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Biochemistry answers to weight loss questions: Where does the weight go?
I see this question on the thread a lot: "Okay I get that if I eat less calories than I use I will lose weight, but where does that weight actually go?" The assumption seems to be that you either poop it out somehow or that you literally convert mass into energy like you were some sort of nuclear reactor. Neither one of…
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Why Aspartame Isn't Scary
Hey everyone. I've seen my fair share of posts on the forums with regards to the dangers of aspartame and how it is a poison or a toxin or a carcinogen. Wanted to clear some things up about aspartame if I could just to explain why I personally believe there is absolutely no reason to fear aspartame. What is aspartame? For…
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The Importance of Willpower for Weight Loss
On these forums you tend to see a focus on things like CICO (Calories in, Calories Out), nutrition, macro split, how much exercise to do, how much water to drink etc. All of these things are relevant of course but given those topics have been covered a ton I thought I'd post on what I consider to be the most important…
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Is there a maximum darkness to the new quote fields?
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The issue with processed foods (opinion)
The weight-loss and general health community is quite full of woo. That said I think there is some truth to the often repeated idea within those communities that, given the choice, it is better to select whole foods over processed foods for your overall health and well-being. However, in my opinion, the reason often stated…
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FAT
Just saw there was a SUGAR and a PROTEIN thread and didn't want FAT to feel left out. Its okay Fat, people love you too.
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CICO and calorie counting explained by analogy
Pretend you have a car. Okay probably you do have a car but pretend you have a rather unique car. This car has two tanks, a normal tank that you can pump fuel into and another reserve tank that the car can draw from if the main tank is empty. The main tank is rather unique in that it can take a huge variety of different…
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Biochemistry answers for common weight loss questions: What are Calories?
So what is a calorie exactly? Calories are units of measure for energy, just like a kilometer is a unit of measure for distance and a kilogram is a unit of measure for mass. Also just like there are multiple types of units for distance (feet, inches, meters, kilometers) and for mass (pounds, kilograms, stones) there are…
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Biochemistry answers for common weight loss questions: What are Macros-Fats
Macros, in nutrition, are the primary different types of molecules within your food that you derive energy from: protein, fats and carbohydrates. In biochemistry these three types of molecules are the main molecules that make up all of biological life. I will go through each one and explain what their general composition…
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Has Global Health and Wealth Increased or Decreased?
Just a random poll, curious whether or not people in general feel like average health of humanity as a whole (child mortality, life expectancy, quality of life etc) has improved, gotten worse or stayed about the same over the past 50 years? What do you base that feeling on?
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The concept of CICO and calorie counting via analogy
Pretend you have a car. Okay probably you do have a car but pretend you have a rather unique car. This car has two tanks, a normal tank that you can pump fuel into and another reserve tank that the car can draw from if the main tank is empty. The main tank is rather unique in that it can take a huge variety of different…
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Biochemistry answers for common weight loss questions: Sodium. (warning, long and nerdy)
So lately I've seen a lot of posts about sudden weight gain or sudden weight loss and what does it mean or something about whether or not I should care about sodium in my diet. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding or misinformation out there. This is an attempt to address what is actually going on in your body when…
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Shirts sort-of fit
So this is more a half-way to success story than a success story. Several years ago I was in pretty good shape, 155 pounds at 6' tall. Decided around that point to invest in some nicer shirts for work and just for nights on the town. Bought a bunch of 1MX fitted shirts from Express that fit me very well, and I do mean very…
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Tracking weight loss
I've tracked calories and lost weight twice before using MFP, this will be my third time (maintenance is still an issue for me). In all three times I have been very consistant, I have logged everything daily, I have used a food scale, I have eaten with a fairly consistant routine of favored recipes or prepared items and I…
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Pushup form with kyphotic upper back and forward head posture
My question is regards to how to achieve proper form with pushups if you have a curved spine from poor posture. From years of poor posture and spending a large amount of my time at a desk I have a very rounded upper back (kyphotic posture) as well as forward head posture. In an effort to get regular strength exercise in I…
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My Nemesis....boredom
As long as I find ways to keep weightloss or fitness entertaining I kill it, stay on top of it and keep it exactly on track where I want it. I set myself fitness goals, I keep on track of my intake and output and monitor closely with scale and calipers and ensure I lose at a consistant rate without affecting my overall…
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Metabolism
Got a chuckle out of this one, thought I'd share. http://xkcd.com/1744/ I will have to remember this one for next time someone says "you must have a fast metabolism".
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Thoughts on calorie burns
This isn't a question so much as it is for discussion. The general wisdom seems to be that cardio burns sufficent calories that it is worth tracking and eating back those calories while weight training burns fewer calories and is harder to accurately account for and is therefore not worth tracking and not worth eating back…
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Seattle People?
Any Seattle people out there? Have been contemplating whether a meet-up at a public locale would be fun or an organized walk/run around greenlake or something of that nature just for motivation.
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Question on push-up challenges
I actually rather enjoy pushups and was considering trying one of these push-up challenges of doing say 100 pushups a day or getting to 100 consecutive pushups etc etc. My concern though is thinking is it a mistake to focus on only a push exercise and not have the matching pull exercise? I have a desk job and an office…
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What MFP does when it calculates your goal
Hey all. I was answering someone in an email and wrote up an explanation of what MFP does when it calculates your goal calories. I figured I might want to refer to this for others and rather than retype it it would be nice to just point to a post...so I'm posting it for future reference. Feel free to correct any mistakes…
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180 days, 28 pounds down
The goal was to lose 30 pounds by September and as of today I have lost 28. I had an ambitious goal considering I was overweight but not obese so I am very happy with the results. It has been a pleasure to work with my body and track my progress to attain my goals and it is great to see it pay off in nice steady weight…
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For those of you who want to track your weight but have anxiety with weight fluctuations...try this
On the forums here I see daily posts about how someone just stepped on the scale and it read 3 pounds higher and they felt devastated and like they had lost all of their progress. They maybe told that random weight fluctuations are to be expected but it is hard to see that when you just look at single scalar measurements.…
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Fitbit Walking Calorie Burn Estimate
Was curious as to the communities take of FitBit or activity tracker calorie burn estimates for walking. In theory they have your height, your weight, an accurate step count and although I'm sure there is a range of burn associated with athleticism it seems like the estimate should at least be in the ballpark. I also…
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Calorie restriction versus increased activity
There seems to be a very common theme on this website (and therefore probably in the world at large). Its the belief that weight loss is equivalent to becoming healthy and that the way to weight loss is to eat less. I have to disagree. Sure, I believe in CICO, TDEE, NEAT and measuring as a means of tracking your…
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Hi...again
Hey MFP community. So I am back it seems. Two years ago I spent 180 days on MFP and lost about 30 pounds. Had a good experience, learned a lot, found the tracking to be accurate and easy while I was focused on a goal. Reached my goal, felt pretty good, decided to shift my focus to my career and a year and a half later I've…
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Visualize your Success!
I had a fun idea for showing off people's weight loss success. I haven't lost all that much weight in comparison to many on here but I thought I'd post my own just to get this started, I think we could all have a lot of fun with it. Here is the idea. Think back to the day where you first started to take weight loss…
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150 Day Progress
Eating at a deficit and exercising hard 4-6 days a week to trim the fat while maintaining the muscle. Took a while before I could really notice a difference in my appearance but as time goes on that difference becomes more and more undeniable. This latest round of progress shots had me feeling pretty proud. The lighten…
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The shave-point
I've noticed something on the MFP forums but not just on the forums, everywhere I seem to turn on the internet it is there. Once men hit a certain level of fitness where they are lean and have fairly muscled physiques their body hair just dissapears. Is it that when you go below a certain percent bodyfat and above a…
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CICO in practice
So I am a big nerd when it comes to tracking data and spreadsheeting and weight loss is no exception there. The following is from using the MFP method as that is what I have been using and that is what seems most relevant here. For those who don't know the MFP method would be entering your age weight, gender and height…
