My Big Belly
 

Ok, so I got on the scale today.........203 lbs. WOW. I was once a 175 lb speed demon, I have wondered why my fitness has declined. I can still hammer the flats and run 7:15 mile...I thought most of my losses were a result of age I turned 43 but WOW I had no clue....203 lbs is crazy I work out hit the weights run & ride. So I began my no food diet today witha protein shake, my younger thinner Brother has been calling me afatso for a while now, I thought maybe he was just crazy. The scale does not lie and I am now attempting to take back my life.....Any motivational assistance will be appreciated.
The other optionis stay fat and become a clydesdale..:crash:

See ya
Fat in NJ

a no food diet isn't exactly the best solution to lose weight. I mean if you want to force your body to slow your metabolism down then go for it, but a better solution may be to eat smaller portions of healthier foods more often through the day. This will keep you from having too much "bad" foods at meals.

I actually went from 196 to about 180 in a few months by doing the above and riding my bike a few days a week, running every now and then, and of course working towards a tri. Don't be too hard on yourself and if you keep up the "all or nothing" mentality, the chances of a succeeding on the long term are drastically less. Try sticking with the above dieting routine with typical tri training and you will see the lbs just fall off. Plus you wont hate life as much cause it's still okay to eat out every now and then.

Man I'm with ya bro! I'm 49 and used to race at 154 I'm now 178...ouch! I'm going to try and get back in shape over the winter, keep us posted!
Dwayne

I like to call it a little budda belly. I stop racing crits, road races over 10 years ago, and have gone from 150 to 208. On the upside I have 148 miles this month, compared to 20 miles last Nov. My goal is to stay active on the bike this winter, and eat better.

I recommend running more. It's hard on the body yes, but that's why it'll make you lean and mean. The weight-bearing nature of it ensure that you work fairly hard even at a "relaxed" pace. Log the miles, and your body will reshape itself. You probably won't lose a ton of weight by just running (need to also diet, but not recommended to do both simultaneously), but you definitely will start trimming the excess and moving it to more useful muscle if you're logging good miles.

I would start with eating healthy and watch your calories. A no food diet is not smart. Make a lifestyle change and make it permanent, instead of a diet.

No food? Try my special diet I used 30 years ago to shed those final few pounds when I was determined to run a single 4:59 mile. I limited myself daily to a 6-pack of 96 calorie beer and all the fresh grapefruits I could stand for a solid week. Lost 5-pounds, felt great, had fun and ran a 4:58 mile.

I was a 27-year old exploration geologist and very fit before the final push, but just about 10 lbs above my weight goal.

TysonB

Coming from somebody who's lost 200 lbs in the last 18 months here's a couple of suggestions:
Eat more protein, less carbs. Eat more frequently (try to get 5-6 'meals' a day). Start your day with a protein shake, it gets the metabolism going and will actually curb your appetite. Lastly, make sure you drink plenty of water -- minimum of 64 oz.
The key to losing weight is actually to EAT. Just got to be smart and sensible. Not eating will result in long term negative results.
Typical day for me: Protein shake in morning. Protein bar in mid-morning, Protein bar for lunch or small lunch, small snack mid-afternoon (cheese and fruit has been the flavor of the month), sensible dinner, if hungry later I try for another protein snack/dessert like yogurt. Yes it does feel like I'm always eating, but the thing is I'm not eating much. Often the mid-afternoon/evening snack gets ditched especially if I'm in full training mode.
If I can lose 200+ lbs you can lose 10% of that, lol!!!!
Good luck!
--Sax

Crapola, I thought it was just me.

I used to be a slim trim and racy 155, I now tip the scales at 180. I don't feel like I eat that much more.
I just turned 49, tho.

Hey guys thanks for the support. Day 2 of proteinshakes and less food in general. I am hungry often but trying to eat less and do more. Thanksgiving sure aint gonna help..

I would definitely +100 to eating small meals often. getting breakfast within 1 hour of waking up keeps the metabolism up, rather than having your body go into starvation mode where it holds onto calories.

You may also think about putting your workouts before a meal so you have to rely on fat stores for energy more so than a recent meal. If you run/bike/swim before breakfast your metabolism will be ramped AND you will have had to use mostly fat stores (read buddha belly) for energy.
-durty

I started the south beach diet and by day 2 I hate my life......I an always hungry feel like crap..I crave sugar>>>>>>>>I hope that I keep it up they say by week 2 your off the sweets and life is good once again. I lost 3 lbs lastweek....so 200 even..yippy

:crash:

The sugar cravings will pass. And they ARE tough.

agree on the sugar cravings. After a couple of weeks you won't miss the sugar and it'll actually taste sickly sweet and make you wonder why you ever enjoyed it in the first place. Hang in there
By the way, hope you found a protein shake you like, I've tried lots and there are some good ones out there (along with plenty bad ones)
--Sax

Sax, I am using EAS chocolate with 2% milk and a banana..almost yummy.
Thanks for asking

I am only 32, but lost around 50-60 lbs and have been able to keep it off for a year or so. Here are some suggestions that seems to be working from me -
- First of all, if your goal is to loose 20-30 lbs, its not gonna happen by magic. You will have to do some serious intense stuff. If you expect magic to happen, it won't !! And, if you expect to keep it off (once you lost it), you will have to keep doing all the intense stuff (with more intensity) because as you get leaner, there is less and less fat left to burn !
- Staying hungry is a bad bad bad idea. No matter what any diet says, I don't think that if any diet makes you feel hungry all day long, you would be able to keep up that diet for your entire life. You will eventually give in to temptations, and weight will come back on. Make a life style change.
- Generally speaking, try to eat Natural unprocessed food as much as possible. That means fruits, vegetables, lean meat, nuts, dairy (low in fat) etc.
- Try to eat the heaviest meals earlier in the day, and as the day keeps passing, eat lighter and lighter. Dinner should be your lightest meal and preferably should be minimally processed. And should be atleast 2 hours before you go to bed. The key here is, you should have had atleast 4 meals before dinner. Otherwise you will eat a lot in dinner :D
- You WILL have sugar cravings. Eat desert every once in a while. BUT, eat it after lunch, not after dinner. That has helped me a lot !!! Why -- because it will hopefully burn off by end of day. Sugar eaten at night will most likely become fat on your belly ! Eat pizza every once in a while. But make sure you eat it at lunch, and not in dinner. And ride that bike for 20-30 miles that day.
- Enough said, now step away from the computer and get on the bike :D:D:D

Good luck with your quest !

Get more fiber in your diet. I use recipes from Eatingwell.com and have been shedding body fat and pounds like crazy. If you are going hungry that's not good, I eat whenever I'm hungry but I don't eat crap. I eat about 6 times per day, 2 being ~500 calorie meals, 4 being ~150 calorie snacks (yogurt, fruit, slice of whole grain bread, 2 oz. turkey and cheese, etc). I found that when eating high fiber meals, I fill up much more quickly. Once a week I'll go nuts and eat pizza or a burger and fries or something like that. As of late, I've found my ability to digest things like this is waning so I don't even really crave fatty foods anymore. I also starting eating 3-6 eggs per week, more for Omega-3s. Drinking water helps because sometimes hunger is really masked by thirst.

dont no food diet, thats horrible. Eating less calories is good. I lost 80 pounds over the summer and the best tips i can give you are

1. Eat on a schedule, like breakfast at 8 or whatever, lunch 12, and dinner at 6 or 7 or something, and put a plan together. Learn how little you can intake and still have enough energy and not be hungry. That way, on the average day if youve already eaten what you "usually" eat to get you through to the next meal you know you dont need to eat anymore and your probably just looking for something to eat because your board.

2. Dont eat past 8:30 or 9. Period.

3. Drink 16 ounces of water, and not any less (or it doesnt work...) right when you wake up in the morning, like right away. Your body hasnt drank anything for 8 hours. (lets hope your getting 8 hours of sleep, cause thats way important) It has been proven to raise your metabolism greatly for an extra hour and a half when you wake up. I do it everymorning. It makes breakfast go down much nicer as well.

Thats just my two cents on it. Those were kinda the rules i lived by over the summer and I dropped 80 pounds. Good luck shedding that weight.

Time to whip this out.... in 2005, I went on South Beach Diet. I went from 240 to 170 in six months. I'm 6'-2".

http://webpages.charter.net/doohicki...reAndAfter.jpg

If your fat really is concentrated in your belly, SBD works really well. Sadly, I gained most of that weight back. Happily, between restarting SBD and riding, I've gotten back down below 200 again. I'm taking it easy on the diet over the holidays but plan to be back into the mid 180s by Feb. 1st. It will be easy-peasy on SBD.

A couple things, if you're interested: Get a copy of the book (most libraries have it if you're cheap) and read the first part of the book that explains how the diet works before you get started. If you just jump ahead to the recipes and meal plans, you're doing yourself a disservice because it really helps to know why you're eating what you're eating. Also, the first two weeks are kind of like "diet bootcamp". They are tough, but once you get through them, you will know if the diet works (expect to be down about 10 lb. by then) and if you were able to stick to it for two weeks, it gets less restrictive after that and you know you can do it. I lost about 3 lb./week for several months.

Basically, carbs are your enemy. Even though you feel like you're using them when you ride, you have to avoid over-eating because as you get older, carbs become more like an addictive substance- the more you have, the more your body wants.

I use the Eddy Merckx / Steve Prefontaine plan of weight loss. Ride lots. Run lots.

I also eat just under 2000 calories a day; and if I go over I usually burn over 1k calories that day so its all good.

Thats pretty awsome results ! Congratulations for that :D

Just curious. Have you been able to keep the pounds off ? Have you always been on south beach diet ? And have you had to make any other changes in your life to keep the weight off, or just that diet .. ?