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Just two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses – politicalbetting.com

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  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,312
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    Fasting is highly effective, if you can summon the willpower

    It’s also a lot easier than calorie counting. Two days a week you eat fuck all. Then eat normally the rest of the week. Bingo your calorific intake is down ~30%
    Personally, I am working on turning at least some of my wine into water.

    I tried that diet when it was popular a few years ago. It really didn't work for me. On fasting days driving home in the evening was positively dangerous and concentration levels at work were not good enough. Or at least that is what I convinced myself at the time.
    Full day fasts I don't get. 16/8 seems manageable. Am working my way towards doing that for the last few days this week. Its also about *what* I am eating / drinking. I honestly think much of the grazing is because I have been (low - medium levels) depressed.
    The best way to lose weight is slowly and progressively, and the only two methods I've found that are both achievable and effective are to cut out all sugary stuff - cakes, biscuits, all puddings and desserts - cutting out alcohol supercharges this, but isn't quite so attractive - and/or skipping either lunch or dinner and relying on one main meal (plus breakfast) a day.
    I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, fruit at lunchtime, a teatime snack and then an evening meal (and sometimes another snack later). Moving away from the usual lunchtime "meal deal" of a sandwich and packet of crisps is what helped me slowly reduce my weight from close to 15 stone to just over 13 stone. I have subsequently cycled between just over 13 and 13.5 stone, but late last year finally got below 13 stone for the first time in decades. Despite Christmas, I'm still below 13. Whether this is due to losing fat or muscle wastage, hopefully not the latter!
    Cutting out meals - for good - is definitely the way to go. Who said we need three square meals a day? It is nonsense

    And I agree with @IanB2 - permanently cutting out sugary stuff is also hugely helpful. You have to be strict -no choccy treats. But it works, and again you swiftly get used to it, such that the idea of a massive pudding eventually seems quite bizarre
    I eat three times a day as it fits in with my work schedule, but only twice at weekends when I have a later, larger breakfast. But it's not just sugar, stop eating carbs. It isn't actually that restrictive as apart from cakes etc you are only cutting five foodstuffs out of your diet - bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar. Fruit, root vegetables and pulses do need to be minimised though. A reasonable amount of protein, and any extra calories as fat.

    I do find this difficult when travelling, but find it easy to put on a few pounds and then lose them when I go back to normal.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,945

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,475

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I use tods.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,004

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I’ve learned to use kilos, because the missus doesn’t know what stones are, and there’s many fewer arguments if the scales get left on the same setting!
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,020

    I haven't carried cash for 5 years.

    Getting on for ten years for me.

    What’s the point of it?
    Beggars.
    Or the Salvation Army at Christmas. I mean, I would be ashamed not to be able to support them with a few coins. See also tips for businesses who don't give all their service charge to their staff.
  • spudgfshspudgfsh Posts: 1,496

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Stones? Its 2024 not 1924. Lets use proper measures.
    as a culture we use a varied, and confusing, mix of measures. Personally I'd measure
    Petrol/Diesel in Litres but Beer/Milk in pints
    Short distances in mm or cm but people in feet and inches and long distances in miles
    Weight of small items in grams and kilos, unless I'm cooking then it's pounds and ounces
    myself was always stones and pounds but now I use kilos (105 kilos feels less than 16.5 stone to my brain)

    over time, as kids are mostly taught in metric, most of the imperial measurements will no longer be used and we'll be left with miles and miles per hour.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,945

    Andy_JS said:

    Article from about 18 months ago.

    "Cashless society is killing off the traditional coin-operated public phone box"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10952227/Cashless-society-killing-phone-box-one-call-save-yours.html

    I thought they were all being used as hotels for asylum seeking books these days

    In London, I can’t remember the last time I saw a phone box that was actually a phone box. Rather than repurposed.
    I am loving the idea that it was a cashless society and not mobile phones that killed off phone boxes.
    Phone boxes are pointless as a) nobody carries change and b) most people have mobile phones. They should all be converted to defibrillators
    That wouldn't be a very mobile defibrillator. They tend to be concreted to the ground.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606

    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    Fasting is highly effective, if you can summon the willpower

    It’s also a lot easier than calorie counting. Two days a week you eat fuck all. Then eat normally the rest of the week. Bingo your calorific intake is down ~30%
    Personally, I am working on turning at least some of my wine into water.

    I tried that diet when it was popular a few years ago. It really didn't work for me. On fasting days driving home in the evening was positively dangerous and concentration levels at work were not good enough. Or at least that is what I convinced myself at the time.
    Full day fasts I don't get. 16/8 seems manageable. Am working my way towards doing that for the last few days this week. Its also about *what* I am eating / drinking. I honestly think much of the grazing is because I have been (low - medium levels) depressed.
    The best way to lose weight is slowly and progressively, and the only two methods I've found that are both achievable and effective are to cut out all sugary stuff - cakes, biscuits, all puddings and desserts - cutting out alcohol supercharges this, but isn't quite so attractive - and/or skipping either lunch or dinner and relying on one main meal (plus breakfast) a day.
    I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, fruit at lunchtime, a teatime snack and then an evening meal (and sometimes another snack later). Moving away from the usual lunchtime "meal deal" of a sandwich and packet of crisps is what helped me slowly reduce my weight from close to 15 stone to just over 13 stone. I have subsequently cycled between just over 13 and 13.5 stone, but late last year finally got below 13 stone for the first time in decades. Despite Christmas, I'm still below 13. Whether this is due to losing fat or muscle wastage, hopefully not the latter!
    Cutting out meals - for good - is definitely the way to go. Who said we need three square meals a day? It is nonsense

    And I agree with @IanB2 - permanently cutting out sugary stuff is also hugely helpful. You have to be strict -no choccy treats. But it works, and again you swiftly get used to it, such that the idea of a massive pudding eventually seems quite bizarre
    The big evil is *refined sugar*. Sugar - like fat - is fine in natural form. Too many "low fat" foods replace natural fats with refined sugars. Which turn immediately to fat...
    For me it#s less the nutrional intricacies and more the emphatic easiness that matters. If you have a blanket ban on sweet things, that's easy to follow - much easier than reading lists of ingredients and angsting about ultra-processed whatnot

    Just skip one meal a day, cut out the desserts, eat fresh and lots of fish, move around more

    That worked brilliantly for me in the past, hope it will work now
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,475

    dixiedean said:

    kinabalu said:

    I'm as negative as they come on Donald Trump's political prospects but even I find it hard to see him not bagging the Iowa caucuses.

    So do I, in the sense he'll almost certainly top the poll.

    But it's an expectation game. He's polling north of 50% in Iowa and north of 60% nationally. Suppose he emerges with just 40%, with 30% and 20% for Haley and DeSantis (in either order) and 10% the rest. The headline story at that point isn't "Trump wins!" It's that most Republicans are on the hunt for an alternative, it's surprisingly competitive, all eyes on New Hampshire etc.
    I don't think it will happen, but.
    If he gets into a competitive race, will he start to call fraud on the Republican Primary process?
    If so, what happens next?
    A Civil War within the Party is not inconceivable.
    He's called fraud on practically every election he's been in. He's called fraud on both Presidential elections. He called fraud on the 2016 Republican primary. I suspect he'll call fraud on the 2024 primary too. I guess the question is how big he goes on those calls.
    He'll only get nasty if he starts losing.

    However, if he starts losing, that'll be because the Republican Party has already started turning against him. For the moment, despite everything, it hasn't - his rivals won't call him out and while they don't, why would his supporters shift to someone else? There's an element of chicken-and-egg in this and perhaps if the momentum did start to run against him, things could turn very quickly. But that still requires something to break the spell he has the GOP, in its various guises, under.
    He'll only get nastier if he starts losing.

    Once the field thins out, whoever's left has to start going after Trump, don't they? What's the point for Haley of coming 2nd? She's not going to get picked as VP nom. If she's in it to win it, I presume she'll start increasing the anti-Trump rhetoric. Maybe she won't be overly nasty about it, but any criticism of Trump will trigger nastiness from him.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,020

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,232
    FPT - I agree that Harris at 60 for Next President is eye-catching but IMO if she is the nominee the Republicans will win regardless of their candidate.

    I've taken 24 on her being the Dem nominee. A bit at 23 is available.

  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 23,156

    Andy_JS said:

    Article from about 18 months ago.

    "Cashless society is killing off the traditional coin-operated public phone box"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10952227/Cashless-society-killing-phone-box-one-call-save-yours.html

    I thought they were all being used as hotels for asylum seeking books these days

    In London, I can’t remember the last time I saw a phone box that was actually a phone box. Rather than repurposed.
    I am loving the idea that it was a cashless society and not mobile phones that killed off phone boxes.
    Phone boxes are pointless as a) nobody carries change and b) most people have mobile phones. They should all be converted to defibrillators
    Surely there is enough room in the box to offer both?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,741

    Andy_JS said:

    Article from about 18 months ago.

    "Cashless society is killing off the traditional coin-operated public phone box"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10952227/Cashless-society-killing-phone-box-one-call-save-yours.html

    I thought they were all being used as hotels for asylum seeking books these days

    In London, I can’t remember the last time I saw a phone box that was actually a phone box. Rather than repurposed.
    I am loving the idea that it was a cashless society and not mobile phones that killed off phone boxes.
    Phone boxes are pointless as a) nobody carries change and b) most people have mobile phones. They should all be converted to defibrillators
    Surely there is enough room in the box to offer both?
    If one of the items works you get a major shock.

    And the defibrillator can come in handy too.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,319

    Well.

    Mhairi Black has said she was always “uncomfortable” with the SNP’s singular reliance on Nicola Sturgeon’s personality to promote the party.

    The nationalists’ deputy leader at Westminster said that her former leader’s departure from office was “quite healthy because I’m a big believer in politics should be about policy as opposed to personality”.

    Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years”.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sturgeon-cult-of-personality-was-uncomfortable-says-black-5gv7rqtqs

    Standards have slipped at The Times. Does the second "she" in Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years” refer to Black or Sturgeon? (Tbf, it might be more obvious in the context of the whole article, which is paywalled.

    Also, when did we (or newspapers generally) stop capitalising First Minister and Prime Minister and so on?
    Style guides vary on this matter, but I don't think "first minister" should be capitalised in that particular sentence as it is describing Nicola Sturgeon's position in comparison with others who have held the post ("longest serving first minister").

    Similarly, "I recently met President Trump, America's first orange president".


    Cf. Northern Ireland's last Orange first minister.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,622

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    Our medical centre and hospital use kilos

    Also most DIY is in metric and maybe from a personal point of view I am happy with both as I have adapted to both

    As for cash I haven't used it for years but always carry a few coins which come in handy occasionally

    Much like imperial and metric I am content with both cash and cashless
  • With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,201

    I haven't carried cash for 5 years.

    Getting on for ten years for me.

    What’s the point of it?
    It's more energy efficient than Bitcoin ?

  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,319
    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,741

    Well.

    Mhairi Black has said she was always “uncomfortable” with the SNP’s singular reliance on Nicola Sturgeon’s personality to promote the party.

    The nationalists’ deputy leader at Westminster said that her former leader’s departure from office was “quite healthy because I’m a big believer in politics should be about policy as opposed to personality”.

    Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years”.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sturgeon-cult-of-personality-was-uncomfortable-says-black-5gv7rqtqs

    Standards have slipped at The Times. Does the second "she" in Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years” refer to Black or Sturgeon? (Tbf, it might be more obvious in the context of the whole article, which is paywalled.

    Also, when did we (or newspapers generally) stop capitalising First Minister and Prime Minister and so on?
    Style guides vary on this matter, but I don't think "first minister" should be capitalised in that particular sentence as it is describing Nicola Sturgeon's position in comparison with others who have held the post ("longest serving first minister").

    Similarly, "I recently met President Trump, America's first orange president".


    Cf. Northern Ireland's last Orange first minister.
    These days they're obsessed with opposing the wrong sort of Sinn.

    No change there.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Nigelb said:

    Imagine the devastation if they run out of air defence missiles.

    Ukrainian Air Force shootdown totals from the massive Russian missile attack overnight into this morning:

    99 missiles launched by Russia, 72 downed by Ukraine

    10/10 Kh-42M2 Khinzal
    59/70 Kh-101/555/55 cruise missiles
    3/3 Kalibr
    0/4 Kh-31P
    0/12 SRBM (S-300/400, Iskander-M)

    https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1742120224340459751

    Imagine the embarrassment of those who confidently predicted that Russia was running out of missiles more than 6 months ago. Oh, wait a minute, they don't seem to have any.
    Not this again. No-one (as far as I recall) said that Russia could not manufacture new missiles. What people said - accurately, I believe - is that they'd run out of old stocks of missiles, and were increasingly relying heavily on new builds of stuff.

    Before this last week, we had not seen large missile attacks for some time - seemingly because Russia was stockpiling.

    If they keep up this sort of rate for weeks, then you may have a point.
    There have been large scale attacks through most of December culminating in the 29th December attacks, thought to be the largest of the war to date, following large scale attacks earlier in the year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65682618

    I think that the theory was that sanctions meant that they would lack the electronics to rebuild replacements. It has not worked.
    Yes, there have been attacks over the year, but those have been limited in scale compared to the current, and even more so, compared to February 2022. That article is not contradictory to what I wrote.

    You do appear to have given up on Ukraine.
    Not at all. I said yesterday or the day before that we have both a moral and strategic duty to support Ukraine for as long as they are willing to fight. It is, after all, their country and they know the horror of Russian occupation far better than most. I greatly admire their heroism, their leadership and their resolve.

    What I do not think is helpful to them or us is kidding ourselves that defeating a country like Russia in a conventional war is either just about to happen or to be achieved without a truly terrible cost. We need to make clear that we are there for the long term. That means stepping up our ammunition production, defence spending and financial commitment to keeping the Ukrainian state functioning. It means accepting that this is going to be long and hard but it is essential, absolutely essential, that Russia both loses and is seen to lose this war.

    My attacks on the over optimism should not deceive you into thinking that Ukraine has many, if any, stronger supporters on this board.
    But as I, and others, have pointed out, your "Imagine the embarrassment of those ..." comment was wrong, and was not an attack on 'over-optimism', but on reality.

    It is also exactly the sort of comment that pro-Putin shills make on Twitter.

    Generally, however, I agree with much of your final paragraph. But I would add that the 'truly terrible cost' is inversely proportional to the amount of support we give Ukraine quickly. The less we give, the greater the cost.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 28,422

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Electronic bathroom scales can be set to show kilograms, stones and pounds, or just pounds for any visiting Americans. I suspect most people do not know this and just use whatever is the manufacturer's default. Reading product manuals is for girly swots.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471
    Sandpit said:

    On another note, the BBC's live reporting of the Tokyo plane incident shows the perils of live reporting:

    Posted at 9:35 : Live images show plane engulfed in flames
    Posted at 9.45 : 379 people on board evacuated - Japan Airlines
    Posted at 9.58 : "a few moments ago we saw passengers evacuating the plane on inflatable slides and running away from the burning plane."

    A very, very long 'few moments'.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-67862184

    There’s pictures of the plane being doused in water by the ARFF trucks, with no slides visible. Hope everyone did eventually get out though. Every second counts in an incident like this.
    There's video of it landing and bursting into flames; it is unclear if the crash happened shortly before that whilst it was in the air, or on the ground.

    The passengers were exceedingly lucky. I have the missing people in the other plane are okay...
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,232

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos.

    Those posters wanting to lose 20 - 30 kg have significant lifestyle changes ahead in order to achieve this. I act when I'm 1kg over.

    The best way to lose weight is not to put it on in the first place. (I know this is not very helpful.)
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,622
    edited January 2
    On the Toyko plane fire, it looks like the A350 landed on top of the small fixed wing aircraft creating a fireball and now video is released by passengers filming the flames through their windows and their cabin filling with smoke

    They all had the luckiest of escapes, not so by the looks of it for those in the coast guard plane
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,866
    edited January 2

    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,123

    Sandpit said:

    On another note, the BBC's live reporting of the Tokyo plane incident shows the perils of live reporting:

    Posted at 9:35 : Live images show plane engulfed in flames
    Posted at 9.45 : 379 people on board evacuated - Japan Airlines
    Posted at 9.58 : "a few moments ago we saw passengers evacuating the plane on inflatable slides and running away from the burning plane."

    A very, very long 'few moments'.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-67862184

    There’s pictures of the plane being doused in water by the ARFF trucks, with no slides visible. Hope everyone did eventually get out though. Every second counts in an incident like this.
    There's video of it landing and bursting into flames; it is unclear if the crash happened shortly before that whilst it was in the air, or on the ground.

    The passengers were exceedingly lucky. I hope the missing people in the other plane are okay...
    Port wing and engine seem to have been intact upon landing. Must have been the starboard side?

    Captain of the CG plane said to have escaped alive.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 43,471

    DavidL said:

    Nigelb said:

    Imagine the devastation if they run out of air defence missiles.

    Ukrainian Air Force shootdown totals from the massive Russian missile attack overnight into this morning:

    99 missiles launched by Russia, 72 downed by Ukraine

    10/10 Kh-42M2 Khinzal
    59/70 Kh-101/555/55 cruise missiles
    3/3 Kalibr
    0/4 Kh-31P
    0/12 SRBM (S-300/400, Iskander-M)

    https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1742120224340459751

    Imagine the embarrassment of those who confidently predicted that Russia was running out of missiles more than 6 months ago. Oh, wait a minute, they don't seem to have any.
    They did run out of missiles (more or less). They then made and bought more.

    But the more relevant question here is what effect these new attacks will have on:
    - the front line
    - Ukrainian morale
    - Ukrainian war-making capacity
    - Russia morale
    - Western support
    The latter is most likely to be the effect Russia is after (though it will take the others). Russia knows it cannot 'win' against Ukraine if we in the west keep on supporting it, or increase our support; it knows it may get some form of 'win' if we abandon Ukraine.
    These attacks are, if anything, more likely to strengthen Western resolve; it reminds us of the inhuman nature of Putin. I don't see any Russian strategy; just a dictator throwing a tantrum.
    IMV the Russian 'strategy' is to make the west think Ukraine cannot win; or that the cost of winning will be truly horrible.

    I think these attacks will strengthen Russian resolve among those who care for Ukraine. They are equally good to those in the west who say: "Russia is still the stronkiest of stronk! There's no chance of Ukraine beating them!"
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,622
    Stocky said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos.

    Those posters wanting to lose 20 - 30 kg have significant lifestyle changes ahead in order to achieve this. I act when I'm 1kg over.

    The best way to lose weight is not to put it on in the first place. (I know this is not very helpful.)
    Your last sentence is prescient - smaller portions and not snacking between meals is my key to weight loss
  • Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Stones? Its 2024 not 1924. Lets use proper measures.
    It is the only appropriate measure for human weight. Poncing about with kilos is simply silly - I presume a meal can weigh a kilo or more anyway.
    If a meal weighs more than a kilo, it definitely weighs more than a pound though. So hardly an argument for measuring in stones and pounds.

    I've gone for the crass Americanism of measuring my weight in pounds only. Partially because stones mean nothing to me, and partially because of an American app I use I downloaded a few years ago that uses that measure, and partially because you can lose twice as many pounds as kilos so that's fun to see.

    Doing away with the completely redundant stone conversion makes using pounds alone rather decimal in being able to think in terms like "I've lost 20 pounds, so have x pounds remaining to lose".
  • Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    Fasting is highly effective, if you can summon the willpower

    It’s also a lot easier than calorie counting. Two days a week you eat fuck all. Then eat normally the rest of the week. Bingo your calorific intake is down ~30%
    Personally, I am working on turning at least some of my wine into water.

    I tried that diet when it was popular a few years ago. It really didn't work for me. On fasting days driving home in the evening was positively dangerous and concentration levels at work were not good enough. Or at least that is what I convinced myself at the time.
    Full day fasts I don't get. 16/8 seems manageable. Am working my way towards doing that for the last few days this week. Its also about *what* I am eating / drinking. I honestly think much of the grazing is because I have been (low - medium levels) depressed.
    The best way to lose weight is slowly and progressively, and the only two methods I've found that are both achievable and effective are to cut out all sugary stuff - cakes, biscuits, all puddings and desserts - cutting out alcohol supercharges this, but isn't quite so attractive - and/or skipping either lunch or dinner and relying on one main meal (plus breakfast) a day.
    I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, fruit at lunchtime, a teatime snack and then an evening meal (and sometimes another snack later). Moving away from the usual lunchtime "meal deal" of a sandwich and packet of crisps is what helped me slowly reduce my weight from close to 15 stone to just over 13 stone. I have subsequently cycled between just over 13 and 13.5 stone, but late last year finally got below 13 stone for the first time in decades. Despite Christmas, I'm still below 13. Whether this is due to losing fat or muscle wastage, hopefully not the latter!
    Cutting out meals - for good - is definitely the way to go. Who said we need three square meals a day? It is nonsense

    And I agree with @IanB2 - permanently cutting out sugary stuff is also hugely helpful. You have to be strict -no choccy treats. But it works, and again you swiftly get used to it, such that the idea of a massive pudding eventually seems quite bizarre
    I eat three times a day as it fits in with my work schedule, but only twice at weekends when I have a later, larger breakfast. But it's not just sugar, stop eating carbs. It isn't actually that restrictive as apart from cakes etc you are only cutting five foodstuffs out of your diet - bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar. Fruit, root vegetables and pulses do need to be minimised though. A reasonable amount of protein, and any extra calories as fat.

    I do find this difficult when travelling, but find it easy to put on a few pounds and then lose them when I go back to normal.
    Fasting is definitely easier if you cut out carbs. Without all those blood sugar peaks and troughs, you just don't get as hungry
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,004

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Electronic bathroom scales can be set to show kilograms, stones and pounds, or just pounds for any visiting Americans. I suspect most people do not know this and just use whatever is the manufacturer's default. Reading product manuals is for girly swots.
    They can. Unfortunately on most cheap digital scales, the setting is via a hidden or difficult-to-operate switch on the underside next to the battery enclosure. It’s almost as if they didn’t expect husbands and wives to want to use different settings.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,839
    kjh said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
    Bless you for thinking that you're moving with the times by using kilos. That explains a lot.
  • david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,834
    algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    Probably institutional inertia, a bit like modern container ships' design being limited by the size of Roman horses*. There was probably some form that had the weight in pounds and ounces it's never been updated into metric - possibly including the computer systems built on top of it.

    * This may be apocryphal and even if not, rail loading gauges are only loosely related to track gauge.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,232

    Stocky said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos.

    Those posters wanting to lose 20 - 30 kg have significant lifestyle changes ahead in order to achieve this. I act when I'm 1kg over.

    The best way to lose weight is not to put it on in the first place. (I know this is not very helpful.)
    Your last sentence is prescient - smaller portions and not snacking between meals is my key to weight loss
    Yes I agree.

    My lifestyle change, made 15 years ago, was to not have bread in the house. Toast and butter in-between meals is just too tempting.

    I don't have breakfast. It's the only time of day that I'm not hungry.

    If desperate, a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter is nutritious and surprisingly satiating.
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,319
    algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    To avoid alienating grandparents?
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,839

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Stones? Its 2024 not 1924. Lets use proper measures.
    It is the only appropriate measure for human weight. Poncing about with kilos is simply silly - I presume a meal can weigh a kilo or more anyway.
    If a meal weighs more than a kilo, it definitely weighs more than a pound though. So hardly an argument for measuring in stones and pounds.

    I've gone for the crass Americanism of measuring my weight in pounds only. Partially because stones mean nothing to me, and partially because of an American app I use I downloaded a few years ago that uses that measure, and partially because you can lose twice as many pounds as kilos so that's fun to see.

    Doing away with the completely redundant stone conversion makes using pounds alone rather decimal in being able to think in terms like "I've lost 20 pounds, so have x pounds remaining to lose".
    My Dad put a pile of Atlases and dictionaries on the scale when I was little to show me the significance of a stone. I don't use it for Imperial reasons - I'd find pounds and ounces even harder. It's useful because it's a chunky, big unit. If you've lost a stone and a half, that's an achievement. Farting about with 'needing to lose 8 kilos' is ridiculous.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    edited January 2
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    Fasting is highly effective, if you can summon the willpower

    It’s also a lot easier than calorie counting. Two days a week you eat fuck all. Then eat normally the rest of the week. Bingo your calorific intake is down ~30%
    Personally, I am working on turning at least some of my wine into water.

    I tried that diet when it was popular a few years ago. It really didn't work for me. On fasting days driving home in the evening was positively dangerous and concentration levels at work were not good enough. Or at least that is what I convinced myself at the time.
    Full day fasts I don't get. 16/8 seems manageable. Am working my way towards doing that for the last few days this week. Its also about *what* I am eating / drinking. I honestly think much of the grazing is because I have been (low - medium levels) depressed.
    The best way to lose weight is slowly and progressively, and the only two methods I've found that are both achievable and effective are to cut out all sugary stuff - cakes, biscuits, all puddings and desserts - cutting out alcohol supercharges this, but isn't quite so attractive - and/or skipping either lunch or dinner and relying on one main meal (plus breakfast) a day.
    I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, fruit at lunchtime, a teatime snack and then an evening meal (and sometimes another snack later). Moving away from the usual lunchtime "meal deal" of a sandwich and packet of crisps is what helped me slowly reduce my weight from close to 15 stone to just over 13 stone. I have subsequently cycled between just over 13 and 13.5 stone, but late last year finally got below 13 stone for the first time in decades. Despite Christmas, I'm still below 13. Whether this is due to losing fat or muscle wastage, hopefully not the latter!
    Cutting out meals - for good - is definitely the way to go. Who said we need three square meals a day? It is nonsense

    And I agree with @IanB2 - permanently cutting out sugary stuff is also hugely helpful. You have to be strict -no choccy treats. But it works, and again you swiftly get used to it, such that the idea of a massive pudding eventually seems quite bizarre
    I remember many years ago my ex had us both do this strict anti-sugar diet, not only cutting out sweet stuff but also alcohol and most carbs including bread, that contain starch. Basically it was meat, fish and veg, with no gravy or sauce. For the first day or two it was OK but over the first weekend we suffered the most extraordinary withdrawal symptoms - more than just fancying some toast or a drink. But past that, as you say, it's the idea that you might want to eat a whole big piece of sugary cake or similar that becomes extraordinary. And we both lost a shedload of weight.

    Sugar really is a dietary addiction. And unnecessary.

    Given the amount of sugar in almost everything in the US, I expect they'd find this particularly challenging.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347
    edited January 2

    kjh said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
    Bless you for thinking that you're moving with the times by using kilos. That explains a lot.
    But you're a fine one to talk - you use modern imperial stones. Not the proper old Palaeolithic kind from the cave roof fall when all the ice melted that real Brexiters use, prised up from the heap with old Giant Deer antlers.
  • StockyStocky Posts: 10,232

    kjh said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
    Bless you for thinking that you're moving with the times by using kilos. That explains a lot.
    I must admit that when fishing the fish I catch are thought of in lbs not kgs. I can't see this ever changing.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
  • david_herdsondavid_herdson Posts: 17,834
    edited January 2

    dixiedean said:

    kinabalu said:

    I'm as negative as they come on Donald Trump's political prospects but even I find it hard to see him not bagging the Iowa caucuses.

    So do I, in the sense he'll almost certainly top the poll.

    But it's an expectation game. He's polling north of 50% in Iowa and north of 60% nationally. Suppose he emerges with just 40%, with 30% and 20% for Haley and DeSantis (in either order) and 10% the rest. The headline story at that point isn't "Trump wins!" It's that most Republicans are on the hunt for an alternative, it's surprisingly competitive, all eyes on New Hampshire etc.
    I don't think it will happen, but.
    If he gets into a competitive race, will he start to call fraud on the Republican Primary process?
    If so, what happens next?
    A Civil War within the Party is not inconceivable.
    He's called fraud on practically every election he's been in. He's called fraud on both Presidential elections. He called fraud on the 2016 Republican primary. I suspect he'll call fraud on the 2024 primary too. I guess the question is how big he goes on those calls.
    He'll only get nasty if he starts losing.

    However, if he starts losing, that'll be because the Republican Party has already started turning against him. For the moment, despite everything, it hasn't - his rivals won't call him out and while they don't, why would his supporters shift to someone else? There's an element of chicken-and-egg in this and perhaps if the momentum did start to run against him, things could turn very quickly. But that still requires something to break the spell he has the GOP, in its various guises, under.
    He'll only get nastier if he starts losing.

    Once the field thins out, whoever's left has to start going after Trump, don't they? What's the point for Haley of coming 2nd? She's not going to get picked as VP nom. If she's in it to win it, I presume she'll start increasing the anti-Trump rhetoric. Maybe she won't be overly nasty about it, but any criticism of Trump will trigger nastiness from him.
    I guess a non-Trump attacking Haley campaign has at least 3 potential objectives:

    1. The VP nomination. Always valuable in its own right, particularly so with an obese, crime-prone, term-expired 78-year old in the big chair.*
    2. Pole position for 2028, irrespective of (1) above.
    3. Pole position for 2024, if Trump falls down a legal or health-related pothole.

    * I agree she's an unlikely pick but she may disagree.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,125
    A

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Stones? Its 2024 not 1924. Lets use proper measures.
    Where do these new fangled “stones” come from?

    How many stones to the talent?
  • algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    Our daughters were measured officially in metric, with both metric and pounds and ounces given to us.

    Probably makes sense to give pounds and ounces to people as that means something to grandparents etc
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,475
    Different things do work for different people. But we can see some general trends.

    Adding exercise to dietary change works: https://www.nature.com/articles/0803015

    https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/apnm-2013-0026@apnm-vs0103 concludes: "Overall, for significant safe weight loss, an energy deficit was required, which was commonly achieved by reduced fat intake. Increased dietary fibre was also a component of 21% of successful interventions. Physical activity was included in 88% of successful interventions, and behaviour training such as self-monitoring was part of 92% of successful interventions. The same combination of energy and fat restriction, regular physical activity, and behavioural strategies was also required for successful weight maintenance."
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,925
    edited January 2
    On topic, the thing about caucuses that makes them a bit of a wildcard is the fact that you go along and listen to people’s arguments for supporting the candidates before you vote. That does potentially create some risk for Trump as the ‘default’ preference of many. It would however be an exceptional (and I think unprecedented?) polling failure if he were to lose, so I am pretty sure he will be the victor.

    The crucial thing will be how close Haley can get. If she finishes a decent second behind him then she can carry that through to NH where she has a shot at victory. If she is far behind, or third behind DeSantis, then she will be in more trouble and Trump looks inevitable from here on out.
  • SirNorfolkPassmoreSirNorfolkPassmore Posts: 7,168
    edited January 2
    Stocky said:

    FPT - I agree that Harris at 60 for Next President is eye-catching but IMO if she is the nominee the Republicans will win regardless of their candidate.

    I've taken 24 on her being the Dem nominee. A bit at 23 is available.

    If that were to arise due to Biden dying in the next few months, I actually think there is a good chance Harris would romp home on a sympathy vote.

    A lot is made of Harris's supposed unpopularity on here. But, if you look at the approval polls, the reality is her rating pretty much tracks Biden's (that's not good news as he polls pretty poorly, but she isn't doing materially worse than her boss in that sense). It's true she does less well than Biden on hypothetical match-up polls against Trump and others. But part of that is people don't quite see her as "presidential" (partly due to her performance and partly her chromosomes), and that would rather take care of itself if she went into an election as incumbent president.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606

    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    Fasting is highly effective, if you can summon the willpower

    It’s also a lot easier than calorie counting. Two days a week you eat fuck all. Then eat normally the rest of the week. Bingo your calorific intake is down ~30%
    Personally, I am working on turning at least some of my wine into water.

    I tried that diet when it was popular a few years ago. It really didn't work for me. On fasting days driving home in the evening was positively dangerous and concentration levels at work were not good enough. Or at least that is what I convinced myself at the time.
    Full day fasts I don't get. 16/8 seems manageable. Am working my way towards doing that for the last few days this week. Its also about *what* I am eating / drinking. I honestly think much of the grazing is because I have been (low - medium levels) depressed.
    The best way to lose weight is slowly and progressively, and the only two methods I've found that are both achievable and effective are to cut out all sugary stuff - cakes, biscuits, all puddings and desserts - cutting out alcohol supercharges this, but isn't quite so attractive - and/or skipping either lunch or dinner and relying on one main meal (plus breakfast) a day.
    I have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, fruit at lunchtime, a teatime snack and then an evening meal (and sometimes another snack later). Moving away from the usual lunchtime "meal deal" of a sandwich and packet of crisps is what helped me slowly reduce my weight from close to 15 stone to just over 13 stone. I have subsequently cycled between just over 13 and 13.5 stone, but late last year finally got below 13 stone for the first time in decades. Despite Christmas, I'm still below 13. Whether this is due to losing fat or muscle wastage, hopefully not the latter!
    Cutting out meals - for good - is definitely the way to go. Who said we need three square meals a day? It is nonsense

    And I agree with @IanB2 - permanently cutting out sugary stuff is also hugely helpful. You have to be strict -no choccy treats. But it works, and again you swiftly get used to it, such that the idea of a massive pudding eventually seems quite bizarre
    I eat three times a day as it fits in with my work schedule, but only twice at weekends when I have a later, larger breakfast. But it's not just sugar, stop eating carbs. It isn't actually that restrictive as apart from cakes etc you are only cutting five foodstuffs out of your diet - bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar. Fruit, root vegetables and pulses do need to be minimised though. A reasonable amount of protein, and any extra calories as fat.

    I do find this difficult when travelling, but find it easy to put on a few pounds and then lose them when I go back to normal.
    Fasting is definitely easier if you cut out carbs. Without all those blood sugar peaks and troughs, you just don't get as hungry
    Water fasting is arguably the easiest of all, I find. Just NOWT
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347
    edited January 2
    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    It's impossible to survive without carbohydrate in the diet - basically it's being taken from the meat and the gross excess of amino ac ids etc goes to waste as being used to burn energy.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Clearly it's a long long while since you've had much interraction with the NHS

  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,474

    Stocky said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos.

    Those posters wanting to lose 20 - 30 kg have significant lifestyle changes ahead in order to achieve this. I act when I'm 1kg over.

    The best way to lose weight is not to put it on in the first place. (I know this is not very helpful.)
    Your last sentence is prescient - smaller portions and not snacking between meals is my key to weight loss
    You've nailed it. Snacks, and portions much larger than you need, are the devil's work.
    Avoid those and you can continue with much more important parts of one's diet, in particular alcohol.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,963
    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347

    A

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Stones? Its 2024 not 1924. Lets use proper measures.
    Where do these new fangled “stones” come from?

    How many stones to the talent?
    Stones as a unit of mass? Imagine the arguments amongst fishermen and their customers at different places in Dorset, from say Bridport to Portland.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 63,622
    Rooney sacked by Birmingham after 83 days
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,191

    Well.

    Mhairi Black has said she was always “uncomfortable” with the SNP’s singular reliance on Nicola Sturgeon’s personality to promote the party.

    The nationalists’ deputy leader at Westminster said that her former leader’s departure from office was “quite healthy because I’m a big believer in politics should be about policy as opposed to personality”.

    Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years”.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sturgeon-cult-of-personality-was-uncomfortable-says-black-5gv7rqtqs

    Standards have slipped at The Times. Does the second "she" in Black said that she has not missed Sturgeon since Scotland’s longest-serving first minister quit last spring but predicted that she would “still have a part to play in future years” refer to Black or Sturgeon? (Tbf, it might be more obvious in the context of the whole article, which is paywalled.

    Also, when did we (or newspapers generally) stop capitalising First Minister and Prime Minister and so on?
    Style guides vary on this matter, but I don't think "first minister" should be capitalised in that particular sentence as it is describing Nicola Sturgeon's position in comparison with others who have held the post ("longest serving first minister").

    Similarly, "I recently met President Trump, America's first orange president".


    Whereas Northern Ireland has had more than one orange first ministers.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    And you need to watch the cholesterol, with all those cooked breakfasts, processed meat and cheese.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    And yet, even before I was born, the grid on Ordnance Survey maps was based on metres and multiples thereof.
  • spudgfshspudgfsh Posts: 1,496

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,963
    Great News @Big_G_NorthWales - Rooney has been sacked by Birmingham City. So INEOS can bin off Ten Hag and stick Rooney in the job. And in time for the transfer window!

    Could be fun. Rooney is a bit spikey - I imagine he would run through much of the United squad, declare them to be "shite" and do that big clear out we need....
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,683
    algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    So the grandparents can understand the weight.
    (I genuinely believe this).

    We track our 11 month old in kg, but both of us are scientists.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,020

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    Nigelb said:

    Imagine the devastation if they run out of air defence missiles.

    Ukrainian Air Force shootdown totals from the massive Russian missile attack overnight into this morning:

    99 missiles launched by Russia, 72 downed by Ukraine

    10/10 Kh-42M2 Khinzal
    59/70 Kh-101/555/55 cruise missiles
    3/3 Kalibr
    0/4 Kh-31P
    0/12 SRBM (S-300/400, Iskander-M)

    https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1742120224340459751

    Imagine the embarrassment of those who confidently predicted that Russia was running out of missiles more than 6 months ago. Oh, wait a minute, they don't seem to have any.
    Not this again. No-one (as far as I recall) said that Russia could not manufacture new missiles. What people said - accurately, I believe - is that they'd run out of old stocks of missiles, and were increasingly relying heavily on new builds of stuff.

    Before this last week, we had not seen large missile attacks for some time - seemingly because Russia was stockpiling.

    If they keep up this sort of rate for weeks, then you may have a point.
    There have been large scale attacks through most of December culminating in the 29th December attacks, thought to be the largest of the war to date, following large scale attacks earlier in the year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65682618

    I think that the theory was that sanctions meant that they would lack the electronics to rebuild replacements. It has not worked.
    Yes, there have been attacks over the year, but those have been limited in scale compared to the current, and even more so, compared to February 2022. That article is not contradictory to what I wrote.

    You do appear to have given up on Ukraine.
    Not at all. I said yesterday or the day before that we have both a moral and strategic duty to support Ukraine for as long as they are willing to fight. It is, after all, their country and they know the horror of Russian occupation far better than most. I greatly admire their heroism, their leadership and their resolve.

    What I do not think is helpful to them or us is kidding ourselves that defeating a country like Russia in a conventional war is either just about to happen or to be achieved without a truly terrible cost. We need to make clear that we are there for the long term. That means stepping up our ammunition production, defence spending and financial commitment to keeping the Ukrainian state functioning. It means accepting that this is going to be long and hard but it is essential, absolutely essential, that Russia both loses and is seen to lose this war.

    My attacks on the over optimism should not deceive you into thinking that Ukraine has many, if any, stronger supporters on this board.
    But as I, and others, have pointed out, your "Imagine the embarrassment of those ..." comment was wrong, and was not an attack on 'over-optimism', but on reality.

    It is also exactly the sort of comment that pro-Putin shills make on Twitter.

    Generally, however, I agree with much of your final paragraph. But I would add that the 'truly terrible cost' is inversely proportional to the amount of support we give Ukraine quickly. The less we give, the greater the cost.
    I don't agree with you that there has been a material reduction in the Russian use of missiles but I don't think it is worth arguing about. I do agree that there is a lot more success in intercepting them and that obviously needs supported. Similarly, many seemed to think that the use of longer range weaponry was going to so disrupt Russian logistics that they would be unable to maintain their artillery based warfare. That has not happened either.

    The introduction of western tanks, including the Chieftains, the Leopards and the American M1s, had depressingly little impact during the summer offensive, defeated by mines, concrete and modern anti-tank weapons. The Bradleys seem to have been more effective. I am not sure that there is an easy answer in better kit but that is, of course, no reason not to provide it. One of the truly great things about Western kit is that the inhabitants often walk away when it is taken out unlike their Russian equivalents and Ukrainian lives, particularly of trained personnel, are immensely valuable.

    Russia has always had an immense capacity to absorb suffering. Some of this undoubtedly comes from governments that have been utterly indifferent to it but its people do seem willing to tolerate stuff that would simply appal us. It also has shown the ability to cope with disruption of its production and logistics as, of course, did Nazi Germany in WW2. They are not to be underestimated. We need to dig in, dig deep and stop kidding ourselves.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,945

    kjh said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
    Bless you for thinking that you're moving with the times by using kilos. That explains a lot.
    Well that is exactly what it is isn't it, although to be honest having done it 50 odd years ago it is not exactly a radical move by me I must admit, possibly driven by having a science background where imperial is a nightmare, although I can't think of anyone I was at school with stubbornly sticking to imperial. And the move from cgs to SI was not exactly difficult.

    But I would be interested to know why you think it isn't moving with the times to drop imperial where it isn't necessary (eg excluding mph on the roads and pint in a pub) and what exactly it does explain about me because that baffles me?

    Do you still get up to turn your TV over rather than using a controller or your voice and do you watch it in black and white? Presumably you have cracked the internet or are you dictating your PB posts to your secretary? I bet you still use Fahrenheit don't you? Honestly what a Luddite.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,950

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    I think the various hodgepodges are one of our strengths. It means we don't have fixed ways of doing and thinking about things.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    edited January 2
    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    Then you go to the US and it all seems familiar, until you clock that their gallon isn't the same as our gallon. And, unusually, it's one of the few things in America that is smaller.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    And you need to watch the cholesterol, with all those cooked breakfasts, processed meat and cheese.
    Yes, the keto diet sounds superficially appealing, but when you think about it, there is surely some cardiac risk

    Basically we should all eat like the Japanese, Cambodians or the Vietnamese, who have the lowest obesity rates in the world, and delicious cuisines nonetheless. And they eat an awful lot of rice...

  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,963
    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    MPL would be a uniquely British oddity - but at least its something you can understand. 11 miles per litre. OK, a litre is £1.299 so thats 11.8p per mile. 50mpg. A gallon is errrr etc
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,004
    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    My car (German car originally sold in Japan) has kilometers per litre as the primary measure of fuel economy, which in my mind is easier to get my head around than the usual litres/100km metric measure.

    9km/l is c.25mpg (multiply by 4.54 and divide by 1.61)
  • ClippPClippP Posts: 1,920

    algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    Our daughters were measured officially in metric, with both metric and pounds and ounces given to us.

    Probably makes sense to give pounds and ounces to people as that means something to grandparents etc
    Or even pound, shillings and ounces?
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,945

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    Yep, good post. I use mpg and miles while driving (because I really have no choice and it isn't a problem), but I use kph and km when cycling.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,771

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    The really difficult one (for me) is litres per kilometer.

  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    edited January 2
    Carnyx said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    And yet, even before I was born, the grid on Ordnance Survey maps was based on metres and multiples thereof.
    Well, the metre was originally defined as an even fraction of the distance from the pole to equator, so that kind of makes sense. The yard, believed to originate from the human pace, is just random in relation to geography. You'd end up with a bit left over.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347

    I thought somebody would've posted this by now:

    They forgot medicine - doled out in metric teaspoons IIRC.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,839

    Different things do work for different people. But we can see some general trends.

    Adding exercise to dietary change works: https://www.nature.com/articles/0803015

    https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/apnm-2013-0026@apnm-vs0103 concludes: "Overall, for significant safe weight loss, an energy deficit was required, which was commonly achieved by reduced fat intake. Increased dietary fibre was also a component of 21% of successful interventions. Physical activity was included in 88% of successful interventions, and behaviour training such as self-monitoring was part of 92% of successful interventions. The same combination of energy and fat restriction, regular physical activity, and behavioural strategies was also required for successful weight maintenance."

    This is dated thinking. The energy balance hypothesis is fine as a basic explanation of what happens when we lose weight - of course more goes out than comes in. But it's not operable as a successful weight loss or fitness strategy because 'energy out' cannot be controlled successfully - the body will have its own metabolic responses to less food, different foods, and different regimes. The metabolism may slow as a result, hanging on to more fat. Insulin controls the entry of energy into the fat cells, how does energy balance take this into account? Muscle may waste instead of fat burning. Yes, we burn through some more calories during exercise, but what happens to the body at rest? Just telling people to 'be at a caloric deficit' as a 1950's brutalisation of the body that is based on an extremely superficial understanding of how the body works.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 11,475
    Was this the most expensive metric/imperial mix up? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure
  • spudgfshspudgfsh Posts: 1,496
    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    ??? I can't remember the last time I used Stones/Pounds and I'm 69. I played squash competitively and at my peak I was exactly 80 kg (I wish I were that again) and that was over 40 years ago, so at least that long ago since I used them.

    When I was at school we were also not even using imperial. We were using cgs units before moving to SI units.

    Need to move with the times.
    Bless you for thinking that you're moving with the times by using kilos. That explains a lot.
    Well that is exactly what it is isn't it, although to be honest having done it 50 odd years ago it is not exactly a radical move by me I must admit, possibly driven by having a science background where imperial is a nightmare, although I can't think of anyone I was at school with stubbornly sticking to imperial. And the move from cgs to SI was not exactly difficult.

    But I would be interested to know why you think it isn't moving with the times to drop imperial where it isn't necessary (eg excluding mph on the roads and pint in a pub) and what exactly it does explain about me because that baffles me?

    Do you still get up to turn your TV over rather than using a controller or your voice and do you watch it in black and white? Presumably you have cracked the internet or are you dictating your PB posts to your secretary? I bet you still use Fahrenheit don't you? Honestly what a Luddite.
    Moving to kilometers, KPH and driving on the right hand side are all things which would have been conceivably easier immediately post war but the longer it goes on the harder the inevitable decision to swap will become.

    ironically the switch from pints to 500ml is already happening in some pubs. A friend of mine went to a gig and bought a bottle of Newcastle Brown (sold in 550ml bottles) and made it clear to all of the other punters at the bar that it wouldn't fit in the 'pint glass' (plastic of course) he was given. the people behind the bar got some interesting looks.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,771

    algarkirk said:


    DavidL said:

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    I use kilos!
    I am gradually switching from pounds to kilos for weight. Pounds are simply too volatile, even when you weigh yourself at the same time each day. Stones are too demoralising. It is a more realistic and meaningful scale.
    Kilos are handy for calculating BMI. Mine weighs in at a tad under 25, unless I'm no longer quite as tall as I fondly remember.
    Anyone know why new babies are born to this day in pounds and ounces, at least they are in the north of England?
    So the grandparents can understand the weight.
    (I genuinely believe this).

    We track our 11 month old in kg, but both of us are scientists.
    Stones for boys, kilos for girls
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    Sandpit said:

    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    My car (German car originally sold in Japan) has kilometers per litre as the primary measure of fuel economy, which in my mind is easier to get my head around than the usual litres/100km metric measure.

    9km/l is c.25mpg (multiply by 4.54 and divide by 1.61)
    I just remember that 50mpg - which is typically what I get on my European road trips - is 17.7 km/L.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,475
    I see it is dieting, cash and metricisation.
    Plus ca change for 2024 then.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150

    I thought somebody would've posted this by now:

    ...illustrating, since many of us were young, the demise of the yard and the ounce.

    And let's not get on to cups, which the Americans still try to make some sense of....
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,741
    Sandpit said:

    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    My car (German car originally sold in Japan) has kilometers per litre as the primary measure of fuel economy, which in my mind is easier to get my head around than the usual litres/100km metric measure.

    9km/l is c.25mpg (multiply by 4.54 and divide by 1.61)
    Bloody hell, what do you drive?
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,347
    edited January 2

    Was this the most expensive metric/imperial mix up? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure

    https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-a-metric-mix-up-led-to-the-gimli-glider-emergency-1.4754039

    'The Fuel Quantity Information System computer on Flight 143 was malfunctioning, so ground crew in Montreal loaded the fuel manually using calculations involving the specific gravity of jet fuel.

    But the factor they used was 1.77 pounds/litre, not the all-metric 0.8 kg/litre required for the new 767. The plane had half the fuel it needed to reach Edmonton.'

    But the pilots managed to land sans fuel ...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    dixiedean said:

    I see it is dieting, cash and metricisation.
    Plus ca change for 2024 then.

    It is January 2nd. Probably half the country is thinking about weight loss, and the other half is still stuffing itself with the last coffee ones from Quality Street
  • On topic, the thing about caucuses that makes them a bit of a wildcard is the fact that you go along and listen to people’s arguments for supporting the candidates before you vote. That does potentially create some risk for Trump as the ‘default’ preference of many. It would however be an exceptional (and I think unprecedented?) polling failure if he were to lose, so I am pretty sure he will be the victor.

    The crucial thing will be how close Haley can get. If she finishes a decent second behind him then she can carry that through to NH where she has a shot at victory. If she is far behind, or third behind DeSantis, then she will be in more trouble and Trump looks inevitable from here on out.

    Trump did rather underperform in Iowa in 2016 and it isn't temperamentally terribly Trumpian (although only by a few percentage points - not enough to endanger him given his large polling lead now).

    On similar surprises, Iowa was the scene of the famous "Dean Scream" in 2004. That wasn't really a polling failure as they did detect late movement away. But he was hot favourite a fortnight out, and ended up a poor third.
  • Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    I try to avoid all carbs, which I acknowledge is extreme. I've semi-suspended my diet over the festive period until I return to work on 8th January though so I could enjoy Christmas treats.

    Alcohol is fine, but I mainly drink rum with sugarfree lemonade so there's not much carbs in that. Often with alcohol its a case of then wanting to eat while having drank that makes you struggle more, but I stick to cheeses and deli meats if I snack at night and I'm fine with that.

    Most unpleasant side effects happen within the first three weeks, as your body adjusts, which can put many people off continuing with the diet, but after three weeks I found the side effects had all gone. I'm in a Keto Discord group for support discussions, and the advice there is that side effects, aside from transitionary ones, is normally caused by a shortage of electrolytes (sodium, calcium and potassium) compared to what people would have had when having carbs. I've been making sure to put plenty of salt (sodium) on my meat when I cook it, and in my eggs too. Calcium I'm getting from my cheese, and potassium from the bacon.

    Indeed actually I feel all-round better than I did before the diet, not just because my clothes feel better and I feel better in myself, but even mentally I feel both more clear, stable and healthier.

    Again I suspect its linked to having more stable blood sugar levels now rather than regular spikes and crashes.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,191

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Electronic bathroom scales can be set to show kilograms, stones and pounds, or just pounds for any visiting Americans. I suspect most people do not know this and just use whatever is the manufacturer's default. Reading product manuals is for girly swots.
    The only time I switch our bathroom scales to kilos is when weighing suitcases ahead of a holiday.

    Otherwise stones and pounds. It is the only unit for people's weight* where I have any idea if they are light or heavy. It appears that I weigh 82 kg. I will no doubt have forgotten this by teatime.

    *Strictly mass, but this isn't a physics class.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,020
    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    These are very good questions which I cannot answer. I liked the idea of a Mediterranean diet because it included the odd glass of wine but that wasn't perhaps the best motive!
  • BartholomewRobertsBartholomewRoberts Posts: 22,373
    edited January 2
    Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    And you need to watch the cholesterol, with all those cooked breakfasts, processed meat and cheese.
    Yes, the keto diet sounds superficially appealing, but when you think about it, there is surely some cardiac risk

    Basically we should all eat like the Japanese, Cambodians or the Vietnamese, who have the lowest obesity rates in the world, and delicious cuisines nonetheless. And they eat an awful lot of rice...

    I suspect there is far more cardiac risk from being overweight than there is with any consumption of dietary cholesterol.

    Especially since almost all modern science now says that blood cholesterol and dietary cholesterol are two very, very different things.

    Cutting cholesterol intake is failed advice from the past, alongside cutting fats. Cut the carbs, lose your pounds/kilos and have healthier blood and that can't be too bad for your health in my view.

    But do your own research of course!
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,661
    Well good luck to everyone on here with losing weight. It's definitely worth it if you're carrying too much. I'd actually like to put some on if anything but at 63 it's hard to get it in the right places. Eg a larger head would be good, also shoulders, arms and legs, but what you don't want is a big flabby belly falling over your beltline. This is what I think I'd get if I became heavier. Even as it is my 'middle' is not exactly taut. I can grab quite a handful.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    I try to avoid all carbs, which I acknowledge is extreme. I've semi-suspended my diet over the festive period until I return to work on 8th January though so I could enjoy Christmas treats.

    Alcohol is fine, but I mainly drink rum with sugarfree lemonade so there's not much carbs in that. Often with alcohol its a case of then wanting to eat while having drank that makes you struggle more, but I stick to cheeses and deli meats if I snack at night and I'm fine with that.

    Most unpleasant side effects happen within the first three weeks, as your body adjusts, which can put many people off continuing with the diet, but after three weeks I found the side effects had all gone. I'm in a Keto Discord group for support discussions, and the advice there is that side effects, aside from transitionary ones, is normally caused by a shortage of electrolytes (sodium, calcium and potassium) compared to what people would have had when having carbs. I've been making sure to put plenty of salt (sodium) on my meat when I cook it, and in my eggs too. Calcium I'm getting from my cheese, and potassium from the bacon.

    Indeed actually I feel all-round better than I did before the diet, not just because my clothes feel better and I feel better in myself, but even mentally I feel both more clear, stable and healthier.

    Again I suspect its linked to having more stable blood sugar levels now rather than regular spikes and crashes.
    Impressive levels of commitment!

    I would personally find all that quite daunting, which is why I take the fasting route, but chacun a son gout

    One of the advantages of fasting is that it definitely gives you mental clarity. The energy your body would normally direct towards digesting dinner goes instead to your brain, I find I definitely think quicker and clearer: I try and coincide fasts with days when I have harder intellectual tasks and lots of brainwork to do

    The downside is that when you break the fast you REALLY slow down for a few hours, mentally
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 55,004
    IanB2 said:

    Sandpit said:

    spudgfsh said:

    Typical for Britain our weights and measures are an absurd hodgepodge - like the language.

    The most absurd of absurd is "Miles per Gallon" when we stopped selling road fuels in gallons an eternity ago. We managed to get our heads around the gallons to litres switch, but didn't at the same time adopt Miles per Litre.

    Miles are an odd one. I definitely use them for driving / travel, but when doing exercise its kilometers.

    miles per litre would be a mix of metric and imperial. you'd use litres per kilometer or MPG. miles being the more important part of it because I want to know how far I can get on a tank of fuel.

    we'd need to switch all measurements for distance and speed to metric for it to work. That's not happening any time soon but as fewer and fewer people use the other imperial measurements it might happen.
    My car (German car originally sold in Japan) has kilometers per litre as the primary measure of fuel economy, which in my mind is easier to get my head around than the usual litres/100km metric measure.

    9km/l is c.25mpg (multiply by 4.54 and divide by 1.61)
    I just remember that 50mpg - which is typically what I get on my European road trips - is 17.7 km/L.
    Ha, you have a newer car than me then, and probably not one with a 5 litre V8 under the bonnet!

    But hey, I paid 60p a litre for petrol on the way to work this morning. :D
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    With southern Europeans (Italians and Greeks also do well with life expectancy), it's probably as much cultural as dietary. Food has a more central role within their cultures, such that they (at all social classes) care about what they eat and drink in a way that northern Europeans simply don't. A cultural interest in food and cooking and the quality and origins of what you eat, and a still greater focus on sitting down to eat with others rather than snacking on the go, gets you half way there.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,945
    edited January 2

    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    First client day of 2024 (as we use the English calendar not Scottish...). Amongst other things I am determined to shed the excess weight I am carrying - need to drop an exciting
    32kg to get back to my fighting weight of summer 2020.

    Debilitating cough doesn't help!

    Well done, that makes me feel better about only having to lose 22kg. Going to make a real effort this year, just as soon as the Christmas chocolates are finished.
    That all stopped as the piper welcomed the new year. We have *loads* left, but all with long dates. So it can all stay in the pantry for now...
    Your fortitude makes you a hero in my eyes, talking of which, thanks very much, one of the last remaining fudges.
    'Tablet' surely: unless it's imported fudge from south of the border.
    I'm more concerned about where these imported 'kilos' are coming from. Who measures their weight in kilos? You either need to lose half a stone, a stone, or several stone - thems the options.
    Electronic bathroom scales can be set to show kilograms, stones and pounds, or just pounds for any visiting Americans. I suspect most people do not know this and just use whatever is the manufacturer's default. Reading product manuals is for girly swots.
    The only time I switch our bathroom scales to kilos is when weighing suitcases ahead of a holiday.

    Otherwise stones and pounds. It is the only unit for people's weight* where I have any idea if they are light or heavy. It appears that I weigh 82 kg. I will no doubt have forgotten this by teatime.

    *Strictly mass, but this isn't a physics class.
    You are right of course, but it is only habit. if you leave them on kilos it will become the new norm (and it will be stones/pounds you will forget) and then it become convenient for doing the stuff where you have to weigh things in kilos by holding them and stepping on the scales (for us this is suitcases and the dog)
  • Leon said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    I try to avoid all carbs, which I acknowledge is extreme. I've semi-suspended my diet over the festive period until I return to work on 8th January though so I could enjoy Christmas treats.

    Alcohol is fine, but I mainly drink rum with sugarfree lemonade so there's not much carbs in that. Often with alcohol its a case of then wanting to eat while having drank that makes you struggle more, but I stick to cheeses and deli meats if I snack at night and I'm fine with that.

    Most unpleasant side effects happen within the first three weeks, as your body adjusts, which can put many people off continuing with the diet, but after three weeks I found the side effects had all gone. I'm in a Keto Discord group for support discussions, and the advice there is that side effects, aside from transitionary ones, is normally caused by a shortage of electrolytes (sodium, calcium and potassium) compared to what people would have had when having carbs. I've been making sure to put plenty of salt (sodium) on my meat when I cook it, and in my eggs too. Calcium I'm getting from my cheese, and potassium from the bacon.

    Indeed actually I feel all-round better than I did before the diet, not just because my clothes feel better and I feel better in myself, but even mentally I feel both more clear, stable and healthier.

    Again I suspect its linked to having more stable blood sugar levels now rather than regular spikes and crashes.
    Impressive levels of commitment!

    I would personally find all that quite daunting, which is why I take the fasting route, but chacun a son gout

    One of the advantages of fasting is that it definitely gives you mental clarity. The energy your body would normally direct towards digesting dinner goes instead to your brain, I find I definitely think quicker and clearer: I try and coincide fasts with days when I have harder intellectual tasks and lots of brainwork to do

    The downside is that when you break the fast you REALLY slow down for a few hours, mentally
    I know what you mean by mental clarity, Keto gives the mental clarity too. Its remarkable what a difference it makes. Again I suspect that's due to blood sugar levels and keto/fasting are achieving the same thing, just keto is more consistent whereas fasting is more stop/start.

    Though since keto is rather an appetite suppressant since you're not having the blood sugar crashes, fasting and keto work very well together. Many people do fasting with keto, though I stick to three meals just because I prefer it.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 56,606
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    These are very good questions which I cannot answer. I liked the idea of a Mediterranean diet because it included the odd glass of wine but that wasn't perhaps the best motive!
    A lot ot the "benefit" of the Meditteranean diet is, I am sure, actually down to lifestyle

    Get lots of fresh air and sunshine, stroll down boulevards, socialise with people in outdoor cafes....

    Hard to do that in Glasgow
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,771
    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    With southern Europeans (Italians and Greeks also do well with life expectancy), it's probably as much cultural as dietary. Food has a more central role within their cultures, such that they (at all social classes) care about what they eat and drink in a way that northern Europeans simply don't. A cultural interest in food and cooking and the quality and origins of what you eat, and a still greater focus on sitting down to eat with others rather than snacking on the go, gets you half way there.
    Perhaps it's in the genes

  • Leon said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    With regards to weight, I am bemused but determined. When Covid struck I was going to the gym regularly, could do a 10k run, got my bike out and built up to doing the 65k from Thornaby to Newcastle.

    What the hell happened to me? Oh yeah, the happy pills. OK so I managed to wean myself off them once I moved up here. And have gone back to running and even occasionally cycling. But its sporadic, with the mental push to keep fit largely gone.

    So the plan for this year is get me fixed. My excess weight and lack of fitness makes me unhappy. So make myself happy by fixing it! Last year I fell off the diet wagon too quickly. But this isn't diet. This is life extension. As I will live longer if I do this...

    You need to find something that works for you, and I don't believe (any more) the clichéd nonsense of "just eat less and move more" since not everyone is the same and different things work for different people. I certainly don't believe nonsensical failed food pyramids and five-a-day BS that has helped fuel a rise in obesity.

    Personally I've tried multiple different diets but the one I've found works very well for me (and others I know who've tried it) is a low-carb diet. I'm on an extreme version of a ketogenic carnivore diet - almost all I meat is meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. I try to cut out sugars, including fruit, processed carbs, and almost any vegetable that grows underground - most vegetables that grow above ground are OK with this diet but not necessary, since you can get all the nutrition you need from meats and eggs etc anyway.

    While I'm on this diet I find my appetite is very suppressed, I'm simply not hungry most of the time and eat at my meal times only, without snacking in-between, simply as I'm no longer hungry in-between. From the science I've read it seems that carbs especially sugars cause blood sugar spikes and then crashes in people and its those crashes that cause you to become hungry/peckish again despite the fact that you've already consumed all the fuel you need, remove that carb/insulin-led crash and be fuelled with proteins and fats and you're satiated for much longer. I personally suspect that's also why some people struggle more than others with their weight, they're probably more susceptible to feeling the blood sugar crashes and it doesn't help that for far, far, far too long the failed advice has been to eat fewer fats and more carbs which is the polar opposite of what many people need I now believe.

    Plus personally as far as I'm concerned the quality of what I'm eating is much more pleasant on this diet anyway. I'm having something like bacon and eggs for breakfast then have been packing my own lunches to take to work rather than eating any offered food, typically bringing something like a cooked piece of meat and some cheese, or something like chorizo and some nice cheeses. Just don't have the crackers with the cheese and its both really pleasant and very healthy.
    Interesting

    I have a friend on a keto diet and he's definitely lost weight but he says there are "unpleasant sid effects" - I think he means halitosis and loose bowels. Not the nicest

    Do you eat any carbs at all? No bread, rice, nothing?

    Presumably that also means you are careful with booze? Which can be quite carby?
    And you need to watch the cholesterol, with all those cooked breakfasts, processed meat and cheese.
    Yes, the keto diet sounds superficially appealing, but when you think about it, there is surely some cardiac risk

    Basically we should all eat like the Japanese, Cambodians or the Vietnamese, who have the lowest obesity rates in the world, and delicious cuisines nonetheless. And they eat an awful lot of rice...

    Wasn't there some discussion when the chap who invented the Atkins diet (I'm guessing, but think it was Dr Atkins) died of heart failure about whether he was to some extent the victim of his own diet? Not sure it was ever really resolved and he was young-ish but still a pensioner.

    I know there are some differences between keto and Atkins, but I think the broad concept is similar.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,661
    DavidL said:

    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    These are very good questions which I cannot answer. I liked the idea of a Mediterranean diet because it included the odd glass of wine but that wasn't perhaps the best motive!
    My father eats and drinks the Mediterranean way and he's 90 and in decent health. We're all a stat of one, of course, but that's the 'diet' I'd choose if I were to get into that sort of thing.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,150
    Leon said:

    dixiedean said:

    I see it is dieting, cash and metricisation.
    Plus ca change for 2024 then.

    It is January 2nd. Probably half the country is thinking about weight loss, and the other half is still stuffing itself with the last coffee ones from Quality Street
    Yesterday's joggers seem to have disappeared, but then it's absolutely shit out there. The dog clearly wants to go out so I held him out the window in the driving rain, wind and murk, and he's sensibly changed his mind. It's supposed to improve, later on.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,741
    geoffw said:

    IanB2 said:

    Leon said:

    Indeed, if carbs are THAT bad for you, how DO you explain the Japanese?

    They stuff themselves with rice. They obsess about it. They eat it all the time and when they're not gorging on rice they eat noodles by the ton

    Yet virtually no one is obese and they live until they're 110

    It's like the supposed dangers of processed meats - hams, chorizos, salamis. How then do the Spanish have one of the highest life expectancies in the developed world?

    With southern Europeans (Italians and Greeks also do well with life expectancy), it's probably as much cultural as dietary. Food has a more central role within their cultures, such that they (at all social classes) care about what they eat and drink in a way that northern Europeans simply don't. A cultural interest in food and cooking and the quality and origins of what you eat, and a still greater focus on sitting down to eat with others rather than snacking on the go, gets you half way there.
    Perhaps it's in the genes

    Inappropriate Levi-ty.
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