High in an ingredient called allicin, garlic can help stimulate circulation and blood flow to sexual organs in both men and women. However, because of garlic’s mood-killing smell, eat it in moderation. You can also opt for garlic pills if you want to bypass the mood-killing odour altogether.
Just thought it was worth a mention… ( Or copy and paste it, I am bored )
Hi all,
I should probably clarify what I mean when I say I lose some weight, put a bit back on and then level out at lower than I was. This is my weight chart from 2017 until now. I weigh everyday with Fitbit Aria scales and I’m looking at overall trends which is why I use trendweight to log.
I appreciate the comments and good wishes though!
Your progress is great @Liath 
Those ups n downs are perfectly normal.
The overall trend is consistently down.
You’re doing great
So it is looking like 16st 10lbs is going to be my starting point on Wednesday. Had a day out in Brighton yesterday seeing a friend. No Huel, but not too bad a food day. Grapes in the morning, pizza at lunch which I ate about half of and two chicken thighs with 100g crusty bread for dinner. I didn’t feel any urge to eat cake when we went for afternoon coffee and watched my friend eat a pain au chocolate instead.
Official start day today!
I’m planning to track my weight using my Fitbit scales and my waist measurement as a way of monitoring progress.
Start weight: 16st 9lbs (233.7lbs)
Waist: 39”
Chocolate and cherry Huel stashed in my bag for lunchtime, chicken arrabbiata made up for this evening.
this is what I do too, it’s worth taking the time for me 
Hi @Liath
good luck! I’m sort of in a similar place I guess, start weight 16st 11lbs, 42 yrs old, 5’ 4" so that weight is pretty heavy for my height. I’m calorie counting, doing an 800 cal per day deficit and sticking to a 1200 cals per day limit. If I know I have a social weekend or event coming up I prep for it by doing a fasting (600cal) day or 2 in the week beforehand so I have a little wriggle room to enjoy myself. I replace breakfast and lunch with Huel and eat a healthy meal in the evening, supplementing with fruit and yogurt and drinking between 2-3 litres of water a day. I’ve also started to try and go for a 30min walk at least 3 times a week as I have a desk job and was getting almost no exercise at all. So far it’s working brilliantly well, losing an average of 3lbs a week 
I hope you have a great 1st week!
Good luck! 
Sounds like we are starting from almost exactly the same place bar a couple of years and a couple of inches! It’s great to hear how successful you’ve been. It’s always nice to see other people achieving their goals and even better when it gives you the encouragement to achieve your own.
Off to a good start. Stuck to my 16:8 TRE yesterday despite not leaving the office until 7pm. Also stuck to the eating plan - Huel at 12.30, Chicken Arrabbiata at 8pm with a small bowl of strawberries. Finished up at 841 calories for the day.
As a reward I’m back down to 16st 7lbs this morning (231.4lbs) so a very encouraging beginning…
well done!
Good day yesterday. I finished up slightly over my 800 calorie target at 914 calories. Entirely due to being inspired to make my first ever Huel cookies. Oat and Cherry, at 120 calories each. I had one to test and the rest are safely stowed away in a tub.
They will be fuel for the gym later. Today will be higher than 800 calories as Fridays are weightlifting days with my PT and a normal session burns 500ish calories.
Otherwise yesterday was a chocolate and cherry Huel at 12.30pm and chicken breast dinner with fresh peaches at 7.30pm.
This morning weight is the same at 16st 7lbs but my body fat percentage has dropped 1.5% according to my Fitbit scales which usually means I’m holding on to water.
Happy with how things are going so far though.
Quick question for those who know more about this than me. Obviously 800 calories a day is below my BMR (which is 1570) and it won’t be a great plan to stick to that for too long, hence my plan to up my daily intake after 28 days.
However, during those 28 days, on the days where I’m weightlifting I need to be on more than 800 right? My weights session today burned 584 calories in an hour and was fairly typical (sets of 40kg bench press, front and back squats at various weights/rep ranges) so I’m thinking I should be upping today’s calorie allowance to more like 1400-1500. Anyone able to give me any guidance on this?
For reference my BMR is 1570 and TDEE 1883. I put my activity level as sedentary as I have a desk job and probably average 7500 steps a day.
I decided to up the calories for the day yesterday in the end. I finished up on 1413 which according to MFP and Fitbit was a deficit of 1281. I think this a sensible way of handling weightlifting days as 800 feels too low when I’m lifting.
Scales are exactly 16st 7lbs this morning so all in all pretty good.
Definitely. Depends on goals.
I’d stick to the advice that 800 calories is simply not safe. Maybe if you’re morbidly obese on a medical weight reduction plan, but for simply losing some pounds that’s more risk than it’s worth.
584 calories for a weight lifting session is A LOT. That’s sweating your way through a vest with wet patches on your back and liquid dripping from your chin territory.
I do a 1.5 hour routine every morning and estimate I hit around 350 cals or so. My Fitbit used to say 750 but after adjusting my calories to match this it didn’t add up and I gained weight.
If you’re only weight training, better to just do your workout and forget about it. If you’re looking to gain strength and muscle mass, eat ~1750cal and weight every day, track it and graph it and adjust accordingly.
If you’re looking to lose weight, perhaps start with ~1400cal?
The green optical heart rate monitors built into fitness trackers can be very inaccurate. They are most accurate when your wrist is dry and you’re not moving. Which means when you’re in the thick of a training session and most interested in your heart rate they are the least accurate.
If you want to be sure you would be better off wearing a chest strap.
I would also agree that 584 calories in an hour of weights is an over-estimate. I regularly do an hour on the indoor rower maintaining 800 calories/hr and at the end I am the sweaty slightly off balance jelly legged mess @GTIPuG has just described so I don’t think weights will hit those numbers in the same amount of time.
I used to have a Fitbit and found it drastically underestimated my total daily calorie expenditure, meaning I wasn’t eating enough, lost 1kg a day for a week then piled it all back on the following week due to feeling like I was in starvation mode.
This last year I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch which seems as inaccurate as the Fitbit was, and a chest strap (for exercise sessions only). I think, like @Coup, I’d recommend a chest strap if you want accurate an calorie expenditure count.
All the technology is just a rough estimate though, and ultimately you just need to track your weight long-term and adjust what you eat to match the rate of weight loss that suits you and your lifestyle.
The issue is with the underlining technology they all use so changing device is unlikely to correct huge errors in readings. There’s plenty of articles about these online but here’s some blarb I just copied and pasted:
All of these devices use light to measure your pulse. They shine a light into the blood vessels in your wrist, and then detect the changes in blood volume that occur each time your heart beats and pushes blood through your body. Sensors on the device detect how much light your blood vessels reflect back: Less reflected light means a higher blood volume.
Experts say devices that use this technology are pretty accurate at monitoring heart rate although they tend to be a little less precise when a user engages in intense activity. Interestingly, some of the makers of fitness trackers do not recommend using their devices if you’re solely interested in monitoring your heart rate during workouts.
Using light to measure a pulse is relatively straightforward when a person is at rest, but becomes challenging when the subject moves around. Ambient light, as well as the movement of the person’s muscles, tendons and capillaries, can all interfere with the measurements.
For this reason, heart rate monitors for exercise have traditionally used chest straps — which measure the heart’s electrical activity — or required users place their fingers over a sensor.
But in recent years, companies have developed algorithms that cancel out a lot of the “noise” generated by people’s movements, and allow sensors to measure heart rate even when a person is on the go.
By algorithms obviously this means the tracker will essentially be estimating your heart rate based how much light it is receiving back and however the algorithm is compensating for your exercise.
Personally, I don’t wear any of this tech. I’ve lost about 3.5 stone in the last couple of years through exercise and maintaining a net of 1500kcal a day. How much I need to eat and still lose weight (fat) was discovered over a period of time through trial and error. I’m now much more in tune with my body on how much food is enough and how much I need to eat after certain exercises.
The rowing machines at the gym (Concept 2 model D’s) do output how many calories you have used during a workout. This is accurate because a calorie is a unit of energy. What people aren’t aware of though is the value on the display is based on a formula which assumes the user weighs 79.5kg. You can’t change this value on the machine but on the Concept 2 website they have a calculator where you can input your workout summary and your actual weight and it will correct the amount of calories burned to your body weight, as if you weigh more than 79.5kg you will be burning more calories than what is displayed (although not by much it has to be said).
Depends on the machine. At my gym you can enter your weight, gender and age which makes it more accurate
