How to set a goal for the Pile on the Miles 21 Day Challenge. Pile on the Miles was originally a running challenge where we tried to run MORE miles in November. But over the years it’s grown and changed (just like us). Now the challenge is about setting a goal that is important to […]
The post How to Set a Running Goal for PILE on the MILES Challenge appeared first on Run Eat Repeat.
Backstory: I'm 36, 5'2", and trying to tackle about 30-40 pounds I packed on from my mid-twenties on. It's kind of a bummer that it happened; I lived in a city and walked everywhere, took up inconsistent running and swimming, but I also used being vegetarian and a mild drinker as an excuse to, well, eat crappily. ("I don't booze and I don't steak: BRING ON THE ENTIRE CHEEZE PIZZA!") And so here we are. I don't actually look that different than I did at 120: maybe a little chubbier in the face, but I think most of the weight is concentrated in my midsection and ass, so I see it more in clothing fit than I do in photos. Nevertheless, I have a family history of diabetes, heart issues, etc so it's time to dig in on this.
I tried Noom in February because a friend had a lot of success with and started dropping weight very fast. I actually lost about 10 pounds in just about four months. The main thing with Noom is how it changed my look at portion size: I bought a scale and was flabbergasted by how tiny a morsel 200-300 calories can actually be. I quickly developed a menu of foods that lived within those calorie confines but left me satiated. One challenge, though, was learning how to eat for exercise: Noom makes some accommodations for the extra calories you need, but it's not much. I often found myself too hungry or tired to go exert myself more at the gym. So most of the weight loss was diet-based.
What surprised me was that the weight stayed off when I traveled. I got a chance to spend some time visiting some European cities (Paris, Warsaw, Dublin, etc) and walked many miles a day around all of them, ate without monitoring calories and didn't gain anything back. Maybe there's some sweet spot in those environments where the combination of walking and portion size and general Euro-ness (not having to worry about health care costs?) keeps the body systems in check, idk.
Then, this fall, it started creeping back. I started feeling kind of confined and frustrated by the Noom calories limits and letting myself eat more. Work was incredibly stressful/busy and I was eating on the go/grabbing a lot of takeout. Then I got a knee injury which really limited my movement and mostly kept me on the couch this month, drinking cocoa and eating comfort food (I just couldn't be bothered with food monitoring while recovering). So all the weight's back -- I'm back up to 150, where I started.
I'm kind of discouraged, but see a couple bright spots: I now know exactly how I lost weight before (I can just look up the meals I had between February and June), I made some longterm changes to my eating habits, I naturally avoid most processed foods and sugar now, and am just doing a better job of listening to my body overall. I'm also learning to anticipate certain situations and how they throw off my eating (work stress, etc).
My hope is, once my knee heals up, I can continue building on these habits and resume the path down to 120.
Any advice from those who've lost it, re-gained it, and lost it again much appreciated!
Doing a diet with your partner can be comforting. You have support, friendship and someone to hold you accountable. However, if you’ve tried losing weight as a heterosexual couple, you may have noticed a frustrating trend for women. When it comes to weight loss in men vs. women, men seem to lose weight more easily, even if they’re eating more food.
Starting a weight loss program with your partner can be beneficial and may help you succeed. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that men and women “are more likely to make a positive health behavior change if their partner does too.”
Despite the benefits of doing a diet with your partner, women still may be frustrated when they don’t seem to be dropping pounds at the same rate. You’re not imagining it. It really is easier for men to lose weight. According to Healthline, a study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism about this topic. In this study, scientists gave more than 2,000 overweight individuals identical diets for eight weeks. Men in the study lost 16 percent more weight than women.
We may not be able to change the fact that men lose faster. However, understanding the reasons why may put your mind at ease and help focus on the positives of your personal progress.
5 Ways Slow Eating Can Increase Weight Loss
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According to a study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, women burn five to 10 percent fewer calories than men while sedentary, even when you account for differences in body composition and weight. So, if a man and woman of the same height and weight sit on a couch, the man is likely burning more calories.
But don’t lose sleep over it: Really, don’t. Just four nights of bad sleep can increase fatty acid concentrations in the blood, according to a study published in the journal Diabetologia. This may lead to an increased risk of insulin resistance (a precursor to Type 2 diabetes) and metabolic diseases. So, make sure you get enough shuteye to keep yourself healthy and happy.
Visceral fat, the rock-hard kind that makes up a “beer gut,” is dangerous stuff. Extra belly fat around the middle can increase the risk of early death by 87 percent in men, according to a 2015 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The midsection is where many men tend to carry their extra weight.
When they start to lose weight, that dangerous belly fat turns into an advantage in weight loss statistics. Losing visceral fat increases your metabolic rate says Live Science. Women have more subcutaneous fat found around their thighs and hips. According to Live Science, the loss of subcutaneous fat does not have the same metabolism boosting effect as losing visceral fat.
Belly Fat in Men: How to Get Rid of It
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This is another metabolism advantage: Men have more skeletal muscle than women do. In one study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the skeletal muscle mass of 468 men and women of various ages and sizes was measured. The men averaged 38.4 percent muscle, while the women were 30.6 percent muscle.
This difference is important to note as muscle burns more calories. According to the American Journal of Human Biology, each pound of muscle burns about 13 calories every day while at rest. This means that a man with 25 extra pounds of muscle mass could be burning 325 extra calories per day—even if he’s not exercising.
One way to battle this difference is to build some muscle of your own. Strength training will help you stave off fat, burn more calories and reduce your overall cardiovascular risk—and you don’t need to lift heavy weights to do it. Click for more information on strength training >
How to Become a Nutrisystem Portion Pro
Read MoreThe post Weight Loss in Men vs. Women appeared first on The Leaf.
Hello - I'm new here!
I'm handing in my PhD thesis on Monday (!!) and then getting back to healthy habits. I gained 18-20kg in 3 years with moving in with my husband, changing to a vehicle-based commute, becoming a social drinker, massive PhD-related stress-eating (ALL the breads), and eating the foods/portions my husband likes. I've managed to keep my weight steady for 2 years and now want to bring the weight down over the next 1-2 years.
Currently I am 81kg - My goal is to weigh 61kg or so after 2 years (or sooner!)- I'm a mid30s female- 5 feet 7 inches tall. So I'm overweight but not quite obese, and my hip-waist ratio is Not Good. But I get positive results on health checks and (the last 2 months of writing up excepted) was 'lightly'-to 'moderately' active with 3 hours of dancing per week and a few group fitness classes.
My husband is a keen cook and I want to spend some time with him cooking and portioning meals so we both have a better idea of what is (a) a suitable recipe for my calorie/macro goals and (b) a healthy portion size for me. He LOVES cooking but rarely follows recipes, loves making curries/stews (so it's hard to work out macros by proportions on the plate) and we 'debate' about my portion sizes. (He often says "no way that's enough!" and admits he equates food with affection). (He eats a lot more than me, but before we met he went down from 120kg to 78kg and has held that weight for years).
Does anyone have a favourite book or website with mainly strict vegetarian* meals for weight loss? I am looking for a fairly visual guide that we can work through together to cook and portion out meals so we BOTH get a better idea of what I should be eating.
Low salt and low sugar recipes would be helpful too, as he has a family history of heart disease and LOVES his salty foods.
I will be resuming dancing, group fitness and some weight training over the next month. I use the New Rules of Lifting For Women book. Any recommendations on that front would be great :)
Thank you all!
*I guess you'd call us Flexitarian. We do not subscribe to the political/ethical side of veganism eat "vegan" (no animal product) meals 80% of the time for environmental reasons. We will have meat, cheese and eggs on special occasions IF we are happy with the producer, e.g. a local farm, a friend's pet chickens.
Today is your Day 1?
Welcome to r/Loseit!
So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.
Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.
The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.
Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.
How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.
The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.
Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.
It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.
It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.
You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.
Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.
Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.
I used to be fat - almost 200lbs at 5'3"... I told myself I 'carried it well' and it was 'because I had big boobs' but really.. I was fat.
6 years ago I decided to not be fat anymore. I started increasing my activity. I stopped putting so much food in my mouth. I got on to keto. I lost close to 60lbs over about 3 years.
5 years ago we moved overseas to Singapore. I was able to keep my weight loss up for a while, and then I plateaued. Then my weight started creeping back up a little. Life was stressful, but I was really amping up my workouts and putting on muscle. I still looked pretty good even though the scale was moving in the opposite direction I wanted to. I plateaued at about 40lbs lost and despite my efforts to get closer to my ideal weight.
We've moved overseas again (to Sydney), and back (to Singapore). I've continued to work out hard and put on muscle but in the past year there's been a lot of stress and I'll have small periods of backsliding but overall my BF% has been trending downwards and muscle gain is trending upwards.
4 months ago I was made redundant from the job that transferred us back to Singapore. 3 weeks ago my husband was let go. We both have until January to find new work or we'll be deported. I've found a short term contract (until Jan) to pay the rent, but the work is not ideal and I dread going in to work every day. I'm continuing to push myself at the gym, but in my efforts to control *one* aspect of my life I find myself going overboard and have hurt myself a few times (nothing serious, tendonitis in my shoulder, currently have strained my hip flexor)... which benches me and makes me feel even worse. Our relationship is starting to feel some tension over the stress we're both feeling. All in all life feels pretty shitty at the moment.
I lost it over halloween - I binged on chocolate and all sorts of bad shit all day. I told myself "it's just one day, I'll get back on it tomorrow" ... but if I'm honest I've been 'cheating' for weeks, and today has been another bad day. I can feel myself heading in to a downward spiral of binging and poor food choices - I've been thinking and acting like the 'fat' girl I used to be, which is just making me even more depressed and it becomes a self-fulfilling cycle of shit.
Have any of you been in this place? How do you get out of it?
So, my situation. As the title says, I'm (just a few days ago) 26, 6'1ish, and hovering around 310. I can't keep living like this, the city I live in has way too many stairs for that. When I was in high school, I was around 250, playing football and doing downhill ski racing. Thats not my goal, I want to use it as an example of where my hopelessness for weight loss comes from. During those years, I was doing intense physical exercise 6 days a week, while still doing moderate exercise on the 7th. I was still severely overweight.
I've come to the conclusion "I can't live like this" many times in the past, but every time I do, I don't see results month to month, and then I think back to how physically active I was in high school without being "in shape," and then I binge.
What would other people who have been in this situation before recommend to get past this mental block? What has worked for you when you've had trouble dropping weight?
