Hairy Bikers/Dieters - calorie allowance

It's been a bit of an eye-opener for me reading the MFP forums for the first time today and seeing the debates over 1200 calories. I'm a 27 year old bloke, 6 foot tall, who knows absolutely nothing about diets or calories but I was starting to eat far too many snacks at work, drink loads and stuff my face with chocolate of an evening etc and starting to grow out of many of my favourite clothes. To look at, I didn't look that overweight (even though my BMI was creeping up towards obese) but it was all going on my belly.

After a heavy Christmas/New Year, my girlfriend and I decided we'd try and cut down - then that night we saw the Hairy Bikers diet show and immediately went out and bought the book and it's been a revelation for us.

We naturally decided to do what they'd done and go for 1200 cals-ish, we got the fantastic MFP app and I started at 1430 before dropping to 1200 (impatience) and in around seven weeks, I've lost nearly a stone, down from 206lb to 194lb, and my clothes are actually starting to feel a bit big! I want to drop to around 175 and then increase calories to a maintenance level and stick around there.

So I've been really surprised to come on here tonight and see the amount of people saying 1200 is starvation, less than the body needs to function etc, I have to be honest, I've not struggled at all to stick at that amount and haven't been going hungry. I have a boiled egg in the mornings, take a tuna, salad and cheese wrap, bag of light crisps and two pieces of fruit to work, and then have a very filling meal from the Bikers book (500 calories max generally) in the evening, mainly only drinking water or low calorie soft drinks all day. I walk a mile to work and a mile back, and play 5-a-side for an hour once a week but that's my only real exercise so it's all diet based.

However I have hit a bit of a stumbling block, I've not really lost this week at the rate I had been - I had been putting it down to a bit of a blow-out last weekend on a trip away but it all came back off within a day or two - is this the time when I should be upping my calorie amount? There's so many differing opinions on here, it's difficult to know what to believe! I've already upped my MFP app back to what it suggests for me, but that's still only 1370 while a BMR (first time I've heard of BMR was tonight!) calculator says my BMR should be around 2000! I'd find it really scary eating 2000 a day at the moment, simply because I'd be convinced that I'd go up again.

The thing is that I'd actually struggle to put that much back in at the moment anyway because I feel like I've been eating really well - if I were to try and raise my calorie count, I'd probably do it with fattening stuff like a pint of cider, glass of milk, fizzy drink or a chocolate bar, simply because I feel like I've been getting enough from my meals.

All thoughts are welcome!

So....my last message was 5 weeks in on the Hairy Bikers Diet - today represents 6 months.

Have I been able to stick to it? In a nutshell, yes! 88lbs (6 and a quarter stone).

I've found the food good, it's been easy to maintain/monitor (especially with the MFP app) and, even better, I started back on the booze and now eat back "burned" calories (I try to do this only on weekends/holidays but......).

Weight loss has slowed right down now but this is good as I have dropped from tight fitting XL+ to M clothes (even M at Promark!) and my jeans size has dropped 6".

It has worked for me but may not be for everyone - combine it with MFP and together you will achieve your goal.

Happy weekend

D

Big fan of the lads here (see my profile, they're listed as inspirations), been following since Namibia.

Remember they did the whole thing under full medical supervision, kinda like the Hairiest Loser in some respects. Props to the lads for getting the results they did all the same, here's hoping it means they'll be around for many years to come!

I've looked at Prof Roy Taylor's information on the web and he's a diabetes expert. There is some evidence that very low calorie diets over a specific time frame can remove people from the risk of diabetes or even make a diabetic be not diabetic any more. The boys were asked to lose 2.5 stone. I'm guessing that they can probably afford to lose even more than that. I have about 3 stone to lose and have hit a plateau eating around 1500 calories/ day. Even before that my weight loss was pretty slow, at less than 1lb a week. I have bought their book for some inspiration and plan to stick to 1200-1300 a day for the next three months or so and see if it works for me.

Exactly! It did rid me of diabetes. I was eating 1300/1400 at 301lbs and not eating calories back. Now If I'm totally inactive (I have been due to pneumonia and sickness) I eat 1400, if I'm well and more active.. Working out regularly and working I eat 1700 and don't eat exercise calories back. My bloods have been perfect for 12 months.. I no longer have diabetes.

It's also brought my high blood pressure and heart rate down, and the rest of my bloods... Cholesterol are also perfect. It's been a great way for me to eat and has worked well for me.

To me, the book wasn't with the money. I have to feed a family of 6 and just about every recipe is too time consuming. There are so many recipes out there and I have moved on from this book. I made about 6 of the recipes and all were tasty. Some of them call for so many ingredients it drives the cost up.

I also remember on the show that she told them a calorie is a calorie, I don't agree with this because they can be healthy or unhealthy calories.

Bump. For curiosity and the OP's cheese sauce recipe!

MISS CHESTNUT

I asked my GP for help losing weight, all they could offer me was a discount on Tesco Diets or regular visits to the nurse to be weighed! No nutritional advice, no advice on calculating calorie intake and no access to any kind of counselling (I asked for weight loss counselling as my main problem is emotional eating - they couldn't offer me anything!).

It seems like the Government and the nhs spend a lot of time talking about the fact that there's an obesity crisis, but don't seem to have the time/money to help people get it sorted (at least not at the less extreme end of the scale - I was told that my bmi was too low to qualify me for gastric band surgery - even though I hadn't actually asked for that in the first place!!! I just wanted some help to lose the weight myself without resorting to surgery!).

You make a really important point in your 2nd paragraph, above!

Last year I went to see the head of the practice at my surgery and he is about 280lbs himself. I asked him for help to lose weight and he patted his stomach and laughed, saying that if I ever found a way to lose weight, could I let him know.

What hope is there when the head of a large practice can't help himself, and nor can the other five GPs in the practice help him?