Lose fat around my knees, and waist and …

So…. I am fast approaching 50, yes 50 and I don’t look a day older than 49 haha. Over the past year I seem to have had a little weight creep up on me and it’s simply down to less exercise and sitting around a lot more than usual. I noticed at first that my knees were getting chubbier and I wanted to lose weight around my knees, and my waist. I’ve started on a couple of things to see what I could do to slim down before the big day.

One of the first things I did was look back and see what has worked for me in the past I’ve done Jason Vale’s juice diet, which to be fair worked a treat, and made my eyes look bright and my skin look great, so that was an option. Plus it’s tasty. At the moment though the extra expense of buying a lot of fresh fruit and veg was a bit more than I wanted to do and I wanted to keep the costs as low as possible. My local grocer is great and gives me great deals on fruit needs to be used immediately. I can go and get produce that would go off otherwise and its perfect for juicing. However, I wanted something that everyone could do. Its one of the reasons I wrote the post on eating healthy on a low budget. I originally reduced my weight by 5lbs in 5 days using that method (juicing). The other thing that has worked for me before is the forever Clean 9. Designed as a way to kick start your weight loss, it cleans out your digestive system and leaves you lighter and in my opinion able to process my food better. I use this regularly when I get tummy issues as its sorted them out straight away and I’ve had years of IBS, so I do what works for me. Once again it’s similar to fasting in that the first few days are the toughest. Drinking Aloe gel and just a shake pretty much, plus some non carby fruits and veggies for the first 1-3 days. I find it easy to do and I generally don’t do the whole 9 days any more. If I do three days that seems to do the trick and I reduce my weight by around 2.5kg and regain only 0.5 kg water once I stop. So for me that’s a tried and tested method. Get it here if that’s of interest to you. Its under the weight management section – remember to change your country in the top left to get your currency.  I did contemplate that one as I want to lose around 10 kg ideally!! For now though I wanted to look at something even more doable and low cost.

I have a few PT friends one of whom is a nutritionist. Great guy and he often gives me tips on proper nutrition and muscle building without bulk. I knew thought I wanted something that would get fast results at a lower cost than normal food. So I did a bit of research and wanted to include something that did fasting ( as its obviously a lower cost), but also that included a good healthy eating pattern on a smaller budget. I came across a great regime called “the 3 week diet“. I hate the word diet as I think it sounds like deprivation, but I’ve had a good read through it and have already embarked upon the plan.

It’s relatively straight forward, he explains why each phase works and how to make sure that it does. It’s not difficult to stick to AND its cheap. It takes … 3 weeks, haha, which is in the title, and of course that fits in perfectly within the timescales that I want to achieve my weight reduction.

All joking aside, I am a little wary that as I am now getting older I don’t want to have loose skin when I lose the weight, so I will be doing some weights and body weight work and have dug out some old plans, but he does include some in there too.

So where am I now? I am on day 2.. I know not very far in, but I have already lost 1kg and I have gained muscle, my water % has increased and so has my muscle % too. My nutritionist friend has told me that the percentages may not be so accurate, but in all honesty, a drop in weight with an increase in the good things and a 1% reduction in body fat is ok by me!!

So how is this related to my knees and wanting to lose fat around my knees?

Well, overall if you want to lose fat around your knees you need to lose overall body fat and to get definition you need to do knee exercises. I will be doing some squats (as it improves the shape of my behind), some leg presses, walking and if I can some cycling and sprinting. I’m also going to concentrate on building up my left tricep as I noticed that the chub has given me a little bit of bingo wing on that side. eek! As I build up my stamina again (I need to be able to dance when I have my party pants on!), I will do a bit more aerobic activity on the mini trampoline too, as I enjoy that. At the end I may post a vlog of the progress if I get time, and if it’s significant enough to show, I’ll do some before and after photos. If you’ve already done any of them comment below, I always love to hear of others successes or message me. For now I’ve put some great knee exercises below for you. If you’re like me knee exercises can be tricky and sometimes painful. So I shall look out some low pain versions and post them here as updates too.

To download your own copy of the 3 week diet  Click Here!

UPDATE 1: I started on the 3 week diet and am about to embark on day 6 and so far I have reduced almost 2kg about 4lbs my weight % has increased, my muscle has increased. I am doing only a little exercise at the moment. My body fat has dropped by 1.4% so far. I feel slimmer and my body fat around my waist has definitely reduced and my knees look more muscular instead of pudgy. My neck looks less fat too and I am starting to see my collar bones already.

Here’s a great video with knee strengthening exercises. the extension I do at my desk, with no weights. the squats I do whilst waiting for dinner to cook. I don’t do the lunges as they hurt my knees.

Great exercises to strengthen your knees by exercising the muscles which support them. (jump to 1:36 to start the exercises).