How to diet and stay healthy

[Meowster]

I'm not asking for advice for once. I'm actually posting this up in case any of you guys are interested in losing weight.

I've put on a bit of weight the past few years. I'm not overweight (far from it at 5''9 and 130lbs), but I don't like the way what fat I do have is distributed across my body (some people are lucky and get weight gain in their hips and breasts, I get it in my face, arms etc…). I also want to make sure I keep my weight in check, and that it doesn't slowly creep into fatness as I get older...

I didn't really know how to diet correctly and healthily, and when I did attempt to diet, my lack of knowledge would ultimately end in failure. My ‘diets' would last a week, then I'd give up because there was no sign of weight loss, and the weight would go back on… and then some.

I finally buckled down and did a little bit of research and it's all paid off. It's not even hard, it just required a little knowledge of how the human body works, and a couple of really useful internet tools.

I know that there are probably many AGSers out there who want to lose weight, so I thought I'd share this knowledge with you. So, here goes.



The first thing you should do is check out you BMI or Body Mass Index.

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

Input your weight and height and the calculator will tell you your BMI. Hopefully it should be in the healthy range. You can use this to help you assess your goal weight.

Once you've assessed you goal weight, go to this website:

www.calorie-count.com

It's free to sign up and use, and very, very useful! You can record what food you've eaten for each day. It has the nutritional information of pretty much every food available, so when you record what foods you've eaten, it will total up the amount of fat and calories you've had for the day. It will also give you an overall nutritional grade.

It's more useful than that though. It helps you to set a goal weight within a realistic time, for a start! It also shows you your weight loss using a graph, which is very, very encouraging. It's not always easy to see the weight as you are slowly losing it day by day, so it's very reassuring to see a steady loss on your graph.

As for a diet, I've found one that is easy to stick by, fairly healthy, and works. It's called the Cleaveland Clinic Diet:

http://diet-plans.featherish.com/diet-plans/cleveland-clinic-diet/cleveland-clinic-diet.html

The idea of the diet is that for three/four days a week you follow the diet, and then eat normally for the other days (although obviously don't overdo it with loads of junk food and soda). It works (apparently) using a chemical breakdown thingy... who knows, or cares. The point is, it worked for me, and for my two friends. The best bit is that it's only three days a week, which makes it managable even for people who usually can't take a diet for more than a week!

With this combination of tools, dieting couldn't really be much easier... all the tools you need to help you stay inspired to lose weight are right there. Obviously, there's the usual basic advice... take some exercise, drink lots of water and stay healthy. Try and do that too. I've lost 30lbs since May, and I haven't been trying hard at all...

If anyone wants more info, feel free message me or something. Hopefully some of you will find these resources useful.


Other useful link: http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/primry/life15.htm

[Meowster]

additionally, I would say it's probably not true that you can lose 40lbs a month on that cleaveland diet... might be a bit exaggerated... but still, it works well.

[evenwolf]

I like the ZZ Top diet.   (never tried it mind you)   But one of the guys did this.   He would keep going to MacDonalds and order what he normally ordered.  Except he only ate half.    Half a burger, half the fries etc. etc.

[scotch]

I have never been fat but I used to weigh considerably more than I do now (which is about the same as you, but I'm 6 foot tall and male), then I got addicted to DDR. I'm not proud, but I did... if I can't quite beat a level on it I'm compelled to play until I do, so for anyone with the kind of personality for mastering games, but not for sticking to diets, I'd recommend that. I have never done anything as punishing as that was at times. I went a bit too far though, and ended up anorexically skinny, so I haven't done it for quite a while.

I'm having cravings for exercise now now... maybe I'll relapse :/

[Hudders]

some people are lucky and get weight gain in their hips and breasts

I think it would depend who you were as to whether you felt that was lucky or not!

[deadsuperhero]

Eh, I don't diet. I believe in the old-school "Eat healthy and excersize a lot" routine. It seems to work.

[SSH]

Have your main meal in the middle of the day so that you don't laze around of an evening with a bunch of unburnt calories in your stomach.

[Afflict]

Any advice on picking up weight

[Disco]

Damn, you beat me Meowster

I was soon to post a sort of weigh loss diary thingy here, to keep me accountable to a group of friends and hundreds of other people...will probably still do it though.

I've never had body issues before, but after a couple years of comments from from my doctor and seeing my waist go from 32" to almost 40" without growing taller, I thought it would be time to get busy

As for my own recommendations, I am a subscriber to Zen Habits, one of those productivity/lifehack/motivational blogs, and they cover weight loss from time to time too. Here are a few articles-

Zen To Slim: A Simple, 5-Step Weight Loss Plan

Get Healthy and Fit, Part 2 - Exercise Edition

Beginner's Guide to Running

Eh, I don't diet. I believe in the old-school "Eat healthy and exercise a lot" routine. It seems to work.

That is how I would go about it too, my main problem is exercise. I actually have a decent metabolism and don't mind walking or jogging, I just plain don't do it. Although I hate to use it as an excuse, the area where I live is the main deterrent to running around my neighbourhood, especially now in summer while school is out. I've had problems with being yelled at and having stuff thrown at me or otherwise intimidated just walking down the street.

However, I will be going back to school this fall for the first time in two semesters, and they have an excellent jogging trail around the campus.

[2ma2]

I starve myself to happiness. Not really, but my eating habits are dispeccable. I've jumped from 60 to 80kg and back to whatever it is now. Being on drugs (legal but psychofarmaceutical none the less) I gain weight and muscles without exercising at all. It is a bit like eating steroids I guess. All this within a year (institutionalized in spring 2006, last weighcheck in spring 2007).  But I eat in odd ways, start my day eating nothing, then lunch with perhaps something, and then more at nightfall. I am constantly hungry, but can't eat more than I do.

Also, a sure way to drop kilos after kilos is aquiring a nice derangement, such as obsessive/compulsive behaviour, or manodepression. Make sure they involve a healthy dose of anxiety, because laying still, eating nothing and worrying about the state of existance really slays away those unecessary pounds.

Or just take care of yourself. Eat healthy, ie. more vegetables, fruits. More fibre means a sense of satiation without an excess of carbonhydrates, fats and protein, aswell as distributing the level of risen blood sugar over a longer period of time, making the satiation last longer. Fast carbs will give you a short boost, a slump of less energy and a greater hunger quicker.

[LimpingFish]

At the Brittens weigh-in, I claimed victory with just under 17st. I am 6' 3". I do not consider myself fat, per se, simply overweight.

¬¬

What?

[Nacho]

Someone said before, but I think that it' s necessary to remark it, because it works: Having dinner soon is very good, awakening up with hungry is ok (Remember to have breakfast, eh? It' s necessary to start your day with energies).

Remove your daily "auto-pleasure". Look at that donut, or that cheese cake calories profile. It can probably have 400 or 500 Kcals, if you don' t like sport, avoid that meal and save 1/2 hour of footing.

But, IMO, it's better to do a lot of sport and enjoy of this little pleasures

[Tiki]

According to the BMI index, I am slightly underweight.

Shucks!  All this weight losing seems so fun, too!

[Quintaros]

The BMI index is only an approximation of someone's fitness.  It doesn't reflect how body mass is distributed or what it is made of.  Muscle is more dense than fat so the BMI index for someone with an athletic build often indicates that he is overweight.

[Darth Mandarb]

Glad that works for you Meowster.  It's important to be healthy

About 1 year ago ... I was 40 lbs heavier than I am now (ask Farlander, he remembers)

I went on, what I call, an "eating plan" (cause I hate to think I need to diet!)

It's pretty simple really, I just portion what I eat.  I used to eat 3 hotdogs and grab the bag of chips and take 'em with me.  Now, I make 1-2 dogs and only a hand full of chips on a plate.  It's similar to what Evenwolf said actually.  I eat about 1/2 what I used to.  It takes some getting used to 'cause my stomach was used to having more food in it.  But once I got used to it I now find myself getting full off less food.

[Stupot]

I've been trying to do the same kind of thing.  I used to pile my plate with food until it was spilling off the sides but recently I just cut down on food.

No calorie checking, no nutritional information analysis, no extra fruit and veg, just plain old eat less stuff.  Coupled with my vow to drink more water, it seems to be working.  As Darth said, it was tough at first because my stomach could fit a lot into it, but now it doesn't take as much for me to feel full-up.

Not sure if I've lost weight but the podge seems to be diminishing ever-so slightly.

[Alynn]

Another thing many people can try is eating more times a day.

Not eating more per day, but more TIMES per day.

Our metabolisms were never really designed for 3 large meals a day. Our bodies were designed to eat throughout the day, as we traveled around and found food. Anyone with young children can witness this for themselves. The child will eat a bit at each meal, but has several snacks (healthy types for good parenting) between.

This is what I end up doing.

First is a breakfast within the first hour that you wake up. Your body interperates sleep as nothing less than a famine. Eating something starts your metabolism for the day. I ususally have a couple of english muffins with peanutbutter on them. (5-6AM)

At about 9, have a snack, an apple or two. a serving of chips (crisps for you brits), granola bars, whatever.

Around 12 Eat lunch.

Around 3-4 have another snack

Dinner around 6-7

Bed at 10-11pm

If you keep with this, you will notice that at the "main meals" you will generally eat less since you've been giving your body sustinance all day long. Your metabolism keeps working throughout the day, and you will notice an energy boost after awhile.

Now, you may have to eat smaller calories than I do, as I do work out 4 days a week, but I ingest about 3000 calories a day, and at 6'0 and 195, I'm nice and thin (although to be honest, old age is catching up to me, and the slight love handles I have won't go away).

Also, there are really simple steps you can take to make your bodies work more without going to the gym constantly. Some examples are: If you take the bus to work, get off a stop or two early from your usual stop, and walk the rest of the way. If you are only going up or down one or two floors, take the stairs instead of the elevator. Take a simple walk around your neighborhood once a day. It makes your body burn more calores per day just by adding these simple things to your day.

Also, BMI is ok for average bodies, but if you plug in my numbers in the BMI it shows me as overweight with a BMI of 26.4. If you weight train (as muscle is much more dense than fat) it will be way off. I'd have to weight less than 184 pounds to be considered normal, but 9 pounds off me would be a significant loss of muscle.