I have just started to follow this thread and find it to be a fun one to follow and wish everybody trying to loose weight the best of luck. I thought I would chime in, as things are a little slow at work for me being the end of the school year for the kids, and just give my 2 cents worth. People can take it or leave it as there are thousands of diets and suggestions to loose weight. Unfortunately most are junk and/or just fads. Hopefully at least one person will find this somewhat helpful.
First off, if you look at the history of Americans and how they eat, you will find that the portion sizes have increased dramatically. Some of you are old enough like me to remember when the standard soda bottles (for the younger folks they were actually glass bottles) were 8-12 ounces in size. Nowadays it is common to have a soda that is 16-24 ounces in size. So drinking just on today is like having 2-3 bottles years ago.
Food proportions have also increased to the point that a typical serving size is sometimes double, particularly at restaurants, from what it was years ago. And over the years this has carried over to the proportions that we eat at home. I typically will only eat 1/2 and just bring the other half home to enjoy at another time.
Processed foods have also become a big part of the American diet. Eliminating these and fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, are an excellent way to loose weight.
A more sedentary lifestyle has also become the norm.
In general the best way to loose weight is:
1. Be realistic about your goals
2. Always use some form of exercise as part of your routine
-Exercise not only helps you become healthier but also helps increase your metabolism which allows you to burn more calories
3. Avoid all those boxed meals/processed foods. There is very little value in any of those and the calorie count is usually extremely high
3. When you get your calories is as important as how many calories you get in a day.
- As Americans we tend to eat backwards. What I mean is in a typical day our largest meal is dinner and we either skip breakfast or just grab something as we run out the door. It
is actually better to have breakfast to be the biggest meal of the day and dinner the smallest. For instance if you have 2000 calories in a day and 1000 of them are at dinner, you
would be much better off to have those calories in the morning so your body has all day to burn them. The reason this is better is that the typical American will not have much
activity after dinner and will be going to bed. Less activity=slower metabolism=weight gain. When we go to bed generally our metabolism slows way down so if our biggest meal
dinner then our body does not have much time to burn those calories before our metabolism considerably slows down.
-It is also healthier to have many small meals in a day than to have several larger ones. (this one is really hard to do)
4. Eat slower. The reason this is helpful is that it takes approximately 20 minutes for the stomach to send a signal to the brain to let you know that you are getting full. What basically
is happening is as the stomach stretches, it releases a hormone to the brain. Once the brain receives that signal from the stomach that is when you start to get the sense that you
are getting full (approximately a 20 minute time frame). If you eat slower you will be consuming less calories when that signal gets to your brain. A little trick that sometimes
works is to drink a glass of water about 10 minutes before your meal which begins the stretching process before consuming any calories. Fortunately the stomach does not know
what is stretching it.
5. Count all your calories for 1 month. It is sometimes amazing exactly how much we eat when you count all those small snacks in between our regular meals.
6. Weigh yourself regularly (mornings are the best as our weight does fluctuate throughout the day and mornings typically are the most consistent). I weigh myself every morning
That way if I see a small gain it is much easier to adjust in my daily diet than if I go a long period of time and then find out I have several pounds to loose.
So for me, a diet is more of changing my habits than following some fad diet. Starting out slow and not trying to drop 1000 calories on day one is the best. You may want to drop 1000 calories from you diet, but it is best to do it in increments. Allow yourself to have some of those bad foods that you like, just limit the amount and the frequency of eating them. I know I have rambled on but I hope this helps and I hope everyone finds success.
175 lbs & 13.8% body fat. We're going to Chicago tomorrow for a Polish funeral and you know what that means........ beer, potatoes, meat, beer, dessert, & beer