breadbin

i just wondered if anyone had used it to lose weight and what your experiences are in particular with regards to energy levels and cycling. i've just started and right of the bat my carb intake has dramatically reduced. other than this though the diet seems fairly healthy. can a reduction in carbs be bad for brain power? would i feel more fatigued mentally and physically when not taking carbs.

i do remember reading somewhere that your brain cells in particular depend on the sugar in the blood more so as they cant use proteins for energy. i'm really confused about what is the best way to go. the motivation diet seems like just a money making racket to me. it is a business afterall and who knows in 10 years what the state of my brain could be like.

i'm even more confused now after reading this

A Simplified Description of Low-Carb Diets

they seem to think that the atkins diet is definitely not the way to go but something like the low-carb diet is preferred.

at the end if the day i want to be fit and healthy. i want to have enough energy to exercise and i dont want to be mentally fatigued. i wish it wasn't so hard to know what the right path was!

wolfchild

Loosing weight is more then just dieting. Unless you have "skinny genetics", you going to have a hard time loosing weight in a healthy way and keeping that weight off when following fad diets. Exercise and physical activity is very important, you will need to push yourself hard and burn more calories. You need to start doing some type of resistance training, such as weights , bodyweight calisthenics or strength-endurance training..
Military style workouts are great for burning fat and making people lean and hard....The problem with most fad diets and weight loss programs is that they don't work for everybody, because every person is slightly different.
A weight loss program need to be customized to each individual, there is no such thing as a one size fits all diet/weight loss program.

sprince

Yes, the first symtoms are emerging already. But seriously, the body is pretty smart about it's priorities, you'll probably destroy all your other vital organs long before sustaining permanent brain damage.

The fad diets are rackets. Do some weight training and/or high intensity workouts, get enough protein, eat your vegetables, ditch 100% of the junk food and the rest should take care of itself. You may need more or less carbs depending on your metabolism and fat reserves, but be careful about cutting out all carbs. You do need some carbs for effective workouts, and if you go too far with the dieting your body will start preparing for famine and just double down on the fat storage.

breadbin

yeah i'm afraid my metabolism will shut down cos i'm starving myself. i woke up this morning and felt pure rotten. weak as anything, starving of course. made a shake with lots of fruit (believe it or not this diet restricts fruit and vegetables!). i didn't care, i needed something. i did actually go out for a spin too which was great. took alot of willpower to get out though. as it happens i had a great cycle and felt strong but only back 30mins and starving again

see i know the fad diets don't work long term, there is no way i could keep this up. its just too different. but there are positives to it. like i am losing weight, i do go in weekly for a consult to keep me motivated and most of the fats are gone too which is only good for the old ticker. oh and i really appreciate my food now! had a pork chop last night and was the nicest thing i ever tasted!

sprince

Throw your scale away and just work on eating a healthy diet. Find a diet and an exercise schedule you can live with and enjoy long term. Get yourself motivated to be fit and healthy as the first priority and chances are you will lose weight and keep it off as a bonus.

beatlebee 

^this

Spld cyclist

I think the problem with diets that seek to totally remake your eating habits cause people to lose track of how much they can eat and lose or maintain weight (depending on goals). If you're overweight but stable, and you're also (like most people) fairly consistent about the kinds and amounts of things you eat, then you should have an intuitive understanding of how much you can eat without gaining weight. Then you can cut specific things or add specific types and amounts of exercise and have a good chance of hitting on a calorie deficit that will make you lose weight at a healthy rate. When you hit your goal weight, you can cautiously add some of the things you cut back in, and should be able to stabilize at your goal weight. If you consistently hit a 500 cal/day deficit and keep activity up, then you should be able to lose a pound a week. If you're not losing at that rate, then cut a little more food or exercise a little more.

chasm54

Don't I recall that you work in a hospital? I'll bet there's a dietician on the staff. Just ask him/her for some advice. It'll go something like this:

Eat as much lean meat, eggs, and green vegetables as you want. A couple of helpings of fruit per day is also OK. Go easy on the carbs - no more than a couple of small potatoes per day, maybe a couple of slices of toast. No refined sugars, no booze. Dairy only in moderation.

breadbin

well i got my gp to refer me privately to a dietician. still waiting! i am hungry now and have been hungry all day. i just know i wont be able to keep it up long term. its just now the motivation happens to be with me. i don't feel too bad in fairness. tired but that is more hard work and lack of sleep. i shouldnt be starving all the time though. had a nice dinner today, stewed beef and fried veg. tasted lovely but was starving again in less than an hour. and i mean starving enough to give me butterflies.

might have a quick word with the dietician in work see what she says. i could guess a diet she would out me on but the motivation to keep on it is the hard part.

chasm54

Of course.

Try buying a high-powered blender and creating some green smoothies. (Spinach, pear and ginger is stupendous, if you want a recipe to get you started). They make an excellent snack when you'd otherwise be tempted to eat some crap.

Carbonfiberboy 

As far as I'm concerned, here's The Word on macros for endurance athletes:
https://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/61/4/968S.full.pdf
It's dense but definitely worth reading.

The best advice I can give is never "diet." Food is fuel. Use it that way. What you want is a sustainable lifetime eating and exercise plan. A "diet" won't allow you to train yourself to follow a sustainable lifestyle. A diet is temporary. Life is long.

I recently read Body by Design, by the editor of Bodybuilding.com, Chris Gethin. The first half of the book is about how to get and stay motivated, which is as the OP notes, most of the problem in body transformation.

The problem with finding the right path is all the fog spewed out by faddists trying to make money off the existence of said fog. All this stuff is really very well known.

Here are a few simple rules:
If you're tired during a workout or ride, you need more carbs.
If your muscles hurt all the time, even when you're riding or working out, you need more protein.
If you're hungry all the time, you need more fat.

I would ride away from that diet you're on as fast as possible.

Gethin advocates joining a forum of bodybuilding.com called BodySpace for encouragement and accountability. I get mine by showing up for a group ride every week. The first rule is Show Up.

BF is a good place, too.

bruised

What Carbonfiberboy just said above seems on the money ^

I've fought the battle of the bulge since a teenager. It's taken me into my 50's to figure it out. Now I'm convinced I've found a solution which works for me. What's great is just how easy it is. Food is a drug to me, it always has been. I'm a foodie, I like to cook and eat out...it's not just sustenance it's a passion and a hobby. For many years I tried to deprive myself of something I love. I cut out this, cut back on that, felt hungry when dieting....hungry and miserable. You can't sustain it, it's impossible. You're fighting a natural urge and it's unhealthy to deprive yourself in this way. You need to manage it not avoid it.

Now I eat like a horse. I eat all the time, but small portions. But what I do eat is mostly quite healthy and varied. I'm not a health-food fanatic and I'm fortunate that I've never been a fast-food junkie. I like potatoes, pasta, rice, chicken, steak, fish, salads, veggies, fruits, cereals, chocolates, cakes, pastries, meat pies and rag puddings

Those are the things I love to eat and I'll never deprive myself of them again.

But I have to implement the counter-balance. Calories in = energy out. If I eat 2500 calories I'll need to exercise. So I found an exercise which isn't an exercise, it's a hobby. I love to do it (biking). It's fun and it's a ticket to eating what I want. (within sensible limits).

Since I stumbled on this new path I've gone from a shade over 280 to 184 in less than a year. I plan to hit the Century before December then stop. I'm already thinking about ways I can eat more calories without stuffing myself, so I can exercise safely without fear of losing weight. This is a dynamic shift from how I've spent the last 40 years of my life, with the process arse about face.

Good supplementation is quite important too - but not with chemicals passed off as vitamin pills. Good natural stuff like honey, bee pollen, green tea.

I started a blog on this a while back and I should try to update it sometime soon

Good luck.

Mark Stone

Great narrative. Thanks for posting, and congratulations on your weight loss!

Carbonfiberboy 

I think that's a great way to look at it. If we look at a modern high-end restaurant presentation, we see an elegant arrangement of a rather small amount of food on a large plate. It can be complex, flavorful, and healthy, all at the same time. That's what we do at home, though the presentation isn't as fancy. We have small home-cooked portions of really delicious, interesting, healthy food. My wife has a list of somewhere between 300 and 500 dinner main courses that we cycle through over the years. We usually cook up 6 servings at a time, thus having leftovers twice from each original cooking. That cuts down on the time required. Our house rule is desert and alcohol only with company. So we get those things, but not all the time.

ThermionicScott 

Not that I've ever had problematic amounts fat to lose, but the things that always help the extra flab come off easily after a long winter are fiber and good fats: apples and carrots are tasty snacks, unsalted mixed nuts have lots of good fats and fiber, broccoli and Brussels sprouts can be surprisingly tasty and low-cal when roasted in olive oil with a little salt and pepper. All of those foods are filling and nutritious, and when you put those things first, it's a lot harder to overeat other things.

Willbird

For me it was this simple. I weighed 304 lbs on the scale at the Dr. office when I had blood work done, was scheduled to visit back in about ten days to talk over the lab results.

My employer is self insured but they use BCBS to administer the plan, they have annual on site "bio screen" where they weigh you, maybe measure your height and waist (the height for sure, not so sure on the waist)..they also check your BP and do a blood glucose test.

Based on those results my choices were to...
A. Sign up for a telephone coaching program on weight loss.
B. Go over to an HSA and high deductible insurance for 2015.

So I chose A, the lady I talked to suggested Myfitnesspal ap(often abbreviated down to MFP)....I signed up and I wavered back and forth the first few weeks between setting it at 1, 1.5, or 2 lbs a week, I finally settled on 2 lbs and have left it there, I set my activity level to "active" due to what I do at work, on my feet a lot of steps a day, and up and down a flight of stairs 20-30 times in 8 hours.

Weight started dropping, I did not feel SUPER hungry really...that was 168 days ago...right now I am weighing in at 215-216 and still dropping 2+ a week, still not feeling super hungry.

At first I did "nothing" for exercise except work.....but within the first week or so I started walking...worked my way up to 5k a few times, and 13 minutes to the mile....but my right knee at 304 down to 280 lbs was NOT happy with that, and so June 1 2014 I dragged a bike out of the shed and started to ride after airing up the tires.

It has been 1843 miles since then.

MFP automatically reduces calories as you go, you can honestly eat anything you want, you can scan the bar code on 95% of products on sale at retail and load the stuff right in, and find about any restaurant food as well...for me anyway I just hit the calorie number for the day and weight drops. If I want a steak and baked potato for supper I eat 150 cals to start the day, and then the next meal is that steak and baked potato.

I'm not sure if I shorted my training with the reduced caloric intake or not, we will see I guess when I hit 150-160 lbs or so and take the cals up to where I lost just a little every week...and see how training goes then.

June was 300+ miles
July, August, 500+
September was 400+
October I set a goal of 300 and I am at 100 now, the cooler weather has been a new experience for me, 16 days to make 200 miles, brand new road bike, I should make it.

Honestly I want to be done cutting, and will accept some loss in training as the cost for that, as opposed to cutting slower and adding another year to the cutting process, but that is a highly individual decision :-). If it all works out right I will have lost 150 lbs or so on day 365 :-).

Willbird

I have accepted that given my past history I will probably have to ALWAYS log caloric intake or control it somehow, and daily logging is really the easiest way, especially when the day includes riding from 20-100+ miles (75 is my highest in recent history, but I'm sure there will at least be some centuries in the future).

Macro balance for me right now is probably kind of silly...I eat around 14,000 calories of food, and burn around 10,000 calories of human fat, but keeping the intake balance semi sane does create good eating habits and recipes, and helps acquire a taste for fuel that is good for me :-).

I guess I will mention I am 5'8" tall if that matters, and 49 years old, that will change early in December :-)...the age part.