Weight Loss Group - 2011 Edition (New Goodjers Welcome)

Height: 5'7"
Starting Weight: (07/17/12): 311.5 lbs.
Current Weight (08/20/12): 303.5 lbs.
Target Weight: 260 lbs.
Target Goal Date: January 1st, 2013
Weight Loss Progress: 8.0 lbs

I was hoping yesterday's measurement of 303.5 would be a fluke, but I got it again this morning. Of course, after I said I wanted to eat out less last week, I ended up eating out the majority. That could be it, could be typical fluctuations, etc. I was just hoping by this time next week I'd be under 300, but that likely won't be the case.

I've been noticing some changes, though. Last week I did 20-some minutes on the Treadmill (an episode of IT Crowd, basically), and afterwards while I was eating dinner I realized I wasn't really tired. Not my legs, not my body, not anything at all. I suddenly wished I had gone on longer. Something similar happened when I had finished an hour of roller blading last week. I figured "okay, hour is done, I should go home", but as I drove home I realized I wasn't really as tired as I had been before.

I've also just been wanting to get up and do stuff more. I'm wondering if all this exercise and activity is having a more immediate positive effect than I had expected. I simply enjoy moving more than I had before.

I still prefer to do the punching bag as my primary at-home exercise, but I'm going to try for longer next time I do treadmill. I'll be doing roller blading every Thursday as well, and considering how big a difference there was between the two weeks I'm hoping I can last longer with that, too.

Eating is weird. I don't have to try to eat less as much as I used to. I can have a sandwich without fries or anything and feel like I had enough. Then there are days like today, where I had a chicken cheese steak for lunch (I left my usual healthier lunch in the fridge >_< ) but felt hungry back at my desk. I had maybe a serving of low-sodium almonds left that I polished off, and I'm still feeling a bit hungry.

I can only imagine how I might feel after having dropped a couple dozen more pounds, and then some.

ccesarano wrote:

I simply enjoy moving more than I had before.

That right there, is pure fried gold. Hold onto that feeling. Imprint it into your memory. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your mirror, 'cos it'll serve you well to be reminded of it often.

As a good friend of mine recently quoted:

"Man, I wish I hadn't worked out this morning": no-one ever.

I had to run to catch the bus this morning, and I wasn't out of breath when I got to the door.

What... what's happening to me?

Jonman wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I simply enjoy moving more than I had before.

That right there, is pure fried gold. Hold onto that feeling. Imprint it into your memory. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your mirror, 'cos it'll serve you well to be reminded of it often.

As a good friend of mine recently quoted:

"Man, I wish I hadn't worked out this morning": no-one ever.

Truth told, simply working out has never been this effective. I think the difference this time is that I'm intentionally looking for more opportunities to be physical, and that is only increasing it. Previously the punching bag was all I had been doing, or just lifting weights at the gym when I was in College, or just treadmill or something. This is the first time (well, since working on losing weight in College) that I've tried to vary it up with more activities.

I'm thinking maybe that is the secret. Nothing gets stale, and in some cases even if I work out in the morning I'm still willing to do something later in the day (such as Saturday, where I did the punching bag in the morning and then went bowling in the afternoon (which I know isn't the most physical of activities, but swinging a 15-pound ball gets to you after three games)).

ccesarano wrote:
Jonman wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I simply enjoy moving more than I had before.

That right there, is pure fried gold. Hold onto that feeling. Imprint it into your memory. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your mirror, 'cos it'll serve you well to be reminded of it often.

As a good friend of mine recently quoted:

"Man, I wish I hadn't worked out this morning": no-one ever.

Truth told, simply working out has never been this effective. I think the difference this time is that I'm intentionally looking for more opportunities to be physical, and that is only increasing it. Previously the punching bag was all I had been doing, or just lifting weights at the gym when I was in College, or just treadmill or something. This is the first time (well, since working on losing weight in College) that I've tried to vary it up with more activities.

I'm thinking maybe that is the secret. Nothing gets stale, and in some cases even if I work out in the morning I'm still willing to do something later in the day (such as Saturday, where I did the punching bag in the morning and then went bowling in the afternoon (which I know isn't the most physical of activities, but swinging a 15-pound ball gets to you after three games)).

This is exactly why I do martial arts. Gyms are boring; kickboxing and BJJ never are.

ccesarano wrote:

I was hoping yesterday's measurement of 303.5 would be a fluke, but I got it again this morning. Of course, after I said I wanted to eat out less last week, I ended up eating out the majority.

Eating out is your big enemy here unless you're going someplace really expensive where the portions are tiny. A restaurant's easiest way to please customers is to load foods up with a lot of butter or lard and to put a lot of food on the plate. What kind of places are you going to? Maybe there are places you can go to more conducive to weight loss. My local Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebees, for example, are serving out meals that run in the 1800 calorie or more range. I find it all but impossible to get out of one without eating a days worth of food in one sitting.

Funkenpants wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I was hoping yesterday's measurement of 303.5 would be a fluke, but I got it again this morning. Of course, after I said I wanted to eat out less last week, I ended up eating out the majority.

Eating out is your big enemy here unless you're going someplace really expensive where the portions are tiny. A restaurant's easiest way to please customers is to load foods up with a lot of butter or lard and to put a lot of food on the plate. What kind of places are you going to? Maybe there are places you can go to more conducive to weight loss. My local Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebees, for example, are serving out meals that run in the 1800 calorie or more range. I find it all but impossible to get out of one without eating a days worth of food in one sitting.

It varies. Last Sunday I went to the local diner and had the "Small Portions" meal, which basically means "a lot of small portions of different things into a sh*t ton of food". Salad, two sides, main dish and pudding. It was all delicious, but it was a LOT. The damn shame is I really like this diner partly because the food tends to be good (chicken breast stuffed with crab!), but also because the prices are pretty damn decent. I just need to see if I can get JUST a sandwich or something.

I also tried out a burger joint that replaced a Burger King a while ago called 25 Burgers. I'm wondering if I want to make this my "treat" if I cut down on eating out, because I pass by it whenever I leave the roller rink. I'm pretty sure a single burger there could reach the 1000 calorie range, but damn was it good.

Not completely my fault, but there was quite a bit of pizza last week, but I've finally gotten myself into the habit of about 3 slices and done (whereas I am usually capable of eating an entire pie alone, though these days I'm feeling pretty filled up).

God damn, last week was terrible for eating out, now that I think about it. Even so, the only time I really ate a metric f*ck ton was the diner. Otherwise I basically ate the sandwich or something and nothing more, which used to be something I suffered through and now is something I tend to be fine with. I'll be much more careful from now on, though. I think Saturdays, since I'm usually in Philly or in Delaware, will be the "free reign" day as I don't have many more options (though I'll still watch quantity). But Sunday through Thursday I will need to be limiting myself to once or twice a week.

I'm afraid I have to take a month off working out. Dr's orders. Yet more grumpy-one-with-the-cane stuff. I am not amused.

ccesarano wrote:

God damn, last week was terrible for eating out, now that I think about.

Pretty much this is what happened with me last week as well. I didn't even get on the scale this morning for fear of what I would see. I suppose I do need to check anyhow, just to see what I'd done.

ccesarano wrote:

I've been noticing some changes, though. Last week I did 20-some minutes on the Treadmill (an episode of IT Crowd, basically), and afterwards while I was eating dinner I realized I wasn't really tired. Not my legs, not my body, not anything at all. I suddenly wished I had gone on longer. Something similar happened when I had finished an hour of roller blading last week. I figured "okay, hour is done, I should go home", but as I drove home I realized I wasn't really as tired as I had been before.

I've also just been wanting to get up and do stuff more. I'm wondering if all this exercise and activity is having a more immediate positive effect than I had expected. I simply enjoy moving more than I had before.

I still prefer to do the punching bag as my primary at-home exercise, but I'm going to try for longer next time I do treadmill. I'll be doing roller blading every Thursday as well, and considering how big a difference there was between the two weeks I'm hoping I can last longer with that, too.

This is awesome now I'm going to throw in another thing to wrap your head around. When it comes to aerobic exercise that sensation you feel at the end of a session, when you feel you couldn't do another minute, almost all of that sensation is in your head. That first time you do 20 minutes on the treadmill AND then push yourself for another 60, or that time you up the kpm you're running by a notch for the session are going feel epically gruelling but the next time you're in the gym you'll know you can do what you did last time. That second time will be hard but you'll know you can do it.

This is an idea you have to keep with you because your lazy brain always wants to rest on it's laurels and it's your job to find smart ways to hack around that and push yourself past it's complaints. Whenever I get to a point in the gym where I come way feeling "not that tired" I know it's time to increase the time in doing or speed I'm going by a little bit and I know I'll have to brace myself for my brain not liking what's going on.

ccesarano wrote:

God damn, last week was terrible for eating out, now that I think about it. Even so, the only time I really ate a metric f*ck ton was the diner. Otherwise I basically ate the sandwich or something and nothing more, which used to be something I suffered through and now is something I tend to be fine with. I'll be much more careful from now on, though. I think Saturdays, since I'm usually in Philly or in Delaware, will be the "free reign" day as I don't have many more options (though I'll still watch quantity). But Sunday through Thursday I will need to be limiting myself to once or twice a week.

Hey, don't beat yourself up about eating out lots. It needn't be a bad thing but you need to be on the case to ensure you are making smart choice about where and what you eat. I personally wouldn't be too concerned about eating crab stuffed chicken breast; those are two pretty lean meats (unless it's smothered in a sweet, sweet sauce with a lake of butter)

I end up eating out a lot but I try and keep things controlled with a two simple tips

1) Firstly eat places where the food is minimally processed. If you can't tell what has gone into something on your plate then you should probably assume it's full of sugar or salt (unless you're eating somewhere way upscale). Burger paties are themselves probably not too bad there's often not too much else in there than the meat. The sauces on the other hand are likely sugar central.

2) Avoid empty calories. The worst culprits in restaurants are breads and fries. Both of those have no vitamins, no minerals and no (good) fats nor proteins. But they are super cheap for restaurants to provide so they have a vested financial interest on pushing them on you. You'll leave feeling full but they aren't actually helping you, more often than not you wouldn't notice whether you had the bread at the start or not. So I almost always ask to have fries exchanged with vegetable side (usually the salad); much better for you and mostly no more expensive for them, and I always turn down pre-meal bread when offered. If I have a burger I'll either get it without the bun or eat 1 half of the bread. So generally be on the look out for things that aren't actually making you feel satisfied at the end of the meal and get rid of them.

I've been on the weight loss kick for a while now. Time for me to join the thread.

I was 305 at my heaviest, just after my divorce at the end of 2010. )I'd actually lost about 30 lbs the previous summer but put it all back on. :(). I got my ass in gear after that and was down to 280 and change by the time I'd moved to Seattle, last November.

My girlfriend and I have started working out and eating better. She and I have also been seeing a personal trainer. The trainer took some measurements when we started and determined via mathematical trickery that I had 210 lbs of muscle, so a good goal weight (15% body fat) would be 230 lbs *. It has been a while though, so I should probably get remeasured to verify the numbers, and realign the goal if needed.

* One reason I've never trusted BMI. At my height (6'0"), 185 is just outside the "Normal" range in the BMI scale. I would have to cannibalize muscle to reach that weight. 25 lbs of it, if the measurements were correct. My trainer pointed out that BMI is descriptive of millions of data points, not prescriptive for any particular set.

My weight during over the last week or so has been around 255.

I was seeing the trainer twice a week, but skipped a couple weeks recently due to moving and a road trip to pick up the GFs dog from her mom's. I also just dropped down to once a week. Sunday mornings are great, but weeknights were always tough and having a commute now, I don't get home until 6:00 and just felt too wiped to work out. Taking a couple weeks off didn't help, I'm sure. Hopefully, I'll get used to the commute soon and can pick up the weeknight session again, or maybe get motivated to workout myself. I feel like I would enjoy running, and I am only a few blocks from a running/bike trail.

The biggest change for us though, is what and how much we are eating. It started with calorie counting. Now it's just being aware of when we aren't hungry. I still eat bigger portions than her because I'm a guy and bigger than her, but it way less than either of us used to eat.

It's obvious to me now how out of control American portion sizes are. We almost never eat fast food anymore, but we were feeling especially lazy the other night and stopped at Taco Time. She just had a crunchy burrito, which is fairly small. I had a "Classic", which is quite a bit bigger, and I couldn't even eat 2/3 of it. And there were combos on the menu, with a burrito, "Mexican Fries" and a large soda. There was a time when I would have eaten all that; I can't imagine eating that much food now.

So, with my eating habits in order, I feel like the hardest part is done. I feel like my inner fat guy has left the building. I just need to work on the outer fat guy still.

I might have done something unwise tonight. Last night after doing my punching bag work out I felt like I still had some energy, so I started running in place. Then I started doing some jumping jacks. I didn't count or anything, and stopped not long after. Just wanted to use a bit more energy.

So tonight I decide that's going to be a part of my rotation. But I did two things wrong. 1) I did jumping jacks before stretching, and 2) I should have stopped when they started getting sloppy. I did 30 just fine, but after that my form (for jumping jacks of all things) got poor. Now, tonight, my legs are feeling achey, which isn't too ideal since tomorrow I hit up the roller rink.

I did 40 before and after the punching bag, which was too much. Next time, 30.

But I'm wondering if I might have needed a break anyway. I did the punching bag Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, and Monday I helped my old man with the weed whacker, which was more exhausting than I expected by time I finally sat down at my computer and relaxed a moment. I might have needed a break, but I was afraid if I took a single day off I'd screw up somehow.

The research about stretching is contentious. Flexibility can be measured, and stretching certainly impacts it; whether or not being flexible prevents injury, I would never consider being more flexible an impediment. It's a benefit in its own right. What those studies tends to miss is that daily stretching is needed if your goal is to become more flexible, as five minutes of stretching before a workout 3x/week? Not apt to do much for you.

Warming up is key, though -- I start workouts with light stretching followed by 5 minutes of continuous jump rope. That said, form (while very important in general) isn't critical in aerobic exercise. You want and need to be pushing yourself close to the point of failure/exhaustion at some point, so as to help to move that line back. For example, sometimes I'll end a workout with kicks to a heavy bag -- 50 front kicks, side kicks, and roundhouse kicks from each side (when standing in an orthodox position). By the 200-300th kick, I'm wiped, but that's when pushing through is good for me, because it means that I'm driving back my body's comfort level/limit.

ccesarano wrote:

1) I did jumping jacks before stretching

That's probably not too much of an issue. Research on the benefits of stretching before aerobic exercise is pretty divided. It is definitely good to mobilise the joint and warm up before exercise but the benefits of full extension and static stretching are not clear and in some cases have been shown to be detrimental to performance. Stretching and cooling down after exercise does help.
http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7362/...

ccesarano wrote:

2) I should have stopped when they started getting sloppy. I did 30 just fine, but after that my form (for jumping jacks of all things) got poor.

I'm not to sure you should worry too much about sloppy form in an aerobic exercise like jumping jacks. As long as you aren't way off the form (sagging head, collapsing at the waist) then you are probably ok. I'd be a lot more concerned about poor form if you were doing weights/resistance exercises, in that case you usually have joints under high stresses and poor form can be very damaging.

ccesarano wrote:

Now, tonight, my legs are feeling achey, which isn't too ideal since tomorrow I hit up the roller rink.

Achey is fine and not a sign you did anything wrong. It's a fairly normal and usually benign reaction to exercising a new muscle group or pushing yourself further than usual. If I'd pushed myself to do more in a session and didn't feel a little achey the next day (or so) that would be weird. That said the more you exercise the better you'll be able to tell the difference between benign achey feelings and times when you've really pushed yourself too far.
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx...

A friend of mine just told me he read an article that stretching beforehand can cause injury, though if you don't stretch you can get cramps. It's like "damned if you do, damned if you don't". I've had a tendency to notice stretching having a positive effect on me, though, so I make sure to do it before exercising.

ccesarano wrote:

A friend of mine just told me he read an article that stretching beforehand can cause injury, though if you don't stretch you can get cramps. It's like "damned if you do, damned if you don't". I've had a tendency to notice stretching having a positive effect on me, though, so I make sure to do it before exercising.

If you stretch too hard, yeah you can hurt yourself. However, it's still important to be warmed up before you extend any ligaments of your body, be it via stretching or plyometrics. Whenever I work out, my general practice is to do 10 minutes of some sort of cardio to get my body heated up then I move onto strength training, stretching, etc. I also try to close with a cool down stretch too.

ccesarano wrote:

A friend of mine just told me he read an article that stretching beforehand can cause injury, though if you don't stretch you can get cramps. It's like "damned if you do, damned if you don't". I've had a tendency to notice stretching having a positive effect on me, though, so I make sure to do it before exercising.

Anecdote and not data, but as a lifelong martial artist: the guys who stretch regularly, including me, can throw kicks over our heads with power behind them, do full-back-bend judo throws, and generally stay loose even while putting power into our strikes. The guys who don't can still get there, but they're more likely to struggle with the techniques and/or be sore in the morning.

My goal from last year never transpired, but with my first marathon since early 2010 coming up in November I'm re-dedicating myself to weight loss. I'd let both my eating and my non-running-day weight-lifting slack completely. I'm currently sitting at 6'2" and 200 pounds. My heaviest point ever was about 225 about 11 years ago, my lightest in the past 5 years was right near 180. I'm not necessarily fat but my belly and "love handles" are where I carry some extra flab. It's obviously distributed over the rest of me to some extent, but the belly is where it's most noticeable.

I'd like to reach 190 by my marathon with a stretch goal of 180. I can likely (hopefully) do the 10 pounds fairly easily, but the rest will be challenging. I've put on some muscle mass since the 180 days so I suspect getting below 190 would require some more extreme food management. I've switch my breakfast from two slices of multi-grain artisanal bread toasted with peanut butter and Nutella -- probably roughly 500 calories right there -- to an egg-white omelet with peppers, mushrooms, a bit of mozzarella and a slice of chopped up ham which should be lower. My company gets lunch delivered every day which can be evil -- Thai food is a popular choice -- so I've started making similar egg-white omelets at lunch, too. I believe those two meals to be my original problem areas. For snacks at work I have some raw mixed nuts which, yes, can add up really quickly if you're not careful but I really only have 5 or 6 nuts 2 or 3 times a day. For dinner my wife usually fixes good, simple fare that I can control portions with.

For exercise I run 3 times a week for marathon training (the Run Less, Run Faster method, though no one will ever call me fast). I'm adding back weight lifting workouts twice a week. On the weekends I'll likely throw in some swimming for cross-training to round it out.

Wish me luck.

SuperDave wrote:

If you stretch too hard, yeah you can hurt yourself. However, it's still important to be warmed up before you extend any ligaments of your body, be it via stretching or plyometrics. Whenever I work out, my general practice is to do 10 minutes of some sort of cardio to get my body heated up then I move onto strength training, stretching, etc. I also try to close with a cool down stretch too.

Stretching cold is how you injure yourself. I'm of the opinion that a thorough warm-up before exercising is far more important that stretching before exercise.

Jonman wrote:
SuperDave wrote:

If you stretch too hard, yeah you can hurt yourself. However, it's still important to be warmed up before you extend any ligaments of your body, be it via stretching or plyometrics. Whenever I work out, my general practice is to do 10 minutes of some sort of cardio to get my body heated up then I move onto strength training, stretching, etc. I also try to close with a cool down stretch too.

Stretching cold is how you injure yourself. I'm of the opinion that a thorough warm-up before exercising is far more important that stretching before exercise.

Yeah my rule of thumb is warm up beforehand (warmed muscles are proven to reduce incidence of training injury). Thorough stretch afterwards as part of your cool down routine.

Well the thing is stretches like other exercises must be done right. It is not about tugging on yourself and rolling into a ball. You can get a great stretch/warm-up/cool down with a 5-10 minute jog. The way I see so many amatures stretch, lift, etc. I see a lot of strain.

What I have taken to doing is a cool down and some light stretches in the sauna or hot tub.

I usually stretch on both ends of the workout. A 2 minute walk to warm up, a set of light stretches, then hit it hard. Cool down, and then a set of thorough stretches for developing more flexibility.

I simply stretch so I feel my muscles, well, stretch, but not so it hurts.

What counts as a "warm-up", out of curiosity?

Also: I keep telling myself that this is going to be lifestyle changes and all, but reading about folks who sound a lot healthier than I am (such as ColdForged) undergoing attempts to lose weight over a bit of "love handles"... It's more sobering than you realize that there's never a point where you just stop working out and it's all good again.

Which is one of the reasons I guess I'm trying to get into more than just the punching bag. So I always have physical activities I can fall back on.

A warm-up should get your heart rate up, and cause you to sweat, but not exhaust you. For me, for examples' sake, that's 5 minutes of jump rope before an hour or two of kickboxing or jiu-jitsu.

ccesarano wrote:

Also: I keep telling myself that this is going to be lifestyle changes and all, but reading about folks who sound a lot healthier than I am (such as ColdForged) undergoing attempts to lose weight over a bit of "love handles"... It's more sobering than you realize that there's never a point where you just stop working out and it's all good again.

Don't be discouraged by this! I'm probably somewhere in that "relatively fit" bucket of people, and I still see things I'd like to change about my body. That doesn't mean that there's no progress or difference between "I eat pizza every meal and never leave the couch" and "I'd like to tighten up my abs more." First and foremost, exercise and health will keep you alive, as well as stave off depression and make you look better.

Like any skill or endeavor worth undertaking, you can always refine, improve, and learn more. Most of us aren't and will never be Olympic athletes, but that doesn't invalidate what we do to get and stay fit. The only person you're ever competing with is yourself -- not ColdForged, not Michael Phelps, just you.

TheHipGamer wrote:

A warm-up should get your heart rate up, and cause you to sweat, but not exhaust you. For me, for examples' sake, that's 5 minutes of jump rope before an hour or two of kickboxing or jiu-jitsu.

Yeah, a somewhat gentle intro to the exercise you're about to do, you want to mobilise the joints and warm the muscles you're going to use. Google a couple of gym warm up routines and pick our a selection of things you like the look of. As a rough ballpark I'd say about the first 10% of your routine time should be warm up but you probably want to do at least 5 mins and probably not much more than 10 or 15.

I flicked through this vid and it seemed to have a range of good warm up and joint movement exercises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaR72...

TheHipGamer wrote:

The only person you're ever competing with is yourself -- not ColdForged, not Michael Phelps, just you.

Bullsh*t. ccesarano and I are mortal enemies, locked in perpetual combat. Like Gandalf and the Balrog, liberals and conservatives, Perry the Platypus and Dr. Doofenshmirtz, peanut butter and chocolate. DON'T BELITTLE OUR TOIL!

In all seriousness though, everything's relative, man. Be happy with yourself and your goals and don't worry about anyone else's. Reach your goals and celebrate, strive for your own benefit.

ColdForged wrote:

In all seriousness though, everything's relative, man. Be happy with yourself and your goals and don't worry about anyone else's. Reach your goals and celebrate, strive for your own benefit.

This. Comparing yourself to others in explicitly competitive areas are fine, but for something like fitness, concentrate on improving your own well being. John Doe doesn't have your body, your timetable, or your set of unique circumstances, so don't compare yourself with him. Find what works for you.

I know I won't be able to cut carbs completely out of my diet for weight loss, or run marathons because of previous injuries, so I don't think about those avenues to diet or exercise. Lifestyle changes have to be sustainable if you want to reap the benefits in the long run.

Deadmonkeys wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

In all seriousness though, everything's relative, man. Be happy with yourself and your goals and don't worry about anyone else's. Reach your goals and celebrate, strive for your own benefit.

Lifestyle changes have to be sustainable if you want to reap the benefits in the long run.

VERY true. My Aunt, Uncle and grandpa all had stomachs stabled. They did not change their diet and now all three of them had the procedure done again!