Fitness and being Healthy

[Amirya]

But the issue isn't sitting outside in ridiculous heat and humidity, it's adding to the wetness via sweat.

(Boy, that just looks wrong, doesn't it? )

[Arnock]

Isn't sweating the point of saunas?

[Amirya]

Sure, but sitting exerts little effort while sweating, while working out exerts too much effort. I avoid those like the plague, if I want to be hot and sweaty, I'll just go outside.

[Lieris]

I finally got my fitness up to where I can do the 30 minute fat burn setting on the exercise bike without feeling like I am going to die afterwards. If I can go from once a day to twice that's 320~ calories right there.

It's just as well I do this at home because it's impossible to look dignified when overweight and sweaty!

[Nikachelle]

I would rather sweat from a workout than sweat just from SITTING because it's so damn hot out. That being said, I'm not much of a sweater to begin with so I tend to find it extra uncomfortable when I'm not actually doing something physical.

[Lieris]

Does anyone have any personal rules for carbs? I have cut out the obvious foods but I am wondering if there are any rules of thumb that are doing the rounds (maybe comparing carbs to protein?) so I can refine my diet a little further. I am averaging about 2lbs a week lost at the moment which is quite healthy but I would love to up that to 3lbs a week during summer while I have the energy.

[Nikachelle]

While it will depend on how much you weigh, I thought that losing anything more than 2 pounds a week was considered "risky". More in the sense that it won't be sustainable because you're cutting too many calories. If you mess up your metabolism by cutting too many calories per week, your body, when you hit your goal weight, will be so used to the reduced calories that you won't be able to go back to a normal healthy amount of calories per day.

Other than that, I have no rules for carbs versus anything else I eat so I'm of no use there I'm afraid.

[Amirya]

On that note, I'm happy to report in that the change in diet has, so far, netted me a weight loss of 4 lbs since last Sunday. A bit more than is healthy, but I imagine that'll start to slow a bit. I'm pretty much eating when I want, so long as it stays within the guidelines I've set for myself.

I miss rice. A lot.

[Nikachelle]

Are some of your restrictions based on the PCOS stuff? Just curious.

[Amirya]

Nope! Just doing a switch up to see what works and what doesn't - so far, this is working.

[Shoju]

73.5 pounds down since end of feb / beginning of march. My metabolism feels like it's in overdrive the past couple of weeks.

I recently posted some transformation pics on FB. Sometimes, it's hard for me to see the results. But after looking at those pics, I'm unsure if I even recognize the guy in the before pic.

In October, I went to my High School Reunion. I wore a size 3XL shirt, that was tight around my stomach. Not to the point that it was going to bust a button, but it was tight. I wore a pair of 42" waist Dress Pants, and they were dreadfully uncomfortable. I unbuttoned them on the way home I was so miserable.

In the pic I took Saturday, I was wearing an XL shirt. It was loose. Not loose enough that I'm going to be in a L any time soon, but it was loose enough that it was on the baggy side of fitting well. I was wearing a pair of 38" W shorts, that only stay up because I had a belt on. Otherwise, they would have been around my ankles.

Let me tell anyone who might read this, and is wondering if they can do it. You can. It's not a matter of

"But, I hurt when I do stuff". That will get better. Even my aching surgically repaired joints feel a million times better.

"But, I don't like healthy food". Bullshit. I'm not starving. I'm not miserable when I eat. Part of that, is because I didn't decide to "diet". I changed my lifestyle. Sure, it's just a word change, but It helps. I've changed from eating greasy, shitty stuff, over to healthier versions of the same thing. I LOVE Chips and Dip. So instead of eating a half bag of chips, and half a container of dip, I eat healthier Rice and Pita chips, I eat one serving (which is 20 freaking chips for 120 - 140 calories), and I found a salsa that I drool about even thinking about it. The salsa? 2 TBSP is just 30 calories.

When I want pizza, I'll make my own. I can make myself a pretty awesome, and very filling pizza for 400 calories. I don't walk away hungry, and I don't wish for something else.
When I want something sweet? I'll grab a Fiber One 90 Calorie Bar.
When my kids want to go get some ice cream, I've found lower calorie alternatives at the same place they like to go.

I'll still drink soda. Just diet soda, and not as much as I used to.
I still go out to eat. I just order healthier dishes, and I try to make sure that I'm eating proportionally.

"But, I always gain it back" Remember what I said before? This is a lifestyle change. Not a diet. You have to change your mentality, and it starts with even the simple stuff, like saying that you are going to change your life, as opposed to going on a diet. A diet is something you quit. A lifestyle change is permanent.

I'll never be the fat guy again. I used to tell myself I was too fat to fail. Now, I'm looking at myself, and I know I was right.

If you are trying? Keep it up.
If you want to try? Do it!
If you need someone to talk to, find someone. Even if it's that trollish averse to change guy who says weird shit on an internet forum. Find the strength to do it.

[Fivelives]

While it will depend on how much you weigh, I thought that losing anything more than 2 pounds a week was considered "risky".

Two pounds per week is about the limit of "sustainable weight loss" (and it's pushing it a bit, you should aim for about 1 pound per week normally) if you're doing it by diet change alone. If you're adding in exercise, 2 pounds per week is a good starting point for turning your life around.

They call it sustainable because it doesn't require any major life changes beyond taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or going for a longer walk with your dog in the evenings after work. Things that are relatively easy to incorporate into your routine are likely to "stick" whereas something like a fad diet, or following the stronglifts 5x5 program can fall by the wayside when you just feel like a sad sack of miserable.

As far as ratios, as far as I know, the ratio is 30/30/40 (carbs/fats/proteins) for a balanced diet. You can tweak that a bit, say dropping fats by 10% and upping carbs if you're doing particularly intense exercise and you need ready fuel more than anything else, but that should keep you healthy and balanced.

Shoju, that's awesome. Sounds like your body's flipped over from using what it takes in to burning available fat reserves - I can never remember the technical term for it, keto-something either shift or flip. Whatever. Keep it up man.

[Nooska]

The "balanced diet" is something very varying from country to country.

For ages its been at least 10% protein, max 30% fat, and about 60% carbs around here. The app I'm using to track calorie intake has it at 15/25/60.

[Fivelives]

That seems a bit off to me.

[Rhiannon]

40% calories from protein is a lot. I consume around 2.4k calories a day and protein is about 30% of that at 180g (though I only really hit that on workout days), and that's with an emphasis on protein (usually one shake a day as well as a tub of cottage cheese or quark or greek style yoghurt in addition to some form of meat at every meal). 40% would only sound right for someone attempting to put on serious muscle, and you really have to go out of your way to get that.

There's so much broscience floating around the internet concerning how many grams of protein a day you should eat per kg or lb of lean body mass to a) build muscle b) maintain muscle mass while undergoing a calorie deficit (and the fact that both measurement systems crop up all over the place confuses the matter more), and the scientific studies to really answer the question don't seem to exist. The most recent RDA from the AMA that I can see is the incredibly helpful figure of "10-35%", which for me is 60g to 210g, which equates to about 1-3.5g of protein per kg of lbm (0.4-1.7g per lb of lbm). As I do some form of reasonably intense exercise at least 4 times a week I go for the higher side, I don't think there's any particular benefit for everyone to shovel protein in if they're not trying to explicitly build muscle though, beyond protein being more satiating per calorie than carbs.

To put it in context 210g of protein is equivalent to about 1kg of chicken.

[Lieris]

Wow Shoju, you are doing amazing! Congrats!

I lost 4lbs this week... that's probably a bit too much but I feel really, really happy (due to things unrelated to exercise and weight loss) and motivated so it's hard to hold back.

I'll just keep what I am doing then with the carbs and the protein and not really worry about it. I used to put away HUGE bowls of pasta at least once a week and I would snack on bread throughout the day so just eliminating these habits as well as reducing portion sizes has been enough to see results.

[Fivelives]

I'm going off notes I made in my nutrition class, since I couldn't find the answer anywhere in the text. Maybe because there is no widely agreed-upon number? Best source I can find says "The amount of protein needed by each person is determined by the age, size, and metabolic rate of the person." But just from the basics, 30/30/40 seems more sound than 10/30/60.

Protein is directly needed for formations of amino acids - there are 8 "essentials" that we have to get from diet, since we can't manufacture them ourselves. And it goes far beyond simply maintaining or building muscle, it's a requirement for every single living cell in our body.

Dietary fats are used mainly to help break down fat soluble vitamins and transport them across cell walls.

Carbohydrates are either immediately converted to glucose or stored as a triglyceride chain. By any measure of the word, carbs are what fuel the body.

[Zalaria]

Carbs can fuel the body, but they're not the only way. If you read up on the ketogenic diet they often aim for ratios around 5c/35p/60f (c=carbs, p=protein, f=fat. I put the letters in there because the keto stuff I was reading lists them in f/p/c order so I was confusing myself). Your body only needs a small amount of carbs for certain brain functions. It can run perfectly fine off of the energy in the fats and proteins.

Though if you exercise, your performance will be better if you have more carbs.

[Fivelives]

The ketogenic diet is, much like atkins, a scam. Of course you're going to lose weight if you starve your body of carbs - it'll break down available fat deposits for energy first, then go searching for alternate sources.

Starvation diets will always work, at least until your body starts eating itself. And your body needs carbs for more than just certain brain functions. In fact, starving your body of carbohydrates leads eventually to confused thinking, impaired decision making and judgment. Most of that is handled by the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain most sensitive to changes in the glucose levels in the body (being that it's by and large the biggest pig when it comes to needing to be fed).

Now, proteins can and are broken down into glucose (google gluconeogenesis if you're curious), but the process is inefficient and VERY taxing on the kidneys. That's why fad diets that follow from atkins as a source are absolutely horrifyingly bad for you. Sure, they have the intended effect - weight loss - but at what cost? Your kidneys are kind of important, and breaking down proteins into glucose causes an immense load as the byproduct of protein breakdown is ammonia. During normal body functions, a very small amount of the protein we take in is converted to glucose, but we're equipped to handle that.

As far as fats, sure those can be used as energy. But again, pretty imperfectly. Most of the dietary fats should be taken in as unsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and -6, etc). Those can only be imperfectly broken down into glucose, because instead of a triglyceride chain of fully saturated carbon and hydrogen, there are "kinks" in it that can't be broken down into sugars.

Anyway, TL;DR: ketogenic diet bad. Balanced diet good. Exercise good. Portion control good.

[Nooska]

@Fivelives

You sound very knowledgable and sure, which means I have tyo ask, what is your background for your knowledge and surety?
(Apologies if its somewhere already and I've missed it, but reviweing 50 pages of this thread and possibly others is a bit too much for me currently)

[Fridmarr]

Congrats Shoju, that's terrific. I'd also like to second your notion of eating less processed food and making the way you eat part of a healthy lifestyle instead of a diet.

As for the ratios, protein is usually given in as a total number of grams (not calories), like a percentage of your body weight (or target body weight), not a ratio relative to carbs and fat. Protein also comes with the caveat that your body can only handle about 30g at a time.

Keep in mind that protein has only 4 calories per gram, so getting 40% of your calories from protein on a 2000 calorie diet would require 200g of protein. That's a shit ton of protein, you would have to eat 7 meals of 30g of protein each day. Usually body builders and the like will do that, though they are also eating more than 2k calories while they are loading too, so even they aren't usually getting 40% of all their calories from protein. So, 40% is likely not really reasonable for an everyday lifestyle diet.

[Fridmarr]

Wow Shoju, you are doing amazing! Congrats!

I lost 4lbs this week... that's probably a bit too much but I feel really, really happy (due to things unrelated to exercise and weight loss) and motivated so it's hard to hold back.

I'll just keep what I am doing then with the carbs and the protein and not really worry about it. I used to put away HUGE bowls of pasta at least once a week and I would snack on bread throughout the day so just eliminating these habits as well as reducing portion sizes has been enough to see results.

Yeah that's the right attitude, don't sweat the pounds per week really. Honestly 4lbs is within the margin of error of a scale and uncontrolled weigh ins anyhow, I mean if you drank a glass of water right before you got on the scale it might say 3lbs...but nothing is really different about your body, that glass of water didn't make you 1lb fatter.

If you are feeling good and your morale is up, then what you are doing likely agrees with you, and that's what it is all about.

[Lieris]

Anyway, TL;DR: ketogenic diet bad. Balanced diet good. Exercise good. Portion control good.

Thank you for this post, that makes a lot of sense.

If you are feeling good and your morale is up, then what you are doing likely agrees with you, and that's what it is all about.

Yep!

[Fivelives]

@Fivelives

You sound very knowledgable and sure, which means I have tyo ask, what is your background for your knowledge and surety?
(Apologies if its somewhere already and I've missed it, but reviweing 50 pages of this thread and possibly others is a bit too much for me currently)

I'm an RN. Lots of biology courses (cellular biology, microbiology, anatomy & physiology I and II, and I even opted for the human cadaver lab and organic chemistry because they were interesting) and recently enough that I've either still got the knowledge rattling around upstairs, or at least a valid textbook handy for reference. Also a medical nutrition course.

The 40% was supposed to be for carbs, not protein. My mistake there. 30% of a 2k calorie diet would be roughly 150g, and yeah - that does sound like a lot. I can ask at work, but I've got a feeling that if I ask 5 doctors, I'll get 5 different responses. It's not an exact science.

[Nooska]

Whats an RN?

Well on the scale again today, and back down where I was before the weight jump earlier this month before visiting in laws (which bumped me up further - I swear, all we do when visiting in-laws is eating and driving to the next place to eat, and even when trying my best, not being able to weigh my food and choose low calorie alternatives freely is just... well... But I knew that and its only circa 4 times per year, so I can handle that.

Waist measurement is stationary (but then it might not be, as I'm not that good at remembering precisely where I put the measuring tape), chest measurement slight down, I think, never noted it the first time as that was just to look at shirt sizes.
Now clocking in at 259.7 lbs and back down to BMI of 30.0 (I was briefly under that before I gained weight earlier this month). That makes a weight loss of 20.28 lbs since may 21st, and should see me at my currennt target weight of 209.5 lbs in ~15 weeks, provided it goes smoothly without too many jumps.

Always good to step on the weight and see it lower than last time