In which I make a predictable post about losing weight

[chess]

I am fat. Now, nobody is to say 'you're not fat' or 'I'm fatter than you', because although it is true that I am not clinically obese and many people are fatter than me, I am carrying rather more than a few pounds over. I am, in fact, ten stone, which is a good half stone more than I should ever be, and it shows. I don't fit any of my jeans. I need to lose weight.

Apparently I shall lose all my excess pounds if I go for an hour's walk every day. I plan to try this, although I have no idea how it will work in term time (I'm presuming for then this means an hour more than the hour I do anyway going in and out of town, and term tends to be short on spare hours). I was vaguely planning to do an hour's swimming a week, as an 'on top of the walking I do anyway' thing, but the plans were quite vague as I'm not particularly conveniently situated for any swimming pools, driving to them seems to be missing the point a little, and I have to find the Motor Proctor on a full moon Tuesday with a following wind (half an hour from 2-2:30 one day a week, or 6-6:30 a couple of others which gives me that little missing-Hall problem) before I have permission to car around Cam anyhow. And I am confidently informed that I don't swim fast enough to lose any weight by it, even though this is because I Have No Muscles and hence am actually putting in a fair amount of effort to not move very far.

Does anyone have any Top Tips For Losing Weight? I haven't consciously decided I need to lose weight before; it's just sort of happened when it needed to. But I have been A Big Lazy Blob over the summer, having gone into it needing to shed a few pounds, and now it's getting kind of serious.

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I know you said you didn't want to hear this, but I don't think of you as fat at all. If anything I think of you as skinny. I'm over 9 stone, and I'm a good head shorter than you. Women do get fatter (well, curvier) as they get to around 20, and it's no less natural than children getting taller.

However, getting fit and being aware of your body isn't a bad thing. I'd love to have someone as unfit as me to exercise with when in Cambridge, a year ago I used to go jogging with my friend, but I haven't done it for a year now, and don't if I don't have someone else to motivate me.

Also, exercise can be doing something you have to do anyway but more enthusiastically, if you cycle try cycling a few minutes quicker so you feel it by the time you arrive.

M is forever telling me how snacking is bad for weight gain, and that if I ate the same amount but in 3 meals a day I'd loose more weight as my body would have to burn calories to get through the gaps between the meals. Also, just being a bit careful about the way you cook things can make a huge difference (although this is very hard in college with no ovens or hobs) - grilling beats frying for example.

My favourite diet book had a big list of free vegitables that you could eat as much of as you wanted as they didn't contain very many calories at all. Certainly eating more veg and less meat and carbohydrate is a good way to loose weight, although is probably unhealthy if taken to extreems.

[chess]

I tend to have breathing problems doing anything more strenuous than walking really fast; that's why I'd thought of swimming, 'cos it's meant to be good for people with breathing trouble. (It's not exactly asthma, but just as awkward for exercise, perhaps more so than an equivalent level of asthma in the winter as it's very highly triggered by cold air.)

Eating Hall food is probably bad for weight gain, but probably not as bad as the vast piles of chips I've been eating over the summer...

I already walk just fast enough to be falling over by the time I get places, just because I have to walk that fast to make it to places in time - cycling requires this handy sense of balance thing that I'm not sure I even understand, much less possess.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I need to exercise more...