Weight Loss Thread

Noodlemod_sl said:

Hey you try tanking for a bunch of saturday morning dads and see how many addons you need

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I was there. I seent it.

Dandai_sl said:

I've got a food scale and MyFitnessPal has a barcode scanner that searches for verified nutritional data for that product. On days when I put in everything I eat (condiments, sauce, oil I used to cook with, etc) I'm always surprised how little I'm eating because I feel like it's more (because I'm not hungry).

Yes, I'm still raiding mythic in WoW. Normally I'd be laissez faire about calorie counting (I was when I lost 50 lbs three years ago), but I'm gonna be pissed if my fat ass becomes adapted to 1600-1800 calories and I'm still fat.

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Look at it this way, worst case scenario you have to increase the amount you eat for 3 - 4 weeks to let your metabolism 'rebound'. When I started bulking later last year, it took me a solid month before I gained any weight. I just kept increasing the calories by 100 - 200 per day every week. While I wasn't losing, I wasn't gaining. Then I slowly started putting on weight. You could do a similar plan and, when you started gaining, perhaps your metabolism is 'better' and you could go back to cutting. I don't know how these things work officially, but that is what happened for me.

Oreos will always call to me.

McQueen_sl said:

When you're that overweight and out of shape to begin with, doing literally anything different will net you some results. He probably wanted high fives and a bunch of meaningless platitudes for doing the bare minimum and losing a little water weight. When confronted with reality, he took his ball and went home. Just like every other failed dieter ever.

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Update on my "failed" diet. I'm down nearly 30 pounds now from Mid-November. I made a goal during the holidays not to be set back and was successful at that.

My biggest change has been my diet. Based on a calculator (Tool: Calorie calculator - Mayo Clinic
) my break even is about 2,100 calories to maintain my current weight. I don't snack at all like I used to (get home, have a snack, have dinner and then another snack). Here's what a normal day looks like:

Breakfast: Protein Bar or cold Oatmeal (both are right around 200 calories. The oatmeal recipe uses non-fat yogurt and non-fat soy milk).
Lunch: Sandwich (the "light" 35 calorie per slice bread and 60 calories of lunch meat for 130 total calories), all natural applesauce (50 calories) and a 100 calorie snack. We'll round up and say 300 calories.
Dinner: A combination of chicken, vegetables and rice. Most dinners are in the 600 to 800 calorie range. Obviously this is my biggest calorie intake for the day. About once a week I'll have some beef and adjust the rest of my day accordingly.
Light snack in there somewhere for another 100 calories.

My big weakness is Starbucks. I don't care for straight black coffee (which I know is best way to get caffeine without the calories). I like the fancy drinks. I limit myself to no more than twice a week and get them with non-fat milk and no whipped cream. Call it 250 calories twice a week. I just try and stay conscious of my eating habits for those days when I do go.

Doing the math that's about 1,400 calories on non-Starbucks day and 1,650 on a Starbucks day. We can round everything up a bit to account to 1,500 and 1,800 for "measuring errors" and other fluctuations and I'm still well below the 2,100 break even point that I calculated.

I'm not going to get into the whole walking argument again but it's been working for me. A lot of you seem to think walk = leisurely stroll around the block followed by a pint of ice cream as a "reward." I do several miles on the treadmill at a time. I've also started to carry light weights during my routine for extra resistance and to get my heart rate up. I walk for several miles carrying the weights for about an hour. The treadmill is in the back room which doubles as my office and has a TV. So instead of sitting on the couch, eating Doritos and watching TV I can watch something on TV and burn a few calories at the same time. As Tenks and Kuriin said, exercise isn't just about losing weight. It's about a more healthy lifestyle and getting your heart rate going. Any calorie loss that comes with it is even better. But back in October a mile walk killed me. Today I can go 3 or 4 miles at a time without any issues. So my stamina has definitely increased.

So yeah. I'm pretty happy with 30 pounds over the last two and half months. People started to really notice around the 20 pound mark and now everyone is telling me how much better I'm looking. I've definitely gone down a pants size and my clothes are legitimately big on me. I started at 250 lbs and am down to about 220. According to science my ideal weight is around 170. So I've still got a long ways to go. Getting under 225 was a big milestone. Getting under 200 will be a bigger milestone.

Now all of you min/maxxers can tell me everything I'm doing wrong and how your way is the only way that works because of reasons.

Cad_sl said:

Just realize your walking probably isn't doing shit except making you feel better. It's the calorie control thats doing it. But good job nonetheless, maintaining a cut for long enough to lose 30-50lbs is hard. Keep it up!

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We back on this again? Walking is healthy, really fucking healthy. More intense cardio carries more benefits but people are only going to go as far as they feel like going with it. Its fine to suggest to people that they look at some of the more effective ways of exercise but to suggest walking is a waste of time is ridiculous.

Cad_sl said:

Just realize your walking probably isn't doing shit except making you feel better. It's the calorie control thats doing it. But good job nonetheless, maintaining a cut for long enough to lose 30-50lbs is hard. Keep it up!

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I still don't understand your hatred of walking as exercise. Walking at a brisk pace (3 - 4mph) for an hour can easily burn a few hundred calories. That's a fair amount of calories burned when combined with a good diet. Compared to other forms of exercise it might not be all that impressive, but your silly assertion that it is literally useless is completely untrue.

Dandai_sl said:

I've got a food scale and MyFitnessPal has a barcode scanner that searches for verified nutritional data for that product. On days when I put in everything I eat (condiments, sauce, oil I used to cook with, etc) I'm always surprised how little I'm eating because I feel like it's more (because I'm not hungry).

Yes, I'm still raiding mythic in WoW. Normally I'd be laissez faire about calorie counting (I was when I lost 50 lbs three years ago), but I'm gonna be pissed if my fat ass becomes adapted to 1600-1800 calories and I'm still fat.

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Be sure to do a quick sanity check that the food you scan gets the correct values when MFP adds it to your day. I've had a few instances of it pulling slightly incorrect data which might be because the food manufacturer changed their formula or serving size somehow, or else MFP just fucked it up.

An hour doing aneasyweight routine is better for you in every way unless you're injured or elderly. Like I said before, when your activity is frequently compared to "sitting on the couch" then it isn't saying too much. Your fixation on calories is missing the point, the extra 100-200 calories burnt from an hour of fucking walking is meaningless -- either the person in question understands how to construct a deficit via diet or he doesn't. The most efficient way to a healthy and aesthetic body is via passively adjusting diet and actively training your muscles.

That being said, everyone ought to do whatever the fuck they want -- it's just weird to me to see middle-aged men demonstrate such reluctance to picking up something heavy a few hours a week. My 71 year old grandmother walks a few miles before lunch; I'm not telling her she needs to squat and deadlift. But we can do better.

Eidal_sl said:

An hour doing aneasyweight routine is better for you in every way unless you're injured or elderly. Like I said before, when your activity is frequently compared to "sitting on the couch" then it isn't saying too much. Your fixation on calories is missing the point, the extra 100-200 calories burnt from an hour of fucking walking is meaningless -- either the person in question understands how to construct a deficit via diet or he doesn't. The most efficient way to a healthy and aesthetic body is via passively adjusting diet and actively training your muscles.

That being said, everyone ought to do whatever the fuck they want -- it's just weird to me to see middle-aged men demonstrate such reluctance to picking up something heavy a few hours a week. My 71 year old grandmother walks a few miles before lunch; I'm not telling her she needs to squat and deadlift. But we can do better.

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I don't disagree with most of what you said. My issue is with your and Cad's continued assertions that walking "isn't doing shit" is "useless" and "meaningless" for weight loss, which is 100% untrue. The dude's goal right now is to lose weight, and keeping a reasonable deficit from eating and burning some extra calories from exercise is a good way to do that. Even just 3 - 4 days of walking for an hour at a brisk pace could add nearly a thousand extra calories burned to whatever deficit he's eating at, which is a fantastic way to speed up the weight loss.

Not everyone jumps right into lifting weights (even an easy routine). Not everyone enjoys doing that, either. Maybe this guy will turn into a marathon runner at some point. Who knows. The point is that it's silly to bash a diet and exercise routine that is clearly working just because it's not "the most efficient way."

*Edit* I should add that I am kind of personally invested in this, because walking is how I started getting in shape. Years and years ago in college I was easily like 270ish pounds. My college campus had a nice 2-mile trail that went in a circle around it, and I started walking that trail every evening. It was slow, and I didn't really change my diet much (go go all-you-can-eat college cafeterias!) but I slowly started losing weight. More importantly, I progressed from walking into light running, and then got into biking, and eventually joined a gym and got into lifting. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Yeah I'm not going to get caught up in the whole "walking isn't exercise" debate again but I will say a few things.

I know there are better ways to lose weight with exercise but I enjoy walking and it definitely has given me benefits. Like I said earlier, before I started walking I couldn't go a mile without being out of breath. Yes I was really that out of shape and overweight. I know that I still have a ways to go but now I can walk 3 to 4 miles at a brisk pace before starting to feel the effects. And it's something I enjoy doing. I can spend an hour on the couch watching TV or I can spend that same hour on the treadmill watching TV. I live in Cleveland so it's not like I'm missing much outside in January... And like Tenks and Kuriin have said, exercise isn't only about calorie burn. There are a lot of other positive benefits from doing an hour of cardio each day than just burning calories. It gets the blood going and it's been really good for my mental health.

But, yes, the primary reason I'm losing weight is because I'm sticking to a pretty strict diet. I've cut my calories way down, I'm practicing portion control and I'm not snacking outside of mealtimes. I know I'm not going to keep up with the loss pace I've been at but I'm really hoping to drop another 20 by Summer to get down to 200 and I think that's realistic. I feel SO much better losing those 30 pounds. The first month was, by far, the worst. My body was VERY angry with me back then. I was super fussy since I wasn't getting the calories that I had grown accustomed to eating and my body was trying to rebel. But after the first month it's gotten a lot easier. I don't have the cravings that I used to and I'm not as fussy.

I also agree with a lot of what people say here. You can min max the ever living shit out of weight loss but I think the most important thing is to just find a diet that actually works and stick with it. I'm not doing anything fancy and I have no idea what the hell keto is. I know Atkins is very anti-carb but that's about it. I'm just cutting way back on calories and keeping track of what I actually do consume. Add in the walking and I figure I can still lose quite a bit more weight before I start to plateau.

Depending on weight/height/age, walking can be monumental in weight loss.

A 450 pound dude walking for an hour is going to see crazy results - a 165 pound guy may not see so much. It's all relative.

I'm of the weight-lifting camp, but that's because that's what has always worked best for me.

I think it is best when folks start slowly with what they can handle and are prepared to commit to. It may not be ideal and there probably are more wash outs than not, but there are large barriers to entry on working out for overweight people. Mostly it is mental, starting slowly and the gradual ramping up of work out intensity can work.

When I started attempting to lose weight I chose DDP Yoga in my living room. I could barely do anything at that point, which is a huge reality check and immediate sense of 'damn, I am far gone'. I was huffing and puffing through things that I won't break a sweat for now. However, it got me active and, more importantly, it got me active where other people couldn't see me.

The issue with being overweight is most people know they are overweight. They know they are stared at or disproved of in public, basically like a smoker at this point. The worst part is your own mind telling you these things and whispering in your ear about how those people must be talking about you, even if they are not. It is very intimidating.

However, once you develop some self confidence, you aren't as off put by appearing in public to work out because you have handled that initial dunce moment and have moved on to stead improvement.

Or maybe this was just me and I had to work through deeper seated issues.