mike_ny Member

Once at maintenance you should rely far less on the scale and mostly on how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit. If you are also maintaining a more healthy and active lifestyle, keep moving, and exercising, your body will continue to change for the good. Since hitting my weight goal, I've gained five or so…

No easy answer, here. It depends on how cold they are to start with and the mass of what you're trying to bring up to temperature. I always leave a stick of butter in the butter dish out all the time, though, so we always have softened butter. Butter is salted as a preservative and saturated fats are extremely stable (lard…

I don't know what your ethics are, but it doesn't sound like your vegetarian diet is working out that well for you health-wise. I can say that because I was vegetarian for many years and finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't gettng everything I needed in my diet and started eating free range chicken and other…

Since you eat pizza, dairy seems OK, so use plain Greek yogurt as one of your main protein sources. Lots off yogurt is also a good idea to help your digestive tract with probiotics. Fermented foods are also rich in probiotics so you may want to consider sauerkraut, Kim chi, tempeh, etc... If you eat eggs, they are about as…

Aim for the top range of a healthy BMI as a starting point. Once you start approaching that it'll start to become clear what your actual end goal should be. BMI is just an average that works well for large populations but not always as well for individuals. It could take a while to get there though, so you definitely also…

Nowhere as many as you'd think. Unless you're doing really high intensity training, the calorie burn isn't that high on any places that list calories for physical activities. Think if it as an investment, though. You'll burn the extra calories over the next several hours from having your metabolism stepped up and the more…

I sneak into people's homes and hide in the shower, under the bed, and in the closets while wearing a scary doll mask, just to keep people on their toes. ... I couldn't resist ;-)

Back when iPods were bigger, they made lots of arm or waist band carriers for them. They're lightweight, water resistant, and not that large, but can easily hold a wallet, keys, money, etc... You can find that at yard sales for less than a buck.

Fitness equipment is always good. It's often hard to justify the cost, so they're great for rewards. There are probably lots of things you'd like either new or used and this is a great reason to get them. Kettle bells, medicine ball, dumbbells, heavy bag, etc... They're also great for working towards your next and bigger…

You can customize your Fitbit for your particular gait. It's somewhere on the site under settings. Search for it and you'll find it. The default settings are quite good for most people of normal height, but even some of them may have longer or shorter gaits due to leg length, joint issues, etc... Check it out.

All you need is a non-propelled lawn mower, especially one that isn't very wide. 10,000 steps is no problem for not even a medium sized yard. My yard is a bit bigger than average, so I do the front and back on different days. That's two days where I rack up at least 15K steps each. I have to laugh at the people who use a…

There are too many definitions for organic as it is, and big food companies and food outlets keep trying to weaken them even more so that can call whatever they want organic as a marketing trick. There's a wide range between organic and certified organic. One does have to read the label. Saying something is made from…

Organic milk doesn't contain pesticides. Regardless of whether BGH or antibiotics given to animals are a concern to you or if you prefer grass versus feed, lack of pesticides alone makes it better. Pesticides are nerve toxins which I don't like having in my food even in very small amounts. Whether it's worth it to you is…

Organic whole milk is fine. It's also delicious. I grew up with only skim or 1% milk in the house and never liked milk much at all until I finally tried whole milk. Non-organic milk can contain bovine growth hormone, pesticides, and residue from antibiotics. Since it's probably not pasture raised, the omega 6 to omega 3…

Give it time. The first month or so is often the hardest for many people. Keep being active, eating healthy, staying within your deficit, stay hydrated, and get enough rest and it will happen. Your body is still trying to maintain the set point it's used to. Change happens from within. Change the metabolism, gut bacteria,…

They take some practice to use correctly and get accurate measurements, but they are still more accurate than the scales. Scooby has a three point calculator on his site so you can measure yourself along with hints on how to use them. The seven point measurement is much more accurate, but you need someone else to do it…

Buy a pair of body fat calipers. I got a pair of the Accu-measure ones on eBay a while back for about five bucks. Using the scale as a daily guide for a rough reference is fine, but the calipers will give you a more accurate number. The problem with scales and the handheld units is even if they were totally accurate (and…

My weight has been going up, mostly due to working out a lot, but I was still concerned that I might be sliding back since I put on about eight pounds while in maintenance. Gaining five pounds or so while going through a bulk phase is no big deal, but seeing it surge to over eight was a concern. I knew some of the gain…

No, all calories are not the same, but it's close enough to pretend they are for weight loss since your measurements aren't exact anyway. So even though fat and protein take more energy to process than carbs and therefore have lower net calories and different foods can affect your metabolism, the variances are not great…

Consider making your workstation a stand-up desk. All you have to do is raise the monitor and keyboard and get a cushioned mat for standing all day. You'll burn an extra 200 or so calories a day by not sitting and it's so much better on your back. I started doing that years ago and had so much more energy that I made my…

The best way to use your willpower and remain in control is to go in with a plan that's easy to follow: Pick the healthier options, put half of what you would normally put on your plate, and only go up,twice. That way you're not drawing any attention to yourself but it limits the damage to where you can make it up…

Try keeping your carbs under 200 grams for a week or so. That isn't low enough to shock your body or put you into ketosis or anything, but it will let you determine if your body does better losing weight by cutting carbs. If you do better on less carbs, then you can cut them down to 100 grams a day and not go into ketosis…

That sounds a lot like the way I lost 40 pounds and got fit. My fat intake was and still is anywhere from 50% to 60% of my calories with my protein at around 30%, only leaving 10-20% for carbs. It seems the more fat I ate, the faster I dropped the pounds. Fat and protein are great fuels and they don't net 100% of the…

I don't think a 2XL to an XL is a difference of a single size. Clothes in general sizes like Medium, Large, etc... are a range of sizes. Besides, sizing in clothing varies so much from brand to brand that just finding a smaller size that fits doesn't necessarily mean you got any smaller. With vanity sizing, your clothing…

Fats are essential for your body to do cell repair and other important things. Collagen and gelatin are proteins, but the best sources of them are skin and connective tissue. Chicken thighs with skin on give plenty of both if you cook them slowly (baking, grilling, etc...) to break down the collagen and release the…

You should lose it all over, but you'll notice it more in areas that have less fat. That's why people claim they lose it first in their face, arms, breasts, etc... They're actually losing some all over, but the difference in places like your stomach, thighs, love handles, etc... is barely noticeable percentage-wise…

The only difference to me is frequency. Overeating is something many people do on a regular basis, whether that's every day or weekends or whatever. Binge eating is compressing that into a single sitting. So, overeating is having that extra piece of cake you know you don't need, but binge eating is eating the entire cake…

That's the first big step towards doing something very positive about it. It definitely isn't easy and will take longer than you'll like or want, but you can definitely get there if you really want to and are willing to put in the time and effort. Be prepared to make a long term commitment, and you can get your life back…

I'm in my late 50's and in the best shape I've been in for thirty years. You can lose weight, and get fit at any age. It definitely is harder as you get older, but be patient and stick with it and you will get there. Two things to remember are that the body doesn't absorb nutrients as efficiently as we age, and recovery…

Fat is a good thing. People don't get enough good fat in their diets. They usually just get too many calories period, and then blame it on eating fats. Fats don't make you fat. Excess calories make you fat. Fats are a great fuel source as well as supplying essential nutrients. Just avoid trans-fats. The only thing really…