@Kaido is literally a godsend for this forum and those who have no idea what they're doing, as well as dispelling the stupid myths that abound and false information that is so easily spread among the internet.
I was victim to a lot of that stuff myself for many years. It took me a looooong time to really get educated on what worked & what didn't, and even longer to actually accept that stuff as reality, and even longer than that to actually change my habits. As it turns out, all you have to do is spend a minute or two calculating your macros using a free online calculator, and then adopt a meal-prep system, and voila! You magically get results simply by executing the work required, as reminded, rather than trying to do habit changes & self-discipline yourself & all that nonsense. I typically eat pre-made meals throughout the day, using delicious recipes, with the macros already figured out for each serving. Then all I have to do is eat & get great results, in terms of physique & energy levels!
LOTS of people here on the AT forums were super helpful, like SociallyChallenged:
Fat Loss - How to Lose the Bulge and Gain the Ripples (An AT special post!) By Brent Sallee (SociallyChallenged) Alright, everyone, I decided to write this article because I see a lot of the same questions over and over and over again. I figured the most logical action to take would be to toss...
forums.anandtech.com
My original thread is MIA, but I have a follow-up here from 2008:
Update: Making an updated diet with more DIY foods. Starting 6-week plan shortly. Check back later :) Introduction: Note: This was originally my "Summer Journal", but I made excuses to myself and never got my act together after May. So now it's the "Fall Journal". No more excuses...
forums.anandtech.com
I had a lot of incorrect information & unknown situations in those decade-old threads:
* I didn't know I had genetic sleep apnea - I was tired all the time & didn't know why (didn't really know what sleep apnea was!)
* I had an undiagnosed stomach condition (SIBO) that was also goofing me up
* I had a meal
plan, but not a meal-prep
system, which are two entirely different things - having a system was a gamechanger, for me, at least, in terms of sustainability
* I didn't realize that exercise was pretty much unrelated to weight-loss (at least from an efficiency & nutritional standpoint); it's really all about food
* I also didn't realize that cardio just straight-up was not required for fitness at all; many people who do IIFYM do strength-training exclusively & zero cardio (I still do cardio because I've got a garbage digestive system with slow motility, so I kind of have to manually stimulate it through exercise every day)
A big thing was that I didn't want to accept that health & fitness were long-term games, and wanted to get fast results, including exercise - if all you can do is a 5-minute brisk walk, then start there, and build up incrementally week by week. You're going to be alive until you die, so there's no rush to get overnight results or anything, other than your own guilt, shame, and anxiety pushing you towards a quick resolution. This is why I advocate a multi-step approach for people who are overweight, have no idea what they're doing, and have never attempted to get in shape before:
1. Lose weight through diet & small but growing amounts low-impact cardio (max 2 pounds a week, pretty easy to calculate a schedule - plus with IIFYM, you're not changing your diet, you're just tracking macro numbers every day)
2. Once you hit your target weight, spend a year building up a foundation of strength. I personally like calisthenics (bodyweight exercises), some people like weights, some people like kettlebells, some people like heavy-duty resistance bands, there are plenty of options out there for building up the health of your muscles & physical body system.
3. Now that you are in-shape, choose where to go from there. If you're not interested in physical fitness, then just stick with a basic strength-training routine & eat well (I mostly eat against my macros still, just because it keeps me from drifting out of the lane I want to be in, haha!). Or keep pursuing physical growth, or new techniques, or sports, or outdoorsy stuff like hiking, or whatever you're into.
We are like, 100% governed by our emotions & feelings - we like to think we're logical creatures, but we're all pretty much mood-based, and if your energy is low & your motivation is low because you don't feel too great & don't have very much energy, then that really super limits your options for what you can do. One of the biggest reasons that I got into IT was that it was a sit-down, low-energy job...chill in front of a computer & work, lol. I didn't realize that having low energy wasn't normal...that was just how I grew up! Truthfully, however:
1. Our bodies are designed to have motors in them. If you wake up & aren't instantly awake & ready to go, then something is out of whack in your body, and it's your job & your responsibility to be a detective, identify it, and fix it. No one else really cares how you feel, and your body is either a meat paradise or a meat prison, depending on how you manage it (barring any uncontrollable medical situations, of course!). I really like Chris Califano's explanation on this topic: (raw vegan diet aside)
2. Part of personal responsibility involves having a clear path forward that actually gets results. That's why I post stuff like that macros tutorial...I had nooooooooo idea how any of that stuff worked when I first started! Or even five years later, for that matter! There's so much FUD out there in the world of food & fitness that it's just
ridiculous. If you want awesome results, eat according to your macros, per your bodyweight management goals. If you're insulin-sensitive, then eat less than 20 grams of carbs a day. Adopt a meal-prep system so that you don't have to hustle all the time & can actually enjoy food AND get great results without killing yourself on the physical & mental effort side of it!
3. You should feel consistently good all day. If you're having energy dips, then you need to adjust things like your sleep hygiene, your macro intake & tracking, your daily exercise, and your stress management. Mostly, it's about proper food intake (not
type of food, but the invisible macros
inside of them!) plus make sure you're getting enough sleep.
4. A simple indicator, not to get too gross about it, is GI function. If you have a daily solid bowel movement that comes out instantly, sinks to the bottom of the bowl, doesn't leave a streak, and only requires one piece of TP to wipe clean, then you're probably doing awesome & feeling awesome. If your bowel movements are sporadic, if you have rabbit pellets, if you have mush, if you're on the john for longer than like, a minute, if you have to push or struggle or wait a long time, it's time to re-evaluate your diet, and also include a basic exercise plan in your life.
I had IBS for most of my life & didn't realize it wasn't normal. It was a hugely controlling factor on my daily energy levels & bathroom trips weren't exactly pleasant. I just thought that was how things functioned...nope! Your stomach should not hurt all the time, bathroom trips should be quick & easy, fast & painless, and you should feel pretty dang good all the time. That video above about how you should feel when you wake up every day, as well as your consistent bathroom trip experience, are the two key indicators to how your body is performing.
As gross as that stuff can be, I don't think we discuss it enough in our country, so nobody really knows what's normal & what's not normal. I never had much energy growing up & my stomach was always kind of goofed up, and that was just how things were - didn't know any better! Now (when my work schedule isn't crazy) I can wake up at 3:30 or 4am, feel awesome, knock out my workout, get ready for my day, work all day & feel good, and not be totally shot energy-wise when I get home. That's an
amazing difference in my quality of life...I always thought I was a night person because I was always a night owl & oddly felt better at night than at any other time. Turns out I just had to get out of my own way & start managing my own personal barriers to feeling good. These days, I just tell people to try out macros strictly for a couple of months & see how they do on it.
Also reading through that old thread, lol...this post in particular had good intentions, but
totally wrong information:
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I wrote that you really only have to worry about 3 things:
1. What you eat
2. When you eat
3. How much you eat
As it turns out:
1. It doesn't matter what you eat, if it fits your macros
2. It doesn't matter when you eat, as long as you hit your three macro targets by the end of the day
3. It doesn't matter how much you eat at all, as long as you hit your macros every day
I was suffering from a lot of unknown problems at the time...I was always tired, so I needed energy. I was always tired because I had severe undiagnosed sleep apnea. I have mild reactive hypoglycemia, so I generally do better eating smaller meals so that I don't tank & eating every few hours to stay full. I was reacting to things like fast food & junk food because I had SIBO & was experiencing crap digestion. Once I got my stomach kinks worked out, I could eat donuts & feel not just fine but awesome, haha, which is a dangerous thing! On a tangent, 100% of my acid reflux disappeared within a week of using my BiPap machine, which by itself was a minor miracle!
I posted my 2-week rotating menu here back in 2008:
Dave's 14-day menu, including Rules, Menu, and Shopping List.
www.scribd.com
Oh man, look at the sadness - "Meal 6 = rice cakes + 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter" nooooooooo lol. I usually do 7 meals a day now (morning snack, breakfast, brunch snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and then dessert), so the last meal of the day is usually cookies, brownies, homemade mini cheesecakes from my Sous-Vide machine, creme brulees from my Instant Pot, etc. Today I made mini pumpkin bread loaves with mini chocolate chips & a maple sweet cream-cheese spread. And still feel great! And am still in-shape! Haha.
Anyway...yes, sugar is bad.
Especially if you don't eat it in moderation, and
super especially if you are a sugar-sensitive person, insulin-wise, which at least 50% of the nation is, based on current numbers regarding the diabetic levels of people in America. But if you're not sugar-sensitive, and if you eat it in moderation, especially controlled moderation through a macros-driven diet...then meh. The way I look at it is that I'm going to die eventually...if my health situation dictated, as it did before, that I had to be careful about eating acidic foods & fast-foods & whatnot, then fine, that's just how it is.
But after doing some sleuthing on my own particular body & getting educated about health & fitness in general, it turns out I totally had the wrong ideas about a LOT of things. So, as it turns out, I can enjoy sugar in a more responsible manner while still meeting my health & fitness goals of having a good, healthy weight, being in-shape, having good bloodwork in my annual physicals, feeling good on a consistent basis, and so on. So again, is sugar bad? Yes..ish. If you have high, unchecked intake & especially if you are have a sugar-sensitive body chemistry, then sugar can be a pretty bad thing. When properly managed, then again...I'm going to die someday, and unless it's goofing up my health in terms of bloodwork & stuff and/or affecting how I feel every day, then I don't see much of a problem with eating sugar, as long as you're not legitimately addicted to it!