Gareth's Dieting Success Story
Gareth has used WLR as a crutch in his weight loss journey
to lose nearly seven stone.
Age: 31
Height: 6'
Start Weight: 19st 7lb
Current Weight: 12st 10lb
Goal Weight: 12st 5lb
Weight Lost: 6st 11lb
Time Taken: About 2 years
Dieting History
I think I’ve tried pretty much every diet under the sun at
some stage. All of them are great in the early stages as they
all essentially restrict calories and the weight falls off.
Amongst the diets I’ve tried:
Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Atkins, GI and a soup diet.
Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?
Several times during my 20s. I was a big drinker and a big
eater during my University days and this didn’t slow down much
afterwards. I regularly went through guilt periods when I would
try the next big diet, lose some weight but then revert back to
my old habits and pile even more weight on.
How being overweight has affected you…
Peoples’ perception was always that I looked ok. I seemed to
carry most of the weight fairly well. ‘You’re just a big bloke’,
‘You’re very broad’ etc. My stomach took most of the punishment
and baggy clothes are pretty good at hiding that.
I just got lazier throughout my 20s as it became more of an
effort to do active stuff anyway. I’ve always enjoyed computer
gaming and so got more into that. (I should point out that I’m
still into now that I’ve lost the weight – I just do other
things as well!)
When I was about 26 I was in hospital for a couple of days
with heart murmurs. This was caused by a combination of binge
drinking and being overweight. That was 2 days before Christmas.
Took me 4 more years to learn my lesson.
I started to find it difficult to find clothes that I felt
comfortable. XXL were sometimes snug. I had a 42” waist and 31”
inside legs (I have a really long upper body) – which are
bizarre measurements.
Motivation to Diet
A combination of things have acted as my motivation. My son
was born in January 2005 – a life changing event in itself. But
I figured I wanted to be able to kick a ball around with him
etc. when he got older.
But perhaps the main motivation at first was me! When I hit
30 I was actually very satisfied with life – I’m happily
married, got a good job, nice house and a young child. Only
thing I wanted was that there would be less of me!
These two factors combined with a bit of luck led to me
discovering cycling.
I’d ridden a charity 60 mile ride on a crappy mountain bike
in September 2004. I was at about my heaviest then – 19 and a
half stone. I got off the bike at pretty much every hill and
walked up and my arse was ragged at the end of it!! I was stiff
for days. And I didn’t get on a bike again for several months.
My 30th birthday was in March 2005. I asked for and got, a
bike. Just a standard mountain bike. It appeared there was no
stopping me. I was riding as much as I possibly could in between
having a wife, young baby and job. More about cycling later.
Discovering Weight Loss Resources
I have to admit that WLR was one of my failed attempts during
my 20s – it was only £7 a month back then.
The reason it didn’t work for me was that I’d just cheat. And
of course, it doesn’t work unless you’re entirely honest.
This time round I had already made a mental shift. And WLR
was my crutch for the final stone and a half of my weight loss.
How Weight Loss Resources Helps
Main thing I’ve benefited from is ‘learning’ to eat like a
healthy person. WLR helps you with portion control. For example,
a bowl of cereal for me would be around 75g – not the standard
30g listed on the back of the packet. However, when you see the
sheer amount of calories in cereal … well you compromise. I have
40-50g of cereal now, depending on what else I’m having.
The community support on the site is outstanding. As well as
the official helpteam, there’s a wealth of knowledge across a
range of subjects. And perhaps even better for me, I was able to
share my knowledge of cycling with people. It’s all about peer
pressure but in the most positive way.
The Best of Weight Loss Resources
I did get into the habit of logging in and immediately going
to the Fitness and Exercise board, then the A&S board. Only they
would I go off to the food area. My two favourite sections
though were the exercise board – when I could input all those
extra calories to eat and the goals and results board where I
could track my success.
Perhaps one area I could have used more was the recipes.
There are some fabulously talented cooks around the WLR site but
sadly for me, it was only towards the end that I started to have
a look at some of the recipes.
Perhaps WLR will release an e-book of some of the best
recipes?
Gareth's Dieting Tips
Nothing in addition to what I’ve said above except perhaps
there always seem to be.
Perhaps the thing I like best about WLR is that it doesn’t
try and make out that weight loss is easy. Yes, the way to do it
is easy – but actually getting there takes a significant
investment of time and effort. And, in my view, it will only be
successful if you change your whole attitude. I wish I could say
it’s easy – but it isn’t always. What I will say is that WLR is
a pretty significant crutch that helped me do it.
Always exercise!
Cycling is fantastic. I got on a bike at 19 stone plus – felt
awful, looked awful and went about 2 miles before thinking I was
going to die.
Last week, at about 12stone 10lbs, I did 60 miles on the
Saturday morning, 55 miles on Sunday and then 10 miles at 25mph
on the Monday! Who’d have thought it possible.
Always eat breakfast. I used to hate breakfast and I had to
literally force myself to eat it. I’m glad I do now. If you
don’t like breakfast stuff – have a butty or spaghetti or
anything to be honest (except chocolate probably.)
Water is your friend – I drink 3-4 litres (yes three to four
litres!) a day. Sometimes I put a bit of Asda’s smartprice lemon
squash (19p for a litre) in a 750ml bottle of water. Taste great
and is still 99% water.
More Info
Using the tools of WLR, Gareth has benefited from learning to eat
like a healthy person. You can follow his example. Take
a free trial
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