This is the ILX diet support thread

(Unfortunately this is much my attitude year round. But I'm not really eating any more than I ever did, it's just I no longer have anything more interesting to do than sit around all day. Someone open a record shop fifteen minutes' walk away and watch me shed many many pounds of both varieties! Please? You'd have, err, maybe as many as two customers...)

chilled monkey brain served in the skull!!

I lost almost a stone and a half last year, between swimming and eating less. I've put about 10 pounds of that back on (i.e. what I'm hoping to lose), but only when I let myself go. I'm perversely almost looking forward to it.

*Exercise fairly vigorously for an hour EVERY SINGLE DAY, including a continuous half-hour at one activity. ("Fairly vigorous" = "sweat.")

*When you want to eat something between meals, first have a glass of water, which is good for you anyway. If you still want to eat something afterward, go ahead. If you don't, don't.

*No such thing as "forbidden"/"special-occasion-only" foods, as long as you have healthy things to eat on hand, & consider them first. If you want something else, though, go ahead and give your body what it wants.

*When you have had enough to eat, stop.

(I also really must have lost more than half a stone on top of that in 6 months by skipping meals and having the kitchen/TV 2 storeys away from my room and the bathroom. Also i walk everywhere now)

Losing weight shouldn't be a problem, but to maintain your new weight you'll need to keep up the good habits long term. Hopefully you'll WANT to exercise and the need to eat less will come naturally by then. Good luck everyone!

I don't know to what extent I want to lose weight for my health, fitness and well-being and what extent I want to lose weight so that I'll feel more attractive. Feeling more attractive makes me happy and confident, and is obviously so ingrained in me that there's nothing I could do about it even if I wanted to. Does this make me a body and appearance fascist, or does it make me normal?

But anyway, I bought lots of healthy groceries this morning cuz I think if I have healthy stuff around the house and office I'll be less likely to eat chocolate all day. Lots of fruit mostly. Also trying to drink more water and go on walks. Wish me luck!

Day One is always easy though, right?

Has anyone tried this? Was it good?

I don't have a problem with my weight, and I'm pretty happy with the way I look - I think I'd really like to improve my overall level of fitness. I am a chronic asthmatic (though this is well-controlled with inhalers of various colours) so I have always shied away from strenuous exercise and used my inability to breathe as a good excuse.

I would like to tone up a bit, and have my jeans feel a bit looser. And yeah, this is just for me. The Bloke wouldn't care if I doubled in size (in fact, I dare say he wouldn't even notice. Bless him).

If I eat enough of all this fruit, it will cancel out all the chocolate I eat, right? Or at least fill me up so that in the end I am eating less of it... hmmm...

(How's yr finger, btw?)

i reall feel sick now. this is an important part of stopping the xmas binge. no more urge 4 chocolate, will eat healthy now. honest. finger getting better... details on other thread. sorry 2 bring up log but it was sooooooooooo good.

I don't know if I've lost weight or not. I feel like my trousers have got even *tighter* which is worrying.

I'd like to lose 20 pounds myself. My current body just feels wrong - but it is funny how you get used to it even though you don't like it. Whenever I *am* smaller, I feel absolutely fantastic, no sore back, clothes fit better, I have more energy, it's easier on my feet and ankles (I really notice this!) and I'm just more comfortable all around. Yet still - there's a really strange feeling that goes along with being physically less significant than you were. It's an irrational negative, for all the reasons I just listed, yet it is there, and I think it's a subconscious weight loss saboteur.

Then stop eating cake.

Then stop eating cake.

who are you? sophie? yer the one for me, fatty!

The problem was that once she stopped taking them, her weight ballooned again, even though she wasn't eating huge amounts. But there again, she never exercised much, so perhaps therein lies the secret.

I was worried about her because the Diet Clinic just kept selling her the tablets every week, and never bothered to check her blood pressure or anything. These sort of diet pills won't be prescribed by a GP, which makes me wonder how dangerous they really are.

*Sob*

Then: lots.

Soon: some.

One thing I'm doing is munching on fruit and bags of salad when I need something to nibble on -- eating is a nervous habit for me, something I do when I'm agitated/stressed/depressed/bored, and I guess if I'm going to eat compulsively, ice cream isn't the way to go. Problem is, I still get mad cravings for sweets, cravings that intensify when I'm watching my weight and all that stuff is a big no-no. It's not that easy for a lifelong foodie to just "stop eating cake" -- it's easy for people who don't think about food that often, or for narcissistic control freaks who have that kind of discipline, but it's different stroax for different foax, and not everyone's like that, and when someone invites me out for a tiramisu in Little Italy (in the grebtest city etc etc etc), I find it physiologically and philosophically impossible to say no.

I know a girl who's around that size, and she's really a stick.

JBR maybe you can just try eating *less* cake, not no cake...I could't cut sweets out either, I have a little bit of chocolate every day to keep from turning into some kind of scary maniac person.

I can't comment on yr weight because I am too lazy even to convert pounds into stone! Ok go on then er... oh bloody hell Sarah you are fine!

I'm just trying to get a healthy attitude towards eating: I don't think it'll ever be entirely free from being related to other issues I might be having at the time but at least not using it to cope is a big step forwards.

And stopping being so incredibly damn LUMPY would be fantastic.

I've never done any of those online diet sites. I just used one to calculate that BMI thing once and try to figure out what they'd say my ideal weight should be. And I'm DEF not ever taking pills for this. Those things make you loony toons! I've seen lots of women on them at various offices. They shake alot and act REALLY weird - yikes!

I think I'll go eat away my troubles now cuz it's lunchtime!

IF those diet pills really do make folks crazy
AND they actually make people lose weight
AND I am already insane according to jess
AND "insane" = "crazy"

THEN maybe I will lose weight simply from being crazy???!

1) I do plenty of walking. At night I usually leave the house with my Walkman and walk around until my CD is over. That usually gives me 50-80 minutes of walking time.
2) It's the middle of winter, so I try to keep my "outside" time as limited as I can.
3) Walking doesn't burn very many calories. It doesn't really raise your heart rate unless you walk really fast -- hard to do considering all the stop lights and people in the streets you can bump into.

Jody, do you want to come to a weights class with me at my gym some time? I got a few guest membership cards today and would enjoy the company.

What gym?

Ha! I knew it. I used to belong to Bally's -- they suckered me into signing an 18-month contract. Is the midtown location the one on 50th and Broadway? That was my old gym.

I have belonged to many gyms but this one started because my mother had some incredibly good deal at hers, like $95 for a year or something ridiculous like that. I know what you mean about the suckering -- they actually count on people not going by having purposely insufficient parking, and stuff like that.

After one bad experience I will never join a gym again unless I can afford to pay the entire term upfront. Even so, Crunch once tried some b.s. invoicing trickery on me, I raised holy hell and made them give me a free month extension. You just have to get everything in writing and keep their computers out of your checking account. I don't know why the gym biz has to be so sleazey. Well, I do, but I prefer not to think about it.

I used to split my gym-going between the one on 6th, the one at Battery Park (really nice facilities and never crowded), and the one at 50th St (crowdy, dingy, hot, and half the machines were broken, but it was near my job).

After one bad experience I will never join a gym again unless I can afford to pay the entire term upfront. Even so, Crunch once tried some b.s. invoicing trickery on me, I raised holy hell and made them give me a free month extension.

Yeah; Bally's kept billing me after my contract was up and I was paid in full. I think I had to explain to three different representatives that I was no longer a member there and I didn't care to continue paying $70 a month.

Also I've invented a new diet! The spicy food diet. You eat spicy food that's not too hot to eat but that you can still feel pretty strongly, and your mouth hurts enough that you drink a lot of water and give up halfway through the bowl. No feeling of deprivation, plenty of good tastes, and avoiding overeating. (I noticed this by eating a bunch of Thai and Chinese food. Much as I try to pig out on it, my mouth can't handle it.)

my secret? It's kind of old school: Do the Math and Cut Back, Way Back, on Saturated Fat.

I just think that I wasn't aware of what I was eating. I'd do a Whopper or some equivalent and not even think twice about it. In the US there are Nutrition Facts labels which give percentages of various ingredients per serving. I do the math on virtually everything I eat (although I'm pretty good at guessing these days). I look at a package and figure out what daily percentage of Saturated Fat I would get - and this is important - if I ate the whole thing. I simply avoid many products because the package grossly exceeds my saturated fat rules.

some of my rules of thumb:
avoid cheese
avoid mayo
avoid anything made primarily of cheese or mayo
avoid dairy in general
avoid ground meat
avoid fried food
avoid fried potatoes
use olive oil
drink lots of water
eat lean meat (chicken breasts, lean steaks and pork chops) - if you're vegetarian, then go off on beans and greens
eat rice
eat bread and pasta
eat salad, but use low fat dressing only.
eat fruit
add lots of spice and salt and pepper to everything
when shopping for spaghetti sauce or other sauces, realize that two jars next to each other may have vastly different saturated fat content.

once you've lost the major weight, then you can cut back on carbs and get all zone-y.

you will lose weight doing this whether you exercise or not (but exercise will make things easier). Also, I still eat all of the 'avoid's listed above, but in very small portions and I almost never go over my daily recommended saturated fat allowance.

Finally, this is not really a "Diet", this is the I'm going to eat for the rest of my life.

Rice and bread (and almost everything else in Spencer's rules of thumb) - absolutely. Lots of salt - absolutely not.

Also, no reason to avoid low-fat dairy, especially given its advantages. Skim Milk is good for you. Low-fat cottage cheese too.

And there's nothing much wrong with ground meat from a diet perspective provided that it's sufficiently lean (and you don't eat it every day).

I got some yoga tapes and a mat and am starting that. Fuck, is it hard but you feel really good when it's over.

Now I want to buy an aerobic machine, but I need a lightweight one that doesn't cost that much. Any recommendations? I've also thought of buying a trampoline.

Also, even the leanest ground meat tends to be worse than your typical package/serving of non-ground.

But as a general dietary principle they recommend limiting salt intake.

Haha veggie burritos on the menu for lunch!

*(Please note I don't think eating disorders are funny - her liver is about to fail and she really should be hospitalized at this point - but that's all I've been able to talk about all weekend and I need some sort of humor in my life).

(Please note, I did not actually consume pancakes and popcorn and nachos, especially not together as that would be really icky.)

I would like to report that I have lost half a stone since the Xmas glut!

However, at the moment, I'm just trying to maintain since my mum is such a snacker there is perpetual temptation in this house.

1/2 stone, welldone yourself lady! ;-)

Now,obviously, I'm really pleased with all this... but am I losing weight too quickly? That's, what, seven pounds in a fortnight? Am I healthy?

(Also, when dieting before, a pound a week loss was a damn miracle, so god knows what's going on here. I did have the shits yesterday, though, so...)

Haha apart from CHOCOLATE CUSTARD.

I haven't weighed myself since starting though.

I've noticed my trousers are looser - this is annoying as it means they drag in the mud and puddles more, though I do feel less like Jeremy Clarkson.

Only 8 pounds to go!

i'm doing so GOOD!!

I'm at 64 kilos which is perfect (BMI wise) but I wanna drop some more kilos. Ideally I would like to drop another 5 kilos. But 1 my dietician has told me that's a no no (huh?) and 2 I'm still breastfeeding. So once I stop breastfeeding, I am going to try losing those extra kilos.

So Surmounter how exactly are you doing? How much did you drop?

congratulations!! but yes, sounds like a good idea to put this on hold til after breasting.

well, i've dropped about 12 lbs, i think. and i'm going for 4 more, and i can't waaaaiiiit to put on my skinny jeans in like a week.

:D ;)

I'm doing the Shangri-La Diet (although it's really not a diet but an appetite suppression method) and I've lost about 13 lbs in the past month. Since this was my first month I'm sure much of that was water weight but I'd rather lose water weight than gain or keep it. I'll definitely post more about it if anyone's interested, but it's 1am and I have a 7am meeting.

Go on, what's it about?

The diet itself consists of taking two to four tablespoons of extra-light olive oil per day, either all at once or spanned throughout the day. This must be consumed in a flavorless window, which is at least one hour after flavors have been consumed, and at least one hour before flavors are consumed.[7] The consumption of these flavorless calories lowers the set point, and therefore, lowers weight.

this seems like another silly trend designed to induce mindful eating.

flavorless window

most of them are.

but wouldn't it be awesome if the stained glass in old cathedrals was lickable, and the colors corresponded to flavors, e.g. 'the martyrdom of saint lambert tastes like blueberry pie'

awesome/totally gross

'the strawberries taste like strawberries! the oranges taste like oranges! the hairshirt tastes like a hairshirt!'

the only cool thing about this diet is that apparently it requires you to eat a lot of sushi - or something like that.

This is like reading all those old kids books like Barrie and Milne when they had to take 'cod-liver oil.'

Where is my 'tincture of laudanum' diet?

sunny's summary was correct, basically by ingesting flavorless calories (which are either extra light olive oil or sugar water, sweetness not counting as a flavor) and not eating or tasting anything immediately before or after ingesting those calories, you mess with your body's association that calorie deficit = hunger = craving foods = craving flavor. Or something.

It has DRAMATICALLY decreased my appetite. I heard about the book from the Freakonomics guys, and the Consumerist editor wrote about how it worked for him, and there have been some great Ask Metafilter threads about it too. I would be inclined to dismiss it, since I'm naturally cynical and I tend to believe that people who overeat eat not because they are "hungry" but because they have emotional issues with food, but it has worked for me amazingly well, and a close friend has been doing it for 1+ year with great success.

I don't do the olive oil...I find it utterly nauseating. So I do the sugar water, but I don't do it as often or as much as recommended. I take 3 tbs once every three days, and that works fine for me. I'm a little concerned about sugar since I had two diabetic grandparents, but since it averages out to 1 tbs a day and I have no sweet tooth otherwise, I'm comfortable with it.

So anyway I would recommend it. It's easy to try and the book is $4 on Amazon. Worth a shot if you're interested.

my coworker is supposed to be on a diet, like going to the gym and everything. but she keeps eating all this crap food. too much cheese, burgers, fries, pizza. also she does stuff like this a lot: on the way to brunch she grabbed a couple of hash browns. what is that? it's weird.

because when youre on a diet you know you shouldnt have it so you have like 3 times as much crappy food than you would on a normal day

^^^^this

it just kind of grosses me out

it should

(its probably grossing her out too, btw)

i think it is!

She's fooling herself. I think what she should do is make a foodplan, stick to it but making sure that she has a set amount of cals and also a lot of (healthy!) snacks in between.

*sigh* That said, my diet is not going as well as it should. I'm okay, at about 65 kgs, but I do want to drop about six more kilos and I'm definitely not getting there any day soon. That said, I'm still breastfeeding so I shouldn't obsess over it like I'm this celebrity who dropped a baby two weeks ago. Nicole Kidman, you're a freak. :-)

don't obsess.

ugh i just wanna be like CAN YOU CUT OUT THE PIZZA PLS

don't obese. hah. okay, that was a crap joke.

yeah i went out to lunch today with a coworker who is on a diet - she got a salad from whole foods complete with a thorough coating of ranch dressing, cheese, chicken, all sorts of fatty things - then added a greasy focaccia roll on the side and to top it off, went and got a cookie when she was done eating.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Maybe she ate double the amount before. Who knows?

yeah, thats kind of what i am guessing, because she has lost weight! (and I can tell).

i'm really close :0

1.5lbs left. i

am so excited.

s how much you at surmounter?

Has anyone here done Weight Watchers? C/D?

nope. doesn't it work with points? also i don't wanna join others and compare.

Yes, it works with points (lots of factors determine how many points you get for a day). There's another type of diet you can choose (called "Core Plan," but it seems harder. You don't have to join others and compare if you don't want to; you can just show up, weigh in, and leave.

I've been doing it for 1 month and I like it. The first week was really hard but it's getting easier.

I joined Weight Watchers in 2003 and lost 40 pounds in about seven months.

It completely changed the way I think about food and eating in general. I still do it today as I've regained about 10 since getting married that I'm trying to lose. I do the flex plan. I don't like the Core plan but for some I guess it works.

At first I did stay for meetings because it helped motivate me. Your weight was never said out loud though. Eventually I stopped staying for the meetings and just showed up to weigh in. Now I do it online.

We actually have weight watchers meetings here at work but I hate the leader so I stopped going and joined ww online instead.

my vanity has still not won the battle with beer, tho it has come close :/

i really just need to go swimming every day
and so need to move near a lake, because swimming pools, blargh allergies

i don't eat a lot of crap, in fact i prob don't eat enough in general, plus there r some underlying and so far minor thyroid and blood sugar issues that i have neglected to follow up on

(i only really just have like 15 lbs to lose, half of which is in my face tho)

Yeah I never ate badly but I ate too much. Also a lot of the things I thought were healthy turned out to be not so healthy in the end. I did stop drinking beer for a long time and stuck mainly to spirits w/diet coke. Actually I still do that fairly often.

Unless of course the beer being offered is really good beer. ;-)

i'm trying to cut back on 2 am catfish sandwiches and burgers

beer actually kinda brutalizes my whole digestive system too, so i really just gotta make a choice here and stop being wimpy abt it. but... beer...

but I hate the leader so I stopped going and joined ww online instead.

I got a little turned off the leader I had when she didn't know the difference between Jack benny and Bob Hope. I'm so petty!!

But now I'm fat again, oops.

yeah, i pretty much stopped drinking beer when my metabolism sloooooowed down around 35. i love the hard stuff so it wasn't that big of a sacrifice, but i would recommend cutting beer consumption as a relatively direct way to drop a few excess pounds.

ok so diet girl is having a croissant for breakfast. yesterday she had a muffin.

My husband would eat croissants for breakfast when he was about 70 kilos. But that was about it. hah.

i really just need to go swimming every day

EVERY DAY? Yikes. That's not in me at all.

I am trying to cut back but it's hard. When you're single you can do this much easier. But with two kids and a husband? Much harder. Ah well.

you ever get those looks, when you're like having soup for lunch -- just soup? and the woman across the office who's supposedly watching her weight is eyeing you like you just stole the 2 pieces of pizza she's about to eat, because she thinks eating 2 pieces of pizza for lunch is like healthier than just eating soup cuz at least it's a proper meal? i hate those looks.

WAH? She's thinking:"Shit, I should do that but y'know... I need carbs yo."

;)

haha stevie it's like my dream life to be able to swim and hike and bike and do yoga every day! but i live in the big city and work 9-5 and gyms r annoying and am so busy and etc etc

it is a sad fact that unless i am doing all this exercise i don't need a lot of carbs

wait what is wrong with muffins and croissants?

lol nothing

i eat a muffin every day almost. maybe it is making my ass huge.

what kind of muffin?

I was really shocked when I started this diet that every place considers a serving of cereal 30g. That's barely ANYTHING! I fill up the rest of the bowl with berries and cut-up bananas. I miss muffins.

i know cereal servings are bullshit

muffins are usually such a giant size.. it is probably healthier to have a cupcake or a donut

not always but the ones at the deli @ my work are like the size of 2 cupcakes and have a lot of corn syrup and oil in them..

Yeah commercial muffins are stuffed with fats and sugars, usually; croissants, while obv dericious, are basically built on butter. 1 croissant is prob still better than the bagel with cm cheese and bacon that I crave for brek, but some nice high-fiber cereal with fruit would be a big improvement on either.

i rly want a chocolate chip muffin now :/

go see if the diet girl has one!

i joined weight watchers when i was 16 (and now i look back at photos not fat at all). my mom, who had an annoying habit of trying to feed me everyday, was in europe at the time so for the first week i didnt even look at the meal planner book but instead drank a 20OZ chocolate milk and a mars bar for breakfast every day and left it at that. the next week on weigh in day, the troop leader (or whatever the hell she was) pulled me up in front of the whole group and announced that I had lost 5KGS (11lbs) that week. Everyone cheered and the leader asked me to tell everyone how I did it so I lied and gave the right answer: "oh I just followed the plan".

hahahahaha i love it

WW in London was sort of awesome. "When you go out, save points up during the day to use on all on booze! And since you haven't eaten, it won't take much to get drunk! And you're just going to throw it up anyway."

that sounds very dangerous for me!

i'm trying to abstain from crackers at the moment

and cheese. and risotto.

(beet risotto that my boyfriend made -- YUM!)

WW in London was sort of awesome. "When you go out, save points up during the day to use on all on booze! And since you haven't eaten, it won't take much to get drunk! And you're just going to throw it up anyway."

This made me lol because I joined weight watchers while I was in London and that was totally the mentality.

Oh god muffins. I used to get the fat free ones from D&D thinking I was being virtuous until I realized that one of them is 10 pts which is nearly my points allowance for one day!!

i know, they have these fat-free ones at the market, but you can tell they're like all sugar. can't be good.

(but omg so good)

diet girl has a burger and milkshake for lunch!

(to be fair she's admitted to pretty much putting the diet on hold)

Oh fer...OK, Sen. Is your VP bigger than a breadbox?

hahaha

Bump. Crested 200lb. last week, now at 198, aiming to get to 170 by the end of April for a wedding. Can I? Maybe. Will I kick my ass trying? Absolutely. Plan? 1400 cal./day, plus whatever I burn exercising. Going to hit the gym 4x/week before work.

g'luck

I'm currently engaged in four to five hours strenuous athletic activity a week, but a complete disregard for diet mean i'm still a ruffalo-like schlumpy silhouette

I've been eating 1500 calories a day (the figure I've seen recommended as a safe minimum for teh mans) and doing an hour of elliptical six days a week and dropped a total of a pound a month for the last four months (down to 188). Thank you, unknown biological parents and your shitty, shitty genes!

that doesn't sound worth it

My brother joined a weightloss/exercise group at work and has lost a stone in the first fortnight. the fucker.

if youve been overweight you arent burning as many calories exercising as someone whos always been at a comparable weight, apparently. there was a p good ny times mag piece on why both achieving and particularly maintaining weight loss is so difficult and that was one of the big findings

for ethical/enviornmental reasons ive stopped eating any red meat, poultry, most diary, most starches, refined sugar (i know) and caffeine. its been a p shitty january

do you eat slices of air between seaweed? what is left, lamp?

that doesn't sound worth it

My thoughts exactly, but if I don't at least try I'll just end up hating myself even more, which at this point probably isn't a good idea.

for dinner i had steamed broccoli and quinoa w/pistachio-encrusted baked tofu. i mostly eat vegetables and some starches just not cereals/root vegetables. also fruit and i drink lots of water.

ugh, i mean kudos

Lamp, how do you distinguish between starches?

You need to stop only doing the elliptical 6 times a week and try some light weights, the rowing machine or something else. After a while your body is just getting used to it.

loosely? my bf and i have been p inconsistent ourselves about 'starches' (we still both eat bananas for e.g.) so we're sort of working to see what we can feasibly cut out w/o making life too difficult. (xp)

for ethical/enviornmental reasons ive stopped eating any red meat, poultry, most diary, most starches, refined sugar (i know) and caffeine. its been a p shitty january

is there an environmental reason w/ starches, refined sugar, caffeine or is that purely on the ethical side. in the long-term I'd like to be an environmental vegetarian tho I was in hs and I got pretty unhealthy.

question mark after 'side'

errr "or is that purely on the health side?"

too tired to be on ilx

http://grist.org/food/deep-impact-the-toll-your-protein-takes-on-the-earth/

good article today on this

I've just lost ten pounds, mostly because I haven't felt much like eating.

i'm dieting

is there an environmental reason w/ starches, refined sugar, caffeine or is that purely on the ethical side

its mostly due to ethics but there are some 'locally grown' considerations as well. i go back and forth on how important buying local is in some cases where say, growing fruit out of season requires large amounts of energy but for the most part we try to buy stuff that comes from our area.

but were trying really hard not to support 'the food industry' so it takes a lot of stuff of the table (so to speak) that isnt nec. 'environmentally' bad

the hardest part is that there are almost no restaurants that i can go to and i really love going to restaurants

for me I always go into the next level 'what does it mean to not support jobs in this industry / what are the moral implications that come w/ decreasing overall demand / what else would I be buying with this money' it's like an endless mindgame

i think supporting local farmers over agribusiness is a p ethically clear choice, although theres an extent to which say protectionist farm policy complicates this.

I think spending money in restaurants is one of the more justifiable things in the 'big picture' cause a. lots of service jobs b. probably overall a more efficient use of food/energy than people individually buying and preparing their food (waste is pretty high but waste from grocery stores etc. even higher?)

this might just be me trying to intellectually justify going out to eat

i think supporting local farmers over agribusiness is a p ethically clear choice, although theres an extent to which say protectionist farm policy complicates this.

I got into this w/ people on another thread, I don't think it's clear cut w/r/t emissions because small local farms often don't operate w/ very good economies of scale / your diet probably isn't going to necessarily be most efficiently produced near you etc.

I am also always skeptical of a certain strain of nationalist ethics w/ the 'buy local'. it's more moral to help someone in your community vs. imaginary people in another country.

that said at the end of the day meat pretty clearly bad 4 environment, end of story

man could i argue against the small farmer

Restaurant efficiencies, yeah, often thought about the likelihood of outsourcing food preparation from the home entirely, some nth generstion of kids learning about kitchens in yr house the way we'd have considered i dunno stables or forges or w/e an anachronism

im genuinely curious abt how well those economies of scale translate into reduced emissions costs for industrial farms. i can see arguments either way tbh. and theres an undeniable ecological tradeoff with scaling famring that argues in favor of smaller farms. finally i think theres a transparency argument in favor of buying locally

but this isnt really the thread for this, i think

back to apples for breakfast, tough pill to swallow

haha that's true I was mostly wondering if there was something I didn't know about starches

guys i am on this train, so sick of carrying round 30-40lbs extra, it's so exhausting and i don't wear it well AT ALL. not really policing what i eat so much as the quantity - i'm terrible at eating out of boredom.

xp remy, 1400 cals seems a little on the low side for a male - telephone thing otm with 1500 cals. i think at 1400 your body starts going into starvation mode and storing more fat?? idk we need gbx or someone to drop some fat science itt. which reminds me: i read somewhere that calorie 'zig-zagging' is supposedly a good way to lose weight, but idk how reliable my source was.

1500 was always my number

I'm doing 1500 but not being ridic religious, just trying to get back in the habit of thinking about what I eat ie carbs/protein/fat/etc, eating breakfast, sensible snacks, but don't throw myself off a ledge if I eat something that's not great for me. Just basically 'Dear VG, try not to eat so goddamn much all the time.'

Exercise for me is walking. Which I am not doing yet. Which I will be doing. STFU I will.

Aspie math diet time, probably only for my own benefit.

So I signed up for the gym's weight loss challenge thing. I paid $175, and I get it back if I reach the goal they have set for me in 7 weeks. I am currently in their system at 199.8lbs at my highest, and I've got to get to 179 in 42 days. That's a deficit of ~73,000 calories. I've already dropped to 198.4, so I've got 19.4 lb to lose, or 1616.66 to short myself per day. My BMR is 1992, and my daily caloric needs are ~ 2392 using the Harris-Benedict equation for a lightly active person. If I eat 1400 calories/day, I'll need to exercise for about 525 cal in the evening to make my target weight.

In short, to reach my goal I need to

eat +/- 1000 calories less per day
exercise 525 calories more per day

but realistically I think I just need to stop thinking about food all the time and being obsessed with eating and change my lifestyle so that it isn't centered around putting delicious things in my face

my life is centered around exercising every day and then putting delicious things in my face

I lost a lot of weight by drinking a lot of soup, eschewing bread/pasta/rice/potatoes and eating loads of greens. I still had meat and wine w/the gf at dinner (since it's our only common meal) but I'd have a b'fast snack of less than two hundered calories and some kind of soup for lunch similar in calories

i don't think 1000 calories is enough, i would be miserable. i need to drop some pounds because commuting has made me flabby :/

I don't know if I'm on a diet, but I stick to around 1500 a day and rotate between one of yoga, gym (weights and cardio), biking to work and running 6 days a week. I really just try to enjoy the exercise (I <3 adrenaline) and not worry about goals. The food is hard, but breakfast and eating out seem to the only real difficult times. Otherwise, I get a CSA box and mostly make stuff from that.

Confederate diet circa 1865? That's probably a foolhardy way to lose weight.

hardtack and horse sausage

I eat pretty healthy, most of the time. I'm not a nutrition nazi type (currently, though I've had my brushes...), but there's only a small amount of crap/carbs I can cut. We cook Vietnamese at least 50% of the time, so there's very little red meat and a lot of veggies. Portion control is the big deal: I've got so many stomach issues that I eat to relieve, and I'm just going to have to wrap my head around not being entirely sated.

I can't sleep if I'm still hungry. That's been a thing.

I've gone back to occasional pasta and bread but only whole wheat bread and only whole wheat pasta or soba.

What are things I can eat in large quantity, for large flavor and a high density of nutrition w/ low calories? Please no raw veggies, I am so not going to eat celery for lunch. My list so far:

oatmeal w/ bananas sliced in it
lentils with kale
pea soup
roasted celery and brussel sprouts and thyme

real talk, my main problem is willpower when a lot of food is around. if i'm making dinner at home, i'll cook a reasonable portion and feel good about it. but we have a lot of potlucks and dinners with friends, and if there is an infinite amount of food on a table, then i can't but try and fit an infinite amount of food in my stomach. not really worried about gaining weight so much as feeling terrible.

some kind of lentil curry is a good one. my bf usually makes a large batch at the beginning of the week and it gets us through a # of lunches

xps A thick veggie soup is good, lots of water so fills you up. Plus you can make big batches in advance and freeze. Just don't do what I do and compensate by having tons of buttered bread with it...

Remy, I'm not sure if 'no raw veg' preculdes salad but one thing I started doing to avoid the calories in dressing (which I make myself) was to substitute greek yoghurt for olive oil. It's more unctuous which actually means the dressing adheres to the lettuce better and the tang of the yoghurt alongside the tart of my ever-present mustard is quite good. You can thin it a tad w/lemon juice or red wine vinegar.

Soup is the dieter's super food.

Plus, you can make so many different flavors of soup and if it's hot you can have cold soups.

I used to be dead dismissive of soup - it's uniform, nothing to chew, plus 99% of pre-made ones have something that tastes horrible to me - even the fancy ones (not you, Waitrose Pea & Ham, <3 u boo). I think the revelation came when I added roasted parsnips to a basic leek & potato and it was amazing. Oh and got a stick blender which is fun to use. I was even brave enough to tackle those weird celeriacs this weekend in the name of soup and it was lovely.

got a stick blender

^^^

I'll eat salads, but I've got to be very, very careful about eating too much insoluable fiber. So I tend to avoid them, although I like them in small quantities.

Need to be careful about the sodium/salt content of soups though.

when it comes to exercising I feel like the show you watch or whatever you're doing to keep your mind busy is important. for example I'd always hate working out b/c I'd always watch ESPN which discusses the same dumb talking points over and over and makes 45 minutes seem like 2 hours. lately I've been watching Jeopardy and it makes things go quick as it's so rapid fire and actually engages your brain a bit.

Making your own soup is dead easy, allowing you to have complete control of its contents, whether salt, sodium or otherwise.

oh my god i am so hungry and ... sad? being this hungry makes me kind of grumpy, and generally upset.

'hangry'!

xp:

There are a few people in the Caloric Restriction with Optimum Nutrition (CRON) community that do 1400 to 1500 calories a day (even for males), but its a lifestyle choice for extended longevity rater than a weight-loss diet, and the way that camp does it requires a lot of meal planning/spreadsheets etc.

In the scientific literature, there are dozens of caloric restriction studies extending for 80 years now with consistent results from yeast to rhesus monkeys. So CRON is the only intervention at present that offers the prospect for humans living to 120+ years. Its also terribly impractical for most, and you will feel hungry every day.

I think the Okinawa Diet and Dr. Fuhrman camps offer a more realistic approach, which is eat as much low calorie density or high micronutrient density foods as you please (which naturally excludes most grains, processed foods like oil, and virtually all animal products). It's pretty damned hard to eat 1500 calories of steamed brocoli - you won't need a scale.

I started this new diet administered through my dr's office called First Line Therapy...I think it has something to do with Metagenics, this weird powder you can drink as a shake that counts for a meal. Basically, you have a list of all the different things you can eat, but you have to eat every 3 hours and you have to eat a certain number of portions from different food groups by day's end, like legumes, concentrated proteins, etc, and of course many vegs as you want (whoop-di-do)...I've lost 16 pounds since December 1st! Basically, it's no bread (or you can have one slice of whole grain bread per day), pasta, potatoes, rice, dairy, sugar, or red meat. I am trying to lose 45 pounds by summer and I think it's doable! I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast, a giant salad with beans, tuna, etc for lunch, and a turkey burger and/or veggie burger and veggies for dinner. Snacks are that Greek yogurt and fruit or an apple with 10-12 almonds. I'm 43 and went from eating all bad food all the time (for 20 years) to this, and it's coming right off. I also don't have those wild glycemic ups and downs anymore, just totally even throughout the day. Of course, I no longer eat for fun or self-medication, so I smoke a lot of pot instead!

oh yeah, 1800 cals a day

I'd miss dairy and red meat, but I could live with that with the frequent eating--none of the meals would be "satisfying,", but at least I could snack. The problem is that I'd have to stay home and COOK a lot more than I do now. :/

smoking pot seems like the worst thing to do. its not exactly an appitite surpressant and it doesn't make you crave vegetables. but perhaps, you are a greater man than i

lol, right? I don't really smoke anymore at all but all I want to do when I'm stoned is eat or sleep. That would never work for me.

The problem is that I'd have to stay home and COOK a lot more than I do now. :/

Yep. This is a thing and one of the reasons I've resolved to eat out no more than once a week for a while.

Also I really like cooking but I'm lazy so it's often easier to just not do it and then I end up eating crap.

my body is a wonderland

but I've lost weight this week because I have a cold and these cold meds are dulling my appetite

tbh its nice not to have the appetite of grendel's mother for a while

I was kidding about the wonderland bit

its like reasonably-okay land

my body is a tundra :/

i don't know what that means.

maybe more of a rice paddy

i am so excited to be looking not like a balloon soon

i have these pants - i bought them. and they didn't fit right but my goal is to fit right b4 the 30 day return policy. i feel like i'm a movie or something. like 32 going on 30 (32 is my waist size)

One week of extreme dieting done! I saved ~ 2000 calories/day through exercise (an hour or more, daily), and food restrictions. I haven't been fiending for food since the third day, and I've been reaching my protein, fiber, and calorie goals with aplomb. I'm still way low on fat intake, but I figure I've got ample reserves stored, and I bought a nice little piece of cheese I'll ration to meet my daily quota. Weigh-in is this evening. I'm kind of excited. Best friends so far:

Muscle Milk
Greek Yogurt
Soup!

remy, is there a particular resource you are getting nutritional info for different food from?

I'm back with my dietician. Went back a couple of weeks ago. Alas, I don't seem to be losing as much as before. (First time I lost more than 12 kgs in a couple of weeks.) That said, I'll try and lose about 15 kgs. I am a fat blubber. :-(

remy, is there a particular resource you are getting nutritional info for different food from?

nothing in particular – mostly using myfitnesspal.com, and manually compling recipe data

I'm back with my dietician. Went back a couple of weeks ago. Alas, I don't seem to be losing as much as before. (First time I lost more than 12 kgs in a couple of weeks.) That said, I'll try and lose about 15 kgs. I am a fat blubber. :-(

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, January 30, 2012

I am dreading running out of (insurance coverage for) follow up visits with my nutrition lady...I need the encouragement to stay on the right path

i'm eating celery

wait you lost more than 12 kgs in a couple of weeks?? Or 12lbs?

i'm eating celery

you have my whole-hearted support in all your celery-eating endeavors

thank you! it feels nice

wait you lost more than 12 kgs in a couple of weeks??

Weeks, I know, even she was astounded. I guess the breastfeeding helped. And also the diet itself: I dropped all fat and sugar. And I did sports. Now though... But I am going to lose the weight. slowly but surely.

Uh I mean kgs of course.

Oh, its starts with celery. Then it becomes celery with hummus, celery with peanut butter, and then the cringeworthy celery with ranch dip...

celery and low-fat cream cheese all the way yo!

srsly there is no dif btwn reg and low-fat cream cheese imo
tho no-fat cream cheese is disgusting

oh okay, so that weight loss was after you gave birth and while breastfeeding, right? prob not going to happen again in 'regular' life, i am guessing... because a loss of 26 lbs in two weeks seems like o_O

I know! It was completely freaky. Every day I would lose kilo or half a kg. After I came back she said it was "dangerous" for the baby. Okay, NOW you tell me. lol. Anyway yeah I do not expect to lose weight that quickly. But a big more than I do now would be better. lol

omg lowfat cream cheese - GREAT idea!

199.8 on 1/23
191.5 on 1/30

:D

race to the bottom!

amazing

Remy that's great - and with that amazing cake too! :)

Be careful though - you still have a lot of time, right? You don't want to drop it too fast.

I'm thinking it's probably a lifestyle change that occasioned such a precipitous drop. I expect it'll slow down a lot in the next week or so. I've got 5 weeks to drop 12.5 lbs, which means I can afford to slow down a lot.

Also, I've realized that I feel great if I eat about 1/3 of my daily calories first thing in the morning, and it's packed w. protein. Greek yogurt, and me, we got a good thing going.

Yeah I have found similar in the past. Greek yogurt is so so good btw. Also I expect that you're right and that it will slow down but still - that's great!

You successful weight-losing people! Just remember, esp if you're dropping it kind of fast, to drink a TON of water to help your skin stay elastic. I mean unless you're p dehydrated it's probably going to be fine but more water can't hurt, right?

there's a piece of bread in front of me, and i can't eat it

Low-fat cream cheese = neufchâtel, and no-fat cream cheese = real cream cheese with loads of good stuff taken out and yuk stuff put in, right?

surprised to see laughing cow hasn't been mentioned on this thread

it is an amazing low cal/fat cream cheese for crackers and toast

(not so good for veggies)

yup.

also, pro tip: neufchâtalel holds a whip/blend better than regular cream cheese, so it's easy to aerate in a mixer, making it less dense, and subsequently even healthier at a similar volume to regular c.c.

lite laughing cow is so damn good, and such a good replacement for butter. oh man, laughing cow i do love you. but you know what is evil? margarines. margarines are like oil jello to me, and foul and viscous and i don't care whether they have yogurt bits or olive oil or petroleum, they are still nasty and an affront unto man and god alike

yeah light laughing cow on toast is ree-dic. sometimes i even put preserves too!

there was a big surge of laughing cow commercials last year that i was happy about

"have you laughed today?"

you don't need to diet

I LOVE Laughing Cow.

Guys, someone stole my gd carrot sticks out of the fridge. WTF?

laughing cow is good and fun :)
i have little idea how anyone can eat margarine, but i understand that if you grew up with it, it might seem like actual food

heard this guy - http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670065233,00.html - on the radio this morning - good stuff

omg i have carrots and celery in the fridge, thank u for reminding me

so sorry yours got stolen :*(

you know, my mom used to use country crock? so as like a homage to my heritage i can sometimes eff wit that

but yea it's pretty grosso

people might not need to diet per se, but many people need to change their diet to be healthier and sustainable, so that even so-called moments of over-indulgence become just a blip rather than a crash into bad eating habits again
xps

who steals carrots??

Thank you, Robyn. I mean, really. hmpf. Also otm here: people might not need to diet per se, but many people need to change their diet to be healthier and sustainable, so that even so-called moments of over-indulgence become just a blip rather than a crash into bad eating habits again

and personally, i'm a very active person and always have been - sports, walking, running, biking everywhere (main form of transportation), high-impact, low-impact, weights, long cardio, high intensity cardio, intervals, and on and on, and now climbing too - and if i don't eat a relatively low-carb diet (3 meals a day + 1 or 2 minor snacks if necessary), and vigilantly watch my intake of sugar, simple carbs and alcohol, i remain at 10-20lbs over the weight i feel comfortable being. for the last few years, all has been well, weight-wise, because of this balance - but i also have some food intolerances, which cause digestive system pain/upset, so that plays into diet too.

but yeah, not a diet but just the way i eat, which is with discipline, and whether i call it a diet or not is just part of the psychological stuff imo - i just call it the way i eat, and sometimes it is hard...

i've lost 17 pounds since November 30, trying to lost 45 by June, but it's learning how to cope with life without the emotional security blanket of food that's so hard. some days are easier than others. last nite i dreamt about pancakes, so good yet so sad!

that's amazing! you go! i know, the emotional part is So Hard. like not having ice cream and popcorn while flipping thru magazines ... kills me

thanks surm--the satisfaction of finding something that works is still significantly greater than the pleasures of pigging out so i am cautiously optimistic i can get there. bottom line is i'm 43 and feel like i am at the upper limit of age and weight before it gets even harder.

yea i feel the same way about finding something that works vs. pigging out

taking it literally one day at a time

^ only way to be, about a lot of stuff, really
+ achievable goals! daily, weekly, monthly, 1 year, 2 years, etc etc

so true. so so true.

Lots of otm in this thread. I'm struggling a bit bc I def have a lot of emotional issues tied to food and cooking and eating, but I feel so uncomfortable at this weight, so I have to make the choice.

i'm 43 and feel like i am at the upper limit of age and weight before it gets even harder

Your surmise is almost certainly correct. Retrieve as much as you can while it is still in relatively easy reach. Good luck!

thanks, everyone, for the encouragement! this thread is very helpful.

somebody needs to get this fucking brittle out of my face

oh man i hear ya, surm--i work with a bunch of people who eat bad shit day in/day out and never seem to gain a pound. who are these f--in' people?!

i don't really know but i'm abhorred. i mean a customer literally sent my office 6 boxes of brittle. who does that?

I'm guessing they are people to whom a 'meal' is a foreign concept. All they eat are a series of more-or-less foodlike snacks at irregular intervals.

you can do it, iago!

and yeah, just1n3, it is about making choices for yourself and owning that choice-making power.
i have been called a robot on more than one occasion because i stick to my choices (re: food/alcohol but also re: other things), but i know i'm not a robot and i know what's good for me.

kick that brittle to the curb, surm

i get kind of angry when people who tell me they want to lose weight and get healthier and ask for advice and then say something like they can't go to the movies without eating popcorn or candy, and i'm like yes, you can do that, that is well within your power - are you going to have a fit? are you going to die? is the movie going to not happen? are you going to sit through the whole thing wishing you had popcorn or candy? and if so, just do it anyway. see what happens. maybe just maybe it will all be okay.

i obv take a bit of a hardass approach...

yeah i have had to turn that corner myself. like, i can watch my favorite show at home without ice cream.

but you know what - i will purposely like not eat that day if i know i'm going to a movie. i love my movie theater popcorn

yeah i guess i partly use that example because i really don't get eating at the movies - but that's bc it was never something i did as a kid or as an adult - and so i find the sound of people eating popcorn (of all things to make a movie food??? wtf) a bit annoying, like i have to go zen about it every time...

hahaha i know. i mean i get really self conscious about it? and i'm the one who will literally keep eating it until the end, i mean even in the death scene, but you know what, it's america and i love it :( don't hate me

haha yeah, and i don't want people to feel self-conscious because it annoys me either! but srsly i am not judging, i just remain confounded that it's a thing - i've prob gone to far in the other direction of disassociating food with life events though. like, years ago, birthdays used to me cake and i would fixate on cake, but now i completely forget about cake and just want to see my friends. tho i did make cupcakes for my bday this year, but like only because i wanted to have something to help my friends feel more birthday-y? lol weird... maybe i am a robot.

i do drink a lot of herbal tea

lol. omg i love cake

i would totally eat cake at the movies instead of popcorn

hahaa, nooooo

and yeah, just1n3, it is about making choices for yourself and owning that choice-making power.

This is sort of where I'm at right now. I still believe in a little indulgence just not every single night or weekend. Once in a while. You know, moderation.

i just had a coconut froze fruit bar

except the one that does not have 13grams of fat

Supper tonight:

fillet of hake
a big ol' portion of steamed bok choy w. a little hoisin and oyster sauce
brown jasmine rice
piece of ellie krieger's healthy (ish) carrot cake

590 calories

!! damn girl

that really does sound amazing

I need to lose 5kg, and i already eat very healthfully (and close to vegetarian), so I have to bite the bullet and accept the thing that's causing my inability to shed weight - the fukcing booze.

So, this month I am gonna TRY to restrict my drinking to weekends only, and I am gonna ramp up the exercise to daily (this is dependant on wether I can fix up my farked up knee, but there's always crunches and wiifit stepping). And continue with my meals of veggies, tofu, tuna, salads and curries. Try and eat less rice, heh.

If I lose the weight rapidly from not drinking, I think I am going to cry btw.

I've lost over 50lb since last June ..and am now tantalisingly only 2.5lb away from 'healthy weight' on the NHS BMI chart.

It's been a deliberately slow process - based mainly on a fish and vegetables diet, and walking over 5 miles a day (more at weekends). Walking over 5 miles is surprisingly easy for me in London: 1.3 miles to work, another mile at lunchtime (be selfish and take that 20 minutes at lunchtime for a walk- you'll feel so much better for it), and at least another 3.5 miles along the Thames in the evening.

The main tip I'd pass on is to plan what you're going to eat - get into a routine and really stick to it. The only lapses I've had have tended to be where a lunchtime meeting has thrown my plans out - and I've had to grab some unhealthy calorific snack instead of -say - a Pret a Manger tuna salad (138 calories in the UK).

Yes, Bob Six, you (and everyone else here) are my hero(es)! You're so right about eating the same thing--i spend ALOT of time making sure I have the right food on hand wherever I go...so key

I want to do more walking (I'd love to walk most of the way home from work for eg - its a 5km walk!) but lately my knee has really started fucking up (it feels like it "catches" and the kneecap clicks and it really hurts) so I am not sure wether I should hoe into a lot of walking at the risk of hurting myself :( I cant see my physio for another 2 weeks, grrr.

I feel for you Trayce, with the drinking--I don't know what I'd do if I depended on booze like I do on pot (which doesn't make me crave bingeing, strangely)

Farewell party for our IT guy just now. There were two giant amazing looking cakes. I had to come back to my desk for a minute and when I got back the fruit was gone so I'm stuck with cut veg. Thankfully it's I love vegetables and these are really fresh and delicious. Probably much better than that cake anyway, right?!

Cake is good. Vegies are good. You have to enjoy each for what they are. Luckily, you can enjoy vegies immoderately and get away with it.

I know. I'm gonna go get some more, I think.

Our work only ever puts out cake for ppls birthdays. I've lightheartedly tried to suggest I'd rather they put out a plate of cheese/crackers/dip/veg for mine but got laughed at :( Even tho I was actually kind of serious. No one ever believes me when they offer cake/bix/choc and I turn it down cos I DONT LIKE IT.

(I wish I could develop such a dislike for wine, hahahahaha... sigh)

More on topic tho, 2 days in a row now I've done a good hard half hour of exercising! (thats a thing, for me).

Looking at rental of a stationary bike/crosstrainer for 3 months. Ppl think its a waste of money?

Another four pounds down.

Yesterday, I did 1,200 c. on the treadmill and watched 2 hours of Hoarders. Felt kind of faint at the end tbh, but I'm feeling spectacular this morning.

omg. i can never get myself to do cardio for that long. did you get 1,200 as a goal and stay on till you reached it, or did you just keep going for as long as you could? how do you motivate yourself to stay on?

trayce--if it's a rental, why not? is it cheaper than the gym?

I did 900 as a goal (treadmill on high incline, about an hour), and ended up walking for a while at cooldown – turns out i walked another quarter of my workout

u r vanishing by the minute bro!

Lost about 2,5 kgs in a little over a month.

i am finally seeing some results

congrats nathalie!!

nice work nath. i sort of want to do a before/after picture, but i'm embarrassed to post the 'before' before i get good results on the 'after.' maybe a 'before' a 'during' and and 'after'

Weekly check in: –3.5 lb.

u guys i'm skinny!!!!

o.m.g. things FIT again

remy keepin' it up!

i have no idea how much i weigh tho . . . . i have no scale

i have just been like kind of measuring my waist, with a string and a ruler . . . . i have no measuring tape

I have to spend at least an hour a day on the treadmill now :(

first world problems yadda yadda but still

whelp, I lost the first 20lbs. Laurel, I should have heeded yr. advice about super-hydrating so my skin becomes more elastic. I am a weird baggy old man right now, but I have like ∞ times more energy, and I've passed the halfway mark.

congratulations remy! sounds like you've done some great work.

thanks. kinda regretting that i deleted all the fatty 'before' pictures from the cameras of all my friends and relations.

Awww! You've no evidence whatsoever? I count my laziness as a boon here; if I ever lose a bunch of weight, I'll have proof! Unfortunately I have *gained* a bunch of weight in the last five years so I only have proof of my decline :P

I saw Remy before and then after losing 15 pounds and he looked excellent so I can testify to that. That said, Remy - I still don't think you need to lose another 15 pounds. You'll be so skinny! You looked fantastic as is. I mean I know you're gonna do it anyway I'm just saying that you look really good already.

and should be proud!

Congrats, rem! You can still super-hydrate and probably all that skin will figure it out eventually. All and any water helps.

Thanks so much, all. I am trying to drink a couple of full Nalgenes each day, but it is hard to remember. I will post an 'after' pic (sans before...) on 4/23, the official end date of my diet. I am slowing down the weight loss a lot, tbh, and happy to be eating (more) (ice cream).

so great, congrats

Whaaaaalp, I reached my first goal: 25 lbs down. I've been using myfitnesspal.com like a villain, especially the iphone app, and I've logged every single calorie I've eaten since mid-January. I'm currently at 1230 calories/day, but I usually eat abt. 10% more. It's become sort of a puzzle-game, trying to get 170 g carbs, 40g good fat, 25g fiber, and 50g protein daily, and I've become a packaged oatmeal addict and reliant on fiber supplements. Not proud of this fact, to be perfectly honest, because they're super processed and high in sodium, but I've kept from binging or breaking my action. And, I figure, eating processed oatmeal as my indulgence is a ton better than basically anything else. Also, it turns out, EatingWell.com has a lot of surprisingly tasty, nutritionally dense recipes w/ calorie and breakdown content at the end. Previously, I'd rated EatingWell somewhere below Better Homes and Gardens, but it turns out that it's a fairly dec. site and the food is tasty/cheap.

Yesterday (keeping under 1300 calories) I ate:

Big bowl of oatmeal and fruit
Banh Mi
Package of TJ's Wasabi Seaweed
Special K-Protein Plus Cereal
Two servings of Italian Vegetable soup.

14 lbs, to go and man oh man I am on a roll.

Awesome work :)

Hired my bike finally! 4 days in and I've increased my time on it every day and my knee already hurts a TON less. Im extremely unfit so this is amazing for me.

1200 calories a day???? wow.

I lost another 2 kgs. I am now at 74,3 kg which is still way too much. But I managed to drop about 5 kg in total now. Another 10 kg to go at the very least. Deep down I want to be at my original 58 kg but I know that is a long way and maybe an impossible goal. For now my goal is 65 kg. I haven't done any sports recently. I stick to eating good things. Except on saturdays: then it's greasy time. lol

I've hovered between 70 and 75 kg for at least a year or 2 now and it is annoying the piss out of me that it wont budge below 70, but I have to confess I havent made a massive effort. I'm hoping the increase in exercise will really help. I wanna hit 65 too. Even at that weight im not in healthy BMI, thanks to being a shortarse.

73,5 YAY

Nice job!

i've yo yo dieted so often in my life that i'm trying to do the "moderation plan" that mostly involves eating sandwiches and skipping sugared drinks. sometimes tho it seems that if i'm not in the mentality of losing weight, i just don't - even despite fact that i eat not incredibly healthy but rather very "normal"... cereal, sandwich, chicken or something for dinner.

so i'm mostly curious as to how you guys commit to these things... do you find that your diet is now your *diet* and you henceforth always eat in such a mentality? counting calories became intoxicating to me, to point that i would get mad at myself for being in a restaurant and trying to figure out if a tortilla would be 100, or 200 calories; and how many calories were in my iced tea, and if i should skip the sour cream or if i really shouldn't give a fuck because it's just 200 calories that vastly improves the meal, etc

When I was single, I could "devote" myself to counting calories. But that's near impossible now. Nor is it possible to do eat the same as when I was in my twenties. I don't have the mentality. I just can't. Also, I had an eating disorder, so I am hesitant of slipping into that mindset again. Not that I think I will. I am a different person.

Anyway, I don't really eat very well: some days I will eat a roll (with double chocolate). I guess I do not want to overly obsess over healthy/fatless food anymore. I think you need to sin a little. But I only do that once or twice a week.

So no counting calories. I just eat what my dietician wrote down. I stick to that more or less. She told me to eat two slices of bread in the morning and four in the evening. And lunchtime is a warm meal. No sugary drinks. Lots of tea.

I guess I do it step by step. Not a radical change really.

I track everything using myfitnesspal.com. It's an ugly solution, but it's worked. the ritual of figuring out calories (or approximate analogues, no need to be too precise) has kept me from binging.

Six slices of bread per day diet is blowing my mind. I know you've been talking about it for a while, Nathalie, so presumably you feel fine on it, and I'm glad for you. But I do not understand it at all.

Nath do you eat anything else in the evening or just the four slices of bread?

Oh I put something on it. Usually chocolate paste though. Yay for Nutella. lol

Laurel, she advises bread because it won't make me crave for sweets (what the problem is/was). Always wholegrain (?) bread of course. I asked if I could replace it with yoghurt but she said no. *shrug* I still eat yoghurt (instead of bread) because I'm addicted to it.

That is two slices in the morning and 4 in the evening. Lunch is a warm meal. Did you think that was the only thing I ate? Because then I wasn't clear enough and I apologize! :-)

I realize, apart from the warm meal, I don't eat that healthily: I mean, ffs, nutella? But that's actually my own problem. No more sugar-filled coke (or Sprite), candy,...

Yeah that is still...bizarre.

But why? Maybe because American doesn't have a "bread culture" like we do? Also, bread won't make you have *spurts of energy* but slow releasing energy (-> Am I explaining this right?)

That is two slices in the morning and 4 in the evening. Lunch is a warm meal. Did you think that was the only thing I ate? Because then I wasn't clear enough and I apologize! :-)

Ok so dinner is 4 slices of bread with nutella? Always?

Are there also more carbs in your "warm meal" at lunch? How do you get enough nutrients? Protein?? All that bread seems like a recipe for diabetes to me.

What about vegetables? Why does the meal at lunch have to be warm?

It doesn't have to be warm, but it usually is. Not a lot of carbs. Meat and vegetables.

White bread is usually linked to diabetes. I have yet to hear brown bread being a cause for diabetes?

My only 'diet' that I stick to is trying to go against my natural inclination to eat sandwiches every day for lunch with huge bready rolls - just try and cut down on carbs where possible. That and realising I only really need to eat portions about 2/3 the size of what I'm used to. In the evening I basically have whatever I want except go easy on cream, fat, chips etc and try and balance out a blatantly unhealthy meal like pizza with a healthy one like a good salad or soup the next day. (I wish I could find Elmlea or half-fat creme fraiche here which are everywhere and cheap in the UK) I don't drink soda either but only because I don't often want it. I eat far too much red meat, though.

Well, I made my second goal – 200 lb. to 165 lb since January 1. As of this morning I'm 163.4 lb (71 k). I'm no longer doing long inclined walks 6x/weekly, I'm down to 3x weekly walks alternating w. 5k runs and circuit training. I've got a M-F daily food routine:

breakfast:
egg white omelette w/ a little cheese and whatever leftover veggies I have in the fridge
high fiber granola bar (gnu bars – they're delicious)

lunch:
greek yogurt w/ fruit
oatmeal w/ added protein

dinner:
any nutrition nazi stuff I want, as long as it comes in ~ 650 calories in total. Turns out that Eating Well magazine isn't total garbage. The food is a little safe, and sometimes a little pedestrian, but the provided nutrition info and portion sizes are very, very useful.

My diet works out to +/- 1500 calories/day, but I'm still having trouble getting enough protein, and since I've started strength training I'm trying to mainline almonds whenever I've got extra calories at the end of the day. My sugar consumption is higher than I wish (fiber bar, yogurt and fruit, fortified oatmeal all have added), but I'm out of ideas for how to get it lower while taking in enough good protein and fiber on such restricted calories. I've only got eight pounds (three and a half kilos) to go, then I've got to start on maintenance.

Thank you all for the support doing as I've been going along. Does anybody have experience w/ Weight Watchers? I'm thinking of joining to help maintain, but it's hard to justify the price right now and ... well... I associate it with suburban Mom-dom.

go remy go!

WW sucks chunks. I really didn't like the whole social pressure concept. And counting points? Silly really. I mean, why not stick with cals if you like to count. But who am I to say, apparently I can't stick with my diet. lol. Due to financial distress (?) and subsequent nerves, I have gone off the rails. But went back on'em today. Hopefully I can lower my weight again.

Nice one. You eat the same breakfast and lunch every day? I don't know if I am on a diet but I have been changing my eating habits/doing a lot of workout and I've dropped about 10lbs since Jan. Props to greek yoghurt and oatmeal for sure, bike also biking/yoga/running has really helped.

added protein - you do the powder thing? Which powders do you enjoy?

I haven't found any powders I really like. The whey protein ones seem to agitate my stomach a little, so I've been adding PB2 (dehydrated, defatted peanut butter/nutella) and sometimes Click! energy powders (caffeinated, coffee flavored). There's a lot of sugar in either, but...

do you like tofu, remy? freeze, thaw, cut into bite-sized pieces, press out water, dry fry in a non-stick pan on low till golden, add a few splashes of soy sauce/tamari/braggs: tastes great hot or cold, on its own or with veggies/salad/sandwich. and cheap!

hmm, tofu. i've heard tell.

I like to add ginger and a little chili oil for extra flavor during dry frying, but I'm sure it's not essential.

Guess that's not dry fry?

I have had some almonds and a giant salad with multiple veg and then some hummus on sticks of vegetable instead of crackers or bread, and I'm not sure whether I might be hungry or not but I feel...unsatisfied?? Everything was tasty but my savory/salty/protein habit is SO STRONG.

you need something warm or warm-tasting

Hmmm. You might be on to something.

Currently having the white cheese popcorn snack size because it was in our vending machine and it only has 160 calories (god help me, I looked).

man, apparently middle-aged white dudes are still suckers for atkins-y high-protein/high-fat/low-carb diets. there was seriously a presentation at my work about this, and while some of it makes sense, it seems to gloss over a lot of things (downplays the importance of exercise, ignores any possible dangers of eating a shitload of animal products every day for years [incl. highly processed meat], focuses on blood glucose/insulin levels to the exclusion of all other health factors).

i'm on a diet

good luck. what kind of diet?

This is SUPER BORING but today I had two hb eggs instead of one, also I have more almonds and endless green tea. So far not feeling any cravings but they hit around 3pm usually so....

almonds are a lifesaver.

Perfect for when you need to Eat a Food.

3-5 is the death hour for diets, ime. i have a 'one fitness bar per day' limit, but i've found eating a (fairly healthy) one first thing in the moring is a great regulator of appetite during the first half of the afternoon. also: yogurt. do you like yogurt? so much protein, so little sugar. eggs are so good, too.

since i changed my diet as per a post itt i have lost some weight but also 3 inches off my waist

i am braggin' but yknow

I am fine 3-5. I am a late night/middle of the night snacker. :(

Remy what is your preferred yogurt?

Added protein powder to my breakfast smoothies to fill me more, seems to be working.. made one with blueberry, banana, spinach and strawberries this morning. It was CRAZY DELICIOUS. For the last week I ate nothing but garbage, so nice to stop at the fruit & veg market last night and stock up on goodies.

Yeah I started putting protein powder in my oatmeal. I wanna get some of that powdered peanut butter Remy recommended.

I am fine 3-5. I am a late night/middle of the night snacker. :(

totally. sometimes i just let myself have a bowl of cereal even tho its obv p bad just cuz it hella satisfying

I can't eat yogurt. Really I can't eat any fresh dairy, only old dry cheeses, although sheep and goat cheese seem like decent compromises. This is so incredibly sad to me.

What do you mean you can't? You don't like them or?

Sorry, NO I LOVE THEM, but the whole dairy intolerance is sad to me. That was badly phrased.

Milk, sour cream, ice cream, gelatto, all kinds of yogurt, fresh mozzarella, ricotta, probably other things I'm forgetting, give me gas and stomach pains and sometimes throw off my stomach for a whole week of bloating. It's horrible.

Oh yuk, that's bad. I just thought it was something forbidden from this diet or w/e.

Also what are your feelings about jerky? If you're not repulsed by the idea of gnawing on chewy cured meats, jerky can be a satisfying low calorie snack. I like the spicy buffalo from TJs. Also a good adjunct to nuts and nibbles.

also protein
(but surely lotsa sodium too if that's a concern -- i will cut down salt only from the grave)

loool @ from the grave

Yeah, did I forget to show you the salt lick in my kitchen?? Next time, next time. The answer is that I would marry beef jerky, it's just kind of expensive and I go through it too fast, it seems like. A good idea, though, that I hadn't thought about in a while!

Laurel, have you tried lactose free yogurt?

ENBB, I like any Greek yogurt at all. The 0% fat stuff is surprisingly good, but I'm not really concerned about small quantities of fat from yogurt so I ususally go w/ the 2% for extra taste. The Chobani passionfruit is especially good, but it is loaded w/ sugar (19g). Lately, I've been having a plain Chobani or Fage for lunch w/ a serving of Kashi Go Lean! Crunch cereal in it. I think it's 300 calories, ~30g protein and 8g fiber. Also: super filling.

For breakfast on the run, I like making this Cranberry Muesli from Eating Well, or a variation therof.

http://www.eatingwell.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/standard/recipes/BR6300.JPG

the chobani singles are really good, i like the pomegranate one a lot

i bristle at the name CHOBANI because it feels so repulsively focus grouped, but I will admit that the passionfruit yogurt is the best yogurt i have ever eaten in my life.

E: For what it's worth, the Soy protein powder I have (brand is Simply Bulk but it could be Canadian) has a very peanut buttery taste. If there's a bulk food place, might be worth just checking out a few different kinds?

Laurel, I feel your dairyless pain. It took me a couple of years to finally figure out liquid dairy was what was giving me constant heartburn. Thankfully, cheese and occasional ice cream is okay, but I had to switch to Almond & coconut milks for drinking. And if you like milky coffee, there's a soy cream made by Silk - sold in the same size as a creamer container - that's a decent replacement for a 2% milk (I find most non-dairy milks reach a skim milk consistency at best).

Woah! That's quite a rec for the passionfruit there. I do like Chobani but haven't had the pfruit. I love the go lean crunch cereal so will try out that combo. I'm basically just trying to find the most filling non-meat stuff I can but it's hard! Yesterday I made a salad I found online that had the strangest ingredients (rinsed cottage cheese?!) but was so good. Remy I'm also trying to do 1,200 cal a day rn but it's tough! Those suckers disappear real quick. I think I need to eat a bigger breakfast. I have oatmeal every day and it's just not that satisfying anymore.

Lex - I might check that out. I don't really like the whey protein I have now but I bought a huge tub so am probably stuck wtih it for a while.

Throw it in some smoothies! I am soooo happy to be home to my blender and fresh spinach and whatnot. Though those bagel breakfasts were pretty damn amazing :)

that pizza ;_; SOOOO GOOD!

I lost the top to my blender and haven't found a place that sells just the tops. I can cover it with a pan but it's annoying. I think I need to just buy a new one and hop back on the smoothie tip esp that it's now summer.

I meant spring. It is obviously not summer. Wishful thinking.

Hah! Yeah my legs are bare but they're covered in goosebumps. Tis Spring. Try googling the company who made your blender? They might have them kicking about.. otherwise, buy one from a thrift store, the older ones are more powerful anyway! (I suffered through a magic bullet for a couple of months before remembering we had an old blender tucked in the back of a cupboard.)

Mmmmm pizza. I am back on 'eat lots, mostly vegetables' and I have to be strong. ;_;

damn e 1200 calories???

fwiw my bf & i have been using this cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Foods-Delicious-Healthiest-Ingredients/dp/0307465322 and it has some p great recipes in it that are relatively easy to make

Lately, I've been having a plain Chobani or Fage for lunch w/ a serving of Kashi Go Lean! Crunch cereal in it.

haha idk why but this is super funny to me, i eat the exact same thing down to those same stupid brands all the time

Well, I'm aiming for 1200 and managing about 1300-1400 on most days. It's hardest on the weekends when beer often enters the picture and, well, why is beer so bad for you!? Someone needs to make a low-cal beer that doesn't actually taste like watered down urine. That would be ace.

FFM - I've googled for the blender parts. I will look for an old one or just bite the bullet and get a new one. They're not that expensive.

ENBB, a long time ago some weird part to my room-mate's blender broke so we went to Target and she shoplifted the part out of one of the floor models. Not that I'd recommend that. I think Target has better security nowadays.

Thanks for that terrible advice.

;)

I'm too chicken to steal anything tbh.

My other piece of terrible advice would be: I know some people who really like blenders and they say you shouldn't really pay less than $300 for a blender.

I do not like blenders that much. For some people they are serious business though, huh?

Yeah. The idea of a crazy good blender really appeals to me, but it's about 20th on my list of things I'd pay $300 for. I got my current blender by bartering away a coffee maker on craigslist and I'm pretty sure I got ripped off.

I use an immersion blender for smoothies, works great, use it every day

1300 cal/day is my comfort spot. As long as I eat a constant breakfast of 300-400, and a moderate lunch, it's not super bad. Buuuuut I have had a lot of hangry days. Soup is def my friend for lunch.

i don't know if i'm really on a diet. i have gained a few pounds lately, i think because i moved temporarily to a slightly different job that doesn't involve running around like a maniac 2-4 days a week. and i have not always been eating the best things. this week i have been concentrating more like just eating oatmeal with no maple syrup and not buying an entire store for lunch. i want a crazy good blender but i am also on a spending diet.

re: lactose-free yogurt i think all yogurt is lactose-free

wikipedia says, and i have confirmed by reading labels, that many commercial yogurts have milk solids in them so you might want to check that out. i eat wf nonfat yogurt at lunch every day and i do not know if it has milk solids, but this fancy kind i sometimes get at the farmers' market does.

also try goat yogurt but it's $$$. i love it.

$300 blenders are for when you are stable and mature and set for life financially, like buying a sofa. I have a sixty dollar blender and it is very nice, nicer than the shit blenders I had in my twenties. I guess if you have a serious kitchen....

my $60 blender sucks and sometimes smells like burning

lol my blender was like 20 and also smells like burning. $300 is so much though! I'd spend $100 but then I feel like I'd be obligated to make smoothies every day or something.

kitchenaid refurbished blenders for $54

man, apparently middle-aged white dudes are still suckers for atkins-y high-protein/high-fat/low-carb diets.

I'm a middle-aged white dude and I'm doing this! I do feel like a sucker but enough of my friends have succeeded with it that I felt I should try. 8 days in, I'm finding it not hard at all to stick to, no cravings or anything. On the other hand, I weigh the same as when I started. Not sure how long I should keep it up with no weight loss before concluding it's not working for me.

I am loving this myfitnesspal app fwiw, I have a cousin who lost an unbelievable amount of weight using mostly that and he sold me on it. It is indeed like a fun little game every day to figure out yr calorie math, as I think someone mentioned upthread. I've basically transfered all the impulses to check my phone all day and also the micro-rewards from things like Facebook onto this platform for staying on top of what I eat, which is something I always have been just so reluctant to do. Love it!

my aunt is the atkins chair of nutritional science at washington university of st louis; the atkins family funds her research. this isn't to say that she studies the atkins diet, but we have spoken about it in the past, and she says that there is some amount of validity to the diet itself.

I think re the Atkins et al diets, a lot of people benefit just from cutting out refined starches and sugars? Can't really comment on the ketosis/fat-burning aspect of the high-protein thing.

to be clear I am not doing the next-to-no carb atkins, but what seems to be called "low-carb" (i.e. 50-75g carb per day, 10-15% of calorie intake.) Was not eating a ton of refined flour / sugar anyway, but certainly plenty of carbs in other forms.

my posts keep not working :(

I just threw away 3 broken blenders: a kitchen aid, a Cuisinart and one I saw on tv that said it could make restaurant style margs and died on day one.

This year I bought a vitamix and it's changed my life. it can make ice cream that is edible right out of the blender in 1 minute. It can make hot soup in 7 minutes. I can make peanut butter in 1 min. It can even ground grain into flour. Seriously the ONLY countertop device you need! So worth $500. yep, $500. It's an investment but it's worth it.

I make a super green smoothie every morning. that simple addition has made me kick a adult life habit of 6-8dt cokes a day cold turkey with nary a headache.

Many dairy intolerant people aren't lactose intolerant but casein. Goat's milk doesn't have casein. so that's why it's tolerated when other dairy isn't. I don't do soy for many reasons: genetically modified to a degree they can't even say organic with confidence and when unfermented it's an endocrine system blocker - makes you think you're producing estrogen. I can't take hormonal birth control either - very sensitive endocrine system. It's been shown in studies to significantly lower sperm count, too. Soy in milk, fake meat, flour, and ice cream form is unfermented. Natural food shouldn't fuck with you like that! so no soy for me, thanks. Veggie proteins just require massive quantities to get the amount you need a day (70g for ladies to maintain lean muscle mass on average) so I do something called designer whey in my super green smoothies. the casein is removed. It works well for me - no side effects where as normal whey makes produces lots of snot and upsets my tummy.

Yes, vitamix blenders are expensive but it's paid itself already as far as I'm concerned (got it January). I never thought I'd be able to kick dt coke!

restaurant style margs

margarines?

That's from the new Atkins margarita diet

Things I have learned from eating just salad for lunch: I'm going to have to eat some kind of dinner. Dinner is a meal that I usually skip, or sometimes take in liquid form, but seldom actually prepare.

I guess I'm not as good at eating a food as I thought.

yeah can i make a recommendation based on your habits?
have the salad for dinner and eat a larger lunch

that way, your bod will get necessary nutrients when it's going to be using them (during the morning/day and into early evening) and then you wind down to eat less in the evening hours. otherwise you are engaging in borderline starvation? esp considering your level of activity, dancing, etc.

but keep the lunch low on simple carbs because otherwise you will fall asleep, thus not getting the most of calorie-burning post-lunch hours. also you might get fired.

if i eat only a salad (like lettuce and tomato and cheese or chicken or whatevs) at lunch i feel like i'm going to implode by 2pm. add a few rye crackers or a piece of toast tho and i'm fine for like 4 hours!

Hahah you guys, thank you for the advice! I should take it. Currently making lean pork chops and roast potatoes for dinner...and lunch...and lunch...and lunch. Maybe the next big thing I make should be a cold quinoa salad.

xp rrrob, I started supplementing with a slice of herb bread and aged cheese = success!

Also, KALE, everyone. The only green that makes me feel like I ate a food for at least several hours afterward! Those pricey little Boston lettuces are cute but not food.

that is exactly what i think about kale too!

also, on rainy days when ramen noodles are the only food that will make everything okay in under five minutes, adding kale makes me feel like at least i'm getting a vitamin or two and therefore am a healthy person who makes good choices

i mean, i buy these spicy korean non-msg ramen noodles, but i'm not fooling anyone there, let alone myself
and in fact they started putting msg back in them and didn't change the packaging! but whatevs tbh

i ate a sweet potato for dinner

I am hangry but it's too late to eat. Bah.

i want to eat less for lunch. i usually eat dinner leftovers but i could eat salad or something. except when i eat just salad or bean soup or bean salad i get hungry like an hour afterward. could try kale i guess.

not buying an entire store for lunch.

this is never not going to happen to me

Hey Remy - I ordered that PB2 stuff. What do I do with it? Tips? Got both the reg and choc flavors.

1) Mix it with a spoon and use it as a snack (2T PB2, 1T water)
2) Put it in oatmeal
3) Put it on noodles w/ a little coconut milk for quick peanut curry
4) Smoothies!

also, http://bellplantation.com/recipes

Down to 140 pounds (5'8") and still losing!!! Working on house / in yard, exercising the dogs, occasional lifting weights, walking everywhere.

To be honest it wasn't that hard for me, I'm naturally thin.

okay I'm trying this again

I know some people itt use MyFitnessPal; I have used it before pretty successfully. But I'm realizing this time round that I get into kind of a mania when I look at the details of my caloric intake each day, like how much I'm over on various things ie protein or sugars or fats or whatever...and then I start to stress out about what I have planned to eat for the rest of the day and how none of it's going to work and it kind of fucks with my head

does anyone else have that problem, or have they had that problem in the past and overcome it somehow? I mean, I know just 'not looking' is one way...but that info also seems like it's important to keep an eye on to make sure you're not overdoing certain things or missing out on others

idk

maybe I'm just nuts, lol

ugh I do sound nuts

I'm not curling up into a ball or anything. It just burrows into my brain and I remember that this is a thing that I didn't enjoy about myself the last time I tried to get back to a healthy weight

but I know that tracking this stuff helps me

sigh

no way dude -- i totally hear you on the "it's taking over my brain" stuff. it's why i don't think about/read about/pay attention to numbers at all anymore. numbers or advice. i just try to do what's best for me and eat what makes me feel good. i'm healthy and my brain has plenty of space to think about other things.

I need to get there.

not everyone has to quantify everything -- i think it works really well for some people, but i am not one of them. just like running -- i like the act of running but i don't want to know how fast or far i'm going. i just want to go.

yeah I think being able to to drill down on the many ways I'm still failing (which is how my brain interprets the caloric minutiae) is probably not healthy for me

exactly -- fixating on my failures is toxic sauce for my mental health

thank u LL, I feel better already

:)
it's important to feel good imo

I agree!

I've been doing MFP for a solid 2 months, and I just don't look at the details - I'm strictly concerned with the total number of cals I'm ingesting. Now, this probably isn't the healthiest way I could be doing things, but it's working for me much better than the last couple of times I tried this. The cal restriction is making me far more careful about what I eat, which is good for me, and means I'm generally eating better anyway (I'm way more conscious about how much oil I use, now).

I've lost about 8-9lbs so far, so I'm doing okay.

yeah I think I need to stick to just doing that too

I want to enjoy eating healthy and *getting* healthy, otherwise wtf am I even doing.

congrats on yr progress, j!

I've also been using MFP for a couple months now and I've lost about 7-8 pounds. I can get weird about the details and stuff too so I mainly look at calories like Justine. I do look at the other things but concentrate mostly on calories. That said - the one number I'm looking at more now is fat because I'm consistently under on that one and think it's one of the reasons I don't feel very full. I'm actually trying to increase my fat intake a bit. We'll see. I've been frustrated by how long this is taking but I have to remember I'm not 20 anymore and things slow done metablolism wise.

One thing MFP has made me realize is how fucking bad for you beer is. I look at it very suspiciously now like "You little bastard, do you know how much actual food I could eat for one of you?!". ;)

That's not to say I didn't realize that before but looking at actual numbers takes things to a whole other level for me.

Yeah my big problem has always been portion control - like, I couldn't understand why I had been steadily been gaining weight for 4 years, and then I started MFP and I realized i was eating SO MUCH., even though I was/am far more healthy than I've ever been. I'm about 20-30lbs over the weight that feels comfortable for me.

And thanks! :) it's slow going but I want to be fit and energetic for traveling next year, and this is the only way I know I can get there.

Also, I blame the 90s for my fat-phobia. It's so hard to undo too. It's really weird to actually use things like butter and not automatically go straight towards the FF things.

yeah that's where I definitely find it helpful, managing my portions

also I like getting 'credits' for exercise, it's nice to have something in the 'win' column

ugh yeah I hear you on the beer, ENBB

for me it's coffee.

Coffee? Oh, do you mean coffee drinks and stuff? I drink my with only skim milk so that's one thing I don't really worry about.

Justine - totally wrt portions. I found losing weight really easy in the UK because the portions at restaurants were so much smaller and more reasonable. We tend to go out a lot and the portion sizes here kill me. I'll pretty much eat whatever is put in front of me so that was a huge issue in terms of how much I was eating. Now I will automatically just eat 1/2 of some stuff which I've found helpful.

yeah I tried skim milk but it just made me miserable

I've compromised by drinking less and sticking to 2%

can you use splenda/skim? and e., I basically stopped drinking when i was doing heavy heavy MFP. I think/hope that it's changed my eating habits for good... I'm staying w/in a 5 lb window of my lowest weight, and not slavishly logging calories every day.

however, i've stopped going to gym (new teaching job, no energy, sick), and i that if I don't start again soon, it's gonna creep back on. Good job justine, E.

And veg/ll, I got into the caloric minutae thing in a really positive way... I wouldn't advocate it for anybody else, exactly. It was exciting to me to realize how I could 'pimp' my diet by swapping out (say) a handful of banana chips for a handful of almonds, and watch my protein spike and my sugar plummet. But I'm /always/ low on protein, and high on sugar, no matter what I do. Mainly, I care about getting enough fat and staying w/in 10% of my maintenance calories.

it's hard b/c I never ate traditional 'junk' food that i could just lop out of my diet. no chips, chocolate binges, crackers, sodas... just too many fake healthy foods: granola bars, dried fruit, juices that I really honestly miss.

good luck to y'all, i'm still working on my issue as well (I'm at 153.5, down from 199.8) but feeling flabby and unmotivated. i'm coming to realize recognizing that 'body dysmorphic' isn't so much a clinical issue as much as a tendency toward navel-gazing vanity (literally) coupled with a lifetime of bad habits and poor body-aesthetic models.

sorry for the grammatical atrocity ^ of the above

Blah, I need to do this. Again.

aww yay to hear that you're still doing okay with this, remy (I don't know what else to call you lol sorry)

I know what you mean about fake healthy foods, I'm kind of the same way. I mostly eat pretty well, I just eat waaaay too much of everything.

Coffee's the one thing I'm going to be stubborn on at least for a while. I don't smoke, I hardly drink, I don't even eat out, so it's my one pleasure. I'm willing to reduce it, but I have tried sacrificing taste before and it just made me crave it and try to sneak it in which was really bad.

but I'm working on just an 8oz latte in the morning, and upping my green tea by a couple of cups (I usually only have 1 at night or not at all)

I guess drinking more water and switching around some of the veggies will address the "oxalate" issue I seem to have

i just started a 12-week program that's leading up to me getting the gastric sleeve early next year. before i'm allowed to have surgery, i have to lose 10 percent of my overall body weight. this is a hard time of year to be doing this, with the holidays and my birthday coming up. but i weighed myself today and i gained a few more pounds since my last check-in, so i'm putting my foot down.

my action plan for the week: keep a food diary, cut out juice and soda, check out the pool at the local ymca.

at the same time, i'm still trying to turn my depression, anxiety, and adhd around with the help of medication and therapy. all this stuff is tied together. i've spent the last half-decade or so being lethargic and not eating right, mainly because of life situations that made me feel hopeless.

i've been scared to talk about this, but i need a support system, and the other internet communities out there are full of macro-posting mommyblogger types who can barely put a sentence together.

Food diaries and calorie counting don't seem to work in the long term. What worked for me is large, satiating meals of low-calorie density foods (so your stomach stretch sensors go off with a lesser calorie load). The sort of thing Barbara Rolls has studied and promoted for a few decades. Stuff yourself with what initially appear to be insane amounts low-caloric density fruits, salads, vegetables, and soup (but no drinking calories, fatty dressings, creamy soups, or avocado/nut binges), and you'll simply feel full long before you can tackle any diet breakers. The salad is the main course.

For me (and I'm only 2/3s of my way down to an ideal BMI), it has proven easiest to simply eliminate caloric beverages, baked goods, fried foods, and all animal products from the house. Even potatoes, rice, and pasta have fairly moderate calorie densities compared to diet breakers. Alcohol has been my major lapse (but I'm down from fifths of vodka to a couple beers).

I've lost 40 lbs in a year going paleo, that seems to work wonders for me. I don't ever plan on being thin, though. A large part of my identity is in being fat.

good luck though JBR in whatever you do !

thanks. i guess the problem with diet support threads is you get all these people saying "just do it this way!!!" when individual diet and exercise routines are a very personal thing. i've decided to follow my HMO's advice; it's something that their phalanx of doctors, researchers, and nutritionists have come up with, so i'm fairly confident it's not bunk.

It's certainly not bunk, but there's this received wisdom in the medical profession and among some nutritionists that moderate changes are easier to achieve, when my impression is that absolute dietary rules are much easier to follow for most.

For short term weight loss, Atkins works, Paleo works, low-fat whole-foods vegan works, alternate day fasting works, raw food diets work, 3rd world poverty diets work, but wishy-washy dictates to eat "less fat" or "more fiber" don't translate well into grocery carts or pantry contents. The ranch dressing or late-night toast find their way back in all too easily. One doesn't advise alcoholics to "drink less".

My suggestion is to find some diet with hard rules that puts significant parts of the grocery store and restaurant menus off limits. Whether its low-carb, pre-agricultural, cruelty-free, uncooked, or cheap and unprocessed isn't as important as simply imposing a limitation. In time perhaps you'll investigate the health consequences of the various options, but really some rules, any rules, are perhaps most important at the start.

I think though that for a lot of there is a rebellion against the restriction of particular types of food eventually, often when the weight has come off. People often put it all, and more, back on. For me, the more 'perfectly' I try to eat, the better I feel during the diet and the more I rebound at the end of it. I've given up dieting. That's not to say I've given up on losing some weight at some point, but I'd be happy to do it very slowly.

*a lot of people

good luck get bent; sharing what you're going through and yr successes or failures can be motivating once you get into the swing of it...don't let starting out scare you too much :)

god knows I've started LOTS of times

I'm in acid reflux/GERD world as of two weeks ago & am going in cycles of UGH I HATE THIS WTF and 'hmm it's not so bad'. cooking is hard. it's so depressing having to lose all spicy foods, and removing tomatoes AND coffee from my diet has been really trying. not to mention the whole no fat/low fat struggle because FAT IS THE MAGIC CARPET THAT FLAVOR RIDES UPON ;_; But then I have a day like today when I don't have any attacks and I don't even have to give a second thought to my boiling stomach & I notice that I feel ~healthier~ so that in itself, just those moments when you notice that your changes are working even in small ways, is a good feeling

My friend is a nutritionist-in-training and doing paleo (which I still don't get, sorry everyone) and is on a mission to make people eat MORE fat. Good types of fat, anyway. I try and avoid endless diet conversations (so yknow I have this thread bookmarked) so I haven't asked why.

Yeah, I've lost about 17 pounds since January and did so mostly by cutting way way down on booze and carbs and upping my fats. I'm a vegetarian so I can't cut out carbs completely (nor would i ever want to good god bread the the best thing ever) but I have a lot more vegetable and protein based meals now and snack mostly on nuts and hard boiled eggs rather than something sugary or really processed.

"fatty dressings, creamy soups, or avocado/nut binges"

See these are all things that I eat now (in moderation) that I avoided for years and years because I was afraid of the fat.

idk. different things work for different people I guess.

reducing tomatoes in my diet definitely helped make my crohn's flares more bearable. although... my sandwiches feel so empty now.

good luck get bent, i am trying to diet too

i think cutting out sugary drinks is a good start. i used to drink a triple mocha every day until i realized i could cut out like 2000 calories a week by switching to coffee with a reasonable amount of half and half.

FYI I just found out Starbucks has sugar free mocha syrup during the holiday season. In fact, I'm drinking coffee with it right now and IT IS SO GOOD.

I pretty much refuse to drink calories unless they have alcohol but like I said before I've cut back on that a lot recently.

Also good luck, GB!

pulling tomatoes out of my sandwich = something I never thought I would have to do in my lifetime

i miss you.gif

I've lost a bit of weight I think just because what I can eat is limited now? Although I did discover "coconut cream" which when mixed with hot water makes coconut milk with no guar thickener, so I can make curry with that again.

Would happily take the weight back to be able to drink glasses of milk and eat croissants.

So I decided to try the "Lose It" app (by LIVESTRONG TM). I'm on day 4. I set it to the mid-grade "lose one pound a week" setting. So far I'm not finding it all that hard, just because I think I was filling the gaps in my day with a lot of meaningless calories here and there, and having that "budget" to meet makes me think twice about getting another handful from the candybowl. I haven't had to cut anything out completely so far, I'm just avoiding the extra snacks I don't need.

Like I still get to eat about 2000 (net) calories a day, so it doesn't really feel like a "diet." Plus there's a good motivator in there to exercise -- if you have the extra slice of cake at work, you can just go for a run to make up for it.

I'll have to check that out. I started calorie counting and jogging this year. I gave up the calorie counting after about a month though because I was carrying around a small notebook and pen, which got bulky.

i've lost eight pounds recently. moderate exercise and eating lean cuisine and a lot of fat-free/low-sugar yogurt.

i know lean cuisine is high in sodium and i need to watch that, but my focus is really portion size right now and those meals are so small there's no opportunity to overeat.

10 pounds without even technically 'dieting'...I had to change my portions and my diet because of the whole GERD thing. It's finally kicking in and feeling much more like a lifestyle now, I don't feel quite as bummed out and miserable as I did when I started

Back off carbs/sugars as much as possible. Did really well back in Nov & Dec, but fell off the wagon in Jan/Feb.

if you have the extra slice of cake at work, you can just go for a run to make up for it.

sooo not worth it

I'll have to check that out. I started calorie counting and jogging this year. I gave up the calorie counting after about a month though because I was carrying around a small notebook and pen, which got bulky.

― how's life, Friday, March 21, 2014 1:11 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah and it tends to get quicker as you use it more too, because once you enter a food, it gets saved, so if you eat a similar breakfast every morning it's easy to reenter it.

I got chocolate hand cream for Christmas, and it makes me NOT want to eat chocolate. In addition to smelling lovely, it takes the craving away. Good. I wonder if there is any real science to this.

do you have any "hacks" for easy calorie counting? i've downloaded livestrong's lose it! app, and it's easy enough to scan barcodes on products, but what do i do with homemade meals? do i have to account for every tablespoon of cooking oil, pinch of salt, etc?

i hate doing this shit but my nutritionist believes it'll really help with my weight loss. so i'm rmde and giving it another shot.

my fitness pal has a p good database of recipes, and you can create your own

the only reason i stopped using it is bc calorie counting made me a bit crazy in a not healthy way

Yeah, I've been doing MFP for 5 years now (intermittently) and can attest to the depth of the database. there's an easy recipe import feature, which I usually just use by c&ping my notes from whatever meal i just made. also, there's a quick-calorie feature if you just want to add in a thumbnail.

I use MFP too. So easy and quick, especially when you eat almost the same thing everyday like I do.

Since I've not been running, I've gone back to tracking food intake again in attempt to get back to fitting in my pants better. I've gone from 176 to 165 in 35 days. I've also drastically cut back on my beer intake. In 2014 I averaged drinking 17 beers a week. Now I only drink once every couple of weeks. That's saving me like 4000 calories a week.

I am on week 4 of the Always Hungry diet @ http://drdavidludwig.com/. Big fan! not losing weight quickly (1 – .25 lbs / week), but I am losing inches off my waist. I am getting denser, I guess?

i've finally caved to the fad diet and am now doing the 3 week diet (not the brian flatt one, the other one). it's basically carb cycling, fasting, protein shakes, which a big part of me screams AWFUL at, but an even bigger part of me (quite literally) is like YES GET THIS FUCKIN EXTRA WEIGHT OFF QUICK I'M TIIIIIIIRED OF IT.

desperate times etc.

i'm so physically uncomfortable at this weight and i don't feel like i can make any progress with my other issues (sleep, energy, general health) till i can get rid of a good chunk of this excess weight that's dragging me down. so, the faster the better. then hopefully i'll have more energy to put into a normal healthy lifestyle change to my diet.

For the lifestyle change part I think this is really good. Ignore the cover - given the disparity between cover and contents, I'm going to chalk that one up to a marketing dept.

Thanks Ljubljana!

I found a diet that works for me: beer