I'm in and ready to go!

[damaris]

I've been following NF for quite some time through Google Reader, and have been busily making excuses as to why it wasn't the ideal time to do whatever.

Today I caught up on some articles, and came to the decision that I need to stop standing in my own way.

I'm 31, about sixty pounds overweight, with osteoarthritis (bad genes and bad living). And I really want to get my core and knees built up, so that I can be on skates and learning to ref roller derby in the next three months.

Long term, this weight is going to come off.

So that's me. I'm ready to go. I've done my knee exercises and my core exercises for today, and I'm ready to do them again tomorrow.

[Razor]

Welcome! Roller Derby sounds cool. Anyways, since you're main goal is losing weight, the main component of that is food intake. So what are the dietary changes you've made to meet that goal, and what dietary goals do you have? A very important thing to contemplate.

[damaris]

I'm very much against traditional dieting, as I've found that for me, complete denial just makes me binge later. Instead, I've been going with the general portion control, healthier choices, calorie counting. I managed to actually lose 50 pounds with this method, but have since plateaued. On the one hand, it has been frustrating, but on the other hand, obviously I chose sustainable methods, because even though I stopped tracking calorie counts when my life went topsy-turvy for a while, I haven't gained back any of the weight.

Overwhelmingly, I'm trying to eat within a fairly specific calorie range. Currently, since I'm concentrating on mostly fixing broken bits (which isn't high in the calorie burning area) I've been sticking with my normal 1600. I've never gotten the hang of adjusting that for when I start doing cardio - so that I can do the cardio and still not feel like I'm going to choke a coworker for a baby carrot because I'm THAT hungry. I imagine there will be a learning curve on that one

[Razor]

I'm very much against traditional dieting, as I've found that for me, complete denial just makes me binge later. Instead, I've been going with the general portion control, healthier choices, calorie counting. I managed to actually lose 50 pounds with this method, but have since plateaued. On the one hand, it has been frustrating, but on the other hand, obviously I chose sustainable methods, because even though I stopped tracking calorie counts when my life went topsy-turvy for a while, I haven't gained back any of the weight.

Overwhelmingly, I'm trying to eat within a fairly specific calorie range. Currently, since I'm concentrating on mostly fixing broken bits (which isn't high in the calorie burning area) I've been sticking with my normal 1600. I've never gotten the hang of adjusting that for when I start doing cardio - so that I can do the cardio and still not feel like I'm going to choke a coworker for a baby carrot because I'm THAT hungry. I imagine there will be a learning curve on that one

Well, first off, try to mix in cardio and lifting weights. Cardio is (obviously) healthier for your cardiovascular and circulatory system. But lifting weights is good for the nervous system, muscles, and bones, and burns more calories.

In terms of "dieting", that's a word often improperly used. Diet literally means what you eat. You've been dieting since you were in your mother's womb (or alien fleet nutritional growth tube). Weight loss comes down to calories in<Calories out. It's the universal and undeniable law.AWESOME so far on your progress and lifestyle change. Keep at it, and if you've plateued, and at a healthy weight, that means you're eating at maintenance. And if you start doing muscle building workouts, your body will slowly lose that fat for energy and use it to improve your muscle performance, and you'll progressively get stronger, more toned and defined, and smaller (muscle is denser than fat).

[esteel]

I'm very much against traditional dieting, as I've found that for me, complete denial just makes me binge later. Instead, I've been going with the general portion control, healthier choices, calorie counting. I managed to actually lose 50 pounds with this method, but have since plateaued. On the one hand, it has been frustrating, but on the other hand, obviously I chose sustainable methods, because even though I stopped tracking calorie counts when my life went topsy-turvy for a while, I haven't gained back any of the weight.

You might want to take a look at intermittent fasting. In a nutshell it means simply not eating for a while (undereating) and eating a little bit more to make up for it when you DO eat (overeating during the food window). There are severeal timing recommendations around.. like 'The warrior diet' is basicly 20h of not eating and 4h (usually in the evening right after the training) for the 'eating window'. 'Everyother day' just is 24h/24h.. meaning you just do not eat for one day, the next is normal and so on..

Here is a nice article about it: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-intermittent-fasting/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-questions-answers/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting/

Well, first off, try to mix in cardio and lifting weights. Cardio is (obviously) healthier for your cardiovascular and circulatory system. But lifting weights is good for the nervous system, muscles, and bones, and burns more calories.

I just want to add that lifting weights ALSO trains the cardiovascular and circulatory system. But in an other way then normal 'cardio training'. When doing heavy lifts the heart needs to pump much stronger, due to the tensioned muscles restraining blood flow. Accourding to 'Practical programming for strength training' by 'Mark Rippetoe' this can up to double blood pressure while doing lifts and also makes the heart muscles much stronger that way.