Slashdot Mirror

If half of your "crew" is eating half a portion while the other is spending so many calories they are losing weight despite eating more - they are not doing the same work. You don't lose weight exercising "brain power" alone.

Women of the same weight as men have a 5-10% lower basal metabolic rate (and that bmr typically accounts for 60-70% of your total energy expended - source).

Now throw in smaller women and larger men, and the difference can easily be 50%. That is sufficient to explain why the women got along on smaller portions.

Coming from a male a suggestion to send an all female crew cause they "eat less" and have smaller muscles would smack of "as long as men are around to open doors for them, women can do almost everything a man can" veiled misogyny.

There's a big difference between "a suggestion to send an all female crew cause they eat less and have smaller muscles" and "as long as men are around to open doors for them, women can do almost everything a man can".

But I um... thought... um.. it was good for.me to um..... have a what's the.word Jenny? A diet low is salt. I may not be smart, but I know what high blood pressure is...

Just a note that, according to my doctor, and many articles I've read, excessive salt in the diet is NOT a problem for many/most people, but only those sensitive to it. Good explanations can be found:

• Myth or Fact: Salt Increases Blood Pressure (Hint: It's myth)
• A low salt diet for high blood pressure: Where’s the evidence?
• UVA Study Finds Salt May Not Contribute To High Blood Pressure

... walking believe it or not. Walking steadily for multiple half hour to one hour stints over the entire day adds up. I lost 40lbs walking 4 hours a day/7 days a week for 4 months. It's all about commitment, don't make excuses when it comes to your health. Without your health nothing else matters. Take it from someone fairly aged, as you get older you're not as energetic as when you're younger so get it done ASAP. People tend to under-estimate how important it is to prioritize health over everything else. IMHO health should come even _before_ your job because without it you're just digging yourself a whole that is harder to climb out of as you get older.

But before you even begin to exercise DO find out how much you are eating or exercise is pointless. A great site is fitday, for the first week or so monitor religiously and input data on everything you eat including days you over-eat.

http://www.fitday.com/

In my opinion if you eat a lot of unhealthy foods you should start to remove some of the worst from your life and replace it with something healthy. You don't have to go all health nut but eating better goes a long way when coupled with exercise. Take it from someone who has been there, done that.

So ... he doesn't know anything about HFCS, but he knows something about sugar and he is nothing about how the body processes them? Do you?

Benching weights increases muscle mass which will actually raise your BMI. You need a cardiovascular workout. To burn energy you need something that increases your breathing and makes you sweat and burn calories quickly. Suggesting benching weights as a way to lose weight is insane.

The first half of this statement is true but irrelevant. You have a high BMI. You indicate that you're also, not to mince words, fat. Is your concern that you have a high BMI? Or that you're fat? I would assume the latter, as the former itself isn't particularly dangerous to your health. Hence, increasing your muscle mass shouldn't be an intrinsically bad thing.

Interestingly, rebuilding muscle is one of the best caloric expenditures you can choose. In other words, you burn a lot of calories due to lifting weights, not only during the physical movement but also in the 24-48 hours following. The increased muscle mass also helps increase your metabolism, which is absolutely the most important factor in your weight balance over time. Suggesting weight training as a way to lose weight is nowhere near insane.

The biggest thing is monitoring your appetite, no amount of exercise will help if you're over-eating and taking in more energy then you're burning off. The army did a study a long while back that showed just this: Taking in too much energy negates the weight loss benefits of exercise and you don't have to starve youself either, just limit yourself to 1500-1800 cals/day and keep track of it on a site like http://www.fitday.com/

Yes, and most of us want to join the freaking army, eat rabbit food and excercise 2-3 hours a day for the rest of our lives. Yeah, that's real sustainable.

Now that's not fair. He never said anything about joining the army, he made reference to a study by a professional organization for whom fitness is absolutely critical in order to bolster his point: if it's anyone's business to know how to get large populations in shape, it's their business. Also, he never said you have to eat rabbit food. You can get plenty full on 1800 calories a day if you cut out soda, fried food, and frequent huge carb fests (chiefly, pasta and pizza). I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, beef on a shallow bed of rice for lunch, and I'll be eating plenty of chicken (and, yes, some vegetables) for dinner, and I won't break 1600 calories today. If those things are your idea of rabbit food, good luck to you; I'd say there's a considerable range of foods you could eat. Also, I'll just mention GP said nothing about needing to exercise 2-3 hours every day forever - it has nothing to do with this conversation.

A doctor once was giving a talk about lecturing other doctors with regard to telling their patients they must lose weight to avoid the various complications that arise from being obese. He told them that they know about long hours and hard work, so they should strap an extra 20kg to themselves, and go about their 12-16 hour days, then when they get home try and put in 30-60 minutes of excercise and see how much they feel like excercise.

It's a viscious circle. The more weight you put on, the harder it is to start and continue a weight loss regime. And the older you get the more your body starts creaking (especially if you're unfit) responsibility you have and the less likely you are to keep it up.

This is exactly why hours and hours of aerobic training are so ineffective for the overweight. It forces you to force more stress on already-overworked joints and other body parts. No wonder people find losing weight so discouraging. Using a proper weight training routine doesn't nearly have the same problem. On the flip side, if you lose some weight, you may find your ankle to be in much better shape with less stress on it.

Most people I know when they hear about my wife's allergies say they "wouldn't give up food for anyone". Y

I'm going to call bullshit on this, it's fucking impossible to NOT lose weight in a week if you are "working your ass off", you're certainly not working you ass off if you're not losing even half a pound or 1 pound in 7 days. Losing weight DOES require some amount of willpower and definitely requires a commitment hence (by and large) one is responsible for one's weight.

EVEN on the nonsense reality TV shows contestants do work hard for the week (and are constantly monitored so cheating is unlikely) and STILL manage to sometimes put on weight. You can cry BS until you go blue but you've clearly never had major weight issues. You don't seem to understand that the body can use the few calories it gets a day first, and that some of the components of that energy burning come from water and air. It's not magic and these people don't violate conservation of energy. It's just that food - fat and carbs - is ONE component in the way the human body works. That's an evolutionary development. It takes a LONG time to starve. Your body doesn't simply give out in a day because you're not fed.

One cannot just excuse oneself unless one has a serious medical condition, but even those that are sick (your arthritis in your leg/angle) can do other exercises. For instance when I was lifting free weights and benching you still burn and awful lot of fat without having to move around that much. What matters is expending energy.

Benching weights increases muscle mass which will actually raise your BMI. You need a cardiovascular workout. To burn energy you need something that increases your breathing and makes you sweat and burn calories quickly. Suggesting benching weights as a way to lose weight is insane.

Now do I take some responsibility for my weight. Sure. Absolutely. Do I think that it's as easy for me to lose weight as a good portion of the population. Hell no.

The biggest thing is monitoring your appetite, no amount of exercise will help if you're over-eating and taking in more energy then you're burning off. The army did a study a long while back that showed just this: Taking in too much energy negates the weight loss benefits of exercise and you don't have to starve youself either, just limit yourself to 1500-1800 cals/day and keep track of it on a site like http://www.fitday.com/

Yes, and most of us want to join the freaking army, eat rabbit food and excercise 2-3 hours a day for the rest of our lives. Yeah, that's real sustainable.

You clearly know nothing about weight loss.

The truth is many people who are overweight have never been thin for most of their life and got fat fairly young and developed a victim psychology because of bullying/social prejudice.

Yet the bullying is socially accepted as you're proving right this instance. Not only that but as they get older they're preyed upon by the weight loss industry etc. In other words you're beating people down then wondering why they don't raise themselves by the bootstraps and make a huge effort just to lead semi-normal lives.

There's only so much you can do to excuse yourself from being overweight.. I agree there are many different body types and some of us store fat easily on the smallest amounts of food, but many of us that store easily barely exercise.

A doctor once was giving a talk about lecturing other doctors with regard to telling their patients they must lose weight to avoid the various complications that arise from being obese. He told them that they know about long hours and hard work, so they should strap an extra 20kg to themselves, and go about their 12-16 hour days, then when they get home try and put in 30-60 minutes of excercise and see how much they feel like excercise.

It's a viscious circle. The more weight you put on, the harder it is to start and continue a weight loss regime. And the older you get the more your body starts creaking (especially if you're unfit) responsibility you have and the less likely you are to k

"and that even those that have the ability to lose weight can work their arses off and still lose nothing in a week."

I'm going to call bullshit on this, it's fucking impossible to NOT lose weight in a week if you are "working your ass off", you're certainly not working you ass off if you're not losing even half a pound or 1 pound in 7 days. Losing weight DOES require some amount of willpower and definitely requires a commitment hence (by and large) one is responsible for one's weight.

One cannot just excuse oneself unless one has a serious medical condition, but even those that are sick (your arthritis in your leg/angle) can do other exercises. For instance when I was lifting free weights and benching you still burn and awful lot of fat without having to move around that much. What matters is expending energy.

I walked at a leisurely pace 4hrs/day 7/days week and lost 10-12 lbs a month, it's a matter of *commitment* either you want to lose the weight or you dont, if you don't like high intensity you have to make up the lack of intensity with duration of time and distance for low intensity aerobics (like walking).

The biggest thing is monitoring your appetite, no amount of exercise will help if you're over-eating and taking in more energy then you're burning off. The army did a study a long while back that showed just this: Taking in too much energy negates the weight loss benefits of exercise and you don't have to starve youself either, just limit yourself to 1500-1800 cals/day and keep track of it on a site like http://www.fitday.com/

The truth is many people who are overweight have never been thin for most of their life and got fat fairly young and developed a victim psychology because of bullying/social prejudice.

There's only so much you can do to excuse yourself from being overweight.. I agree there are many different body types and some of us store fat easily on the smallest amounts of food, but many of us that store easily barely exercise.

The real issue though is not paying attention to how energy dense the food you're eating is, most people "wing it" when they eat they don't get rigorous ambout keeping track of the amount of food (see fitday.com), once you get rigorous and can see it on a chart, then you will realize that - yes, you are over eating!

I realized this when I started tracking what I ate @ www.fitday.com (a great site btw) and it is handy because it will show you the evidence and you can't just deny it anymore.

Most people live in the fog of their own mind never really looking hard at teh evidence in their own lives contradicting and lending support to the naysayers of "no willpower", the truth is it's more about being aware of your own bad/blind thinking on the matter of how you eat and live that is the root of the problem.

I know I went through it.

Indoor bike /w resistance + walking (cardio), also some weight training at home. You should brun at least 800 calories a day worth of workout, and keep yourself eating just under 1800 cals for the first week to see results on the scale. Cut out ALL sugary drinks, move to water, and just eat what you do normally. You don't have to radically change your diet, but you DO have to burn off more then you take in. Cardio (biking, walking, running) combined with free weight strength training are the best ways to lose weight.

If you're going to walk: At least 2 hours a day 7/days a week + freeweights + indoor bike (note that distnace is more important then time, you can walk faster, do more distance, etc)

If you're going to run, google articles on running, you have to build yourself up slowly to learn how to sustain yourself running over time, it's basically similar to the above, except you do less time running once you've gotten up to a full hour at least without stopping too much, add in some freeweight training, etc.

Great sites to get you started:

http://www.fitday.com/ (tracking what you eat)
http://www.johnstonefitness.com/

That is pretty much the way to go!

Fitday.com

I'm usually not one to post links, but for those of you who have no idea what you are eating (I was once one of you) this site will surely blow your socks off.. perhaps only initially, but it proves a point very quickly.

I would gladly have tax money used to subsidise gym membership, nutrition education at school, and widespread bans on marketing of junk food.

Fah, there's no need to get the government involved. Losing weight doesn't cost money. Even the most moronic overweight person knows that their diet isn't good for them. If they don't know that their diet is killing them, they don't need a government program to educate them on the evils of Twinkies and Cherry Cola, they need a new physician.

If you want to lose weight the secret is quite simple. Write down everything you eat (measure it, don't guess), and feed it into fitday.com. Next, borrow a wheelbarrow, fill it full of heavy stuff (bags of sand are good because they make it easy to judge your progress), and push it around the neighborhood. When you can't push it any farther, write down how far you pushed it and how much stuff you had in the wheelbarrow. Rest a day, and then try it again. Next time either try to push the wheelbarrow a little farther, or add more weight. Weigh yourself regularly (either every day or every week) and keep track of how much you weigh. If you aren't losing weight after two weeks of pushing around the wheelbarrow three times a week lower your caloric intake by 500 calories (or add another day per week of pushing around the wheelbarrow).

Now do this for the rest of your life. Eventually you will probably get strong enough that you don't need the wheelbarrow. Purchase one of those heavy canvas army duffel bags and fill that full of sandbags. Alternatively, push your car around a parking lot. Better yet, push your car around a parking lot with the duffel bag thrown over your shoulder.

Do this sort of thing for a few months and everyone you know will be asking you for your dieting secrets. They'll assume that your physique changed due to some mythical all-grapefruit diet, or a pill that "melts the fat away." When you tell them that your new muscles and the fat loss are due to pushing a wheelbarrow full of sand bags around the neighborhood they'll go back to their infomercials and their quest for an "easy" weight loss route. There's no trick to weight loss.

The grossly overweight already have a disproportionate amount of my tax money. You'd be surprised how many folks with "disabilities" are just plain too fat to work. I don't mind that these people want to live that way, but I am not keen on throwing good money after bad.

My wife picked up Fitday PC by Cyser from http://www.fitday.com/

Its $29 for a download copy. Its extremely easy to use and has helped my wife loose and keep of 25 pounds.

-Rick

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?O wner=SteveSFbayarea

Okay, this is from the perspective of one who has done Atkins, and been successful at it. Not "I heard from this guy" or "my sister's friend told me". Real experience.

I've struggled with my weight since I was in high school over 20 years ago. I've been up and down, weight wise, for a long time. Tried low fat, exercising like crazy, and just failed at it.

Finally, in February of this year, I went on Atkins for the third time (first was just a fad that I didn't do seriously, back in the 80s, second took me from about 250 lbs to 230 about three years ago,) determined to finish the plan and get to my goal weight. I also began exercising by walking on my treadmill and walking when golfing instead of using a cart.

To do Atkins properly, you spend a minimum of two weeks on "induction," which reduces your carbohydrate intake to 20 grams a day or less. This forces your body to stop using simple sugars and other carbs for fuel and start burning fat. You will most likely feel like crap for a couple of days during this phase, but it will pass.

Right about then, two wonderful things happen very quickly which are what makes the diet successful for so many people. First, you will begin to notice, within those two weeks, that your clothes are looser and, if you are weighing daily, a pretty dramatic loss of weight. This positive feedback is mostly water weight, but not entirely, and you feel like you're making progress.

Secondly, and more importantly, changing from consuming mostly carbs to mostly fats and proteins has the effect of making you feel full on much less food. In addition, your blood sugar levels stabelize and most people see "food cravings" (like eating a box of cookies!) going away. A low fat diet simply replaces fat with sugars to make the food more pallatable, and you end up with a bunch of empty calories and you're hungry a short time later.

You're told that you can eat as much as you want, so long as you keep the carbs low -- I'm not sure that I agree with that, you still need to keep an eye on calories, but the point is that after a couple of days, you could eat ten burger patties, but you'll be full after two and won't want to keep eating.

Once you've gone through induction, you can either stick with it (as I did) or start adding carbs back, a bit at a time, until you're eating a more balanced diet but still losing weight. You do have to stay away from sugars and simple carbs, though, because that will screw up your blood sugar levels.

Now, onto the myths. First, I have never seen (and I've looked) any reputable study that says that kidney damage has resulted from a healthy person (healthy in that they don't have existing kidney problems or AIDS or something) following this diet. Pointers to such a report (not something sponsored by the "American Bread Makers Association") would be appreciated, if they exist.

Secondly, people will tell you that it's unhealthy because you can't eat anything but meat. That's crap. There are loads of veggies that you can eat during induction, and you can add more, plus fruits, as you progress through the diet. I stayed on induction for seven months, and enjoyed salad every day, along with green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.

Again, the proof is in the pudding (sugar free, if you please) -- in September of this year, I finished the diet, weighing 180 pounds, the first time in about 25 years that I've been the weight I'm supposed to be for my height. Now, I just check my weight periodically, and if it starts going up, I watch things for a couple of days.

Finally, the greatest help for this (or any) diet is a website I'd encourage you to use. It's free, and it tracks your caloric intake, exercise and weight. It's at Fitday

Good luck to anyone trying to lose weight. Regardless of how you go about it, it's the best thing that you can do for yourself.