Weight Problems

[bathtub-row]

The Dr that came up with the 5-bite diet says the same thing about breakfast - that it just kicks your hunger in gear all day. Even before I read that, I never ate breakfast and noticed that very thing - that I wanted to eat all day long when I had breakfast.

[One2Three]

Quite interesting - I'll get the book, you intrigued me.

 

From personal experience - if I don't want or don't have time to eat - i drink a caffeinated drink (usually coffee with some milk) and my hunger dies of..

[bathtub-row]

Quite interesting - I'll get the book, you intrigued me.

 

From personal experience - if I don't want or don't have time to eat - i drink a caffeinated drink (usually coffee with some milk) and my hunger dies of..

 

My thing is, I get sick to death of dealing with food and thinking about this meal or that. Now, I just buy a Whooper for $4 for dinner, eat about half of it and I’m done. At lunch, I eat a candy bar, half a burger, whatever. Done. So simple.

 

There’s also a video on YouTube where the Dr is being interviewed. Really good.

[One2Three]

Love this! I won't feel guilty then for my BK indulgence:D

 

I lost probably 2-3 sizes in the past by eating Snicker bars.. for dinner.

[bathtub-row]

Love this! I won't feel guilty then for my BK indulgence:D

 

I lost probably 2-3 sizes in the past by eating Snicker bars.. for dinner.

 

Wow! Then you’ll love this diet. He recommends Snickers. ?

[Els]

I think you're going to get lots of contradictory advice here, because different stuff works for different people. I see a few people here saying it's only calories that matter - that's true in a strictly weight loss/gain sense (not true in terms of actual health, but I digress), but many of us don't have bodies that function in a vacuum.

 

For me, what I eat ABSOLUTELY matters. If I eat a bag of M&Ms for lunch, that's 500 cal, and if I eat wholemeal toast with avocado and poached eggs, that's also 500 cal. The difference is that in the former case I'll have a huge blood sugar drop an hour later that will lead to me stuffing my face (usually with more junk food, because who has time for 2 proper lunches an hour apart?). In the latter, I'll actually feel full and satiated for the next 4-5 hours. I find that the whole grains, protein and unsaturated fats really fill me up.

 

I used to count calories. Now I don't, and just eat based on what makes me feel full for a longer time. Works a lot better for me - the only times it doesn't work is when life doesn't cooperate with having the time and energy to eat healthy stuff instead of filling up on junk. Nothing wrong with junk, but IMO it should be an occasional luxury and a snack, not a whole meal.

 

 

(As an aside, lots of people recommend soups and salads to feel full. Never worked for me - if I tried to fill up on those I'd never reach the point of satiety, lol. Whenever I try having chicken broth for a meal, I'm CONSTANTLY hungry until I cave and allow myself something more substantial.)

Edited March 14, 2019 by Elswyth

[Artdeco]

True that different things work for different people. Eg i don’t think Keto has ever worked for me. All that fat and meat, and no carbs.....way too many calories, and fat makes me fat. Cutting calories works for me. Excercising for weight loss doesn’t work for me, either. Also, I swear by buttermilk. Fills me up nicely.

[lana-banana]

Yeah, of course you can lose weight eating nothing but 1200 calories of pure sugar each day. But don't forget skinny people can get diabetes too, not to mention the tooth rot and pancreas damage.

 

Blood sugar drops are real, although some people are more sensitive to them than others. I can't eat sweets or else I'll binge; the more sugar or carbs I eat, the more sugar or carbs I want to eat. I've managed to stay trim by focusing on fiber and unsaturated fats. I find it's much, much easier to eat a low-calorie diet of healthy fruits and vegetables versus a low-calorie diet of bagels or candy or whatever.

 

I am breakfast-agnostic, and if I do eat it's on the light side. If I'm hungry I'll have a raw high-fiber vegetable, like parsnips or carrots, or maybe a small container of yogurt. I work out the first thing in the morning so I'm more inclined to be hungry then than most people.

 

It's a good idea to keep at least 12 hours between dinner and your next meal. Most people do this anyway without realizing it but it can be helpful, especially if you're a fan of late-night snacks.

[thefooloftheyear]

 

 

It's a good idea to keep at least 12 hours between dinner and your next meal. Most people do this anyway without realizing it but it can be helpful, especially if you're a fan of late-night snacks.

 

This is a fallacy...

 

The body doesn't care what time or what you are doing(sleeping) when it metabolizes calories...At 225-ish lbs, I will generally be 2-4 lbs lighter in the am than I was the night before, despite doing nothing but sleeping and I do occasionally eat a small meal in the middle of the night if I am inclined.. Still lose the lbs..

 

Anyway...

 

Dieting alone without exercise(or at least an active lifestyle) will almost always result in failure...Mostly because the body wasn't designed to be sedentary, and most people can't stay on a low(or ultra low) calorie diet for too long...

 

It just boggles the mind that people would rather go all day on a 1000-1500 calorie diet, feeling miserable for 24 hours a day, deprive themselves of anything that's actually good to eat, than get active and incorporate a training regimen, so that you can actually enjoy eating and not starve yourself...It's insanity, IMO...

 

Not to mention if they manage to actually lose weight, without muscle tone or some level of fitness, they are just a smaller version of what they were, not really all that much better, IMO..

 

TFY

[Els]

 

It just boggles the mind that people would rather go all day on a 1000-1500 calorie diet

 

 

1500 is actually considered a reasonably healthy consumption for a small woman, not ultra-low-calorie. Even with a good amount of exercise, smaller women aren't recommended to exceed 1800, unless they are literally professional mountain climbers or such.

 

 

Exercise is important, but the calories expanded via exercise is only really a small portion of what the body uses calories for (the bulk of your calories goes to the BMR, that is affected primarily by sex, size and age). So you have control over about 20% of your expenditure, yet you have control over 100% of your intake. It makes sense to control your intake, especially if you're one of the unfortunate population (female, small, older) with an inherently lower BMR.

 

 

 

(Obviously, I don't condone ultra-low-calorie or fad diets or depriving yourself entirely of anything tasty, you'll just rebound as soon as you go off them. It's all a balance.)

[lana-banana]

This is a fallacy...

 

It's not a fallacy, it's a technique. It works well for many people. If it doesn't for you, then don't do it, but it is very helpful for people who are struggling with losing weight---like, you know, the OP and others in this thread. People are sharing techniques that work for their individual eating habits. No technique will work for everybody, but as long as you aren't starving yourself or only eating sugar, you should do whatever works.

 

Exercise is obviously essential but in terms of weight loss it doesn't do much. Nobody can realistically be doing hourlong marathon cardio sessions every day, and even if they do, it doesn't guarantee weight loss. I know plenty of technically obese people who run half and full marathons or who do Crossfit 5 times a week. No matter how many calories they burn, they tend to eat them all back and then some. They're still relatively healthy but struggle with weight loss.

 

I weigh less than half what you do and lift weights five times a week, and my TDEE is still around 1600 calories. Most women who are actively trying to lose weight target the 1500-1800 range, as Elswyth said. It's a lot easier to be full and content with a 500 calorie salad than 500 calories of cake. I eat healthy 90% of the time *because* I don't want to feel deprived and miserable. I would be miserable if I regularly ate 2000 calories a day (Thanksgiving, though, when my mom is cooking all bets are off...)

[thefooloftheyear]

It's not a fallacy, it's a technique. It works well for many people. If it doesn't for you, then don't do it, but it is very helpful for people who are struggling with losing weight---like, you know, the OP and others in this thread. People are sharing techniques that work for their individual eating habits. No technique will work for everybody, but as long as you aren't starving yourself or only eating sugar, you should do whatever works.

 

..)

 

Perhaps you misunderstood...

 

The thinking that somehow a cheeseburger eaten at 3pm is somehow less impactful than the same burger eaten at 3AM is nonsense...yet somehow people believe this to be true..."X" calories consumed over "y" time is all it is...If it's a 24 hour period that is being measured, then what one consumes at any time during that period is what counts...The thinking that anything one eats after a certain time of night is going to go immediately to one's thighs or ass is nonsense....That's what makes it a fallacy...

 

Also, when people start talking about low carb/sugar diets, then you tell them that this thinking is a relatively new phenomenon, yet people have done nothing but get fatter over time-they can't really explain it..The thinking that it's more about diet than exercise(or more importantly activity), is where I start to disagree..Anyone who has been around a while will attest that a typical adult diet in the 70's was usually worse than today-yet there wasn't nearly as much of an obesity problem...So what is the difference/cause?

 

I think people underestimate how much technology has changed how people run their daily lives...Just think about how many people now wont go out in the cold, hit a button on a remote to warm up their car, dress in the most warm clothing, etc..You may be amazed to realize how many calories it takes just to try and maintain 98.6...

 

TFY

[lana-banana]

..Anyone who has been around a while will attest that a typical adult diet in the 70's was usually worse than today-yet there wasn't nearly as much of an obesity problem...So what is the difference/cause?

 

Sugar. You can read all about how sugar lobbyists first promoted the low-fat diet craze and created millions of new products with less fat and more sugar, flooded the market with cheap sweets and sodas, and blocked research which indicated sugar was far more damaging than fat. We bred all the fat (and flavor!) out of our livestock and made soda cheaper than water. Look at the American Samoa and the obesity rates there. It has nothing to do with exercise and everything to do with diet.

 

Exercise will always be fundamental to good health, but it's not that people suddenly became lazy. It's that compounded with a diet that essentially guarantees obesity and a whole host of health problems.

[One2Three]

Also, when people start talking about low carb/sugar diets, then you tell them that this thinking is a relatively new phenomenon, yet people have done nothing but get fatter over time-they can't really explain it..The thinking that it's more about diet than exercise(or more importantly activity), is where I start to disagree..Anyone who has been around a while will attest that a typical adult diet in the 70's was usually worse than today-yet there wasn't nearly as much of an obesity problem...So what is the difference/cause?

TFY

 

Ha that's so true - look at "Solid Gold" and similar shows from the 80s, as dumb as they are, the bodies there are nothing like the bodies we see today... Today size 0 is size 6 from that time if I remember correctly... But people had no internet and were doing manual labor and exercise folds more than now, so it all makes sense.

 

I always have the same question for anti-sugar nazi: what does sugar mean? Sucrose only? Monosaccharides count? Polysaccharides are 'sugar' too? What the heck they mean? None of them has given me a conclusive answer but they still stick to their beliefs:D It's a religion not science for them.

[thefooloftheyear]

Sugar. You can read all about how sugar lobbyists first promoted the low-fat diet craze and created millions of new products with less fat and more sugar, flooded the market with cheap sweets and sodas, and blocked research which indicated sugar was far more damaging than fat. We bred all the fat (and flavor!) out of our livestock and made soda cheaper than water. Look at the American Samoa and the obesity rates there. It has nothing to do with exercise and everything to do with diet.

 

Exercise will always be fundamental to good health, but it's not that people suddenly became lazy. It's that compounded with a diet that essentially guarantees obesity and a whole host of health problems.

 

Disagree....

 

People have become "conditioned" to be lazy..Some of it is technology, but I don't know what the other reasons are...It starts at childhood...

 

My 16 year old daughter isn't fat and is at a normal weight/build for her age, but my(and my friends) daily activity level at her age was probably more than 20 times what it is for her and her friends...I would do more in a few days then, compared to what she does in a month...Its not even close...To deny this is just paying no attention to history or reality..

 

The cupboard and refrigerator at my house back then was filled with sugary cold cereals(ever see how much sugar there is in a box of Frosted Flakes?), bottles of non diet soda, whole milk, donuts, ring dings and devil dogs, junk foods, etc...Sure, my mom would also cook meals, but there was zero attention to calories or sugar consumed...She would regularly make us French Toast and pancakes loaded with butter and syrup, and because of my ethnicity, pasta was a regular staple on more days than just Sunday...

 

I have never had more than a 15% bf level in my entire life..Back then it was less than 10%..Neither did my siblings...In spite of all of this awareness, the amount of out of shape and fat kids now dwarf what was then...its not even close....yet people think its still all about diet???

 

NuTs..

 

TFY

Edited March 15, 2019 by thefooloftheyear

[JuneL]

If you’re talking about the population as a whole, then the daily habits matter. Most people with a very fit body eat junk food. But they most likely don’t consume a dozen donuts at a time. Also, when I was in a major city where people rely almost exclusively on public transportation, you can easily fulfill your activity goals, naturally, without having to go to the gym.

 

I think that, for many people, just avoid overeating (only eat when you feel hungry; there’s no need to starve yourself) can go a long way. This may sound politically incorrect...but when I was exchanging food logs with my obese friend, I was amazed (though not surprised) at how often she was binge eating to maintain her size

[JuneL]

Eating too much during late hours of the day can be detrimental to your health/digestive system. Also, if you wait until late hours to consume your food, it’s likely you’ll feel extra hungry and binge eat. The same applies to junk food; people tend to have more cravings the more you eat.

[One2Three]

I think that, for many people, just avoid overeating (only eat when you feel hungry; there’s no need to starve yourself) can go a long way. This may sound politically incorrect...but when I was exchanging food logs with my obese friend, I was amazed (though not surprised) at how often she was binge eating to maintain her size

 

Yup that’s the best kept secret of ‘naturally thin’ people. I used to be ‘naturally thin’ while eating boat loads of candy bars each and every day (what people weren’t aware is that was pretty much my entire food intake, just because I dislike with passion sit down meals and cooked food; my only non candy type of food were burgers and fries and size 0-2 stayed like this the entire time)

[Andy_K]

Exercise is important, but the calories expanded via exercise is only really a small portion of what the body uses calories for (the bulk of your calories goes to the BMR, that is affected primarily by sex, size and age)

 

To an extent yes, but then exercise affects your size (in terms of muscle mass, proportion of fat, etc). Age actually has very little to do with BMR, it's just that since most people don't have an active lifestyle, older people 'naturally' have significantly less muscle mass even at similar body weights, and therefore burn far fewer calories. At similar body compositions, the difference due to age is of the order of a few %. It's often harder to maintain the same body composition as you get older, but that's another story.

 

If you exercise alongside your diet, you'll not only burn more calories directly from the exercise, but you'll burn more for the rest of the day due to the exercise elevating your metabolism, and you'll burn more in the long term due to greater muscle mass. Plus with a better body composition, you'll look better as you lose the weight too.

 

You can't out exercise a bad diet, but neither can you out diet a sedentary lifestyle.

[Els]

To an extent yes, but then exercise affects your size (in terms of muscle mass, proportion of fat, etc).

 

 

Exercise affects size gain and muscle mass much more for men than for women. Women lack the testosterone to "bulk up" (and frankly most men wouldn't find it terribly attractive if they did...).

 

 

Height is a big factor in size/BMR, too.

 

 

 

 

If you exercise alongside your diet, you'll not only burn more calories directly from the exercise, but you'll burn more for the rest of the day due to the exercise elevating your metabolism, and you'll burn more in the long term due to greater muscle mass. Plus with a better body composition, you'll look better as you lose the weight too.

 

You can't out exercise a bad diet, but neither can you out diet a sedentary lifestyle.

 

 

I think we're in agreement here. I'm not saying people shouldn't exercise, all I'm saying is that anyone with an inherently low BMR will never be able to eat 4 large pizzas a day without gaining weight no matter how much they exercise. Not everyone can eat anything and everything without gaining weight solely because they do a lot of exercise. This sort of advice is highly skewed towards people with inherently high BMRs and high muscle gain potential, i.e. large men.

[JuneL]

While having a low fat percentage is healthy, I’m quite turned off by the muscular bodies (especially their upper arms) of American female celebrities nowadays. They don’t look feminine wearing shirtless dresses/tops anymore. You wouldn’t see such huge muscles on female celebrities years ago.

[thefooloftheyear]

While having a low fat percentage is healthy, I’m quite turned off by the muscular bodies (especially their upper arms) of American female celebrities nowadays. They don’t look feminine wearing shirtless dresses/tops anymore. You wouldn’t see such huge muscles on female celebrities years ago.

 

 

Like who??

 

I see a lot of female celebrities that are pretty thin/gaunt, but I wouldn't call them muscular or over built..

 

TFY

[JuneL]

Like who??

 

I see a lot of female celebrities that are pretty thin/gaunt, but I wouldn't call them muscular or over built..

 

TFY

 

Actually muscular upper arms on thin women look especially unappealing for my taste. There’re plenty...Cameron Diez, Holly Hunter, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker (they might not look like this when younger though).

[Mr. Lucky]

Their builds are similar to many women 50 years ago. My mom had the same arms, they came from hanging wash on a clothesline, hauling 4 kids from place to place and many other outdated activities. Men obviously had different bodies also. As TFY points out, was a different world...

 

Mr. Lucky

[Romantic_Antics]

The best way to shed the pounds and keep them off is through a commitment to a consistent diet and fitness training program that incorporates both weight lifting and cardio.

 

Crash diets may yield some immediate gratification when you look at the scale, but they are ultimately unhealthy and almost inevitably lead to failure - where an individual plateaus after their metabolism slows down to glacial rates, they give up, and then gain back even more weight than they lost due to the aforementioned decline of their metabolic rate. I would also advise against these candy diets and other junk food diets that I'm seeing in the thread. That kind of diet is dangerous to your health and lacks the nutrition that a body needs to maximize weight loss and physical fitness.

 

Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. Set an end goal along with smaller goals for yourself each week in order to track your progress, make adjustments where needed, and to stay motivated as you accomplish each of your weekly goals. If you stay committed to them then eventually all of that seemingly insignificant weekly progress will add up to help you achieve the body you desire.

 

Good luck!