This thread speaks my language. Ever since I got into management, I sit all day every day, sneaking trips to the vending machine. I know my diet is out of control, I'm a huge stress eater.
I got fat
- Thread starter metalicaster
- Start date
Telling my story, almost to a tee. All I know is, my GP says "move more, eat less." Cruel, but the only way.
As you and I were saying just the other day, eat your heart out Brad Pitt, one day you might be as handsome we are. (Though probably not)
boop
Tele-Holic
For running. I don’t run these days as much as I once did (I should also get back to it). But I’ma huge proponent of the walk/run and against making it a slog. I believe running should be fun, hell you have to tell kids to not run. So I like to go at a pace that is easy and loose, whether I go real slow like a boxer building stamina or sprint to the next mailbox, I don’t make it some slog. That’ll just get you hurt.
I dropped off 50+ lbs. This took me over 3 years to keep it off, and return to a "normal" diet. As posted, eat less. That's all I did. Zero exercise. Sounds easy? NOT!
LowCaster
Tele-Afflicted
When you are out of shape, exercise is only a matter of having the will to start and know when to stop before you hurt yourself. Diet is much more difficult to manage, for some of us it is the real challenge. I make the cooking at home. I had to rethink what I buy, how I cook, recipes, and not only quantity. And exercise makes you hungry.
Take it slow and play the long game metalicaster. Run/walk 5k, and ensure you're stretching well (and effectively) afterwards. If run/walk is too much, just walk. Work your way up, both in speed and distance, but don't take too big of a jump. Look at it in weeks / months increments.
You can do it!
And with regard to diet impacts weight loss more than exercise, yep. Been told this by multiple doctors, and have seen it play out myself in real life. That said, exercise is very important. And so is stretching and keeping your body limber. I've been doing a variation of one of those "HIT" sessions lately (high intensity training) and I'm feeling better, clothes are starting to fit better, and I'm dropping some fat.
It feels good to feel good. Good luck to you OP!
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There's lots to cover in these kind of threads but just real quick I want to say that, for anyone, if you need 15 minutes to recover from 5 minutes of running - you are running too fast. Full stop.
It's good that you can aknowledge it. Does it help when I mention that you just described probably the single most unhealthy scenario that a modern human can succumb to? You seriously need to get that under control, and it might not be easy to do.
TheCheapGuitarist
Tele-Afflicted
Food is fuel for our bodies. It's not a "treat", it's not a "reward" - it's fuel. If we put crappy fuel into our cars, they'll run crappy.
Same thing happens with food and our bodies.
Same thing happens with food and our bodies.
Diet and exercise and stress reduction. Do whatever you have to do to lower your stress. From what you're saying, that's the root of all this. What's the point of bringing home a certain paycheck if you're plagued with illness and don't feel good enough to do the things that keep the weight off?
I quit smoking plus or +/-25 years ago.
I miss it at least once a week.
Next September 9 is 20 years for me. That craving never goes away. I still have dreams about smoking and surely you do too.
Also, topical to the thread I'm overweight as well. I was already a bit over for much of my 30s, and then I've put on about 20 over the last year of working from home. Like OP, I need to so something about it.
I have lost 40 pounds since the beginning of January 2022 in the name of illness. I needed to drop that weight, but illness isn't the best weight loss plan.
My ex blew up like a balloon around the time we married and struggled to lose it. Several years back, she got serious about it (presumably because she planned to leave me) and started working out every day. That exercise helped, and she lost some weight, but she was still heavy.
When she got serious about calorie counting, she started dropping weight again and got almost back down to where she was in her 20s. A year or so later she left me.
It's now 18 months after the divorce, and she now has lost even more weight, but she's starting to hit that "older woman who looks leathery and gaunt" vibe due to working outside all day every day and losing too much weight.
SO:
Diet is crucial.
Don't work outside all day or your skin turns to leather.
My concern is that I waited too long to lose weight. If I start losing weight now (at 48 and counting) I don't know if my skin has the elasticity to spring back. Maybe I'll be a series of hanging wrinkly flesh bags...
:-/
I can relate. I'm a bit chubby, but I worry that if I lose weight I will get all wrinkly and really look my age.
lammie200
Friend of Leo's
My 2 cents: There are probably a dozen varieties of sugar used as an additive to nearly everything. Avoid them all. As an added benefit your teeth enamel will thank you.
It IS diet more than exercise.
However, you don't need to go on a diet--fad or otherwise. It is way way more simple than that.
All you need to do is cut back on sugar, beer, bread, and fat stuff like butter and bacon. Many "diets" forbid eating this stuff, and that is stupid. Imposing religious-like limitations on oneself is not fun, and You. Will. Fail. They are designed to make you fail. The way to approach it is easy; just eat less of everything, and eat slowly.
Example: instead of five chocolate chip cookies, have only one. Take a bite, and set the cookie down. Enjoy that one bite. Don't rush the second bite. When you do, put the cookie back down again. Eat that one cookie more slowly than it used to take to eat those five you used to gobble down in less than a minute.
^^^That philosophy is the key to success in losing weight. Be strong. Be disciplined. Don't deny yourself your favorite stuff! You like cashews? Have five, not a cupful or a bowlful. Eat and drink s-l-o-w-l-y. Allow your stomach the time it takes to inform the brain you're full.
The last thing is to get it into your head that it's perfectly okay to feel hungry. We all have been programmed to think we need to do something about it RIGHT NOW. I'm hungry! I gotta EAT something!
No, you don't. Turn that feeling of hunger into the feeling that you are taking control. That feeling is what success feels like. It's okay to feel hungry. You acknowledge it and you turn it into a feeling of power over weakness. You will be okay. And you'll lose weight.
Be tough on yourself, but not too tough. Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.
Print this and tape it to the fridge at eye level
However, you don't need to go on a diet--fad or otherwise. It is way way more simple than that.
All you need to do is cut back on sugar, beer, bread, and fat stuff like butter and bacon. Many "diets" forbid eating this stuff, and that is stupid. Imposing religious-like limitations on oneself is not fun, and You. Will. Fail. They are designed to make you fail. The way to approach it is easy; just eat less of everything, and eat slowly.
Example: instead of five chocolate chip cookies, have only one. Take a bite, and set the cookie down. Enjoy that one bite. Don't rush the second bite. When you do, put the cookie back down again. Eat that one cookie more slowly than it used to take to eat those five you used to gobble down in less than a minute.
^^^That philosophy is the key to success in losing weight. Be strong. Be disciplined. Don't deny yourself your favorite stuff! You like cashews? Have five, not a cupful or a bowlful. Eat and drink s-l-o-w-l-y. Allow your stomach the time it takes to inform the brain you're full.
The last thing is to get it into your head that it's perfectly okay to feel hungry. We all have been programmed to think we need to do something about it RIGHT NOW. I'm hungry! I gotta EAT something!
No, you don't. Turn that feeling of hunger into the feeling that you are taking control. That feeling is what success feels like. It's okay to feel hungry. You acknowledge it and you turn it into a feeling of power over weakness. You will be okay. And you'll lose weight.
Be tough on yourself, but not too tough. Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.
Print this and tape it to the fridge at eye level
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keithb7
Poster Extraordinaire
I weigh myself everyday. Same time. Every morning when I get up. I closely monitor what I eat. Not calorie counting, more gluten watching. The stuff doesn’t process easily in my gut. It’s interesting that by weighing-in daily, I can pretty-well tell exactly what foods will add a pound or so the next time I step on the scale. Peanuts and peanut butter, I like. Its not good. Eaten regularly the weight just keeps adding on. Beer. 2 poits of beer, easily 1 lb heavier the next morning. Christmas baking, holy smokes. A week of that over the holidays, its super easy to gain 5-7 lbs to start the New Year.
I don’t exercise enough. I know that. Winter here is dark, icy, cold and snowy. I don’t enjoy going out in it. So I eat less and less to maintain my weight. No its not fun. I eat a few bad things that I really enjoy, once in a while. But I manage to stay in the weight zone I want. I’m not fat, I’m not lean either. The older we get our metabolism seems to sloowww down. Not fun.
I don’t exercise enough. I know that. Winter here is dark, icy, cold and snowy. I don’t enjoy going out in it. So I eat less and less to maintain my weight. No its not fun. I eat a few bad things that I really enjoy, once in a while. But I manage to stay in the weight zone I want. I’m not fat, I’m not lean either. The older we get our metabolism seems to sloowww down. Not fun.
I get very sensitive regarding my weight. I was a very fat kid until junior high (5'6" 220 lbs) and told my doctor that I wanted to lose the weight at a football physical. He told me to not worry about it until I stopped growing, "maybe your body has a need for that weight?"
I ignored that advice and went on a crash diet and became a hardcore cardio guy. Then I grew to 6'3" in just 2 years time leaving me looking like a broomstick. I should have listened to the doctor after-all.
Funny thing is that "fat" is largely in your own perception and your mind lies. If I skipped a run for a couple of days, I would see a fat person in the mirror. Just soft and flabby fatso even though nothing could have changed in such a short time. Then, if I went out and trained hard for a couple of days, I saw a very fit person in the mirror...again, in just a couple of days. It was all self-perception and not really based on reality.
John Wayne was a pretty hefty guy, yet people rarely looked at him as being a fat person. He didn't carry himself that way and came across as a strong, fit person. The perception was more important than reality.
I guess my whole point of this rambling is that I never trust what the mirror shows. If I feel fit and healthy, that is the ruler I use to evaluate myself instead and I do feel that you can be heavy and still be very fit / healthy at the same time.
I ignored that advice and went on a crash diet and became a hardcore cardio guy. Then I grew to 6'3" in just 2 years time leaving me looking like a broomstick. I should have listened to the doctor after-all.
Funny thing is that "fat" is largely in your own perception and your mind lies. If I skipped a run for a couple of days, I would see a fat person in the mirror. Just soft and flabby fatso even though nothing could have changed in such a short time. Then, if I went out and trained hard for a couple of days, I saw a very fit person in the mirror...again, in just a couple of days. It was all self-perception and not really based on reality.
John Wayne was a pretty hefty guy, yet people rarely looked at him as being a fat person. He didn't carry himself that way and came across as a strong, fit person. The perception was more important than reality.
I guess my whole point of this rambling is that I never trust what the mirror shows. If I feel fit and healthy, that is the ruler I use to evaluate myself instead and I do feel that you can be heavy and still be very fit / healthy at the same time.
