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RRLOVER said:
I would love to talk training and exercise...... I have lost 45 pounds don't think I really can lose anymore.... I do believe it's 70 percent diet 30 percent exercise..... I wih you all the luck!!!
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Absolutely!! I'll go into this more below.

Doug Seward said:
Stefan,

You might want to look into TLS. I am not a shill, just a happy successful customer. I lost 39 pounds in 12 weeks this past Spring under the supervision/coaching of a PhD Chemist/Nutritionist and have kept it off since May. My wife lost 35 pounds. It is a low-glycemic plan with heavy emphasis on fresh veggies, fruit, and lean meat. Minimal processed carbs. It is a structured program which is survivable. I would be happy to answer questions or make an introduction if you are interested. In am getting ready for another cycle to knock off another 20 before Thanksgiving. -Doug
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A number of years ago, I realized I had slowly over time creeped up to the point where I was substantially overweight at nearly 220lbs (I'm 5'7). After that, I lost over 40lbs in three months as well, eating mostly taco bell and chicken lol. I added bodyweight strength training to my routine (this is not unending reps of pushups and situps as most people believe), and watched my calories with a site called 'MyFitnessPal'. The biggest part of losing WEIGHT (note...I didn't say losing 'fat'), is maintaining a healthy (500cal a day is a good start) calorie deficit, which basically means eat less calories than you burn in a day. Cardio based workouts will help you burn more calories, allowing you to eat more and still maintain that healthy deficit. Keep in mind that if you burn substantially more calories than you're taking in on a regular basis, your body will rebel and hold onto what fat stores it has. Significantly overweight people can start at a higher deficit than people with 20-30lbs to lose...but in the end your body needs fuel, and food is that fuel. On the other hand...strength/resistance training is MANDATORY for healthy fat (note...I didn't say 'weight') loss. While cardio burns calories...those calories do NOT come from fat exclusively...but also from lean tissue (particularly muscle). Lean tissue is expensive for your body to maintain...and lets face it, how much muscle do you need to walk, or even run? Your body will shed what is unnecessary for your day to day activities. Strength training dictates to the body that the weight you lose comes from body fat exclusively.

During the course of my weight loss, and the three years since...I became a personal trainer. At first it was just for friends on myfitnesspal (its a free site btw...there's no part of it that costs anything to use) who were local to me...then later for others at my gym, place of work...friends of friends lol, etc. I learned as much from training so many individuals as I did from books and research. Each person is different, but the one constant that held true no matter what...male, female, old, young, substantially overweight, or with just a few pounds to lose...is that if you eat enough (more than people usually believe) while still maintaining a calorie deficit...strength train 2-3x a week (low rep/higher resistance is best), and only do enough cardio (walking is best...running is unnecessary and can add stress to joints already stressed beyond limits by carrying too much weight) to help you balance out your calorie intake/expenditure...you'll be more fit than you've ever been in your life, in very short order.

I hope this helps, and sorry for the 'almost' rant, but this is a subject that is very important to me...with soooo many myths surrounding it that its almost sad. Seeing people detoxing, going on crash diets, only eating certain foods, running miles and miles and miles, and overall just working way too hard for no results frustrates me to no end. Eat less calories than you burn, and stress your body with high intensity, short duration work...and the results are flat amazing.

Oh, and if you do happen to stop by MyFitnessPal...my username there is the same as here. Feel free to friend me :).
 
I had looked at MyFitnessPal and I like it. In the end, it doesn' really matter which (of the reasonable) systems you follow as long as you are consistent - and persistent. I know enough about nutrition to find my way through this, and in the end it will come down to a diet that is heavy on the fruits & veggies, lean proteins and complex carbs. I know, there are other religions out there, but I know that in the long-term I cannot live without carbs, being German I am too much a bread and potato guy.

And I fully agree, as much as on would like to go about this in an extreme way, moderate but persistent change is key. And realistic goals. If I lose 100 pounds, I will still be obese - but relatively healthy and functional. The last time I had 'normal weight' was over 25 years ago, and I have no intentions to torture myself back there.

Exercise clearly supports weight loss and even more so weight maintenance. I am just puzzled by the people who enjoy exercise for itself. For me it is purely functional, I move to get somewhere, not because I enjoy it. That seems to be a fundamental drift between some people. And I know all about it, some of my best friends are exercise scientists ;)

Stefan
 
Absolutely Stefan! Excercise is functional for me as well...but its more a matter of 'If I pick up this weight, my body will maintain its strength and health'...rather than just movement. I'm not getting any younger, and love my food (like you I'm all about meat and potatoes lol...I grew up on a cattle ranch). Its either give up the food, or exercise lol. The choice for me at that point was easy :).
 
I think you guys are right on the money. I have the same feelings about exercising, which I do three or four times a week. The way I get mentally prepared to exercise, something I'm not very fond of, is to tell myself it's the equivalent of putting money into a savings account, except in this case the savings account is my health and longevity. Certainly the best investment anyone can make.
 
Got the scale in that I ordered, and while I won't tell you my weight, I can tell you that I mostly consist of bacon. :D At least my body fat score is at 50%... Not that these thingies are very precise, but even with a 50% margin of error it would still be too high, so I take it as a sign that losing weight is a good idea :) So, on we go, bought plenty of fruits and veggies and there will be no alcohol until I lose the first 10 pounds. Once I got a hang of the eating part, I will think about more activity.

Stefan
 
Good deal Stefan! Whatever keeps you moving in the right direction is something you should stick with :).
 
taco bell and brandy and you'll lose as much weight as you want... :D

Good Luck all !! I'm trying to kick nicotine and hear I'll need to lose the weight afterward....
 
Almost had forgotten how good a bowl of cut-up ripe fruit can taste. How did that happen?

Stefan
 
apicius9 said:
Almost had forgotten how good a bowl of cut-up ripe fruit can taste. How did that happen?

Stefan
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+10

Haven't started mine yet. Well a little, but I have been eating way to much. I also am trying to kick my fat burning into high gear. Any way I will start at the gym when I get back. Driving 1200 miles will put some weight on no matter how you do it.
 
apicius9 said:
Just catching up here. Still working on getting into it. i signed up for the Weight Watchers online program about a week ago because this gives me a decent guidance about the food intake I have. I like that it provides structure but also some flexibility, even though their 'point system' takes some getting used to. But with phone/pad app and website access it is easy to track intake.

Bought a bunch of fruit today and will prepare a few things for the next days, especially for breakfast, that I can take to work rather than picking up junk somewhere on the way. Also got some cans of V8 in the fridge now which I actually like (the spicy kind) as 'snacks' but never thought of in recent months. And I got some King Arthur whole wheat flour for bread and such. My bathroom scale should arrive tomorrow, and I expect to be fully 'on track' by the weekend.


Once the diet side is prepared and planned out a bit better, I need to get my lazy behind to exercise. That might be the bigger barrier, will have to see how I set that up.


Anybody else working on this?


Stefan
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@Stefan: I tried using Weight Watcher's online program and worked for me... or at least had me under control. (I stopped once they switched to the new point system.) For me, it didn't really lower my weight, but I lost a few cm. Don't be disheartened if the numbers don't go down very fast and make sure you measure yourself. Good luck! It's kind of hard to stick to and stay on top of how many points you consumed, but you can do it!!
:D

I'm kind of late into this conversation, but if its not too late I'd like to join this support group. I end up eating out so often, which is a curse and a blessing because I start to feel super unhealthy no matter what I eat. I've lost 40+lbs since I was a teenager, and I'm still working on that last 10 lbs... It's not much, but I've been working on it for about 5 years and it just won't go down no matter what I do. I go to the gym and see a trainer when I can afford to do so.

My current favorite thing is sparkling water and seltzer. It kind of fill your stomach a little (granted you burp a whole lot) and makes me less temped to snack.
 
I don't have much weight to lose, but I have noticed a few interesting things since I started Paleo diet (I do it about 80% of the time) a few month ago. My skin cleared up and my eyes became whiter (I must have improved functioning of my liver). My weight is stable and my energy level has increased.

I need to expand my Paleo menu a bit, but other than that,it worked great for me and I would recommend it for folks who are trying to lose weight. Restricting carb intake is your goal. Exercise is secondary (mostly for feel-good reason) when it comes to weight loss but it will help with a sleep and will increase your metabolism somewhat.

M
 
I am on board wt. this I could deff. lose some weight.I like to get in the ocean at least 4 times a week.I have been a Saltydog all my life.I like backstroke & crawl use fins because of Ocean currents.As long as I don't lose weight from a shark,we have had several attacks in the last month,one girl died & a couple surfers got bites. Tiger Sharks.

I can't live without my brown rice & baked potatoes.Just smaller portions.Fresh Fruits & Veggies.Fish
 
Not pushing a product, but the wife and I have been using the Green Coffee Bean Extract to assist with our improved diet and exercise plan and it appears to be helping a lot. Moreso with me than with her, but I think the more weight you have to lose the faster it will shed in like situations. Can't say it wi;; work the same for anyone else, but my wife swears by it. Just look for one that is 100% pure as there seems to be a ton of them out there that jumped on the bandwagon and offer variants.
 
So, I am making Sundays my day for weight checks. It's a little guesswork for this first week because I didn't have the scale last Sunday, so the starting weight may be off by a pound or so, but it looks like I lost about 4 pounds this first week that I really made an effort and tracked my eating. Of course, a lot of this is water and an effect of changes in diet, but I am obviously on the right track.

The thing I struggled most with this week was resisting late night snacks. I ended up eating too much trail mix. I bought that to add a bit to fruits or cereal, but if I have it around, I have a hard time resisting it, much more tempting than chips etc. for me. Better than many other things, but still not ideal. Any ideas what to keep around as 'healthy' snacks? I will make an offort to keep cut-up fruit in the fridge, small carrots, celery, maybe pretzels, low fat cheese - any other tips?

Stefan
 
apicius9 said:
So, I am making Sundays my day for weight checks. It's a little guesswork for this first week because I didn't have the scale last Sunday, so the starting weight may be off by a pound or so, but it looks like I lost about 4 pounds this first week that I really made an effort and tracked my eating. Of course, a lot of this is water and an effect of changes in diet, but I am obviously on the right track.

The thing I struggled most with this week was resisting late night snacks. I ended up eating too much trail mix. I bought that to add a bit to fruits or cereal, but if I have it around, I have a hard time resisting it, much more tempting than chips etc. for me. Better than many other things, but still not ideal. Any ideas what to keep around as 'healthy' snacks? I will make an offort to keep cut-up fruit in the fridge, small carrots, celery, maybe pretzels, low fat cheese - any other tips?

Stefan
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I like to make ranch dressing with the hidden valley ranch packets. I substitute in greek yogurt though. It makes for a VERY tasty, healthy, relatively low calorie dip for fresh vegetables. My kids even love it.

The thing about snacking late at night is that it's 100% ok, as long as you're under your daily calories. Meal timing (the whole 'eat six small meals a day thing) has been completely debunked as far as weight loss is concerned. As a matter of fact, there are supposed to be many health benefits to only eating one or two larger meals a day (research 'Intermittent Fasting') within a 6-8hr period. For myself, I rarely eat before 1pm, and will usually have a snack (not necessarily healthy lol) before bed.

Of all of the 'diets' out there...I like Paleo the best. Mark's Daily Apple is a great source of information on the subject. I'm more of an 'everything in moderation' kind of guy though...and use a calorie limit (which I don't stick to religiously anymore...more of a guide) to keep my weight where I want it.
 
Celery, carrots, radishes, grape tomatoes - all are good for snacks, as are fruits like apples, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Grapes are high in sugars, but if you only have a few, you can get away with it.

Pretzels, not so much, as the refined carbohydrates will put your blood sugar levels on a roller coaster and leave you hungry in an hour or two.

I'm not a fan of the taste or texture of low fat cheese, and would rather have a smaller piece of something I like. YMMV.

Hard boil and peel some eggs as well. You'll find one egg does a great job of satisfying evening hunger pangs.
 
Good points, thanks! Will try the ranch dressing tip, I usually stay away from these pre-packaged dressings, but it seems more practical than having all the things to make my own at home. Eggs are a good idea also. The best stategy would probably be to go to bed earlier....

Fully agree on the reduced fat cheeses, I was more thinking of cheeses that are naturally a bit lower in fat, like mozzarella, parmigiano etc. I also find the fat-free greek yoghurts surprisingly tasty, I used to buy the 10% variety (or made my own) before they became the newest rage and available in all kinds of shapes.

As for a diet, I try to avoid extremes and what it comes down to is a mild form of the paleo diet, I guess. What I like about the weight watchers system is that it has a decent online tool and the 'point system' gives you a lot of flexibility. But you still should have an idea of what you are doing. For example, all fresh fruit get 0 points and can be eaten without limits, but if you load up on grapes or other high sugar fruits, that's not all that great. I try to choose more complex starches or whole grain varieties where possible, but cannot imagine living without them. I occasionally bake my own bread, usually around 50% whole grain. I may want to bake more regularly and work on increasing the whole grain percentage.

Stefan
 
Steph.Apples and large carrots.They take a while to eat,you have to bite & chew alot.
 
apicius9 said:
What I like about the weight watchers system is that it has a decent online tool and the 'point system' gives you a lot of flexibility. But you still should have an idea of what you are doing. For example, all fresh fruit get 0 points and can be eaten without limits, but if you load up on grapes or other high sugar fruits, that's not all that great.
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That's actually the thing about Weight Watchers I dislike the most. If you eat 2500cal in a day of normal foods, and your calorie limit is 3000 to maintain your weight...1000cal of fruit is still going to make you fat. Calories are calories when it comes to weight, whether 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' (barring food allergies/intolerances' of course). You could eat ALL 3000cal in fruit, or carrots, or broccoli, and you will ABSOLUTELY gain weight. Sugars don't make you fat. Starches don't make you fat. The 'Twinkie Diet' was real, and it worked. Now, for your overall health, by all means you should eat whole foods whenever you can! But the Weight Watchers system tends to convince people that demonizing certain foods will help them lose weight, and eating however much they want of other foods will have no impact. These things just aren't true. An awareness of the energy value of the foods you eat is (in my opinion) the best possible way to arm yourself against weight gain.

But even with that said...ANY effort is better than no effort...and a start is a start. Many people lose weight with Weight Watchers, it isn't all bad :).

Oh, and don't get me started on 'Low Fat' lol. The stuff's horrible for you. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat, other than full fat food tends to be higher in calories. The thing they're trading for the fat/calories in low fat foods is sodium and chemical processing, which in the end, is just as bad or worse for you than being overweight. I just eat a little less of the full fat stuff.
 
Yep, I fully agree. I haven't followed the research around WW in recent years, but they used to have a great original concept with a lot of scientific expertise in the background. Unfortunately, it was too complex for people to follow. Now, with the point system, things are dumbed down a bit. My assumption would be that they did some research on this to come up with a simplified method that still comes close to a balanced diet. And since 85% of the population do not eat the suggested amounts of fruits and vegetables, it makes sense to favor them by assigning low or no points to them. Of course, the implicit idea is that people eat 7 servings of f&v instead of other things, not in addition to their usual diet... And eating 3000 calories in cucumbers is a callenge ;)

But, again, I agree: the more you know about at least some basic things like calories, macronutrients, fiber etc. the easier it is to eat healthier. Unfortunately, all awareness and knowledge is most often not enough because our eating and food choices are mostly not based on rational decisions but on emotional cues, environment cues, habit etc. Btw, that's why I also don't believe in weight loss drugs that work through the hunger and satiety regulation - there are too many occasions when I eat or overeat and hunger has nothing to do with it.

Ok, now off to a coffee place with wifi to work a bit on preparing a new class I am teaching, gotta stay a couple of weeks abead of my students...

Stefan
 
apicius9 said:
So, I am making Sundays my day for weight checks. It's a little guesswork for this first week because I didn't have the scale last Sunday, so the starting weight may be off by a pound or so, but it looks like I lost about 4 pounds this first week that I really made an effort and tracked my eating. Of course, a lot of this is water and an effect of changes in diet, but I am obviously on the right track.

The thing I struggled most with this week was resisting late night snacks. I ended up eating too much trail mix. I bought that to add a bit to fruits or cereal, but if I have it around, I have a hard time resisting it, much more tempting than chips etc. for me. Better than many other things, but still not ideal. Any ideas what to keep around as 'healthy' snacks? I will make an offort to keep cut-up fruit in the fridge, small carrots, celery, maybe pretzels, low fat cheese - any other tips?

Stefan
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what I do stefan is freeze a bunch of berries and grapes and other fruits. when I want a late night snack, I pop in a few handfuls of frozen blueberries or grapes and I'm good to go. Healthy and no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.
 
sachem allison said:
what I do stefan is freeze a bunch of berries and grapes and other fruits. when I want a late night snack, I pop in a few handfuls of frozen blueberries or grapes and I'm good to go. Healthy and no added sugar or artificial sweeteners.
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Yes! I do that too. Frozen grapes are pretty amazing. It's kind of like eating tiny sorbet balls.
 
Carrots, celery, and apples are good snacks because you can cut them up with your knives!

Of course there are some other good fruit and veggie snacks as well.

Popcorn is also good--either air-popped or microwave without too much added oil/fat or sodium. In addition, there are some healthier kinds of chips available now.

You can also get roasted edamame beans, or things like wasabi peas.

There are various types of granola or snack bars, but you have to watch the fat and sugar on some of them.

It's really good to plan ahead and have healthier things on hand so that they're available for the times when you know you'll be tempted.
 
Thanks, great tips. Never heard of frozen grapes as snack but I have some in the fridge, will stick them in the freezer in the morning. And I did not think of edamame, that is an easy snack I really like, same with wasabi peas. Keith also stores peeled bananas in the freezer which sounds like a good idea because I can never eat them fast enough and don't like them when they get too ripe. I was never a big popcorn fan, so I will pass on that but I do see how it would work for others. Today I had a late lunch so dinner was just a bowl of ahi shoyu poke (raw cubes with scallions and shoyu) - very satisfying ;) I also had a bit too much caffeine today, that's why I am on the web at 4:20am...

Stefan
 
Interesting piece I just saw, here is a link to the abstract: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1730520#jvp130094r1

Basically, it's a call to stop wasting money on research comparing different diets, they all work about the same as long as you stick with them - and that is where more research is still needed: How to increase long-term adherence, changes in behavior patterns and exercise. The only people benefitting from discussing the different diets are not the people who want to lose weight but the companies in the multi-billion diet product market.

Stefan
 
Anybody still with this? I am writing things down, using the Weight Watchers system which allows for a good variety of choices. Just trying to choose smarter and eat reasonable portion sizes without torturing myself. The only thing I have 'given up' for now is alcohol, just because it is easy and I don't miss it much. But I am now a good 11 pounds down after 3 weeks, so I will spoil myself with a nice brew or wine on Wednesday when I go to dinner with a friend.

Still looking for my exercise motivation, but I am happy with progress so far, trying to continue.

Stefan

P.S. Oh, and I really like the frozen grape snack. I also make a base of slightly thinned greek yoghurt, sugar and vanilla a few times a week and cut whatever fresh fruit looks good in there and eat it whenever I feel like it. Easy to eat a larger bowl as dinner and not feel bloated or load up on fat.
 
Congrats Stefan, eleven pounds is awesome!

For the exercise I would recommend starting slowly (walking counts).

Curious if you've heard about the 5:2 diet which was mentioned on the Diane Rehm show on NPR? The up side to this one is that it may be easier to maintain in the long run though I believe the studies are still in the early stages.

Cheers!
 
Good job Stefan, keep it up.
I lost a good bit of weight by cutting out my ice cream and beer. I also only ate greek yogurt and granola for a few weeks.
Congrats!
 
Thanks! Never had heard of that particular version of it, but intermittent fasting has been around forever - mostly in the way of having a day per week when you only eat fruit etc. I may inadvertently have done something like that myself, because there were a few weekend days when I did not do much and also ate very little. When I was younger, I used to fast 2-3 weeks every spring, bit I have too much going on for that right now, and I wanted to start something with a long-term perspective that I can maintain. But adding a couple of very low calorie days per week sounds doable, I'll think about how I could do that with the least interference with other things.

Stefan
 
chinacats said:
Congrats Stefan, eleven pounds is awesome!

For the exercise I would recommend starting slowly (walking counts).

Curious if you've heard about the 5:2 diet which was mentioned on the Diane Rehm show on NPR? The up side to this one is that it may be easier to maintain in the long run though I believe the studies are still in the early stages.

Cheers!
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I actually prefer 'Eat Stop Eat' by Brad Pilon (I have the e-book), or the protocol set out by Martin Berkhan on leangains.com (although this is more designed for bodybuilding...it's still highly effective!). The 5:2 diet is kind of a spin off of Eat Stop Eat...although Brad's book is much more comprehensive and well researched.

As for me...I've been off work the last two weeks, and have put on a chunk of weight lol. It amazes me how fast it goes on, and how slowly it comes off!! So....for the next few months I'll be wearing my BodyMedia FitLINK, and monitoring my activity and what I eat a bit more closely :).
 
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