Weight Loss

I have been reading hundreds of posts on CC since becoming a member in February. I have read about how many calories to consume and how much of a deficit you need to lose weight. I see it all the time!

Unfortunately, I do not believe anyone ever asks is what you eat as important as how much you eat and how much you burn. If I have a 1,000 calorie deficit or more (most days) than I should have been at my goal weight weeks ago. I should consistantly be losing LBS. I have only lost 12 lbs since February! I have logged most of my daily calorie intake, do 5-6 days of intense exercise split 3/strength 3/cardio and kept calories around an average of 1,900 a day. I am 5' 10" 213 lbs drink lots of water, BMI is 2,030 (2400 daily burn no exercise).

It's like my body is "happy" at 213. I have a goal of 190. I am convinced if I eat certain foods i.e. sugars, fats, and even carbs (even if good) I maintain or gain. When I eat lean say a 50 protein, 20 Carbs and 30 Fat (oils) I tend to lose slowly. What is the answer?

Well I can only speak for myself but I had been trying for a year to lose those last damn 5 lbs and NOTHING was doing it for me. I found CC and then later discovered carb cycling. I lost my last 5 lbs in one month so I was very excited.

Basically the way I did, (although you can google it too), was to eat low/no carbs once every 3rd day. I still do it once a week and stay within my cal budget too. On my off days I eat a variety of food, fruits, veggies, a lot of fish, ocassional red meats, whole grains, whole wheat, oats...etc.

But WHAT you put in your body does matter. I mean you can/will lose weight eating nothing but a Snickers bar everyday but who really wants to do that. Plus I'm just a firm believer in HOW you lose the weight will determine the success of keeping it off.

...Just my thoughts, although I'm sure there is somebody out there that would disagree.

Weight loss varies from person to person.  What works for me might not work for you.  If the 50% protein, 20% carbs, 30% fats ratio works for you and it is something that you can stick with indefinitely, then go for it.  The best diet is one that doesn't leave you hungry or feeling deprived all of the time and that takes into account the foods that you like to eat.  If you want to see a pretty radical plan, look at the one in my journal that I use (the journal post called "Techdog's Make Your Own Diet Diet").  I have different goals for each day of the week, some days restricting carbs, some days restricting fat, some days restricting both and every day, maintaining a calorie deficit.  I'm not saying that this plan will work for anyone but me, but it allows me to plan my weekly menu to include the Mexican, Oriental, and Italian foods I love to eat.  Following that plan, I have lost 118 pounds in the past year and am still losing.

Hey! I was just digging around on here. I'm actually trying to gain weight so I don't know if I can be overly helpful, but in my opinion I think WHAT you eat is way more important than the number of calories (within reason of course). I'm a firm believer in eating clean. That means mostly eating food in it's natural state and cutting out proccessed foods. I eat a ton of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. I usually eat up to 4000 calories a day, my sugar and fats are way over what is recommended, but it's always from nuts, olive oil, and fruit. Even at this calorie level it's taking me quite a while to gain weight but since I've started eating "clean" I've noticed I have a lot more energy and feel overall much healthier.

Whole foods move through your body more easily and your body also makes better use of it and gets a lot more nutrition. A lot of proccessed foods are just empty calories and your body isn't really prepared to deal with it so it might end up storing more and not functioning as well. You can google clean eating or look up the effects of things like high fructose corn syrup and refined flours and sugars and you'll get a ton of info. Good luck!

I think is it more important to eat healthy foods and lose weight slowly then to just eat to lose weight.  What you eat is the most important thing.  It is your life, your health.

I eat mostly fruit, vegetables, nuts (almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds), some chicken, and lots of whey protein (because I don't get nearly enough from my diet).  About 95% of all the foods I eat are organic also.

My suggestion for you would be to try to cut out 100 or 200 calories a day from you diet for a few weeks.  If you are hungry add more vegetables to your diet, they are very low in calories, high in minerals, nutrients and fiber.  They will fill you up.  You can have 4 cups of vegetables, totally fill you up for a meal or snack - and only comes to around 150 calories.  Add sauces or dressings, low calories ones.

I hope this helps, good luck!

Hi, I think you should also think about ectomorph, endmorph and mesomorph, whey you said your body is happy with 213, it is because you may be endomorph, and diet and excersice is not the same for those types of bodies, I am no expert, but maybe you should lower the weight of your lifts, and increase the reps, and maybe go for a 2 day weight lifting routing, and 4 days cardio until you get to your desired weight your ratio 50p, 30c, 20f is good for endomorph (at least according to the info I have found on the internet)

Hope this help you, and I should repeat, I am no expert and I am also learning.

regards,

Guillermo.

ggaron,

I have heard both of the following theories:

calories in - calories out + energy to store or burn .

Second theory - this is the one I was taught in nursing school so I favor it.

Your body breaks down different elements differently. It takes the most work to break down proteins, your body uses what it needs then stores continues to store the remainder as fat, however, it takes energy to keeps changing from one to the other for storage.  Carbohydrates are similar.  Your body uses them for quick energy then they are converted to fat and stored if there are left overs.  Fat takes the least energy for storage and your body tends to use it last for energy.  So, protein and carbs will get used sooner, and they are harder to store away as fat.  Therefore, the theory is if you concentrate on protein and lowsugar carbs, you will use more energy at a cellular level to use your nutrition, and your body will use energy to store it as fat.