To all .ORGers who are trying to lose weight and those who are losing weight

[Rainbow Brite]

I work 12-13 hours shifts on the weekend. I have two 12-13 hour clinical days. I have one full day of classes. The other two days are dedicated to doing homework which is like having another job. By the time I get off work and clinicals I'm so tired I can't hardly move. I literally ache from head to toe so I need a day to recoup from that, clinicals are the same way. I lift people and am on my feet all day at work and clinicals.

I'd say during this time in your life, IGNORE YOUR WEIGHT. You've got enough to handle as it is and worrying about it when you don't have time to do anything about it is only going to drive you crazy. Once school is out you can try fitting some exercise into your schedule. But you have to manage your priorities, and right now work and school are your priorities - not looking like a model.

Another piece of advice for all of you who are trying to lose weight - try drinking Crystal Light instead of juice. We used to keep orange juice, grape juice, V8 Splash and other juices around...but realized we were taking in way too many liquid calories that way. So now we make a pitcher of Crystal Light or Countrytime Light Lemonade and drink that with our meals. Also helps get some more water into your system (cause I HATE drinking plain water).

Archer Farms (Target brand) flavored water is the bomb too.

[chamita116]

Update: I've lost 7 pounds since Monday morning. That may seem like too much, too soon, but it's typical to lose 8-13 pounds during the first two weeks of South Beach. So I'm actually right on track. I've also been exercising all but two days this week, so I think that's helped.

This week has been a little frustrating in terms of meals. It's not like I've really been craving sweets or anything. But I'm a vegetarian (although I do eat fish), so every lunch and dinner this week has been salmon or tilapia with lima beans or great northern beans. Luckily, I found a recipe for chickpea soup that doesn't break the diet and makes 4 servings, so I'm going to make that and have it for dinner this week. I also found a recipe for salt and pepper shrimp that I might try. I have a list of rewards for losing a certain amount of weight, and the reward for losing 10 pounds is two new books. I think at least one of those books is going to be a fish or vegetarian cookbook.

I hope everyone else has been doing well with your respective diet and/or exercise programs!

[D-Day V1]

Great job everybody. Its great to see so many people engaging in this

[CJ Clifford]

This morning's weigh-in: 268 lbs. Starting weight was 282.5 lbs. That seems like hell of a drop in only two weeks. Then again I completely changed my dietary habits and now exercise 5 days a week for one hour each day.

Sunday is my "bad day" where I eat something I'm not suppose to (I have to every once in a while or I'll completely crash and burn). Well today I decided to have pizza. BIG MISTAKE. Four hours after eating the pizza my stomach was flipping and flopping like I dropped a grenade into it. Okay, I may be exaggerating that a bit, but it wasn't pleasant.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

cjclifford: I realize that presuming to give someone you don't know advice on a personal topic over the internet is often a mistake, but I feel compelled to mention this because of my personal experience: being upset with yourself is bad for long-term motivation. Short-term, you can use it to kick yourself into gear, but that enthusiasm will fade, and it's hard to continue to motivate yourself with such negative feelings.

It's not like you have to be all Care Bears about it and remind yourself "I'm a beautiful person!" every five seconds or some nonsense like that, but it's important to keep things in perspective. Sure, you can be as stringent with your diet as you feel is good for you, but do it out of the desire to respect your body and take the best care of it you can, not to whip it into submission like a naughty child. And if you find that you have trouble viewing your body positively, it may be more important to fix that mental block than any weight-loss techniques you use; it was for me.

Again, I apologize for presuming to give you advice on something so personal, I feel almost obligated to though because I struggled with the same problem for so long, and realizing that I didn't have to hate my body was a huge "Eureka!" moment for me.

In all the time I've been on he-man.org, this is the single most beautiful post I've had the pleasure to read. Compassion, concern, sincerity. Just when you think these are archaic concepts that no longer have meaning in our jaded world, along comes something like this. It's people like you, KL, who show a genuine and honest desire to help another individual that you don't even know that makes me think maybe, just maybe everything isn't destined to go to hell in a handbasket afterall.

Keep it up. The world can use more of you.

[D-Day V1]

This morning's weigh-in: 268 lbs. Starting weight was 282.5 lbs. That seems like hell of a drop in only two weeks. Then again I completely changed my dietary habits and now exercise 5 days a week for one hour each day.

Sunday is my "bad day" where I eat something I'm not suppose to (I have to every once in a while or I'll completely crash and burn). Well today I decided to have pizza. BIG MISTAKE. Four hours after eating the pizza my stomach was flipping and flopping like I dropped a grenade into it. Okay, I may be exaggerating that a bit, but it wasn't pleasant.

Great job. Friday is my cheat night and I went out to dinner with most of the Chicago Horde, and had a double cheeseburger and large cheese fries. My stomach was doing flip-flops as well.

Weight update--245.5 lbs. Im down 14.5 pounds in just under 4 weeks

[The_Robin]

This morning's weigh-in: 268 lbs. Starting weight was 282.5 lbs. That seems like hell of a drop in only two weeks. Then again I completely changed my dietary habits and now exercise 5 days a week for one hour each day.

.

That's awesome. I started at 285lbs, and now I'm at 267lbs, so we seem to be pretty close. It's been 3 weeks for me however. But I can already feel it on me, or OFF of me. I really love this diet, and I never thought I would say that!

[D-Day V1]

My morning weigh in today.....243.5 lbs. Ive lost 16.5 in just over 4 weeks. I am so freakin happy.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

This morning's weigh-in: 268 lbs. Starting weight was 282.5 lbs. That seems like hell of a drop in only two weeks. Then again I completely changed my dietary habits and now exercise 5 days a week for one hour each day.

Sunday is my "bad day" where I eat something I'm not suppose to (I have to every once in a while or I'll completely crash and burn). Well today I decided to have pizza. BIG MISTAKE. Four hours after eating the pizza my stomach was flipping and flopping like I dropped a grenade into it. Okay, I may be exaggerating that a bit, but it wasn't pleasant.

Congrats to you on great progress. However, don't expect this kind of spectacular weekly losses after about a month. A good deal of what you're losing now is water weight, since you're exercising five days a week -- which is fantastic!

However, once you've lost the optimum amount of water you're going to have to work on fat loss and that's a lot slower than water loss. You're keyed into the two primary factors -- eating right and exercising. Exercise -- especially strength training in the form of freeweights -- is criticial. It's a fact that a pound of muscle requires many more calories for the body to maintain than does a pound of fat. Thus, over time and as you gain muscle weight, what happens is that you turn your body into a muscle burning machine, turning up your metabolism twenty-four hours a day to maintain the muscle...which results in more fat loss.

A final note: don't be so hard on yourself about eating 'badly' once in a while -- although once a week is too often. There's a lot of anecdotal information that it's actually a good thing to eat 'badly' on occasion. (And I hear the gasps.) First, you can't drive yourself nuts. While it's true you shouldn't eat Canard a la Orange (or buffalo wings and potato skins, depending upon your preferences) four days a week, having it once in a while (meaning once a month) is okay so you don't feel like you're in culinary Alcatraz. However, there's a second very interesting point here. By occasionally -- maybe once a month -- having a really 'bad' meal, you may actually trick your body into thinking that you're going to go back to your previous bad habits. What happens is that your body may automatically kick into high gear to metabolize off what you've eaten. If you want proof of this interesting anecdotal assertion, weigh yourself just before you go for a heavy eating session (just one time a month, please), and then weigh yourself again exactly twenty-four hours later. You may find, as I do, that you incongruously registered a slight weight loss.

Keep up the great work. I've no doubt you're serving as an inspiration for others. Jared, indeed!

[CJ Clifford]

Congrats to you on great progress. However, don't expect this kind of spectacular weekly losses after about a month. A good deal of what you're losing now is water weight, since you're exercising five days a week -- which is fantastic!

Trust me, I don't expect to lose so much every single week, I'm just surprised that I lost more than two pounds in the second week. The last time I tried to go all healthy (eight years ago), I lost a large amount of weight the first week and practically nothing the second week. I didn't expect to drop five more pounds in the second week, I thought it would be less. I just hope it is water weight, which is what I assume, and not muscle mass that I'm losing.

A final note: don't be so hard on yourself about eating 'badly' once in a while -- although once a week is too often.

Obviously my version of "eating badly" is different from yours. It's not as if I throw out everything I've been doing for the week for an all day gorge session. I still eat the same healthy way I did the rest of the week except for one meal. The first week I treated myself to spaghetti and meatballs (and I used wheat spaghetti), the second week I had pizza, and the third week I'm going to have a taco salad. Everything else I'm doing to be healthy remains on my "bad day" except for one meal. I seriously doubt that's going to destroy everything I'm working towards. Hell, my friend (who started his thing in August) does his bad eating thing twice a week, and it hasn't seemed to hurt his efforts at all.

As for being hard on myself for eating badly once in a while, I don't know where you got that from. My stomach certainly didn't take it very well though.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

Trust me, I don't expect to lose so much every single week, I'm just surprised that I lost more than two pounds in the second week. The last time I tried to go all healthy (eight years ago), I lost a large amount of weight the first week and practically nothing the second week. I didn't expect to drop five more pounds in the second week, I thought it would be less. I just hope it is water weight, which is what I assume, and not muscle mass that I'm losing.


Obviously my version of "eating badly" is different from yours. It's not as if I throw out everything I've been doing for the week for an all day gorge session. I still eat the same healthy way I did the rest of the week except for one meal. The first week I treated myself to spaghetti and meatballs (and I used wheat spaghetti), the second week I had pizza, and the third week I'm going to have a taco salad. Everything else I'm doing to be healthy remains on my "bad day" except for one meal. I seriously doubt that's going to destroy everything I'm working towards. Hell, my friend (who started his thing in August) does his bad eating thing twice a week, and it hasn't seemed to hurt his efforts at all.

As for being hard on myself for eating badly once in a while, I don't know where you got that from. My stomach certainly didn't take it very well though.

A bit of miscommunication here. By 'bad day', I, too meant one meal. (I can't really remember having two 'bad' meals in a single day in the last fifteen years.) What I'm saying is it's okay once in a while to indulge in a high fat or high calorie meal and that the results, oddly enough, often result in a weight loss.

As for being tough on yourself, I must have misinterpretted what you said, so just disregard my comment.

Btw, you certainly don't need to worry about worry about burning muscle. The body first burns fat and resorts to burning muscle only after everything else is depleted. Burning actual muscle pretty much only happens during starvation.

Keep on keeping on.

[Divia]

I was below my benchmark... last week, but I dont know how I am right now. I havent weighed myself, and I dont want to. I just did cross country sking today and the eliptical as well. Dinner was a salad.

I think I am gonna weigh myself in at the end of the month. I seem to be obessed with the scale and if I go up 2 pounds it puts me in a mood. Also I am stayin away from the chocolate. Its hard, but I'm doing really well.

[CJ Clifford]

Btw, you certainly don't need to worry about worry about burning muscle. The body first burns fat and resorts to burning muscle only after everything else is depleted. Burning actual muscle pretty much only happens during starvation.

I don't remember where, but I read that dieting without exercise can cause you to lose muscle mass. Obviously that shouldn't be a problem since I'm exercising, but still I don't want lose what I need and keep what I want to get rid of.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

I don't remember where, but I read that dieting without exercise can cause you to lose muscle mass. Obviously that shouldn't be a problem since I'm exercising, but still I don't want lose what I need and keep what I want to get rid of.

You know, I'm not 100% sure about this -- and I never say I'm sure when I'm not. But I believe I read once that the body will first draw on its fat stores and then, only after they are gone, will feed on muscle. It seems to make sense to me, especially considering the situation with animals that hibernate and do literally no exercise for months on end. It's why they chow down so heavily to build up fat stores for their bodies to draw upon.

But I'm sure a nutritionist could give you that information.

Regardless, you're definitely on the right road -- on the high path. As I said, I believe you're an inspiration to others and I sincerely applaud you for it.

[D-Day V1]

I just weighed myself and I checked in at 241.5 lbs. Ive lost 18.5 pounds in 4 and a half weeks. I almost cried. I cant believe it. I havent been this low in weight in years!!!!!!

[CJ Clifford]

Time for the weekly weigh in for the end of week 3.

Starting weight: 282.5 lbs.

Current Weight: 265 lbs.

Weight lost this week: 3 lbs.

I'm down about 11 pounds more than I expected (if I assume I can lose at least 2 lbs. a week), and I've lost a total of 17.5 lbs. I've since decided to go to the "gym" twice on Wednesday since I have the day off. I figure a little extra cardio can't hurt.

I'm glad to see my weight loss is slowing down a bit. While it seems great to lose 9 lbs. the first week and 5.5 lbs. the second week, I was slightly worried about such a massive drop so quickly. I figured the first week would show a significant drop because of water weight, but I didn't think I'd lose as much as I did in the second week.

I received my new fancy scale last week. Tells me all kinds of interesting information like my body fat percentage (the main reason I bought it), bmi number, and more. Cost me $60 but I figure the more information at hand the better. The new and old scale differ by 3-4 lbs, and they don't quite agree on how much weight I actually lost. The new scale says I dropped 3.8 lbs. while the old scale says 3 lbs.

Almost forgot to mention, I have few pairs of pants that are fairly tight around my waist (too many trips to the washer). Well, they're not so tight anymore.

[D-Day V1]

Now I am down to 240.5 lbs. Im almost at my first goal (240 lbs) and Ive lost almost 20 pounds in just under 5 weeks. This is so freakin awesome.

[Sky Breaker]

Weight in September 2007: 152LBS.

Weight Last Sunday 2008: 165LBS.

I'm trying to tell myself that its just 'winter hibernation' fat from a long cold Northern Alberta winter and that a month from now I'll be back to 152LBS, but I've grown rather fond of morning donuts and evening Oreos.

I don't drink pop or alcohol, so if I can get to walking and swimming more and cut down on those treats I should be doing okay... but I can't give up my white rice! Its sooooooooooooo darn good! I'd give up cheese before white rice and sushi!

[mannyscollectibles]

I'm currently doing Weight Watcher's I can basically eat what i want so long as it is within my point allowance for the day. Its basically counting calories and making sure youre eating low calorie low fat foods. On top of that Im doing Elliptical 5 days a week for 30-40 mins.

March 19th= 200 lbs
March 31st= 194.6

At that rate I should loose anywhere between 8-10 lbs in 1 month

[D-Day V1]

Its been a while since I have posted here, but I am now down to 228 lbs. Thats a whopping 32 lbs that I have lost since I started my diet back in early January

[JimmyPSHayes]

Its been a while since I have posted here, but I am now down to 228 lbs. Thats a whopping 32 lbs that I have lost since I started my diet back in early January

Way to go Double D!!! Myself and the rest of the Horde are proud of you!

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

I'm currently doing Weight Watcher's I can basically eat what i want so long as it is within my point allowance for the day. Its basically counting calories and making sure youre eating low calorie low fat foods. On top of that Im doing Elliptical 5 days a week for 30-40 mins.

March 19th= 200 lbs
March 31st= 194.6

At that rate I should loose anywhere between 8-10 lbs in 1 month

May I respectfully suggest that you try to incorporate some free weights into your weekly regimen. You don't need anything elaborate. A couple of dumb bells will do nicely. If you can afford an inexpensive weight bench, that's great. Find a routine you like -- menshealth.com is very helpful. Do set routines with dumb bells that you can do 12 repetitions per exercise with and no more.

Running, swimming and ellipticals are great cardio workouts and they are very important. But you will lose more weight by working out with free weights. Free weights built muscle mass more quickly than cardio exercises and it requires more calories to maintain muscle mass than it does fat. Thus, your body maintains a higher metabolism over running. The metabolic burn rate from running diminishes after two or three hours, while the muscle mass you put on from free weights burns 24 hours a day. So you lose weight simply because you have accumulated muscle mass.

Also, remember that in the beginning a lot of what you're losing is water weight. So don't expect the first month losses to be the same in month three or four. However, your 8 to 10 pounds a month are very realistic goals. It's just going to be tougher to maintain them once you've made an initial water weight loss. And that's where free weights will help.

[Adam_Prince of Eternia]

I've put on ten pounds of muscle.

[Heeeere's Olesker!]

I've put on ten pounds of muscle.

Outstanding! That's just outstanding! Both your body and your heart are so grateful. Those ten pounds of muscle are a fat-burning machine.

Would you share some details with us -- how long it took you to do it, how you did it, specific exercises, diet?

Again, heartiest congrats! Well done.

[Adam_Prince of Eternia]

Would you share some details with us -- how long it took you to do it, how you did it, specific exercises, diet?

I eat a high carbohydrate / high protein / low fat diet; I do cardiovascular exercise 5-7 days a week; and I do weight-bearing exercise 3 days a week.