Weight Loss - for reals

It's amazing how much better I feel when I don't drink soda. I love Coke Zero Vanilla but when I don't have one for about 3 days, I feel really good. Then i'll have one again, and not feel too great.

I also discovered something interesting about booze. I quit beer because I felt like I was drinking too much and felt like God wanted me to give it up for a year. But I still drink bourbon (not to excess, just about three fingers and I'll sip it for an hour or so). Bourbon is carb free! It still has calories, and can slow down fat burning and weight loss but I figure a glass once a week or so won't hurt.

I don't touch diet drinks or anything with artificial sweeteners.  When I consume a lot of sugar, I snore louder and don't sleep as well.

Really?  Now I am going to have to conduct my own self study.

The Snoring Report comes courtesy of my wife.

It's been a while since I posted.

So as of the last week of June, I was down 30 pounds. Then my grandmother passed away and I ate my feelings for a couple weeks and gained about 12 of that back. I'm struggling to get back on track but as of Monday morning when I weighed in, I was down to 385 (from 410).

Need to get back on it!

One day, one step, one meal at a time.

I'm getting back on it, too.

3.25 miles on the elliptical machine in 30 minutes yesterday. But it just doesn't seem to matter much as I am not doing it enough. Would like to at least 4 days a week but I'm lucky if I get one day on the eliptical.

I've actually been doing fairly well with my weight loss over the last two months (lost about 10lbs).  I was inspired by a documentary where I watched a guy who was over 300lb eat absolutely no food for 55 days (I don't recommend it....at all).  I'm certainly not going to do that, but it did show me how little food I really need to eat, yet still be healthy.  I have not really changed the type of food I eat (only I'm not eating as much sugar), but I have cut my portions substantially (about 1/3 of what I used to eat).

As for exercise I am trying to walk 4 to 5 days a week...but typically averaging about 3 to 4.  I don't walk anymore than 2.5miles....and some days as little as 1 mile, but I have noticed much better results with walking than I ever did with the elliptical machine.

What was that documentary, Gary?

The documentary was called "Facing the Fat"....sadly after his "water fast" he gained back all of the weight, and more.  But apparently he's not giving up (according to this video).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1039782/

I've discovered that I can't do a diet.  I have to change my lifestyle in order to lose/maintain my weight.

Xid wrote:

I've discovered that I can't do a diet.  I have to change my lifestyle in order to lose/maintain my weight.

That's what I have resolved myself to do as well.  I don't diet, the way I eat and exercise now is just going to be my new normal.
I also try not to beat myself up really bad if I fall off the wagon, I just pick myself up and start again the next day.

Kinda related to that documentary, I have a coworker who does Keto (which I'm doing) but he also does DODO.

DODO stands for Day On Day Off. Basically, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday he doesn't eat. At all.

He says that if you cut your food intake by about 30%, you lose weight, feel better and can extend your life by about 20%.

I've thought about it but I don't know...

I don't think I can get behind any plan that has you not eating food for an entire day on a regular basis (despite the pattern).  Seems like a much better idea to cut your portions substantially and still eat 3 times a day....my body would not be happy with me if I spent every other day not giving it any nutrition.

One thing I do now (almost religiously) is that when my wife and I go out to eat we share a single entree.  It is plenty of food and I usually don't feel "sick" afterwards because I ate too much having my own meal.  Sometimes we don't even finish the entire meal between the two of us.

I actually do something called Intermittent Fasting (which the DOD method is an extreme example of). I eat two meals a day, usually between the hours of 11 AM and 7 PM. I don't eat before that so my fat store burning kicks in, and I don't eat after 7 because when you sleep your metabolism slows down.

Between that and Keto, I've lost 27.7 pounds in 102 days (thanks Excel spreadsheet!) and that includes the 10 days when grandma passed that I ate junk.

Sounds like a good plan, and great results!

I've got to do something.  I've gained back all I had lost 3 years ago and no longer can buy pants in a regular store.

Getting diabetes is what changed it all for me. Once I found out that my eating was killing me (slowly) that changed it all. That being said, my doctor has an attitude that you have to enjoy life as well. I think it comes down to basics that most of us all no: exercise daily and eat moderately. One of my biggest changes in life, was getting a desk job. Once that happened, I kept gaining weight at a pace. And we all know that becomes a cycle: little movement=more fat, more fat=feeling tired, feeling tired=feeling depressed, being depressed=eating bad, eating bad=more fat, and so on.

Once you cut out things, you will find that it is not that hard. Like sugar. I try to stay away from it. When I do have something, it takes sickly sweet to me. Salt is another. When I first changed, we had to go to Florida to see my family. I brought a healthy meal, and the kids got McDonald's. I ate one fry and was disgusted with the amount of salt on it (they were salty anyways before). I think honestly if we had the mindset that they way we eat is going to literally kill us, it would change a lot of choices that we make.

I stopped to eat sugar in food and drinks as much is possible.
It helps.

While I found new pants today at a decent price, I am just absolutely disgusted with myself.  I am now back to the size pants I was in when I started losing weight 3 years ago.

Well, it's official! When I started the first week of June I weighed 410.1 pounds.

As of 8:00 AM CST today, I weigh 380.0. I've officially lost 30 pounds!

I have a long way to go still, but I'm down almost 10% from my starting weight.

Great job Ish!

Excellent!

What an awesome thread. Good on ya guys.

I've read a lot about diets and diet. There is a mountain of evidence against dieting. Over the long term, it doesn't work. If you deny your body calories (by heavily restricting calories or by fasting on and off) your body goes into protection mode. Your brain says, "right, we're in famine...next time I'm in the food, I'm going to hold on to every ounce of energy that I can...so when you come off your diet, your body starts storing fat in earnest). Dieting changes your metabolism in a bad way.

What DOES work (brilliantly!) is changing your diet. Look for low glycemic foods (e.g., replace potatoes with sweet potatoes; use coconut sugar instead of sugar; try barley, buckwheat, and oats instead of wheat; there are heaps of these wonderful replacement foods that taste great so you don't feel denied the thing you're replacing). There's an awesome list in a book called "Sugar Busters" that can be a total game changer. I read this book 15 years ago and still, to this day, live by the list. It's been utterly brilliant for me.

The brilliant thing about low glycemic foods is that because they release energy more slowly, they keep you full and satisfied for longer because your blood sugar stays nice and steady. When our blood sugar dips, we crave a quick fix which is usually something that is high in sugar or fat. Avoiding those dips makes it easier to say no to snacking.

Research on breaking habits is pretty clear that to break a bad habit you need to replace it with a more healthful habit. If you simply try to STOP doing something (in this case, overeating) you are more likely to fail in the long-run because your brain focuses on the thing denied.

It's so awesome that you're all supporting one another. I hope my experience is useful to you. Praying for y'all.    J

I lost around 30 pounds last year not really trying, pretty much eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.....found out in Feb that I'm diabetic and unexplained weight loss is one of the major indicators. My blood sugar was 310 at the Dr's office and my A1c came back a 12.6.

So I've gone very low carb, 50 grams or less per day, for the last month and have lost another 6-8 pounds and my blood sugar is consistently between 100-125. I plan to be under 200 pounds by Memorial Day, which I haven't been under 200 in over 20 years.