Weight loss questions

[PunkJr]

If you want to lose weight, long term, then the gym is the worst place to go. Have you ever heard of the term "work up an appetite"? I have spent over 1000 hours studying nutrition, after battling with fluctuating weight for decades. When I started a new job that took up most of my free time to exercise, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be overweight.

So four years later, with no exercise (I have just started again, and certainly advocate exercise, just not for weight loss), and a change in eating habits, I have now lost 27kg, and I have been stable at that weight for three and a half years. I also have not felt hungry in that four years, and consume about 800 calories more per day than when I was continuously losing weight (I was eating a mere 2100 calories a day, and I weighed 113kg - 6' tall).

Don't listen to doctors who will tell you that you eat too much and exercise too little, they don't study nutrition at medical school.

And fruit is packed full of sugar too - eat it sparingly.

 

[gunning]

If you want to lose weight, long term, then the gym is the worst place to go. Have you ever heard of the term "work up an appetite"? I have spent over 1000 hours studying nutrition, after battling with fluctuating weight for decades. When I started a new job that took up most of my free time to exercise, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be overweight. So four years later, with no exercise (I have just started again, and certainly advocate exercise, just not for weight loss), and a change in eating habits, I have now lost 27kg, and I have been stable at that weight for three and a half years. I also have not felt hungry in that four years, and consume about 800 calories more per day than when I was continuously losing weight (I was eating a mere 2100 calories a day, and I weighed 113kg - 6' tall). Don't listen to doctors who will tell you that you eat too much and exercise too little, they don't study nutrition at medical school.

Are you saying don't go to the gym?

 

[Deleted member 6183]

If you want to lose weight, long term, then the gym is the worst place to go. Have you ever heard of the term "work up an appetite"? I have spent over 1000 hours studying nutrition, after battling with fluctuating weight for decades. When I started a new job that took up most of my free time to exercise, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be overweight.

So four years later, with no exercise (I have just started again, and certainly advocate exercise, just not for weight loss), and a change in eating habits, I have now lost 27kg, and I have been stable at that weight for three and a half years. I also have not felt hungry in that four years, and consume about 800 calories more per day than when I was continuously losing weight (I was eating a mere 2100 calories a day, and I weighed 113kg - 6' tall).

Don't listen to doctors who will tell you that you eat too much and exercise too little, they don't study nutrition at medical school.

And fruit is packed full of sugar too - eat it sparingly.

Fructose, glucose, sucrose there's a common theme there for sure.

My doctor told me to eat fruit instead of dessert if I must.

 

[KennyN]

If you want to lose weight, long term, then the gym is the worst place to go.

Sorry cant agree with that at all , the local take away is the worst place to go if you are trying to loose weight

On a serious note , did any of your studies involve shift work ?

Try eating your evening meal at 02:00 and not having any fluids or solids for upwards of 14 hours , trying to survive on 5 broken hours of sleep a night for a week and see how your weight loss plan work out and how difficult / impossible it is to stick to a pre-planned eating schedule.

An hour of weights followed by 30mins of cardio in a nice warm environment with "motivational" music and some eye candy certainly works for me and keeps the ticker ticking for a while longer.

Kenny

 

[PunkJr]

Not to lose weight. I am not saying gym exercise won't help with weight loss if you are smart about it, but high impact short exercise has proven to work better. Gym exercise has to be in conjunction with the right diet, which is 90% of weight loss. You go to the gym for mental and physical health and well being, but if you are over weight, then you have bigger issues to worry about first. I advocate stopping exercise when you start to eat healthy, as it is easier to track what food is and isn't working - ie, where your tipping point of insulin resistance is. Exercise should just be the cream.

 

[PunkJr]

Sorry cant agree with that at all , the local take away is the worst place to go if you are trying to loose weight

On a serious note , did any of your studies involve shift work ?

Try eating your evening meal at 02:00 and not having any fluids or solids for upwards of 14 hours , trying to survive on 5 broken hours of sleep a night for a week and see how your weight loss plan work out and how difficult / impossible it is to stick to a pre-planned eating schedule.

An hour of weights followed by 30mins of cardio in a nice warm environment with "motivational" music and some eye candy certainly works for me and keeps the ticker ticking for a while longer.

Kenny

Sure Kenny, it may work for short term, maybe even long term. That will depend a lot on your genes, and your eating habits when you were young, and even your mothers eating habits when you were in the womb. It's all about insulin resistance.

It is difficult to change eating habits in today's society which is geared around fast, convenient, cheap carbohydrates. It is inconvenient, but liberating at the same time. I take a cool box with me to work, footy, day trips with the family. Yes it takes organising, but I then don't feel constrained by "where am I going to have lunch", or trying to plan my trips so that I am in a certain place come lunch time. With time it all becomes second nature.

 

[tali]

Is that not a case of "I'm doing more walking so I can eat this, that, the other"...

Walking is not great for fat burning unless very fast walking for a long time.

You need cardio for that.

And the right diet!

The walking was uphill , and it was bringing out the sweat.I'm 46 -and 9st i am currently is heaviest i have been.
Think i only get 1500 a calories a day instead of the 3000 needed.And i'm rather sedentary and inactive- and have been so since my teens -so that's over 30 yrs of doing sweet fa and a junk -ish diet .I'm basically a skinny slob!

 

[Darrell]

46 and 9 stone!!!

 

[AMGeed]

46 and 9 stone!!!

Lester Piggott V2.0

 

[bob6600]

I think eating less does help. Not by choice, I lost 25kg in 18 months due to not being able to eat properly (having to lie down whilst eating). This imo compressed my stomach and made me feel full when I wasn't. Gradually portion sizes went down and as I started to eat 'normally' again I got full up on smaller portions. I still ate junk but a lot less of it. There was no exercise as i couldn't do it.

The (poor) health factors probably contributed but eating less definitely made me lose weight.

 

[tali]

Lester Piggott V2.0

30 inch waist.I should have become a jockey - but i'm scared of horses
My sister is 45 and she is only 7.5st

 

[Gareth Kent]

Piff. As others have offered this forum probably not the best place for advice, but from my own experience even those who know about food and exercise often get it wrong. In the gym we can fall into routines and even though we may working hard and sweating we won't necessarily be doing the right things and loosing weight. If you want to shed some weight suggest you spend some time with a nutrition expert. I have a desk job and despite being physically fit, completing 120k cycle rides, half marathons and other "mud" events, I found it hard to shift my paunch. I saw a nutritionist and kept a food diary for a couple of weeks. It took discipline but at the end I went through the diary with her and we made some very simple changes to my food choices. I have shifted 5kg in four months and combined with a training schedule that incorporates some weight training I am very happy with the results. Energy levels are through the roof. It is hard work and takes time. If you have a local gym with a nutrition expert then that is a good place to start. Good luck mate.

 

[brucemillar]

46 and 9 stone!!!

60 and just under 9 stone. Also I am hideously good looking.

Sent from my iPhone using sausage fingers.

 

[Darrell]

60 and just under 9 stone. Also I am hideously good looking. Sent from my iPhone using sausage fingers.

If your trying to attract a pipe cleaner for a new girlfriend!!

 

[mat8n]

I've done manual work and ridden pedal bikes all my life, I'd class myself as fit/athletic.
But once I turned 40 I got the spread, I hadn't changed anything.
So I went on a diet, a super food diet of my choosing, but I was very strict 3 weeks while away with work with no silly drinking. When home for I week I ate and drank like I was on holiday.
I lost about 10kg and my gut over about 10 months..... No extra exercise(can't stand gyms and stuff)... Just the diet.
Since I moved to a different location with work it's not been as easy to eat well, and I crashed my bike and have been doing nothing for over two months I've but a bit back on, I'll get it off again but I won't do exercise.... It's all about the diet.

 

[brucemillar]

If your trying to attract a pipe cleaner for a new girlfriend!!

Darrell. I actually do not look that skinny or boney. I am only 5'5" tall so I am the 'perfect' weight for my height. I now weigh the same as when I was 15 years old. Although this was a medically induced weight loss, I feel good on it. I am back trying to play Golf with a much improved swing (no gut) Walk my dogs for up to eight miles every day of the week in all weathers and eat salad every day, which I now really enjoy. I was always a vegetarian (since my teens) but now eat well prepared meals.

The biggest change for me was cutting out the alcohol. I was a very heavy social drinker. Golf on a Sunday was the pre-cursor for up to eight pints of Guinness and as much Vodka & tonic as I could manage. Weekdays would normally involve two or thee pints of Guinness.

I don't miss it, or the culture that went with it. I feel better, cleaner, healthier and much more able (no hangovers)

I regret the years that I wasted in the pub with my "mates" who stopped being "mates" the second I did not appear in the Pub. No phone calls, no grapes, no how's Bruce these days?

I throw myself into my family life that I neglected for far too many years and love every second of it ;^)

 

[thedruid]

Hello Piff.

I have also suffered the middle age spread/beer belly/fat b'stard look which crept up on me after I smashed an ankle and stopped being active for a while.

What I did was avoid the gym, walk 5 miles or over most days, stop alcohol completely, no bread, no added salt, no sugar in tea and coffee, stopped eating fried food, no sweets or biscuits or crisps and didn't eat the crackling off the Sunday roast. In just over a month I had shed two stone and my belt went two holes further to the right.
I'm over 50, 6'4" and was just over 17 stone while I was in Bhudda mode. I'm hovering just under 15 stone now and have relaxed my regime and the weight is staying off by being sensible with food, drink and exercise.

Give it a go, its free and not as boring (to me) as the gym.

 

[E55BOF]

If you put in more fuel than you burn, you gain weight. There were no fat prisoners in Japanese P-O-W camps.

Eating less IS the answer, but as SPX has highlighted, not suddenly cutting down to almost nothing.

It's difficult, though; healthy low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar, low-calorie foods are also low-taste, low-enjoyment, low-satisfaction foods...

 

[tangey]

As others have said, it's basically a matter of calories in v. calories out.

I would suggest either forgetting the gym or at least not over-relying on it as a way to burn calories. There is a whole private "fitness industry" who do their best to convince us that the best way to lead a healthy lifestyle is to spend a lot of money to join a gym with promises of great improvements to our fitness and wellbeing.

Gyms definitely have their place, and as far as your suggestions go:-

Running outdoors is far better than slogging away on a treadmill

Road/footpath running is very hard on the joints especially the knees. Grass migh be better, but in terms of joints, the treadmill is the best option. As we are talking about losing weight, it's fair to say many will already be stressing their joints

A decent used bike can be bought for the price of a couple of months gym membership and is more fun than sweating on a cycle machine whilst staring at the wall

Depends on how far you have to go in the first place before you can find somewhere that's half-safe to cycle. Urban roads are very dangerous, nevermind the pollution

For journeys less than a mile or two try to walk

I think walking is widely considered a pretty good form of execrise

 

[tangey]

I've been using a fitbit this last 8-10 weeks. It's worked for me, because I'm the type of person interested in stats, setting targets, seeing history etc, and the app is great at doing all this stuff. It is very much a motivational tool and has helped me focus on eating better and doing more excerise. Whatever the science of it, I think we can all agree that doing those two things will generally be good for you.

I think, in very general terms, it does come down to calories in v calories out.