First off, I don’t expect anyone to listen to my weight loss advice at 235 pounds! This is primarily written for the entertainment of those who know me, and as a record to look back at when I get where I am going.
I had always heard in popular culture not to eat sweets because they are fattening. Don’t eat donuts, pizza, candy etc. I took this at face value. Remember, for the last 25 years I have eaten very healthy, with almost no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, and eating a large proportion of organic food. Calorie restriction? Forget about it! I have however almost all of those years exercised from a medium amount to a ton! Yes you can work out a lot and get fat! 🙂
Over the past few weeks, I have been reducing my calorie intake, and recording every calorie eaten with I would guess an accuracy of around plus or minus 5%.
Here is what I have learned. Nothing new for those in the know, but some important basics if you were as clueless as I was. These rules are stolen from my wife, and as I gain certainty on them I will update the list.
The “BLANK” RULES OF WEIGHTLOSS in progress. Blank will be filled in with a number when I am done.
1. Count your calories.
A calorie is the amount of energy contained in a piece of food. The experts measure calories burned by measuring the amount of heat a person generates burning that food, or by burning that food up in a labratory and measuring how much heat energy is given off. We have been using our weight x the number 13 which is stated by some experts as a way to figure out how many calories you burn.
2. Eat less than you burn.
I am using what that number would be if I weighed 170 pounds. That was my old professional skimboarding weight. Then I get a piece of paper and simply record what I eat, and the amount. I weigh it if possible on a scale from Williams and Sanoma. Many items have the calories on the box. Also I found that Calorie King website has great calorie counts.
3. Eat more protein
Once you start doing this, you find if you eat high protein foods which take longer to burn, your blood sugar stays up for longer. If you eat candy (I love chocolate!) for the same amount of calories, your blood sugar stays up for a much shorter time. This is why the Atkins diet actually allows people to lose weight. I am by no means following an Atkins diet, but I did learn from the guy that a higher protein diet definitely keeps your blood sugar more stable. My buddy Brian Coyle, a chiropractor in San Jose, taught me another great lesson while I ate dinner with him and his kids. He told them to “eat their protein first”. If you get full on protein, you won’t eat as many other foods. Obviously if you have a health problem where eating more protien would cause a problem ask your doctor about this first.
That is what I know for sure so far. I will keep you posted as I go along.
Have I been perfect on this? Heck no, Cinco De Mayo I ate like a king at Javiers ! Probably gained a little bit, but boy did I have a good time!
Wow, that’s an incredible amount to lose. Kudos for having the perseverance to see it through.
If you’re interested, I run a blog called FatBloggers.net, we could always use another blogger on there to contribute on a semi-regular basis. If that’s something that interests you, come check us out.
Thanks! I hope you understood the blog. I have only lost about 6 pounds. I weigh 235 pounds, and am slowly dropping. My apologies if I gave the wrong idea 🙂
Great post, I will try and check in on occasion to see how you are doing. It is a long road, many (including me) are travelling along with you! Good luck, and you seem to have a great attitude. A WW leader gave some good advice once in a meeting, she said “if you have a lot to lose, what does it matter? 1 year, 2 years, 4 years will come and go in your life. In 2 or 4 years, you can either look and feel the same, be larger, or maybe be at or closer to your goal!” Her point was that the time is going to go by no matter what, so best keep on track and strive for your goal. Before you know it – you’ll be there.
Thanks Steady Loser. There is one thing I have definitely learned, and that is that time passes quickly!
great
Good job DK! I agree with your wife about weighing yourself daily. That’s what I did when I lost 40lbs. First I was counting calories, then I just switched over to eatting all the proteins and veggies I wanted, but not a huge amount of fats. If there was any “craving” left after that (very rare) it was always satisfied by a very small amount of whatever the craving was for. Nothing was off limits as long as I had filled up on protein and veggies first. It’s not easy to eat enough veggies in one day to get up to the calorie count you need for your ideal weight, plus they help your fluid and electrolyte levels balance out properly and that also helps to reduce your overall weight. The weight came off pretty quick! It stays off really easily if you keep weighing yourself and there aren’t lots of high calorie days reintroduced after the initial weight loss. Oh yeah, my “high blood pressure” that I refused to accept went away with the 40lbs.
Yes KC, you have done a great job on that! You are one of my inspirations!