Losing Weight

[Bill_Simpkins]

I got hooked on a video game for most of the winter and gained 20 pounds.

I have been dieting and working out, i.e. hiking running and climbing, a lot for the past two months. Maybe Hiking or running 3-4 times a week, light weight lifting 2-3 days a week(no heavy weights) and going to the gym or outside rock 1-2 times a week. I've been really active.

Although I feel back in shape and could climb anything I have ever done before, I cannot lose any weight.

I eat less and exercise more. Is it because I just turned 30?

Maybe because I work out at night?

Does working out in the morning make a small difference, or a big one?

How much can your metabolism change from day to day?

Help!

I weigh 215 now, want to get back to 190-195. Going nuts trying.

I am 6 feet 2 inches tall and do not have a lanky figure. At 190-195 I am very lean.

[Bill_Simpkins]

Also, I am going to start riding my bike to work at least 3 days a week. It's only two miles though. Is that enough to get my metabolism up or should I take the scenic route?

I'm playing dumb here, because whatever I thought before isn't working.

[specialed]

Video games are dumb. You deserve your punishment. Suffer bitch.

[iain]

If you burn more than you consume, you HAVE to lose weight.

 

If you have a problem doing this, blow your life savings in Vegas and move to the Indian subcontinent.

[olyclimber]

The information you left out is what you're eating.

[Bill_Simpkins]

I understand the whole conservation of energy thing, input and output. I have a degree in Physics.

The thing I don't understand is that I eat better and work out more than I did 5 years ago and can't lose anything.

 

I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast, a largish lunch, and a regular dinner.

Lunch is usually a salad with meat (chicken).

Dinner is usually on average rice and meat or simular. I try to stay away from noodles and high cholesteral things. It's usually Indian food based, asain or mexican based.

I don't eat fast food anymore, nor much processed food.

I don't eat desert and dont snack much. Basically, 3 meals a day.

 

I eat about the same amount as my wife, and she is 5'4" and not overweight.

[iain]

You need to start counting how many calories that is. It doesn't matter what you eat, how "healthy" it is, etc. If you want to drop mass, what matters is the caloric content, and you know it.

 

IF you were strictly interested in weight loss, health be damned, you could eat donuts in "reasonable" amounts exclusively and still lose weight. Baked potatoes, white semolina pasta, orange juice, etc are all very healthy items, but they pack a ton of calories. You have to cut portion size. The best way to do this is by counting calories and evaluating how many you burn from basal metabolism + activity. Get a heart rate monitor. A pain in the ass, but it will work.

 

Decide if the weight loss is really an advantage in the mountains. It probably is, but you might lose some strength and endurance too. Then again there are not a lot of beefcakes breaking new alpine ground.

[Bill_Simpkins]

I used to work in the evening and exercise during the day.

Now I work in the day and exercise in the evenings.

Could that alone make that much of a difference?

 

Is basal Metabolism just your average metabolism?

Also how many of you have had to exercise more and eat less as you've gotten older? When did this happen for you? How much did you have to adjust. Just curious.

[iain]

Yeah, you probably use about 2000 kCal/day just staying alive sitting here typing. You can expend about 1300 kCal doing an hour of hard running. You can approximate (very roughly) how much energy you are expending with a HRM (try strapping one on when you bike to work).

 

I think bike commuting is a great way to lose weight as you have to do it every day, it happens in the morning when your body is probably at a bit of caloric deficit to begin with, and then you polish off the day by elevating the HR again on the way home.

 

Nothing beats consistent, hard running though (from my experience). It is hard on your body. IF you can stand a treadmill and have access to a good one, it will be a lot easier on your knees and you can put in the hours. This takes some mental endurance and focus.

 

Try doing a workout before going to bed, then another one in the morning when your body is depleted. This can be a sufferfest, but it will help drive your body to burn whatever it has (muscle, fat, anything it can grab). The key is to do something you can repeat over and over. If it is too much of a draw on your body, you can't recover, and you are wasting your time. A heart rate monitor will allow you to pace yourself over the week, though at some point you can outgrow it and know when you will be in pain the next day.

 

As a physicist, you can appeciate how it is very much a thermodynamics equation. The question is, what can you consume that will satisfy you enough to not consume too much, and survive your active lifestyle, yet still maintain a deficit? I've concluded that it is not fun to maintain a caloric deficit all the time. You become edgy, though pretty energetic at times, sortof how one would expect one to be when having to survive in the wild.

 

Hope that helps. I'm certainly no expert, but I have had a lot of coffee today.

[Alex]

Your inability to loose weight might be because of a couple factors. They chief two I can see is 1) your diet, and 2) your age probably. Its very likely that your metabolism has slowed down a bit, I know mine did radically after my late 20s. The fact that you are exercising again is good, but most likely your body is keeping you eating enough carbs to keep your weight stable. This isnt a bad thing, your body *wants* a stable weight. It also wants not to be stressed too much by trying to digest proteins and fats, which are much more difficult to burn than carbs.

 

When I wanted to get serious about loosing the last 15 pounds I did a pseudo-Atkins diet, that relied more heavily on especially proteins and fats and cut must carbs. However the number one factor in my weight loss has been no refined sugar of any kind. No candy, no soda pop, no treats, brownies, donuts, cakes, no cookies, no nothing. When you crave a snack, eat vegetables, carrots, anything but treats. Chips are also really really bad. So is beer. I cut all these things from my diet. The only time I allow them is after a long weekend in the mountains when I've really burned a bunch of extra calories and a snickers bar wont kill me. It takes about 3 weeks for for my body to adjust to the more heavy protein/less carbs/no treats diet. After 3 weeks I stop craving the treats, my energy stabilizes, and my weight goes down over the period of about 2 months. Almost everything you eat has refined sugar in it, you have to avoid it anyway you can. So avoid breads with added sugar, peanut butter with added sugar, juice of any kind, and so on, you get the picture. At first listen it might sound like a very restricted diet, but I assure you I eat almost everything I used to, I just stick to specific brands, foods I know contain no extra sugar, and stay away from treats.

 

The other component is exercise, of course, but you have that down. The key is before and after exercise, do not carbo-load. Eat protein. Eat a tub of fat-free cottage cheese, or have a protein shake.

 

I guess I should mention that the reason I wanted to loose the weight in the first place was to lean up to climb 11s, and happily this happened. It has not affected my performance in the mountains, either...if anything I feel a bit stronger and not as sloth like when I weigh 190 vs 205.

[Bill_Simpkins]

Video games are dumb. You deserve your punishment. Suffer bitch.

 

A challenge is a challenge, whether it starts on something real, like a mountain, or somewhere fake, like a video game. The challenge is still real. I get obsessed when a challenge is presented to me.

Now I am obsessed with the challenge of losing 20 pounds.

[specialed]

Although I feel back in shape and could climb anything I have ever done before, I cannot lose any weight.

 

Who cares what you weigh. The important question is how you look to the ladies.

[robert]

I turned 30 last year and I have noticed that I have to watch what I eat much more carefully than I used to. I used to be able to anything I wanted and I would never gain weight. When I was 25 I could eat >3000 calories a day and not see any change, now I need to say well under that or I don’t want to get on the scale. I have developed my own special calorie cutting diet, though I expect that a doctor or nutritionist would cringe if they heard it. Basically, I skip dinner a couple of nights a week. I have found that I lack the will power to resist the constant stream of cookies, candy and other treats in my office and that I can often get to bed without getting too hungry if just have a piece of toast or some tea in the evening. I still can’t eat everything that I want, but it is better than it was. I have heard that lifting heavy weights is more important as we get older because muscle burns calories that our slowing metabolism is not. I don’t know if that is legit or not, but I know that reducing the caloric intake is certain to work.

[specialed]

Video games are dumb. You deserve your punishment. Suffer bitch.

 

A challenge is a challenge, whether it starts on something real, like a mountain, or somewhere fake, like a video game. The challenge is still real. I get obsessed when a challenge is presented to me.

Now I am obsessed with the challenge of losing 20 pounds.

 

But why didn't you pick a challenge that offers some valuable result? Losing weight does, but does saving the Princess Queen from Zorlog the evil Toad really offer any real satisfaction?

 

But then again, spraying on cc.com is pretty worthless, yet I waste too much time doing that, so I'll just shut the fuck up now.

[chucK]

There is current thinking that high-fructose corn syrup can add to your weight because it doesn't immediately signal the satiated response, so you can intake more calories without feeling any more full.

 

If you aren't intaking anything else, then your liver will convert the fructose into glucose which will signal your brain that you are full. But if you've already got enough glucose going from other stuff, it won't.

[iain]

the Princess is f'ing hot. almost as much as that girl in smurfs.

[Bill_Simpkins]

Thanks for the discussion. It's nice to hear things from other people sometimes.

So lets say I start riding my bike to work EVERY day, and

extend my routine exercise a bit longer. I think that would help.

Maybe my exercise durations were a bit short on average.

One day a week when I climb a mountain or hike 14 miles

isn't enough consistancy with my shorter daily work outs.

My daily stuff should be longer, and really try to cut out any crap from my diet and not pork out after the long day in the mountains or at the crag. I'll try to do longer sessions in the morning and see if that helps. (my wife has been telling me that all along, but I'm too stubborn).

Thanks again!

[iain]

That sounds like a pretty reasonable, sustainable plan, but just remember to enjoy your early 30's too! Donuts taste good, beer tastes good, and life is too short not to enjoy that stuff.

 

I'll probably never climb harder than 5.11 and I'm not going to suffer through life to do so. I certainly don't have the classic climber's build, and won't force that. Besides my skiing would suffer

[jon]

I totally second Alex on the white sugar thing, cut out as much as you possible can. I immediately started losing weight when I cut out the Coke and other crap. Apparently this is how the French are able to eat like they do.

 

Eating smaller meals more often also helps a lot, you are less tempted to eat huge meals this way and your body burns more calories becuase it is more in a fed state then a fasting state.

[Bill_Simpkins]

Cool!

I also just talked to a lady at work. The first thing she asked about was my stress level. I've been pretty stressed out lately. Is it true or a myth that stress can lower metabolism and release cholesteral into the bloodstream?

[olyclimber]

So is beer . I cut all these things from my diet.

 

You have to ask yourself is it worth it. Maybe you'll get used to the extra wieght?

[ChrisT]

perhaps you put on muscle lifting those weights - remember muscle weighs more than fat

[downfall]

Loosing weight is a bit more complicated than just creating a calorie deficit. You're body has many places to get energy it needs (stored fat, stored glucose, muscle) and it will do different things depending on what hormones you've got running through your body regardless of how many calories you've consumed. The main one of these hormones being insulin. A lot of modern foods, including the ones you've probably been eating, force your body to produce insulin to signal that surgar needs to be removed from your system. Unfortunately this insulin has side affects which keeps your body from burning fat. So even if you're eating a reduced amount of calories you might find it very difficult to loose fat if you've constantly got elevated insulin in you're blood stream.

 

Anyway, the Zone, by Barry Sears goes over all this. Lots of athletes follow this diet or higher fat variations of it and have excellent results.

 

Edited April 13, 2005 by downfall

[Alex]

So is beer . I cut all these things from my diet.

 

You have to ask yourself is it worth it. Maybe you'll get used to the extra wieght?

 

I still drink wine (which has alot of sugar, granted) and spirits, I just realized that in the last few years whenever I drank beer I could feel and see the effects very clearly the next day around my midsection. Interestingly the number one food that affects my own weight is pancakes. I eat just a short stack and I gain like 10 pounds! Beer is not so much a part of my life that I counldnt do without.

 

 

So much of this is experiementation, you just have to figure out what works for you. But the reality is if you arent hungry every once in a while, you're probably eating too much. Best bet is to realize that real sustainable weight loss takes time - at least several months, and real commitment to change several very core aspects of your life - diet, work habits, etc.

 

Also, it might not be as important for some people as others. I've seen alot of fat slobs hike up 5.11...too bad that doesnt work for me!!

[Bill_Simpkins]

Well, I'm not a fat slob, and I'm in good shape. I can still jog all day in the mountains with a pack.

I think MVS may have a good point.

My parents and my sister have big time troubles with their weight, and they eat pretty reasonably.

I'm not fat, and most people consider me in good shape, but I have to work for it. It's getting harder and harder, like I'm fighting something. It is very possible that the food I am eating is throwing my insulin balance out of wack.

My father has diabetes, maybe I should look into it more.

Thanks.