My Weight Loss Thread

[dude101]

Hi, I'm new here. I guess this can be my weight loss topic where I check in from time to time for advice, or to udpate on my progress.

I've always been the fat kid....all throughout elementary school, junior high, and high school. I'm 19 now and I just finished my freshman year of college. I'm still a fat kid, but at least there's more people like me on a campus of 20,000.

Two years ago my dad passed away at 56 from several sudden complications; passing gallstones brought on pancreatitis, and then he had a heart attack on top of it all. He was a little overweight, but not as much as me. I fell into somewhat of a depression in which I gained a lot more weight...and like I said...I was already a fat kid.

Then just a few months ago, when I was at my biggest, 290 pounds (I'm 6'2"), I decided I was tired of being sad. I didn't want what happened to my dad to happen to me. Plus, I just didn't want to look this way anymore, didn't want to be fat. So I just started watching what I ate. Changed from regular soda to diet, no white bread.

Now I've lost about 20 pounds, just by changing my diet. But I want to lose more, I want to eventually get down to around 180-190lbs. I don't really have certains foods I eat, and I don't really limit myself on any types of food. I just have a daily log where I write down what I eat. I try to stay under 1500 calories and 50 fat grams per day. But now the weight loss is slowing down. What can I do to speed it back up again? Excercise, change my foods? Some advice and specifics would be great! Thanks!!

[JerryHeebs]

Hello dude101,

Awsome job on changing your diet plan! I commend you I know it takes a whole lot of effort, and will power especially. I know that when you first go onto a diet that you loose a whole lot of weight early. I think a lot of it is water weight. But dont be discouraged. So to answer the loosing fat more rapidly question, your weight loss mihgt not ever be as fast, but you can still keep it rolling. I would suggest to make sure that you get exercise everyday, even if this is walking a half mile, or mile and working your way up. Or if you are up to jogging alreayd then do that. A bike or anything else is great too.... A major thing would be to say bye-bye to pop for good and make friends with mr. water. Right there you loose a ton of calories from pop, and carbs too. That is a must if you want to loose fat rapidly. Look on this site to see some diet , or meal plans by using the search tool. There it will have lists of what to eat. Make sure that you are eating meals spaced throughout the day. Example would be
Meal #1 6 egg whites 1 cup of oats
Meal #2 Protein shake
Meal #3 Can of tuna
Meal #4 fat free turkey breat, cottage cheese
Meal #5 Chicken breast, fresh spinach salad, no dressing
Meal #6 1cup of cottage cheese
If you are not weight-lifting ( which you should start ) then you do not have to take in a ton of protein. But protein is great for you because it will give you tons of slowly released energy, compared to eating a lot of carby foods. Hope all this helps, Keep up the great work , and Never give up, don't let yourself defeat YOU! Good Luck !
Jerry

[dude101]

Thanks!! Yeah, I don't drink regular soda anymore, only diet. I currently take in about 1500 calories a day. But I don't take in much protein. I'm going to go to the market today and look for high protein stuff; nuts, peanut butter, chicken, steak, tuna, some protein bars/shakes. Anything else?

I don't have any weights, and I wouldn't feel really comfortable at this stage going to the gym. And I can't really afford to buy my own (or maybe I can, I don't know how much they are). So maybe weight lifting will have to wait a while.

And in the past two months I haven't been doing cardio. So I just started that today. I have a treadmill at home, so I did a 5 minute warm-up at 3mph. Then ran at 5.5mph for 30 secs, recovered for 1 minute at 3mph. Then repeated this process until 30 mins was up. It was pretty tough, but I guess I felt better afterwards. Hopefully this helps?! Thanks.

[snowman123]

I started losing weight while i was at college and i just went to the gym in the morning. At 700 in the morning there will most likely just be professors and older students. Most of the people that you think will judge you will not be there that early. And on another note, anyone that judges you is not the kind of person that you need to concern youself with.

[Squatman]

Congrats on your progress so far.

Your doing great cardio, keep that up and try to increase your speeds over time. Lifting would speed the process up, maybe just try a gym out for a day or two and see what it's like.

1500 calories is too low though. Bump that up to at least 2000 calories and even up to 2500 would be fine. By eating only 1500, you're starving your body, so it will try to slow the body down and hang on to fat. You want to keep your metabolism high, you do this by eating often and by getting the right number of calories. It sounds crazy, but eating more will help you lose fat faster.

[nithos]

I agree with Squatman, your calories are way to low. Your fat lost stalled because you put your body into starvation mode. At 210, I am loosing weight eating 2500 calories a day.

Don't just jump up to 2500+ calories though, add 100-200 calories a week until you get it back to maintenance levels. Hold it there for 1-2 weeks and then start cutting back the calories again. This will help get your metabolism running again.

The rest of the advise is good.

FYI - nuts/PB are not a good protein source, they are a good fat source. Protein should be coming from eggs, lean cuts of meat, fish, non-fat cottage cheese, etc...

[Clipse]

I was where you are, and recently got out, at 6'2 180 lbs, just keep going at it, the day will come when you reach your goal and its gonna be amazing!

[dude101]

Thanks for the support guys! I'll continue with my "interval training" style of cardio, and perhaps try to slowly boost up my calories.

Does anyone have a good example of a healthy daily diet for fat loss for eating around 2000-2500 calories a day?

[dude101]

Alright, well I tried eating more calories and more protein, but I ended up getting too much fat and carbs. I gotta get those down!

Today:
1883 cals
74 g. fat
249 g. carbs
96 g. protein

I also bought a scale today, before I would have to go to my friend's house to weigh myself. The scale was on sale and it measures body fat as well. My weight is 266 and my body fat is 40%. Depressing. That seems like a lot of body fat. I have a lot of work ahead of me...

[Anoops]

Great work, it's obvious that you have the dedication.

I don't like gyms much either, the choice of all machines would be nice, but to me the privacy and freedom of my home makes up for it.

At the gym, or if you decide to buy your own equiptment, avoid the big all in one machines like the bowflex, or anything that ends in "by Jake". In my opinion, free weights are more effective, and it's a fact that they're cheaper.

Since you have no weights currently, if you want to buy your own I'm going to give some advice. You just need to start with a good sturdy straight bar, make sure it feels right, I just recently replaced mine with heavy ones with grooved grips... the older ones were smooth and I'd lose my grip when my hands got sweaty, I solved that with duct tape but it looked ghetto. You'll obviously need weights, which I don't know if there's any difference in quality between the cheap and expensive ones, just get metal plates and not the plastic/cement ones (I have a few of these covered in duct tape too). I don't know what your budget is, but with just that you can look on the main site under exercises and find a lot of crap to do. Eventually you'll need a good weight bench. I'd recommend The Sports Authority, I got a pretty decent one there, adjustable everywhere, butterfly and preacher station for $100 (actually it was $150, but I got it on typo thanks to a new guy ). You can look at Sears, but watch their prices, usually you end up paying more every time they put something on sale.

So just keep doing what you're doing (it's working) and save up until you're ready to start weight training, your bar will be around $20, the weights aren't all that much either.

I would really look in the nutrition forum for diet examples, you're by no means the first person to want one so I'm sure there's plenty there.

Great job with the HIIT too, might wanna add in some longer/moderate intensity cardio days as well.

[Squatman]

Originally posted by dude101
Alright, well I tried eating more calories and more protein, but I ended up getting too much fat and carbs. I gotta get those down!

Today:
1883 cals
74 g. fat
249 g. carbs
96 g. protein

I also bought a scale today, before I would have to go to my friend's house to weigh myself. The scale was on sale and it measures body fat as well. My weight is 266 and my body fat is 40%. Depressing. That seems like a lot of body fat. I have a lot of work ahead of me...

You want to shoot for a breakdown of 40/40/20 (p/c/f).
So in 1883 calories you should be getting:
188g Protein
188g Carbs
42g Fat

More protein than that wouldn't hurt either. Check around for some sample diets, there's lots around.

[dude101]

Yeah, I gotta get more protein. I'm gonna go get some chicken, steak, oat meal, and more tuna tomorrow.

Today was definitely better than yesterday, kept my fat down and my protein higher. Unfortunately I didn't get as many calories! Of course I also did my 30 min HIIT cardio. Haven't gotten any weights yet.

Calories Eaten Today

Total: 1468
Fat: 34 - 24%
Carbs: 197 - 50%
Protein: 86 - 26%

[nithos]

Since you are not lifting weights yet, the protein isn't as critical, but you still need to eat more. I know it sounds counterproductive when you are trying to loose weight that you need to eat more, but you really need to keep your metabolism in high gear.

[Squatman]

Go to fitday.com and plan out your day the night before. Create a plan to give you your target calories and then prepare/put aside your food for the next day. This will ensure you get enough calories.

[dude101]

Hmm, good idea! Strangely, I never thought about planning out my day beforehand. Okay, well it's 1:35 and I've just finished my cardio. But here's what I have planned out for the whole day.

Meal 1: Apple, baby carrots, milk.
Cardio Workout.
Meal 2: Advantage Protein Shake, granola bar.
Meal 3: Four slices of wheat bread, can of tuna, teaspoon of miracle whip.
Meal 4: Applesauce cup, granola bar
Meal 5: Three cups of diced chicken breast, no skin.
Meal 6: Baby carrots, milk.

That sound good? That leaves me with...

Calories Eaten Today

Total: 1881
Fat: 44g - 22%
Carbs: 166g - 32%
Protein: 207g - 46%

Still need to fill in more calories, somehow. What do you think???

[as0l0]

Originally posted by dude101
Meal 1: Apple, baby carrots, milk.
Meal 4: Applesauce cup, granola bar
Meal 6: Baby carrots, milk.

where's the protein?

[dude101]

I guess I figured I was getting enough protein from the shake, tuna, wheat bread and chicken. 200grams, and 46% of my calories.

Or is it just better to space it out into all my meals?

[dengar]

Absolutely.

[dengar]

Another thing, have you thought of buying a tub of Whey protein? You can make a shake with your milk and add about 25-30g of protein per scoop. I highly recommend Optimum Nutrition, its the best tasting. Tomorrow Im making a banana/whey shake (Mmmmm good!) for breakfast to eat with my egg whites. Together thats roughly 50- 55g of protein in breakfast alone.

[as0l0]

Originally posted by dude101
I guess I figured I was getting enough protein from the shake, tuna, wheat bread and chicken. 200grams, and 46% of my calories.

Or is it just better to space it out into all my meals?

I think it's best to have lean protein at every meal.

[dude101]

My friend who I've trusted on nutritional advice before I found this website said I really don't need to have all that much protein. I'm not trying to be a bodybuilder or anything. I think I'm just going to stick with around 90-140g per day. Eh? What's the point of having all that protein?

[Hudock]

Well while your losing weight your metabolism is going to slow down. Another side effect is it will also start using fat & muscle for energy being low on calories (Which I believe being low on calories is ok)

So in order to hopefully preserve that muscle, if you feed it extra protein (not to much) most ppl on the site say 1g per body weight, that way if the body looks to the muscle for energy it will either a) use the protein it has sitting waiting or b) use the muscle but the muscle will rebuild with the extra left over protein.

Just some things I'm sure some people might say about eating enough protein.

Another way to lose fat is to gain muscle. Yeah ppl rant u cant "lose weight while gaining muscle' You can but not at a fast pace. But what you can do as your gaining some muslce, say from doing some workouts at the gym, your muscles will cause your body to work harder, therefore raising your metabolism and needing more energy ie) more fat to burn!

Alsoa bout going to the gym, get it straight, everyone goes to the gym for one reason, to make themselves a better person. Yeah when ppl are at the gym they look around, and see what else is going on, but i honestly dont think anyone in their right mind would say like "wow that person is so fat etc. etc' cause i was there, i was 6'1 292 lbs, and anyone that saw me at the gym 2 years ago, now would see me and say holy **** that fat kid worked his ass off

They know your there for the same reason they are, no one will hold it against you ever. Sometimes even seeing even heavier ppl at the gym gives me more motivation, like wow that person really is trying hard to better themselves, thats awesome, then ill go and bust like a 30 min sprint on the tread ya know? Im sure lots of people feel like that, maybe check out your local gym see what its like, see what other kind of people go there. You might find that you fit right in and realize what im talking about.

Hopefully helps!

[dude101]

Cool, thanks for the advice!!

But if your body is looking for energy, wouldn't it go to the CARBS first? After all, protein and fat needs to undergo a process that makes them similar to glucose before they can be used for energy.

I think I'm going to change my diet to something more like 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat. Or maybe 60/20/20

[Hudock]

Thats correct your body willl go to carbohydrates first.

BUT! As you said your eating whole wheat products(which is 5000x better for you then white)

But when you eat say two slices of whole wheat, the carbs enter your body as complex carbs, so it takes sometime for your body to break them down, as compared to white bread which converts instantly to glucose cause its a simple compound.

So you eat lunch, then you start jogging at the gym, if your running for 15-20 minutes, depending on how much food you ate today, being on low calorie diet, you naturally won' t have as many carbs, and also they will be complex carbs, so all of them won't be made available right away, so after your body burns off the glucose that is in the cells, it will move next to fat & muscle's for the glucose energy.

Overall its just something you can avoid by eating an extra can of tuna or some turkey somewhere. Cause being fat is no fun, losing weight is fun, but if you lose alot of weight and alot of muscle it will be a double wammy, if you keep some of that muscle you a) won't have to work as hard to build it later down the road & b) your body will naturally look better as you lose weight cause you willl retain your lean body mass.. and c) as I said in the last post, muscle burns fat, so if you have muscle growing or at least working in certain areas cause you were doing weight training, it will burn fat/calories faster cause of the direct interaction plus the raised metabolism.

[nithos]

Originally posted by dude101
I think I'm going to change my diet to something more like 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat. Or maybe 60/20/20

50/30/20 would be a good option. Assuming you eat ~3000 calories a day, that would still give you 225 g of protein. With six meals in a day, that's about 38 g per meal.

[dude101]

What, 3000 a day? No, I'm eating around 1500-2000 cals a day. I just don't think I need that much protein, not 250g a day, more like 90-150g. At least, I haven't read anything that convinces me otherwise.

[Hudock]

keep reading, even 200g will be good

[dude101]

I did good today, although I didn't do cardio. Should I be doing my HIIT style cardio 7x a week? Or maybe like 5x or 3x? I don't know. Until today I had done it for 5 days in a row, too busy today (actually, I could go run right now ).

Almost exactly got a 40/40/20 split today.

Calories Eaten Today
Total: 1680
Fat: 32g - 18%
Carbs: 203g - 44%
Protein: 151g - 38%

[nithos]

Originally posted by dude101
What, 3000 a day? No, I'm eating around 1500-2000 cals a day. I just don't think I need that much protein, not 250g a day, more like 90-150g. At least, I haven't read anything that convinces me otherwise.

You are a big boy, you are just setting yourself up to go into starvation mode on 1500 calories a day. I would NEVER fall below 1800 for an active male. At 210, I have good results shooting for 2400 calories a day.

Maybe I am just weird.

[dude101]

I'm working my way up. I was at 1500 and under for a while. Now I'm shooting for 1500-2000. Then maybe 2000-2500. But I feel good where I am right now.

So anyway. I did some biking today instead of the treadmill. It's nice for a change. I hadn't ridden a bike for a long time, probably since I was in 7th grade. It was fun. I might do treadmill half the week and biking half the week.

Once, again, my daily percentages...

Calories Eaten Today

Total: 1632
Fat: 38 - 22%
Carbs: 167 - 39%
Protein: 155 - 39%