No Bread, Beer or Biscuits: How I Lost 63lbs in 100 Days

This is great and certainly don't want to discourage anyone.

Some people need extreme transformations like this to be successful. Most people, however, don't.

You'll have a much higher success rate if you're patient and change just one little thing at a time. Once you're comfortable, you move on to the next.

I myself have lost over 30lbs and increased strength tremendously (power clean 250+).

I went about it by doing one small thing at time. First I got used to going to the gym a couple days at a time. Once I was used to going to the gym, I started a strength program. Once I was used to going to the gym and being on a program, I started crossfit. Then after I was used to that, I started omitting wheat from my diet. Once I was used to that...you get the point.

Since this is another weight loss post on HN, I'll tread out the old lines again[1]:

If you only care about weight loss: calories in vs calories out.

However

If you care about maintaining muscle while losing fat, the story is still pretty simple, and calories still count, but the macro ratio of those calories are very important. In this case, keep protein high and get the rest from carbs and/or fat. I personally recommend a more Keto approach in this case because most people will be satiated longer.

The point being, weight loss is one thing, but muscle sparring while losing weight is another. Understand what you are going after and know the correct path.

[1] - When most people say they want to "lose weight", they really mean fat. Really, who wants to lose muscle? Probably no one. That is why calories don't tell the whole story. If, however, you absolutely don't care about muscle (and if you say "yes" here, I would personally question that), sure, just pay attention to calories and ignore the macro ratios.

It's weird how that stuff works.

I'm 32, my last physical revealed that I'm 63 lbs overweight, I smoke (pack a day), drink fairly regularly, my blood pressure is fine, my cholesterol is fine, and have a great insulin response. Lung capacity is definitely not where it should be though.

I also eat almost entirely meat and carbs, save for lettuce/salad. I can drop 5 lbs in a couple weeks just giving up soda, 10 lbs if I give up carbs entirely.

I think the low fat / no meat thing is a load of crap. At least for me all I have to do is drop the carbs, and especially sugar.

"But I made a decision to stop right there and then. I didn’t want to wait until Monday, or until we’d run out of crisps in the cupboard. I was putting an end to it."

This is so true... why do we always say we'll start something on Monday? I'll start eating better... on Monday. I'll start my new workout routine... on Monday. Where did this come from? Why is it so hard to make the same commitment to yourself today? Congrats on making up your mind and following through! Super inspiring!

Might be due to the muscle mass needed to carry such a heavy body around? Big muscles waste energy, even doing nothing much at all.