I went from morbidly obese to 6 pack abs! Ask me Anything

Hello! Question-- I drink a LOT of water on a daily basis. As in, probably around 12-16 glasses of water a day. I do not do this consciously I just am always thirsty. Is this inhibiting weight loss?

No. Hydration and water intake may cause short term shifts in weight but this is just due to how much water the body is retaining. Drinking lots of water actually helps ward off water retention. None of this prevents fat loss in any way, it can simply make the scale stay put even though fat is being lost. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for the scale to reflect the fat lost because the body wants to hang on to h20.

What kind of exercise would you recommend for someone who doesn't have equipment. I can neither afford equipment or pay for a gym membership at this time. I walk 4 miles 3x a week and 8 miles 3x a week with one day off on Wednesdays. I would like to do strength training, but don't know what to do. I want to possibly tighten up the loose skin that is hanging around my belly.

Do you live near a YMCA. They will generally cut you a discount on a membership or even let you join for free if you cannot afford to join. They have a policy (at least the ones near me) never to turn people away due to finances. If that is not an option, you could get p90x or something similar from a public library and run those.

Questions:

You don't log exercise, don't know cals burned from it, basically create your cal deficit via food, any extra you may burn from exercise is just a boost. So ... net calories are not relevant? (net calories continue to confuse me, as I've never considered them before reading about them at mfp).

How did you determine your calorie deficit number?

Do you always eat the exact same number of cals/day? Don't you ever have days where you're less hungry or more hungry? Wouldn't eating within a range (zig-zagging cals), as long as your average for the week was your cal deficit #, also work for losing weight?

I've been focusing on cardio the past 7 weeks, mostly because I was a lead weight (see my profile page for why). I am ready and able to move beyond this. As a female, 53, with 30 lbs to lose ... where/how do I start with weights? I have 5, 8, 10, 15 lb dumbbells, 10 lb kettlebell, have no problem adding to this. Hubs has a Total Gym that is collecting dust. Any advice is appreciated.

I watched some of your youtube vids ... you write exactly as you speak! Lots of great info, looking forward to learning a lot from your experience. Thanks for this thread!

Net calories still confuse me. The concept is great. If our polar watches and step counters were 100% accurate and we knew exactly what our BMR was and what our thermic effect of food was, you could literally determine exactly how much your output was. Unfortunately we can only guess our bmr, we can only guess our TEF, and those fancy devices we wear or the read out on the cardio machine are all just estimates. Further more, while you might burn 500 calories doing an hour of cardio, you'd have still have burnt around 150 calories doing an hour TV watching. So do you count your cardio as 500 calories, 350 calories? Too many questions, too much guessing. I find it far, far, easier to not try and guess output.

I simply set a calorie limit that has worked in the past. I know from trial and error I can lose weight eating in or around 2500 calories. I found this number simply by starting high, and seeing if weight dropped. When it did not, I reduced calories by 10%. Even to this day, if I stall for 3 or more weeks, I simply reduce calories by 10%. I eat the same every day simply for simplicity. Some days I feel much hungrier then others. If I'm getting towards the end of my calories and I'm still rather hungry, I use my remaining calories for more satiating choices, If I'm not all that hungry I eat sweets or junk I've been craving. Also you need to just flat out accept that sometimes you will have to be hungry. It's just a feeling and it won't kill you. As far as kettle-bell workouts, I don't know much about them as I don't use them often but I'm sure there's a total body kettle-bell workout out there somewhere.

In theory the principles remain the same. Eat in a deficit and the weight will come off. When you are lean going to very lean lots of things make it more difficult. You typical have some kind of slowdown to your metabolism causing you to need to eat a little less then the math would suggest is needed. Water retention becomes wicked as well. You may go 3 or 4 weeks with no weight on the scale coming off then BOOM 3 lbs overnight. Training is harder. You have to fight as hard as you can in the gym simply to maintain strength. It's daunting but ultimately worth it. The biggest advice I can give is to STAY ACTIVE. I'm not talking cardio either, I'm talking general physical activity. One of the things the body can do when it is attempting to preserve the last bits of fat is to lower your NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). This is the activity you do throughout the day. Your body can unconsciously make you want to just be a slug. People find themselves going to the gym to train and then sitting the rest of the day. This will greatly reduce your total calories burned. If you find this happening to you, fight it. Get up, do stuff, be active. I think changes in NEAT is why people think starvation mode is real (which it is not). It also accounts for what I said earlier about needing to eat a little less then the math would suggest is needed.

What are the changes you made once you had to drop that last bit of jiggle? to your nutrition and exercise? What made the difference?

In theory the principles remain the same. Eat in a deficit and the weight will come off. When you are lean going to very lean lots of things make it more difficult. You typical have some kind of slowdown to your metabolism causing you to need to eat a little less then the math would suggest is needed. Water retention becomes wicked as well. You may go 3 or 4 weeks with no weight on the scale coming off then BOOM 3 lbs overnight. Training is harder. You have to fight as hard as you can in the gym simply to maintain strength. It's daunting but ultimately worth it. The biggest advice I can give is to STAY ACTIVE. I'm not talking cardio either, I'm talking general physical activity. One of the things the body can do when it is attempting to preserve the last bits of fat is to lower your NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). This is the activity you do throughout the day. Your body can unconsciously make you want to just be a slug. People find themselves going to the gym to train and then sitting the rest of the day. This will greatly reduce your total calories burned. If you find this happening to you, fight it. Get up, do stuff, be active. I think changes in NEAT is why people think starvation mode is real (which it is not). It also accounts for what I said earlier about needing to eat a little less then the math would suggest is needed.

You're right it wouldn't get sticky but it should and then you also know it would turn into 20 pages of people debating on how the are snowflakes and it doesn't apply to them. You could try it and see how it goes, should be interesting.

I think the blog approach would be a great idea though. It could help so many people.

I think I'll post it and then blog it for later reference. Hopefully it doesn't become a sh*tstorm of debate! lol

I didn't know how to do the cable crunches, so I used google.

There are images of people doing them facing the weights and facing away from the weights..

Does it make a difference which way you do them?

When I did them I always faced the cable machine. Like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fbujeH3F0E