-- Let's talk about counting calories & routine
 

Hi Guys,

I'm up to a 36 waist - thanks to Del Taco and a few others. As well as eating pretty poorly over the last year, or so.

I'm on a strict regimen now and doing a three week diet and then merging it into a new way of life. I have a history of eating well (normally) - but, again; have been quite clumsy over the past year or so.

My plan is to limit myself to 1100 calories a day the first week, then up to 1200 the second week, and then stay on or around 1500 calories as the norm, with one cheat day per week.

After the third week - I'll get back into some sort of exercise, which too will be part of the new 'way of life'

In this thread I'd like to discuss food ideas for assisting myself (& others) with weight loss.

Since Monday I've not gone above 1100 calories/daily - I have eaten oatmeal, oranges, bananas, hard-boiled eggs and in closing, in the evening - I'll eat one of the Chick Fil A Spicy, grilled chicken wraps w/o dressing (350 cals)

I'm open to ideas - but the goal is - finding items that are a little less common and more creative.

Please assist at your leisure - anyone else need assistance or interested in jumping aboard, I welcome it.

Thanks again

Chipotle...

I have lost ten pounds in the last month eating roughly 1400 calories a day. I allow myself one cheat day, and exercise 3-4 times a week. Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, fish, chicken, bacon (pork/turkey), peanut butter, apples, bananas. All I drink is water too.

I also have been using MyFitnessPal app and fast each day from 14-16 hours.

Very nice. This is great news! Keep it up!

I 'personally' do better w/ calorie counting vs. actual low-carb.

I'm certainly proud of you!!

Nice!

If eating healthy stuff doesn't bother you, then the calories become less significant. Obviously you have to cut back enough to burn fat, but you also have to eat enough to get the most out of your metabolism.

I guess what I'm suggesting is that it'll be better if you eat 2000 calories of lean meat, veggies, fruits, and whole grains than it is to eat 1200 calories in one meal from Steak 'N Shake and a handful of peanuts. And I'm not saying you are doing that at all, but I know friends who do it and there are certainly better ways to go about it.

I've gotten older, and have resigned to the fact that pretty much no matter what I do, I'll get/remain fat.

and my ambition is shot in terms of doing anything about it lol.
I just try to eat fruit/oatmeal / maybe a few slices of summer sausage/cheese/crackers (those lunchable type things) etc...that type of stuff for lunches. Dinners are pretty tame, not a ton of fast food. Don't drink nearly like I used to, maybe a few beers on a random weekend etc. Don't drink soda hardly ever.

despite all this, I've still gained weight over the last year.
really started noticing all this once I turned probably 39. Gonna be 41 in a few months. Last july / august I got really frustrated and ate nothing but GD salads (and I hate salads) and made protein drinks for nearly two months and didn't seem to lose any weight. maybe a few pounds, but nothing noticeable.

I'm no help. Binge ate about three grand calories of garbage food a day this week. Though I burn about 2500 a day...preventing a fat **** from forming.

Thanks! Good luck to you sir!

I will say - I've ALREADY noticed energy level changes - mostly because I'm in bed by 11 or so - this really helps - but; I'm excited about my decision - I'm pretty disciplined once I get rolling (historically speaking)

Can honestly say April 29th will be 1 year of no fast food.

I did this 6 months ago and noticed that my water consumption was a big part of it.

A lot of the time I felt hungry but it was just dehydration. I started drinking more water and felt a lot better during the day.

Great!

that's good to hear & helpful - I appreciate that.

I've been eating vegan 5-6 days a week and have never felt better in my life. I'm interested to see if I ever make the leap to being fully vegan, or if I love food too much to give meat up entirely.

Don't really miss dairy at all, which is surprising. Every time I eat it I feel like shit and remind myself to be more careful.

My only thought is might be better to just start at 1500 calories and stay there. If this is a lifestyle/habit change the few additional pounds lost first two weeks probably aren’t worth the stress/shock to system. Good luck whatever you do! Look forward to hearing how it goes.

Thanks both.

I use this too.

I have found, however, that keeping a paper and pencil journal is more effective. It makes you really think about everything you consume and educates you on how to read labels.

You drink a lot of soda and/or beer?

You'll be fine!!

You should allow a Lumberjack breakfast here and there though

hahaha

Beer put a lot on for me - so I'm getting away from that too - Going to start tide pods for a buzz, I think.

JK but seriously - I don't HAVE to drink beer. So that's good I suppose.

What vegan meals do you eat?

Here's my typical diet when I'm not drinking beer or out at a restaurant.

80 cal light and fit greek yogurt
Turkey meat/turkey burgers, typically no bun. Make it a lettuce wrap.
Brown rice
Chicken breast (I'll use lemon pepper)
Tilapia (Lemon pepper)
Zero fat cheese
Egg whites
Green peppers
broccoli
frozen fruit that I add with my whey protein mix

And that's pretty close to it. I'm a simple eater.

I try to keep my daily macros around 50 fat, 200 carb, 150 protein

And I keep my cals under 2,000 during the week because I know on the weekends I'm gonna eat and drink whatever I want.

I personally think 1,100 cals is way too low for you SR. It's not going to be very sustainable. But just focus on eating foods that are high volume and low calories.

We’re getting back in shape for Jamaica in June. Lost 25 lbs last year between Valentine’s Day and June 20. Cut my cals back to 2000 of good food and started running everyday. Then after Jamaica I gained 8 back. Now I’m back on the diet and running. My wife has meals delivered to the house. She can choose to have the lower cal meals which she does and it helps out with dinners.

not really.
maybe like 3 cans of soda a week / can with dinner; and usually it's a sugar free variety. though, sometimes I channel my inner RainMan and have a Dr. Pepper.

beer..maybe like 12 beers a month. maybe more here and there, but I can count on 1 hand the times I've bought beer each month. if that makes sense.

awesome guys

I am using 'myfitness pal' to keep track of my calories too.,..

if there are any bro's in here, /fit is a good board for lots of fitness info

I have lost 3 pounds in about 3 weeks just cutting back calories ...it works!

Fundamental for a good shower shit

basically , in my opinion I would try and do something like:

1) find out how many calories you burn per day

if you don't know you can yuse this calculator:

http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

2) then use some sort of app like 'myfitnesspal' to keep a log of everything you eat and drink

3) try to shoot for about 500 less calories than you burn per day..so if you burn 2000 calories a day, cut to 1500


you will lose a pound a week and it is very sustainable this way (500 x7 = 3500 calories..... and it just so happens 3500 calories is one pound)

LETS DO THIS fellas

:hmmm:

I got inspired by this article. Based on his recommendations, I set my calorie level for 1800/day to start with. The thing is, though, is that I get diet fatigue really fast doing day in and day out low calorie and it seemed like one mistake dicked up the whole week.

I have done alternate day fasting before and found it easy once I got going. ADF has found to be as safe and effective as daily calorie restriction and it easier for me to stick with. What worked best for me was to "fast" Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday ("down days") and eat Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday ("up days").

With ADF, down days are actually 500 calories, though you can go zero if you want. I am currently doing the 500 calories. So a week's worth of calories is 1800 x 7 or 12600. Subtract out the three down days 12600 - 1500 for 11100 or 2775 a day for up days. I want to have one day where I don't have to really worry about calories so I actually do 2500 a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which leaves 3600 for Saturday. That leaves a lot of wiggle room for having pizza or something. I don't like a true "cheat day" as that usually means a "binge day".

If you've looked into things like refeed days and diet breaks, there are some mental and physical benefits to breaking up the long low calorie periods. Eating this way builds in those diet breaks. Having those higher calorie days also help with the diet fatigue.

I try to target protein on my down days so will do eggs or non-fat Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. On up days, I usually do fruit and low fat dairy in the morning (cottage cheese or Greek yogurt) and for dinner, I tend towards low fat carbs and lean protein (I do a lot of stir fries or potatoes). The biggest challenge is fitting in with my wife's schedule as she does't need to diet.

I get it and thank you - But the immense calorie reduction is for short-term loss - & maybe you're correct - I'm certainly not an expert in this area. I'm open to these sort of posts. this WILL work for me in the short-term though and I will start losing soon, by default. May massage my method(s) over the next month.

this is all good stuff guys - we can do this together. I'm cool w/ PM's, DM's and BMs

Let's just stick together.

Want to report in and tell me? Fine.

Want me to spank you after you've inhaled a few cupcakes? that's fine too!

Accountability - maybe that's what we need to use the thread for.

I want in on this. I am here with you all , im cutting 500+ calories a day...losing a pound or maybe 1.5 pound per week. I want to be there for you all for this and i want you to be there for me. Lets do this together.

You all seem nice.

Interesting.

Your calories are too low. You are going to get too hungry and weak and end up cheating and failing. Don't cut so drastically. This is a long term thing.
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You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Pawnmower again.

The majority of my wife's family are Vegan these days.

One of my brother in law's is athletic as **** now, after being a chub. He's cut, lean and makes playing pick up sports at the park unfair because he's clearly a cut above everyone else athletically, so his team always wins, even when we try to saddle him with the least athletic players. He attributes a lot of it to is switch to veganism.

My other bro in law was a fat ****. I mean like....obese. As in it was nearly impossible to find clothes that fit him. He's lost an insane amount of weight after going hardcore vegan.

He's down to 245lbs, and we have no idea how much he actually lost because he was too heavy for any of our scales to read properly. At only 5-7" in height.

My mother in law also lost a ton of weight going Vegan. My sister in law and her husband are also vegan.

I've been counting calories lately as well and my wife picked up a book called "Eat this, Not that", which i think is an awesome book.

Im not overweight by any means, but im aiming to get into that 10-12% body fat range and just clean up my eating habits in general, before i actually do get fat.

Also, what i've found from being around a bunch of Vegans is that Vegan food is good as long as you stick to natural ingredients.

When they start getting into the fake meats and fake cheeses, their egg substitutes....bleh. ****ing gross. Barf bag shit.

Interesting

You wanna lose weight, shove a squirrel up your ass.

I just came home for lunch and threw together a fresh spinach salad and threw two chicken strips in a skillet. I could do this every day unless I'm looking for miniblinds.

Noticed you were starting to resemble Zach, congrats.

How does one count calories accurately? Are you measuring? I use my fitness pal but it's mostly swag. Also how does one get by on 1200 calories a day? I eat that at breakfast.

my only problem with a Vegan diet is the whole eating vegetables part.
other than that, I would totally be down for it.

Perspective SR.
At my heaviest I was at least 290 thats the highest I ever weighed myself may have even gotten a bit heavier. I am 5'10. I was always big but not really fat when I was young. I have been slowly losing weight by smaller portions nothing drastic. For the first time in like 35 years i have a 0 after the 2 in my weight. I hit a plateau at 220 that lasted for 2 years and finally started going down slowly. I am a 38 now.
36 is your moment of panic for me it is a number I haven't seen in almost 40 years yet is in sight.
Good luck friend

this is actually a really important question....

I generally use my fitness pal and I go by the old saying "trust but verify"

The way my fitness pal works is kinda like wikipedia...ANYONE can put in an entry (like a cheeseburger from mcdonalds = 300 calories or whatever)

and you can use anyone's entry..so if youre adding something for lunch..you start typing cheeseburger...and you scroll down to the mcdonalds ones and use use one that someone else has already input the info

the ones with the little green check-marks are generally better....

heres the cool thing...if you have something every day, like coffee with milk or whatever...

once u add it in there to your food diary, and you confirm it is correct.it just stays on your quick menu so u can easily add it any time after that.....so basically if it is something you eat frequently just confiirm it once time then boom it is in your system waiting to be easily added any time you eat it...

You can even do custom things like 'cheeseburger - no bun' and most of the time someone else already thought of that and did the work for you and it is already in the database to be found easily.

I have found mistakes though, but they are easily corrected and added in there.

for a male (who is not physically active), 1200 calories would be about right if you weighed 170 and were trying to lose 1 pound per week.

roughly : weight x 10 (170 x 10) minus 500 per day = losing 1 pound a week,

but then when you are at your target weight you would go back to 1700 calories

I use a digital scale and the Cronometer app/website. After a bit, most of the foods you eat will be in your recent list so it's pretty quick. Mixed meals like stir fry or a casserole are a pain but you only have to enter it once unless you make it drastically different each time. You want to be close but you don't have to get it down to the gnat's ass for general weight loss.

You can lose approx. 1.3 pounds for each squirrel you extract from your ass.

Vegan isn't just vegetables. Beans, nuts, fruit,rice/other grains, etc are all part of it. It would be extremely tough to get all of your daily calories just eating vegetables.

Fascinating.

In my opinion...the exercise and activity level are more important than what you consume.

Obviously don't gorge on shit food but if you are exercising 1+ hours a day, the rest takes care of itself.

Depends on what I'm feeling I guess. I've been eating a lot of berries, jackfruit BBQ sandwiches are good, I've found some veggie burgers I like. They're great with sriracha on em. Sweet potatoes. Breakfast is usually smoothies I'll blend up with spinach, berries, bananas, vega protein powder (berry flavor is the best), cashew milk, tart cherry, chia seeds, maca powder and maybe some salad parts I have to use up. There's a really good salad at Costco with some nuts and cranberries in it I eat a lot. My wife found a salad dressing that's Whole30/Vegan that's an avacado ranch flavor but not shitty for you.

Lots of beans and rice, Chipotle, Q'Doba has a great tortilla soup that can be vegan, Indian food, Asian food too. I'm doing a lot more shopping at Trader Joe's, Sprouts and not as much at Kroger or Publix as I used to. I found a black bean chili and vegan mac n "cheese" that's really good when combined. If I feel like eating shitty that's a go to.

I eat out less too. But I did find this vegan food truck restaurant in Austell (think dirty, fairly lower middle class suburb of Atlanta near Smyrna where I live) that's fantastic. Same parking lot with a Pollo Tropical my daughter loves - so we'll go over there and endure the dirty looks from the other vegans while my daughter eats chicken. LMAO

Honestly, I feel better than I ever have, and that's why I started eating this way. I want to run some 50k's over the next couple years and a lot of distance runners eat this way cause it helps in their recovery. So I tried it, and feel amazing. I never have indigestion, heart burn, reflux, or feel shitty after I eat this way. Ever.

Changing how I eat was made easier when I didn't look at what I can't eat anymore. I look at how much of this delicious stuff I can. I eat entire bowls of strawberries. Or 3-4 sweet potatoes. Or a giant salad. Or I'll get the best bread I can get my hands on and make crazy veggie or black bean burgers. If I spent all my time thinking about what I am not eating I'd hate it.

But I still love meat too. Maybe one day I'll be fully vegan, not ready for that yet. When I eat meat it's mostly chicken or seafood. I haven't had red meat since early December. I'm down 15 pounds or so since then. I plan to drop 19 more to be at 184 by the time my daughter is out of school for the summer. Then as my training kicks up hopefully I can get under 170 before this fall when I start running these crazy things...

this is repeatably proven false.

an hour of moderate excercise per day will not do jack shit in terms of losing fat if youre eating way too much

for example if you burn around 500 calories in an hour workout...that wont help you if you are eating 3200 calories a day and need to cut back to 2200, youll still gain weight in the end...

diet is the #1 most important factor....exercise comes next....some would even say NEAT comes before exercise and i agree personally

For most people it is nearly impossible to exercise their way out of a bad diet but you CAN lose weight with no exercise and the proper diet...

source: http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html

Wrong. You can lose weight not exercising at all. Just stay under your basal metabolic rate.

This is true. I stay away from the fake shit, it's disgusting.

I do like the nut based cheeses I've had, and I definitely prefer nut based milks to dairy now too.

If you'd told me on Dec 1 I'd enjoy eating this way and have found food I genuinely love I'd have laughed in your face.

That was my rub too. Turns out when you'll put a little effort into them, and actually try them, there's some really good ones out there.

Brussel sprouts in a grill over indirect heat with olive oil drizzled over them and lots of smoke are delicious. The oil takes in the smoke and it's crazy good. I had no idea cause to me grills were for meat.

i really like them too

when i am lazy i split them and roast them at about 475, until they are soft and even a little charred right in the oven, with the drizzle. hell yah man

i like to grill cauliflower and onions and potatoes too

green onions

carrots
etc

I started keto with this link and used the calculator to figure out calories/day and how much I'd lose, etc.... regardless of going keto, I thought the calculator was useful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq

I use the LoseIt app, don't know how much better/worse it is than MyFitnessPal... it lets you scan in food with barcodes, which is pretty nice, and gives you a daily and weekly breakdown of nutrition.

I think that level of tracking is the best thing someone can do... I've known a lot of people who start exercising and cutting out certain foods, etc; but don't track calories and then get frustrated when they aren't losing weight.

That reminds me, my wife made some buffalo cauliflower in the oven, put shredded salad all over the top with that whole 30 avocado ranch dressing and that shit was the bomb.

And I don't like cauliflower.

next time u have your grill going indirect smoke, take some chopped up cauliflower and onions and a few like yukon potato chunks, drizzle with olive oil and cook it just like you do your sprouts (maybe in a tin or whatnot), then put a little shredded cheese on after u take off grill and cover till melted

Vegan sounds depressing as **** to have to resort to.

I've been wasting too much time trying to find the magical way of eating that would let me spontaneously cut calories without having to measure but I think I've gotten too old for them to work now. So now it's off to measuring and calculating everything I eat. I find it a drudgery but so is hauling around extra weight.

How's it worked for you? The only way I found I could keep myself keto was to fast. If I didn't eat for 3-5 days I rocked it, felt great, needed less sleep, but as soon as I would eat I'd **** the ratios all up.

I find that a pack of smokes and 10 cups of coffee keeps me trim as a twig

Sounds good - I went over to moms just a minute ago - she had a skillet full of cheeseburgers - I told her it's my kryptonite and passed.

tonight i'm going to have a Subway six inch wheat w/ turkey - no cheese, only mustard and jalapenis, may have a cup of sf jello too.

I don't want to be a douche but you've got to be getting these calories from somewhere.

Either you're eating and drinking more than you think or you don't get much activity whatsoever..?

the difference between gaining and losing weight weekly is a pretty thin margin...literally just drinking one soda/beer less and eating 1 slice of bread less every day can mean the difference between losing or gaining weight weekly...

1 piece of bread is like 100 calories.....

1 pint of beer can be 250 or 300 calories

1 soda, probably 200 or 300

a lot of people (and I was one of them) do not realize they are eating more calories than they burn every day...and even if youre a LITTLE BIT off , it means you constantly gain instead of maintain or lose...

its REALLY hard to estimate (for me anyway)....so i simply have to keep track or I go over too much.

Cure is worse than the disease.

3500 calories = 1 pound


Do the math.

I really like it, but it's more off and on for me at this point.... when I'm on it, I stick to ~50 carbs/day (not including fiber), which is on the high end, but it's a good number for me.

For relatively short term weight loss, it's been great. I've used it a a few times at 2-3 months and lost weight pretty quickly. I'll probably never stick with it 100% long term, but still don't eat the really obvious carbs (I used to eat a ton of pasta, pizza, Clif bars, bagels, etc.) and don't drink as much beer.

When I'm committed to it, there are still days I cheat a bit (like once every few weekends), but even then I try not to go much over 100 or else it becomes frustrating to get kicked out and have to spend 2 or 3 days feeling hungry all the time.

And of course there are times where it's just not all that feasible, like around the holidays and when I'm travelling a lot.

Long term is of course a lot more about sustainability and I personally wouldn't keep to under 50 carbs/day all the time.... at the same time, it's really opened my eyes to how much I was eating overall and how I'm sure I was on the fast track to diabetes.

I totally agree. It wasn't until I started to really track down to tablespoons of BBQ sauce or whatever that I realized how bad I was at estimating how much I was eating per day.... and once I started looking at a 500 calorie deficit/day, I didn't realize 1) how excessive my eating habits were, and 2) how relatively little food I could survive on.

And when I don't track, I tend to fudge a little here and there, so it keeps me honest, or at least in the ballpark.

Thanks bud

I’ve lost 24 lbs in 6 weeks. 48 lbs lost total in 3 months. Not counting calories. Portion control. More veggies/fruit. No burgers, pizza, pasta etc. Not doing any kind of “diet”. It’s more of a lifestyle change than a traditional diet. Walking 2-3 miles a day.

Went out and heard some music drank 5 beers, had a pizza early in the week and some popcorn today at the movies. But that’s not been typical.

Good for you BRC, I'm glad! :clap: