My weight loss progress :) time to brag a little :)

[lopxtc]

Best of luck to you on your weight loss. If you decide to go the Atkins route let me know and I can give you some tips and pointers on what I did in the begining and so forth. A couple tips from the start though;

1 -- Cut out soda if at all possible, its tough but it will help you out in the long run. If you cant cut it out, then try to stick to diet caffeine free sodas. But no matter what drink lots of water.
2 -- The first two weeks are tough, you'll want to quit and cheat almost right from the get go. Tough it out and you'll make it. Low-carb candies help out, but dont go over board.
3 -- Dont count calories. You do not need to count calories, unless you are not working out period. If you can at least walk everyday for 30 mins then you will be good to go. Allot of people count calories can try to stay below a good daily limit and this doesnt work. Your body will burn off fat, but this slows down if you dont take in enough.
4 -- Visit www.atkins.net or get the book, although the website has 95% of what the book does.
5 -- Finally if you start to feel sick for more the a day or two, stop. Some people do not react well to this diet, so if you feel your getting sick stop right away.

Aaron

Originally posted by aaron_mag
Alright you have motivated me. I need to lose about 20 pounds to get back to my fit 170s (I'm actually about the same height as you and my name is also Aaron).

I was got down to the low 180s but then injured my achilles tendon and started an eating binge with very little exercise and went back to around 190. So here we go again.....

Congratulations and thanks for the motivation. We'll see if it works.....

[aaron_mag]

I was dropping weight just running, playing lacrosse, and going to martial arts classes without thinking about diet too much. If you are busy, however, you usually don't have time to eat a bunch of junk because you are bored.

I think your soda comment is probably what I really need to follow plus just random junk food while driving. Now that my achilles tendon is finally starting to feel better I can probably start exercising again soon. Hope to have your luck. Congratulations.

EDIT: Actually "luck" is not the right word. If I have the disipline that you have had I will be successful.

[atcer]

man thats rad! good for you. my girlfriend and i were on that diet for about two/two and a half weeks or so and i lost about 15 lbs... way short of my long term goal, but good none the less. after that we kinda leveled off and didnt really lose much more and we got extreamly tired of it and it was hard to stay on when we have really different school/work schedules. we gave up. im happy to say tho, that i havent really put any of the wieght back on, but im not where i was when i was in relatively good shape. I still need to loose 30 or so. It sucks being fat and trying to run to that bunker you need to make!

[PyRo]

15 pounds in two and a half weeks is pretty damn good I think.

[FutureMagOwner]

yay lopxtc!!!!!!!1111oneone

this has inspired me to get off my own lazy butt and do the diet mango gave me advice on. i started last week and it kinda fell apart i need to get past those 2 weeks lol. o well tomorrow im at it again!

[FalconGuy016]

I should do a smaller version of that

[Zumina]

One of the best things to cut out is dairy. Which means NO cheese or 1%+ milk. Lots of hidden calories.

[Miscue]

Yay! Congrats!

[lopxtc]

Actually on an Atkins type diet cheese wont kill you. I eat cheese on most of what I have ... salads, eggs , and of course a burger when I have one.

With Atkins, and most low-carb diets, your body shifts into a state where it burns far before carbs. The bodys natural system is to burn carbs before fat, Ketosis I believe is the name of reverse state where you burn fat.

The downside to Atkins is at first you have to avoid milk itself since even skim is high in surgar and contains a good number of carbs. Which is one of the reasons you need to make sure you take a dialy vitamin with calcium in it.

Aaron

[lopxtc]

Thanks ... now its allot of trying to tone. I have burned a ton of fat, and still have some ... but its getting my stomach tightened up again LOL ...

Aaron

Originally posted by Miscue
Yay! Congrats!

[Yamz]

Congrats man, its good to see people take care of their bodies. If anyone else gets motivated to lose weight remember this its not about loseing weight its about loseing fat. A person can weigh 200 lbs and be in great shape enough so that to lose another 20lbs would take their body fat % to a dangerously low level

[lopxtc]

I had a good friend in the Marines who was like this. Dang near 0% body fat, but was according to height/weight charts he was overweight. He was a body builder and had to a waiver all the time to maintain his weight. They funny part was he good do physical exercise till the cows came home, but he could swim to save his life LOL ... had something to do with the lack of body fat.

Aaron

Originally posted by Yamz
Congrats man, its good to see people take care of their bodies. If anyone else gets motivated to lose weight remember this its not about loseing weight its about loseing fat. A person can weigh 200 lbs and be in great shape enough so that to lose another 20lbs would take their body fat % to a dangerously low level

[Mango]

Congrats Aaron!! That is fantastic! Glad to hear Atkins is working for you. Although I am concerned about only taking in 1500 calories a day. If you are trying to build muscle, it will be pretty much near impossible on such a low calorie diet. Also, I won't tear into the Atkins diet but, the main reason you lost weight, was dropping the few things that were bad habits (soda, etc.) and by pure caloric restriction. Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) before you started working out was probably around 1600 to 2000 calories a day. That is what your body would burn by just sitting and functioning. For most men, its between there. Now that you are ACTIVE and working out and eating different foods, your BMR is probably well over 2800, I'd guess around there (I dont know just how active you are or else I could calculate it for you). So, you have to injest at LEAST that much just to start building muscle. If you get the calories from the right sources, you will not have to worry about putting on anymore fat. You have to EAT to lose weight. Also, if you are on the maintenence stage of Atkins, try your best to limit sources of saturated fat if you care about your arteries/liver/etc. I'm not flaming, I'm being totally serious. And don't worry, "carbs" will not make you fat. You need carbohydrates for energy (the bodies #1 source) so if you are on a low or restricted carbohydrate diet, you will not have the energy to workout and you will most likely crash at the end of a workout. Controlling your sugar levels is WAY more important. But thats something else. I dont want to hijack your thread.

[lopxtc]

SprayingMango I do appreciate you not trying to take over the thread ... I would be more then happy to talk about this in another thread. ... It is proven though, by a number of high name medical schools and hospitals, that reducing your intake of carbs does lead to weight loss even in people who do little to no exercise. Although even Atkins himself (when alive) did say that the only way to be really succesful was to exercise regularly also.

Currently all my levels are below what they were before I started ... and you are correct that if I was trying to build muscle I should eat more. Currently I am more into toning up and not adding muscle... I am happy with my muscle "levels", just not the extra skin all over the place

As for energy I have had more energy then I have had in a long time one of the common mistakes about Atkins is that people dont understand the process the body uses to burn the fat instead of carbs.

I know we (AO.org) have debated this before on this board with some interesting results

Aaron

[dansim]

any body want to make me a diet so i can slowly ween out my bad haibits, i drink alot of soda, eat alot of garbage (sugars), eat late at night, drink beer,so on and so on pm me