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Humans love pleasure, food can and is many times one of life's greatest pleasures.
If you do not somewhat curb this desire for gastronomic-pleasure, you will most likely end up with a very dysfunctional relationship with food, possibly a food-addiction of some sort.
As mentioned by SuburbanGuy. Keeping a log of everything you eat makes all the difference.
I have been a gym rat off and ob over the last 30 years. But this time around losing the weight has been much more difficult. I have not been able to just melt the calories with cardio and weight lifting. I bought a cheap diet scale for 10 bucks and started keeping a daily log of everything I eat. I made a list of all the foods I typically eat for quick reference and look up anything different I try.
At age 61 it seems I only need around 2000 calories a day to maintain. So I try to stay between 1500 and 2000. So far I am losing about 1 -1.5 pounds a week. Not a lot but I am trying to maintain muscle mass as best as I can. I am down 20 pounds from where I started and another 15 to go. By looking up the calories and keeping a log it becomes very apparent where changes need to be made. My coffee with sugar is the biggest culprit. I drank it several times a day. Now only one cup in the morning.
If your metabolism only allows you 2000 calories a day, that pretty much eliminates any fast food, chips, etc. The main foods I eliminated are bread, milk and processed sugars. The exception is an energy bar before each ride. To try and raise my metabolism I bought a hybrid bike. The shop properly fit it to my body and I have been riding almost every day. I am up to 14 miles. And I am enjoying the rides even though it is exercise.
I don't think it is laziness. I think a lot of people want to lose and get healthy again but the lack of knowledge and a good plan leads to poor results and frustration. And all the misinformation from people wanting to sell you something contributes to our angst. Maybe if somebody could package knowledge and willpower into a magic pill?
This. I always ate healthy, mostly, and exercised regularly. Started using loseit.com app and realized that the oatmeal, brown rice, grilled chicken and broccoli add up when you don't count how much of it you're eating, especially when you add the occasional slice of pizza. Used the app faithfully and down 63 lbs in 2 years.
There is a lot of hate thrown around at frozen dinners, and all of this "cooking yourself." That is a lot of nonsense. There is absolutely nothing wrong with frozen dinners, the vast majority of which have tiny calorie counts. I can't cook whatsoever, I can't even boil water, but I'm in perfect shape and muscular. That's because I eat frozen dinners with calorie counts between 300 and 580 or so, and the "whopping" 580 calorie frozens are usually on days I worked out. Besides that, I eat protein shakes (or drink them hehe), protein bars, low sugar cereal, and healthier snacks.
The exercise portion of your fitness is important but it's not more than 20% for most people, diet is 80%. You have to have a good diet because 500 calories burned on the elliptical doesn't do anything. One of those small, pathetic bacon cheeseburgers at Jack in the Box is over 500 calories and I could eat 6 of those things easily and have room for fries. You cannot possibly lose weight or even maintain your weight if you regularly eat food like that. I eat out probably 3 times a week, and I never watch my calories, I order whatever I want to order, but that's because I also don't eat much besides that meal on those days. It's not unusual for me to eat cereal (450 calories) and then eat a 2,000 calorie meal out and that's it for the day. That puts me below my calorie needs for the day if anything not above. But if you're a 115 pound girl that's going to be too many calories for you.
I think the biggest thing that would help some people is just to slowly start to improve their diet, not all at once, but make one big change. If you "always" eat some unhealthy snacks, replace that with fruit or some healthier snacks. If you always eat a big breakfast, replace it with low sugar cereal (I also use almond milk of the lowest calorie variety). For me, my last "meal" of the day is always that giant protein shake, which is probably around 450 calories but it's 3 huge glasses of protein shake and I'm really full after that, but I get about 50 grams of protein and some fruit in there, so it's a lot better than, say, a run to the local McDonalds where I get full off 1,800 calories lol. Those kinds of decisions executed repeatedly over the weeks, months, and years make a massive difference.
It's interesting how some continue to blame certain dietary patterns for obesity.
Here's an interesting tidbit, sugar consumption by Americans has actually been decliningthe past four to five years.
The evils of sugars and carbs has been perpetuated by the media for a very long time now, yet people still get fatter. Obviously that is not the cause of rise in obesity rates. In fact, the first time I did a low carb diet was way back in 2002, when it was called, you guessed it, low-carb diet. I practically eliminated most carbs of all manners, both complex and simple. Most of my diet was fats and meat, steak, chicken with skin, etc. It's funny how the very same low carb diet keeps getting repackaged into different names throughout the years and people acting like it's a revolutionary 'new' diet. Now it's called keto (which I tried few years ago). Who knows what it will be called next. My point being, again, people have been blaming carbs for decades for the rise in obesity rates, yet people have actually been eating less of it overall.
Also, there are obese people who follow a keto diet, just as there are morbidly obese vegans. That right there should tell you that the number one enemy of rising obesity rates is the inability of people to stop consuming excessive calories, period. As a matter of fact, that is one of the advantages of the keto diet when done correctly, all that fat calories just sits in your gut and keeps you satiated, so theoretically you actually feel like eating less (voila, weight loss).
The human body is smarter than we give it credit, this ain't rocket science as they say. You take in excess calories and you don't burn it off, you get fat. You eat less than you need or exercise to create that caloric deficit, you lose weight. It really isn't that hard of a concept.
Bingo! Yeah, keto was first probably called 'Atkins'. LOL (I'm old!)
I'm reading "Misguided Medicine" (by Colin Champ, MD, AKA Caveman Doctor) - and it says that George McGovern (Dietary Goals released in 1977) worked to change the Standard American Diet (SAD!) by reducing (saturated) fat to 10% and increasing carbs to approx. 55-60% of energy intake (6-11 servings daily!!). Quite the opposite of Keto and Atkins!
A long time ago I tried an 'experiment'. I used to take a BOX of Cheez-Its to work with me to eat all morning until lunchtime. Then, I heard that protein and fat were more satiating - so instead, I stopped and got two sausage McMuffins - eliminated half the bread, and made a 'double McMuff'. Greasy sausage, fake cheese, and all - sure enough, I wasn't hungry again until just before lunchtime. Bye-bye Cheez-Its for breakfast!!
Now, when I focus on protein and fats (good fats - avocado, macadamia nuts - and some meat fats too) and I avoid bread - toss in a salad (pun intended!) - I quickly shed the few pounds I need/want to. It's kind of amazing. (and, ladies, progesterone takes off the water weight in a heartbeat too )
The human body is smarter than we give it credit, this ain't rocket science as they say. You take in excess calories and you don't burn it off, you get fat. You eat less than you need or exercise to create that caloric deficit, you lose weight. It really isn't that hard of a concept.
Yeah, if someone were to consume just 1,000 calories a day and walk 3 miles, in addition to their normal everyday activity, I can almost guarantee they will lose a few pounds every week.
For the more adventurous types that have 6 months of free time and want to do "Extreme Makeover" trail hiking edition, just thru hike the entire Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles) or Pacific Crest Trail (2,659 miles) or the Continental Divide Trail (3,100 miles) and I can guarantee that you will weigh less at the end than you did at the beginning of the hike and that's even with consuming 3k-4k calories a day!
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