caurinus Member

You're welcome! I forgot to mention my new favorite web site, trendweight.com. I just signed up for an account this week. I have a wifi scale that uploads my weight to Fitbits web site, and you can sync your Fitbit account to trendweight.com. The web site mathematically smooths out the water weight fluctuations and tells…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3280601 Also there are a few other papers here, along with some lighter reading about the (minor, but real) effects alcohol has on metabolism and appetite: https://www.google.com/?q=alcohol+leptin#safe=on&q=alcohol+leptin I used to have 3-4 drinks almost every night, but I finally…

So... that TDEE estimate sounds high to me. You're 5'0" and 119 pounds? I would expect your TDEE would be closer to 1500 calories unless your job has you on your feet moving around all day, or training for an endurance race and doing tons of cardio or something. TDEE calculators are generally good estimates, but they…

I think you and I have different ideas about what "a lot of veggies" means. :-) I had over 45 grams of carbs just from carrots and broccoli today, 14g fiber, 20 oz total.

Mea culpa. I did a stint on the Paleo diet for a while. While I have managed to remove most of the misinformation spread by those guys from my head, apparently there was still a little bit left. Much of which is debunked by this excellent article:…

I take food for it. If I'm dieting and I can't sleep, especially if I'm doing a lot of cardio (1000 calories is a lot on a trainer) with an aggressive calorie deficit, for me at least, that's a sign that I'm pushing too hard. Sleep is critical for recovery from exercise and can raise cortisol levels. Have a midnight snack,…

Oh, by the way, mono fats are really good for you. Saturated fats are ok in moderation. Poly fats and Trans fats are bad for you.

Everyone is different, with different goals and different exercise plans. Carbs don't make you fat, eating more calories than you burn does. But low-fiber, high GI carbs do cause appetite swings so stick with high fiber carbs. Fiber in very high quantities is filling and green veggies have lots of fiber and low calories.…

I would agree that higher glycemic index carbs like baked potatoes, white rice, and even fruit juice aren't really filling at all, and will spike insulin causing appetite swings. But high fiber carbs like whole fruits, brown rice, and legumes digest much more slowly, fill the stomach better, and prevent sharp insulin…

Fat free Greek yogurt and berries is a good one. I'll also cook up a huge batch of chicken breast meat about twice a week and will snack on it from the fridge occasionally, and use it for meals too. Beef jerky is usually made from pretty lean cuts, but will bloat you a little from the huge salt dose. Not a big deal really,…

Soon many questions. Height? Weight? Goal calories? Do you sit all day at work or are you on your feet? How much exercise do you get? What kind of foods are you eating? How much alcohol do you drink? Are you losing weight? How much weight are you losing per week?

Salad is good too, but you have to really watch the calories in the dressing. Sometimes I'll just use rice vinegar for dressing. Basically, for low calorie filling stuff, your best friends are lean proteins, and huge piles of green vegetables. Like, eat it out of a big mixing bowl quantities because it won't fit on a plate.

Fage 0% fat Greek yogurt, with blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries. Chicken breast, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, baked at 400 degrees F until internal temperature reaches 165F. Optionally, bake on a bed of carrots and onions and serve with them. Poached salmon or other fish,…

I recommend taking your measurements with a tape measure. The Omron brand body fat testers are pretty good too. They aren't super accurate, but they are pretty consistent, and often a better measure of progress than the scale for a new weight lifter.

Absolutely. Also Google "leptin alcohol" for another way it slows progress and stimulates appetite too. I drink 2-3 nights a week. Definitely getting better results than when I was drinking every night.

Have you tried the Tug Toner?

It's making a lot of assumptions about how active you are during the day. You're much better off measuring your weight regularly, graphing it, and drawing a trendline that extends into the future. That will give you a prediction based on actual past performance, and has a shot at being accurate assuming you don't change…

You'll lose at least 5 pounds of water weight in the first week of a good diet. Knowing this, when you reach your goal weight, don't panic when you start eating a normal maintenance diet again -- you will gain at least 5 pounds of water weight after you stop restricting calories. Doesn't mean you're getting fat again.

And in general, it's 90% (or more) true: CICO is by far the most important thing. But there are small details that say CICO isn't absolutely everything. You're going to have weird cravings if you're seriously deficient in micronutrients. You will lose muscle mass if you're restricting calories without getting enough…

It's funny how after you've eaten that way for a while, a giant bowl of veggies starts to feel like an indulgent feast... :-)

Even relatively lean cuts of beef like sirloin have a ton of fat compared to chicken. I LOVE steak but I only eat it once a week and I have to watch the portions when I'm trying to lose fat.

Ah, OK, that makes more sense. 7 lbs isn't that much. I have gained 5-6 pounds just in water weight when I switch from a calorie deficit to maintenance because of stored glycogen, and all of it will drop off again within 10 days after I go back to a calorie deficit. I wouldn't call it super high at 27% of calories. I think…

So you're doing 450 minutes of cardio a week, and you're sure you're really only eating ~1470 calories every day? And you haven't lost any weight at all in the past... how long? I don't know. I'll post some links that might help. Good luck! http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-break-through-weight-loss-plateaus/…

Thought of a couple more things. First, something that helped me with feelings of hunger was drinking a lot of strong green tea. I didn't care for the taste of it at first, but now I really like it. Your body might be signaling that it's not getting enough of something, often carbs or protein if you're hitting the gym…

Every time I've gotten frustrated with my progress, it was because I was being too casual with measuring the stuff I was putting in my mouth. Use a digital scale, and weigh as much as possible. Only measure liquids by volume, anything solid should be weighed on a digital kitchen scale if possible. Don't forget to account…

Spinach and Meat Salad: 6 oz lean meat (chicken, or ham if it fits your macros) 1/2 oz goat cheese or feta 2 cups spinach 2 oz diced Roma Tomatoes 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup garbanzo beans 1 green onion, chopped If made with ham and goat cheese: 357 calories 11g fat 41g protein 25g carbs, inc. 7g fiber

I have zero confidence in any mechanism that supposedly says how many calories I burned in any given activity. There are just too many factors that can throw accuracy off -- ambient temperature, current body weight, how insulating are my clothes... I just set up my diet with a moderate 1lb/week fat loss target, or 1.5lbs…

I don't agree with the people saying to take a break from tracking your diet and working toward your goals. I think that's too much like giving up hope. You can do this! If you feel like you need a break, you could take a week or two off from the gym, or maybe reduce the amount of time you're spending there. But I think…

"Best" is kind of personal, different people do best on different macro balances, and some people get a lot more exercise than other people. If you're lifting weights (and you should be, if one of your goals is keeping muscle mass), your protein should be about 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal weight, or 1.1g/lb of…

When I eat an appropriate amount of healthy food, exercise, and treat my body with respect, and it just feels normal. When I first started, it was a lot of changes -- having to detour from my usual path home to stop at the gym, no more weekly pizza binges, no more butter-slathered popcorn and beer every single night, and…