re: PuttaDaForkDown

Was looking over the begining of the thread this morning and found the gem below from Cad. Other than the weigh yourself everyday bit (thats just me as I can't think too much about the scale without going crazy) I agree with every bit of it.

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at the risk of making this sound too simplistic; you eat fewer calories than you burn..you WILL lose weight. its a pain to keep up with calories no doubt..but if you do it for a month or so..you get pretty good at estimating the calories in food so hitting 1400 isn't so hard. here's a couple of 'rule of thumb' tips (enjoy or laugh at me or piihb):

- you burn about 10 calories lb/day if you're not active. potentially up to 12-14 if you are moderately active. so for a 250lb guy, assume your body will 'help you out' by burning roughly 2500 a day. to lose weight..eat fewer than that.

- 1/lb a week is a healthy loss rate. dont go fad diets and dont starve yourself..you will fail. the best way is to take it slow and do it evenly over time so you and your body adjust to a new way of eating. sure it feels great to say you lost 60lbs in 3 weeks..but you're likely not going to keep that off in the long haul..eventually you WILL GET HUNGRY

- at about 10% loss or so..you will likely stall. this is normal. you didnt gain that extra 60lbs overnight. you probably added 10-15lbs a year over 4-5 years. your body likes equilibrium so in the process of losing, dont be discouraged at periods of stoppages. in fact, i was reading recently in men's health magazine that you SHOULD plan to stop for a short period after you've lost about 10% of your body weight and let your body get used to it.

- buy a good scale and weigh yourself EVERY SINGLE DAY. ignore the 'only weigh on mondays' crap..your weight will fluctuate by as much as 5lbs in a given 7 day period and you need to see the 'lows' as well as the 'highs' so you dont get discouraged.

- chart your progress in a spreadsheet. nothing fancy..just put the date & weight each day on there. this is an extremely powerful tool as you can see your loss over time and its great to see that 'downward trend' average on a chart for those times you get stuck for several weeks.

- dont give up if you get stuck at the same weight for a day..or even several weeks. if it was working for you before..stick with your eating/exercise plan..it will eventually start to drop again.

- set little 'call of duty' perks/milestones. whatever you want...dropping to the next '09' for instance..or even weight goals like '10lbs down', '15lbs down', etc. these are also highly motivating to 'cross off' as you achieve them and give you little milestones to keep you on track the whole time

- find something to motivate you like getting that hot chick in the office to smile at you more when she walks by. amazing how motivating women can be when it comes to losing weight ;)

- dump soft drinks completely. stick with coffee, tea and water. you dont need any of that crap diet or not.

- find a good 'strength training/aerobic' challenge. p90x and all that other crap is based on the simple concept that you need to mix these 2 things in equal doses to maximize weight loss effectiveness. i have a routine where i go up 8 flights of stairs when i need to hit the restroom at work; and do 40 pushups..and take stairs 2-at-a-time. i do this about 2-3x a day and it makes a huge difference.

- stop thinking by running 3 miles you will drop 2lbs. DO NOT REWARD HARD EXERCISE WITH A BIG_ASS CHEESEBURGER. this is the hardest thing i tell people. yes, get a good workout in..but dont assume its going to magically cause you to drop lbs..in fact i would go so far as to say diet constitues 90% of your weight loss and exercise 10%. iow, people get discouraged when they workout to the point of collapsing and dont see the weight loss they want. limiting what you put in your mouth is FAR more effective than trying to workout for 3 hours a day. why? because eventually you'll get tired or pull a muscle..very few people can keep up a hard workout regiment but most CAN stick to an adjusted eating plan.

- finally, put your body's engine to work for you. i would highly recommend concentrating on your legs first..take a spin class or do something to fire up those thigh muscles and get those things working to help you burn fat. the more muscle you have, the easier it is to burn fat because the more of your body you turn to muscle, the more energy/calories it will consume to power those muscles.

- quit worrying about your abs..you can literally wait until you've lost almost all the weight you want, then do crunches for a month and see your abs..you dont have to do crunches for 2 years before you'll see definition..because UNTIL THAT LAYER OF FAT IS GONE FROM YOUR STOMACH YOU WILL NEVER SEE AB DEFINITION NO MATTER IF YOU DO A MILLION CRUNCHES A DAY FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

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I started out counting calories, lost about 13 pounds. Then one of the doctors I work for opened a new clinic, and he gave me a free 6 month pass for the B12/lipotrophic shots and I decided to take adipex ( it's an appetite suppressant) for a month or two to control cravings while I come off sugar/caffiene and to shrink my stomach. The program comes with a low-to- moderate carb diet, with very few limitations ( NO bananas and NO popcorn) and moderate exercise. The adipex makes it easy to portion control, and just making better food choices...

I'm not sure why no banana or popcorn except they have a very high glycemic index, and they can nullify the effects of the b12 shots.

Official one month weigh-in:
363/342.8/250

21 pounds! Started losing again this week

check the sodium intake. might be water retention. celebrate the one lb.

257/201.0/185
but im happy this am...got in fantastic bike workout yesterday..shaved 10 minutes off my 35 mile loop since jan! unfortunately i broke my rear wheel in the process and i have my first race...aptly named 'hell of the south' this sat expediting a new wheel this week could be $$$

anyway..put on my size 32 Levis today and they're loose!! so i can live without being 199 another few days....gotta focus on training right for sat.

quote:

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Any explanation for only 1 lb loss??? Not to encouraging

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Could be water retention could be muscle from the working out.

1 to 2 pounds per week is what you need to expect and then be happy when you have a bigger loss from time to time.

Depending on your workout, it could easily be that you lost fat and put on muscle.

Break out the measuring tape and measure your body. Then when you are having a stubborn weight loss week, you can check the tape and see that even though you didn't drop the weight you wanted to drop, you should see the inches slowly dropping.

Keep it up and don't get discouraged.

Now me on the other hand, I'm pissed.

I think I weight 3 more pounds than last Monday.

323/199.2/185

Oh, and I think I owe Martini a pizza. We made a bet as to who could lose the most by Thanksgiving, and since I gained, I clearly lost. I forgot all about it but saw it when I was reviewing my posts.

I changed the diet last week and lost 12 lbs. in the first week. Obviously, a lot of water weight, but I'm maintaining that loss, so it isn't just temporary.

I'm not working out right now. I'll start in a couple of weeks. The biggest difference is made through diet and I just need to get the pounds off.

Don't worry about only losing 1 pound. In my 3rd week and up until halfway through the 4th week I had actually gained 2 pounds despite doing nothing different, aside from I started swimming for an hour every day. Then out of nowhere I dropped 2 pounds one day, stayed the same the next day, and gained a pound back the next, and then dropped 2 again to where I'm at now. Weight fluctuation is irritating.

Just to clarify, I didn't follow my weigh once a week idea. Just too damn curious when I wake up every morning.