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Lose Weight The Slow, Boring Way
urbazewski writes "As spring gets underway (in the northern hemisphere anyway) it's a good time to start undoing the effects of a winter's worth of websurfing and gameplaying on your physical condition. A meta-analysis of studies of currently popular low carbohydrate diets by doctors at Stanford and Yale reveals that they are really just low calorie diets in disguise: 'findings suggest that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period." John Walker's 'engineer's approach' to losing weight is built around this astonishing insight, as described in his online book/weight loss plan The Hacker's Diet. The spreadsheets are out of commission, but the basic insights are an excellent antidote to fad diets." Ramen, Ramen, Ramen is not on the approved list.
I can speak from personal experience on this. I know people have heard this a million times, but I'm not convinced of these "cookie-cutter" diets due to the fact that everyone is different in so many different ways.
For example, how do you explain the fact that I can gain so much weight by not watching every last gram of carbohydrates I eat while a friend of mine can have his "nights of 10,000 calories" and not gain a single pound ever.
I think it all comes down to taking a step back, looking at your body, and picking what's right for you -- not some predetermined plan that you get off of a website.
I am over here... now I am back over here!
The answer isn't bullshit diets. Its excercise. Everyone hates to do it, but its the only sure way. Humans would rather not do something than start doing something. Its our lazy nature.
If you actually read Atkin's books, he explicitly says weight loss comes down to cutting calories. The advantage of a low carbohydrate diet is that the calories you do take in make you feel more satisfied, as well as not driving up your insulin levels.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Its that simple really...
Forget all the diets, just burn more then you eat.. you loose weight...
For the couch potatoes, EXERSISE how to use energy.. And dont eat a lot of garbage..
Just use some common sence. But then again, that wont sell books or diet foods will it...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This is my first real diet where I'm conciously cutting down on calories. I'm not starving myself but only because I constantly snack on fruits and veggies. I feel like I have to have something in my mouth every hour. Weird feeling but one can get used to it.
I'm not following any particular dieting fad. I just stopped eating all the junk foods that are served at your typical lunch place. No more burgers, pizzas, fries or doughnuts. I firmly believe that Russian females are so slender because they diddn't have junk food for so many years. Accordingly if I remove all junk food from my diet I should get slender too... Time will tell.
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
The translation, for those of us who've finished our "Hooked On Phonics" (only spelling corrections, grammar be damned):
Poor linguistic abilities aside, this fucker's right. The way to lose weight is to eat right and exercise.
Your goal (for men) should be to drop your body fat percentage to well under 10% (under 15% for women).
I've found a mix of something like 60% carbs, 30% protein, and 10% fat to be a good distribution for my food. Don't put much faith in those numbers (I change it as needed to gain/lose weight). I typically consume anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 calories/day (even a fat bastard would have an amazingly hard time taking in 10kcal/day, trust me on that!)
Fuck being skinny. Pack on some serious muscle too.
My lifting consists of 1-2 hours typically (depending on how focused I am), and I have a 6 day split (2 days on, 1 day off, all 6 to cover my whole body). I aim for at least 30 minutes of cardio per day, sometimes I do more sometimes I do less...
Aim for 1.5-2g of protein per pound of lean bodyweight. I'm currently using Phosphagen XT, which seems pretty damned good. I'm not a huge fan of creatine, but this seems decent (Cell Tech isn't bad either).
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
The problem I have though is stopping eating, when I'm hungry, or at least think I'm hungry I eat/drink. I'm starting to work on grabbing a water bottle instead of a coke now though and other such changes.
This is the KEY to losing weight, and no one I find focuses on this enough. If trying to lose weight, and you get hungry outside your meal allotment, then do not eat, drink (and NOT pop).. Get a tal glass of ice water, or a tall class of OJ or other citrus. The water has no calories, and the citrus much less than anything you would eat for a snack. Plus you will find the coolness perky and actually wake you up, unlike fatty snacks like chips that slow you down.
You will find that a nice cold glass of water/juice more than cures your hunger for the few hours until your next meal. Not only does this help keep your caloie count down, it hydrates your body, which any doctor will tell you is good for you anyways. I find that this tip, the tip of drinking, not snacking, is one that is not metionened nearly enough in popular weight loss literature.
I go outside. Seriously.
> Hey you might think its boring but exercise makes you feel good.
For geeks the badly needed aerobic exercise (walk, run, bicycle, swim, etc.) is a great time to get away from the terminal and think out that problem that you've been throwing code at in vain. My daily walk is some of my most productive "programming" time. Figure out bugs, replace inefficent algorithms, design application architectures - all are easily done during the course of a mile or two's walk. Perhaps done better, for getting away from the terminal and thinking about the problem in more abstract terms, or at least at a higher level than a screen full of source code.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I wasn't going to post but it seems worthwhile having read a few other postings.
I'm about 6'4" and I decided to start losing weight when I hit 240, which is firmly in the "obese" category. I'm still in the middle of the diet right now having lost 30, and while I don't know precisely where I'm going to stop, my still-overly-ample gut says "not yet". (But not as ample as it used to be...)
I chose the Atkins diet because A: It made some degree of sense and B: I knew I did not have the willpower to engage in any diet based on staying hungry all the time, which for instance the Hackers diet does. This is especially true because I couldn't fully control the contents of my residence, since my wife lives here too and she's one of those people who can eat whatever she wants, as much as she wants, and not gain significant weight, whether or not she's exercising. (She does a lot of physical stuff at her job now but this was true when she was a college student, too.) This means I could not just throw all X out so that I couldn't possibly eat it, because she happens to like X (starchy products in the case of the low-carb Atkins diet).
The reason I posted is that I decided, both out of laziness (I freely admit) and out of scientific curiousity, not to change my exercise habits. Right now I walk maybe a mile a day in discontinuous chunks between classes and walking to work. I was curious if I could still lose weight just by changing my diet. Part of this curiousity stems from the Atkins discussion of how it works, which if true would imply that exercise would not need to change (though to be clear and fair, Atkins does recommend more exercise; this is my experimentation, not Atkin's).
So far, as I said, I've lost 30 pounds.
One person does not a study make, but when you're working with yourself, it's all you've got; you can't do a controlled study.
One thing I did not really experience that Atkins said I should was an increase in energy after the third or fourth day on his diet. Possible explanations include not exercising, or something internally wrong with me that also requires me to take abnormally large doses of iron just to function normally; it may be physically impossible for me to have a "normal" energy level. (Still working on it.)
Right now I'm dropping diet soda back out of the mix to see if that's contributing to my energy problem, as against Atkin's advice I had been drinking Nutrasweet-based beverages anyhow. Results after two days are still inconclusive, but hopeful. (Nutrasweet has been reported to slow the metabolism in some cases, both slowing weight loss and causing energy problems.)
The point? "Just eat less and exercise more, dufus!" didn't help me much. To others in my position, I recommend reading up on the available alternatives, and trying as much as is possible with a sample size of one to experiment to see how you lose wieght. For me, there was a chicken and egg problem: 240-lb me didn't really want to exercise. 210-lb me has been much more open to the idea. 190-lb me will probably enjoy it. But if I had to start with a program of heavy exercise, I probably wouldn't have started at all, which is the worst possible outcome.
I needed something a little formal, but flexible. (Technically, I'm no longer "doing Atkins" but doing an Atkins-inspired diet, as once I got the gist of the diet the strict regimentation didn't appeal to me; it does not seem fundamental to the system and makes me suspect Dr. Atkins lays it out as he does to serve the Average Reader who expects complete regimentation out of a diet book. Less carb counting and a more free-form approach is working for me where a regimented diet would have made me quit in disgust, YMMV.) Maybe you just need to drop the cola out of your life and replace it with water or other calorie-free choices. Maybe you just need to exercise and your diet will fix itself. Maybe you need something extremely strict. The most important thing i
I've been on Atkins for over a month now. I'm never going back to eating sugars and starchy foods. Understand how sugars and starches cause your insulin to surge, and you'll understand why you may have the shakes if you don't get a meal on time.
After putting up with those shakes that caused me to overindulge my whole life, I tried Atkins. After about a week of no processed carbs, I felt a noticeable difference. The shakes were gone for good, and the pounds have been coming off easily. I've never been one to stick to a diet, but this one is easy. You don't feel like you're starving yourself, and that's one of the diet's main benefits.
Not being a slave to my hopoglycemic shakes and brain fogs is the number one benefit, though. I never realized how often that brain fog had me under its grip until about a week after starting Atkins. Since then, I've felt remarkably clear-headed. I know others on low-carb diets who report the same thing.
Don't knock low carb diets until you understand why they work.
Personally, I think that the low-fat mentality generated by the medical community in the 70's, 80's, and 90's was the biggest failing of Science in the 20th century.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
I know a lot about the subject of losing weight. I've read books and Ive done my research, so listen up.
If you're only concern is to lose weight (fat as well as muscle tissue), then going on a low-carb diet is the way to go. No candy, no soda, no pasta.
If you want to tone up and as a result, lose body fat, then you have no other choice than to eat right, with lots of protein, coupled with weight traning. You don't need to be like Arnold. Light weights can go a long way. The point is resistance. It's the only way your muscles will react. In case you didnt know: the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn, because the more engery your body will need to give to your muscles.
If you opt for the first choice, be sure to stay away from carbs for the rest of your life, because as soon as you start to eat pasta and drink soda on the regular, you will be right back where you started.
Eitherway, I would recommend to EVERYONE to get at least 20 minutes of exercise a day. If it's walking around your block a few times, going for a bike ride, it doesn't matter.
For those of you who have tried and been unsuccessful on this or any other plan -- the key is to take it one step at a time.
The biggest problem I hear about (and see in any office) is that people have two modes of operation: 'regular' and 'diet,' so -- at best -- they diet and work out until they get what they want and then stop, and then this repeats indefinitely.
If you have trouble keeping up the willpower to follow one of the regimens linked to in these comments, don't do at all once. The BEST ADVICE YOU CAN TAKE AS A NERD:
Give up soda. No real soda, no diet soda. The worst thing in the world to put into your body is sugar, and that's all you're getting with soda. Replace it with water. If you drink a lot of coffee, a) cut the sugar down to the minimum you need for the coffee, and b) drink even more water. Soda does nothing but dehydrate you and fill your body with shit. At @200 calories a pop for non-diet, you can easily shave 400-800 calories off of your daily diet. That's about how many calories you burn when you run a few miles -- down the crapper in the couple of minutes it takes you to drink a coke.
The key is to make these habits routine, so you don't have to think 'oh, I'm on a diet this week.' Even the best 'whiz' diet will not help you if you do not adapt a healthy living style. Don't aim for going to the gym twice a week. Aim for doing something EVERY DAY (even if it's the 11-minute 5BX Plan) -- and then augment that daily routine with a few _serious_ work outs.
Being in shape half the time and spending the other half trying to get back in shape doesn't help your health very much. Change your lifestyle and then you can 'cheat' without it being even being cheating, because you do the right thing 95% of the time.
> ...people playing these games in public places look really silly.
It's too bad that we Americans fear and ridicule that which we do not understand. What's so silly? The massive stamina, speed, and even agility that the game requires?
I play DDR Max 7th mix in the arcade near me. Alot of people crowd around, stare and poke fun. But you know what? Who gives a damn? I'm having more fun playing the arcade game than they are having making fun on me...and it's keeping me physically fit. I never exercised regulary before, but now I have a fun excuse to. Besides, I offer some of the people who make fun of me a free game. Those who take me up on the offer, I usually see playing next time I'm there. ;-)
2. Eat smaller portions; stop eating as soon as (or before) you feel full. This is especially important if you eat out; lots of restaurants give you unnecessarily big portions. Eat a Whopper Jr. instead of a full-size Whopper; throw out half your french fries. Pay attention to portion sizes on food packages. Remember, feeling a little bit hungry is not a bad thing.
3. Cut down or eliminate deep-fried stuff. It's loaded with fat. Eat grilled chicken instead of fried; have broiled fish instead of fish-and-chips. Substitute flank steak for hamburger. Have an occasional vegetarian/vegan meal. While I have no intention of going 100% vegan, there are plenty of meatless meals that I've found I like.
4. Avoid between-meal snacks. The calories can really add up. It's OK to have a treat now and then; just don't overdo it. Choose low-calorie snacks, and eat fresh fruit instead of candy.
I once weighed 245 lbs/111 kilos. Then, I made those four changes to my eating habits. For a month, I avoided stepping onto the scale, and when I finally did so, I found that I had lost a little weight. After six months, I was down to 210 lb/95 kg, and after a year, I leveled off at 170 lb/77 kg.
As for keeping the weight off, get some exercise. After my weight leveled off, I dragged my old mountain bike out of storage and started riding for the first time in eight years. I then switched to a recumbent for more comfort and speed (Mine is the 2001 model). I've taken many long rides on it; my personal distance record so far for a one-day ride is 150 miles/241 km.
This winter, the weather discouraged me from riding much, so I went back into diet mode when I noticed that I had gained a little. Now I'm down to 165 lb/75 kg...
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
This is just more of the same old Fat People listening to Fat People. Low calorie diets do not work; this has been known since the beginning of the whole concept of dieting. Heresy you say? Look: no generally accepted study has ever found ANY diet to work without compulsion. NO KNOWN DIET WORKS for general populace.
What we have here, as usual, is an anecdotal story of one's mans (apparent) success at losing weight. The bookstore is littered with this sort of thing.
As it stands today, if you are fat and want to not be fat, the only scientifically proven method is a fat prison. A place where you are literally locked up and unable to eat.
Thus I say to you, eat what you will and be happy. Diets are often times worse than the effects of the fat.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Optimist.
Hmm, seems like someone either confused "informative" with "funny"... It it true that a lean, muscular person weighs a little bit more than a lean, weak person - but he will still weigh far less than a fat person. And fat is not nutritious. Low-fat food is just as nutitrious as high-fat food, but more healthy because it contains less fat. You eat the same amount of it because your body needs a certain volume to feel full, not because you have to reach a certain fat-content before you can stop eating. If you are too fat you do yourself a real favor by losing weight. Don't look for stupid excuses to stay fat, and don't blame it on the food. Instead eat healthy food, eat at regular times and eat regular portions, don't snack, and move. So here's what to do (and you don't even have to buy an expensive book for these tips!): - buy a bike. Use it for every 10km (that's 6 miles or so) trip you have to make. If necessary, make up imaginary goals for your trips. - Never buy snacks. If they are not in the house no amount of temptation will set you to snacking. Instead buy fruit (preferably fresh, but have some canned fruit ready for emergencies). If the need to snack becomes unbearable, start on the fruit. - When snacking, eat one thing, then wait ten minutes. Ten minutes is the time before the body realizes it has received some food and shuts up about wanting more. You can do ten minutes right? - When buying food, buy stuff that is at least somewhat healthy (no pizza or hamburgers). There is no particular need to minimize fat intake, just eat what you like, but do so at regular times and with moderation (decide what you are going to eat beforehand and do so). - Use some common sense. Disclaimer: it works for me. I'm 32 years old, 1.90m tall and weigh 78kg, and have been like that for pretty much the last 8 years.
"Your body is designed to burn food, not sugar. Food is turned into Glucose, but you arent designed to drink dextrose(sugar). Your body doesnt know what to do with it, so 100 percent of it gets stored as fat unless you are running a marathon and drinking it (gatorade).
Who is teaching you this stuff? Look man, our bodies burn glucose. "Food" is an abstract concept that makes it easier for us to think about what our bodies are doing to the stuff we eat. And, you're wrong -- our bodies do know what to do with glucose when we eat it. That's why we can administer pure dextrose as a drug to treat hypoglycemia. Your body doesn't care where it comes from -- glucose is glcose is glucose.
No one's arguing that all food is converted to glucose, its the speed that matters. Down 500 grams of glucose and have it absorb into your system within seconds, what is the chance that your body will burn 100 percent of it? Oh thats right 0. You will not burn it all and the majority of it will go to fat.
It's not 0, but I'll agree that you're not likely to completely utilize a massive amount of glucose unless you're undergoing some strenuous exercise. That said, you have to make up your mind -- a few sentences from now, you're going to argue that complex carbs are bad, because they absorb slowly. So what is it?
Rice takes forever to burn and digests instantly, its a fucking complex carbohydrate, marathon runners use rice and noodles, starches are high GI and take forever to burn, its equal to drinking a really high quality form of glucose which wont burn off with excercise, good if you want to run a marathon, REALLY BAD IF YOU WANT TO BURN FAT!
Ah, yes. "Proof by louder repetition." A favorite amongst slashdotters.
Why in the world do you think that glucose leads to fat? You still haven't justified this assertion. Your body wants to maintain a constant level of blood glucose -- it will attempt to do this (assuming you're not diabetic), by balancing the release of insulin and glucagon to regulate the uptake and release of glucose from your cells. Now, when you eat, your body converts whatever food it can into glucose, using the most efficient metabolic pathway available to it. Thus, eating results in the addition of glucose to your bloodstream, unless, of course, you choose to eat only fat and/or protein. In that case, you'd better eat a lot less food, because the caloric density of fat is very high, and, as I noted before, a high-protein diet can lead to other nasty things.
Avoid complex carbs as well, they take longer to digest but they take forever to burn
Again, I think you need to go back and think about your definitions, here. Complex carbs take a bit longer to get into the blood, but they're relatively quickly converted into glucose once they're there (complex carbohydrates are nothing more than long-chain polysaccharides, and are easily divided by hydrolysis -- your body does a good job of it). Once hydrolized, they're burned as efficiently as any other glucose molecule in your blood. The "problem" you're referring to is the tendency of the slowly-absorbed carbohydrates to provide a long-term rise in blood glucose levels. And remember, just a few sentences ago, you were arguing that the "quick-burning" simple sugars are bad! So which is it?
really starches have no purpose in the human body, we arent designed for it and thats why it spikes our insulin and then gets stored as bodyfat.
Let me get this straight -- because complex carbohydrates can possibly lead to insulin spikes (though this is far less of a danger than with simple sugars), that means our body "wasn't designed" for them? So, what -- I tell you that those protein supplements the weightlifters use leads to kidney failure, and you're going to tell me that our bodies weren't "designed" for protein? Does it even matter to you that human beings evolved from agrarian populations? That much of our metabolic ma
Let's try not to let fact interfere with our speculation here, OK?
This is why slashdot needs a -1, Incorrect dammit! moderation. You can't mod him flamebait, because you'll get metamoderated all to hell, the same with troll. The only thing you can go for is overrated, but in the slashcode, if you mod over/underrated, you'll get moderator points less and less frequently.
While it's in the code, I didn't really believe it until I tried it - I get points once a week now just by bringing up the funny/interesting/informative and letting other people deal with the crap.
*shrug*
Low-fat food is just as nutitrious as high-fat food, but more healthy because it contains less fat.
That has yet to be confirmed. Fat is not necessarily bad.
You eat the same amount of it because your body needs a certain volume to feel full, not because you have to reach a certain fat-content before you can stop eating.
The parent post was implying that your body eats to obtain a certain amount of *calories* before it feels satisfied (not volume). Since fat packs more calories per pound than any other digestible ingredient, you can eat much less fatty food than low-fat food, and yet be just as sated. Furthermore, most fats have a certain chemical component which when broken down in your stomach makes you feel fuller than you really are.
But take all claims with a grain of salt (especially what the government says about healthy eating - they know less than anyone in the field and even the people in the field aren't sure what the answers are).
See:
Thread on food
Comprehensive NY Times article discussing fat in diet
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
Been doing low-carb diets (two of them, one twice and one once) for over 3 years now, and I can give folks some useful facts without all of the confusing opinion that everyone wants to throw in:
;-) When you go back to a "normal" diet, you'll find you can gain the weight back very fast (I gained about 90% back)
1. If you simply eliminate 80-90% of the rice, other grains (and products made from them like bread), starchy roots, and sugars from your diet, you will lose weight.
2. Cheating is good. Simply put, if you do the above you pretty much need to cheat in order to maintain some balance in your diet. I recommend a glass of OJ or V8 at least once a week and a bowl of high-fiber cereal once a week (Fiber One has a good fiber/carb ratio).
3. Losing is easy, so is gaining. The problem is that you have to have an exit-plan because after a year of this diet, you may have lost 50 lbs like I did, but you're going to be sick of not eating sandwiches.
4. The Carbohydrate Addicts diet is somewhat less effective, but does give you a major win: dinner.
I started my original diet again and a doctor suggested, for reasons unrelated to weight, that I switch to the CA diet (you can find the book just about anywere, but you don't need it). The diet is simple: even more strict carb reduction with no snacks coupled with a one-hour dinner of whatever the heck you want. The book has some maintenance plans that basically leave you on the diet permanently in a way that is not very difficult live with. The way this diet works is by tricking the body's insulin-release process. By eating low carbs for 2 meals and then limiting yourself to one hour for your "reward dinner", you end up processing that dinner pretty much the same way as you would a low-carb meal.
5. The cold hard truth is that while a low-carb diet will work, excersise still can't be beat. If you get 20 contiguous, minutes or more of sweat-inducing activity in per day, at least 3 days per week, the aerobic benefit is gigantic.
Good luck all!
Yes, but if you are consuming more calories than you're eating, on a regular basis, your metabolism will slow to compensate. The result: you'll be hungry, tired, and won't really lose that much weight. And when you give up on the diet, your slower metabolism will take a while to compensate for increased intake-- so you'll gain your fat back.
Using the same logic, one can treat kidney failure by drinking less fluid - if you drink only as much fluid as you lose, you cant get fluid retention and swell up (as people in kidney and heart failure tend to do).
This is not 100% accurate. In normal mammals in the wild, this would surely be true, but humans do not consume a natural diet. Salt and alcohol are two substances which will cause water retention. Another major culprit is cooked food, as heat damaged proteins cannot be utilized by your body and instead are secreted through your sweat glands as a waste product (same way as certain proteins in onions, giving your sweat a different odor). All protein is hydophobic, thus resulting in water retention in the outer layer of your skin. This results in acne, dry skin, and in many people facial edema.
Delete a gene from a mouse, and it gets fat, even on the same caloires of a normal mouse.
I have heard this before, but there was no such study. The gene in question seemed to involve hunger. The mice in question did consume more calories than the other mice. You cannot magically produce fat from nothing. A glucose molecule or a fatty acid molecule is the same size in an ant, elephant, or mouse. These people were also feeding mice wheat based pellets, ignoring a well known fact that wheat products contain opioid peptides and are addictive. Most likely, the genes had nothing to do with hunger but response to mu-opioid agonists, ie those mice crave opioid drugs more than others. This is also the case with humans. Opioid peptides derived from wheat and dairy products are added to pretty much every junk food. MSG is another addictive substance.
Point is, we didn't spend thousands of years in evolution without developing tight regulation of our metabolism.
There is not tight regulation as you speak, your metabolic activity is supposed to be tightly connected to appetite. Unfortunatley, our shift to a diet of cooked food, wheat, and dairy products has created a situation where people aren't craving the food but the drugs they contain. You have a drug delivery system rich in calories.
Thus the problem with simply dieting - for most people, in the long run, it just doesn't work.
It can easily work, if people eliminate addictive foods from their diet. But to comment on your statement, if what you say is true, then all hope is lost for the human race.
Because they are fighting their programming.
Programming? You mean like genetic programming? It is an absolute myth, plain and simple, that human beings are predisposed to gluttony. It is simply not true. A simple survey of photographs from past would show you that humans today are SICK, and it is not normal. Food has been plentiful in the US for most of its entire existence, yet obesity of the level today simply did not exist in the 19th century and early 20th century. Look at pictures of the beach at Coney Island in 1920 for example, when food was plentiful in NYC. There were no fat people at all.
There are plenty of examples, but the evidence is overwhelming that humans eating a normal western diet are following an addictive behavior pattern, not a normal human one.
I will give you a hint, governments do not want it to become widely known that opioid drugs are found throughout our food supply. It is only a secondary reason that companies add them so that profits increase due to customers eating and buying more of their crap. Governments want opioid drugs in foods because they create contentment in the people. Secondary effects like asthma and constipation are also quite handy in keeping a people from revolting.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
My birthday is coming up (the "big" 3-0, of course) - so I thought it would be in my best interest to have a full physical done. I had an idea that when the blood work came back, there would be hell to pay. I am your typical geek - little in the way of exercise, high fat/high carb food consumption (ie, Jack in the Box and KFC on a weekly basis, lots of home cooked meals like polish sausage and fried potatoes, grilled rib-eye steak, homemade fried pork chops), and worst of all, funky eating habits (no breakfast, no lunch, three helpings at dinner).
That all changed when I got my blood work back the next week, and was prescribed Lipitor for high cholesterol.
Attention all geeks - I cannot stress this enough - if you are overweight and eat like I eat, get your blood work done, and change your habits - before they get to a point where they kill you. It isn't hard to do, and can be a little fun (ok, not much - but it is interesting, to say the least).
Ok, so now I am on Lipitor for the immediate future. As soon as I got my bloodwork back, I was what could be called something like "low-high" range - in that I had more than reccommended total cholesterol (a bit over 200), a lot more of the bad cholesterol, and less than needed (a lot less) of the good cholesterol. I immediately (the night I picked up my prescription) changed my diet and my habits.
1. No more fast food, unless it is a healthy alternative like Subway (no mayo, etc), or some kind of chinese food (chicken and white rice, but the chicken can't be fried).
2. No more fried foods.
3. Eat on a regular basis - I now eat a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner, all normal size portions - no more triple-helpings at "dinner".
4. Eat more grilled foods - chicken and seafood mainly, every now and then, pork (lean chops). The upside is that I love chicken - I just can't have it fried.
5. Eat more baked foods - lemon-pepper baked salmon and rice - yum!
6. Take a walk on regular basis - I now walk about 1-2 miles every evening after I eat.
7. Park further away from places - this isn't something I always do, but I do more often now - not only do you get a parking space all the time, but you get a bit of exercise as well.
8. No more "sweets" - ie, processed snack cakes, candy bars, etc.
9. Drink less soda - no more 44 oz drinks from Circle K - I drink a lot more water now, I also buy flavored/carbonated water. I also drink a fair amount of soy milk (Silk brand is the best I have found, so far).
10. If you drink milk, go with 1-2%, and where you can stand it, drink soy milk as I noted above - I tend to buy vanilla flavored, and have it with cherrios for my breakfast.
11. Eat more fruit and vegetables - steam your vegatables when/where you can - or roast them, or bake them, or have them raw.
12. When you are full, stop eating - this isn't as hard if you are eating regularly. When I switched to a breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule of eating, I found out I was eating a lot less food, and I filled up quickly.
When you buy food, look for the lowest of everything on the back - however, most of the time you will have to compromise. Typically, if it is low fat, it is high carb - or it will be vice-versa. Rarely will you find foods (especially processed foods) that are "perfect" in all categories. Many foods are actually completely "empty" - they have calories, and that's it - Redi-Whip is like this. What is nice about these is that if you keep your daily calorie count low enough, you can use redi-whip, chocolate syrup, and low-fat vanilla ice cream and have a nice "sweet" that isn't too bad for you.
Eat more fish and seafood - salmon, catfish and others are pretty good eats, prepared right. Just don't dip in batter and fry - bake or grill instead. Grilled pork chops with barbeque sauce are fi
Reason is the Path to God - Anon