Need a little advice on calorie counting and weight loss

by Leander 20 Replies latest social physical

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  Leander

  Thanks for the advice guys, I'm taking everything said here into consideration.

  Fortunately I've always been a big water drinker, in fact its rare that I drink anything outside of water. Nothing beats a nice glass of iced water in my opinion. As far as the doctor goes I had a checkup about 2 months ago and I'm cleared for exercising. I should have mentioned this in the first post, even though I have'nt maintained any steady exercise for 10 years I usually manage to do something physical 3-4 times a month. Whether its weight lifting, running or basketball, the problem is that I never do it consistently.

  Well I weighed in this morning and I'm down about 2-3 pounds, my wife also says I look a bit smaller. I think the weight training has really helped. It gets a little confusing for me when it comes to weighing myself because whenever I start training with weights it seems like I quickly put on 2-5 pounds in the first couple of weeks. I'm not sure if its water weight or muscle, but at any rate I feel good about the small progress I've made so far. I'm basically doing HIIT cardio a few times a week, along with weight training. Starting this week I've been really conscious about my meals, I plan on eating 4-5 small meals throughout the day. I will be 33 in about 2 months so I'm really hoping I can see a big difference before that day rolls around.
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  confusedjw

  If it tastes good - spit it out!
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  NeonMadman

  I've lost around 170 pounds in the last two years mainly using the Weight Watchers program. My wife has lost about 60. Your goal of losing 80 lb. in 3-4 months sounds a bit unrealistic and possibly unhealthy - weight just doesn't come off that fast safely. I also joined a gym after I had been on WW program for about 6 months, so I'm in much better shape now than I have been in, well, probably ever. When my lab work came back from the doctor's office recently, the nurse prefaced her discussion of the results by saying, "You may possibly be the healthiest man alive." An exaggeration, to be sure - I still have more weight to lose - but I'm WAY healthier than I used to be. You should probably avoid fad diets and seek a healthy balanced eating program (WW would be my recommendation), then start exercising gradually, working up slowly to the more intense workouts. Feel free to PM me if I can help.
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  Englishman

  The average guy, leading a fairly sedentary life, uses about 2500 calories per day. I'm back to very active, but even that only burns up 3250 calories oer day. So exercise, while being useful, doesn't burn up much excess weight.

  If you eat 500 calories too much each day, then you put on around 1 pound of weight every week. So 3000 calories daily instead of 2500 loads you up by about 50 pounds in a year.

  Eat 500 calories a day less than you require - that is the most sensible way to lose weight - you lose about a pound a week. If you eat less than that, your body will go into panic and hold onto what fat it has.

  Last year, I lost 14 pounds in 14 weeks. I concentrated on eating fat-burning fods like celery, leeks, cabbage and sprouts. They're not low in calories, but for every 100 calories you consume, your body burns up 170 calories in digesting it!

  Englishman.
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  Leander

  NeonMadman: I've heard people say that its unsafe to lose more than 1 pound per week but I've also heard other people say that its safe to lose up to 5 pounds per week. Although I know very little about nutrition, etc.. it seems to me that it should be possible to lose quite a bit of weight based on proper diet and exercise. I've been reading about the benefits of weight lifting in combination with HIIT cardio and apparently these exercises not only burn calories while they are being performed. But they also contribute to an elevated metabolism and additional burned calores hours after the exercises are completed. Also it seems that a person who is 50 pounds overweight would lose more pounds per week exercising than say another person who is 5 pounds overweight. So in truth I really don't know what the best number is but for me I plan on trying to eat balanced meals while getting plenty of exercise and hopefully I can get to my weight goal within a few months.
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  Leander

  I think I read that somewhere before Englishman about certain foods are great for fat burning. I think its time to do a little internet research, that could be what I need to add a boost to my diet.
• 

  Sweetp0985

  i was determined to lose some weight this year myself.. i called myself being on a 1500 cal diet, but i don't think i've been sticking to it as well as i was at first. but i've also stopped eating meat. no beef, pork, or chicken.....i do eat my share of seafood, mainly shrimp and fish....and i try to eat alot of veggies, buuuutttt thats kinda hard. Someone had mentioned about staying away from starches and bread...i think thats what im going to incorporate next into my diet...i eat too much corn, and rice and starchy items....

  but the good news is so far, even though its nothing to brag on, since january i've lost my first 10 pds....so...took almost 3 months to do it..but im still feeling good about it....
• 

  beebee

  Try fitday.com. You can input your food intake, your goals, and the data to compute your caloric burn, track it all and chart it for FREE. (pretty cool site)

  Also if you have a passion or desire to try any of the popular types of diets (low calorie, low fat, low carb, etc.) and planning your food is a pain, ediet can also be very useful. You input what you are trying to accomplish, and they design menus (you can input what you don't like too) and give you shopping lists.

  I think they also offer online support via message boards and other services (I haven't used them). I remember filling out the profile though and they asked pretty relevant questions like how much you want to cook, and whether you eat out a lot. That's important info when trying to intelligently plan out a diet.

  Good luck and hoping you reach your desired studmuffinness in short order!
• 

  beebee

  Oh...and I agree with your weight training 100%. There's many, many reasons it is almost a MUST not just for weight loss, but the hard part - keeping it off. Cardio is good for burning calories and definitely helps keep the heart healthy, but it isn't enough. In fact if you have to choose between weights and cardio, weight training will burn it off faster, and help keep it off better.

  Reasons why weight training is key:

  • As you build muscle, you raise your base metabolism rate 24 hours a day.
  • The afterburn (increased caloric burn rate after any form of exercise) lasts longer than pure cardio.
  • Since muscle weighs more than fat, it displaces less space, hence if there were two people with identical builds, who weigh exactly the same amount, the one with a higher muscle percentage would be physically smaller.
  • You will feel much better, stronger and more energetic.

  And just pushing around light weights doesn't cut it, you need to lift substantial weight and for best results, a simple routine that hits all your major muscles, but works them to "failure" within 3 sets works best.

  It isn't rocket science, it just seems so many are afraid to do it.
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  minimus

  Wow Leander! This is one of the few times you respond to your own threads!