Mental and Physical health hacks, resources and advice
Smallman1 hahha - Sponsored by yours truly
On a slightly different note, any advice/hacks on losing a bit of weight/body fat ?
Had my yearly medical and wasn’t pretty reading. Im around a stone overweight and my body fat% has increased from the last one I had in 2022. Obviously diet / exercise are the essentials, but anything else people have used in conjunction to aid progress? A few of my mates have opted for “the pen” too, but want to keep away from that option as i’m sure with a little will power and hard work I can shift the weight.
Intermittent fasting. Cheers.
Millsy …. so I eat dinner say 6pm the night before. When can I next eat to count as intermittent fasting ? Plus how many “sessions” per month you reckon to make a difference? Your body starts burning fat right, because there’s nothing in your derby to use?
IndustryStandard so I finish eating around 8pm. Then I usually don’t eat until 2pm next day. But I’ve got used to that so you need to work up to it. Yes the basic concept is, by reducing he reliance on glucose in your blood for fuel, and insulin spikes through the eating response, your body turns to fat stores for fuel instead. It honestly works an absolute charm mate.. but it’s hard work at first but I barely notice I’m doing it nowadays. Plus you can eat for England during the non fasting part.
The key to all this (diet, exercise etc.) is consistency and discipline. Finding a healthy diet and doing exercises you enjoy is important in the long run otherwise it’s to easy to quit and fall into old habits. Depending on your age, current weight and genetics simply cutting down on processed fats and sugars will see your weight drop off within a couple of months. And no matter what your age is do resistance training to maintain muscle and strength. Keep in mind that for most men the majority off fat is stored around the belly area so you won’t see major results in that area until later.
Would love to know when I’ll start remembering all the good times I had with my mum instead of those last few weeks of her life. I keep getting these flashbacks of her with tears in her eyes and being so frightened
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IndustryStandard The fastest way to lose weight for me is a combination of keto, intermittent fasting, and fasted cardio in the morning. I can’t keep weight on with that routine, no matter how much I eat.
Millsy ….but how do you keep energy levels up if you are fasting and exercising? Your body just taps into your fat stores and your body just gets used to doing that rather than relying on instant carbs?
[unknown] correct. It takes a few weeks for your body to get used to using the stored fat instead of blood sugar as primary energy source while exercising, but once through that you’ll find higher energy levels during exercise and it has scientifically proven increases to cognition too. It’s hard to get going though, takes discipline and you have to tell yourself it’s perfectly natural for your stomach to rumble and to feel hungry. And breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. That was a Kelloggs slogan back in the 50s. I wonder why?
Two meals a day and run 4 times a week.
That’s the OLB way.
You’re welcome!
Fasting sorted me out this year. I’m a convert.
Between 2022 and 2024 I added 12kg for seemingly no reason (same diet etc) and I was already a little overweight.
I saw found a video Diary of a CEO’s Most Replayed Moments of 2023 Roundup and the fasting discoveries piece came on by Dr. Mindy Pelz.
I didn’t know about the other systems in our bodies that fasting activates / reinvigorates - I just thought it was about weight loss. I also didn’t realise there were ways to make it easy (what you eat going into a fast / taking electrolytes, adding MCT oil to coffee in the morning all makes it easy)
The list of fasting benefits vary on the length of the fast but always start with at least 3 × 16 hour fasts if you haven’t done it before.
i.e.
- Eat by 8pm
- Miss breakfast
- Drink lots of water or black coffee or green tea, eat after 12pm next day)
- Anything flavoured with artificial sweeteners etc accidentally kills your fast (your pancreas gets tricked into releasing insulin which is what we stop to get the benefit) - stick to boring unflavoured drinks and elecrolytes.
Once you have done a few 16h fasts you can move onto the longer fasts depending on which benefits you want to explore.
Some people just do 16 hour fasts for months and get good results - but eventually you will need to vary the lengths as your body gets used to them (the benefit reduces).
Many people fast Monday to Friday and eat what they want on weekends. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘making up the food you missed’ as that negates the benefits - when you eat again to break your fast, have a drink with it and just eat a “normal sized meal”.
Here are the fasting benefits depending on the length you do.
The videos helped me get an understanding - and I would watch one or two of these before trying it so you don’t go in blind.
I thought I would hate it but having started on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday to avoid doing it during work, I now comfortably do it at work (as do a bunch of us) and I genuinely love fasting!
If you don’t like the style of Dr. Mindy Pelz, you can try Dr. Jason Fung his approach is preferred by a doctor we know (but they ultimately say the same thing).
Hope thats useful 