Weight Loss

Wayy more physical than Jack hammering 12 hour shift in 3 hrs with no stopping your a 1/2 in in with a 130 lb hammer nota 90.  Don’t forget hand unloading or dragging ovr a million lbs of freight out.  140 nfl players got hurt at a food delivery co in under 10 yrs.  I reg wt for for 30 yrs regardless of how I ate was 172.  Speed sit-ups brings it down to 162 even 158 scarry low wt.   once u get past the burn its easy .  Great for a destroyed back & core for riding . I hv to eat like a pig b4 sleep to get my wt up if I ,m doing speed sit-ups.  Speed kick your legs & raise your arms up behind u to get more pressure on your stomach.  There a few ways of doing them if u get bored.  Speed jump roping is great too but I haven’t done that in yrs. 

I’ve lost a bunch of pounds in the last 5-7 weeks, but I wasn’t really trying to initially (even though I should have been!). 

I was feeling pretty terrible in February and towards the end of that month I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia. I got a shot of antibiotics and some oral meds to take home. The next Friday I was worse and could barely muster the strength to stand up. Wife took me to the ER and I figured they’d give me some strong IV antibiotics and send me on my way home. 

Didn’t quite work out that way, though. 

Seems that I’d most likely had a lung infection for quite a while, maybe several months or even from last spring when I’d been treated for pneumonia even though the new, fresh out of school MA had said it was somewhat inconclusive. I had felt pretty cruddy and run down all summer, fall, and winter but I thought that my persistent cough was due to all the new-to-me pollen in the air causing some slight allergies. 

So the gist of it was that the long term infection had caused my heart to enlarge and swell, to the point of being very dangerous. My heart was only pumping less than 25% of the volume that it should have been.  A heart cath showed zero blockage of arteries, so that was at least a good thing. Six days in the hospital and was sent home with a bunch of meds to help the heart ‘heal’ and strict instructions to follow a heart healthy diet including no more than 2,000 mg of sodium per day and no alcohol.  I’ve followed that to the letter, and actually only had one day over 1,500 mg of sodium. They told me that the first 3-6 months would be the most important for max recovery so I’m taking them at their word!  And to my surprise, the sodium has been the hardest thing to give up, not alcohol. It’s amazing how much most of us take in even when you are trying to eat ‘healthy’. 

Friday was my first follow up ECG, and so far it looks like following their instructions is working out great. The heart is recovering very well already, and the doc said that it’s much more improved than 95% of people who have this sort of issue, but most of them have arterial blockages also I think. 

So with cutting out sodium I’m mostly eating a small bowl of oatmeal with raisins for breakfast, lunch is usually some combination of an apple, a pear, and some grapes or a melon bowl. Dinner is usually a protein like steak, chicken, or salmon with some frozen veggies. I use a ‘salt substitute’ with dinner sometimes, but it’s definitely not as good as salt so even that is something that I use sparingly. 

I’m a little bit ashamed of how much I gained last year when I was feeling miserable. I tended to just come home from work and want to go straight to bed, well after a beer or two anyways. 

So far I’m down 36 pounds. I have developed a taste for the ‘bland’ type of food, and if I get hungry I just eat another apple or pear. I’m going to sustain this for as long as possible, especially since it seems to be helping my heart. 

Best wishes to you, and hope you heal up fully!

Great thread! I'm struggling with beer at the moment. I'm up to 3-4 beers a day and trying to cut it to 1 or less. I don't drink to get buzzed, I guess it's just a habit now to sip on beer all night. Either way, it affects my attitude the next day and I assume it's causing quite a bit of bloating. The winter has been tough, too, and I'm hoping the better weather will get me more active. I have some good summer projects and some racing coming up, so I just need to stay focused and cut out the beer. Definitely need to try and drink more water, it seems to be the hardest thing for me to commit to.

You can do it! The way you describe your intake of beer is pretty much just a habit. Habits can be broken. Water is huge. Definitely make a conscious effort to drink more water. Added benefit, when you’re hungry for a snack water has a filling effect.👍

Sounds like you've got a good base to start with by having the Apple watch to track your day and somewhat of a food / meal plan. (Any activity tracker would be great if you're just getting into this)

Beer & Sugar are gonna be your enemies 
 

Shoot for a minimum of 75 minutes of getting your heart rate into zone 2 to zone 3 ( bicycling, rowing, running, yoga etc ) to get your heart rate up and burn calories (more if you can)

Adequate protein intake is KEY! YOU WILL PLATEAU IF YOU DO NOT MAINTAIN YOUR PROTEIN INTAKE ( goal: 1g per pound of body weight)

Sleep & Rest are your recovery times ( the closer to 8hrs you get, the better. focus on Deep & REM sleep for your HRV ) 

I don't eat within 4 hours of bedtime. Our bodies are designed to rest when we sleep, by eating you're putting your body into overdrive to digest more food when it should be working on other recovery.

One thing to note, is that Everyone is different, everybody is different. What works for me may / may not work for you and vice versa -

I'll spare yall 20 paragraphs of my nutritional journey. Just wanted to give you something to ponder. 

Notice all the fat people you see at the hospital. God forbid you find yourself there. Poor eating habits have a direct and measurable effect on your wellness. You would never put dirty fuel in your bike, so don't put dirty food it in your body. Your not gonna run properly. 

Starvation is not a diet. You have to eat. It's what you eat that makes all the difference. Start substituting things like apples and banana instead of Pringles,  water instead of Mt. Dew. Think whole foods. Stuff that has to be washed and prepared like fresh veggies. Build from there. It's a mindset. Find foods that you enjoy eating that are  actually considered beneficial to your health.  This is a lifelong journey, not just getting rid of your gut cause summer is coming and you'd like to take your shirt off. I don't eat meat or dairy. Not because of animal rights or anything.  For me it's a health issue. The less cholesterol and sodium I eat, the better my chances are gonna be to make it to70. So that's my choice. I know lots of people who do eat that and they are in great shape. Point is, your gonna have to find food that works for you. Every body is different and what works for me may not be right for you. In real life, your probably not gonna have time to wash,chop, and prepare actual real food everyday. It takes quite a bit of effort. But, when you can, eat like a race horse. Your body and mind are the most complex system in existence and require proper tuning.

How you eat is equally important. Take a bite, set your fork down and chew your food thoroughly. Marvel at how your tongue, teeth, and cheeks push around and process your food. It's an amazing system. When you slow down you'll recognize the point when your actually satisfied and you just stop eating. When your shoveling it in, by the time you realize your full, you've already eaten too much. Maybe don't put the food on the table family style. It's too easy to keep picking at it. Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince, and eat dinner like a pauper.  Think about it. Fuel up in the morning, top off your tank at lunch and just cruise until dinner. You won't be so frigging hungry that you eat a whole pizza. "OH god I ate too much, I'm miserable "  That's what your trying to avoid. 

I think I read somewhere that around 90 % of diets fail. Maybe it's because you get tired of denying yours e lf things everyday that you've been enjoying your whole life. Instead, consider finding new things to  eat that you like that do more than just make you full.  This shit don't happen overnight folks.  Be patient with ourself, this is a journey. 

When they sent me home from the hospital 3 1/2 years ago, I was taking 30 pills a day. My wife just handed me my daily meds a few minutes ago. I now take (1) B-12  vitamin a day. That's it. I didn't get off all that nasty,expensive pharmaceuticals by diet alone, but a majority of it was eliminated through diet alone. I hope I've struck a small nerve with somebody on this topic. Probably not cause I'm the weirdo who orders the kale salad from chick Fila. WTF happened to me? Good luck with your diets everyone. If you do it right, I promise it will change you forever.

Losing fat weight is all about the 1st Law of Thermodynamics. Burn more calories than you ingest = fat loss. Guaranteed. Exercising to lose weight won’t work w/o counting calories.  There is no getting around it. 

I learned a trick to help with portion control, someone told me your stomach is the same size as your fist. So when you’re piling food on your plate, try not to get too much bigger than your fist, anything after that you’re stretching your stomach out and shoveling in more than your body is designed to digest in one sitting. I’ve gotten real good at making my fist huge, like when OJ was trying on the gloves 😕😄 But it does help. I have a bad habit when I’m loading up my plate thinking I need more than that, I’m still gonna be hungry. Then you eat the whole pile and you feel like you’re gonna explode. 

I think of this meme often when I'm eating to keep myself grounded.

Then I think to myself, "ok, I've eaten the amount one adult man should be ok with." And I cut myself off there 😅

Yeah plus those bags are only filled 1/3 of the way so you're good 👍

I am fat. I used to be gladiator fit up until Covid. I ate very little into my 30s and some days just milk all day and forgot about dinner. I would be reminded to eat but if I got hungry just milk a lot of times. i ate fish, chicken and steak primarily. Kind of a carnivore diet. Hardly any veggies and never touched a salt shaker or soda until late 30s. I lived on an island and enjoyed watersports and relentlessly dragged behind a boat. I was a machine with endless energy. I actually remember the first time i got tired. I was like "wtf is this?" I would surf from sun up til sundown in huge surf, no breaks. Wakeboard all day and never wanted to rest a second. Ride fuel tanks dry and play 3 sports some days. Mtb after or before moto a lot. Play a dozen tennis matches with no breaks.  Then I got diagnosed with Celiac and all the foods were sugar for flavor because it was not very common and the food was bland but better options these days. I started drinking coke for some flavor and gained a bunch of weight. I quit coke and pounds disappeared quickly but I start again and the belt loops grow. My mom sent me this Pic of me from before covid for inspiration and I want back to that but I'm just not motivated like I always was. The weird part was I almost never drank water unless it was a little bit of Gatorade growing up or out of hose or fountain at the beach. Milk and Sugar-free Gatorade was all i lived on. 

It’s all math. 1 lb fat = 3500 calories. Over a week that’s a 500 caloric deficit daily to lose 1 lb.  Math. 
 

Beware of fitness trackers like the Apple Watch. They are notoriously inaccurate. I used mine to measure caloric burn while cycling. But the watch uses an algorithm and not actual output to calculate burn rate. When I compared the Watch’s caloric numbers to my smart trainer’s results (which measures actual wattage), the Watch was 18% high.  Meaning that 500 calorie workout was really only 410. 
 

Clinton calories huh?? 

That's certainly one way to lose the weight 😁😁

I've done pretty good with my goals, thanks to keeping this thread in the back of my mind. Having things to do after work is a big help, and keeps my mind off of beer. I started restoring my first dirt bike (83 XR100...it's on the bike build forum), and started doing more of my own maintenance on my cars. Went and raced BMX over the weekend, too...first time in months.

Hopefully y'all are doing good, too!

I did manage to drop like 4 lbs. I've been trying to get to sleep a little earlier, which has the add-on effect of not giving me the opportunity to binge snacks late at night while no one is looking.

I have cut out carbs and have been following a modified Keto way of eating with really good results. I am currently weighing in at about 175 with 9" BF.  Whatever method your using measure your progress and don't be afraid to make adjustments if you're not getting the results your expect.

Thats not a bad plan at all, just remember to keep your electrolytes in check. if your feeling drained from no carbs its most likely due to lack of electrolytes.  I use LMNT packs but there several good ones out there.

What is Clinton calories?

Is it as simple as looking at a picture of Hillary and losing your appetite?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I missed this but...

I have been a yo yo up and down with my weight my whole life. Since 21, the first year I raced in march in FL, i did a strict clean diet through my chiro. I was hungry all the damn time eating my fruits veggies and meat. Not 1 thing processed. It worked and i went from 270 to 220.. Each year ive raced that same race and had to start over again around Christmas losing weight. Lowest i hit was 213. This year i did it a little different. Jan 4th i was 240 again. Im telling you, i smell a cheeseburger and gain 5 pounds..Anyway, went strict carnivore. 4 eggs in the morning, 4 at lunch, a big ribeye at night with some amish butter and a few slices of bacon. In Florida in March 1 i hit 200. My goal was to see 199 even for one day because i hadnt been below 213 since i was a teenager. Im almost 40 now. Im down to 194 now and not really trying to lose more, but ive felt so damn good I'm afraid to add anything carb related back into my body. I might "cheat" with a little keto whipped cream and a few banana slices here and there, but still sticking to my regular. Every year id train by running and cycling before Florida.. I was always in pain in my ankles, knees, hips.. Doing this carnivore thing, i literally have 0 pain in those areas after a hard run, cycle, or row.. Only thing i add is keto electrolytes from Amazon and beef organ supplements. Once i hit goal weight i did start using sugarfree hazelnut in my coffee in the morning and 2 stevia packs. I snack on pork rinds here and there too. I know this can be considered a fad diet, but i cant recall ever feeling better. Im scheduled for my yearly blood work here soon so im interested in seeing those numbers vs last year. I don't have much faith in our healthcare system, so ill honestly take it as a grain of salt if they beat me up for it based on numbers.. I cant recommend it enough if youre capable of it. Some people hate meat or don't tolerate it. I love ribeyes, so it fits my lifestyle pretty well.. 

This is the only relevant meaning of diet if we want to get healthier:

Don't think of yourself as being on a diet. Instead understand you have changed your diet.🙂

Very true.

As a fat ass, it's been real hard not to partake in all the Easter foods and birthdays and typical restaurant food. A simple reminder about how i used to feel makes that a little easier though.