buttercreambunny

Joined October 2010

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Weight History

Start Weight

154.3 lb

Lost so far: 2.9 lb

Current Weight

157.2 lb
Performance: gaining 0.7 lb a week

Goal Weight

143.3 lb

Still to go: 13.9 lb

buttercreambunny's Weight History

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buttercreambunny's Latest Member Challenges

285

I'm Losing 10 lbs. by Christmas Challenge

status:	Completed
ended:	28 Dec 10
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Hydrate challenge!

status:	Completed
ended:	03 Jan 11
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Following

	greg4God
	last weighin: losing 0.5 lb a week

	stacy robbins
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buttercreambunny's Cookbook

cals: 76kcal | fat: 3.96g | carbs: 9.13g | prot: 3.03g

Lemon Broccoli Salad

A perfect summer side dish with a satisfying crunch and a hint of sweet and sour that works perfectly with grilled burgers or chicken.

cals: 188kcal | fat: 10.04g | carbs: 24.27g | prot: 3.91g

Fruited Honey Bran Muffins

Lovely moist muffins, with delicious banana honey flavors.

cals: 123kcal | fat: 2.45g | carbs: 22.92g | prot: 2.53g

Zesty Lemon Bars

A zesty lemon square on a shortbread type crust with reduced amounts of butter and sugar to reduce the calories.

cals: 50kcal | fat: 0.16g | carbs: 13.52g | prot: 0.28g

Spiced Apple Chips

Delicious homemade dried apple chips.

cals: 48kcal | fat: 0.27g | carbs: 9.40g | prot: 2.57g

Peach Souffle

A light, practically fat free heavenly dessert.

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buttercreambunny's Latest Posts

I feel hungry all the time
Hi,

I'm not really sure how to advise you as fully as I can as I can't see your weight stats or food/exercise diary. What I would say is to be careful of overly cutting down portions, especially if you're hungry.

It is far better to think of food as fuel, and to use that fuel appropriately. For example, heavy weight training allows you to eat a lot more food, because it requires that food in order to fuel both the work out and the muscle growth.

You can get great advice from bodybuilding forums, if you're not sure where to start. And, no, you don't have to be an expert to start or to ask for advice. 'Lifters' are (generally) a friendly bunch. Also, your gym will be able to induct you and give you advice on proper form, which is import to avoid injury. (Don't presume everyone in the weights room knows what they're doing!)

I'm also not sure if you're a man or a woman. If you're a lady, please don't feel intimated by lifting weights. It's great for building lean muscle (so you look toned), and the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. You won't end up 'bulky' (unless you choose to use steroids or eat 10,000 calories a day) but your muscles will become denser and stronger. If you're a guy, then your prerogative might be different - maybe muscle size and strength. These things, regardless of gender, are affected by how much you eat, what you eat, and how you train.

Weight training is great for helping build strong bones and strengthening ligaments and tendons, so it's really beneficial if you're a bit older and are worried about mobility. It also also a good thing to start when you're young, as it will also prevent damage and wear and tear as you age.

Lifting also helps prevent injury from cardio training, especially running. So it's good to combine the two. Again, I'm not sure what exercise you do, but your cardio sessions may be affecting your appetite because you're not re-fueling properly.

So, speaking of food. Generally speaking, you want to eat carbs straight after cardio and protein after weight training. Maybe a banana or toast after a run, and some tuna or eggs after a weight training session.
Both interval/circuit type, and weight training exercises will increase your metabolism. You should go with this. Don't starve yourself for fear of eating too much. Your metabolism will slow down if you do, which is not going to help you. Remember, food is fuel. Therefore, aim to eat every 3-4 hours, to keep you satified, even something small, so your metabolism stays revving and you lose fat without losing muscle.
Walking and swimming are great lower intensity exercises, but don't forget to push your pace so your heart rate increases.

It is WHAT you eat that really matters.

***Cut down on sugar, processed fats and carbohydrates, and alcohol***
(No more than 40g of added sugar a day).

These will spike cravings, leading you to over eat, and make you fat. There is very little cause to eat glucose. Such mainly involves a need for a sudden spurt of energy, maybe for sprinting.

Eat lean protein, lots of vegetables, some fruits, whole grains, nuts, cold pressed oils, avocado, eggs, and dairy. Don't cut out carbs (but think about when you need them - eat them in the first half of the day, or after a workout, to either fuel you for the rest of the day or to refuel your muscles) and don't eat too much fat, even 'good fats'. Fats are better eaten later in the day, as they aren't sourced directly for energy by your body unlike carbs, but are important in muscle repair, brain function and keeping you satiated during the night (which is effectively a fast). Protein is important all through the day.

***WATER!!!***

So my advice would be:
1. Split your meals, maybe 5 or 6 smaller meals well spaced out in the day.
2. Eat carbs and protein before noon.
3. Eat fats and protein after noon.
4. Don't cut carbs, but pick the right ones at the right time - whole grains, whole wheat (bread, pasta), oats, sweet potato, quinoa, fruits and starchy veggies (sweetcorn, carrots, peppers, legumes [peas, lentils, beans]).
5. Eat enough protein, but keep animal products lean - chicken, turkey, white fish, lean red meat, egg whites. The exceptions to this would be the important fats found in oily fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel), and egg yolks.
6. Choose 'good fats' to keep you satisfied - avocado, nuts, olive oil.
7. Avoid sugar as much as you can, even in 'diet food'. Same goes for salt.
8. Fill up on veggies, side salads, water and vegetable broths. If you've worked out a good balance of foods and you're eating enough to fuel your day, but you're still hungry then these foods can help. (Veggies are great for adding fibre [don't do this too quickly if your diet is low, but aim for about 25-30g a day) and filling you up. Anything watery will also fill you up. However, if you've got your carbs, fat and protein right, you should be pretty satisfied.
9. Exercise.
10. Give yourself a treat once or twice a week.

All the best.

posted 23 Feb 2014, 13:25

EVERYONES TODAY WILL BE...
Your mind will quit a thousand times before your body does!

Really gets me through workouts. Your body can endure so much more than you realise. If you want to see results, you have to push it beyond your own doubt. This motto really helps to evaluate cravings - is it my mind or my body that wants that cake? Usually it's my mind!

posted 23 Feb 2014, 12:36

Is eliminating sugar all one needs to do to loose weight?
I would say that you will get to a certain point and your weight loss will peeter out. In my experience, nothing beats what body builders and weight trainers call 'clean-eating'. It sounds like something faddy, but it is basically avoiding sugar (so easy for you already), processed carbohydrates, lots of fat and too much fruit. The principle is that you eat lean protein, eggs, low fat dairy, whole wheat and whole grains (pasta, brown rice, oats, not too much bread), colourful veggies, sweet potatoes, a little fruit, nuts, olive oil, avocado, and beans. What you're looking for is not to calorie count as such, but to make sure you're eating the right amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein to fuel you. You can figure this out with simple calculations - find your BMR (basal metabolic rate - how many calories you burn at rest), and then depending on your activity level, add in more protein, fats and carbs. If you are always on your feet, then you will need carbs, if you're a woman or slightly older, then don't cut out too much fat, if you do weight training, then protein is important. Take a little time to research it. While weight-training combined with a little of some sort of interval cardio training (even just walking to jogging to walking again, repeated works well) really is the best exercise to get in to, you have to keep your diet in check, as it accounts for about 70-80% of your results. Anyway, I hope that's introduced the idea to you, and maybe you'll have a bit of time to look into it and see if it will fit in with you. Its good because it doesn't really involve buying any fancy foods or supplements, everything you need just comes from normal food, as long as its not ready meals or overly processed.

posted 26 Dec 2013, 03:10

‎"Americans are fat and sick because they eat too much and don't exercise enough." - n
Wow!

This is an interesting thread. While I'd like to suggest that Mlasell is actually somewhat correct regarding 'good' and 'bad' calories, I think that their insistence on looking up someone's food/exercise diaries and throwing it in their face is not. It's just plain rude and inappropriate.

I have been trying for many years to get away from being thin, to being fit, strong and healthy, and I can testify that it has actually done wonders for my diet, calorie intake, fitness, bone & cardiovascular health, and general appearance.

However, I don't believe that trying to apply your own rules to the general 'Americans' is useful. But, since the rest of you have done it, then please allow me my 'two cents'.

During years of disordered eating, I still ate extremely healthy food which seems predominantly naturally low in calories- vegetables, fruit, eggs, meat, fish, nuts, and seeds. I tried to survive without complex carbohydrates, on roughly 800 calories a day, while exercising heavily. Did this make me thin? Did it hell!
It made me sad, lonely, obsessed and unhealthy.

I met a boyfriend who introduced me to something closer to a body builder's diet. Still the same as before, still relatively low in carbohydrates, but I did include things like whole wheat pasta, oats, brown rice, whole grain seeded bread and sweet potato, as I needed the energy. Those were my carbohydrate choices as they suited me and gave variety to my diet. For some, understandably, they might prefer a gluten free option.
I was weight training 4 times a week, and running 3-4 times a week/doing circuit training type classes. The nature of this exercise is simply put that it doesn't just burn the calories needed to do the exercise, but then requires your body to continuously burn calories for up to 24 hours after the exercise was done. I was eating closer to 2400 calories - I was nearly always hungry - I could have eaten more without putting on fat. But most importantly, I wasn't actually focused on losing weight. I was focused on gaining strong, useful muscle.

As someone said, a lot of FS members just want to get slimmer, but you don't have to become an athlete to be concerned with whether you're a slim person with a high body fat percentage, versus a larger person whose body is muscly. A lot of people want to look toned and to be able to go about their daily life without getting out of breath or sweating profusely and for that you will need exercise, and specific types of exercise at that. Exercise smart, not excessively.

Anyway, back to rambling, I still lost 5kg within 2 months. Bearing in mind, I am pretty tall, very active and do not have a huge body fat percentage, this was a lot. But that only equated to a dress size less, maybe even half a dress size. However, I was so much leaner, fitter and glowing. My body fat went down about 4%. I was eating things with sugar and wheat and dairy, but choosing them carefully and moderating them - ie fruit sugars, whole grains, and lower fat dairy options (I'm skeptical about low fat, but I more mean avoiding hard cheese and creams, not choosing wholly non-fat).

A lot of body builders have the view that 70-90% of achieving your goals is diet, which is why they often still choose their calories from 'good' food, and include food that is the optimum to fuel them to do this - foods for energy, muscle production, muscle repair, bone health, joint health and peace of mind Sweets, processed grains and meats, 'diet' foods, and ready meals are not conducive to this.

I think that those are the keys to good nutrition and they involve the right fuel and the right exercise to produce the optimum.

A 24 year old and a 57 year old cannot give specific advice to cater for everyone else in the world, so you will need to tailor those aspects to yourself.
Yes, it is correct that older people tend to need less carbohydrate and more fat and fibre in their diet. Men need more protein than women due to higher muscle mass, children need more fat, carbohydrates but less sugar, women need more fat than men. Even so, that is too simple - start breaking those things down into types of fat, nutrients, vitamins, types of energy to get a truly useful diet plan. Look at how some vitamins are best absorbed, and when/why it is useful to consume them.

And remember that your food is fuel for your body to do things - to swim, to run, to work, to read, to walk, to breathe, to play, to sleep etc, and that that part of the equation is just as important.

So yes, it is not just calories - although they are a useful basic measure - it is what state is your body in and what do you want to use it for, that should determine your own personal lifestyle.

And by the way, as I know it will come up when whoever looks at my diet calendar - I badly sprained my ankle in May, and despite trying to maintain a useful diet, without the exercise, I have found few results, and have become flabby and miserable, craving sugar and salt.

They do work together.

posted 24 Nov 2012, 09:54

too much fiber?
Try LOTS more water to help keep things moving. Maybe cut your fibre intake a little, start with 25g, then up to 30, then 40, 50, etc, and gradually incorporate as much as you wish to take in. Sometimes a cup of strong black coffee on an empty stomach helps me go to the toilet more frequently, if that is an issue. Eating a little bit of fat, like in cheese, nuts, oils, and eggs/meat/fish also helps you digest the nutrients from the fruit and veggies better. In general, I've found that doing exercise (like jogging, weight training, calisthenics and dancing - basically something that is moderate intensity but that gets your muscles warm and makes you sweat) really helps with bloating, as does not going to bed on a full stomach. Also, fibre comes in things like bread, oats, brown rice, beans/legumes and whole grains, so make sure you don't neglect this side of your diet, in balance with fruits and veggies, fats and protein.
Hope this helps.

posted 10 Oct 2012, 17:32

buttercreambunny has submitted 5 posts