Countdown to wedding

[DavidH]

Hi all,

 

So, I am getting married August 5th in Spain and I really want to be in the best possible shape I can be before then.

 

I am 30 years old, 5'10 and weight about 183lbs. My problem areas are my gut and a pretty unsightly double chin that I can't stand (I can't remember the last time I voluntarily got a photo taken of myself)

 

Looking to melt some fat and generally tone up. Ideally I'd like to accomplish without a gym membership and working out from home. I have a pull up bar which can also be converted to a dip station and a set of dumbells which I'm hoping will be enough. So any bodyweight based workouts would be ideal (I can barely do 15 push ups!)

 

 

Let me know if you need any other information in order to provide any advice, also happy to post a few 'before' shots to give an idea of where my body is at the moment.

 

Thanks all and hope to be a regular to the community.

 

David.

 

[Guzzi]

Oh, hi.  Fancy meeting you here.  

 

If you're looking to work out from home then check out http://www.strengthunbound.com   It will give you some inspiration re what's achievable without any equipment or an expensive gym membership. 

 

As for weight loss, there's an expression around here that "you can't out run your fork" and it really is true,  75% of your weight loss will be down to what you put in your mouth (or don't put in???).  You can increase the amount of calories you burn by doing exercise, but you'd be shocked by how few calories an hour at the gym burns vs how many calories one fish supper provides.  It sucks!

 

The first thing to do is to work out your body's energy requirements.  We do this by calculating you BMR (Base Metabolic Rate, basically how many calories you body would need if you were just sleeping 24/7) using the data you gave us above and one of those spiffy BMR calculators they have on t'interweb.  Once we have that we can work out how many colorise you need based on you activity level. 

 

Your BMR is 1798kcal per day

If you were fairly sedentary you would burn 2157kcal

If you were lightly active - 2472kcal

If you were moderately active - 2787kcal

If you were highly active - 3101

And if you were an Olympic athlete training twice a day - 3416kcal

 

You can see that the difference between sedentary and moderately active is only ~600kcal.  That's less than a mocha and a blueberry muffin from Starbucks!  

 

To lose 1lbs per week you would aim to eat 500kcal less than your body's needs, 1000kcal less would lose you 2lbs a week.  There's a really good explanation of how to decide your defecit and the pros/cons for each here.  (Sorry, more stuff to read, lol!).  Your defecit can be achieved either by eating less food, or by doing more exercise. 

 

Now the only way to really know how many calories you're eating is to track your food using an app like MFP (My Fitness Pal) or My Plate.   These apps are really comprehensive and you wouldn't believe how many things are in the database.  You can even just scan the barcodes of your food. 

 

Calorie counting isn't for everyone, but whatever you decide to do please, please please don't be tempted to go down the eating-feck-all-until-the-wedding-then-throwing-up-your-wedding-dinner-because-your-stomach-has-shrunk-so-much-that-you-can't-eat-a-three-course-meal-anymore route, not that I did that.  Nope, not me.  Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.  A liar I tell ya!

 

You can however cheat the system slightly...  It's not strictly true that "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie".  Basically, understanding a few simple tricks will help you to diet more effectively.  For example:

 

Different forms of energy are metabolised differently.  Starchy or sugary foods are absorbed very quickly, causing an insulin spike, your body's cue to store surplus energy as fat.  Sugar and simple starches are also addictive and you can actually get carb withdrawal when you try and cut them out.   Eating a lower carb diet works for a lot of people and there's good evidence to show that it lowers your risk of diabetes. 

 

Fat on the other hand actually slows the absorption of carbohydrate, so the old idea of eating a low-fat diet to lose weight (where they often advise eating lots of starchy foods like pasta) is a little dodgy.  Fat is very calorie dense though and it can be easy to eat more than you should, but fat certainly isn't necessarily a dieters enemy.  It also contains essential vitamins that you can't get elsewhere.  

 

Many people on here advocate the paleo diet (or modified versions of it) which focuses on eating natural, unprocessed foods, and cutting out grains and dairy.  Now I don't follow this diet myself, I couldn't live without cheese, but I do eat a diet that is heavy on vegetables, oily fish, unprocessed meat, low on processed grains (I eat wholgrain rice, but I try to avoid bread or pasta) and processed foods in general.  It's amazing how much sugar is added into processed foods, you can eat a small portion but it works out as a shit ton of calories.   Diets like these are really successful because you can actually eat more food but consume less calories.  

 

However, that doesn't mean that it's the way forward for you.  The best diet in the world is whichever one you can actually stick to.  How do you feel about what you eat right now?  Do you think you should eat more vegetables, are you a takeaway lover, are you able to prep your own lunches for work or meals at home?

 

Sorry, I realise I'm bombarding you with lots of information, it's a lot to try and take on board and it's not exactly a "do this and you will get *this* result" but there really is no right way to lose weight, only the right way for you, and at the end of the day you're the only one who knows if something is sustainable for you.  What I would like to see happen is for you to change your relationship with food rather than "go on a diet".  I lost a ton of weight for my wedding but within 3 months I put most of it back on again because I really hadn't changed anything, or learned anything.  I wouldn't want anyone else to make the same mistake.  

 

[Guzzi]

Oh poops!  I just realised that I didn't mention anything about Intermittent Fasting, which can be a really useful tool for weight loss.  When your body goes without food for (is it over 12 hours?) the energy from your last meal and the fuel that's stored in your muscles is depleted, your body then has no choice but to burn the fat stored in your fat cells to fuel itself.   When you eat your next meal your body uses that to top-up the glycogen stores in your muscles rather than storing it as fat. 

 

I found the 5:2 method (where you fast for two, non consecutive, days each week) to be really useful in the past when I was trying to get my body fat down to the fabled 25%, however lots of people prefer to do the 18:6 method where you have a 6 hour period during the day when you eat and 18 hours fasting. 

[LaScozzese]

I definitely don't think I can add anything to what Guzzi has told you, she's definitely more of an expert than me. However I just wanted to say HI as I'm also getting married on the 5th of August, but in Italy - heh, coincidence! I too need to get my butt in gear and get in shape, for the honeymoon as well as for the wedding! Good luck to ya!

 

ps no pressure but 3 months and 14 days left...