Diet and Weightloss

[Davkaus]

Congrats on your progress first of all, sounds like you've done a great job.

BMI is a fairly crude tool that doesn't work for all individuals, but for the general population it's good enough, IMO, it fails for athletes with an unusual amount of muscle, not the average bloke on the street. For a bit of context, assuming you don't have an unusually high amount of muscle, this calculator reckons you're probably around 30% bodyfat, with below 25% being recommended https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/body-fat

I absolute don't want to demoralise you, you've made some really good progress, but letting friends and family influence your weight and health goals can become a problem due to several reasons, either as you suggest just being normalised to how you looked before, or feeling embarrassed that you're making great progress and making them question their own lifestyle.

I think our perceptions of healthy weights have been skewed by 2 thirds of the population being overweight or obese. You don't need to strive for the bottom of the healthy range, but if you feel much better now, I bet you'd be feeling even better if you got closer to the top of the range - and if you do that you'll end up being one of the slimmest people in most rooms you walk into, but that says more about the sad state of our national health than it would about you being too skinny, IMO, your body will end up thanking you. But you need to set your goals, not your family, online calculators or strangers on the internet. You need to find a target you can hit that balances your health with a sustainable diet that leaves you not being absolutely miserable.

Edited 13 hours ago by Davkaus

[Colin79]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Congrats on your progress first of all, sounds like you've done a great job.

BMI is a fairly crude tool that doesn't work for all individuals, but for the general population it's good enough, IMO, it fails for athletes with an unusual amount of muscle, not the average bloke on the street. For a bit of context, assuming you don't have an unusually high amount of muscle, this calculator reckons you're probably around 30% bodyfat, with below 25% being recommended https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/body-fat

I absolute don't want to demoralise you, you've made some really good progress, but letting friends and family influence your weight and health goals can become a problem due to several reasons, either as you suggest just being normalised to how you looked before, or feeling embarrassed that you're making great progress and making them question their own lifestyle.

I think our perceptions of healthy weights have been skewed by 2 thirds of the population being overweight or obese. You don't need to strive for the bottom of the healthy range, but if you feel much better now, I bet you'd be feeling even better if you got closer to the top of the range - and if you do that you'll end up being one of the slimmest people in most rooms you walk into, but that says more about the sad state of our national health than it would about you being too skinny, IMO, your body will end up thanking you. But you need to set your goals, not your family, online calculators or strangers on the internet. You need to find a target you can hit that balances your health with a sustainable diet that leaves you not being absolutely miserable.

Thanks for that mate, it makes sense. 

I think it probably is just having got used to how I looked previously. My ultimate goal is 12.5/13st so still a way to go but I’ll get there. I guess it was just a bit demoralising to check that BMI calculator to see that 12.5st (which would be a 5st reduction overall) would still classify me as being overweight. 

To be honest though I’ve really started enjoying running, and whilst I’ve cut out alcohol (which I needed to do anyway) and the odd takeaway, my diet doesn’t feel too restrictive, so I’ll just keep going and see how I feel at 13st 
 

[rodders0223]

BMI is absolute nonsense. I think at 13 stone I'm classed as overweight. I'm in no way overweight. I'm actually a bit of a stunner.

[Rds1983]

6 hours ago, Colin79 said:

I’ve been dieting for about 6 months now and I’m just wondering how accurate, or how much I should be paying attention to BMI? 

Im 5,9 and over the years my weight increased to 17 and half stone, terrible I know. I’ve managed to lose over 3st, I’m  down to 14st 3lb now and feeling great because of it.

I’m not sure if my family and I had just got used to my previous weight, but they, and I think I’m now looking pretty skinny and don’t think I need to lose much more. 

Yet having used a BMI calculator my ideal weight is between 9st & 12st. The lower end of that is completely out of the question, i was probably in my early teens since I’ve been 9st, even the upper limit of 12st seems low.

I’m happy to keep going if it’s going to be beneficial to my health, but dropping another 2st seems excessive for where I am now. 

BMI is a very crude tool. It can be useful to help people realise they could do with losing some weight, but it's far from an accurate tool. The below picture gives an easy optic on why it's misleading when only measuring height vs weight.

Professional rugby players are classed as morbidly obese when they'd have very low body fat and great cardiovascular systems.

Be dubious of even the 'body fat machines' you can use, as even they're unreliable and can depend on basic things like how dehydrated you/how much water you're carrying. 

Easiest way to check how you're progressing is to take a photo once a week or so and see if you're looking better or worse. But even that can depend on posture/lighting/bloat.

Ask yourself if you're feeling happier and healthier?

[Colin79]

31 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

BMI is a very crude tool. It can be useful to help people realise they could do with losing some weight, but it's far from an accurate tool. The below picture gives an easy optic on why it's misleading when only measuring height vs weight.

Professional rugby players are classed as morbidly obese when they'd have very low body fat and great cardiovascular systems.

Be dubious of even the 'body fat machines' you can use, as even they're unreliable and can depend on basic things like how dehydrated you/how much water you're carrying. 

Easiest way to check how you're progressing is to take a photo once a week or so and see if you're looking better or worse. But even that can depend on posture/lighting/bloat.

Ask yourself if you're feeling happier and healthier?

Thanks mate. I’m definitely feeling better so I’ll keep going. 

Though I’m probably never going to look like the bloke on the left 

[Xela]

9 hours ago, Colin79 said:

I’ve been dieting for about 6 months now and I’m just wondering how accurate, or how much I should be paying attention to BMI? 

Im 5,9 and over the years my weight increased to 17 and half stone, terrible I know. I’ve managed to lose over 3st, I’m  down to 14st 3lb now and feeling great because of it.

I’m not sure if my family and I had just got used to my previous weight, but they, and I think I’m now looking pretty skinny and don’t think I need to lose much more. 

Yet having used a BMI calculator my ideal weight is between 9st & 12st. The lower end of that is completely out of the question, i was probably in my early teens since I’ve been 9st, even the upper limit of 12st seems low.

I’m happy to keep going if it’s going to be beneficial to my health, but dropping another 2st seems excessive for where I am now. 

I'm 5'8" and my weight has yo-yoed over the years. Got down to 10st once. I looked like I'd been in a concentration camp. Far too much on the weight loss. From my experience, my best and healthiest look is when i'm about 12st. You'll know yourself. 

[Xela]

On 02/08/2024 at 08:07, leemond2008 said:

Thought I'd drop in here and let you all know that I haven't fell off the wagon and face first into a bucket of Indian takeaway.

I've been quietly going about my business and I am on the last lap of my weightloss journey, I've dropped 7.st 2lbs (exactly 100lbs) since October.

Now that I'm at a reasonable weight I don't mind saying where I was when I started, back in October through sheer laziness and gluttony my weight ballooned to 22st 7lbs, (315lbs) going all the way back to 2014 when I was still in my 20s I weighed 19st, I'm currently at 15st 5lbs, I want to drop another 14/19lbs and then it'll just be a case of maintaining.

I absolutely **** my knee through running somehow and couldn't run for around a month, it wasn't like a constant ache or pain but when I was running it felt like the bottom half of my leg wasn't actually working with the top half and like it was actually being pulled off the floor by the knee whenever I got over 2k into a run, I sat it out for a while and I've got myself a knee support and I'm currently back up to running between 4k and 6k at a time with no problems whatsoever.

Over the last few weeks I've indulged a fair bit with breakfast sandwiches and crisps and biscuits when I've been round to se my Mom n Dad, its amazing just just a week of shit eating (nothing dramatic, no binge eating or anything, just not necessarily low carb) can set you back. I don't mind though, at this point I can afford to take my foot off the gas and I think I needed the little break from it, the most important thing is that during that time I was still losing the weight just very slowly which is fine.

I've also had to go out and buy new clothes for the 3rd time, my old man is loving it because he is getting a brand new set of polo shirts off me every month or 2 lol, when I first started I was XXXl (not far off XXXXL) now I am comfortably buying XL shirts which is quite frightening, I genuinely can't remember the last time I was XL but I'd guess it was when I was around 18 or 19.

Anyways there we go, I'm still alive and kicking and still going with the weightloss.

Bit late, but brilliant work mate! 

How tall are you?

I got weighed last week when i was hospitalised. First time in years and it was a bit of a wake up call for me. Not huge, but i need to lose 3 stone! No more biscuits for me. 

[mikeyp102]

12 hours ago, Colin79 said:

I’ve been dieting for about 6 months now and I’m just wondering how accurate, or how much I should be paying attention to BMI? 

Im 5,9 and over the years my weight increased to 17 and half stone, terrible I know. I’ve managed to lose over 3st, I’m  down to 14st 3lb now and feeling great because of it.

I’m not sure if my family and I had just got used to my previous weight, but they, and I think I’m now looking pretty skinny and don’t think I need to lose much more. 

Yet having used a BMI calculator my ideal weight is between 9st & 12st. The lower end of that is completely out of the question, i was probably in my early teens since I’ve been 9st, even the upper limit of 12st seems low.

I’m happy to keep going if it’s going to be beneficial to my health, but dropping another 2st seems excessive for where I am now. 

BMI is a terrible measure, unfortunately the NHS use it religiously as their “healthy” marker, despite reports showing its lack of relevance. 
I wouldn’t use it to go off. 
Im the same height as you, I was nearly 16st at my biggest last yr, I lost 3.5st (put in about 1st since). If I went below 12st I’d look ridiculous and too skinny, yet as you say that the high amount on BMI.

[Risso]

BMI's not perfect, but for most people it's a handy guide. If you're 6 foot, weigh 16 stone and your BMI is 35 then if you're NOT a professional rugby player or body builder, you probably could do with losing a bit of weight.

[Stevo985]

BMI is ok for an average person with an average build. Agree on the above that as a rough guide it's ok. but nothing more than that.

I worked out that at 6 foot 2, to get into the top end of the average range of BMI I'd have to drop to just over 13 stone. That's more than 2 stone lighter than I am when I'm at my fittest. Those who know me would agree I'd look **** ridiculous

[Stevo985]

On 06/05/2024 at 09:35, Stevo985 said:

I didn't realise I was posting in the wrong thread so I'll delete my post from that other one

 

 

A stone and a half (ish) down for me. Another stone to make me feel normal and 2 stone to be back to my ideal weight.

Should be there by October I reckon

I'm miles behind this target but still dropping. Over 2 stone down now. Plateau'd a bit over the last 6 weeks, mainly due to laziness if I'm being honest. 
But back on it now. Hope to have most of that next stone off by the end of the year. 

I'll enjoy christmas and then look at another run of weightloss in time for next summer