Posts by tomdavie

Eat 3 helping of fruit and veggies per day. That should take care of any fiber issues. There is also fiber tablets if you need to skimp for a day or two. 

Hi. 

I think its natural for us to want to over eat. It's human instinct. I know that when I do I start fearing the worst. That I'm going to binge myself right back to heffer status and waste my whole time!

I think the key is not to beat ourselves up. After all ,  they all told us when we started this journey that we were going to have rough times as well as good times. 

I think it's a test for you to conquer. Remember we are human and will binge . The temptation will never go away. We will learn to control it and its power will fade.

Next time you have the urge, ignore it. 

Push ups and other resistance training will tone your muscle if you are persistent with it. 

But weight training is where you will achieve the fastest and most dramatic results. 

The above poster gave out some good advice regarding the exercises. 

Good luck. 

Original Post by neanderthin:

 

 Your confused. Jumping adds resistance as does any cardio feat, but that doesn't build muscle. Anytime we move any muscle, there is resistance, but that isn't enough to actually build muscle fiber.  Heavy weight training that stresses the CNS with proper diet and recovery builds muscle. In the context that cardio builds muscle.....not going to happen, in the context that cardio causes resistance, sure,  but so does standing up.

It's actually 'you are' or 'you're' . You might want to get the word right when insulting someone . Looks funny when you don't. 

I am not going to stoop to insults. I will ask you do the same. 

 Resistance training builds and strengthen  muscle. I am certain a whole raft of gymnasts agree. We can use our own body weight to create the stress required to stimulate the muscle growth. 

If your theory was true, nobody could do more push ups because their muscles couldn't get bigger or stronger. Nobody could run longer or faster because running wont build muscle . Only with the invention of weights did anyone ever gain muscle. 

Or are you trying to suggest you can run stronger and faster WITHOUT growing any muscle? Magic dust perhaps? 

I guess the ab exercises wont produce muscle either. You need to put copious amounts of high end weight on your stomach to produce the effect. Lol. 

Back to reality...

Anytime we move muscle we cause the 'micro trauma' to the fiber. The extent of that trauma then becomes about the stress involved which would require as much weight as you can lift . This we can agree on. 

But your original assessment was that cardio did not build ANY muscle . And that is just ridiculous. 

In your final attempt to minimize resistance training as 'standing up 'shows you know little about it. 

I suspect the reason why you don't know is  you don't do any meaningful cardio You subscribe to the 'look as big as possible in the mirror' as the only point to exercise at all. 

If you did any meaningful cardio, you would know the extreme effort you can put up by doing it and the rewards you get from your effort. 

I know for a fact. I am living it. Try it sometime. 

Original Post by ticiaelizabeth:

Oh boy, this is such a huge problem for me..... I can literally eat thousands of calories in the last couple hours before bed and not be phased. I appreciate this post, and am open to any and all suggestions! lol. Here's to not making a pig of myself at night! @kelrantymus, you really, really are lucky. Who would have thought mindless eating would help with boredom?!?!

I struggle with this as well. I think I have finally got it beat by eating enough during the day where I wont want to binge before bed. Then I have a juicy red Apple waiting for me in case I give in which seems to do the trick and is only 80 calories. 

Original Post by tom_murphy:

I take a multi-vitamin and two OMEGA-3 pill daily.

I think a consistent, clean diet is the real magic bullet.

I like this plan ! 

Thank you for the replies guys !!! 

I am sure grateful for having you all in my corner and appreciate the advice. I will aim to get up to 10k but I will have to wait on the Grand Canyon !!!

lol

Cheers

Original Post by peweuk:

I gave up smoking 8 weeks ago.

According to research, based on the number of cigs I smoked per day, when I stopped my metabolism would change and I would retain between 300 and 350 calories per day - ie put on weight.

So I started a walking regime and in addition to my normal amount of daily activity I walk for an hour every day at 3mph which should consume 370 cals - balancing out the reduction due to stopping smoking.

In addition at the same time, I reduced my daily food intake to about 1500 -1800 calories per day. At my height, age and current weight my 'sedentary' calorific needs are about 1800 - 2000 per day.

After 8 weeks, I have still put on a significant amount of weight (at least a stone -14lbs )

Anyone any suggestions as to where I should go from here?

I have been down this exact same road. I smoked for 27 years. I gained 45 pounds since I quit smoking over 2 1/2  years . I was already 25 pounds overweight when I quit smoking so i ended up 72 pounds overweight! 

The most important thing to realize for me was that it was irrelevant how little or how much weight I gained if i was ever to have a cigarette again. I was under enormous strain for the first year as a non smoker . Its one hell of a life change. 

In fact, I smoked so long I had no idea what it was like to be an adult as a non smoker . Last time I was a non smoker i was 15 years old. Thats decades of habits to undo and relearn. 

I know we all want everything at once and you dont want to gain a bunch of weight because you quit . However, the fact you quit probably SAVED YOUR LIFE and no amount of temporary weight gain can ever compare to that. 

I applaud your attempt to keep your weight down but if you have to choose one, TAKE THE WEIGHT GAIN for the first year. 

Just dont smoke , no matter what. Regardless of weight gain. 

Congrats on quitting !!!!

I mark myself as sedentary and then add my activity. My BMR plus walking upright is 2100 calories a day. 

In my first 3 months i kept at 1700 calories as my exercise was daily but since i was just starting it wasnt much more than a few hundred calories. 

Now I burn 1500 calories a day plus weight training (= about 1900) 3 times a week. I do endurance cardio twice a week for 2100 daily and another cardio day 1500 and the 7th day i do a light 680 cal burn. 

But I am careful to eat well, use a multi , use 6 scoops of whey, veggies, healty carbs, and at least a gallon of water.

So now i try to eat 2500 calories a day to keep it going. 

Hope this helps

Original Post by akela9:

Has anyone else been at this weight loss thing...

For YEARS?? 

I am so genuinely proud and happy for all of my friends who I met back in '09 (when I joined CC) who have managed to get down to (and maintain) a healthy weight... Mad jealous, of course, but SO proud. 

But at this stage in the game, I can't help wondering why I am still where I am... At most, I can claim that I've managed to lose (and keep off) 15 whole pounds. That's great and all, but when you're still trying to lose 80-100 lbs, it's kind of a drop in the bucket... And it's the ONLY drop in the bucket for the last two years.

The only thing I feel like I can be proud of is... I'm still here. I'm still trying. I've LEARNED so much. But I still seem to have a hell of a time putting all the things I've learned into long periods of practice. Maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm lazy. I don't know.

We can NEVER compare our journeys of self-improvement with anyone else. We shouldn't. It's going to be different for everyone. I guess I just... Need to know if there's anyone else out there "like me" who hasn't given up, but who still has to fight the uphill battle on an almost daily basis.

Because I'm just at a point where I've seen SO MANY people succeed and I don't know what's wrong with me. I still want this. I still think I'm going to make it. But... It's just feeling... Really pointless at the moment, I guess. I wish I could explain better. Hopefully some user (or users) out there will understand and throw in their two-cents.   

Hi!!! I can totally relate. I have been here since 2006. When I first got here I was 178 pounds - 174 without the water weight. I dieted down to 164 and couldnt lose any more. 

I gained back much much more over the years and tried another  attempt in 2010. 

I started at 219 pounds and went down to 191 and couldnt lose any more . 

Little did I know (or chose to ignore) that I had lost a pile of muscle in these dieting periods and then gained back pure fat so i was far worse off than ever before. 

Then finally in June of 2011 I weighed 225 pounds -221 without the water weight i tried again but this time I decided to do the whole thing the exact way people have been telling me to do. 

Exercise , eating habits , sleeping habits , nutrition. 

Now I am down to 195 but I have also put on muscle and feel way healthier. 

So I know how you feel about not succeeding and your advice is the same I would give. As long as we keep trying and coming back, we will make it!!!