Losing "Gamer-weight"

[The AmeriCanadian Gamer]

Hello Escapists!

For many of us, fighting weight gain is an issue. We are mostly avid gamers/techies whose hobbies by their nature are not very physical. So naturally a lot of us have weight issues, myself included - and many of us want to drop our extra pounds for a variety of reasons.

So I'm starting this thread for those of us looking for little pieces of advice.

This is NOT for posting massive weight loss regiments or plans - this is for small simple pieces of advice. We all have our methods/diets, but the little things add up fast.

I'll begin with an example that has been helping me drop some pounds.

Don't eat at your computer. This is something that my doctor explained to me - if you eat at your computer while going about your daily business (browsing the web, working, gaming) then you begin to associate the two. Then when you sit down at the computer your body thinks "hey I'm at the computer, it must be food time!" then you get hungry. Think about it - do you ever get hungry for no reason while gaming?

Once I began eating at the dinner table for each meal (even snacks) I noticed I was eating less throughout the day. At first it was hard, I was very hungry. But after about a week I noticed how much had changed. I eat much less junk food and I eat less food throughout the day.

My wife works evenings so we treat lunch like dinner - we make a big meal, then eat leftovers for our later meals respectively. So now I'm eating better, and not stuffing myself with junk.

Just start off slow, whenever you get hungry grab a small snack and go to the table (or somewhere thats not your computer) and eat. Eventually your body will start disassociating the two, and you'll notice a difference. You could also apply this to any other habit, such as watching television.

Its a simple piece of advice, but it has been really helping me a lot. Thats what this thread is for, small, simple pieces of advice. If anyone has something to share, please don't be shy.

Thank you everyone for your time!

 

[tippy2k2]

I'm still working on it every day but I ended college at 240 pounds (2008). I didn't intend to but the loss of "College Food" and Mountain Dew alone caused me to drop to 225 pounds or so.

However, it is only recently that I have actively tried to lose weight and it's had decent success (I started at 225 last year and I am right now 190 pounds; with 170 being my goal. I'm stalling a bit here but I've gone back to a few naughty habits...). My super big tip?

Track what you're eating. I did this when I was having money issues and it works just as well for weight gain. You don't realize how much crap you eat throughout the day and all that little stuff adds up quickly.

I have personally been using "My Fitness Pal" on my smart phone to make it a bit more "official" and easier but it's not strictly necessary. You writing it down will help once you realized you just wrote about your fifth Mountain Dew. You can have pop and treats, just remember that you don't NEED five of them a day

Exercise helps but I'm finding that exercise is better for health and toning and less helpful for weight loss. Obviously I'm not saying that exercise isn't needed but cutting food is a much easier and quicker way to do it if you want strictly weight loss.

*I should go ahead and thank you OP. I've stopped doing my exercise program and I really really really should start it again. Your thread reminds me that I should stop being lazy about this. No pain no gain!

 

[Mazza35]

I just have active hobbies outside of gaming, I work at steam railways, which in crazyely intense workouts when you shovel 3 tons of coal in a hot area for 6 hours xD
I guess I would just say balance..it's all about balancing work and play.

 

[Username Redacted]

To me, gamer or not, weight loss starts at the grocery. To this end I don't keep more than a couple of days worth of food in the house and I'm really careful about the quantity and type of snack items I pick up. Like say I'm really wanting something sweet. Well odds are I won't want something sweet tomorrow so I'll just get a candy bar to eat after lunch rather than a box of cookies even if (for some reason) the prices happened to be similar. In short you can't eat what isn't there. It's also worth noting that most gamers consume a shit ton of soda so even reducing the intake of that can have drastic weight loss outcomes. One of the more impressive weight loss stories I know of was a friend who simply replaced cola with seltzer water.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Eat less but eat more often, and don't eat snacks.

Like say right now you eat 3 square meals a day, and in between those meals you eat chips, and ice cream, and a bunch of other stuff.

Instead of eating 3 large meals, eat 5 meals and during each meal eat half of what you would eat during a normal meal, and each time you have a snack like chips or ice cream, count that as a meal of it's own. This way, the less time you spend between meals the less hungry you get, and the less hungry you are when you're eating the less you'll eat. So even though you'll be eating more often you'll end up eating less.

 

[mysecondlife]

Eat less but eat more often, and don't eat snacks.

Like say right now you eat 3 square meals a day, and in between those meals you eat chips, and ice cream, and a bunch of other stuff.

Instead of eating 3 large meals, eat 5 meals and during each meal eat half of what you would eat during a normal meal, and each time you have a snack like chips or ice cream, count that as a meal of it's own. This way, the less time you spend between meals the less hungry you get, and the less hungry you are when you're eating the less you'll eat. So even though you'll be eating more often you'll end up eating less.

Pretty much this. Fats are there to protect you and nourish you when you're starving. In first-world countries where starving is rarely an issue, fats aren't needed. Feeding yourself with right foods is a good way to burn fats.

.although I would stay away from chips and icecream if I were to lose weight.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Eat less but eat more often, and don't eat snacks.

Like say right now you eat 3 square meals a day, and in between those meals you eat chips, and ice cream, and a bunch of other stuff.

Instead of eating 3 large meals, eat 5 meals and during each meal eat half of what you would eat during a normal meal, and each time you have a snack like chips or ice cream, count that as a meal of it's own. This way, the less time you spend between meals the less hungry you get, and the less hungry you are when you're eating the less you'll eat. So even though you'll be eating more often you'll end up eating less.

Pretty much this. Fats are there to protect you and nourish you when you're starving. In first-world countries where starving is rarely an issue, fats aren't needed. Feeding yourself with right foods is a good way to burn fats.

.although I would stay away from chips and icecream if I were to lose weight.

Well of course you should stay away from chips and ice cream if you're trying to lose weight, but the fact that you have to cut those things out of your meals when you're dieting is the reason people tend to give up dieting in the first place. At the very least if you count a bowl of ice cream as a full meal you'll be reducing your overall daily calorie intake and allowing yourself to process a greater percentage of the calories you're taking in, regardless of the fact that you're still eating some food that's bad for you.

 

[bojackx]

- Well as it pretty obvious, doing exercise helps. I rarely go out places but one thing I do to keep in shape is play squash. Just having a single psychical activity you take part in regularly like that can help a whole bunch.

- If a destination can be reached in 30 minutes or less on foot, then bloody walk there. For most people, walking isn't a struggle in the slightest, so quit relying on your car for movement.

- This one is a little weird but I think it works; never bring food to where you are gaming. If I bought myself a big bar of chocolate then I will leave it in the kitchen, and every time I get hungry I will go downstairs and rip off a small section of the chocolate (3 chunks or so) and return upstairs. Even having an obstacle as small as that can help you eat considerably less.

I'm hardly very fit, but I'm not overweight so I'd like to think my methods are effective.

 

[putowtin]

I can eat as healthy as I can and I won't shift a pound,

I'm disabled! Exercise is a nightmare so I'm stuck, anyone with any tips for me I'd greatly appreciate it!

But before I had my accident I always tried to talk a walk after a meal, ten minutes on a lunch time after a sandwich 30 minutes on an evening after my main meal. I'm not saying it gave me the body of a supermodel, but I felt a whole lot better for it.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Don't know how exactly you're disabled Puto so I wouldn't want to give any absolute advice or link you about, you should check with a doctor or physician. What I will say is that a few free weights (dumbells etc.) can make a world of difference, if you can get your heart rate up and your blood pumping then you'll be on your way to burning fat.

@OP: Walk, walk alot.

 

[Me55enger]

I recently realised that while I tend towards 3 (usually 2) solid meals a day, with a mediocre amount of reasonably healthy snakcing in between, my chief weight-gaining intake was most likely from the 2 sugars I have with my cuppa Tea.

I have upwards of 6 cups a day.

Since then I have dropped to 1 sugar and will likely lose that one as well.

Thing is, is that I don't tend to eat total shit. I haven't had a McDonald's in over a year, and I don't eat chocolate daily. Plus my meals are home-produced stuff.

Whether or not I'm losing/putting on wieght is something I genuinely don't know. The irony being is that I work at a Dairy Farm, which is pretty hardcore labour most of the time.

Ah well, maybe I'll cut a leg off. That'll lose me some weight.

 

[Vausch]

I make it a point to exercise at least 30 minutes a day using a punching bag if I can't find the time to get to the gym.

Also, water and tea. I drink 8 glasses a day.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Eat whatever you want and just poop more instead. 100% success guaranteed.
No but seriously, just eat fruit instead of chips and go out for a walk now and then. It worked for me.
If you're having trouble resisting eating that delicious ice-cream in your fridge, just don't buy any more ice-cream. You can't eat what isn't there. Also, if you don't like going out for walks, find a good stick and wave it around like an idiot and kill your invisible foes. It's more fun than it really should be and you get to move a bit.

 

[excalipoor]

Try the Gamer's Diet:

Step 1 Play all the games
Step 2 Forget to eat
Step 3 Weight loss!

Alright, so it's not exactly healthy, but I swear it works! Though seriously, making getting food for yourself inconvenient WILL make you eat less. I lost 30kg over 4 months simply because I had to share the kitchen with 10 other guys.

Oh, and eat something before shopping for groceries. You won't be so tempted by all the junk you don't really need.

 

[Apollo45]

For me it's a combination of having hobbies outside of gaming, which for me include hiking, climbing and shooting, and doing some exercise at my computer. For me it varies per game, but I tend to make little games out of it. If I'm playing a multiplayer game like CoD or LoL or something I do 10 pushups for every kill, 10 situps for every death, and 2 of each for an assist. These can occur either during the game or, more often, afterwards, although in games where you're doing really good it's better to do it during so you don't end up with 200 pushups to do at the end. Other games tend to vary; for Dishonored, as an example, every time I killed someone I did 10 situps and 10 pushups, runes netted me 5 situps and bone charms got me 5 pushups, restarting the level or dying ended up with 25 of each. If I end up watching a video or something I'll often do some jogging in place or recently, since my parents decided they have never and will never use it, I took their treadmill and have been running on that.

It's not necessarily a fat-burning regimen, but it gets you exercise and helps to keep you in shape as well as build some muscle.

 

[rdaleric]

Outside of gaming I work in a museum about 2.5 miles from my house which is in the bottom of a valley, so I walk to and from work, plus my job means i'm on the go a lot of the day

 

[Bertylicious]

Snacking is the real enemy.

If you're having trouble resisting eating that delicious ice-cream in your fridge, just don't buy any more ice-cream. You can't eat what isn't there.

Simple advice but solid. I'd add saying that it helps to come up with a meal plan that is filling, prevents scurvy/ricketts but is generally lacking in substance.

Rice mixed with assorted veg is my preffered starvation ration. If you've got a blender you can just wack some stuff from the green things aisle in a blender with a tin of spam and then pour it over some rice. Quick, cheap, nourishing but not fattening.

EDIT: It is advisable to cook the veg/spam (it doesn't have to be spam) first of course.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

I think I'd say if a journey can be done on foot, do it!

I've lost a lot of weight after I moved TO university as it meant I no longer had the comfort of my parents driving, meaning I ether had to walk where I wanted to go or not go at all. Walking to and from Uni every day (about half an hour each way), plus to other activities, has made me lose a massive amount of weight. Alongside this, having to take care of my own budget made me more conscious of what was eating - you probably don't notice how expensive all the snack foods are but an incentive to stop buying all the snack food is you'll save a bit more money.

I would certainly suggest walking more though. My one vice is Coca Cola and Pepsi, which I just can't seem to kick as a habit. But then some people smoke, some drink alcohol, I drink a lot of Coke and Pepsi.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Cut as much sugary stuff from what you eat/drink as much as possible.
Buy carrots for when you are just a tad hungry (and drink a glass of water straight after).
For snacks buy only nuts, fruit, and dark chocolate.
Don't eat big portions.
Walk 30 min each day at a decent pace, preferably up hill.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

I don't know, I suppose it varies from person to person, not everyone has the same metabolism.

I eat at my computer all the time, and I eat whatever I want. I generally don't like sweets though, I enjoy nutella crepes occasionally but mostly I eat salty snacks (chips, peanuts etc).

I work out only around 5 minutes a day to a kick ass song, seems to be more than enough to maintain ideal weight for me. Though I do a kind of an odd exercise, a mix of elements from the few programs I found effective when I was starting getting chubby a couple years back.

Cut as much sugary stuff from what you eat/drink as much as possible.
Buy carrots for when you are just a tad hungry (and drink a glass of water straight after).
For snacks buy only nuts, fruit, and dark chocolate.
Don't eat big portions.
Walk 30 min each day at a decent pace, preferably up hill.

You forgot an important one, eat slower.

Also if your parents imprinted you with the urge to clean your plate do your best to shake it off, eat until you had enough and no more. Everyone serves too big portions now.