Weight loss and weight management catch-all!

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 311
‘Weekly’ Change: -3
Overall Change: - 119

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica.

It has been a few weeks. I went back to the gym (while that was a thing I could do) and am trying to eat as healthy as rationed goods will let me. I ordered some kettlebells to go along with my dumbbells, my wife subscribed to a bunch of workout videos on demand, and I am trying to stay as active as possible.

How are y’all doing trying to be healthy in the pandemic?

Mostly Ring Fit Adventure for me at the moment, and going out for walks in the evening. I'm thinking of building a short program (with push-ups and stuff like that) that I can do at home instead of going to the gym (which is open at the moment, but I'd rather avoid it personally). I don't have any equipment at home (other than a giant exercise ball, in a closet somewhere), but I should probably look at kettlebells and dumbbells.

Kettlebells, a pullup bar, dip bar and a set of old bowflex adjustable dumbbells. Pretty happy with the home setup but must confess I do miss heavy barbell squats. I can do lunges and goblet squats all day but it's not the same.

Tried intermittent fasting this week. 16 hour fasted, 8 hour eating window. Lasted 4 days. I backed off as a pandemic may not be the best time to deep dive caloric restriction. Maybe that's paranoia. I hope it is.

For me; Dumbbells, Ketttlebells, resistance bands. I have pull up handles but they don't fit on the door frame I have now. You can do pulls from the middle of a table and dips with chairs.

If you don't want a lot of equipment you can go body weight stuff. I personally like kettlebell more than Dumbbells right now.

Battle ropes and a 16 pound sledgehammer. Gonna be the Shao Kahn of the wasteland.

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 309
‘Weekly’ Change: -2
Overall Change: - 121

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica.

Mostly just checking in to keep myself honest. I have been trying to lift from home as much as possible, and my wife, my son and I are trying to do some aerobics dancing (Rev and Flow?).

I would love a copy of Ring Fit Adventure, but I’m not gonna pay scalper prices.

That is seriously impressive.

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 309 ish
‘Weekly’ Change: ?
Overall Change: - 121 ish

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica.

My scale broke. First it weighed me 15 lbs lighter than last week, then 25 lbs heavier, and then just lit up every digital pixel. Changing batteries did not help. Anyone have a bathroom scale they like. Preferably one that works with Apple Health (for my wife) and FitBit (for me).

We have had the Fitbit Aria scale for like eight years and it has been fine for us. Seems accurate enough, no problems, and consistent syncing. Batteries last a long time too.

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 311
‘Weekly’ Change: +2
Overall Change: - 119

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica.

Good news: I have my new scale! I bought the Eufy and it seems to be doing the job.

Good news: I have only gained two pounds in the quarantine he’ll! I haven’t been working out (more on that later) and eating like crap. I consider this a minor miracle, and if some saint wants to claim it, go for it.

Bad news: In my attempt to do an at home prison workout, I developed a lump under the scar on my knee (from my quad repair surgery about two years ago). A call to my wife’s cousin’s wife (who is an orthopedic PA) and she said I popped one on the internal stitches in my quad. She said put the leg up, take it easy and hopefully it won’t need drained.

Still looking for a copy of Ring Fit (not that I can use it now). And hopefully I won’t need a knee scope!

Arise thread!

So I have good and bad news on my weight loss journey. I’ve lost 5 pounds since April mostly from not eating out and cutting back on alcohol. (Mixing heavy drinking and depression/isolation is not a good thing for me).

However the past two weeks I’ve plateaued. Tracking my calories, I’m eating about 1600 calories a day but according to My Fitness Pal I should be eating 2100 to maintain weight. Why am I not seeing any progress? Is it because I need to go way lower or is it lack of exercise? Some days I only get in about 3-4K steps due to long hours working from home.

jdzappa wrote:

Arise thread!

So I have good and bad news on my weight loss journey. I’ve lost 5 pounds since April mostly from not eating out and cutting back on alcohol. (Mixing heavy drinking and depression/isolation is not a good thing for me).

However the past two weeks I’ve plateaued. Tracking my calories, I’m eating about 1600 calories a day but according to My Fitness Pal I should be eating 2100 to maintain weight. Why am I not seeing any progress? Is it because I need to go way lower or is it lack of exercise? Some days I only get in about 3-4K steps due to long hours working from home.

2 weeks isn't statistically significant when it comes to plateaus. You stay at that weight for another 4 weeks on top of the 2 you've already seen, we'll talk about a plateau.

1600 cal/day is plenty low for slow-sustained weight loss. Stick with it. Pay attention to your portions though. It's easy to be lax about portions so that what you're logging at 1600 cals is really a lot closer to that 2100 number.

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 308
‘Weekly’ Change: -3
Overall Change: - 122

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica.

Well, it took a bit of a fever and a Covid-19 scare, but I’m at my lowest that I have been in at least seven years.

Hoping to get back to the gym (now that they are opened) once I feel safe doing so. Time to see how much muscle and stamina I’ve lost not really working out for two months.

Great work, iso. So close to that 300 milestone. Keep it up!

That is still amazing.

Great job, Iso!

Even if you can't get to the gym, you can probably do something around the house. I beat the hell out of a tree stump with a 16-lb sledgehammer every morning to Andrew W.K., and it really helps. Also got some of these battle ropes that will wear you out surprisingly quickly.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

Great job, Iso!

Even if you can't get to the gym, you can probably do something around the house. I beat the hell out of a tree stump with a 16-lb sledgehammer every morning to Andrew W.K., and it really helps. Also got some of these battle ropes that will wear you out surprisingly quickly.

This sounds like the most party workout ever.

Starting weight: 430.0*
Current Weight: 306
Weekly Change: -2
Overall Change: - 124

*All weights in lbs because 'Murica

I am shocked that I am still losing weight. It is a testament to how much cardio I’m getting running after a three-year old. I am excited to start going back to the gym soon. I want to find out how much strength I’ve lost, and to start rebuilding muscle.

Thanks to all the people giving me encouragement. It definitely helps. I am shooting for 300, and I will definitely post some 300 memes here when I make it.

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Does anyone here do CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring)? My doctor wants me to consider it as a way to get a handle on my blood sugar and I'm not sure about the ins and outs. How uncomfortable is it? Is it waterproof? Is it accurate? Any risk of infection? etc.

I know two people who do use them, and it's awesome. Attach a little disk once every ten days with a spring-loaded device. Stings for a moment, I'm told, then you don't feel it. Waterproof but I would not, say, wrestle in it. (I think swimming and bathing is just fine.) It's accurate after about 12 hours of automatic calibrating, and you can use your phone or a purchased sensor to read it. It stores the readings so the doc can just download them and have a full set of readings over time. And no finger pricks.

No infections here with nearly 2 years of use. You clean the area with alcohol first, of course, and switch locations each time.

According to both of them, it's an absolute God-send, and they will never go back to finger pricks. They will pay out of pocket if they need to, they are that good.

Started the McDougall diet — no oil, high starch, whole plant-based food. A few months in and 10kg down. Ramping up the exercise component now with cycling training.

CGM can be a godsend for people. I have a service dog, so I don't need it right now, but if your insurance covers it I'd definitely look closely at it.

My wife tried CGM. The first one or two worked great. The third one fell off after a few days. The fourth one fell off after 1 day. Once they fall off, they can't be reinserted/reused, so those were wasted.

ETA: She loved the CGM while they were working - gave her some interesting insights over the courses of the day, that she didn't realize. But they're a bit on the expensive side to fail & become paperweights after only a day of use. And yes, she was applying them correctly. She's an EMT so she has to perform reasonably heavy physical activity as part of her job (e.g. lifting people on stretchers), but they were taped town pretty well.

My mom just started using a CGM and likes the info it provides throughout the day, but she had trouble with the tape. She had to try a few different ones because she had an allergic reaction to them for some reason.

This is the year I say goodbye to refined sugar. My weight has been holding steady in an OK place (215 lbs) but around Halloween I started my yearly holiday pattern of Halloween candy, going into baked goods through Thanksgiving etc. While I did not put on appreciable amount of weight, I did have serious issues with maintaining focus at work, irritability and serious hunger cravings throughout the day.

I stopped cold turkey last Sunday and I felt worse, only today am I feeling more like my usual self. While I did not consume more this year than in years prior (sugar) I do believe getting older has made the negative effects more pronounced. We will see what happens next.

So I've been on the Keto diet now for the last month, which was doctor prescribed, and was surprised to discover that I've lost 15lbs already. Fascinating diet, cutting all the sugar out really suppresses hunger quite well. If anyone is currently doing or has done Keto before, what are some of your go to recipes? I'm not really looking for resources, but some tried and true meals that have been worthy of repeating throughout the diet. So far, I have discovered that air-fryer cooked pork-chop coated in parmesan cheese is an easy and delightful lunchtime meal.

I love the Keto diet...

My lazy ass uses Keto Chow as two meals a day. But for dinner it's typically meat plus oven roasted vegetable.

Then there is the whole fat head dough/ cauliflower crust world of pizzas and various bread like things for when cravings hit. Cauliflower mashed potatoes are really good as well.

My wife and I are also partial to cauliflower rice taco bowls (bag of microwaved C rice, meat with taco seasoning, cheese, avocados and tomatoes) and Buffalo Wild Wings half off Tuesdays.

You can make fast food work too if need be, just ask for no bun... a lot of places have that as a button on the register these days. Chipotle (now with... you guessed it... cauliflower rice) and Papa Murphys have keto options right on the menu as well.

Reddit has a ton of stuff for Keto recipes as well.

Eldon_of_Azure wrote:

So I've been on the Keto diet now for the last month, which was doctor prescribed, and was surprised to discover that I've lost 15lbs already. Fascinating diet, cutting all the sugar out really suppresses hunger quite well. If anyone is currently doing or has done Keto before, what are some of your go to recipes? I'm not really looking for resources, but some tried and true meals that have been worthy of repeating throughout the diet. So far, I have discovered that air-fryer cooked pork-chop coated in parmesan cheese is an easy and delightful lunchtime meal.

I hated keto, but it works. My wife has been sticking with it over a year with two small breaks.

Some of our favorites are:

Keto spaghetti bolognese. That's literally the first recipe that popped up, but replacing pasta with zucchini noodles has been divine. Spiraling the noodles is kind of a pain, but all they need for cooking is a lil olive oil, lots of garlic and then salt at the very end. So yummy.

Rutabaga as a potato replacement. Great in stews and roasts. Amazing how they soak up flavor.

Keto Thai chicken bowl. You'll find a million recipes, but it basically replaces the rice with cauliflower rice. Aces.

Best weight loss diets, ranked by physicians/nutritionists. This is done every year based on current studies.

Has anyone tried Hero Trainer? It's just a silly app that syncs with your step trackers (Fitbit or Google Fit app) and gives you points for steps, and you can trade those points in for gift cards from Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox stores, among other gaming-related options. Not much else to do with the app (there's some thing where you choose a hero avatar that you're leveling up, and there's "quests" and stuff, but it all seems pretty barebones), but earning $10-15 of Xbox or Nintendo cash for a month or two worth of steps seems worth fiddling with? If you give it a try use referral code TH78.