Well, I’ve gained back everything I lost :::sigh::: A nasty ear infection has resulted in my taking steroids and a second round of heavy duty antibiotics which has played havoc with my appetite. I’ve been starving since I started these meds and although I ate fairly low calorie meals I’ve also polished off two 1/2 gallons of ice cream in the past week and started drinking root beer again. I just can’t seem to control this raging hunger and pray it retreats with the end of the medication. Two more days of the meds and I’m done, so hopefully me appetite will return to normal as well. Stupid steroids have me moody as hell, too. One minute I’m so mad I could bite your head off and the next I’m crying over TV commercials.
One of our daughters is getting married next month and I had hoped to have lost twenty pounds by then. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be lucky if it’s five
I was very good all week, both excercise and eating. I didn’t even crave chocolate this week. I did have a slice of cheesecake this morning, but uncharacteristically, only the one slice and I’m not craving another. I hate to tempt fate, but maybe after reinforcing this for six months I am *finally *getting control over my cravings…
Well my scale made me happy today. 217.5 lbs, which means another 2 pounds gone for the week.
There is a box of donuts in the cubical area and I went and got my oatmeal instead.
I took my kids for a 5 miles bike ride on Tuesday and my daughter and I went sailing Wednesday, where I did all the rowing that was needed. About 20 minutes worth. Starting Wednesday work has been crazy but it actually had me running around and climbing many stairs. I got a lot of exercise this week.
I hope I can keep this up and get to less than 200lbs.
So do we start a separate thread on techniques for taking in the waists on pants?
I’ve been listening very carefully to the people who have been really successful in my weight management program, and I think I’ve had an epiphany. I can’t treat exercise as a necessary evil to be gotten out of the way each day. I have to ::shudder:: embrace it as I would a hobby or as a part-time job, and get serious about it. The gym should feel like a second home to me. I have the time, so I should be working out at least twice a day, adding more variety too.
So instead of just doing the elliptical for 30 mins, 4-5 days a week, I’m playing with the preset interval training and weightloss programs on the machine which vary the resistance and even direction of pedalling (using totally different muscle groups). Also, I’m adding a challenging yoga class twice a week, and I’ve bought 3- and 5- pound dumbbells to use with a fitness ball at home, to work core and upper body strength. Hopefully in a couple of months I’ll see my weight beginning to drop once again.
Down another two pounds from last week and only eleven pounds from 180, the weight at which I will weigh the same amount as I’ve lost. It’s kind of scary to look at myself and realize I’m almost literally half the person I was at this time two years ago.
And, What Exit?, I suggest hitting yard sales, Goodwill, and similar places for clothes. I picked up five pairs of pants and seven shirts a couple weeks ago for only $15 and all of them were namebrand and in very good repair. Hell, a good number of them were freshly dry-cleaned, even the jeans.
Strawberries, grapes, apples, oranges, squash, onions, broccoli, red bell peppers, lettuce, cabbage, and collard greens. If it’s not a starch and it didn’t have a mother, then it’s nature’s rainbow.
OK, it is mid afternoon and STILL NO SECOND PIECE OF CHEESECAKE. When I finish lunch is usually when I want something. But today, still no craving. As you can tell, I am inordinately pleased with myself.
As far as the clothes. I have this DIY streak, and if I cannot figure it out, I’ll get my Mom to show me how to take in pants. I’m setting up a home network for them next week anyway.
Calorie counting. If it has a nutritional information label, I read it and make sure I eat between 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day (and drink zero. I don’t drink anything that has calories) at the most and, not unoften, quite a bit less. For example, breakfast today was a large bowl of corn flakes, lunch was a bag of popcorn, and have yet to have dinner and doubt I will since it’s so late at this point but, if I had, it would have been a microwave dinner of turkey cutlets and green beans.
I also take supplements (a multivitamin, calcium supplement, flax seed oil capsule, and Stacker 3 cocktail every morning) and while that gives me a little energy and shores me up on what vitamins and minerals I miss by eating so little, I’m not sure how much that has to do with the actual weight loss. It definitely helps somewhat but I’m not sure how much.
That is really impressive. I will be happy just to see the south side of 200 lbs.
I hit a minor goal this weekend of 10% weight loss.
It was very good to see the scale on 215 lbs. 24.5 lbs gone now.
I am eating my Oatmeal as I type this and I have my bag of hotair popcorn for snacking on.
Well you know, there is so much more room in my pants, I thought I could fit a network in.
I broke down got one pair of new casual pants Saturday. I went from size 46 being tight to size 42. A very good feeling.
My boss commented today that he thought I was slimming down. Of course, he knows I am working out at lunch and he is definitely a salesman, so it may have been BS, but it was still nice to hear…
I’d be careful about maintaining this severe a level of caloric deficit for a prolonged period of time.
From what I understand, your body is very likely to enter a “starvation mode” where it will tenaciously cling to fat cells (as they are the most efficient way to store energy) to be able to ration them out over time in an assumed prolonged famine scenario. The body will enter this mode after a sustained calorie deficit of 20% or greater than that needed to maintain your present weight.
Under such circumstances it gets harder and harder to loser weight, and much of the weight that you do lose will be “lean mass”, i.e., muscle weight… Which is not good because it’s the muscle cells in your body that do most of the energy burning, the fat is just carried around as energy storage.
In other words, not only is your body burning less and less calories as you eat less and less, if/when you go off the diet and resume eating a normal amount of calories you will put back that weight in fat (since you will now be eating more than the “maintenance” number of calories). Net result: more fat (even if your total body weight is lower than it was before).
To do the low-cal diet thing safely, you will need to keep the deficit smaller to avoid triggering the starvation response, and resign yourself to losing weight more slowly. I believe Weight Watchers (the most popular “program” involving calorie counting to eat less) targets something like a 1 pound a week loss.
To really lose fat (not just weight) at a 2-3 lb. a week clip beyond a period of a week or two, you need to be exercising, which burns fat and raises your metabolism, in preference/addition to simply eating less, which eats into your muscle as well as fat, thus lowering your metabolism. (Eating smaller meals more frequently, such as 4-5 meals in 3-4 hour intervals instead of just 2 or 3 times a day, is also a very easy and effective way to raise your metabolism.)
That’s not to say that VLCDs (Very Low Calorie Diets) are not appropriate as a short-term plan of action for severely overweight individuals. But before just arbitrarily going on a 1500-calorie-a-day diet, be sure to consult your physician!
There’s some good advice in your posts (re: exercise and smaller, more frequent meals).
However, 1,500-2,000 calories per day is not a particularly severe diet.
Very Low Calorie Diets are indeed inappropriate for nearly everyone (unless they are morbidly obese), especially without constant medical supervision. However, VLCDs are typically defined as less than 800 calories per day. citecite2cite3
Typically, the nutritionists I’ve heard have recommended that you not consume less than 1,200 calories per day, as it’s hard to eat a nutritionally complete diet (enough macronutrients, vitamins and minerals) to be healthy if you are eating less than that. Diets below 1,200 calories per day require some kind of supplements to ensure adequate nutrition.
It’s best to lose weight at a rate of 2lbs per week or less.
169lbs over two years is, on average, 1.625lbs per week. AFAIK, that’s not a dangerous rate of weight loss. And at that rate, Aesiron’s new dietary habits are probably very sustainable for long-term weight loss maintenance.
When people lose weight ultra-fast (usually 3-5lbs per week on VLCDs), then it’s harder to maintain the weight loss, due to the “starvation effect”, but also because they haven’t habuated themselves to healthy eating and portion sizes. Thus they may be more likely to regain the weight.
Hmm. I find your ideas intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Seriously, though, I am particularly interested in this topic because I myself lost over 3 lbs. a week over a 6 week period recently, going from just over 240 down to 222 lbs., by eating about 1800-2000 calories a day combined with a 5- or 6-day a week cardio workout (first just by walking, then gradually introducing an increasing amount of running time).
I was well pleased with myself, until I read cautionary words from several fitness guides about not having a calorie deficit greater than 1000 below “maintenance”, or 20% of maintenance calories, coupled with many guides concurring that about 2 lbs. a week was a maximum reasonable rate for fat loss without losing lean mass (which meant I was in potentially dangerous territory). I even started this thread about it, but didn’t quite get a clear answer to my core question (maybe I didn’t phrase it quite right).
Based on various BMR and activity calculators (such as those found here), my BMR is 2150, multiplied by a sedentary lifestyle (office job) factor of 1.2 = 2580, plus on days that I exercise I burn an additional 500 calories. Is my “maintenance” calorie count the base lifestyle one alone (2580), or a daily average over a week that includes my workouts (which would be around 3000)? I suspect the latter, since there is also a separate standard BMR factor of 1.4 for “active”, which is defined elsewhere as exercising 4-5 times a week, and which yields pretty much the same average calories expended per day as my other calculation.
Assuming that my “maintenance” calorie count includes my exercising, then, I should not be eating less than between 2000 and 2400 calories a day on average, otherwise I risk the “starvation mode” thing (at least that is my interpretation). This is why I thought Aesiron’s deficit seemed rather high: he weighs more than me (I don’t know his height though), so I would assume his BMR is at least equal to mine (let’s say 2650), in which case a 20% deficit would still be well over 2000 (aboiut 2120). I don’t know how tall he is relative to me, nor how old (bot age and height being factors in the BMR calculation), but seeing a figure like 1500 alarmed me.
Can you comment on my fears of over-deficit, both for myself and for Aesiron?
I should add that I agree that Aesiron does not appear to be over-deficited, given his average sustained rate of weight loss (on which congratulations are more than due!), in which case I am somewhat more confused than ever about this whole “safe deficit” thing.
Really, I’m not a nutrition expert - I just took a couple classes in university (Nutrition 101, and a class called Body Composition and Physical Activity), but that was a few years ago.
The main reason I replied to your post was just to correct you when you called 1,500-2,000kcal/day diets a “Very Low Calorie Diet.” VLCDs are defined 800kcal per day (or less!). :eek:
Basically, from what I’ve read and learned, I wouldn’t be too worried unless you’re going below 1,000 below maintenance.
You said that you’re working out quite a lot, and including exercise your maintenance level was about 3,100kcal per day. So to lose two pounds per week you should eat about 2,100kcal per day. You said that initially you were eating about 1800-2000kcal/day, so this was too low. Not scary VLCD 800kcal per day low, but still lower than is ideal for healthy weight loss.
Also, I’d point out that exercise can help you minimize how much lean mass you lose but it’s impossible to be on a diet and not lose any lean mass at all. Especially if you’re very overweight to start with.
I’m currently at 218lbs. I was 270lbs in March of 2005 (26 y.o. female). My goal is about 150-160lbs. At 150lbs, my BMI would be 25 (almost overweight, according to the government). When I was at 270lbs, according to skinfold calipers and a body fat scale, I was at about 32% body fat. That means my lean body mass was about 184lbs! Obviously, when (fingers crossed) I get to 150lbs I will have lost a fair amount of lean mass (plus a whole lot of fat mass).
So exercising while losing weight is important to minimize loss of lean mass, it won’t prevent it entirely.
The main guideline I’d use is just figure out your metabolic rate (including exercise), and aim for a 500kcal/day deficit to lose 1lb per week, and 1,000kcal/day for 2lbs per week. It’s a bad idea to lose more than 2lbs per week, due to “starvation mode” (losing too much lean body mass/muscle, and a decrease in your metabolic rate).
Also, if you (generic you) don’t have a large amount of weight to lose (and/or don’t do a lot of exercise), then your maintenance energy level could easily be less than 2,200kcal. In that case, a 1,000kcal/day deficit would take you below about 1,200kcal per day consumption, then you should be aware that your diet might not be nutritionally adequate (it’s hard to get enough vitamins/minerals in that small amount of food). Then it would be better to make sure your consumption is 1,200kcal or higher, even if your weight loss would then be more gradual.
Is it too late to join this group? I went to the doctor last week and saw on the BMI chart that I’m borderline normal/overweight. I’m trying to put a stop to my weight gain before it gets too bad (I’ve gained almost 30 pounds since I graduated law school five years ago).
Food isn’t really an issue with me. I already eat whole grains, vegetables, low-fat meats, etc., and I try to limit myself to 1,500 calories a day. However, I won’t do an exact calorie count. I was anorexic in college (5’6" and 105 pounds at my worst) and I’m afraid of getting caught in that mental calorie-counting trap again.
I think my main problem is that I have a sedentary job. I sit at a computer all day. That’s a big contrast to when I was in law school and walked up to 20 miles each week. So I’ve been trying to get back into my walking routine. Each night after work I walk at least one mile on my treadmill (today is Day Four). I’m hoping to build up to two miles a day eventually. I’m also trying to find little ways to exercise at work, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator and using the restroom at the far end of the hallway instead of the one closer to my desk. My goal is to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.
The hard part is going to be passing up all the food in the office. There’s always so much peer pressure to eat a piece of birthday cake, have a doughnut, take a cookie, etc. But so far I’ve been good.
Congrats to Aesiron, What Exit?, Khadaji and all of the other Dopers who’ve done so well on their dieting!
