High Fives all around!

SuperflyTNT wrote: And weight watchers tips:
www.healthdiscovery.net/articles/15Plateau_tips.htm
(#12 in particular)

I realise they slipped in a pound to ounce factor later but please be careful of Tip number 8. I assure you that YOU WILL DIE if you drink "half your body weight in water" a day.

if you're going to go that way, at least do it with your tipple of choice

San Il Defanso wrote: Most of my work has been simply eating like a normal person. Eating out a lot less, using far less fat in cooking, eating more fruits and vegetables for snacks, finding good sources of proteins and fats as necessary. And not completely denying myself stuff I enjoy (like pizza, barbecue, pie, etc.). Just have it with far less frequency and in far smaller quantities. I'm usually able to get out to exercise 2-3 times a week too.

I've done other "diets" before, like the South Beach diet. I lost a lot of weight that way, but I gained almost all of it back, because I couldn't eat like that in the real world. It's not a realistic way to live. The difference this time is that this is a lifestyle change really more than a temporary goal. This is just how I live now, not a quick fix.

Fuck diets, eating like a normal person is the best route. Aim for 2500 calories a day and don't overly obsess over where they come from, but some foods are much more efficient than others. Pizza is shitty, barbeque is great. Just worry about your total calories and you'll learn what foods will keep you full while staying at the limit. The big thing here is to track your calories, and there are tons of modern options to do this. Now is a good excuse to bug your wife to buy an iPod/iPhone if you don't already have one, because it has some great apps for this.

What type of exercise are you doing 2-3 times per week? Nothing will beat heavy lifting for weight loss (or any goal, really). Good gyms have trainers that will give you advice and limits on what you should be doing, so take advantage of that. It's better to lose 40 lbs and be toned up from heavy lifting than lose 60 lbs and look like shit. Cardio is good, and you'll want to do that too, but heavy lifting is the best thing for anyone (men, women, gaining weight, losing weight). If your trainer tells you that you're too fat to lift, tell him/her to fuck off and come up with a plan that will work for you instead of being an asshole. If they smugly tell you that if you can't do a chip-up you shouldn't lift weight, sever and find a gym with fewer retards.

San Il Defanso wrote: Weight Watchers is telling me that my ideal is 220, but I suspect I'll probably plateau around 250 or thereabouts. When that happens I'll probably need to figure out how to crack through that last chunk of weight. I'm going to be a big guy no matter what, but I am pretty happy with my progress.

That's horseshit. If you eat like a normal person and lift, you'll easily cross 250 with time and effort. Just keep those goals realistic and constant and you should be able to hit anywhere from 180-200, depending on your frame and height.

They say that the most efficient form of weight loss is walking. I don't know its veracity, but last summer we walked an hour for lunch through the woods in a park 2 minutes out, and I lost 15 pounds in 3 months. I wasn't immensely chubby, so a pound a week to lose and keep off was a pretty reasonable goal for me.

Now...that's a different story! 8 months of not being able to really punch, kick, run, play disc golf, or really do much of anything has taken its toll.

Yeah, I'm walking a lot. Given time and budget, that's usually the easiest thing to do for me.

I have a bike at my parent's house in Michigan, and they said they'll bring it down when our baby is born next month. That'll be nice to have something to change it up, especially because I have very flat feet and walking can sometimes take it's toll on that.

You can lose weight with any exercise, provided that you do it enough. I choose weight lifting because it requires the least time commitment. You can also measure your progress easily. It feels good when I'm breaking plateaus. You can't do that with walking (or other cardio excercises) without serious time commitment.

Hey Nate, that is freaking awesome and congratulations.

(It does feel kind of weird to click "Thank You" on your post for losing weight. Like "Nate, thanks for not being so fat, it was really depressing me.")

I am recently on my own quest to become less fat. The wife and I are going to Maui next June and I don't want to be "that guy" on the beach. I started at 230ish (at 6'2"), am currently 225ish, and want to get down to 190ish, which is what I weighed when I was straightedge and way more active. Also before my body rounded the corner from early-20s metabolism to late-30s metabolism.

The problem is that I generally find fitness kind of boring. It is a means to an end but I have a hard time getting excited about it. I like doing martial arts but am getting a little old to enjoy being punched in the face, and there's no one around here who does BJJ or the like. Solo work (forms etc.) is mentally engaging but not as physically beneficial as an active partner.

Two things that have helped me a lot:

FitBit is a really awesome pedometer. It is spendy ($99) but syncs automatically with the base station, which is plugged into your desktop. It tracks your steps, your calories burnt, your general activity level, and how many flights of stairs you've taken (it's sensitive enough to detect altitude changes, but only due to steps and not elevators etc.). The website collates all the data and has a food logger which can then tell you how many steps you need to take to burn off what you ate. It can also make a plan for you to lose X pounds by a certain date and let you know when you're over your calorie budget. You can have a friends list on the website to compete for steps/day, average steps/week, or whatever. It also has a smartphone app, which is most helpful for the food logging aspect.

The best part about logging food is that it's a pain in the ass, so I will often just grab a glass of water instead of going through the hassle of entering a snack.

One of the net effects (besides tweaking the left-brained "ooh, I can quantify this!" impulse) is I find myself randomly pacing to up my step count. Like while brushing my teeth or reading a book.

Fitocracy is a fitness gamification site. You log your exercise and it gives you points. Unlocking certain achievements (do X reps of any exercise with Y weight, go on a jog and average under 12 minutes/mile, etc.) gives you points. When you get points you level up. Like any good leveling up system, the XP needed for each level starts off small and gets successively more, in awesome Pavlovian fashion. It also has a social aspect for friendly competition. The non-free membership lets you challenge people to duels for things. Most bodyweight squats, fastest time for a certain distance, whatever. The site syncs with FitBit.

Some other random things I've been trying:

Runkeeper is a smartphone app that tracks your running (or walking, cycling, etc.) routes and provides audio feedback or encouragement. It's kind of fun to finish a jog and look at the route (overlaid on Google Maps). It has tons of data and syncs with both FitBit and Fitocracy. You can also have a friends list etc.

I've been swinging a kettlebell around. It's the only weightlifting I've really done that I find entertaining. The best part is ordering it from Amazon; free shipping since they're over $25 but shipping a 35-70 lb hunk of iron loses them money.

Anyway, if any of y'all are using any of those sites feel free to friend me. Same username as here.

Congratulations to Nate, because 60 pounds is a lot, man. That's serious loss, and serious effort.

Congratulations to everyone else who's slimming down, I've been doing a bit myself. I'm about 6'3", and I topped out at about 235. That isn't way out there heavy, but I was in shitty shape, and carrying it all around my middle. I weigh about 220 now, but most of my belly fat is gone and I've added a bunch of upper body muscle I never had before.

My plan was "quit drinking sodas and eating garbage, also get some damn exercise". I still don't eat as well as I should, but I've cut out a lot of crap and try to make some better choices. I also switched jobs, so even though I still drive a desk all day, where I'm at now "I'm going to the gym" is a perfectly normal thing to hear during the day, they pay my membership if I clock ten visits a month, and I have all the free protein powder I can scarf down in the breakroom. (that's a real advantage)

My routine is weights 3-4 times a week (5 if I'm lucky), usually with a mile or so on the elliptical trainer to warm up. Recently I've been doing more running outside and less lifting, trying to get at some more fat weight. I'm up to around 3 or 4 miles per trip, twice a week or so.

It's a big deal to get into a routine and keep it up. It's also important to have some external motivation, ideally with friends or someone who can get you going on a day when you're just not that into it. It's huge.

If you don't have local gym/walk/run/workout buddies, take advantage of some of the online places like dysjunct mentioned, or others. (I won't name any names because one of them pays me to drive that desk now, but I'm not into shilling. Trashmail me if you care.) That extra motivation will really pay off on lazy days.

Also, what Matt said about not everything working for everyone is the truest thing in this thread. Everyone is different. Some people do great on "calories in = calories out", some people's bodies fight them on that. The shock routine Pete mentioned might work for you or it might not. Try to use some rational thought and knowledge of how things worked for you before, and stay safe.

I lose weight by getting out on the trail, not because of the exercise but because there isn't any food in reach when I'm out there. Seriously, for me it's about not idly eating while doing other things. When I get out into the world doing something that keeps me engaged I eat less. Keeping the peanut bowl away from the game table doesn't hurt any.

S.

Good job Nate, I'm sure you'll manage even more weight loss if you keep at it. Discipline regarding your food intake is probably the biggest thing, know when your body is satiated and don't eat too much crap, as you seem to be doing. Indulge reasonably every now and then.

Biking is cool, I've been biking to work for the past 3 summers (about 17 miles/28 km a day, but going at a fast pace - 18 mph on average), started when my kid was born so her mother could use the car during the day while on leave. Nowadays with daycare it's a bit more complicated but I wouldn't want to stop. I don't have that much weight to lose (never been over 190, but on a 6'2" slim frame), but last year I was about 160 by the Fall. Respraining my ankle at the beginning of October cut my season short, and I ate like a 'kin pig over the Fall and Winter so that I regained everything. Right now after 4 months of steady biking (though seldom 5 days a week for various reasons) I can see my abs yet still have little love handles I could lose. I don't know my weight, we don't have a balance at home, I'm probably around 170. Great strong legs though.

Funny thing about metabolism, by Christmas I'd been inactive for almost three months, yet hadn't really put on any extra weight, I needed a belt to hold my old jeans above my ass crack. Same with the weight loss, it takes a few weeks for any noticeable effect.