Losing Weight

Arbre

This discussion was created from comments split from: MAD 2: MADDEN'S MADDENING..

Arbre

Calipso said:

Dieting.. so many ideas and techniques to it these days, you dont know wrong from right anymore.

Exercise and eat less.  90% of diets out there have these rules.

I lost 65 pounds in the last year by eating less and not eating crap (desserts and fast food, namely).  I didn't even get off my rear to exercise.

Illikaal

Arbre said:

Calipso said:

Dieting.. so many ideas and techniques to it these days, you dont know wrong from right anymore.

Exercise and eat less.  90% of diets out there have these rules.

I lost 65 pounds in the last year by eating less and not eating crap (desserts and fast food, namely).  I didn't even get off my rear to exercise.

Well actually, I'd lost a LOT of weight moons ago by doing the Miachel Thurman 6 week body makeover plan or w/e it's called. You literally lost weight by eating more (six times a day). But you were absolutely right in the latter part of your post. It's really not a matter of how much you're eating, but really, it's what you're eating. I'm a fatty and I like to eat, but when I got hungry, it was real, properly cooked food. Fresh fruits and fresh/steamed vegetables, white meats, and limited carbohydrates being brown rice, baked potatoes, etc. 

It's also like you said. The weight comes right off without even having to exercise, but I did so anyhow which only sped up the process. What the plan does for you is it speeds up your metabolism by a pretty insane amount. The rough part is that for the first week or so, you feel stuffed all the time because, well, you're constantly eating. When you hit about day 4, you don't even want to look at food anymore. But after the third week or so, your metabolism literally gets to the point where you can eat anything you want. You even get to squeeze in your fat-kid foods maybe once or twice a week.

Hadoryu

You can't speed up your metabolism. Not to any meaningful amount.

But you massively reduced your calorie intake by eating vegetables and meat. That's what does it.

Ezalor

6 small meals a day is much better than 2 or 3 huge meals. Apples, broccoli, chicken,  RAW OATMEAL(!), almonds, tilapia fish, tomatoes. All great diet foods. Oatmeal is especially amazing if you're looking to get into working out and fitness.

Illikaal

Okay. Got it working! No shame!

Before: http://www.imgur.com/UXhUuW4.jpeg

After: http://www.imgur.com/S2ZVjpB.jpeg

Esper

Ezalor said:

 RAW OATMEAL(!)

why specifically raw oatmeal? Do you mean, not garnished with maple syrup and brown sugar, or not turned into goo?

Illikaal

I think he means without all the brown sugar and stuff. 

I did the oatmeal thing for a while too, and just swapped out the brown sugar/syrup for raisins, apple slices and walnuts. 

Esper

@illidan: that's pretty awesome. How far apart are those pictures?

Hadoryu

Ezalor said:

6 small meals a day is much better than 2 or 3 huge meals. Apples, broccoli, chicken,  RAW OATMEAL(!), almonds, tilapia fish, tomatoes. All great diet foods. Oatmeal is especially amazing if you're looking to get into working out and fitness.

Actually, it's the same thing.

It doesn't matter if you eat two 1500 cal meals or one 3000 cal meal.

Illikaal

Well, the first was when I was roughly a senior in high school playing with my band real heavily. The other was taken January, even though I've pretty much been the same since. 

Now I just need to drop these 15ish pounds that I've gained over the winter. Damn you, winter. Still, it shouldn't be a problem. 

Calipso

O.O

Didnt know 1 comment could start a new diet thread >.>. Was pretty much a casual passing comment too :P

Illikaal

Hadoryu said:

Ezalor said:

6 small meals a day is much better than 2 or 3 huge meals. Apples, broccoli, chicken,  RAW OATMEAL(!), almonds, tilapia fish, tomatoes. All great diet foods. Oatmeal is especially amazing if you're looking to get into working out and fitness.

Actually, it's the same thing.

It doesn't matter if you eat two 1500 cal meals or one 3000 cal meal.

Well if you think about it numerically that way, then yes, it doesn't matter. 

But I was doing that, eating one like one really big meal once a day, and that actually caused me to gain weight. Even while I was exercising. The other drawback was that I was constantly hungry up until the point that I just ate that one meal, and sometimes even after that. 

The weight legitimately didn't start coming off until I started eating several times a day, just in much smaller and healthier portions. 

Calipso

I've begun to try and stop my bad snack habits. I've replaced the general sugary and unhealthy snacks with eating seeds or some whole-wheat cereal.

My concepts of Dieting have apparently always been wrong. I always thought it was generally "eat less and small amounts and your body will do the rest", I will blame my sister on that idea :P.

I've now just begun to eat alot healthier. Cereal in the morning, smaller portions in the afternoon and a healthy dinner alongside maybe a apple or fruits if still peckish. Night time is by FAR my worst times, I get hunger pains like crazy, so that will be my biggest problem to face.

Ezalor

Hadoryu said:

Ezalor said:

6 small meals a day is much better than 2 or 3 huge meals. Apples, broccoli, chicken,  RAW OATMEAL(!), almonds, tilapia fish, tomatoes. All great diet foods. Oatmeal is especially amazing if you're looking to get into working out and fitness.

Actually, it's the same thing.

It doesn't matter if you eat two 1500 cal meals or one 3000 cal meal.

Right, there's no difference if you can keep the calorie counts the same, but spreading more meals over a day helps reduce that snacking urge and discourages binge eating more.

Ezalor

Esper said:

Ezalor said:

 RAW OATMEAL(!)

why specifically raw oatmeal? Do you mean, not garnished with maple syrup and brown sugar, or not turned into goo?

Just my personal preference, I don't think there's an actual difference. The caps part was supposed to highlight oatmeal, not that it's raw .

EDIT: Woops, meant to make that an edit not a double post.

EDIT 2: @Arbre why not merge this into the other Losing weight thread already in existence? It's on the second page of OOC.

Lanira

I lost about 30 pounds by making sure I eat breakfast, switching to mostly vegetables and meats (skinless chicken breasts mainly), stopped drinking soda, stopped eating junk food, and using the cardio machines at the gym. AND YOU CAN TOO!

Nola

I've lost almost 30lbs over the course of 3-4 months. I exercised regularly doing jogging/fast walking (roughly every other day, at least 4 days a week) for 6 months beforehand but never saw really any results, except feeling better. I changed how many calories I consumed in a day and cut out certain things (bread if I can because hamburgers just don't work without a bun, milk, SWEET ICED TEA I MISS YOU. Was never a sweets person or a junk food lover so that wasn't really a problem.) and only drink water, and thats what did it. I still exercise, because it helps, and because it makes me feel good.

For those who are having difficulty, (@Erzsebet) sometimes your needed nutrition is very different from what works for the common masses. I've heard a lot of different stories. Its also not necessarily about -just- eating healthy, but balancing low carbs, high proteins, low fats, ectr in your meals. 

I have to eat whats cooked at home, so. I just calorie count and do some jogging for 30 min about 2-3 days a week. 

And yeah, there is another thread for this kind of discussion already that Konnorn made. If it could be merged, I think that'd be awesome.

Illikaal

Need moar before and afters!

Aldric

I'm down 50 pounds in the last 4ish months. It really does come down to not eating as much garbage, and moving around more. The thing people fixate on is "I'm on a diet to lose x pounds.. I just need to lose x pounds."

That's absolutely wrong.

You're not going to make a permanent change to your body by undergoing a temporary change in your lifestyle.

Notice I said lifestyle there. I've come to terms with the fact that the habits I've taken up are now changes to the way I live, permanently, not things I want to do just until the rest of the weight comes off. This is something that's kinda hard to come to terms with for a lot of people. 

Illikaal

@Nola You're still my favorite Eskimo

Hadoryu

Illidan said:

Hadoryu said:

Ezalor said:

6 small meals a day is much better than 2 or 3 huge meals. Apples, broccoli, chicken,  RAW OATMEAL(!), almonds, tilapia fish, tomatoes. All great diet foods. Oatmeal is especially amazing if you're looking to get into working out and fitness.

Actually, it's the same thing.

It doesn't matter if you eat two 1500 cal meals or one 3000 cal meal.

Well if you think about it numerically that way, then yes, it doesn't matter. 

But I was doing that, eating one like one really big meal once a day, and that actually caused me to gain weight. Even while I was exercising. The other drawback was that I was constantly hungry up until the point that I just ate that one meal, and sometimes even after that. 

The weight legitimately didn't start coming off until I started eating several times a day, just in much smaller and healthier portions. 

I'm 100% sure that if you were calorie tracking, you'd see the reasons for the weight loss in the math.

This is a great thing, really, and it's been a very liberating fact to come to grips with. It means the only real consideration is calorie balance. That means you can lose weight in whatever way is the most comfortable for you and you don't have to put up with bs like 'metabolism' and 'fat makes you fat' and 'sugar is the devil' so on.

Intermittent fasting, keto, atkins and what have you are just regimes that 'trick' you into eating less calories overall.

Hadoryu

Oh, you wanted progress pics.

I'm doing better than the last one as of now, but don't have more up to date pictures at present.

Shaeille

For the oatmeal thing, when Im on that kick (I want to be Tosca Reno) I generally use maple syrup. Natural sugars dont do the same shit to your body as fake sugars.

Also, a good dose of cinnamon. Cinnamon regulates blood sugar which really helps those of us who eat because of blood sugar stuff. Helps with the sweet cravings.

Hadoryu

The only fashion in which natural sugars are better is in their micronutrient content. On a macro level, they're still just as potent in spiking your insulin and giving you diabetes as well as being extremely calorie dense.

Heavily refined and even purely chemical sweeteners - things like splenda, nutrasweet and aspartame, can actually be your best friend in getting healthier and fitter. Taking all sugar out of your diet, more or less refined, tends to be one of the most important steps in losing weight.

Kaeus

Gotta say, I have been hesitant to try it, but started doing DDP Yoga (By the Wrestler Diamon Dallas Page). It has been pretty fun to do, and it has levels you can do in each video if you can't do the full exercise. Gets my heart rate up for the duration of the workout, and my muscles feel like I've been doing more heavy impact workouts.

I would certainly suggest trying this for anyone looking to get exercise worked in alongside a good diet, but don't want to do a typical gym workout or just running.

Nola

Stevia is delicious and potent as a natural sweetener. And when I say potent, I mean, you won't really need a whole little baggie of it. Maybe half, if that. 

Also, losing weight is one of the best feelings in the world. I haven't felt this good, period. Down 30lbs. 

Aryanne

I've been getting a LOT healthier in since January, and I feel absolutely amazing for it, but I have gained weight, not lost any. I was never dramatically overweight, only 5 pounds over the "height-weight-chart" assessment of what I "should" be to be healthy (but as most everyone knows, those are really only guidelines, and really poor ones to gauge your health on)

However! In my working-out a unicorns ton, I've managed to increase my lean body mass:fat mass by 3%, so I feel all accomplished. I really haven't changed my diet, which is probably why I haven't lost weight, merely gained muscles and tone to the weight I have :P

In regards to artificial sweeteners, I avoid all but aspartame. Not out of fear of the potential dangerous side-effects from over-consumption, but because I can't find one that doesn't have an intolerable-to-me aftertaste. High fructose corn syrup in high concentrations tends to have that same problem, but it isn't as bad to me as splenda/stevia/etc.

tl;dr Not losing weight, but feeling AWESOME and healthier!

Arbre

Aryanne said:

the "height-weight-chart" assessment of what I "should" be to be healthy (but as most everyone knows, those are really only guidelines, and really poor ones to gauge your health on)

I HATE that chart, because I am physically incapable of being the weight it says I should be.  Right now I'm in the "obese" category, and though I still weigh more than I desire, I'm a far cry from obese.

Hadoryu

Just plugging this, because I find it pretty amazing: http://simplesciencefitness.com/

Piper

I'm posting in here because, within the last two weeks, I've been forced to change my diet nearly entirely due to a gluten intolerance. I've been suffering from migraines, fatigue, mental weariness, and super bad heartburn for years but since I switch off, I've actually dropped a bit of bloat and been feeling great. Not aiming to lose weight as much as find myself feeling healthier.

However, I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around substitutions for my love of bread and chips and everything else that I can't eat anymore, for. No more convenient food, it seems like. No more beer. I also cut coffee out... anyways, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Edited to add- That BMI chart is bogus. It's been saying that I'm obese ever since I grew breasts. Not everyone is a damned tiny twig with fluff distributed the same way.