I'm getting it done finally :P

[episodic]

Hey there, thought I'd post what I'm doing if it helps anyone. I haven't been around alot lately as I've been out and about getting it done.

Started in June at 340lbs - I was getting sick of it. So I started dieting. Saw - so - so results.

I loathed walking - found running impossible - so I decided to buy a bike. I bought a hybrid - and to put it frankly - I have road the 'tar' out of it as my grandparents would say.

So I got fitted at the bike store and away I went. I've put over 300 miles on it in the last 4 weeks. Finally, I'm riding 20 mile hilly loops.

Every morning at the same time, I step on the scale, and it always a pound less than the day before.

I've cut back to 2000 calories net a day after exercise. I woefully underestimate exercise calories burned, erring on the super low. Even though it is hilly and I'm big, I figure 30 calories a mile (it probably is actually more) but that is all I give myself credit for on a daily basis. Many days, I only intake 1500-1800 though - net.

I've got an app called Looseit that runs on my ipod touch, and I'm religious about tracking every calorie I stick in my mouth. I've also resolved myself to never drinking another calorie. Water and tea with stevia is what I've been drinking.

So what has happened? In 8 weeks 340 to 315 this morning. I'm planning on loosing weight till I get to low 200's at least. I'm 6 ft.

So yea, it can be done. It is just sweat and sacrifice. Really. I'm praying I have the will power to keep it up long term, because I'd be fibbing if I didn't say that pizza and frosties were not calling my name.

 

[prism]

Congratulations man! Your hard work has, and is, paying off. Keep it up and you'll get to your goal.

Personally, I need to give myself a cheat day every few weeks or so, but if you think it'll lead you back down the road of temptation then stay the hell away. Good luck!

 

[brikis98]

Congrats on the great progress! While you are here, you may want to check out out the fat loss sticky so you're aware of some items you can do to keep the weight loss going (type of food to eat, strength training, more moderate caloric deficit as you get lighter, etc). Good luck!

 

[thepd7]

:thumbsup:

 

[MJinZ]

Hey there, thought I'd post what I'm doing if it helps anyone. I haven't been around alot lately as I've been out and about getting it done.

Started in June at 340lbs - I was getting sick of it. So I started dieting. Saw - so - so results.

I loathed walking - found running impossible - so I decided to buy a bike. I bought a hybrid - and to put it frankly - I have road the 'tar' out of it as my grandparents would say.

So I got fitted at the bike store and away I went. I've put over 300 miles on it in the last 4 weeks. Finally, I'm riding 20 mile hilly loops.

Every morning at the same time, I step on the scale, and it always a pound less than the day before.

I've cut back to 2000 calories net a day after exercise. I woefully underestimate exercise calories burned, erring on the super low. Even though it is hilly and I'm big, I figure 30 calories a mile (it probably is actually more) but that is all I give myself credit for on a daily basis. Many days, I only intake 1500-1800 though - net.

I've got an app called Looseit that runs on my ipod touch, and I'm religious about tracking every calorie I stick in my mouth. I've also resolved myself to never drinking another calorie. Water and tea with stevia is what I've been drinking.

So what has happened? In 8 weeks 340 to 315 this morning. I'm planning on loosing weight till I get to low 200's at least. I'm 6 ft.

So yea, it can be done. It is just sweat and sacrifice. Really. I'm praying I have the will power to keep it up long term, because I'd be fibbing if I didn't say that pizza and frosties were not calling my name.

Cheap crap food are not worthy.

Keep it up.

 

[PricklyPete]

Congrats man! Keep it up...it will make you feel wonderful.

 

[kalrith]

Congrats! You're doing great! As mentioned earlier, you might want to schedule a cheat day every couple weeks to go out for pizza and ice cream or something like that just to reward yourself for all that hard work.

The most important thing is that the changes you're making become lifestyle changes for the rest of your life. Anything that can help that long-term cause (such as a cheat day) is well worth it even if it slightly slows your short-term progress.

 

[DeckardBlade]

Congrats! You're doing great! As mentioned earlier, you might want to schedule a cheat day every couple weeks to go out for pizza and ice cream or something like that just to reward yourself for all that hard work.

I agree, I think having a cheat day is a good idea to prevent you from burning yourself out on your new dietary changes.

 

[MyThirdEye]

I agree, I think having a cheat day is a good idea to prevent you from burning yourself out on your new dietary changes.

+1

 

[conorvansmack]

Nice job dude! Try to find some healthy foods that you really like that you can use as a "reward" on a cheat day. Peaches and strawberries are in season now.

 

[episodic]

Hey I need simple cheap and tasty recipe ideas. I've stir fried myself to death. I love Sriacha and soy sauce btw

313.5 this morning


I did cheat today sorta. For supper, I took off on a 45 minute 4 mph brisk walk all the way to Taco Bell and had a 'Fresca Steak Taco" for 200 calories, and a tall glass of water

Then I realized I had to walk back. That took longer

Today, my total intake was only 1628 with a very conservative estimate of 400 calories in exercise. (two 20 minute bike rides to work and back, and a 45 minute brisk walk - probably burned more but I estimate on the SUPER low side) So my net was only around 1200 and I don't feel tired.

Fridge oatmeal rocks btw, I never felt hungry till way past noon. My favorite breakfast is a serving of fridge oatmeal prepared w/ 3/4 cup skim milk. 1 tablespoon of almond butter mashed and mixed in and a box of raisins dumped in. I swear I ate it at 6 am and at noon still wasn't hungry.

 

[Kipper]

Are you measuring portion sizes or "guesstimating?" I am guessing it is the latter.

1600 kcal is far, far, far too low an intake, particularly with physical activity. Using 72" for height and 313.5 lbs for weight and age (I'm estimating around 35 years old - if you are younger your needs would be higher) gives a rough estimate of between 3400-3600 kcal/day for maintenance assuming you maintain your activity rate. You are going to be dropping a lot of lean mass at this rate.

-28 lbs in two months is a pretty fast clip (~3.5 lb/week), much faster than I would suggest, even with you starting at a very fast rate. Your calorie target should be somewhere between 2700-3000, IMO - in other words, about 1.5-2 times what you are eating now.

Edit: For reference, I used the widely-accepted Mifflin-St. Jeor resting energy expenditure equation with an activity factor of 1.4-1.5.

http://www.move.va.gov/download/Resources/EERSpreadsheet.xls
(A very handy spreadsheet, I highly recommend using it.)

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I understand you've had some good results, but 1600 calories is not enough. You're actually hindering your weight loss by going that low. People of your size can go lower than individuals looking to lose a little bit of weight, but you definitely shouldn't go 1600 calories low.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Are you measuring portion sizes or "guesstimating?" I am guessing it is the latter.

1600 kcal is far, far, far too low an intake, particularly with physical activity. Using 72" for height and 313.5 lbs for weight and age (I'm estimating around 35 years old - if you are younger your needs would be higher) gives a rough estimate of between 3400-3600 kcal/day for maintenance assuming you maintain your activity rate. You are going to be dropping a lot of lean mass at this rate.

-28 lbs in two months is a pretty fast clip (~3.5 lb/week), much faster than I would suggest, even with you starting at a very fast rate. Your calorie target should be somewhere between 2700-3000, IMO - in other words, about 1.5-2 times what you are eating now.

Bing. And episodic, know that Kipper is the resident nutritionist. Please take what he says to heart. It'll make the hunger pains much less intense and will help reduce leftover skin in the long run. The more time you give your body to adapt, the more likely your skin will shrink to your new body size. Keep that in mind.

 

[episodic]

I've been exact with portions. Bought a nice diet scale. I've tracked every calorie exactly according to label, weight, and portion. If I am not sure I round up. For instance, I ate a big plate of watermelon once and I wasn't sure how much, so I overestimeted and called it 5 cups.

Also I've been using lean cuisine and the such alot easy to count calories. Also been using the eat this instead of that book a lot.

I'm really not hungry any more except in the morning when I wake.

The reason I lowered is that I read somewhere to find the weight of the size person you want to be and eat their caloric intake and eventually you would get there. I want to get eventually to below 200 so that is why. When get home I'll post a few days food logs.

 

[episodic]

I had a quick chance to update a food log - so here goes (this is off the top of my head, so I hope I get it right)
Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup skim milk
Stevia
130 cals of Raisins
1 tablespoon almond butter

Lunch: Lean Cuisine 260 calorie Lunch
Fiber one with antioxidants bar 130 calories

Dinner: 1 cup Raisin Bran 190 calories 3/4 cup skim milk

Snack: 1 piece of beef jerky (130 cal according to package)
1 Fresca Steak Taco (230 calories)


With that I didn't feel hungry. . . if I ate 2700, I could eat big macs and whole pizzas and still come in under. . . that confuses me

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I've been exact with portions. Bought a nice diet scale. I've tracked every calorie exactly according to label, weight, and portion. If I am not sure I round up. For instance, I ate a big plate of watermelon once and I wasn't sure how much, so I overestimeted and called it 5 cups.

Also I've been using lean cuisine and the such alot easy to count calories. Also been using the eat this instead of that book a lot.

I'm really not hungry any more except in the morning when I wake.

The reason I lowered is that I read somewhere to find the weight of the size person you want to be and eat their caloric intake and eventually you would get there. I want to get eventually to below 200 so that is why. When get home I'll post a few days food logs.

And that's a pretty good rule of thumb. However, you're not even eating for the resting metabolic rate of an individual that weighs less than 150lbs. I weigh 155lbs and my RMR is around 1800cal. For 200lbs, you should be eating at least 2200-2400 calories, not even accounting for activity. 1600cal is the amount a 130lb girl would eat to lose weight.

 

[Kipper]

I've been exact with portions. Bought a nice diet scale. I've tracked every calorie exactly according to label, weight, and portion. If I am not sure I round up. For instance, I ate a big plate of watermelon once and I wasn't sure how much, so I overestimeted and called it 5 cups.

Also I've been using lean cuisine and the such alot easy to count calories. Also been using the eat this instead of that book a lot.

I'm really not hungry any more except in the morning when I wake.

The reason I lowered is that I read somewhere to find the weight of the size person you want to be and eat their caloric intake and eventually you would get there. I want to get eventually to below 200 so that is why. When get home I'll post a few days food logs.

Take your current level of income and then slash it by 60% and tell me if the transition wouldn't be rough for you. For most people, it would (as this economic crisis has shown). The same goes for calories. You cannot take a body that requires 3000+ calories to operate and all of the sudden decide you're going to operate it on a shoestring without metabolic consequences.

Your body isn't going to suddenly decide that it can make do without the extra 1400 calories. It does what the family with one person laid off does: it triages, finds ways to cut back, finds ways to scale back its needs dramatically. One way to do this is to burn up some lean mass, which has the dual effect of cutting energy requirements and providing some energy as a stop-gap. This is bad. It may also increase production of appetite-stimulating hormones to increase your intake. It also slows everything down The real test is when you plateau, which is pretty common after large weight loss but can also happen if you lose too quickly. According to set-point theory, the body resists large increases or decreases in weight around a certain weight. It is possible to "reset" at a certain weight, at which time weight loss can resume, but that usually requires both time and getting a bit more aggressive with cutting calories/increasing expenditure. This is not to say that it isn't possible to lose weight past the set point in the short term - that is entirely possible - but once the "calorie shortage" is over (i.e. when people fall off the wagon) the weight comes right back and people end up more or less at the same weight they did before - and then some.

This is why it's suggested that your calories be cut incrementally and that you revisit the estimated numbers as your weight loss begins to taper. It makes the lifestyle changes much easier to make, for one, and most of all, keeps you from plateauing. There is, moreover, little evidence that a VERY low calorie diet produces greater weight loss than a low-calorie diet (probably because the very low calorie diets are hard to stick to). As SC suggested, your numbers are also way off for the size that you "plan to be." All things to think about, I suppose.

 

[thepd7]

I had a quick chance to update a food log - so here goes (this is off the top of my head, so I hope I get it right)
Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup skim milk
Stevia
130 cals of Raisins
1 tablespoon almond butter

Lunch: Lean Cuisine 260 calorie Lunch
Fiber one with antioxidants bar 130 calories

Dinner: 1 cup Raisin Bran 190 calories 3/4 cup skim milk

Snack: 1 piece of beef jerky (130 cal according to package)
1 Fresca Steak Taco (230 calories)


With that I didn't feel hungry. . . if I ate 2700, I could eat big macs and whole pizzas and still come in under. . . that confuses me

Take your current level of income and then slash it by 60% and tell me if the transition wouldn't be rough for you. For most people, it would (as this economic crisis has shown). The same goes for calories. You cannot take a body that requires 3000+ calories to operate and all of the sudden decide you're going to operate it on a shoestring without metabolic consequences.

Your body isn't going to suddenly decide that it can make do without the extra 1400 calories. It does what the family with one person laid off does: it triages, finds ways to cut back, finds ways to scale back its needs dramatically. One way to do this is to burn up some lean mass, which has the dual effect of cutting energy requirements and providing some energy as a stop-gap. This is bad. It may also increase production of appetite-stimulating hormones to increase your intake. It also slows everything down The real test is when you plateau, which is pretty common after large weight loss but can also happen if you lose too quickly. According to set-point theory, the body resists large increases or decreases in weight around a certain weight. It is possible to "reset" at a certain weight, at which time weight loss can resume, but that usually requires both time and getting a bit more aggressive with cutting calories/increasing expenditure. This is not to say that it isn't possible to lose weight past the set point in the short term - that is entirely possible - but once the "calorie shortage" is over (i.e. when people fall off the wagon) the weight comes right back and people end up more or less at the same weight they did before - and then some.

This is why it's suggested that your calories be cut incrementally and that you revisit the estimated numbers as your weight loss begins to taper. It makes the lifestyle changes much easier to make, for one, and most of all, keeps you from plateauing. There is, moreover, little evidence that a VERY low calorie diet produces greater weight loss than a low-calorie diet (probably because the very low calorie diets are hard to stick to). As SC suggested, your numbers are also way off for the size that you "plan to be." All things to think about, I suppose.

Kipper, I tend to agree with you but as a rule of thumb I listen to my body.

If you look at my thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2082007 you'll see a similar situation. However, recently I have been hungry all the time. That being said, I'm eating more like 2400-2500 every day now (still making sure to eat healthy).

So do you think that he should be eating more if he is eating right and not hungry? What would you suggest? Adding in healthy fats like omega3 or what?

 

[Sho'Nuff]

1600 kcal is far, far, far too low an intake, particularly with physical activity. Using 72" for height and 313.5 lbs for weight and age (I'm estimating around 35 years old - if you are younger your needs would be higher) gives a rough estimate of between 3400-3600 kcal/day for maintenance assuming you maintain your activity rate. You are going to be dropping a lot of lean mass at this rate.

1600 cal/day does seem wicked low. FWIW, when I worked out with a personal trainer 3x a week last year, my nutritionist had me eating 4500 calories a day. I still lost 21 pounds and ~40 % of my body fat (22 % to 12 % ) in 4 months. There is little need to fear calories when you are exercising as much as you are. Just make sure you are not eating crap and keep up the hard work!

 

[Sho'Nuff]

With that I didn't feel hungry. . . if I ate 2700, I could eat big macs and whole pizzas and still come in under. . . that confuses me

Food composiiton is as important as the number of calories.

As I mentioned in my prior post, I was eating ~4500 calories a day when I was working out 3x a week with a trainer (5-6x a week overall). I did that by eating 7-8 meals a day, mostly protein. I'm not saying you should go that high - everyone is different. But calories per se are not the be all and end all of dieting.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Kipper, I tend to agree with you but as a rule of thumb I listen to my body.

If you look at my thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2082007 you'll see a similar situation. However, recently I have been hungry all the time. That being said, I'm eating more like 2400-2500 every day now (still making sure to eat healthy).

So do you think that he should be eating more if he is eating right and not hungry? What would you suggest? Adding in healthy fats like omega3 or what?

People who are overweight tend to have poor caloric regulation. One of the ways people get fat is by eating after they're full. However, there are individuals who don't actually get that "full" feeling. The same thing goes for hunger sensation. Some people have poor hunger sensation and can grossly overeat. The body actually prefers this situation when you go into a large caloric deficit/starvation. Your body accommodates, drops its resting metabolic rate, and decreases your hunger sensation as a result. I bet if he upped his calories slightly, he would get hungry as hell because he wouldn't be starving anymore. Even if that didn't apply to him, it's still benefit to up the calories for recovery from exercise, cognitive function, and reducing leftover skin.

 

[Kipper]

His diet is hardly what I would call "eating right," although it is a very good start. It is still high in processed and packaged foods. There isn't a single vegetable in that entire 24-hour diet recall there. To up the calorie intake I would recommend higher intake of what are generally accepted "healthy foods" - high vegetable intake, whole grains, and lean meats/fish. Even with no weight loss, he may notice an improvement in a lot of things - cardiac health, for one.

People focus too much on weight, which is tangible and easily measurable. It's a bit harder to put a tangible value on cholesterol numbers of blood pressure, since you don't "feel" them (until it's too late). You can be normal weight and in horrible shape. I know people who have been the same weight ("healthy weight") their entire lives but have cholesterol levels of 250+.

 

[dmw16]

Best of luck. I assure you it can be done. I've lost about 120lbs and kept it off for a bit over 5 years now. It's important to make sustainable changes so that it isn't a "diet and exercise plan" but rather a lifestyle change.

Keep it up!

 

[StageLeft]

Good!