Lose weight before the season starts

[Mark Padgett]

A few years ago, I decided to ride a bike to try and lose weight. Didn't work. Maybe it was because I would ride it to Baskin Robbins.

[Mountaineer]

I find it funny that OS doesn't agree that frequent healthy meals is better for you . . . every doc I've talked to and most of your weight-loss programs want you to eat 5 smaller meals rather than 3 normal or larger ones. Whouldathunkit that OS is also a medical doctor!

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

Whouldathunkit that OS is also a medical doctor!

In addition to what?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

Whouldathunkit that OS is also a medical doctor!

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

In addition to what?

A medical enigma?

[Smitty]

The plan I'm on suggests eating 6 meals a day, spaced out ever 2-3 hours. It's low calorie (800-1000/day), low carb (approx. 80g/day), low fat, and high protein. The prepackaged food is high in other nutrients to ensure you get everything you need for a healthy diet. Because the calories are so low, it works very fast, but remarkably you don't feel hungry very often, if at all. The first 3 days are hell, but after your body goes into ketosis (fat burning state), it's a piece of cake, no pun intended.

One key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you take in.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Smitty

One key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you take in.

Short of surgical intervention, burning more calories than you consume is the only key to losing weight.

[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by Smitty

The plan I'm on suggests eating 6 meals a day, spaced out ever 2-3 hours. It's low calorie (800-1000/day), low carb (approx. 80g/day), low fat, and high protein. The prepackaged food is high in other nutrients to ensure you get everything you need for a healthy diet. Because the calories are so low, it works very fast, but remarkably you don't feel hungry very often, if at all. The first 3 days are hell, but after your body goes into ketosis (fat burning state), it's a piece of cake, no pun intended.

One key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you take in.

Dave - how does their food taste. To me, the problem I have is that I'm addicted to good-tasting food. Weight loss would be a lot easier if the food had some taste to it!

[Smitty]

The food varies for me. They have oatmeal that to me tastes similar to instant oatmeal - I don't add anything to the oatmeal. They have soups and chili, and by themselves they are pretty bland, but there's a list of allowable condiments you can use to spice things up. I add tabasco and other hot sauces to the sups and chili and then it's pretty good. They also have pudding that I don't like at all. There is enough of a variety that I have found the things I like and stick to those. The best things are the shakes. I use shakes as 3 of my 5 prepackaged meals per day. Everything hey offer, from the oatmeals, eggs, soups, drinks, pudding, etc. is filled with the same nutritional value so you can have any combination you like for your 5 meals. Many people drink 5 shakes a day, but I like some substance once in a while.

The salad and meat meal is the best time of the day.

The biggest change is the portion size. I was eating like a friggin' pig before and was hesitant mainly because I didn't think I could do it with the portion sizes. But after those first 3 days when my body adjusted, it has been really easy. It is tough sometimes when my kid eats pizza and tacos, but the rewards are too good to go back to what I was before. Like any diet it takes a big commitment and willpower. The fact that this diet produces such fast results, it makes it a lot easier to find motivation to stick with it.

[zebraman]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

Short of surgical intervention, burning more calories than you consume is the only key to losing weight.

Not completely true. My wife is a bodybuilder and I've learned quite a bit about nutrition from her.

If you consume too few calories over a period of time, your body will go into starvation mode and start hoarding everything. That can change your metabolism.

As someone stated earlier, the best way to lose weight is to eat small portions of healthy foods several times a day. Then your body learns that it doesn't need to hoard anything because it knows it will get more food soon. Those who starve themselves and then eat one big meal can gain weight on the same amount of calories that would cause them to lose weight if they spread that same amount of calories over several small meals throughout the day.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by zebraman

Not completely true.

No. It's pretty much 100% true.

If you consume too few calories over a period of time, your body will go into starvation mode and start hoarding everything. That can change your metabolism.

In other words, you're burning fewer calories, which leads back to what I said.

As someone stated earlier, the best way to lose weight is to eat small portions of healthy foods several times a day.

While I think there's probably some merit to this, there's still no medical consensus on this subject.

Then your body learns that it doesn't need to hoard anything because it knows it will get more food soon. Those who starve themselves and then eat one big meal can gain weight on the same amount of calories that would cause them to lose weight if they spread that same amount of calories over several small meals throughout the day.

The effect is more likely the increased metabolism involved in digesting those more frequent meals. The difference between 6 400 Calorie meals in a day and 3 800 Calorie meals is probably negligible. If I get a chance, I'll try to pull up some papers later this week.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by zebraman

My wife is a bodybuilder

Photos, please.

[rainmaker]

The basic fact is that the only way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you burn. But the calculations of how much you burn, and how much you consume are much more complicated than just looking at tables in books, and adding things up roughly.

Here are some factors that are known to have some effect, some more effect than others.

Increasing muscle mass increases your metabolism, therefore increasing calorie consumption, even when the muscles aren't in use. This is an excellent reason to exercise, even small amounts. It helps build or maintain muscle mass thus keeping metabolism up.

If you eat the same number of calories over 24 hours, you use up more in the digesting process, if you eat those calories in several small meals as opposed to two or three large meals. This has to do with the absorptive state vs. the post-absorptive state. The reason most diet plans used to recommend not snacking is that most people would increase their consumption overall, when they snacked. But if you can truly keep your calorie consumption constant, it's better to spread out the eating over a longer period of time.\

Fasting is generally not the best way to lose weight since it does put your body into a starvation, low-metabolism mode, and it also can cause muscle degradation. The body will begin to burn fat, yes, but it will also begin to break down muscle into fat (before it changes it into glucose for use), so you're maintaining fat, and losing muscle. NOt a good thing to do.

Fat itself puts out hormones that trigger eating impulses, including cravings and hunger. Fat seems to be self-maintaining in some ways. For this reason, it's best NOT to rely on feelings of hunger to determine the amounts you eat. The best way to lose weight is to establish a plan and stick to it. If you find the plan isn't working, modify the plan, but don't veer from it.

Also, the hi-protein, lo-carb diets work for many people in the short run, and that with care the loss can be maintained, but ketosis over the long haul is NOT a healthy way to live. If you do go onto a plan that puts your body into ketosis, you need to eventually go back to eating a little more carbohydrate every day ( I'd say, every couple of hours). Just a few bites of brown rice, or that sticky gooey sprouted wheat bread can be very, very good for you.

To maintain a healthy weight, exercise to the point of panting and sweating at least 3 or 4 times a week, splurge occasionally to satisfy the cravings, and stick to a moderate, well-planned eating pattern.


And by the way, OS, eating is not a bad habit that can be given up for life. Alcohol you could live without, but food is not a drug, that can be dispensed with. Food is necessary to survive, and to live. Most people can go about six weeks without eating anything, but those six weeks won't necessarily be very pleasant, and while a person will lose weight, they sure won't be able to ref, work, or even think much. OVER-eating is a bad habit, but it should be modified, not just abandoned. Proper eating is a GOOD habit, that must be worked at.

[zebraman]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Photos, please.

Just come to her show on Oct 6, it's only a short drive from Tigard, Oregon to Bellevue, Washington. It'd be nice to have another referee in the audience anyway. We can wear stripes and confuse everyone be calling occasional fouls and violations.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

I find it funny that OS doesn't agree that frequent healthy meals is better for you . . . every doc I've talked to and most of your weight-loss programs want you to eat 5 smaller meals rather than 3 normal or larger ones. Whouldathunkit that OS is also a medical doctor!

I am not a medical doctor, however, I'm going to share my medical knowledge from personal experience. I’m going to also address what Rainmaker said later, because she hit on a couple key points I want to expand on.

When I was young and into my playing days, I wanted to jump higher and hit the ball farther, which meant I needed to get stronger. So I hit the weights. Surprisingly, I could not get any stronger. My body reached a point and there was no going past it. I was in great shape athletic wise, but was not reaching my goals. It didn’t matter with eating either. I cold eat like a pig, and not gain a pound.

Now that my days of playing is over and I have retired to the keyboard for activity. My eating habits has not changed. In fact, I have become quit fond of my food intake. Not paying any attention to the way it was prepared but how it tasted in the end was the barometer. Thru-out my career, I didn’t have to worry about how it was prepared, my body would burn it right off no matter what I eat.

Now, got major problems. How do I stop? Turn the food off. Don’t matter if it’s salads, carrot sticks, or snicker bars, if there’s no food around then you can’t eat it. Got to continue to exercise, this is the key. Food, just say no! I think, and this is my opinion, that food is a bad habit, which is why the doctors are saying, continue to eat, continue the habit, just eat more healthy. It’s the frequent things constantly going in your mouth for consumption that’s the problem. Just say NO! Think about it….you are fat and overweight, NOT because you quick exercising! Turn it off, stop the madness. We don't need to constantly feed our faces so that we don't feel hungry later. That's bull and continues the constant crave for food. Just say NO, step away from the table, put your hands in the air and wave like you just don't care.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by rainmaker

Fat itself puts out hormones that trigger eating impulses, including cravings and hunger. Fat seems to be self-maintaining in some ways.

Never heard this before?

And by the way, OS, eating is not a bad habit that can be given up for life. Alcohol you could live without, but food is not a drug, that can be dispensed with.

Bingo, that's what I wanted to comment on. What's put in our food, particularly our red meat, is a drug. This drug, restaurants have known about for years. It causes you to want to eat more. Of course, they want you to come back. This is the harmone that causes you to want to eat more, not the fat in our body. The FDA knows about this drug as well and allows it legally to be put in the food.

Food is necessary to survive, and to live. Most people can go about six weeks without eating anything, but those six weeks won't necessarily be very pleasant, and while a person will lose weight, they sure won't be able to ref, work, or even think much. OVER-eating is a bad habit, but it should be modified, not just abandoned. Proper eating is a GOOD habit, that must be worked at.

I didn't know we could go that long without eating. I can't even go a day. Over-eating is a bad habit and the key thing here is eating itself. That is the common denonmenator. Whether it's overeating, under-eating or proper eating. Eating is the problem. Obvisously we can't stop eating altogether, but we can slow it up. The body doesn't need as much as we keep putting into it. The constant maintain certain patterns, all the diet programs, the drugs, just say NO! Eat when your body tells you you need food, and then try to eat as heatlhy as possible. Otherwise, shut it down. It's all in your mind.