You know you are fat when...

[FlashTheLeather]

you lose 13 pounds in 2 weeks by eating right...and not even exercising. Not looking for a cookie (even though one would taste good right now), but after hitting the heaviest I have ever been, I decided I needed to lose some weight. Started 2 weeks ago today at 265 and am now down to 252. Basically cut out all sugar in my diet and have been limiting my food intake. I would say I am consistently eating right around 1600 calories a day, and while it was a drastic decrease I do not notice any difference in my energy whatsoever. For snacks I have been eating the chewy granola bars twice a day and they usually make me feel content until the next meal (which has consisted of a lot of salads or chicken with green vegetables). My ultimate goal is to be back down to my college playing weight of 215 (by the way I am 6'3"). I know the weight won't continue to shed off like this, but it at least gets me motivated to continue on.

[barefoothwns]

good job bro!, keep up the good work

[rhound50]

This is a great start dude. You are actually doing a couple of things that could cause you to platuea that you may want to change. One of the least known things about dieting is that often times you stop losing weight because you eat to little food. Your basil metabolic rate is the minimum amount of calories that your body would need to maintain its weight if you lived a totally sedimentary life. For a guy of your size its actually around 2300. If you drop significantly below your basil metabolic your body is going to go into starvation mode, and it is pretty going to turn of your metabolism. A guy of your size is going to burn 3000 calories a day normally, so eating 2300 means you lose a pound and a half a week without exercising which is a good healthy amount to drop. The drastic weight loss at the beginning is an awesome start but a lot of that is water weight from moving to a much less salty diet that you are eating now. I think you alreayd know this but expecting to lose 5 lbs a week is not realistic, if you can lose 2lbs a week from here on out you are doing really well. Good luck

[FlashTheLeather]

Originally Posted by rhound50

This is a great start dude. You are actually doing a couple of things that could cause you to platuea that you may want to change. One of the least known things about dieting is that often times you stop losing weight because you eat to little food. Your basil metabolic rate is the minimum amount of calories that your body would need to maintain its weight if you lived a totally sedimentary life. For a guy of your size its actually around 2300. If you drop significantly below your basil metabolic your body is going to go into starvation mode, and it is pretty going to turn of your metabolism. A guy of your size is going to burn 3000 calories a day normally, so eating 2300 means you lose a pound and a half a week without exercising which is a good healthy amount to drop. The drastic weight loss at the beginning is an awesome start but a lot of that is water weight from moving to a much less salty diet that you are eating now. I think you alreayd know this but expecting to lose 5 lbs a week is not realistic, if you can lose 2lbs a week from here on out you are doing really well. Good luck

Yeah, I definitely understand the whole water weight problem. One of the biggest areas though that I have really been strict on is soda and beer. There is no question I would drink a regular soda a day (during work days) and probably a 12 pack of beer per weekend day. I have cut back to primarily drinking water and on occasion a Diet Dew (I absolutely hate diet soda) or Crystal Light. I know all too well that a lot of this is water weight, but I have definitely been flushing my system by drinking about 1-1.5 gallons of water a day. A close friend of mine's wife is a nutritionist and said quantities of water is good because it gets rid of a lot of junk in your system as well as helps your digestive system break down foods faster.

I am only doing the 1500-1600 calorie diet for a total of 4 weeks, than I am going to increase it up to 1750, a month later to a 2000. Meanwhile, in the next 2 weeks my work schedule should cut back some and I will be able to exercise some as well as do some more physical activities that exceed sitting at my desk for 10 hours a day.

[Nietzsche]

Good job.

Now after the weight drops off and it probably will the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

[rhound50]

Yeah Nietzche is totally right the key is not to lose the weight but to change the way you eat and in our cases drink that got us there in the first place. I put on a bunch of my weight drinking too, My ex actually got me used to diet soda and I cant drink regular soda anymore which is a blessing. My GF is a dietitian so that where I got all my info. I would talk to your friends wife about a specific calorie amount for you. My guess is she is going to tell you that at your size 1750 is way to low.

[Mike Brady]

Good job, thats a big change in 2 weeks.

[WolfPack52]

Good job! Stick to it

[FlashTheLeather]

Thanks for the words of encouragement...before/after pics will be posted in a couple months.

[chucky02]

Thanks for posting this. I am trying to lose some of the gut here by eating better. Lord knows I need to stay away from those snacks and stuff when I am in front of the TV.

[JJ27]

I recently started eating steel cut oats with a scoop of protein for breakfast. Haven't done anything different other than this and dropped 9lbs. in 2 weeks. Went from 213-204. I feel like I've been working out/tighter while I haven't done anything in the gym lately. Pretty excited about this and ready to get back in the gym Thursday.

[FA13]

I need some help. I'm 42 and 6ft 250lbs and really need to drop some weight and do not where or how I should start. I need something outlined step by step. Every years I have put on more and more and need this to stop and need help.

[rhound50]

First step is to figure out where all your extra calories come from. Start by eating normally and making a list of everything you eat for a week or two. Then go through and figure out how many calories you are eating total. There are lots of sources online that will allow you to figure out approximatly how many calories are in things. From there you figure out where you can cut some calories. I use fitday.com to track my calorie intake, I find that forcing myself to enter what I have eaten and look at the calorie numbers make me take control of what I what I eat. Drinking a pitcher of beer and half a pizza is pretty easy to do after a softball game when I'm not tracking my diet. When I am tacking and have worked hard all week to eat well it makes me not want to have to enter that 2000 calorie meal that destroys all the hard work I have done the rest of that week.