-- Let's talk about counting calories & routine

[Simply Red]

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

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Frosty

By the way, if anyone is interested in the Alternate Day Fasting that I'm doing, here is a pretty comprehensive article explaining how it works with links to the relevant studies.

I did an 18 day water only fast in early March. The first 3 days were tough but it got easy after that. I eased back into food after it ended.

I did it to jump start my next weight loss push of the last 25-30 pounds by mid July for a total of 100 lb lost in 16 months; from 273-274 down to 175

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by AssEaterChief

I keep hearing this....I am 37 and maybe it is just different for me?

I have people in their early 30's at basketball saying the same thing all the time "oh man once you hit 30 it is downhill..."

I feel as good as I did when I was in my 20's

As good as I have ever felt in fact. I don't believe it will magically change by some arbitrary number..

Yea I remember when I used to think this exact same thing too.

Around the time I hit 39, during that exact year for sure, I started putting on weight so I adjusted my diet the same way I always had previously, and had always worked. Nothing happened, didn't lose a pound.

Had to start counting calories and that's when I started running.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by SuperBowl4

fruits and vegetables

WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by scho63

I did an 18 day water only fast in early March. The first 3 days were tough but it got easy after that. I eased back into food after it ended.

I did it to jump start my next weight loss push of the last 25-30 pounds by mid July for a total of 100 lb lost in 16 months; from 273-274 down to 175

That's some impressive weight loss.

I do have to say, though, that ADF is nothing like long term fasting. I'm not real fond of even saying the "fasting" part of ADF because people's eyes instantly glaze over, thinking you are talking about starving yourself.

The original version of this was called the "Johnson Up day, Down Day Diet" (JUDDD) and there is a newer version called the Every Other Day Diet. I like those better as they describe it better. You diet one day and eat over TDEE the next. Repeat. Simple.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by scho63

I did an 18 day water only fast in early March. The first 3 days were tough but it got easy after that. I eased back into food after it ended.

I did it to jump start my next weight loss push of the last 25-30 pounds by mid July for a total of 100 lb lost in 16 months; from 273-274 down to 175

That’s crazy, man. Good luck!

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by scho63

I did an 18 day water only fast in early March. The first 3 days were tough but it got easy after that. I eased back into food after it ended.

I did it to jump start my next weight loss push of the last 25-30 pounds by mid July for a total of 100 lb lost in 16 months; from 273-274 down to 175

impressive.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

SR is the most inspiring poster!

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball

SR is the most inspiring poster!

That's very sweet of you to say. Thanks you've made my day.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by scho63

I did it to jump start my next weight loss push of the last 25-30 pounds by mid July for a total of 100 lb lost in 16 months; from 273-274 down to 175

fantastic! That’s a lot of work. Great effort and results.

[Titty Meat]

Did sprints, Bear crawls, Lubges and squats with my 25 pound vest on. Went the whole liberty memorial lawn that workout was a bitch!

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Frosty

That's some impressive weight loss.

I do have to say, though, that ADF is nothing like long term fasting. I'm not real fond of even saying the "fasting" part of ADF because people's eyes instantly glaze over, thinking you are talking about starving yourself.

Originally Posted by wazu

That’s crazy, man. Good luck!

Originally Posted by Simply Red

impressive.

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

fantastic! That’s a lot of work. Great effort and results.

Thanks for all the kind words of congratulation.

On a side note, after just 2 days of going into a water fast with days of decaf coffee only along with the water, your digestive system pretty much stops and you no longer have bowel movements. 14 days not a single one. I was pretty scared I was making a mistake and going to have problems but it work out.

[Mr. Plow]

I did something yesterday I haven't done in.....uhhhh......no idea the last time. Play 9 holes of golf but I walked it, bag on my back. Not sure I could have made it last year doing that, but felt good to get in an "extra" exercise during the week.

[Frosty]

I stuck with my 500 calories yesterday but didn't drop much. I'm at 218.2 lbs like after the last down day. However, I have started pounding water as my lips were getting super dry and cracked. Happens every time I diet so I think it may have something to do with being dehydrated.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by Frosty

I stuck with my 500 calories yesterday but didn't drop much. I'm at 218.2 lbs like after the last down day. However, I have started pounding water as my lips were getting super dry and cracked. Happens every time I diet so I think it may have something to do with being dehydrated.

What do you eat on a 500 calorie day?

[bricks]

Interesting topic of conversation here. I would like to share some of my experiences and I hope others can learn from my mistakes because man the last 3 weeks have been very frustrating for me with respect to fat loss because of carb overload and lack of calorie counting. I had a mental lapse in regards to those things. Its understandable and eh it happens. My goal right now is refocus back and get to where I need to be. Ive made some strides in losing weight. I was 240lbs before and got down to 225lbs in 3 months. Not bad.

Im currently at 225lbs and would like to get down to 190lbs. My goal is to not only lose 35lbs but to maximize fat loss. Its not just about losing weight, I honestly hate it when I hear that. Its more about what kind of weight are you losing? Are those 35lbs you’re losing all fat?? Or is most of it fat and some of it muscle?

I want good quality with respect to weight loss by losing mostly fat and sacrificing the least amount of muscle tissue as possible. Very hard to do but up for the challenge!

Anyway, for the last 3 weeks I’ve been stepping on the scale like crazy. I’ve noticed that my weight keeps fluctuating back and forth. I jump from 225lbs to 234lbs! And then go from 234lbs back to 225lbs. What I realized is all this weight fluctuation is result of my own body holding onto water.

See, I went through a period of 3 weeks where I had 1-2 days per week during those 3 weeks where I carb loaded so much to the point where I’d put on 9 pounds.

For some of you folks that don’t know this, please be aware that whenever you ingest carbohydrates, it gets stored as glycogen in both our muscles and liver. Aka the bodies energy reserves. All glycogen is, is a bunch of glucose molecules linked together in chains. In order for our bodies to do that, it needs water! Now, when our bodies expend energy, it taps into our reserves and breaks down the glycogen as its primary source of fuel. And also releases water when doing this.

Predominantly our bodies love to burn sugars for energy. It actually burns a bit of everything but predominantly sugars. Anyway, if you overload on carbs, you’re basically telling your body okay here is enough supply of energy for the week and your body thinks , “great! I have my favourite energy source and don’t have to tap into fat to burn for energy!”

So, with that being said, i did some calculations and figured out why I haven’t been losing weight (burning fat) in the past 3 weeks.

This is good info for some of you folks to know. Anyway, did you know you could figure out how many grams of carbohydrate you ate the previous day (for your cheat day or cheat meal) based on the amount of water weight you gained and from there you could figure out why it is an obstacle in preventing you from burning fat?

Here goes, I’ll use myself as an example:

I was 234lbs on Monday morning, this friday morning Im 225lbs. Im back to my regular weight again, scale hasn’t moved less than 225lbs, I don’t expect it to right away.

Take 234lbs minus it from 225lbs and thats 9 pounds of water weight!

Every pound of water weight is equal to 16 oz. 1 oz is equal to 28.35 grams. Why is it important to convert ounces to grams? Because with every gram of carbohydrate that you ingest, as a rule of thumb, you store 4 grams of water.

So if you do the conversions 9 pounds x 16 oz = 144 ounces of water retained. 144 oz of water x 28.35 grams = 4082.4 grams of water stored

From there I could figure out how many carbs I ate during my cheat day. Take 4082.4/4 (because 1 gram of carbs again holds 4 ounces of water)=1020.6 grams of carbohydrates eaten the previous day. How many calories is this? 1020.6 x 4=4082.4

Calories and grams of water stored are the same! Pretty much an equal ratio of 1:1.

How long does it take in general for our bodies to get rid of these excess calories and/or excess glycogen storage? It depends and varies from individual to individual. But lets say on average if a person is dieting according to their regimen everyday and getting decent amount of physcial activity where he or she burns 500-700 calories per week, okay? Thats literally a whole week it takes to burn off those excess calories. And I went through this for 3 straight cycles where I’d eat clean for 6 days and then stuff myself with carbs on a sunday only to get back to square 1 the next Saturday.

So now that Ive figured this out, its no wonder I wasn’t burning any fat because I was positioning my body to be in an energy balance rather than deficit and didn’t put it into a position where it had a limited supply of glycogen and didn’t opt for other sources of fuel to burn like fat.

Anyway for the next month, no more carb overloads. Strict dieting. I will put myself into an energy deficit and force my body to burn fat as a source of energy by limiting glycogen supply.

I learned im happy and ready to take on this issue.