The 2020 OTF Weight Loss Intention & Mutual Support Thread

[Moonlight Shadow]

Is it going to be in your conservatory?

[treibeis]

Your conservatory looks like the Turkish café round the corner from my gaff (without the cycling contraption, of course).

[Moonlight Shadow]

Your conservatory looks like the Turkish café round the corner from my gaff (without the cycling contraption, of course).

They must have hardy customers, when the westerlies blow, it is rather chilly at that table and I need to get a tarpaulin sheet to cover the bike as rains tends to lash it down...

Conservatory eh....

[Lurgee]

I get bored very easily with doing The Same Shit, Day After Day, so I'm trialing a six day cycle of Fitness Stuff:

1 - Stretching and twisting. This is new. It hurt.
2 - Hand weights, push ups and punching things. Establish part. Probably my fav bit, especially the punching bit.
3 - Run or bike ride. This also new-ish. Did this today on the bike sweated and huffed round some back roads for an hour and discovered I'd only done 22k, though it felt like it might have been 100.
4 - The multigym. Essentially more weights but at least I get to sit down. You know the Dreaded Machine in The Princess Bride that sucks Westley's life from him? that's how I regard the multigym.
5 - Exercycle. Similar to #3 but at least I get to stay at home. Currently re-watching Homicide: Life on the Street while I huff and puff.
6 - Rest and mend.

[Sporting]

Run or bike ride. This also new-ish. Did this today on the bike sweated and huffed round some back roads for an hour and discovered I'd only done 22k, though it felt like it might have been 100

Interesting stats (and advice) here:

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...g-speed-144937

[Moonlight Shadow]

Had a cracking ride this morning. I stay local and off main roads to minimise risks, so it has been samey but after a few weeks of dry weather, the mud is hard and it has opened up all kind of new trails for me. I have changed tyres to slightly wider ones from my road touring ones and they are puncture proof (Schwalbe Marathon - never had a puncture using them, my previous ones were the same type) so I let rip across fields and paths. Great fun, more of the same to come. I was up 7am mind, way too many people out nowadays...

[Nocturnal Submission]

I get bored very easily with doing The Same Shit, Day After Day, so I'm trialing a six day cycle of Fitness Stuff:

1 - Stretching and twisting. This is new. It hurt.
2 - Hand weights, push ups and punching things. Establish part. Probably my fav bit, especially the punching bit.
3 - Run or bike ride. This also new-ish. Did this today on the bike sweated and huffed round some back roads for an hour and discovered I'd only done 22k, though it felt like it might have been 100.
4 - The multigym. Essentially more weights but at least I get to sit down. You know the Dreaded Machine in The Princess Bride that sucks Westley's life from him? that's how I regard the multigym.
5 - Exercycle. Similar to #3 but at least I get to stay at home. Currently re-watching Homicide: Life on the Street while I huff and puff.
6 - Rest and mend.

That's mightily impressive, Lurgee. These strange times will either do wonders for people's general fitness levels or lead to a spate of over-exercised middle aged people limping through the rest of their lives. Probably both, maybe even consecutively.

I weighed myself (still sub-13st) and then went for a stroll in the countryside yesterday, which was bookended by stints in the back garden. I ended up by disentangling and then burning the winter garden maintenance pile. The material was nicely seasoned but the rusty, old incinerator was literally falling apart during the burn so that will be its last service to the family.

I then came in, ate dinner and fell asleep exhausted on the sofa, a sad, sobering reflection of my age and the accompanying inability to deal with even moderate amounts of physical work these days.

[Janik]

Not going for a run today. Too many aching muscles - see NocSub's comment about over-exercised middle aged people limping through the rest of their lives. I'll go for a walk instead. It's about a 3-1 ratio of time isn't it? i.e. a 90 min walk should burn similar calories to a 30 min run?

Best run time so far was 19m14 for a 2.3 mile course with one hill in it (8'22" per mile).

I've lost 4.1kg since starting to work from home on 17th March* (87.6 to 83.5 this morning). But that was rather front loaded - about 2kgs dropped off in the first week as I cut my calorie intake. I hope that sort of initial rapid drop is normal, and not unhealthy. Waist also down from an awful 40 inches to a still-too-high 38. 78kgs and 36 inches are the long term aims, as those are in the healthy range (top end of, BMI of 24.9!) for my height. But for now 81kgs and 37" are the targets for April.

Calorie counting is necessary for unusual reasons - I was initially overdoing the dieting! I now count to make sure I hit at least 1700 a day, and preferably 1800. I went back to roughly work out a day previously and it was only ~1250. Now that is crash dieting and clearly dangerous. It also probably explains that early shedding...

Exercise routine is this:-
Leg/knee strengthening exercises given to me by a physio some months ago that I hadn't really done properly previous - takes a little over 30 minutes for the complete set. Once a day during the weeks, twice on weekends (just finished the first set in fact).
Run or walk - aim for long enough to burn 300 calories. Probably from now on run on the evenings on workdays (so long as today's mooted ban on outdoor exercising doesn't come in!) and walk on weekends to give the body a bit of a break.
10 minutes on a balance board
1 minute of lunges (build up knee strength/get more used to it so I can actually do this properly on a Squash Court when this all ends)


* - and I weighed even more before that. Work banned people from bringing cakes in from around the start of March as they didn't want people gathering around them/sharing cutlery and so on, and my weight dropped from hovering between 89-90 kilos to 88 or so! I was clearly eating waaay too much sugary food.

[Lurgee]

Interesting stats (and advice) here:

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...g-speed-144937

Pleased to discover I'm about as fast as a Spaniard. And on a lumbering hybrid bike, not one of them slick racers like the fellas in the photos all have.

[Janik]

To be clear, my issues were all diet. I was both overweight and very active previously - see that first decent run time of 9mins for an mile that wasn't on flat ground. The base fitness was there. The exercising now is attempting to replace approximately 40 minutes of Squash per day that would have been my average (5 or 6 times a week, but with a training session lasting up to 2 hours on a Sunday).
The problem before was time, and that is where the lockdown has helped. I would often play at 7:30 or 8:00pm, not go home first as my work is 2 minutes from the courts, eat something snacky and unhealthy at my desk prior to 5pm (no later than that as otherwise it would sit heavy on my stomach whilst on court), get home after playing at ~9:30pm and whack leftovers or a ready meal in the microwave as I had no energy or time to cook something homemade, and eat that at 10pm or later. Well, now that sort of schedule has gone, so there is time to prepare food myself.

[San Bernardhinault]

Interesting stats (and advice) here:

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...g-speed-144937

I don't wish to be rude, but half of these are ways of making your ride less enjoyable and more uncomfortable; or making your ride more dangerous. Yes, wear tight clothing, ride in a pack - but not during covid, choose your wind direction, build muscle, ride your tyres at the right pressure. But don't listen to music - it's dangerous. Don't tuck unless the wind's miserable - it's uncomfortable for long periods,. Don't use aero-wheels - they're also uncomfortable, less stable, and expensive. Don't do track stands on the street - they're dangerous and douchey. Don't brake less if you're not comfortable - obviously ride at speeds that feel safe instead.

Also, of course, average speed is totally useless. Hilly and windy rides are always much slower - the speed does not average out on the downhills.

My advice - as someone who generally rides 100+ miles a weekend - is to ride at a pace you are comfortable with, and enjoy it. Come home tired, but don't try and mash your thighs up unless you're really in the mood for it, and don't compare your pace with others.

[Tactical Genius]

My advice - as someone who generally rides 100+ miles a weekend - is to ride at a pace you are comfortable with, and enjoy it. Come home tired, but don't try and mash your thighs up unless you're really in the mood for it, and don't compare your pace with others.

Fantastic advice there. This is pertinent for any type of exercise.

[Moonlight Shadow]

SB is right, find your own pace, in time you will naturally improve.

Did 10km on my spin bike, flatish road resistance, 27.45 mins. Let's see how I can improve this!

[caja-dglh]

What do you meme? 100% has to be an unwanted gift.

[Janik]

Fantastic advice there. This is pertinent for any type of exercise.

Absolutely. If the urge to compete is too strong, compete with yourself and not with others. Do the same ride you've done before. Is today a bit quicker - brilliant! Is it a bit slower? Bad day/more wind/too soon after breakfast/whatever - file in the 'forget' pile and move on to tomorrow.

It really doesn't matter how quickly x can do something. In fact it really doesn't matter how quickly you can do something, as long as you actually do it. That is still going to help with your health. Basically this is the difference between exercise to lose weight and competitive sport. If the former is why you are on your bike, keep that in mind and avoid being drawn into the other unnecessarily!

[San Bernardhinault]

Mostly, don't get drawn into competition if losing makes you feel bad. There is always a fat beardy 70 year old who's faster than you. You're often faster than a lean 25 year old (who might think you're the fat 70 year old...). It's just too easy to get disillusioned if you compare.

Sometimes it's worth riding with someone stronger than you, because it helps motivate you to work a bit harder to try and keep up (as happened to me today), but don't feel bad if they drop you (as happened to me today).

Anyway, 40 miles today, inland in the hills with 4000 feet of climbing on a local route called the "Great Western Loop". It was almost perfect conditions. Around 17C and overcast. Normally inland it's clear blazing sun and 30+C and the sweat pours off like you're a waterfall and you can cramp and feel miserable. Today, though, was just a lovely ride. Although my legs are tired now.

My "Average speed" was 13mph. It's meaningless info. If I was to ride 40 miles on a flat time trially course my average speed would probably be close to 18 mph. If I was doing it in a pack, working together well, it could be well into the 20s. But a hilly course always slows me down.

[San Bernardhinault]

it’s easy to socially distance up here

[Cal Alamein]

Well done SB on your mileage. I just finished about 15 miles on a fairly flat route. Not in the best bike shape but hope to recapture my summer distances.

This was shot on a bridge over the I-40 interstate. Definitely less traffic.

[Janik]

Mostly, don't get drawn into competition if losing makes you feel bad.

I'm not sure that works - losing making you feel bad is about the most common motivating factor that really good athletes reference. I think it works better to say not to get drawn into competition if feeling bad after losing demotivates you and you are less inclined to exercise after it, rather than it spuring you on to work harder and do more. Know yourself and what makes you tick, essentially.

[San Bernardhinault]

Yeah. That's fair.

[Balderdasha]

So, on Saturday 21st March I hit 63.4kg which is a BMI of 26, squarely back in the overweight category that I fought so hard to get out of for the last two to three years. I was so disheartened that I completely stopped tracking anything.

This morning, I bit the bullet and got back onto the scales. Some combination of running out of chocolate and doing more gardening work means I've dropped back down to 62.5kg or BMI of 25.6. Still overweight, still work to do but the fact that I haven't continued putting on so much weight is encouraging and will inspire me to try eating a bit more healthily and keeping active.

Higher BMI is a known risk factor for Covid-19 survival, so there is an added incentive.

[San Bernardhinault]

That's got to be good to see, Balders. I also got on the scales this morning. I'm basically unchanged - which is no surprise as, despite the running, cycling and weight work, I am not thinking about what I eat at all.

[Janik]

Higher BMI is a known risk factor for Covid-19 survival, so there is an added incentive.

I didn't know that, but it makes sense. High BMI = unhealthy to some degree, basically. I guess they are counting people in the obese category as having an underlying factor, probably not those overweight - just unhelpful.

Oh, and keep it up on the gradual reduction back down to <25! Good luck.

P.S. one factor that will help is the calories expanded by the 24/7 childcare! Every cloud and all that...


My weight and BMI (26.3) are still coming down, though by more sensible amounts than the first few days of my regime. 1.2kg lost in the last 7 days, which is still a bit too fast. 1800kcal per day is not enough, clearly. I'll take it up to 2000kcal over Easter, I think. Particularly as I've now got a couple of days fully off so can squeeze more exercise in than snatching an hour somewhere in the day. To that end, I went on my longest run yet just now - 4.6km according to the tracker. I'll have to find an extra loop of 400m somewhere to make it up to the full 5k... 24m35 is the initial benchmark time, 8m35/mile pace. That is decent enough, I think. Maybe not for a club runner, but for an ordinary joe (albeit a generally active one).

[Wouter D]

Down to 75.8kg this morning! Woo! I don't think I hit a number below 76 this year.

Just one more kilo to go.

[Nocturnal Submission]

My BMI is currently 25.3. So close I can taste it, though I'm planning to taste lemon tart & Eton mess-flavoured ice cream this evening as my occasional treat, hence today's weigh-in rather than the usual Saturday one.