Anyone on a diet?

[nbagnardi]

Yep I know I am on a harsh diet! I am doing a photoshoot with my friends before we graduate from college this summer so we are just trying to get in shape for it :) I am going to get back to my regular and healthy meal pattern after that! I have been doing at least 30 mins of cardio a day plus some weighted exercise. Thank you for your opinion!! :)

you're welcome, best of luck!

 

[mcarroll]

I only saw sugar mentioned a couple of times....sugar - as in sucrose (table sugar) and anything else that contains fructose.

Most diets a just fads to help get you into a routine...which is OK as long as the dietician is into science. :)

Check out "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" on YouTube as well as PBS. Also related, check out the new documentary "Sugar Coated". (Netflix has it.)

In a nutshell, all the bad that's been blamed on fat, red meat and laziness is actually fructose-digestion (sugar) at work.

Fructose is actually not digested in the stomach, but in the liver. Your body is designed to handle a small amount, but beyond that it gets converted directly to triglycerides and sent to the bloodstream for deposition as body fat, hardening of the arteries, etc.

So even if you do nothing but cut out added sugar from your diet you'll lose body fat.

But watch those documentaries!

 

[mcarroll]

i've not heard of intermittent fasting, i'll brush up on it no doubt. 6'1" and 195 you must be either very lean (less than 5%) or not very muscular. I'm a powerlifter, 5'10" 205-210. compete at 93kg. anytime you fast, you basically have your body eat itself. to run optimally and maintain a balanced homeostasis you need "X" amounts of fats, carbs, protein... again. this fasting technique may work... but isn't the healthiest option.

Definitely look it up...I think you are thinking of religious/ascetic fasting. Not the same. :) :)

A "cleanse" as I've more frequently heard them called can be as little as 2-3 days, or as long as a month or more....and DOES NOT involve starving.

Surest way to break a sweet tooth (so to speak) that I know of. :)

 

[bmac16]

i've not heard of intermittent fasting, i'll brush up on it no doubt. 6'1" and 195 you must be either very lean (less than 5%) or not very muscular. I'm a powerlifter, 5'10" 205-210. compete at 93kg. anytime you fast, you basically have your body eat itself. to run optimally and maintain a balanced homeostasis you need "X" amounts of fats, carbs, protein... again. this fasting technique may work... but isn't the healthiest option.

Lol Nah man I'm not "yoked", I have an athletic build, but def not benching 300+. If I had to guess, maybe 15% BF. I've tinkered in power lifting. I did that around 8 months and made some pretty nice gains. That's actually the last time I hit a gym, probably about a year ago. Your body=fat/muscle, so in that case if you are hitting the proper caloric intake for your body and activity level, then you should be able to "eat" the fat with minimal muscle loss. Which should be the goal. Intermittent is def not a sustainable nutrition technique. It's just another technique to cut fat on a short term basis. I do agree you need a certain amount of macros in your daily intake, but the frequency does not matter. The whole "metabolism/homeostasis" thing is wayyy over emphasized. The only way you slow your metabolism is extreme fasting

 

[nbagnardi]

Lol Nah man I'm not "yoked", I have an athletic build, but def not benching 300+. If I had to guess, maybe 15% BF. I've tinkered in power lifting. I did that around 8 months and made some pretty nice gains. That's actually the last time I hit a gym, probably about a year ago. Your body=fat/muscle, so in that case if you are hitting the proper caloric intake for your body and activity level, then you should be able to "eat" the fat with minimal muscle loss. Which should be the goal. Intermittent is def not a sustainable nutrition technique. It's just another technique to cut fat on a short term basis. I do agree you need a certain amount of macros in your daily intake, but the frequency does not matter. The whole "metabolism/homeostasis" thing is wayyy over emphasized. The only way you slow your metabolism is extreme fasting

i hear fasting and i think Ghandi lol. but especially in the reefing community, we know ANYTHING fast... is BAD. overall its their body and do with it what they will. i was just explaining the healthiest approach. no cleanses or fad diets. or fasts. when we boil it down, everything we do daily is over emphasized haha.

 

[NeptuneGarden]

Anyone on a diet right now? I am working towards making summer body...:cool::cool:
I am trying to lose at least 8 pounds in 2 months so I am eating under 1000 kcal these days :)
Any suggestion/tip for weight loss friendly food or recipes? Chicken breast and quinoa are what I've been craving this week.

DO NOT DIET to lose weight. It will not work. All you are doing is harming yourself.
You need to eat 2,000+/- calories a day as a minimum. (depending on how big a person you are)
You can lose a lot of weight, very quickly, and it requires you to EAT....... and it's easier said then done.


1. Eating
When you restrict calories, you force your body into starvation mode, so it immediately stores any food it can as fat for later.
You need to kick start your metabolism, not force it into starvation mode.
You do this by feeding your body constantly, just the amount of food it needs as it needs it. This will quickly teach your body to burn what you put in it and not store any as "energy for later" .. aka fat.
Instead of 2 or 3 meals per day, you need to start eating 5 large snacks. You need to eat every 2 hours, about 1/4 the amount of food you would have at a normal meal.
This is hard to do in that you need to pre-prepare meals ahead time so you dont skip. This is critical. Do not skip meals.
It is also very hard because you will be constantly just kind of hungry. Never starving, but never satisfied or full either. It messes with you more than you would think.
(This is basically what these Nutrisystem food plan systems are doing, giving you pre-prepared, small portion meals and giving you a strict timeline on when to eat them)

2. Foods:
Lots of lean protein. Lots of low sugar fruits like berries. Stay away from oranges, melons, and the like. Lots of steamed vegetables and salads with very little to no dressing, maybe some oil/vinegar or lemon juice.
Complex carbs only... yams, plain oatmeal, barley, wild rice. Nothing processed. Any carbs need to be tough to digest to make your body work for the sugars
Nothing made from or with flour. Reduce salt intake as much as possible. Drink lots of water. No sodas or alcohol.

3. Exercise
To burn fat you need to do long slow pace exercise. A brisk walk for 1.5 hours is best. Make sure to breath deep and keep blood highly oxygenated.
Your body burns calories two ways. First when you exercise hard it burns the sugar out of your blood and then burns lactic acid, giving people the "runners burn". This does nothing for burning fat.
To burn fat you need to exercise just hard enough to sweat, but not feel exerted. Think washing the car or vacuuming the house level of exertion.
For the first 30 mins your metabolism is warming up, after that your body is burning fat.

4. Lift weights
Try and put on some muscle mass. Muscles burn fat and calories even while sitting still.

Got do them all religiously for best and quick results. I lost 20+lbs in 6 weeks doing this, it works if you do it right.

 

[mcarroll]

i hear fasting and i think Ghandi lol. but especially in the reefing community, we know ANYTHING fast... is BAD. overall its their body and do with it what they will. i was just explaining the healthiest approach. no cleanses or fad diets. or fasts. when we boil it down, everything we do daily is over emphasized haha.

I forgot to mention that cleanses have nothing to do with weight loss either.

If you wanted to put it in a nutshell, a cleanse is for your liver specifically and to give your digestive system in general a temporary break.

If you are already in A1 condition on a perfect non-industrial diet with zero added sugar, then there are less reasons to recommend a cleanse for you.

If, on the other hand, you are like many many people and live some version of the "fast food lifestyle" - minimal to no cooking or gardening with a high level of added-sugar intake - then a periodic cleanse can really make a difference.

• Deactivating one's "sweet tooth" may be the most important long-term benefit of a cleanse.
• Not having sweet cravings makes other positive dietary changes much easier.
• Having your sweet palate corrected also makes other foods - particularly veggies - taste much better.

Cleanses are a good tool to have at your disposal.

Three days can be easy and effective. I've done a version that lasted 21 days that started with liquids and a very limited selection of fruits the first week and then controlled introductions of "heavier" and heavier healthy food items week by week. By the final week you are eating a very healthy diet and won't have any cravings for bad food as long as you "clean house" during the cleanse. :)

At the risk of further confusing matters, I will switch to talking about fasting now: Both long and short term "fasts" are part of a natural, seasonal diet IMO. I.e. There's probably nothing unnatural about being without food for up to a few days.

If anything is unnatural it's having continuous access to any food....let alone all foods! :)

P.S. I was about 30%, or 40 pounds, overweight before I started reading food labels. Eating 100% organic and cutting out as much sugar and junk/boxed/processed food from my diet as humanly possible (far from perfect) is about all I did to drop the weight and mostly keep it off. I hover around 5%-7% overweight now....which I consider to be within my healthy range, allowing for a margin of error. :) I still have a lot of work to do on diet though....still too picky about veggies.

 

[mcarroll]

Oh:

http://nutritiondata.self.com

Make an account so you can use all the features....but the main features are all there regardless.

It's based on the USDA's massive food database. (Which is also free and even downloadable.....but you miss the cool reporting and customizing features Nutrition Data offers on top.)

Also check out the Weston A Price Foundation's eating guidelines.

Healthy4Life plan (PDF)​

....or a more general list of health topics like "knowing your fats" and "traditional diets":

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/​

"Paleo" seems to be the biggest fad (far from the worst tho), so they have a page comparing their recommendations to that system here:

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-...n-a-price-foundation-diet-and-the-paleo-diet/​

 

[bmac16]

i hear fasting and i think Ghandi lol. but especially in the reefing community, we know ANYTHING fast... is BAD. overall its their body and do with it what they will. i was just explaining the healthiest approach. no cleanses or fad diets. or fasts. when we boil it down, everything we do daily is over emphasized haha.[/QUOTE

DO NOT DIET to lose weight. It will not work. All you are doing is harming yourself.
You need to eat 2,000+/- calories a day as a minimum. (depending on how big a person you are)
You can lose a lot of weight, very quickly, and it requires you to EAT....... and it's easier said then done.


1. Eating
When you restrict calories, you force your body into starvation mode, so it immediately stores any food it can as fat for later.
You need to kick start your metabolism, not force it into starvation mode.
You do this by feeding your body constantly, just the amount of food it needs as it needs it. This will quickly teach your body to burn what you put in it and not store any as "energy for later" .. aka fat.
Instead of 2 or 3 meals per day, you need to start eating 5 large snacks. You need to eat every 2 hours, about 1/4 the amount of food you would have at a normal meal.
This is hard to do in that you need to pre-prepare meals ahead time so you dont skip. This is critical. Do not skip meals.
It is also very hard because you will be constantly just kind of hungry. Never starving, but never satisfied or full either. It messes with you more than you would think.
(This is basically what these Nutrisystem food plan systems are doing, giving you pre-prepared, small portion meals and giving you a strict timeline on when to eat them)

2. Foods:
Lots of lean protein. Lots of low sugar fruits like berries. Stay away from oranges, melons, and the like. Lots of steamed vegetables and salads with very little to no dressing, maybe some oil/vinegar or lemon juice.
Complex carbs only... yams, plain oatmeal, barley, wild rice. Nothing processed. Any carbs need to be tough to digest to make your body work for the sugars
Nothing made from or with flour. Reduce salt intake as much as possible. Drink lots of water. No sodas or alcohol.

3. Exercise
To burn fat you need to do long slow pace exercise. A brisk walk for 1.5 hours is best. Make sure to breath deep and keep blood highly oxygenated.
Your body burns calories two ways. First when you exercise hard it burns the sugar out of your blood and then burns lactic acid, giving people the "runners burn". This does nothing for burning fat.
To burn fat you need to exercise just hard enough to sweat, but not feel exerted. Think washing the car or vacuuming the house level of exertion.
For the first 30 mins your metabolism is warming up, after that your body is burning fat.

4. Lift weights
Try and put on some muscle mass. Muscles burn fat and calories even while sitting still.

Got do them all religiously for best and quick results. I lost 20+lbs in 6 weeks doing this, it works if you do it right.

You need to research your first point a little more. It is the epitome of the American thought process about diet/nutrition and it couldn't be more wrong. Your body is programmed with two modes: feast or famine. That's it, there is no boosted metabolism mode. Your metabolism does not slow down unless you fast for long periods of time (weeks). When you stay within a certain range caloric deficit, 300 to 500 calories less than want you are burning in a day, you will not store food/fat. It will do exactly the opposite. You will burn what you eat in a day, plus those extra 300-500 calories worth of fat already stored on your body.

Your third point is not the only way to burn fat. HIIT is very successful at burning fat in a short amount of time. If you are Not in a caloric defecit you will not burn fat with either attempted way of exercising. Also, there is no such thing as "lactic acid". It is actually called lactate, that is formed when your body breaks down the glucose stored in your muscles for extra "fuel"

A lot of people, when dieting/cutting weight, do not track their calories/macros in or out. This is a huge mistake, and usually if you are not seeing results, needs to be utilized.

 

[bigdan3489]

That's pretty incredible man! Great job. So you strictly follow WW and that's it?

Yes I am strictly following WW, I haven't even been exercising

 

[m88a2]

Fasting sounds counter productive. If I were to deprive my body of food and continue my activity level I feel significant ly weaker and my endurance drops sharply. Also, doesn't the body consume muscle and fat when nothing is taken in?

 

[nbagnardi]

I forgot to mention that cleanses have nothing to do with weight loss either.

If you wanted to put it in a nutshell, a cleanse is for your liver specifically and to give your digestive system in general a temporary break.

If you are already in A1 condition on a perfect non-industrial diet with zero added sugar, then there are less reasons to recommend a cleanse for you.

If, on the other hand, you are like many many people and live some version of the "fast food lifestyle" - minimal to no cooking or gardening with a high level of added-sugar intake - then a periodic cleanse can really make a difference.

• Deactivating one's "sweet tooth" may be the most important long-term benefit of a cleanse.
• Not having sweet cravings makes other positive dietary changes much easier.
• Having your sweet palate corrected also makes other foods - particularly veggies - taste much better.

Cleanses are a good tool to have at your disposal.

Three days can be easy and effective. I've done a version that lasted 21 days that started with liquids and a very limited selection of fruits the first week and then controlled introductions of "heavier" and heavier healthy food items week by week. By the final week you are eating a very healthy diet and won't have any cravings for bad food as long as you "clean house" during the cleanse. :)

At the risk of further confusing matters, I will switch to talking about fasting now: Both long and short term "fasts" are part of a natural, seasonal diet IMO. I.e. There's probably nothing unnatural about being without food for up to a few days.

If anything is unnatural it's having continuous access to any food....let alone all foods! :)

P.S. I was about 30%, or 40 pounds, overweight before I started reading food labels. Eating 100% organic and cutting out as much sugar and junk/boxed/processed food from my diet as humanly possible (far from perfect) is about all I did to drop the weight and mostly keep it off. I hover around 5%-7% overweight now....which I consider to be within my healthy range, allowing for a margin of error. :) I still have a lot of work to do on diet though....still too picky about veggies.

awesome job! i agree, sugar is the devil!

 

[zemuss]

some good stuff.. following

 

[bmac16]

Fasting sounds counter productive. If I were to deprive my body of food and continue my activity level I feel significant ly weaker and my endurance drops sharply. Also, doesn't the body consume muscle and fat when nothing is taken in?

This isn't extreme fasting, you are still eating your caloric intake for the day. I am not saying intermittent fasting is the way to go about losing weight. I was just backing up my statement that you do not have to eat 6-10 times a day. I do believe your body will consume fat and muscle when you are outside of a strategic caloric defecit, 300-500 calories lower than your daily intake. I believe dieting is a very serious issue in America, that a lot of people are misinformed or just don't know a lot about. It can be very detrimental to your health if you take the wrong approach.... Weight loss pills, starving yourself, etc. NOTHING can replace clean eating, hard work, and knowledge, as with anything inform yourself, set realistic goals, and make a plan

 

[bmac16]

Yes I am strictly following WW, I haven't even been exercising

Cool, do you know your BF% by chance? Do you plan to ever go to the gym after you reach your goal?

 

[m88a2]

This isn't extreme fasting, you are still eating your caloric intake for the day. I am not saying intermittent fasting is the way to go about losing weight. I was just backing up my statement that you do not have to eat 6-10 times a day. I do believe your body will consume fat and muscle when you are outside of a strategic caloric defecit, 300-500 calories lower than your daily intake. I believe dieting is a very serious issue in America, that a lot of people are misinformed or just don't know a lot about. It can be very detrimental to your health if you take the wrong approach.... Weight loss pills, starving yourself, etc. NOTHING can replace clean eating, hard work, and knowledge, as with anything inform yourself, set realistic goals, and make a plan

Ah, ok. I'll have to look more into the details of the kind of fasting you speak of as it doesn sound like the type of fasting others have tried to talk me into.I agree. Diets, especially the fads can make you lose weight but is ways that make you unhealthier.

 

[Maddlesrain]

Cut out dairy, don't eat fruits after noon, eat bread sparingly, and drink water like it's going out of season!
I've also gone raw vegan ( no animal or cooked products) or just plain vegan for short periods (month or so at a time).
I was eating 1200 calories a day for a few months. Just stick with it and be very strict about logging your food intake per day or it'll all fall apart. After the first few days, it's not hard at all. It actually becomes fun and feels pretty rewarding to log calories!

 

[mcarroll]

Highly recommended:

 

[mcarroll]

I was sooo heart broken when I found out beans contained lectin! :( Red beans, rice, and sausage was a weekly thing in my household

Oh no..I just bought 3 cans of black beans yesterday... are black beans okay? or are they just slightly better than red beans lol

Sometimes you have to remember to take these factoids with a grain of salt.

Consider how many people eat red beans and rice and have a very healthy lives.

Do you freak out about eating corn like this? That's a more legit freak out. Corn that is not treated with lye (nixtamilizing?) has a good portion of its nutrients still locked up in undigestible combinations. Native Americans knew this but we do not.

Just as with corn, proper preparation of beans is essential.

Canned beans have already been prepared. (I.e. Soaked and cooked.)

If you were starting with dry beans, then soaking and cooking will be in the instructions on the bag.

If you are growing your beans fresh in your garden, then you need to figure this out for yourself or read about it. :)

FYI, all seeds have some degree of protection like this to prevent fungus from eating them while they wait to sprout as well as to prevent early sprouting and other things. Some seeds have way more, some way less.

Soaking and rinsing is the number one way of dealing with these things, followed by cooking.

Soaking (aka sprouting) simulates spring rains which activates the seeds natural enzymes that break down these compounds automatically in nature.

 

[mcarroll]