Feel fat again

[rockdawg21]

1. You want to control your insulin levels - hence the high fiber/low sugar diet (however, natural sugars from most fruits and vegetables are slow-digesting).

2. Control your cravings. It's painful to shrink the stomach.

3. Drink 2 cups of water with each meal - this will help give the stomach that "full" feeling you desire.

4. I don't completely agree with Nate on the dairy. Cheese and milk contain quality protein (cheese has virtually no carbs and lactose in milk is slow-digesting). Obviously, you want to limit the saturated fats, but studies have shown the fats contained in cheese metabolize differently in the body than standard animal fats (such as those found in meat). Cheeses made from 2% are lower in saturated fats than standard cheeses and taste just as good. However, you don't want to eat too much, but a few cheese sticks won't hurt anything. Like he said, cottage cheese is an excellent protein, it's very slow-digesting, and it's great to eat before you sleep so that you can have a slow release of aminos in the body while you're sleeping; add a little healthy fat to that meal and the cottage cheese will digest even more slowly.

5. Eat plenty of healthy fats from those found in flaxseed, fish, avacado, and nuts. These fats will help slow digestion of food consumed, lower bad cholesterol, increase blood viscosity, increase joint lubrication, increase oxygen & nitrogen levels, etc. Ideally, 1g of fat for every 2 pounds of lean body mass (total body weight - body fat).

6. Eat every 3 hours, but in small, generous portions. At the very LEAST, eat some protein, say 30g every 3 hours, so that your body will reserve its' valuable muscle mass. The more muscle mass your body has, the more calories it will burn at rest throughout the day. Ideally, at least 1g of protein for every pound of lean body mass. Also, after 3 hours without some food, cortisol levels rise in the body, this will cause you to actually store more fat and burn muscle for energy. Definitely not the weight you want to burn!

7. If you absolutely cannot stand a day without a soda or other unhealthy sugar, the best time is first thing in the morning or anytime after training. Glycogen is a sugar that provides muscles with energy. In the morning and after training, your glycogen stores are depleted, so any unhealthy sugar that you consume will simply be converted into glycogen by the body and stored in your muscles for later use.

8. Eat lean proteins. A little saturated fat is going to be fine because the only thing converted into testosterone by the body is saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. So if you have 15g of sat fat in a day, it will most likely be converted into testosterone rather than plaque in your arteries or body fat.

9. As for cardio. I've always treated it like weight lifting...compound progression, meaning each time you do it, it should be more challenging. I.E. increased resistance, increased duration, increased heart rate goal, increased max heart rate goal, etc. This will ensure that your body isn't becoming accustomed to the same training and help avoid a training plateau.

10. I always allow myself 1 cheat meal each week. If I've behaved myself and didn't snack once, I'll go eat the most unhealthy food I can think of and LOTS of it. This gives you something to look forward to and it also will help the body by changing it from its' normal eating pattern (small meals every 3 hours).

Be strong Dave!

Originally Posted by NateR

Speaking of free advice, I've had a breakthrough in losing weight in the last few weeks, thanks to Matt. I've lost over 20 pounds and am actually down below 240 pounds for the first time in 2 years. Matt's been giving me a lot of advice on what to cut out of my diet and I've learned one key factor: portion control.

Whatever you normally eat for one meal, cut it in half. For instance, if I would normally make two ham sandwiches for lunch, then I will only eat one. If I get hungry again in 2 or 3 hours, then I will eat an apple or an orange.

I never realized just how much I used to eat in one meal before, especially when I was in the Army. Back then I would eat an entire can of chili beans, 2-3 hot dogs with buns and one slice of cheese on each one (there was cheese also added to the chili), 1 or 2 cans of soda and then a bag of chips and usually a desert of some kind, all for just one meal. I don't even eat that much food in one day now.

The key is to shrink your stomach down, so you always want to leave the table a little hungry. When you ball up your fists and put them together, that's how much food your stomach can hold. If you are putting more than that amount of food in your stomach in one sitting, then you are overeating.

As for foods, get rid of the "whites." No white sugar, white bread, white rice, white potatoes, or white pasta. The key one to cut out of your diet is the sugar. If you are going to have sugar in your diet, then you want it to come from fruit, honey or another natural source. So, candy, soda, snack cakes, etc. are out of the question. This is difficult, trust me I know. I'm a big fan of soda and I've gotten myself to avoid it for the most part. However, if I do feel the urge to drink a soda, then I never drink more than one 20 ounce bottle in a day and I NEVER drink diet soda. It's better to just drink the sugar loaded soda, fulfill your craving and move on. You'll find yourself drinking less and less soda if you avoid the diets. Those artificial sweeteners will probably kill you faster than the sugar.

Same with candy, if I get a real serious sweet tooth, then I will usually just walk down to the store and buy a small bag of M&Ms. Usually by the time I finish that bag, the craving is gone. And I actually haven't had a serious sugar craving in the last week and a half.

No white bread, only eat whole wheat bread. Same with rice and pasta, you only want the whole grain kinds. For potatoes, just cut them out of your diet completely, except for sweet potatoes, which are actually very good for you.

Another big thing to cut down in your diet is dairy products. You can still drink skim milk, but try to minimize stuff like cheeses, creams, ice cream, etc. Cottage cheese, however, is a really good source of protein and there are lowfat versions of that. This is a tough one for me, because I love cheese; but I'm working on cutting down on the amount of cheese I have in my diet, so I might only use one slice instead of two in a sandwich.

The goal is to have a high-protein, low-carb diet (NOT a carb free diet). And water, you can't drink too much water. Ideally you should be drinking one gallon of water per day.

The other critical element is to NOT starve yourself. In other words, don't skip meals. If your body thinks it is starving to death, then it's going to start storing more fat and burning off muscle. In fact, you want to be eating 5 or 6 small meals per day, not 3 large meals. Again, it's easy enough to split a large meal up into 2 or 3 small meals that you eat throughout the day.

When you first get up in the morning, you need to eat something (whether you feel hungry or not), because you need to condition your body to expect food first thing in the morning (preferably something healthy like eggs, whole wheat toast, or oatmeal). Also exercising is key first thing in the morning as well, because it kicks starts your metabolism and you will burn fat for the rest of the day.

Obviously exercise is critical, but good news, Dave, walking is better than running if you are trying to lose fat.

Nate, this is pretty much the bible on weight loss. Portion control is definitely a great idea.

Dave, if you do get a sweet craving such as ice cream, I just bought some sherbert at the store. It's 'like' ice cream without all the fat Just an idea

Does anyone drink Acai juice? Girls at work rave about this, but I just don't know they pay like $70 a bottle?

[Bonnie]

If you have to have potatoes, like Nate said, sweet potatoes are very good for you (w/o all the butter) and also red potatoes, they don't have the starch like the white potatoes.

The gastro doc told me a few things to do. For instance, if you have bread (multi-grain/wheat), rice (brown) or potato (sweet or red) one day, skip those the next day. Dark fruits (blueberries, plums, grapes) are really good for you--anti-oxidants. Try to stay away from hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated products like vegetable oil, regular peanut butter, margerines, etc... Canola, Olive and Peanut oils are the good oils (in moderation).

Sometimes, I'll crave a Dr. Pepper (I've never cared for the diet drinks), so I'll get those little 8 oz. cans and even then don't drink the whole thing. I'll take a few sips to satisfy my craving. Oh, I don't know if anybody here uses it, but the gastro doc also said to use Stevia instead of Splenda, Equal or Sweet-n-Low. Look for it in the health/vitamin section at the grocery or near the pharmacy where they sell the diabetic sugars or ask someone where they stock it.

Dave, do you even cook or have a kitchen?

you are receiving a lot of very good advice Dave but some of it is a tad complicated,

i'm going to cut to the chase here,

its really about calorie intake compared to calories burned that really matter,
you really need to keep track of the calories you ingest every day and also keep track of calories burned,
this is very easy to do if you have access to a computer,(do you have a computer Dave?)there are plenty sites that list the nutritional value of all types of different foods along with the calories,

but here it is,about as simple as it gets,

you have to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat,
i'm not sure how much you weigh or how old you are for sure but lets say
you are 230 pounds and your 27 and your height is 5 foot nine,

well just off the top of my head i would say it would take approx 2000 calories a day to maintain that weight if you had no exercise at all,

now if your goal was to drop to say 180 then you would need approx 1500 calories a day to sustain that weight when you reached your goal,of course that doesn't take into consideration any exercise that you are getting everyday,

so Dave here is the simple part,just look up on line how many calories you need every day to maintain your TARGET weight while at rest and try to cut back to that,
then start to throw in some exercise in moderation to begin with and slowly
work your way up,
walking is a great way to start,but if you find your joints hurt to much at the beginning then swimming would be a better choice,

so you see Dave if the difference between maintaining your target weight and maintaining your current weight is lets say 700 calories a day and you burn another 800 calories a day through exercise as long as you dont consume more then the calories you need to maintain your target weight then you will end up burning about a half a pound of fat a day,
of course you do realize i hope that as you become lighter you will need to increase your daily exercise to sustain that rate of weight loss,
thats why people say its easy losing the first few pounds but the more weight you lose the harder it is to lose more weight,
thats because they really dont understand the daily calorie intake they need to sustain their current body weight,
your a smart guy though and i'm sure you get it,

now when it comes to the foods you choose to eat,remember when you reach
your target weight you wont be able to go back to the way things were before,thats why diets dont work,people change the things they eat to lose weight and when they reach their goal they revert back to their old habits,

so my advice to you Dave would be,dont cut out the things you really like to eat all together,(unless your really mad at yourself for some reason)eat them in moderation,
Nate said in his post to try and avoid dairy products and only drink skim milk,
well i tried drinking skimmed milk and i almost choked to death,
so i went back to my whole milk,

the point i'm trying to make is you can eat anything you want,just control your calorie intake,

and as far as eating 5 or 6 smaller meals a day,well if you want to try that go ahead but the amount of calories that you will be taking in on a daily basis at the beginning would make that hard to do unless your exercise regimen had you burning a couple thousand calories a day,

the most important thing you can do if your serious about losing weight is,

EAT BREAKFAST EVERY DAY,and if you can, make that breakfast oat meal,

and dont wait an hour or two before you eat in the morning,
eat as soon as you get out of bed,

i know this is a little long winded Dave but this is how i lost over 40 pounds in 4 months,
i ate pretty much what i wanted and all i had to do was count my intake of calories and count the calories my body was burning and then do some simple math and make adjustments as i went along,

a couple of other things,try not to weigh yourself more then once a week,
and only weigh yourself in the morning after your done in the washroom and before you eat breakfast,you might get other opinions on this but this is what worked best for me.

i really hope this helps you out Dave,

Originally Posted by Melissa Villaseñor

Does anyone drink Acai juice? Girls at work rave about this, but I just don't know they pay like $70 a bottle?

They're getting ripped off. There's no "miracle" drink or pill to help lose weight. It takes disciplined diet and exercise. Nothing else works. You need to burn more calories than you consume consistently until you reach your desired weight. Then, you need to burn the same amount of calories you consume to maintain that weight.

There are some "tricks" to help your body burn more calories but it's more like eating more small meals instead of a couple large meals. Eating something light in the morning to get the metabolism going, etc. The simple fact is, you need to eat better and exercise more if you want to lose weight.

[Tyburn]

this has been such a Huge response

Here is what I've eaten so far

7am 30mg Sertraline Hydrochloride
Half glass of apple juice from concentrate (sorry it was on special offer so I bought it )
Mars bite size (See I was going to have a plum...but they were all mouldy and I needed to eat something to help with the SH absorbtion...it was only two mouthfulls thats the smallest thing they had in the vending machine at work)
Machine Hot Chocolate, no sugar, with soya

10am
Machine Hot Chocolate, no sugar, with soya
two hard boiled egg
one small bowl of measured porridge (they come in sachets) and semi-skimmed milk
One bowl of fruit salad, components include Gala and Golden Delicious Apples, Oranges, peaches, pineapple and Kiwi.

1pm
Glass of apple juice from concentrate
four breaded chicken slice oven baked, no fat
one whole head of Broccoli Steamed

[Tyburn]

Originally Posted by NateR

Speaking of free advice, I've had a breakthrough in losing weight in the last few weeks, thanks to Matt. I've lost over 20 pounds and am actually down below 240 pounds for the first time in 2 years. Matt's been giving me a lot of advice on what to cut out of my diet and I've learned one key factor: portion control.

Whatever you normally eat for one meal, cut it in half. For instance, if I would normally make two ham sandwiches for lunch, then I will only eat one. If I get hungry again in 2 or 3 hours, then I will eat an apple or an orange.

I never realized just how much I used to eat in one meal before, especially when I was in the Army. Back then I would eat an entire can of chili beans, 2-3 hot dogs with buns and one slice of cheese on each one (there was cheese also added to the chili), 1 or 2 cans of soda and then a bag of chips and usually a desert of some kind, all for just one meal. I don't even eat that much food in one day now.

The key is to shrink your stomach down, so you always want to leave the table a little hungry. When you ball up your fists and put them together, that's how much food your stomach can hold. If you are putting more than that amount of food in your stomach in one sitting, then you are overeating.

As for foods, get rid of the "whites." No white sugar, white bread, white rice, white potatoes, or white pasta. The key one to cut out of your diet is the sugar. If you are going to have sugar in your diet, then you want it to come from fruit, honey or another natural source. So, candy, soda, snack cakes, etc. are out of the question. This is difficult, trust me I know. I'm a big fan of soda and I've gotten myself to avoid it for the most part. However, if I do feel the urge to drink a soda, then I never drink more than one 20 ounce bottle in a day and I NEVER drink diet soda. It's better to just drink the sugar loaded soda, fulfill your craving and move on. You'll find yourself drinking less and less soda if you avoid the diets. Those artificial sweeteners will probably kill you faster than the sugar.

Same with candy, if I get a real serious sweet tooth, then I will usually just walk down to the store and buy a small bag of M&Ms. Usually by the time I finish that bag, the craving is gone. And I actually haven't had a serious sugar craving in the last week and a half.

No white bread, only eat whole wheat bread. Same with rice and pasta, you only want the whole grain kinds. For potatoes, just cut them out of your diet completely, except for sweet potatoes, which are actually very good for you.

Another big thing to cut down in your diet is dairy products. You can still drink skim milk, but try to minimize stuff like cheeses, creams, ice cream, etc. Cottage cheese, however, is a really good source of protein and there are lowfat versions of that. This is a tough one for me, because I love cheese; but I'm working on cutting down on the amount of cheese I have in my diet, so I might only use one slice instead of two in a sandwich.

The goal is to have a high-protein, low-carb diet (NOT a carb free diet). And water, you can't drink too much water. Ideally you should be drinking one gallon of water per day.

The other critical element is to NOT starve yourself. In other words, don't skip meals. If your body thinks it is starving to death, then it's going to start storing more fat and burning off muscle. In fact, you want to be eating 5 or 6 small meals per day, not 3 large meals. Again, it's easy enough to split a large meal up into 2 or 3 small meals that you eat throughout the day.

When you first get up in the morning, you need to eat something (whether you feel hungry or not), because you need to condition your body to expect food first thing in the morning (preferably something healthy like eggs, whole wheat toast, or oatmeal). Also exercising is key first thing in the morning as well, because it kicks starts your metabolism and you will burn fat for the rest of the day.

Obviously exercise is critical, but good news, Dave, walking is better than running if you are trying to lose fat.

Yes...portion size is probably the big problem with me

and I'm cutting out bread and moving back to crackers...I've still got my warm drinks at work, my crackers, and my porridge, so its not like I'm cutting all Carbs...just the ones I shouldnt be having in the first place...I get addicted to Bread

like...loaves...and loaves...and loaves....Its best just not to have it.

I always have to eat something in the morning to make sure my body actually absorbes the pills I'm on...if it doesnt I can feel it slowly degrade in digestion and its very unpleasent.

Excersise in the morning is gonna be difficult...because of work. I do however walk to work...and I'm always on my feet at work.

[Tyburn]

Originally Posted by rockdawg21

1. You want to control your insulin levels - hence the high fiber/low sugar diet (however, natural sugars from most fruits and vegetables are slow-digesting).

2. Control your cravings. It's painful to shrink the stomach.

3. Drink 2 cups of water with each meal - this will help give the stomach that "full" feeling you desire.

4. I don't completely agree with Nate on the dairy. Cheese and milk contain quality protein (cheese has virtually no carbs and lactose in milk is slow-digesting). Obviously, you want to limit the saturated fats, but studies have shown the fats contained in cheese metabolize differently in the body than standard animal fats (such as those found in meat). Cheeses made from 2% are lower in saturated fats than standard cheeses and taste just as good. However, you don't want to eat too much, but a few cheese sticks won't hurt anything. Like he said, cottage cheese is an excellent protein, it's very slow-digesting, and it's great to eat before you sleep so that you can have a slow release of aminos in the body while you're sleeping; add a little healthy fat to that meal and the cottage cheese will digest even more slowly.

5. Eat plenty of healthy fats from those found in flaxseed, fish, avacado, and nuts. These fats will help slow digestion of food consumed, lower bad cholesterol, increase blood viscosity, increase joint lubrication, increase oxygen & nitrogen levels, etc. Ideally, 1g of fat for every 2 pounds of lean body mass (total body weight - body fat).

6. Eat every 3 hours, but in small, generous portions. At the very LEAST, eat some protein, say 30g every 3 hours, so that your body will reserve its' valuable muscle mass. The more muscle mass your body has, the more calories it will burn at rest throughout the day. Ideally, at least 1g of protein for every pound of lean body mass. Also, after 3 hours without some food, cortisol levels rise in the body, this will cause you to actually store more fat and burn muscle for energy. Definitely not the weight you want to burn!

7. If you absolutely cannot stand a day without a soda or other unhealthy sugar, the best time is first thing in the morning or anytime after training. Glycogen is a sugar that provides muscles with energy. In the morning and after training, your glycogen stores are depleted, so any unhealthy sugar that you consume will simply be converted into glycogen by the body and stored in your muscles for later use.

8. Eat lean proteins. A little saturated fat is going to be fine because the only thing converted into testosterone by the body is saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. So if you have 15g of sat fat in a day, it will most likely be converted into testosterone rather than plaque in your arteries or body fat.

9. As for cardio. I've always treated it like weight lifting...compound progression, meaning each time you do it, it should be more challenging. I.E. increased resistance, increased duration, increased heart rate goal, increased max heart rate goal, etc. This will ensure that your body isn't becoming accustomed to the same training and help avoid a training plateau.

10. I always allow myself 1 cheat meal each week. If I've behaved myself and didn't snack once, I'll go eat the most unhealthy food I can think of and LOTS of it. This gives you something to look forward to and it also will help the body by changing it from its' normal eating pattern (small meals every 3 hours).

Be strong Dave!

3) I dont like water on its own, it tastes horrible, and I havent the money to buy bottled. I could have squash though...but two glasses and I'd probably be...well..needing the toilet a lot

4) I love cottage cheese

5) Sorry but I am avoiding Nuts since I dont know which I'm allergic to. Fish is unfortunately expensive...I cvould probably try the tinned stuff, or fresh, but only once a week. I havent got the money to do more then that

6) Our breaks at work are about once every four hours. When I'm at home, thats alright though. I cant eat at work because Im working with food, hygiene yousee

7) good to know

[Tyburn]

Originally Posted by mikthehick

Nate, this is pretty much the bible on weight loss. Portion control is definitely a great idea.

Dave, if you do get a sweet craving such as ice cream, I just bought some sherbert at the store. It's 'like' ice cream without all the fat Just an idea

Not...I get a craving occasionally for Salt...Crisps...but I know its the salt I'm after.

But mostly, Its a constant craving for bread...

I dont really do sweets and chocolate much