My Weight Story

[Guest FourAces]

I am absolutely the worse when it comes to even trying to eat healthy.

I have lost a huge amount of weight twice in my life. Once in the mid nineties. I went from 380 pounds to 220 pounds ... on my own plan. Basically everything was very low fat. I was doing the Subway thing long before Jarred .. had I known there would have been such a huge payoff I would have stuck with it

It took about 8 months to lose the weight and I kept it off for less than half that amount of time. Someone very important to me had died and I used it as an excuse to eat away

Then I lost a decent amount of weight in 2005 right after I moved from Las Vegas to Dallas. I went from 410 pounds to 290 pounds. Not as successful as my earlier attempt but still felt much better with the loss. However that was done on a modified low carb diet .. probably closer to the South Beach diet.

Well it 2009 my best friend died ... he was quite young and it sent me over the edge. I so much miss him to this day. Anyway, I have gained back all the weight I lost and maybe even more.

Now about a year later and I am at a lost. I eat every meal out whether it be fast food or at a nice restaurant. I like to cook but too lazy to do so ... plus I am not home very often I travel so much I no longer own a car. When I am back home in Dallas I rent one.

Sitting at a poker table 7 to 10 hours a day eating the garbage in the casinos and hardly moving much less even going for a walk is my current lifestyle.

I have positioned myself to where I soon will not be playing as much poker. While it can sound like fun to some like any job it gets old, tiring and really has not been good for my health. I'll be returning to my former career which means I will be home more often ... and plan to start to lose weight once again. I don't know how yet or if I can even do it but as I get older the weight is really taking a toll on me.

[lookin]

I can sure relate to your experiences, including eating after a personal loss, losing weight twice and gaining even more back, and poor eating habits while working and commuting.

The one thing that really helped me was to change my focus from big short-term changes to small long-term changes. Both times I went on a diet that dropped weight quickly, I started feeling deprived and couldn't wait until it was over so I could return to my old ways, which then put the weight back on, plus more. I found that a small permanent change, like a short daily walk, or substituting pretzels for potato chips, or switching to low-fat milk, was much more effective. I lost only a pound every week or two, but they stayed off. It took a couple of years to lose the weight I wanted to, but it was from permanent changes that weren't hard to stick with, so the weight hasn't come back.

Don't know if any of this will resonate with you but, for me, the keys were to avoid feeling deprived, and to realize that a little exercise is as good as a little eating change, and both are even better. The trick was to find something I could stick with for the rest of my life.

(Also, don't know if you saw my response to your Denver post, but, if the researchers are right, you should soon be losing a few pounds without lifting a finger. )

[flguy]

I also have lost large amounts of weight over the years and always fall back into old eating habits after some point in time. Once again I have started to diet and go to the gym to try and lose 70 pounds, which is my first goal. A retired escort who is a very close friend told me about "Rapid Fat Loss" by Lyle McDonald which he was doing with amazing results. My friend, of course, is a MUCH different "catagory" dieter than I am and each catagory gets its own set of eating and working out rules. I purchased the book and read it througout and liked all the ideas it presented. It is a VERY low carb, low fat, high protein diet. You could say it was like the Atkins diet, however many things vary from Atkins. Mainly the diet requires you to lift (can be very simple workouts) and do very little aerobic work to maintain your lean body mass so you lose water and fat, not muscle. Everything seems spot on, with the exception of the requirement to eat extra amounts of sodium, but my question in regard to that was answered on their forums. In 8 weeks I have lost 38 pounds so I am over half way to my first goal. No diet is easy, as we all know, and this diet won't work for someone who eats out all the time. My problem is getting the required amount of protein each day as I am not a huge meat fan. However it is getting easier and as many on the forums have stated for some reason food doesn'tseem to be as important now. I am not hungry all the time and sometimes I almost have to force my self to eat. It is highly caloric deficit (virtually a crash diet)with protection built in to lose fat, not muscle. As the author repeats many times, losing WEIGHT and losing FAT are two different things. I will most likely NOT eat chicken or eggs again after the first phase is over. It's not easy but it works. PM me if you have any questions. I am certainly feeling much better and my knee problems are going away, now if only I can quit smoking. Hugs All

[flguy]

Sorry, here is link to the Lyle McDonald home page and there is a great forum and message center that goes along with the program.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/

[Lucky]

Good luck to all the dieters. I know it is hard because I can't do it either. When I stopped weightlifting a couple of years ago the pounds started going to the wrong places. I gained and lost 20, gained 15, and there I am. I love ice cream. It is my comfort food, and I could not go a day without a Mexican Coke.

Last week on one of those tiny regional jets I made the mistake, or had no choice, but to take the window seat. Such small seats, and sure enough a 300 pound man sits next to me. He makes no concessions whatsoever for me. I am almost leaning out of the plane to make room for him. I think: it's a short flight. I have friends who weigh that much; how would I want them treated? So I shut up and take it, trying to read my book and hope the time passes. Then he reaches up to his light switch, with his elbow a half-inch from my nose. I say nothing. He does it again, and then I could no longer shut up. I told him that he had done nothing to accommodate me in this situation and perhaps next flight he should get two seats for himself. His response: "Well, alright then."

[lookin]

. . . and I could not go a day without a Mexican Coke.

Well off course nothing takes the weight off like Mexican coke. But it gives me the jitters, and I worry about encouraging the cartels.

[Lucky]

From the San Diego Tribune:

Taste is the main reason why his discriminating shoppers buy Mexican Coke – they say the cane sugar sweetener used in Mexican Coke has a sweeter, cleaner flavor than the high-fructose corn syrup in the American version. Many are willing to pay $1.10 per 12-ounce bottle for the imports, even with cans of American Coke sitting nearby for 49 cents each.

"You drink it and taste it – it's something you tasted all your life," said Carvallo, referring to the many immigrants who prefer Mexican Coke.

While the flavor of Mexican Coke provides a taste of nostalgia for immigrants hundreds of miles from home, its retro green-tinted contour glass bottles have also caught on among some baby boomers, who can recall a time when their cola was made with sugar – before rising costs drove U.S. bottlers to switch to corn syrup in the 1980s.

With a niche market for Mexican Coke taking root in the United States, The Coca-Cola Co. and its bottlers are quietly looking to block its passage across the border.

One reason the company wants to lower the profile of the drink in the United States is that bottlers here don't profit from sales of the import, which are produced by independent Mexican bottlers. Mexican Coke, brought in by third-party distributors and retailers, infringes on franchise territory rights of the U.S. plants.

"We believe that those territory rights belong to the rightful bottlers," said Coke spokesman Mart Martin.

The Coca-Cola bottled in Tijuana is made with sugar, and limited quantities of it show up north of the border from time to time at small neighborhood grocery stores, said Bob Phillips, spokesman for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Southern California.

[MsGuy]

Well over half of the Coke distributers in the US (measured by bottling capacity) are lodged in a subsidiary of Coca Cola Inc.

Hmmm...

[Guest FourAces]

Good luck to all the dieters. I know it is hard because I can't do it either. When I stopped weightlifting a couple of years ago the pounds started going to the wrong places. I gained and lost 20, gained 15, and there I am. I love ice cream. It is my comfort food, and I could not go a day without a Mexican Coke.

Last week on one of those tiny regional jets I made the mistake, or had no choice, but to take the window seat. Such small seats, and sure enough a 300 pound man sits next to me. He makes no concessions whatsoever for me. I am almost leaning out of the plane to make room for him. I think: it's a short flight. I have friends who weigh that much; how would I want them treated? So I shut up and take it, trying to read my book and hope the time passes. Then he reaches up to his light switch, with his elbow a half-inch from my nose. I say nothing. He does it again, and then I could no longer shut up. I told him that he had done nothing to accommodate me in this situation and perhaps next flight he should get two seats for himself. His response: "Well, alright then."

I always fly first class as I am more comfortable and the person next to me is not going to be uncomfortable sitting next to someone my size. If it is tight, which in first class I have not really come across yet, I would do what I could to be certain the person sitting next to me was not overwhelmed by me so to speak.

But with that said I have sat to typical size people who took up beyond their fair share of space and interfered with my comfort level more than a few times.

[Guest FourAces]

(Also, don't know if you saw my response to your Denver post, but, if the researchers are right, you should soon be losing a few pounds without lifting a finger. )

Lookin I did see that post and your link ... my stay in Denver turned out to be just a few days thankfully.

Also thanks for sharing and the supportive words.

[Guest NeedSome]

I had never heard of Mexican coke. At first I was thinking coke and tequila.

As for weight loss, in college I went from 250 to 175 in about 12 months, then a little more right after that and have pretty much stayed there since. I got away from my mother's cooking (of course everyone else in my family was stick thin) and started exercising every day. I think that if you can find a sport or exercise that you truly like and get an endorphin rush from, then you'll look forward to it every day and it becomes a reward not a chore. Spend some time hiking in Denver - there are beautiful paths and some trails that are actually pretty easy, altitude notwithstanding. Or just walk through the city and enjoy the views.

I also think that you need a new approach to eating that doesn't involve dieting, but is all about changing your daily food intake. As others have said, dieting is often about deprivation and then what do you do once you lose the weight and are no longer dieting? You go back to what you were eating before. It's a recipe for disaster. You need to do what you've probably read a zillion times. Four to five 300 calorie meals 3 hours apart. Don't eat out. Take a cooking class so that you are able to better control what goes into your body. Find fun ways to cook vegetables that are low cal. Gradually replace products (skim milk for whole milk) and after a while you won't even notice the difference. I used to think I could never get used to skim milk or diet coke. Now I can't even drink whole milk, it's like chugging ice cream. And real coke is so sweet it makes me want to toss. Put pictures of hot boys on your refrigerator for motivation. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you have stairs in your house, every time you have to walk up them go back down and do it again. Then do that 8 more times. The little things you do every day really can add up.

Sorry for the ramble. Good luck to you and let us know how you are doing.

[Guest FourAces]

Sorry for the ramble. Good luck to you and let us know how you are doing.

Ramble whenever you want I do Plus when you ramble you actually add some good advice. Thanks!

[Guest zipperzone]

As trite as this may sound - check out WEIGHT WATCHERS.

Their program really works, it simple and easy to use. Every food item is given a point value and you are allowed X number of points per day, dependent on your current weight and how much you want to loose. As your weight drops so does the number of points you are allowed daily.

I lost 100 pounds on it and kept them off. You also may find attending their weekly weigh-in meetings helpful.

Just like AA can help those with a drinking problem.

[flguy]

Zipper, I think in the long run Weight Watchers is really the ONLY sensible and true diet to follow for lifetime. It concentrates and reducing quantities without cutting anything completely out of your diet. The only reason I don't use it is for me it is just too much cooking when you live alone. Congrats on keeping the weight off and I hope for the 10th time in my life if I lose the weight I will be able to keep the life long changes to my eating habits and stay where I want to be weight wise.

[Guest RyanCade]

The only reason I don't use it is for me it is just too much cooking when you live alone.

??? FLGuy Cooks amazing food almost every night ??? Weight watchers must require A LOT Of cooking.....

[Guest zipperzone]

Zipper, I think in the long run Weight Watchers is really the ONLY sensible and true diet to follow for lifetime. It concentrates and reducing quantities without cutting anything completely out of your diet. The only reason I don't use it is for me it is just too much cooking when you live alone.

If you're not into cooking a lot, I found it just as easy to stay on their diet in restaurants. Sometimes it meant I had to leave some food on the plate as the portion was too big but leaving it brought about a certain satisfaction in itself.

[Guest FourAces]

Zipper, I think in the long run Weight Watchers is really the ONLY sensible and true diet to follow for lifetime. It concentrates and reducing quantities without cutting anything completely out of your diet. The only reason I don't use it is for me it is just too much cooking when you live alone. Congrats on keeping the weight off and I hope for the 10th time in my life if I lose the weight I will be able to keep the life long changes to my eating habits and stay where I want to be weight wise.

I do think Weight Watchers has a very balanced program. The first time I lost the weight I used to go just to get weighed and chat before the meetings began then I would leave lol. It kind of kept me in check even though I was not using their program.

[Guest Conway]

Four Aces, your story sounds much like mine. A former college athlete, I was a yo yo when it came to weight gain. Each time that I would yo yo, my high weight and my low weight would be a little higher.

In late 2005, I finally gave in an had lap band surgery - 130 pounds lost and kept off for 5 years now. It worked well for me. It may be worth at least looking into for you. I eat my dinner, and am very satisfied with it, off a bread plate now.

Find a good surgeon. They will coach and advise you through the ups and downs.

[Guest FourAces]

Four Aces, your story sounds much like mine. A former college athlete, I was a yo yo when it came to weight gain. Each time that I would yo yo, my high weight and my low weight would be a little higher.

In late 2005, I finally gave in an had lap band surgery - 130 pounds lost and kept off for 5 years now. It worked well for me. It may be worth at least looking into for you. I eat my dinner, and am very satisfied with it, off a bread plate now.

Find a good surgeon. They will coach and advise you through the ups and downs.

Conway thanks for sharing that. It has been a thought for quite a while. I have looked into it and might give it a try. A relative had the same procedure about 1 year ago. She was about 100 pounds overweight. I believe she has lost near 70 pounds and is doing quite well. No issues whatsoever.

I am very happy to see that it is working well for you.

[Guest Conway]

Conway thanks for sharing that. It has been a thought for quite a while. I have looked into it and might give it a try. A relative had the same procedure about 1 year ago. She was about 100 pounds overweight. I believe she has lost near 70 pounds and is doing quite well. No issues whatsoever.

I am very happy to see that it is working well for you.

It's not for everyone. But, it worked well for me.