Cholula

Moved this thread over at OP's request.

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Cholula
OMNI Co-Moderator

techgirl

You mention The Biggest Loser... have you read Jillian Michael's books on nutrition? She advocates a vegan diet and use of a body monitor (like Body Media's BodyBugg) to ensure that your caloric burn is higher than your intake.

There is no tricking your body into burning faster... to lose five pounds a week, you are going to need to burn 17,500 additional calories. Your best way to do that is cardio. Lots and lots of cardio at interval levels. Use of a body monitor can help you adjust the intervals so that the burn stays as high as possible.

majikTib

Thanks for the advice - that's very helpful. I'll look into a body monitor.
I have a membership at Snap Fitness, and they push "Easy Fit" as their product, with website monitoring and reports. Oh, and no, I haven't read her book or really looked into her concepts/ideas at all. Several people have mentioned the paeleolithic diet (caveman diet?), which seems to be exactly what I'm following - except for maybe the rice.

I've been making use of the heart rate monitors on ellipticals, bikes, and treadmills, and I've been trying to make use of the interval levels throughout my workouts. According to the Cybex elliptical machine (which I'm sure isn't nearly an exact science) I've seen 450, 550, or even 600 calories burned in 30-35 minutes doing high intensity intervals. Those are when I've got my heart pumping and loud music in my ears. On an average day, I'm seeing 350-400 in 30 minutes. I'm also aware of my BMR and target heart rate.

I've been tracking the machine's calorie results and monitoring my calorie intake with MyFitnessPal.com and their mobile app. It's been pretty helpful, and suggests that 197 is realistic in 5 weeks (that's an 17 pound drop) given a 1,500 calorie diet and the calories I'm burning.

I'm hoping to hit that goal, and get the last 10 pounds in the last 2 weeks, maybe through dropping 5 lbs. of water weight before weigh-in. Right now I'm taking in about 200oz. daily. I haven't had any soda, alcohol, or syrups in 2 months, just strictly water. I started that before this contest as part of a personal goal.

emma69

I think replacing some of the chicken and rice with veggies is probably a good idea. Low calories veggies can fill you up, allow your body to acknowledge it is getting fed (from what I understand adding a little healthy fat with them wil work even better), and contains abetter balance of nutrients than chicken alone.

An 8oz chicken breast (no skin no bone) is around 240 calories. A cup of white rice is around the same again. so 480 calories, up to 4 times a day is 1920 calories, which is far higher than the 1500 calories you mention, without adding in your breakfast, protein shake etc. I think, genuinely, you may be eating too much calorie wise.

Eggs are great for keeping you feeling full - I use the egg beaters egg whites (cheese and chive or southwestern) each morning for my breakfast. But I skip adding any carbs to the meal, and instead have some sliced tomato and a small amount of avocado (high in all kinds of nutrients, including monounsaturated fat, which is thought to help boost metabolism), 1/4 of a large avocado, 1/2 of a very small one (there seem to be 2 types at my local store, large paler coloured, and small very dark). It keeps me feeling full.

Adding some veg mid morning, something like celery or red peppers perhaps with a small amount of hummus or peanut butter gives you a little protein, a little fat, and some calories to keep your body ticking over.

Chicken is good, maybe vary it with some white fish perhaps? If you want rice, sure, but the recommended 'serving size' of a portion of rice is half a cup. In terms of white rice being better for weight loss - that isn't my understanding - brown rice is higher in fibre, so less of it will make you fuller (if I were to eat half a cup of white rice, I would feel less full than eating half a cup of brown rice, thus you can eat less of the brown rice). The bit about burning it off is only true if you eat it immediatly before exercise (and I don't think you are working out 4x a day after eating it). You could add veggies such as brocolli to bulk out the meal if you feel it is not enough.

Low fat dairy products (reduced fat cheese, natural skim milk yogurt) are pretty helpful too as they help you feel fuller, add calcuim and poss vit D, while not adding a lot of calories.

I would also get your metabolism measured - without having done so, you don't know what your body burns (it varies a good deal, the 'guidelines' for daily intake are not true for everyone). Only then can you know if you are eating more or less than you are burning.

In terms of exercise, swimming is great for using more muscles without adding bulk.

manneca

Actually you may lose more weight not exercising. Really. You will/can eat less if you don't have exercise telling your body to eat more.

I was reading a review of the New Atkins Diet book by the guy who wrote the China Study. (Atkins recommends no white carbs; the China Study recommends lots of carbs, little meat). Then I saw studies flaming the China Study. Each side accusing the other of slanting evidence. It seemed like a fight between liberal Dems and Tea Partiers. Each convinced the other side was not only wrong, but EVIL.

I know for me, very low white carbs work (no rice, potatoes, bread, pizza, etc) and lots of veggies and meat and cheese. Other people's bodies work differently.

I also know that the heavier you are, the faster the weight will come off. Which means the rate of loss will slow as you lose more weight.

The NYTimes has an article that some folks seem to be genetically predisposed not to get fitter with exercise. I don't know if that relates to weight loss and exercise.

Sanicorpus

Cut out the pastas, rice, cereal, bread, sugar, soda, etc. If it ain't meat and veggies, don't do it. That's probably not news to you.

Here's what will be news to you:

Take cold showers. Really cold ice baths, even. One in the morning, and one at night. Every day. This will melt the fat off of you (bad analogy, but it works). When you can't do that, put an ice pack on the back of your neck.

Take Policosanol, Green Tea Extract (decaf), Alpha-Lipoic Acid, and Garlic pills every night. Take just the Alpha Lipoic, Green tea extract, and Garlic at every meal.

When you must have something sweet, make sure it ain't for breakfast or dinner. Only at lunch. And if you must be that weak, make sure you have some grapefruit juice a few minutes before. For $10,000 I'd give up sex, sugar, alcohol, you name it, so don't blow it by eating a croissant, you pansy.

A little extreme cardio won't hurt, so start doing spin classes at the local gym. You know, the cycling classes you thought would kill you? It won't. If you must lift weights, and this is just for the purposes of this contest, do so in low weight, high reps.

majikTib

Thank you Emma for your help! I should have clarified earlier - I'm doing 1 cup of cooked rice, so 1/2 cup dry (160 calories). Same with my oatmeal - 1/2cup dry, 1cup cooked, so 150 calories there. I'm doing rice 4 meal/day twice per week (2 cups dry), 2 meal/day (1c dry) 3x per week, and 1 meal/day doubled up (1cup dry) twice per week, varying my meals to keep my body changing. It was a recommendation from a few people, so I hope it's working. I'm going to cut out a good chunk of the carbs next week.

I'm also substituting Whtie Fish or Mahi Mahi for chicken for my 4th meal usually with brown rice instead of white. It also usually includes celery, green beans, broccoli, spinach, and cilantro in that meal, since it's at the restaurant.

I'm doing regular egg beaters rather than egg whites because they taste better, and I didn't see a drastic difference in nutrition value. More protein, no fat, and a few more calories. I'm doing 8oz. which is 120 calories and 24g protein immediately after 30 minutes of cardio in the morning. I think I was underestimating the calories in chicken.

Meal 1: 120 calories (egg beaters) + 150 calories (oatmeal)
Meal 2: 240 calories (chicken) + 160 calories (Kroger white rice)
Meal 3: 240 calories (chicken) + 160 calories (Kroger white rice)
Meal 4: 240 calories (chicken) + 160 calories (Kroger white rice)
Meal 5: Genghis Grill: fish, rice, veggies, usually 450 calories
Meal 6: Isopure zero carb protein shake 200 calories

So my high days are 2120 calories, my low days are around 1600 calories, and I'm "burning" anywhere from 600-900 calories/day in the gym. My first month I was only taking in about 1,100 - 1,200 calories. I dropped a lot of weight, but this plateau so I decided to take everyone's advice and eat more.

Sani - Thanks for the advice! Why cold showers? I'm taking three hot showers right now: One prior and post A.M. workout, and one before bed after my P.M. workout. It makes my muscles feel better after hard workouts - would cold showers make it harder for my muscles to relax or recover?

I'm adding garlic to every meal at the restaurant, I'll consider putting it with every meal.

I've sworn off sugar, alcohol, salty foods and chips - but sex? isn't that a form of cardio?

Policosanol, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, now you're way out of my area... what are these, why, and how do they work? I'll look into them and see what I can find. Do I need to go to GNC/Vitamin Shoppe to get these, or any drugstore/grocery?

Manneca - thanks for your insight. Working out has always been fun for me, I just hate the cardio aspect. And, I would think I'm more genetically geared towards having a leaner body. I was athletic in my teen years, and my dad and grandfather were high school and college track/football/hockey stars. I focused on baseball myself. My problem has always been my desire for salty foods (chips) and love for meat and potatoes (eh, burgers and fries).


According to this calculator: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
"Extreme Fat Loss" given my specs are 1,909-2,011 calories/day and the "Fat Loss" is at 2,545-2,681.
And according to http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ my Basal Metabolic Rate is 2,098.

aztimm

Ok, I'm trying to piece this together from several of your posts--

you are male? (I didn't see that indicated)
27 years old?
5'9"
215# (I don't do decimals, I round, usually to the nearest 5#)
22% body fat

what is your BMI? what is your waist size?

As others have said, you really need to do some cardio if you want to lose weight. When I first increased running to 8 miles, I really began to cut some weight. At the time, I had also cut Coke from my diet (cold turkey), and ate a salad for dinner 3-4 times a week. I'd snack on a can of tuna or some slices of turkey lunchmeat.

I'm guessing that your ideal weight should be somewhere around 150#, so your goal of 187 is a start, but shouldn't be the end. Your body fat really needs to come down too.

If you want to do this, I'd add some running/walking/biking (even 2 x 30 min a day), and some weights. Now that I lift, I've noticed that even when I run I burn more calories than I did before. A guy on the swimming forums I follow had a rib problem and couldn't swim for 2 months. He started using a stationary bike at home for 2 x 60 min a day...and lost around 20# in that 2 months.

majikTib

Male
27 years old
215 lbs. as of this morning
22-23% body fat prior to the competition when I weighed 235 #
BMI = 22
Waist: started at a 38" pant size, now I've lost 2.5 holes on my belt and wearing my size 34 pants.

My ultimate goal is to weigh 165 pounds with body fat 17% or less. My doctor told me a healthy range is 11-19%. When I had my physical, the doctor said "Charts say you should weight 165, but that may not be ideal for you considering your muscle structure" - which to me suggests I may have to cut more fat to get down to that. He said a healthy goal should be 187, then to go from there. He did NOT say it should be 187 by May 3rd, but that's my goal

I'm glad to hear that about the stationary bike. I did that this morning for 30 minutes - I plan on kicking it up to 1 hour tomorrow a.m. (or tonight!). The elliptical wears me out after 35 minutes and it's hard to go longer.

But I keep reading about cortisol, and how you shouldn't do cardio for 1 hour continuously. Anyone have insight on this?

SkiAdcock

I skimmed the thread as it's quite detailed. Glad you made it over here. I can't address the food as much since a lot of folk know I hate veggies, am allergic to fish, but looks like you got some good advice.

I'd chime in on the cardio suggestions as well. Truthfully I don't think cortisol is going to impact you that much. But getting some cardio in there.

And ok, this is NOT what I'd recommend as a normal thing, but then I wouldn't recommend losing as much weight in as short a period of time either. So with that disclaimer...

My neighbor back in California had some office bet going on who could lose the most weight - think the pot was $2,000. He literally went to a buzz cut hairwise toward the end to get every ounce off (one of the female coworkers cut her long hair), and went on some extreme fast thing the final 3 days (some type of liquids/program he paid for). There might have been body fat % lost in there too, or maybe the bet was body fat %. He ended up winning. The ironic part is he wasn't super heavy to begin w/ & biked for a gazillion miles anyway. He just wanted to lose a bit & got into it big-time due to the $$.

Cheers.

emma69

The Basal Metabolic Rate is what I was referring to, and it can be hundreds of calories off what your actual BMR is - say yours was actually 1800, not 2098 - you would be fooled into thinking you had an extra 300 calories a day to 'play' with, but really, that would be over half a pound of extra weight per week. That is why I suggested getting it measured. Online calculators only give you 'average' calculations, which is great if you are in the middle, bad if you are at either end.

I think 1100 does sound too low - but I also think 2120 is too high. I also don't think you are getting nearly enough veg. I'm another person that agrees exercise isn't necessarily compatible with weight loss - excercising makes you hungrier, and the more you work out, the more your body adapts to make it more efficient (ie burns less calories) of a machine.

Sanicorpus

The body is a complex machine, and if you want the benefit of heat (hot water) after a workout, sandwich it between cold water immersion. In other words, cold 5-10 minutes, hot 5-10 minutes, cold 5-10 minutes and done. You want temps of about 95-103 F on hot, and 53-60 F on cold.

Cold doesn't necessarily impair your muscles to recover, because when the cold water makes your body want to take a nice nap (and it will), your muscles will be recovering quite nicely while your body goes through the recuperative processes during sleep.

Why does cold water melt fat? It triggers hormones that help kill fat. It also helps eliminate Brown Fat, which is the fat surrounding organs and such. All fat is not just between the skin and the muscle. There's a lot more deep beneath.

Pick up Tim Ferriss's book 4-hour Body. It's worth it.

majikTib

Thanks Emma - where would I go to get a BMR actually measured? How do they do that?

For the last two days I've added 7oz. of green beans (half a can) to my 9am meal, but most of my veggies are coming at night - about 4oz of celery, 6oz. green beans, 6oz. broccoli, 2-4oz. jalapenos (love the spice!), 4oz. snap peas, and 1oz. of garlic - it's almost the exact same thing every night, estimates of course. I see your point, though, getting in more veggies earlier in the day. I'll make an attempt at that.

Thanks Sanicorpus - I'll take your suggestion. Couldn't hurt, right? It sounds like it would help me sleep at night. My p.m. workouts seem to energize me and make it harder to sleep. I work for a large book distributor - I'll definitely look into the books that have been suggested!

emma69

I had mine done by a doctor in a clinic. The test involves wearing a breathing tube and just sitting and breathing into it for around 10 minutes and I think they took measurements etc as well.

longwaybackhome

While this may have been brought up before, and it's probably an incredibly stupid question, are you drinking enough water?

I agree that you need more vegetables in your diet.