Weightloss

I used to be very overweight (at my heaviest, I was around 18.5st / 250ish lb / 115 kg). I spent ~3 years losing weight (most of it in ~2 years), dropping about 7st (40kg).

I’m now relatively stable at about 11.5st.

What worked for me

Calories in, calories out (calorie tracking); this is basically the number 1 thing anyone should care about. Eat less, move more. Cardio helps; lifting weights helps, but you cannot outrun a bad diet. I use MyFitnessPal on Android, without the subscription (used subscription in the past, but you don’t really need it).

Repeated, simple meals; it’s much easier to track calories when you have the same thing for lunch every day. I enjoy good food, but I can also happily eat the same thing for lunch every day if it’s something I enjoy the taste of. In the past, this has been months of couscous & tuna, cheese sandwiches with mustard, peanut butter & jam sandwiches. Find something that’s reasonably healthy, that you can stick to. Then, if you’re not losing weight, it’s much easier to identify where you’re going wrong.

Cycling to work; for me, cycling to work takes about as much time as commuting by train (by the time you walk to station, wait, take train, walk rest of way to work). I’m lucky enough that work has showers, so I can just through on yesterday’s t-shirt, cycle to work, shower, and change into the fresh clothes I carry in. This lets me get ~30 min of exercise every work day.

Other exercise; at home, I used to have an elliptical, but snapped the handle. This is what got me the first major chunk of weight loss. After this, I bought a rowing machine for at home. I also use kettlebells (mainly shoulder press, swings, squats, and bent rows). As of 2020, I’ve started running, to challenge my body in a different way and thus develop more, and so far I’ve noticed quick improvement in both the comfort while running and physique.

What didn’t work for me

Keto; keto didn’t not work, but it didn’t really add anything. I’m happy with keto foods (I like cheeses, savoury, meats etc). I’m not big on pasta etc, but I do like bread. I think one of the main reasons that keto works for many people is simply because it forces them to eliminate foods like sugars and other carbs which modern society tends to be gluttinous with. For me, a simple bit of discipline achieved much of the same results. Note: I was testing my ketone levels, and wasn’t doing a simple short-term test…I spent several months in ketosis. Additionally, I found that when I was cycling to work (before moving, I had ~30min each way) I was just much more fatigued.