Posts by yellowcocopuffs

I hope that you are not just eating sweet processed foods (granola bars, etc) and fruits because you need complex carbs to keep your body functioning throughout the day. Also, fiber intake is a must for a healthy digestive and cardiovascular system. Therefore, you should incorporate whole grains/veggies into your diet.

I don't believe that you need to cut out your sugar intake. You just have to make sure that you are eating a balanced diet, not a diet heavily focused on one macronutrient. For example, someone can stay skinny eating just snickers bars if he/she eats just 3 bars a day and that's all they eat. However, although skinny, such an individual will have health problems, including malnutrition.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is the caloric balance as mentioned above. However, you need to also make sure that you are getting all your macronutrient needs including CHOs, Proteins, and healthy fats, especially essential fatty acids (fats that your body cannot make) such as Omega 3 fatty acids.

There's this huge debate about high fructose corn syrup, which is usally found in processed foods, such as those Honey Nut granola bars (but I still eat them anyway!! :)   ) but I personally think that if you just keep the intake to a minimum and just a small part of a balanced diet, then it's probably fine.

Everything that you eat is eventually broken down into sugars in your body so technically, it shouldn't matter where the "sugar" came from. However, the concern about a high sugar intake is that an individual with such a diet will probably not be eating a balanced diet. So all in all, try to eat a bit of everything (veggies, fruits, meat, dairy, sweets etc) and don't ever make a ban list. Just learn how to limit yourself.

Good luck!

Try to keep yourself busy and try to avoid being idle (just watching TV, doing internet, etc). I find that personally, I eat nonstop when I am bored or have nothing to do or I just have food laying around. Another thing is that binging and fasting is really bad for your body, and may even cause your body to try to gain weight the next time food comes in. Try to keep healthy, low calorie snacks on hand, so that even if you do "binge," the calories do not add up.

Try some airpopped popcorn. I love the stuff!

Also, if you are really craving something, don't try to avoid it. You should eat it but only a tinny tiny bit.

Good luck!

My toxicology professor says that Splenda is better than Aspartame, but it's best if you avoid them both. Aspartame should be avoided as much as possible, but it's everywhere, esp in diet sodas. Aspartame was approved using fishy methods and so it's not proven whether it's actually safe (in rodents, it leads to cancers). In humans, there's not much data. As for Splenda, it's better than Aspartame but if I were you, I would use the real stuff but slowly cut it down, and eventually, you will prefer the "less sweet" stuff.

Hope this helps!

What do you mean RDA for different foods? There's no RDA for "foods" but just macronutrients and vitamins and such.

You can check out the mypyramid site....it's by the government so pretty reliable.

Good luck!

Yea. Alcohol is 7cal/g...that's almost like fat which is 9cal/g. I totally understand how hard it can be at times because some people don't understand why others chose not to drink so much. Haha. One thing I hope is that you don't smoke...because Cigaretts are inducers for lung cancer...and alcohol is a promoter. So if you put the two things together....uh...most likely will get lung cancer, which is the most common cancer in the US. Haha. I learned it in my toxicology class. Hope this helps!

If you want to increase your caloric intake but don't want to have that full bloated feeling, try adding some healthy nuts and oils to your diet. Especially olive oil. Olive oil is very good for you. Also, for snacks, try healthy nuts like walnuts and almonds, preferably NOT salted. Good luck! I respect that you are tyring to change your lifestyle!

Original Post by gflodub:

TKD. tarketed ketosis diet. Its hard to do, but i assure you it will tighten you up. The full line of keto dieting is extensive in detail but to put it short.. Place your carbs around your workout. I eat six meals a day and do my workout an hour after my first meal consisting of egg whites and 1/4c Oats and 4 oz of OJ. then following my workout ill have my protein shake and a fruit cup. After that no carbs other than fiberous veggies. Your primary foods should be tuna, chicken, nuts and seeds, salads, veggies. By doing this you are producing more ketones in your blood which [in short] convert fat to energy, thus you must eat fat to burn fat. I could go on and on. Research TKD, CKD, Ketogenic diets for the full story, it whips me into shape for my bodybuilding comps.

 

Prolonged ketosis is dangerous! Plus certain organs in your body PREFER CHO as the primary food source! Especially your brain. Your brain can only work off of glucose. Prolonged periods of ketosis is very very bad for the body. This is a part of the argument against low CHO diets.

Some additional info from wiki:

Most medical resources regard ketosis as a physiological state associated with chronic starvation.[citation needed] Glucose is the energy source used initially by cells in the body due to its availability within the cell; ketosis is regarded as a crisis reaction of the body due to a lack of carbohydrates in the diet. Ketosis would thus be a dangerous (potentially life-threatening) state which unnecessarily stresses the liver and causes destruction of muscle tissues. This is still the view of the majority in the medical and nutritional science communities[6][7][8], but in recent years it has been challenged by a number of doctors and adherents of low-carbohydrate diets, who dispute both the body's preference for glucose and the dangers associated with ketosis.[9][10][11]

For me, it was weird but I exercised 60 min a day on the elliptical for 6-7 days a week while eating 1600 cals and lost NOTHING...not that I was aiming to lose any. I am also in college and pretty fit. I am 5 8.5 and 120lbs. Right now, I am again eating 1600 cals and working out the same but before this, I was 115lbs and same height and thought I should gain some...so ate 1800 cals a day and worked out the same...and I gained... so now I am 120lbs. I personally think you need to be very careful when losing weight because if you have a very low weight for your height, you can lose your periods and increase your risk of osteoporosis later in life. And this is the time to continuously build up your bone mass. However, being active and changing your diet WILL NATURALLY take your excess fat off. Dieting, I think, won't work because it won't last and all the weight will come back once you start eating regularly again because you mess up your metabolism.

Be careful and good luck!

I was in a similar situation about 6 months ago when i decided that i needed to lose just a couple pounds...i am female, 5 8.5 and at that time, i was around 117 lbs. Well, I usully went to the gym 6-7 days a week for 60 minutes and the machine (with my age and weight inputed) said I burned 600-700 cals per 60 minute work out. At this time, I ate around 1600 cals and wasn't losing or gaining, which I found really really REALLY weird.But anyway, so when I decided to eat 1400 and exercise to burn "700" according to the machines, I think I put my body in staration mode because I started feeling very bloated all the time and NEVER hungry. Isn't that weird? Well, so what would happen was that I would eat a little and then feel really bloated and not want to eat any more because I felt so horrible after eating (can you believe that??). Generally, I really enjoy eating but at this time, it was horrible! So I did some research and found that if you don't eat enough, your stomach will actually begin to produce LESS acid to help break down the food...and thus was the reason I was feeling so horrible when I ate. It's weird because I was eating pretty healthy and had only a difference of 200 but I think I was actually putting my body in starvation mode... Dunno if this comment helps but good luck!

These are some links:

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.asp x?cp-documentid=100146039

http://www.liveleantoday.com/article.cfm?id=6 58

Thanks for the input!