Diets - Separating What Works From What Doesnt ...

[gobbledonk]

OK - I've read/heard a lot of what's out there :

 

1. anything resembling a 'crash diet' is useless, as you will put it back on as soon as your body tells you to binge ('survival' response)

 

2. fad diets where you live on lentils or whatever are as useless as 1 above

 

3. it has to be a longterm lifestyle change, not something you can put up with for 6 weeks only to go back to old habits at the end of the 'ordeal'

 

OK - thats great, but for me the only things that have worked have been intense, regular exercise where the calories burnt exceeded calorie intake each day. As a 20-something, that meant surfing and, later, PT training in the Army. The first was a simple case of continuing to paddle out with arms that felt like lead just for one more 'hit', the latter barking PTIs who seemed intent on killing us in the space of 40 minutes. I could drink beer, eat pizza and pretty much be a lounge lizard all weekend, secure (terrified ?) in the knowledge that they were waiting for me on Monday morning.

 

Fast forward ~15 years after the Army and I had to resort to Jenny Craig. Pre-packaged meals, a serious committment to walking and lots of water each day worked : dropped 10% of my body weight in the first month. The downside was the monotony of it all - increasingly felt like I was 'eating plastic' and the meetings with my 'case worker' annoyed the shit out of me. Really patronising woman who was clearly happier dealing with overweight hausfraus - long story short, I just went back to my old ways.

 

Which brings me to right now - 100Kg (220 lbs), should be 90kg (I'm 183cm tall), but the walking/water combo doesnt seem to be working its old magic. I eat too much bread (yep, the dreaded baguette to boot ..) and way too much dairy, but for a man with zero alcohol intake it's frustrating that the exercise doesn't seem to have done much for me over the first month of 'putting in the miles'. Seeing guys my age (mid fifties) with huge beer guts doesnt make me feel any better - it just makes me wonder if our bodies retain 'back-up storage' more effectively as we grow older.

 

I know you guys aren't physical trainers, but I wondered if anyone has managed to make a longterm change in their diet that they feel has helped them keep the kilos off. I've been 100kg(+) for a long time, and I told myself that I could 'shift it' as soon as I stared walking again - it may be that I just need to give it more time, but right now its a bit of a downer to have sore legs without any apparent improvement in my waistline. I do a few basic exercises, but I suspect that those PTIs knew a few things about burning calories and I might just be kidding myself. It might be time for Jenny Craig's brother, Jerry, to step in with something a little nastier than diddly-bopping around the neighbourhood in pink lycra.

 

Thanks,

 

Gobble

[pasathai1]

it all boils down to eat less and exercise more

[Redbaron]

A lot of my workmates swear by Lite 'n' Easy - home delivered, reasonably fresh food for the same cost (roughly) as buying it all in the supermarket.

Good option for a bachelor.

[TheCorinthian]

it all boils down to eat less and exercise more

 

Quoted for truth.

[gobbledonk]

pasathai and Corinthian - I get that, I really do. Just wanted to hear from people with actual experience.

 

red, thanks for the heads up.

[Dumsoda]

GD I feel for ya mate....

Was in similar situation....92 kgs 172 cms.....fat cnut

Every time I tried to get it down I gave up....frustrated

 

Now I have the opposite problem.....I cant put weight on

 

After 9 weeks of Radiation interspersed with 3 Chemo sessions and the following 3 or 4 months recovery period I have dropped 30% of my body weight

 

Bottomed at 64 kgs....now slowly improving....hit 66 kgs yesterday (had to buy new Jeans yesterday....have gone from size 38 - 40 to fitting into a 32)

 

Absolutely no appetite whatsoever....can go 3 days without eating anything at all

 

Now using powdered Nutritional supplements in my daily smoothies....forcing chocolate bars down my neck....and drinking hot Milo twice a day....anything to try and get a boost....have even tried forcing down 2 cans of beer a day....for the carbs.....but I gotta tell ya....it tastes shite.......

 

Scary shit really....not a Diet programme I would recommend...or wish on anyone

 

Sticking at it is the only way it will work

 

Same for you

 

 

Same Same.....but different

 

Cheers DS

[BrownFox77]

it all boils down to eat less and exercise more

 

the above is certainly true.

 

However you might find Weight Watcher's for Men Online (http://www.weightwatchers.com/men/) of value.

 

They assign "point values" to various foods, you can really eat anything you want but your goal is to try and stay within your point goals for the week. For example nearly all fruits and vegetables have 0 points so you can almost eat as much as you want, but a steak is way up there by comparison.

 

Thru the process they pretty much teach you to eat a lot healthier and a bunch of small changes can make a big difference, and these changes are for the long term. The more active / more exercises you do (changes your point "budget"), the more you can eat too :-)

[Mekong]

100KG at 183 is a BMI of 29.9 borderline obese, even 90KG would put you at 26.9 which is classed as overweight.

 

I would be aiming for 83KG giving you a BMI of 24.8 just within the upper limit of normal weight.

 

I am the same height as you and weigh quite a lot less, even though I do enjoy my food, if I have a Steak I will take it with salad, fresh fish in white wine sauce is a nice meal plus I also eat a lot of pasta.

 

I don't work out, unless pushing my luck and jumping to conclusions is exercise. but I do enjoy going for a walk and probably spend a couple of hours / day taking it easy. I will hop in a cab and tell him the general direction then just get out and have a look around.

 

I don't claim to be a "Bangkok Expert" by any measure but I am pretty damn sure I know of more places off the beaten path than your average farang here.

[gobbledonk]

Mekong, stop smoking and report back in, oh, 3 months with an update - I guarantee that you will gain weight. I'll just set my sights on 90kg as as something resembling a *realistic* target, BMI be damned. Your 'prescription' is another reason that so many people fail at the whole diet and exercise thing - unrealistic goals. I'm just going to give the walking+water another month before I consider anything more radical.

 

DS, sorry to hear that you have the opposite problem, and especially sorry to hear that beer tastes bad.

[Redbaron]

BMI is a bit of a fallacy - at 175cm /5' 10, when I weighed 95 kgs and was full of muscle, I was morbidly obese. Now I'm around 80 and sporting a "gut" but the BMI says I'm in better shape than when I was actually fit and in training.

 

BMI doesn't take fat content of the body into consideration, as muscle actually weighs more than fat. The reason a lot of people who are doing well by getting fit and exercising get disheartened as they may gain weight, whilst reducing their fat content and waistline. They look better, but feel worse because of what the scales say.