eff this dieting crap!

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For two whole months, I've been drinking zero calorie soda, all my meats are lean fish or turkey or chicken and I've been using whole wheat, multigrain breads. I've completely stopped the Ben and Jerry's and not gotten the frozen pizzas twice a week. I'm not eating any frozen pizzas at all. Sometimes I might have a treat like a piece of cake and we might go out to eat once in a while...

I thought the switch to no calorie soda alone would have been enough.

I'm still at 297.

I've been eating the same stuff as my wife who's lost 130 lbs!

No more. So long as they keep my BP in check, I should be fine. Next time we go shopping, I'm getting full fat PORK bacon and a Ben and Jerry's AND two frozen pizzas!

Oh, and the quack of my doctor says my thyroid is fine.

That blows. Dieting is a pain in the ass. :/ How much exercise are you doing?

not much. Just breathing and doing the dishes. I thought that dieting alone would be enough for me to at least START shedding pounds. I mean, that's what the BMI is for, right?

All these healthy things and one would think that my body would develop a calorie deficit and start metabolizing fat.

*sigh* If I had a nickel for every time a doctor said my thyroid is fine...have they checked your FT4 (free T4) and TSH levels? If ur doctor simply ordered a TT4(total T4) test, that may be the problem. The TT4 test is obsolete and has been replaced with the FT4, so if they are ordering this test, you should ask why. I STILL have yet to find a doctor who will give me this test, as most docs call my a hypochondriac and send me away, so I've stopped asking to be tested, and instead live with the condition I know I have. My mom had her thyroid removed years ago, and when given a TT4, she will still show that she has a 'normally functioning' thyroid...how is that if she doesn't even have one?!?! Well, that's the problem with the TT4 test...

Good luck sorting your health issues out, and I hope u don't give up on losing weight.

Well, getting exercise can give a kick start to your metabolism. Take a walk, ride an exercise bike, or something like that should get you started. Also, all soda is bad for you. Zero calorie soda tends to have more aspartame which freezes metabolism. Switch to unsweetened tea or water and that should help.

thinking about starting up smoking again because of this whole fiasco regarding my weight.

(wonders if pastrami and bacon would go well together)

Nooooooo! Smoking will only make your health worse.

There are better ways of dealing with stress. Exercise works for me, as do violent videogames.

P.S. Pastrami and bacon taste good together but not the best for you health-wise. >.<

But you've been only at this for two months. A weight loss rate of maybe 5-10 pounds per month is considered to be very rapid progress. You are in serious danger of dying early if you stay near 300 and even your marriage may be in jeopardy even if your wife doesn't visibly complain. It takes a long time to make a change in weight in either direction and you must exercise more if you want to make faster progress and get stronger. The stronger you get, the easier it will become and the faster the pounds will come off.

The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you eat. It takes a calorie deficit of 100 calories per day to lose 10 pounds per year. You can create the calorie deficit by eating less, or better yet, eat nutritious food when you're hungry and exercise more. When you're on the wrong side of the BMI curve, exercising more may actually make you less hungry. You will know you are healthy when exercise makes you want to eat more.

I'd be careful about low sugar soda, it usually contains toxic junk.

Last edited by Moog on 03 Jan 2011, 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I wish I could exercise but I'm home all day with my 3 year old and it's winter so it's cold out. Walking doesn't seem to do anything for me except give me blisters on my soles. I mean, I can out walk anyone I know but it doesn't seem to burn anything.

I do have a Wiifit... Might do my daughter some good to see fat daddy exercising.

Yeah, use the Wiifit. I bought some kettle bell weights and did some core exercises and that's worked well for me so far.

I'd like to second what other people have said about not taking up smoking and not giving up after two months; about two pounds/week is the *max* you should strive to lose if you're being healthy.

In addition, I'd like to suggest any of the numerous programs out there that can be put on smart phones that take apps, or accessed through your computer, that give you calorie targets and help you track your calorie intake and your exercise. I have personally had great success with the "Lose it!" app, but "Livestrong" has a bigger food library. The key is to find one in which you can personalize your daily calorie needs; for instance, to keep up a 2 lb/week loss I had to adjust my daily limit down by 400 kcal/day (less than someone my weight, height, and gender would usually eat) at one point, and then gradually worked it back up after a few months because I eventually started to lose too fast. I lost my initial goal of 50 lbs in about 8 months, and am currently losing ~ 1lb/month at 125 kcal/day less than average.

One thing to note is that diet sodas can actually *increase* your caloric intake, because your body tastes something sweet and expects a jolt of sugar and amps your metabolism, and then no sugar comes so your blood sugar drops and suddenly you're starving. If your water doesn't taste good enough to drink plain, then you might try getting a water filter or buying bottled.

and, absolutely use the wiifit - or play chase or other fun games with your daughter. I know my 10 month old niece can wear me out pretty well.

The thing about walking is that you have to do it EVERY DAY. It's not enough to be good at it. You must set aside some time for walking every single day. 2-3 days of exercise won't make a difference.

I'm just starting to try and get into shape (I weigh more than you... last estimate was around 350). I'll be taking the route of walking + resistance band training. You can also try some calisthenics.

Also: Stay away from coffee. Seriously. In fact, it's really not what you eat, but what you drink that determines weight loss. I drink two cups of green tea a day (with a little agave nectar) and water. I will sometimes add in a glass of 2% milk (I can't stand skim, though I should go with 1%).

You really don't need any equipment to lose weight (walking and calisthenics should work fine).

Edit: By the way... if your fat seems focused on your central body and you have a red, round face, you might want to consider getting tested for Cushing's. ...In fact, there are a lot of disorders that can cause weight gain, not just thyroid issues.

Edit2: Oh, hey, look at this video about eating habits. I'm actually going to try and start moving to this style of eating habit starting tomorrow.

There are so many factors which cause weight gain, weight loss, and maintaining a healthy weight... I'll share my eating habits and how I changed them:

Above all, is your hormone balance. If something's off, you will never be able to get to a good weight until it's fixed. Sadly, the USA style medical system does not routinely screen for hormone problems, and you have to go find an expensive specialist on your own, and insurance usually won't pay. Many political reasons for this, which is a peeve of mine.

Assuming that a person does NOT have any hormone problems (but I suspect based on my own research, that 90% of the obese do have), there are a few fundamental things that are misunderstood by most who are trying to lose weight (or gain it in case of bodybuilding) :

I have had a weight problem in the past, and it took me years (a decade or more) to conquer it. I'm 43, so we're on the same page with our ages. I did have a hormone problem (too much estrogen and low testosterone, and high cortisol; causing insulin to soar and crash in between meals). I now have to take shots to correct it, and all my hormone levels are back where they're supposed to be. I used to be under the mistaken theory that diet soda (calorie-free) would help, but in fact it CAUSES weight gain!! !! It fools the body into storing other fats, somehow. The technical facts can be found by googling. Drink plain water, and when you really want to treat yourself to a Coke or whatever soft drink, get regular with sugar. And don't pledge to "never" or "always" eat or drink something. That is a guaranteed failure too.

Here are a few tips which have dramatically helped me, and you can see by my avatar photo, that it worked for me:

Eat a BIG breakfast, with protein and little or no sweets... I eat appx 3 eggs worth of Egg Beaters (natural egg without cholesterol), and a half cup of plain (not quick oats or flavored packet) oat meal with a tablespoon of raw walnuts, cinnamon, and a squirt of natural honey. Also a half cup of unsweetened apple sauce or an apple, or whatever fruit is ripe. No pastries, and no fatty stuff like hash browns or other empty calories.

Mid-morning, I have a snack of maybe a fist full of nuts, and a whey protein shake if I'm going to be doing a workout that day. Otherwise, just something light to keep me from craving something bad.

Lunch, I have a sandwich with turkey or small amount of ham or beef, and NO mayonnaise or other crap with fat. Just mustard and pepper, or whatever tastes good to me. Or sometimes I'll have a small bowl of some kind of pasta, with tomato sauce (NOT cream sauce). I might also have a couple of oat meal cookies, which help metabolize the fats.

Mid-afternoon I will repeat the mid-morning snack

Dinner, which I think needs to be 4 hrs before bed time, is my smallest meal of the day. Sometimes I'll just have a whey protein shake, and nothing else. The best way to get FAT is to eat a big dinner and go to bed! Absolutely and positively, avoid night snacking. You will store most all of whatever you eat during the night, as body fat, even if it's not such a fattening food.

And the biggest cardinal rule of all: NO crash dieting! Gradually taper off your eating habits and gradually change, or else your body will go into a panic starvation mode, and will work overtime to store everything it possibly can, since it thinks you're going to be starving later. The trick of eating 5x/day is that your body will think you're in an endless eating binge, and till not try to store anything for a rainy day.

That's how I did it, and I've been successful at it now for years!

Charles

I'd agree with most of what was said above, with the exception that I've found that it doesn't matter when I eat as long as I limit the calories (and, of course, I eat about a quarter as much because of my size and gender).

One thing that has helped is to really get familiar with spices and low- or no-calorie flavorings - you can make stuff that really tastes fabulous but has very few calories with the right mix of flavors: mustards, curries, turmeric, chili, etc.

Don't give up.

Loosing weight is about 70% diet and 30% exercise. So do try to exercise a little. Even a 45 minute brisk walk every day will help quite a bit if you are also eating right too.

Two tricks - keep metabolism high (exercising helps for this) and burn more calories than you eat. So its great to be eating healthy stuff but also how much of it you are eating matters too. Trick is to find foods that will give you the nutrients that you need and will satisfy your hunger in as few calories as possible. Fruits, lean meats (chicken breast, turkey breast), almonds, occasional slice of low-fat cheese, etc. My favorite meal when I was trying to lose weight was fruit salad (grapes, canteloupe, honeydew, pineapple) + some non-fat ricotta cheese (which has an amazing protein - calorie ratio). Even multi-grain bread should be a once or twice a weak treat. Eat 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 large ones - metabolism slows down if you haven't eaten recently.

Also, NO soda. Regular soda avoid for obvious reasons. Diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners which slow your metabolism. That's something you don't want to be doing when trying to loose weight. Stick with herbal teas (don't add sweetener), water, black coffee (caffine helps boost metabolism), sparkling water (maybe with a small - SMALL - splash of fruit juice).