Losing weight when you don't have time to lose it

[DBPacific]

One thing to keep in mind is that muscle weighs more than fat. So if you're trying to increase exercise, you might see your weight increase or reduce a lot slower than you'd like because you're increasing your muscle weight.

 

[dberry]

My wife and I lost quite a lot of weight with WeightWatchers. Not the meetings (that's not us), but using the app to monitor every bite of food we put into our mouths. I don't think its so much about their "point system" (which is pretty good, actually) but just becoming aware of EVERYTHING we eat. Their app makes it easy to log stuff, especially if you eat the same thing for lunch or breakfast repeatedly during the week.

But you can do it without the WW app. So, if you have the discipline, try keeping a detailed log of every bite you eat. That in itself will make you really conscious of what you eat, which helped us a lot. We were constantly amazed at how much stuff we snacked and noshed on, and being in quarantine meant the kitchen pantry was never far away.

Good luck.

 

[DennisS]

A quick 10-15 lb loss is a good kickoff for a weight loss program. Take a break from the exercise. I've had friends that had to lose weight to get into the dive program. The one thing they do is go on the tuna diet. A can of tuna for breakfast lunch and dinner with an evening can. I've done it and it works, it sucks and requires discipline, the drop on the scale keeps you going. It's short term, 2 weeks, but if gives you the encouragement to get serious. Losing the same 2-5 pounds over and over is discouraging,

 

[Jcp2]

That diet smells a bit fishy to me.

 

[ElizaDoolittle]

That diet smells a bit fishy to me.

Thanks everyone. I can see the logic behind skipping breakfast, but I'm afraid that fasting from 9pm until 2pm would make me gorge on the meal I cannot control (lunch). But it might work.

I don't eat chocolate and sweets on a daily basis. I do eat them now and then, though, or should I say ate now? Yes, I'll say ate.

I think that all the alcohol I've had in my life is that which comes in five small bottles of beer, and that only because when I was younger I felt sometimes I couldn't say no when invited to someone's house. It's probably twenty years since the last one! So, no, whatever has helped build my fat rolls, it's not alcohol.

Being the sort of person who's always been hopeless at sports, and unresponsive to any type of exercise I've ever done to try to improve my whatever (call it resistance, strength, flexibility, coordination, speed...), I suppose my muscles won't grow unless I do insane efforts to make them do so, and very little then. But just in case they played the trick on me, is there any way to know whether you've lost fat if your weight doesn't decrease too? Are trousers getting looser around the waist the only sign?

 

[uncfnp]

It’s going to be tough for us to give you specific nutrition recommendations unless you decide on a specific dietary approach. What might be right in one “diet” may be wrong for another. Take breads and fruits. In keto or low carb diets this is a no no. In Mediterranean, whole grains/breads and high nutrition fruits are good.

As for breakfast, again it depends on your dietary preferences. For diets that encourage some degree of fasting, breakfast is one of the easiest meals to skip. But this is not for everyone and I am one of those. I need something mornings. On a keto diet breakfast can be hearty and include eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. On a Mediterranean diet it could be something like this...

https://www.thekitchn.com/mediterranean-diet-breakfast-recipes-22926199

Alcohol recommendations can vary too. Beer will almost always be no because of the empty carbs. Keto and Mediterranean both allow red wines and with keto even some liquor is ok since alcohol is processed differently in the body than standard carbs.

 

[BlueTrin]

Thanks everyone. I can see the logic behind skipping breakfast, but I'm afraid that fasting from 9pm until 2pm would make me gorge on the meal I cannot control (lunch). But it might work.

I don't eat chocolate and sweets on a daily basis. I do eat them now and then, though, or should I say ate now? Yes, I'll say ate.

I think that all the alcohol I've had in my life is that which comes in five small bottles of beer, and that only because when I was younger I felt sometimes I couldn't say no when invited to someone's house. It's probably twenty years since the last one! So, no, whatever has helped build my fat rolls, it's not alcohol.

Being the sort of person who's always been hopeless at sports, and unresponsive to any type of exercise I've ever done to try to improve my whatever (call it resistance, strength, flexibility, coordination, speed...), I suppose my muscles won't grow unless I do insane efforts to make them do so, and very little then. But just in case they played the trick on me, is there any way to know whether you've lost fat if your weight doesn't decrease too? Are trousers getting looser around the waist the only sign?

There are a few ways to do this.

As a person without access to expensive equipment I know only of these two ways:

• some scales can measure body fat %, you may have access to one in a pharmacy, or supermarket, you usually put your hands on handles and they’ll approximate your body fat. It may not be ideal with covid. They are also not so accurate. But accuracy does not matter too much, what you want to see is that the number is going down rather than caring of the absolute value.
  
  
• the second way, used by hobbyist body builders, is to use calipers, you need to pinch exactly the same locations and measure the fat there then you can approximate your body fat percentage, you can probably find webpages explaining how to do this.

IMHO, instead of measuring your body fat percentage you can just take pictures in a mirror in underwear and shorts every few weeks and just see if you can see some progress. You can also measure torso, waist and hips in addition to your weight.

When you start exercising, it is likely that your weight will be stable at first when you build muscle.

I would take it easy at first and gradually, it takes time to change your body, and if you didn’t exercise for a long time you don’t want to get injured by overdoing it.

 

[uncfnp]

There are a few ways to do this.

As a person without access to expensive equipment I know only of these two ways:
- some scales can measure body fats, you may have access to one in a pharmacy, or supermarket, you usually put your hands on handles and they’ll approximate your body fat. It may not be ideal with covid. They are also not so accurate. But accuracy does not matter too much, what you want to see is that the number is going down rather than caring of the absolute value.

- the second way used by hobbyist body builders is to use calipers, you need to pinch exactly the same locations and measure the fat there then you can approximate your body fat percentage, you can probably find webpages explaining how to do this.

IMHO, instead of measuring your body fat percentage you can just take pictures in a mirror in underwear and shorts every few weeks and just see if you can see some progress. You can also measure torso, waist and hips in addition to your weight.

When you start exercising, it is likely that your weight will be stable at first when you build muscle.

I would take it easy at first and gradually, it takes time to change your body, and if you didn’t exercise for a long time you don’t want to get injured by overdoing it.

Good advice but as a 50 something female she is at little risk of significant muscle gain. In fact at this point it becomes almost a battle against muscle loss!

Eliza. Just go by the way you feel and the way your clothes fit. At most, especially if you are the common apple shape, monitor your waist circumference. A simple goal of less than 35 inches is a good start.

 

[stepfen]

I managed to loose about 20% of my weight (from ~110kg down to ~90kg) within 6 months (January to July 2020 which included 2-3 months of lock-down!!!) without any additional exercise (some walking/trekking now and then, some swimming in the sea during the summer and diving was my exercise throughout those 6 months) and without paying any particular attention to calorie measurements and such.

I used an app called "eat right now" ( Heal Your Relationship with Food | Eat Right Now ). For me it worked wonders. For example I use to eat quite a lot of sweets (at least some every day) - now I have totally overcome the need for sugar. Place in front of me whatever you want and max I will take a tiny amount to just try it - quite often nothing at all. That was impossible even to imagine for me few months ago.

The method is based on psychological factors (why, when and how we eat) with a bit of meditation (listen to your own body for signs eg when to eat, when to stop and what to avoid) as well as debunk the need for sugars, fats etc. Don't worry about the meditation part - it helps but it is not necessary to achieve your target if you don't feel comfortable with it.

Seriously I have finished the program for about 4 months now - my weight is still (slowly) decreasing but the thing is that I am now 100% confident that I will not fall back to old habits EVER AGAIN. It was THAT good at least for me.

That's the good news. The bad news is that because I lost all this weight without much exercise quite a bit of it was muscle loss (together of course with a lot of fat loss). Towards the end I felt quite weak, started to feel cold easily etc. Hence I decided (after I finished 6 month with the Eat Right Now program) to start a bit of exercise. I now use another online program (Home Workout Videos | Team Body Project) which offers workout combinations of resistance, cardio, Pilates and such - usually for 30 mins at a time. Takes time - not sure if the OP has the "luxury" to dedicate about 30mins a day for workout but it totally worths it. I've seen huge improvement.

Now my body weight is kind of stabilized (still loosing weight but very slowly - maybe 1kg per month or less), but I burn fat and gain muscle mass. Slowly but steadily. Since I started exercising I intentionally try to eat more protein and less fat / carbs but still though I never measure every thing I put in my mouth ( I hate the kind of diets you need to eat 50 grams of this and 60 of that).

Finally since I am from Mediterranean too (Greece) you need to be very careful with our "Mediterranean" diet. Some parts of it are obviously very healthy (fruits, vegetables, fish), but some other parts (sugar, salt, fried, too much oil even if it is olive oil, meat, sausages and such) can be disastrous for body fat as well as things like cholesterol etc. Usually when eating in restaurants etc the later ones are the norm because they add taste and are more desired by our brains.

I hope these help.

All the best.

 

[GJC]

The only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than your body uses each day. You can accomplish that in many different ways. You have to find the way that works best for you.

You can eat 1 meal a day, 3 meals a day or eat small amounts hourly. It doesn't matter that much, as long as your total calories for the day is less than what your body is burning up.

A good start to consuming fewer calories is to reduce/eliminate the amount of sugar you eat. Avoid desserts and find out how much sugar is added to all the foods you eat.

A lot of restaurants in the US show calories for items on their menu. Look for the 350-500 calorie entrees, avoid the 1800 calorie entrees. If all the portions are big, eat half and take the other half home to use as your main meal for the following day.

Don't stay sedentary. Keep moving. Walk as much as you can. Get off the coach one or two stops before your usual stop and walk the rest of the way. If you can't walk, stand as much as possible and don't sit down. Consider getting a desk you can use while standing.