Hello everyone!! I am here because I am so TIRED OF BEING FAT!!! I just can't take it anymore. I WON'T take it anymore.
I have cut my calories down to 1500 a day with 50 grams of fat. I am going to walk 2 -3 miles a day to start out with. Then I will move to jogging again ( I was jogging but sprained my ankle during an unrelated walk).
I am determined to lose 30 lbs by my birthday December 16th...
Only thing is I don't know if that is even healthy... Could someone help me out?
well a healthy weight loss is considered 1-2 lbs/week and there are 4-5 weeks in a month so... a healthy fast weight loss would be about 26 lbs in 3 months. Even if you didn't lose 30 lbs though, wouldn't you feel better if you lost 15? or 20?
If you keep at it, you will get there. Try for 30 but don't be dissapointed if your weight loss isn't what you expected, you'll get there.
Well I know that it was perfectly achievable and healthy for me - but then I was much heavier than you when I started. I did it through lowering my calories, reducing my fat (40 grams was my max at my highest caloric level of 1600 so I think your fat percentage might be a bit on the high side if you're going for low fat) and almost eliminating my saturated fat, and of course really upping my exercise. I also drink a lot of water, avoid processed foods, and divide my calories over 5-6 meals. Also, I avoid high glycemic carbs.
I don't see any reason why you can't -- or shouldn't -- achieve your goal, but you're really going to have to work hard and stay on course. And make sure you adjust your calories to account for lost weight.
Best to you -- and be sure you keep coming back here for support and comradery -- that's really important in helping you to stay on track and meet your goals.
Doable, but not guaranteed. Just make sure that setting a deadline doesn't work AGAINST you by demoralizing you when you don't lose x pounds in a week or you find yourself falling behind your timeline.
More important than losing a certain amount of weight in a certain time period is building healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Think of this not as a short-term project to get you to goal weight, but a retraining period that will teach you how to live at maintenance. The weight will come off as a SIDE EFFECT of that. Ambition is good, but it's better to start small and work up to things like a certain amount of exercise, than to bite off a big chunk and start out gung-ho, then fade. Slow and steady wins the race.
I don't even bother counting calories... I count FAT. Your body naturally burns 40 grams of fat a day. Any more than that and you're going to start packing it on.
I stick to a 10 - 20 grams of fat a day diet. I EAT, I don't skip on meals... Breakfast can be a pain in the neck but to lose weight it's REALLY important!!! I eat one of those Quakers Oatmeal on the go meal bars, they are between 4 - 6 grams of fat, with a cup of skim milk (or skim chocolate milk if you like).
If you feel like snacking, eat fruit... you can eat as much as you like and not gain a pound. In fact the more you eat throughout the day (fruit and healthy wholesome meals) the more you are bound to lose... as long as you're not going over that 40 grams of fat!. You can eat fruit all day except for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still be a lb lighter the next day. Fruit = water and water helps break down food in your system faster.
For lunch, I eat a lean cuisine and for dinner I eat a normal home made meal.
Cut back on eating out, and walk for exercise to start.
Since I started my diet (approx 6 weeks ago) I have lost just about 20 lbs. I was 80 lbs overweight.
My fiancee followed the same diet, and lost just about 23 lbs in the same time. He was only 22 lbs overweight.
Tamaralynn, I'd be careful about prescribing that diet to anyone. I'm glad it works for you but every body is different
I used to have really bad eating habits, so bad that I'd only eat one type of thing for a while. For a while, I ate only fruit (yes not a very wholesome diet but I was feeling weird at the time). I didn't lose a pound. My problem is that I have PCOS so I have to be very careful about the carbs I eat, so eating fruit without some protein as a snack would probably be a mistake for someone like me.
Also, I don't know what the daily fat requirement is, but you do need fat in your diet and 10 grams sounds way low. You also need protein in your diet and protein is often combined with fat (at least the good tasting stuff is
Even though I am not a calorie counter, I do believe calories do count, so what I try to do once in a while is do a calorie check, where I count my calories for a few days to make sure I'm not too far off.
I did lose 40 lbs in 3 months the way I am currently eating, but I know my eating plan isn't for everyone. I'm glad yours works for you, I would just caution that it might not work for everyone.
I don't even bother counting calories... I count FAT. Your body naturally burns 40 grams of fat a day. Any more than that and you're going to start packing it on.
I stick to a 10 - 20 grams of fat a day diet. I EAT, I don't skip on meals... Breakfast can be a pain in the neck but to lose weight it's REALLY important!!! I eat one of those Quakers Oatmeal on the go meal bars, they are between 4 - 6 grams of fat, with a cup of skim milk (or skim chocolate milk if you like).
If you feel like snacking, eat fruit... you can eat as much as you like and not gain a pound. In fact the more you eat throughout the day (fruit and healthy wholesome meals) the more you are bound to lose... as long as you're not going over that 40 grams of fat!. You can eat fruit all day except for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still be a lb lighter the next day. Fruit = water and water helps break down food in your system faster.
Ahem...I felt like I was in a time warp to the 1990's when I read this!
Succinctly:
1) Fat is NOT THE DEVIL - we NEED fat in our diets, and more than 20 grams a day, just focus on healthy fats. If anything, sugar is the devil.
2) Contrary to the above, you CANNOT eat 'as much fruit as you like and not gain a pound'. And also, there is no such thing as a 'fat burning food'.
3) I do agree that breakfast IS important - but not with your choice of Quaker Oatmeal on the go meal bars, or ANY meal bar. Have you read the ingredients on those? Oatmeal is a great source of healthy carbs and fiber, but not when it's mixed with a bunch of crapola ingredients such as sugar (usually in the form of HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup) and whatever else is in those 'bars'. Keep in mind that eating sugar typically leads to wanting MORE sugar, rather than being satisfied. My typical breakfast is a bowl of hot, old-fashioned oatmeal with some cinnamon and a few blueberries (no milk) along with an eggwhite omelete - made with one whole egg + 5 whites, and a little fat-free cheddar cheese (maybe a couple of tablespoons of shredded FF cheese) as a condiment and perhaps some spinach and mushrooms added. The HEALTHY mix of carbs, protein and fat fills me up and keeps me going for hours (and BTW for those of you who say "I don't have time to make such an elaborate breakfast" - oatmeal takes like 2-3 minutes to nuke in the microwave, and an eggwhite omelette, from cracking the eggs to serving it up, takes me about 6 minutes - I'm a busy bee too!).
Back in the 1990's, I too was one of the believers that fat was bad. Of course, I didn't equate the fact that my skin was dry and itchy, my hair was thinning, and I felt run down to the fact that I had lowered my fat down to the same level (10-20 grams a day).
Not meaning to offend, but the diet you just described sounds like a combination of Susan Powter and the Beverly Hills Diet to me...
Right now my diet consists of 40% protein/40% carbs/20% fats. And it works for me - currently I'm 145 pounds and a size 4 (actually a loose size four at this point) down from my high weight of 265 back in 1990.
In the Ladies who Lift forum I started a post regarding calories, and OH YUP THEY DO COUNT. Even with healthy food - if you eat too much, you can still get fat, ya know? My post was inspired by an article in the August issue of Shape Magazine...check it out:
And regarding losing 30 lb in 3 months - personally I'd just focus on losing at a moderate pace and MORE IMPORTANTLY keeping the weight off permanently! Do you really want to lose the weight quickly by December, only to see every single one of those pounds (plus some buddies) back in March? I don't think so! Check this out from Michael Fumento's excellent book The Fat of the Land...
Quote:
Get Thin Slowly
...certainly it's better to stay down [in weight] once you're down. And apparently one "secret" to doing this is to go down slowly.
Wayne Callaway, M.D., notes that marketing studies conducted by one weight-loss organization found that, when dieting, most woment expect to lose between 2-3 pounds a week and most men expect between 3-5 pounds a week. If this expectation is unmet, dieters will discontinue the program by the 3rd week. Not for nothing do you hear slogans like Slim-Fast's "Give us a week and we'll take off the weight".
"To remain financially successful, commercial operations try to meet this expectation, even when they know that most of the early weight loss is from water and that a water retention cycle will eventually follow," says Callaway. "Virtually all the experts - from the Surgeon General to well-respected popular health and nutrition writers such as Jane Brody...agree that diets designed to meet these expectations always fail over the long term."
Remember that virtually any diet can cause you to lose weight; the real problem is keeping it off. With that in mind, choose a regimen that emphasizes not speed but permanency. While one often hears that no more than 2 pounds a week should be lost, it appears even this is toomuch for most people who are not extremely obese. (Obviously, the fatter you are, the less of an overall percentage of your fat 2 pounds is. So with some people, 2 or even 3 pounds might be OK.)
George Blackburn, MD, chief of surgical nutrition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, is considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on weight loss. He suggests that you begin by aiming to lose no more than 10% of body weight at the rate of no more than a pound a week. Only after maintaining that loss for 6 months and recieving permission from your physician, he says, should you attempt to take off another 10%.
In my case, after I began writing this book I initially lost 14% of my weight, which struck me as a good goal since it brought me to the weight that I was at when I joined the army at age 18. So I went a bit overboard, perhaps, but not by too much. In any case, it brought me down to a good, healthy weight. Then I went conservative and held that weight not for 6 months but for a whole year before trying to drop more. Then I said, "Congratulations, you did it. Now it's time to try and reach your ultimate goal, which is to be not only healthily slim but downright athletic." I'm not advising that for all my readers. But this was what I wanted for myself and I did it.
The main reason to aim for slow weight loss is because you are seeking to permanently change your eating habits. The calorie deficit you create should be close to what will be your permanent calorie level and certainly no lower than 1,200 to 1,300 calories. The further you go below this, the more likely you are to suffer from hunger - and nothing defeats a weight-loss regimen more quickly than hunger.
Another big advantage of slighter reductions in calories is that evidence indicates you may lose somewhat less muscle this way than with sharper calorie restrictions...
Very low-calorie diets may be necessary for those few cases where people need to lose a lot of weight quickly because of serious health problems, such as the need for surgery. Other than this, I believe they have little going for them - though all too many doctors continue to recommend them to patients. Studies comparing the two types of weight loss regimens have found that you definitely get more bang for the buck with less caloric restriction. That is, you lose more fat off your body per calories reduced with milder restriction. Consider severe energy restriction as a jackhammer while lesser restriction is more like a hammer and chisel. You can break up rock more quickly with the jackhammer, but more to your liking with the delicate instruments.
TamaraLynn, I'm not sure what you mean by 'this site is like all the others'. I know you are hyped up on your weight loss, and you should be proud for sticking to a plan for this long - lots of people can't do that! However, we live and learn, and there have been quite a few developments in nutritional research over the last few years that show just counting fats isn't the healthiest way to go. Calories still do count! If you are losing weight on this plan, it is probably because you are coincidentally cutting your calories along with the fat (or burning more calories).
If I ate fruit all day, my pancreas would choke and shrivel up. Not everybody is that way, but the longer a person is overweight, the more likely they have Insulin Resistance, and that is just one step away from Diabetes. However, not everybody is afflicted by IR, but there is still that issue of calories in - calories out. I'm sorry if you are offended by another viewpoint. If we're just like all the others, maybe that should be telling you something about your diet plan.
Calories do count, and this explains why the popular diets work - low fat, low carb, etc. When you restrict the types of foods you are eating, you eliminate many of your choices, and you eat less. Consume fewer calories, and you lose weight.
Eat more calories than you burn, and those calories are going to be stored somewhere - like your hips. It doesn't matter if those calories come from fruit, butter, or spaghetti. What's more important is to make sure that the calories you consume are healthy and balanced. It's also equally important to make sure you consume enough calories, so your body's metabolism doesn't adjust and burn fewer calories to survive.
How Snackwells taught us that fat free doesn't help us lose weight
Even I fell for this one. I recall going through a stage in the 90's where I thought I could eat anything as long as it didn't contain fat, or very little fat. I had this misguided idea that only fat turned to fat. Along came Snackwell's and similar products, and they were flying off the shelves. Who can forget that! We thought that we could eat unlimited amounts of fat free foods, and disregarded their calorie content. We ate more than we burned, and the nation just got fatter. This again pointed to calorie control as an important aspect of weight loss. The same thing is happening again with low carb. The shelves are filled with low carb foods such as "CarbWell's" and people are eating more calories, and losing less weight. We haven't learned a thing.
Moderate fat is better than low fat
For overall health and weight loss, research has shown that moderate fat is better than low fat, and certainly healthier than high fat. The studies show that you lose just as much weight going moderate fat as low fat. But of course only if it's the right kind of fat, and this means eliminating saturated and trans fats. You consume more of the heart-healthy types of fats, such as those that contain omega-3 oils, so your cholesterol and overall health improves.
I used to be afraid of fat, but now I've learned that "good" fat is my friend I remember when a small bottle of olive oil would go rancid before I used it all. Now I use it all without any problem. I also take 3 grams of fish oil capsules every day.
Consume fewer calories, and you lose weight. It's that simple, and it's that complicated. The tricky part is finding a plan that fits your lifestyle and personal tastes, addresses any health issues that you have, and you may have to hop from diet to diet until you find one that you can stick to. Once you find it, then it's all downhill from there.
Shelly_G, I think you are on the right track! Whether or not it's healthy depends on where you get those calories. Read the labels and choose wisely
Hi,
I tried the Atkins diet for a while and ended up losing as well as gaining, making my weight loss 0!!! I am currently 148 lbs and would like to lose 25 lbs by Christmas...almost the same goal that Shelle_G is trying to achive. So Shelly, maybe we can buddy up!!! I am planning on watching my calorie intake as well as upping my exercise and weight training. I know that we can do it, even if we don't lose what we really want to lose. I am new to this forum and would really appreciate any advice on what I should eat and how much calories I shouold be eating. I am 5"3, 148 and of medium build. I am thinking more whole grain foods, fruits and veggies and lean protein! Lemme know what you guys think!
Thanks.
PS Shelle_G, I look forward to buddying up with you! I need all the support I can get!
Mariana, I firmly believe whole grain foods, fruits, veggies and lean protein is the way to go. That is what I've been successful with myself (although I very rarely have fruit).
Well,
I hope this works!! Once I find something that I can stick to for life and something that makes me feel and look good, I'll definitely stick to it!!!
Thanks for the advice and keep up the good work!!
Mariana!
find something that I can stick to for life and something that makes me feel and look good
I'd add healthy to that list too, but that goes along with feeling good.
Quote:
I am thinking more whole grain foods, fruits and veggies and lean protein!
Sounds perfect to me. Keep your meals small and frequent so that you never get really hungry, increase your cardio exercise and add some weight training, and I'm sure you will meet your goals.
Is it possible to lose 30 lbs in 3 months?
I remember when a small bottle of olive oil would go rancid before I used it all. Now I use it all without any problem. I also take 3 grams of fish oil capsules every day. 
Weight loss support!!
