In which I make a predictable post about losing weight

[chess]

I am fat. Now, nobody is to say 'you're not fat' or 'I'm fatter than you', because although it is true that I am not clinically obese and many people are fatter than me, I am carrying rather more than a few pounds over. I am, in fact, ten stone, which is a good half stone more than I should ever be, and it shows. I don't fit any of my jeans. I need to lose weight.

Apparently I shall lose all my excess pounds if I go for an hour's walk every day. I plan to try this, although I have no idea how it will work in term time (I'm presuming for then this means an hour more than the hour I do anyway going in and out of town, and term tends to be short on spare hours). I was vaguely planning to do an hour's swimming a week, as an 'on top of the walking I do anyway' thing, but the plans were quite vague as I'm not particularly conveniently situated for any swimming pools, driving to them seems to be missing the point a little, and I have to find the Motor Proctor on a full moon Tuesday with a following wind (half an hour from 2-2:30 one day a week, or 6-6:30 a couple of others which gives me that little missing-Hall problem) before I have permission to car around Cam anyhow. And I am confidently informed that I don't swim fast enough to lose any weight by it, even though this is because I Have No Muscles and hence am actually putting in a fair amount of effort to not move very far.

Does anyone have any Top Tips For Losing Weight? I haven't consciously decided I need to lose weight before; it's just sort of happened when it needed to. But I have been A Big Lazy Blob over the summer, having gone into it needing to shed a few pounds, and now it's getting kind of serious.

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I know you said you didn't want to hear this, but I don't think of you as fat at all. If anything I think of you as skinny. I'm over 9 stone, and I'm a good head shorter than you. Women do get fatter (well, curvier) as they get to around 20, and it's no less natural than children getting taller.

However, getting fit and being aware of your body isn't a bad thing. I'd love to have someone as unfit as me to exercise with when in Cambridge, a year ago I used to go jogging with my friend, but I haven't done it for a year now, and don't if I don't have someone else to motivate me.

Also, exercise can be doing something you have to do anyway but more enthusiastically, if you cycle try cycling a few minutes quicker so you feel it by the time you arrive.

M is forever telling me how snacking is bad for weight gain, and that if I ate the same amount but in 3 meals a day I'd loose more weight as my body would have to burn calories to get through the gaps between the meals. Also, just being a bit careful about the way you cook things can make a huge difference (although this is very hard in college with no ovens or hobs) - grilling beats frying for example.

My favourite diet book had a big list of free vegitables that you could eat as much of as you wanted as they didn't contain very many calories at all. Certainly eating more veg and less meat and carbohydrate is a good way to loose weight, although is probably unhealthy if taken to extreems.

[chess]

I tend to have breathing problems doing anything more strenuous than walking really fast; that's why I'd thought of swimming, 'cos it's meant to be good for people with breathing trouble. (It's not exactly asthma, but just as awkward for exercise, perhaps more so than an equivalent level of asthma in the winter as it's very highly triggered by cold air.)

Eating Hall food is probably bad for weight gain, but probably not as bad as the vast piles of chips I've been eating over the summer...

I already walk just fast enough to be falling over by the time I get places, just because I have to walk that fast to make it to places in time - cycling requires this handy sense of balance thing that I'm not sure I even understand, much less possess.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I need to exercise more...

Hi

[(Anonymous)]

On losing weight: they do suggest that getting out of breath for 20 minutes every day is good for your metabolism. Energetic sex or playing squash being often suggested methods.

Re: Hi

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can imagine Chess playing squash.

Re: Hi

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that you CAN imagine...oh, never mind.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

When you feel peckish, instead of snacking, drink a large glass of semi-skimmed milk, if you can

What with recent events, I've a whole load of crap on dietary stuff about what does and doesn't make a healthy diet

More fruit, less red meat, no roll and square in the morning, cut down the cholesterol, eat more things like weetabix and branny stuff.

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Water, carrots and celery, mineral water, and stuff like that are GREAT. I have some calorie counting resources if you want to pick health low-cal resources too.

However, I actually suggest walking _faster_ (even if that means less actual time walking) in addition to what you're doing. Invest in a good pair of walking or running shoes and get moving! If there are places within a mile or two that you normally take a bus to, start walking or biking there. You'll get there, just don't get discouraged if you don't see weight loss right away. You'll add muscle mass before you really start losing weight.

I've lost 20-25 pounds (I guess that's about a stone and a half?) over the last year...I feel lots better about myself. I want to lose about 10 more, but need to think more about it at this stage.

[jarel.livejournal.com]

But but but ... celery is EVIL!

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but there are negative calories. :) Its best with peanut butter with raisins on top. Mmm, ants-on-a-log! Heathy, huh?

[jarel.livejournal.com]

*shudders*

[dreema.livejournal.com]

agreed

It's only negative calories cos you use up energy shuddering at the thought of eating it, and then throwing it as far away as possible...

[chess]

Walking faster would basically be running; I know one or two people who walk faster than me, but most people have trouble keeping up when I'm at full steam. I could do with being more organised and hence always walking places rather than taking the bus, though (everywhere in Cambridge is within walking distance, assuming you have half an hour free to get there).

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

Good deal then. Have you ever tried keeping track of what you eat?

[chess]

I did at the start of my first term, and worked out that I was actually eating way too few calories. I started putting on weight in Easter term because I changed the kind of bread I ate without noticing that the new bread was about five times as many calories as the old bread, and kept comfort-eating 'cos I was stressed. Then I continued over the summer because I've been eating meals with people / bored / eating out - I always eat more when I'm distracted from the food I'm eating, or when I need to keep eating to stop getting restless when I'm out somewhere.

So if I go back to eating how I was at the start of the year, or thereabouts, I should be okay for that.

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

Got it. It sounds like you already know what to do - and I definitely do similiar. Good luck!

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

If you've seen my lj, then you'll know the diet I'm following.

I'm eating more calories and losing more inches than I have in years - I cut out wheat, caffeine and alcohol (I was already a veggie) and feel fantastic for it. Lapsed a bit this week, but two weeks holiday in which my main mode of transport will be cycling should cure that.

You might want to try yoga or similar to tone you up, rather than raise heart rate?

Your installment of lame excuses

[chess]

I don't do caffiene and alcohol anyhow, but I am an incurable carnivore and start to get edgy if I haven't had meat for several days (even if I have been eating Sensible Vegetarian Food cooked by vegetarians). Living with a reduced choice of bread may also kill me; I'm slightly addicted to bread (which apparently is really quite fattening :( ).

Yoga scares me.

Re: Your installment of lame excuses

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

if you're addicted to bread, then cutting it down is probably the single most helpful thing you could do.

*grins* re:carnivore.

Yoga is good....

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

You said you didn't want answers about you not being fat, so I won't say that. But I do have experience of feeling too fat and resolving to Do Something about it. So this is what I'd say:

First and foremost. Any change in what you eat is not a 'diet' - it must be permanent or you will never keep any weight off, ever. Same with increased exercise - it is not a penance, it is not a temporary thing until you lose enough weight, it is a permanent change in your lifestyle. Personally, I find increased exercise far easier to stick to than changes in diet; your mileage may vary.

Diet wise - well. The other posts had good, sensible advice - the main thing is to remember that it's a permanent change not a temporary one, and so you shouldn't pick something you won't be happy living with forever.

Exercise wise - twenty minutes' aerobic exercise a day is what we should all be doing. It will be bloody hard work at first, but it gets easier remarkably quickly. By 'aerobic' I mean that you exercise just hard enough that it's difficult to think about anything but exercise while you're doing it, and you get out of breath - but not so hard that you couldn't keep it up for the entire time. It's hard to judge at first, but becomes easier; it doesn't matter at all how much work you're actually doing! All you are doing is working at between 60 and 80 per cent of your maximum effort for 20 minutes. Suitable exercise - jog around College at a slow pace. If this takes you less than 20 minutes, jog round again. Carry a large bottle of water. Stop as often as you need to, but start again before your heart rate returns to normal. Do not drink too much water or you will get a stitch, but do drink some or you will fall over.

Swimming wise - it's not speed of swimming that makes you lose weight. It's the increase in heart rate that results from the exercise. So as long as you swim hard, it doesn't matter how fast you're going.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm 11 1/2 stone *and* shorter than Chess...

You can diet to loose weight fast and then eat sensibly to maintain weight... if current eating is not putting on weight it's fine. Problem being gaining weight.

Now I like the diet Angel was on and plan to try it, vegan-ness probably interesting. As Chess is an inverterate carnivore - try the Attkins diet, I think it sucks and is icky (I wouldn't want to eat all that meat) but it might work for weight loss whilst getting to eat the meat.

Oh and walk rather than spodding aimlessly.

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

Well, if we're going to talk weight - my BMI says that I'm clinically obese. Heh.

And I'd recommend /against/ the Atkins diet, cause it's unsustainable. Fooling your body into burning fat is all very well, but it then catches on and you are back where you started, but with bad breath and high colesterol.

[simonb.livejournal.com]

Its now seen that the Atkins diet works thanks to protein being an appertite suppressent rather than any wonderful fat-burning effects from not eating much carbohydrates. When they've compared the calories eaten by people on the Atkins diet with those eaten by people on a traditional calorie controlled diet they've found that they are eating about the same number of calories. Its thanks to this that people on the Atkins diet loose weight. However as you say, its unsustainable and leads to a much higher load on bodily functions.

[mickat24.livejournal.com]

That's all very good advice up there. I'll add this - I've been on the WeightWatchers diet for four weeks now, and have lost 10 pounds in that time. With no exercise whatsoever - and with a three day Jewish holiday (during which there was much eating involved, as with all Jewish holidays...) in that time, as well. It might have been a little bit more if not for that. I've find it relatively easy and painless, and I like that the diet itself teaches you the basics of healthy eating in general, and doesn't deprive you of anything, like the Atkins diet does. If you'd like details about the diet, let me know. I'd be happy to tell you about it. Good luck! :)

[emperor]

I've heard that having breakfast regularly can help - it kick-starts the metabolism in the morning, and means you actually burn more calories during the day.I suspect this effect would be swamped by the calories in a fry-up, however ;)

[chess]

The only circumstances under which I do not eat breakfast is when I wake up late enough that it's lunch; if I don't eat breakfast I die violently sometime around noon, which is normally before I've managed to get lunch organised. And when I'm not eating disgustingly high-sugar breakfast cereals because I've found interesting-looking ones, I eat museli, so not too bad.

[zebbiejohnson.livejournal.com]

I find that if I eat breakfast my body realises I'm awake and near food and I'm starving again by 10.30am regardless of what I ate. If on the other hand I creep slowly from asleep to lunchtime without eating, I'm not actually hungry until about 2 or 3pm.

[passage.livejournal.com]

That's kinda scary since I'm only ten and a half stone (but then my bmi rates as 'don't you dare stop eating!' personally I think the system is rather tailored to Americans (but don't tell anyone in danger of anorexia that)).

There are only four ways I've found to stop myself snacking.
1. Have no snack food in the house. This will result in me walking to the nearest shop and buying snack food, so it does at least include a walk.
2. When I feel like a snack clean my teeth instead. I don't know why but this puts me off any food for an hour or so.
3. The snacking has caused one of your teeth to rot so severly and you've dealt with this so late that the operation the dentist is presently in the middle of has left your tooth sensitive to any eating, with the result that you eat almost nothing for a week, that cuts down on your weight awfully fast.
4. Develop a stomach bug or some illness that's fairly severe and lasts at least a week. Personally I'd rather be fat.

The advice people are giving about exercise I find a little suspicious, surely significantly increasing your heart rate in exercise is a big deal only if the purpose of that exercise is to make your heart healthier. Now that's not at all a bad idea in and of itself, but it's only tangentially related to losing weight. For example, do a steady walk for 8 hours on a days hiking, your heart rate won't have spent any significant length of time much above a normal rate (mountain dependant), but you will have built up an enourmous appitite (which I assume stems from having burnt off a lot of fuel).
I realise that if your heart is working hard it means you're burning off fuel more quickly, but the 'exercise no good unless putting you out of breath' school of thought is I think actually 'exercise no good for heart unless putting you out of breath'.

Anyhow, all you need to do is develop an addiction to celery. No I have no idea how you do that either.

As a final option there is eating nothing for a week. At the end of the week your parents will never again dare to suggest you're overweight for fear that you'd kill yourself.

Of course when you get back to college you could exercise by visiting me regularly.

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

> actually 'exercise no good for heart unless putting you out of
> breath'.

You are right. Any exercise is good, unless it does actual permanent damage. But making the heart healthier is A Good Thing, and can be combined with losing weight since cardiovascular exercise burns an awful lot of energy in a short space of time. It's also highly addictive, but the addiction has no significant negative side effects if you don't join the rowing team or something sily like that.

The other thing is that if you've only got half an hour a day in which to exercise, you want to be doing an aerobic exercise or you won't do more than get blisters and boredom.