Any advice for ex sportsmen who have gained weight but find it very difficult to loose. I am now 18 stone but still run 4 miles a day.

[Rory]

I am 60 years old man I always kept myself fit and played football into my 40s. I did not have a weight problem until now. I am now 18 stone I jog 4 miles every day and exersise at home. I do watch what I eat and try to keep to below 2000 cal per day. I took early retirement 2 years ago but I am not a couch potato. My Body fat % is 38 and my BMI is also 38. My weight when playing football 3 times a week and training most days was 14 stone.

[Hidden]

Hi Rory,

My guess is that notwithstanding being reasonably active, you're just taking in too many calories too often. And those are being stored as fat.

I would strongly urge you to look seriously at what you eat (i.e. how fatty and how calorific it is), how much you eat (portion control - for want of a better term - really matters), how often you eat (how many times do you eat a day?) and how fast you eat (I suspect - perhaps wrongly - that you eat quickly and thereby don't give your body time to 'register' the food.

All of those things I have been guilty of in trumps. That is until I decided - at only slightly behind you in years - that it was now or never in terms of getting my eating, indeed my whole relationship with food, under control.

Since that decision, I lost about 25% of my body weight, got to 'normal BMI, and feel just soooo much better and fitter that it is truly unbelievable.

One other thing that may need to be factored in is that your metabolic rate tends to reduce with years, so your activity level may not count as much as it used to when you were younger in terms of keeping your body fat percentage and weight down.

My advice? Get on the weight loss bus, change your eating habits and lose that excess weight once and for all.

Good luck with your weight loss journey, if you decide to do that.

[Rory in reply to Hidden]

Cheers mate I think you hit the nail on the head with eating fast. I was youngest of 3 boys if you did not get it down you it was stolen. LOL. It's a habbit I still have today. I am going to start a food diary ( something I have put off ) and use some of the tools I have found on this website. Its diet diet diet.

[W3ndy2159]

Hi Rory have you got a smart phone? If you have there are 2 great 'free' apps that I use that I feel have helped me lose weight-albeit slowly but never the less I'm losing weight. They are " myfitnesspal" which i add my daily foods and use as a food diary. It helps me keep track of what goes into my mouth and also makes me aware of calorific values of what I eat. To begin I put in how much i weigh. My age. My gender. How much i want to lose. What time span do i want to lose this weight. It then calculates how many calories i should consume daily to acheive my goal. It allows me to be "friends" with other users so I am not alone in my quest for a slimmer me. I can see what they eat to give me food/menu ideas. We encourage each other on good and bad days and especially if we have lost weight. Which I also log. It's like going to a slimming club but without the expense!

the other 'free' app is runtastic pedometer. It calculates how many calories I have burnt though out the day and on specific physical activities. So allows me to see if I've eaten more calories than I've used. Runtastic can be synchronised with my fitness pal too. So the maths is done for you.

You may find these two useful tool to your weight loss too good luck

Wendy

[Rory in reply to W3ndy2159]

Thank you Wendy I have been using some of the podcasts to up my running pace and using the food and activity charts on this site and so far its working I have lost 6 lbs. Also started a 3-4 mile evening walk to keep me away from the fridge while exercising the remote control. I used to log my activity on Elmondo but I will check out the apps you have suggested.

ROY

[W3ndy2159 in reply to Rory]

Thanks for reply Roy. 6bls so far is great well done. Keep up your hard work and you'll continue to lose weight and reach your goal.