Let's be clear, I've no wonder solution to offer: I never used any diets, no pills, and I never gave up the things I enjoy most. But I can share how I did it in three simple rules:
Rule 1: Realise that what you're doing now is the problem - change your habits
Rule 2: Know what's going in and out - count everything
Rule 3: Stimulate your metabolism - be active
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Before and after |
Dawning Realisation
I remember it well when I first realised I'd lost control of my weight. It was after one of our traditional family gatherings, and the pictures started coming in that people had taken during the day. There was one of me and my immediate family group, and staring at myself in that group photo I suddenly realised I'd got enormous.I had stopped weighing myself years ago, and didn't even have any bathroom scales in the house anymore, but you didn't need scales to see that I was in trouble. The sheer quantity of fat around my face was enough to give the game away. Sure, I'd been buying bigger and bigger trousers over the years, but those changes in waistline are so gradual it's easy to shrug them off, and a with a clever bit of dressing you can convince yourself that you're still in pretty good shape. But that face, there was no mistaking the extra fat around the jawline, and the fact that all of a sudden there were little piggy eyes staring back at me.
I realised that something needed to be done, and had heard a lot about this new Fitbit thing that was doing the rounds. I decided to try and get a handle on my weight, and bought into the tech big time with a brand new Fitbit One and a set of Fitbit Aria scales. Sure enough, the scales confirmed what I guess was already apparent to everyone else - according to all the best metrics I was not just overweight, technically speaking I was obese.
Three steps to a fitter you
Rule 1: Change your habits
This is unquestionably the most important thing you need to do, but, as ever, probably the hardest as well. It's also the number one reason why every diet will fail you, no question. Why? Because any diet, trendy or old, is a temporary change in behaviour patterns. The clues in the name, it's not something you actually do forever, it's just something you do briefly in order to try and lose weight. The moment you stop, bingo, you get heavy again.
So what's the plan now? These days I always make sure that I only have one 'proper' meal in the day, i.e. one large meal (usually in the evening) and snacking is kept to an absolute minimum. I've never really eaten breakfast, that old adage about it being the most important meal of the day is questionable at best, and possibly downright misleading. For the other meal it's invariably a bowl of soup in the winter (without bread), or a salad in the summer (usually with some good quality protein), low-calorie healthy options which can help you feel sated and therefore get through the day as productively as you want to.
The trick is to become aware of what you're eating, spot the unhealthy stuff and the unnecessary extras, and shift your mindset so that you no longer even want the food that used to be your everyday diet.
Rule 2: Count everything
This is where the Fitbit comes in (or, for that matter, whatever other device / app you prefer). When I first started my weight loss journey I didn't really have a clue about calories, or how much exercise I was getting, how heavy I should be, or what a good fat percentage was. That chocolate bar I was having for lunch every day? At least 250 kcals, which is 10% of my daily allowance disappearing in just a minute or so, calories I really didn't need. These days that has been swapped for a couple of really good dark chocolate buttons, a tenth of the calories, probably even tastier if I'm honest, and cheaper too at that!
The other thing I counted, and for that matter still do, was my weight. Every single morning I weigh myself and log it, and now have a record going back many years of not only my weight but also my body fat percentage. I've learned that it fluctuates, even though (as recommended) I always weigh myself at the same time of day, but what matters is the overall trend over time. Keeping a log of weight in this way allows me to spot when I'm slipping, as happens now and then, but because I've changed habits I can get a hold of things quickly before my weight starts to spiral upwards. Also, there's nothing quite as satisfying as being able to see your weight fall! The original Fitbit Aria scales I bought, which transferred the weight data to my app wirelessly, eventually died on me, but a much cheaper set I bought to replace them are just as good, if not better, and typing in the weight rather than it transferring automatically is hardly a chore!
There are lots of naysayers out there who claim the 10,000 number is just a made-up figure (and in actual fact, it is), but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work. Combined with rule 1 and 2 this is all you need to lose a drastic amount of weight and start feeling good about your body again.
Rule 3: Be active
It may seem obvious, everyone knows you need to do more exercise in order to lose weight, don't they? But perhaps the message here I want to make is the nature of that exercise. I've said this rule is about being active, not necessarily going for a run every day or buying a gym membership. The way I did it was simply to walk every day - free, simple and healthy. I picked up on the 10,000 steps thing, and made sure that I did my 10,000 steps pretty much every single day for a year without fail (there's that Fitbit One coming in helpfully again, counting steps this time). And do you know what? It actually works.
It's now 5 years since I reached my original goal, and although my weight still goes up and down I keep to my rules and as a consequence, I'm still a healthy weight. In fact, I've now started weight training in order to get stronger, as the evidence suggests that men who maintain muscle as they get older will live longer. Now that I'm fifty, with more of my life behind me than in front, I kind of want to get as much out of what is left as possible!
But I'll leave the weight training for another blog post ...
So, to summarise, you just need to do three things if you want to lose weight - and keep it off. Realise what you're doing now is making you fat, count what you eat, how much you move and how much you weigh, and get out of the house - and walk!
