How do you lose weight?

[Jarsh82]

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!!

Thanks. I tried the paleo but it didn't feel right for me. I was training for my first half marathon on top of my regular crossfit. I think I was having a hard time getting the right amount of carbs and I just felt awful. I tend to eat reasonable balanced meals rather than any "diet." I've heard great things from others though. I can't agree with you more about not drinking your calories.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I'm very organised, I always know where my weight is. And as for pounds, here we have Australian dollars. So no problems so far.

 

[StBishop]

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 astudy by Washington University School of Medicine Devision of Nutitional Science. The study was titled Free fatty acid kinetics in the late phase os 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.

1. Thanks, just thought I'd check. I wasn't sure if you were implying immediate release of fat stores.
2. HIIT is pretty much high intensity work in short bouts with sufficient active rest to remove lactate and allow longer maximal (or close to maximal) bouts of exercise. You end up maintaining a VO[sub]2[/sub] around the Lactate Threshold. It's a very efficient way to deplete glycogen stores quickly and therefore turn to fat stores for energy.
3. Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you had. I was making assumptions based on what I've heard from other people who subscribe to crossfit. The efficacy of exercise for weightloss in the morning compared to the evening has been found to be insignificant. That's all I was trying to say. (Would you happen to have the Author(s) of that paper? I tend to have better luck with searching Authors than searching titles.)
4. Ok, I'm still pretty sure that after exercise the concentration of fat within the blood decreases. I might be mistaken.
5. Again, my bad. I've never heard it used that way, it appears there's different uses for the term bolus in multiple fields. I've only ever encountered it being used in digestion and I was under the assumption that it was to do with the physical appearance of the object, given the root of the word.

Capcha: "high five" indeed.

 

[Jarsh82]

@ StBishop:

I can get you the authors if you give me time. Probably not tonight though. It seems like work and I just got done with work. FFA is decreased during exercise. Is that what you're thinking of or perhaps you're thinking of resting FFA? Relating to your post that started this. I didn't intend to argue that diet isn't the most important factor in weight loss just that the physiological value comes during recovery and shouldn't be judged soley on caloric expenditure during the exercise. I also can't imagine someone who is predisposed to obesity have long term success without finding a form of exercise they truly enjoy. That's why I do crossfit because its fun as hell and I love going.

 

[uzo]

I'm 175cm; in the high 80kgs (close to 200lbs).

If a doc looks just at my BMI without actually seeing me, they gasp and imagine someone on death's door. They expect a waist well over 100cm, double/triple chins, and barely the energy to get up a flight of stairs.

Then they meet me - I'm not skinny, or even slim, by any stretch of the imagination, but I work in a paradoxical kind of job. I'm administration and IT support at a large freight depot. That means half the day I'm sitting (I have a 20kilo dumbbell under my desk for free moments); and the other half of the day I'm literally *running* around on the dock, manhandling freight, climbing up and down stairs and ladders in the warehouse.

It means that, in my daily work, I cover around 10-15km in an 8hr shift, alot of that either at brisk walk or slow jogging pace, and often carrying 10-20 kilos of extra weight whilst I do it. Hey presto, pretty big muscles on arms and core, strong legs, stocky body, and a resting heart rate of 60. But my waist is not and never will be less than around 85cm.


Hell, my father is 68 and still does triathlons - in one of his last competitions in Cronulla (near Sydney) he beat everyone in every age group down to the 40-45 age group. But, like father like son, he's not all washboard abs and 5% body fat. More like marshmallow abs and 20-25% body fat.

I like to think of myself as having a survivor's body - famine, disease? pah! - and considering I'm a closet nutjob survivalist that's a good thing.

So, although I'm jealous of washboard abs and <10% body fat, I know it's not something I could achieve without *TOTAL* dedication. And frankly, I enjoy beer and carbohydrates too much for that. And I'm not a body image fanatic.

 

[Olas]

Easy, I make horrible decisions, go completely broke, and resort to eating catfood for several months until I can get back on my feet and make some money.

 

[Saulkar]

I visit the gym 3-4 times a week for 1-3 hours. Nuff said.

 

[Product Placement]

Eat responsibly but don't be afraid to indulge yourself from time to time. Find a sport related activity that interests you and stick with it. Finally, remember that there's no such thing as a "quick fix" and a "magic solution" so don't go and buy those diet books or weight loss pills or whatever else that you might be thinking about buying.

It's pretty much as simple as that.

 

[Zenn3k]

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've always had a fairly fast metabolism, I went from 5th grade till 26 year old at 115 lbs, doing nothing but playing video games and eating junk food.

Lately I've started to get a bit of a gut. Cut my pepsi intake and started drinking more water...gut is fading.

So I guess, more water?

 

[Tumedus]

While diet is important, especially things like avoiding soda and virtually everything you can with high fructose corn syrup, altering it is a poor way to lose wait. Your body is designed to alter its metabolism for changes in diet, thus any dietary changes that aren't part of a complete lifestyle change will not be effective long term, even if it has short term benefits. Also, virtually any diet "system" includes potential dangers to your system as the weight loss from less/different food enacts starvation mechanisms far more than straight fat burning.

Dietary habits, on the other hand, can make a huge difference. Breakfast, for example is huge. Having that meal soon after you wake gets your metabolism running and burning that much longer throughout your day. Eat smaller meals more frequently, even if the total calories stay the same. Having small meals throughout the day helps keep that metabolism running. And having a late snack is far better than having seconds at dinner (just avoid eating too close to bed time).

But, ultimately, its about being active. Even for people that don't like to exercise, or simply can't commit to it, just changing your everday activities to include a little more "work" can make a huge difference. Little things like walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator. Walking/riding to work or just parking further towards the back. Go to a pub that has standing counters rather than seated tables. Rather than meandering slowly at the grocery store, try to keep a brisk pace. These may seem like small things but they can make a huge difference.


Edit: this isn't trying to say that eating carrots over potato chips isn't an improvement or that you won't get serious benefit from swimming for hours a day, only that most people aren't able to maintain things like that. Its far better long term, to succeed with small changes than to fail with the big ones.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

I forget to eat.

No, seriously. I stopped martial arts a year ago to focus on University (which BTW is absolute BULLSHIT). I get my exercise from walking long distances all over the unnecessarily large campus and outright forgetting to eat. I still eat; just not as much as I used to.

I'm unhealthy, Asian, a hermit, anti-social and a gamer! Stereotypes AHOY!

 

[StBishop]

I'm 175cm; in the high 80kgs (close to 200lbs).

If a doc looks just at my BMI without actually seeing me, they gasp and imagine someone on death's door. They expect a waist well over 100cm, double/triple chins, and barely the energy to get up a flight of stairs.

Then they meet me - I'm not skinny, or even slim, by any stretch of the imagination, but I work in a paradoxical kind of job. I'm administration and IT support at a large freight depot. That means half the day I'm sitting (I have a 20kilo dumbbell under my desk for free moments); and the other half of the day I'm literally *running* around on the dock, manhandling freight, climbing up and down stairs and ladders in the warehouse.

It means that, in my daily work, I cover around 10-15km in an 8hr shift, alot of that either at brisk walk or slow jogging pace, and often carrying 10-20 kilos of extra weight whilst I do it. Hey presto, pretty big muscles on arms and core, strong legs, stocky body, and a resting heart rate of 60. But my waist is not and never will be less than around 85cm.


Hell, my father is 68 and still does triathlons - in one of his last competitions in Cronulla (near Sydney) he beat everyone in every age group down to the 40-45 age group. But, like father like son, he's not all washboard abs and 5% body fat. More like marshmallow abs and 20-25% body fat.

I like to think of myself as having a survivor's body - famine, disease? pah! - and considering I'm a closet nutjob survivalist that's a good thing.

So, although I'm jealous of washboard abs and <10% body fat, I know it's not something I could achieve without *TOTAL* dedication. And frankly, I enjoy beer and carbohydrates too much for that. And I'm not a body image fanatic.

Bearmode achieved.

@ StBishop:

I can get you the authors if you give me time. Probably not tonight though. It seems like work and I just got done with work. FFA is decreased during exercise. Is that what you're thinking of or perhaps you're thinking of resting FFA? Relating to your post that started this. I didn't intend to argue that diet isn't the most important factor in weight loss just that the physiological value comes during recovery and shouldn't be judged soley on caloric expenditure during the exercise. I also can't imagine someone who is predisposed to obesity have long term success without finding a form of exercise they truly enjoy. That's why I do crossfit because its fun as hell and I love going.

Thanks I appreciate it.

 

[5ilver]

I wish it was as simple as just running or doing any physical activity for me. I went through 7 months at the gym, 2 months of boxing, a bit of yoga, countless months of dieting and jogging (approx 3.5 years total) and still haven't really achieved anything.

Guess someone up there really hates me for whatever reason :/

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I've never had a problem keeping weight off, even as I am in my late 20s now. The problem is not gaining weight but keeping weight on. I am naturally thin and I eat healthy, so if I don't stay on top of exercising, weight training, and/or playing some kind of sport with friends. I will lose a lot of weight(mostly muscle) very fast.
In fact, I haven't been hitting my regular gym schedule lately and I lost about 20lbs in the past 6 months because of it. I really have to get back on it.

 

[White_Lama]

Nothing at all

Been the same weight now for about 6-7 years, good metabolism, I eat mostly junkfood aswell

If you eat "mostly junk food," odds are you're very unhealthy.

*snippy bit*

Never said I was healthy, I'll be the first to admit I'm unhealthy.
But, I won't live forever, might aswell enjoy it while I'm still here