Weight Loss ideas ?

[gabito]

Its going somehow guys , but sadly - struggle is real , can feel it deep i miss the sugar and junk , my body got too addicted to shit over the years. But im not gonna let it all use me.

It can take from 2 weeks to maybe 2 months, but you'll forget about it.

Also, you don't NEED to 100% suppress your consumption of said things, but in the beginning it may help. If you can't, use moderation like, I don't know "No more than one can of soda a week" or something like that. Find what works for you, and if for some reason you "fail" today, get back into the right path tomorrow.

 

[Kubs]

Ill do everything i can , im just tired of being obese , and its going too good to let it all sunk now !

 

[cindarkness]

if I wanted junk food, I'd eat carrots instead. It's still some sugar, but much less dense.

Shredded carrots with apple cubes - sh*t's so good you completely forget you're eating healthy.

 

[TedEH]

I mean, fruit is still sugar, it's just not dense sugar. And probably some other nutritional science difference I don't know or understand. I ate a shit-ton of apples while losing weight, and I still do. Apples, bananas, mangoes, strawberries - there's no reason that "eating better" has to mean "never enjoy eating". All that stuff has sugar in it, and is enjoyable, and provides stuff you need anyway.

 

[gabito]

I LOVE fruit salad.

And I mean it like people mean it when the say they LOVE chocolate (which I kind of like, but I can live without).

So I resort to eating fruit salad (or just fruit) if I feel like I have to lose a few kilos and still enjoy life a bit

There's lots of healthy and tasty food. You just have to find it. Also, even if healthy: eat moderate amounts of it. You'll regret eating 50 apples, healthy or not.

 

[TedEH]

An apple a day keep the doctor away, but an apple an hour provides ULTIMATE POWER.

Obviously kidding, don't eat an apple an hour.

 

[MFB]

An apple a day keep the doctor away, but an apple an hour provides ULTIMATE POWER.

Obviously kidding, don't eat an apple an hour.

And if you eat an apple a day with some shredded newspaper? Well, that's just POWERSAUCE, where you unleash the power of apples!

 

[Kubs]

And if you eat an apple a day with some shredded newspaper? Well, that's just POWERSAUCE, where you unleash the power of apples!

Ill end up with a stomachache on toilet for a few hours

 

[Fenriswolf]

I don't want to give you absolute advice because I'm still working on it myself, but a couple things that have helped me

Depending on how fat you are and how bad you feel about your body, use your macros as guidelines, not a hardfast rule because that's how you start to get an eating disorder. And when you get on the only chicken and rice kick, the Japanese curry cubes are worth the extra cardio. Even if you hate veg, dice it up very fine, sautee until its almost broken down into nothing, throw your curry cube and the chicken *chef's kiss*

Also, don't just focus on the numbers on the scale. I was getting really depressed because I putting in all this effort and my weight never seemed to change until I went from 250 lbs to 260 lbs. But I decided to check my lean muscle mass since I haven't done that since I started working out. I might still look like a fatass, but I've put on damn near 40 pounds of muscle since I started working out.

And if you start watching social media videos about working out, ya, they might be able to bench a plate or 2 more than you can, but so what. First of all, going to the gym puts you way ahead of a lot of people, also, don't skip leg day, do their squat PR for reps.

 

[cindarkness]

I LOVE fruit salad.

 

[brontology]

I've lost 40 pounds since last summer and one thing i noticed that hepled me out overall was drinking water. I found out adult men are supposed to drink like 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day which i never did, i upped my water intake as much as I can do (3.7 liters is a LOT every day!) and it helped me fell better overall while i was dieting.

Keep it up man!

 

[spudmunkey]

An apple a day keep the doctor away,

...but only if you have good aim.

Apparently I've lost 18lbs since January, and my SO has lost almost 25. I don't know what she started at, but I started at 244,and we're both in our lower-40s. I preface all of this with the additional note that this came with ZERO added physical activity...in fact it may be even lower than it was last year....which isn't healthy, but I point it out because the numbers above likely would be higher if they were paired with an increase in calories burned.

My significant other felt like she was having heart issues one January evening...like her heart was skipping a beat, or irregular, or...something. She just didn't feel right. We went to an ER, and she got checked out there, and then had a heart monitoring patch for 3 weeks (just got the results back today: not dying!)

Since that evening, we made sudden, massive dietary changes.
We used to keep a few boxes around of things like Pasta Roni or Mac & Cheese, and a bunch of frozen entrees and appetizers from Trader Joe's, we'd always have a frozen pizza on hand, etc. I don't think we were going overboard with those things, because we would always pair it with some sort of vegetable side. Like if I made a boxed instant saucy noodle thing, we'd also each be eating 1.5-2 zucchini. A couple nights a week, we'd "cheat" by having only pizza, or just a box of pasta and a jar of pre-made sauce, and a bunch of parm. Though I will admit, we ate too many chip-type snacks and ice cream.

However, since "the scare" that night:

Basically every other night, I would make two 13x18 trays of oven-roasted veggies. Zero salt added. No soy sauce. I could use as much other seasons as I wanted (smoked paprika and garlic powder, mostly, though I did pick up a couple of no-salt seasoning blends). For each 1lb of vegetables, I would use only about 1 tsp ev olive oil, unless it was sweet potatoes. Then I would go up to 2 tsp. The veggies I would normally roast, in order of most common to less so:
- zucchini
- green beans
- sweet potatoes and red onions
- brussel sprouts
- cauliflower
- asparagus
- those little peppers that looks like red, yellow and orange chilis about the size of your thumb, but are completely without heat
- yellow summer squash
- crimini mushrooms, cut in half
- tonight I made cabbage "slabs" (I refuse to use the term "steaks") for the first time...not bad. Would do it again when cabbage is on sale.

We also always have frozen broccoli, corn, green peas, and artichoke hearts on hand.

Then I would cook alternating meats, and rotating grains, to eat with those veggies.

Most meals have been a bowl of veggies, grain, and meat. Sometimes I'd add a fried egg or two to my bowl.

Grains have only been brown rice, farro, or quinoa. No wheat flour pasta, no couscous, no breads, no white rice.

The only meats have been:
- boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ground 99% lean turkey breast
- eggs

The chicken would just be baked, sprinkled with various seasonings.

For the ground turkey, I would typically just brown it and then *heavily* season it, but without salt. Sometimes I would add no-salt-added canned tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes, to a browned onion and sliced mushrooms with a shit ton of herbs and garlic, fennel, and crushed red pepper to make a pasta sauce. Sometimes I might simmer it with carrots and curry powder in no-salt chicken broth. I would also often add a low-sodium can of black beans, chickpeas, or other beans. Sometimes I would add baby corn, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots.

I would always try to make enough so that we'd have a couple of meals of leftovers. We also always have around:
- a bag of fresh baby spinach or spring greens
- lightly-salted rice cakes (quaker brand, specifically...all others suuuuck).
- Air-popped popcorn
- Either bananas, or oranges. I'm allergic to a lot of other fruit, and most of the ones I can have...the quality is so bad at my supermarkets, i don't even bother.
- Fresh cut-up veggies for either snacking, or making salads. Bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry/grape tomatoes, celery, drained and rinsed canned chickpeas
- hard boiled eggs

Now...neither of us could be perfect. She had client meetings where they would invite her to meals (Kinda hard to turn down a personal invite to a restaurant you designed for the client, and they just opened...). I have been trying to train myself to swallow pills, and to practice, I've been using candies, and the techniques that work for me involve either yogurt, or tortilla chips.

I've been having regular blood and blood pressure tests for the past couple of years, so I know that my cholesterol and blood pressure were excellent. I initially agreed to just eat what she was eating, but she generously offered that i could add salt and more oil to my food even in front of her, and that was very kind. Because, not gonna lie, it's still suuuuuucked. Goddamn, my inner former Wisconsinite has been dying for some cheese.

Now that she's been given a "clean bill of health" in terms of the heart issues she thought she might be having, we've still decided to keep to as "clean" of a diet as we can stand. Still no chips or ice cream. I'm going to start buying the 93% lean turkey though...I think the difference it worth it. Ha! I'm still going to hold off on adding salt until serving, and buy the no-salt-added versions of things. She's stopped drinking beer completely, and cut down on coffee to 1 cup a day, and then switching to tea. She still wants to cut back on cheese. We rarely bought beef due to prices, so we'll continue on that trend. Coconut aminos instead of soy sauce was a huge fail, so I'll pick up some soy sauce, but try to find a lower sodium version.

TL;DR: We eat a shit ton of vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Eliminated cheese, most drinkable calories, and cut out nearly all prepared foods. But it sucks.

 

[Kubs]

Update:
im down 6kg's , but i can see now carvings increased , any idea how to overcome ? I feel im stuck at some point and i cant go lower :0

 

[High Plains Drifter]

First- Congratulations on the weight loss! You should feel proud of yourself.

Leveling out at some point is to be expected and completely typical. It will happen more than once but you need to know that your body will adapt to your progress. This can be a frustrating time and this is where a lot of people give up, but stay the course despite the temporary and seemingly diminished results. Address the cravings with small portions of [continued] healthy snacks that will make you feel satiated. Don't give in to cravings with processed sugar, empty calories, or saturated fats.

The cravings will level out and diminish as well but your body is currently trying to trick you into giving in. Don't let that happen, You've worked too hard at this point. Increasing water intake can assist in reducing the cravings simply by making you feel fuller despite that it's not necessarily what your mind and body are telling you will suffice. When I would go through these times, I would eat oranges and bananas and low-fat yogurt instead of resorting to processed sweets. Maintaining your exercise routines and metabolic efficiency is also a continued necessity right now.

I want to simply add here that I have no medical nor nutritional background in any of this. I'm speaking only as a random internet guy that has been through this and am outlining what has worked for me. A nutritionist, dietician, etc would be certainly better suited to present to you a much more accurate, detailed, and healthy game-plan so just take that for what it's worth.

 

[cindarkness]

Update:
im down 6kg's , but i can see now carvings increased , any idea how to overcome ? I feel im stuck at some point and i cant go lower :0

Good job mate!

Drink water to ease the cravings, add some flavour to it with lime, lemon or berries. BUT if you feel like your body REALLY NEEDS some food then don't ignore the signs, the worst thing you can do is completely starve yourself! Greek yoghurt is a great idea as was mentioned before, and so are fresh fruits and vegetables.

Keep an eye on how you feel the next morning, that tells a lot about your last days meals and water intake. If you feel light headed or wake up with a sahara desert in your throat, then you've most probably done more harm than good. Once you've got your calories and water intake dialed in you'll feel so fresh and energetic after waking up.

Best if you could consult with a real nutritionist though, weight loss is good but please remember that it's very important to do it the healthy way.

 

[The Monster With .]

Update:
im down 6kg's , but i can see now carvings increased , any idea how to overcome ? I feel im stuck at some point and i cant go lower :0

This is a small thing that really helped me to get through maybe the first month or two of dieting (for me it was fasting). Sugar free gum. I was used to snacking all day, because I drive for living I always had something I was snacking on. So a bought a bunch of different flavors of sugar free gum. Fruity, minty, cinnamon, etc.

And I'll just throw this out there from my experience. Weight loss can be dead simple. Fasted vigorous walking will do it. If you can walk up a steep hill, even better.

I started fasting by pushing my opening meal back 30 minutes or so. Got to where I could go with our breakfast completely. Then got to where I could go without lunch. The goal was to have a day where I only eat dinner. For that dinner I could eat whatever I wanted. I would do this every other day, so fast day, followed by normal 3 meals or whatever day, repeat. On the fasted days, if I took a vigorous walk after work, the weight just falls off. It's crazy.

Fasting is very mental liberating. You'll break a threshold and never be 'hangry' again. For real, it's kind of amazing. So much of our hunger is emotional/mental. Don't emotionalise your hunger.

There has been some really excellent information on this thread, this forum blows my mind sometimes with the helpful and knowledgeable folks.

 

[thebeesknees22]

I've been experimenting with my diet recently again, and went from a full breakfast to a yogurt & orange juice shake. I'm leaner but maintaining muscle mass. The OJ/yogurt shake is something I got from some strongman dudes ages ago.

It may sound gross, but it's not bad actually! lol

8oz OJ
2 servings of plain greek yogurt 17-18g of protein per serving depending on the brand.

It's a little tart, but it goes down fast and easy. Doesn't wreck my stomach like protein shakes can do sometimes. It's a little pricey compared to just straight protein shakes though I think. I'd have to run the numbers again though. Protein has skyrocketed in price over recent years so it may be comparable.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I just hopped on a scale the other day, I’m down 15lbs in 4 weeks and I’m eating more food than I was the previous 4 weeks.

I had to get my diet under control because I have a shitty relationship with food and was way too inconsistent with eating. Most days it was once a day and then I’d plow down a bunch of junk food. Took me a couple weeks but I’m meal prepping my lunches and dinners at the same time so I have no excuses.

Protein + Fiber oatmeal for breakfast
Oiokos Triple 0 yogurt if I get hungry before lunch
Salad w/ romain, spinach, tomatoes, corn, black beans, chick peas, pepper, onions and balsamic for lunch
Nuts or yogurt for a snack
Grilled chicken and vegetable mix for dinner
Yogurt or rice cakes for a dessert

I still have to nag at myself to actually eat when I feel hungry, but my energy level is so much more consistent and that alone is pretty big. I noticed on my Ring cam the other day I was looking a bit slimmer, I had hit 195 around the holidays and stuck there a bit, but ever since getting consistent, I’m down to 180.

Now I just need to get my ass in the gym and tighten up whatever flub is on me.

 

[Kubs]

I just hopped on a scale the other day, I’m down 15lbs in 4 weeks and I’m eating more food than I was the previous 4 weeks.

I had to get my diet under control because I have a shitty relationship with food and was way too inconsistent with eating. Most days it was once a day and then I’d plow down a bunch of junk food. Took me a couple weeks but I’m meal prepping my lunches and dinners at the same time so I have no excuses.

Protein + Fiber oatmeal for breakfast
Oiokos Triple 0 yogurt if I get hungry before lunch
Salad w/ romain, spinach, tomatoes, corn, black beans, chick peas, pepper, onions and balsamic for lunch
Nuts or yogurt for a snack
Grilled chicken and vegetable mix for dinner
Yogurt or rice cakes for a dessert

I still have to nag at myself to actually eat when I feel hungry, but my energy level is so much more consistent and that alone is pretty big. I noticed on my Ring cam the other day I was looking a bit slimmer, I had hit 195 around the holidays and stuck there a bit, but ever since getting consistent, I’m down to 180.

Now I just need to get my ass in the gym and tighten up whatever flub is on me.

pretty same here, my head is fucked up on foods point , not as bad as it could be , but i deff need to work further on it.

 

[RevDrucifer]

pretty same here, my head is fucked up on foods point , not as bad as it could be , but i deff need to work further on it.

I’ve had to make it a discipline thing. It’s not a body image issue or anything like that, I simply don’t find much enjoyment in eating food and despite cooking professionally for 1/3rd of my life, I currently hate it.

I had to figure out how I could spend 30 minutes prepping food for the week so it’d only take me 10 minutes to get it all cooked, while still being healthy. I just buy big packages of chicken, trim all the fat then toss it in ziplock bags with different marinades. Now I just toss the veggies in the oven, turn the grill on and move on with life!