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Need advice to lose some weight. Longish read.

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amdhunter

amdhunter

Lifer
I was always a fair-sized person growing up. I wasn't fat, and filled out clothes nicely. It wasn't until age 17 or so that I started a whole pot/beer binge that totally wrecked my body. In one year, I remember gaining almost 50lbs.

I am now 34 and have stayed the same weight (250lbs) for the last 15 years or so. I have made an aggressive change to my diet for about 3 weeks ago, but nothing is happenning. I went from eating candy/potato chips at my desk at work to nothing at all during the day.

I have never eaten breakfast in my entire lifetime, and I skip lunch every day. I keep myself filled with water when I feel hungry. When I get home, I've cut down the amount of dinner I eat dramatically. Almost down to one-fourth of my normal eating.

Weekends, I eat 2x a day - only a regular ham and cheese sandwich both times. Nothing else. If I really get hungry, I'll eat raw cucumber mixed with vinegar and salt + hot sauce.

Now, as for excercise, I am extremely uptight and could never see myself joining a gym. I did once, went one day, and got discouraged.

As soon as the weather warms up, I plan to walk to, and from work every day -- about 2.5 miles each way. I am really looking forward to it. I've done it before and it's about a 60 minute walk for me. Despite how I look, I am a very clean guy and don't stink at all, even when I sweat, so I am not worried about showing up to work after a long walk.

I am just wondering how I can better manage my eating. I know that eating once a day can really fudge up your metabolism, and I was REALLY hungry the last two weeks, but it seems to be subsiding. I don't have any urges to eat candy (the though disgusts me) and even during the superbowl when all my friends were pigging out, I just ate one single slice of Dominos pizza. It made me feel super guilty though, and I honestly thought about throwing it up. (Bulimia?)

Arrgh, someone help me figure a way to manage eating please.
 
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Read the fat loss sticky before anything else (http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=162171). You're overweight. You've set conditions due to your anxiety and are restricting your potential progress. I think you should follow the fat loss sticky to a T. Nobody ever liked going to the gym their first time - they didn't know anybody, they felt like they looked stupid, and they felt wimpy compared to everybody else. All of us have been there. But all of us have gotten through it and continued to strive toward progress for both overall health and fitness. I think you should start with the bar on all the listed movements and work up from there. You're not comparing yourself to others right now - you're comparing yourself to you. If you get yourself in a caloric deficit and continue to lift, you're gonna see both strength results and weight loss results. Cardio is a very weak way to lose weight. Diet management is the only realy way to do that. Cardio is more important in weight management and overall cardiovascular health. Weightlifting is the best way to keep your muscle mass and lose fat. If you keep muscle and lose fat, you decrease your body fat %. If you decrease your body fat %, you aren't as fat. Doing cardio without any weight training typically burns both fat and muscle, keeping the body at a similar body fat %. That means, you just lose weight and become the skinny fat guy. Like I said, read the fat loss sticky, and get over your anxiety. Don't let your fear keep you from your goal of living a healthy lifestyle.

Also, meal frequency doesn't really change your metabolism (unless you're not eating at all on some days). If you eat two or six meals, it's not really gonna make or break you. Quit worrying about that 🙂
 
I am extremely lucky where I work because it actually has a jogging route -- I will map out the mileage later today. I plan to start by walking to work daily, and then ending the day by jogging (of walking quickly) around my workplace daily, and relaxing on weekends.

I am extremely motivated because there is a lady I've met who finally is responding to my advances, and I really want to better myself for her.

I am not a lazy guy - I would LOVE to do the walk daily, but I can't stand the cold. I don't ever see a problem with getting the excercise in, but I find flaws in how I eat. I just know I can do better to manage that.

I am also tempted to start taking pictures of myself to follow progress. It will keep me motivated. 🙂

FWIW, my face seems to have cleared up a lot the last few weeks...weird.
 
Seriously, take some time and read the fat loss sticky from start to finish. It sounds like you are starving yourself which is the WRONG way to approach fat loss. Your metabolism will crash, which will screw up your energy and hunger levels (as you've already noticed) and if you do lose weight, it'll include lots of muscle mass rather than fat (so your body fat percentage won't drop as much as you'd like). Worse yet, as your metabolism continues to drop from eating so little, your weight loss will likely stall, so you'll be starving yourself for nothing.

Instead, follow the fat loss sticky's advice and start tracking what you eat on fitday.com or thedailyplate.com. Get yourself on a moderate (500-750) caloric deficit and you'll lose weight and not feel like crap. Exercise will help your weight loss and your overall health, but getting your diet sorted out should be your first priority.
 
I was the most skinny fat, shoulders forward geek the gym had when I joined. I just had to plug in my ipod and get in my own world. I didn't hate going, but I didn't enjoy it.

Almost a year later, I relish gym days, and hate rest days.

Walking will help. Buy a scale, walk to work, no soda, and eat less. Don't starve yourself.
 
Hi,

Last February, I could barely walk due to back pain (2 months). Putting on socks was an impossible task for me due to the pain. I swore if I ever felt normal again I would do something about my weight. Eventually the pain subsided enough for me to start walking normally again.

I have had viscious sleep apnea in the past(cpap required). We are talking about a life threatening case. 40 mins into the sleep study they woke me and said "How can you possibly function"

I could go on and on and on but............I will spare you.

I was 305lbs the day I walked into Golds Gym. I saw an old female friend of mine and gave her a hug. I hadn't seen her in 15 or so years. I was very nervous to be in a gym with concerns of being the next contestant for "biggest loser"

Today approximately 4 months later I have made some changes. ALL GOOD

5 days a week. 30mins eliptical(hard)+basic lifting routine+30mins running(hard)

I am limiting my intake of food, increasing my output of energy.

I have lost 45 pounds.

I do not have apnea at all, in fact I have stopped snoring completley according to my wife.

My back is feeling awesome. The more I run, the better it feels.

I saw my old friend again and she was floored with my progress and after chatting with her a bit she is coming to the gym more as I have been inspiring to her. HA! me inspiring. Who woulda thunk?

so...

Put your fears aside, get your ass into the gym, don't worry about what others think. Start slowly, focus on form and distance. Don't get discouraged, get motivated!!

Good Luck

Dave 🙂
 
Read the sticky, you're diet is unsustainable, not healthy and will not produce results. Eat higher quality food (good work cutting out the junk food), and do not be afraid to eat a good amount of it.
 
You have to eat more. When you don't eat you're body goes into survival mode. Which means your body goes into a sleep type mode where it isn't burning nearly as many calories trying to make the little bit of food you're giving it last.

Don't be intimidated by the gym. Most of the guys you see all puffed up walking around usually have a penis the size of a pencil. The only time I look down on new people is the new years resolution crowd. They won't get the f@ck out of the way! Its getting late enough in the year you should be okay joining and not looking like a poser.

Good luck. Post pics of progress and that fine ass black booty woman
 
yeah a starvation diet doesn't really lead to anywhere but starvation.

My rule of thumb on a cut is to figure the lean body mass I want to be at then take in 1 gram of protein for every pound that is. Add in 10-20% fat (whatever you are comfortable with) and then balance it out in good carbs. The carb part is where many screw up. You want to stick to the lower gylcemic ones like brown instead of white rice, whole wheat/grain pasta instead of plain enriched, legumes, beans, many fruits are really not good, apples and grapefruit are decent, etc. The non-fast cook oatmeals are great, steel cut is the best, but the kind that takes 5mins is decent too. My idea is I am only 'feeding' the lean body mass and not the fat mass. If you are way overweight (I am usually around 165 if you count 0% body fat)...at 200 or so lbs it works, if I was 300+ and normally around 130lbs lean, this may be too much a deficit. After the first week if you feel spacey / out of it add a little more carbs.

Take that calorie level and divide it up by meals every 3 hours or so. Eating actually raises your metabolism and makes you not only full more often, but also gives you a better food utilization. There are meal replacement shakes and products out there if you need them, whole food is always the best choice. I use three shakes a day to replace 3 of my meals, I eat 3 whole food meals. Some days I can split my lunch and dinners into 2 of those shake meals...

Anything cardio is great if you can't lift. However, serious lifting IMHO burns more fat and changes your body much more.
 
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