the happy, happy diet thread!

[WTF]

The simplest one is this: Don't eat after 10:00PM.

 

 

I agree with peeter. I'm not Japanese (at least I don't think so though I'm pretty much a lot of things) but that's pretty much what I'd been raised with as well. Or rather an extension of it being - Have a nice breakfast, lighter lunch, skip tea and a lighter dinner/supper if you really want it.

 

I'm in good shape for my 30 years at the moment and that's got nothing to do with the gym. I practically walk everywhere I need to go (unless it's over 10 miles and I'm in a hurry). However I also sometimes have to lug heavy equipment (though these days it's not that heavy).

 

I will say one thing it really depends on the individual. You see a person who eats irregularly needs to continue to do so and a person who eats regularly needs to carry on with the same. Any change to that pretty much reflects on your body. For instance while at uni, most of us ate at 2am and we did manage to have a decent figure at the time, it had more to do with lifestyle rather than times we ate though.

 

The gym works for some people, the issue for a lot is motivation, finding a gym buddy and continuing with it. It's easy if you're always in one city or constantly on the move. Not so much if you shift locations every 2-3 years or so.

 

From my former gym days I can say this be careful of how you exercise. You can convert muscle to fat easily which doesn't really help if you stop because you'll build a lot of body mass and any fat you gain in the future will be layered onto the muscle and it doesn't really help you lose weight. It just gives you a better build. If you're strictly looking to lose weight you probably need to do more number of lighter weights and lighter exercises where the numbers are more and the weights are less. If you want the other it's a bit of the reverse. I used to work out in a gym where people competed professionally in weight-lifting competitions. Here's the amusing thing about that, they had good upper body mass but chicken legs. It was weird but apparently that's what happens in that sort of training.

 

A change in diet does help to an extent. It also depends on what goals you seek to achieve really . More muscle or losing weight.

 

p.s. It is easy to quit drinking. Just think of it as for health reasons, especially if you do have sinusitis or something. I do drink socially but my drinking's severely restricted these days. Not to mention family history of hypertension and high (father's) and low (mother's) BP.

 

 

 

[peteer01]

I'm in good shape for my 30 years at the moment and that's got nothing to do with the gym. I practically walk everywhere I need to go

I could definitely relate to everything WTF said.

 

I do disagree with suggesting someone maintaining an irregular eating schedule though...I think it's a great idea to try to get your body used to eating healthy meals at relatively regular times. College students can get away with a lot, but as we get older, I really think your slowing metabolism becomes a bigger factor in taking care of your body between 25-30. If you can eat well, starting with breakfast every morning, and stop eating by 10PM every day...that goes a long way to helping keep the fat from accumulating.

 

Also remember that muscles are heavier than fat. So even if you're still 180 after all that working out it might mean that the fat got turned into muscle.

Yeah, whenever I get a gym membership I end up within about 5-10 lbs. of the same weight (depending on how out of shape I've gotten), but over 6-12 months, I put on a lot of muscle and end up with a much better body composition.

 

It's great how much progress you can see over those first 6-12 months, but after that, there are no short cuts or leaps and bounds of improvement, and while maintaining that healthy body should be enough of a reward in and of itself, the time and money involved in that gym membership and work-outs can be difficult to maintain. For me, it's usually a serious illness or injury that gets me out of the gym long enough for my membership to expire, and then it's easy to just not bother signing back up for a while.

 

I haven't been in over a year, but I think when it warms up a bit, and if work is going well, I'll probably sign back up this spring... We'll see.

Edited February 28, 2011 by peteer01

[TheForgetfulBrain]

So far, I have failed on every point and recommendation in this thread.

 

(Written as I munch on some mac and cheese at 10:45pm and finish my third beer, contemplate my fourth)

 

Hurrah!

[peteer01]

So far, I have failed on every point and recommendation in this thread.

 

(Written as I munch on some mac and cheese at 10:45pm and finish my third beer, contemplate my fourth)

 

Hurrah!

Nowhere to go but up!

 

(My coworker gave me six creme filled maple leaf cookies from Canada this afternoon...and those are in my intestines right now. So, it's not like I'm the best example of healthy eating this week either. )

[WTF]

 

I do disagree with suggesting someone maintaining an irregular eating schedule though...I think it's a great idea to try to get your body used to eating healthy meals at relatively regular times. College students can get away with a lot, but as we get older, I really think your slowing metabolism becomes a bigger factor in taking care of your body between 25-30. If you can eat well, starting with breakfast every morning, and stop eating by 10PM every day...that goes a long way to helping keep the fat from accumulating.

 

The thing is when you're younger you can have an irregular diet. It can also be if you've got insane work schedules and you travel a lot. For those people when they do try to be regular it rarely works since their schedule puts them on irregularity again. However this is usually the case only for those below 40. After 40 it is best for you to have a regular diet, especially if you are a man because of the various gastro-intestinal disorders that plague most men of a certain age.

[Mal]

Its 3AM and I want to eat something. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Diet, sure...

[Little Pirate]

I lost a lot of weight removing soda from diet. Eating a lot of fiber will help you, too. I suggest getting fiber granola bars as a snack. Eating generally healthy is really the thing--you shouldn't starve yourself or refuse yourself a snack now and then. Moderation is everything.

 

But if you REALLY want to lose weight, EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. There's no way you're gonna drop a lot of weight on dieting alone, I can tell you this from experience. I was once pushing 200 lbs, but I worked my ass off and dropped down to 128 lbs. Just doing exercise tapes, eating healthier, and getting activity in my life.

[slithy toves]

if you increase fiber please also make sure to increase water.

trust me.

[Little Pirate]

Oh yes--that's really important. But you should drink lots of water either way. Actually, drinking semi-warm water can make you feel full.

Edited March 4, 2011 by LittlePirate

[peteer01]

Oh yes--that's really important. But you should drink lots of water either way. Actually, drinking semi-warm water can make you feel full.

The hundreds of varieties of tea available from vending machines in Japan? Godsend.

 

Fruit juice with breakfast and mugicha (barley tea), oolong tea, black tea, green tea, coffee and teas and blends can give you a good variety of drinks with no calories and health benefits to boot.

 

I do allow myself a diet soda once in a while, and V8 from Costco is definitely something I usually have in stock at home...but I do a much better job of avoiding empty liquid calories than I do empty solid calories. (I think the most liquid calories I drink in a month are the several Arnold Palmers I drink at CPK when I do go...and I'm not changing that part of my diet. )

Edited March 4, 2011 by peteer01

[Enervation]

I've always wondered: what does barley tea taste like? I've only ever had the generic teas they serve in high class Chinese restaurants.

[Mal]

I think I had barley tea before since I may have misidentified it as rice tea. Whatever it was, its good. The taste is like... well, grainy or the smell of baked bread. Its hard to describe!

[WTF]

I'm iffy about fruit juice these days. Bloody acid erosion. If they tell you it's not a real thing - they're wrong. wrong wrong!

 

I had to have a root canal for one tooth since I didn't even notice that I'd lost a tiny portion of it. Thing is I've no cavities, no yellowness nothing and my diet is a lot of juice and tea and the like that really doesn't help your teeth.

 

The reason why many people gain weight is because of metabolism (this is where the eating right and not eating at night part comes in). If you have a fast metabolism you pretty much can lose weight a lot faster than those with a slower metabolism (one way of knowing this is well how fast you'll need to go after you've had a healthy meal).

 

Fibre always needs to be matched with liquid. But you know what eat bananas and plaintainous bananas. They're a good source of roughage and also have plenty of water content in them. They can help you feel full a lot faster than most fruits. It's actually one of the healthiest and most filling fruits of them all. Apples are too much water content that leave you wanting something substantial, the roughage in apples is mostly in its skin. Oranges (Mousambi) and mandarins are nice but don't over do them for the love of your teeth!

 

p.s. While I do not recommend this, there is one way that some people lose weight faster. When you work out and work a sweat, you are generally advised not to drink cold water. That's because what usually happens is cold water contracts your stomach (in some people it causes cramps but most are unaffected) this effectively 'shrinks' your stomach which kind of kills your appetite to an extent. I'm not aware how many people actually know this because a lot of people do drink cold fluids in between workouts and while technically it isn't good for you (according to most of my trainers and my dietician friends) it can help for a faster weight loss (though it's not a long term solution).

 

 

Also drink water, lots of water especially in winter. One of the last things you'd want is to have a kidney stone. And the only thing to combat it is water. Tea, Soda, coffee, do not count for the amount of water you need to consume in a day. In fact despite them containing water it accelerates you having a kidney stone. Speaking from personal experience.

 

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle doesn't make you immune to some problems . Do try and get fish in your diet though particularly the smaller fish (cooked is safer) and spinach they help in far too many ways than one and cut down on potatoes .

[NekuSakuraba]

I lost ~15 lbs and did /almost/ nothing. I don't remember in how many weeks but it hasn't been too long I know that.

All I did was decrease my calorie intake (I take in 1,500 or so a day. No more then 2,000 a day if it goes over)

I estimate if the stuff I eat doesn't have calories marked on it.

If I exercise then I would lose more.

 

Also, I dig the gif from Big Bang's Haru Haru up there.

>

[slatz_grobnik]

All I did was decrease my calorie intake

 

Ding, ding, ding. Alternatively, you can increase your calorie uptake, but that can be a harder road to walk.

 

People come up with all manner of rules, mentalities, and restrictions, but, really, it's just a numbers game. It's only a numbers game c.f. the junk food diets (which, notably, people who did improved their blood panels as well in doing).

 

We are gamers. We are comfortable with juggling numbers to affect goals. Well, at least those of us who are PC gamers. It's fairly easy to figure out what sort of numbers in terms of calories you should be taking in. The harder part is assessing the calories you are taking in, especially when even the labels that are supposed to be helpful are pretty darn obfuscatory. But that's what makes a kitchen scale a good investment.

 

The rest is patience.

[peteer01]

All I did was decrease my calorie intake

 

Ding, ding, ding. Alternatively, you can increase your calorie uptake, but that can be a harder road to walk.

 

People come up with all manner of rules, mentalities, and restrictions, but, really, it's just a numbers game. It's only a numbers game c.f. the junk food diets (which, notably, people who did improved their blood panels as well in doing).

 

We are gamers. We are comfortable with juggling numbers to affect goals. Well, at least those of us who are PC gamers.

I keep trying to edit the self.ini file so I can change my metabolism settings.

 

Seriously though, eating right and eating at the right time of day are both important. The health benefits of starting the day with breakfast aren't a secret nor are they disputed. Eating more than a few hours before you sleep, you're going to burn more of those calories off while awake than if you eat just before sleeping.

 

Oversimplifying things to "it's only a numbers game" will make you lose weight if you eat less calories than your body needs...but long term eating habits are hardly that simple. A sustainable healthy diet includes paying attention to what (and how much of it) you eat and when you eat it.

Edited March 6, 2011 by peteer01

[Little Pirate]

My friend is amazing, I just have to say this. After going through a depressive stage, I gained about 105 lbs. She's been keeping me on track losing weight, calling me up and playing Wii fit or just biking together. We finally decided to take my old photos and do some before and afters, and I feel so proud of myself for not giving up.

 

Before:

 

 

That is me on the far left. Butchy hair, porkin' it. My friend is the blue haired one in case you are wondering.

 

 

Now:

 

 

 

 

I have lost 65 lbs so far, and still working to get back to my goal. Once I reach my goal I'm going to call up my gal pals from Suicide Girls to hook me up with some outfits and some photo shoots. I just gotta keep at it.