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Badger & Blade Weight Loss Thread

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
Amen. It is amazing how little training in nutrition that health care folks get.
It is a shame and so many doctors are at the mercy of their group and can’t advise against the recommended diet - currently Mediterranean. My doctor has no problem with how I eat but she can’t make recommendations other than what the group decides. As a side point, she is the most beautiful woman to ever hold my wee bits.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
OK - I'm in.

I was 244 until beginning weight loss a few years ago. I made it down to about 188 and then I let the Wuhan thing get the best of me - not the bug itself, mind you. I let the spinners of narratives and tellers of tales and mongers of fear and destroyers of history lure me into spending too much time stressing out and sitting and following the news cycle and not enough time living my life. As a result, I'm back up to 214. Two days ago I vowed to let our incompetent Governor and her lackeys pound sand and get back to living and moving about and enjoying myself. I've had enough bread and circuses to last a lifetime and the only good part of this is having spent time reflecting on how I feel about oh so many things. The end conclusion of this experiment in Tom Foolery is that I now know for absolute certain that the best I can do is to live a good life, to be there for my loved ones instead of ceaselessly watching fools read the news -- to always let common sense guide my actions -- and to never ever miss any opportunity to vote - ever - ever - ever - for the rest of my life. Lesson learned. Back to living.

Begun: July 7th, 2020 @ 214.2 lbs.

Goal: 185 lbs.

Timeframe: When it happens - probably 8 to 10 months if my previous rate of loss holds up.

Method:
- 16 hour fasts at night (no eating or snacking past 7:30pm or before 11:30am)
- No beer at all. Whiskey and/or Wine on Saturday only - two drink maximum.
- No processed sugar. No "Wonder" bread (or equivalent). Milk products sparingly - preferring hard cheeses.
- Get as much clean protein and greens as possible. Butter is OK. Avocado & Olive & Grapeseed oil are OK.
- Get out. Move around. Live. Work in the yard. Work on the house. When in doubt, move about.
- Get good sleep - I was astounded at how important this turned out to be in my initial weight loss.
- In summary - extend one middle finger toward Salem and another toward Portland City Hall and get back to living.
Perfectly stated my friend.
 
I'm now 4 months into my weight loss effort and I'm down a total of 37 lbs! I wear both a watch and a Fitbit and I've noticed that I may need to take a link out of each wristband because they are both so loose. The weight is coming off a bit slower now but I'm still moving in the right direction. My "calorie wallet" has dropped almost 200 calories per day from when I first started. Losing weight is great but that also means I'm allowed fewer calories if I want to continue losing weight. I may need to start exercising! So far my weight loss has been on little to no exercise. It's kind of cool that I can enter exercise into my program and I can see that my calorie allowance for the day goes up. There were a couple days where I was doing a beers worth of exercise. :laugh:
 
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This is a good place for me to have some accountability. My main goal is just to be in better general health but that will obviously include weight loss.
Phase 1 is to have better sleep habits but I am working on exercising and eating better, too. But after many failed attempts, I know better than to try to change everything all at once.
This is my starting point:
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Weekly check in. I haven't made any progress on getting more sleep but I've lost a couple pounds. I bought an elliptical machine this week so that should help.
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I'm now 4 months into my weight loss effort and I'm down a total of 37 lbs! I wear both a watch and a Fitbit and I've noticed that I may need to take a link out of each wristband because they are both so loose. The weight is coming off a bit slower now but I'm still moving in the right direction. My "calorie wallet" has dropped almost 200 calories per day from when I first started. Losing weight is great but that also means I'm allowed fewer calories if I want to continue losing weight. I may need to start exercising! So far my weight loss has been on little to no exercise. It's kind of cool that I can enter exercise into my program and I can see that my calorie allowance for the day goes up. There were a couple days where I was doing a beers worth of exercise. :laugh:
Spectacular! What are you eating? How much? Please help me do the same..
 
Spectacular! What are you eating? How much? Please help me do the same..

My current approach is somewhat unconventional in that I still eat whatever I like but for the first time in my life I've been keeping track of calories. I couldn't and wouldn't have been able to do it without the free phone app, "Lose it!". You enter in your current weight, your goal weight and how much you'd like to lose per week. Of course your goals should be safe and realistic so I set my goal to lose 2 lbs/week. It then gives you a "calorie wallet" with your total allowed calories on any given day. You enter what you eat each meal/snacks and it will subtract the calories from your wallet telling you what you have left for the day. When you hit or near zero you'll want to quit eating for the day. Almost any food you'd eat (including fast food/restaurants) is already in their food library but it isn't perfect so occasionally you have to look up calories online. One feature I really like is that you are able to scan the bar code on food packaging with your phone and it will register the calories per serving automatically. You then just have to enter the portion amount you are consuming. The app keeps track of your weight loss with charts and counts you down to how many days are left to reach your goal. You can also enter any exercise that you do which will add more calories to your allowance that day if you so choose to use them. It's been a great motivator for me.

For me, tracking my calories really opened my eyes to how poorly and mindlessly I was eating. Without even thinking about it I would go out to lunch and easily consume 3/4 of my current allowed calories for the entire day! That wouldn't even be counting eating breakfast, dinner, snacks and soda on top of that. No wonder I was putting on the pounds! Now instead of drinking a 16 oz Pepsi (or more) almost daily, I might allow myself one a week and even then I'll drink half of it on one day and the other half another day. I still might have pizza once a week but rather than eating the whole thing, I'll eat 1/2 on one day and the other half on another day. Allowing myself to eat foods I liked but in moderation has helped me stick with the program so far. If I had to eat lettuce wraps, raw veggies and weird smoothies all the time I would have abandoned the program a long time ago. One thing about this approach for example is on the days I have half a pizza and half a Pepsi, that takes a big chunk out of my calorie wallet so I have to have a conservative breakfast and lunch that day. To make the calorie wallet stretch farther you will find yourself adopting more healthy and lower caloric foods. I've been eating more salads, fruits and vegetables than I ever have in the past. There might be some days that I still go over my allowance on occasion but then I find myself making up for it on the remaining days of the week. Keeping track of calories really makes you conscious of what you're putting in your mouth each day. I'd say give the free app a try. You've got nothing to lose but at the same time you could lose a lot! :lemo:
 
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Thank you for the information, mikelz777. I'll give it a try. All the best

Good luck to you, I think it's a great place to start. It will really help you to see where you stand in relation to calories and what you eat. Once you get going you may want to stick with it or find something that works better for you along the way. I wish you success and let us know how it is working for you.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
My current approach is somewhat unconventional in that I still eat whatever I like but for the first time in my life I've been keeping track of calories.

An important point.

Far too often I see people debating what I see as a false dichotomy between "mere calories in calories out" vs "not how much you eat but what". Far too many in the keto community fall for the line of "you can't overeat on keto". Far too many everywhere ignore the importance of eating the right foods ... getting the proper nutrients being far more important than mere calories.

There's an additional problem of constant caloric restriction resulting in a change to the body's metabolic rate.

really opened my eyes to how poorly and mindlessly I was eating.

That "mindlessness" (especially with snacking) is one of the key problems we face with health/nutrition and weight loss.

There might be some days that I still go over my allowance on occasion but then I find myself making up for it on the remaining days of the week.

I suspect that's actually a good pattern, rather than always hitting the same caloric goal exactly.
 
An important point.

Far too often I see people debating what I see as a false dichotomy between "mere calories in calories out" vs "not how much you eat but what". Far too many in the keto community fall for the line of "you can't overeat on keto". Far too many everywhere ignore the importance of eating the right foods ... getting the proper nutrients being far more important than mere calories.

There's an additional problem of constant caloric restriction resulting in a change to the body's metabolic rate.
** This makes me think of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation when he was at a steak house for dinner and the waitress brought him a salad. He looked at it with disgust and disdain and said that they had just brought him the food that his food eats! He didn't want anything to do with it. :laugh: I agree that far too many ignore the importance of eating the right foods. I'm probably among them but I'm doing better and I'm looking to continue moving in the right direction. I know that if I were to suddenly only eat the "right foods" then I probably would have abandoned my efforts by now. Baby steps..... breaking old habits comes slowly....... :laugh:

That "mindlessness" (especially with snacking) is one of the key problems we face with health/nutrition and weight loss.
** Going out to eat and then eating everything that is served to you is a killer! Being part of the clean plate club isn't always a good thing. Snacking too is a killer. Any one snack may not be bad in and of itself but when the day is over and you look back to find that the one snack was actually 4 or 5 throughout the day then that really adds up!
I suspect that's actually a good pattern, rather than always hitting the same caloric goal exactly.
** It's funny that you should say that. Last week I went over my calorie allowance twice during the week. I ended up losing 2.2 lbs which is a really good loss for me at this point in the game. Other weeks where I hit my budget or stayed under I've barely lost weight or lost less weight, gained weight or lost no weight.
 
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Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member

This makes me think of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation when he was at a steak house for dinner and the waitress brought him a salad. He looked at it with disgust and disdain and said that they had just brought him the food that his food eats!

Any one snack may not be bad in and of itself but when the day is over and you look back to find that the one snack was actually 4 or 5 throughout the day then that really adds up!

As I understand it, one of the biggest problems with snacking isn't the added calories per se, but the "constant eating mode" your body gets into. It's when the body switches from "eating mode" to "non-eating mode" that it goes from using food in the stomach/intestine for fuel to using stored fat for fuel. So snacking means you never get to switch to that mode and actually use up the fat. (that's a very oversimplified version of the science, though. But the general "snacking is bad" notion is something to remember.)
 
When the calories are consumed means much less than the total balance of calories. Certain stimuli can effect the way your body partitions nutrients, but unless you're an athlete, it's not going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. Most don't need to overcomplicate this and worry about minutiae like that, just keep track of what you're eating.
 
Need some accountability so going to throw my hat in the ring.

211lb this morning around 18% bodyfat. I aim to get down to 11% by end of November which would be around 185lb-- so I need to lose about 1.5lb a week. Still adjusting my daily intake but 2400 (I'm very tall) with a ton of exercise should put me in a good deficit. Bike commute daily (not much, total 28km), compound lifts and kettlebell swings three days a week. I'm optimistic but know getting below 15% is where it gets tough so hopefully I can get there.

45/35/20 (carb/protein/fat) split

Let's do this!
 
Down 2~ pounds this past week. Might be going a bit fast-- I don't really track weight too much, more how I'm feeling-- and I wasn't able to do my kettlebell routine yesterday which means I might not have enough recovery calories. Also have 55km planned for my bike tomorrow so I'm thinking to up it to 2600 which seems really high for weight loss, but I guess I'm losing more with cardio than I thought...
 
I want to give a piece of advice. This is coming from someone who had their own weight struggles and more or less it lead me down a path of health and fitness I may not have traveled, otherwise. I've studied this stuff for twenty years and have coached hundreds along the way.

Stop obsessing about numbers. I'm guilty, too, in some respects, but I see guys here obsessing over minutiae that just really don't matter, and fretting over a pound gain that may very well just be water retention.

For those of you counting calories, OK, that's a great practice, especially to establish your baseline. But after that, I feel most guys on here could achieve everything they want through some simple, conscious eating; no counting needed until you really want to get ripped. Find nutrient rich whole foods that work for you! If it makes you gassy or bloated, stop eating it. But strike a balance, no one says you can't have cheesecake and pizza anymore. Hey, I eat generous amounts of both every week. But when you're pretty much on the money 80% of the time, give it a year and tell me your body composition didn't change.

Forget scale numbers. OK, they can be used as a reference, but I think too many obsess over them. If you don't know what you're looking at or expecting, it is going to mess with your head. Use a scale, but use it wisely.

Just a couple quick tips from someone who has been there and done that.

Staying overnight at work, sorry! Aaaand out!

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Sunday check-in. Not much progress to report in weight or sleep but I'm doing pretty good sticking to my exercise program.
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I want to give a piece of advice. This is coming from someone who had their own weight struggles and more or less it lead me down a path of health and fitness I may not have traveled, otherwise. I've studied this stuff for twenty years and have coached hundreds along the way.
...

Totally agree with you here but I think we underestimate the number of people nowadays who can't really gauge their physiological response to foods anymore, whether it's messed up hormones, eating disorders, social pressure, whatever...

That said I think one of the most profound changes I've made over the years is what you said, conscious eating (I call it mindful eating)-- just sitting down and focusing on breathing, enjoying each bite, TV off, phone off. I guarantee anyone who has struggled with portion size like myself will feel "full" after a much more reasonable amount of food. I could eat a literal pound of cheese (seriously) if I'm in front of the TV while eating it but this is impossible if I'm sitting down and eating consciously.
 
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