Weight Loss ideas ?

[The Monster With .]

Update , loss stopped ( lol ). Dont know why but there is no loss since week , despiting i havent changed anything :0.
Any tips how to get out of Plateau ?

Cheat days. Take a day and eat waffle breakfast or whatever. Helps break the plateau. I'm serious, it's a thing.

 

[nightsprinter]

I always did things the wrong way. 1200-1400 calorie diet spaced out throughout the day - 100 calorie protein shake breakfast, protein bar snack, healthy choice barbecue steak and potato lunch, protein bar, chicken breast with peppers, onions, and hot sauce dinner, another protein bar. treated the space between snacks like a challenge to get through. I think I did that for a few months once and I went from 260 to 165. I'm probably 190 now I have no idea.

I'd also ride my bike whenever I could.

Point is, I crash dieted that for 3 or 4 weeks initially and I was down a ton of weight very quickly. I don't advise anyone does this because it is stupid.

 

[jaxadam]

It's a lifestyle. You gotta live a half wicked lifestyle.

 

[Sumsar]

Don't count calories, statistically it doesn't work long term, focus on eating quality food that makes you feel full from little food, e.g. a lot of fiber and decent amount of fat.
Fat is not a bad thing, it makes you feel full for longer even if it is high in calories, it makes you eat less in general. Saturated fats are obviously bad, so don't eat junk food.
Never eat anything that have claims of being 'low fat' or 'reduced fat' same with pretty much anything that has health claims on the package, branding and marketing. If something is marketed as healthy it is almost by definition unhealthy.

Artificial sweeteners contain no calories, but at this point the science seems to be pointing firmly towards that they increase appetite, even if scientist have not fully understood why. Think of it as the opposite effect of Ozempic and Wegovy medicine that lowers appetite, so stay away from them.

Generally focus on what you drink, pretty much everything you can buy to drink is bad for you: Sodas with or without sugars are bad, alcohol is bad, milkshakes are bad, juices are bad (just a lot of sugar and none of the good stuff from the actual fruit), smoothies are bad, drinking yougurts are bad (they are full of sugar), plant based milks are bad etc.
Water and black coffee and maybe alcohol free beers is pretty much the only stuff that is fine to drink, so if you can keep it to that you should see good results

 

[TedEH]

Water and black coffee and maybe alcohol free beers is pretty much the only stuff that is fine to drink

I'm not sure I'd include the beer on that list. From what I understand, a lot of those add sugar to make up for lost alcohol flavour. They're basically soft drinks. Coffee is fine to add some milk or cream to. You don't have to use full-fat milk if that's a concern, just use 1% or something. But also, when you reach the point of obsessing over the fat content of a splash of milk in your coffee, you've potentially gone too far - take a step back, let yourself drink coffee with a bit of cream in it. You aren't going to become fat or suddenly ruin simple weight loss goals because you looked at a bit of dairy sideways. If this was 2x lattes a day, yeah, that's going to make a difference, but some milk in your coffee is fine. I'll say it over and over - obsessing over the little details like that, unless you're an athlete and/or being guided by a nutritionist or something, is how you get an eating disorder.

Also, tea exists. Lots of variety in tea.

Really the key is to just not load up whatever you're drinking with sugar.

 

[Sumsar]

I'm not sure I'd include the beer on that list. From what I understand, a lot of those add sugar to make up for lost alcohol flavour. They're basically soft drinks. Coffee is fine to add some milk or cream to. You don't have to use full-fat milk if that's a concern, just use 1% or something. But also, when you reach the point of obsessing over the fat content of a splash of milk in your coffee, you've potentially gone too far - take a step back, let yourself drink coffee with a bit of cream in it. You aren't going to become fat or suddenly ruin simple weight loss goals because you looked at a bit of dairy sideways. If this was 2x lattes a day, yeah, that's going to make a difference, but some milk in your coffee is fine. I'll say it over and over - obsessing over the little details like that, unless you're an athlete and/or being guided by a nutritionist or something, is how you get an eating disorder.

Also, tea exists. Lots of variety in tea.

Really the key is to just not load up whatever you're drinking with sugar.

Good point - In Denmark where I live and atleast the alcohol free beer I drink don't have any added sugar, so they have less calories than a glass of milk, but I guess especially the US might be very different in that regard.

Yeah ofc you can add milk to coffee, I wrote black coffee since a lof of people seem to associated 'coffee' with like a frapuchino or some shit, which I would highly recommend to stay away from. And year a couple of latte's a day is also not the best idea.

Yeah I forgot tea, since I don't drink it, but again good point!

 

[Drew]

So, Ironically... I was about 190 when I posted that, and this morning, after a marathon block of climbing yesterday it'll take a day pr two to see where my weight finally settles in, but I was 180.8 when I weighed myself.

It absolutely WAS hard, though less from the dietary side - small changes add up, and honestly if it wasn't for two days of day-drinking over the Memorial Day Weekend I'd probably be solidly under 180 today. But, I had a ride to train for, and I spent the last two months doing a ton of climbing, so a mix of better portion control and less afternoon snacking (we have these little nut and trail mix packs at work that over the winter I was having a couple most afternoons, and it turns out they were 200-240 calories each, for something I was eating mostly from boredom), less drinking, and a lot of endurance pace cardio did wonders.

Yesterday's training ride was on some brutally steep roads out in western Mass, and between throwing a slightly larger cassette on my road bike (34 tooth low gear vs the 30 I've been riding) in prep for this trip to the Alps, and between being very nearly ten pounds lighter, I felt a LOT stronger and more efficient on gradients that were frequently above 10% and one in particular had long stretches over 20%. the typical estimation is each one-pound change in bike/rider weight translates into about a 1% increase in climbing efficiency, so cumulatively this adds up pretty fast.

Now, let's see if I can take off another 5-10. I'm currently sitting at 3.90 watts per kilogram, and have been trying to crack 4.0 for a long time.

Update on ythis, by the way - I'm holding pretty steady right around/just below this, 178-181. And, after starting to switch from long endurance climbing to higher intensity, I put up a new all time high FTP power of 330w. Which means I've been around 4.00-4.05w/kg for the last few weeks.

Now, let's see if I can cut another 5-10 and get up to 4.5w/kg. Most likely that'd be a combination of getting threshold power up to 350w (Strava actually estimates that's where I am, based on my power curve - I disagree, and through testing I've gotten that out a little past 20 minutes but I think the wheels would really come off between 25-30. Invervals.icu thinks I'm 333w, which i think might be a slight overestimation, so I'm rounding down. Either way, another 20w this season would be hard, but maybe by next), and weight down to 170. Both hard, but doable, goals, in the next year.

 

[MetalDestroyer]

I'm down 25lb from this time last year, but I still have another 15ish to go to get back to where I was in 2022 before I moved to SD. I need to just buckle down and finish this up but there's so much good food and beer out here and the weather is so nice that it's hard to just skip out.

 

[False_God]

Artificial sweeteners contain no calories, but at this point the science seems to be pointing firmly towards that they increase appetite, even if scientist have not fully understood why. Think of it as the opposite effect of Ozempic and Wegovy medicine that lowers appetite, so stay away from them.

Generally focus on what you drink, pretty much everything you can buy to drink is bad for you: Sodas with or without sugars are bad, alcohol is bad, milkshakes are bad, juices are bad (just a lot of sugar and none of the good stuff from the actual fruit), smoothies are bad, drinking yougurts are bad (they are full of sugar), plant based milks are bad etc.

I generally reject reductionist moral claims concerning nutrition, lifestyle, etc., as the reality tends to be far more convoluted, or nuanced. I understand the intention of wanting to be helpful, though the road the hell is paved with good intentions, etc. I would prefer to reach for a Diet Pepsi over a beer, if weight-loss is my chief objective. Sure, aspartame is correlated with hyperexcitability of neurons resulting in death of the neuron, and have been demonstrated to degrade the blood-brain-barrier. Of course, these are findings evident in clinical trials, and not necessarily real life. Though there is certainly a consideration of acid reflux exacerbation, if that is an issue for someone. I am a bit vague on the details regarding correlations with appetite, but I believe there are fairly plausible hypotheses. Neuroendocrine signaling along the gut-brain axis differentiates appetite drives for carbohydrates versus fats, etc. The taste of artificial sweeteners mimics carbohydrates and begins to signal satiation to the brain, however, because they are not absorbed by the intestinal tract, the small intestine re-informs the brain that carbohydrates are needed. And so I would guess artificial sweeteners do not directly increase appetite, but temporary masks appetite, which only grows more ravenous as you neglect to feed yourself real foods. So, this is again the difference between a clinical study and real life, as I doubt most people are attempting to satisfy hunger with artificial sweeteners. I don’t think having a diet soda with dinner is going to kill you.

Ozempic, Trulicity, etc. have certainly demonstrated an incredible ability to support weight loss for people, as they operate as GLP-1 agonists which mimic satiation. But the weight simply comes back for most people if they stop taking the medication, because often times, with anything like this, it comes down to a question of mindset and making different choices, not looking for magic solutions. Not to mention, insurance in the US is not going to cover these medications unless you are clinically diabetic based on you hemoglobin A1c, which is not exactly a celebratory hallmark if you are concerned with your health and weight-loss.

 

[TimSE]

Dont know if Im a little late to this but few years ago I lost about 22kg in 3-4 months from fasting. I went to 1 meal a day and about 1800 cals a day which was a solid deficit for me at the time. Optimised my workout for heavy weights first with some cardio after, and did this BEFORE I ate that day, which I would do in the evenings.
Its a little tough to start, but your body will adapt quickly to the new eating schedule and its by far the best most optimised way to lose body fat. Fasting is #1 followed by not eating shitty food.
Fasting is by far the best thing for it tho, I cant stress this enough. Eating spikes your insulin and you will not burn fat for 8-10 hrs when you do this. Eating healthy wont do much of anything if you spread it out into small meals a day. its actually the slowest thing you can do. Be in a fasted state for a long as you can handle every day. The more consistent you are day to day, the easier it gets to get used to it. Stay in a deficit and keep going even if its tough. Just accept the suffering and you'll quickly realise hungry is 100% in the mind. Literally too, as grelin and leptin and the hunger hormones and they are all from the mind, not the stomach.

I know if rambled a little here but heres a TLDR:
Fasting is key. Go as long as you can between meals and always be in a solid 30-40% calorie deficit.
Work out BEFORE you eat for optimised fat burning.
Heavy ass weights first, then some cardio to finish off.
DO NOT snack or eat anything before you break the fast. It's all about controlling your insulin levels to force autophagy and fat burning through the day.
The weight will fly off you and you will feel great for it once you get over the initial hunger which only takes about 2 weeks to get used to.

Hope this helps.
P.S platues are unavoidable. everything moves in waves inc our bodies. Best thing is not to worry cus itll most likely be excess water weight and if anything, just use it as a time to change up the workout routine and keep your body guessing.
Hope this helps!

 

[Sumsar]

I generally reject reductionist moral claims concerning nutrition, lifestyle, etc., as the reality tends to be far more convoluted, or nuanced. I understand the intention of wanting to be helpful, though the road the hell is paved with good intentions, etc. I would prefer to reach for a Diet Pepsi over a beer, if weight-loss is my chief objective.

As I stated in my first line "focus on eating quality food that makes you feel full", by which I also meant that it is far more important to focus on eating good stuff, rather than focussing on NOT eating 150 different things. So I do think we agree. I wrote the part about diet sodas since many of my current collegeaus seems to think that they can drink 5 cans aday at work and it will have zero impact on their health or weight, since it has zero calories, which is pretty far from the apparent truth, hence it seemed a point worth mentioning here.

Dont know if Im a little late to this but few years ago I lost about 22kg in 3-4 months from fasting. I went to 1 meal a day and about 1800 cals a day which was a solid deficit for me at the time. Optimised my workout for heavy weights first with some cardio after, and did this BEFORE I ate that day, which I would do in the evenings.
Its a little tough to start, but your body will adapt quickly to the new eating schedule and its by far the best most optimised way to lose body fat. Fasting is #1 followed by not eating shitty food.
Fasting is by far the best thing for it tho, I cant stress this enough. Eating spikes your insulin and you will not burn fat for 8-10 hrs when you do this. Eating healthy wont do much of anything if you spread it out into small meals a day. its actually the slowest thing you can do. Be in a fasted state for a long as you can handle every day. The more consistent you are day to day, the easier it gets to get used to it. Stay in a deficit and keep going even if its tough. Just accept the suffering and you'll quickly realise hungry is 100% in the mind. Literally too, as grelin and leptin and the hunger hormones and they are all from the mind, not the stomach.

I know if rambled a little here but heres a TLDR:
Fasting is key. Go as long as you can between meals and always be in a solid 30-40% calorie deficit.
Work out BEFORE you eat for optimised fat burning.
Heavy ass weights first, then some cardio to finish off.
DO NOT snack or eat anything before you break the fast. It's all about controlling your insulin levels to force autophagy and fat burning through the day.
The weight will fly off you and you will feel great for it once you get over the initial hunger which only takes about 2 weeks to get used to.

Hope this helps.
P.S platues are unavoidable. everything moves in waves inc our bodies. Best thing is not to worry cus itll most likely be excess water weight and if anything, just use it as a time to change up the workout routine and keep your body guessing.
Hope this helps!

Yes fasting can be a good way of loosing weight. However I wouldn't recommend doing crazy fasting for 3 months and then reverting to eating as you did before.
If you start fasting in some form you should expect and plan to do it for the rest of your life, or at least drastically change your diet, such that you never go back to the diet from 'before fasting'.
If you fast for 3 months then go back to your 'before' diet you might loose 20 kg in the 3 months while fasting, only to then gain 25 kgs as soon as you stop fasting such that after 6 months you have gained 5 kg compared to your original weigth, due to what is generally called the 'overshoot effect'.

 

[TimSE]

Yes fasting can be a good way of loosing weight. However I wouldn't recommend doing crazy fasting for 3 months and then reverting to eating as you did before.
If you start fasting in some form you should expect and plan to do it for the rest of your life, or at least drastically change your diet, such that you never go back to the diet from 'before fasting'.
If you fast for 3 months then go back to your 'before' diet you might loose 20 kg in the 3 months while fasting, only to then gain 25 kgs as soon as you stop fasting such that after 6 months you have gained 5 kg compared to your original weigth, due to what is generally called the 'overshoot effect'.

100%. I started in 2018 and still do it to this day. After about a month or 2 people usually feel so much better they likely just keep going anyway. Everyone I know who does it has adopted it permanently plus the results after awhile help. But yea its defo a life-style thing.