Hi,
I decided to join this forum so I can talk to people about my personal weight loss goals and any problems that I have along the way.
Right now I am 5 foot 9 and weigh about 210 pounds. I am a construction worker and have a decent amount of muscle, but also quite a few extra pounds of fat.
I figure I can stand to lose about 40 pounds of fat to be in my desirable weight range.
What's been working for me recently is eating less carbs and raising my levels of fat and protein.
For years I tried to cut down on fat in order to lose weight and this didn't work for me at all. I just ended up eating more carbs to fill myself up.
3 months ago I cut out all bread and grains. I weighed 220 and now I am stable down at 210.
But I found the key for me personally was to eat more protein and HIGHER levels of fat. When I eat high-fat meals I get full and stay that way all night without a need to snack after dinner(which was my MAJOR downfall).
The problem with high-fat is it has tons of calories. But I find it balances itself, because I can't eat nearly as much when I eat high fat anyways. So I am steadily losing weight now which is great.
New studies are showing that eating high fat does not lead to heart disease or any other non-optimum physical condition.
And that makes me really happy because I was SUPER addicted to bread and pasta and rice and pretty much any other simple carb. And eating high fat was the only way I found I could handle my carb cravings.
I read some good articles on the subject of weight loss without crazy diets and it really helped.
I posted a link above to a site I found that helped me understand the difference between real lifestyle changes and fad-diets.
Anyways, I'm happy to share my experiences with you guys and look forward to feedback.
I am no fitness guru, and I'm still pretty chubby, but I am for the first time on a track to controlling my weight loss, and I wanted to share it with you guys.