Trekguy246

I am about 6 feet / 225 pounds and I want to lose 35 pounds by July. My eating habits are horrible. I tend to overeat/gorge and I eat out a lot. When I do eat out, it's very bad food such as burritos and other fatty Mexican food. During the last two months, I gained about 10 pounds due to eating out more than usual. I also do not exercise. I'm finally fed up with being fat and want to lose weight so I won’t die when I'm 60.

I've never tried losing weight before. However, I actually lost quite a lot of weight when I was in middle school because of P.E. Although I wasn’t purposely trying to lose weight, the weight just came off gradually during that period. All the fad diets and stories of people having to starve give me a headache. I really don’t want to bother with counting calories or measuring my carb intake each day. For my weight loss plan, I am just planning to eat like a normal person (3 meals a day w/o overeating and no more eating out) and working out on the exercise bike for 30 minutes each day. I also plan to take a walk after dinner everyday. Will this help me lose a significant amount of weight by July? Is there anything I should change in my weight loss plan? I am definitely new to this and was hoping for some advice. My weight loss plan is basic, simple, and manageable. I don’t want to make it complicated like counting calories and such. I've read some success stories on this forum and was hoping maybe some of you guys can help me. Thanks so much everyone.

SSP

Not to burst your bubble, but it's unlikely you'll lose 35 lbs by July 1. The recommended rate of weight loss is 1 lb per week. At that rate, you can expect to lose a little over 11 lbs by July.

However, your plan sounds good. Losing weight is actually pretty simple - just each a little less, and exercise a little more each day. If your body burns about 500 calories more than you eat each day, you'll lose about 1 lb per week.

Try to identify your "problem foods" (e.g., cake, cookies, pizza, beer, etc.), and cut way back on those, or eliminate them altogether. If you drink sugared sodas, stop right now...that's a bunch of calories you can cut out of your diet. Try to eat less crap, and more veggies and fruits. Don't stuff yourself, and don't eat when you're not hungry.

Best of luck!

NoRacer

Check out:

https://www.bodyrecomposition.com

Lyle McDonald has discussion forums regarding exercise and weight loss. There's a lot of knowledgeable people there who attempt to keep abreast of the latest in body recomposition techniques.

C_Heath

SSP is right,I use their software, however, if you have alot of "flab" you can loose a rather large amount of weight rather quickly. The shock of a diet on your body will have enormous effects. However, you will have to stick to a strick eating and exercise regimen and from the sounds of you benge eating and lack of exercise, that might be hard to do. Just depends on how determined you can stay, not be.

On Feb 1, I weighed almost 211 pounds. This morning, 187. I have stuck to a strict 60/20/20 ratio of carbs,fat and protein and have been riding 80-100 miles per week on the bike while consuming a minimum of 110 oz of water a day. No soda, not even diet. No fast foods, pizza, burritos and no fries ever.

You could possibly loose 20 pounds by july but my goal date is 6/15/06 and I started on Feb 1st. I have 12 pounds togo and 1.3 pounds per week I need to loose.

No more eating out, no benge eating, 1500 calories a day @ 60/20/20, 120 oz of water and 100 miles a week.

Worked for me, is it in you?

Good Luck, PM me if ya need to ask any questions.

LAter

C_Heath

Oh and welcome to the forums, best on the planet

patc

Congrats on deciding to change your life. You will probably get a lot of advice - maybe too much - but I'll throw mine in anyway.

First, don't get too focused on goals. It can be nice to have benchmarks, but don't worry too much about losing x pounds by x date. Don't weight yourself daily, and don't make too much of weight variations. This is a long term thing, and will take time.

Don't go on a diet. Diets are evil. Change the way you eat. A big challenge for me, and perhaps also for you, was cutting down on meal sizes. I eventually realized that being stuffed wasn't fun, feeling bad after eating wasn't fun. Feeling good and ready to ride my bike after a meal was fun. Most restaurent portions are way too big, don't feel shy about leaving food behind. Don't ever "cheat", cheating creates guilt. Do treat yourself - you can eat well and still have the occasional donut or pizza. Treating yourself is a nice reward. Keep a lot of veggies around, they make great healthy snacks.

Change your lifestyle, and do not make exercise a chore. Leave a little early for work, school, or errands so that you can enjoy your bike ride there. Stairs are not your enemy. A trip for milk to the corner store is a chance to get a nice relaxing walk. Not only is this extra activity healthy, but the relaxed attitude will do wonders to lower your stress levels.

Get a copy of the Canada Food Guide or the US equivalent (I think its called the "food pyramid" now). You don't need to count calories or log every meal, just check the food guide every few weeks to see how well you are doing and get ideas for healthy food.

You should consult a doctor and get a physical before increasing your daily exercise. This is also a chance to make sure you don't have any medical conditions which may make weight loss harder. Consider seeing a nutritionist if you want extra help changing your eating habits - but remember, its about making new eating habits, not "going on a diet".

Finally, feel good about yourself. Every time you have the apple instead of the donut, or take the stairs instead of an elevator, you are doing something good for yourself. Think of it as getting a little gold star or happy-face stamp on your homework that day. A healthy lifestyle should not feel like a punishment, but it should feel like a reward.

Stick to it. Others people have done it, you can to.

Trekguy246

That's AWESOME. You seriously just gave me a lot of motivation...

Does 60/20/20 mean 60grams/20grams/20grams?

I drink diet soda ALL the time. Is that bad? I thought diet soda was okay since it doesn't have any calories or sugar...



THANKS for all the advice everyone. You guys have seriously instilled a lot of confidence in me.

Pedal Wench

Diet soda is great if it keeps you away from the regular soda.
Since you don't want a 'diet', here are a few things that you can do -- changes that just become part of your lifestyle, not a diet.
Eliminate fried foods. If it's fried, it just doesn't go in your mouth. Same thing with cream sauces. Add in cheesey sauces and gravies. Just not part of your palate anymore. Those are easy changes.
You should also make sure the carbs you eat are what I consider 'positive' carbs. Carbs that ADD to my overall health, not take away. So, sweet potato is good, white potato bad. White bread out, whole wheat in. White rice out, brown rice in. The whole grains have so many nutrients, that you feel good about including them in your diet.

I start to look at foods in a weird way: how is this going to help my cycling, or is it going to hurt it. Is it going to slow me down, or is it going to fuel my ride?

Simple changes, but they work for me.

mcavana

https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/166201-certified-nutritionalist.html

!!Comatoa$ted

A few other guys have said that you have to make a lifestyle change, I agree with them. A diet is great for loosing weight, IMO they are terrible for keeping it off. I know that you said that you dont want to count calories and that is your choice. I found using fit day has made my weight loss successful and on the days that I am not using it I am able to recognise a regular portion as opposed to a overly large portion.

I say go for it, and if you don't, death at 60 is not that bad, a stroke or heart attack at 60 that incapcitates you is much worse IMO. I saw myself ending up like the residents that I take care of. They are the best people that I have ever met, but I think they would rather be A-holes and healthy, rather than have me wash and feed them.

For me the biggest motivation was working at a long term care facility and seeing myself living in one in about 30 years.

yater

Since you're on a bike forum, I'll assume you have an interest in riding? Why not get a REAL bike (road, off-road, or otherwise..your choice) and enjoy yourself. The initial shock of riding (soreness and fatigue) won't last long..then you'll begin to enjoy yourself and look forward to the ride (not just the excercise). I find that when I'm training, I don't want to eat a bunch of grease after a good workout. If you make the effort, things will fall into place...it's a lifestyle

cooker

Drinking diet soda may be causing some of that weight gain.

C_Heath

60/20/20 = 60% carbs 20% Fat and 20% protein

EVERYDAY.

120 oz of water
Ride Ride Ride.

No diet drinks, there evil

DRINK WATER

track progress here........ www.fitday.com its free <<<

DannoXYZ 

Actually 35lbs by July-1 may be possible, but there are long-term consequences. That rate of loss will include a lot of muscle as well, perhaps 20-25% of the loss will be muscle. He'll hit a plateau quickly as he won't have enough strength to do more intensity and distance on his workouts after that initial 35-lbs. Chronic fatigue, boredom, apathy, blurred-vision, lack-of-motivation will set in and he'll fall back on his old ways and the weight will climb right back to where it was within a year... ready to start the roller-coaster yet again...

It's not complicated, just use the fitday link posted above. It only takes 2-3 minutes to enter your data every day and the value is in examining a long-term record of your meals. After a month or two, you've got a good database to review your plan and make real modifications to your lifestyle. It requires a permanent change in the way you see yourself, your fitness and health.

The biggest and most important part about losing weight is to eat less than you burn off, and there's no way to do that consistently unless you're have valid data to examine, that means actual numbers. Only way to do that is to track your meals and track your workouts and compare the two. It's easy to trick and fool ourselves into thinking we're "eating right" and to cheat by rationalizing, "Oh, I've been good, this little snack won't hurt", and before you know it, you're off-track.

The fitday will also help you track the composition of your meals. For a lot of people that means cutting back on a lot of harmful fats from fast-foods, partially-hydrogenated oils and trans-fats. Increasing fruits and vegetable intake. Not easy to do unless you have the data in clear, black & white terms that can be examined and verified by a neutral 3rd party.

ZachS

How do you get to work/school/wherever every day? Bicycle commuting might be a good way to work in more exercise.

Do you have a sedentary lifestyle at work or at home? A year and a half ago, when I quit my office job, I weighted close to 250... Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day in a building full of fat ladies who ALWAYS have free treats to give you can do that if you don't have any discipline. I got down to about 200 (up to about 215+ now since I quit smoking, but that will change in time) just because my lifestyle changed... went traveling for a while, then started school... I don't really work out, my commute's only about 15 minutes each way, I don't watch what I eat, but just being up and around most of the day really makes a big difference. Likewise, if you go home and plop yourself in front of the computer or tv every day, 30 minutes on an exercise bike won't mean much... In addition to a regular exercise program and (hopefully) bicycle commuting, you should take up some sort of group sports activity - cycling related, or not. Some examples are martial arts, club soccer, getting your ass schooled at basketball by 14 year olds at the park, etc.

As far as food goes, just try to eat enough whole grains, veggies, fruits, legumes, and lean meat that you don't have room for all the crap. Your body will sort the rest out.

CTAC

Excellent plan if you can actually make it. Soda or beer should only go with meal, too. No snacks! Hungry? Drink a glass of water. Still hungry? Make yourself a proper meal ant eat it wihout TV or newspaper. Don't limit yourself to 3 meals, try limiting portions instead. Try not eating 3 hours before going to sleep.

tekhna

3 meals a day is definetly not the way to do it. 5-7 smalls meals a day speeds up your metabolism, reduces snacking and I think it is much easier to prepare a healthy small meal.

SoreFeet

Dont set the goal for the weight to be so fast. Loose the weight slowly and keep it off. The easiest way to make it work is to cut out refined sugars. Stick to whole grains only. Don't set portion limits on food because eating is important. Always eat a little something in the morning. Breakfast is vital for metabolism. I am taqueria junky myself. Make it a weekly ritual to eat the fatty mexican food you love. Treat yourself for improving your life. Excercise 5 times a week even if it is only 10 minutes. Little excercise is better than nothing. I would advise getting a real bike and not excercise bike. The stationary cycles probably don't provide the greatest fit and the benefit of riding outdoors is enjoying the scenery. Three 20 mile rides a week will put you in great shape. The fight to loose weight will only work by changing diet. It doesnt mean you have to give up everything good. Refined sugars are the enemy. If your community college offers a nutrition class sign up. Or find a qualified nutrionist to work with you. Understanding what is in foods today is important. Diets dont work. Eat to live.

bonkerz

Last summer I got seriously into freeride/dh mountain biking. I biked around my city for 3-4 hours almost everyday. During my rides I would drink about 2 bottles of powerade/gatorade and a vector bar or two (or something similar). When I wasn't riding I would eat whatever I wanted basically, though I'm no serious over-eater. Amazingly, believe it or not, in a month and a half I went from 220 to 185 lbs.








Too bad I gained it all back during the winter hahaha and now I'm back at it again this year.

jennings780

Read "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Follow what he says. You can lose 35lbs by the end of the summer.

ReptilesBlade 

I love you for this post.

slisk

Here's a simple trick to stop you from eating fast food on the way to and from work. Don'y carry ANY cash. I found that when the Taco Bell would call my name (when I lived in AZ) and I had to stop at the ATM or use a card at the window, it made me think long enough to just say no.

Sounds stupid but if you have no money on you, you can't eat fast food!

Slisk

Michigander

If you are serious about wanting to be truly healthy, look into this guy: www.garynull.com If you never want cancer, and you want to live past 100, he can help you out.

There are a couple of simple things I will suggest. Run or lap swim daily. Running and swimming is a much more inclusive workout than bike riding. Take it easy at first, and work your way up. Hard exersize should be hard and tiring, but not painful. If you do that, cravings for garbage food will go away, because your body will need proper nutrition to sustain itself. I lost over 40 pounds by running and swimming, and the fact I run and swim has made it very easy for me to eat right. Remember, living healthy must be a permanent lifestyle change, not a fad diet. Don't be discouraged if things don't seem to be working out and you start gaining back weight. Its like with smoking, do not quit quitting.

By the way, you call yourself a boy. Are you in high school or something? If you are, obviously you need to be in gym classes, and sports teams are also a great option for staying fit.

patc

Aw shucks

ReptilesBlade 

Well, you just took every thing I was thinking and saved me a whole lot of effort. So once again Thnk You.