That Time of Year: Diets

[Drew Dowdell]

It's that time of year again, are any of you starting any new diet or fitness plans?

I actually started a rather drastic cutback on calories before the Christmas holiday, cheating only on the Xmas day and New Years Eve. At 5'10" in height, 180lbs is the limit I let myself get to before I start actively dieting.... only this year, I went over that before the holiday and I have to fit in a suit next week. I normally run 165 - 170 lbs.

I cut my calorie intake from 2500 - 3000 per day down to a strict 1500 per day. I've tried to make time to hit the gym, but it simply isn't happening right now.

How about you... making any changes for the new year?

[GMTruckGuy74]

At the end of September, I was diagnosed as having Type II Diabetes (I was a heavy soda drinker) - I'm on oral medication (pills) at this time. Since then, I've dropped from 257 lbs to 239 lbs through diet alone (mostly by cutting out the sugar & drinking more water <diet soda still has a funny taste to me and if I have a can I can't finish the whole thing>). I realize the <20 lbs I lost was what the doctor calls "soda weight" and being 5'8" I still have some pounds to go before I am in a healthier range. I said I'd start using the dreadmill (aka treadmill) in the new year but here we are - day 9 of the year - and I've yet to do it. I go back to the doctor's January 24th for my first bloodwork since the initial screening (namely to see if my HbA1c has dropped) - but also to check my wieght loss (I went to the doctor's in mid-November and lost only 2-3 pounds since then). I lack the motivation for exercise, so a gym membership is out. The treadmill is something I will use, and the fancy one my wife bought a few years back will be fine (if I do lose more weight and gain exercise motivation, the fire station has an excellent workout gym I can use free of charge).

[Robert Hall]

I am trying to walk more, esp. now while the weather is good before 5 months of horror begins in May.. try to walk to lunch when at work as much as possible. I've cut out sodas and trying to cut back on high carb foods--though I did eat out a lot and eat very well over holiday season. I'm at 6'0"/240 right now, with my goal to take off 20 lbs this year....I've taken off about 5 lbs in the last 6 months, I've noticed my size 40 waist jeans are too loose now.

My long term goal is to get back to where I was at age 30--185 lbs, but that is going to take some work. Unfortunately, my work is very sedentary in nature..

Edited January 9, 2014 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[Drew Dowdell]

I used to be a heavy soda drinker (Dr. Pepper is my weakness) and I hate the taste of diet soda.... actually anything with artificial low-cal/no-cal sweetener is out as I can't stand the taste. I would rather just drink less of the real sugar than any of the fake stuff.

I have an app on my phone called Noom that I use to track my food intake and it also gives daily tips for changing your diet, and if I worked out, it would track that too. Albert has the same app, but it doesn't seem to have as much on the iPhone side as I have on the Android side.

I tend to drop a whole bunch of pounds very quickly at first without much effort and then I have to start working out to get the rest. I'm down 7lbs since the week of Xmas.

I told Albert we're going on the Mediterranean diet (he doesn't need to).. it's the one diet we can both agree on since for him it contains red wine and for me it has feta cheese. :-P

[Z-06]

Don't restrict your calorie intake to almost 60%, your body will enter starvation mode. Work out with that - possibly 2 hours of heavy Kung Fu .

[Drew Dowdell]

Don't restrict your calorie intake to almost 60%, your body will enter starvation mode. Work out with that - possibly 2 hours of heavy Kung Fu .

Heard multiple sources debunking that already (including a long piece on NPR just today). As long as you keep the metabolism going, even with reduced calorie intake you won't enter starvation mode. t takes over 6 weeks for "starvation mode" to kick in and at much lower calorie levels. Basically, snack often and snack small. Keep overall calorie count down.

[G. David Felt]

At 6'6" tall, 285lbs, I could afford to loose some weight or at least change from fat to muscle. Course I am like a bouncing ball as I am down 15lbs since skiing season started and I know I will loose another 10-15lbs by the end of the season. Then it stays there till Halloween and then I creep back up till ski season starts.

Stopped diet soda again and will just focus on hitting the gym 3-5 times during the week and skiing the weekend and I should be good. I do love me my proteins. BEEF it does a body good!

[GMTruckGuy74]

My company's holiday gift to employees this year is a FitBit. I've yet to open mine but my wife (also works for the same company) and many of my coworkers are using theirs to track fitness/exercise and sleep. I intend to open mine up this week and get it going.

[Robert Hall]

My company's holiday gift to employees this year is a FitBit. I've yet to open mine but my wife (also works for the same company) and many of my coworkers are using theirs to track fitness/exercise and sleep. I intend to open mine up this week and get it going.

Cool.. my company's holiday gift was its usual $200 in casino gaming chips...

Edited January 9, 2014 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[SAmadei]

When I lost my weight in 2004 (460 to 230), I cut my calories to 1200~1500, rode my exercise bike 1~2 hours a day and ate 12 tiny meals a day... usually 100-125 calories of nuts, cereal, vegetables, fruits, Slim fast shakes... anything to try to shut off the appetite. I put a ton of salt, pepper or hot sauce on things, as that helped make it palatable (and hot sauce is a known appetite suppressant). I drank about 2 gallons of water, as well. 11 month later, I was wearing LT shirts and was downright skinny.

I kept it off for about 3 years... by then life changed and my biking routine was broken. I want to do it again, but quite frankly, my knees simply won't let me.

[Drew Dowdell]

Try swimming. I hate running, but I'll blade or bike or ski.

[Robert Hall]

Try swimming. I hate running, but I'll blade or bike or ski.

Yes...my favorite exercise from May through October...I try and get in my pool at least once, preferably twice a day in season...

[ocnblu]

I've been "jogging" up and down the pool at the gym for a while now. It helps, but I am not on a regular, strict calendar. I'd like to go every other day, which then varies the day of the week, but it hasn't happened. I usually end up going about 3 times per week. I also sit in the dry sauna for 15 minutes per session, usually 2 sessions per gym visit, between pool sessions.

[SAmadei]

No pool. Going out to a pool is just not in the cards.

[balthazar]

Nothing new, just keeping up with the same. I used to drink diet sodas years back, but the artificial sweeteners are toxic to my joints. I seldom have any (regular) soda now. Iced tea tho, is a regular weakness. I 'm sure I ingest more liquid sugar than I should, and that's bad.

I do weigh myself every day or 2 and adjust/monitor my intake if the number moves up. It helped when I bought an accurate, digital scale. More frequent, smaller portions definitely is a good route to go. After losing about 18 lbs almost 4 years ago, I have stayed within 5 lbs of that since. That said, I would really like to go 10 lbs lighter. Apparently, my 'wall' is quite formidable tho.

[G. David Felt]

I know most are not like me but growing up doing body building and power lifting, if a day time job was not required to support myself, I could live in a gym and just lift every day and work out. I love the gym with the various activities you can have the body do.

[Cory Wolfe]

A strict diet isn't necessarily in my future, though I could stand to simply improve it. My biggest problem is that I've let myself grow lazy in the exercise department. What was once a daily task for me on some level is now practically nonexistent. Im starting to really feel it in diminished stamina and strength.

[Drew Dowdell]

Well, my diet seems to have worked even without any additional exercise. I officially hit over 10 lbs lost since ~December 20th at today's weigh in.

[G. David Felt]

Way to go Drew, keep it up and you will hit your target goals soon!

[Drew Dowdell]

Well, once I get some of the rest of my life under control (I know, I've been saying that forever, but I'm getting closer) then I will be able to get some more time at the gym.

[Drew Dowdell]

Started at 184lbs a few days before xmas. Down to 172 today on diet alone.

[Lamar]

My wife and I both said that once the spring semester (aka the new year) began, we'd both be back in the gym. It was hard to get that time in when our son was born.

I haven't really focused on losing weight, which might be a good thing. I mainly go to the gym to stay active and keep my strength up. Pounds will come off in time.

[Blake Noble]

I quit drinking soda last month and I've started drinking nothing but black coffee, water, and an occassional glass of sweet tea. I just got tired of drinking soda, honestly. It wasn't really because I wanted to be heathier, but the fact that it is doesn't hurt.

Other than that, I might try to switch to an eCig to cut way down on my smoking (a pack lasts me about three days, so it's not like I chain smoke or anything) and start weight lifting so that I can build some usable muscle. For those of you who do lift weights, any advice on how to go to a gym and not make it look like babby's first visit?

Edited January 20, 2014 by black-knight

[ocnblu]

Every one of those musclebound heroes started somewhere, babby. Just do it.