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  • sagard
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by Drew S. View Post
    I only have a couple things I would offer. 1. As others have said it’s going to be very tough to make much progress without more activity. 2. I think the key to eating healthier is planning and preparation which obviously takes time and effort. I don’t think it’s willpower as much as being well prepared.
    First time I have agreed with you 100%. I'm significantly down since Christmas as I've turned over all meal plans to my wife and verify and plan if I'm going to be out on my own.

    Leave a comment:


  • alfablue
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by SJHovey View Post
    I would say from personal experience that short of adopting an exercise program it'll be pretty tough for you to lose substantial weight without using a "fad" diet. I don't use that term in a derogatory sense because they do work, again from personal experience. You can go carb free or go on the Keto diet (similar to the standard carb free), go on the fasting diet, etc..., and you will lose a lot of weight and you can do so relatively quickly (within a year).

    The problem is staying on that diet. Most of the time it's too easy to slip off of them because frankly it gets tiring eating nothing but protein all the time or not drinking beer or eating pizza.

    My tips to you, again based upon personal experience:

    1. Find a diet you where you can at least tolerate the food for 6-9 months.
    2. Try to get someone to do it with you (spouse or co-worker) because it works better when you have support, and misery loves company.
    3. Once you lose the weight, you will have to make major changes to your lifestyle, either in terms of radically adjusting your diet to eat very sensibly or start exercising, or best of all both.

    You can try to lose weight by counting calories and simply reducing calorie intake. There are some people for whom that's successful, but I think most of us just give up.
    Realistically, weight loss isn't a temporary thing, it's a permanent change in behavior.

    Whatever one decides to do, it has to stick, and not be a punishment.

    (which is why low carb has worked for us- you eat, fill up, and are done. Most carbs, you really don't miss. And at some point, sugar starts to taste pretty bad. So regulating your intake isn't hard)

    Leave a comment:


  • Drew S.
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    I only have a couple things I would offer. 1. As others have said it’s going to be very tough to make much progress without more activity. 2. I think the key to eating healthier is planning and preparation which obviously takes time and effort. I don’t think it’s willpower as much as being well prepared.

    If you do try to get back into tennis the only thing I would say is do not use poly strings. You are asking for arm issues if you do.

    Leave a comment:


  • dxmnkd316
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by trixR4kids View Post
    It's a bit harder to really gorge because your stomach seems to shrink a bit during that period and you get full sooner. Also that's why it's probably better to just get a meal where you know or have a rough estimate of the calories and see how you feel after.

    And yeah I just try not to buy snacks, that one is easy to fix.
    I've never really experienced that except with long-term changes. Short-term, your internal organs aren't going to change size drastically unless something like a spleen and liver are crushing it or you wrap a band around it. As you eat less over weeks and months, sure. Then I would certainly buy that the stomach can shrink.

    Leave a comment:


  • MissThundercat
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    From someone who used to weigh 396 (I have photographic evidence of this, what got me to lose weight and keep most of it off (currently sitting at about 220):

    1. Coffee/tea/water. But I allow myself to play on weekends, and this means WINE. Instead of using regular Gatorade for my endurance events, I switched over to Nuun effervescent tabs, which are only 10 calories and pack the same punch as Gatorade.

    2. Adequate fiber from whole food sources. Yes, Clif bars have 4g fiber per bar, but also 3 types of sugar in the first 5 ingredients. If anything, I use lots of butternut squash, sweet potatoes (8g per 8 oz of potato), Brussels sprouts... I have a recipe for sweet potato and Brussels sprouts hash with ground turkey and dried cranberries you can have.

    3. Adequate protein from whole food sources. Eggs in the morning, leftovers from the night before (tomorrow's lunch will be the sweet potato and Brussels sprouts hash), and a lean meat, non starchy veg, starchy veg dinner. Try parsnips for a starch instead of white potatoes.

    4. Healthy-ISH carbs. I pretty much quit eating sandwiches and beer after marathons, and switched to an omelette with avocado and whole grain toast after tackling 26.2 another time. Winter squashes are amazing, and there are savory preparations.

    5. I do eat some sugar, but it's by my own hand, and so I limit baking, I don't buy ice cream to bring home (gone right away), and I watch for things like added sugar in the processed foods I do buy (I even limit crunchy PB for this reason).

    6. And yes, I move. For effective weight loss via exercise, no one said you had to run marathons. I found that strength training or body weight training can be most effective, along with short runs or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)... short workout ( <30 minutes), but you go all out with the intensity.

    Leave a comment:


  • trixR4kids
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    It's a bit harder to really gorge because your stomach seems to shrink a bit during that period and you get full sooner. Also that's why it's probably better to just get a meal where you know or have a rough estimate of the calories and see how you feel after.

    And yeah I just try not to buy snacks, that one is easy to fix.

    Leave a comment:


  • dxmnkd316
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by LynahFan View Post
    I'll offer another shout-out for (mini)fasting. I've heard a couple pop-science podcasts on it, but haven't read the literature. I skip breakfast and pack a lunch (one sandwich, baby carrots, apple, banana, and a pear), which I often don't get to eat until 2 or 3 pm because of my job. That means that 1-2x per week, I go as much as 20 hours without eating. I suspect (but have no proof) that this has multiple benefits:

    1) It causes my body to consume fat due to the acute calorie deficit during those periods (direct effect)
    2) It trains my metabolism to get good at consuming fat rather than sugar (secondary effect)
    3) It trains my metabolism to get by on less food (tertiary)
    4) I just flat-out get used to being hungry, so being hungry doesn't bother me that much. I often notice, "oh, interesting - I really feel a little better now that I've eaten, so I guess I was hungry before." After getting used to fasting, being a little hungry is just not a big deal - it doesn't cause me to snack, overeat, etc. (mental)
    THe only thing I can think of against intermittent fasting is that it tends to lead to gorging. When I'm really hungry, I tend to eat faster than my brain can trigger the "Stop! You're full, fatty" feeling. I also tend to eat "fast" things like snacks.

    Leave a comment:


  • SJHovey
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    I would say from personal experience that short of adopting an exercise program it'll be pretty tough for you to lose substantial weight without using a "fad" diet. I don't use that term in a derogatory sense because they do work, again from personal experience. You can go carb free or go on the Keto diet (similar to the standard carb free), go on the fasting diet, etc..., and you will lose a lot of weight and you can do so relatively quickly (within a year).

    The problem is staying on that diet. Most of the time it's too easy to slip off of them because frankly it gets tiring eating nothing but protein all the time or not drinking beer or eating pizza.

    My tips to you, again based upon personal experience:

    1. Find a diet you where you can at least tolerate the food for 6-9 months.
    2. Try to get someone to do it with you (spouse or co-worker) because it works better when you have support, and misery loves company.
    3. Once you lose the weight, you will have to make major changes to your lifestyle, either in terms of radically adjusting your diet to eat very sensibly or start exercising, or best of all both.

    You can try to lose weight by counting calories and simply reducing calorie intake. There are some people for whom that's successful, but I think most of us just give up.

    Leave a comment:


  • LynahFan
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    I'll offer another shout-out for (mini)fasting. I've heard a couple pop-science podcasts on it, but haven't read the literature. I skip breakfast and pack a lunch (one sandwich, baby carrots, apple, banana, and a pear), which I often don't get to eat until 2 or 3 pm because of my job. That means that 1-2x per week, I go as much as 20 hours without eating. I suspect (but have no proof) that this has multiple benefits:

    1) It causes my body to consume fat due to the acute calorie deficit during those periods (direct effect)
    2) It trains my metabolism to get good at consuming fat rather than sugar (secondary effect)
    3) It trains my metabolism to get by on less food (tertiary)
    4) I just flat-out get used to being hungry, so being hungry doesn't bother me that much. I often notice, "oh, interesting - I really feel a little better now that I've eaten, so I guess I was hungry before." After getting used to fasting, being a little hungry is just not a big deal - it doesn't cause me to snack, overeat, etc. (mental)

    Leave a comment:


  • BassAle
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by Kepler View Post
    Not enjoying tea and loathing coffee is a hindrance to my efforts. I like some flavored water, though the caveat that sweetness without calories may be self-defeating would indicate that might be self-defeating for me.
    go with seltzer, not flavored water. It has carbonated water, and some natural flavors, but no sugar or artificial sweetener.

    Leave a comment:


  • Kepler
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by trixR4kids View Post
    As for coffee do you think you could sorta just force yourself to drink it?
    Hasn't worked with whiskey which has a helluva lot better selling point.

    If something tastes merely annoying (beer, vegetables, melons) you can learn to enjoy it. But when something tastes like actual sh-t (coffee, whiskey, rye, bourbon, scotch, brandy) there's no hope.

    Leave a comment:


  • Deutsche Gopher Fan
    replied
    Originally posted by FadeToBlack&Gold View Post
    My problem with food tracking apps for calorie counting is that if you do your own cooking, you have to enter each ingredient and hope it's both in the database and has the numbers entered accurately. It drives me insane trying to pick from the different brands, serving sizes, and nutrition counts of eggs, veggies, crackers, bread, etc. My Fitness Pal is particularly terrible at this, and I inevitably quit using it after a couple of days.
    I have the same issue. So frustrating

    Leave a comment:


  • joecct
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Dr. Pepper is an approved food group.

    Leave a comment:


  • trixR4kids
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    Originally posted by Kepler View Post
    The one "you're an adult now" sport I really like is tennis. It's summer; I should find a partner and just play all the time. I'm competitive AF so I really just need to find a partner a little better and start climbing the ladder, eventually exceeding them, finding somebody else, rinse and repeat.
    That would definitely help and if you're competitive and wanted to get a competitive edge you could probably find some type of lifting/training to do that'd be tennis specific.

    As for coffee do you think you could sorta just force yourself to drink it? Coffee is an acquired taste for sure and I'm not exactly drinking the stuff at work for the taste. I know with things like beer/bourbon I sorta did that for a while until I grew to actually like the taste of them. With coffee it's doubly important because it helps me cheat and not eat for a while and eat a late lunch.

    I also do intermittent fasting where I don't eat for a number of hours and just drink coffee in the morning, skip breakfast entirely, and don't eat lunch until 1-2 (depends when I wake up and when I ate dinner the night before). I'm not gonna pretend to know whether there's any science to that being more efficient for burning calories or whatever but if nothing else it sorta forces you to eat less (I think there is something to the fact that eating something to start the day like say a banana increases your appetite whereas skipping breakfast shrinks your stomach and decreases your appetite slightly). This was another thing that helped me get from 203 a year ago down to 165-168 range I've been at for a while now. In your case if you skipped the corn flakes and milk that's a pretty easy 200 to cut that isn't going to make you feel any less hungry 30 minutes after you eat it.
    Last edited by trixR4kids; 04-30-2019, 01:18 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • FadeToBlack&Gold
    replied
    Re: Calorie Counting

    My problem with food tracking apps for calorie counting is that if you do your own cooking, you have to enter each ingredient and hope it's both in the database and has the numbers entered accurately. It drives me insane trying to pick from the different brands, serving sizes, and nutrition counts of eggs, veggies, crackers, bread, etc. My Fitness Pal is particularly terrible at this, and I inevitably quit using it after a couple of days.

    Leave a comment:

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