Losing weight.

[bando1234]

I have fighting my weight pretty much all my life. I have bobbed up & down my whole life. My lowest weight was about 167 when I was around 20 to 21 years old after being 235 2 or 3 years before. Then I got married & got into my comfort zone & went up to 290 by the time I was about 26 or 27. I got down to 240 when we moved but after we moved back up to 275. after a blood preasure scare down to 205. slowly ( about 3 years) of not exercising has hard went up to 255 . Got into a weight loss competition , got down to 220. Last winter got some sort of mystery illness ( my guess is a sinus infection which possibly caused sleep apnia) in which I felt rundown all the time, many body aches & just felt plain yuchy for about 5 months. did not exercise, ate more than what I should have & was 260 in the beginning of the year.Now after another wight loss competition I am down to 220.

 

I know their is no magic pill. I have to exercise & watch what I eat. I have done it plenty of times . I take the dog for a mile walk in the morning & I follow that up with the exercize bike for 20 min. & 20 situps. I try to take mile walk in the afternoon with 20 more min of the exercise bike & 20 situps at night after my kids go to bed. I may mix that up with a one mile jog & lifting weights with my upper body 3 days a week.12 reps 3 times a day.I also bike to work during the summer(about one mile) however will have to stop when school starts up.

 

My diet consist of a breakfast of green tea , yougurt & a dan active for breakfast but might mix that up with blueberry oatmeal or cereal & juice. I usally have an applesauce or peice of fruit with some water mid morning & a water a sandwitch & snack for lunch (anything from fruit to dry ceareal) & a water. My supper is waht ever my wife makes but I work on my portion control. Thinks like getting a salad before my supper so I feel more full espically if we have pizza(my favorite).

 

When I first lost my weight in my early 20's I learned that I eat when I am bored. The other day I was very stressed at work & went around from to each cube to look for food . Thats when it dawned on me I have a emional connection to food also.

 

I seems when it turns around November I stop taking the dog for a walk & my weight just soars.It bugs me to know that winter is coming & I could have to work this hard all over again. My wife likes to stock up on chocolate & soda. So far I have not had any soda this summer.

 

My goal is to stay at 190 to 195. My height is at 5'10 to 5'11. Any suggetions espically durring the winter months.

[Brian the Automator]

[ I seems when it turns around November I stop taking the dog for a walk & my weight just soars. ]

 

I hear ya. What the wife and I did last winter was invested in some real nice winter clothes...

 

When it gets cold, I recommend:

- long underwear shirt

- long underwear pants (possibly two pair at a time.. there are some real thin ones that won't make you feel like you're wearing lead pants)

- A Headsock. Not the creepy bank stick-up one, but the one with just one hole for both eyes.

- NEOS overshoes. I'm not sure where you live, but people in my neck of the woods (Waukesha) suck at shoveling. Get some decent walking shoes (I'm a fan of the 75$ a pair Saucony brand), and slip these right over them. It's the comfort of a walking shoe and the traction of a clete.

 

We walked just about all winter (even when it was negative 20) until the wife came down with an illness in April.

 

If you get these things out of the way in winter, you give yourself less excuses to say the hell with it.

[dadofandrew]

I lost about 70 pounds, but have now stayed the same for a couple months. It is a direct result of not feeling like exercising, I was doing about 60-120 minutes on my exercise bike 7x a week, now, maybe 30 3x.

 

You're right, no magic pill. I would simply set up a time to exercise daily and stick to it...6:30, boom, exercise time. Habits can become positive as well.

[Big Reed]

bando- you sound exactly like me. Although I'm 50.

 

When I'm bored , i eat; drink a coke; and sit in my chair and post on internet sports boards such as this one. .

 

I don't exercise, and my weight gradually climbed to 252. I thought I had a heart attack last week trying to mow my back yard. It's 1 acre and a 45 degree angle and i was using a self propelled push mower. I was getting tired out going down hill.

 

I checked into the hospital the next day for tests. I' m one of the lucky ones. My blood pressure two days after mowing the lawn was 162 over 106. All of my cholesteral levels were high. but I didn't have a heart attack and I don't need bypass surgery.

 

My wife started the nutrisystem diet 3 months ago and has lost about 20-25 pounds. The key to that diet is that you can eat as much vegetables as you want, and your entres are smaller than most. Spending over $400 a month on the food is kind of an incentive to stay on the diet. but, I've noticed my wife is sneaking in snacks once more. I dare not ask how many pounds she's lost in the past month.

 

I lost about 10 pounds the past week giving blood samples to the hospital and fasting. i've started to exercise once more and have been able to keep the 10 pounds off. Although that trip to see transformers tonight probably put a couple of pounds back on.

 

maybe my trip to the hospital was a wake-up call for me. maybe I'll keep up my exercise routine and start eating less.

 

I just received an email from my dad- the first in about 6 months. His first paragraph said he had a heart attack last month, fell on the cement had a concussion and was out cold for a period of time that he doesn't know how long. My dad is about 80+.

 

maybe that will be a wake up call for me as well. it shows how lousy of a son I am that nobody told me my dad had a heart attack until my dad returned home several weeks later and wrote me an email about it.

 

A wise man once told me I've got to find something more constructive to do in my life. unfortunately, I didn't pay much attention to his warning.

 

Like I said- I' m one of the lucky ones. When I went to the Hospital, they actually were treating somebody who actually did have a heart attack. And despite our indifference to each other, my dad actually took the time out to write me an email. and I actually still have a dad.

[jschris]

I can certainly feel your pain. I was in a similar boat. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I actually gained more weight than she did. That's slightly embarrassing. I lost a few pounds, but gained it back with our second pregnancy. In the fall of 2005 with a job that allowed me the opportunity for fast food every day , I ballooned to 335 pounds. My scale was only registering to 300, so I thought I was fine--until I got the new scale. I slipped in a hot tub one day and had trouble getting up. I struggled with the fact that a 33 year old like me was having problems even standing up after a fall. I dropped 30 pounds, but when I missed my goal of 300 by my birthday I got depressed and went back up to 316, where I started this year.

 

I'm down to 270 now thanks to something of a lifestyle change. I'm extremely careful with my portion sizes and healthy diet balance for the majority of the week. However, I allow myself one day a week where it's no holds barred. Whatever I want to eat in whatever quantity (I would draw the line at a hot dog eating contest, obviously). This comes from the "Body For Life" theory. It seems to remind your system that you are not in starvation mode, so it burns calories at a normal rate. When your body thinks it is starving, it conserves calories and metabolism plummets. Also, the "free day" has the added psychological benefit of knowing I'm only 6 days away from whatever food that I'm really craving.

 

As for exercise, I believe variety is the best way to attack. If you walk a couple miles one day, the next day why not sprint for a 100 yards, walk a 100, sprint a 100, etc for your route? Another day maybe slowly jog the whole thing. Same thing with an exercise bike. One day maybe go an hour at a slower pace. The next an all-out sprint for 15-20 minutes, or alternate sprints and rest periods. With weight lifting, I like to do a sets of 12, then 10, 8, and 6 of the same exercise, slowly increasing resistance. After my set of 6 (the heaviest lift), I drop the weight down a notch and pound out 12 reps. Then, without rest, I move to another exercise that works the same area and do 12 reps before moving on to the next area to work on. Classic "BFL".

 

After I fell that day, I actually went to LA Weight Loss. That's where I learned my old scale wasn't "wrapping around". Even though it was expensive, my wife was great and allowed it if I wanted to do it. I thought it over and decided I wanted to try it on my own first and if I made my goal of 225 I could use that money I would have spent at LAWL for something fun. Like a solid downpayment on a Brewer Fantasy Camp. I think she's getting nervous because she made cookies today...

 

Best of luck to you. If you need someone for support, please PM me.

[PrinceFielder28]

I have lost 72 lbs since mid-January of this year. I was 326 when i started and now today weigh 254. I have been doing Weight Watchers. The main premise of the program is portion control and increased activity. You also need to increase you fruits and veggies you eat. You never have to deprive yourself of anything. Just need to control what you have of that favorite thing or find a healthy alternative.

[cweber39]

My mom has done weight watchers as well and lost about 40 lbs. She will go off it ocassionally when we go out of town, but will lose the weight she put on during vacation in about a week or two.

[mothershipconnection]

The closest thing to a magic pill is the advice "DO NOT DRINK YOUR CALORIES". Diet soda, artificial sweetener in your sugared drinks, light beer, diet soda in your mixers, etc. I've lost weight and kept it off by essentially adopting a policy that I do not drink anything but alcohol which contains more than 50 calories, and I try to stay under 10. If you drink 3 cans of soda a day, that's nearly 3,000 calories a week right there. Eliminating just that could cause you to lose roughly .80 pounds a week.

 

Also, do not go on a plan that is too strict. You'll lose weight fast, but the behavioral change will have near-zero durability. You'll lose weight and the diet will be no fun, so you'll quit because you accomplished what you wanted and don't have a high enough level of motivation to maintain such a diet.

[Beast Light]

I lost about 35 pounds (205 to 170) after I got out of college and have kept it off for an entire year. Here are the things that worked for me, maybe some will work for you as well.

 

1) Track the calories that your meals contain and set target levels for your meals.

 

Many people think that calorie counting is obsessive but for me it really helped me to understand exactly what I was eating. I actually created an excel spreadsheet with a table containing all the foods I buy and their nutritional facts. Before I made a meal, I would select components to get nutrition fact information for my entire meal. My guess is that you will be surprised as to how many calories are in some foods and create new recipes/combinations for meals. After a while, you will begin to understand what you are eating and may no longer need to track.

 

2) Gain an understanding of how many calories your activities burn and set a daily/weekly goal.

 

Different types of excercise burn calories at different rates. Some people like to mix up their workouts, but try to make sure the result stays consistent. Consistency is key to losing weight. For me, I started off using an eliptical machine. Once I got in better cardiovascular shape, I switched to a treadmill because I could burn the same amount of calories in only 60 percent of the time required on an eliptical.

 

3) Lift weights

 

For some reason when I lift weights I really get this feeling that my muscles are "absorbing" the calories I eat. The thing to remember about weight lifting is that you are not only burning calories during the workout, you are also using calories when your muscles are repairing in your sleep. Different people like to lift different ways. I prefer to challenge myself but have no desire to be incredible "pumped". I just want to look fit. Any lifting helps.

 

4) Develop a "10 Commandments" list or something similar that you know you can stick to.

 

I think it is important to implement some permanent changes in your life. How aggressive the changes are depends on the person. You have to remember though, the changes should not only be geared towards making you lose weight but also at improving your health and general well-being. I ended up using two lists. One for normal eating (on my own) and the other for when I eat out (it is impossible to not eat out on occasions). I felt that that the rules needed to be different because when you go out to eat, you do need to enjoy it. My two lists look like this:

 

Home eating rules

 

1. No junk snacks kept in the house (Chips, Cheetos ..etc)

2. All grains must be whole grains (pasta, rice, bread, cereal)

3. 3 different pieces of fruit must be eaten each day

4. Every meal must contain a vegatable serving

5. Meat must be kept to what is considered an actual serving

6. No soda (water for all meals except breakfast)

 

Eating out rules

 

1. No burgers

2. Nothing breaded (primarily the case with chicken)

3. No appetizers

4. No bringing food home (doggie bags)

5. Drink water with meal

6. Stop when full (there is no need to eat "because you paid for it")

 

 

Everybody is different but these are the things what worked for me. If some of them work for you, great! If not, hopefully you will find other things that do. Good luck!

[qrk10000]

Thanks for all of the advice, guys. My wife and I actually have been in a similar situation over the past two or three years. We were health food freaks for a long time, worked out regularly, and never had any weight problems. Then we had our first child.

 

Initially, we still were doing great and my wife only put on about 15 lb from the pregnancy. However, it was after his birth that we started struggling. Our son always slept poorly so that meant we slept poorly. This lack of sleep kept us in a state of not wanting to do much of anything (i.e. working out, cooking healthy dinners, etc.) and we started to fall under the lure of fast food (cheap, quick, easy). It wasn't until we put on about 40-50 lb that we were like "what the heck happened here"?

 

We tried a couple of fad diets. They worked a little but most of them were just too strict. I think the one thing that has worked the most has been working out together 2-3 times a week, eating lots and lots and lots of fruits and veggies, and cutting down on the amount of dairy products we consumed. For whatever reason, that affects my wife and I negatively.

 

While we are doing better, we are still not where we want to be. We've accepted that there are no easy fixes, though, so hopefully our patience will pay off. Good luck to all of you facing similar struggles.

[IslandsAC]

Beast Light thanks for the amazing tips. The excel spreadsheet is going to be just what the doctor ordered, I can tell. I'm in a similar boat as you were as I just graduated after spending the last 2 years hovering around the 200 range, and I would love to get down to a fit 170. I've picked up running and biking fairly regularly, but until I find a way to get into a healthy eating groove, it doesn't seem to be making much of a difference.

[brettac1]

I'm one of the lucky few who doesn't have a difficult time losing weight. I noticed I had developed a litle bit of a spare tire in early April, so I switched to diet soda. I've lost around 10 pounds or so and I'm about 145 now (I'm 5'9" or so). I guess I'm also lucky that I'm only 23, so that plays a part in why I am able to shed the lbs.

[twobrewers]

Don't drink your caleries is very good advice. After a few weeks of laying off of the Milk, Soda, Orange Juice and what not you won't even miss it.

 

I have never had a weight problem (6'1 155) but I run a lot and eat ridiculously healthy. So I can at least offer some advice - even if I can't relate to the battle you must go through.

 

1. You are already behind the 8 ball. Staying at a weight isn't that hard - but losing 50+ pounds is a big task. In an ideal world everyone commits to staying in shape instead of having to get back in shape!

 

2. Weight gain or loss is really a mathmatical function. You eat more caleries that you burn - you gain weight. You eat less than you burn - you lose weight. There is a product called called BODYBUGG that is pretty expensive but can be a REALLY helpful too.

 

3. I think for those overweight already - lifting weights is very overrated. (Recent Studies have shown that having extra muscle doesn't does help burn more caleries. ie. You don't just burn caleries sitting on your butt even if you are ripped) If you have 30 minutes to work ou - you burn FAR more caleries running/jogging that lifting weights. Plus, and I see this ALOT at the gym...you aren't going to see any muscle until you get the fat off of the top of it. (Doing situps with a spare tire actually would push the fat farther out as your stomache muscles would increase) In addition, you likely already have significant muscle mass from carrying yourself around. It is a lot easier on my body to walk around at 155 that someone who is 300. Imagine the muscle I would build walking with an extra 145 pounds on my back all day!

 

4. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast. Only keeping healthy food in the house is a GREAT idea. It is hard to gain weight if all you ever eat are apples! But Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast are fantastic if you are trying to lose weight. (or keep it off) Red meat is extremely fatty and also high in caleries. Chicken Breast are WAY healthier - and frankly I like the taste alot more. If you are used to cooking with ground beef in recipes, just cut up the chicken breast into really small pieces and pretend it is ground beef. You will never notice a difference. I have gone from making Enchilladas with ground beef - tons of cheese - and lots of sour cream on top; to making them with chicken, fat free cheese, and fat free sour cream - and NO ONE can tell the difference. I took a horrible meal and simply substitued better alternatives and got the same great taste. Do that with every meal and you will be surprised how great healthy food can taste. (Bad food is just convienent)

 

5. Lastly...it's all about habit. I had a rough past week. Was up late doing work on friday night. I wanted nothing more to sleep in on saturday. But at 8:00 when the alarm went off I hopped out of bed and ran 12 miles - when it is a habit, you don't think about it. You just do it. Set aside the same time EVERY WEEK to work out. If you give yourself ANY leeway - you will stretch it and stretch it until soon you have stopped working out again. Unless you are SOO sick you can't go to work - go to the gym.

 

(btw, if anyone wants great fat free recipes for fat free chili and fat free enchilladas- p.m. me and I would be happy to share)

[twobrewers]

Forgot to mention...

 

Giving up alcohol is a BIG help as well. If you are a 300 lb guy it takes a lot of liquid to get buzzed or drunk. You can pretty easily drink an entire days worth of calories just going out on a friday night.

 

One MGD has 143 calories. I ran 12 miles yesterday and burned off 1500 calories. If you drink 10 MGDs on a saturday night - are you really going to run 10+ miles to burn that off and get back to even?

[JumpinMacFlash]

This is something that's a big thing with me. I come from a family where all of my mom's siblings (13 in all) are overweight and my dad's family has a history of heart problems. My little sister is overweight, my oldest brother is grossly overweight and in an attempt to prevent that, my other brother is grossly underweight (I believe he has an eating disorder, but am having a hard time getting him or my family to agree with me).

 

I'm 21 and I have a feeling my metabolism is starting to catch up to me so I'm trying to ratchet up my preemptive measures. I'm in good shape (5'10, 178 lbs), but I want to stay that way. I was thinking about the things that I do to try and stay in shape, and these are some of what I came up with.

 

1. Daily exercise - I don't care if it's walking, running, biking, weight lifting or something else. It's important to stay active above all else. Someone else mentioned that if you consume more calories that you burn off, you gain weight. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's 3500 calories = 1 pound. As far as lifting weights goes, I really like doing it and I feel better about myself when I do, but I agree that its more important to do cardio work at first to speed up your metabolism. The two tips I have about exercise are: 1) don't compare yourself to others, if you aren't used to exercising, there will be people that can do things at a higher level, don't let that discourage you 2) exercise improves your mood and sense of self worth, I had severe depression in high school and exercise was some of the best medicine to get me through it. If running or walking does work, try biking, it's low impact on your joints and a lot of fun.

 

2. Deep fried food is the devil - I love eating fried food...don't know why, it's boiled in fat, dripping with grease and is awful for you. But it's still tasty. I try to avoid fried things at all costs. Breading on anything is a bad sign. Stay away.

 

3. Carbs are not a bad thing - I never bought into the Atkins diet. Your body needs carbs for energy and whole grain foods like pasta and wheat bread are also high in fiber. As long as you stay active, carbs shouldn't build up because they are the most easily available form of energy in your body. Granola (minus fun things like chocolate) are a good snack.

 

4. Fruits and Veggies rock - I try not to snack between meals, but if I do, I like to keep fresh fruit and vegetables around instead. I keep a bag of baby carrots around at all times. Grapes and prunes are also a favorite, but if you get carried away, they wreak havoc on your bowels.

 

5. Set goals for yourself - It's important to stay motivated, and one of the best ways to do that is to have something to work toward. I want to run a sub-6 mile and also be able to run over 10 miles. I'm pretty close to the first one, and I'm able to do between 5 and 6 miles. Make sure you set reasonable goals. You wouldn't start out by swimming the English Channel if you can't do a couple laps in a pool.

 

I wanted to echo Beast Light's idea of drinking water with meals. This is something I do whenever I go to a restaurant. I don't like drinking calories, and it flushes out your kidneys. Trust me, the last thing that you want is a kidney stone. I had one about 18 months ago and it really messed with my health. I had weight-lifting and activity restrictions and was basically kept from doing anything active for about 3.5 weeks. And giving up or at least moderating your alcohol intake is a big thing. (I think) there are 9 calories in every gram of fat, but also 7 calories in every gram of alcohol. That's something I'm going to take very seriously this next school year.

[BuckyTuba]

i lost 10-12 lbs on saturday during my race.

[Thurston Fluff]

finding things to do outdoors in winter is good for both weight managment and mental health IMO. If dressed properly in layers so you can shed some before you sweat then cool down makes the weather irrelevant. What I learned while dieting for wrestling was how much people eat out of habit or ritual. It seems like no one ever does anything without some sort of food involved. I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary for you psycologically. One thing I learned is avoid TV. It is rare to see anything on TV go for more than 15 minutes without a food related visual. It's a terrible subliminal stimulant for those who are used to eating ritually. Breaking the ritual will help avoid eating for any reason other than hunger. Hunger itself can be managed by activity. Anything that occupies the mind means you aren't thinking of food. Along those same lines is start to do things that you normally would do with a bite to eat without the food part. It's like smoking. If you normally smoke while doing something it triggers a need to smoke. After breaking the habit of adding the food to an activity (even healthy diet food) the craving for food when doing said activity will diminish. Good luck best wishes for better mental and physical health.

[Mike Felder]

I guess I will third the "Don't drink your calories" approach. A couple years ago I was on some medication that required me to not drink alcohol for 6 months. I didn't change my eating habits during that time and since I was student teaching it was hard to really get any exercise, but I still lost weight just from abstaining from alcohol (especially beer).

[Jimbo]

Quote:

---

i lost 10-12 lbs on saturday during my race.

---

 

So, how'd you do? You sounded pumped going into it.

[craigharmann]

Hey guys, thought I'd chime in. Good stuff already. My wife and I started in January with the South Beach diet as it was recommended by the wife's doc. I lost about 45 pounds in the process of about 4 months, and over the last month and a half, put back on about 15 pounds. So, now we're going back to phase 1, and really getting back into the habit. I still want to get off another 30 pounds from where I'm at now by October because my younger sis is getting married on the beach in Florida. It's really a matter of getting off the couch, being active, drinking lots of water, and making the right food choices. I will never forget the first time I went shopping after we started the South Beach diet. It's SO hard to eat healthy, as there are many quick, easy choices that aren't healthy. But we are now it the routine of making better choices, so we'll keep plugging away. Good luck!

[mothershipconnection]

I lost about 45 pounds in the process of about 4 months, and over the last month and a half, put back on about 15 pounds.

 

That's why diets that are too restrictive are bound to fail. You need to have strict rules but not a strict diet per se. You can say "I absolutely, without fail, will work out for 20 min every X, Y, and Z day of the week". Or "I will only drink diet soda and only liquor with diet soda", "I will never add sugar to anything - only low-cal sweetener", "I will only put the lowest-calorie dressing on my salad", etc.

 

When a diet is too tough, you begin to cheat a few times, and then the momentum builds and you're fat again before you know it.

[ThePurpleStorm]

Cals In

That's all it comes down to. If you want to lose weight, take 5 minutes a day to track the cals you eat, average them for a week, and subtract 500 or so a day from there on out to lose a pound a week..or more if you want more weight loss. Screw all of this foo foo diet crap. You can eat whatever you want and if you're burning more cals than you eat, you'll lose weight.

[GAME05]

thanks for the tip about not doing situps to get rid of a beer belly. I was actually about to buy some weights and a bench and start doing situps to lose the belly. Guess I'll have to get back into running and accept little upper-body strength, but no gut.

[ThePurpleStorm]

Can't lose a belly without dropping fat. Working your abs is only going to make your waist larger from the muscles you're building up.

[SenatorShriv]

I know their is no magic pill.

 

Wasn't Ephedra supposed to make a comeback at some point?