. Mostly an hour or so at night just before bed.
So far... so good.
It's a few months since I began, and I just bought a bike. This is hopefully going to be good, low impact exercise on my arthritic knees. I got it because I know that soon, I will have to exercise more. My weight loss will plateau out, and I will have to either eat less, or exercise more. And, because I like food...a lot... I decided to exercise more.
Don't worry though; I am in regular talks with my Doc, and other healthcare professionals. They are all aware of my changes, and Doc will run tests and numbers every four months for me, to monitor things.
Here are a few things I didn't expect:
- Because I was now eating smaller, more regular meals, I was never hungry.
- Because I shrunk my stomach, my "cheat" meals were only small, but oh so satisfying! (mostly full English breakfasts minus the beans, bread, and tommies)
- Muscle definition, pokey out veins, better breathing, more stamina, happier... all quality of life improvements. (seriously. I had no idea how bad I was!)
- My doc has measured "normal" blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar (among other things) for the first time... ever. She even had me do them thrice because she thought there was some sort of cock up in the lab. lol
Anyway... when I finally get to a good body fat percentage, or I get to a place where I am happy, I will reassess my meal plan and exercise routine. This all seems like hard numbers, but it's only short term, until I get into a new healthier lifestyle.
Famous last words time: "I wish I had done this sooner!"
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