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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   779 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for July 22, 2026

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

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  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I can no longer stand catching the reflection of my beer belly when I walk past a window in the street, so promised my better half I'd commence a diet the Monday after I returned from our holiday. Since Monday the 13th my regimen has consisted of the following:

  • Intermittent fasting (only eating solids between 4pm-midnight)
  • No snacking between meals
  • No fried food
  • No fast food
  • Only one caffeinated beverage with milk per day (e.g. if I have a cappuccino in the morning, I cannot also have tea with milk that day – any other teas or coffees must be taken black)
  • No fizzy drinks (with the exception of sparkling water, or mixers like soda or tonic water)
  • No drinking alcohol on school nights

I grant myself one cheat day a week. The two bagels I ate on Saturday morning may have been the subjectively most delicious things I've ever eaten.

If my bathroom scale is accurate, I've lost 3.5kg so far. Will post here every week to keep myself honest until I've met my target weight or something approximating it.

If the goal is reducing visceral fat, why the caffeine limitation? Everything else I get.

I can drink as many caffeinated drinks as I want, but only one of those drinks can have milk in it.

Rereading I now follow you.

It can jack up your cortisol and lead to fat storage.

I'm not sure that's true based on researching your statement. I see information that it can increase cortisol and adrenalin in people who do not consume it regularly, but does not actually increase long-term fat storage. In fact what I'm reading says caffeine can temporarily increase metabolism and therefore increase fat burning. Of course I only drink coffee black, but the question was about caffeine. Mind you I've only briefly researched it, so you may have better information.

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