Rrrrright!
One of my best mates can eat a whole jar of Nutella and won't gain nary a gram.... Guess you two belong in the "tails" i.e. the far extremes of the gaussian distribution curve.... I'm not accusing you specifically of any gastronomic wrong-doing... Your weight might probably be related to other conditions....
But - heck.... Maybe you *do* feel comfortable with your body - and you know what? Good!

I was *not* feeling good anymore and i decided to do the whole sweat / eat less shebang. Is there something wrong with that?...

P.

this is what I said - while for some people "doing something" might be having one beer in the evening instead of 2, for some other people it means eating virtually nothing and working out 3 hours per day. Slight difference. Not that I'm complaining or anything. only that it would help if type number 1 would not assume that type number 2 should just stop inhaling nutella jars and move their lazy butt and go for a walk every now. And then and hey the pounds will drop off, you'll see! As if..

I follow the slimmimg world programme online. Although in the UK you'd go to a group the web support is fine.
Very basically the way it's structured encourages you to eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg, plenty of complex carbs, a fair amount of meat, enough dairy for calcium, little fat. Built into it are daily treats (bit of wine, choccy, biscuits etc).
It aims for a steady weight loss and a readjustment of eating habits. It also encourages exercise. It really is very sensible. If anyone would like further details Feel free to PM me.

ullainga, you have my sympathies. Some of us are naturally hungrier than others, some of us put on weight easier. I think I'm much more like you than your husband.

Still going well. Actually better than last week.

I don't miss the food I was eating, though I'm not especially enjoying this diet food. Some spice changes will fix that though. I especially don't miss feeling bloated and tired. I seem to have more energy. I don't feel hungry and find it easy to stick to the diet, which I have been doing. I happily pass on the various snacks that come my way.

This week I seem more in control of portion sizes. It being an 'eat as much as you like' diet, so long it's the right stuff, I did. But no more.

Alcohol still yearned for, but less so.

Have started exercise and it went ok. Recovery after running took a while though. Really enjoying the rowing on the lake.

Weight loss continues at a good rate, but I'm expecting it to slow down.

I don't think anyone has made light of their weight loss in this thread, so ullainga's rant is slightly unjustified. I think she confused people saying that weight loss is easy, when in fact no one is saying that. What people have said, however, is that weight loss is uncomplicated, so people were trying to dispell some common misconceptions and discourage people from going about it the wrong way. Calories in < out is what it ultimately is, but it's far from being the end of the story. Yes, it's more difficult for some people, yes some people's metabolism is better than others'. But at the end of the day, I don't care how slow your metabolism is, there is no metabolism in the world that can violate basic laws of physics and create weight out of nothing. And don't forget, it's not only about weight loss, it's about ratio of fat and solid body tissue. Just because you gained a kilo, doesn't necessarily mean that you got unhealthier.

Here's an interesting scholarly article about the impact of weight focus and weight loss that's been getting some press in mass media - it's open access - if you're interested you can read it. It suggests a paradigm shift in the way people look at weight loss.

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/9


Here's the abstract.....
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Current guidelines recommend that "overweight" and "obese" individuals lose weight through engaging in lifestyle modification involving diet, exercise and other behavior change. This approach reliably induces short term weight loss, but the majority of individuals are unable to maintain weight loss over the long term and do not achieve the putative benefits of improved morbidity and mortality. Concern has arisen that this weight focus is not only ineffective at producing thinner, healthier bodies, but may also have unintended consequences, contributing to food and body preoccupation, repeated cycles of weight loss and regain, distraction from other personal health goals and wider health determinants, reduced self-esteem, eating disorders, other health decrement, and weight stigmatization and discrimination. This concern has drawn increased attention to the ethical implications of recommending treatment that may be ineffective or damaging. A growing trans-disciplinary movement called Health at Every Size (HAES) challenges the value of promoting weight loss and dieting behavior and argues for a shift in focus to weight-neutral outcomes. Randomized controlled clinical trials indicate that a HAES approach is associated with statistically and clinically relevant improvements in physiological measures (e.g., blood pressure, blood lipids), health behaviors (e.g., eating and activity habits, dietary quality), and psychosocial outcomes (such as self-esteem and body image), and that HAES achieves these health outcomes more successfully than weight loss treatment and without the contraindications associated with a weight focus. This paper evaluates the evidence and rationale that justifies shifting the health care paradigm from a conventional weight focus to HAES.

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Bingo....!

P.

Well I thought progress would slow and it has done. They say you should loose 10lbs/4kg in the first two weeks of a low carb diet, and a lot of this is fluid. I have lost this amount.

This week was first of the 'normal' phase and I've lost 1kg. If that continues on a weekly basis I will be very happy because I'll be trim for the summer!

If anything, the diet is easier to stick to the longer it goes on. I am looking forward to it finishing though. After going through it I have vowed never to get so fat again. Fortunately, I have learnt the benefits of low carb eating and intend to continue this.

Yes, its really cool. I lost about 20 kg last year. Yes, it is a way of living. I want to stay with it because I feel so much better.

It is amazing. I walked through COOP last week and was very aware how much food was carbs and sugar. Also, our grocery bills are much lower. I avoid red meat and eat a littel chicken ansd fish once in a while.

For snacks I eat fruit mostly apples with some unsalted nuts. I am lucky in that I enjoy vegatables. and discovering more seasoning.

But you need to be aware of the rebound. I am starting to put on a little because I am not exercising. That is next. Have a nice weekend.

I am really enjoying rowing on the lake at the moment, and hope to keep it up all year.

You too.

I don't know if you can really be that subjective about being heavy, obesity has a myriad of related diseases, restricted movement joint and muscle pain arthritis type 2 diabetes, etc. Saying being obese is a 'life choice' is distinctly strange, it is akin to wishing you had a limb amputated for aesthetic reasons. Wishing to greatly decrease your life expectancy, and expose yourself to dreadful diseases shouldn't really be anybodies 'life choice'

Nuther week, nuther 1kg.

Have started to notice wearing a belt is becoming mandatory.

I used to make the odd 'fat' joke because I've been quite a porker myself. If the diet goes well I'll have to stop that. A fat person joking about another fat person is ok, but a thin person doing the same thing sounds mocking and mean.

Actually, "fat talk" does no one any good. No matter what your size, it's not really useful to anyone to make fat jokes about yourself and others. But then, I suppose that eliminates a major source of amusement. Ho Hum. Sad isn't it. Congratulations on your progress however.

There's no harm in a little banter between two unselfconscious fat blokes, which is what I'm talking about.

A weekend skiing in Zermatt, a couple of rowing sessions across the lake, not falling off the diet wagon, another kilo of ugly fat burnt!

At this rate I should finish 20th of May, but I'm going to loose a little more than I originally planned and that will take me to 10th of June.

One thing that I don't understand is a 'diet stall', when people continue to diet but don't loose weight. I can see how your body gets more efficient, so it gets harder to loose fat, but in my experience you get better at dieting and excercise. There's also the physical impossibility of maintaining weight if you're burning more than you're consuming.

Do 'diet stalls' really exist, or are people really falling off the diet wagon, because I want to maintain my schedule?

I think you've answered your question yourself.

Yeah, you answered your own question.

Your metabolism adapts to lower food intake if it's too sudden a change, but it only goes so far. If you're forcing its hand with exercise, there's not much "stalling" it can do, as you said. If you have lots of excess fat and are following your regiment, you should still be losing weight. It gets more complex and plateauing (or even gaining weight) is possible if you're gaining muscle at the same time. Although I've found it's quite difficult to do both, unless you have crazy genetics and limit your protein intake to steamed chicken breasts and fish. I like my steaks and chicken skin, thank you very much.

Usually, if you reach a plateau in weight loss, all while dieting and exercising regularly, like I have in recent months, it probably means that you're at your optimal weight. Some people then try to take it to the "next level" and go for the six-pack etc., but that's a ridiculous amount of work, unless you're willing to quit your job and live at the gym.

When I started at the gym, after one month I had actually *gained* 3 Kgs.
I hit a 93k top and then it was downhill - sweating profusely, pedalling more enjoybly, and eating better - all the way to 80kg.

And here I've hit the proverbial brick wall.... body isn't losing any extra weight at the current regime. I would probably lose a couple more if I embarked on a really strenuous trek, or if I lost the muscle mass I've added in my upper body over the last 4 months...

Ciao

Paul

This is why I think the gym isn't necessarily a good idea for everyone. It wasn't for me. In the initial stages of weight loss, the focus should be cardio, cardio, cardio. A gym can offer too many options and fog things up. A flabby guy isn't going to get much out of pumping iron and tearing up his muscles for no reason. The least useful machines at that stage of weight loss tend to be the most tempting, and people who become overweight usually don't do it by displaying self-control, I'm sorry to say. I had to limit my options to get results, so I just put an exercise bike in front of the TV and studied what high-intesity workouts were effective for burning fat.

What's extremely important about exercise is integrating it into your life and making it part of routine. A gym tends to require most people to go out of their way, making it way too easy to lose motivation and stop going, effectively cutting off what you've made your only source of exercise. Sports don't come naturaly to me, so I quickly realized that it was almost sure to be unsustainable in the long term. Being in the privacy of my own home with the exercise bike is much more convenient. I can do it for 40-60 minutes while watching an episode of The Shield, then just quickly shower, change, and go back to what I was doing instead of going to through the hassle of showering/changing in the locker room, driving back home, etc.

BTW, I'm not saying everyone should do this, you need to find the right thing for you. Some people have to be outside and couldn't stand doing cardio in front of the TV 4 times per week, I get that.