Important loss of weight and how to best manage it

[Do Make Say Think]

Hey everyone,

Ran into heartbreak while I had started a more intense workout routine: I picked up smoking again, basically almost entirely stopped eating but have kept going to the gym twice a week and have managed to lose about 30 pounds in two months and 8% body fat: I am 6'3, 32 years old and now at 217 pounds and 21,5% body fat.

I'm starting to get better over the mess but I have heard some say that my loss of weight is going to be hard to manage. I still work out and generally feel great when I do (sleepless nights every now and then really hurt) and need to keep going.

Anybody ever go through something similar? What are the pitfalls to avoid in order to not put it all back on?

Thanks

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[Mrb1p]

Looks like a case that would be better served by a professional.

30 pounds is no small loss.

 

[Jim Bob]

Anybody ever go through something similar? What are the pitfalls to avoid in order to not put it all back on?

Thanks

The tough part is that the way you lost the weight wasn't the healthiest approach.

In general, the key is to find a steady workout and diet routine that you can stick with for a long time.

As soon as you have a poor diet 2+ days every week and you are working out less and less, the weight will come back and you will likely end up weighing more than before.

There is no easy fix for losing weight and then maintaining that weight loss. It's all about making good choices consistently over the long haul.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Thanks!

For what it's worth the little I have been eating is meat and vegetables so there's that.

 

[Jim Bob]

Thanks!

For what it's worth the little I have been eating is meat and vegetables so there's that.

Making quality choices on what to eat is half of the diet equation. The other part is eating the right amount of foods.

And it's a delicate balance because if you eat too much, you put weight on. If you eat way too little, your metabolism shuts down due to your body going into starvation mode, and you can see weight gain happen even in what should be a caloric deficit.

As long as you feel good and your body is either maintaining (if you like where you are at) or improving (if that is your goal), then all is good.

If not, try making subtle tweaks to get things moving in the right direction.

Good luck!

 

[1972]

Making quality choices on what to eat is half of the diet equation. The other part is eating the right amount of foods.

And it's a delicate balance because if you eat too much, you put weight on. If you eat way too little, your metabolism shuts down due to your body going into starvation mode, and you can see weight gain happen even in what should be a caloric deficit.

As long as you feel good and your body is either maintaining (if you like where you are at) or improving (if that is your goal), then all is good.

If not, try making subtle tweaks to get things moving in the right direction.

Good luck!

Hasn't that kinda been proven as false?

 

[Jim Bob]

Hasn't that kinda been proven as false?

Well, my wife would disagree. Long before she met me, she went on a super low calorie diet to lose weight. And now her metabolism is super messed up.

I just lost 25 pounds over the last 12 weeks. She was pretty much eating the same I was the past six weeks, except that she ate maybe 1/2 of the calories I did. And she saw only minimal changes.

Her body just holds onto the fat and she believes it is because of her previous crash diet.

For me, the key is more about eating as many foods with just one ingredient in them (chicken, broccoli, apples, almonds, etc.), just drink water and black coffee, and really be careful about calorie dense foods with one ingredient (nuts, seeds, and dried fruit or meat).





This is some good stuff, although perhaps a bit NSFW. They do drop a swear word every now and again.

http://www.eattoperform.com/2013/09/08/secret-to-dieting/

“Eat Less/Do More†or “The Danger Zoneâ€

By far the least effective and most harmful way to approach fat loss is the “eat less/do more†model. Unfortunately, a lot of fat loss advocates champion this approach. They have a great fall back plan when their systems don’t work too – they blame it on their clients. This is nothing but a cop-out. Let me explain why.

You aren’t eating, and you’re engaged in some manner of extreme exercise, but the scale ain’t moving. You asked your “diet guru†to just “tell you what to eatâ€, so they did and now you’re starving, you’re crabby all the time, and you can’t get to sleep, let alone STAY asleep. You wake up in the middle of the night and you follow your instincts; you EAT. This is of course followed by feelings of guilt, because you’re not midnight snacking on chicken and broccoli – you go for the stuff you know will work, the energy dense stuff like ice cream, PB n’ J, and cold pizza.

That’s when your “diet guru†openly questions your resolve. They point to the four people on the wall that “made it.†“Made it†is of course relative because many people that lose weight this way end up looking like a smaller version of their heavier selves – they end up skinny fat. More importantly, it doesn’t stick for a lot of folks because they weren’t taught how to sustain their results. This is why I find it ironic when someone that is heavy says to me “the only thing that has ever worked for me was Weight Watchers and being activeâ€. In my opinion, they are wrong; the magic happened after they got off Weight Watchers and started to eat again. What truly worked was the process of dieting and then rebounding. It’s sort of like sayig “the hammer did all of the work†when nail and wood are integral parts to the equation.