Question on dieting

[rianredd1088]

I've read in the Nerdfitness articles that 80-90% of one's weight-loss success depends on what they eat.

My diet is probably the hardest part of my commitment. I don't think, however, that my eating habits are horrible? For Breakfast and Dinner, I usually make a protein shake mixed with vegetables and fruit. For Lunch, I usually opt for baked chicken or fish. Once or twice a week, I'll let myself binge a bit (today, I hade a Shrimp Fajita place at a local Mexican Resturant).

I just don't know if I'm going about this the right way? I've been eating this way for a while but don't feel like I'm physically changing. When I did weight myself (I've since gotten rid of the scale), the numbers on there would go down for a couple of days, I'd binge a bit, and go up 3-5 pounds. It's all just so confusing.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, everyone!

Ryan

[unicornassassin]

Do you have a particular eating plan or goals? I think if you have goals, it's easier to know if you're eating well or not. For example, I try to stay in a particular calorie range, and eat X grams of protein and calcium. I also watch my sodium and fat, but those aren't as big of a concern.

Having those specific goals keeps me accountable. I tried generalized healthy eating a bit ago, thinking I didn't need to count calories anymore, but that didn't work out for me.

[Ryan Sannar]

Take a week and write down everything you eat.

Also I'm Ryan too. Keep up the good work. Us Ryan's got stuck together.

[This is Seth]

What are you trying to do? If you're eating healthy, great. It sounds like you're eating at your maintenance.

Want to lose weight? Eat less. Want to put on weight, eat more. Either way, keep eating healthy.

[ROOCHOP]

Sorry Seth but I have to disagree. I have been with my wife for nearly 10 years and just before we for together she had a hall bladder removal, she steadily put on weight for a few years and then stabilised. No matter how hard she worked or how strict her calorie untamed was it did not move until the last 4 Weeks, this is when we started to follow Kamby and stock to strength and prowl eating.

We have not been strict paleo as it is not affordable for our family, but meat, veg, strength and no cheating has seen pounds come off of us both.

if you do that and you are still not losing then it's time to look at other aspects of your life.

Does diabetes or thyroid activity play a part? My 8st 5' mum had undetected diabetes for years before diagnosed, it did not affect weight but did name her hard to love with (sorry mum x)

NEAT is also something to look at (can't remember what it stands for, look it up) in a nutshell, NEAT is to do with the in-noticed activity thRu you go through everyday, increase your NEAT increase your burn.

Lastly, short bursts (interval training) of exercise, will increase your bodies ability to process the sugars in your body. Studies in a UK university has shown that as little as 3 mins worth of interval work an week will increase your insulin management by up to 20% in just 4 Weeks. This will not do anything for stamina or aerobic capacity though.

Have a goal and work to it is great advice, my wife did this and when nothing happened it showed that we needed to loom elsewhere.

Waffle over, and good luck

[ROOCHOP]

Predictive text is mashing up my posts this week, ease edit where appropriate

[oystergirl]

Welcome new Ryan. There are many different ways to skin a cat as my grandmother would say. Every person is different and there are different ways to get from point A to point B. What works for one person, does not for another. I would make an effort as our Ryan said, and write down everything you eat in a week in a non-judgemental manner and really make sure you eat when you want to and it is typical of your diet. Then go to fitness pal or fit day and calculate what your macro's are. Then track your fitness and make a consistent decision regarding a fitness program that you are going to follow--small or large, write it down, track it and mark on the calendar as you do it.

There are a variety of different ways to eat obviously. On here there are folks who subscribe to the calories in/calories out theory. There are folks who eat a low carb/high fat diet, folks who are paleo, folks who are primal, etc. Each and every program is effective for some people so what you should do is, do a bit of reading, decide on a program that sounds suitable for you--and then apply it for 6 weeks consistently. Then reevaluate...and that should do it! Best of luck!

[Loren Wade]

There's always this:

​http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/

[Sloth the Enduring]

It sounds like you're eating pretty healthy, probably on a maintenance level for the week? If you don't want to eat less, then train more. In my experience (almost 30 pound weight loss), exercise is the biggest part. People these days just don't move enough to burn calories. I attribute most of my weight loss to circuit training with kettlebells and sledgehammers 5 days a week. But losing the last bit to get to my goal weight required me to clean up my diet.

Edit: By clean up my diet I don't mean paleo. I quit drinking soda and replaced it with tea and juice, replaced a lot of the sweet junk food with fruit, replaced chips and fries with pretzels and veggies, and quit fast food. I still eat lots of whole grains, but a lot fewer simple sugars.

[Philociraptor]

What does mixed with vegetables and fruit mean? Give me a few breakdowns of those shakes. Also, are you juicing or straight up blending?

[rianredd1088]

What does mixed with vegetables and fruit mean? Give me a few breakdowns of those shakes. Also, are you juicing or straight up blending?

Straight up blending 2X daily. Usually consists of Protein Powder, Kale, Broccoli, Carrots, Apples, Bananas, Strawberries, etc.

[rianredd1088]

Thanks, Ryan! I think I'm just going to have to do that for a week.

Go Ryans!

[rianredd1088]

Welcome new Ryan. There are many different ways to skin a cat as my grandmother would say. Every person is different and there are different ways to get from point A to point B. What works for one person, does not for another. I would make an effort as our Ryan said, and write down everything you eat in a week in a non-judgemental manner and really make sure you eat when you want to and it is typical of your diet. Then go to fitness pal or fit day and calculate what your macro's are. Then track your fitness and make a consistent decision regarding a fitness program that you are going to follow--small or large, write it down, track it and mark on the calendar as you do it.

There are a variety of different ways to eat obviously. On here there are folks who subscribe to the calories in/calories out theory. There are folks who eat a low carb/high fat diet, folks who are paleo, folks who are primal, etc. Each and every program is effective for some people so what you should do is, do a bit of reading, decide on a program that sounds suitable for you--and then apply it for 6 weeks consistently. Then reevaluate...and that should do it! Best of luck!

Thanks, Oystergirl! I think I'm going to try to count my calorie intake for this next week. Let's see where that leaves me.

[rianredd1088]

It sounds like you're eating pretty healthy, probably on a maintenance level for the week? If you don't want to eat less, then train more. In my experience (almost 30 pound weight loss), exercise is the biggest part. People these days just don't move enough to burn calories. I attribute most of my weight loss to circuit training with kettlebells and sledgehammers 5 days a week. But losing the last bit to get to my goal weight required me to clean up my diet.

Edit: By clean up my diet I don't mean paleo. I quit drinking soda and replaced it with tea and juice, replaced a lot of the sweet junk food with fruit, replaced chips and fries with pretzels and veggies, and quit fast food. I still eat lots of whole grains, but a lot fewer simple sugars.

My workout routine is the Rebel Fitness Guide from Nerd Fitness. I've been doing it for about two-weeks now, AND FEEL GREAT! I'm going to give it another two-weeks just to see where that leads me.

[rianredd1088]

There's always this:

​http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/

I'm getting there. I've haven't ate much fast-food or bread in the last two-weeks. To quote my favorite movie, "Bread makes you fat."

[rianredd1088]

Do you have a particular eating plan or goals? I think if you have goals, it's easier to know if you're eating well or not. For example, I try to stay in a particular calorie range, and eat X grams of protein and calcium. I also watch my sodium and fat, but those aren't as big of a concern.

Having those specific goals keeps me accountable. I tried generalized healthy eating a bit ago, thinking I didn't need to count calories anymore, but that didn't work out for me.

Thanks Unicornassassin! I'm going to track what I eat for the next week and share the results with you all. Should I be watching out for my sugars/carbs/fat/etc?

[demonslayer]

Agree with sloth-like on the importance of exercise (ironic username! lol). They say that diet is 80%-90% of it, but in my experience it's more like 50%-60% ... I think people tend to say it's a higher amount because too many people do tend to overestimate their physical activity and underestimate their calories, so it's really important to stress that diet IS important so that people don't just run on the elliptical for a half hour and think it entitles them to three donuts (I was guilty of this in the past /shameface). But exercise is a really huge part of it especially if you're after being fit and not just thin. Weight lifting is hugely beneficial if you have access to it, but bodyweight exercises and such are good too. I'm not sure what exercises are in the Rebel Fitness guide, but I've been following a slightly modified version of the Rebel Strength Guide and LOVE it, so I imagine the Fitness guide is good too. If you've been doing it for two weeks it's probably normal not to have seen dramatic results just yet, 'cause these things take time, but keep at it and keep your diet on track (which is the point of this thread, lol), and you'll get there.

I'm going to second what Ryan said though and definitely recommend writing down every single thing you put in your mouth. There are a lot of good online applications to help with this; myfitnesspal is a really good one especially if you have a smart phone. Using MFP along with weight lifting has helped me a TON. Even when you think you're being healthy it can be surprising how many calories you eat in a day and don't even realize! A lot of people here will advocate paleo, too -- it's not for me, but I know a lot of people who've done really well on it, so it's worth looking into.

[Philociraptor]

Straight up blending 2X daily. Usually consists of Protein Powder, Kale, Broccoli, Carrots, Apples, Bananas, Strawberries, etc.

Amounts of each? Sound more like a fruit smoothie, Jamba Juice-esk. Those = sugar bomb. Protein powder is also highly insulin-stimulating, so just watch out for the massive hits of sugar.

[Waldo]

I disagree with a few posts above me. If you don't eat what you want to eat, it is never going to work or stick.

Giving up more than half the food universe for the rest of your life is not something that anybody but just a few are going to stick with. If you are not willing to make that commitment, there is no reason to hop on the fad bandwagon that you're just going to fall off of.

Keep track of what you are eating, make small improvements to it over time. Improvements that you like an can stick to as the new normal. The diet mindset, temporary eating changes leading to body recompositioning only leads to temporary body recompositioning. Ideally at the end you should be able to make a really small tweak to stop losing weight, having been living the new normal.

Tracking calories is the easiest way to make improvments to your eating and exercise habits. It isn't good enough just to track, you have to strive to improve your exercise and eating as you go.

It sounds like you are having issues understanding what the scale is saying. This might help:

http://nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?9056-Understanding-The-Scale

It also helps to track a second measurement beyond just weight. Tape measures are great for this purpose. I don't know all the places a women should tape themselves to track changes, but a man really only needs a measure around the belly (either 1" above belly button or on the belly button, just be consistent). Measuring is a much more consistent and reliable measure than the scale.

[Ryan Sannar]

Just a thought.

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

Check the most recent blog posts too. He's been talking about fasting lately.

[Zorch]

Keep track of what you are eating, make small improvements to it over time. Improvements that you like an can stick to as the new normal. The diet mindset, temporary eating changes leading to body recompositioning only leads to temporary body recompositioning. Ideally at the end you should be able to make a really small tweak to stop losing weight, having been living the new normal.

Tracking calories is the easiest way to make improvments to your eating and exercise habits. It isn't good enough just to track, you have to strive to improve your exercise and eating as you go.

It sounds like you are having issues understanding what the scale is saying. This might help:

http://nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?9056-Understanding-The-Scale

It also helps to track a second measurement beyond just weight. Tape measures are great for this purpose. I don't know all the places a women should tape themselves to track changes, but a man really only needs a measure around the belly (either 1" above belly button or on the belly button, just be consistent). Measuring is a much more consistent and reliable measure than the scale.

While Waldo and I have different perspectives on paleo-spectrum eating, I think the rest of his post is very much spot-on. Paleo-style diets aren't really something to consider until you've first cleaned up your diet in a more conventional sense - i.e. cut out the junk food, added sugars, etc. It's important that you find something that works and is sustainable for you.

I also agree regarding tracking what you eat(for some it's not even about the calories, simply writing down what/how much you eat can be a useful sanity check) - and while the scale is not the ultimate judge of your success, it is a useful tool.

[Atalan]

Thanks, Ryan! I think I'm just going to have to do that for a week.

Go Ryans!

It's great advice. Makes you very aware of how much you're actually eating. If you combine it with calorie counting you also get a feel for how many calories you're bringing in. You could still further break it down to your macro-nutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) or get crazy and look at the micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well. How much you do is up to you.

[Crusader]

There are programs out there that are free and can making calorie counting (along with sodium, fat, protein, etc.) all very easy to do. MyFitnesspal.com is one that has its own iphone/android app as well as web interface, easy to search database of foods, and nice reporting features. There are several other ones out there as well. I'd recommend logging everything you eat for at least a week to see how many calories you are really taking in, and then work on setting goals for calorie intake for desired weight loss or maintenance.

[unicornassassin]

Thanks Unicornassassin! I'm going to track what I eat for the next week and share the results with you all. Should I be watching out for my sugars/carbs/fat/etc?

Good question... I don't know. If you want to, yes??? I suppose once you see your results, then you can decide. If they're in good ranges, don't worry about it. If you've eaten 100,000 grams of sugar in a day, maybe you do want to track it... ha. I use Myfitnesspal, as someone else mentioned.