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martanomb · 2 years

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MB's Monologue: Advice and Tips on How I Dropped Over 4 Stone in Weight

Introduction

I recently shared a somewhat candid post regarding many aspects of my life over the past 2-3 years and the progress I’ve made. Since then, I’ve had a tidal wave of kind comments and positive feedback, both online and in person and to be honest it’s really quite something! If you have taken a moment to reach out to me then I offer you my sincere thanks, it’s very much appreciated and I don’t say that flippantly. What I didn’t really expect though, is that a few people have been in touch to either say that what I shared has helped them in some way shape or form (e.g. gaining some inspiration to make a change) or to ask some follow up questions regarding specifics in order to get themselves onto a better path.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately that I do enjoy writing as an outlet, although hardly ever utilise the opportunity to do so. I believe in part for my own reasons (you know, to articulate a thought on a more creative platform) that there may also be some value in providing more detail and nuance as to how I managed to shift over 4 stone and become significantly fitter, healthier and consistent considering the feedback I have been receiving. I’ll keep the focus on weight loss specifically as I’ll end up writing a piece longer than my dissertation from back in my university days if I go too far off topic!

I would like to provide the preface that everything I am going to talk about here is specific to me and what works for me may not work for you. You should always absorb as much information from as wide a variety of sources as possible and figure out a bespoke approach which works for you on an individual level. I’d like to think that I’m quite an observant person and I’ve taken such a huge number of ideas and details from sources like reading books, YouTube, trial and error (my favourite!), observing habits within others and listening at the right times. Some ideas I added to my routine and have remained in place ever since, others served their purpose and were discontinued and some were immediately discarded because they were likely just garbage. An important thing is to be willing to adapt until you get it right or even just a little bit better until you can find what a new normal is – you’ll never look back once you do, trust me.

However, I do hope that for anyone who needs it that they are able to take at least one or two nuggets of information to empower yourself to progress closer to where it is you want to be. If no one does then that’s still not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned because I’ll have spent some time doing an activity I enjoy and been able to get a thought off of my chest – albeit a rather long one.

Step 1 – Increasing Activity Levels

One of the first things I changed when I started my journey (God I HATE that expression) was to become more physically active. I decided early on because I was strong yet unfit (as well as overweight) that one of the easiest ways to achieve this was to simply walk more frequently. So I strapped on my Fitbit or smartwatch and made sure that I hit 10k steps per day as often as I could manage. I now average around 15k steps per day.

By doing this I was burning an incredible number of additional calories and over a period of time the compound effect is more or less inevitable, this has such a positive impact for weight loss. There are so many forms of exercise and it is easy to get hung up on the intense stuff (which is great by the way!) or what I can't do, but walking was and remains my superpower. It should not be undervalued – it’s a calorie killer.

This leads on to the general principle that by walking more I was increasing my Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) which essentially boils down to how active you are physically out with regular exercise. General examples of this are to walk instead of taking the car for short distances (e.g. work, going to the shops, taking the stairs rather than a lift etc).

An example specific to me is that I walk to my gym every.single.time. This is approximately 2,000 extra steps per day. Now that’s 2,000 steps per day x 6 days per week which is 12,000 steps per week or over 600,000 steps per year! Do you see how one small change can lead to such a significant milestone over time? That’s the compound effect in action and it should be everyone’s ally, it’s certainly mine.

How you choose to approach a task/routine/activity (e.g. half-arsed) is likely how you will do most things in your life and your outcomes will be aligned with that. By taking a measured, positive and I’m going to give it my all here approach to every single thing you do in life will stand you in good stead, imagine how far you could progress if you actually tried and gave it your all? It’s amazing - honestly, try it. Unless you are in a very small percentage of people your body is exactly where it deserves to be, we are the result of our actions on a daily basis over a long period of time, it’s a transparent, qualitative and rather easy way of tracking progress.

In short you need to get your butt moving as often as you can and by doing so your baseline of how many calories you can consume in a day will increase, the health benefits are absolutely stellar.

Step 2 – Calorie Management

I don’t like the term Calorie Tracking so I have gone with Calorie Management as I feel it’s more appropriate because you can track anything, that doesn’t mean you’re going to see a difference. Taking responsibility and managing your caloric intake on the other hand? Well that’s something entirely different...

Weight loss can be a confusing topic when you aren’t armed with a little knowledge and it can be quite jarring at times as a result. But here is the kicker and it’s as simple as this; on any given day your body has an energy balance in terms of calories. Go over the number and you’ll gain weight, hit the number and you’ll maintain and if you create a deficit, you’ll lose weight. That’s it in a nutshell.

My biggest issue was that I didn’t fundamentally understand what I was consuming, how many calories were within that regime and what should I be looking to hit for my physical profile? I downloaded an app called Nutracheck (I now use My Fitness Pal; they all do the same thing) and started tracking what I was eating and ensured that I hit my calorie target as often as I could. I naturally fell into a 5:2 nutrition plan whereby 5 days per week I would be in a sustainable and healthy deficit with 1-2 days to allow more flexibility (e.g. the weekends). It’s important to still live a full life when cutting weight. Throughout the year or so while I was losing weight I did not skip a single social occasion that I didn’t want to (I skipped plenty I didn’t fancy, haha!) and ensured that any blow outs were accounted for and whilst doing this will slow progress down, overall I still lived a great life and didn’t have to make sacrifices which aren’t worth it, it’s important to stay connected and foster sustainable change.

To summarise this section succinctly I determined what a good calorie target would be for me and made sure I hit it on a weekly basis rather than a daily basis. You can’t be in a calorie deficit every single day for long periods of time, it’s not that good for you; physically or mentally.

Step 3 – Food Selection

After I gained a solid understanding of what I needed to do to lose weight in terms of calories, this inadvertently forced me to consider what I was eating. Whilst I can now create a deficit quite easily if I need to, I do this by selecting foods which A. I like and B. fit the right profile (e.g. calories, protein etc). Meaning I can eat loads and never feel hungry whilst maintaining a calorie deficit.

An example of how I achieved this was that I swapped almost all of my snacks to fruit, low fat yoghurts, Greek yoghurts and high protein yoghurts. I found that I still got that sweet hit but for a fraction of the calorie count of other snacks (e.g. sweets, breakfast bars etc) and often got extra protein which helped me keep my strength up as I love to lift weights.

If you drink full fat fizzy juice, just don’t. They’re a source of empty calories and best avoided (I never have but appreciate many do).

Breakfast cereal was swapped for healthy alternatives such as scrambled eggs most mornings. The eggs also contain more protein, less calories and they take more energy for your body to metabolise, honestly, they’re like a cheat code.

By understanding what you are consuming and how many calories are within you can make more informed choices and actually end up eating more and feeling fuller for less calories.

(Fun Fact: Did you know that a pint of beer has approximately 220 calories? Whereas a 25ml rum and diet coke has approx. 60 calories? Informed decisions are available everywhere, you just have to look for them.)

Step 4 – Portion Control

Leading on from calorie management is portion control and for the first time in my life I now own a set of kitchen scales. I now ensure that all portion sizes are accounted for and appropriate so that everything I consumed was part of the plan.

For example in the past I would habitually just have two of basically anything (e.g. chicken breast fillets) and why? I’ve not got a clue; it was just an ingrained habit I had. Whereas now I tend to batch cook in advance and weigh each portion so that I’m getting the correct amount. A key thing for me was weighing all loose items so that I understood their calorie profile and ensured that everything in my diet was accounted for as best as I possibly could.

Please watch your portion sizes, they’re a silent killer when it comes to gaining and losing weight. But with a little effort this has actually been something I really enjoy. Although it’s rarer now, there were many moments where I thought: Oh fuck, I didn’t realise there were so many calories in that!

(Yes, I like to swear within my inner monologues.)

Step 5 – My Training Programme

I’ve done weight training for a number of years now (10+) and it’s something I’m passionate about and thoroughly enjoy. However, at the start of this process I found despite my physique making me outrageously strong I was overweight and fundamentally unhappy with myself about that fact. One thing which really made me realise that I was unhappy about my appearance was when I was thinking why am I avoiding getting my photo taken? I used to love getting a wee photo here and there... The answer? I looked dreadful and subconsciously I knew it. I'm back to normal now though guys, get the cameras at the ready, haha!

After a period of time (over 6 months) of simply walking more and eating progressively better I went back to a public gym and really doubled down on my training.

I very gradually implemented some light cardio, then dabbled with classes and now I do both classes and weights (probably a lot more than anyone could be reasonably expected to, but that’s just me!). Although it’s something that I love, training as such is not necessarily required to make real changes. Although I would highly recommend that everyone engages in some form of exercise, it’s good for you.

Importantly it’s always a case of taking one steps at a time; walk before you can run.

Step 6 – Consistency and Dedication

This aspect is truly a winner and probably something which cannot be taught and is difficult to master. Consistency and dedication are truly my golden bullet, being consistent over a period of time you will almost always win and win convincingly, trust me.

Most changes in our lives will take time to bear fruit and at least initially change can invoke a lot of effort and stress, but this gets easier as you go. Hang in there and maintain course and your consistency will take you levels beyond what you thought was possible, beyond your initial goals and this has certainly helped me on the up-and-up. You will find if you can be consistent, you will quickly see, hear and feel the benefits whether it be kind words from others or having higher energy levels. Every day is a small-scale battle and every battle won is a step forward and ground gained. This keeps me motivated to always keep pressing forwards (not blindly though, adapt as you need to).

You’ll need to work on this one yourself here though. The best advice I can probably offer when confronted with a moment whereby you doubt yourself or you’ve hit a brick wall and you know you’re going to forfeit consistency and dedication - is to stop making bloody excuses and start making plans on how you’re going to deal with the task at hand.

In Summary

If I was less like me, which I’m not… It would have been easy to have gone in the opposite direction after realising that I was overweight. You know, my knee is fucked, I’m overweight and let’s head down the slippery slope of regression, feel sorry for myself and start a pity party – woe goes me. But that’s not me, I don’t have that in me and as a very good friend of mine told me recently: you always overcome, Martin.

Those words mean a lot to me and I’ve thought about them every day since. I wasn’t born with any outstanding talents, I lacked confidence in myself at times when I was younger (e.g. at school) and was somewhat of a late developer but now? Now I feel like I can do anything and it’s an incredible feeling. I feel well-rounded, I feel accomplished, I feel knowledgeable, I feel powerful, I feel resilient, I feel capable and I feel like I have scope to help others. I absolutely love to see people do well and work on themselves. We all have our limitations (e.g. physical) and must work within that framework but every day is an opportunity to start working towards a better tomorrow and the moment to act is now, not tomorrow, not after you’ve done X-Y or Z, it’s now. Right now.

If anything I’ve said here has resonated with you, please feel free to reach out and let me know and please also take care of yourselves. You’re important and you matter, don’t forget that. Especially if you’re not where you want to be right now.

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