Losing Weight (aka not being fat)

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  • Don't drink soda or anything with high fructose corn syrup sugar.

    Sugary beverages--whether they derive their sweetness from actual sugar, fruit sugars, or the relatively benign HFCS--do not have an appetite-blunting effect. That--and not HFCS--is the problem. A six-pack of Cokes consumed in the course of a day won't make you feel full, but it will add 840 empty calories to your ever-expanding waistline.

    Drink water.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    amen

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    so much "health food" is full of cane sugar...as if its somehow good for you

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,471 Posts


    I hear this all the time, but I've never seen it actually corroborated by any hard science.

    As it is with so much dietary/weight loss advice.

  • and stay away from the "steak dinner" thread cuz that shit ain't gonna help you at all.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Steak is fine if u exercise that shit away.

  • sure sure. everything in moderation too. exercising is key.

  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    or the relatively benign HFCS


    Glucose= 1 glucose molecule...amylase breaks it down in the mouth before it even hits the stomach
    Sucrose= 2 glucose molecules...partially broken down in the mouth, completed breakdown in the stomach
    Fructose=3 glucose molecules...not broken down completely while it enters the small intestine...fructose without the fiber that accompanies it in nature(fruits, vegtables, etc), gets sent through the system and through the liver(when accompanied by fiber, not all of it is absorbed and sent through the system, it gets sent out the plumbing) not completely broken down...gets turned into fat...so not only do you get the calories of sugar, but you also get the systemic stress on your liver and your body saying "fuck it" and converting it into fat.

    Not really "benign" when that shit is in damn near everything processed...hard to find even a friggin loaf of bread without it...

    Sugar is hardly a health food, but it does less damage than HFCS

  • jleejlee 1,539 Posts

    most days of the week i really ration my carb intake. almost no bread products, even little fruits, and unfortunately no beer. it's an annoying prospect but, it appears to have paid off.

    Could you give some examples of what to eat when almost completely cutting out carbs? while keeping it reasonable money-wise....


    not very fun, but basically goes something like this:

    breakfast - basically you are eating eggs and meat of some kind. occasionally i will eat cheese with my eggs. coffee w/ heavy cream (surprisingly no carbs in heavy cream). Fruits on some days of the week

    lunch - as much salad as you can stand, sans items that hold carbs like chick peas and stuff. Also...meat, meat, meat. Occasional wraps.

    dinner - meat/fish & veggies. eggs from time to time.

    basically i've had luck with what is pretty much the Atkins diet. now to be clear, i always have loathed the idea of a low-carb diet (never understood how eating fatty sausage was better for your waistline than eating low cal yogurt). that said, it works and works better than i would have thought. i am no diet-nazi though. i worked hard for the first few months and then have just kinda found my groove.

    that and lowering my beer intake (again in part to the fact that i hampered by my broke leg and don't go out much anymore) has been a key ingredient to my success.

    it hasn't really been expensive, but does require me and GF to take more time out when we shop.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    nuts and pickles for snacks

    ayo?

  • ladydayladyday 623 Posts
    Everyone's saying something different, but here's what works for me:

    1. Eat a lot of lean protein. Keeps you satisfied and helps build muscle.
    2. Add a fruit or vegetable to every meal to increase fiber intake.
    3. Drink lots of water.
    4. Exercise with weights to add muscle, which helps you burn fat even when you are resting.
    5. Avoid soda, sugar, white breads & pasta, and cut back on alcohol.

    Nothing too difficult to maintain, and you'll have more energy too.

  • MrFingazMrFingaz 64 Posts
    The soda thing is a biggie. I've dropped about 20 since I've quit drinkin it about 6 months ago.

  • LadyDay is smart.

    And for the women who are afraid that they'll "get too bulky" if they lift weights, believe me, you won't. If all it took was a few reps with something bigger than the pink dumbbells, I'd be huge by now.

    A recent article in the NY Times confirms this:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06real.html?src=me&ref=general

  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    just regular stuff you can keep up on the long run
    mad veggies and fish as opposed to any other meal idea
    but once a week indulge in one meal it will keep you motivated (i do it on saturdays)

    healthy snacks like hummus/carrots or nuts

    granola breakfast, salad healthy sandwhich lunch(or spring roll the non fried version or soup) and a supper with low carb amounts and a lot of veggies plus some fish

    fuck a beer (like 2 a week tops), fuck soda and exercise a 30min 4 times a week plus a general healthier life style (bike to work,use the stairs etc)

    you will be back to shape in a matter of months

  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    cooking techniues

    broil with dry rub, steam or poach shit
    fuck a pan and butter for a while

  • regarding HFCS
    http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

    A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

    In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

    "Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."
    Hoebel lab


    In results published online Feb. 26 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.

    The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.

    The second experiment -- the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals -- monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet.

    "These rats aren't just getting fat; they're demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes." In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.
    Hoebel lab

    When male rats were given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow, the animals gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, along with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas, including the orange soft drink shown here. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)

    High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.

    This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.

    In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.

    "Our findings lend support to the theory that the excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup found in many beverages may be an important factor in the obesity epidemic," Avena said.

    The new research complements previous work led by Hoebel and Avena demonstrating that sucrose can be addictive, having effects on the brain similar to some drugs of abuse.

    In the future, the team intends to explore how the animals respond to the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in conjunction with a high-fat diet -- the equivalent of a typical fast-food meal containing a hamburger, fries and soda -- and whether excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption contributes to the diseases associated with obesity. Another step will be to study how fructose affects brain function in the control of appetite.

    The research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.

  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    Put simply:

    If you eat 100 calories of glucose, your body will store about 5 calories as fat.

    If you eat 100 calories of fructose, your body will store about 40 calories as fat.

  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    i cosign what ladyday said
    and pcmr too (except for granola...delicious but usually high fat and sugar)

  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    I've dropped 3 pant sizes and 3 or 4 belt loops by following the 3 books I posted earlier.

    I don't work out like a maniac, and some weeks I can't work out at all. I don't starve myself and I don't eat carrots all day. I don't deprive myself of carbs, I just eat "good" carbs that come loaded with protien and fiber like oatmeal and whole wheat bread and quinoa. I read the nutitional information on the back of everything rather than trust the "healthy" claims on the front of packages (meaningless marketing and usually bullshit).

    I shop at Trader Joes. I eat dark chocolate and almond butter.

    I don't do any "cardio". I lift weights. If I happen to take in more calories then they are the kind of calories that build muscle, if I take in less the I wind up burning some fat, so either way I win.

    Its a slow process and I started almost a year ago, but you have to start sometime, and a year from now you could be slimmer and more muscular, or you could still be fat, either way a year is going to go by regardless.

  • Good advise all around. Basically, be sensible, exercise, and reward yourself with one meal a week. Many people preach about a cheat day, but it should only really be a cheat meal. And even that should be somewhat restrained. If you cheat the whole day you are seriously cutting into the calories you've saved and burned.

    Once a week is great because you won't feel like you are depriving yourself. In addition, at least for me, it motivates me to really do some hard work at the gym.

    I hate cardio myself so I do high intesity interval training. You can do it in twenty minutes but the effect is equivelant to you working out for an hour or more. And it's nowhere near as boring as long jogs on the treadmill. Here's more info if you are interested:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/fashion/03Fitness.html

  • ladydayladyday 623 Posts
    LadyDay is smart.

    And for the women who are afraid that they'll "get too bulky" if they lift weights, believe me, you won't. If all it took was a few reps with something bigger than the pink dumbbells, I'd be huge by now.

    A recent article in the NY Times confirms this:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06real.html?src=me&ref=general



    haaaa, nah.

    But yeah, so true about the weights.

    I also forgot to mention, eat whole grains when you can. Steel cut oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley, ground flax, etc. I keep wheat germ and ground flax in the fridge and I sprinkle it in soups, on salads, substitute for breadcrumbs.

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    the whole cheat day/cheat meal doesnt seem right to me
    find eating habits youre happy to live with and do it with room to be flexible

    what gary just said sounds right

  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    i make my own granola though,steel cut aotmeal,ground flax,pumkin and sunsflower seeds..slightly roasted maple

    is that ok t**y

    i love the motivation of the treadmill but am alone in this

    make your own vegep?t? its pretty tasty,cheap and filling

    yeah cheat meal..you will dream about it and enjoy it more

    just keep up some variety or else you will get bored and slip into temptation

    for me its more about feeling good than looking good

  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts
    i make my own granola though,steel cut aotmeal,ground flax,pumkin and sunsflower seeds..slightly roasted maple

    is that ok t**y

    its all okay to me...although what youre doing right there qualifies you as a full fledged hippy.

    dont get me wrong...there isnt much that i condemn or look down on. i think folks gotta be informed and appreciate being healthy, which is something they have to define on their own terms.

  • WoimsahWoimsah 1,734 Posts
    Been some good advice in here thus far. I'm not qualified at all to say what does and doesn't work --- think it's different for everyone.

    My 2 cents:

    I don't eat bread or pasta, basically no products with flour, or sweets at all....well, I didn't from 2008 - late 2009. Now I have a sliver of bread here and there, so rarely it barely even counts. The only sugar I had during that time was what I put in my coffee in the AM. In that time, I dropped about 20 pounds within 3 months and kept it off the entire time. And to be honest, I really didn't miss any of those things after two weeks time. It was weird at first, but your mind just sort of adjusts to not eating those things and you no longer desire them. Again, that was just my experience, but I was a MASSIVE carb eater --- had no dietary exclusions whatsoever and overate consistently. Figure if I can do it, really, anyone can.

    I didn't exercise during this time, unfortunately. I'm only now getting to a point where I'm enjoying exercise more or on some grown man shit. Obviously this was something that would have benefited my situation, but what can I say, I hate cardio. Getting better with it though.

    And to that point, you should check out the article in last week's NY Times Magazine. It basically speaks on the pros/cons of exercise and how we as people, more or less, really have no idea whether or not exercise itself does actually aide in weight loss. The proof in exercises benefits to weight loss lie more with keeping weight off than it does in actually losing weight. Again, everyone's metabolism and body is different so I'm def not saying exercise won't help you shed pounds, but just saying that it's something really worth researching and figuring out what works best for you.

    The only advice that I can really say is beneficial is regarding just that -- figuring out what's best for you and most importantly isn't making you upset. Weight loss/feeling better doesn't have to be viewed as a pain in the ass. I mean, it's never going to be a yee-haw time, but there are ways to make a lot easier on your psyche then by torturing yourself with unrealistic goals, ridiculous work out sessions, and crazy diets. Make sure you're making yourself happy in the process and not doing anything that's stressing you out -- in the long run that's just unhealthy, at least I've found.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    The only advice that I can really say is beneficial is regarding just that -- figuring out what's best for you and most importantly isn't making you upset. Weight loss/feeling better doesn't have to be viewed as a pain in the ass. I mean, it's never going to be a yee-haw time, but there are ways to make a lot easier on your psyche then by torturing yourself with unrealistic goals, ridiculous work out sessions, and crazy diets. Make sure you're making yourself happy in the process and not doing anything that's stressing you out -- in the long run that's just unhealthy, at least I've found.

    Exactly. There's more than one way.

    Pick something that you'll actually do.

  • empanadamnempanadamn 1,462 Posts
    breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day.

    i don't really like eating when i wake up first thing, because typically i'm not hungry. i can go 2-8 hours normally before i feel the need to eat something. i don't drink coffee or juice really to get me going; i'll just have water. breakfast apparently kick starts the metabolism, but i find when i DO eat breakfast it makes me want to eat (CA) all day. on top of that, i'm not always home or with food that i packed that it encourages me to eat something crappy on the go.

    my ability to skip out on eating was a result from a childhood of saving lunch money for toys, garbage pail kids, etc. up to college years & adulthood with buying records / being broke, that the habits stuck with me.

    what's your policy? eat breakfast? go hard for lunch? eat when you're hungry? and what were the noticeable results?

  • empanadamnempanadamn 1,462 Posts
    i like that fat marshmallow dude sittin' sidewayz in the banner.

  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    eating breakfast makes you lose more weight during the day
    just have small snacks and cut the rest of your day's portions
    i also dont feel like eating too much in the morning
    try non-fat yogurt and unsweetened apple sauce
    it feels like your not eating much, its quick cheap a boost and counts as breakfast and easy to swallow (ayo!)
    or just a banana on the bus (ayo!)
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