How do you lose weight?

[Zuljeet]

Like a lot of people in their late twenties, I put on more than a little weight. Over the past year I lost fifty pounds by running and cross fit. What do you do to keep the pounds off?

I do crossfit as well (Yay, burpees!). But the biggest impact was I stopped drinking soft drinks; sodas, gatorade, energy drinks, all of it. 2 weeks = 15 pounds GONE and I didn't change anything else in my diet, and I really hadn't started crossfit at the time. After that I went straight paleo and haven't looked back.


PS. Grats on the fifty pounds!!

 

[Simonoly]

*Snipity snip*

It's definitely a convenient way to stay slim. It's just a shame you have to put up with all the other shit that comes with it. I used to use it as a good excuse to get amazing amounts of junk food from my parents. Oh and lots of video games of course because that was always going to help

I put on all my fatness due to a lot of steroids over the last couple of years. I ended up being put on a newish drug called Humira which apparently, if I'm lucky, might put me into permanent remission in 4-5 years time when I finally come off it. *fist pumps*

 

[bulbasaur765]

To stay fit I lay off junk foods and consumer vegetables and plenty of water throughout the day. Early in the morning I go to the gym and get in half an hour of running on the treadmill on a regular running pace, and exercise with dumbbells in-between classes.

 

[-Samurai-]

I started with eating better and regular exercise. Then I got depressed and lost my appetite. Then I got poor and couldn't afford to eat more than a lunch meat sandwich, once a day for 4 days a week, and no food the other 3.

Lost 45 pounds in 3 months.

 

[SadakoMoose]

Cut out the Soda/Candy, eat a lot of lean protein/vegetables/long grains, run/walk more.
Drink more water maybe?
I call it the Slash diet.

captcha: das oontz
Also, you should sometimes throw yourself a German techno dance party.

 

[StBishop]

Lose weight? I need to gain weight! I'm as thin as a rake (well, almost).

Umm... I guess running + super fast metabolism, though I have a feeling I could stay thin without the running.

I have an ultra-high metabolism, I can't lose weight if I don't gain any in the first place.

Me too, in fact my doctor says I have to gain weight but I don't know how to do that, I even tried going to a buffet and eating at least one of everything and all I accomplished was getting sick X_x
I'm starting to think he's crazy and this is just how I am, I don't think I'll try to gain weight anymore.
[sub]Though I'm not allowed to donate blood because I weigh too little, and according to the doctor I'll faint if they take it out, which is silly considering I once cracked my head open and was bleeding a lot and after 2 hours I still hadn't fainted, so I doubt I'll faint if someone fills a bag with my blood.[/sub]

Google: GOMAD.

It will help you put on weight. However, you must be doing high intensity resistance training (lifting heavy - relative to your strength - weights) or you'll just get fat.

I've lost 80lbs so far and have kept it off.I personally lost weight and keep it off by:

1.) Replacing meal time drinks, with ice-water.
2.) Eating smaller portions and paying attention to serving sizes.
3.) Making sure those portions are made up of healthier foods.Fruits, vegetables, brown rice, wheat pasta, and beans; and lean baked meats, eggs, or seasoned Tofu.
4.) Replacing one meal a day with a smoothie made of frozen fruits and/or vegetables, rice milk, honey or agave nectar, and occasionally plant-based protein powder (depending on how I felt).
5.) Trying to stay active throughout the day, even if it isn't full blown exercise.
6.) Doing a 1h to 1h 30min workout (cardio & weights) on top of that daily activity, if I felt like I needed it. In case I couldn't or didn't get as much activity as I would have liked that day.
7.) Keeping positive. Every pound lost, even if it was just one, was awesome.

Lately, I haven't been doing as much exercise and have just been maintaining my weight. I still have 20 more lbs I'd like to lose but I'm not stressing over it. I'm just happy to not have to lug around 80 excess pounds anymore.

You've just described the best (according to current research) way to lose weight and maintain a healthy body. Literally.

Well done.

...I don't think that I could ever be overweight at my age, because my metabolism is such that I can only gain muscle, not fat.

No it's not. You're perpetuating a myth. You just have healthy eating and activity habits, there's nothing wrong with being proud of that.
Yes your age does have an impact but there's such a thing as fat kids because it is possible to put on weight as a child.

The difference between individuals BMR (basal metabolic rate)[footnote]The minimum food required to maintain current body weight.[/footnote] for people of similar age, weight, and gender, is infinitesimal. If you really, really, really want I can look for sources but it is a huge fuck around because they're in textbooks and lecture notes I've not looked at in over a year.

*Snip*

Not on topic, I know, but I just had to say that i'm impressed and pleased to see someone sensibly debating without being confrontational. It's good to see.

Thanks, it's not usually too bad here anyway. Although I spend a fair bit of time browsing /fit/ so my tolerance for horrific debating is quite high, I might have a skewed view.

hmm, think i'll start a diet tomorrow / today, fed up of being big and shiz i'll try all your tips etc

Keep us posted. PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Dethenger]

I've lost thirty pounds this year (that sounds weird to say actually). Started at 207 at the beginning, 177 right now.
Basically, exercise while keeping in mind that you lose weight in the kitchen. Doesn't matter fuck all how many crunches you do if you're eating shit.

As a side note, I've come a long way physically in every aspect of my life since I was a freshman, to whom twenty pushups was an impressive feat. My sophomore year was the first time I ran a complete mile without stopping and I felt like a God; last Saturday, I ran four. I was slightly envious of my friend who could bench his body weight (165 lbs) when I could barely do 140; my max now is ~195. Feels nice. Feels fuckin' good.

 

[Tazzy da Devil]

I switch all drinks to water for a while, walk home from tafe instead of taking the bus, and play lots and lots of Dance Central.

 

[Xanthious]

I'm lucky enough to have been not needed to lose a significant amount of weight to date. Blessed with a good metabolism more than anything. However, I do keep myself in shape by spending a half hour a day doing cardio (running, jogging, swimming, or more often than not the elliptical machine) and doing some moderate weight training 3-4 days a week.

As far as diet goes I really don't watch what I eat at all. I drink far more Sprite and Pepsi than I should and live on fast food when I'm working out of town. I'm really going to be sad if my metabolism ever goes to hell because even working out on a regular basis I will probably balloon out like crazy because how poorly I eat.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I would like to gain weight actually. I won't say I "can't" put on weight because that's blatantly untrue. It would just require putting far more effort into dietary planning and preparation than I am willing to invest.

 

[Rule Britannia]

I'm only 16 but I work out every night nothing crazy though, chin ups, crunches, push ups for about half an hour.

 

[The Pumpkin Witch]

Simple: I told my boyfriend to get out.

I lost nearly two hundred pounds--just like that. *snap fingers*

MY FIRST POST!!! HEY EVERYBODY!!! THIS IS MY FIRST POST!!!

 

[bauke67]

The only thing I ever did to "lose weight" was hit puberty.
Went from little fat kid to big tall kid with no extra exercise whatsoever.
Seriously, works like a charm.

 

[Kae]

Google: GOMAD.

It will help you put on weight. However, you must be doing high intensity resistance training (lifting heavy - relative to your strength - weights) or you'll just get fat.

Thanks for the advice, and here I was making accusations that the doctor was wrong, I guess now it will be my fault, because I don't think I'm dedicated enough to eat 5 times a day, I have a lot of trouble remembering to eat every day, and I've struggled a lot with this eating 3 meals a day thing, 5 sounds like way too much.
Doesn't really help that I can't tell when I'm hungry and when I'm not, so it's really easy for me to forget to eat, sometimes for days.
As for the buffet thing, that's just the excuse I used to go to the buffet with my friend, but that always happens when I go to those places, I don't think my brain has the ability to tell anything regarding food, be it when to stop or when to start, would explain why I always finish my food and also why I keep forgetting to eat, or maybe I'm just incredibly stupid.
[sub]Oh now I feel like I wasted you're time, I'm so sorry.[/sub]

 

[Zing]

Well initially I lost weight after puberty (around 20-21 for me) by just going to the gym regularly and cutting back on bad food. As boring as that is, it worked, I lost about 18 kilos back then. 94 down to 76.

I'm 2 months from 23 now, since then I've kept it off and lost more(down to 71), probably at first because of the lifestyle change, but now I'd attribute it to just smoking a lot of weed, eventually you get the reverse effect of the munchies and your whole appetite changes.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

At the moment, nothing, I should really be focussing on gaining weight and was doing weight training at the gym until last year, which started making an impact until a. the guys who I went with lost all their drive before I did and b. I ended up having to stop going a few months later anyway, so now, after failing to motivate myself to exercise at home, I just sort of doss about.

 

[Soods]

I should really exercise more, but atleast I don't get too many calories as a vegetarian.

 

[Jarsh82]

@ StBishop
Our bodies have evolved to be efficient with calories. We can use money as an analogy. I body doesn't like to keep more cash on it then it needs so it puts it in the bank. This bank is our fat cells and the currency triaglycerol. When energy is needed the fat cell releases triaglycerol into the blood stream as free fatty acids. When you exerecise regularly you train your body to keep more cash on hand in the blood stream increasing your energy level. This is why you feel energized when you get some exercise in the morning and lethargic when you've been sitting on your ass all day. You train your body to store or release fat based on your activity level. This is why shorter higher energy workers can be more benificial then a longer workout that burns the same number of calories. The body thinks it needs to be ready for a huge energy expenditure so it keeps a higher level of free fatty acids in the blood to deliver a bolus of energy.

Just a quick note, you can feel free to use physiology terms, I'm pretty familiar with exercise physiology.

I think your science might be a little off, but that could be you simplifying things a great deal to make it easier to understand.

I'd like to clarify a couple of points if you don't mind.

1. Are you implying that our body will use fat stores before using glycogen stores?
2. When you say regularly, are you talking about HIIT or are you referring to simply exercising multiple times a week?
3. You're slightly off on the energy felt from exercising, that's almost entirely to do with your endocrine system, not your body being "Kick started" as many bro-scientists would suggest. A cold shower will have the same effect, just to a lesser degree.
4. Do you have any references for your blood triglyceride concentration increasing with regular physical activity. I am pretty sure that high blood triglyceride is an indicator of poor cardiovascular health/cardiovascular disease risk.
5. It's nit-picky, but you completely misused the word bolus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3iUN1-2PHI
Excelent example of a high intensity workout.

We're going to have to disagree there.

1 I wasn't implying that we use our fat stores before glycogen stores. Both FFA and blood sugar is lowered during exercise increasing glycogen and triglyceride catabolism after exercise.
2 I haven't used that term but I suppose that is closer to what I'm talking about.
3 Well it's all endocrine system. I never used the term kick start. FFA levels in the blood increase approximately 40% for 13 to 16 hours after exercise according to a study by Washington University School of Medicine Division of Nutritional Science. The study was titled Free fatty acid kinetics in the late phase of post exercise recovery.
4The study of have mentioned is from 2009. There are others that are older so not worth mentioning. I was refering to post exercise not general and constant levels.
5 my use of the word bolus was correcect. Beyond a bolus of food or medication dossage it has a broader meaning of having a high concentration to achieve an immediate effect. This word is commonly used in radiation dossage which is my background so I added it in without much thought.

 

[StBishop]

Simple: I told my boyfriend to get out.

I lost nearly two hundred pounds--just like that. *snap fingers*

MY FIRST POST!!! HEY EVERYBODY!!! THIS IS MY FIRST POST!!!

Welcome to the Escapist!

Don't feed the trolls.
[small]Don't go in the basement.[/small]

I'm afraid I didn't get the joke/reference though.

Google: GOMAD.

It will help you put on weight. However, you must be doing high intensity resistance training (lifting heavy - relative to your strength - weights) or you'll just get fat.

Thanks for the advice, and here I was making accusations that the doctor was wrong, I guess now it will be my fault, because I don't think I'm dedicated enough to eat 5 times a day, I have a lot of trouble remembering to eat every day, and I've struggled a lot with this eating 3 meals a day thing, 5 sounds like way too much.
Doesn't really help that I can't tell when I'm hungry and when I'm not, so it's really easy for me to forget to eat, sometimes for days.
As for the buffet thing, that's just the excuse I used to go to the buffet with my friend, but that always happens when I go to those places, I don't think my brain has the ability to tell anything regarding food, be it when to stop or when to start, would explain why I always finish my food and also why I keep forgetting to eat, or maybe I'm just incredibly stupid.
[sub]Oh now I feel like I wasted you're time, I'm so sorry.[/sub]

Set alarms on your phone maybe?

I assume you live alone. Eating is pretty easy to manage if you do it socially.

If you're alone: I find having a protein shake in the morning is much easier than making porridge sometimes, so when I hop out of the shower I just pour some milk and chocolate powder into a shaker and drink that.
I also tend to have an apple when I catch the train. I like to eat while I listen to podcasts.

Don't feel like you've wasted my time. I'm always happy to have a chat, I just sometimes take days to reply if I'm busy at uni.

 

[Yopaz]

I am the kind of guy people hate. I have problems gaining weight. Managed to gain 1.5 kg when I have been actively trying to gain 5 for the last 9 months.