Road Guy
Well-known member
those are a good way to lose weight...
supposed to leave here in a few minutes and run the trail.. help talk me out of working late and skipping running!
EB.com BIGGEST LOSER
- Thread starter DVINNY
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Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:
those are a good way to lose weight...
supposed to leave here in a few minutes and run the trail.. help talk me out of working late and skipping running!
I've had a mixture of heavy eating, drinking, and the occasional heavy workout over the last few weeks. I am hoping to get back into a normal routine soon, but so far I seem to be hovering around 183, which is not great but at least it's a little lower than what I started with.
IlliniASU
Engineers don't only drive trains.
Hi everyone!
I know I'm not a contestant but I feel like I've been playing this game for the last 3.5 years. In March 2006 I think I was at my all time high of 160 pounds. Looking back at photos now I can hardly believe I let myself get that way. At 5'-2", there's not a lot of room to hide excess weight. Now, at 30, I've been able to maintain 120 pounds for 10 months. I fluctuate about 2 pounds on either side of 120, but I am fairly consistent.
I really began exercising around Christmas time of '06. I would go to the gym three to four times per week, using the elliptical and lifting weights. From then through 2007 I lost around ten pounds, but still wasn't seeing the results I wanted. At that point I examined my diet and started to cut. I didn't cut what I was eating, just how much. I still eat pizza, ice cream, burgers, drink beer, etc., just in moderation. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Anyone saying anything different is trying to sell you something.
For what it's worth, a few suggestions:
Check your BMR to get started. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
This will tell you your base metabolic rate, or how many calories you burn if you were to just laze around on the sofa all day. Mine is less than 1330, so I really have to watch how much I take in.
Count your calories. I'm kind of obsessed with it, but it's really easy to do. I try to stay between 1300 and 1400 per day. Any exercise I do just adds on to the calories that I burn. Remember that one pound is roughly 3500 calories.
Watch your portions. I usually cook on Sunday nights so that I have all my lunches set to go for the week. I put the food into small Tupperware containers so that they are already portioned. I will also snack on grapes and granola bars. Everyone knows that restaurant portions are massive, so as soon as I get my meal I cut everything in half and immediately put half of it in a 'to go' box.
I read that some people are cutting out sweets. That may work in the short term, but if you want a piece of chocolate, eat it. Eating 3 to 5 hershey's kisses now is much better than gorging on half of a French silk pie later. To curb hunger, I eat those Chewy peanut butter chocolate chip bars. They're 100 calories and will tide me over for at least 2 to 3 hours. And, I get my peanut butter/chocolate fix. Mmm.
Dleg and DVINNY are absolutely right. Exercise is great for many reasons, but it's not everything. As previously mentioned, you need to roughly burn 3500 calories to lose a pound. Thinking of it this way, a typical runner does not burn that much by running a marathon. So yes, definitely exercise, but watching what you eat is just as important, if not more.
I've attached some progress photos that I dug up. They're a little fuzzy because I had to scale them down quite a bit in order to get under the 250k limit.
It took a while, but I think I'm finally at a place where I'm happy.
Good luck to everyone!
comparison_2009.pdf
I know I'm not a contestant but I feel like I've been playing this game for the last 3.5 years. In March 2006 I think I was at my all time high of 160 pounds. Looking back at photos now I can hardly believe I let myself get that way. At 5'-2", there's not a lot of room to hide excess weight. Now, at 30, I've been able to maintain 120 pounds for 10 months. I fluctuate about 2 pounds on either side of 120, but I am fairly consistent.
I really began exercising around Christmas time of '06. I would go to the gym three to four times per week, using the elliptical and lifting weights. From then through 2007 I lost around ten pounds, but still wasn't seeing the results I wanted. At that point I examined my diet and started to cut. I didn't cut what I was eating, just how much. I still eat pizza, ice cream, burgers, drink beer, etc., just in moderation. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Anyone saying anything different is trying to sell you something.
For what it's worth, a few suggestions:
Check your BMR to get started. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
This will tell you your base metabolic rate, or how many calories you burn if you were to just laze around on the sofa all day. Mine is less than 1330, so I really have to watch how much I take in.
Count your calories. I'm kind of obsessed with it, but it's really easy to do. I try to stay between 1300 and 1400 per day. Any exercise I do just adds on to the calories that I burn. Remember that one pound is roughly 3500 calories.
Watch your portions. I usually cook on Sunday nights so that I have all my lunches set to go for the week. I put the food into small Tupperware containers so that they are already portioned. I will also snack on grapes and granola bars. Everyone knows that restaurant portions are massive, so as soon as I get my meal I cut everything in half and immediately put half of it in a 'to go' box.
I read that some people are cutting out sweets. That may work in the short term, but if you want a piece of chocolate, eat it. Eating 3 to 5 hershey's kisses now is much better than gorging on half of a French silk pie later. To curb hunger, I eat those Chewy peanut butter chocolate chip bars. They're 100 calories and will tide me over for at least 2 to 3 hours. And, I get my peanut butter/chocolate fix. Mmm.
Dleg and DVINNY are absolutely right. Exercise is great for many reasons, but it's not everything. As previously mentioned, you need to roughly burn 3500 calories to lose a pound. Thinking of it this way, a typical runner does not burn that much by running a marathon. So yes, definitely exercise, but watching what you eat is just as important, if not more.
I've attached some progress photos that I dug up. They're a little fuzzy because I had to scale them down quite a bit in order to get under the 250k limit.
It took a while, but I think I'm finally at a place where I'm happy.
Good luck to everyone!
comparison_2009.pdf
jeb6294
Well-known member
We had enough Christmas stuff that went back to Target that we were able to get a Wii Fit. We already had Wii Sports Resort that's also fun and a bit of a workout.
As mentioned earlier, the wife has me doing Atkins so Christmas dinner at the in-laws was interesting. Of course we had turkey which is okay but she did mashed 'potatoes' that are made with cauliflower since potatoes are a no-no on Atkins. She wasn't able to find the Atkins safe stuff to make gravy so we had to have it dry but it wasn't bad. I'm not going to complain too much...I'm down 20 pounds in the last week and a half.
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
I managed to work out every day while in Dallas since my uncle got me a 10 day pass to his gym. It's getting really annoying at home since my exercise bike is still broken, and they said it's going to take 4-6 weeks to send me a replacement. I've been doing various P90X routines to tide me over, but they make me sore.
Capt Worley PE
Run silent, run deep
Still at 212, but I'm waiting til the deep dish butter cake and eggnog are gone before getting serious. Plus, it is too friggin cold to walk right now. Looks like next week.
RIP - VTEnviro
His Memory Eternal
^Cry me a river.
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USSC0...archbox_localwx
Weather.com is calling for 43 and sunny there. That's a long sleeve shirt with a fleece vest kind of weather.
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USSC0...archbox_localwx
Weather.com is calling for 43 and sunny there. That's a long sleeve shirt with a fleece vest kind of weather.
D
Dexman1349
Still hovering around 140. I think the 5lbs gained so far was only water from giving up soda cold turkey... dammit.
StructuralPoke
Well-known member
Made the resolutions, couldn't turn down free Chic-Fil-A for breakfast.I didn't think this thread would have gone for a week without any posts. I guess none of you made weight loss a new year's resolution.
Capt Worley PE
Run silent, run deep
Nah, that's heavy leather coat weather. Plus, despite the high, it won't break 32 til 2 o'clock or so.
I absolutely hate cold weather (and, yeah, i think this is cold).
Working late an a complete inability to breathe through my nose is killing me post-holiday. The 29 pound turd was sick for almost two months, and as soon as she got better, MIAF lost her voice and I picked up the sinus infection from hell. Daycare my ***... more like a death camp.
the cold has been particularly bad this past week, but what's stopped me from running outside more than the cold is that it's dark when I get to work in the mornings and dark when I leave the office in the evenings. Drivers around here are barely competent enough to drive when the sun is up I'm not about to trust them when they can't see. I have a light (flashing LED) that I can clip to me for running at night but I've found that almost makes things worse. It's like moths to the flame. I swear these people are ********.
That said, I have been going to spin class 3-4 times a week and trying to keep up with lifting weights. The weight room was really crowded over the holiday's with all the kids back from college or the high schoolers on christmas break. I'll be glad when they are all back in school and the new years resolutioners eventually concede defeat.
I need to get some running in though. I hate running on a treadmill, it's so boring, but I'm going to have to do something b/c I want to run some races in the spring and I'd prefer to get a little training in beforehand.
RIP - VTEnviro
His Memory Eternal
It won't break 32 until March or so!
I love snow and cold. I went snowshoeing this weekend. And I plan to rent x-country skis and try that out for my birthday in a couple weeks. My b'day is on a Tuesday, but the weekend before or after that.
One of my favorite trips started when it was -16 out, I kept trying to thaw my eyelids.
At the same time, leave me alone when the temp is 80+. I melt like cheese. I get overheated real easy.
soboman52
Active member
Lost a couple of pounds. Down to 213.6. Bsketball on Wednesday and Thursday nights starting tonight.
Capt Worley PE
Run silent, run deep
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