Jump forward then to last week when I met him for lunch. He was looking heavy. It turns out that the Lighter Lifestyle had not faired so well over Christmas, not only that but once you were back to eating actual food again it was hard to go back to a life of sipping shakes. So at 5 feet 10 my brother has rapidly put on more weight then he lost and is now weighing in at 16 and a half stone. The problem is that Lighter Life doesn’t give you any of the tools needed to make a life change, they simply pump you with just enough calories and the nutrients you need to live. Of course you’ll lose weight, anybody not eating will! Just as inevitable though is that unless you are naturally strong willed you’ll put the weight back on again. It might be 1 month it might be 12 but the weight will go back on.

Just to give you a little insight into my brother’s mentality to food and exercise these are some of the things he has said, before and after spending hundreds of pounds on Lighter Life

1. I don’t eat unhealthily (said before and after)
2. We don’t eat that much (said before and after)
3. It’s all about the exercise and not the food (said before and after)
4. It Marks & Spencer’s fault, do you know they’ve got 3000 calories in one sandwich (err no they haven’t)
5. I’m just waiting for the weather then I’ll get out on my bike (lost count of how many years this has been said)
6. I enjoy food too much (said after Lighter Life)

As you can see Lighter Life has done nothing to help, still in total denial about how much they eat as a family, still in denial about actually doing some exercise and still happy to blame anything and anybody. Losing weight is a very simple maths game, if you burn more calories than you put in then you WILL lose weight. I’ve proven this to myself over the last couple of months. If you are eating healthily and if you’re not eating “that much” then you don’t need an exercise regime. At my brothers height, weight and level of day to day activity for his job he’s burning between 2200 and 2600 (conservative efforts, probably a bit more due to his weight) with no extra exercise required. If he’s not losing weight then HE IS EATING TOO MUCH. If he’s putting on a pound a week then that’s 3500 calories extra a week, or 500 extra calories a day. So instead of the 1800-2000 that would see him steadily losing weight he’s eating closer to 3000 whether he likes it or not.

But how can you survive on 1800 calories a day? Easy! Large bowl of breakfast cereal for breakfast 300 calories, fresh ham and salad sandwich for lunch with a packet of crisps 450 calories, jacket potato, tune salad for dinner, even with butter and a bit of cheese, 1000 calories. Don’t drink calories (stick to water) and it’s easy. Eat on this 3 solid meals basis varying what you eat but being careful to never go over 2000 calories and in 1 week he would lose weight. Will he do it though? No chance. Lighter Life has taught him that the best way to lose weight is to drink shakes. All this talk of eating less and exercising, it’s just crazy talk to my brother.

The Problem With Lighter Life is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

So today I decided to find out once and for all what the truth was.  I popped into the gym to speak with the instructors and let one of them test me with their commercial quality body fat measurers.  The result… 24% body fat.  I’m much happier with that figure, it’s still about twice what I would want it to be in an ideal world but maybe that can be my next goal after I’ve shifted some weight.

The only thing left annoying me now is the scales I have at home, they weren’t cheap (£60) and they don’t work.  Well they weigh ok but the body fat thing isn’t worth sweet FA (To be sure I’m going to try changing the batteries tonight).  Just so as not to get annoyed I’ll not bother reporting the body fat figure anymore and will concentrate my weigh-ins solely on body weight instead. 

Body Fat Percentage is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

A couple of things are likely going wrong here:-

1. They are communal scales and so an endless line of people will be weighing themselves and adjusting the base setting. Surely you’ve seen it yourself, “I’m sure I’ve lost more than that” so they nudge the starting position back a notch? Everybody seems to have their own idea of where zero is where as I just get on.

2. They are on a soft surface. This allows the scales to sink a bit distorting the accuracy. Anywhere on floorboards is bad but especially if you then have a nice fluffy carpet on top you’re asking for trouble.

I think I’ll not bother with them anymore because if you didn’t know better it would be enough to put you off. If you’re serious about losing some weight then you have to be consistent when weighing yourself. Make sure you’re in a similar state of dress, at the same time of day, on a good set of scales that are on a solid, level surface.

The Correct Way To Weigh Yourself is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet