Health eating vs Yummy food

[nik-]

I'm trying to think of a polite way to say this. Going from 350 to 170 in a year is an incredible amount of weight loss .... where did all the skin go?

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by troutman

How tall are you? Is 170 lbs the goal? Are you muscular?

5 ft 11.

My doctor originally signed off on 180, but I had him lower it to 170. I've settled in at around 165 as I don't want to teeter around goal.

No, I am not very muscular. My thighs are pretty strong from the swimming, cycling and now running that I do, but the arms are pretty scrawny.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm trying to think of a polite way to say this. Going from 350 to 170 in a year is an incredible amount of weight loss .... where did all the skin go?

It's funny. I have been asked to go on speaking tours to tell people how I lost the weight and that inevitably comes up as a question. It used to irk me. It seemed some people were using that as an excuse not to lose the weight. "I'll have bags of ugly loose skin hanging off me".

The other reason I don't like that question is that my answer is "I don't know". Maybe I was just lucky. I do see the loose skin. But I am looking for it. I saw there was lots of loose skin around my tummy area and went as far as pricing a tummy tuck ($7000). Then I went to the public pool one day and me, my friend Gary and 6 other guys were waiting to get into the pool. We were in the locker room, in our swim suits waiting for the lifeguards to unlock the door out to the pool area. We were chatting amongst ourselves and Gary happened to mention how much weight I had lost. The other guys were like "Really? You don't have an inch of loose skin on ya. You could never tell.". If they couldn't see the loose skin, I wasn't about to pay someone $7000.

So why some people have rolls of loose skin and other have it tighten up like mine did, it's a complete mystery. Some have said maybe it was because I was in boot camps and kickboxing classes that concentrated on core exercises and rebuilding the gut area. Others have said that maybe someone in their mid thirties has more flexible skin than someone in their mid-fifties. I don't rightly know what the answer is, except I'm happy to still have my seven grand.

[Yanda]

What do you eat to keep the calories down? Ive transitioned from lazy bachleor cooking to lazy healthy cooking.. can you give me any tips for cooking??? I tend to eat alot of fajitas with bell peppers and onions but it doesnt seem to be all that effective.

[SHOGUN]

I have a food addiction too... the only way I fight it is by lifting heavy weights five times a week.... I reward myself Fridays and Saturdays where I can eat anything I want as long as everything I eat that day is below 3000 calories.

[Sample00]

wow, 3000 calories!! I can only dream.
My net calorie intake daily is 1700 and I find if I eat beyond that, I just dont feel right about it.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

I guess where I am going with this is that I think I was HAPPIER before. Maybe it was the same way as an alcoholic finds happiness at the bottom of a bottle. But maybe living a decadent life for 50 years is better than following a healthy lifestyle for 100.

I have a question.

What's your education on diet like? You're probably aware of the recommendations for saturated fat and the like, but what do you know about the physiological mechanisms of, say, your cholesterol profile? Do you know why obesity causes chronic disease, or just that it does?

[MacGruber]

this is a great post to read because im going thru something very similair. after many years of just letting my weight kind of balloon up without taking much action ive been working really hard at it since the start of march.

what ive done is 4 things, and i just these 4. i havent said no to pizza, no to fast food as a iron rule, but, with these rules it almost happens by default and ive only had pizza and fast food on 3 occasions in 1 month (as compared to ... well almost daily before)

My goal weight is 220 lbs, so at 1st I tried to just eat the daily calorie intake for that weight which is around 2100 calories. Was easy and I could do it. I actually would eat 1700~ calories a day during the 1st 2 weeks of my "diet" and I lost 16 lbs. Right now my calorie intake is up to 2200-2400 calories per day... as I hit an 8 day plateau at 1700 (way too few for my current weight). So with that in mind I keep track of what I eat during the day, not with pencil and paper but just a running total as best as I can do in my head.

1. 2200-2400 calories per day.
2. Limit simple carbs to near zero if I can. I can make exceptions if there's nothing else around... say I'm downtown and I need to eat lunch I'll allow thai express or rice etc. But generally speaking in a 7 day week I've probably cut my simple carbs down by 90% of my previous intake.
3. Limit the sodium I take in.
4. Snack on nuts, bananas, dates, apples thru out the day.
5. The biggest change by far.. switching from coke to coke zero. I find that when I'm eating a meal my taste buds can't tell the difference between the two. In the last 34 days I've had 4 cokes in total... that is normally would I drink before in one day at least (yeah I know that's messed up).

Doing these 5 things and being mindful of them each day I've lost 20 lbs exactly this morning from my start on March 3rd. What I take great pride in is I hit a plateau for 8 days during this time and instead of giving up like before, I plowed thru it with daily exercise and doing some research about calories and what will cause your body to lose momentum. It's not easy, and going back to OP's original point I do find that I am limited in the foods I love. I love me some BBQ... it's the best thing ever. But I can't really allow myself to enjoy it so casually like before. But I will say to the OP that if you allow yourself to get in under the #'s and treat yourself you will be happier too. This week I made a home made pizza and split it between lunch and supper, with a salad on the side. It was delicious and I made it thru the day at exactly 2300 calories and I had some amazing pizza.

I guess me giving you advice is silly as you've already dropped the weight and I'm only part way there but... if you deny yourself the things you love you only increase your chances of snapping and going crazy on weekend on terrible food. A coke bing of food, if you will.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by Yanda

What do you eat to keep the calories down? Ive transitioned from lazy bachleor cooking to lazy healthy cooking.. can you give me any tips for cooking??? I tend to eat alot of fajitas with bell peppers and onions but it doesnt seem to be all that effective.

you should be able to eat most anything but like previous posters have mentioned, its all in moderation.

I join a site called livestrong to track my calories and fitness but there's others out there.

my typical day looks something like this....

1/2 cup of oatmeal with berries for breakfast.

banana and yogurt at snack time, usually 10:30ish.

2 slices of whole grain bread with 1 tblsp peanut butter,

gala apple for snack at 2:30ish

and then a dinner of chicken/fish, vegetables and brown rice.

smart popcorn for evening snack, sometimes sherbet. also love baked lays.

oh and drink tons of water, I have trouble with it but I find the Our compliments (crystal light) works well to get the water in.

[Kipper is King]

Good for you for achieving a healthier lifestyle. A lot of people only talk about such things, and you've actually achieved success. That's huge. You're not!

Try cooking for yourself. When you cook, you have a lot more control as to what you eat. It's easy to create something very tasty, but not unhealthy.

[Sample00]

at MacGruber,

I noticed you said you increased your calories and plowed through a plateau.

I have been plateauing a bit myself and need to drop another 20 lbs or so.

can you maybe go into a bit more detailed about the information you found out on doing this?

thanks in advance.

[Yanda]

Is there anyway to change your metabolism? I avoid Pop, Chips, Ice Cream and eat at home at least 5 days a week but my weight is staying consistant, whereas my brother could eat peanut butter with a spoon and maintain a weight of 170.

also how much does drinking 8 glasses of water a day effect you compared to 3 or 4? Ive only been drinking 8 for the last week.

[Russic]

First off congratulations. You've accomplished something many fail at.

My first reaction is to just advise you find a way to make eating a little more fun. Maybe count your calories to see that eating a couple slices of pizza over the course of a week won't be all that disastrous in the long run.

However, I'm not sure that's the advice you need. I feel like one of those social smokers that asks somebody trying really hard to quit "why can't you just have a few cigarettes when you're partying?" It just doesn't work that way. People are all different and it sounds like you may have an issue that requires professional counseling.

What's positive is you've proven you are able to be focused on a goal and attain it. You've gotten over one hill and I think now you just need to find a way to be happy in a healthy way. I would hope counseling could do that for you.

Originally Posted by Yanda

Is there anyway to change your metabolism? I avoid Pop, Chips, Ice Cream and eat at home at least 5 days a week but my weight is staying consistant, whereas my brother could eat peanut butter with a spoon and maintain a weight of 170.

also how much does drinking 8 glasses of water a day effect you compared to 3 or 4? Ive only been drinking 8 for the last week.

I'm not properly educated, but a friend once told me to think about your body like a fire that needs to be tended to all day. If you let it die out and then pile wood on it at noon and set it ablaze and then do the same at night it's taxing. If you add to it gradually all day though you get a stronger, healthier fire. Apparently your metabolism works much the same way. Long story short --> plenty of small meals.

As for water (again, uneducated opinion) I don't really care if it's as essential as some say it is. It fills me up and keep me from eating too much. My strategy is that before I go back for seconds of a meal I have to finish the water I have in addition to another one. Rarely do I have room to eat more. It also gives you way more calories to play with when you aren't taking in 200-300 calories in beverages.

[MacGruber]

Sample:

Your body will go into "starvation mode" if you drop your calories too low from what you need. What you want to do, what I did, was find your BMR (base metabolic rate). Once you find your BMR you want to then x it by your activity level thru out the day. Since I have a desk job I did the lowest possible, 1.2. From there you want to drop 500-1000 calories off that but no more.

For example, if your BMR is 2000, and you work at an office and dont do much excercise thru out your regular routine ( not counting work outs) you would want to eat 2200 calories per day to maintain your weight (2000 x 1.2). Cutting down to 1500-1700 calories would be safe and lose you weight, especially when you mix in excercise.

No one should ever eat less than 1200 calories, too.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

This is a great site with a calculator to find out what you should be eating per day.

http://www.changingshape.com/resourc...calculator.php

Thats a good site to find out how your work outs are burning calories for you.

In my example, I cut my daily calories in half for 3 weeks. For the 1st 2 weeks for sure I got great results but then my body was like... "um... am I starving? This is insane..." and would retain fat and my metabolism sucked because I just wasn't eating enough.

http://fitness.families.com/blog/fit...n-be-a-problem
Just one link to look at about the need to eat enough calories. It seems counter intuitive, but, it's well documented all over the interwebs. I've taken a fairly methodical approach to my weight loss... previous diets like south beach aren't sustainable. What I'm doing now is and I'm getting results.

Originally Posted by Yanda

Is there anyway to change your metabolism? I avoid Pop, Chips, Ice Cream and eat at home at least 5 days a week but my weight is staying consistant, whereas my brother could eat peanut butter with a spoon and maintain a weight of 170.

also how much does drinking 8 glasses of water a day effect you compared to 3 or 4? Ive only been drinking 8 for the last week.

Muscle makes your metabolism work faster, so if your brother is 170 and has that swimmer stringy type muscle thing going on he's likely burning calories faster. Also you want to take into considering simple vs complex carbs. This is one of my "pillars" for my daily routine to keep an eye on.

http://www.weightlossforall.com/carbohydrates.htm

This site has some good reading on the differences. It goes beyond pop, bad foods etc. Even stuff like bread, pasta, rice, can sink you.

[TheSutterDynasty]

For those wondering, basal metabolic rate is calculated using the Harris-Benedict equation.

It's very simple. Plug in your numbers and see how many calories you should be eating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation

Originally Posted by MacGruber

Muscle makes your metabolism work faster, so if your brother is 170 and has that swimmer stringy type muscle thing going on he's likely burning calories faster.

Genetics are also a huge factor when it comes to obesity-resistant vs obesity-prone.

[MacGruber]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

For those wondering, basal metabolic rate is calculated using the Harris-Benedict equation.

It's very simple. Plug in your numbers and see how many calories you should be eating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation



Genetics are also a huge factor when it comes to obesity-resistant vs obesity-prone.

True but focusing on things that we can control is what matters. There's no point in focusing on something we have no control over, it will only frustrate.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by MacGruber

True but focusing on things that we can control is what matters. There's no point in focusing on something we have no control over, it will only frustrate.

Agreed. The environmental impact in our society (fast food, overeating, eating for pleasure vs need) is a much larger contributor to the overweight/obesity problem. Even with poor genetics it's very very easy to be at a healthy weight in a good environment.

Edit: but my point was that genetics are likely the reason why him and his brother differ so much with weight gain.

[Buff]

Wow, you lost half yourself in a year! That is crazy! With that kind of results, you should have gone on The Biggest Loser and won big cash while doing it! Good job on the hard work!

I peaked at 270 in 2006 and I'm now down to 225. Over half of that has come in the last two years, but I am taking it slowly, learning about what I need to do to keep it up and where I tend to fail. I want to get to 210 by the end of this year though and I'm positive that it will be done.

For me, I need to watch my portions when I eat. I cut out slurpees altogether, and that saw a quick downward trend in my weight loss, but it plateaued when I increased my pop consumption to make up for my slurpee cravings. Now I'm trying to figure out how to will myself to not drink so much pop.

I find that I'm a bit lucky in that I can eat the sinful foods, and not have it affect me too bad, as long as I control how much I have. On top of that I have to stay active. There was a time in my life where I didn't get much physical activity and I didn't watch how much I ate, and thats why I got up to 270. I'm a lot more active now and how active I am has a noticeable affect on my weight. I find it easy to control my weight by watching my portions and getting more exercise. The problem is staying motivated to keep it up. I'll too often go into a period of time where I feel like I can do whatever I want because I know I can work off any damage I do.

[Yanda]

Genetics is just an excuse. I could have avoided putting on this weight if I took nutrition more seriously at a younger age. My brother was 6'4 150 Lbs a year ago and now he goes to the gym twice a week and is up to 170. I do 20 Mins cardio on the bike and then go for a 25 min walk around the pond which is probably good for ~450 calories daily. Im assuming if I keep this routine up for months with a more spreadout eatting schedule I can drop some weight. I would add more cardio but my foot aches from a previous foot injury so I need to stop inbetween.


How are the facilities at Cardel Place? Would anyone recommend?

[itcrossedtheline]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Genetics is just an excuse. I could have avoided putting on this weight if I took nutrition more seriously at a younger age. My brother was 6'4 150 Lbs a year ago and now he goes to the gym twice a week and is up to 170. I do 20 Mins cardio on the bike and then go for a 25 min walk around the pond which is probably good for ~450 calories daily. Im assuming if I keep this routine up for months with a more spreadout eatting schedule I can drop some weight. I would add more cardio but my foot aches from a previous foot injury so I need to stop inbetween.


How are the facilities at Cardel Place? Would anyone recommend?

Facilities are pretty decent there...they have a ton of cardio machines. Even during peak times i've always been able to get a machine without waiting more than 5 minutes.

It does get busy after work, but i usually find that after 8 it dies down

All the weight equipment is standard stuff you find anywhere. Having access to the pool and gyms helps you change your cardio routine around and is very convenient. Try the climbing wall too.

Also, the sauna is great for post workout, when you just want to relax