stalkingbear's Journal, 25 June 2015

keep going! 

What you're doing is working, keep up the good work!! 

Hard boiled eggs will make less mess in the cooking process and less calories (from the oil) Don't salt them unless you are watching your sodium intake.  

Try not to do a cheat day - just try a cheat meal. Did I read that right - 6 steaks? 

you've apparently never been to the golden corral soonsoonsoon. my twig hubby eats like 10 of them. smallest steak in whole world. o.O i wouldnt even count the steak because its meat. cheat days help me too, if I try to just do a cheat meal then I just end up on a cheating spree that never ends with anything but failure. 

Why would you not count meat? Your only cheating yourself if you don't. Every calorie counts and needs to be counted. 

I think one cheat day a month is very reasonable, and I know what you mean about the guilt feelings, I get momentum from that too. Stick with it, you're doing great!! 

one trick that has helped me is to have my cheat day be anything but food (a new piece of clothing, a nap, a pedicure-maybe not for you:), but the point is, a non-food indulgence. good luck, rooting for you 

Interesting advice Nicole. I like it. 

Protein and fat works differently in your body than carbs - where i definitely ever calorie counts. I would take 6 steaks over say, 2 rolls, anytime. calories don't always matter per say, it's what you're getting calories from and how your body is going to use those calories, burn or store. With steaks its going to try harder to use it, 6 - whatever kind of carbs that AREN'T non-starchy veggies, it's going to immediately process as sugar and store it as fat if you're not using it for fuel to run a marathon. For us OBESE people, not y'all trying to lose 40-50lbs we have to remind our bodies how to burn fat instead of getting confused and storing carbs. What the calories come from matters more than the amount of calories because your body is made to process them differently. NOT ALL CALORIES ARE THE SAME. Calories in/out matters. And what we (people with a lot of weight to lose) need is a LIFESTYLE CHANGE because that's the only way it's going to stay off. You can't be calorie counting OCD with an ED forever unless you're already naturally that way, your brain is programmed that way. Calories out over calories in isn't going to work for everyone either. And as bigger people we naturally burn more calories just sitting around than a smaller person at the gym, which will change as we lose weight and that will be part of the lifestyle change, changing portions smaller as the weight goes lower to accommodate different amounts needs for losing or maintaining. Which is why a big person can lose 15-20 pounds in two weeks just walking until they get to a different weight level where that slows without more intense exercise. There's a lot more than just calories to think about, and every body functions differently. 

try the ketogenic diet 

Calories are all that matter (when simply wanting to lose weight). Maintain a caloric defecit and you will lose weight. 

Calories are calories, it doesn't matter what they come from. A calorie is a unit of energy. That unit is no different if it comes from pasta or beef. Otherwise there would be no point in using calories as a metric for anything. "The large calorie, kilogram calorie, dietary calorie, nutritionist's calorie, nutritional calorie, Calorie (capital C)[2] or food calorie (symbol: Cal) is approximately the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. The large calorie is thus equal to 1000 small calories or one kilocalorie (symbol: kcal)." 

Thank yall for all the good ideas! I'm on a very limited fixed income so I can't buy a lot of the diet food available or I have to buy Walmart brand instead of weight watchers. I used to bodybuild when younger so I do know a bit about nutrition. At 1 time (wayyyy back when) I had 27" upper arms & neck, 54" chest and 36" waist lol. Anyway I know that it's harder for your digestive system to turn protein into fat than complex carbohydrates, and simple are easiest other than fat. I might drop my once a month cheat day to meal. According to all the charts I can find, they say my body burns at least 2,200-2,500 calories per day so considering I cannot boost my metabolism rate I'll have to take in a max of 1,200 calories per day (my estimate). 

Not bad, but you may want to up that to 1600 or you may start feeling tired. Remeber, it doesn't matter where those calories come from as long as you stay at the 1600 (or 1200) a day. The importance is the amount of calories, not the source. 

Also, as a former body builder, something to keep in mind is that muscle burns more calories to maintain than fat and rebuilding muscle is easier than starting thin. So if you got back into some light lifting, that would increase your rate of fat loss nicely. 

Also, what calc did you use to determine your maintenance level? Because if much of your weight is muscle, that can skew the number a bit. 

Illdill is right here. Queenrilly1, I can appreciate where you're coming from but I'm not sure you understand the mechanism of action that low carb diets assist with. At the end of the day, it does boil down to energy expenditure. It isn't that your body stores carbs and burns fat. It's that your body stores excess energy (be that protein, carbs, or fat) as fat. By going on something like a ketogenic diet, you're helping with things like satiation, which can help you achieve the caloric deficit you're looking for to lose the weight. If your TDEE is 3000 calories and you consume 3500 calories worth of steak alone, I promise you you will put on weight. 

I understand about nutrition and the different classes of foods pretty good. When I was in my early 20s my upper arms and neck was a matching 27" and 54" chest back when I was bodybuilding. Back then I consumed 5,000 calories per day, with 300 grams of protein per day, and my bodyfat was extremely low. I've been doing great on calorie count per day but it's HARD to hold it down to just 1,200 calories per day. I do know that when you exceed the calorie count of intake vs burn you gain weight. I also know that only will you gain is if you take in more than you burn (put in different wording). Protein is hardest for your body to convert to fat, followed by complex carbs, and simple carbs is easiest to convert to fat, of course fat can be directly transferred if you take in too many calories. I arrived at the figure of 1,200 calories per day because I'm disabled now and cannot exercise ANY whatsoever so I took the lowest calorie figure from the chart of what a 6'1" man burns without exercise, then dropped it more because of my inactivity, age, body size, and low metabolism. I've lost another 11 pounds since my last post but expect to hit the wall pretty soon. Then I'll have to lower total daily calorie count further, or figure out a way to exercise without moving my core, which kills my back. I have SEVERE back problems after several spinal surgeries & fusions, the last fusion didn't "take" too good, and also I fell about 2 years ago and landed dead on the edge of a concrete step, breaking loose a prior fusion that had healed properly before. Now every step I take I can feel grinding & grating, and my back & pain management drs said I'm doing more permanent damage. They won't attempt to fix my back until I've lost quite a bit of weight, telling me that on heavier people their instruments have to be longer to reach, and they lose leverage & precision, making it too risky with me at 368#. They have to refuse 5 vertebrae, so it's going to be major. 

I'm NOT trying to sound like I know everything there is to know, not by a LONG shot! I'm just saying I do have a rough understanding of the different processes, and not starting at the most basic level. I DO welcome ALL posts of advise, encouragement, and critique. I'm POSITIVE yall know a LOT more than this ol redneck! Please keep em coming!!!!!