If you're not persistent with how you hold your head you'll get wildly different results.
HalFitness
- Thread starter BananaHands
- Start date
Well, I'm at it again. Have so far lost nearly 25lb, half the total loss I need, which has moved me from obese to merely overweight. Hopefully the next 10 weeks aren't much harder, but it is gratifying to have my clothing fit more loosely.
But man it's hard to maintain a consistent 2.5lb per week. I know I'm going to have to continue to use a chart like this for the rest of my life too.
We did splurge on a fitness club membership several weeks ago so I've been able to start exercising for several hours a week. Mostly aerobic, keeping my heart rate between 120 and 180 for an hour, but I've started doing strength exercises this last week.
On the one hand, being out of a job is really stressful and leaves me access to lots of food all day, on the other hand I don't think I'd have set up this exercise regimen if I were still working outside the home daily. Now that it's a habit I have a reasonable chance of keeping it once my work status changes.
As far as the diet, since someone is probably curious, I'm just stupidly limiting calories. When I do eat a meal I have only one serving and make sure it's small. If I'm over the trend line I combine breakfast and lunch into one small meal (essentially skipping a meal, fasting from 9pm to 11:30am). I don't think it's healthy, but it's the only way I can manage. As you can see I've pretty much been eating only two meals a day for almost the entire period. My exercise is 6:30am to 8:00 am each morning, with only about an hour of actual exercise during that time.
For extra fun, zoom in and see the effects of fasting and after fasting, the three day power outage, the illness and associated drugs for the first few weeks, and the stomach flu.
I'm disappointed that I'm so far over the line that I'll probably exit this page sideways rather than from the bottom as planned, but I have to keep telling myself that it's still a significant accomplishment, and that this is for the rest of my life, so if I don't maintain this rate of loss it doesn't matter in the long run, I'll keep going regardless. That and it's still 10lb/month which is pretty good, particularly over a long period of time.
Here's to the next 25![DOUBLEPOST=1490300006,1490299829][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh, unfortunately I don't think it'll be enough to get me off the sleep apnea machine. That may have moved from a fat cause to a nerve cause, so I might be on the cpap for the rest of my life as well.
Here's hoping, but it's been a year on the machine and I'm ok with it. Just wish it cost less than it does for replacement masks and such.
But man it's hard to maintain a consistent 2.5lb per week. I know I'm going to have to continue to use a chart like this for the rest of my life too.
We did splurge on a fitness club membership several weeks ago so I've been able to start exercising for several hours a week. Mostly aerobic, keeping my heart rate between 120 and 180 for an hour, but I've started doing strength exercises this last week.
On the one hand, being out of a job is really stressful and leaves me access to lots of food all day, on the other hand I don't think I'd have set up this exercise regimen if I were still working outside the home daily. Now that it's a habit I have a reasonable chance of keeping it once my work status changes.
As far as the diet, since someone is probably curious, I'm just stupidly limiting calories. When I do eat a meal I have only one serving and make sure it's small. If I'm over the trend line I combine breakfast and lunch into one small meal (essentially skipping a meal, fasting from 9pm to 11:30am). I don't think it's healthy, but it's the only way I can manage. As you can see I've pretty much been eating only two meals a day for almost the entire period. My exercise is 6:30am to 8:00 am each morning, with only about an hour of actual exercise during that time.
For extra fun, zoom in and see the effects of fasting and after fasting, the three day power outage, the illness and associated drugs for the first few weeks, and the stomach flu.
I'm disappointed that I'm so far over the line that I'll probably exit this page sideways rather than from the bottom as planned, but I have to keep telling myself that it's still a significant accomplishment, and that this is for the rest of my life, so if I don't maintain this rate of loss it doesn't matter in the long run, I'll keep going regardless. That and it's still 10lb/month which is pretty good, particularly over a long period of time.
Here's to the next 25![DOUBLEPOST=1490300006,1490299829][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh, unfortunately I don't think it'll be enough to get me off the sleep apnea machine. That may have moved from a fat cause to a nerve cause, so I might be on the cpap for the rest of my life as well.
Here's hoping, but it's been a year on the machine and I'm ok with it. Just wish it cost less than it does for replacement masks and such.
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I'm only 5' 6", and even after this loss have a 40% body fat percentage (not muscular, and calculated using waist measurement of 43" so only a gross estimate). So I'm still carrying about 65lb fat, which means I could withstand a 2k calorie cut according to your calculation. According to online calculators I should be eating just over 2k calories to maintain a sedentary life and a 145lb weight (my goal - the weight, not the lifestyle), and while I'm not counting calories I'm sure I'm eating over 1,200 a day even with two meals. Snacking, particularly these last few weeks once I started exercising, has been very difficult to avoid. The exercise machines indicate I'm burning between 400 and 600 calories each weekday, so my deficit might be as high as 2,100-1200+600 = 1500, still well under the 2k calculation given by 30c/lb fat.
But this is the first time I've run across that information, so I appreciate you pointing it out, and I'll certainly take it into account as I approach my goal, particularly as exercise should also change my body fat percentage.
Here's one site that refers to some Harvard recommendation of 1,200 for women and 1,500 for men when not medically supervised.
Guess I might need to start counting calories...
That's why I recommended displacement as the best measure. Displacement measures raw volume and won't change over little things.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
That said, those medically supervised Nutrimed 420 calorie liquid diets really freakin' work. I lost about 75 pounds in a year with it.
*hurk* Straight trendline for weight loss!?! You're killing me...
GasBandit
Staff member
I was really surprised at how motivational being above or below a trendline was for me. It's instant daily feedback, and the further above it I creep, the more I want to "fix" it by eating less. So I've turned myself into a feedback loop/control system with a sensitive trigger.
In fact I'm staving off snacks right now by repeating, "tomorrow I could be below 170... tomorrow I could be below 170..." and keeping in mind that I'm over 2.5lb above the main line. It's not something that motivates my wife, and I'm not sure it would work for others, but for me the act of drawing that line was all I needed. I'm hoping it'll be enough when I go into weight maintenance mode later and the line is straight. I think the biggest win for me is that I've definitely been through a bunch of emotional ups and downs the last three months (as normal, as well as added stress) and it's still been motivating enough for me. I really expected to fall out/fail by now due to a bad emotional state, or giving up when I gain several pounds in one day, so I didn't post at the beginning of the attempt. Now it looks like bragging, but I'm really only halfway to my goal.
I expect the second half to be harder, and I'm thinking of ways to mitigate that.
Officially signed up for my first triathlon. There was a try-a-tri but it didn't seem imposing enough to waste time training for.
300m swim
10 Km bike ride
2.5Km run
That's a lunch hour workout so I went with the real thing.
750m (0.5 miles) lake swim
20Km (12.4 miles) bike ride
5Km (3.1 miles) run.
Bless this aging body and its capacity to outdo my younger self consistently.
300m swim
10 Km bike ride
2.5Km run
That's a lunch hour workout so I went with the real thing.
750m (0.5 miles) lake swim
20Km (12.4 miles) bike ride
5Km (3.1 miles) run.
Bless this aging body and its capacity to outdo my younger self consistently.
I don't think I can do it either, but I'm going to try and prove myself wrong because I'm a stubborn ass.[DOUBLEPOST=1492542131,1492542010][/DOUBLEPOST]
Yeah, individually the parts are doable. I can run a 30 minute 5K, and can do about a 38 minute 20K bike. It's the close proximity of heavy cardio exercises that will be my issue.
My goal is a 25/40/35 split, so 1:40 for the whole thing.
Also there's no pool available for training so I'm doing dry land until the lake unfreezes at the beginning of May...
Me and the wife have been using our bike to ride 3 or 4 miles a day.. Well I upgraded myself from the 130 Schwinn bike to a 500 dollar (after a new seat) Jamis commuter 1. It pedals and rides like a dream
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I'm getting a little discouraged. I not only went back up to 225lbs, my measurements haven't been improving, either. Despite the fact that I've been consistently active. Or even over-active, according to my phone's step counter where I can plug in other activities like yoga and biking. For the past two weeks, I've gotten up early and gone to a 6:30 AM hot yoga class at the studio I volunteer at. It's great and incredibly energizing for the rest of the day. I've felt in good shape.
But...I'm not losing anything. I know my eating habits are hurting. For example, I've been eating a lot of bread products in the past week, either fresh made rolls mom made or bagels. I've been mildly depressed the past week due to various circumstances (lack of job, blow up with friends over something), and my go-to depressive food is bread of some sort. Mom also gave me two chocolate bunnies for Easter and I ate them both in the same day.
It's getting really discouraging, honestly. Also the fact that - even with Mom's help in measuring me, I don't know if we're being consistent with the measuring tape. It seems to fluctuate just as much as my weight.
For those curious, these are my measurements as of tonight:
Neck: 44 inches (111 cm)
Shoulders: 131 1/2 inches (334 cm)
Chest: 199 inches (302 cm)
Bicep: 40 inches (101 cm)
Forearm: 33 inches (83 cm)
Waist: 118 inches (299 cm)
Hip:108 inches (274 cm)
Thigh: 64 inches (162 cm)
Calf: 44 inches (111 cm)
But...I'm not losing anything. I know my eating habits are hurting. For example, I've been eating a lot of bread products in the past week, either fresh made rolls mom made or bagels. I've been mildly depressed the past week due to various circumstances (lack of job, blow up with friends over something), and my go-to depressive food is bread of some sort. Mom also gave me two chocolate bunnies for Easter and I ate them both in the same day.
It's getting really discouraging, honestly. Also the fact that - even with Mom's help in measuring me, I don't know if we're being consistent with the measuring tape. It seems to fluctuate just as much as my weight.
For those curious, these are my measurements as of tonight:
Neck: 44 inches (111 cm)
Shoulders: 131 1/2 inches (334 cm)
Chest: 199 inches (302 cm)
Bicep: 40 inches (101 cm)
Forearm: 33 inches (83 cm)
Waist: 118 inches (299 cm)
Hip:108 inches (274 cm)
Thigh: 64 inches (162 cm)
Calf: 44 inches (111 cm)
I don't know how.
I recommend Lose It! or MyFitnessPal phone apps. They will give you a daily calorie intake based on your age, weight, and actiivity level. Both of them are able to scan barcodes to automatically insert food into your daily food log, so it makes it easier. They also have large databases of basic foods and restaurant foods. They are both free. A subscription unlocks some more features (like more detailed nutrition analysis), but they are both still very usable as free apps.
Basically what Sara_Numbers said. I'm not going to lie, it's a total pain in the ass starting out. I know I started and stopped a couple times because I hated it/couldn't be bothered with it. But it gets easier with practice and now it's no big deal. Based on my own experience, here's what I'd recommend:
1. Download app
2. Spend a couple weeks logging what you eat after every meal, but don't worry about the amount. What you want to do is build up the habit of logging your diet.
3. Once that becomes no big deal, you need to start paying closer attention to the quantity of what you're eating. This part can be really hard, especially if you don't cook for yourself. Ideally you'll have a food scale to measure amounts. Most people don't want to bother with it, but it's the best way to keep track. On the plus side there's a barcode scanner for prepackaged food, and if you mostly eat the same foods (and the same amount of foods) you can get away with measuring things only a couple times. Once it's in your history you can basically copy/paste it.
At this point you'll probably either say "fuck this, I'm not doing that" or you'll try it and say "fuck this sucks, I quit." I know I did. If you do, don't worry about it, but try again later. Each time I started to do it again, the further along I got (and eventually got a food scale) and got the hang of it.
Once I more or less got that part down, I used an online calculator to find my TDEE (maintenance calorie level) and aimed for 300 calories below that (this is variable depending on how aggressively you want to lose weight). I think LoseIt! and MyFitnessPal has that integrated into the app. I also eventually found this TDEE estimator which I think is pretty neat. You put in your weight and total calories each day, and after a couple weeks it's got your TDEE down, and dynamically changes over time as needed. It's not strictly necessary, but it works well and takes out some of the guesswork.
1. Download app
2. Spend a couple weeks logging what you eat after every meal, but don't worry about the amount. What you want to do is build up the habit of logging your diet.
3. Once that becomes no big deal, you need to start paying closer attention to the quantity of what you're eating. This part can be really hard, especially if you don't cook for yourself. Ideally you'll have a food scale to measure amounts. Most people don't want to bother with it, but it's the best way to keep track. On the plus side there's a barcode scanner for prepackaged food, and if you mostly eat the same foods (and the same amount of foods) you can get away with measuring things only a couple times. Once it's in your history you can basically copy/paste it.
At this point you'll probably either say "fuck this, I'm not doing that" or you'll try it and say "fuck this sucks, I quit." I know I did. If you do, don't worry about it, but try again later. Each time I started to do it again, the further along I got (and eventually got a food scale) and got the hang of it.
Once I more or less got that part down, I used an online calculator to find my TDEE (maintenance calorie level) and aimed for 300 calories below that (this is variable depending on how aggressively you want to lose weight). I think LoseIt! and MyFitnessPal has that integrated into the app. I also eventually found this TDEE estimator which I think is pretty neat. You put in your weight and total calories each day, and after a couple weeks it's got your TDEE down, and dynamically changes over time as needed. It's not strictly necessary, but it works well and takes out some of the guesswork.
Yeah, I've been plateauing hard these last few weeks. Still haven't really broken below 170, though I did see 169 for a day. My trendline made it to 172 and has stuck there.I know it gets discouraging, but keep in mind most of us don't have a trendline where R approaches 1 like @stienman
I really don't want to count calories but I may have to.
What do you do with meals you can't scan, though? Like my morning smoothies or home cooked meals?
I'm using Lose It!, so I'll explain that process.
Basic foods like meat, fruits, and veggies will already be in the database and you just enter in the name in the search. The databse is huge, I have yet to enter in a basic food and it not be in the database. Unless you are eating some really, really exotic foods...well, actually, it's probably already in the database. The database has been created by users, so it covers a lot. Now, because it's user created, there's duplicate entries and also some entries with errors, but you can switch it out for a correct entry in your log if you find one had errors. If you do run into something that isn't in there, you can create a new entry yourself and enter in all the nutrition info (either from its packaging or looking it up online) by hand. A problem I've had is if two products share a barcode, where you scan cheese and it comes up chicken soup. But those items often can just be looked up in the existing database rather than scanning their barcode.
For your smoothies and meals you make yourself, you can create Recipes. You enter in all the ingredients of whatever you're making and then however many servings it's supposed to be. If you drink the entire smoothie yourself, make its recipe 1 serving. If you make a dish that three people eat but you also usually have one serving of leftovers, you would assign it four servings. And the Recipes will stay in your personal database (you have the option to share them publicly, but don't have to) and the next time you make it, you just use your Recipe.
For restaurant food that isn't in the database and I can't know every ingredient, I'll pick another item in the database that is close enough (a similar item from another restaurant).
If there are meals that you eat all the time, like the same thing for breakfast every day, you can also select a previous days entries to copy over (partially or fullly) into your current day.
I know this can sound overwhelming with databases and log entries and stuff, but it will make more sense once you actually get the app in your hands and play with it.
Advice my husband got was to have one day a week where you can eat anything you want, no restrictions. You have to eat healthy the other six days, but on your day off you can eat whatever you want without guilt. Still put it in your log, but you don't have to feel guilty about it. That will ensure nothing is "forbidden" and you're less likely to have uncontrolled binges. We do Pizza Friday.
Nick, there is no WAY those numbers are correct. Even at my healthiest, my neck has never been larger than 16 inches, and you have yours at forty-four. Even my waist has never been 44 inches. Your metric<->imperial conversions appear correct, I just seriously doubt the accuracy of the measurements themselves.
I mean, unless you're secretly 12ft(4m) tall, that is.
--Patrick
Goddammit, I'm a moron. We were using a measure tape in centimeters. I thought it was inches. We have two different measuring tapes. Okay, so we just did all my measurements again. So as of today, with rough conversion calculations:
Neck: 44 1/2 cm (17.5 inches)
Shoulders: 130 (51 inches)
Chest: 119 cm (46.85 inches)
Bicep: 40 cm (15.74 inches)
Forearm: 33 cm (13 inches)
Waist: 117 cm (46 inches)
Hip:107 cm (42 inches)
Thigh: 62 cm (24.4 inches)
Calf: 43 1/2 (17 inches)
Hoping I do, honestly.
Biked 52 KM (32.30 miles) in about 3.7 hours (according to my phone's location tracker).
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm gonna pass out.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm gonna pass out.
So, got a new fitbit for my birthday, the Charge 2 HR. I've seen a slight change in the steps counted, and a huge change in the active minutes counted. The tracker keeping up with my heart rate has really increased the amount of active minutes, was averaging around 60 or so, all this week I've been up over 200.
No no no. I biked to Tantalon and back through the trails around here.