Newbie Andy B from South Wales

1

Hey peeps
I hope you are all great!
I am new on here, have my first two bags of the good stuff and have been experimenting a little with my blender tonight before going on it tomorrow.

A little about me
I am 97 KG Male (41 yrs old) father of 4 young children under the age of 9 (9,7,5,3)
I work as a Sales Manager covering all of Wales (UK) therefore can knock up up to 3,000 miles a month travelling and not getting many steps in. Work can be a little stressful also!
Alongside the above, my wife and I have a Holiday Lettings business, Holiday Home Cleaning business (around 55 houses) and a Counter Service Laundrette in all we employ around 6 Full Time staff and 30 Part time.
As you can imagine, life is pretty hectic, I don’t get a lot of sleep and with the constant stresses of driving long trips, sales, personal businesses and young children, trying to stay on a stable diet and do some exercising can be tough. Sometimes it is 10pm at night by the time the lunch boxes are done as my wife tends to be working in the evenings as I take over the kids for her.
Docs have just told me my blood pressure is 160/100 last week on a second reading due to my first reading also being high a couple of weeks back giving me a bit of a reality check!
Diet wise, I am a fussy eater, eat too much bread (sandwiches on the road) and Pop to give me a sugar kick as I feel tired (a lot). So far so good hey?!

I need to drop down to 13 stone preferably (15kg loss) and also get some exercise in to offset my days sat in the car.
THE PLAN
Im going to try and follow this as a general rule of day…

Breakfast - Huel x 2 scoops with a banana for breakfast
Lunch on the Road (I get my daily food expenses paid for so may as well eat proper on the road) so will be the likes of Soup or a salad from a shop/deli etc (try and cut down on bread)
Evening Huel x 2 Scoops with Banana or Strawberries

Snacks Cup of Tea x 2 maybe and maybe some more fruit

Total Calories around 1300 a day

Evening half hour workout (cardio) from home x 3 times a week ( I am a life member of Team Body Project which are fabulous, I just suck at staying the course on it due to work and homelife)
Workout burn is normally 300+ Cals (3 x a week).

I need to succeed now as I am the heaviest I have been in a long time, my clothes are tight, I am tired all the time and unfit.

ANY suggestions are gratefully received or ideas. I am not an expert on nutrition so anyone with tips or think I am not taking in enough Huel for example please let me know.

Thanks for reading Andy

1 Like
2

Welcome!
1300 calories is quite a small amount - and you’re likely to be left feeling hungry.
I’d suggest starting with a higher target and aim to lose the weight slower. Your body will need somewhere around 2500 (you’d need to do some googling or confirm your height) to maintain your body weight, so even a 500 calorie deficit would have you eating around 2000 per day.
Good luck with your journey! Remember to update this post regularly.

3

Thanks Tom
Good Advice, I will try and up the calorie intake a little higher in that case, I just worry about my lack of activity Mon to Friday means I don’t burn so many calories if I don’t get a workout in.
I will update weekly. Due to work commitments, sometimes staying away for a couple of nights at a time, I will probably have to be intermittent from time to time as not so easy to blend and have ice at the ready for my huel.
I am also away with the wife typically for my birthday on Thursday and Friday this week so will have to try and just be sensible to get back to it on my return on Saturday. I just didn’t want to postpone my start for another week just because of an occasion otherwise the week after will be another excuse.
Cheers
Andy

4

You can always have slightly more on the days you do have the workouts (like an extra scoop or so), but I agree with Tom that 1,300 will be really little.

Having milestones (half stone loss or a stone loss) might help you with the feeling of achievement.

Also, with kids of that age you can have multiple options to do activities; so I would try to do active stuff with them for the sake of all (kind of out of the topic advice and sorry if it’s too intrussive).

Similarly, I would have Huel for lunch and a cooked dinner at home. I understand you have your expenses paid, but that way you can track it more easily. Could you not claim Huel bag as an expense?

That is more of a subjective matter though.

Good luck

5

You don’t need a blender or ice - I just use the shaker.

1 Like
6

Started on Huel last May, fairly inactive, age 60+ and I’ve managed to do this:
image

Using 3 scoops twice a day most of the time. Blip at the end was Christmas :christmas_tree:.

I get U/U and Vanilla mainly using the U/U with flavour boosts so I don’t get bored. Works well with :green_apple::apple::banana::grapes::strawberry::cherries::peach::mango::pineapple::coconut::chocolate_bar::peanuts::honey_pot::milk_glass::coffee:

Enjoy your journey to the new you!

5 Likes
7

Well done! I too started in May and managed to lose at least 9 Kg (down from 56 to 47). One and sometimes two 2-scoop meals a day.

2 Likes
8

suppose I could just buy bottled cold water but I cant drink it with just powder, I add a banana

1 Like
9

that’s great!

10

My weight loss chart over the last 3 months. I weigh daily hence fluctuations.

Graph%202

2 Likes
11

Well done you too!

1 Like
12

Good luck, I will say that I agree with those above, 1300 is probably far too little, your BMR should be much more than that.
As an idea, I’m 5’4 and my TDEE on lazy days is around 1700. That easily jumps to over 2200 if I am active, which is mainly from walking, workouts just add to this.
I would definetly suggest checking your TDEE using a calculator.

13

my TDEE is around 2300-2500

14

I would suggest not going lower than 1800 then. You could start higher than that if you want to just try to eat less than your tdee. It is better to lose weight slowly and hèlp to avoid potential issues like a relapse into old habits.

2 Likes