Matt_C
Distinguished Member
Well, I didn't ever see myself posting in this forum!
I'm 30, 6ft 2, and last month found out I was over 18.5 stone! Yes, I knew I was overweight, but two things I never do; 1) check my bank balance in the cash machine, and 2) stand on scales
However, I was bought a gift voucher for my 30th from some friends in order to do either a tandem parachute jump, or a bungee jump. Reading the fine print, turns out you need to be less than 15st to do the parachute jump, and under 18st to do a bungee. Straight away I knew I couldn't do the parachute jump, but thought I'd be fine for the bungee - and a month or so ago was at one of the friends who bought the voucher, telling them this, who went upstairs and got scales; so I stood on them and was kinda shocked to see it was leaning towards 19st! Granted I was wearing jeans, shoes, and we'd just been out to dinner, but still!
So, first thing I did was cut back my eating. I've never had a great diet - I spend my days driving round in a van (I fit windscreens, and do a LOT of driving) and generally eat crap, service station pies, maccy d's, burger king, kfc, subway, etc. I'm also partial to the (far too frequent) kebab and chips! So first port of call was cut that stuff out. Next was to make lunch to take to work (ham or chicken salad sandwich, etc) and half what I would normally take to one sandwich or one roll instead of two, and no crisps, sausage roll, etc. Also not to grab the (again far too frequent) snacks from petrol stations and the like.
So a month later, I've managed to get down from, say, 18st 10lbs, to 17st 5lbs - which is great, but I want to get it down to at least 16st 7lbs, maybe even 16st dead. I don't think I'm ever going to be 15, or even under 16; I just don't have the frame for it (6'2" as said, big broad shoulders, large chest, I can genuinely use the "I'm big boned" phrase!) but I think I should be less than I am. My arms, legs (thighs and calfs) aren't fat, it's mainly my gut and moobs (and my face a bit, which has gone down a bit recently)
I tried exercise (something I haven't done since high school!) and that was an epic failure - I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I thought I'd at least be able to jog for 15-20 mins : I managed 3.5 mins day one, 4.5 day two, and day three my right knee was killing me (highlights the fact I must have next to no muscle strength in my knees!!!)
So, other than halving my food intake, and being more careful what I eat (ie, looking for foods with low carb, low fat, especially saturated fat - which is hard as taking sandwiches or rolls for lunch means bread), eating more veg and less potato, and trying to condition myself to do actual exercise (try to build up muscle and stamina for jogging, and I'm looking to try and go swimming on a regular basis - I am a smoker, and a fairly heavy one, which hampers my lung capacity severely), what else can I be looking to to try and drop the weight?
I did look at the "fad" diets like lighter life, dukan, etc, and although I see people dropping weight fast that way (our own Stuart here did 3st in 10 weeks) I just don't see that working fantastically for me, as I expect to put it all back on soon as I come off it - plus I can't afford the £90 p/w for the lighter life diet!
Tips, hints - magic secrets?!?!
I'm 30, 6ft 2, and last month found out I was over 18.5 stone! Yes, I knew I was overweight, but two things I never do; 1) check my bank balance in the cash machine, and 2) stand on scales
However, I was bought a gift voucher for my 30th from some friends in order to do either a tandem parachute jump, or a bungee jump. Reading the fine print, turns out you need to be less than 15st to do the parachute jump, and under 18st to do a bungee. Straight away I knew I couldn't do the parachute jump, but thought I'd be fine for the bungee - and a month or so ago was at one of the friends who bought the voucher, telling them this, who went upstairs and got scales; so I stood on them and was kinda shocked to see it was leaning towards 19st! Granted I was wearing jeans, shoes, and we'd just been out to dinner, but still!
So, first thing I did was cut back my eating. I've never had a great diet - I spend my days driving round in a van (I fit windscreens, and do a LOT of driving) and generally eat crap, service station pies, maccy d's, burger king, kfc, subway, etc. I'm also partial to the (far too frequent) kebab and chips! So first port of call was cut that stuff out. Next was to make lunch to take to work (ham or chicken salad sandwich, etc) and half what I would normally take to one sandwich or one roll instead of two, and no crisps, sausage roll, etc. Also not to grab the (again far too frequent) snacks from petrol stations and the like.
So a month later, I've managed to get down from, say, 18st 10lbs, to 17st 5lbs - which is great, but I want to get it down to at least 16st 7lbs, maybe even 16st dead. I don't think I'm ever going to be 15, or even under 16; I just don't have the frame for it (6'2" as said, big broad shoulders, large chest, I can genuinely use the "I'm big boned" phrase!) but I think I should be less than I am. My arms, legs (thighs and calfs) aren't fat, it's mainly my gut and moobs (and my face a bit, which has gone down a bit recently)
I tried exercise (something I haven't done since high school!) and that was an epic failure - I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I thought I'd at least be able to jog for 15-20 mins : I managed 3.5 mins day one, 4.5 day two, and day three my right knee was killing me (highlights the fact I must have next to no muscle strength in my knees!!!)
So, other than halving my food intake, and being more careful what I eat (ie, looking for foods with low carb, low fat, especially saturated fat - which is hard as taking sandwiches or rolls for lunch means bread), eating more veg and less potato, and trying to condition myself to do actual exercise (try to build up muscle and stamina for jogging, and I'm looking to try and go swimming on a regular basis - I am a smoker, and a fairly heavy one, which hampers my lung capacity severely), what else can I be looking to to try and drop the weight?
I did look at the "fad" diets like lighter life, dukan, etc, and although I see people dropping weight fast that way (our own Stuart here did 3st in 10 weeks) I just don't see that working fantastically for me, as I expect to put it all back on soon as I come off it - plus I can't afford the £90 p/w for the lighter life diet!
Tips, hints - magic secrets?!?!