The 2020 OTF Weight Loss Intention & Mutual Support Thread

[pebblethefish]

When I was in hospital the other year all of the measuring was done in kg. Which meant nothing to me as I only work in stones. One of the doctors was all "doesn't it worry you, that you're down to this??" and I just shrugged at him. Then he finally converted it into stone and I realised that I'd lost two and a half stone since the last time I'd weighed myself.

[San Bernardhinault]

I’d love to work in metric, but I live in a country that works in nonsense witchcraft numbers.

[ad hoc]

interesting how some are measuring in imperial and others in metric.

since going metric about 10 years ago ive lost all track of my imperial weight. are other equally comfortable with both systems.

Yes, I really have no idea what my weight is in stones and I am fully in kgs now (obviously i could easily google my weight in any other system. A lot of Troy Drams for example, and getting on for two hundredweight, which sound ridiculously heavy). I know what weight i'd like to be in kgs, I know what i am, and I know what I can expect to lose per week if I put my mind to it. That's all i need really.

[slackster]

The only pound I’ve lost since New Year is the one I left in the gym locker earlier (see small losses thread). Had too many leftover Xmas treats to snaffle up, I reckon.

[Balderdasha]

Went to pilates tonight. It is significantly harder now that I've put on half a stone as I put it all on in my middle making various movements more difficult. But the weight won't shift unless I start exercising. Booked in for body combat (boxing to music) tomorrow.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Today wasn't a designated weighing day but I hopped on the scales anyway and I'm 13st 4 1/2lbs, which is 3 1/4lbs down for the month so far. Not too bad, though less than I'd hoped for. More important than the numbers is the tale of the belt though, moving down belt holes as gut flab starts to diminish, and I'm seeing a slight improvement in that area.

Anyway, I hope this thread is helping people and providing a bit of encouragement and motivation when resolve wavers.

Incidentally, I've found myself watching the odd lightweight (hur, hur) new year weight loss/fitness programme on TV. Watching one last night it referred at one stage to hormonal links to weight gain and retention, including cortisol levels in the blood. Raised levels of this hormone, possibly due to stress, will prompt the body to lay down fat if I heard correctly. So making positive moves to address excess weight will be doubly beneficial if it reduces an individual's stress levels. Something like that anyway.

[Erskine Bridges]

As mentioned elsewhere, my new knees have been postponed until I lose some weight. I've got a target BMI(?) to get to. Does anyone have a link to something that'll help me calculate it?

My brother has exactly the same problem. He lost 4 stone on a medical diet but recommends The Obesity Code by Jason Fung. Intermittent fasting seems to be where its at. Along with exercise and sensible eating of course.

My brother lost all that weight but he's still heavier than I am and I need to lose 4 stone! That would take me down to 12.5 stone, 80 kg which, last time I was there, made me a rake. I'm off the bevvy, playing tennis and in the gym regularly now. Am feeling much better (clothes a bit looser, face thinner, wake up feeling good, wake up with wood) but not impacting the scales much as yet.

I've run into a few people recently who've lost a lot of weight - 3-4 stones, all because of impending type 2 diabetes. So it can be done but I'd rather do it before I really have to. Drink is, I think, key. It is a triple whammy. The calories in the alcohol, the amount of crap you eat at midnight because all discipline has dissolved and the fact that your body is spending too much time dealing with the alcohol rather than processing food.

[nmrfox]

Weigh-in Wednesday and was hoping that on the scales that the first number would be "14" but in the end it said 15st 01/2lb, so was a bit gutted. Still thats 9lbs so far in 2020 and as I was a bit naughty over the weekend with the booze - please England stop doing well in Test Matches and giving me a reason to have a few watching and enjoying the late night highlights - I still managed to lose a couple of pounds. Will have a more determined mindset in place when the 4th Test starts this Friday as definitely want to see a 14 being displayed next week.

This thread is really helping me (as is the challenge with my US mate) so thanks to everyone who is posting on here.

[Balderdasha]

I made it to my body combat class yesterday. But because it's a while since I've been and it's cold and dark outside, I have to bribe myself to go, just to get back into the swing of things. So last night, I really didn't want to leave the house. I start by saying to myself "ok, well just put your gym kit on, it doesn't mean you actually have to go anywhere". Then once I'm dressed that progresses to "ok, we're stepping out of the front door, but you still don't have to actually walk the whole way to the gym or do anything strenuous. We can just go to little Tesco's and buy a packet of chocolate biscuits and get a taxi from the station and if you want, you can just sit on the sofa at the gym and eat and not actually do any exercise". Then once I get to the gym I tell myself "ok, I'm here on time, I might as well pop into the class, but don't worry, I'll just stand at the bank and if it gets too strenuous I can just walk out, and you can get a taxi home if you like". And then, of course, I end up doing the whole exercise class and feeling much better and I'm warmed up so I walk the mile home as well.

It's ridiculous, the whole dance with myself. I know what I'm doing, but it's still currently the only way to get myself to a gym. Once I've been going for a few weeks it'll become more a part of my routine again and I won't have to play out the internal persuasion soap opera.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I've lost 6 kg on the 5:2 diet since starting it sometime in October (although Christmas threw a spanner in the works). So I've gone from 93 to 87 kg. Goal is about 84 kg.

Fräulein Pepys says I have to stop if I start looking gaunt.

[MsD]

I'm not doing so well on this, need to get back to a gym.

[San Bernardhinault]

Travel, work and stress aren't really helping. I'm basically flatlining - still exercising pretty hard in terms of power and strength work at the gym; but I'm not maintaining the cardio work I should be. And I'm still eating way too much. Weighed myself just now and the numbers aren't really shifting, or if they are it's very marginally up, not down.

[Moonlight Shadow]

I'll let my Berlin break being flushed out of the system before next scales check, good thing is that I had 3 days in a row with 25k steps over there, only drank beer and food intake was not as bad as feared...

[treibeis]

Fräulein Pepys says I have to stop if I start looking gaunt.

You looked pretty gaunt when I saw you. Although I don't know how much you weighed.

And even though you drank all my Astra.

[Sporting]

Yes, I really have no idea what my weight is in stones and I am fully in kgs now (obviously i could easily google my weight in any other system. A lot of Troy Drams for example, and getting on for two hundredweight, which sound ridiculously heavy). I know what weight i'd like to be in kgs, I know what i am, and I know what I can expect to lose per week if I put my mind to it. That's all i need really.

On a semi-related topic, do any non-British people here have any memories of pre-decimal currency? (Well, and natives too, to be inclusive.) Did you find it fascinating, odd or just plain annoying? I used to be able to do the necessary calculations pretty easily. But I think that the standard of mental arithmetic has declined in recent years.

[Wouter D]

I was born in 1984. Pre-decimal currency for me is something that appears in Agatha Christie novels. It has nothing to do with real life.

[Felicity, I guess so]

I remember the day in Glasgow at my granny’s and papa’s Govanhill tenement when I ran down to the ice cream van with old money and he wouldn’t take it

[Moonlight Shadow]

On a semi-related topic, do any non-British people here have any memories of pre-decimal currency? (Well, and natives too, to be inclusive.) Did you find it fascinating, odd or just plain annoying? I used to be able to do the necessary calculations pretty easily. But I think that the standard of mental arithmetic has declined in recent years.

I had no issue getting used to Imperial measurements but I am glad I did not have to deal with the money stuff...

[treibeis]

I remember Decimal Day because we moved house that day. I had no idea what Decimal Day was - I was three and a half (or probably six and seven in old years) - and kept asking what it meant.

In a (succesful) attempt to shut me up, my maternal grandfather said, "Decimal Day's the day all little boys with Noddy wallpaper on their bedroom walls have to move house. That's why we're humping all this stuff around. Because of you."

[Nocturnal Submission]

In a (succesful) attempt to shut me up, my maternal grandfather said, "Decimal Day's the day all little boys with Noddy wallpaper on their bedroom walls have to move house. That's why we're humping all this stuff around. Because of you."

Hahaha!

Pre-decimal coins just seemed a bit odd. Pennies and half-crowns were huge, sixpenny bits tiny and thrupenny bits ridiculously stubby, (and forever associated in my mind with the cost of a Mllky Way bar from a vending machine). They were also very heavy. You could come back from a short shopping trip with enough weight in change to sink a small boat.

[Lobachevsky]

im having a celebrations chocolate cake tonight to mark 20 days with no alcohol.

[ad hoc]

I was 5 when decimal currency came in and I have no recollection of it (as an active currency - I remember the coins themselves as we had a pot of them that my family used for card games right up until my adulthood).

When I was a teenager I had a paper round which involved collecting money every Thursday. There were two elderly ladies on my round who just used to hand me their purse and say "take what you need, I don't understand this modern money". Luckily I was an honest boy.

[ursus arctos]

My experience is that the shilling coin in particular was still in wide circulation (as a five pence piece) well into the 80s

This was understandably confusing to visitors (as were/are the Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes).

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yes indeed, because as the shilling and two-shilling coins were similar in size and appearance to their 5p and 10p replacements they continued as legal tender for quite some while.

[S. aureus]

Sixpences also - that's what the tooth fairy used to leave me and I could still spend them (I was born in 1967).
According to wikipedia the sixpence stopped being legal tender in 1980, the shilling in 1990 and the florin (two shilling) not until 1993.