3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

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- Weight and Resistance Training (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weight-resistance-training-80/)

- - common nutrition themes (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weight-resistance-training/29212-common-nutrition-themes.html)

I was surfin' the Net :comp: saw the following at a fitness site, and immediately thought of our discussion of the free day - good or bad? Check this out...most of you probably know the guy who wrote this - Jeremy Likness. The original question was actually regarding how much cardio is too much, but then it went into the free day/nutrition thingamagig. Read on...

Quote:

The first place I always look when someone is having an issue with losing fat is their nutrition. [Y]ou mentioned cutting back on calories, etc, but my question for you is this ... when you eat "BFL-style", what does that mean, exactly? Are you eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole foods? Are you eating the exact same meals each day, or are you incorporating variety? Are you making sure to have a carb portion before bed? Are you taking a free day?

Believe it or not, for some people, the free day in and of itself can be the single most limiting factor. Some people thrive on free day and plunge towards their goals, others must eliminate it. Let's face it. There is no "free meal." Calories do count. And for a woman, especially so. Most women can only lose about 0.5 - 1.5 pounds of fat per week. At the low end, that is a net equivalent of 1,700 calories deficit. Keep in mind that one free day can accumulate close to 10,000 calories and totally negate that! So that is one place I would look as well.

The fact is, there is no magic formula or combination for fat loss - regardless of BFL, BodyRx, McDougall's, vegetarian, raw food, whatever, the same law applies - to lose fat, you need to take in less calories than you burn. So the problem must be tackled on two sides, one with nutrition, the other with training. Don't get too caught up in the calorie "count" for nutrition, because different foods have different effects. You can get away with more grams of protein than carbohydrate because it takes more energy for the body to process protein. You can get away with more omega-3 fatty acids than other types of fat because they stimulate metabolism. The list goes on and on.

If you are already eating a balanced, healthy diet, then the next thing to look at is training. One huge issue with people is simply intensity. For example, I know a lot of women who don't train intensely with weights because they are afraid of gaining too much muscle. If you fall into this category, RUN FROM IT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! If gaining muscle were easy, there would be more female bodybuilding competitors. The fact of the matter is, building muscle is HARD work and you are not going to gain pounds and pounds of muscle over night. So if you aren't training intensely, weight training is one of the KEYS - you must train INTENSELY and really push those 10s to not only burn more calories during the session, but also to keep your metabolism elevated afterwards to burn more fat.

As for adding the extra cardio, sure, it can help. Heck, I'm up to 65 minutes of cardio per day in addition to my 3 weight training workouts. But I am keeping it balanced. I do 3 20-minute high intensity sessions, and the rest is simply uphill walking. The goal is to burn more calories, but not to burn myself out. If you suddenly add intense sessions or too much volume of jogging, you are risking injury and burnout. In fact, your body is so adept at adapting to new training, your best bet is to ramp it. Is your current load not working for you? Add a 20 minute session. Stick with it. Then wait a week or two, and add another 10 minute session .. like that. Ramp it up, don't jump into the extra cardio all at once.

There's really, from my experience, two approaches to weight loss. If you are eating a truly disciplined, clean nutrition plan and not taking cheat meals etc (and by disciplined, I mean ALL WHOLE FOODS - this means whole grains, whole beans, nothing in a package, nothing processed like bread, etc) then you probably could concern yourself less with calories and more with quality of exercise. If, on the other hand, you are taking cheat meals or eating processed foods (look at my diary - I eat packaged burritos, corn chips, etc, so I fall into the latter category) then sometimes it is critical to get a handle on your portions.

I can't tell you how many people I know think they're doing fine, but as I alluded to before, their fist or palm gets bigger when they're more hungry. Or they snack on one bite of a cookie because surely one bite won't hurt (but then you add that one chip that won't hurt and that one pretzel that doesn't hurt and suddenly you're taking in another 200 calories a day or 1400 per week!). Or they find the most convenient meal possible - say, cottage cheese and yogurt and chicken breast in a pita pocket, and then they eat that exact same meal each day. This in itself can wreak havoc. I know ... I'm eating fairly static from day to day, and therefore I must increase my cardio each week to make up for the deficit. When I'm eating more variety, lo and behold, my metabolism increases.

It's an individual game but the bottom line is that no one is special. I know that [it was] mentioned being "doomed to be fat." You can certainly be doomed, but it is you who are dooming yourself, not genetics. If your family is struggling with weight management, then that is a very strong answer for you - it's something psychological embedded in your brain. Unless you are a lottery winner, only 1 in millions of people actually have a genetic inability to effectively lose fat. The rest are accosted by a myriad of complications ranging from the availability of food, the levels of processed food in our typical diets, to the psychological issues that we associate food with happiness and think every social event should be marked by a "reward" of unhealthy food. I see the journals of progressive tiredness, frustration, etc, and it tells a tale - you are exhausted, you are struggling, you are tired of being trapped, and your faith in the process is faltering. Make no mistake, it is tough and this is the key to successful weight management, but you MUST have faith. It IS in your mind ... it is the psychological aspect working against you. The only solution is to FORCE A RESOLUTION and find that right combination of understanding and self motivation to DECIDE you will make the change and follow it through.

See, it is easy to get frustrated at lack of progress and then slip. I know, I struggled for 9 months before I finally made the decision that I would do 12 weeks WITHOUT SLIPPING. I had to do those intial challenges because no one is perfect ... we focus on progress. But for me, to progress required cleaning it up. It meant absolutely refusing to give in until free day, and then listening to my body on free day. It meant no longer stuffing myself until I couldn't walk and going out in search of unauthorized foods, but rather eating things I was tempted by - ice cream, etc - but in moderation and without overeating. It meant giving up alcohol for the entire 12 weeks. It meant deciding that health was more important than the temporary gratification of food, that when I went to a barbeque I wouldn't talk myself into cheating because "well, I've got to LIVE" because I changed my definition of living from beer and ribs to being healthy. It takes a lot, but you can do it, you've just got to KEEP TRYING until the time is right and it clicks, and the change WILL come.

Hope that helps. I went off on a tangent, but bottom line ... yes, extra cardio is sometimes warranted, but it depends on your situation and many times it is the nutrition, not the exercise, that needs to be set under control.

Jeremy

Comments from the Peanut Gallery??
:gossip:

'The rest are accosted by a myriad of complications ranging from the availability of food, the levels of processed food in our typical diets, to the psychological issues that we associate food with happiness and think every social event should be marked by a "reward" of unhealthy food.'

like I said.... a holistic approach.

JC

Great post Karen!!

I think I am going to copy that to a word doc so I can look at it from time to time when I need to hear words like that. Does he have a book out, or does he write for a magazine?

Robin :cb:

Jennifa-

I agree with you on the bread, and also feel that yogurt is not an optimal food on BFL; it is counted as a carb but contains just as much protein and many people find that it doesn't have alot of staying power. Also...people tend to find yogurt flavors they like and use that brand, no matter how much sugar/corn syrup they contain.

MrsJim has an excellent article (from t.mag or abc.bodybuilding maybe?) on the truly BEST foods for bodybuilding, and bread , even whole wheat, is NOT on that list, and neither is pasta of any kind. Many feel that Bill Phillips "dumbed down" the nutrition in the BFL book to some degree to attract a bigger audience; the average Joe Smith probably would have been intimidated by a really strict food list. And to take it further...Bill Phillips no longer runs EAS and EAS has taken the "authorized foods" list on the BFL website to ridiculous places with rice cakes and popcorn.

I didn't mean to imply that Free Day is for everyone, just that the program *can* work successfullly for many who do incorporate it. Many people taper down to a free meal or two within a few weeks as they find a whole day makes them physically uncomfortable.

Laura

Jennifa - I agree with you about the foods. As for the foods, where do you get this "sprouted" bread? And what about bread I make myself....I know this was discussed on the other board, about putting it in fitday. That is one food I do eat more than I care to, and at least if I either make it myself, I know what goes into it.

Let me also ask this about bread....what about the kinds that you buy that are all natural, no preservatives or other junk? Is that still considered processed?

As for pasta, luckily I am not a big pasta fan :)

Laura - I had heard that Bill is no longer associated with EAS, and that about the only thing they do in conjunction with each other is the competitions/challenges. I am debating about doing one of the "official" challenges because I am not a big myoplex fan.

Hopefully he will clear some of this up with his upcoming books!

Robin :cb:

Any kind of bread is considered "processed" if it involves the wheat being ground into flour and then baked; this completely changes the GI, blood sugar impact, and amount of fiber.

I have heard of some "sprouted breads" that do not contain flour and these would be different; I've never tried them myself.

Laura

Hmm interesting!! So, even if I buy wheat flour that has not been "enriched", that is processed?

What do you think about tortillas, pitas, flatbread, etc.....

Guess I learn something new all the time :)

Robin :cb:

Bread is bread. Any flour is processed.

I agree with the bread thing!!

Processed is processed...

Sad, because I adore bread. However, I recall Dr. Connelly stating in BodyRx that if you decide to eat tortillas, to eat corn tortillas because the fiber count is much higher. I've never checked that out though.

I've never tried Ezekiel bread for I think its way too expensive.

Jennifa, what plan are you doing? Is this the eat for your blood type one?

I know a guy who swears by that plan too. I've never read it myself but I'm very glad its working for you! :)

Thanks Mindi, you are sweet!

How is everybody doing today?

Mindi, yes corn tortillas are better than flour - they are generally fat free and have more fiber. I personally don't care for them as much as flour though.

Robin :cb:

Not trying to start a debate here...but ALL bread is processed, including Ezekiel bread - even if you grind the grains yourself, still it's processed - and speaking for myself personally, ALL types of bread are definitely out of my clean eating menu...

Here's an Ezekiel bread recipe I found by Googling:

Quote:

2 1/2 cups Hard Red Wheat

1 1/2 cups Spelt or Rye
1/2 cup Barley
1/4 cup Millet
1/4 cup Lentils
2 Tbsp Great Northern Beans
2 Tbsp Red Kidney Beans
2 Tbsp Pinto Beans

Mix all grains and beans in a large bowl and mill into a fine flour.

Measure into a large bowl:

4 cups warm water
1 cup honey or molasses
1/2 cup oil
2 Tbsp yeast

Mix and set aside for 5 minutes until frothy.

Add to the yeast 2 tsp salt and all the flour

Mix with a strong wooden spoon until stretchy and elastic - about 7 minutes.

This is a batter bread that will not form a smooth ball. Pour into 3 greased bread pans in even amounts.

Place pans in oven on lowest heat to rise (170 degrees) . Allow to rise to within 1/2 inch of tops of pans and NO MORE or it will overflow and trash your oven. Mine takes about 15-20 minutes.

Once risen, WITHOUT OPENING THE DOOR, turn the heat up to 350. If you open the door, the cool air will cause the bread to fall. Bake at 350, about 25-30 minutes until nicely browned on top - remember, this is a cake-like bread and will not be like regular yeast breads - you may have to experiment with cooking times. Butter tops once out of the oven. Enjoy!

Just about the least processed bread recipe that I can think of was in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "The Long Winter" - when all the family (and most of the town!) had to eat was seed wheat, which they ground to flour in a coffee mill as follows:

Quote:

Grinding Wheat

Supplies:

Old fashioned coffee grinder

unground seed wheat

Note: Before starting, remember it took the Ingalls all day to grind just enough flour to make one loaf of bread. You will probably want to do this over several weeks, carefully saving the ground wheat in a sealed container.

Put in enough wheat to fill the hopper at the top. Hold tightly onto the mill, or have someone else hold it for you. You may want to grind the wheat sitting on the floor.

Turn the handle to grind. Unground wheat is very hard to grind. Continue to grind until all the wheat has gone through the grinder.

Pull out the drawer in the bottom of the mill. If it does not look fine enough to use for baking bread, return it to the top of the hopper and grind again.

When you finally have enough ground wheat, you can make bread.

After the wheat was ground, they added sourdough starter and water and made their loaf for the day...(they must have burned MAJOR calories in the grinding of the wheat using a coffeemill - not to mention it was FREEZING anyway!)

Speaking for myself personally - I can easily eat 2-3-4 slices of any type of bread (except rye which I don't care for) and want more...for me, eating whole grains such as oatmeal, barley, and brown rice or sweet taters and yams is a better choice than ANY type of bread - since my tummy has to work longer and harder to process them. Grinding grains into flour (even if you do it yourself) enables the resulting product to be digested much more quickly and more efficiently - meaning that you absorb more calories.

And regarding bread and BFL: Bill Phillips only reluctantly authorizes bread:

Quote:

Usually, when people start the Body for Life program, I try to wean them off of bread, crackers, cookies, and other carbohydrate foods that they've been overdosing on, and, although I'm reluctant to "authorize" bread, I do so under the condition that it be whole-wheat bred and that you understand that a portion of bread generally, unless you've got one big ol' hand, is only two slices of bread or one whole-wheat tortilla. Therefore, authorized meals may include a couple of my favorites, a grilled-chicken sandwich or chicken pita.

I've actually started following what In & Out Burger does as far as making 'sandwiches' by using lettuce leaves (usually Romaine or red-leaf over iceberg which is just tasteless to me!) wrapped around chicken with some mustard and tomatoes added...along with a fresh tree-ripened peach... a perfect meal!

Just my 2 cents ;)