Weight loss and 40k, ideas welcome.

[Deadlift]

Basically I got on the scales at the local zoo and the results said I weighed the same as a large male giant panda.

This is not good. So some buddies and myself have come up with an escalation campaign for this winter working up to 2000pts on 250pt increments, starting at 500 pts which includes weightloss.

Here is the idea, on discussing our hobbies and the realisation that our physiques have seen a bit (a lot) of gravity over the past few years it was time to lose some fat. 37 and its getting harder, this might be the encouragement i needed.

Anyway the plan is we will all weigh ourselves this sunday, 2 weeks after we meet for our 1st game and anyone who has lost 2% of their total bodyweight gets an extra 50pts, if you put on weight you lose 50pts

2 weeks later same again but this time its 750pts with an added 50pts for again hitting our weight loss target. This will continue until we hit 2000 pts and the end of our campaign.

Basically every two weeks we get 250pts plus 50pts for weight loss or minus 50pts for weight gain.

This is as far as we have got ideas wise, so any ideas and input you guys have would be appreciated :)

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I have to say, this is a unique idea!
I don't really know what to suggest, be like a Viking and beat all other competitors?

Good luck my friend. :D

[planet psyrum]

I think this is a great idea. I recently also combined fitness and 40k. I have a 2000 pt themed space marine chapter/list idea. I have none of it purchased at this current moment. I have a tiered unit idea that I can begin purchasing once i meet certain goals. My first goal is to run 3 miles in under 40 mins. It's like 4.5 mph. At that point I can start, buying and painting the troops. Then 3 miles under 36 mins, I unlock the elites. Then 3 miles @ 30 mins I unlock the fast attack slot. and so on, till I unlock my hq next year when I can finish a 10k. So far, I am at 2.5 miles at 35-40 mins. So, I am getting there. Good luck.

[Lost Vyper]

I dropped some major weight few years ago, by dropping the second warm meal from my daily cuisine and replaced it with a healthy rye bread+low fat cuts+salad. Plus i cut down on those "few beers occasionally" and stopped eating candy. You can have one "candy day" in a week, but dont go crazy. I used it for popcorn and Diet Pepsi in a movies for example. This worked for me, but combine that with some exercise and drink a lot of water (but not before weighing :) ) and the weight should start to drop FAST...

[Lukas The Trickster]

Are you still powerlifting mate? (I am guessing you must be or have been a powerlifter by your handle). If you are then your weight may not neccesarily be unhealthy weight, and it will seriously affect the weights you are shifting if you do go ahead and shift the pounds. I am just a shade under 13 stone, which for my my height (5' 8") is technically overweight - I was around 11.5 stone when I started lifting about 5 years ago, but I have put this weight on gradually as lean muscle, I am avowed drug free and dont consider myself to be unhealthy - although with a 34 waist and 26'' thighs, I do struggle to get jeans that fit me properly :) I am guessing you are probably aware of all this and it is a lifestyle decision that you have made, in any case good luck with it and stay disciplined;)

[fuzzbuket]

so thats losing 10% of your total body weight! wow thats really good! and your sort of 'reward scheme' sounds like a great plan.



-fuzz

[lattd]

buy a box of models for every half stone you loose. Or get your significant other to buy an army and then she gives you a box to make every time you loose a certain amount.

[Deadlift]

Are you still powerlifting mate? (I am guessing you are a powerlifter by your handle). If you are then your weight may not neccesarily be unhealthy weight. I am just a shade under 13 stone, which for my my height (5' 8") is technically overweight - I was around 11.5 stone when I started lifting about 5 years ago, but I have put this weight on gradually as lean muscle, I am avowed drug free and dont consider myself to be unhealthy - although with a 34 waist and 26'' thighs, I do struggle to get jeans that fit me properly :) I am guessing you are probably aware of all this and it is a lifestyle decision that you have made, in any case good luck with it and stay disciplined;)

Yeah still lifting, most of my weight is function able lol, but lean I am not. I used to get away with eating pretty much what I wanted as long as I got in my protein. My idea of healthy eating was 4 big macs and throwing the buns away :)
It's catching up now though. I clock in at around 18 stone. My waist was 36 inches 7 years ago. 42 now. Never really bothered me until I realised the creeping effect it had.
My struggle will be getting the protein in and keeping energy levels up. Looking at trying a ketogenic diet. Any who I have a few larger lifting buddies who are struggling with high blood pressure and cholesterol. What with Clark Duncan's death recently. Well it spooked me. I have 2 young kids and it's great being big daddy, but not dad daddy.
On the hobby front though it's also a great incentive to get models done in time too :) plus with Orksbthe extra 50pts can actually mean quite a lot of extra stuff.

[Denzark]

I can't tell you categorically, what will work for you. But as a 33yo with shagged kness, back off physio to running 4-5 miles 3 times a week, I can tell you what worked for me. Firstly the best way to melt fat is cardio exercise. Don't listen to any rubbish about fat burning at 65% effort or any gash like that. Max out is max results. I recommend an interval training programme - google Robert Ullreys and/or 'Couch to 5km'. This is a running programme for your MP3 which literally takes you from nothing to 5k in 30 minutes. Running costs you nothing. If you have leg/knee probs, go for non-impact - buy a bike or go swimming.

Next, weight loss through eating. Actually if you do enough phys you can eat drink and smoke whatever you like. I know people (in the military) who treat their bodies like absolute dustbins but are still fit enough to cut around 50 degree Afghan heat in 40kg of body armour and kit. If you do the phys you can pretty much crack on.

However, I was wanting something beyond this, and joined the memsahib on weigh****chers. Not the meetings, the internet tool. Easy to use, quite a man-sympathetic tool - you earn points for phys, enter stuff, it can be almost addictive. Simply by sticking to my points (49 per day start, with a 49 weekly allowance on top for 'treats' and earning say 10 points for 45 minutes running) I lost 2.5 stone in 16 weeks. So stick to it, be disciplined and eat sensibly, or up your phys regularity.

The incentives you have given sound good ideas but without actual phys or dietary changes I'm not sure how effective I would find them personally...

[Deadlift]

The incentives you have given sound good ideas but without actual phys or dietary changes I'm not sure how effective I would find them personally...

Admittedly I do no cardio at all ATM, never did. All gym time was deads, squats, bench and power cleans. That's it. Low reps high weight too :(

WW and jogging I have considered. I would have to join a club though. Just to be made to feel guilty if I don't lose the poundage.

[Kevin48220]

Deadlift, I think this is commendable and I hope it works for you. I'd like to suggest that you stay positive with all of this and not worry so much about guilt--feeling bad about yourself is the easiest way to backslide into your old habits (that's personal experience talking). I got a lot of value out of the South Beach diet approach (good protein, lots of veggies, serious avoidance of bad sugars & carbs).

As to cardio, if jogging's not your thing, perhaps look into getting a bicycle? You could combine your cardio exercise with running your in-town errands.

[Deadlift]

Thanks for the support guys.

Right now we have confirmed I am a fat ******* lol, any ideas going forward on the escalation idea. Points and rewards etc for winning / losing weight etc.

[Toaster36]

For me personally 50 pts a week doesn't feel like much of an incentive. Perhaps cumulative points that roll over week to week would be better? Or unlocking force org slots could work too. Say for every few lbs your short you unlock another troops slot and for milestones, like every 10 lbs, you get another slot free.

5 > +1 Troops
10 > +1 Troops, +1 Heavy
15 > +1 Troops
20 > +1 Troops, +1 Elite
25 > +1 FA
30 > +1 FA, +1 HQ
35 > + 1 FA
40 > +1 Elite, +1 Heavy
45 > +1 Elite
50 > +1 Heavy
60 > +1 Super Heavy

Or something like that. In this model you can almost see the pounds dropping onto the table in the form of heavy tanks.

As for losing the weight I've had good success going the diet/cardio route. Oats are good too, not the kind loaded up with sugar and milk, but the kind with honey and fruit. I like some fresh apples and cinnamon in my oats.

[magickbk]

You could also add some sort of incentive where if you drop a waist size or something, your warlord gets an extra warlord trait. In any type of escalation-type campaign it's good to vary the ways that you gain the incentives to prevent it from becoming stale and/or monotonous. In that way, you could have weight loss combined with size reduction and time/distance on cardio all contributing something different to the games. I like the FOC slots idea too. If your diet needs some modifications as well, everyone could get a certain number of tokens each week. You can spend a token on something like a soda or a pizza, or save it up for the next game to get -/+ to a reserves roll. Be creative, and encourage your buddies or significant others to help keep you focused!

[Chris Copeland]

Deadlift, I weighed myself today. the result was distressing. I might have to follow your lead. I can't go on like this... unfortunately I SO LOVE pizza and beer... :/ Cope

[DarkLink]

Being healthy is pretty simple, if not easy.

Go Paleo. Eat plenty of meat, veggies, fruits, and some nuts, in that general order.

Get plenty of sleep.

Drink plenty of water.

Workout with intensity (lift heavy weights, do sprints, etc).



As to cardio, if jogging's not your thing, perhaps look into getting a bicycle? You could combine your cardio exercise with running your in-town errands.

Don't bother. Jogging is relatively ineffective even as a workout, and counter productive for anyone who like muscles. Long Slow Distance actually actively atrophies muscle as your body adapts to the exclusive use of oxidative metabolic pathways to exclusion of others. Endurance athletes are vastly overrated. Everyone seems to view them as the ideal athlete, when in reality they're extremely limited and highly specialize, and generally extremely unfit outside their narrow domain of expertise. That's not to say they're not impressive athletes, but it requires the qualifier that they are impressive within their narrow field of expertise.

Lifting heavy weights and performing high intensity workouts (Crossfit, Tabata, etc) actually burns far more calories in the long run. The workout itself doesn't burn quite as many calories, but because of the intensity your body has to expend significant effort to rest and recover, something that pure cardio lacks. High intensity stuff makes you stronger, faster, tougher, and grants more endurance, while burning more calories overall. Low intensity cardio makes you weaker, limits your overall fitness to one single area, and only improves endurance.

I absolutely recommend sprints, drags, intervals, and other high intensity running. But Long Slow Distance is not an ideal workout. Even if you're planning on running a marathon, you still want to base your workouts around high intensity stuff.


Case in point:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yx84a3ueU0E/T22xVC1BU6I/AAAAAAAAAIg/1SyehsrWKMA/s1600/marathon_sprinter.jpg

[Joe TwoCrows]

Deadlift,

Darklink has it 90% right. The other 10% is that you're not in good shape right now. Here's a comparison: I'm 54, 210lbs. At the beginning of June, I was 223. The difference is a tad over 1000 miles on the bike. It works out to about 80miles/lb. At the start, I could only ride about 10 miles before resting. Now, I can ride 40. But, only now can I do intervals to boost the intensity. And those intervals make a difference. It changes from 80/1 to about 65-70/1.

I have to emphasize that you must build endurance before starting anaerobic stress. You can push aerobic stress faster, so long as you respect your body saying stop. Oh, and beer and pizza? Just don't eat more because you're hungry. And you will be. Be aware there is research about alcohol slowing or stopping fat loss because of competing metabolic pathways.

As far as motivation? Everyone's different, but given you have lifted in the past, I think the only time you'll need to reward yourself with minis is when you plateau; Remember the rush from lifting the next level? It's the same rush seeing the weight come off. Minis will be the frosting.

Good Luck.

[QUOTE=DarkLink;240265]Being healthy is pretty simple, if not easy.

Go Paleo. Eat plenty of meat, veggies, fruits, and some nuts, in that general order.

Get plenty of sleep.

Drink plenty of water.

Workout with intensity (lift heavy weights, do sprints, etc).



Don't bother. Jogging is relatively ineffective even as a workout, and counter productive for anyone who like muscles. Long Slow Distance actually actively atrophies muscle as your body adapts to the exclusive use of oxidative metabolic pathways to exclusion of others.

[DarkLink]

I'll just add that diet is your primary determinate of body fat. You have to work out a ton to burn enough calories to make up for a poor diet. Eating healthy is, by far, the most important thing you can do to maintain a healthy weight. Drinking lots of water, getting plenty of sleep, and exercising are all distant seconds (though if you work out long enough and hard enough, you can force weight loss so long as you maintain that effort, but it isn't nearly as sustainable as eating healthy, especially as you get older).

[Sainhann]

I would give you to suggestions, both will require some effort and yes both will kick your *** when you first get started.

P90X

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFgZZE_2WhA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5kfMGfZRmo&feature=related

&

Insanity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oKY1hEs1SY

Back in April of 2011 I was hitting the scale at just under 245 pounds and I finally decided to make a difference since at 54 years of age I was very close to the age of when my dad had his first heart attack and he was dead at 62 after having many more and a major stroke.

Since then I have dropped close to 35 pounds and more than 8 inches off of my waist plus many more inches from other areas.

If you put forth the effort these two will work.

P90X to build the muscle and Insanity to burn the fat.

[Wildcard]

Its already past 5am here, and I just finished my 3rd Dreadknight, and I really need to get some sleep, so I'll be quick :) :

Sports:
- For me swimming has been really good sport to start doing something. I've got a rougly 7-8 years of non-sport time behind me, and a total of 12 muscle, joint, bone and tendon injuries, and the swimming has been a blast!
-- It hardly harms the bodyparts (like joints or tendons) while still being very comprehensive way to move.
-- You choose the pace, and the mentioned intervals are easy to include in your swimming habits.
-- Doable 365 days a year if you got a swimming hall you can use. (no need to fear your favourite swimming lake freezing over for 2/3rds of a year :) )
-- Not sure about UK (I've heard that the water is expensive as gold there), but generally swimming hall fees are quite low.
-- Cheap to start, all you need is a swimming trunks..

Price for the best weight dropper:
- Make a deal, every member that takes part in your weightloss event puts a 'bet' to the table. Nothing that will bankrupt anyone from your group, but enough to make it atleast mildly sting / hurt to lose that sum (£50-£100 for example, per dude).
-- Winner takes the whole reward. Also, to tie it to this event, and beloved hobby of yours (ours :) ), agree that winner must spend the money for 40k products. To bolster existing army, get a new army (or allied detatchment), get you guys scenery or whatever.. just not to pints and fish'n'chips (thats what you love in the island, right? :) )

Hope this brings some ideas and motivation to the task you are about to undertake. Best of luck to you, and your whole team!

-Wildcard

Edit: Oh, forgot to mention since some others brought it up aswell, ~230lbs worth of love for the plastic crack (and pizza and dr pepper)

[DarkLink]

P90X

&

Insanity



Crossfit's cheaper (most crossfit sites post daily workouts for free) and more comprehensive. Someone with weightlifting experience should be able to pick up Crossfit pretty quickly even without a coach. But this certainly isn't a bad suggestion.

[Wolfshade]

At work a number of people have put £25 in a pot and the person who loses the highest proportion of weight wins the pot, it stands at about £250.
A quick calculation meant I didn't join as the largest bloke in the pot can lose about 1/3rd his weight, for me to do the same I would be very underweight.

[Panxer]

Good! Sounds like fun! Me personally? I like to do push ups per turn. So if you do 15-20 per turn, you've done a 100 by the end of the game!

Start slow...finish hard.

Have fun with it...

[Chris*ta]

Price for the best weight dropper:
- Make a deal, every member that takes part in your weightloss event puts a 'bet' to the table. Nothing that will bankrupt anyone from your group, but enough to make it atleast mildly sting / hurt to lose that sum (£50-£100 for example, per dude).
-- Winner takes the whole reward. Also, to tie it to this event, and beloved hobby of yours (ours :) ), agree that winner must spend the money for 40k products. To bolster existing army, get a new army (or allied detatchment), get you guys scenery or whatever.. just not to pints and fish'n'chips (thats what you love in the island, right? :) )

Hope this brings some ideas and motivation to the task you are about to undertake. Best of luck to you, and your whole team!

-Wildcard

Edit: Oh, forgot to mention since some others brought it up aswell, ~230lbs worth of love for the plastic crack (and pizza and dr pepper)

I found this thread rather amusing when I started to read, but I see how it makes a lot of sense.

I'm now wondering if you maybe couldn't get a weight-loss league going at your FLGS, and seeing if they'll provide a small prize, to go with Wildcard's suggestion.

I've gained a bit of weight over the last few years, partly through not enough exercise, and partly because of a bout of depression :(

I have however lost a bit of weight over the last couple of months, and it's minly by trying to make an effort to eat less junk, and also by switching from regular soft drinks to a low-sugar kind. Not diet though, as a) they taste like sweetener and b) I've heard some bad stuff in regards to interaction with depression.

Oh, I don't actually know how much weight I've lost as I don't have a set of scales, but my clothes fit better :)

Oh, and good luck on your weight loss, and keep us posted on here about your league.

[Death-Monkey]

Great idea combining hobby with workout! I recently realised my rather inactive lifestyle was doing little for my physique. Tried running with a mate, that gave him a bad back, so we moved onto cycling. I now try to complete a 22mile circuit three times a week which has caused me not only to loose weight but feel better in myself than I have for a long time.

Was wondering if you could use miles covered during a workout as points that you could paint. You could say roughly speaking I cover fifty miles a week therefore can add fifty points to my army. In ten weeks I would have a 500point force, in twenty weeks 1000points.

If there is a group of you doing this you could have modifiers on a pre-determined point allowance. Such as 1000 point army, person who covers the most distance get +50 points, person who covers the least gets -50.

[lobster-overlord]

I too am amongst friends who are a tad larger than they should be (One guy cried out I love butter one time). Other than Mr. Skinny, I'm the smallest of the bunch at 230 lbs. I can't get them interested in anything like this, so I'm in the boat by myself in trying.

I would love to build a new army, so I'm thinking that might be my incentive (I'd love to finish my old ones first though).

John M>

[Wolfshade]

Cycling is great and is fairly low intensity on the old knees.
I cycle to work, which is great fun, and thankfully I've got a sheltered place to lock my bike and showering facilities!

[Pendragon38]

Admittedly I do no cardio at all ATM, never did. All gym time was deads, squats, bench and power cleans. That's it. Low reps high weight too :(

WW and jogging I have considered. I would have to join a club though. Just to be made to feel guilty if I don't lose the poundage. Deadlift you should take up Boxing its a fast and easy way to lose weight. you can drop 3-7 pounds a week without the dieting or with dieting 10 to 13 pounds a week. I went back to boxing because the humdrum workouts at the YMCA wasn't cutting it for me...my OP

[Sainhann]

Crossfit's cheaper (most crossfit sites post daily workouts for free) and more comprehensive. Someone with weightlifting experience should be able to pick up Crossfit pretty quickly even without a coach. But this certainly isn't a bad suggestion.

Could be but chances are those sites do not videos of these ladies working out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaGHDnYMl5A

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=tanya+insanity+workout&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=821&tbm=isch&tbnid=bXcv_gH7Wakb2M:&imgrefurl=http://fit-zaang.com/2011/04/12/day-100-2011-plan/&docid=PhnI0fsA7MDgCM&imgurl=http://fitzaang.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tania-insanity-plyo.png&w=720&h=540&ei=M4xSUPe8FeuvigLuooDwAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=186&vpy=151&dur=4122&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=125&ty=90&sig=113017982445898093059&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=195&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:75

Let's just say that they can give a guy the desire to get fit along with a desire for something else as well.

But Crossfit training is basically P90X and Insanity and can be cheaper but will still have some cost since most will still require you to buy some weights, other equipment or gym membership.

It that is not what will matter.

What does matter is that you actually put forth the effort to get active and workout and not just once or twice a week but 5-6 times a week at least.

Plus you need to look at what you are eating:

What is the total calories that you are eating?

Most adult males really only need around 2000-2400 each day but are actually putting into their bodies 3000-3500+.

Drinking alot of soda?

The caffeine is causing your body to store water then it should be. So just by cutting this out of your diet will show a deduction in your weight.

To get fit is a total body adjustment.

Get Active, Eat healthly, Eat less and not just for a short period of time but for the rest of your life.

[DarkLink]

Could be but chances are those sites do not videos of these ladies working out

Let's just say that they can give a guy the desire to get fit along with a desire for something else as well.

You clearly know very little about crossfit culture. Just google 'crossfit girls', see what you get.



But Crossfit training is basically P90X and Insanity and can be cheaper but will still have some cost since most will still require you to buy some weights, other equipment or gym membership.

Crossfit is far more comprehensive than P90X or Insanity.

If you don't have anything more than a pullup bar, then sure, there's not a huge difference, though Crossfit takes a more methodical approach to maximizing work capacity using functional movements as far as I can tell. If you don't need weights, though, then Crossfit is 100% free. You can easily find, or create your own, Crossfit style bodyweight workouts.

If you do have weights, or have a gym membership, or go to an actual Crossfit gym, you'll get a much more broad exposure to fitness than the other programs. In fact, for about the price of one p90x video, I was able to find a decent barbell and weight set, allowing me to do about 90% of common Crossfit movements. Add in a few miscellaneous items, some of which are easy to make on your own (24" box for box jumps, 50lb sandbag, jump rope), and you can do pretty much anything you want. One of the hallmarks of Crossfit is the minimal amount of equipment required compared to more traditional gyms. A pullup bar and some weights will get you most of the way to a complete home gym.

I can't emphasize the importance of comprehensive, functional movements enough. It's a lot more than just doing some pushups and running in place really hard. Olympic and power lifts are pretty important components of a good workout program. Crossfit makes a noticeable effort to incorporate every functional movement they can find, an impression I have not gotten from p90x and Insanity.

Again, I'm not saying that either are bad programs. I am saying, however, that a solid understanding of Crossfit's methodology and incorporating some of that framework into your workout program will yield greater results than P90X or Insanity will.



Drinking alot of soda?

The caffeine is causing your body to store water then it should be. So just by cutting this out of your diet will show a deduction in your weight.


Pretty much don't ever drink anything except water. Or maybe tea.