I’ve said it befor and I’ll say it again… this has been my exact method as well. I totally support it because it’s worked for me when nothing else has.
Well, that and a 1-2 hour intense workouts 5 days a week.
Like Mangetout, I don’t recommend it to everyone and I realize some people suffer from low/high sugar rush problems. In the beginning, I suffered a few headaches as well from lack of sugar in my blood stream but I trained my body to deal with it and learned to manage low energy with a couple of cups of sweetened coffee through my day.
Now, a lunch time meal that can’t be avoided (ex. to celebrate something with cow-orkers) puts me into a food coma. Even if it’s just a soup or salad. I hate the bloated feeling of a full stomach through my afternoon and I don’t enjoy or look forward to my dinne the way I normally would.
Breakfast, these days, is unheard of for me. I may grab a banana or half a sports bar before a particularly intense morning workout… but that’s about it.
My mantra… ***“Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” ** *
I think you may be selling your advice a bit short. There’s little evidence that we are descended from people who consistently ate 3 square meals a day - it’s fully plausible that our bodies can do fine on a less regular eating schedule.
I also agree with your advice about accepting some feelings of hunger as normal. The notion that every impluse should be gratified is a dubious one.
For a piece of specific advice that’s likely to show results: replace lunch with a 2+ mile walk.
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For ~2 1/2 years, I did Atkins and lost nearly 40 pounds. At some point, I drifted away from the plan and started regaining the weight. I put back on 22 of those 40 pounds. Realizing that all my hard work was fast disappearing, I knew I had to do something before it was too late. So I decided to try Weight Watchers Online, because I need the structure that comes from tracking everything I eat (you can do Atkins and track with fitday.com, but I wanted a change).
What helped me was looking at people more overweight than me and realizing that unless I did something, that would be me. Did I want to become so overweight that even walking was difficult? Did I want to look at all those hot clothes made for thin girls and only dream about wearing them, or did I want to wear them? And the longer I waited, the longer I would have to spend dieting.
I don’t choose unsatisfying low-fat foods over high-fat foods all the time; I just limit the amount I eat. (A half a cup of BlueBunny Carb Freedom Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream is more satisfying than two cups of tasteless fat-free ice cream.) I don’t go hungry either. Being hungry makes any weight loss plan difficult. You never have to be hungry to lose weight.
(For the record, I think Atkins is an excellent diet, and I highly recommend trying it. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do Weight Watchers without it. Losing the addiction to high-carbohydrate foods (simple/processed sugars and flours) was more worthwhile than the weight loss.)
I forgot to add the diet methodology I use. This may seem tweaky and slightly obsessive stuff but it gets to the heart of reasonable expectations and in dieting it’s all the little choices we make that count.
Through lots of empirical experience counting calories and listening to others with similar stories I have become convinced that many researchers that recommend calorie intake ranges don’t know what the hell they are talking about regarding the recommended number of calories burned per lb of body weight by overweight people.
Every metabolism chart or calculation formula I consult tells me I should be burning 12-13 calories per lb of body weight given my age, weight, height, build and activity level. I’m healthy and I burn 10 calories per lb, per day and day out What this means is that I need to significantly adjust my expectations of loss or of the amount I can consume daily to achieve certain weight levels. I suspect there are many, many overweight people in the same boat.
In real world terms this means that to lose weight at a specific loss rate I can’t have that extra daily bowl of cereal or sandwich that normal calorie burn levels would lead me to think I can afford while dieting. If I did my weekly loss rate would slow down by almost 30 to 50%.
If for example I was at 275 lbs to maintain that means I would need 2,750 cals per day at my real world burn rate. Calorie charts tell me I should need 12 calories (or even more) per lb or 3,300 per day @ 275 lbs. If I trusted that and dieted I’d be budgeting (and eating) an extra 550 (daily) x 7 =r 3,850 extra calories per week. This would slow my weekly loss rate by just over a lb of fat (fat lb = approx 3,500 calories). So if I’m dieting and budgeting calories to lose 2 lbs per week, and if you’re losing a piddly 1 lb per week how discouraged do you think many significantly overweight people would become?
Setting rational expectations at the outset is key to success. I think many overweight people are lied to by metabolism charts, and don’t have a clue about how little their body needs to maintain a specific set point, and specifically how even tiny “extra” snacks per day can sabotage you over the long run and lead to dieting disappointment.
I’m sure there’s a lot of truth in this, but it’s important to avoid lawsuits - what works for me might fail for someone else and if someone skipped breakfast and lunch simply because I said it was great, then subsequently blacked out and crashed their fuel tanker into a school bus, it would be A Bad Thing.
How did you arrive at that number? I mean, is there an available method to determine this? I find my metabolism to be slower as well but I don’t know how to determine my personal burn level.
This is exactly what I thought as I read your post The Falling Cow. Also, is this name related to how you feel about yourself or something completely different?
Well, I’m at the beginning of my journey, but what helped me is to be aware that I am a Recovering Perfectionist, and to be more gentle with myself.
Perfectionism=pressure (for me). Pressure=frustration and acting out. Acting out almost always involves cheese.
So, I decided to be more gentle with myself. Instead of having the weight the weight the weight… er… “weighing” on me all the time, I decided to see each week as an experiment. What happens if I eat a healthy breakfast every day? Huh. At the end of the week, I’m down a pound or two. Okay, now what happens if I take my lunch to work instead of eating out? Huh. At the end of the week, I’m down another pound or two. As the loses begin to accumulate, that becomes motivating and energizes me to add another small healthy behavior.
I also have given myself three years to get achieve a healthy weight. (It’s a mental trick. I know it can be done in six months to a year if I work. But “work” = standards. Standards=perfectionism. Etc.)
I also thought alot about what rewards I was getting for being fat. The fat suit is psychological protection for me in many ways. In fact, it makes me nervous to have achieved my first weight loss goal. But, again, the lesson comes from the process, and I see this as a way to learn about myself just as much as it is about becoming healthy.
And I don’t think you have to turn your whole lifestlye upside down to lose 1-2 lbs a week. Small changes do make a difference. My small change this week is to eat a healthy salad before dinner. Fills me up and heads off the evening time mantra: “I have a neeeeeed. A neeeeeeed for CHEESE!!”
Because they don’t have the strength and discipline to do it.
If you are a weak person, do not attempt to lose weight. You will fail and disappoint yourself. Instead you should simply resign to the fact that you’ll be fat the rest of your life.
Probably no need though, as nobody would follow my advice. Because buying diet books is an alternative to following the advice in them, just as signing up to join a gym is very often an alternative to actually doing exercise.
What kills me and my diet is my social life. I’m great at skipping the sweets/grease aisle at the grocery store, and I’m great at eating Lean Cuisine dinners instead of stopping at Taco Bell on the way home. I’m fucking awful at telling my friends I can’t go meet them for a few beers. I’m terrible at refusing invitations out to eat. I’m bad at saying “no” when they suggest ordering pizza while watching a movie. I’m not great at skipping that last slice when its offered to me.
I’ve lost significant amounts of weight twice now. Once I lost 70, then gained back 45 of it. Now I’m back down 50, making me the thinnest I’ve ever been. It’s a constant struggle, but its completely worth it. I love seeing fewer fat rolls when I sit up in bed without a shirt on in the morning. I love seeing less fat bouncing when I dry myself off after my shower. I love not feeling my belly roll over my belt when I’m sitting at my desk. I love that my girlfriend can cuddle up to me better on the couch without my fat in the way. I love that clothes look better on me and that’s I’m not so self-concious about how I look in them. To me, all those “loves” are worth the pain in the ass it is sometimes.
The part that really helped me lose the weight though was realizing that food is such a ridiculously temporary satisfaction. If I eat Taco Bell instead of a Healthy Choice frozen dinner, I’ll surely enjoy the Taco Bell more. But I’ll only be eating it for about 10 minutes, and then I’ll be done. I’ll wash away the taste with my first sip of soda. Is it really worth un-doing those 4 miles I ran just for 10 minutes of eating? Not to me.
I arrived at that number through several years of meticulous calorie counting, summing the number of weekly calories consumed, and weekly/monthly/annual measurements of how it affected my weight. It became evident to me a few months into the process what calories intake levels (adjusted for exercise) were necessary for a specific loss rate. And just to be clear, the 10 calories per lb per day is with 10 miles of exercise walking per week, and 4 (1/2 each) hour weight lifting sessions in addition to other normal activity.
The bottom line (IMO) is that many overweight people burn significantly less calories to per lb of maintained body weight than non-overweight people (at least the ones measured by metabolism researchers), even adjusting for other physical, age and activity factors.
Honestly, this is just blatant, drive by shitting in a polite, well meaning thread for people trying to improve their physical lifestyles. If you’re that much of a negative attention whore isn’t there some alternative way to get your jollies beside dropping a turd in the pool?
I read your post and all I could think of was WOW, NEGATIVE. It sounds like you’re focusing on all the stuff you CAN’T do, or the stuff you’re NOT good at.
I think you need to spin it around and look at the positives. What CAN you do? What WILL you do? What healthy foods do you like? What benefits will losing weight deliver for you? How will you feel when you’ve accomplished this process? How will you feel when you are eating right and living healthy?
Focus on the good stuff - who the hell wants to do something that sucks? You can’t focus on the negative. (Easier said than done sometimes, but if you at least attempt you might find it works.
One thing I do is make sure that when I eat something “bad” for me, I’m aware of it. I don’t grab the bag of cashews or soy nuts and chow down while standing in the kitchen. I measure out an appropriate serving and sit down with it. I fix a “snack tray” to enjoy with a movie or game and record it (as I do everything) with Weight Watchers; I never just grab a bag of something. By being aware of everything I eat, I enjoy food more overall, and I’m more able to resist food I wouldn’t truly enjoy.
Side story: my mother-in-law came to visit a couple weekends ago. Saturday morning we went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes; a chain of restaurants that sells breakfast foods and things like burgers and steaks all day long) for a late breakfast. Since it was a special occasion, and my WW flex points start over on Saturday, I decided to splurge and get the stuffed french toast. Unlike Atkins, the Weight Watchers Points system has no forbidden foods. Anything in the right quantities is okay. IHOP’s stuffed french toast is filled with a sweetened cream cheese mixture, topped with pie filling (apple for me), and whipped cream.
Now, keep in mind my earlier post about being on Atkins. I haven’t had this much sugar in total for the last 3 years, let alone in one fell swoop. I ate about half of it and felt more sick than I would’ve if the thing had been loaded with maltitol (AKA, the perfect laxative). It gave me a headache, nausea, and a general blah feeling. I hated it. It was the perfect thing to make me realize how much my tastes had changed, and when I went to my nephew’s birthday party last weekend, I found it easy to ignore the cake and ice cream by simply remembering how bad the french toast made me feel.
If a college freshman told me they wanted to become a theoretical physicist, and they had trouble understanding the quadratic formula, I would not offer them encouraging words like, “Yep, you can do it!” As a realist, I would tell them to look at another line of work. It’s the only compassionate thing I could do.
Same goes for someone wanting to lose weight… if they are an inherently weak or undisciplined person, I would not offer them encouraging words like, “Yep, you can do it!” As a realist, I would be honest with them and tell them that they will likely fail any attempt at losing weight. It’s the only compassionate advice I could offer them.
I think Crafter_Man’s response is sort of valid, so long as the question is “why do so many people fail?” - OK, it could have done with being qualified with ‘some’, ‘many’ or maybe even ‘most’, but the plain fact is that a lot of people do fail because they just won’t try hard enough - they may not even realise they’re not trying hard enough but (anecdotally) for every person I’ve met who is overweight through no fault of their own, there are ten who are overweight because they’re making excuses, or dumbly doing things that just aren’t going to work - buying books, or talking about diets, or paying to join a gym then never actually going there, or making excuses to themselves about how they can eat this now, because they’ll make up for it later or that they can eat this because it doesn’t really count.
It’s wrong to say that overweight people are stupid and/or lazy, but stupid lazy people very often end up overweight.
Only you don’t know if anyone in this thread is an “inherently weak or undisciplined person”, so the only thing it serves to do here is discourage the OP by making him feel insecure. The fact that the OP is seeking advice for others, understands that it’s going to be difficult, and still wants to move forward anyway are all good signs.
Normally I agree with you in weight loss threads (even if your rhetoric can be acerbic), but I think your first post in this thread was out of place.
