Machka 

Meanwhile ... I've lost 2 kg in the last 2 weeks.

CliffordK

According to Strava, I burn mega calories on my longer rides.

3000, 4000, 5000 calories?

It looks like one of my longer days was 6,937 calories. And, I have to believe that Strava underestimates due to not properly accounting for extra cargo.

Yet, I also find myself eating everything in sight. And, a few days later, the weight is unchanged.

I have gained and lost a few pounds over the years, with some attempts more successful than others.

I was eating 1 big meal a day, and pretty stable, or slowly gaining weight. I've changed to eating essentially the same thing, but splitting it into 2 meals, and have started losing 1 to 2 pounds a week.

I bumped into this article a few days ago.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/w...ucceed-or-fail

And, of course, this article seems to be discussing short term diets, not long term keeping the weight off.

However, one of the big issues is long term lifestyles. Healthy, active lifestyles, vs sedentary lifestyles and lots of fast food or junk food.

KraneXL

Most people that aren't heavy athletes can eat one meal/day and do fine. This is one of many forms of IF, and a great way for many to lose weight and stay healthy.

Of course, that assume that meal isn't a 4 hour 10,000 cal. highly processed foods grazing secession. In which case limiting to one meal/day would be inconsequential.Carbs are an important macro nutrient because they contain valuable vitamins and minerals but they're not necessary.

Insulin is your body's fat storage hormone, and carbs are by a large margin its biggest trigger. That's the downside of carbs (e.g. processed carbs.) and why they have such a bad reputation.

radroad

A few points to keep in mind:

1. the more you ride, the more efficient you become. You burn fewer and fewer calories over time doing the same activity. Hence, the rise of "muscle confusion" as. a technique.

2. moderately high levels of activities (like cycling with moderate effort) may be the worst form of exercise for losing weight. Very strenuous activity which leaves you breathless or easy exercise like lifting very light weights and/or walking are significantly better.

3. cycling is not weight bearing. It doesn't help to build bone strength and is basically useless for building upper body strength.

Cycling is fine for aerobic conditioning, for fun, for saving a bit of money on gas if you're so inclined, but for weight loss? Not so good.

Lemond1985

Ha ha, BF's quote of the day for me. Essentially, "Don't judge me on the net result of applying all of my own expert knowledge about weight control and nutrition to myself, the fact that I'm 40 lbs overweight is someone else's fault, so it's unfair to judge me on that."

radroad

Super fat Casey got his stomach stapled and lost almost 200 lbs. Amazingly, he's still well over 500 lbs! He says he still needs to lose another 275 lbs at a minimum.

In a bizarre twist his entire family congratulates him and gives him a standing ovation even though he's still at least 275 overweight! He's probably overweight by 325 lbs, or more. What kind of a world do we live in where your family gathers to congratulate you for weighing 525 friggin pounds?!?

Lemond1985

Only in America.

CliffordK

Yes, I can do fine with one meal a day.

But, I discovered that I do better by splitting that one meal exactly in half and having two meals.

My interpretation is that with a single meal, my body goes into starvation mode, and conserves calories while fasting, then with the large meal, I eat more than the body needs at the moment, and it packs the excess into fat.

Splitting the meal, there is less conservation... and less building fat. And the outcome is weight loss on the same calories.

CliffordK

Not a show that I was interested in, but congratulate someone on progress as long as it is not an end point.

The show indicates the guy is wanting to continue to lose weight down to a "normal weight" without defining that.

The "new norm"?

livedarklions

Defining "normal" is really problematic, though.

By BMI, I am supposedly 14 pounds overweight. In order to close that gap, I would need to shed muscle. I actually made the "normal" range at one point, and I looked emaciated and felt weak. Mind you, I am well below average weight for a man of my height and age in the U.S., so I don't really know if I am above or below the "norm".

Slightly above BMI normal is actually the healthiest group, but it turns out that's because BMI doesn't discriminate between muscle and fat weight.

livedarklions

Carbs are an important macro nutrient because they are the most efficient source of energy. If you don't eat carbs, your body will have to convert something else to glucose, or your brain will, in fact, die. The most likely candidate for this conversion will be the proteins you take in.

​​​​​Refined carbs have a bad reputation because they are essentially too efficient as a source of rapidly digested calories, and eating them in any substantial amount is likely to provide more calories than you need, thus those calories will get stored as fat.

Insulin is not just the body's fat storage hormone, it is also the body's main anabolic hormone. It is also absolutely necessary for human beings to survive. Talk to a type 1 diabetic if you don't understand this.

gregf83 

Flip Flop Rider

an in-arguable fact (challenge). to lose weight, don't eat

bobwysiwyg

.. and, or, don't treat calories burned during a ride as a free pass to consume the equivalent.

If only I could always follow my own advice.

Rides4Beer

You're right, why encourage him on his path to getting healthy, if he can't lose it all instantly, then he's just a failure, right??

People that are at that level of obesity typically have deep rooted emotional/psychological issues that also need to be addressed, at the same time they are trying to lose weight, which makes it even more difficult. They need all the encouragement they can get, to start, and to continue.

Unfortunately, fat-shaming is still very much socially acceptable, making efforts like this even more difficult than they need to be.

Flip Flop Rider

me too, guess it's a mental thing. Physical exertion seems to justify heavy eating, for me anyway

aclinjury

Losing weight is still all about the calories. It's part of the reason why drug addicts are skinny: they hardly eat (due to the drugs affecting their appetite)

Lemond1985

What about drunk-shaming? Or heroin addict-shaming? Society wants you to put down the fork, bottle, or hypodermic syringe. It's for your own good.

Or should we encourage the self-esteem of such people, and lie to them and tell them their problems are not their fault, their problems are someone else's fault. In the hopes that over years and decades, a few might see the light and quit on their own, in a supportive, pressure-free environment? Sorry, but that's not gonna happen.

KraneXL

Naturally! Modern eating habit e.g. fast foods, have knocked all that off balance. Except that he wasn't addressing his issues, he was validating them. Something entirely different.

OBoile

We should do whatever is most helpful, which generally means encouragement. Being honest with someone isn't the same as being a dick to them. You can encourage someone while being honest with them.

If your friend was running a marathon, would you only cheer for them at the end? At mile 12, would you be telling them how much further they have to go and how difficult it's going to be? This guy has a long way to go yes, but he's also come a long way. I don't see any issue with cheering him on and encouraging him to keep going.

livedarklions

Are you under the impression that shaming has been a successful strategy in dealing with alcohol and drug abuse? Oh, good, you've solved the problems then. Who knew it would be so easy--all you have to do is insult them and sneer. Voila!

Fault and punishment are irrelevant, the consequences they're going through are much more painful than any stupid put-down you can come up with--for someone to actually stop doing these things, they need to be able to let go of what's come before now and focus on what they can do now to change going forward.

Even when the morbidly obese person adopts healthy habits, significant weight loss takes a lot of time. Are you really saying that it's good to be mean to "such a person" until they get to a weight YOU consider acceptable?

KDTX

Some of the best info I have learned over the past few months:

Weight loss is not linear.....You can't manipulate diet and exercise and lose precisely 2.78543 pounds per week. Your body needs to do things, it will go through cycles, etc.

Consistency is key.......staying consistent with your diet and exercise regimen will yield best results. One single skipped meal isn't going to do anything nor is one 85 mile ride followed by 12 days off.

Sacrifice...... you have to change/give up something to get results. You cannot keep to your old ways and expect weight loss. You must only drink one night per week instead of six. You need to chose a salad and veggies over burger and fries. Go to the gym instead of surfing Facebook for an hour. etc. etc. etc.

I am down 15 pounds in 2 months. My focus has been: exercise 5 x week, 60 minutes or more (anything from walking to gym to long rides). My sacrifice has been: 0 beer, 0 bread, 0 fried food and only having a red wine or two twice during the week (it was beer about 5 nights a week). I have doubled my vegetable intake. I have yet to count a calorie!

radroad

Its absolutely effective. It's worked throughout the entirety of human history.

Now that we've stopped "shaming" (which only means giving appropriate feedback) in the western world for the past 50 years or so, people have also gotten much, much, much fatter during that same period of time. The rate of drug addiction has exploded as well.

What *I* consider an acceptable weight is irrelevant. What scientific research PROVES is an unhealthy weight is. We all know that obesity is linked with a shorter life span and disease. It's also a burden on the rest of society since insurance forces us to carry the weight of others' bad decisions since fat people require much more medical assistance than those of a healthy weight.

But....feeelingzzzzz.....:-(

Exactly. And Casey didn't become more disciplined. He just got his stomach stapled. He just physically can't eat very much. And how could he afford such expensive elective surgery? He hadn't worked in a very long time. It's obvious the tv show paid for it.

Praising someone for having their stomach stapled is like praising someone for being sent to prison after they've stolen hundreds of cars. Awesome! You spent six years in prison (more like six months) and DIDN'T steal 20 cars! You are so awesome!

His family is applauding this guy because he was fortunate enough to be so repulsive that a tv show felt he was grotesque enough to exploit him for ratings! This is positive reinforcement of the worst kind. It reminds me of that Dr. Phil episode where a black girl faked being trans-racial (white) just for a free trip out to Hollywood. We are rewarding people for all the wrong reasons.

Lemond1985

"Not feeling sorry for someone" =/= "Shaming them"

Besides, people can only be shamed for something, if they know themselves the act or condition is something worthy of feeling shame about.

For example, no automobile driver is gonna "shame" me for riding my bike around on city streets, and if they try, their efforts will not be successful. Because i know I have a right to be out there, more right than they do, since driving a car on public streets is a mere privilege, one that the govt can take away at any time. The right to ride a bike on those same streets, is such a fundamental one, that it requires no permission from the govt, and thus it's a right that can't ever be taken away. Therefore any effort to shame me will fall on completely deaf ears.

livedarklions