The weight loss has been over about the last six months. His belly is almost gone!
He’s not following a plan or a structured diet. What he’s done is give up bread. He might have toast with breakfast a couple times a week, but he stopped eating sandwiches (and the bologna inside them) and he’s not eating burgers. We used to have a pasta dish once a week or so but those are gone too.
He has a salad for lunch and eats what he wants the rest of the day. He’s not “exercising” but he does walk a bit on his job.
He said he was going to do this (give up bread) and I was skeptical that it would make a difference, but it seems to have helped, so I thought I’d share.
Congrats to your husband. It’s really surprising how easy it is to lose weight once you find a method that suits you. Pasta/bread can be a real hidden murderer, so giving those up is always worth a try. They’re surprisingly rich in calories and it’s easy to have a little bit more of them.
Good for him! It takes discipline to cut something like that out of the diet completely.
I was at the doctor recently and was very pleased to discover that I’m down 60 pounds from the last time I was on a scale (about a year ago). I gave up refined sugar - and that includes as many foods as possible with high fructose corn syrup - and I cut myself down to 1 cup of coffee and 1 12 oz diet coke a day. But I do get at least 66 ounces of water a day (more if I’ve finished my quota and still want something else to drink). I did this because I was suddenly aware that I was eating way too much sugar - I mean, basically insane amounts. I only dropped the sugar back in early July, so I figure most of the weight loss has been since then, but I’ll call it a year, since I can’t prove anything.
Now I’m finally kicking in some exercise too, so hopefully I’ll keep losing.
I have had a very similar experience with weight loss and reduction of bread and sugar in my diet. Bread is a very sneaky, fast metabolizing food. It can keep your body at an “idle” for a long time! I found that as soon as I restricted myself in this department (and exercised and drank plenty of water and tried to eat healthy otherwise), that I was able to lose weight rather efficiently.
I allowed myself a little more of the “easy carbs” around Thanksgiving and found that my body started to “idle” again. I just gotta stay away from that stuff!
My guess is that while cutting bread out is quite good, the awareness of what he is eating that comes with giving up bread is probably causing him to make better food choices in addition.
Thanks! I’m very proud of him, and surprised. He was one of those people who thought a meal wasn’t complete without bread – even if the meal included pasta or potatoes.
He still has a ways to go – he’s at 190 and wants to get down to 170 – and he’s encouraged.
Lsura, he still drinks a lot of diet Pepsi. Zero calories, he says, so he can have all he wants. Is that right though? Something’s making diet Pepsi sweet, and it’s hard to believe it has no impact.
In none of these cases was the ‘cutting out’ of a single food responsible for the weight loss. In every case people changed their eating habits and exercised more. Which, IMHO, is a far better accomplishment and should be credited properly.
BTW, there was a study done where people added bread to their diets (whole-grain breads) and lost weight. Likely because the bread helped them feel full.
I’m guessing he didn’t have just one slice of bologna in a sandwich and that burger would be a double or triple bacon cheeseburger. I promise you the bun was the least of his worries.
Your husband and Lsura are Big Fat Losers! ( But in a nice way!)
That is fantastic!
I have no problem giving up sweets. After you have to glaze turn overs or handle the mess of cleaning up all that freekin’ glaze, it turns your stomach.
Calorie-free artificial sweeteners are what makes them sweet. Nutrasweet/Asparatame, Acesulfame Potassium (“Ace-K”) and Splenda are common ones right now.
Well right, you’re only going to lose weight if calories in is exceeded by calories out. But if you cut something out and replace it with something that has less calories and satiates you better (often the case when cutting out bread and pasta) you can see some nice effects. If satiated better, you may unconsciously eat smaller portions later in the day as well. So yes, cutting out the bun can do it.
Congratulations to your husband, AuntiePam, and to all you weight-losers!
My wife has started Weight Watchers again, and is going to Curves gym. That’s a huge step to take on both at once! She’s positive about it, and is determined in a way I haven’t seen before. She’s got a small support group on the web, and she just found a friend to go walking with. She’s down to about one Coke a day, and is staying within her points range, and not going into the weekly bonus points. She’s at the beginning of her ordeal, and has only lost a few pounds, but she’s doing it!
Well, I live with the guy, and can attest that the only change he’s made was giving up bread. Of course the bologna and hamburger added calories, but he wasn’t a double-triple burger w/bacon kind of guy. He’d eat two or three sandwiches daily, sometimes as a meal, sometimes as a snack.
When you’re doing that much bread (and bologna), stopping is going to make a difference.
I worked with a man who lost 60 pounds, and he insists that all he did was give up soft drinks. He said he drank 10 or 12 a day. That’s what? 2000 calories? Sure it’ll make a difference.
I think not drinking the diet soda makes a big difference - but mainly because I replaced it with water, so that I consistently have 60+ ounces of water a day now - instead of ~50 ounces of diet coke.
I don’t remember whether there have been definitive studies, but I remember reading somewhere that people who drink lots of diet soda are more likely to be overweight - but I don’t remember where I saw it, and I don’t have a cite.
My husband lost somewhere between 80-100 pounds by giving up sugared soft drinks with no other changes. He doesn’t know the exact amount because his scale didn’t go up high enough to weigh him before the loss.