Posted on 01/01/2009 6:50:26 AM PST by inkling
For the first time in a decade, losing weight will NOT be one of my New Year's resolutions. The reason? After years of piling on the padding (and a few failed weight-loss attempts) I've lost 60 lbs. over the past four months.
I've only blogged about diet once and did so hesitantly. But that two-year-old post is still getting consistent hits. Everybody is Googling for the silver bullet to shedding pounds. They think that there must be some secret diet, high-tech fitness equipment, or miracle pill that will finally give them health.
As I said back then, fat people offer the most dieting advice. So I swore that I wouldn't address the subject again until I was a much thinner man. Now that I've achieved a moderate level of scrawn, I wanted to share several counter-intuitive observations about weight loss. Every diet works.
South Beach, Jenny Craig, Atkins, Slim Fast, Medifast, Zone, Modified Zone, Nutrisystem, Jared's Subway Spectacular — each one of these mainstream diets works like a charm. As will any diet or exercise program that takes in less calories than it expends...
(Excerpt) Read more at exurbanleague.com ...
It’s a guy talking....just sayin’
The key is just to stop eating. I could go about a week without food and still function. Today starts the diet!
You mean by exercise and not eating crap you can lose weight? Why wasn’t this made public before now?
Getting fat 101 ... If calorie intake is more than calories burned you will gain weight.
Quite simple, even for the simple minded.
Just say no.
I’ve never understood these kinds of problems. Don’t people have will power anymore? If you’re overweight, eat less!
WHY HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING THAT A SECRET?
IMAGINE HOW MANY FAT PEOPLE WOULD BE HELPED IF THEY ONLY KNEW THAT FORMULA!
I’ve found a great diet that I’m starting today... well actually tomorrow. I’m going to get down to my birth weight and then I’m going to share it with the world... on Oprah of course.
Self control....they don’t teach that anymore either.
I had the best results with a modified Atkins and exercise. White meat and fish only and veggies. Dropped 40 lbs in 2 months. Then I met woman who was a fabulous cook. (sigh)
Self-control can’t be taught, but it can be valued as a personal attribute.
That’s not realism at all, actually. From what I read, the guy’s got a way to take off the weight, but doesn’t seem to have a viable way to keep it off. While it’s true that accepting that health is more important than a donut is very helpful, when he’s reached his goal, the choice will change. Health won’t be at stake with one donut. So, the donut will seem okay. Then the next one and the next one, then we’re back where we started again.
The key is to find one of these systems that you like and tweak it to be sustainable for you. That will probably involve you losing weight much slower, but if you’re happy with your new, chosen, lifestyle, you won’t gain the weight back.
I know that nobody wants to hear this, but as a person who’s gone through this multiple times, if you’ve lost 60lbs that fast, you have next to no chance of keeping it off for good.
The best way to keep off weight is to avoid starches and get a weight lifting regimen that works to muscle collapse. The muscle regeneration keeps your metabolism up and you gain muscle and tone which looks good in and of itself. You can supplement it with your basic cardio such as biking too.
There is no such thing as an old fat person.
Every few months I treat myself with one meal of complete cheating (last time it was a Wendy's double cheeseburger with super-sized fries).
For exercise, check out Crossfit.com...it is based in part on the Tabata method (short, but intense interval training) and is now adopted by the Navy Seals and increasingly the USMC and Army. The Crossfit program can be scaled down so that anyone, at any level of fitness, can adapt it to fit.
WHY HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING THAT A SECRET?
IMAGINE HOW MANY FAT PEOPLE WOULD BE HELPED IF THEY ONLY KNEW THAT FORMULA!
Bush’s fault
I know scads of people who lost weight, but then couldn’t keep it off. There’s nothing more glum than someone who lost 30 pounds and then put 40 back on.
If you can stop drinking alcohol, especially beer, that will go a long way.
The author is full of it. I followed his advice for 7 minutes, and NOTHING HAPPENED.
I was anorexic for a time.
Two days without eating and the energy boost is amazing. You don’t sleep either.
Then after a time, your hair falls out, your eletrolytes got out of balance, you start fainting.....
Thank you! This is the simplest piece of advice anyone could get! I spent the last 3 years shedding the pounds, and I've successfully dropped 105 lbs. It's really not that hard, you just can't expect results over night.
To boot, NEVER go hungry. Never, ever, ever! If you're hungry, your body will slow down automatically and store more fat. When I'm hungry, I'll drink a cup of green tea, eat a handful of nuts, or drink a bunch of water. At over a gallon a day, water intake is one of the big keys to effective weight loss! Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of hunger pangs are actually thirst!
This guy is a dolt! It would've probably been better that he kept his mouth shut and not blogged about it. He never revealed what diet actually proved most effective, and I'd bet that he was on B12 shots through some Medi-weight-loss-clinic, etc. That's cheating if you ask me.
Finally, the best thing to do for yourself is NEVER diet and NEVER say you're losing weight. If you lose something, there's an unspoken inference that you're looking for it. Every pound off my body was dropped, not lost. I don't sit there and say, "I don't know where it went. It was here a month ago!" People asking me how much weight I've lost, I say, "None, but I've dropped over 100 lbs."
It seems like he posted this two years ago and has kept the weight off. My biggest dispute is that you HAVE to HATE the food. There is enough variety out there that you can pick something you like and work with that. When I started losing weight, I did eat spinach with a little butter regularly. I have added kale with a little chicken broth and paprika and swiss chard with a little olive oil. It took a few tries, but these are my standard dinner vegetables now and yes I enjoy them.
Trust me, the longer you go without fast food or donuts, the worse they taste when you pick one up again. I had a favorite fast food meal after about four months of no fast food. It’s wasn’t that great and the bloated stomach feeling afterwords has kept me out of drive throughs for over a year.
I lost about 18 lbs. two years ago (My goal was fifteen). I lost the last 12 at a much faster rate (took about 7 weeks) than the first 5 and I switched “diets” to do that. I gained a little back over the summer and went right back to the strict rules and lost the weight again and it is still off.
Ergo, it is the water that helps in the lose of the weight and inches...
The costly sugar pill ????
Well, do you really need it ????
Enjoy losing the pounds...
you enjoyed putting them on...
Let's have a group of healthy folks this year...
FReepers, put down that mouse anjd run/walk arou nd the block...
Drink lots of water...
The taste bother you ???
Add slices of limes, or lemons or oranges...
Eat lots of fruit and raw vegetables etc...
Eat at the table and not at the computer...
Get lots of sleep..
And then...Hello feet...
FReeper will soon be synonymous with gorgeous
You may want to check a book called “The Fat Fallacy” by Dr. Will Cower. He has some anti-business politics, but other than that, you may be able to have success on this one if you liked Atkins and have a good cook around.
We should discuss this further. Let’s meet at my house. You get off the freeway at the Burger Palace. You go three blocks to the Dunkin Donuts and turn right. Two more blocks, just past the Perkins you’ll see a convenience store with Krispy Kreme donuts. My house is just one more block, at the corner where the Coldstone Creamery and Wendy’s are.
EAT LESS, MOVE MORE!
Nowadays if you are fat, you are a victim. Just ask Oprah. Expecting self-control is just a way of humiliating the poor, put-upon obese. There must be a way to be able to eat all you want, lay upon the couch, and lose weight.
Stop the discrimination against the Overweight!
You’re desperately hungry,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And for me, I have been **desperately** hungry for the 3 years that I finally lost 80 lbs. It’s been 4 years since I started the project.
Every day is the same battle. The first think I think of when I wake up is the painful hunger I am feeling. I am reminded of it every minute of every day. I go to bed hungry.
If I am hungry, I know that I have eaten enough to maintain this 80 lbs weight loss.
Yeah it sucks!
By the way...Regarding hormones: I recommend that every one over 30 get a TSH to test the thyroid every year. It’s a cheap test and it is **amazing** how many people are walking around not feeling as well as they could because they are hypothyroid.
Everyone’s different, but I never had a problem hating fast food and sweets...I could never stand them to begin with. I just have to accept that I can’t eat like a normal person and maintain a normal weight, so I have to keep a special diet. The deal that I made with myself is that if I want something (within reason) that isn’t allowed, I can have it, but I have to wait until the weekend. If I still want it then, then it’s no big deal. I’ve steadily lost weight like this for two years now and I’m still going. It takes a lot longer this way, but it is extremely effective and satisfying.
Usually this amounts to having rice with my dinner or a few drinks on Friday, as alcohol is off limits during the week.
Do you want to know how to lose 315 pounds in 3 years? Get a bike.... http://istanbultea.typepad.com/largefellaonabike/
I lost weight by eating. Yes I know it’s hard to believe but I did. I ate 2 meals a day for years. And finally got tired of being hungry all the time and finally said to hell with it, if I’m fat, I’m fat. I starting eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and a snack, all while doing the same activity. But I did cut out all colas and kinda watch the sweets. The doctor said it spreed up my metabolism and now I have lost 95 lbs in 7 years and off all medication. A slow process but it worked. I was surprised too.
“As will any diet or exercise program that takes in less calories than it expends.”
Oversimplistic, but will work for a percentage of people.
Please read post #30.
In my case I had been walking around hypothyroid for **years**. I had always been a healthy weight ( a little underweight) until my mid thirties. Then I gradually began gaining weight.
Finally in my early 40s I staggered into my doctor's office and told her, “I feel **horrible!!” I had a TSH of 10.5.
Well...Adjusting the thyroid made a big difference in how I felt but the weight was on to stay. It's been a four year project but I did lose 80 lbs. and it has been off for 3 years.
Every day is a determined struggle of who will win: Me or the hunger.
Utahagen, you are soooo right!
Most people dread exercising because it is such a chore! If you have to drive to the gym and get on a little machine and go round and round like a hamster...that’s no fun. Instead, do something you enjoy. Get some great music or an audio book on your ipod and take a walk. Go to the historical part of your town and walk through there. Call up an old friend, hit the local nature trail, and catch up on old times! Walk your dog. Play fetch with your dog. Go rake leaves.
ONLY ENJOY WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
The fat issue, though always sensitive, is now becoming more important than ever.
Fat is seen as “down market” or low class. Given the opportunity to hire someone who is overweight and qualified versus someone thin and slightly less qualified, many employers will go with the thin person. This is particularly true in jobs where they would meet the general public or customers.
I started Sept. 1 and so far I have lost 42 pounds and have gone from size 42 pants to 38's and looking into buying some 36's as the 38's are starting to get a little big. Went from 221 to 185. I have been heavy for the last 10 years (age 65) so it can be done. The first week is rough after that a piece of cake....whoops did I say cake?
Last year I quit drinking, smoking, gambling, swearing and chasing wild women........... and I got to tell you it was the longest 20 minutes of my life. This year I’ll scale back my resolution a bit./s
You might want to eat a little food that is healthy during this time. When you “just stop eating”, your body thinks you’re starving and begins storing fat which defeats the entire purpose.
Best wishes for a blessed ‘09.
no dems
I wasn’t. Actually, it was the ONLY way I lost weight.
What can I say? except that's one heck of a malfunctioning thyroid you got there!
Wife and I have the good fortune of having access to an athletic training room and trainer at no charge as part of our health insurance. The trainers stress that you should eat 5 times a day. 300 calories at each meal to lose weight and 400-500 calories to maintain dependent upon your training program, body size, etc. Food choices should focus on protein and green vegetables with minimal fats, sugars and starch.
Good rule of thumb: When you cook, your ingredients should not have ingredients.
I am looking forward to the invention of the “Republican” pill.
That is a pill you take that allows you to eat as much as you want without gaining weight, and also maintaining muscle tone without exercise.
Actually, this isn’t impossible. Naturally occurring substances that some people have, but most of us don’t, already do this. All that has to be done is find some way of synthesizing them, and the Republican pill will exist.
But why call it the Republican pill? Simply put, because it will be bitterly opposed by Democrats and liberals. They will not just dislike such a pill, they will HATE it with a burning passion. This is because it represents many of the things they already HATE.
1) It allows people to eat the delicious, environment destroying food, such as meats, desserts, all kinds of refined and processed foods, and in banquet sized portions.
2) It eliminates much of the reason for eating “health” foods, like tofu and bean sprouts. No longer will ordinary people be forced to eat stuff that tastes like lawn clippings to stay trim.
3) Perhaps the most bitter part to Democrats and liberals is that the pleasure of eating enjoyable food no longer needs to be balanced by the pain of starving and exercise, or eating bad tasting food. This is because they truly hate pleasure without pain.
4) Because of America’s abundance in food, even the poor can gobble down huge amounts of pleasurable food, yet still look trim and muscular.
Having more, living better, prosperity for all, the pursuit of happiness. Truly these are what the Republicans should embrace.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
They also discuss Hypothyroidism in the forums.
Happy and Healthy New Year!
Interesting.
I’m going to have an apple now and pass on the cookie that is staring at me.
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