Weight Loss - My Journey

I rarely have a great deal to say to people; most of the posts on this blog are the ramblings of someone talking to no-one in particular which is exactly what this post is going to be about. However, unlike the normal tech posts this is about a personal issue that I've finally dealt with.

Today, for the first time in probably 20 years i'm what the NHS would consider 'normal'. Not Obese, not overweight, merely normal.

When I started trying to lose weight I was 138kg (21st 10lbs, a BMI of 41.6)

Fast forward 9 months and I'm now 82.7kg (13st, a BMI of 25 exactly). 

That's a loss of 55.3kg (8st 10lbs) or very nearly a third of my body weight.

What does this mean in terms in size?

• I started off as a 46 inch waist (which I wore below by stomach) and i'm now a 34 inch waist when worn over my stomach
• I've dropped 2 shoe sizes
• In a t-shirt I've gone from an XXL to a S/M depending on where it's from
• Jackets, from an XXL to a S/M again depending on where its from
• Aircraft seat-belts now fit and I no longer worry about needing an extension
• None of the clothes I had 9 months ago fit anymore

Things I didn't expect

• I get cold; where as before my excess fat was keeping me insulated I now get cold very easily and have to wear more layers to compensate
• I'm more fragile; if I knock myself the force hits my bones and is not absorbed by my fat layers anymore and is much more painful
• Seats are often less comfy; because again, more pressure on my bones without that insulating layer of fat to take off the edge
• More people talk to me when i'm out and about; it really does seem that a LOT of people in this country judge based on size
• Re-buying a whole wardrobe is expensive

How did it happen?

Exactly how you would expect:

• Ate less
• In all honest I probably ate to little as often I was on sub-1000 calories a day but I still had breakfast, lunch and dinner with a desert in the evenings
• Exercised more
• Started off as 15 minutes on the exercise bike
• Moved on to 30 minutes on the cross trainer
• Then 40 minutes Zumba on the Wii
• Now its a 1 to 2 hour walk every evening instead
• 45m swimming every week
• Found food I could enjoy and can continue to eat (thank you Hairy Dieters)
• If I had to go to somewhere like McDonalds I'd swap fries for a salad and have the lowest calorie burger available.
• Was still able to have fish and chips every weekend (and have done so since March!), the full swimming session would make up for it.
• Smart Scales (weighing myself daily, seeing the difference and logging it automatically really helped me)

What Now?

Weight maintenance - when I started this it was a change for life therefore even though I've finished losing weight I won't be going back to my old ways. That doesn't mean I can't have a McDonalds if I fancy it, but I have to question whether I really need fries with that. As for Lattes, black coffee (no sugar!) is the way I drank it and will now continue to drink it. These sort of choices are the ones that seem to have made the difference to me; Little big changes which i'm now going to stay with.

Cliche pictures