The Less is More Thread

[Drastic]

It seems we have enough interest in weight loss & general health to warrant its own thread. Funny how so many of are around 40 and thinking about getting ourselves in shape.

My journey started this summer when I saw a photo of myself on the beach in June. Man, can that mirror lie. It was truly a Great White experience.

I've spent some time in the gym, off and on, over the years, so resistance training (weight lifting) is familiar. Unfortunately, I need(ed) cardio most.

My current schedule involves 30 mins of cardio and roughly 30 mins of resistance. I had to get over not being able to pump iron for 2 hours straight. Back when I was 20, I got results fast and loved it. Today, I just don't have the time or interest.

Excercise
10 mins of cardio (elliptical machine for now) for warmup
30 mins of resistance - 4 different exercises consisting of 3 sets of 8+ reps, except leg day which is 3 exercises with 4 sets of 8+ reps
and finally 20 more minutes of cardio plus 2-3 minutes of cooldown

Mon - Chest and Triceps
Tues - Legs and Abs
Wed - Shoulders
Thurs - Cardio only. 30, 45 or 60 mins straight.
Fri - Back and Biceps
Weekend off

As an aside, playing Kinect with my wife has helped keep the holiday pounds away. With fewer gym visits and more food overall, I expect I would have gained at least a couple pounds over the holidays. An hour session of Kinect can have you wheezing and sweating - it's great fun.

Diet
Hi, my name is Ken, and I'm a carboholic.

I've gone with a low carb way of living. I don't "diet" since that means temporarily changing to things of dislike and later returning to bad habits which eventually puts you back where you started.

Instead, I just stay away from carbs in general when possible, but still eat them if I really want. This means burgers with no bread, asking for extra veggies/meat instead of rice/noodles/potatoes, lots of high protein meals at home, etc.

But if I really want a pizza, I'll get one. Or, eat a burger with bun, or piece of cake, or full Mexican meal with tortillas. I do this about once or twice a week on average I'd guess, and I enjoy all of my meals. As a byproduct, I have some mild wheat allergy or intolerance. It causes some very minor digestive problems, but most importantly decreases my mentality in some ways. When I don't eat wheat, I'm sharper, more clear headed and feel better physically. Hell, it's almost like I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Now, I don't have the issue of being comatose after lunch. I was struggling with this bigtime over the summer, and tried many things stopping short of buying a case of Redbull.

Goal
Started at 240.
Wanted 210 by Jan 1. Got close.
Want 200 by June.

Heather asked if that's too thin. I thought 210 was good until I had a physical and the doc told me 200. Now that I'm close to 210, I can easily see 10-15 that still needs to come off around the waist. A few calcs online show this is a good target, but its just a framework anyway. When I have no visible bodyfat, I expect I may ramp down on cardio and up on resistance which should start putting me back over 200, but with muscle instead of fat. Even if I stick to 30/30 I would expect to gain muscle mass and some overall weight over time.

What about you?

[DrCool]

Last summer before Affiliate Summit I set a goal to lose 20 pounds in about a month and a half. I was able to do it and it really wasn't as bad as I thought. My wife has been doing Weight Watchers off and on over the years and we decided to give it a go. I didn't do any of the meetings or anything like that but I did count points. The system is fairly sound but the parts of it that really bugged me was foods with healthy fats like fish and nuts were fairly high in point value and fruit and vegetables also counted. They recently upgraded the system so fruit and vegetables are 0 points so that is a bit better.

I also exercised a bit more than I had been. We would walk 3-5 times a week and a couple times a week I would go on a 30 minute run.

I was able to lose the 20 pounds and since then I have kept most of it off. I started around 220, got down to 198, and right now am at about 202. I think I would like to get down to around 190 or so. Any smaller than that I think I will be too thin.

[jangro]

My main sources of exercise are golf and running.  

We can debate whether golf is a sport, but it is most certainly good exercise.  I play four 9-hole rounds a week minimum, April-Nov.  Each 9 holes is ~800 calories (according to studies I've read), or > 3000 Calories a week burned chasing a little ball around.  I usually play alone during the week and walk fast, even run, around the course.

Otherwise, I'll hit the road and run 10-20 miles a week.

With all that exercise, I can eat whatever I want.  And I do.

Unfortunately, winter is killer.  Golf and running outdoors is tough/impossible with the snow.  

The treadmill doesn't have nearly the appeal that getting outdoors has.  Plus in the winter I overeat and get a couple of colds that knock me out of any cardio routines.

When I'm exercising steadily, I weigh in around 165 (which feels great for my 5'10" self).  When I stop, my weight creeps up over several months to 185 or so.  I've been up over 180 a few times and I hate it there, though I tend not to really notice until I'm well on my way past 175.

Which is where we are right now.  I've had a few bad colds this fall, there's snow on the ground, I'm working too much, and with the holiday eating, I'm moving steadily up toward 175 now.   I may already be there. I'm afraid to step on the scale. :/

Thanks for the reminder Ken, I will get on the treadmill today.

[littleman]

Sorry for the long post....

At the old core I had a thread where I talked about the health problems I was getting from being fat.  I was having bad liver numbers (ALT & AST) and my doctor was accusing me of drinking too much, which is funny because I hardly drink at all.  NFFC actually helped me figure out that the bad numbers were from a condition called fatty-liver, which is caused by a buildup of fat in the liver cells and can eventually lead to serious.  I think I was 36 at the time and 272 lbs.(123 Kilos).  Later on I was re-tested at 225lbs and the liver numbers were back to normal.

I've always been a large frame, and was over 200 lbs in high school and I didn't think I was fat back then.  But 10 years in front of the computer pushed my waist up to 40 inches.  My first goal was to get down to 225, that was the weight I was in my early twenties, but I got there and realized that I had a way to go.  I think I'll probably end up in the 190s now.

Diet:
Started out eating a lot of legumes, mostly beans.  This seemed to work well for me, basically I cut out all white carbs (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, sugar, etc.) and replaced them with beans.  I still eat some fruit and a lot of vegetables.  I would eat meat too, with most meals.  A lot of people trying to drop weight are down on fruit, but some fruit have very low overall glycemic load and are quite filling with lots of fiber.

Quick comment about legumes, they are very slow digesting, and have a lot of fiber (both soluble and insoluble) so their glycemic load is very low.  In that way I put them in a different category than most carbs, they do not spike insulin levels like say a piece of bread would.

After I got down to 225 I started experimenting with my diet and reintroducing different carbohydrates like oatmeal but it didn't work out so well as I gained back some of the weight and crept up to 238 for a little while.

I went back to restricting my white carbs and now I've lowered my legumes intake too.  I've found that upping my fat and protein has helped me a lot, as odd as that may sound to a lot of you.  Fat acts as an appetite suppressant so I eat less calories overall without being hungry.

A typical meal will be:
piece if chicken (with the skin)
half cup of pinto beans
brussel sprouts (I'll put some coconut oil or cheese on the sprouts for flavor and to up the fat %)

Typical breakfast:
three or four eggs fried with collard/mustard greens and unions

If I'm craving something sweet I'll have a small helping of fruit.  I'll also snack on almonds.  Another thing that has helped with sweet cravings is having spiced teas with stevia.


Exercise:

I've done lots of low intensity cardio like biking across town or elliptical machine for an hour+ for months, but honestly I haven't gotten much benefit from it.  I don't find that it helps me lose weight because I find that I get hungrier to the point where it is a wash -- what I burn I eat back in.

What worked best for me is weight training while dieting.  The weights keep me from burning up muscle and the diet makes me burn the fat.

[ergophobe]

Drastic - looking at your exercise plan, I highly recommend Lou Schuler's books
 - New Rules of Lifting (2006)
 - New Rules of Lifting for Abs (Dec, 2010)

They are funny, well-written and, most importantly, based on the best available research at the time. You can get the pair at Amazon for under $25 (I just got them for $24).

The whole chest/biceps/shoulders thing is the classic bodybuilding workout. In the past year, I've changed over to more of a deadlifting/squats/Turkish Getups type of workout, which is more along the lines of NROL and what people like Mike Boyle, Mike Robertson, Dan Jon, Stuart McGill and people like that recommend.

You may never have heard of these folks, but they're the people who train elite athletes and train the people who train elite athletes. In terms of knowledge and experience, they are miles beyond the Jillian Michaels/P90X crowd.

Bottom line for me:
Switching to those types of workouts for me has made me leaner and stronger, with about half as much time in the gym as I was doing.

[ergophobe]

Check this out - a podcast that has both Lou Schuler and Dan John in one episode (plus Alan Aragon).

http://thefitcast.com/episode-200-lou-schuler-alan-aragon-and-dan-john

[agerhart]

>>doc told me 200.

How tall are you?  how many times a day do you eat?

>>>few calcs online show this is a good target

Most are bullshit and don't take into account muscle weight. 

Bonz, sounds like you exercise more with hobbies and outdoors.  Thought about trying to find another sport for the winter?  Hockey?

>>>I've found that upping my fat and protein has helped me a lot

The right fat can be good for you, especially when trying to put on muscle.  Like whole milk.  I'll explain later in my post

>>>'ve changed over to more of a deadlifting/squats/Turkish Getups type of workout

I've done the same thing.

I had to ditch squats since I ripped apart my knees going to heavy w/ squats...but I've replaced with them with deadlifts, power cleans, jerks, etc.

I stumbled across this type of lifting/training when I did an intro crossfit course.

You guys that have plateaued should check it out.  You might really enjoy it.

---

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum from you guys.  Different goals.  You want to lose weight, I want to gain it.  I've gained about 20 to 25 pounds since I started and would like to gain another 10. 

I only started working out maybe 5 years ago.  Before that I don't think I touched a weight more than twice or three times in my life, although I always played sports.

I was terribly skinny, which also runs in my family.  Hated it.  Weight fluctuated between 155 to 165 lbs....depending on how much I was drinking at the time.

When I started working out I didn't know sh##.  Did the basic workouts and ate well but not much.  I thought salad and chicken for lunch was good and would work.  Started taking protein shakes like 1/2 the other guys at the gym but it was the crappy stuff loaded with sugar.  Didn't push myself enough at the gym w/ heavier weight training.  Because I hadn't worked out before I saw quick gains but didn't gain much weight. 

About 2 to 3 years ago I started learning more about it.  Changed up the way I trained.  Starting eating a ton more.  6 to 8 meals per day.  Lots of wheat pasta, brown rice, chicken, turkey.  Not a ton of red meat but mainly because I don't think eating a lot of red meat is healthy.  Started training harder and experimenting with dead lifts, squats, clean & presses, etc.  This is also when I was boxing on a regular basis.  Also took some supplements during this time like protein shakes (but not the sugared down stuff), creatine, and glutamine.  During this period I started to gain weight and muscle.  I saw nice gains and was in good shape.  I think I got up to 175 or 180 pounds.

About 1 to 2 years ago I heard about the GOMAD diet (http://stronglifts.com/gomad-milk-squats-gallon-gain-weight/).  I did this for a month....it was tough but it definitely works.  I gained another 5 to 10 pounds using it and had some great strength going.

I went to a local crossfit gym about a year ago and got some humble pie.  sh## those workouts are tough.  Literally almost puked when I left.  The way they train is extremely intense and the workouts are excellent.  What I like about crossfit is:  a) the system of accountability as you workout with a team and post results to the board, b) the lifting and training they do is full-body, no curls, etc., c) the workouts are unique and different so you don't get bored.  I would love to go back and train with them full time at some point. 

I did the GOMAD diet again recently and gained a bit of weight but I wasn't as dedicated to it the 2nd time around.

I'm currently at 185 and in pretty good shape.

I play hockey 2 to 3 times a week and lift 4 to 5 times a week.  When I hit the gym now it is a mixture of crossfit-type exercises like deadlifts, clean & press, etc., as well as the standard weight lifting like chest/back/shoulders, bench presses, tris, pushups, pullups, etc.

I'm always looking for new stuff to try out too.  For me, I have to keep it interesting with new stuff so I continue to enjoy it.  So it is still a challenge.

[ukgimp]

Have you read the four hour body by Tim Ferriss. Lots of cool tips tested in depth by him.

[jangro]

>Bonz, sounds like you exercise more with hobbies and outdoors.  Thought about trying to find another sport for the winter?  Hockey?

Funnyyou mention that. Its beenon my mind to do that for years now.

I started skating before I could walk and played through high school but not really since then. Frankly I'm chicken to get out there again, afraid I'll suck.

I just heard about a bunch of fellow dads organizing pond pickup games. I'll give that a go first. Low commitment on the equipment.

Btw, I got on the treadmill yesterday and today. Yay me.

[agerhart]

>>>>Frankly I'm chicken to get out there again, afraid I'll suck.

I thought the same exact thing and procrastinated for years when I first moved out here.  Disappointed in myself for doing that.

I started playing again about a year ago...maybe less.  It took a few months to get back in form.  Its like riding a bike.

The big thing is getting confidence back which took some time.

I friggin love playing now.  Makes me upset that I chose partying over hockey back in high school.  Kids are stupid

[jetboy]

40, up at about 172 now, and want to get back down to 160. Just got back from the first trip to the gym in months, and I'm aiming for swimming three times a week and weights three times a week. Maybe cardio at the gym too, but the cross trainer has to be the most tedious machine known to man. Even though it's not a lot of weight to shift, I'm going to end up putting on muscle, so I'm giving myself two months to hit the target.

I want to get fit enough to get back to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training. I wasn't fit enough last time, and seemed to be permanently carrying little injuries. A broken rib took me out for a couple of months and I never got momentum back.

[Drastic]

What worked best for me is weight training while dieting.  The weights keep me from burning up muscle and the diet makes me burn the fat.

Interesting, I find the opposite. Cardio doesn't really make me hungry, but heavy lifting does. Personally the cardio is more for weight loss and heart health, and the lifting is for me. (Strength, muscle tone & size.) I just eat a lot of protein when I'm really hungry and get satisfied. (It took about 3 weeks to get past the carbaholism though.) The endorphin high seems better for me with lifting than cardio as well.

Drastic - looking at your exercise plan, I highly recommend Lou Schuler's books
...
I've changed over to more of a deadlifting/squats/Turkish Getups type of workout, which is more along the lines of NROL and what people like Mike Boyle, Mike Robertson, Dan Jon, Stuart McGill and people like that recommend.
...

Bottom line for me:
Switching to those types of workouts for me has made me leaner and stronger, with about half as much time in the gym as I was doing.

You mean, like the physical printed things? That's a, erm, novel concept. ;-) Seriously though, are you saying the books talk about the stuff you're now doing?

>>doc told me 200.

How tall are you?  how many times a day do you eat?

>>>few calcs online show this is a good target

Most are bullshit and don't take into account muscle weight. 

6'4. Eat 3-5 times per day. Target 5 smaller meals but generally eat 3 sometimes 4 out of habit.

Yeah I spent maybe 5 minutes looking for and at the calcs. Just a general early goal, and as a check behind the doc. It actually seemed on the upper end of one of the calcs, where I may need to be lighter, but I have a large frame so figure I should be on the larger end.

In the end, I don't really care about the number, I know where I want to be physically. If I hit 200 and I can still see room for improvement, I'll continue to work on it. Same if I hit 205 and there is no visible bodyfat, I will have reached the goal.

And enjoy wanting to gain weight, you young mf.

[jangro]

>>  It took a few months to get back in form.  Its like riding a bike.

yeah, but you're a 185 lb brick sh!thouse now. I think you were 160 soaking wet last time I saw you. Sounds like I'd barely recognize you now.

>> I friggin love playing now.  Makes me upset that I chose partying over hockey back in high school.  Kids are stupid.

Kids are stupid.  So are adults.  Ok, I'll do it.

[agerhart]

Ok, I'll do it.

Seriously, do it.  And then we'll organize a nice affiliate charity hockey game

I started out going to stick time to skate around, get a feel for the puck.  Then went to some pickup games and got my a## kicked.  Felt like sh## but kept going.  It took awhile but you start to get your legs back.

[rcjordan]

I've come to the realization that you're all New Age p###ies.