Day 43 - Challenge One Complete

Well, an un-customary (is that a word?) morning post for me, to close this chapter of the blog. The weigh in is below and I'm glad to say my feared gain didn't materialise, even if I did basically maintain the loss so far.

As you'll recall I undertook the Alli 6-week challenge, so thought it would be good to summarise the 6 weeks.

Total loss: 7.2lbs

Foods I enjoyed: Extra Light Philadelphia, Shapers Caramel Chocolate Bars, venison sausages
Foods I missed: butter and cheese, though not as much as I'd thought originally
Side effects: some bowel issues when off-diet, headaches at the beginning

Would I recommend the challenge?

I would (obviously Alli is a medicine and therefore can and should only be used under supervision). Taking the tablets has forced me to do exactly what I knew I needed - to re-evaluate the food going into my mouth for quality as well as quantity. If Alli does as it is claimed and increase the loss you manage yourself by 50%, that means I've lost about 2.5lbs due to it, of my total loss, and that's helpful. The psychological breakthrough after years of yo-yo dieting of lasting so long on a diet and passing a magic half-stone marker should not be underestimated.

It hasn't been plain sailing, as you'll know from the blog - mainly down to boredom at times, and adjusting my mental attitude to being placed in situations where no low-fat food was available. But it wasn't a difficult diet - I find exclusion diets suit me better than having to judge what moderation means. Having a big 'no' in my head works well for me. For others that may be unhelpful. For some, the initial cost of the course of tablets is prohibitive, but for those who need it, Orlistat can be prescribed, so pop along to your GP.

But it's not rocket science; reduce the amount of calories you eat (and fats are the largest 'empty' calories you'll find) and you'll give yourself the chance to lose. I don't have any medical conditions which get in the way of this, thankfully, and I am aware that others do, and the equation isn't as simple for them, but for most of us who are otherwise fit and healthy, it's a simple maxim.

How about fat? Well if you want to read more about fat, and how it can affect your body there's an ABC-level guide here.

Recommended daily allowances are useful: Adults should consume no more than 70g of fat (of which no more than 20g saturated). Remember the McDonalds test? Did you know that that's just 4 slices of a Meat Feast deep pan pizza? And remember that if you're eating butter and cheese, they are pretty much gram for gram fat. Not the good stuff, either (Of course if you don't care at all, there is a recipe here for you to try).

What about the role of exercise? As you'll know from my blog I'm not a big exerciser. So the weight loss I have achieved has been pretty much through diet alone. Apart from my 5k amble, I think most of the other exercise was normal incidental movement I would have undertaken anyway.

So what now for me?

Well, I'm going to continue to take Alli for a bit longer, certainly while I have tablets left. After that my BMI will (hopefully) be too low to continue the course, but I should have built a good foundation of loss then. After all, I still have at least a stone to go.

I'm going to try something different though - I'm going to try an exercise programme for the next month, and see what effect that has in conjunction with my new diet. I'm waiting for the DVD to pop through the post (that might give some of you a clue), but now the focus of my blog will be the loss through exercise as well as diet.

Thank you anyway for joining me on my Alli journey over the last 6 weeks. I hope you have enjoyed reading it, and maybe you've found some of the linked info useful too... stick around! The blog will continue, but it will look a bit different from tomorrow... watch this space!

I'm off now to fill out my online questionnaire and maybe win myself a holiday!


Weekly weigh-in:

10st 2.0lbs

(By the way, definitely weigh yourself in the morning! I weighed myself last night to compare and contrast and the difference was over 1.5lbs with this morning, and the only difference was a wee...)