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Boy does it suck being overweight

best thing to lose weight IMHO (though i tend to be underweight and go to the gym to gain weight) is to make going to a health club/gym a habit.

its boring for the first 4 weeks but then it gets addictive.

that is when you are used to listen to an audiobook on the threadmill, take long hot showers, go to the sauna, watch the guys play basketball, chat about politics in the hot tub or whatever. just find something that makes you feel good in the gym, (do not stare at the girls there, it is sexist and ruins their day). don't focus just on the exercise, make sure you like being there.

after that it's so much easier to get in shape and you feel good about it.
 
I've got to tell you, the biggest thing I see standing in most people's way (myself included, at one time) is that they tell themselves, "it doesn't matter if I eat right and exercise because I know from experience those things don't work for me the way they do for some genetically lucky people."

It's a big fat lie (pun intended) you tell yourself because it gives you permission not to really try.

You eat worse than you think. You need fewer Calories than you think. You will adjust to a better diet faster than you think. You have never given exercise as much of a chance as you think.

Yes, people are built differently and have different metabolisms, but taking improved diet and exercise as a serious commitment works for everyone who still has a pulse, and frankly you should do it whether or not you expect it to make you all trim and sexified. The fact that it tends to do that too after a while is just a nice bonus.
 
Gelfin said:
I've got to tell you, the biggest thing I see standing in most people's way (myself included, at one time) is that they tell themselves, "it doesn't matter if I eat right and exercise because I know from experience those things don't work for me the way they do for some genetically lucky people."

It's a big fat lie (pun intended) you tell yourself because it gives you permission not to really try.

You eat worse than you think. You need fewer Calories than you think. You will adjust to a better diet faster than you think. You have never given exercise as much of a chance as you think.

Yes, people are built differently and have different metabolisms, but taking improved diet and exercise as a serious commitment works for everyone who still has a pulse, and frankly you should do it whether or not you expect it to make you all trim and sexified. The fact that it tends to do that too after a while is just a nice bonus.
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Very true.

The genetic issue can make some very lofty goals likely impossible (some guys just seem unable, no matter what, to gain massive muscle apart from illegal steroid use).

However, if your goal is to lose extra fat and be healthier, then no, genetics has not doomed you to being fat all your life. You may never look like the guy in Men's Health magazine, but who does? Seriously? That's for the elite, you don't need to have well-defined ripped abs, pecks and biceps. Try going for being in a decent weight range while building a little muscle.

Aim small, think small... then aim a little bigger, think a little bigger.
 
andiwm2003 said:
(do not stare at the girls there, it is sexist and ruins their day).
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But it is no problem to look and appreciate.

after that it's so much easier to get in shape and you feel good about it.
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True. It becomes a habit.

I have to say, if losing weight is the goal, there's nothing better than swimming. It engages most of your major muscles and burns a TON of calories and makes your metabolism race for hours. Basketball, provided you play hard and don't just go through the motions, is also very good.
 
so ive sorta skimmed through and im getting the feeling that fat people drink a lot of soda and fast food.

i eat no fast food or soda, i do not eat for pleasure (kinda find eating just a waste of time) and im fat. i used to play a lot of sports i mean a lot, then i hurt my knee then hurt my ankle and knee and gained 60+ lbs because i couldn't do anything.
so...

i bring lunch everyday, but i am under a lot of stress i mean, jesus christ, omg, stress and i eat 100 times less than i used to, i mean i am eating girly sized portions of food and im full.

ya...

the only time and thing i do physical is play drums and i don't get to play as much as i would like to.
 
I found this pretty amusing.
 

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benlangdon said:
so ive sorta skimmed through and im getting the feeling that fat people drink a lot of soda and fast food.

i eat no fast food or soda, i do not eat for pleasure (kinda find eating just a waste of time) and im fat. i used to play a lot of sports i mean a lot, then i hurt my knee then hurt my ankle and knee and gained 60+ lbs because i couldn't do anything.
so...

i bring lunch everyday, but i am under a lot of stress i mean, jesus christ, omg, stress and i eat 100 times less than i used to, i mean i am eating girly sized portions of food and im full.

ya...

the only time and thing i do physical is play drums and i don't get to play as much as i would like to.
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Sorry to hear that Ben. Are you getting better? I know you were a fitness freak like myself. If it's any consolation, I have arthritis in both knees that I've managed with physical therapy and exercise (no meds at all). What does you doc say about going back to the gym?
 
I'm 5'10 or 5'11 (can't even tell how tall I am) and i weigh 170. I play basketball alot and have size 13 feet. I've had 3 surgeries involving cutting my big toe toenails off to clean out infections. After I've played intense pick up games of basketball, my feet sometimes feel stiff, sore and heavy.
 
Becoming overweight is a really slippery slope, because losing weight becomes slower and more difficult as you gain weight. Unfortunately, it's easier for fit people to lose weight than it is for fatter people. Perhaps the best thing to do is to do some light cardio (10 minutes?) every single morning in order to boost your metabolism, and do that for awhile. Over a few weeks, you won't lose a massive amount of weight (or any at all), but even if you keep everything else the same (i.e. diet, other forms of exercise, etc), you'll likely start to burn more calories just by doing day-to-day things.


Badandy said:
I am unconvinced of any correlation between the two. Everyone knows bacon is not only healthy, it has significant slimming effects if eaten in large quantities.
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And the Bacon thread was started by a guy named "pimentoloaf". I don't know what that is, but I doubt a loaf of anything other than bread is healthy. :p
 
leekohler said:
How about a little time, dedication and hard work?

I'm not going to pull punches about this stuff. If I can get to a good weight, so can anyone else- no excuses.
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Ok dad :D

I have lost some weight, but the I am built makes it harder for me to lose. I am happy my results and plan to keep at it.
 
GGGUUUYYY said:
Eat less
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Groundbreaking.
daze said:
Switch to Coke Zero, and you can save a lot of calories per day.
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As already discussed earlier in the thread, diet sodas can actually increasing cravings for fatty and sugary foods. Plus sodas aren't good for your teeth or calcium retention, so it's best to avoid them and stick with water.
 
Although I feel a sense of sympathy with people who seemed to have just gotten fat naturally despite the rest of us eating more and not gaining weight...

I also have to look at the reality that people do too much complaining and whining and not enough doing.

If you are fat, like... obese, overweight to a point where it bothers you or hinders your health, you need to get off your butt and do something about it. No one is gonna fix you, not even surgery is as easy or simple as it seems. YOU are your own worst enemy, and YOU need to get up and get moving.

Get a gym membership. Hire a personal trainer. Yes, you need it if you are overweight and feeling beaten down by the world. Follow the guy or gal's advice. Nutrition is HUGE, and so is exercise.

Exercise hard. Lift weights regularly and on a set schedule. Eat lean and healthy, lots of veggies and fruits with low-fat meats like lean beef, chicken, pork, turkey, and fish. Get rid of all the crap... go through your house and trash the ice cream, potato chips, cookies, white bread, and sugary cereals.

Get good stuff. Stock up on veggies you know how to cook (learn how, read books). Buy fruits for snacking. Get whole wheat products instead of white. Stop using much mayo. Learn to make things that you both enjoy and are healthy for you. Don't think of health food as weird alternatives of foods you already eat (tofu burgers, low-fat this low-fat that recipes, etc). Think of health food as "food that tastes good and is good for you."

I don't buy weird health food products, or strangely modified version of already existing foods. I just make stuff that's good for me and tastes great. For example, I cook chicken in a pan with just a dab of olive oil, use the slightly "charred" chicken pieces to flavor the chicken by throwing in some water to loosen it up, throw in corn or broccoli or red peppers or all of the above, let the veggies loosen up and release their natural sugars and flavor the whole meal. Then I sprinkle just a bit of salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. I serve it just like that, on a bed of rice, or with some salsa, and it's great.

I don't feel hungry for "real food" because I'm not eating fake health crap to take the place of the garbage I used to eat. I'm eating real food that's real good for me. I'm not afraid of fat grams or carbs, because the solution isn't in restricting one or the other, but eating healthy foods that already have good balances. Carbs give me energy, why the heck would I starve myself of carbs? Fat is vital for life and flavors food, gives it moisture, so why would I purposefully avoid it in otherwise good foods?

So you're fat... so what? Change that. You can. Yea, maybe looking like Matt Damon in 3 months isn't a reasonable goal, but losing 20 pounds in 3 months is. If you're weight lifting hard, which you should IMO, then don't worry so much about the scale... muscle is denser and heavier than fat, and even if you are losing fat if you are gaining muscle you might even appear to be gaining a slight bit of weight for a bit. Overall, you should be slimming down and shaping up.

Do it. Do it now. Don't wait, don't tell yourself "on Saturday." Go to the gym now or as soon as possible, get a membership to use the weight room and the room with the running/biking machines, and MAKE time to go. Do *NOT* wait for a time, or even look for a time... *make* a time.

Do it.
 
CalBoy said:
As already discussed earlier in the thread, diet sodas can actually increasing cravings for fatty and sugary foods. Plus sodas aren't good for your teeth or calcium retention, so it's best to avoid them and stick with water.
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Not only is this true, but we have universally seen that attempting to do "replacement diets" does not work.

Simply trying to replace "bad" foods or drinks with supposedly "not bad" ones is not a solution at all, because we crave the real thing when we get the impostor that we recognize all too well.
 
SlasherDuff said:
Ok dad :D

I have lost some weight, but the I am built makes it harder for me to lose. I am happy my results and plan to keep at it.
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Keep at it! Just remember THE most important thing is physical activity. Diet is next on the list. Nothing will help you more than becoming physically active on a regular basis.
 
leekohler said:
Keep at it! Just remember THE most important thing is physical activity. Diet is next on the list. Nothing will help you more than becoming physically active on a regular basis.
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I agree about the importance of physical activity, but it is crucial to establish a habit of knowing and controlling how much you're really eating first.

A common problem for many people is that they are inclined to eat ten percent more Calories than they burn, and when they begin exercising regularly they continue eating ten percent more Calories than they burn, both because exercise makes you crave more Calories and also because the exercise mitigates guilty feelings about eating more.

They get in better shape, but you can't tell because they're still adding fat too. In fact, added muscle mass makes them heavier. This is part of what leads people to think exercise doesn't work for losing weight.

Me, I had to learn to fix my diet first.
 
Gelfin said:
I agree about the importance of physical activity, but it is crucial to establish a habit of knowing and controlling how much you're really eating first.

A common problem for many people is that they are inclined to eat ten percent more Calories than they burn, and when they begin exercising regularly they continue eating ten percent more Calories than they burn, both because exercise makes you crave more Calories and also because the exercise mitigates guilty feelings about eating more.

They get in better shape, but you can't tell because they're still adding fat too. In fact, added muscle mass makes them heavier. This is part of what leads people to think exercise doesn't work for losing weight.

Me, I had to learn to fix my diet first.
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Hmm...I see more people trying a million diets and not exercising. maybe it's just my POV. I think most people tend to want to sit on the couch and somehow find a way to magically lose weight through diet only. Both are important to successful weight management. I wasn't meaning to downplay diet's importance.
 
leekohler said:
Hmm...I see more people trying a million diets and not exercising. maybe it's just my POV. I think most people tend to want to sit on the couch and somehow find a way to magically lose weight through diet only. Both are important to successful weight management. I wasn't meaning to downplay diet's importance.
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I draw a distinction between "trying a million diets" and "learning to eat right." People who try a million different "diets" are looking for a way to trick their bodies into losing weight without doing it "the hard way" because that's what all those gimmicky diets are selling.

It turns out, "the hard way" (get in the habit of knowing how much you're eating and how healthy it is) is actually not really any harder than those fad diets. It's just not marketed as well.
 
Two folks here at my work have lost a signifigant amount of weight by doing weight watchers. I think they just count calories and eat wee portions of pasta and such out of a box. Both just lost around 20-30 lbs in like 3 months which is excellent. I on the other hand LOVE food and lots of it, especially desert, far to much to have small portions and no pastries. But the weight will pour on if don't keep up with my jogging. The hardest part for me is getting out the door.
 
I find the exercise part easy I love going to gym and working out. Eating well isn't so easy :(
 
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