Requesting BASIC diet/weightloss advice and support

OK! This is a very emotional area for me, and I know there are people here who are knowledgeable and successful in this area of life.

I want to hear about your weight loss successes. I weigh about 235 at 5'7" (gosh, I never type that out anywhere). I'd like to lose at least 60 lbs and, to be honest, more than that.

I have been reading the "diet and cholesterol" thread but found it got way over my head very fast. Example: I'm not totally sure what a carb is. (Are fruit carbs?)

I also read what Muse-Inc said is a normal breakfast -- the spinach, two eggs, cheese crustless quiche -- and was floored at how much food that seems to be. Could I really eat that much food and lose weight?

I would like to know what to read. What to cook and eat. And what worked for people. But my capacity in this area is really weak, and I get overwhelmed fast.

I have a huge amount of fear that I cannot do this; that I will always be fat (not that being fat is so bad, but I'd like to be not so fat). I'm also very worried about being hungry all the time.

Pretend I'm a Martian, and you had to describe how to do this -- eat well and lose weight -- as if I had no real knowledge of how humans eat. What would you tell me?

I can give you lots of advice, as will everyone else here, but I really think that you would do best (and not be even more confused) if you go to a licensed nutritionist or dietician and first learn the basics, which you unfortunately seem to have missed out on. And in the end, it's only 'somewhat' about carbs, protein, fat, etc. The bottom line is "calories in, calories out" - in other words, the more you eat, the less chance you have of ever losing, but if you eat smaller amounts of any or everything, you will lose. Just try to keep things in balance - e.g. even someone who doesn't 'get' carbs, etc. knows not to eat ice cream all day, or for that matter meat, or salad or fruit, though the latter ones will get you farther than the ice cream . Eat less, and don't put the burden of doing that on in-depth knowledge of it all (for which one could then excuse themselves as just not understanding). Eat less.

Hey MoneyGal!

Julie is right. It's worth the money to see a nutritionist since everybody's body is different. However, here are some of the things I have learned:

Losing weight is mostly a mental/emotional thing. It really is. I am 5'6" and weigh 208 lbs. now, down from my high of 250 lbs. (that I know of) and not ashamed to say it. There was a time where I would have been mortified to say or even know my own weight, and then I'd go stuff my face to cope emotionally. Gotta learn to love yourself... truly.

What you have to do is NOT diet but learn to change how you look at and eat food for the rest of your life. My wife lost 80 pounds on Weight Watchers. She went to meetings and what-not. That wasn't for me, but I started eating like her, and voila!

You can eat a LOT of food and lose weight. You need to find the amount of calories that will allow you to be healthy and satisfied but still lose. I really believe in the old CALORIES IN vs. CALORIES OUT.

Don't try to lose weight too fast. A slow and steady progress is what you want.

Don't beat yourself up for mistakes. So you slip up and splurge. Forgive yourself and get right back on track. No shame!

I lost a lot of my weight (so far) with minimal exercise. There was a study recently that showed exercise, when talking about weight loss, isn't that important. I'm not sure how much I agree with that, but I know it's possible. I would say go ahead and do light exercise as long as your doctor says it's okay.

Replace foods slowly. Pick a food that you know isn't healthy and replace that with a healthy alternative. Stick with that one thing for a couple of weeks, then choose another.

I hope this helps. I plan on getting down to 160 lbs. at some point, and damn will I look GOOD!

P.S. CPAP therapy totally kick-started my metabolism and made it easier to lose weight. I'd say the last ten pounds I lost was due to nothing more than CPAP.

The truth, Ms. Martian, is that we eat squirrels to lose weight. Usually fried, sometimes BBQed. Tail-on-the-cob is my personal favorite...

OK, the best success I had losing weight was to drink 16oz (or more) of water before each meal. I ate less (of course!) but did not feel deprived at all. I could eat anything I wanted...I just ate far less of it with a belly full of water. If I felt the need to snack, the rule was I would drink a glass of water and wait 10 minutes. If I STILL really wanted that snack, then I'd eat it. At the beginning, I still snacked a lot...but it soon tapered off to nearly nothing. And the lbs started falling off with almost no conscious effort on my part, except to follow the rules. Seriously, this worked for me after a series of "programs"--including Weight Watchers--did not. And, yes, I stole the basic idea from WW.


(I wonder if all the exercise running to the restroom was a factor? )

Very Basic Weight Loss Advice:

Eat less. Exercise more.

Record your daily food intake. Evaluate that regularly, and adjust accordingly.

Record your exercise. Evaluate that regularly, and adjust accordingly.

A very easy way to monitor both is with this website: http://www.nutrimirror.com

Absolutely free. Very easy to input both food and exercise. The computer will help you set goals, and show you what you need to do to get there. Watch their tutorials and they will teach you everything you need to know to use the website.

You might also check out your local YMCA for a Healthy Living program. In my county, we have "The Biggest Winner Series" which involves nutrition classes with a dietician as well as workouts with a trainer.

Cheers,
Barbara

here is another wonderful place to learn...

http://www.3fatchicks.com/

There is so much to learn from this website. And with a forum to help a lot.

Diets do not work... certainly not for the long term. You do want to think very long term here.

What does work...

-adopt a new and healthier way of eating. Start reading about food and learning what is healthy and what is harmful. Start counting calories and consume for what you want to weigh.

-get more exercise. This can be simple or elaborate depending on what you have time for. There was a time when I could go for 6 hour walks every day. These days I have to settle for parking the farthest away from the mall door. A treadmill is wonderful in a northern climate if you can overcome the boredom factor.

That is it. Nothing elaborate... just a new food/exercise plan for the rest of your life. The problem with diets is people most often go off them after they have lost the weight... and immediately start gaining all that weight they lost back.

I went on a low carb diet last spring and lost about 20 pounds before I had uppp surgery then gained it all back basically because I was so inactive from the surgery and a broken hand. In September I believe it was, I went back on the diet and started working out. I put in an hour at least three times a week on the treadmill. I walk just under a jog or run and raise the ramp up all the way. This creates a lower impact for me than running. The diet is a low car diet, eating meat, fish, some veggies but watch what is in the. I have broccholi, green beens, salad and sometimes corn for a change. I was having a hamburger patty and some eggs for lunch or breakfast. If i had a third meal I usually had a can of tuna mixed up with some miracle whip which was low carb. For a snack I usually have two apples and two pears a day, but would switch it up and sometimes have low fat cottage cheese.

No sugar and watch out for natural sugars. Drink plenty of water. If you need other snacks, some cheese and or a piece or two of lunch meet.

You are actually better off having smaller meals with small snacks in between throughout the day.


I would suggest talking to a weight loss doctor. Don't take the meds they have, you don't need them. But do go for the help with what you can eat.

Gerry

PBS has a program scheduled called "Fat: What No One Is Telling You." Sounds like there will be some good information there. This link includes a preview.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/fat/index.html

PS: I just realized in exploring the PBS site that it also has a link that allows you to watch the program online. I'm planning to do so.

Gerry, do you follow a particular low carb diet book or was it Dr prescribed? Sounds pretty sensible to me.

A little off topic...

Joanie, have you noticed that PBS is basically running a bunch of infomercials lately? I'm skeptical of this one. Seems like most of their health specials the last few years have been some quack selling a book or tapes or something.

You watch it and tell us what you think. But after the last few years, I'm jaded.

Cheers,
B.

I know all about diets. I do them really well. What I don't do well is keep it off. But, I have a philosophy about it. Just because I've gained weight back is no reason to give up completely. One of these times it's going to stick. I do know that a lot of it is frame of mind. If I feel like I'm deprived while I'm dieting I'll eventually "fall off the wagon" and make up for it big time.

I like using diet programs. It seems to me that as soon as I believe I'm cutting back I start losing weight. That happens even if it seems like I'm eating more food on the diet. It's a mind game I play. Just keeping track of what you're eating seems to have that impact. I've done Jenny Craig (2 x's), Nutrisystem, and Weight Watchers (4 x's). Like I said, I've lost a lot of weight. I just keep gaining it back. I don't view my gaining it back as a failure of the diet program. I view it as a transition failure. The diet did it's job. But somewhere during that dieting process I have to get my mind wrapped around a new lifestyle. The last diet I did (before now) was Jenny Craig. I lost 50 lbs and kept it off for over a year. But, I still needed to lose another 50 lbs to be at my goal weight. I was gearing up for diet--phase II when I got really sick. Over the course of this past year I put 50 lbs back on due to lack of activity. This whole fatigue thing hasn't helped.

I'm now back on Weight Watchers and have lost 18 lbs so I'm back on my way down the scale. I think that keeping it off for that year before is a good sign that I'm getting closer to having a successful transition once I get the weight off. Never give up. It's worth it to be healthy.

If you're not interested in doing a certain diet program then you need to follow the suggestion to see a nutritionist. Education is a big part of this whole thing. Water is also a good idea as was mentioned earlier. And exercise has to get in the game at some point. I usually don't start off too aggressively with that. When I'm ready I start with brisk walking. In fact, that's my exercise of choice no matter what. I just add time and distance as I go along to make it more challenging.

In the early 80's, nutritionists and dietitians started chanting the mantras of "calories in must be less than calories out", "eat a balanced diet".

As someone who understands the first law of thermodynamics quite well, it does seem logical and I too believed that was the way to lose weight. The problem with that paradigm is that the human body is much more complex than the simple linear function of the calories in vs calories out model (that model leaves out the fact that hormones respond not only to how much you eat but also what you eat). Then of course the "balance" was loaded with grains and only small amounts of fats (USDA food pyramid). Saturated fat was vilified as being artery clogging and so butter was replaced with trans-fat margarines ... y'all remember those days right?

Here is what has happened under that outdated paradigm ...


Gary Taubes has a better way of explaining it to you better than I can ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEH0OZVHmvQ&list

Oh well, y'all know what I think ... if not, just got to that other thread.

Definitely burning more calories than you eat is the cut-and-dried version. Previous posters have had a lot of good points. I would add to them -

Eating several small meals rather than three large meals is right on, as GerryK said, but also eating more the earlier it is during the day (when you are going to be more active and burning more) and eating less the later it is during the day (and closer to bedtime, sleep, and very little activity to burn calories) helps too. There is an old adage, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and supper like a pauper."

Eat healthy sugars/carbs, rather than processed sugars. This is also called avoiding "the whites" like white flour, processed sugar, salt (causes water retention), and white potatoes (oddly enough sweet potatoes have less bad "glycemic index" sugars and are better for losing weight). The "glycemic index" deals with how quickly a food converts to sugar, elevates your insulin levels (which slows weight loss a lot), and then drops off. There is an excellent book about this call "Sugar Busters" ... I see they also have a website now.

There is some data out now that shows dairy intake of like 3 servings a day can stimulate your metabolism for the better. Milk, cheese, yogurt are also good as far as their "glycemic index" value, so if not lactose-intolerant, they should be used (in moderation).

There is also a lot of mental dedication that goes into it. I too have fallen into the trap of feeling bad about my weight, then going to my "old friend" food for consolation many, many times in the past. Fortunately I have never developed any of the health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. that can occur more often in the obese. I am currently doing well and on my way back to a slimmer weight. It helps me to think positively and reflect on how good I am going to feel when I see the scales, rather than focus on how good some junk food would make me feel. I also try to focus on, "How much do I really feel like I missed out on yesterday, last week, etc. by NOT eating the junky food I wanted, compared to how good I DO feel now that I am getting slimmer and feeling more energy." The mind is the majority of the battle. You have to "make a deal with yourself" is the way I put it. Remember Ecclesiastes 6:7 - "All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied."

Best wishes on your weight loss goals and efforts.