According to Monty's link my BMR is 2124kcal & my total daily expenditure is 3100kcal. (This is halfway between lightly active and moderately active).

Regarding the shirt question. Here is my plan.

I want to get down to the weight in the 2012 photo by the beginning of October. That would give me over 5 weeks to shift enough weight to look 'visibly better'. That would make me happy. And I'm going to work very hard towards that goal.

If I didn't achieve this but in fact weighed the exact same amount on Nov 7 as the 2012 photo, you all would say it would count as a victory.

And yes, going from



to



in less than five months would be great. I wouldn't beat myself over it. I'd go from 'Doctors tell you to lose weight' to 'you should lose weight'. I'd go from 'too fat to play sports' to 'you'd be pretty decent at tennis if you lost weight'.

But I'm ambitious and mark my words come October 1st I will post a photo, in that shirt, in that suit, where I look the same or better than the 2012 photo.

107 days by the way. 15 weeks 2 days. 30lbs = 1.96 lbs/wk. 35lbs = 2.29 lbs/wk. 40lbs = 2.62 lbs/wk. Let's hope it's not more than 40 lbs ! (I really doubt it is).

The study finds that eating 125kcal of fruit 15min before a meal consumed ad libitum results in 187kcal worth of food less consumed. People choose to eat less food and even including the 125kcal from the fruit there was a negative net effect of 62kcal, i.e. the opposite of a binge.

I have a feeling that would work with stuff other than fruit as well though.

OP,

Losing 30-40 pounds by mid-October is more than achievable.

What's your ultimate weight loss goal? How tall are you?

burning an additional 1000kcal is quite a lot, comparable to 3-4 hours walking

yes a small snack before a real meal always results in less food consumed overall(people eat quickly and the feeling of satisfaction takes a while), I eat a small portion of quark before meals for that reason quite often.

so ye
cliffs of study:
-solid food more satisfying than liquids
-snack before meal reduces calorie intake

I don't have an ultimate weight lost goal number cos I don't know how much I weigh and I've been overweight all my adult life so I don't know how much I 'should' weigh. 32 inch jeans is one goal. I'm 5'9 so anything more than 32 indicates excess fat. 34 is 'normal guy'. No excuses for more than that. I haven't got in to 34 inch jeans for many years, btw.

I want to rock a six pack on the beach one summer. Will I be sad if that never happens? Not really. Will I ever be in shape where I have a six pack year round? Unlikely. I'd rather eat.

Also my 'ultimate' weight loss goals are so far away that it's not worth thinking about. Right now I want to look better for when my friend visits at the beginning of August. That's hopefully going to keep me disciplined for the next 45 days. Then after that I have my 'get in to 2012 wedding photo shape by Oct 1' goal. That's another 60 days. Then it's 5 weeks until wedding day and I'm going to push on and try to drop 10 lbs to get to a weight my friends consider 'good' for me, and look a little more sparkly in those photos. All of that means I'm no long the 'blubbery mess' come November.

Then I'll set new goals. There's a family wedding on Mar 28. This means family photos. What are the other family occasions I remember? Long story short I was fat in all recent family photo occasions. I haven't weighed below 185 since ~2002. I have more muscle now. I'd like to weigh 190 at that wedding. (This is about 40 weeks ago so very achievable). I'll set myself a goal between November 7th and Mar 28. Weigh x by the end of the year, then weigh y by valentine's day etc. And then after the 190 maybe I'll work on getting a nice beach body by July. Maybe not a six pack but muscular and pretty toned. 170-175 lbs.

Try reading better:
Cliffs:
lol you


ETA: slow pony. I assume you obviously have cites that "snacking" only works pre-meal as opposed to at other times?
ETA2: ******less, your rant against fruit seems very cult-like. Like, compare the calories of really sugary stuff compared to e.g. an apple. 50 kcals per 100 g vs 500+ for chocolate. I mean, come the **** on.

no you
you would have needed a study where they compare apples to other food sources and not just lolliquids

You cannot possibly be this dense.

2015 and you need a cite to show that simple carbs(fructose) are less satisfying(long-term) and more likely to lead to overeating(insulin spikes) than a lot of other food choices, really?

also not sure why you are portraying me as cult fruit hater or sth, not even remotely true as I eat it daily with my quark.
problem i have is that fruit has been portrayed as super healthy "must have" in the media for years which is ridiculous considering that it's basically just fructose with a few very common vitamins/minerals(which anyone with a semi-decent diet has in abundance anyway). sugar in coffee/soda? DEVIL! in fruit? MORE MORE MORE

fruit is a sugar treat, great for athletes before/during competition but should be handled carefully by others.

Ate a granny smith apple and a peach. Daily total at ~1800 kcal.

Tomorrow going to have 2 crumpets with cottage cheese for breakfast. The remaining 850 kcal of the curry probably gets easy too. That leaves me at about 1200 kcal. 600 more to play with. Got to get some protein in maybe a chicken thigh with spinach, goat's cheese and beetroot. And a piece of fruit. Or maybe I'll grill two chicken thighs and add them to the curry. Keep the spinach until Thursday. Can't wait to decide!!

I eat fruit because it's 50kcal per 100g. It offers a better fill per calorie than most other foods. It doesn't require any preparation and it's cheap.

you ate like 300kcal worth of fruit today, would have gotten much much better long-term saturation with 80g complex carb source or 250g lean protein instead.

seriously 1800kcals, close to 100g sugar but only like 70g protein? awful.
make sustainable long-term changes to your diet please(as i mentioned earlier itt).

i) I'm quite happy to eat 300kcal of fruit. It was tasty, sated me, and all I had to do was pick it up and eat it.

ii) Eating a paratha with my curry instead of one of the chicken thighs I have in my fridge was a mistake. Same calories but the thighs are more filling and offer 30g more protein. I'm currently grilling two thighs which I'm gonna dice and add to the curry. 100g a day protein is plenty for me on a cut.

What is your fascination with that shirt? Even in the before pic it really doesn't fit very well and you can see some boob and gut.

Get a different cut shirt, tuck it in, rock it with a nice vest and you'll look good.

I agree it doesn't look good in the before picture that's why I want to get to that same size ~6 weeks before the wedding! My 'fascination' is just that I'm using it as a measuring stick. It's unlikely I wear it to the November wedding.

Alright bearz I aim to please so here you are:







First shirt and second shirt are I think the same.

It would be very good if I could get in to the shape in the third photo for the wedding but I think that's a little unrealistic. Certainly I'd be expecting some serious internet high fives if I did.

Looking real good in those last pics, what weight is that approx ?

Probably an average of 215. I think the photo I'm 'fascinated' with is ~228 but I might be pulling that out of my ass. Looks like more than a 20 lb than 13 lb difference to me but I think it's just an unflattering picture and/or shirt.

why don't you know how much you weigh currently?

not only that, you should be tracking your weekly weight.

Maybe not go on a tangent entirely unrelated to what I posted? k thx. I have no issue agreeing with you that the portrayal of fruit as super healthy is silly.

PartyGrl, I agree with cashy that 300 kcals worth of fruit is a bit excessive, especially on a cut. Unless you do that every day it's obviously not a big deal at all though.

I'm worried I'll just weigh something ridiculous & it will discourage me and I'll stop dieting? Strange but as long as I'm dieting well I don't mind.

That's the downside. Eventually I'm going to weigh 180 and I'm going to want to say 'I lost x' but I'll have to estimate x. Kind of annoying. I'm planning to weigh myself on Aug 1. As long as I'm 250 or less by then I'll be OK.

Somewhere over 2000 kcal today. Lots and lots of protein. No fruit. Not much fat. Walked ~ 1hr 15 mins. Ate too much early on. Still, well below maintenance. I think I would have struggled with 1800 kcal.

Two more days until cheat day. Aiming for <= 3900 Kcal across them. Also going to go less crazy on cheat day this time

Good work! 1800 cals is just too low for you. Hell I find it pretty hard at times, weighing ~ 100 lbs less than you.

I'd really consider weighing yourself. I'm not sure how meticulous you are about weighing your food, but daily BW measurements can be used to titrate calorie intake and correct any bad eyeball guesstimates of cals (which is very common, especially among overweight people). The feeling of accomplishment as the pounds keep going down on the scale shouldn't be discounted either.

Above all though, I'd recommend getting The Body Fat Solution to help overcome your emotional issues with food and body image. It's been heartily recommended as the go to book for that.

So, the one thing I really wish I'd done was take pictures at the beginning of my weight loss. Obviously, I didn't want to, because I was a fatass. But man the after is so much meaningful with a before.

Same goes with weight... yeah, you're overweight now. But in the future you won't be and when someone says, hey did you lose some weight? You can be like, yep, lost 30 pounds in the last 6 months.

I understand, in a way, that you're afraid of the number. But the number that the scale says, is what you currently are. Be OK with that. You already ARE it. Why is knowing the number some kind of problem?

(admittedly I may be a weirdo in this regard, when I got my DNA tested I clicked the box to have it show me all the terrible ways I'm gonna die. My wife chose not to)