eating to lose weight

[chriz]

If you're like me, you could stand to lose a few here and there. Yeah, I know, many of you youngun's have metabolisms so fast you couldn't gain weight if you ate nothing but ice cream all day. I was there, too...

Losing weight isn't easy. We evolved to pack on fat as a defense against droughts and long winters. Some of us also have very efficient systems that make it seem like we only need a handful of calories a day to survive. This will no doubt come as a comfort if civilization collapses, but in the meantime, our 1st-world abundance is making us all look like John Goodman or Sally Struthers.

But losing weight isn't impossible. Despite all the noise and fluff surrounding it, it's a pretty simple concept. Burn more calories than you consume. Create a calorie deficit, and you'll lose weight. It's that simple. Everything else is details.

Determining how many calories you consume is the easy part. Almost everything you eat (and pretty much everything you buy at the supermarket) is labeled. If you get yourself into the habit of checking the number of calories per serving, you're halfway there. The only real discipline here comes in keeping track of how many servings you consume. For example, a 16oz bottle of Coke is 2 servings (I think, might be 2.5). But the nutrition label will tell you the number of calories per serving (somewhere around 100). If you drink the entire bottle, you might -- if you're not really paying attention -- think you consumed 100 calories instead of 200 or 250. A 100% to 150% margin of error is huge, and can lead to confusion, since you're "sure" you don't eat that much, when in fact you do.

So learning the labels is the first step. It's not hard to do, it's all spelled out for you. If you prepare your own food, you may have to do some measuring (as serving sizes are often given as cups or grams or whatever), but you'll get the hang of that soon enough.

What about eating out? That's a tricky one. Some restaurants publish their nutrition info, either at the establishment or online. I can only recommend you do some research and find what nutrition info you can (and then round up, just to be safe). I try not to eat out at all during the week, which creates enough of a calorie deficit buffer so I can not stress about eating out on the weekends. But if you don't know the calories of what you're eating, you could be easily eating much more than you might realize. I was shocked to discover a white chocolate mocha (grande/medium) from Starbucks was over 400 calories.

Next post, calorie targets...

[chriz]

So you're keeping track of the calories you consume, but what's a reasonable number? The US government says 2,000, but the truth is, it depends on your age, sex, height, current weight, and activity level.

A 6' 200lb young-adult (pre-middle-aged) male with minimal activity will burn about 2,400 calories a day. So if he wants to maintain his weight of 200lbs, he must consume 2,400 calories a day (on average). Adding activity can increase this value. Walking about 3mph for 30 minutes will burn 150-200 calories.

A 6' 275lb young-adult male with minimal activity will burn about 3,000 calories a day. This means he'll need to eat 25% more than the 200lb guy to maintain his weight.

Now, these numbers are fuzzy. Everyone's metabolism is different, and women generally need fewer calories a day than men. Also, age seems to function like a bell curve. Younger and older people need more calories, while people between 25 and 55 seem to need fewer. Although that could also be a combination of lifestyle and overall health.

If you want to calculate your calorie needs, do a google search for "calorie calculator" or some equivalent. You'll find a number of them and they'll probably give you a range of results for the same parameters. I think this is because there is a number of variables a web-based calculator can't consider, so the calculator author makes some assumptions. I suggest using a number of them and averaging the results, as this might wash out some of the assumptions (even if it still results in a fuzzy number). It should serve as a baseline, though. If you want more precise info, you'll probably have to talk to your doctor.

So, now you know (roughly) how many calories you burn and you know how many calories you're consuming. You can tweak consumption to be less than your burn rate, and the weight should fall right off. Right?

Well, maybe. A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. This means that to lose a pound of weight (you should only really be concerned with dropping fat), you'll need to burn 3,500 calories. Since most of us don't burn that many in a single day, this places a limit on how fast you can lose weight.

If you consume 100 fewer calories in a day than you burn, it's going to take you over a month to lose just one pound. That's hardly an inspiring rate of loss. If you consume 500 fewer calories a day than you burn, that's 3,500 in 7 days, or 1 pound a week. That's a bit better, because you'll see something happen every weekend. If you can manage a daily 1,000-calorie deficit, you'll see 2lbs lost per week. That about the most you should go, though. Most nutritionists say 2lbs a week is the fastest safe speed to lose weight. It also would require you to eat no more than about 1,200 calories a day, which is about the smallest amount you need to maintain proper nutrition (depending on your height and overall build -- smaller people can get away with less).

So how do you optimize for safe, fast weight loss? Try to create a daily calorie deficit of 500-1,000 calories. If you burn 2,400 calories a day, try to consume no more than 1,900 and maybe as low as 1,400. Keep in mind that you'll need to recalculate this daily target downward as you lose weight, as your daily burn rate will drop as your weight drop. Yes, fatter people burn more calories. However, don't let your low end drop below 1,200. Once you reach your target weight, shift your calorie consumption to just slightly below maintenance (to give yourself room to eat out and stuff).

Another approach is to find the maintenance consumption rate of your target weight, and just eat that much. You'll lose weight rapidly in the beginning, and then the rate of loss will slow until you reach your target. The benefit here is that you don't need to routinely re-adjust downward (which can be discouraging over time). The downside is that it will seem like your weight-loss will grind to a stop before you reach your target. It won't, but it will seem that way. This is the approach I'm using, btw.

Next post, picking the right foods...

[chriz]

Despite what the Atkins guys and all the rest say, calories are calories. Five hundred calories of sugar will contribute to you being fat as much as five hundred calories of celery. The main difference between the two is that it's easy to inadvertently consume 500 calories of sugar. Try consuming 500 calories of celery. I don't think my stomach could hold that much.

As you educate yourself about the calorie content in the foods you buy, you'll probably notice something. Sugary foods contain much more calories by weight than most other foods. Breads and processed grains are just about as bad. I was surprised to learn that about half the calories in a typical cold cut sandwich was in the bread, not the meat.

So as you revamp your eating habits to constrain the number of calories you eat, you'll probably be forced simply by the math to cut out a lot of sugar and processed carbohydrates. This, incidentally, is the entire "secret" behind the Atkins diet. There's nothing special about processed carbs, they're just loaded with calories. Of course you'll lose weight if you reduce or eliminate them from your diet, but just because you're eating fewer calories.

Also, as an aside, you don't need bread or pasta. There is absolutely no essential nutrient in bread or pasta that you can't get elsewhere for fewer calories. Bread and pasta were invented, specifically because they're calorie-rich. We in western civilization haven't always had such abundance. We needed to develop calorie-rich foods to compensate for the lack of ready calories in other stuff. Beer was invented for pretty much the same reason.

So what do you eat? You need to find food that is relatively low in calories by weight. Most veggies and fruit cover that nicely, but if we were predisposed to eating all veggies and fruit, we wouldn't be that overweight in the first place.

Surprisingly, eggs and cheese are also good choices. Eggs aren't particularly high in calories (about 70 per egg, which is the same as an apple). Cheese can still have a lot of calories by weight (about 100 per ounce, depending on the cheese), but fat -- the kind of fat you eat, not the kind you're trying to lose -- is a funny thing. For most of us, a little bit of fat goes a long way toward settling our appetite. If you have a cholesterol problem, you should probably avoid cheese, but eggs are balanced for the "good" and "bad" cholesterols. Unless your doctor says otherwise, you can eat them all day long.

When you eat sugary stuff, bread, or pasta, your body can break that down very quickly. This tends to flood your bloodstream with glucose, which is energy. This is a quick satisfaction for hunger, and is probably one of the reasons so many of us grab candy bars when we're hungry. But this is a case of too much of a good thing. That glucose revs us up, but unless we suddenly get very active, it's more energy than we can handle so quickly. The body responds by pumping insulin out into the bloodstream, which ultimately results in the excess glucose being stored -- as fat. Then we go into a "food coma" because we have so much excess insulin floating around in our blood. We feel lethargic and, well, hungry again. So we grab another high-calorie sugary snack to offset the insulin.

Thirty years of this kind of behavior not only leads to obesity, it can lead to diabetes.

So one of the first things to do is to break the sugar habit. If you like (and can handle) cheese, you'll do yourself a huge favor by reaching for an ounce of cheddar or gouda than a piece of chocolate. The cheese actually has slightly fewer calories, and is much slower to break down in your system, which will avoid that insulin surge. Since you don't get an overflow of insulin, you don't get that craving for more sugar, and you've basically gotten off that particular carnival ride.

A lot of this will come naturally to you once you start paying attention to the calories you consume. You simply won't be able to eat sugar or much bread or pasta if you want to maintain your daily target. It's just good to know what's happening inside you, in case you do ever find yourself falling into one of those "food comas" because you pounded down some sugar. The solution -- even if it breaks your calorie limit for the day -- is to eat a small amount of something fatty.

Finally, if you do manage to keep your daily calorie deficit going day after day, don't stress over breaking it once in a while. Weekends, holidays, they're all there for a reason. It's not really about what you do each and every day, it's about your overall habits and lifestyle. Don't forget to live a little.

[DarkWolf]

Thing is I don't eat much sugar-ful things. I just am too lazy to work off what I do eat.

I think the above is too much for too little. So you get that perfect weight - and extend your life by what, a year? I'm overweight but I'm actually in very good health. I don't see what the fuss is. Eat what you're comfortable eating and live how you feel comfortable living. The end result of death is going to be the same either way.

[chriz]

No one's telling you to lose weight. I posted this for people who are already interested in losing weight.

FWIW, my weight was pushing my blood pressure up enough that I was going to lose decades off my life.

[NeonLightChild]

But losing weight isn't impossible. Despite all the noise and fluff surrounding it, it's a pretty simple concept. Burn more calories than you consume. Create a calorie deficit, and you'll lose weight. It's that simple. Everything else is details.
But the devil's in the details. I'll admit, I didn't RTFA (aka everything you wrote, Chriz) but the concept of calories in/calories out, while the right idea, is only the start.

I've been following the "plan" (if you will) outlined in Dr Strand's Healthy For Life (http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Life-Developing-Lifestyles-Side-Effect/dp/097473084X/sr=1-1/qid=1161197682/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0771312-9033619?ie=UTF8&s=books) book. Calories aren't just calories...you also have to factor in where they're coming from. I can eat ice cream all day...calories in...exercise it off...calories out...and still be deficient. That's a pretty extreme example, but somewhere in the US, I'll bet it's out there.

The book focuses on the glycemic index, which can be a controversial topic because not many people know about it. Foods high on the glycemic index give you an immediate blood-sugar spike, making you feel full, but the fullness doesn't last because you're producing a shit-ton of insulin and when all the sugar from the food is gone...you've got all this insulin floating around...your blood-sugar takes a plunge and you're ready to eat a whole cow. Foods lower on the glycemic index are things that your parents told you to eat as a child...fruits and veggies, beans, and most importantly, whole wheat carbohydrates. I'll admit I don't know the whole science behind how whole wheat digests better.

The food companies are literally killing us with overprocessed foods, high-fructose corn syrup, and (partially) hydrogenated oils. While going completely vegetarian isn't the answer, it just takes more time and effort to find foods that you can eat that are good for you, and still make you feel full hours later.

I'd elaborate on this, but I've gotta be somewhere. Just wanted to mention as well that I've been following this advice for a few months and have dropped from 168 or so down to the high 140s, and I'm continuing to drop. In 18 months of eating processed foods (mostly my fault beacuse they were cheap and tasted good), I went up 3-4 clothing sizes. (I'm just starting to be able to fit into clothes from two years ago.) And when people ask me what my secret is, it's simply diet, portion control, and exercise...with the devil in the details. And literally, the extra weight has melted off.

I'll try to take more time and RTFA a little later, Chriz...I'm sure I can always learn new things :)

[chriz]

The book focuses on the glycemic index, which can be a controversial topic because not many people know about it. Foods high on the glycemic index give you an immediate blood-sugar spike, making you feel full, but the fullness doesn't last because you're producing a shit-ton of insulin and when all the sugar from the food is gone...you've got all this insulin floating around...your blood-sugar takes a plunge and you're ready to eat a whole cow. Foods lower on the glycemic index are things that your parents told you to eat as a child...fruits and veggies, beans, and most importantly, whole wheat carbohydrates. I'll admit I don't know the whole science behind how whole wheat digests better.

I mention this in my third post. Maybe it was a bit much to post all at once. ;)

I'd elaborate on this, but I've gotta be somewhere. Just wanted to mention as well that I've been following this advice for a few months and have dropped from 168 or so down to the high 140s, and I'm continuing to drop. In 18 months of eating processed foods (mostly my fault beacuse they were cheap and tasted good), I went up 3-4 clothing sizes. (I'm just starting to be able to fit into clothes from two years ago.) And when people ask me what my secret is, it's simply diet, portion control, and exercise...with the devil in the details. And literally, the extra weight has melted off.

Excellent! I'm down from 275 to 260 in about six weeks.

[DarkWolf]

I know, I'm just saying (it is a discussion forum! :P). Some people strive to lose weight so much that they end up making themselves full of stress and less able to enjoy life. I pity them. If you are losing weight for your health that's different - it's you attempting to provide a better life for yourself - but very few people do it for such a reason.

[chriz]

I know, I'm just saying (it is a discussion forum! :P). Some people strive to lose weight so much that they end up making themselves full of stress and less able to enjoy life. I pity them. If you are losing weight for your health that's different - it's you attempting to provide a better life for yourself - but very few people do it for such a reason.

Keep in mind, you're 21. It's hard to do systemic damage to your body by being overweight when you're 21.

If you stay overweight for the next 10-15 years, that'll change. You can cause damage to your knees, so that you spend the last 10-20 years of your life hobbling around. You can give yourself type 2 diabetes, which can result in you needing to give yourself insulin shots every day for the rest of your life and possibly go blind. You can overstress your heart, which leads to a much greater likelihood of heart failure at a much earlier age than you would have otherwise. You can get your blood pressure so high you start shredding your kidneys, like I was at risk of doing.

If you want to be overweight, that's fine. I'm the last person to tell someone else how to live. But it's also a fallacy that being overweight only cuts a single year off your life. It can also seriously degrade the last two or three decades of your life, which is far more stressful than learning about calorie counts.

[LV426]

Seriously DW if you can get the weight off early, you should.
I didn't, I kept thinking I would change things later and that I was in fine health and wasn't going to need to exercise like a demon but I am regretting it now. I'm struggling to lose weight because I am living with constant pain. Everyday that I get out of bed and my feet hit the floor I have severe pain that doesn't end until I get home and go to sleep and even then I have to take pain killers to dull the pain so that I can get to sleep. Note I said dull the pain, because I can't get rid of it. I've damaged my knees, ankles, feet, and hips because of my weight. The joints are grinding bone on bone, and I have torn the muscles in the bottom of my feet and they re-tear every day when I stand up on them. Unfortunately I can't fix this any other way than by losing ALOT of weight and even then some of it is irreparable damage. So I'm down to a 1200 calorie diet, I drink my meals 6 days of the week and on the 7th day I get solid foods. I exercise when I can but with the pain that I have it's difficult. I still have to walk to the bus to get to and from work so that is some exercise but after being on my feet all day I usually hurt too bad to get in any decent exercise. I'm miserable, I'm always wanting to gnaw my own arm off, but it's something I have to do because if I don't get the weight off within the next two years I'm going to be crippled and unable to walk. I don't have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, no heart disease, and no diabetes, but the pressure on my legs has just about done me in. I don't want to be in a wheelchair in 2 years so I'm biting the bullet and doing what I should have done when I started this gaining weight thing.

[NeonLightChild]

I finally RTFA, Chriz. Very well written...did you do that or did you swipe it from somewhere?

I'm 22 and trying to keep my weight under control...not for vanity but for my health. When I started my drastic weight gain about June/July 2005, I noticed my body wasn't quite right: my back would start having stabbing pains because of the extra weight (and I've NEVER had back pain before), I felt incredibly sluggish and my exercise-induced asthma kicked up on things I used to be able to do without even working up a sweat.

Unfortunately, I also know what anorexics go through. When I left my workplace to go back to school, I was close to 160 (in lbs for you Metric people) by then and when I saw some of them a few weeks ago, they said I looked great, I've lost a lot of weight, yadda, yadda...it felt kind of good and only made me want to get thinner. So yeah...don't give in to the pressure.

FTW, I actually did "practice" anorexia for a few weeks my freshman year of college because I was so afraid of the typical weight gain. I didn't lose anything drastic, but people were wondering about me and I eventually started eating again. Anorexia is not cool, people...give your body WHAT IT NEEDS, no more, not what you (don't) want to give it.

[chriz]

I finally RTFA, Chriz. Very well written...did you do that or did you swipe it from somewhere?

All me. :p

[chriz]

Excellent! I'm down from 275 to 260 in about six weeks.

It's been sixteen weeks and I'm now down to 235. Christmas set me back about two weeks, but no biggie.

It can be done.

[West]

It's been sixteen weeks and I'm now down to 235.

Awesome chriz, im jealous of your motivation.

I have been going to the gym daily again though. With athletics being one of my primary interests, it helps if you look like a monster. My arms feel like they are on fire and getting out of bed hurts, so I figure it's working. I think that every gym should have a big screen that shows Rocky fighting the Russian on loop.

Anyway, keep at it chriz. :D

[Gilenea]

Well done, Chriz! It's inspiring, really. This is the same stuff that my mother has been preaching to me since I was sixteen (and coming from someone with a PhD in nagging, it gets OLD). I know it works, but it takes a LOT of will power to actually do it and continue with it.

As a side note, I'd like to add that it's not really what you eat... But the EXTRA things you consume that people forget to count that go beyond forgetting the calories in each of the servings. For example, you have a salad during lunch with low fat, low cal Ranch dressing. A very healthy alternative to a hamburger, I'd say. However, along WITH that salad, you suck down three huge glasses of sweet tea ("real" sweet tea, not that Splenda crap), and you've suddenly packed in about 700 extra calories or so. But since it's TEA, no one remembers to add that up.

I actually did that one time. Took me five pounds to realize what I was doing... -_-

Gil

[---Arawn---]

That's a pretty educative post! :D
But you have forgotten an important part of losing weight in a healthy manner: exercise. I know a lot of people say they don't have time to do so, but it is really that important. Doing exercises will make your metabolism faster, which REALLY helps you lose weight.
Walking about 20 minutes per day is enough to do so, and it also have benefits to the circulatory and respiratory system ;)

[chriz]

That's a pretty educative post! :D
But you have forgotten an important part of losing weight in a healthy manner: exercise. I know a lot of people say they don't have time to do so, but it is really that important. Doing exercises will make your metabolism faster, which REALLY helps you lose weight.
Walking about 20 minutes per day is enough to do so, and it also have benefits to the circulatory and respiratory system ;)

A 6' 200lb young-adult (pre-middle-aged) male with minimal activity will burn about 2,400 calories a day. So if he wants to maintain his weight of 200lbs, he must consume 2,400 calories a day (on average). Adding activity can increase this value. Walking about 3mph for 30 minutes will burn 150-200 calories.

;)

But something to keep in mind. If you really want to lose weight, don't really expect to do it with the exercise. Yes, you should exercise, and for two specific reasons. One, it strengthens your cardiovascular system, which will make you more resistant to any kind of cardio problems later in life. Two, it triggers your body to build muscle tissue. When you create a calorie deficit, your body has to choose whether to take the extra from your stores of fat or your muscles. If you don't exercise, this "decision" is harder to make and you might end up consuming your own muscle tissue. If you exercise regularly, even just a little, you send chemical signals to your body that you definitely need to make muscle mass, so your body then "knows" to take the excess energy from your fat stores.

But, in terms of calories, controlling your intake is much more bang for your buck. It would take about an hour of fast walking (or maybe 20 minutes of light running) to burn 200 calories. You can consume more than 250 calories in a single can of coke.

Let that sink in. Think about the amount of effort involved in running for 20 minutes versus the amount of effort involved in simply not drinking another can of coke. Then think about how you'd create a 500-calorie deficit every day. Run for 90 minutes? Or just cut back on the sugar?

[---Arawn---]

Oh, sorry then, I think I didn't see those lines :P

And you're right, controlling the intake of calories is much easier than working out. I just said that people shouldn't think "oh, I on a diet, so I don't need to exercise". But like I said, doing exercise will not only burn a certain amount of calories, it will make your metabolism faster, which will make you burn calories just for being alive. Another thing that makes your metabolism faster is eating. Yeah, it sounds weird, but the matter is that you should eat a lot of low calorie food. You lose weight more quickly when you eat a lot of salad than when you eat a chesseburger per day.
Just today I have seen in a book how to calculate how much calories you need for your basic metabolism. It's an aproximate amount, so don't take it as a guide. For a man, between 18 and 30 years, it is the following:

(15,4W + 27H + 717)*E

Where W is your weight in kg, H is your height in meters and E is an constant according to how often you exercise.
For no exercises at all it is 1.1. Low intensity exercises it is 1.55, moderate 1.78 and heavy 2.1

So, if this book is right, when you do a lot of exercises you pratically doubles the amount of calories that you need.

Anyway, if you don't have any interest in doing exercise, going on a diet is better than doing nothing at all.

(I hope everyone has understood me >.<)

[NotFirstNotLast]

No one's telling you to lose weight. I posted this for people who are already interested in losing weight.

FWIW, my weight was pushing my blood pressure up enough that I was going to lose decades off my life.
I'm glad you posted this. But I'm not the calory counting type. I'm more of the pack on wieght, and then turn it into muscle. I went from 300lb of half fat, half muscle, to 220lb of muscle, and hardly fat. I looked like the guy that plays Raze in Underworld. That's how I worked out in high school. Went from fat, to monstrous powerhouse. Then I got lazy, some typical real life issues came up, and I got fat again. So here I am, 300lbs again. About 25-30% fat, and looking for work to pay for gym equipment, or membership.. Thought not for me, it's nice to see someone post a diet that works. I know someone counting calories, and she lost quite a bit of wieght. It's pretty cool. Just not for me. :D

[NotFirstNotLast]

That's a pretty educative post! :D
But you have forgotten an important part of losing weight in a healthy manner: exercise. I know a lot of people say they don't have time to do so, but it is really that important. Doing exercises will make your metabolism faster, which REALLY helps you lose weight.
Walking about 20 minutes per day is enough to do so, and it also have benefits to the circulatory and respiratory system ;)
Yes yes! Eating right will only do so much, excercise will actually burn the fat and calories. So does anything requiring some physical movement. That's why I used to work in a lube shop. 24 cases of of oil would come in (box of 24 1L bottles), and I'd tell everyone to let me do it alone, unless there was a rush. It was nice. I got to the point I was picking up 3 cases while everyone else could only lift 1. ahhh the memories. how i miss the good ol' days.

[chriz]

Yes yes! Eating right will only do so much, excercise will actually burn the fat and calories.

It's not a universal truth. I used to lift weights and run (not just power walk) for 20 minutes every day. My weight didn't budge.

As soon as I stopped eating calorie-dense foods like bread and pasta, and kept a running record of my calorie intake so I knew what I was eating, the weight fell off so fast I had to increase my eating so that I didn't lose it too fast. Yes, I still exercise, but it amounts to walking about 3mph for 30 minutes every day. Nothing particularly intense, just enough to keep my body in "consume the fat, not the muscle" mode.

Again, you have to exercise for hours to shave off the number of calories you consume in a single can of coke. You simply can't burn more than about 200 calories in an hour of intense exercise, and how many hours can you keep that kind of thing up? Every day?

Yes, once you reach a level, your body kicks into fat-burn mode and stays there for 3-6 hours. But like I said, I was exercising pretty solidly on a daily basis, and I did it for months, and that mode never activated for me. If it works for you, that's great. But this thread is about how to eat right in order to lose weight.

All I can say is, I'm down over 40lbs in four months, just from readjusting my calorie intake. But I still eat plenty, and I don't go hungry. It's just knowing where the extra calories lurk.

[West]

Do you know about diet soda, chriz? I stopped drinking soda a few weeks ago, but I have been wondering if diet soda is okay to consume and still expect results from my other efforts.

[chriz]

Do you know about diet soda, chriz? I stopped drinking soda a few weeks ago, but I have been wondering if diet soda is okay to consume and still expect results from my other efforts.

Calorie-wise, diet soda should be fine. Just look at the nutrition label.

There's some concern about the artificial sweetners and other health risks, like cancer, but from what I understand there's no conclusive data either way.

I've given up soda entirely, except when I go out on occaison.

[West]

cancer

Delicious cancer.

[Zombie]

Its kinda like what Ive been saying for a while- eat what you want, just be sure you work it off! Now that Im out of the Army (for the time being...) Ive gained some weight, but then again, Im not as active as I was. I went in at 225 lbs on my frame (Im 6`4") and was down to 210 by the time baisic was over. During deployment, we ate MREs, and they are supposedly 3,000 calories each, so we were eating 9,000 calories a day. I actually lost even more weight, down to 180 (!) and got hurt before I got transferred off the line unit. We were very,very active, to say the least. Since I could actually eat "real" food and wasnt as active in the 120mm unit, and my workload was reduced because of my injuries, I got back up to 200, and now, just about a year and a half out, Im 220, healthy, and strong as ever. I exercise at least 5 times a week, and my weight has been constant. My diet consists of mostly meat, a little bit of vegetables, and a little junk food from time to time. Im also active enough at work and home to work off what I eat. If I wanted, I could drop down to a lower weight, but I would look like a bean pole :D . Everything is just a matter of discipline and self-controll.

-Z

[celticwomenfudah]

i walk all the time now and i started eating little meals throughout the day i went from 180 sadly 180 to 150 155 which is where i am hovering at right now. speaking of which i need to take my walk but i don't have any cigs so there is no point in going out in literall freezing weather to walk the dogs if that is all i do. yes i have to have a cig when i walk. i never said i was a complete health nut. hell i have to walk 3 miles every morning to get to work which i did this morning plus add in all the walking and moving aroud that i do at work then you would get one hell of a work out b/c i work in the fast food industury. so honestly i can let it go right now. by the way i am about 5' 3'' 155 so how would you do that science math thingy from earlier?

[Child of Gaia]

Male, 17, 250 lbs, 6'0" avid Football Lineman, History of Diabetes in family, eats somewhere in the range of 2000-2500 calories a day, should be healthy right? no. I need to lose weight at a safe rate, deflecting 500 calories per day will give me 1.75 lbs a week, in a safe range, though 1 lbs is prefered. Now even though I deflect the 500 cals, been doing it for the las 8 weeks, I haven't moved an inch, 500 calories shouldn't trigger my body's starvation mode either... any ideas?

also, I stopped drinking soda's and caffinated beverages about 10 weeks ago, I eat a healthy, 2 eggs, breakfast and workout regularly. usually for about 1-1.5 hours

[chriz]

First off, are you actually tracking each and every calorie you consume? I gave up for two weeks, figuring I had gotten myself into good eating habits. I stagnated. The week I began recording calories again I dropped almost two pounds. They're insidious.

Secondly, everyone's different. The average 6' 250lb male teenager needs 2500-3000 calories a day to maintain weight. If you're really eating only about 2000 and you're not losing weight, then you're outside the average. You probably have a very efficient system, so you have to be stricter (sucks, that's genetic dice for you). Considering you have a family history of diabetes, this makes sense to me. I bet you come from a family of efficient metabolisms, which means you tend to overeat as you get older.

At 17, I wouldn't worry about it so much as long as you're getting plenty of exercise. If you're working out a lot and playing football, and you've built up quite a bit of muscle, 250lbs isn't so bad. What's your waist size? If you're over 36", then maybe you're not so muscular, and you should look into shedding some fat. If you're 36" or under, then my opinion is, you're fine for now.

Watch out when you hit 20/21. Peoples' metabolisms tend to slow down around then. Also, desk jobs start to appear so activity drops as well. If you're 250lbs of muscle and then graduate college and start a non-labor job, you'll probably suddenly find yourself pushing 300lbs (of fat) very quickly. So between now and then is when you'll need to start paying attention to your food intake.

But the bottom line is, if you're eating the average recommended amount of calories per day and still staying overweight (and you're being diligent about counting those calories, so you're not fooling yourself), then you simply have to either eat less or exercise more. The average doesn't apply to everyone; we're all outside it to some degree.

[Zombie]

Dont trigger your body`s "starvation mode". Why? Because your body will eat your muscle first, not fat. My dad was an avid bodybuilder for over 60 years, and he picked up some things on nutrition, and so did I. But- keep in mind- I am NOT a nutritionist. This is NOT a substitute for liscened medical advice. These are only my opinions and should not be substituted for medical advise.

-

[chriz]

by the way i am about 5' 3'' 155 so how would you do that science math thingy from earlier?

According to one calculator I found (you can look yourself, just google for "calorie calculator"), a 20-year-old woman at 5'3" needs to eat about 1800 calories a day to maintain 155 lbs.

However, your ideal healthy weight is more like 125lbs (give or take 5lbs or so). So you want to lose 30lbs. If you consume 1400 calories a day for 5 days a week (and have 1800 each day on Saturday and Sunday), you'll create a 2000-calorie deficit each week. This means you'll lose those 30lbs in about a year. Not super-fast, but it means you'll be 130 for Christmas. :p

You shouldn't eat fewer than 1200 calories a day for long-term eating (meaning, you can have a less-than-1200 calorie day here and there, but don't make a habit of it). This means you can't shed more than 600 calories a day through dieting, which will lose you those 30lbs in about 6 months. If you can exercise every day and burn 400 more calories, then you'll be safely losing 1000 calories each day (but maintaining at least 1200 calories of food intake), and you'll lose 30lbs in about 3-4 months -- in time for summer.

However, maintaining a 1200-calorie daily diet and exercising enough to burn 400 calories a day is not a moderate lifestyle. I couldn't do it. It's likely to be discouraging, which means you're likely to give up. I recommend going with the slower, longer process and just looking forward to being thinner for the holidays.

[chriz]

Dont trigger your body`s "starvation mode". Why? Because your body will eat your muscle first, not fat. My dad was an avid bodybuilder for over 60 years, and he picked up some things on nutrition, and so did I. But- keep in mind- I am NOT a nutritionist. This is NOT a substitute for liscened medical advice. These are only my opinions and should not be substituted for medical advise.

Agreed. You shouldn't eat fewer than 1200 calories a day, and even maintaining a 1200-calorie diet is harsh. If you do restrict your calorie intake, make sure you exercise regularly (walking at 3mph for 20-30 minutes a day is enough). This helps insure your body burns fat, not muscle, as the exercise will keep you in "muscle-building" mode.

[punxnotdead]

so what happens if you consume half of the calories than the dauly amount and don't excersize? Will you still lose weight?

[chriz]

so what happens if you consume half of the calories than the dauly amount and don't excersize? Will you still lose weight?

You'll probably lose muscle mass, which isn't good. If you don't exercise, you probably won't burn fat. And since you've gone into "starvation mode," as soon as you eat anything, your body will try to convserve energy by storing as fat.

So you'll lose weight as far as the scale's concerned, but you'll gain fat, proportionately. It's a very unhealthy thing to do.

You don't have to exercise much to offset this. Just go for a two mile walk every day (if weather allows).

[celticwomenfudah]

OMG i gained 5 pounds. Help me. >< not good i need to increase my excorzie. sorry tired walked 2 and from work. ran in and out of the store a half dozen times. and ran back and forth from the back to the front. now i need to walk the dog but it's too cold. >< bloody weather.

[West]

excorzie

that is a pretty extreme typo

[Mari_LOVES_Natas]

Despite what the Atkins guys and all the rest say, calories are calories. Five hundred calories of sugar will contribute to you being fat as much as five hundred calories of celery. The main difference between the two is that it's easy to inadvertently consume 500 calories of sugar. Try consuming 500 calories of celery. I don't think my stomach could hold that much.

As you educate yourself about the calorie content in the foods you buy, you'll probably notice something. Sugary foods contain much more calories by weight than most other foods. Breads and processed grains are just about as bad. I was surprised to learn that about half the calories in a typical cold cut sandwich was in the bread, not the meat.

So as you revamp your eating habits to constrain the number of calories you eat, you'll probably be forced simply by the math to cut out a lot of sugar and processed carbohydrates. This, incidentally, is the entire "secret" behind the Atkins diet. There's nothing special about processed carbs, they're just loaded with calories. Of course you'll lose weight if you reduce or eliminate them from your diet, but just because you're eating fewer calories.

Also, as an aside, you don't need bread or pasta. There is absolutely no essential nutrient in bread or pasta that you can't get elsewhere for fewer calories. Bread and pasta were invented, specifically because they're calorie-rich. We in western civilization haven't always had such abundance. We needed to develop calorie-rich foods to compensate for the lack of ready calories in other stuff. Beer was invented for pretty much the same reason.

So what do you eat? You need to find food that is relatively low in calories by weight. Most veggies and fruit cover that nicely, but if we were predisposed to eating all veggies and fruit, we wouldn't be that overweight in the first place.

Surprisingly, eggs and cheese are also good choices. Eggs aren't particularly high in calories (about 70 per egg, which is the same as an apple). Cheese can still have a lot of calories by weight (about 100 per ounce, depending on the cheese), but fat -- the kind of fat you eat, not the kind you're trying to lose -- is a funny thing. For most of us, a little bit of fat goes a long way toward settling our appetite. If you have a cholesterol problem, you should probably avoid cheese, but eggs are balanced for the "good" and "bad" cholesterols. Unless your doctor says otherwise, you can eat them all day long.

When you eat sugary stuff, bread, or pasta, your body can break that down very quickly. This tends to flood your bloodstream with glucose, which is energy. This is a quick satisfaction for hunger, and is probably one of the reasons so many of us grab candy bars when we're hungry. But this is a case of too much of a good thing. That glucose revs us up, but unless we suddenly get very active, it's more energy than we can handle so quickly. The body responds by pumping insulin out into the bloodstream, which ultimately results in the excess glucose being stored -- as fat. Then we go into a "food coma" because we have so much excess insulin floating around in our blood. We feel lethargic and, well, hungry again. So we grab another high-calorie sugary snack to offset the insulin.

Thirty years of this kind of behavior not only leads to obesity, it can lead to diabetes.

So one of the first things to do is to break the sugar habit. If you like (and can handle) cheese, you'll do yourself a huge favor by reaching for an ounce of cheddar or gouda than a piece of chocolate. The cheese actually has slightly fewer calories, and is much slower to break down in your system, which will avoid that insulin surge. Since you don't get an overflow of insulin, you don't get that craving for more sugar, and you've basically gotten off that particular carnival ride.

A lot of this will come naturally to you once you start paying attention to the calories you consume. You simply won't be able to eat sugar or much bread or pasta if you want to maintain your daily target. It's just good to know what's happening inside you, in case you do ever find yourself falling into one of those "food comas" because you pounded down some sugar. The solution -- even if it breaks your calorie limit for the day -- is to eat a small amount of something fatty.

Finally, if you do manage to keep your daily calorie deficit going day after day, don't stress over breaking it once in a while. Weekends, holidays, they're all there for a reason. It's not really about what you do each and every day, it's about your overall habits and lifestyle. Don't forget to live a little.

i've got a question since you know so much about food
how can someone who's 100 pounds overweight loose weight if they work at the carnival
me and mom have both tried only eating one meal a day i didn't eat for 3 days but then i collapsed from lack of energy but the food thgere is SO FATTENING
deep fried turkey legs hamburges connon cady candy apples ice cream
it's all a bunch of junk so what foods would be best to eat with out knowing the calories i mean how many hot dog joints have the calories and fats that are in the food posted not many
but yeah what would be a good plan for loosing weight with not so healthy foods to eat

[chriz]

how can someone who's 100 pounds overweight loose weight if they work at the carnival
me and mom have both tried only eating one meal a day i didn't eat for 3 days but then i collapsed from lack of energy but the food thgere is SO FATTENING
deep fried turkey legs hamburges connon cady candy apples ice cream
it's all a bunch of junk so what foods would be best to eat with out knowing the calories i mean how many hot dog joints have the calories and fats that are in the food posted not many
but yeah what would be a good plan for loosing weight with not so healthy foods to eat

There's not much you can do, if all you have available is sugary processed food. If you eat that, even a little bit, it gives you a lot of calories without filling you up much, so you end up just being hungry later and all you have is more sugary, processed food.

In your situation, my advice would be to eat meat stuff first. Even though you don't know what's in them, which makes it hard to tell what your calorie count is, the meat will make you feel fuller more quickly than candy or sugary stuff will. So when you're hungry, go for the hot dog instead of cotton candy, and cut out soda if you can. Drink bottled water, or if you can stand it, diet soda (water's better, though).

If you have access to fruit (not candied apples, I mean just fruit), make that your snack, too. Fruit is very low in calories but it "feels" bulky to your system, so you can have an apple and then you'll be satisfied for a little while. And an apple is so low in calories (about 70 per apple) that even if you get hungry again later, just have another apple.

When I started doing this, I found my desire for sugar diminished. Now I drink coffee without sugar, and coffee with sugar is actually too sweet for me. It'll be hard for you because you're surrounded by it all the time, but if you can break yourself of the sweet-habit, it'll help a lot.

Also, I say sugar, but I really mean sugar and bready stuff like fried dough. Cut out all that kind of stuff. If you have to eat junk, eat the stuff that's slower to digest (meat, mainly) because it'll help you control your appetite.

Good luck!

[Layira Aura]

The formula for losing or gaining weight is very simple:

Eat 3500 more calories than you burn and you will gain 1 pound, burn 3500 more calories that you eat and you will lose 1 pound.

That's all it is. Companies that made dieting pills, or guarantee that you will lose a certain amount weight after so many days, all it is advertising.

((I can credit that. My sister is a RN, when she took biology in college, they learned about this))

[chriz]

The formula for losing or gaining weight is very simple:

Eat 3500 more calories than you burn and you will gain 1 pound, burn 3500 more calories that you eat and you will lose 1 pound.

However, you do need to consider what the source of your calories is. You can easily consume your ~2000 daily calories in pure sugar, but that won't fill you up and you'll end up hungry again before the day's out.

Yes, in the end, it's all about how many calories you consume. But some types of food make it very hard to keep to a low amount of calories.

[Mari_LOVES_Natas]

Yeah my usual meal is a bacon and tomato sandwitch on tosted bread with miracle wip
i hope that doesn't have to many calories
seriously the food joint guy at Pe Wee's doesn't even bother taking my order he just makes it and gives it to me
though once i was like hey i wanted a steak and he started roolin he was like you have gotten the same sandwitch at exactly 12:30 every day for the past 6 months and now you want a steak

anyway off topic there but is that on the healthy side or should i cut out the miracle wip or what?
if it'll help me loose weight i'll just eat a tomato by itself I mean i'm to fat to work at the girls show and not muscular enough to be a ride jock and not nearly fat enough to be the fat lady at the freak show
so maybe i could try loosing weight and toning up enough to be a ride jock
that brings me to another question what can i do to exercise and tone up?
because Tom and Mirio won't let me within 50 feet or the equitment to set up so i can't loose weight by setting up joints
would walkin do any good

[chriz]

anyway off topic there but is that on the healthy side or should i cut out the miracle wip or what?

Believe it or not, the bread is the worst thing there. Bread is almost like sugar to your body, so it gives you calories but doesn't satisfy your hunger. That's why people trying to lose weight will go for those bunless burgers. The fattening stuff in a cheeseburger is the ketchup and the bun, not the meat and cheese.

The miracle whip isn't the best, but at least it has eggs, which will make you feel less hungry. Fatty food, while sometimes bad for your cholesterol, has an effect on your digestive system, making you feel fuller. So you should make sure to have at least a little. Eggs are like a miracle food. They don't hurt your cholesterol levels, don't really have a lot of calories (one egg is about the same as one apple), but the fat and protein send chemical signals to your body that you're not so hungry any more.

[moonrunner]

Guess what...all you have to do is exercise enough to lose enough calories and burn off the fat you've eaten that day. It's worked for me and I've haven't had any problems with being overwieght except for drinking to much beer :p but I'm Canadian i don't have much of a choice. :D

[chriz]

Guess what...all you have to do is exercise enough to lose enough calories and burn off the fat you've eaten that day. It's worked for me and I've haven't had any problems with being overwieght except for drinking to much beer :p but I'm Canadian i don't have much of a choice. :D

True, but think about this for a second.

Drink a can of Coke. That's 250 calories. You'd need to run for an hour straight to burn off those 250 calories.

Now imagine someone 100lbs or more overweight attempting to run for an hour. Telling that person to "just exercise" isn't going to work. They simply can't exercise enough. If you're overweight and you want to lose it, you must curb your calorie intake. Yes, you need to exercise, too, but the majority of your weight loss is in reducing what you eat.

A simple rule of thumb is, you eat less to lose weight, you exercise more to increase health. You need both, but don't confuse one with the other.

[West]

Chriz, I want to be in the best shape possible for football tryouts in August.

If I can satisfy my hunger and eat 2-3 meals a day, is it okay if I eat less than 2000 calories? I don't know whether or not I should eat as little calories as possible or if I should find a steady number. What do you reccomend?

[chriz]

Chriz, I want to be in the best shape possible for football tryouts in August.

If I can satisfy my hunger and eat 2-3 meals a day, is it okay if I eat less than 2000 calories? I don't know whether or not I should eat as little calories as possible or if I should find a steady number. What do you reccomend?

If you're looking to compete, my recommendation is you keep your calorie count relatively high. 2,000 a day at least. My assumption is that you're going to be exercising intensively over the summer to get yourself into shape. It's probably not healthy to go gangbusters on exercise without maintaining enough food intake.

Some questions. How much do you weigh now? What would be a good goal weight for August? How much of your current weight is fat?

If you're already in pretty good shape, then I'd suggest you keep doing what you're doing. But athletes get a lot of exercise by trade, and usually eat a lot more than most people. If you need to lose a lot of fat and build up a lot of muscle, my recommendation is to see if you can cut back on the calories and begin exercising in moderation. If you see weight coming off, increase both excercise and calorie intake a bit.

I do not recommend intensive, athletic-level exercise and a significantly reduced calorie intake. You can hurt yourself that way.

[West]

I do not recommend intensive, athletic-level exercise and a significantly reduced calorie intake. You can hurt yourself that way.

Looks like I have the wrong plan. I'm glad I asked :p

Some questions. How much do you weigh now? What would be a good goal weight for August? How much of your current weight is fat?

I'm about 5'8 or 5'9 and approximately 200 pounds. I'd like to shed at least 20 pounds by August, so I figure that 5 months is plenty of time. I'm already pretty content with how much muscle I have, but I am certainly going to try and increase it for football. My biggest problem is that I don't have much stamina, I can't run for long. I assume something is wrong with my intake of calories, because I work out daily and I don't see much fat going away. I get stronger, quicker and more muscle mass, but the fat doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

I also don't really know what I should eat before and after workouts. I know that I need to drink a lot of water, but that's pretty much all I know.

[chriz]

At this point, I'd say you should do some research, too. I'm sure there are a lot of books out there on the subject.

The heavy exercisers I've known will advocate "carbing up" before working out, and then making sure they eat plenty of protein in general, so their bodies have enough material to work with to build muscle. All I can really recommend is that if you're exercising a lot, eat a well-rounded diet, including veggies. You'll need it all (except sugar, you can drop that entirely).

[MorganaFang]

At this point, I'd say you should do some research, too. I'm sure there are a lot of books out there on the subject.

The heavy exercisers I've known will advocate "carbing up" before working out, and then making sure they eat plenty of protein in general, so their bodies have enough material to work with to build muscle. All I can really recommend is that if you're exercising a lot, eat a well-rounded diet, including veggies. You'll need it all (except sugar, you can drop that entirely).

Depending upon what position you want to play, your diet and exercise plan will be different too. So I agree with chriz, research and even try asking the coaches. I know at Maple Grove our football coach would give us specific guidelines for diets for certain teams.

[West]

Okay, thanks guys.

[Canis Lupus]

Hehe, I don't grow fat at all. I don't eat that much, since I feel satisfied even after a small meal.
And, as a bonus, I get sick every now and then, and when I do, I eat next to nothing.
I recall my swimming pants (is that what it's called? I totally forgot :eek: ) Even grew to be too small! :eek:

[chriz]

I'm about 5'8 or 5'9 and approximately 200 pounds. I'd like to shed at least 20 pounds by August, so I figure that 5 months is plenty of time. I'm already pretty content with how much muscle I have, but I am certainly going to try and increase it for football.

My approach would be to try to lose that 20lbs of fat first (I'm assuming it's fat, at 5'9", you shouldn't be 200lbs unless you're a bodybuilder). I would do daily, somewhat moderate exercise (walking, maybe some running) and try to stick to a max of 2000 calories a day, but make sure to get at least 1500. You should be able to get rid of those 20lbs by August, and you're not exercising so intensively that you run much risk.

My biggest problem is that I don't have much stamina, I can't run for long. I assume something is wrong with my intake of calories, because I work out daily and I don't see much fat going away. I get stronger, quicker and more muscle mass, but the fat doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Fat, or weight? Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you exercise and put on muscle, you'll also burn fat, but the scale won't give you much indication of losing anything.

Do your clothes fit the same? Particularly your pants? If you're burning fat but building muscle, your waistline should go in a bit.

Before I started strictly moderating my calorie intake, I just ate what I wanted but worked out. I put on a lot of weight that way, because my increase in activity also drove up my appetite, but I had given myself "permission" to eat whatever I wanted because "hey, I'm working out so much!" Disaster.

I also don't really know what I should eat before and after workouts. I know that I need to drink a lot of water, but that's pretty much all I know.

I don't think you want to feast before working out, but you don't want to do it on a completely empty stomach, either. I think you want a small amount of protein and some fat, like cheese or nuts or eggs or something. This will keep your blood sugar levels good, but not really provide enough energy for the full workout. That means your body will need to go crack open some fat cells for power, which is the process you need to initiate.

Then, after working out and settling down, have something to eat. Still, in general, unless you're about to run a marathon, stay away from a lot of bread, pasta, and sugar. Veggies and lean meat, and in that order, should be your mainstay food.