As a fatty, I can tell you that when I start dieting, I usually lose 10 lbs a week for the first week and a half or two weeks, then it levels out to normal numbers (and this is just cutting my calories down, cutting out soda, and working out 30 mins a day-- nothing particularly crazy). You aren’t supposed to do a juice fast for more than 10 days (according to every goddamned person on my Facebook, since every person I know was juice fasting last year and lecturing me for not), so given that fact, it’s not crazy that a person would lose 10 lbs at the start of their diet. I mean, it’s all water weight and stuff, but it happens. I doubt you can juice fast your way to 100 lb weight loss in 3 months or so though.
Thanks for the suggestion, monstro, and others for your responses.
I think the science of exercise and nutrition is pretty interesting, but I dare say that’s the starting point for a lot of people getting scammed. I guess this is influenced by Michael Pollan, but some dieters (read:me) tend to be hyperfocused on this science to the point of absurdity. I don’t have to know how many calories are in a brownie to know that an apple is a healthier choice. I don’t need to worry about burning X number of calories so much as I need to learn to get off my ass at least once a day.
It is fascinating to me, how our culture is obsessed with weight loss but fatter than ever. But look how well weight loss sells. It’s a freakin’ cash cow. And I realize I’ve been contributing to that with fancy exercise equipment and the books that claim to have the solution to better health and just generally buying into the myth that there’s some piece of information out there that is going to be the key for me.
We all know the solution already, it’s just not very sexy. And I’m not saying it’s easy, but don’t we make it so much more complicated than it has to be?
That’s just what this thread has brought to mind, anyway.
Ha! Exactly. Also, if I asked how many calories was in a serving of a given entree/side (or even what a serving size was), they’d probably look at me weird and then think I was too good to be eating their food. There’s no way these guys and gals are measuring things out and can tell me how many calories are in everything. It would be a ridiculous request anyhow.
First rule on working on a boat for 28 days at a time: don’t piss off the cooks.
I did when I first started exercising, and then I realized weighing yourself every day means jack shit, as water weight can have a large effect on your reported weight. I’m probably a bit of an outlier, but weighing myself before and after something as low-impact as a Wii Fit session could yield a difference of 2 pounds of weight. I’ve lost as much as 7 pounds in an hour of water weight after intense exercise (8 mile run in humid weather, on multiple occasions.) Weighing yourself every single day, even at exactly the same time of time, has too much noise (in my experience) to be considered dependable. It’s the long-term trends you have to look at.
Well, one thing that comes to mind is just eat less of it than you usually do. You know it’s pretty bad for you, and is probably loaded with fat, so a little should go a long way in making you full.
Does anyone there take special orders?
You’d be surprised how receptive cooks can be to a person’s particular dietary needs if the person is open about it to the chef ahead of time. And all you’d be doing is inquiring about what (and how much) is in what you are eating; you can figure out the calorie-density of the servings on your own. I really don’t think such a request would irk a chef in the least bit. It’s how you dine-out in a healthier way, too (make requests).
Right. I was waiting for a definite answer from him before I responded but weighing oneself everyday is silly and counterproductive. It can suck the wind out of a person’s sails due to the mis-perception that they aren’t succeeding (because of daily flucuations in weight due to water, etc.). I’d say anything more than once every week or two is too much (my opinion of course).
I do take smaller portions 
And no, there are no special orders. You eat what they cook or you don’t eat.
And I can estimate on my own just from looking at the food how calorie dense it may be. There’s no information they could give me that would elucidate anything. Not to mention that these cooks work 12 hours a day, 28 days in a row, just like all the rest of us. They aren’t the happiest of folks, or the most approachable. We are lucky if they even tell us the name of what we are eating, let alone anything about what’s in it 
And I work out every day Burning at least 1000 calories doing cardio. So that helps me not put on any pounds while I’m out here. Thank God we have a fitness center.
Absolutely; and I think the reason this is so is because we, as a people, can’t accept the fact that it isn’t easy but it is very do-able so we put up all sorts of barriers around ourselves and then throw up our (collective) hands and say “That’s it!” when those barriers, surprise!, impede-or put a full stop to-reaching our goals. It’s a lot easier to blame something else for our failure to achieve a goal than to look inward and accept the blame ourselves.
First off thank you very much for the kind words, drewtwo99.
Filmore, a slight clarification. NEAT is specifically from non-exercise movement, some of what you describe may be more basal metabolic rate. Which does not change the point you are making.
That said Filmore’s concept is the basis of quite a few trendy exercise programs that use high intensity interval training/exercise (known as HIIT or HIIE), such as CrossFit and P90X, and it does have an evidenciary basis, even if it is not completely clear how much of the effect is due to excess calories burned. FWIW, the latter concept is covered under the phrase “Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption” (EPOC).
Once a week is what, looking back at my food and weight diary, seemed to produce the most dependable results. Later in the week, first thing in the morning weighing. The reason I say later in the week is that because on the weekend I had a “cheat” day on Sundays (and I wouldn’t be surprised if others let go on the weekend.) The extra salt I would consume in non-home cooked meals would cause the water weight to stick to me, and it would take a good two or three days to shed.
Yes. The science is very fascinating but you don’t need to know it to know what to do. No magic bullet new fad. No need to debate which approach is “best” when any of a wide variety of them are better than the typical American diet.
The bottom line is still simple despite all the underlaying complexity: Eat less of the crap (and we all know what the crap is); eat moderate amounts of healthier choices (and personally I’d be sure to include lots of real foods rich in fiber and protein); exercise regularly including some higher intensity exercise if possible; and keep doing it whether the scale rewards for it or not. Ignore the bullies; stay the course because staying the course is the goal.
(BTW, have you gotten back to your kickboxing yet?)
What is with all this useful information and productive, friendly discussion? This is the PIT dag nabbit. Let’s please get back to either dehumanizing or irrationally legitimizing the trials and tribulations of fat people, or in pit parlance, fatties.
(Seriously though, I need to start trimming down myself, starting…tomorrow…yeah…)
DSeid, you seem fantastically knowledgeable. Got a quick question for you:
I’m relatively fit, but I could still stand to lose some weight. I work out at a better-than-average gym every day. What’s the best kind of workout, in your opinion, that I could be doing to maximize fitness?
Yes, I’ve come to see over time that DSeid really does know what he’s talking about on this subject and has a lot of excellent information and advice.
This is perhaps the most informative, helpful pitting we’ve ever had. It may have taken several hundred posts of NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND before we got there, but it was worth it, all thanks to DSeid.
(I blush.) Thank you Una. That means a lot to me.
Astral Rejection the standard response to that always begins with getting the questioner to define what their fitness goals are, or at least what “fitness” means to them. I’ve come up with my goal (that bit about my daughter’s wedding in 20ish years) but it was a harder thing to define than I thought it should be. Even defining “fitness” is difficult and I once even created a GD threadspecifically to help flesh out what the word means.
That said I can offer this much up right off:
The first criteria for a best kind of work out is that it the kind (or kinds) that you will keep up with regularly. For me that used to mean having an event as a goal so I had to stick with the training plan to be ready. My goals were often endurance events so I was endurance exercise heavy. Now it means lots and lots of variety and more weighted to higher intensity with some interval work, including some HIIT. Other posters here have convinced me that distance running probably does less good than I thought it did (especially in comparison to HIIT) but I still do an occasional long run just because* I like it*. (And I like knowing I can run far.) For some a routine makes it easy to stick with. Then that is a good kind of work out for them.
So what are your goals and how do you define “fitness”? Of the sorts of exercise you’ve done what have you enjoyed? Is time efficiency most critical?
I am also sure others here can share some excellent insights. It might be a good IMHO thread: “Design me an ideal work out program”!
That might be a good thread. I’ll go start it.
Have you tried the dark chocolate “trick” yet? It continues to work for me. Keeps me from pigging out on ice cream nearly every night.
About chocolate.