I started a very low-carb diet which relies on fat to give me the energy I need (keto). Honestly, this was the best thing I've done health wise - I have no cravings for sugar/carbs anymore, I don't feel hungry most of the day, my energy level is rising, I sleep a lot better and so far I've lost 3.5 kgs (almost 8 pounds) since I started a month ago. I'm not that fat (15st 5lb) but I'm losing weight really quickly. By the way, I don't really exercise but I will start jogging and lifting next week. I honestly suggest anyone to give it a try. The first week is hell (keto-flu) but it gets better.
i am fat
- Thread starter haveaniceday
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That's fair enough and that is what the gym should be for, for getting and staying fit, it will help a bit with losing weight too but dietary changes are the important thing there.
Soldato
Mate you crazy. Misery is when I consume the most. I had a bad day recently and ate two KFC buckets.
Soldato
Sounds delicious!
Caporegime
I joined the gym 2 months ago and have forced myself to go regularly.
I am taking the stance that little and often as opposed to sometimes but a lot so going for 60mins every day. 50/50 cardio and weights. Non-impact machines such as cross trainer and rowing machines and machines weights like pulls and presses.
Not seeing any large weight loss though (13st 4) but from last week I have cut out all junk food...tackling it from both fronts. Aim to be in the low 12, mid 11 in a year.
I am taking the stance that little and often as opposed to sometimes but a lot so going for 60mins every day. 50/50 cardio and weights. Non-impact machines such as cross trainer and rowing machines and machines weights like pulls and presses.
Not seeing any large weight loss though (13st 4) but from last week I have cut out all junk food...tackling it from both fronts. Aim to be in the low 12, mid 11 in a year.
Any chance you could go into what your diet is like? I am wanting to lose weight, quite a lot and I am determined to do it! so any advice would be perfect.
Soldato
When someone mentions keto i always feel the need to chime in as people seem to make it out as if its a life hack to dieting.
There is no magic bullet diet, they all work to create a calorie deficit.
Keto diets are based on the idea that fat and protein are satiating , so eating mainly them will stop you reaching for extra food. There are down sides to every dietary extreme but some people get on with them more than others. For example, some on keto diets end up getting a lot of their calories from foods that are high in saturated fats. You may also feel sluggish and low on energy due to lack of carbs. Counter to your goals you may even find you gain weight because you end up eating MORE calories if you still don't end up controlling your portions as fat is VERY calorie dense compared to carbs.
My opinion is to do what SPG says. Record everything and eat healthily. You can be skinny and get the bulk of your diet from bacon if you wanted to but you wont be healthy and I doubt you'll function correctly.
I would suggest you have a look at the keto subreddit. It has all the information you need in there. Obviously, as others already mentioned, it depends a lot on you because it's not for everybody. It's very difficult in the first week because your body is used to fuel your body with carbs - basically, since you will consume a very low amount of carbs your body will use fat instead.
What made me like it so much is that it satiates me to a point where I don't necessarily need to eat all the time or have any cravings.
Personally, I use CarbManager because it's more focused on macros. I think some of the macros you need in certain diets are 'add-ons' on MFP.
I agree with you that keto is a basic CICO diet, however the amount of energy you get from different types of food vary a lot which is why keto worked for me. I can be within my calorie intake limit and not have any hunger for most of the day. Other diets based on calories alone will not work the same even though the fundamentals are similar.
The hardest part is keeping it off long term, losing weight is pretty straightforward - any diet will work in the short term, I'd say diet is more effective than exercise personally.. (and based on a number of studies)
The relapse rate of people who've lost weight, who regain it is somewhere between 70 and 80% (usually within a year) and my opinion on this is mostly down to how people become fixated on counting calories and nothing else. Essentially - they don't fix the root cause (high calorie bad diet) and try to eat less calories of the same bad diet they had before, this works temporarily - but eventually for a lot of people, willpower is easily defeated and they go back to the same bad habits that caused the problem in the first place. This doesn't apply to everybody - some people can manage it, but the majority cannot, most of them relapse and go back to being overweight / obese, because they simply cannot resist the temptations, (which are frankly ridiculous in today's environment)
The problem with counting calories and nothing else, is it doesn't take into account the root cause of why someone is overweight. For most people - it's eating too much junk and processed food, which is extremely calorie dense. But the fact it's calorie dense isn't the main problem, it's how the junk food has been designed (Eg; Pringles) which is where the problem lies. A steak is calorie dense but it's very filling and satisfying to eat, (mostly because of how protein affects the body's hormonal satiety response) however a tub of Pringles (1000cal) feels like you've just eaten a tub of air.
For me personally, based on everything I've read - for long term success, it starts and ends with diet, you cannot outrun or under-eat a bad diet and expect good long term results and a healthy strong body.
The relapse rate of people who've lost weight, who regain it is somewhere between 70 and 80% (usually within a year) and my opinion on this is mostly down to how people become fixated on counting calories and nothing else. Essentially - they don't fix the root cause (high calorie bad diet) and try to eat less calories of the same bad diet they had before, this works temporarily - but eventually for a lot of people, willpower is easily defeated and they go back to the same bad habits that caused the problem in the first place. This doesn't apply to everybody - some people can manage it, but the majority cannot, most of them relapse and go back to being overweight / obese, because they simply cannot resist the temptations, (which are frankly ridiculous in today's environment)
The problem with counting calories and nothing else, is it doesn't take into account the root cause of why someone is overweight. For most people - it's eating too much junk and processed food, which is extremely calorie dense. But the fact it's calorie dense isn't the main problem, it's how the junk food has been designed (Eg; Pringles) which is where the problem lies. A steak is calorie dense but it's very filling and satisfying to eat, (mostly because of how protein affects the body's hormonal satiety response) however a tub of Pringles (1000cal) feels like you've just eaten a tub of air.
For me personally, based on everything I've read - for long term success, it starts and ends with diet, you cannot outrun or under-eat a bad diet and expect good long term results and a healthy strong body.
I've also recently started keto. About 4 weeks ago. I'm down almost 1 stone (6 ft 2, started at 13 st 7 lbs). I haven't had to calorie count / do macros. I just eat when I'm hungry. The best thing about keto is your appetite is suppressed, and I feel full very fast. The worst thing about keto is it is quite limiting with the food you can eat. Nothing with flour, sugar, high carb veg. Obviously beer / takeaways are out (except maybe light beer & kebab with salad).
I'm not sure if I'll keep it up or not. I just wanted to lose a bit of weight for my wedding
. After I'm married I'll probably reintroduce some carbs again, just a low amount.
Soldato
This is what puts me off these specific diets. Obviously there are certain things I avoid now, which is a pain, but I could eat them if I cut back some other calories instead.
The other common mistake is eating back your all of your exercise calories you really do not to, aim for half maximum.
So, normally lets assume you need 2500 a day (plenty of online calculators to give you a rough idea depending on your daily life)
You need to
Eat 2200,
Exercise 250
Eat a extra 150 (have a banana)
2200 - 250 + 150 = 2100
2500 - 2100 = 400
400 calories missing from your day, you will LOSE weight.
Throw in extra muscle mass (healthy) then your weight loss will slow, so you have to mix up your exercise.
Losing weight needs to be 100% attached to being healthy not in isolation
So, normally lets assume you need 2500 a day (plenty of online calculators to give you a rough idea depending on your daily life)
You need to
Eat 2200,
Exercise 250
Eat a extra 150 (have a banana)
2200 - 250 + 150 = 2100
2500 - 2100 = 400
400 calories missing from your day, you will LOSE weight.
Throw in extra muscle mass (healthy) then your weight loss will slow, so you have to mix up your exercise.
Losing weight needs to be 100% attached to being healthy not in isolation
Soldato
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I want to get into calorie tracking a bit but I'm finding it kind of a faff to get going... all my meals at home are scratch cooked so I guess I need to go through all the ingredients working out the values etc? I was planning to do this on the Fitbit app since I have it already but the features seem a bit basic. Any recommendations?
Soldato
I cook everything from scratch and use myfitnesspal. The barcode scanner is a time saver as well as using a bit of common sense if you cant find your item.
I created a lot of recipes and make minor adjustments by adding individual items if i change things up and edit the recipe if the proportion of ingredients change significantly. I dont bother with minor things like garlic and a lot of low calorie stuff simply because i don't know my own calorie usage to that degree of accuracy, i just make sure to leave a bit of calories leftover if i have a bit of this or eat a bit more if i do extra activity.
Tbh tracking stuff is to make sure you are consistent. Many people manage to be consistent through habit/routine and dont bother with anything more than a rough estimate
I would probably ignore any calorie goal the fitbit sets, from what others have posted on OCUK, its calorie estimate can seem ridiculously high...
Soldato
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Cheers for the tips... I don't pay too much heed to the Fitbit's recommendations (for anything) but they are pretty arbitrary anyway - you can click into the settings and change them to be whatever you want (e.g. I know I personally don't need 8 hrs of sleep a night so I changed the "target" amount of sleep to be more like 7 hrs)... I haven't messed with the calorie target and it seems like it's after 3,090 per day from me... it seems to think I exceeded that by a little bit on Monday and Wednesday (the nights I go to the gym) and most other days I fall a bit short of it, seeming to do around 2,700... No idea if that is realistic or not! I'm 6'2", about 90kgs / 198lbs... I stuck that into some "well known" formula calculator thing on a health website and it suggested I'd have to eat about 2,900 calories to maintain weight (assuming "moderately active lifestyle") or more like 2,400 to lose weight. Which in context of the above seems to make sense?
Caporegime
Isn't the keto diet beneficial to controlling blood glucose levels more than anything though? I'd planned to start it myself on Monday but mainly because my blood sugar is almost in the pre-diabetes stage. And as for saturated fats, you just need to eat the good ones. Not all fats are the same. I already started cooking with coconut oil and swapped margarine back to butter.
Soldato
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How old though? I was pretty much the same my entire life but somewhere between ~25 and 30 your kickass metabolism increasingly doesn't keep up anymore... (or maybe you're already way beyond that and are truly lucky!)
I'm 30 in October, iv never been fat.
I watched a program about fat people a few years back and it said that for some peoples its in there DNA/Genes and its absolutely nothing to do with the way they eat/exercise they will always be like that as its there genetics.