****Official Weight Loss and Exercise Thread****

[luv]

I know that TinyE has the CP Weight Loss Challenge thread, but this is a new beginning for me. No losing weight for prizes, as that motivation ended on July 1st. This time I'm doing it for me. My goal is 75 lbs. Slow and steady wins the race. This time, the prize will be a whole new me.

Anyone else still battling the bulge? Here, hopefully, you can find more encouragement and tips on diet and exercise. Feel free to talk about discouragements, setbacks, frustrations, etc as well. We're here to help...at least I am.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Doesn't surprise me...at my highest I was nothing compared to tons of people I'd see.

Yeah, when I was at 210 I was telling myself I wasn't that much overweight, but when I dropped to 170 (well, now 172) my blood pressure and cholesterol levels dropped dramatically. There has to be a huge health advantage to that.

On the other side of the equation, I looked up a while back to see how light I'd have to be to be considered underweight. I'm a touch over 6 feet tall, and to be underweight I would have to weigh less than 137. 137? So If I was 6 feet and 140 pounds I wouldn't be underweight?

[Mecca]

My brother weighs 135...literally eats whatever he wants...eats a whole pizza, 5 sodas you name it, never gains weight.

It's annoying.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Mecca

My brother weighs 135...literally eats whatever he wants...eats a whole pizza, 5 sodas you name it, never gains weight.

It's annoying.

You know what though? If he ever doesn't want to be a pathetic 135, and that is pathetic, it will be incredibly difficult for him to gain muscle mass. He will really have to work at it.

[JohnnyV13]

Originally Posted by Mecca

My brother weighs 135...literally eats whatever he wants...eats a whole pizza, 5 sodas you name it, never gains weight.

It's annoying.

Won't last forever. Age will eventually slow down his metabolism. I used to be like that, I weighed 125 when I graduated high school.

I had to kill myself to gain weight in college (I went from 125 to 175 by the beginning of my junior year, with 11% body fat).

Then I developed a prolapsed mitral valve in my heart, and my doctor wouldn't let me lift more than 100 lbs, and I became fat.

Now, I figured out how to condition within my weight limitations, but am having a hell of a time getting back my ripped stomach. I figured out that I could lift 100lbs with one hand or leg and greatly increase my effective resistance, and I discovered the drop set could be used to make gains without the blood pressure spikes that "pushing out" reps causes, but my &$%& stomach wants to retain a spare tire. Recently, I've resorted to cortisol inhibitors to bring down my belly fat.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm a little worried about my knees in the long term, but for right now I'm doing fine other than a little tendonitis in my left one at the moment. Tendonitis kind of hurts, but I think it's temporary.

This was one of my harder ones because it had about a 5 mile uphill stretch. However, that was on the way out, so the way back was a morale boost since it was almost all downhill.

You should look into an ultrasound machine. It works wonders on tendinitis.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

An employee of mine was telling me about gait. (He's a long-distance runner.) Apparently, you should target having your feet hit about 85 times per minute, because that gives you the best contact with the ground with the least leg stress. (I don't know why.) On some of my races, I'll hear people running nearby who land with their feet flat, and I don't know how they avoid injury. Every step lands flat-footed and makes a big clomp, and it seems like it would hurt.

So maybe you could examine your gait and see if perhaps you can put less stress on your knees by changing it a little (assuming you care enough about it).

Heel strike FTL. Forefoot running FTW.

http://www.crossfitatlanta.com/newsl...ne_7_2007.html

[SenselessChiefsFan]

Originally Posted by Silock

I didn't say you won't lose weight. I said it's not the most effective and efficient way to do it. Science agrees.

It's very hard to eat below your BMR without ingesting fat. Fat makes you feel full. Carbs do not. Carbs leave you feeling hungry by design. Not saying it's impossible, just difficult. That's why a lot of dieters fail. You have to have massive amounts of self-discipline to eat low calories and low fat.

Yet, many studies conducted prove that thin people in the best shape, typically eat a higher carb diet than fat.

Eating a high fat diet is stupid. I don't care if you lose 50 lbs, it is still bad for you.

The key is excercise.

[SenselessChiefsFan]

Luv-

I am 35 years old, and I looked at myself in the mirror and I realized that it was important for me to stay in shape. I have two kids and my oldest daughter was starting to put on weight and I was a hypocrite, asking her to watch what she eats and to excercise.

I have a little bit of an advantage because I have been in sports. I have worked out and I understand nutrition pretty well.

But, I do my cardio every morning before I eat. It is important to do it before you eat because that burns fat. It doesn't burn the calories that you have already eaten.

I eat high protein snacks and I try to limit my carbs. If I eat carbs, I try to make them complex carbs. The body needs fiber, fiber is a carb. So this low carb diet crap is great for a short term to lose weight. But, long term it doesn't help you and is hard to maintain.

The other part that many women don't do is weight train. This is a huge help in any fitness program.

The increase in lean muscle mass actually increases your metabolism.

Everyday is filled with decisions about what you will do to lose weight. Much like life, you will make good decisions, and bad decisions. But, much like life, you can't do anything about the decisions you have already made.

When you make a mistake, realize that you have an opportunity to make a better decision the next time. And, then make a better decision the next time.

The key is to make more good decisions than bad over a long period of time.

It takes a long time to get overweight. Losing it over a short amount of time is possible, but not necessary. Just take everyday as an opportunity to eat better and excercise.

This is not something you 'must' do. It is something you have opportunity to do.

Keep the right mindset dear, and I will be pulling and praying for you.

[SenselessChiefsFan]

Oh, one more thing...... read something about nutrition or excercise EVERYDAY.

#1) You learn new things. It gives you new ideas to try with nutrition, or a new excercise to experiment with. We all like new things.... so, it spices things up and can renew your excitement litterally every day.

#2) It will help you to stay focused on what you are trying to do in the long run.

The only other tip I have is limit junk food in the house. The reality is that we get into habits that have quit being choices... they are just habits. We do things without much thought.

Removing those habits from the house will help you cut down on your poor decisions.

[Chiefs=Champions]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I want to get down another 8 pounds. As part of that, I did a 15.5 mile jog today up a smallish mountain. (I'm in Breckenridge with the wife on a business trip.)

I don't usually go on trails by myself, so I brought my cell phone. Along the way, I took some pictures. It's not bad to do a long jog with scenery like this:

(The little rock on the big rock that's a different color was the rock I carried with me in case I got attacked by a mountain lion or something.)

wow man, thats some pretty nice pics there...

[KCUnited]

Starting shedding some pounds after the Summer ended. Went to a oatmeal/protein smoothie for breakfast, piece of fruit for a snack mid morning, take my lunch to work everyday which is a salad, fruit, jello, and eat a modest dinner of grilled chicken/fish/beef with veg. Not only have I dropped from 183 to 165, but my meals hover around $2-$3 apiece, a real money saver. The only thing I miss is cracking beers at 10:30 am on Sunday's and Chikn Bizkits patna. FWIW.

[bevischief]

I started the year with a goal to lose weight, I got a stationary bike and I play Playstation 2 games for about 1 hour to 1 hour and half a day Monday thru Friday. I lost 40 pounds doing that. Lost the last 14 pounds I wanted to lose and a another 8 on top of that by spending a month on pain killers and eating Pringles. I also eat my big meals in the AM and try not eat after 6pm.

[BigOlChiefsfan]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

(The little rock on the big rock that's a different color was the rock I carried with me in case I got attacked by a mountain lion or something.)

When the cougars outlaw little different colored rocks only outlaws will have little different colored rocks. Rock on!

[Silock]

Originally Posted by SensibleChiefsfan

Yet, many studies conducted prove that thin people in the best shape, typically eat a higher carb diet than fat.

Eating a high fat diet is stupid. I don't care if you lose 50 lbs, it is still bad for you.

The key is excercise.

Thin people in the best shape typically exercise a lot, so they get away with eating more carbs than normal. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem comes when you eat a ton of carbs and don't do enough exercise to burn it off, which is what happens to the majority of people. It's difficult to fight more with more.

For instance, I did a cardio session yesterday for an hour and 20 minutes with an average HR of 174. Burned a little more than 1,400 calories. That's barely enough to offset the handful of Oreos and milk I ate last night. Hard to fight more with more.

And proof that high fat diets are bad?

>12% saturated fat diets have been shown to reduce coronary plaque, whereas high carb diets were associated with heart plaque progression. Yeah, sounds TERRIBLE for you.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum


Reduction in LDL-IV with high fat diets

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9...ubmed_RVDocSum

Okinawans are the longest living people on the planet. They consume a lower carb, high fat diet. They also have an incredibly low incidence of heart disease.

http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/...fat-diets.html

There's a ton of info out there about the benefits of a high-fat diet.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by SensibleChiefsfan

I eat high protein snacks and I try to limit my carbs. If I eat carbs, I try to make them complex carbs. The body needs fiber, fiber is a carb. So this low carb diet crap is great for a short term to lose weight. But, long term it doesn't help you and is hard to maintain.

If low carb is stupid, why do you do it? I'm not saying NO carb. That's different than low-carb. But when I get the majority of your energy from fats and proteins, I don't find that I even have room for carbs. I'm too full. I eat around 20-30% of my diet as carbs, and 40% as fat. That's low-carb, but not *no carb*.

Disagree re: hard to maintain. I outlined why earlier in this thread.