Well that’s me in 10 days so far and I just wanted to share my experience so far.
I weigh myself first thing in the morning for consistency and on the 11th October I weighed exactly 288lbs (I’m 6’2") and had a really terrible diet (as a Sales Guy I’m out on the road a lot and spent my life in hotels/maccies)
Since then I have been strictly taking near 100% Huel, 2 scoops with 350ml of water between at 7.30am when I first get to work, 3 scoops in 500ml between 12 and 1 during my lunch and 3 scoops in 450ml with 2 tablespoons of Whole Earth Crunchy Peanut Butter (roughly 100 calories per tablespoon) when I get home from work around 7pm (as well as lots of water, black coffee and green/fruity teas). This means my total calorific intake is 1,412 (according to Myfitnesspal). Getting a bit bored of Vanilla now though so I’m going to get some other flavours for my breakfast/lunch, would definetely like to sample one of each before committing to buying them however.
So far I feel great, my skin has cleared up really quickly, no more spotty back/shoulders I have more energy by far and don’t procrastinate nearly as much when I have to do mundane tasks such as admin.
I also actually get up when my alarm goes off rather than snooze it 6 times like usual lol, don’t know wether this is helped by a better diet or because I’m smashing my targets at work and looking forward to being there!
A lot of people have mentioned a problem with crop dusting, I can’t say I’ve had a problem so far but that may because I had a terrible diet before and probably tooted the horn fairly often anyway.
Anyway, having gone off on a tangent, as of today I’m down to 278lbs (only 88 to go haha). I know this level of weight loss won’t last forever however I’m very pleased so far. Any weight loss gurus/PT guys or gals able to project weight loss over the weeks until xmas?
Look for the mathematical diet post. Download the spreadsheet. Really helps you set your levels, monitor your progress etc. Get some cheap scales. As you lose more weight the scoop just isn’t accurate enough. I found myself packing it and adding about 50g a meal
We’d need to know your age, bodyfat level and daily energy expenditure to work it out more accurately, but here are a couple of estimates based on you being 35 and eating around 1412 calories everyday.
If you have a sedentary lifestyle (sitting down all day with little or no exercise): 254lbs by 23rd Dec
If you are lightly active and do 1-3 hours of exercise a week: 246lbs by 23rd Dec
If you are moderately active and exercise 3-5 days a week: 239lbs by 23rd Dec
I don’t know if you are overweight enough for it to affect you, but you may not want to lose weight too quickly otherwise you could get excess skin. I personally wouldn’t want to lose more than 3lbs a week, but I’m no expert!
If you can do some kind of weight-training that will help, even if it’s bodyweight exercises at home, because it’s fat you want to lose and not weight. Losing weight means also losing muscle mass, which you want to keep.
Loss of muscle is a definite possibility, my regular osteopath found I’d lost a fair amount. Apparently for old, bedded in fat it’s almost as easy for the body to metabolise muscle mass and so it does a bit of both. I aimed for 1Kilo/Week which is about what I averaged. Except for the start where I lost nearly a stone in two weeks… I now take collagen supplements, a multivit and do a pretty intense home yoga practise which seems to have prevented me withering away completely. However that last 3 or four kilos just refuse to shift which makes me think my body has adjusted to expect 1500 calories, so running on fumes is my standard operating level now. So started some cardio at the gym - watch this space
Some foods are negative calorie foods and you use more calories digesting them than they give you in calorie value. The ones I know of are table celery, lettuce and cucumber. Do not believe people who tell you that broccoli and cabbage are negative calorie foods. They definitely are not. Their fibre is not as intense, even if you eat them raw, and they contain a good deal of food value.
I have more energy by far and don’t procrastinate nearly as much when I have to do mundane tasks such as admin.