diets
 

The working out thread got me thinking, what sort of diets has anyone had success with?

Personally I've been doing a low-carb diet for going on 3 years now. I'm just 5 lbs away from my goal of losing 50 lbs. :)

I've always been a big guy. When I graduated high school I was 6'3, 205. All the drinking and inactivity of college balloned me up to about 250. Then after college when my fiance and I moved in with each other, we ate like crap, all the boxed dinners, fries with every meal, etc.

At my heaviest I got up to 269, my blood pressure was high and that's what really got me worried. I had tried low-fat diets and I just couldn't stick with them for long. My fiance and I decided to start a low-carb diet and we've both lost a ton of weight and more importantly, stuck with it.

I started out using the Atkins approach, but I'm doing it my way now. I do eat bread occasionally, only whole wheat, and I know what other foods I can get away with, but I've found the real key for me is to avoid sugar at all cost.

I added regular exercise to my routine about 6 months ago, weights and cardio 3-4 times per week, and I've never felt better.

Low-carb diets catch alot of heat in the media, but for me it's the only way to go. It's not all about eating tons of red meat drowning in butter either. I eat more veggies than I ever did. Basically I avoid sugar and processed foods.

Any other diet success stories here?

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Matty, your story is strikingly similar to mine.

I was bigger all through high school and ended up graduating at about 190-195. Just like you said, the inactivity, buffets and drinking at college brought me up to 235 at graduation. As soon as I graduated I decided that was enough.

To make a long story very short, a low-carb diet is the way to go. And just like Matty said, it's not all about eating steaks, burgers and cheese. It is about picking the right kinds of meats like chicken and turkey.

When I was dieting I ate omelettes in the morning, had a Slim Fast bar between meals. I then had a deli Turkey and Cheese sandwich at lunch and then I would have grilled chicken and a salad for dinner.

Not only did losing the weight give me a lot of energy, I saw it as a life long chance and I decided I would never get heavy again. I hover between 180-185 depending on how active I want to be, and my metabolism is so high right now that I can have a weekend where I gorge myself on beer and bad meals and can drop any weight that I've lost in two days of hard workouts after the weekend.

If anyone besides Daseal is considering losing weight, just remember to stay dedicated for those first two weeks.

Those two weeks are the most brutal times of your life. You are starving, you are tired and more than likely, VERY cranky. But once you see the results, it is well worth it.

Re: diets
 

well, i had very similar success on the Atkins diet. I dropped 50 lbs last winter (Jan - Apr 04), and went from 320 to 270. Unfortunately, my bad habits (fast food, not watching what I eat) has taken me back up to 315. i'm on meds to stablize my blood pressure, and my goal is to eventually be done with them.

after I get married, my wife and I are going to sit down (she has always had problems with her weight) and figure out a plan of attack. she doesn't want to go back on Atkins (she's done it twice, losing between 25 and 50 both times), so exercise is definitely crucial to the plan. I lost that 50 before i started playing softball last spring, and was able to keep it off for the most part. I dropped 2 pant sizes, and noticed that my XXL shirts started to fit better, and that my dress shirts were big in the neck.

the biggest stereotype is that people on atkins live off of red meat, eggs and cheese. atkins is about picking and choosing healthy foods (chicken, fish, vegetables, etc). there was a surge of too many low carb products that were very high in fat. while on Atkins, i rarely used real eggs, always using Egg Substitutes when eating them, and turkey bacon is great.

I think I am going to start low carb, while my wife does what she pleases. it's much more disciplined, and have great results. as long as you don't do what i did, and go back to your bad habits, then low carb is a great way to go.

Re: diets
 

What I really like about low-carb is you have alot of choices and you don't always have to be hungry like with other diets.

You also see immediate results, when I'm strict with induction I can easily drop 3-4 pounds in a week.

What you have to do to be successful is make it a lifestyle change and not think of it as just a diet or a short-term solution.

I also advise to stay away from all the low-carb products on the store shelves these days. Alot of those products are junk and are loaded with hidden carbs. Stick with what low-carb is all about, natural unprocessed foods and stay away from sugar. I also drink plenty of water.

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My favorite low-carb recipe is to grill some chicken, grill some thinly sliced ham, put on some low-fat honey mustard and serve it open faced on one slice of rye bread. It's delicious, you get your serving of carbs and lots of protein.

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haha - the ad hovering above says: MEAT: IT'S WHAT's ROTTING IN YOUR COLON!

Anyhow, I think I also need to make a diet change. I drink more soda than I would like, I need to find something to replace it with. I already drink a solid amount of water, but I need something with some flavor to drink. What are other real big no-no foods!

Thanks.

Re: diets
 

LOL LOL LOL... excellent.

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Pretty much foods that I've heard will hurt weight loss is mostly anything that ends in -ose on the package (glucose, fructose, sucrose). All are TERRIBLE sugars and will slow down your metabolism. I will difer to Joe on this one, but I think that's right.

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[QUOTE=Daseal]I already drink a solid amount of water, but I need something with some flavor to drink.[/QUOTE]

I find myself drinking a lot of Propel water

Re: diets
 

[QUOTE=Daseal]haha - the ad hovering above says: MEAT: IT'S WHAT's ROTTING IN YOUR COLON!

Anyhow, I think I also need to make a diet change. I drink more soda than I would like, I need to find something to replace it with. I already drink a solid amount of water, but I need something with some flavor to drink. What are other real big no-no foods!

Thanks.[/QUOTE]
growing up, i drank a lot of sodas, and I can safely say that probably attributed to where I am today (not completely of course).

now, I drink 2-3 diet sodas/day, with the rest of the time drinking water. crystal light is pretty good, 5 calories per 8 oz serving, and is definitely more flavorful. there are flavored waters out there (Fruit2O, Propel) that are pretty good.

Re: diets
 

Crystal Light is my favorite non-water drink that is healthy.

Definitely once you get a taste acquired for Diet sodas, they are almost as satisfying as regular, but remember even though they won't put weight ON you, you won't lose it because of the -oses that are in it.

Re: diets
 

Well Malcolm - my goal is to ween myself off soda so the only time I drink it is if I ::shudder:: have to eat fast food, or in a cocktail!

I've been drinking a lot of gatorade lately too.

Re: diets
 

Once you get used to diet soda the real thing tastes way too sweet.

I usually only drink 1 diet soda per day, other than that it's water, flavored water and coffee.

Some say to avoid coffee but it's never been a problem for me.

Re: diets
 

[QUOTE=Daseal]Well Malcolm - my goal is to ween myself off soda so the only time I drink it is if I ::shudder:: have to eat fast food, or in a cocktail!

I've been drinking a lot of gatorade lately too.[/QUOTE]

I know what you're saying man. Sometimes there are just foods that REQUIRE a Coke or Dr. Pepper to go with them.

General Tso's Chicken...
Pizza...
Burgers...

All NEED a soda with them. A non-diet soda.

Re: diets
 

Minute Maid makes a light lemonade that is really low on calories. I'm not sure how low, but I get it whenever I go to Wendy's. It tastes like real lemonade with hardly any sugar. If you wanted to consider taste to calorie ratio, I think this is your winner.

Re: diets
 

I was about 230 a year ago. I started drinking 2+ gallons of water a day.
Except for the fact that the water reduced my appetite, no other diet or exercise changes. I'm at 199 today. Goal is to get down to 170. I don't think there'a s book for this diet or even if I'd recommend it, but it worked for me. Alot of bathroom runs though.

Re: diets
 

Matty, you sound like you have a similar build to me. 6' 2" 2something. Out of college I was ~205. In my 40's I ballooned up to 275ish. Last year, from Feb-April, I got down to 225 using weight watchers. I have since "fell off the wagon" and put about half back on. I am back on it and dropped 10 lbs in a week.

I have to say, I really prefer this to the low carbs. Nothing is off the list, you just have to be sure to eat in moderation. You get x amount of points/day and every food has a point value. In addition, exercise gets you extra points and you get weekly bonus points. For example, for me, a big mac meal for dinner means veggies and fruits for lunch unless I do some cardio.

I have several friends on the Atkins and I think it has some real good points. The bottom line for Atkins (or any other diet) to be successful is controlled calorie intake and some regular form of physical activity.

Oh wait ... Eat right, exercise. I wonder if that would work??

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Yeah, that is my biggest drawback to drinking lots of water. I hate running to the bathroom every 20 minutes.

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Here's what I do:

Breakfast - instant oatmeal, coffee.
Brunch - Cappuccino and Krispy Kreme.
Lunch - Anything, but lots of it. On alternate weeks I eat only tuna salad that I put together myself.
Dinner - Anything but I don't eat at all after 5:00pm. That's a bit tough to start with but it becomes a habit. When I feel hungry I make myself a cup of tea with lemon.

All day I drink absurd amounts of water. Eventually you'll stop needing to pee every five minutes.

I also sit in a sauna at 180f for 3 X 20 minutes most evenings after I work out. No, really.

Re: diets
 

[QUOTE=JoeRedskin]Matty, you sound like you have a similar build to me. 6' 2" 2something. Out of college I was ~205. In my 40's I ballooned up to 275ish. Last year, from Feb-April, I got down to 225 using weight watchers. I have since "fell off the wagon" and put about half back on. I am back on it and dropped 10 lbs in a week.

I have to say, I really prefer this to the low carbs. Nothing is off the list, you just have to be sure to eat in moderation. You get x amount of points/day and every food has a point value. In addition, exercise gets you extra points and you get weekly bonus points. For example, for me, a big mac meal for dinner means veggies and fruits for lunch unless I do some cardio.

I have several friends on the Atkins and I think it has some real good points. The bottom line for Atkins (or any other diet) to be successful is controlled calorie intake and some regular form of physical activity.

Oh wait ... Eat right, exercise. I wonder if that would work??[/QUOTE]

good points, I think any diet boils down to moderation and of course exercise.

Re: diets
 

One thing I ate a-lot of (which kinda goes with the low carb thing) is various Salads. It dosent have to be just lettuce and veggies, you can make all sorts of different salads... Buffalo Chicken, Grilled Chicken, Turkey, Taco, anything you can think of. Get some low/reduced fat dressing; I lost like 30 one summer just eating varoius Salads for alot of my lunches and dinners. And I started running out the ying yang; and it took a couple weeks but then it just started melting off. Of course that fall I started taking Protien Supplmenents and put about 20 pounds back on so I'm around 190 now. Alot of it is more muscle, but I can defintley see where I gained some bad weight too. I've been thinking of doing a serious diet starting around April/May once the weather shapes up. Because theres so many other activities I can do now that the winter is over.

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I love Buffalo Chicken. That is Malcolm diet-kryptonite!

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the nice thing about buffalo chicken, if you do it right, it can be very low carb...

i get emeril's wing sauce and marinate the hell out of some chicken breasts, then grill them up...goes great with a crisp salad and some blue cheese dressing

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They aren't Buffalo if they aren't deep-fried in fatty goodness. LOL

You can tell that is my favorite food with General Tso chicken in a close second. And no, I don't care what they put in Chinese food.

If it's cat, it is the tastiest damn cat I've ever eaten.

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yes, deep fried in fatty goodness is great...you could even fry the chicken i was talking about...as long as they aren't breaded, you're ok...

i love Kung Pao Chicken...and i as well don't care what they put in...although MSG is the root of all evils...

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There's nothing like Kung Pao Chicken at the Far East restaurant across from White Flint Mall in Rockville

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I lost 15 Lbs in one month by switching from regular soda to diet. It was amazing I tell you. Now if I have a regular soda I almost gag. It tastes like drinking maple syrup straight.

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[QUOTE=FRPLG]I lost 15 Lbs in one month by switching from regular soda to diet. It was amazing I tell you. Now if I have a regular soda I almost gag. It tastes like drinking maple syrup straight.[/QUOTE]

I quit drinking regular pop a few years ago too. It really is freaking gross when I try it now. Once you aquire the taste for diet, you'll be fine just give it a couple weeks. The amount of Calories you can save from not drinking pop is unreal.

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[QUOTE=FRPLG]I lost 15 Lbs in one month by switching from regular soda to diet. It was amazing I tell you. Now if I have a regular soda I almost gag. It tastes like drinking maple syrup straight.[/QUOTE]
15 lbs. in one month just by drinking diet.....Dude, were you hooked up to a 7up IV or something?

Re: diets
 

for Lent a few years ago (what can i say, i'm a bastard Catholic), I gave up all soda...drank nothing but iced tea and water mostly for 40 days...

ever since then, if i drink soda, it has to be diet. i can't stand the taste of regular soda, quite disguisting.

now if i can only kick the habit of diet soda...

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[QUOTE=Gmanc711]I quit drinking regular pop a few years ago too. It really is freaking gross when I try it now. Once you aquire the taste for diet, you'll be fine just give it a couple weeks. The amount of Calories you can save from not drinking pop is unreal.[/QUOTE]

Pop... I can tell where you're from!

;)

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two things i love are salt and sugar ;) I probably eat way too much of both, but no harm thus far... I don't drink/smoke etc (beer is a big cause of weight gain), eat nearly 0 fat (love chicken, not a big beef guy), and i'm also never very hungry (just don't eat much, never have)... that workss fine for me, but i don't have any fat genes or what have you to deal with...

The problem i have with diet soda is that nutrasweet tastes like horse dung to me and you end up hitting the restroom a LOT more (guess why truckers don't drink diet soda? ;))

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[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Pop... I can tell where you're from!

;)[/QUOTE]


LOL! Yeah; I'm gonna take my pop and go have a sucker (is that what we call lollypops here that no one else knows about??) Who knows? Damn Rochestarian accent haha.

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[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Pop... I can tell where you're from!

;)[/QUOTE]

He must be from upstate NY (as if I didn't already know that from the fact he's in Rochester) . I grew up saying the same thing.

Re: diets
 

The best diet I ever stuck with was pretty simple. Drink less soda and drink more water, eat more chicken, fish, and steak when budgeted, less carbs but not completely shutting them out of my diet, and more fresh vegetables. Also eating multiple small snacks spread out through the day and having a regular sized meal for dinner was helpful in keeping myself from having too big of meal all the time.The key for me was keeping track of the calories on a daily basis both a few days before I started my diet and every day during it. It really opened my eyes and motivated me to change some things and that's the main thing that's hard for me is the motivation factor. I'm about to start on a diet/workout being put together for me by my uncle cuz after having a lot of knee pains again lately I want to help myself out not only for now but for my future health as well.

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[QUOTE=Ramseyfan]15 lbs. in one month just by drinking diet.....Dude, were you hooked up to a 7up IV or something?[/QUOTE]
Dude...I am a soda freak. Conservatively, I'd say I drink anywhere in the neighborhood of 130 oz a day of diet coke. Too put that in perspective that's almost 11 cans of soda. That's a crazy amount of sugar when you think about it. Once I stopped drinking regular that was like 2000 cals off my plate.

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I'd say if you were drinking that much soda, cutting it out would definitely result in a significant weight loss. All that sugar, damn!

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So I was about to create a thread called "Eff Diets" when I did a forum search and found this thread. I'm assuming none of you guys have been on a diet since 2005? LOL! :food-smil

OK, so it's 2017 and your friend Metalskins is on a diet. I had ballooned up to about 220 pounds last year, joined a gym, tried to eat a bit healthier (still wasn't eating that great), was able to get down to about 203, and then wound up gaining most of that weight back. Started having some health issues, as well as bad knees and a bad back. Decided I needed a change!

Two days after St. Patty's Day, I started this no sugar diet. No sweets. No soda. No alcohol (gulp). No fried foods. Low carbs, higher protein. No breads, with the exception of sugar free whole grain. I started off around 214 lbs, and today, I'm down to 193.2 lbs. I'm only about 5'9", and I'm medium to small frame, so I can't really carry a lot of weight to begin with. I feel so much better. I still have a long ways to go, as my healthy weight range is between 130 - 165lbs, but I've seen a huge difference in losing 21 pounds. Oh, and I can't stress enough the water. I'm constantly drinking water all day long, which has helped to flush my system!

I went from wearing size 38 and 40 waist back down to 34 and 36 waist (some of my jeans are 34 waist and fit perfectly!) My face looked all puffy with double chins (think Scot McCloughan) and now all of that is gone. I literally look like I turned back the clock on my age! Favorite shirts I had that I thought I was going to have to kiss goodbye fit me perfectly now. Those shirts are mediums and larges. I feel like I'm getting my closet full of clothes back now, instead of a small section of fat man clothes!

Man, I feel so much better! I've lost most of this weight solely on the diet. I haven't exercised a great deal, with the exception of tennis once a week and maybe the gym once a week if I get a chance. Other than that, it's been more or less walking on my lunch break and the diet. My goal, of course, is to get back into the healthy weight range, so I still have a good ways to go (need to drop about another 30 pounds), but I'm getting there a lot quicker than I thought I was going to get there.

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Awesome! Nice job!!

I yo-yo diet a LOT. The biggest thing I've found is this: Give up alcohol (like literally not even one drink) for a solid month. The weight just melts off.

Re: diets
 

[quote=metalskins;1169441]So I was about to create a thread called "Eff Diets" when I did a forum search and found this thread. I'm assuming none of you guys have been on a diet since 2005? LOL! :food-smil

OK, so it's 2017 and your friend Metalskins is on a diet. I had ballooned up to about 220 pounds last year, joined a gym, tried to eat a bit healthier (still wasn't eating that great), was able to get down to about 203, and then wound up gaining most of that weight back. Started having some health issues, as well as bad knees and a bad back. Decided I needed a change!

Two days after St. Patty's Day, I started this no sugar diet. No sweets. No soda. No alcohol (gulp). No fried foods. Low carbs, higher protein. No breads, with the exception of sugar free whole grain. I started off around 214 lbs, and today, I'm down to 193.2 lbs. I'm only about 5'9", and I'm medium to small frame, so I can't really carry a lot of weight to begin with. I feel so much better. I still have a long ways to go, as my healthy weight range is between 130 - 165lbs, but I've seen a huge difference in losing 21 pounds. Oh, and I can't stress enough the water. I'm constantly drinking water all day long, which has helped to flush my system!

I went from wearing size 38 and 40 waist back down to 34 and 36 waist (some of my jeans are 34 waist and fit perfectly!) My face looked all puffy with double chins (think Scot McCloughan) and now all of that is gone. I literally look like I turned back the clock on my age! Favorite shirts I had that I thought I was going to have to kiss goodbye fit me perfectly now. Those shirts are mediums and larges. I feel like I'm getting my closet full of clothes back now, instead of a small section of fat man clothes!

Man, I feel so much better! I've lost most of this weight solely on the diet. I haven't exercised a great deal, with the exception of tennis once a week and maybe the gym once a week if I get a chance. Other than that, it's been more or less walking on my lunch break and the diet. My goal, of course, is to get back into the healthy weight range, so I still have a good ways to go (need to drop about another 30 pounds), but I'm getting there a lot quicker than I thought I was going to get there.[/quote]

Wow dude nice!. Id like to lose a solid 10 lbs. I got down to 202 at one point, but im back to 215. Im a little over 6'2. I really miss running, that held my weight down.