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There's the other direction too. I'm a person who generally remains stable in my weight, however, if I have a large weight loss, like after illness, etc., it takes me a long time to put it back on. I weighed 155lbs. for years at 6ft., starting at 18 at 145lbs, then I gained 10lbs in the Navy, kept it. Maintained it for the next 22 years. Then about 2001 I started gaining weight because the place I worked had a cafeteria and I'd get to work early and have an omelette with everything, a stack of French Toast, a chocolate chip muffin...eat eat eat, then be in line for a heavy lunch. I actually got up to 170lbs and I felt heavy, oppressed, awkward, and people noticed. I cut back by fasting on weekends until I got to 160lbs. At 160 I felt terrific. My "good" weight is between 155 and 160lbs- that's where I really feel right. Then in May of this year I got severe pneumonia, no appetite, so I didn't eat and I lost almost 20lbs. I dropped to near 140lbs. Dangerously thin. The good thing about being in the hospital is that they checked all my vital organs, measured all my readings, so I found out what my cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, how my heart is, etc. out after all these years. I have normal cholesterol, normal blood sugar, my blood pressure was 110/70 (lower end of normal), and my heart was in perfect working order (I got to see it kicking on the monitor). I'm in incredible shape according to those vitals for 43. But I was ready to drop through my butt and hang myself I was so thin, and it made me weak. I've already stopped buying anything with trans-fats last year, so had already cut that out, but I needed healthy fatty foods. I started heavily using real butter, real cream, eating more eggs and foods with them, lots of potatoes either baked or mashed, more meats, and eating much more often and eating far more. Even so, I'm still...right now...only 150lbs. I'm puffing out little by little, but it's agonizingly slow. I ate a pizza by myself the day before yesterday after adding more mozerella and pepperoni, and then yesterday was my French Toast extravaganza where I used 5 eggs, a little milk, some vanilla, beat it up, and made eight slices of French Toast and fried it in olive oil, slathered in butter..YUM. Today I haven't decided. But I'm determined to get back to 155-160lbs without resorting to Burger King and McDonalds. Though I do make homemade chocolate chip cookies, cakes, etc. and enjoy those too But when I was heavy for me, I simply fasted...coffee, water, some toast, a muffin, whatever, but no heavy meals,etc. over a weekend. I can't afford to do that right now and don't know if I'll ever be heavy enough to do that again.
The minute I say it, I want to go eat everything that's bad for me! So instead of dieting, I try to buy baby carrots to munch on, more salads (but without too much dressing!). I haven't eaten ice cream in a while now, because that's a caloric nightmare.
And I try to exercise more. I don't like exercising, and never have, so it's a struggle. I joined Curves over a year ago, and I've been going off an on. I'll go for three or four months regularly, and then stop going for a month or two. In fact, I should be there right now. Oops.
When my husband and I first started dating .He introduced me to hunting.
He isn't one to road hunt. We would drive up in the mountains and hike for hours. It was so much fun I didn't think of it as exercise. When hunting season was over. We went to our local forestry depart and picked up a hiking guide.
This guide listed all the hiking trails in Oregon with details on how long the hike is, if it is a easy or hard trail, and if there is a waterfall etc.
We started with the first one on the list and crossed them out as we went along.
At the time I was a Security Guard for a computer plant. The fabrication building is six stories tall with concrete stairs. We had to do fire drills all day long. We were given a location in the building and would all race to get there. The first one there would call their name and location by radio. No cheating allowed since we were on camera. Our fellow security Guards in the control room were the ones calling out the locations and they would mess with us by finding us on camera first ,then calling out a location faraway !!!
The rest of the day was spent walking around checking for chemical leaks and safety violations.
When I first started working there, I worked at a delivery gate sitting in a booth all day. Eating off what we called a "roach coach" food truck.This is when I gained some weight. After going up to the fab building to work I stopped eating off that truck. About a year latter. I had to fill in at the gate. when I stepped out to greet "The roach coach" The guy was like "Wow" what did you do!
I said, I got off my butt and stopped eating your food!!!! He thought that was pretty funny!
Location: Georgia.I rather be in GODS country Tennessee.Everybody knows Gods a VOLS fan.
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I know the struggles with losing weight.From the 8th grade til my senior year,I was going up and down with dieting.I wrestled and played football.During wrestling I had to keep my weight under control to make weighs-ins and during football I would bulk up.I could of had a scholarship to play football but the head football coach and I hated each other,so he benched me,which missed up any chance of getting it.Til this day I still hate that man for doing that to me.I did quit the team after he benched me.
Bottom line: There is no solution. Either you are going to be hungry or you are going to be overweight. Pick one. There is no solution. Virtually no one keeps the weight off.
People can give you advice all day long (eat carrots, drink water, exercise on Tuesdays, Diet A, Diet B, Diet C, etc)
No, it isn't about genes it is about mindset. Genes play some part but it is more about your build than your weight. Someone built like Jennifer Lopez is never going to look like someone built like Paris Hilton but they both can look great and be healthy.
I'm not diminishing how people feel, I know it is hard but it truly is about wanting it bad enough. I am a binge eater. I need to lose about 35 lbs. I lost 30 lbs in 2007 and kept it off but I need to lose the next 35 lbs. I'm 35 years old. I gradually started putting on weight in high school until I topped off at 230 lbs in 2007. It is about not depriving yourself. It is about making better choices and learning a whole new lifestyle.
So the past few weeks I'm back on track. I sort of ease into it. I start off with just eating better and not binging on the bad stuff but not major calorie counting. I've been running 3-4 times a week but only for 30 minutes (but trust me I can't run nonstop it is more like run for 2 minutes, walk for a minute etc the point is just to get your heart rate up and keep it up). Everytime I have the temptation to binge, I think to myself is the few minutes that I feel good eating that worth the pounds it will put on me. Do you want to lose weight or do you want to eat the bad stuff. I look at a picture of me at my top weight. Now I am at the point where I am measuring out everything and logging everthing (except veggies, I don't count those because noone got fat eating veggies!).
Some other things I do is for dinner I don't make a starchy side. I double or even triple up on the veggies. Cook the ones you like so you will eat more of them. Although you can eat healthy going out to eat, it is very difficult for me particularly for dinner so I really limit how many times I do go out to eat. Set short term goals. I am going to Europe in six weeks so I am really trying to get aggressive and lose 15 lbs by then. It is 2 lbs a week, so very doable. DO NOT deprive yourself of anything.
All you have to do is decrease your calorie intake by 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week. That is walking for an hour, and cutting out a snack or cutting out the starch at every meal. Sure that is slow weight loss but you are much more likely to keep it off. It took me 7 months to lose that initial 30 lbs but I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Yes I made conscious choices and couldn't eat anything and everything everytime I wanted.
Most imporantly DO NOT deprive yourself. You can still eat pizza or binge on chocolate just don't do it every day. Perhaps, set a day where you can eat whatever you want. If you've eaten healthy all week, then it will be fine.
Log everything that you eat, it really does help you to see what you can cut out. And when you do binge and eat bad, don't beat yourself up. Tomorrow is a new day!
No, it isn't about genes it is about mindset.
it is more about your build than your weight.
It is about not depriving yourself.
It is about making better choices and
learning a whole new lifestyle.
I don't make a starchy side.
I double or even triple up on the veggies.
Cook the ones you like so you will eat more of them.
I really limit how many times I do go out to eat.
Set short term goals.
DO NOT deprive yourself of anything.
All you have to do is decrease your calorie intake by 500 calories a
cutting out a snack or
cutting out the starch at every meal.
Most imporantly DO NOT deprive yourself.
just don't do it every day.
This is the same tired, ineffective advice that has been going on for generations. (Actually it is effective but few people will do this indefinitely.) Guess what? People are getting fatter. It is also full of contradictions: "cut out a snack" and "don't deprive yourself", "decrease your calorie intake by 500 calories" and "don't deprive yourself", etc.
If you want to eat pizza or chocolate or high calorie food every day and/or in large portions, and you don't (via willpower), then you are depriving yourself.
"Making better choices" and "learning a whole new lifestyle" are euphemisms for depriving yourself.
Everyone knows exactly what they should be eating and how much. People don't lack information. (Did you ever notice that every overweight person is extremely knowledgeable on exactly how many grams of fat or calories are in a food item?) What people know they should eat and what people want to eat are two vastly different things.
Lack of information has nothing to do with weight control (though dietitians and diet "experts" will gladly take your money to tell you what you already know.)
The fact is, genes play almost the entire role in the process.
If you tend to be thin, then you don't need to try.
If you tend to be overweight, then 1) you either will be overweight or 2) you will be eating less of what you want to or eating other than what you want to, in other words, you will be depriving yourself. Eventually, nature wins for about 99% of people. Data supports this.
Very few people keep it off. If you do, then you are pretty rare, though it does happen. People who are professionally motivated (actors, athletes, military, etc.) or are deathly afraid of consequences (people recovering from a heart attack) are under big financial pressure or psychological pressure and can do it for a while.
Finally, while exercise is beneficial for overall health (stress, cardiovascular, etc), it has practically nothing to do with weight control. For every five calories you burn you become six calories hungrier which means in the end it is all about food control (again, deprivation).
Fat people aren't fat because they exercise, thin people aren't thin because they do. Ever notice that people who exercise regularly never really change their weight too much?
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
2,218 posts, read 3,453,491 times
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As someone who has struggled with weight all my life, I know something about dieting! I have recently lost 25 lbs which I had gained as a result of having two surgeries last year and thus becoming a self-indulged, overfed couch potato. Here is how I lost it..and I think I can keep it off!
1) I use FitDay.com (a free site) to log everything I eat and record my weight. It is an unbelievable site, a true godsend to me. I can clearly see if I am getting the proper nutrition and it also keeps track of BMI, etc. I highly recommend it. It keeps you "honest" by logging everything you eat. It also allows you to log your exercise.
2) I have become a master at substitution. Instead of eating lots of ground meat, for example, I have substituted TVP (texturized vegetable protein). Last night I made TVP chili (without beans) and I did not miss the beef at all. Also, I have a digital food scale and I weigh everything I eat...it keeps my portion size and calorie counting accurate.
3) I have discovered HungryGirl.com. What a great site! It gives alerts to fantastic foods that I had no idea even existed! For example..there is a yam noodle that I can get at a high end food store that has 20 calories and NO CARBS or fat for the entire 8 oz package! I substitute it for spaghetti, etc and I truly do not miss the real thing at all. The whole idea here is to eat things that taste good but that trick you into thinking you are eating "the real thing". The woman behind the website has just come out with a book called something like "200 for under 200" which is 200 recipes for under 200 calories..and the recipes are fabulous!!!! (no, I do not work for her!! LOL)
4) I have resumed my gym habit. That was the hardest thing for me to do but honestly, now that I am going 6 days a week, I miss it when I don't make it! They say it takes 3 weeks to make a habit and 3 weeks to break a habit and I believe it. I forced myself to drag myself to the gym those first 3 weeks and now I don't even think about it. Yes, it is a commitment of time and effort (and a bit of money) but it has helped me both physically and emotionally.
I can only wish all of you who are struggling to loose the best of luck. I do hope that these few ideas will help you achieve your goal.
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
2,218 posts, read 3,453,491 times
Reputation: 6035
I will do that. I lost 126 lbs in 1990 and I have kept off 100 lbs of it. I guarantee that I know what I am doing.
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But when I was heavy for me, I simply fasted...coffee, water, some toast, a muffin, whatever, but no heavy meals,etc. over a weekend. I can't afford to do that right now and don't know if I'll ever be heavy enough to do that again.
Diet is a four-letter word!
