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I'm in my late fifties, and it's discouraging how difficult it is to shed pounds at this age. To add to the mix, I became a vegetarian last year, and so what used to work--lean meats and salads--is off the table now, literally. I was horrified to learn at my doctor's appointment in May that since I became a vegetarian, my cholesterol went UP. It's still not over 200, but the bad cholesterol level rose. Cheese is the culprit, and I have to cut that way down.
But I do find that there's a basic rule that seems to work--if I walk 2 miles--which I try to do every day and is not always possible but I do it as often as I can--and if I make sure that I eat salad for a meal or before a meal at least once every day, eventually a pound will come off. It's slow going, and it's hard as hell, but I'm determined to keep going.
Another problem with vegetarianism is that you are hungry frequently, so you've got to keep fruit or something handy to kill the hunger pains without resorting to easy stuff like muffins or bread or pretzels. It doesn't SEEM as if an apple is sufficient to kill hunger pains, but surprisingly, it does stave them off for a while so that you can think clearly about preparing something healthful rather than grabbing something convenient.
I'm thinking here about days when I am working and get hungry, even when I've prepared a salad or something light for lunch. I find myself getting hungry in between meals. I don't want to waste my free time doing food prep, so often I try to find places where I can buy healthful choices.
It is still early for you as a vegetarian. A lot of people go through the cheese problem in the first year or two. Another thing newish vegetarians do is eat too many processed carbs, like the pretzels you mention. That is just as bad as too much dairy. Not sure if you are doing that. But don't forget that if you are post-menopausal, sooner or later that catches up with your cholesterol no matter what. Estrogen does a lot for women's lipids, and then when they lose estrogen, the HDL goes down and the LDL goes up, double whammy.
You know what really kills my appetite? Soup. A lot of soups come in small boxes these days. If you take one of those to work for lunch and keep a microwave-safe bowl there, that might help, and it only takes a minute or two to heat up. I find black bean soups and lentil soups work the best because you get a good amount of protein and fiber in them. The warmth calms my stomach and soup stays in your stomach longer than just a glass of water, but it counts toward your fluid intake for the day. I really can't speak enough of it.
Another trick I use is to make some brown rice and once that is cooked, just pour the soup in and heat it up. That really gives heft to a soup. I do that for dinner and make a small salad on the side and the whole shebang is not even 500 calories.
It is still early for you as a vegetarian. A lot of people go through the cheese problem in the first year or two. Another thing newish vegetarians do is eat too many processed carbs, like the pretzels you mention. That is just as bad as too much dairy. Not sure if you are doing that. But don't forget that if you are post-menopausal, sooner or later that catches up with your cholesterol no matter what. Estrogen does a lot for women's lipids, and then when they lose estrogen, the HDL goes down and the LDL goes up, double whammy.
You know what really kills my appetite? Soup. A lot of soups come in small boxes these days. If you take one of those to work for lunch and keep a microwave-safe bowl there, that might help, and it only takes a minute or two to heat up. I find black bean soups and lentil soups work the best because you get a good amount of protein and fiber in them. The warmth calms my stomach and soup stays in your stomach longer than just a glass of water, but it counts toward your fluid intake for the day. I really can't speak enough of it.
Another trick I use is to make some brown rice and once that is cooked, just pour the soup in and heat it up. That really gives heft to a soup. I do that for dinner and make a small salad on the side and the whole shebang is not even 500 calories.
What are these soups of which you speak (specifics, please)? I know it's supposed to be easy to make your own, but somehow I never quite get around to that on my weekends!
I did a wellness program last year and one thing they really hammered away on was why exercise is important. For men in particular you need to maintain as much muscle mass as possible when losing weight. Otherwise you will lose a lot of your metabolism since muscle burns much more calories than fat both at rest and during exercise. And you do need a cardio component to burn some calories but as everyone has pointed out, that couple of hundred calories 3 times a week will move the scale at a very slow pace. It is a good habit to have long term when burning 900 extra calories a week becomes a means of weight management. Supposedly exercise also increase sleep/rest as well. And there other main point was that they want you to be active for the mental/emotional health aspects and to allow for more vigorous exercise.
A lot of things like standing instead of sitting, walking to a mailbox instead of emailing from a chair, ironing, doing housework/cooking/yardwork and being more physically engaged have really been lost in our modern times. All those incremental losses in calories burned really add up.
"A lot of things like standing instead of sitting, walking to a mailbox instead of emailing from a chair, ironing, doing housework/cooking/yardwork and being more physically engaged have really been lost in our modern times. All those incremental losses in calories burned really add up."
Totally agree here. My mother was a housewife back when that meant doing EVERYTHING by hand; she never sat down from dawn to dusk, and much of it was the equivalent of a gym workout. Before that, while working, she walked six miles a day (to and from the office at breakfast, lunch, and dinner), then went bowling. No wonder she was skinny and I'm not...
Sounds like maybe building muscle is more important than burning calories aerobically?
"A lot of things like standing instead of sitting, walking to a mailbox instead of emailing from a chair, ironing, doing housework/cooking/yardwork and being more physically engaged have really been lost in our modern times. All those incremental losses in calories burned really add up."
Totally agree here. My mother was a housewife back when that meant doing EVERYTHING by hand; she never sat down from dawn to dusk, and much of it was the equivalent of a gym workout. Before that, while working, she walked six miles a day (to and from the office at breakfast, lunch, and dinner), then went bowling. No wonder she was skinny and I'm not...
Sounds like maybe building muscle is more important than burning calories aerobically?
Not necessarily.
My grandma lived in rural Russia, she and the other women in her village lived like you describe, did hard physical labor from dawn to dusk, always on their feet, taking care of gardens, animals, cooking, cleaning with no appliances, she even had an outhouse and a fillable water tank instead of a sink! Guess what, she was obese, as were the majority of the village women her age. The rule seemed to be, young girls and women were thin, often painfully so, but majority gained a lot of weight by middle age. The food they made was all natural and from scratch, but it was heavy, based on pretty much pork fat and potatoes in one way or another, lots of home baking, not a lot of fresh fruit and veg, only when in season.
A dieter is going to reach a point where they will not want to restrict any further. You can cut but so many calories before your body starts to sabotage your efforts in earnest. Hell would freeze over before I would ever eat 1200 calories. You need to eat less and move more. Exercise alone can never compensate for overeating. However, it does contribute to the caloric deficit. Strength training in particular is good because it spares the muscle that is lost during restrictive dieting.
People like to take an "either or" approach when it is really a marriage - you should cut calories yes but you should also burn calories. That is probably the key to long term weight loss success unless you plan on living on a low calorie diet forever.
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