The HTF Weight Loss Support Group (1 Viewer)

[Bill Catherall]

I imagine I'm not the only one currently trying to loose some pounds and get in shape. I also know that this can be pretty difficult so group support can be very helpful. So to make sure I don't slip and to possibly offer support to others, I'd like to start a little HTF Weight Loss Support Group. In this case a little "peer pressure" could be a good thing.
So last week I went in and signed up with 24 Hour Fitness (because it's just a couple blocks from home and I can go in at 5am for a work out). Got measured up and started on a fitness program.
I'm 5'10", 29 years old, and weigh 245 lbs. I have 27% body fat. So that means I could stand to loose about 40 lbs. I've never "dieted" before because I get hungry and like to eat junk. I used to work out in high school, and I joined a gym a few years ago to try to get in shape, but never stuck to it. This time I'm absolutely determined to lose the weight.
I've been doing good with my nutrition and workout so far. I bought some supplemental vitamins to make sure I get my nutritional needs. I've been drinking a lot more water than usual. I've cut back on foods high in fat and complex carbs. (If I do eat complex carbs I do so in the morning and afternoon...avoiding them in the evening.) I'm thinking of buying some protein shakes for "in between meals."
Getting up at 5am hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, as long as I'm in bed by 10pm. I work out for about an hour with a 5 minute cardio warm-up, 25 minutes of weights, and 30 minute cardio "fat burning" workout (keeping my heart rate at 75% = 161 bpm for me). I feel really good after a work out, but my arms are a little sore right now. I'm sure I'll get over that. One thing that really surprised me is that when I ride the bikes during my cardio workout my heart rate actually levels out and starts to drop even if I'm maintaining the RPMs. So throughout the workout I have to keep increasing the RPMs to keep my heart rate up. I actually find the last 5 minutes to be easier than the first 5 minutes even though I'm sweating profusely at the end.
So far it's been fun, but I really need to do some good meal planning still. I know that if I can have a good variety of healthy meals and I know I'm not going to "go hungry" I'll be able to pull this off. My problem is that when I'm hungry and "there's nothing to eat" I just eat junk.
And reading that Krispy Kreme thread isn't helping any either.

 

[Bill Catherall]

Oh...and I misspelled support in the title. Any mods out there? Please? :b

 

[Jay H]

How about fruits, not sure about you, but if I'm trying to lose a little weight, I would try to say eat an apple whenever the munchies hit. Apples for me seem to fill me up and if it's cold, it's even nicer on a hot spring afternoon (like today )
Jay
5'5" 130lbs

 

[Bill Catherall]

Yeah, I usually do eat quite a bit of fruit...so that really hasn't changed. Apples, bananas, oranges....mmmm...love oranges, pears, etc. But before if I was hungry standing in the kitchen and had a choice between the bag of Oreos or an orange, I grabbed the Oreos. Apples don't really fill me though, but they do taste good. Bananas are what really fill me.

 

[Christopher P]

Good thread here. I am 25, 6'1, 220 and never tried losing weight before either. I was fairly active in high school and college, but not nearly as much now. First off, I quit my job in the catering business (for other reasons, but it was a good impetus to start). Now I have been drinking Slim-Fast shakes, like they say: 1 in the morning, 1 during the day, and a good dinner. They get old, and take getting used to, but seem to fill me up. Throughout the day I drink alot of water, much more then the recommended 8 glasses (side effect - have to pee alot). I used Body Solutions, and that, coupled with no more late-night snakcs, seems to help. The other main thing I have been doing is not having "junk" food in the house. It's easy since I live alone. I figure if it's not in my kitchen, I can eat it. What I do eat is alot of soup, salad, and sandwiches.

I'm not big into working out....I do a 20 min workout video every day and ride my exercise bike. Since I started a few months back, have lost about 15 pounds, and more importantly, the pants fit better. Just remember that it is a slow process and not to expect quick results. You won't see it, but soon enough other people will. Good luck!

What are other people doing and has it been successful? Share your success stories.

Chris

 

[Samuel Des]

I have been struggling for some time -- 5'10", 183#s. I have been working out for the last 1.5 yrs. and continue to work out every day. 1 hr. cardio (Used to be 9 mi. per day over the last four months; cut back to 6.8 mi. this week.), 20 mins abs, and 1 hr weights. I am in excellent shape, but am the results are not as visible as I would like. I'm still too bulky, largely because I get home so late -- and am so damn hungry when I do get there.
I just can't seem to lose any weight. :frowning:
Maybe we should start a "menu" list -- plan our menus with portion amount for the week, and set a time for eating. If only I could get home and eat supper at a decent hour. And not eat so damn much at night. :b

 

[Bill Catherall]

Samual - From what I've been reading up on, and from what the trainer told me the other day, it's best to eat many small meals throughout the day instead of 3 big meals. And you don't want to eat a lot at night. Especially complex carbs (breads, pastas, potatoes, etc.). He said that how you eat has a 70% influence on how you lose weight. Do you know how many calories you eat? You might be eating right but just eating too much.
For your cardio workouts make sure you are working out in your "fat burning zone." You should maintain a heart rate 65-75% of max. What that is needs to be calculated based on your resting heart rate, but you can estimate it by subtracting your age from 220...then taking 75% of that. Using that formula my 75% heart rate should be (220-29)*.75 = 143. But correcting for my resting heart rate it's actually 161 (the trainer did it and I don't remember how he did it).
I like the idea about meal plans being posted here. I'm still trying to work out mine, and if I get something going I'll post it.
So far (drinking water with every meal and in between meals):
Yesterday
Breakfast: 3 eggs, 2 pieces of toast with jam (no butter), and a banana
Lunch: 1 medium bowl of chili with hot dog slices (about 1 hot dog), 1 pickle, 1 apple
Dinner: 1 skinless chicken breast (with Parmesan-Dijon sauce, made from ground Parmesan cheese, Dijon mustard, water, bread crumbs), 1 cup green beans. (I made extra chicken for future dinners or lunches.)
Evening snack 1/4 cantaloupe, a zucchini with a little Italian dressing.
(Went to bed with the munchies but ignored it.)
Today
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1 piece of toast with jam (no butter), a pear
Late morning snack: 5 grilled chicken wings with hot sauce
Lunch: Spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce (ground turkey, diced tomatoes, herbs and spices). Mostly tomatoes and meat with very little noodles, 1 pickle, 1 apple
Dinner: I don't know yet. :frowning:
I'd like to use shakes or bars as either a breakfast substitute or a late morning snack and an evening or late afternoon snack. It would be quicker/easier and I wouldn't have to bring as much food to work.
(By the way, I don't know if the meals I posted are "ideal." It's just what I've been doing based on what I think I know. So I'd appreaciate a little feedback from anybody. Maybe if we don't have ideas for meal plans we can at least post everything we do eat (and keep it honost) so we can get some feedback. That way I'll also avoid a trip to Krispy Kreme knowing I'll have to report it. )

 

[Glenn Overholt]

You know, you are supposed to get doctors involved with this. I'm not going to preach it, but different people have different chemical makeups, so what will work for some will not work for another.

Sixteen months ago, I had a seizure and was put on Dilantin. One of the side effects to it is that you lose your appetite. I lost 20 pounds in less than a month. I'm now at 200lbs 6', but I sit down most of the day, and my weight has stayed the same for over a year. Much better!

Glenn

 

[Ike]

I'm using Weight Watchers, but was getting discouraged, so I decided to cut the number of points I can have in half. I'm using a digital scale, and keeping record of my weight loss. I don't exercise near enough, but I'm trying. So far, I think I may have lost 10-15 pounds, but I got a lot more to go.

And there's no way I'm posting my weight!! :b

 

[Bill Catherall]

You know, you are supposed to get doctors involved with this. I'm not going to preach it, but different people have different chemical makeups, so what will work for some will not work for another.

That's very true. But I'm afraid my doctor wouldn't know how to lose weight. Every scale in his office has a little comic strip next to it with a doctor talking to his patient saying "I want you to lose 60 lbs. and stop smoking. Once you've done that I want you to come back here and tell me how you did it." But you are right about everybody being different and having different makeups.
Ike - Come on man! It's all about accountability. How can we keep you honest if you don't fess up. And congrats on the 10-15 lbs! That's great! How much more until you're 10% celebration?
I went and bought some protein shakes. I'm going to try those as a breakfast replacement for a few days each week and see how it goes. I'll think I'll go get some Balance bars from Costco for late morning or late afternoon meals too.
Incidentally, for all those exercising. The Body For Life program suggests exercising before you eat breakfast. So that's the routine I'm trying.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Fixed the thread title.

I swear, I think I need a bike machine that powers the HT for me to ever get serious about losing weight. Bought some walking shorts, and it's damn depressing to have to buy size 38 shorts nowadays.

I wish you all well. I'll try battling in my own way (eating sensibly, with a bit more exercise thrown in now that we'll be in re-run season soon).

 

[Kelley_B]

Well I'm 6'4" and weigh 295lbs....lets see what happened I used to weigh about 190lbs, but in 1999 went to college and got REALLY REALLY depressed, depressed to the point where I didn't leave my dorm room for two and a half weeks, just slept, played Quake III, and ate pizza, doughnuts, etc. I was stuck in this depression for almost two years and last year one day I started to snap out of the depression. Well two months ago I realized just how large I had gotten and started to work out. I have already dropped 10 pounds and hope to get back down to a lean 200lbs.

I'm taking Xenodrine to me lose the weight and with it I feel great. I am changing my eating habits, and trying to work out as much as possible, just hard having a fiance, job, and my videogame habit....but I am trying and thats better than not. I will loose the weight....yes I will

 

[BrianB]

It's hard work, Kelley, but it's definitely do-able. I find a GBA combined with the exercise bike helps me. I've plateaued at about 30-34 pounds off - I just can't find the time to go to the gym steadily with work as busy as it is right now, but I'm still trying to keep my eating habits good.

 

[Brad_V]

If anyone is lifting weights or working out in even a halfway-decent way, it's almost pointless if you aren't getting enough protein. You MUST figure in the neighborhood of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Just ballpark it, you don't have to get that much unless you're doing some serious workouts, but don't go under 100 grams on a workout day.

Protein builds muscle, and if you work out and don't get enough protein, your muscles just feed on themselves. If you're a junk-food nut, consider that instead of that half-bag of potato chips you could be eating a 20(!) ounce steak. That's a lot of freakin' steak. Lean meat has about 7 grams of protein per ounce and 10 ounces is only about 500 calories. Bigger guys can basically eat as much lean meat a day as they want until they get sick of it.

 

[Samuel Des]

First, this thread is uplifting. I really really hope that we can keep this thread going.
Bill, that was excellent information RE: heart rate. The thing I always wonder is why there is a difference between "cardio zone" and "fat burning zone."
Yesterday
Breakfast -- None
Lunch -- Chicken vegetable soup
Snack at work -- Handful of M&Ms
Supper -- 1/4# steak, 1 small bowl salad
Night snacks -- ~1 cup Ice Cream, !1 cup Strawberries, 2 beef jerky sticks, 0.5# Gummy Bears, 1 cup pretzels
My God... The thing is, I didn't realize I eat a lot of junk food at night until I typed it in! That's what I need to eliminate!!!
This menu idea is a good idea. We should write what we eat, and then try to correct it; and critique each other's menus.
Bill - your menu looked god until I came across the hot dog! Also, are you using the prepared low fat eggs?

Quote:

What is Xenodrine?

 

[FredHD]

The protein myth is rearing its ugly head. You do not need massive amount of proteins to gain muscle or lose weight. In fact, unless you are a hard core gym rat (3+ hours of working out a day) then you body is not physically capable of metabolizing all the protein most Americans and others in westernized cultures intake. The most protein that humans needs is 10% of total calories. While is it true that eating lots of protein while eliminating most carbs makes you lose weight. It is not something that should be done without a doctor's supervision. The are side effects and complications that it can have on the body. It is definitely not a long term solution for weight control. The body needs dietary fiber much more than it needs protein and no animal products have dietary fiber.no animal products have dietary fiber. The most important thing you can do is make sure you get plenty of dietary fiber through fruit, vegetable and grains. The longer excess proteins stay in your body (especially animal proteins) the worse effect they can have. Good luck to all those trying to lose or maintain weight.

 

[BrianB]

What is GBA?

GameBoy Advance, a little handheld videogame machine by Nintendo. I find it helps relieve the boredom on exercise bikes. I suggested it because I know Kelley's a gamer.
The food diary's a great idea too - I know doing that helped my wife a LOT as it showed her just how much junk she was eating each day.
Here's what I had yesterday - not great, but could be a lot worse
Breakfast - bowl of Special K + strawberries, glass of orange juice.
Lunch - Uncle Ben Rice bowl + blueberry lowfat yoghurt.
Midafternoon snack - two fig rolls.
Dinner - chicken/veg oriental stirfry + rice.
Snack - "Skinny Cow" icecream sandwich.
I had two diet Dr.Peppers & one Sprite... Too much soda, soemthing I've let creep up on me, I never used to drink that much. Lots of water through the day at work too though.
Samuel - do you normally skip breakfast or was that a one off? It does you a world of good eating something then - sets you up for the day and you'll need less filling up at lunchtime.

 

[Samuel Des]

Hi Brian - I don't normally want to skip B-Fast -- I just sort of forget. Also, eating in the morning does not seem to affect my eating habits later in the day.

Dinner - chicken/veg oriental stirfry + rice.

Was this a frozen dinner, Brian? If not, I'm impressed! I can't cook at all.

 

[Bill Catherall]

We're here for you Kelley! Keep up the good work!
Regarding protein: It is my understanding that when the body is hungry it tends to avoid the fat and burn off muscle instead (in an attempt to get it's needed protein). So to avoid this you need to eat more meals (watching your calories of course) and take in more protein to keep it from attacking the muscle while letting it go at the fat reserves. I do agree about the dietary fiber. There are resources available that contain both high protein and high dietary fiber...nutrition shakes or bars for instance.
I tried a shake for breakfast this morning (instead of a regular breakfast). It had a texture like pudding but runny enough to drink. Tasted alright, but I expected it to fill me immediately. But I still felt hungry after eating it. I resisted the urge to eat something else just to see what would happen and sure enough, over time the hunger feeling went away. It's been 2.5 hours now and I'm still not feeling hungry, but I think I'll have a piece of fruit in about another 30 minutes.
Last night for dinner I had some meatloaf and a green salad (some good lettuce, I don't remember what kind, not that useless iceberg lettuce with the nutritional value of wet cardboard) with just a tad of Italian dressing. Before bed I had some sugar free Jello with mandarin orange slices (took away that yucky sugar free taste). I'll log today's meals this evening.
Samuel - What's wrong with hot dogs? The eggs are not the prepared low fat eggs...just the regular eggs. I hear people talking about "egg white omelets," but what's wrong with egg yolks? Would I really have to limit myself to just the whites?
For those searching for some good healthy recipes I suggest registering with 24 Hour Fitness Online. You don't have to be a member to sign up. You can receive daily recipes via email and also track your progress online with their fitness tracker. They also have a searchable recipe database. That's where I found the recipe for the Dijon-Parmesan Chicken.

 

[Bill Catherall]

Oh yeah...I also want to remind everybody that they really should be taking a multi-vitamin (even if you aren't on a weight loss program). There just isn't enough nutrients in the food we eat to get our daily requirements. You'd have to eat an extreme amount of food to get the same effect as just one daily vitamin. I don't know what kind of vitamin is best. I just went to a grocery store and bought a $5 bottle of 100 pills. I don't see how it's any worse than the $30 bottle my gym sells.

And don't "overdose" on the vitamins. One a day is enough. If you take more than that the vitamins store away in fat and could develop into toxic levels.