How ‘bout a weight loss challenge?
- Thread starter Lynn
- Start date
goodtimes
Expedition Poseur
the dude said:
I have a similar problem (not the home office...but the eating when bored...). To help combat that urge, I stopped buying any food that does not take some sort of preperation (several years ago), with the exception of fruit (which I don't usually care for...). No chips, no crackers, no candy, etc.
If I'm hungry, I have to cook something. So I often find myself staring into the fridge looking for something to eat (when I'm bored)...of course, there is nothing there, so I move on to the pantry....and there is nothing there either...so I end up with a glass of water, and I wander off somewhere else to look for something to do.
Of course, this hasn't really helped me lose any weight...but maybe it slows down the weight that I pack on.....
the dude
Adventurer
That's a great idea. I find myself doing the fridge stare...
The other thing that I am trying to do is get my 8 cups of water. It's not that bad for me as I gave up coffee and pop over a year ago so my water consumption is already pretty high.
I am also looking for better "snacks" recommendations. We are (my wife and I) suckers for nachos. We have tried to turn that into a cheese free event and make pico-de-gallo instead of using store bought salsa. We also try and supplement nachos chips with home made pita chips. Not sure if it is any better for me, but it sure tastes great!!! :sombrero:
I could go on about my chicken wing fetish, but that's for another post
Because I also travel a lot, eating out is a problem. Not sure how I am going to tackle that...
The other thing that I am trying to do is get my 8 cups of water. It's not that bad for me as I gave up coffee and pop over a year ago so my water consumption is already pretty high.
I am also looking for better "snacks" recommendations. We are (my wife and I) suckers for nachos. We have tried to turn that into a cheese free event and make pico-de-gallo instead of using store bought salsa. We also try and supplement nachos chips with home made pita chips. Not sure if it is any better for me, but it sure tastes great!!! :sombrero:
I could go on about my chicken wing fetish, but that's for another post
Because I also travel a lot, eating out is a problem. Not sure how I am going to tackle that...
silentsamurai
Explorer
#1 diet - most important
You need to be eating enough calories so that your body is not in survival mode!
If you starve yourself, you will lose muscle and gain fat.
(That basically means you should not deplete calories below your basic metabolic needs...i.e. BMR....which could be roughly figured as weight in pounds x 10.)
If you reduce calories drastically for extended periods of time you will lose muscle and improve your ability to gain fat. That means do not try to lose fat with caloric reduction for extended periods of time! (Unless you are prepping for a contest..then, you know you will lose some muscle along the way...and you should know how you will bulk up agian after.)
We know that 500 calories under your "maintenance" per day will get you -1 pound a week...if you lose more than 2 pounds a week, some will likely be muscle and water...so you have to decide what weight you want to lose. One might take 300 from diet and deplete 200 with exercise and cardio to begin.
You can even gain 1/3 to 1/2 a pound of muscle a week while dropping fat if you play it right!
And yes, when you know how it all works you CAN lose fat in a caloric surplus, while gaining muscle...but for now and for simplicity...lets just say you will either be gaining muscle or losing fat...lets think of them as mutually exclusive clubs for now (...until you understand the complexities!)
Before you can start to LOSE fat efficiently you need to get your metabolism (the rate your body uses calories) and your digestion optimized!!!
At least 4-6 meals a day! You must strive to eat every 3- 3 1/2 hours that you are awake.
Go to this post to figure your daily calories if you don't have a clue.
Calories needed per day for various goals <------ link for you to click
At the bottom of the post is a link to a spreadsheet/calculator that you can use... otherwise read it and estimate with the formula supplied.
Use the lowest figure in the maintenance range for you (do not adjust it!)...after a week you can adjust.
Basic meal:
A lean protein (3 oz Chicken/turkey/beef/soy...)
A vegetable (1/2 cup broccoli/green beans/peppers/ 2 cups salad...)
A complex carb source (1/2 cup Rice/quinoa/amaranth/oatmeal...sweet potato, potato...)
Sufficient good fat (from the protein and/or Fish oils, omega 3 oils, flax oils, nuts..)
To start off you are looking for:
Protein-15-25%,
carbohydrates-45-75%,
fat-10-30%
...of your total calories
The ideal range of protein for starting off is .7-.9 grams per pound of body weight.
If you are a light eater and meats sit like a brick in your tummy then go for the lower part of that range.
If you enjoy meats and could eat them many times in the day, and they give you energy...go for the higher end.
Target the fat % on the scale proportionate with the protein. Then inversely proportion the carbs to the protein.
It depends on your preferences and your body chemistry. Everyone IS different in the way they digest and use food. You have to work with it to find what gives you the most energy and power, focus and good feeling.
Yes, I am speaking from experience as a trainer. I assess clients for where to start their meals, then assign a diet and then we adjust based upon what we observe. This is what you will do for yourself.
Foods should be fresh whole foods. Carbs should be from veggies and non-processed starches (rice, baked sweet potato, potato, quinoa, amaranth...). Drop processed foods and sugars from your diet.
A word about sugar. Simply put, consuming sugar can lock fat stores in and speed the loss of muscle. Processed foods can have the same effect. Even fruit consumed by itself can have that effect. Milk is a sugar...so minimize dairy intake during a fat loss cycle. No matter what, if you do have a sugar (which is not optimal when the goal is fat loss) be sure it is accompanied by a lean whole food protein (not a powder.)
Experiment with different mixes...1 week strict per "experiment"!
I.E. (these are the extremes and represent points in a whole spectrum! They give you ideas of parts of the spectrum to explore)
The moderate protein type=
Protein-20%,
carbohydrates-65%,
fat-15%
High Protein type=
Protein-25%,
carbohydrates-45%,
fat-30%
High Carb type=
Protein-15%,
carbohydrates-75%,
fat-10%
Select the foods you will eat for each meal
i.e.
Meal 1
Oatmeal
Egg whites
Onion and mushroom
Flax oil
Meal 2
Whole grain Pita Bread
Turkey
Lettuce
spinach
tomato
Meal 3
Rice
Chicken
Green Beans
Meal 4
Quinoa
Beef
Peas, Carrots and celery, onions
(Meal 5)
Pre work out protein/BCAA/EAA
During workout carbs (unless you are aiming for below 10% BF)
Post Work out protein/BCAA/EAA
Meal 6
Baked Sweet Potato
Turkey
Broccoli
Then...Use fitday.com to plan meals to get what you need not just as a meal journal...it is free! Use fitday.com as a MEAL PLANNER..not just a journal. To help you tweak your diet into different mixes!
Go over each meal separately at first and get it to match what you want. Over time design more meals that fit your target meal so you have more and more choices! The real secret is to create a new meal every few days that fits your meal plan. After 2 months you have 20-30 meals to choose from and you can mix and match!
So you start with only a days worth...you eat the same thing for a week..believe me..you will learn how much you really need to lose fat!
Lets say you are 200 pounds and are needing to start with 2800 calories to lose. If you ate that every day for a week you could tell pretty clearly what it would take to lose the fat you want!
Try to go easy on salts and avoid sugars, they sit under the skin right on the stomach!
Decrease breads and pastas replacing them with brown rice and yams, focus on getting fibrous veggies for carbs, like broccoli, green beans, greens etc. into every meal.
You need to be eating enough calories so that your body is not in survival mode!
If you starve yourself, you will lose muscle and gain fat.
(That basically means you should not deplete calories below your basic metabolic needs...i.e. BMR....which could be roughly figured as weight in pounds x 10.)
If you reduce calories drastically for extended periods of time you will lose muscle and improve your ability to gain fat. That means do not try to lose fat with caloric reduction for extended periods of time! (Unless you are prepping for a contest..then, you know you will lose some muscle along the way...and you should know how you will bulk up agian after.)
We know that 500 calories under your "maintenance" per day will get you -1 pound a week...if you lose more than 2 pounds a week, some will likely be muscle and water...so you have to decide what weight you want to lose. One might take 300 from diet and deplete 200 with exercise and cardio to begin.
You can even gain 1/3 to 1/2 a pound of muscle a week while dropping fat if you play it right!
And yes, when you know how it all works you CAN lose fat in a caloric surplus, while gaining muscle...but for now and for simplicity...lets just say you will either be gaining muscle or losing fat...lets think of them as mutually exclusive clubs for now (...until you understand the complexities!)
Before you can start to LOSE fat efficiently you need to get your metabolism (the rate your body uses calories) and your digestion optimized!!!
At least 4-6 meals a day! You must strive to eat every 3- 3 1/2 hours that you are awake.
Go to this post to figure your daily calories if you don't have a clue.
Calories needed per day for various goals <------ link for you to click
At the bottom of the post is a link to a spreadsheet/calculator that you can use... otherwise read it and estimate with the formula supplied.
Use the lowest figure in the maintenance range for you (do not adjust it!)...after a week you can adjust.
Basic meal:
A lean protein (3 oz Chicken/turkey/beef/soy...)
A vegetable (1/2 cup broccoli/green beans/peppers/ 2 cups salad...)
A complex carb source (1/2 cup Rice/quinoa/amaranth/oatmeal...sweet potato, potato...)
Sufficient good fat (from the protein and/or Fish oils, omega 3 oils, flax oils, nuts..)
To start off you are looking for:
Protein-15-25%,
carbohydrates-45-75%,
fat-10-30%
...of your total calories
The ideal range of protein for starting off is .7-.9 grams per pound of body weight.
If you are a light eater and meats sit like a brick in your tummy then go for the lower part of that range.
If you enjoy meats and could eat them many times in the day, and they give you energy...go for the higher end.
Target the fat % on the scale proportionate with the protein. Then inversely proportion the carbs to the protein.
It depends on your preferences and your body chemistry. Everyone IS different in the way they digest and use food. You have to work with it to find what gives you the most energy and power, focus and good feeling.
Yes, I am speaking from experience as a trainer. I assess clients for where to start their meals, then assign a diet and then we adjust based upon what we observe. This is what you will do for yourself.
Foods should be fresh whole foods. Carbs should be from veggies and non-processed starches (rice, baked sweet potato, potato, quinoa, amaranth...). Drop processed foods and sugars from your diet.
A word about sugar. Simply put, consuming sugar can lock fat stores in and speed the loss of muscle. Processed foods can have the same effect. Even fruit consumed by itself can have that effect. Milk is a sugar...so minimize dairy intake during a fat loss cycle. No matter what, if you do have a sugar (which is not optimal when the goal is fat loss) be sure it is accompanied by a lean whole food protein (not a powder.)
Experiment with different mixes...1 week strict per "experiment"!
I.E. (these are the extremes and represent points in a whole spectrum! They give you ideas of parts of the spectrum to explore)
The moderate protein type=
Protein-20%,
carbohydrates-65%,
fat-15%
High Protein type=
Protein-25%,
carbohydrates-45%,
fat-30%
High Carb type=
Protein-15%,
carbohydrates-75%,
fat-10%
Select the foods you will eat for each meal
i.e.
Meal 1
Oatmeal
Egg whites
Onion and mushroom
Flax oil
Meal 2
Whole grain Pita Bread
Turkey
Lettuce
spinach
tomato
Meal 3
Rice
Chicken
Green Beans
Meal 4
Quinoa
Beef
Peas, Carrots and celery, onions
(Meal 5)
Pre work out protein/BCAA/EAA
During workout carbs (unless you are aiming for below 10% BF)
Post Work out protein/BCAA/EAA
Meal 6
Baked Sweet Potato
Turkey
Broccoli
Then...Use fitday.com to plan meals to get what you need not just as a meal journal...it is free! Use fitday.com as a MEAL PLANNER..not just a journal. To help you tweak your diet into different mixes!
Go over each meal separately at first and get it to match what you want. Over time design more meals that fit your target meal so you have more and more choices! The real secret is to create a new meal every few days that fits your meal plan. After 2 months you have 20-30 meals to choose from and you can mix and match!
So you start with only a days worth...you eat the same thing for a week..believe me..you will learn how much you really need to lose fat!
Lets say you are 200 pounds and are needing to start with 2800 calories to lose. If you ate that every day for a week you could tell pretty clearly what it would take to lose the fat you want!
Try to go easy on salts and avoid sugars, they sit under the skin right on the stomach!
Decrease breads and pastas replacing them with brown rice and yams, focus on getting fibrous veggies for carbs, like broccoli, green beans, greens etc. into every meal.
silentsamurai
Explorer
This is a work in progress describing how to lose fat while sparing muscle (and even gaining muscle if you play right)
A few answers...
"Should I cut first or bulk first?"
If you are asking this then the answer is that you need to be able to GAIN muscle before you can LOSE fat. You need to kick up your metabolism (the rate your body uses energy) before you get to the business of fat loss.
"Can I just do more cardio to lose fat?"
No. Excess cardio can actually cause muscle loss. Muscle is the site in the body where fat is burned. Lose muscle and you cripple your ability to burn fat. Lets clear the air on what "lose fat" means. Fat loss can be described as a 3-step process in the body. First you have to liberate fat from a fat cell, then you have to transport the fat to a muscle, then the fat has to be burned in the muscle. Liberate means that the chemical environment in the body has to be right for fat release. That means your diet must include enough of the right foods so your pancreas is producing the right chemicals and so your body and brain think you know how to take care of them. Transport means that the systems of transport are healthy and vibrant and the demand for energy is high (that is called metabolism, which we create!!) Burned means that muscle, where fat is burned in the body (that basically means muscle IS metabolism), is demanding energy on an ongoing basis. Challenging muscle through progressive resistance training will do this...especially during the hours when you are not in the gym.
"Can I lose fat if I have a slow metabolism"
Metabolism is the rate your body uses energy (known as calories.) We create our metabolism. We train our body to be better and better at burning energy. So, yes. You can take responsibility and retrain your body.
INFO BY DAN WHITTAKER
A few answers...
"Should I cut first or bulk first?"
If you are asking this then the answer is that you need to be able to GAIN muscle before you can LOSE fat. You need to kick up your metabolism (the rate your body uses energy) before you get to the business of fat loss.
"Can I just do more cardio to lose fat?"
No. Excess cardio can actually cause muscle loss. Muscle is the site in the body where fat is burned. Lose muscle and you cripple your ability to burn fat. Lets clear the air on what "lose fat" means. Fat loss can be described as a 3-step process in the body. First you have to liberate fat from a fat cell, then you have to transport the fat to a muscle, then the fat has to be burned in the muscle. Liberate means that the chemical environment in the body has to be right for fat release. That means your diet must include enough of the right foods so your pancreas is producing the right chemicals and so your body and brain think you know how to take care of them. Transport means that the systems of transport are healthy and vibrant and the demand for energy is high (that is called metabolism, which we create!!) Burned means that muscle, where fat is burned in the body (that basically means muscle IS metabolism), is demanding energy on an ongoing basis. Challenging muscle through progressive resistance training will do this...especially during the hours when you are not in the gym.
"Can I lose fat if I have a slow metabolism"
Metabolism is the rate your body uses energy (known as calories.) We create our metabolism. We train our body to be better and better at burning energy. So, yes. You can take responsibility and retrain your body.
INFO BY DAN WHITTAKER
silentsamurai
Explorer
#5 the basics
- Start a journal to keep all the informatin in and take notes!
- Keep the resistance training under an hour
- Do not over train
- Don't miss a meal.
- Don't go low carb on us (until you absolutely know what you are doing)
- 12-15 cups water minimum a day!!! (your weight x .55 in ounces)
- Don't let your calories get behind your muscle gains.
- Multivitamin to support growth!
- 8 hours sleep a night
- Avoid artificial additives (flavorings, coloring, preservatives) in foods
- Cut out processed foods
- Start a journal to keep all the informatin in and take notes!
- Keep the resistance training under an hour
- Do not over train
- Don't miss a meal.
- Don't go low carb on us (until you absolutely know what you are doing)
- 12-15 cups water minimum a day!!! (your weight x .55 in ounces)
- Don't let your calories get behind your muscle gains.
- Multivitamin to support growth!
- 8 hours sleep a night
- Avoid artificial additives (flavorings, coloring, preservatives) in foods
- Cut out processed foods
silentsamurai
Explorer
yea, Dan whittaker is very well liked in the industry. I myself am 6'2 151 currecntly, and thanks to him im building about 1lb of muslce per week and gorwing on a daily basis.
eating every 2-3 hours is crutial! even when losing weight. so 5-6 meals a day, count your calories and stick with it. You'll be seeing results in no time.
eating every 2-3 hours is crutial! even when losing weight. so 5-6 meals a day, count your calories and stick with it. You'll be seeing results in no time.
jeeperaz
Observer
I'm in. 6'2" and 240lbs. Turning 41 this october.
I look and feel like crap. No energy, no drive.
Plan of attack:
1. Exercise! My job does not require me to leave the house so I sit on my *** all day.
2. No crap food in the house. I have little self control when it comes to chocolate.
My normal diet isn't too terrible and only needs some slight tinkering.
Goal:
215lbs and to become an avid hiker again.
I look and feel like crap. No energy, no drive.
Plan of attack:
1. Exercise! My job does not require me to leave the house so I sit on my *** all day.
2. No crap food in the house. I have little self control when it comes to chocolate.
My normal diet isn't too terrible and only needs some slight tinkering.
Goal:
215lbs and to become an avid hiker again.
imagodave
Adventurer
I'm in.
48 Y/O 5' 10" was 260 3 weeks ago, now 245, of all things I started eating Breakfast and am loosing weight, go figure.
Always a big chest with a 6 pack around 200, now a kegger with 3 chins. Amazing what back to back motorcycle accidents does to your mobility and activity levels.
Dave
48 Y/O 5' 10" was 260 3 weeks ago, now 245, of all things I started eating Breakfast and am loosing weight, go figure.
Always a big chest with a 6 pack around 200, now a kegger with 3 chins. Amazing what back to back motorcycle accidents does to your mobility and activity levels.
Dave
Spikepretorius
Explorer
So......which day of the week is the official weigh-in?
Spikepretorius said:
I was leaving that up to each participant. I plan on Tuesdays.
I think if we each choose it will keep the thread more lively throughout the week, as a constant reminder to all of us.
Since we got a late start this month, and are trying to figure out what works, I kind of see this month as a trial period (but don't anyone use that as an excuse to slack off!). So if people would prefer a specific day, or have other ideas, we can always implement them for next month.
So, who's first? Who had Monday?
Addited: I see that you added it to your sig. That's a great idea! And glad to see you're making progress!
