In that case, I suggest a program where you get support from other people. Either Weight Watchers, which a lot of people have had excellent success with, or possibly Sparkpeople.com, which is similar, but free and online only. I’ve used Sparkpeople and really did well with it, and I know some others around here have also.
Good luck. Don’t panic. You can do this.
Whoa. Sorry to hear about that. In light of your recent post I guess this is somewhat meaningless, but I was going to say that even if you can’t actually loose much weight before the beach, a modest diet and some determined exercise will certainly make you feel better. Even if it’s not readily noticeable to others, you’ll feel a lot healthier and will be able to discern the few pounds you lost. And by the end of the summer, others will surely be able to notice too.
You now how the bad news a few posts back was that fat hanging over the belt line is the last to go? The good news is that the fat in the liver is the first to go. A commitment to a long term reasonable nutrition and exercise plan will have significant positive health impacts long before it gets you into “beach shape.”
Well I lost 25pds in 3 months just by reducing the size of my plates and cutting out crap. Best weight loss secret ever is to go and get smaller plates and bowls, oh and the whole exercise and diet thing is good too.
Cutting out alcohol from your diet will make a huge difference for weight loss, as well, on top of other health reasons. There’s a reason why it’s called a “beer belly” Those alcohol calories are a big, big problem.
I was just watching a documentary about obesity on HBO last night. The good news is that just a five percent weight loss will make a huge difference in liver fat and function.
A low-carbohydrate diet is reportedly more effective for reducing fat deposits in the liver. The healthiest approach to low-carb dieting that I’ve found is paleo. If you want to do some specific reading, here are a bunch of links, both from medical and scientific journals and from people involved in the paleo community.
An “elevator pitch” version of the paleo diet would be: Eat whole foods, nothing processed. Eliminate grains entirely. Eat lots of green leafy vegetables. Eat lean cuts of meats to avoid most of the unfavorable fat profiles from the grain feeding of factory-farmed animals. Eat healthy fats — high omega-3 — to try and balance out the omega-6 fats that are predominant in current foods. To go low-carb on this, just limit your intake of fruit.
More detail on why the lipid ratio matters: here. Commonly available omega-3 sources are olive and sesame oils, avocados, coconut. Less common but desirable would be grass-fed animal fats. Butter (not margarine) is decent overall. Fish, especially fatty fish like sardines, wild-caught salmon, mackerel, halibut, herring, are great sources of omega-3.
Before this goes off the rails with a debate about the relative merits of one approach over the other, allow me to emphasize that the particular approach matters less than your finding a plan that you can personally live with. Paleo, South Beach, low carb, what evs. Basic bits that they all share - Real foods not highly processed food-like products (yes the sources of trans-fats, excess salt and sugar while relatively low in actual nutrition), moderate portions, exercise. The rest, as they say, is commentary.
For you the big nutrition things are apparently cutting down your alcohol consumption to a more modest level, and finding alternatives to “two Egg McMuffins and hash browns for breakfast, a pulled pork BBQ sandwich and fries for lunch followed by a candy bar, and Chinese delivery for dinner” on those days that you are short on time and will power. Prepacking some healthier choices well in advance to grab on the run to eat for breakfast and to have for lunch. Things like packets of tuna fish, a loaf of whole grain bread, some fruit, and maybe even some no salt added nuts to snack on, at work to have on hand for time constrained lunches. A little planning on days that you are not time constrained and in possession of will power can make those other days be less of a problem.
The importance of exercise to reducing that liver fat cannot be overemphasized. Some is better than none. Sure a heavy duty program would be fine, but how about setting yourself a more reasonable initial target? At least half an hour a day of exercising hard enough that you have to breathe heavy. Doesn’t matter what you do and do different things every day if it makes it more fun. Park farther away and walk more. Take the stairs when you can. Those things would be enough t make a huge difference in liver fat and to your health.
A beach body might be nice, and with time you might get there … or not. A long life with which to enjoy the beach? You make the changes to get to increase the odds of that with much less difficulty and a bit more vital of a goal.
I’m female so things may work differently for me, and my advice has already been given in this thread, but I get the fastest cosmetic results on a whole foods/paleo diet and Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. The combination really thins me out in the middle, in as little as a month. Unfortunately it will all come back in a week or two after I stop, but there’s my 2 cents.
OK, one last plug for SparkPeople, which I really think you should try out: It has a lot of articles on various nutrition and fitness topics, it has good community support, and the system they use involves introducing changes gradually, letting each one become a habit before you move to the next one. I think it’s really good for people who are basically starting from zero (like I was).
I’m down another Weight Watchin’ pound this week, by the way!
I just found this interesting website called healthmonth.com - the idea is that you pick a goal or a few goals per month and then it’s like a social game. You have “friends” and all, and you lose points when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do but when you’re good you earn stuff that can get your friends their points back. I just started yesterday (my goal is to cut down alcohol to under five drinks a week, I noticed I was kind of going overboard there and now that I’ve lost some weight I can’t hold my liquor anymore) but it looks fun and interesting.
I’m going to be ‘that guy’ and inform you that this sort of short-term thinking is exactly the kind of thing that you want to avoid if you want to get healthy.
Think about 400 days from now and try to be fitter and healthier by then. Make some changes in your life that you can stick with for the rest of your life. Cut down your drinking, include regular exercise and improve your diet. Aim for losing about a pound a week in a sustainable manner that you can continue. Any advice you receive for a forty day window willl be useless over the rest of your life.
I lost 40 pounds over about six months and toned/built up a lot of muscle.
These threads always turn into trainwreck debates about why this method is unhealthy but that one is healthy and everybody’s body is different… So I’ll just summarize with bullet points and you do whatever the hell you want. I’m pretty sure this post will be soundly ignored anyway. Or someone will come in here to tell me I lost 40 pounds “wrong” despite the fact that I’ve kept it off with minor permanent lifestyle changes.
•Stop eating white foods. Rice, potatoes, white bread, processed white sugar, dairy, anything else that is white (with the possible exception of cauliflower). If you insist on eating grains (and you should, just not mostly grains), then insist on whole grains, e.g., brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat, etc.
•Eat mostly lean proteins, lots of fresh veggies and fruits in season, whole grains.
•Eliminate all high fructose corn syrup from your diet. Drink mostly water and 100% juice. Reduce or eliminate processed sugar. I think natural sugars from fruits and certain veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes) are fine for you because the whole fruit/veg comes with it fiber, which helps you not absorb as much sugar. Refined sugar generally appears in foods with very little fiber.
•Shop only the perimeter of the store where all the fresh food is. Eat nothing that comes out of a can or a box. No frozen blocks o’ crap and no fast food: it’s all laden with way too much fat, sugar, and salt, but no fiber and very little nutritional value. (Example: instead of Chinese take out, make some brown rice and whip up a stir fry from whatever fresh veg you can find. Way healthier, takes about the same amount of time as calling in an order, driving to pick it up, etc.)
•Reduce fat and if you insist on dairy, go low fat or fat free. Ease up on the cheese, please, which really jacks up the empty calories in foods.
•Lean proteins only. I didn’t and still don’t eat red meat (anything with eyelids). Nothing fried, no skin. Grill it skinless.
• No fried or deep fried foods.
•Get plenty of sleep – 8 hours every night, preferably the same 8 hours.
•Destress through meditation, prayer, sex, gardening, reading, whatever it takes. Reduce stress.
•Exercise, exercise, exercise. Start slow – maybe one 30-minute workout twice a week for starters. Get your body used to that and after 2-3 weeks, add a day or jack it up to 60 minutes. After a few more weeks, add another day. Work your way up to one hour a day, seven days a week.
•Portion control: whenever you’re eating out (you can do this at home too), ask for a to-go box the minute your food is served. Immediately divide it in half and eat the rest for lunch tomorrow. Always leave something on your plate: forget the Clean Plate Club. That’s bullshit and fosters overeating out of misguided guilt. Leave food behind.
•Whatever form of exercise you choose, remember that cardio burns fat. You cannot spot reduce. Cardio burns more fat if you have more muscle. So concentrate on a good balance of resistance and cardio training. (Run + weights or whatever floats your boat.)
• Cooking at home saves money and can be much healthier because you can control the salt, fat, and sugar that goes into whatever you cook. If pressed for time, pick a day when you don’t have as much to do and cook for the whole week. Freeze individual portions that can be reheated on the fly for lunches, quick meals. You could make a huge pot of pasta/pizza sauce and freeze it in portions, then when you get home from work, dump some pasta in a pot of boiling water, heat up your sauce, make a salad, dinner served in 20 minutes.
•Watch out for sauces and salad dressings. Even ketchup is full of HFCS, but read the labels because some brands are not. Pretend you’re diabetic and find no-sugar foods; eat what they eat.
For me it boiled down to: reduce fat, sugar, and salt, exercise vigorously and regularly, and get plenty of sleep. Eat mostly whole, unprocessed foods. Simple but requires discipline, and from the sounds of it, you can’t think of it as a diet, but a permanent lifestyle change for the healthier. Given that this could be earthshattering at your house (it often is), make small, incremental changes slowly. Rome wasn’t built in a day. The only way changes can be made permanently (for me) is to take baby steps, get used to the new thing for a bit, then make another small, incremental change. Going from fast food couch potato to health nut overnight is not going to be sustainable for anyone because that’s just too drastic. But skipping the french fries for a salad with no cheese or dressing can be done once a week until you find you’ve begun to prefer the salad to the fries. That’s when you step it up and make another change.
This is the critical part, right here. Establish new habits gradually.
Nudge.
How’d it go? What’s your plan to return to a healthier approach?