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Weight Loss Before/After Thread! (with pics)

Schlep

Member
Gary Whitta said:
So his basic premise is eat lots of fat and protein and no/low carb? So basically Atkins?
The premise is basically that refined carbs (as well as complex carbs, to a slightly lesser degree) elevate blood sugar, which elevates insulin production, which stores blood sugar as fat to bring it down to normal levels. A diet that consistently contains a lot of carbs (which get broken down into sugar) stresses your system to cope with it, and makes weight loss all that much more difficult. Also it leads to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes.

At least that's what I'm taking away from Good Calories, Bad Calories (his other book) about halfway through. It's very much about deconstructing the research that has been done and how the results are usually flawed either through confirmation bias or data manipulation.
 

Zoe

Member
ConvenientBox said:
Pretty much a lift whatever weight I had, or even using resistance bands hurt my neck. As with cycling it must get easier, so i'll just man up and take the pain

What kind of lifting though? What you're saying is indicative of doing it wrong, and if you keep going that way you'll seriously hurt yourself.

(and even if you think you're doing it right, that doesn't mean that you really are. That's why it's good to work with someone)
 
I don't know if this will help anyone but I went from 230ish to my current weight of 194 at 6'3". My goal is somewhere around 185 or below. I didn't change too many things in the diet besides making sure to eat often and never missing breakfast but other than that I get a lot of physical activity. It's pretty hard stuff and the last 10+ pounds is a real brutal challenge but it's worth it.
 

cbox

Member
Zoe said:
What kind of lifting though? What you're saying is indicative of doing it wrong, and if you keep going that way you'll seriously hurt yourself.

(and even if you think you're doing it right, that doesn't mean that you really are. That's why it's good to work with someone)

kay, just last week I had my nike resistance band, stepped on it and did about 20 lifts on each arm, and my neck felt brutal afterwards. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure?
 

kehs

Banned
Gary Whitta said:
So his basic premise is eat lots of fat and protein and no/low carb? So basically Atkins?

The foundation that atkins is based on is a good one.

The manner in which people put atking into practice is ridiculous.
 
ConvenientBox said:
kay, just last week I had my nike resistance band, stepped on it and did about 20 lifts on each arm, and my neck felt brutal afterwards. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure?

Keep the head straight and face forward if you're doing bicep curls or any lifting. I follow the P90X warm-ups by slowly rolling the neck side to side and front to prevent any straining or whatsoever.
 

Zoe

Member
Warrior_Keoni said:
Keep the head straight and face forward if you're doing bicep curls or any lifting. I follow the P90X warm-ups by slowly rolling the neck side to side and front to prevent any straining or whatsoever.

Also, keep your shoulders back, your center engaged (to prevent arching your lower back), and your weight on your heels. Make sure you're not swinging the rest of your body when doing curls--the only part that should be moving is your arm.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Gary Whitta said:
So his basic premise is eat lots of fat and protein and no/low carb? So basically Atkins?

Atkins is a shitty brand that tries to sell you things. No/low carb with lots of fat and protein diets have been around for a long time.
 

Akim

Banned
Damn, a lot of scientists in here.

I started doing low carb at about 320 pounds. Dropped down to about 220. I decided to add carbs back into my diet, but continued my same habits....portion control, counting calories, and generally staying under my maintenance. I continued to drop my weight down to 180 pounds.

Low carb/paleo is a good system in that it keeps you satisfied, and it's harder to overeat. It's not magic. If you eat over your maintenance you are going to gain wait, plain and simple. If you eat under, you will lose.
 

spicy cho

Member
SuperAngelo64 said:
Assertiveness is everything. Chicks like the dominant alpha thing.

That picture is really embarrassing though. She was literally a 4th my weight.
That's really impressive. She looks cute!
 

Cosmic Bus

pristine morning snow
Can I just say what a Godsend these things are?

urxcX.jpg


For a total carb addict like myself, it's devastating to have to give up pasta, bread, cereal, etc, but these shirataki noodles are helping fill at least part of the void. They're $1.50 or so for a bag (two servings), 20 calories, no carbs, and while the texture isn't going to fool an Italian, it's quite satisfying nonetheless; I've found cooking them in a dry nonstick pan on med/high heat for several minutes helps improve the taste and texture substantially.
 
Watching FAT HEAD on Netflix now on the recommendation of this thread. Wow, very illuminating! I'm definitely going to up my fat/protein and limit carbs to around 100g per day and see if that improves my weight loss.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Watching FAT HEAD on Netflix now on the recommendation of this thread. Wow, very illuminating! I'm definitely going to up my fat/protein and limit carbs to around 100g per day and see if that improves my weight loss.

Depending on where you are now with your weight loss, you should see the effects immediately. If at all possible though, you should see if you can't cut the carbs down to about 50g or less.

Edit: Check out Domino's post from Mark's Daily Apple above to see where you want to be for carb levels.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Watching FAT HEAD on Netflix now on the recommendation of this thread. Wow, very illuminating! I'm definitely going to up my fat/protein and limit carbs to around 100g per day and see if that improves my weight loss.

Glad you liked it. I've been following the Paleo diet with closer to 50g of carbs or less each day (sometimes worse if I get in a Larabar kick, though I do not actually keep track of any amounts in my diet) for around four months now. I lost 30 pounds (180lbs -> 150lbs) in the first three months and have upped my carb intake with sweet potatoes, butternut squash and the like to keep from losing any more.

It's great to lose weight, but I've had a number of other nagging health issues fade away after cutting grains, soy and artificial flavors and colorings out of my diet.
 
Schlep said:
New food pyramid replacement is out...
yikes

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/images/MyPlateImages/MyPlate-green300x273.jpg

Yaaaay, back to the four food groups!

My eating tends to look like that picture, except the Fruits and Vegetables section are just one slice
which is half the size of Dairy
.
 

Chorazin

Member
Schlep said:
New food pyramid replacement is out...
yikes

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/images/MyPlateImages/MyPlate-green300x273.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

Gah, fucking grain lobbies. While I'm not against carbs they should [B]not[/B] be in a greater portion than protein. The size of the fruit peice would be more appropriate, but I know a lot of people would like to see it even less than that.
 

Schlep

Member
Chorazin said:
Gah, fucking grain lobbies. While I'm not against carbs they should not be in a greater portion than protein. The size of the fruit peice would be more appropriate, but I know a lot of people would like to see it even less than that.

Yeah, that's what I took away from it. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but what it says to me is that your plate should be mostly vegetables and grains with a small serving of fruit and a small serving of 'protein' with a glass of milk on the side.

Honestly I can't believe they spent $2 million on that. I could've done that in 15 minutes using GIMP.

Fortunately this is just another thing that will be thrown away as it's not that informative for most meals.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
_Isaac said:
So you guys are primarily against so much grains?

I'll respond with what Schlep wrote a few posts up:

Schlep said:
The premise is basically that refined carbs (as well as complex carbs, to a slightly lesser degree) elevate blood sugar, which elevates insulin production, which stores blood sugar as fat to bring it down to normal levels. A diet that consistently contains a lot of carbs (which get broken down into sugar) stresses your system to cope with it, and makes weight loss all that much more difficult. Also it leads to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes.

Grain products are refined carbs. I can only speak from my personal experience, but since giving up refined carbs in February, and keeping my carb intake very low, I've dropped over 40lbs. and I feel better than ever.

Stylo said:
Less grains and fruits. So replace with more vegetables?

Vegetables are great, but I think people will do much better with more protein and fat. My plate would be closer to 3/4 protein and fat (meat, fish, etc.), 1/4 vegetables, and a cup of water instead of milk.
 

Fireye

Member
PotatoeMasher said:
Disturbing lack of fat on that plate. Good to see the grain lobby sent its checks in on time.

The assumption is that people would be getting fat with their protein, I think. It should be labeled "Meat or Non-Meat Proteins", since nothing else on the plate is labeled by it's macronutrient.

Protein should be much larger.
 

Zoe

Member
I think the percentage of space on the plate is being taken too literally. Protein tends to be dense while vegetables (especially leafy) and grains take up more space.
 

Schlep

Member
Stylo said:
Less grains and fruits. So replace with more vegetables?
I wouldn't say less fruit, just less grain. I'd take probably 3/4 of that grain part away and redistribute most of it to protein and some of it to vegetables.

As far as people getting most of their fat with protein, I'm not so sure. People have been told for 20-30 years now to go for skinless chicken breast, top sirloin steak (and trimmed), and extra lean ground beef (if any at all). I am glad they no longer have the "use sparingly" tag attached to fats, though.
 

hiryu

Member
Schlep said:
The premise is basically that refined carbs (as well as complex carbs, to a slightly lesser degree) elevate blood sugar, which elevates insulin production, which stores blood sugar as fat to bring it down to normal levels. A diet that consistently contains a lot of carbs (which get broken down into sugar) stresses your system to cope with it, and makes weight loss all that much more difficult. Also it leads to insulin resistance and eventually diabetes.

At least that's what I'm taking away from Good Calories, Bad Calories (his other book) about halfway through. It's very much about deconstructing the research that has been done and how the results are usually flawed either through confirmation bias or data manipulation.

The premise is very similar to Good Calories, Bad Calories but the book is a much easier read. I highly recommend it for family members or people who don't want tons of detail.
 

Domino Theory

Crystal Dynamics
I read the first review from 'Why We Get Fat' on Amazon and he posted a comment Taubes makes in the book:

"Telling someone to have a balance of carbohydrates is like telling a smoker to have a balanced number of cigarettes per day."

Perfect.
 
Domino Theory said:
I read the first review from 'Why We Get Fat' on Amazon and he posted a comment Taubes makes in the book:

"Telling someone to have a balance of carbohydrates is like telling a smoker to have a balanced number of cigarettes per day."

Perfect.

Unless that quote is trying to say that people can't control their "carb urges", I disagree with that analogy 100%.

Carb cycling is important in any diet/routine. Even the keto style diets allow for weekend carb cycling.
 

Chorazin

Member
Domino Theory said:
I read the first review from 'Why We Get Fat' on Amazon and he posted a comment Taubes makes in the book:

"Telling someone to have a balance of carbohydrates is like telling a smoker to have a balanced number of cigarettes per day."

Perfect.

Since any cigarette is bad, he's saying any carb during the day is bad? So just meat?

Quote makes no sense to me out of context.
 
Akim said:
It's true, but the problem is no one actually uses moderation

I don't think it's true at all, partially because of the impossible nature of defining moderation and because our bodies react to inputs differently. It implies that anything is ok as long as you don't do too much of it. We wouldn't apply that logic to toxins, yet some people (likely a much larger number than we realize) have developed allergies to foods that are considered staples in the modern diet.

Way too many people are walking around with signs of metabolic syndrome and completely unaware of how to actually solve it. Who can blame them when all we've been taught is that starvation or low-fat diets and exercise are the keys to health?
 
Cosmic Bus said:
Can I just say what a Godsend these things are?

urxcX.jpg


I'm sort of 'rebooting' my keto diet and went shopping just a bit ago. I ran across these at the store and said "Hey, I just saw this on GAF!"

Picked 'em up. Came home. Cooked 'em up.

Good stuff!
 

SUPREME1

Banned
SuperAngelo64 said:
Alright, so time for an update. I'm still not feeling great enough to post a full body shot, plus I don't have a 'before' body shot.

This is me at the start, it's from my driver' license. Actually I was 30 lbs heavier than this picture when I started:

312vkma.jpg

EDIT: Found a picture of me at 400 lbs with my wife. We're separated now :\ I miss her like hell.
98uj9k.jpg


This is me today, 100 lbs lighter and 3 1/2 months later. Doing low-carb, high protein, and tons of weight lifting and jogging:

5l798n.jpg

mwb0op.jpg


I'm halfway there!



Looking good bro. Keep it up.


Sucks about the seperation. Hope it works out for you.
 

Chorazin

Member
God damn was Active 2 hard to do last night. I was low on energy because it has been a while since I ate, and my GF wasn't feeling good so I laid down for her for a bit and ended up napping for an hour. Ugh, the first half was horrible until I just told myself to get with the program and get this shit done, then I finished it up like a BAWS.

It was the last exercise in the 3 week Cardio Kick-Up program, felt AWESOME to do all three weeks (12 exercises total) without missing a single day. I'm rewarding myself by taking Saturday off of Active before I start the 9 week program on Sunday (and I'll be walking a lot on Saturday, huge yard sale in my complex that I'm hoping will net me some exercise equipment on the cheap.)

I also have only missed one day of my Mon Wed Fri morning gym visits, and that was because the gym was closed. Feeling awesome about being able to do consistant workouts for three weeks straight, more than I've done in a very, very long time.

Down a total of 9lbs over the three weeks, which exceeds my monthly goal by a pound, giving me next week to pad my overall weightloss goal. NICE!
 
SuperAngelo, you're looking great man. I'm sure you're doing it for the right reasons (i.e. your own health etc.) but if it has the added benefit is that it helps you out with the ex(?) and you want to be with her again, then all the best to you.
 

Lamel

Banned
o GAF this is sort of an unusual post but I need some help. My GF is trying to lose weight/burn fat and she asked me for "Advice". I really have never gone on a diet to do that so I am asking here what kind of diet/exercise should she incorporate into her lifestyle for good results.

Extra info, she gets bored simply by running, so some more interesting exercises will be helpful.

Stats.

Height: 5'9"
Weight: ~150-160 lbs
Goal: ~130
Equipment: Treadmill, dumbbells
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Saadster said:
o GAF this is sort of an unusual post but I need some help. My GF is trying to lose weight/burn fat and she asked me for "Advice". I really have never gone on a diet to do that so I am asking here what kind of diet/exercise should she incorporate into her lifestyle for good results.

Extra info, she gets bored simply by running, so some more interesting exercises will be helpful.

Stats.

Height: 5'9"
Weight: ~150-160 lbs
Goal: ~130
Equipment: Treadmill, dumbbells

What's her current diet like?
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Saadster said:
o GAF this is sort of an unusual post but I need some help. My GF is trying to lose weight/burn fat and she asked me for "Advice". I really have never gone on a diet to do that so I am asking here what kind of diet/exercise should she incorporate into her lifestyle for good results.

Extra info, she gets bored simply by running, so some more interesting exercises will be helpful.

Stats.

Height: 5'9"
Weight: ~150-160 lbs
Goal: ~130
Equipment: Treadmill, dumbbells

130 pounds at 5'9"? You're a guy right? That's like a 29 inch waist. You need more muscle/fat than that to keep organs and hormones healthy.

I think you would be better off in the fitness thread with some food choices to normalize blood sugar.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
_Isaac said:
So you guys are primarily against so much grains?

For the most part.

I think rice and for some people rinse/soaked whole grains are fine.

Things that hurt people:
1. Refined flour. The taste/texture of flour when combined with mexican and italian food has high food reward.

2. Combined with sugar it can increase fasting blood glucose, making it very hard to lose body fat due to implications on insulin sensitivity.

3. Lectins in gluten grains literally bind to leptin receptors causing the body to think it's leaner than it actually is.
 

Zoe

Member
teh_pwn said:
130 pounds at 5'9"? You're a guy right? That's like a 29 inch waist. You need more muscle/fat than that to keep organs and hormones healthy.

I think those are the stats for the gf.
 
teh_pwn said:
130 pounds at 5'9"? You're a guy right? That's like a 29 inch waist. You need more muscle/fat than that to keep organs and hormones healthy.

I think you would be better off in the fitness thread with some food choices to normalize blood sugar.
He's asking for his girlfriend, not himself.
 
teh_pwn said:
130 pounds at 5'9"? You're a guy right? That's like a 29 inch waist. You need more muscle/fat than that to keep organs and hormones healthy.

How big a waist does a person need?
I'm 6'2" with a 30 in waist (was 34 back in January).
 

Lamel

Banned
Zoe said:
130 still sounds kinda low to me for 5'9", but I guess standards have changed.

I just put that as my guesstimate, she said she wanted to lose around 20 pounds, so I think it'll be from ~130-140 lbs as her goal. I think that's a good target. She's actually pretty athletic/fast, she just wants to lose that extra belly fat.


Zefah said:
What's her current diet like?

Well she eats a decent amount, probably around 2000-2200 calories a day. The problem is that she eats a lot of sweets/soda/junk food, which I'm trying to get her to stop. Probably eats a little too many carbs too.

Apart from that she eats mainly whole foods.

She started a few months ago and lost around 5 pounds in 2-3 weeks but she was unable to keep up with her diet due to schedule and school reasons. She hates running for long periods so that's why she just stops after a short while.
 
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