Weight Lost

[Schizm]

crossposted from droid's brainboard.

Ok, I know this thread is kind of redundant, but I'm damn proud of myself.

I went on a change-of-diet (not diet, just changing what I ingest to be more healthy) One month and two days ago. When I started, I was at 316 pounds and 8oz.

I weighed myself yesterday: 296.7

This is probably the first time in over three years I've dropped below 300, and I'm not having too much of a problem sticking to the change in diet that I've set for myself.

Anyone else having good success with weight loss?

oh. And then Izzy asked me how I did it, so more:

Mostly the same amount of physical exercise (low, but once I've got a job that pays well enough I'll be buying a gym membership), but I've almost completely cut soda out of my diet. In the last month I went from having 3-4 cans of soda per day down to having maybe one per week. I just replaced all that with drinking water. Lots and lots of water. Getting off the caffeinated soda would have been nearly impossible but for other things I can't discuss in public yet.

I also started forcing myself to eat a decent breakfast (bran flakes 75% + honey bunches of oats or cranberry almond crunch 25% + dried cranberries or raisins) every day. And I do mean forcing myself - I'm usually pretty disgusted by the thought of food when I wake up, so it takes willpower.

[Name Lips]

Congratulations!

You're making good progress so far. I'd recommend now that you've gotten used to no-soda-lots-of-water, that you add in one more healthy habit and spend a month getting used to it. And so on. It could be simply taking a walk after dinner, but the little things add up if you can manage to make a habit out of them.

[Xavier Lang]

Congrats!

[Varaj]

Good for you man. Keep up the good work.

[Snatch]

Well done!

[Harry]

Congrats.

I've put on a bit of weight in the last month. According to my father's scale 20 pounds, but I do believe that scale is a wee bit off. More like five or a few more. But I could stand to put on a few pounds.

[FeatsofClay]

Rock on, Schizm.

I had a friend recently tell me that the best "get off" in the world is self-control.

Keep it up!

[Mistwell]

As of today, I am down to 1 pound away from my goal weight.

I'm 5'7" or 5'8" (depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, and whether I am stretching or kind slouched). Regardless, my ideal weight according to most charts is 155# (which is what I used to weigh before I gained weight in my 30s), and today I weigh 156#.

On January 1, 2008, I weighed 190#.

My scale also measures some sort of body fat percentage, and that has also fallen about 11% (I think it started at 31% and now is 20%).

[Mistwell]

Forgot to mention diet details:

No fancy diet. The diet has no official name. I just cut my calories down to from 700-1000 a day (averaging closer to 1000). I pay a bit of attention to fat, but not a lot. And while I have increased exercise a bit, exercise hasn't been my focus. I do drink a lot more liquids, and I have been having more hot tea lately.

I've been strict. I actually count every single thing I eat. I do not go to a restaurant and just shrug and eat something that "looks OK enough". I do not cheat, not even on vacation, and not even at a restaurant. Cheating doesn't work well for me. Once I cheat, I tend to cheat more after that. Dieting needs to be a habit with me, and I form habits best when I do it consistently at for at least three weeks strictly. I do not treat food as a reward for doing something. Food cannot be viewed as a focus for me when dieting, or else I just constantly notice if I am hungry.

In case anyone is interested, here is an average day:

For breakfast I have a Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt (60 calories) and a cup of coffee with milk and fake sugar (5 calories).

For meals at work, I usually have a Lean Cuisine. Those products tend to average from 250-350 calories. For mid-afternoon snack I will have an apple or orange at about 100 calories.

Sometimes I will have fast food. For fast food:

Subway - 6 inch Veggies on wheat, no cheese, no mayo, no oil, no olives, add banana peppers and cucumber slices (about 210 calories, 420 if I have a footlong, which I will usually do if I am going to have a light dinner);

Pollo Loco - 1 small pinto beans, mixed with 1 small spanish rice, and salsa (300 calories);

Taco Bell - 1 Fresco Bean Burrito (330 calories).

For dinners, my wife usually cooks something yummy but low calorie. Lots of soups, some lentils, some veggies, some burritos and soft tacos, some fruit, some salad, pretty good stuff.

[doc]

I had a belly but I cut out the beer and heavy pasta, not sure about the weight but I went from a 40 to a 38 waist.

[GreyOne]

Good job.

I think if everybody cut pop out of their diet, good things would happen.

Pop=Death

[Kyllikki]

I don't know, diet soda doesn't really have that much of an impact. I think it varies widely from person to person. For me, it's more liquid than i would get otherwise if i have a soda after lunch. But everybody responds differently.

Anyway, the last time i lost 35 pounds was when i first started using Fitday to track my food. I found a lot of bad habits i was totally unaware of, and dropped the weight in under a year. It was awesome.

Since then, since i've already dropped the bad habits, going back to Fitday has no effect on my food intake or weight :grumpy: but soon i will have my life back and be able to work out again. Obviously that is critical.

[Name Lips]

Most diet soda has zero calories. You can't gain weight with them. There are several reasons not to drink them, but weight gain isn't one of them.

[Schizm]

Most diet soda has zero calories. You can't gain weight with them. There are several reasons not to drink them, but weight gain isn't one of them.

Diet sodas have pretty much always made me vomit. People say you can't taste the difference... well, I have always been able to, then about a half hour after I drink the diet soda, it comes roaring back out.

Not Fun.

Which is why soda elimination is something I had to do.

[Name Lips]

Diet sodas have pretty much always made me vomit.
See? Another diet benefit! Drink one after every meal!

[Xavier Lang]

..People say you can't taste the difference...
I find that incredible. Diet Soda and regular taste vastly different. The best way to switch I've heard of is to mix them in the beginning so you get used to the new taste of the diet soda and slowly wean yourself from one to the other. I love the taste of Diet Coke now, but it was terribly bitter and nasty at first.

I find the difference between Diet Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper to be mild and easy to ignore, but there is a taste difference.

[Name Lips]

Diet Dr. Pepper isn't bad. I also don't mind Sprite Zero.

But the taste of artificial sweetener is really obvious to me. I can't see how anybody is unable to tell the difference. I hear the same thing about Splenda: "Tastes like sugar because it's made out of sugar!" Sorry, but it tastes like SHIT, not sugar. It's odd to me how the marketing department got the two confused, but hey, people make mistakes.

[Kyllikki]

Most diet soda has zero calories. You can't gain weight with them. There are several reasons not to drink them, but weight gain isn't one of them.

Except for that pesky detail of insulin resistance.

Insulin is triggered not just by actual sugar, but to a lesser extend by sweet flavours. So simply removing all sugar from one's diet and replacing it with splenda or stevia is not enough, you have to use exercise and fiber and caloric intake as well.

Some people respond very badly to diet sodas, obviously through differing biochemical mechanisms than they respond to sugar.

[Schizm]

Further Update:

I signed up for a gym, and as part of that process they weigh you: as of the 24th, I weighed in at 286.5 pounds. That means that In just a little over 2 months, I dropped a full thirty pounds.

On this, at least, I feel like I'm on the right track.

[Xavier Lang]

Further Update:

I signed up for a gym, and as part of that process they weigh you: as of the 24th, I weighed in at 286.5 pounds. That means that In just a little over 2 months, I dropped a full thirty pounds.

On this, at least, I feel like I'm on the right track.

Well done!

[Tetsubo]

My wife did a change of diet and exercise model of weight lose. Over a three year period she dropped sixty pounds. It was slow, but it worked.

[Ink Bleeder]

You're doing great, Lowell. Exercise is essential - I'm glad you got a gym membership.

[Lmik]

I joined weight watchers on the 3 of January this year weighing 315 pounds. Last week I was down to 251 pounds and my God it feels so much better. Over the past few months it has become apparent that eating fresh healthy food helps more than substituting diet soda and gum for what I used to yet. Walking the legs off our new dog most nights helps too.

Way to go Schism, Mistwell, Doc and Ainwell. One day we might all be able to sit next to each other in a theatre.

[Black Angel]

Lmik, that is a fantastic weight loss in what is really a fairly short space of time. Well done!