mike_ny Member

I don't know if people make this **** up for fun or out of ignorance. Like most of these urban legends, there is a small grain of truth to this, though (pun intended). If you have a truly serious problem with Candida where your body is really loaded with yeast both in your gut and bloodstream, then alcohol produced as a…

Fasting is fine. Everyone should do a fast day now and then, but this is not about fasting. It's eating extremely low calories every other day. That 's the gimmicky part. Depending on what those calories are from and how they are spaced could cause some insulin swings or dizziness in some people. Avoiding exhausting…

I don't put a lot of faith in gimmicks for dietary changes or fitness in general. Catchy diets are easy enough to remember and can go viral because of that, but they aren't sustainable in the long run. The basic idea from this seems to be to keep your body guessing on how many calories it'll get and also cutting your total…

Coconut oil is great stuff. Unrefined pure coconut oil has high levels of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) and anti-microbial properties. It's unfortunate it got such a bad reputation as a saturated fat all these years that it didn't deserve. It also tastes great. It does have a lower smoke point than many cooking oils,…

Egg yolks are high in several nutrients, many of which are fat soluble, so eating just whites may contribute to your protein numbers, but at a cost if you're lacking in any of the nutrients that the yolks contain. Dietary cholesterol is not the problem is has been portrayed for so long as for the vast majority of people.…

Greek yogurt is not high in sugar. It's the added fruit and flavoring that is. Get plain Greek yogurt and you can control how much additional sugar you add to it. By gradually cutting back on the sweetness over time, you can adapt to it being far less sweet and appreciate it for the tartness that goes so well with fresh…

Cardio is great for your heart and stamina and lifting weights is great for strength and tightening up, but walking is the best way to burn fat. Walking is low impact and effort and cumulative so you can really burn a lot of calories over the hours. Slow twitch muscles also rely on fat burning since they have to maintain…

I get "Your face is so thin. All your veins are showing. You don't look healthy." Apparently most people don't know how hard people work out and lift weights to get body weight down enough to get vascular. My arms and legs have definitely gotten very muscular and when I look in the mirror I still get surprised expecting to…

Yes! I owe my weight loss to using my Fitbit One to track calories burned. I ran it through the washer after only a few weeks and it died. I was devastated and ordered another and had it shipped overnight and only lost a day of measurements. That was a costly mistake, but easily the best money I ever spent because it…

"I only have to look at food to put on weight." Really? I'm sure that just looking at it isn't the problem.

I never understand this either. The yolks are much more nutritious than the whites other than not having as much protein by weight. They also have a rich taste while the whites are pretty plain. Sacrificing all the goodness of the yolks only just to save a couple hundred calories that one could easily eliminate in sugar,…

It's just about eating real food, period. So much of packaged food is loaded with stabilizers and preservatives and enhancers that are only there for long shelf life and appearance. There are literally tens of thousands of food additives that have never been tested or evaluated for long term effects. Even assuming that…

Calories strictly measured as energy units of different foods are equal going in. What varies are the processes used to digest not only different types of nutrients but even the same food depending on whether it it raw, cooked, mashed, etc... All food requires some energy expended by the body to digest it. Carbs are the…

If your daily diet and exercise regimen have become too consistent and predictable, your body may have just adjusted to it. The body and mind definitely like patterns and look for them everywhere. If that's the case, then confuse your body and metabolism by throwing inconsistency at it. For a few days give it some wild…

That's a great long term goal, but people tend to think in the short term and have a hard time thinking of you other than you are at this point in time. They are most likely projecting that THEY could never achieve anything requiring that amount of work and dedication and don't want you to feel bad if you don't succeed as…

I'm in the same situation, Vanity sizing catering to the average person being overweight means most clothing in the U.S. is a lot baggier than it used to be. You need to look for tapered shirts and clothing marked "thin" to fit a normal build. Most regular fits are what used to be called relaxed fit and relaxed fit is more…

They're like apples and oranges for comparison. Cous cous is a form of pasta. Whether you get whole wheat or regular, it's still pasta made from wheat. Nutritionally it's the same as pasta. It is super easy and fast to cook, though Quinoa is a seed that has all the essential amino acids (protein). Nutritionally, quinoa is…

If it's before I go to sleep, I record it under the previous day. I figure whether I ate it at 9, 10, 11, or after midnight, it's still a late night meal prior to the end of my virtual day whenever it actually ends. That way I start each day fresh when I awaken. As long as you're consistent in how you log it, it really…

It's pretty much a given that you'll be blowing whatever your calorie and other targets are, so accept that and enjoy the company and make whatever few smart choices you can so you don't feel totally out of control. Use the prior and following days to average it out for the week and it'll be fine in the big picture. I find…

Every morning and sometimes also in the afternoon or evening. It's good to see how weight does fluctuate quite a bit, which helps me to not freak out when I gain two or three pounds overnight since I know I'll most likely drop it the next day or two. The body is a dynamic system with all kinds of things going on like water…

The first week is usually the easiest for weight loss. The change in eating habits may be hard, but you can drop quite a few pounds in the first week, which most people assume is mostly water weight. After that you'll have to really stick with it to maintain a half or pound per week and will still have some plateau weeks…

25% carbs is still too high if you want to lose weight unless you're doing massive cardio workouts. Most diets recommend about half of calories from carbs, but how's that working out for most people? If you keep your carbs under 20% (sticking to fiber and veggies and cut way back on sugar and starches) and you get the…

Use body fat percentage as your goal. Weight and BMI are good measures for large groups or populations, but can be off by a few percent for individuals depending on your body composition. My BMI is currently 3 points higher than my body fat measured by an Aria scale, skin fold calipers, and just looking in the mirror.…

Just do the math. If you're eating any version of a primal diet, restrict your carbs to no more than 100 grams a day for weight loss. and restrict those carbs to mostly fruit and vegetables and not sugar and starch. Allow yourself between a half to a gram of protein per lb. of LBM depending on your activity and workout…

Cabot makes a plain greek yogurt with 10% butter fat that Hannaford carries in the Northeast. Whole milk is about 4%. It's incredibly thick and rich with no added pectin or stabilizers to artificially thicken it and keep it from separating out. I eat it every day and it's really helped me get enough fat in my diet to drop…

I lost a good deal of my extra weight by just cutting calories and exercising. I ate a much cleaner diet and focused on adding protein, so that cut my carbs a bit, but not that much and not on purpose. Although I did still lose more fat than lean through exercise, I did lose both. I got down to the target weight I wanted,…

The main thing about being athletic in your 40's and beyond is your recovery time. Twenty-somethings can workout to exhaustion and be ready the next day to do it again. Older bodies need a little more time to recover. Allow for that and you can still set aggressive goals. For example, give yourself two days between weight…

Just stick to the plan and use any negative energy like that to reinforce your efforts. If you do, give or take a few months (depending on how much you put into it), you'll have dropped enough body fat to notice after which you'll more likely either get silence or complements from those that taunted you early on. If your…

It's good to have a doctor who can be frank with you. Many doctors, especially ones in larger practices and HMOs have to be concerned that people not hearing what they want instead of what they need could lose their share of patients and then it becomes a business/financial issue. The simple truth is if most doctors were…

I honestly don't think mean people need to have any reason to be mean. Whether it's issues of self esteem, insecurity, or paranoia, anyone who doesn't totally fit their ideals and view of the world or even just someone who happens to unluckily be in their path will be the recipient of their anger and meanness. Bitter…