Weight Loss Thread
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Khane
Got something right about marriage
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The Dauntless One
Lord Nagafen Raider
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That's good man. Fitness will always be a work in progress. It has taken me 6+ years to get to where I want to be in terms of physical fitness and weight, but I am still looking to lower my body fat by a couple percent.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
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Ok...I have been stalled at 291 for the last week or so. My diet pretty much consists of the following.
Morning: 2 eggs/cheese and a side of bacon.
Lunch: Salad with balsamic vinaigrette.
Dinner: Chicken or Steak. 12oz? Side of fruit. Maybe a 1/2 cantaloupe lets say.
Before bed: Atkins bar of some sort. 0 calorie root beer.
Through the whole day maybe 1 1/2 gallons of water. Maybe more.
I hit the gym at least 5 days a week. I lift heavy. No cardio.
WTF do I need to change?
Morning: 2 eggs/cheese and a side of bacon.
Lunch: Salad with balsamic vinaigrette.
Dinner: Chicken or Steak. 12oz? Side of fruit. Maybe a 1/2 cantaloupe lets say.
Before bed: Atkins bar of some sort. 0 calorie root beer.
Through the whole day maybe 1 1/2 gallons of water. Maybe more.
I hit the gym at least 5 days a week. I lift heavy. No cardio.
WTF do I need to change?
Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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There's a huuuge difference in calories between chicken and steak hah. Your dinner is around 1000 calories all on its lonesome with just the fruit and steak and nothing else. I know that Atkins isn't about counting calories and what have you, but if I had to guess you are eating around 2500 calories with what you listed, and that's with no idea what a side of bacon entails, how you cook things (ie are you adding oil to things?) and a few other factors, such as how much cheese are you consuming. I also saw in one of your pictures beer bottles (not sure if you're drinking them) as well as what looked like a dense ass muffin and some strawberries. How are you preparing your entrees? It may be something as simple as just reducing portion sizes a little bit, though I'm not going to dive deep into Atkins to find out what the recommended whatevers are. Even at 2500 calories (hell, lets go 3000) You should be steadily dropping a lb a week before exercise is really factored in, so maybe 1-1.5lbs at your weight and theoretically what you are consuming.
But again, that's just an eyeball ballpark and I'm not sure exactly what you are consuming and in what amounts, so I can't make a guess at what your next step should be. Really though, when you stall at a weight for a few weeks is when something else might be going on. I'd give it more time personally, though as a litmus test you may want to pay super close attention to what you are eating for a full week and log down amounts of stuff, just to see how much you are consuming. I know atkins is all low-carbbie, but if you are consuming a -lot- of food, it doesn't matter how tiny the carb percentage is if you are stacking on a lot of calories from other sources. Carbs tend to congregate in high calorie food, but that doesn't mean that steak is low calorie hah.
But again, that's just an eyeball ballpark and I'm not sure exactly what you are consuming and in what amounts, so I can't make a guess at what your next step should be. Really though, when you stall at a weight for a few weeks is when something else might be going on. I'd give it more time personally, though as a litmus test you may want to pay super close attention to what you are eating for a full week and log down amounts of stuff, just to see how much you are consuming. I know atkins is all low-carbbie, but if you are consuming a -lot- of food, it doesn't matter how tiny the carb percentage is if you are stacking on a lot of calories from other sources. Carbs tend to congregate in high calorie food, but that doesn't mean that steak is low calorie hah.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
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The muffins are those low carb/sugar muffins. No beer in more than 2 months. Those are the zero cal root beers.
My dinner sizes are pretty large I guess. I didn't think 1000 cals though. Jeez I can cut that down. Man even berries are bad? My god! I can cut out the cheese on my breakfast...Maybe even the bacon a bit. But my god how do people not stay hungry eating that little bit of food!
My dinner sizes are pretty large I guess. I didn't think 1000 cals though. Jeez I can cut that down. Man even berries are bad? My god! I can cut out the cheese on my breakfast...Maybe even the bacon a bit. But my god how do people not stay hungry eating that little bit of food!
Dandai
<WoW Guild Officer>
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Are you opposed to using something like MyFitnessPal or My Macros+ to track what you're eating? I personally use My Macros+ because at the end of every week it will tell you your compliance rate and what you've been eating for the past week. I mention these apps because it looks like you're eating way more calories than you think you are.
I posted about it a few days ago, but I'm following the macro nutrient guidelines from avatarnutrition.com and losing an average of 1% body fat per week eating literally whatever I want - as long as it fits the macro budget. There's a free macro calculatorhere, but avatarnutrition.com uses an algorithm that's personalized to your progress and adjusts based on your weigh ins and body fat changes (if you don't lose enough, it'll adjust your numbers down, if you lose too much it'll adjust them up, so if you lie you're not doing yourself any favors). You'll need a food scale, and it's helpful to be savvy enough to use google to make conversions from oz/cups/tbsp/etc to grams.
The major downside is you pretty much have to guess if you're eating out. If you're a beer man, under this "flexible dieting" philosophy, alcohol is counted as calories and not diet-breaking (as long as you're drinking in moderation and not getting hammered).
Anyway, if you don't want to log what you eat, then maybe someone else will have a helpful suggestion for you.
Re: Stalling out: Personally, my weight fluctuates in a 2-3 pound range from day to day, then one day I'll wake up and the range moves down 2 or 3 pounds and that's the new range (example: 2 weeks ago I was floating between 237 and 239, 1 week ago, 235-237, 2 days ago 232-234). Measuring your weight every day isn't going to be very helpful for your morale. The other (perhaps less obvious) thing is that you could be putting on lean body mass. Last week I only lost 2 pounds, but I lost 1.9% body fat (using the military tape test as a guide).
I posted about it a few days ago, but I'm following the macro nutrient guidelines from avatarnutrition.com and losing an average of 1% body fat per week eating literally whatever I want - as long as it fits the macro budget. There's a free macro calculatorhere, but avatarnutrition.com uses an algorithm that's personalized to your progress and adjusts based on your weigh ins and body fat changes (if you don't lose enough, it'll adjust your numbers down, if you lose too much it'll adjust them up, so if you lie you're not doing yourself any favors). You'll need a food scale, and it's helpful to be savvy enough to use google to make conversions from oz/cups/tbsp/etc to grams.
The major downside is you pretty much have to guess if you're eating out. If you're a beer man, under this "flexible dieting" philosophy, alcohol is counted as calories and not diet-breaking (as long as you're drinking in moderation and not getting hammered).
Anyway, if you don't want to log what you eat, then maybe someone else will have a helpful suggestion for you.
Re: Stalling out: Personally, my weight fluctuates in a 2-3 pound range from day to day, then one day I'll wake up and the range moves down 2 or 3 pounds and that's the new range (example: 2 weeks ago I was floating between 237 and 239, 1 week ago, 235-237, 2 days ago 232-234). Measuring your weight every day isn't going to be very helpful for your morale. The other (perhaps less obvious) thing is that you could be putting on lean body mass. Last week I only lost 2 pounds, but I lost 1.9% body fat (using the military tape test as a guide).
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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Brahma. Stop pretending you know what you're eating and actually catalog it.
If you want help with Atkins I can give you all the help you need. If you want help with something else you will get much better feedback if you are being honest with yourself and everyone here about what you're actually eating.
With the meal plan you listed a person half your size would probably still lose weight. So the fact that you've stalled means you're probably severely underestimating what you're actually eating.
If you want help with Atkins I can give you all the help you need. If you want help with something else you will get much better feedback if you are being honest with yourself and everyone here about what you're actually eating.
With the meal plan you listed a person half your size would probably still lose weight. So the fact that you've stalled means you're probably severely underestimating what you're actually eating.
Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Anecdotal experience and all that, but even when people start tracking food, it's pretty common for them to fudge the shit out of their eating habits during the tracking period or to lowball their intake amounts. Like what is clearly almost 2 cups of rice would be entered as 1 cup, etc. So then they go "Oh hey I only need to drop 500 calories, looks like I'm eating one less bowl of oatmeal a day!" when they are consuming a lot more.
One of the cooks who used to work for me was always telling me about how he's keeping super good records of what he's eating, and then complaining that he wasn't losing weight. I asked him if he was walking around tasting stuff in the kitchen (he damn well should have been hah) and if he was accurately measuring his intake. So he shows me his phone with his intake app, and according to it he was at a 700 calorie deficit. Then I saw some of the entered amounts and I'm like "You ate almost double this at lunch; I was there. And you are adding way more than a tsp of sugar to your coffee and you have like 5 of those a day, yet you're logging 1tsp per." "Oh it doesn't have that much of an impact."
Same guy also would log his stuff (relatively inaccurately) all week, then conveniently finish to come to a conclusion before the weekend, where he'd go out and drink/eat stuff and then complain on Monday that he hasn't lost any weight. He was also guilty of drastically changing his eating habits while taking his "average" and then going back to way different amounts/intake after he came up with what he should be cutting out. Eventually I just started ignoring him when he'd bring it up and stop trying to help hah.
Keeping a realistic and accurate record of what you are eating, even with apps, is probably just as difficult as the dieting itself for some people. It's like when I see people saying "I only used one slice of cheese!" then they show me their slice.
I'm just eating a salad!
Whereas when I hear salad I think "vegetables" some people think "all sorts of random shit" (don't get me wrong, I love me some thick salad action with all kinds of fun stuff on it. But reporting it as "I just ate a salad" is super misleading and makes for inaccurate portrayals)
I completely get the frustration and tediousness for some people regarding accurately portraying their meals, especially when asking for outside advice. Without accurate information, however, it's really hard to toss out meaningful advice.
TLDR; Keep a log of what you eat, but be honest about it or you simply aren't going to see accurate results. And don't change your eating habits while logging to find a baseline, or you end up with the same problem.
One of the cooks who used to work for me was always telling me about how he's keeping super good records of what he's eating, and then complaining that he wasn't losing weight. I asked him if he was walking around tasting stuff in the kitchen (he damn well should have been hah) and if he was accurately measuring his intake. So he shows me his phone with his intake app, and according to it he was at a 700 calorie deficit. Then I saw some of the entered amounts and I'm like "You ate almost double this at lunch; I was there. And you are adding way more than a tsp of sugar to your coffee and you have like 5 of those a day, yet you're logging 1tsp per." "Oh it doesn't have that much of an impact."
Same guy also would log his stuff (relatively inaccurately) all week, then conveniently finish to come to a conclusion before the weekend, where he'd go out and drink/eat stuff and then complain on Monday that he hasn't lost any weight. He was also guilty of drastically changing his eating habits while taking his "average" and then going back to way different amounts/intake after he came up with what he should be cutting out. Eventually I just started ignoring him when he'd bring it up and stop trying to help hah.
Keeping a realistic and accurate record of what you are eating, even with apps, is probably just as difficult as the dieting itself for some people. It's like when I see people saying "I only used one slice of cheese!" then they show me their slice.
I'm just eating a salad!
Whereas when I hear salad I think "vegetables" some people think "all sorts of random shit" (don't get me wrong, I love me some thick salad action with all kinds of fun stuff on it. But reporting it as "I just ate a salad" is super misleading and makes for inaccurate portrayals)
I completely get the frustration and tediousness for some people regarding accurately portraying their meals, especially when asking for outside advice. Without accurate information, however, it's really hard to toss out meaningful advice.
TLDR; Keep a log of what you eat, but be honest about it or you simply aren't going to see accurate results. And don't change your eating habits while logging to find a baseline, or you end up with the same problem.
Fuck salad for lunch it just makes me have twice as much for dinner, I'd rather have a single piece of bacon.
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
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That salad looks delicious.
The key to any salad and staying satiated for me is at least 12 oz of chicken in it. I don't add bacon or anything, avocado yes. But the bulk of the calories comes from chicken, oil, and avocado/feta. Lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onions, etc. are negligible.
I'm not an anti-salad person, but I guess I understand why some people don't enjoy it. Helps me poop!
Constipation talk came full circle. Nice.
The key to any salad and staying satiated for me is at least 12 oz of chicken in it. I don't add bacon or anything, avocado yes. But the bulk of the calories comes from chicken, oil, and avocado/feta. Lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onions, etc. are negligible.
I'm not an anti-salad person, but I guess I understand why some people don't enjoy it. Helps me poop!
Constipation talk came full circle. Nice.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Brahma, this is correct. Actually log everything and really be critical of what you're eating. You're drastically underestimating your intake if you're stalled out at 291.
Brahma
Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
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The problem with cataloging it is that I don't know the actual sizes/calories.
This Morning: 2 eggs with cheese (cafe guy saw me and made it) with 4 slices of bacon. Diet Pepsi.
Lunch: I had a container of salad. Spinach, lettuce, red peppers, onions, table spoon of feta cheese, half table spoon of sunflower seeds, balsamic dressing. Chicken squares like 10. Diet Pepsi.
Dinner will be: A steak. How big that steak is, I have no idea. Maybe instead I get that bag of chicken they have in the front of the super market. That's 4 pieces I eat. All dark meats. Diet root beer. No fruit since I had a lot of fruit yesterday.
Snacks x2 will be an Atkins bar for each snack. Diet root beer.
I have NO idea what the calorie count on any of those meals are.