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I am fairly new to the City Data forums, but the times I have posted or needed advice, it has been extremely helpful. I have lurked through the Diet and Weight Loss section, to see plenty of people who would like to know where to start to lose body fat, only to get misinformation or conflicting information. I would like to post my journey with weight loss, how I did it, and how you can too. First of all, I would like to say that I am not a nutritionist or trainer (although I would like to be both at sometime in the future), and I do not have any formal education on the topic of nutrition. So, you can take my advice as you would like.
A little background information on me, I am 6’ 4” tall, started at about ~ 315+ lbs and my weight loss journey on March 16th, 2009. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing when I started, so I decided that at first I would cut the junk out of my daily food, and eat “healthy” food. It sort of worked for me, I knew chicken was eaten by bodybuilders and they drank protein out of those cool blender bottles, so I stocked up on chicken and protein powder. Both of which I would soon find out are helpful, but completely unnecessary. But I constantly did research online, frequently visiting forums and asking for advice. The hardest part of losing body fat is finding credible information, because anytime you type something into Google about weight loss, all you get are advertisements and fad diets. Anyways, I quickly came across information that would change my life and my eating habits forever. It is now almost 2 years later, close to 200lbs and I have literally never felt better in my life.
Here are some staples that I personally think are essential to anyone who is interested in losing body fat.
The Basics
I don’t think that many people know the basics of losing body fat, even when they are on diets or other weight loss programs. Once a person can grasp the simple concepts (which I will try and remember all of them here), losing body fat is actually pretty simple. First of all, you might have noticed that I always post “losing body fat”, as opposed the term we all commonly use of “lose weight”. There is quite the difference between the two. A person’s body weight refers to everything on a person’s body including fat, water, bone, blood; everything on the body is a person’s weight, while body fat refers to just that, the fat on a person’s body. When a person says they “are on a diet to lose some weight”, they really mean they are on a diet to lose body fat. A good example of this is water weight. Losing water weight is generally very simple, and anyone on a diet will lose a good share of “weight” within the first few days/weeks, sometime up to 7-10lbs in the first week or two. People see this weight loss and expect it to continue for the whole diet. This will NOT happen. Those 7-10lbs are pretty much all water weight that has been stored on a person’s body, and is coming off easily due to the reduced food intake of your body or the exercises you have been doing (the best scenario is that you are doing both). You can lose 30 lbs quickly by losing an arm or leg, and your body weight will go down, but the size of your stomach and your body fat percentage won’t.
There are three basic stages; cutting, maintaining, and maintenance. Cutting is a tern where you are trying to cut body fat, in order to be on a cut a person needs to be in a caloric deficit, expelling more calories than you are taking in (think less calories). Maintaining a person’s body weight is when they are just trying to keep the body the way it is without gaining or losing any muscle or fat. Bulking is the opposite of cutting, where you have a caloric surplus, and are eating more calories than you are expelling. Most of us are going to be in the cutting phase, so that is the term I will use for the rest of this post.
You CAN lose body fat from only watching what you eat, and never exercising. However, if you exercise daily for hours, and are eating more calories than you are burning off, you will not only keep the weight on, you will gain more than you started with.
Fat, Carbohydrates, Protein = Calories
All of these can be stored as fat on a person’s body, and all three are where all total calories come from. Carbohydrates are a body’s preferred form of energy, and one gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories. Muscle is made from protein and one gram also contains 4 calories. Fat is essential for bodily functions and should never be completely eliminated from a person’s diet; each gram of fat is the equivalent to 9 calories. One thing to remember is the following: protein can be converted to a carb for energy and stored on the body as fat, neither carbs or fat can be converted to protein, all three can be stored on a person’s body as fat.
1 gram Fat = 9 calories
1 gram Carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram Protein = 4 calories
So how do we figure out how much to eat?
Easy. We use the Harris Benedict Formula to find our BMR! Simple as that. A person’s BMR is their Basal Metabolic Rate, the total number of calories a person would burn if they were to lay in bed all day with absolutely no physical activity. Eating at this number would enable a person to maintain their bodyweight with no physical activity. This website: BMR Calculator is a great one to use, and is very simple. Go to that website and enter your information and click Calculate BMR. This number is your body’s BMR, now with number you can find out how much you should be eating daily. After you get your BMR, click the link “Daily Calorie Needs”. This part if very important, you need to be honest with your activity levels here otherwise you are only cheating yourself. Look at the chart and choose which level of activity you are at, and multiply your BMR by that number. Multiplying this number by your BMR allows you to find out how many calories are needed to maintain bodyweight at the activity level you are at on a daily basis (we are getting to the fat loss part soon).
Quote:
Originally Posted by HERE IS AN EXAMPLE:
For a male that is 25 years old, 5’ 10”, and is 225 LBS their BMR is calculated at 2187. If he is moderately active, and exercises 3-5x a week, we would multiply 2187 X 1.55 = 3340 calories. Meaning he would have to eat ~3340 calories a day, at that activity level to maintain his bodyweight.
Now, you have to realize that this is an online calculator and it is NOT going to be perfect. It is however extremely reliable and close to what a person actually needs. As taken from the previous website, this equation will be very accurate in all but the very muscular (will under-estimate calorie needs) and the very fat (will over-estimate calorie needs). You may have to adjust your intake by either adding or reducing calories as you go along. If you over estimated your activity level, you will be eating more calories than you need to, and will
Ok, I have figured out my calories, now what?
Now, from your BMR number you can find out how many calories you should be eating everyday to lose body fat. To lose one pound of fat from a person’s body, you need to shed ~3500 calories. To do this, you need to take away from your calculated activity BMR. To lose one pound a week of body fat, a person would need to subtract 500 calories from their number (500*7=3500), and to lose an average of 2 pounds a week a person would need to subtract 1000 calories from their number (1000*7=7000 and 7000/3500=2 lbs a week).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Here is an example using the numbers from before:
The activity BMR for the example above was 3340 calories working out 3-5x a week to maintain bodyweight. If this individual wanted to lose 1 lbs a week he would do the following: 3340 – 500 = 2840 calories. Consuming 2840 calories a day, while staying at the activity level he stated before would ensure a 1 lb a week loss of fat.
By doing this, you are officially in a caloric deficit. It is not recommended to go for more than 2 lbs a week, although those who are very overweight (100+ lbs), will lose more on a deficit than someone who is say 15lbs overweight (due to metabolism, activity’s, etc). Being at a deficit of more than 1000 calories (except in extreme cases), can have unintended consequences including reduced metabolism (your body will slow it’s metabolism to hold on to the few nutrients it has, because it does not know when it will get it’s next meal), headaches, lack of nutrients, etc. This caloric deficit can be from either taking calories out of your daily intake, or it can come from exercise, or even better yet BOTH! Chances are you will lose a ton of weight the first week or so, this is covered in “The Basics” section above. Don’t be discouraged after when the numbers on the scale don’t drop as fast as you would like. You are learning how to eat properly and ensure a long lasting body transformation.
What should I eat?
In one word, ANYTHING. But there are of course strings attached to this concept. The example above allows for 2840 calories a day to be eaten, but if all of these calories come from eating a half of a cheese cake, you are not going to be satisfied for most of the day. Switching to whole grains, cutting out soda, increasing water intake (to make you feel fuller), and other small steps can make losing fat very simple, and also empowering. By losing fat in this manner, you will learn what foods actually do for you, and how they can affect a person’s body.
One important thing is to get enough protein in your daily diet. Eating enough protein will ensure the preservation of your body’s LBM (lean body mass) or muscle mass. You want to preserve your muscle mass because the more muscle mass a person has on their body, the higher their metabolism is, the higher the metabolism, the faster you shed those unwanted pounds. If you do not eat enough protein, your body will start to break down muscle mass for energy. You may not think that is a big deal because right now you just want to lost the body fat, but you have to remember muscle is very important (remember, your heart is a muscle!).
There are varying suggestions for how much protein a person should take in. Some say a person needs as little as 10% of their body weight in protein, others say 1gram per pound of bodyweight (a 225lb person taking in 225 grams a protein). I find that taking in 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass is a pretty good estimate. If you don’t know what your lean body mass is, just eat one gram for every pound of lean body mass that you think you are, or for your ideal body (ex. If that 225 lb person wanted to get down to 185 lbs, he should probably eat around 160 grams of protein or so). I have found that a common number is 40% of calories come from protein, 40% of calories come from carbohydrates, and 20% come from fats. Of course this is also a general number, but the numbers are flexible and it is important to play with them to find out what is right for you. Remember, fat and carbs cannot be converted to protein, but protein can be converted to both. In my opinion it is better to go over on protein a little, rather than fat.
There is a long standing myth that eating 5-6 small meals a day will result in higher metabolism, resulting in faster fat loss. As long as you get in your required calories for the day, do not worry about how many meals you are eating. Many people eat 1-2 or 2-3 meals a day, and are still effective at losing fat.
Exercising
While exercising is not required to lose body fat, I really, really encourage it. You need to be in a deficit to lose fat, and it can be done simply from cutting out calories. By doing this though, you will not have the body you desire when you do slim down. Incorporate cardio exercises several times a week. Weight lifting will further ensure the preservation of muscle (maybe even add a little), ensuring a steady or even higher lever of metabolism when you are not working out. Even going for a walk, or a bike ride is great, JUST GET ACTIVE!
Hours after exercising, your metabolism will stay elevated. So when you get home from the gym, and you are watching TV, your metabolism will be higher than it would be had you not had a workout!
Embarrassed to go to the gym? So was I. I was fat, out of shape, knew nothing about working out, and all I saw in the gym was fit, energetic, attractive people who all seemed to know exactly what they were doing. I pushed through it though, and decided I need to do this for myself, screw the others. One day I was walking in the gym, head down, feeling embarrassed and I though to myself “I can go in here and workout to make myself a better person, and feel embarrassed for an hour or so, so the other 23 hours a day, I won’t have to feel embarrassed.”. And I did. After that, I never had the same thinking, because I knew that I may feel foolish doing some exercises, but in the end I won’t have to feel embarrassed outside of the gym when I slim down.
Supplements (fat burners, protein, energy pills)
Fat burners are probably the biggest scam in the world. People willing pay billions of dollars on supplements that are not effective, and will have no effect on them what so ever. Most fat burners are nothing more than caffeine sold at 500x the price of caffeine pills. Caffeine alone will suppress ones appetite temporarily and will slightly elevate ones metabolism. When a person starts a fat burner, the caffeine (which is a diuretic) will make them urinate and sweat more than usual, making water weight drop quickly. This results in the person losing 10lbs in a week, and thinking “GREAT!”, telling everybody how great the pills are. Then a week later, they become adjusted to the pills, the effects are minuscule to say the most, and they eventually end up gaining all the weight back because it is mostly water, and they have not changed their diet at all, so they are still eating crap. IMO, if fat burners are going to be used, they should be only used after someone knows how to properly lose fat by eating correctly and eating right, mainly for the appetite suppression effect, not the increased metabolism.
Protein supplements are only needed if you are not getting enough protein from your daily whole foods. Protein shakes are a great way to get 20+ grams of protein in a shake, but that shake will not get you full for very long.
Remember that supplements are just that, supplements. They will supplement your diet. They are not required, and can for the most part come from whole foods.
Rewarding yourself/Cheat meals
I don’t like the term cheat meal, but it’s pretty common. I prefer the term reward. Saying a cheat makes it sound like you are doing something wrong. Set goals for yourself and once you meet them, feel free to have a reward meal if you choose. I do, and it’s great to have pizza and some pie after not having junk food for a few months. Have the one meal (not a whole day of cheating), and get back on track the next day.
Conclusion
I hope this thread has been helpful to those in need to help for fat loss. It has taken me hours to write it, but I really would like to know if it has helped anyone. I realize that there are probably typo’s and misspelled words, however I can’t catch everything. If you have any questions, please let me know if I can assist you in any way possible. Also, if anyone finds any conflicting information or misinformation tha tI have stated, please let me know so I can edit/address it as soon as possible.
Last edited by JackC1027; 02-25-2011 at 08:09 PM..
It sounds like a mathematical formula for "to lose fat, eat less fat, fewer carbs, exercise more." Which - is very sensible. It's just when all that counting comes in that I say "eh - maybe fat's not so bad." It's SO much easier to say "you know that pizza you have twice a month? Only have it once a month from now on." And it's easier to think, "all that cheese you eat right before your period - stop eating so MUCH of it, and maybe get the feta instead of the havarti for the next two months." Much less unpleasant to consider "no, creamy blue-cheese dressing is not an option on your salad for at least the next month. However, a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice with fresh garlic, which you also enjoy, is just fine." Instead of 2 eggs and 6 slices of bacon once a month, have 1 egg and 2 slices of bacon. And instead of soft squishy whole wheat honey bread, have some crispy yummy toasted rye, which you KNOW you love, but keep forgetting how awesome it is.
No need to deprive yourself of ANYTHING you enjoy - just eat less of it, and eat the stuff you know is bad for you, less often, and in smaller quantities. No need to measure - you know how much you buy at the supermarket every week, you know how much you're consuming every week. Buy less; consume less. Buy healthier foods, eat healthier foods. Buy more veggies; eat more veggies. Buy less ice cream; eat less ice cream.
Your method is great for people who need to see the numbers, or who want to see the numbers. Same method, but you include the numbers. I think it's awesome. I'm planning on doing the exercise stuff hopefully in the next 2 days - gotta get outside and walk, but until today we still had patches of ice all over the sidewalks. It rained most of it away today, finally after 3 months of misery!
EDITED TO ADD: Congratulations on your fat loss! And congrats for not getting suckered into fad "dieting" and the supplemental scams!
Thanks Anon! I do agree with you, so many people can lose a vast amount of body fat from just making healthier food choices. A co-worker of mine lost about 150lbs without counting calories, just making healthier food choices and exercising often. He said for him, he only started counting calories when he got to the last 10-20 or so pounds he wanted to lose. For me, I liked seeing what I had for the day, and knowing what some of my triggers were for foods, and how I could avoid costly mistakes (dressings, cheeses, etc).
I think the most important part of your post is that a person should not deprive themselves of things they enjoy. Losing fat isn't (and shouldn't be) all broccoli and lettuce with no flavor. There are plenty of tasty substitutions out there.
I think this is a great post because it gets to the heart of what people need to do to not be fat anymore.
I would disagree with only one little part, namely "you can eat anything".
Anything...natural, yes. The processed, convenience, packaged foods with lots of corn syrup and an endless list of chemicals on the package...not so much.
After all, why would anyone want to eat those other than "hurry" or inability to cook?
Those are terrible things to eat for the thin and the fat alike.
Whole, natural foods is the only way.
Yes, it is very time-consuming and inconvenient to have to cook an clean up all the time; but life itself is largely inconvenient too.
Thank you for the post, Jack and congratulations on your amazing fat loss!
I disagree that whole, natural foods is the "only" way, but I heartily agree that whole, natural foods should always be the priority and should always trump artificially flavored "just add water" boxed processed stuff.
Sometimes, you just gotta have that Betty Crocker. As long as it's not a habit, and you're only enjoying it as an occasional treat, it'll be fine for the average person needing to lose weight. Health issues aside (such as Celiac disease, diabetes, allergies, or other diet-restrictive issues), it should be fine to enjoy a little something now and again. It's not cheating, it's not "going off your diet." It's only when you eat the whole pint of Ben & Jerry's, or half a medium mozz with pepperoni, or the whole bag of Ruffles... that's when you're staring weeks of work and mounds of fat in the face.
Unfortunately for most normal decent Americans, there's no such thing as "just a couple" of potato chips. There's either a bag of them, or there's none. So you might have to say goodbye to the good stuff for awhile unless you -truly- can control your urge to splurge.
Also - I don't think anyone has mentioned this in any of the recent threads, but sodium reduction is important too. It would be unhealthy to eliminate all sodium - and pretty impossible. But putting the salt shaker away, and avoiding foods that have "added" salt/sodium, will help a whole lot.
Great post. One thing I will add is that it really is helpful to document how many calories you're consuming a day. That's actually been the hardest thing for me to do, but I think it's incredibly beneficial. You can subtract your daily caloric intake from your BMR and have some raw numbers to go off of. It's a great way to track your progress. I just need to take my own advice and actually do it!
Great post by the OP, with one exception.. I'm not 100% positive, but I'm 99.9% sure that protein does make you feel more full. Anyone with a weight loss surgery should've been told to increase their protein intake to crazy numbers (mine was 70-80 grams/day). I'll ask my barriatric doctor to clarify this on Thursday when I see him.
I also agree with Bluefoxwarrior that counting and documenting is the ultimate key. Nothing spells out how much of a pig most of us are like the simple truth right in front of our eyes spelled out in black and white.
I think this is a great post because it gets to the heart of what people need to do to not be fat anymore.
I would disagree with only one little part, namely "you can eat anything".
Anything...natural, yes. The processed, convenience, packaged foods with lots of corn syrup and an endless list of chemicals on the package...not so much.
After all, why would anyone want to eat those other than "hurry" or inability to cook?
Those are terrible things to eat for the thin and the fat alike.
Whole, natural foods is the only way.
Yes, it is very time-consuming and inconvenient to have to cook an clean up all the time; but life itself is largely inconvenient too.
Thank you for the post, Jack and congratulations on your amazing fat loss!
I do feel that eating natural/whole grain/organic is a great idea, however from a fat loss perspective; the calories technically can come from any source, even dirty calories. People can have success eating burgers and fries if they stick in within their daily macro's, however I wouldn't suggest it. Not only is it bad for the body, it does not benefit the person at all from learning about nutrition and actually living a healthy life. At first, it can seem overwhelming finding substitutions for foods and getting use to them, but it really does get easier as time goes on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyKLO
Congrats to you! I did something similar and have lost 107 pounds naturally since April 2010! You are awesome!!!! Thanks for posting the info!
Congrats to you too! Feels great, doesn't it! Hopefully I will be able to pay it forward to other's who can use some advice to get started!
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick
I disagree that whole, natural foods is the "only" way, but I heartily agree that whole, natural foods should always be the priority and should always trump artificially flavored "just add water" boxed processed stuff.
Sometimes, you just gotta have that Betty Crocker. As long as it's not a habit, and you're only enjoying it as an occasional treat, it'll be fine for the average person needing to lose weight. Health issues aside (such as Celiac disease, diabetes, allergies, or other diet-restrictive issues), it should be fine to enjoy a little something now and again. It's not cheating, it's not "going off your diet." It's only when you eat the whole pint of Ben & Jerry's, or half a medium mozz with pepperoni, or the whole bag of Ruffles... that's when you're staring weeks of work and mounds of fat in the face.
Unfortunately for most normal decent Americans, there's no such thing as "just a couple" of potato chips. There's either a bag of them, or there's none. So you might have to say goodbye to the good stuff for awhile unless you -truly- can control your urge to splurge.
Also - I don't think anyone has mentioned this in any of the recent threads, but sodium reduction is important too. It would be unhealthy to eliminate all sodium - and pretty impossible. But putting the salt shaker away, and avoiding foods that have "added" salt/sodium, will help a whole lot.
Exactly. For me, I find it much easier to avoid the foods that I know I will over eat. I will have a meal maybe once or twice a month where I will splurge, and that meal will keep me satisfies for a few weeks. Other's find it easier to have a little of everything, without cheat meals.
As for sodium, although too much can be terrible for your health, from a fat loss perspective, it only really has an effect on water weight. A bunch of sodium will bloat you, and make you retain water, but won't have any change in body fat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluefoxwarrior
Great post. One thing I will add is that it really is helpful to document how many calories you're consuming a day. That's actually been the hardest thing for me to do, but I think it's incredibly beneficial. You can subtract your daily caloric intake from your BMR and have some raw numbers to go off of. It's a great way to track your progress. I just need to take my own advice and actually do it!
YES! I knew I was going to forget something in my original post. Most people underestimate their calories, by a TON. There is a really good video on YouTube about this, where a woman was told to track her calories for 2 weeks, she tracked about 1500 calories a day, when in reality she was consuming almost double (the numbers I posted here may be a bit off, I will try and find the video to double check, but you get the idea.)
I am going to try and edit my post to add this section. Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rd2007
Great post by the OP, with one exception.. I'm not 100% positive, but I'm 99.9% sure that protein does make you feel more full. Anyone with a weight loss surgery should've been told to increase their protein intake to crazy numbers (mine was 70-80 grams/day). I'll ask my barriatric doctor to clarify this on Thursday when I see him.
I also agree with Bluefoxwarrior that counting and documenting is the ultimate key. Nothing spells out how much of a pig most of us are like the simple truth right in front of our eyes spelled out in black and white.
Yes, protein will make you feel fuller for longer. It's the shakes that don't do a very good job of keeping you full for very long. Protein and fiber will both keep you feeling full for an extended period of time.
When you say that people with surgery are told to increase protein to crazy numbers, do you mean 70-80g total for the day? Or 70-80g more than the amount that you were already taking in? The only reason I ask is because I know a lot of people take in a lot more than that daily, personally I am taking in 150g-180g a day, depending on my activity level.
And yes, seeing the calories spelled out in front of you is the best way to see exactly what you need to change. I need to try to add that to the original post.
Wow, I have a hard time getting 60-70 g per day of protein and almost everything I eat is high protein. My main issue is that I no longer care for meat, so I rarely eat it and that's obviously one of the best places to get protein. I mostly drink the EAS AdvantEDGE low carb drinks, which have 17 g of protein and only 110 calories and 2 g of carbs.
For me the drinks make me full because I really don't like them at all and I'm basically sick of them. I never thought eating would be a chore, but it has pretty much become that. Still wouldn't trade this surgery for anything, though.
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