Any one else on a diet? Share tips and encouragement.

I too am on a diet/change of life thing. Since Jan 17th. Lost 60 lbs.
I am doing the Whole30 diet.
Basically no carbs, no soda of any kind and try to walk 2 miles every other day.
Was tough the first month or so, but now it's pretty easy. No cravings for sugar or sweets.
First two months no alcohol, but I now allow myself a few bourbons per week and have averaged about a pound a week over the last five weeks or so.
 
Here's the main points in the HFCS article and they indicate bigger bogeymen than HFCS per se:

The real issues are only two.

  • We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history–140 pounds a year versus 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago.
  • High fructose corn syrup is always found in very poor-quality foods that are nutritionally vacuous and filled with all sorts of other disease promoting compounds, fats, salt, chemicals, and even mercury.
The first point is the main point, we're just eating too damn much. Plus it's ludicrious to compare current consumption to consumption 10,000 years ago.

The second point is a bit more subtle, but it's guilt by association. HFCS is in that junk food because it replaced sucrose; if it wasn't there we'd still be gobbling up the same crap made with sucrose, but perhaps w/o some of the residual processing chemicals. Again, sugar or HFCS, we're just eating too damn much. And starches too as they are only a few enzymatic cleavages away from being monomers themselves.

Thanks though for the article as I wasn't aware that HFCS was a mix of monomers and that there were different rates of absorption due to that. It's been a while since I've delved into my grad school
biochemistry for the specifics of metabolism and the ATP affects
 
Another good way to look at it. BTW, I'm not supporting HFCS per se, I'm saying that targeting HFCS as the primary culprit here is folly, as it isn't the driving force in the obesity problem, our over consumption is. The problem isn't in the recipe; it's in the mirror looking at us.

Perhaps the prevailing scientific consensus relating to the metabolic equivalence of HFCS and sucrose was best summarized by G. Harvey Anderson (39) when he wrote:The hypothesis that the replacement of sucrose by HFCS in beverages plays a positive role in obesity is not supported on the basis of its composition, biologic actions, or short-term effects on food intake. Had the hypothesis been phrased in the converse, namely that replacing HFCS with sucrose in beverages would be seen as a solution to the obesity epidemic, its merit would have been seen more clearly. Put simply, a proposal that a return to sucrose containing beverages would be a credible solution to the obesity epidemic would have been met with outright dismissal.

http://advances.nutrition.org/content/4/2/236.full
 
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Someone mentioned the time we eat. I'm convinced if you don't eat 5 hours before bed you will knock weight off. Exercise a little before bed to keep you burning calories while you sleep. Have some protein about an hour after you get up. Mix protein with acids. No, not that kind of acid. Acidic foods. Never eat stuff you know isn't good for you...except on Sundays.
Eat whatever you want one day a week, just in moderation. Have some toast with those eggs. Get a fruit smoothie. Put some cheese on that burger and have a (small) bun. Chase it down with a dark beer.
 
I started 3 weeks ago. Although I was not what was considered obese, at nearing 50 I have to keep things in check. I am 5'10" and started at 205. I am down 13 pound in 3 weeks.
I am trying to keep things at 1000-1200 calories a day and make all my calories count.
Fresh fruit and veggies along with lean protein. Very little carbs, sweets, alcohol and salty snacks.
The first 10 days was the hardest and now I find if I eat to many carbs it angers my lower intestinal tract.
My goal is 175lbs.

Your method seems fine. But I will toss out one thought for consideration. That is that you have lost a lot of LBS in 3 weeks. Sometimes doing too much too fast backfires, and it is ridiculously easy to balloon back up to the starting point and beyond. I have seen it happen many times. Slow and steady wins the race.
 
.Turning 60 woke me up when it comes to what I eat. I just cut out anything harmful. Soy was the one that scared me the most when I started researching it. Over 90 % of soy produced in the US is genetically modified and the crops are sprayed with the herbicide roundup.. Now if that isn't scary enough . Soy contains isoflavones it can activate or inhibit estrogen receptors in the body, which can disrupt the body normal function. Also it will negatively affect your thyroid .Research it and you'll never eat soy again. The soy industry was brilliant at convincing all of us that it was a super food when really it's poison.
The only problem with cutting out all the bad stuff is it's hard to find a lot to eat. But I'm never hungry like I used to be. Nice thing is I feel great and have more energy than I know what to do with.Plus I've lost 30 lbs and still loosing . Started at 220 and I'm at 190 now , would like to get to 170.My waist was 38 and now 34's are getting loose.
 
Your method seems fine. But I will toss out one thought for consideration. That is that you have lost a lot of LBS in 3 weeks. Sometimes doing too much too fast backfires, and it is ridiculously easy to balloon back up to the starting point and beyond. I have seen it happen many times. Slow and steady wins the race.
I think on a lot of diets you loose a lot the first 2 weeks or so and then you hit the point of "normal" weight loss. In the last while, since my first post, I am down 2 more lbs.
I think this is where a lot give up. They loose quick and expect it to keep coming off that fast, when the weight loss slows or stops for a week they give up and quickly gain it back.
Keep going.
I am at 189 lb. this morning
 
It's in a lot of the food most people eat daily . Salad dressings , cereal , candy (chocolate ),baked goods and mixes, margarine , energy bars, mayonnaise , smoothies , deli meat, and on and on.It also hides under other names , textured vegetable protein, msg, mono- and diglycerides. I read the labels if it has soy i avoid it. Most processed food has it lurking in there somewhere.
 
as tyeeslayer say's, slow and steady. I'm 5'8" or so and 176 on a good day. I would be pleased to so something in the 160 range. If you have a television don't watch the food network
 
I hit my 7% goal of 174.8 about 3 weeks ago and have leveled off a bit. I think my low was 172 something; I have yet to break 170. But I really don't exercise per se, but I do walk all day at work; I already have 7.75 miles in today and 5 is low.
Now that it's my slower time at work, I probably can focus more on being outside and start riding the bike a bit more fir some extra burn. I pick up at least half a pound weekends from not walking as much.
 
The first point is the main point, we're just eating too damn much.
That's for certain. And I blame bad parenting for a lot of today's obese kids. I've never seen so many teens with extra poundage than I do today. (My oldest graduated high school last month, so I've been around my share of teens lately.) Thinking back to my own high school days, I certainly don't remember that many who had as much weight. It's just too common today to buy whatever packaged food or snack is out there, and a big two liter bottle of whatever sugary soda is out there, and let 'em at it. And that's where so much of the HFCS is concentrated--junk food.

Thanks though for the article as I wasn't aware that HFCS was a mix of monomers and that there were different rates of absorption due to that. It's been a while since I've delved into my grad school biochemistry for the specifics of metabolism and the ATP affects
No problem! There are better articles out there, as I grabbed that one on the fly. But it does cover some of the basics. I guess my whole point is that if I want to indulge in a small amount of something, I would at least have it be real cane sugar vs. the manufactured sweetener that tastes awful and is not as healthy. I think with the tide turning, though, HFCS may already be falling out of favor, just due to an increasing number of products claiming to be free of it now.
 
I've lost 45lbs since the beginning of the year. I feel so much better too, both physically and emotionally.

My regimen is basically what other posters have said:
  1. Minimal refined carbohydrates
  2. Low fat protein with every meal
  3. 2 small snacks during the day
  4. Limit alcohol to 2-3 servings a week
  5. Smaller portion sizes
  6. Be really careful when eating out
  7. Aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week (Netflix/Amazon programming on the stationary bike for me)

I also use carrots as a crutch. Whenever I get the urge to chew on something, I have a carrot.
 
I'll be traveling for 2½ weeks, starting Friday. I almost hate to think what shape I'll be in when I get home. :D Although, there will be a lot of walking and some climbing at several national parks along the way, so it's not like I'll be planted in a car for the entire trip.
 
I'll be good by Sunday. Right now I have a rush of things I forgot to do that I'm trying to catch up on. ;) Friday is driving, but only to Madison WI. Saturday night we'll be in South Dakota. So that's a 12 hour day...
 
I truly believe moderation is the key. The problem today is that we live in a world of excess....
 
I'll be traveling for 2½ weeks, starting Friday. I almost hate to think what shape I'll be in when I get home. :D Although, there will be a lot of walking and some climbing at several national parks along the way, so it's not like I'll be planted in a car for the entire trip.
Just got back from a trip to San Francisco. That city is not a good place for people on diet.... 5 meals a day. So much to eat.
 
Just got back from a trip to San Francisco. That city is not a good place for people on diet.... 5 meals a day. So much to eat.
Ugh...food on this trip so far has been mediocre, except for this evening in Cody WY where we found a decent Mexican place. We got to La Crosse too late on Friday night and had to eat at a Perkins, and Saturday night in Wall SD meant eating at some expensive touristy-type place that was a bit rough around the edges. At least in the car, I picked up some Ritz baked snacks (thins or crisps or whatever they are) and they are just enough. Hotel breakfasts have been lousy also. This morning's, we just walked out since they had almost nothing left, and it was only 7:30am. Good thing I am not a breakfast person. ;)
 
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