Anyone else trying to lose weight?

[Worm of Despite]

LF, what's your routine? How often/long do you lift? Are you drinking a lot of protein shakes? I've increased my protein intake dramatically (sometimes 5 shakes a day, 120-130 grams protein), and it's really showing with the tape measure. I'd like to pack on a lot of muscle this year. I'm not a very large guy--5'7", 150 pounds. If I could put on 10-20 pounds of muscle, that would be nice.

I work out two to three days a week. I jog maybe 2 to 3 times a month, or whenever I feel like it.

I find I work out best with a little extra meat on the bones, and for that reason I'm slowly and healthfully working up to 210. Jogging regularly just wears one out and takes off too much weight (unless you eat like a horse). The key to gaining muscle--eat big, lift big. Add 5 to tend pounds on your exercises each week.

The soreness is incredible when you first begin: I could barely move my arms to put shampoo on my head in the locker room, and when I left to eat I could hardly lift a fork!

But it pays off big time. And it takes up to a year or two.

I'm currently 6'2", 200+ and built like a brick shithouse.

[Zarathustra]

I have been increasing the weight I lift, but certainly not 5-10 pounds every week. If it truly takes 1-2 years, I'd be benching over 1000 lbs by the end.

I lift 4 days a week, splitting up each day for a different muscle group. That way, each muscle group gets about 5-7 days of rest between workouts. I lift to failure, to maximize the workout. Each weight-lifting session lasts about 30-45 minutes, counting warmup and stretching. And that's not counting the 3-4 jogs a week, 3-4 miles each. So I guess I'm doing about 4-5 hours of extremely vigorous exercise a week. Based on the other runners at the trail I use, I think I'm pretty fast. The only people who pass me are guys a decade or two younger. I can do 4 miles under 34 minutes, 3 miles in less than 24. But since I've started back this year, those numbers keep going down almost every time I run, so I don't believe I'm close to my top speed yet.

[Zarathustra]

I can do 4 miles under 34 minutes...

Make that 32 minutes! I'm thinking about running a 5K soon. There's one coming up this month in my hometown.

[Vraith]

I can do 4 miles under 34 minutes...

Make that 32 minutes! I'm thinking about running a 5K soon. There's one coming up this month in my hometown.

Hmmm...how competitive is your nature Z? [By which I mean, for instance, even in fundraising jogs, I'd find my body pushing the pace against others without consulting my brain at all...] If you get caught up in it like I did, I'd recommend adding a day a week of 1/4 and/or 1/2 mile interval training.

[MsMary]

I lost some weight (just a few pounds) while on vacation, cause we did so much walking.

Now trying to keep it off and lose a bit more.

All that walking while on vacation, especially while carrying stuff (backpack,etc), I have to say, made my bad knee sore. It was better when I got back, but today it's sore again. I have no explanation for this. Wish I could figure out the triggers. Probably time to go back to my physical therapist.

[drew]

I've been putting the weight on lately. I think I must have gained 15 pounds this year

I plan on going on a little body cleanse for about a month and see how it makes me feel:
Eating Beets and Spinach everyday
Cutting out all alcohol and caffeine
Cutting out all junk foods
Taking Milk Thistle and Red Clover everyday (Liver and Blood cleansers)

[lorin]

Eating Beets and Spinach everyday

Roasted beets are really really good. Roasted vegetables in general are fantastic, but beets are the best. I like to take carrots and beets, coat them in a bit of garlic powder and olive oil and roast them at a high temp.


I have put on a little weight this year, stress eating, and I am very worried.

[Savor Dam]

Does your new location conduce to long walks, as did your old beachfront home?

[MsMary]

[
Roasted beets are really really good. Roasted vegetables in general are fantastic, but beets are the best. I like to take carrots and beets, coat them in a bit of garlic powder and olive oil and roast them at a high temp.

That sounds yummy! I love beets.

My sister makes assorted roast vegetables (mostly root vegetables, but also includes brussel sprouts) every Thanksgiving. Delicious!

[MsMary]

I think I gained back the weight I lost on vacation.

Kind of hard to tell.

I need more exercise and less stress.

[MsMary]

I am getting frustrated with my inability to lose weight.

Part of the problem is that I don't really look overweight. I only need to lose a little weight that I've gained over the past couple of years.

I need to join a gym and get into a regular exercise program.

And I think I need to bite the bullet and try out Weight Watchers.

Maybe if I write it here I will actually do these things.



How's everyone else doin'?

[Cameraman Jenn]

I find that pre making meals helps immensely. I baked some chicken yesterday and made a big batch of lightly steamed mixed vegetables so that it would be easy to pack my lunch. I slightly undercook the veggies so that reheating them in the microwave doesn't make them soggy. If you don't like to cook then there are a variety of frozen lean cuisine or eating healthy brand frozen meals that are calorie/nutrition oriented options in the frozen food aisle of your local market. Safeway often rotates sales on the brands even going as low as 10 for $10 which is certainly a cost efficient easy option. Pad the meal with snacks at intervals to keep you from being hungry but choose foods such as celery/carrots/apples with a bit of cheese (protein keeps you from being hungry a lot longer) and the meals will feel like plenty. If you couple this with even a small amount of exercise every day just to get in the habit it really helps. Ten leg lifts and twenty situps to start and bam, you get in the habit and you keep going longer and longer. Maybe thirty sit ups the next day. Anyway, I find that baby steps and making it as easy as possible rather than complicating or obsessing about things helps you to actually do it rather than plan it and fail. Make sense?

[aliantha]

How's everyone else doin'?

[MsMary]

How's everyone else doin'?

[MsMary]

I find that pre making meals helps immensely. I baked some chicken yesterday and made a big batch of lightly steamed mixed vegetables so that it would be easy to pack my lunch. I slightly undercook the veggies so that reheating them in the microwave doesn't make them soggy. If you don't like to cook then there are a variety of frozen lean cuisine or eating healthy brand frozen meals that are calorie/nutrition oriented options in the frozen food aisle of your local market. Safeway often rotates sales on the brands even going as low as 10 for $10 which is certainly a cost efficient easy option. Pad the meal with snacks at intervals to keep you from being hungry but choose foods such as celery/carrots/apples with a bit of cheese (protein keeps you from being hungry a lot longer) and the meals will feel like plenty. If you couple this with even a small amount of exercise every day just to get in the habit it really helps. Ten leg lifts and twenty situps to start and bam, you get in the habit and you keep going longer and longer. Maybe thirty sit ups the next day. Anyway, I find that baby steps and making it as easy as possible
rather than complicating or obsessing about things helps you to actually do it rather than plan it and fail. Make sense?

Makes sense, but not as easily said as done.

Portion control is easier, I think, when yu are a regular fish and meat eater. I'm mostly vegetarian, though not completely, and I've found it harder to gauge how much I'm eating. Those prepared meals like Lean Cuisine are not kosher, so those are out for me. And I'm already doing the types of little bits of exercise you've described.

That's why I'm thinking of trying Weight Watchers and joining a gym. I need more right now.

[SoulBiter]

My wife does weight watchers and had lost about 30lbs. She is not at her goal weight though and seems to be at a plateau. But.. I think she needs to just continue to worry about being healthy and let the weight take care of itself. She really only has about 10 more lbs to go.

We eat out very little. When we do we avoid most chain stores so that we can get away from all the crap they cook food in. Vegetables should not be soaked in butter or cooked in oils and fatback. When we do use oil we try to always use olive oil.

We eat at home mostly and try to avoid processed foods and anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. We use portion control on the meats, potatoes and breads. We don't add butter, nor do we fry anything. We cook most things on the grill. We make most of our own bread. We bring our lunches to work rather than eating out at lunch. We either buy 'lean cuisines' or we just bring left overs. We also have a garden and we try to eat as much as we can from our own garden. But we eat things that some wouldnt consider diet food. We eat pancakes now and again (whole wheat ones) and we pay the big bucks and use actual maple syrup not that maple flavored syrup that really has no syrup in it at all.

We work out every day.... We used to lift weights but when we started training to do 5K's we stopped that and started just running. I have to say when we started running, thats when most of my wifes weight came off. Elipticals werent doing it, walking wasnt doing it, dieting alone wasnt doing it. We started running and that was the key. We are now increasing our running to hit 5 miles and then our goal will be 6.4 miles so we can start running in the 10K runs. Its time consuming to do all that exercise but what would we be doing otherwise? 4 to 6 hours of TV each night... thats what.

[MsMary]

Yeah, I've thought about running. I also need targeted exercises for my bum knee, like cycling and exercises to specifically strengthen the muscles that support the knee.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Ms. Mary, yes indeedy portion control is important. I've said it before and I'll say it again, learning to eat slowly and stopping when I first start to feel full and NOT feeling guilty about leaving food on my plate was a big one to overcome, but it's a really important one. I still find myself overeating on occasion and when I do I try to walk it off and that helps. It's important to not let yourself get really hungry too. A perfect example was this weekend. I went to brunch with the ladies and we were trying a new place and the wait was supposed to be an hour. At the end of the hour it turned in to another half an hour to forty minutes. We were all starving and Terry's munchkin was starting to get slightly fussy, keep in mind that fussy for him is mild in comparison to most kids, anyway, I was starving so we left and found a place to eat right away. I was so hungry that I ate way too fast and way too much and afterward I felt ill. We ended up walking it off since we had all pretty much done that and it really helped but yes, portion control is important not just in how much you put on your plate but how much and how fast what you did put on your plate goes into your stomach.

[MsMary]

I totally hear you about not letting oneself get really hungry. When for some reason I have to wait to eat till I'm really hungry I definitely overeat.

Part of my problem is that I don't really look "fat" so I don't have as strong a motivation as someone who is really fat. My motivation is really hoping that I will have less knee pain if I get more in shape - less weight and fitter. And also avoiding the kind of conditions people get when they get older and keep gaining weight.

[SoulBiter]

I can do 4 miles under 34 minutes...

Make that 32 minutes! I'm thinking about running a 5K soon. There's one coming up this month in my hometown.

Z did you ever run that 5K?

We have ran quite a few. I can do (at 49 years old) 5K in just under 30.. I could do better if I really wanted to get competitive.

Now my wife and I are training for a 10K with hopes of running a half marathon next year.