How To Lose Weight & Keep It Off
How I Formulated My Own Weight Loss Plan to Lose 12 Kilos in 12 Weeks
The Harsh Truth
Christmas 2018. I’m having a desk sort out and I find a memory stick in the draw.
“What on earth is on this?” I ask myself, and insert the stick into my laptop. It’s the photos from our holiday in Thailand the year before. I flick through the photos, memories come flooding back… but I’m not sure I recognise the guy my wife is with.
Sure he is wearing the same holiday clothes that I would wear - but he looks a bit… chubby? That cannot be me.
Urgh. This was taken for a local news story around 2016. Despite my folded arms trying to make my biceps look big there’s not hiding what’s really going on here.
“Babe…” I call out to my wife and she saunters over to my desk. “I found our holiday pics from Thailand! But you never mentioned how big I’ve gotten!”
“Well I didn’t want to say anything,” she replied. “But you are getting a bit disgusting really. Didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” And off she went, leaving me studying this thing in the photos.
I couldn’t have gotten THAT big! I took up cycling in 2015 and was putting in the miles… how could this be?
I went to the bathroom and stepped on the scaled. 98 KILOS! 98 KILOS! That’s 216 pounds… NEARLY 15 AND A HALF STONES?!
I was overweight. I had obviously been in denial. How the heck did this happen???
It was almost Christmas and we were spending this festive season in Mauritius, so I made sure to dump my gym and swim kits in the suitcase and resolved to work out how I was going to fix this mess of a body come Jan 1st.
Not A Doctor
Now before I continue - here’s the disclaimer. I am not a doctor. If you are reading this (thank you for stopping by!) and you are in a similar sort of situation to how I was back then, some of what I am about to share might work for you, some of it might not. But if in doubt go see your doctor and seek professional advice.
Where I’d Gone Wrong
Over my adult years my weight had bounced up and down depending on what diet I was on, new exercise regime etc. But though I managed to always drop weight when I put my mind to it, in the blink of an eye it would creep straight back up.
I pored through articles on sustainable weight loss on the internet, read cycling articles about training and eating tips for weight loss and slowly started to work out where I was going wrong. Here is what I found was keeping me from losing weight and keeping it off:
I was cycling regularly now, but I would tank up on calories before every ride with a big breakfast. And then there were the obligatory cake stops at the half way point of rides.
I wasn’t aware of exactly how much I was putting in my body every day. We ate out a lot and at home if I cooked something I’d just eat it all. I distinctly remember once misjudging the amount of mince to make a quarter pound burger Pattie and it ended up being four times bigger than it should have. I ate the whole thing.
I was complacent. Because I wear three-piece suits all the time people think I’m slimmer than I actually am. And I regularly get compliments when in and out of client offices, so I’d just let those feed my ego and tell myself because everyone thought I must be in good shape, I was.
There’s probably a ton of other reasons (weak minded, excuse making and so on) but I don’t want to depress you even further as you begin to dwell on your own reasons for having read this far. So let’s get on to the positive actions I decided to take.
The Action Plan To Lose Weight Sustainably
Tracking and Measuring
I downloaded MyFitnessPal to my iPhone and resolved to keep a food diary every single day. Without fail. I would log everything that I ate and drank. I set the daily calorie limit at 1200 (but this included deducting any active calories burned through exercise).
I set my Apple Watch daily active calorie burn target to 800. Previously for years it had been set low to 250-300 (and some days I wouldn’t even hit that). But this was more down to ignorance on my part more than it was laziness. 800 was not a stretch on my cycling days, but on my “off days” it was a real stretch but I would have to find a way to do it.
I got a pair of Renpho digital scales that also measured body fat, water, muscle and so on. I’d step on these every single morning at the same time and start to get a picture of my weight loss journey - when mapped to my food diary I’d be able to see where the spikes in weight were and therefore what foods might be contributing.
Dietary Changes
After a few weeks of tracking my food intake I decided to make just THREE changes to begin with. I figured if I went for just three and could cut them out for a month, I would then just add something else the following month and so on so forth. So I cut the following out for the first month:
Alcohol.
Caffeine.
Red meat once a week.
Doesn’t sound like much right? I wasn’t sure it was going to be enough either but after a couple weeks my weight start on a downward trajectory and from my food diary I realised that those three things meant I was actually cutting out a ton of other stuff inadvertently.
Drinking alcohol always involved needing to be munching on something else - whether it’s nuts, or crisps… or anything savoury I could get my hands on. So stopping alcohol altogether meant all these linked/associated snacks went too! I went a step further and only drank water from then on, so no soft drinks or juices. Unless it was a special occasion in which case I’d allow myself to have a Pepsi Max or Coke Zero.
Caffeine means tea and coffee. And I drank copious amounts of those. Within a week I must have had some impact on Starbucks’ share price. But then stopping drinking tea and coffee cut out the following: Sugar, Chocolate, Biscuits and Cakes. If I fancied a sweet treat (because anyone who knows me knows that I have a mega sweet tooth!), I just had one of those Go Ahead baked bars which according to the labels were way less fat than the chocolates, biscuits and cakes.
Going down to red meat only once a week meant my fat intake reduced because we were eating a reasonably amount of lamb (the fattiest) and in turn my intake of weight inducing carbs (potatoes!) reduced drastically as well. On my once a week red meat “cheat day” it would be only the leanest cut of fillet steak usually. However as I am a carnivore when all is said and done, chickens everywhere needed to start watching their backs.
Exercise Changes
The biggest change to my exercise routine was aiming to get my workouts done early in the morning. So many times you have the intention of working out in the evening, or afternoon, but a crap morning or crap day really helps you to “give yourself the night off”. Not an option for me.
I stopped eating before workouts. Even on long cycling rides I would ride “fasted”. I needed my body to get it’s energy from what was already there, rather than me stuffing my face and my body saying - “oh shit he’s exercising, I’ll use the stuff he just put in and keep the 98 kilos of fat in reserve for another time!”. I’ll admit lemon drizzle cake was still involved post rides though…
I started running. I was obsessed with closing my calorie goal/rings on my Apple Watch every day, so on my off days a bit of walking the dog for 30-45 minutes wasn’t going to do it. I used Couch to 5K and Zombies… Run! apps to help build me up to running 5km, having never really run more than a 100m before in my life. I ran a 12km within about 8 weeks of starting running, while out in Frankfurt on business. It was (and is) such a great way to get a workout in even on days when everything has gone to shit and you don’t feel like doing anything. You just need to put your trainers on and… RUN!
I needed to do some sort of workout session every single day. By only shovelling 1200-1500 calories a day, burning a minimum 800 daily meant I’d be anywhere from 700 to minus 1200 calorie intake. I ended up being in a calorie deficit for the best part of a year. I was fine - I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone and it certainly is not right for everyone, but starting to reconnect with my body I didn’t do anything that made me feel sick or that was instinctively of detriment to my health.
First Weight Loss Results After Three Months
12 kilos. I lost 12 kilos. That’s nearly two stones. My body fat percentage was down to 15.8 from it’s previous lofty position of 26.8%.
I dropped from a waist 36” jean to a waist 32” (you always measure 1 1/2” to 2” more than the shops tell you but that’s a story for another day).
I went from wearing L and XL tops down to Medium.
I had to throw out most of my wardrobe and get all of my suits altered.
My cycling times were getting faster because I had upgraded my road bike using the cheapest method known to man. LOSING WEIGHT!
Riding the Chiltern100 with my friends Andreas Stocker & Peter Bacher, 6 months after my weight loss journey began. I went into the race slightly over target weight (87kg) but after 100km in searing 35 degree heat I lost over 3kg in water weight. Recovering over the next couple days I stabilised at 85.5kg and have been maintaining around that weight since.
My relationship with food had started to change - I no longer was eating for the sake of eating, but was starting to listen to my body and what it needed, or didn’t as the case might be.
Keeping a food diary religiously using MyFitnessPal meant I could look at pretty much anything and tell you how many calories, how much fat, carbs etc were in it. So that meant I was making better choices throughout the day, particularly on days that were fairly hectic and I was having to grab food on the run.
What I had done - and what you’ll end up doing if you are inspired by my journey - is to make LIFESTYLE changes. Lifestyle changes are more permanent because they are a way of life. And it means that not only will you potentially lose weight, but because you are creating good habits you are more likely to keep the weight off too!
I’m Not Perfect
Nearly two years later and I can tell you that my weight over that time has stayed at a range of between 85-86.5 kilos. I have reincorporated tea, coffee and wine in moderation. Red meat is still once a week at most so that didn’t really change. I have reduced dairy - so where I have grown up drinking copious amounts of milk daily, over the last two years I’ve gradually cut cow’s milk out of my diet and substituted it with plant milks like oat and cashew. I can have a little bit of dairy here and there (plant milk really does not work in tea!) but I can’t stand the taste and in any case it bloats me so is a feeling fat contributor.
Kit Kats, Jaffa Cakes and Digestive Biscuits have all found their way back into the kitchen cupboards but again, moderation is the key. And I only allow myself the treat if I’ve earned it.
Covid and the pandemic it’s brought on us has been challenging. Spending so much time in Lockdown and all the stresses it brings as a business owner, it all eventually caught up with me this last Christmas and mid-Jan I got on the scales to see I’d bumped up to 87.5 kilos. OK not a big deal you might be thinking but I was feeling like crap.
But that’s thing - when you have created habits over a period of time it is really easy to just snap back into them. And that’s what I’ve done - it’s like when you’re driving and you stop paying attention and find yourself drifting lanes slightly. You just pull yourself back in line.
So pulling myself back in line I quickly dropped the kilo and half to get back down to 86. Easy, no drama.
New Goals
Realising that Covid isn’t really the reason, it’s actually the excuse for me slipping up recently, I’ve reset my goals. I now am aiming to be at 13.5% body fat by June 1st 2021, and I want to drop down to 84kgs. I’m not sure 84 is actually achievable for me because of the way I’m built, during cycling season my weight goes up due to the build up of muscle but I figure if I at least keep an eye on that body fat number the rest should take care of itself.
So the three things I am going to change now are:
3 HIIT Workouts a week to complement the cycling (I’ve stopped running for now as it’s getting too much on my back and knees. I’ve not been able to see my Chiropractor during the pandemic so needs must). AppleFitness+ launched recently and I am using this service to it’s full. It’s brilliant and I must share a review with you soon!
Red meat only twice a month.
Drinking: red wine only once a fortnight. Go back to only drinking water. Coffee / tea just once a day a breakfast time, no mid-morning or mid-afternoon caffeine breaks. Which in turn cuts out the other snacks.
Keep more fruit such as apples and bananas handy so when temptation strikes for a sweet treat I’ve always got a zero fat healthier option at hand.
Keep It Personal, Keep It Fun & Keep The Weight Off!
If you’re in a situation where you’re not feeling great, you are a little bit overweight and need to do something, consider following whatever aspects of what I’ve shared and don’t be a stranger. I’m always here and happy to talk things through if you need me!
Keep your goals achievable, take it step by step and at each stage just try to change 2-3 things, keep them going for a month, then see what you can adjust or add.
When it comes to exercise, do what you enjoy. I love cycling. I hate the gym. I’ve always hated HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts but with AppleFitness+ I am LOVING THEM and have so much fun. Do the type of exercise that you enjoy doing, that is challenging but not something you loathe every second of doing, otherwise you won’t stick at it.
Lastly - you have to track and measure. Measure where you are right now, where you want to get to and then track and measure everything you are doing every day, so you gradually build up a picture of what’s working and what isn’t.
Most importantly -you get to see where you are WINNING. And when you hit a big milestone, be proud of yourself and CELEBRATE your wins!
Now, I’m off to eat an apple and try to find some before and after pictures to show you that this hasn’t all been a complete work of fiction. Wishing you all the best on your new health and fitness journey to losing weight and keeping it off!
