Weight loss: Am I doing something wrong?

[Zak33]

Do other drinks cause the same? (most drinks are nearly all water as well, of course). Maybe your tap water has too many bugs in for you

nope.. wine is fine as is beer.

we've got good tap water... i can drink pints of it during the day.. but not at meal times.

I'm just weird.. and side tracked a good thread.. sorry guys

Back on Track

[Butcher]

Who has colourless urine though, really!? I have an awesome diet and probably drink to much water in most peoples eyes. Mine isn't...

It doesn't have to be colourless, but it should be very pale if not (I've heard straw coloured or paler before). When it's coming out like black tea or the like you're not drinking enough. Also, tea and coffee work fine for hydration - it's doesn't have to be plain water, but do avoid putting sugar in them.

[merdat]

I tend to drink water 'in small sips ' throughout the day due to the fact that a lot of the time you feel your hungry, your actually thirsty. I for one probably don't drink enough plain water but tend to drink a lot of tea. Weigh loss takes time if you want to keep it off, it's taken me about 3 years to reduce from 95 kgs to 71 kgs.

[OilSheikh]

Erm.. sorry... meant colourless not white ...

Another fact. Make sure you leave something like 2 1/2 hrs. gap aftr eating dinner before you sleep.

[merdat]

Best not to eat after about six pm as anything taken after that can be stored as 'fat'.

[kalniel]

Best not to eat after about six pm as anything taken after that can be stored as 'fat'.

Surely anything you eat before 6pm can also be stored as fat?

[merdat]

Yes that correct but think the reasoning is that after six 'ish your more likely to be watching telly with your feet up after a hard days graft or down the 'pub' sinking pints than doing exercise . I tend to go for a 'bike run' after tea to work it off and try to refrain from any food intake after that.

[Butcher]

Best not to eat after about six pm as anything taken after that can be stored as 'fat'.

There's no evidence that late meals adversely affects fat loss or causes fat gain.

Here's a few selected studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475137 - shows people who ate a carb rich meal late lost more weight.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3508745 - studied eating meals at 10 am vs 6 pm and showed no difference in weight loss either way.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040548 - more fat loss, as opposed to muscle loss, in women when they ate in the evening rather than the morning.

Eat when you're hungry, and try to space your meals throughout the day (helps with hunger sensation).

[Rave]

Personally I think that this idea of eating little and often is not a good one- it leads to a contant high level of insulin in your body which leads to insulin insensitivity.

I'm not fat. Since I started lifting weights I've managed to get up from under 12 stone at 5'11 to a bit over 13 stone. I almost never eat breakfast; I don't snack, and I generally have two large meals a day (and a fair amount of booze most days, if I'm honest). I don't have a six pack that'll make the cover of Men's Health but my bodyfat % must be under 15% and I can see my abs quite easily. And I can easily squat or deadlift twice my own bodyweight.

It's not all rosy of course- I finally got the results of a blood test I had done about 18 months ago recently (when I went back to the docs to get some vaccinations for my trip to Africa) and apparently my cholesterol was 5.5 (healthy range 3-5 apparently) and of course the boozing means my liver enzymes were elevated (though not in the imminent failure range). TBH if I don't stop boozing and smoking I do think I'll be at risk of a heart attack before I'm 60. But I plan on quitting my job (which I dislike) in the next couple of years to move out of London and live life at a slower pace with more time for excercise and a lot less stress.

But the fact remains- I'm not fat, and I got a compliment from one of my wife's friends last week on my physique. I don't eat particularly healthy food, I just eat normal food twice a day rather than eating over a 14 hour period from dawn till dusk. The conventional wisdom is that you should never skip breakfast, and I used to feel guilty about it- but I'd rather have an extra 20 minutes in bed than get up early enough to eat something. I've not eaten breakfast regularly for probably 10+ years now. When I'm on an all-inclusive holiday I sometimes get up to have breakfast if I'm not too hungover, but only because I really like eggs and bacon. If I've started work at 4.30am then a Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin and a hash brown at 10am counts as lunch IMO!

FWIW I eat very little sugar, most of my carbs are starch. Quite often my post weightlifting meal is 400g of Sainsbury's basics beef mince fried up with three slices of Lidl low fat burger cheese on top- no carbs at all! I buy the low fat burger cheese not because I dislike fat but because it contains more protein weight for weight.

I daresay this post reads as being a little unfocused thanks to this evening's wine intake. What I'm trying to say I guess is that the conventional wisdom- I.E. eat small portions of 'healthy' food (low fat etc.) regularly, avoid animal fats, never skip breakfast etc. etc. is IMO entirely wrong. I don't go so far as these 'Paleo Diet' zealots, but I do think that our minds and our society have evolved far far quicker from being cavemen to where we are now than our genome could possibly have. So eating like a caveman would have- stuffing his/her face with whatever they could get, on an irregular basis- is probably better than feeding ourselves every two hours on a strict regimen.

There's one other thing to add- which is that only eating 2 or at most 3 times a day requires you to be able to tolerate being hungry. I got used to it when I went to university- without my mum (or my school) plonking food in front of me 3 times a day, and access to bags of crisps etc. when I wanted them, coupled with the restrained state of my finances, and my own incredible laziness, I got used to only eating a couple of times a day. And I seem to remember that there were times when I was hungry to the extent that it was uncomfortable- just not uncomfortable enought to stop playing Bust-A-Move 2 and get up and fix myself something to eat. After a while you get used to it. I can't remember the last time I was so hungry that it intruded on my thoughts to a noticeable degree. Which is probably why I don't make particularly stellar progress with my powerlifting.

[Butcher]

Personally I think that this idea of eating little and often is not a good one- it leads to a contant high level of insulin in your body which leads to insulin insensitivity.

Insulin insensitivity is generally correlated with high levels of fasting insulin rather than overall levels of insulin. Insulin levels tend to fall back to fasting levels within about an hour of a meal, even people doing the 6 meals a day thing have 2-3 hours between meals so their insulin levels are not continually elevated. Also smaller more frequent meals cause a lower spike in insulin anyway so the overall effect is that average insulin is similar with either pattern of eating.

The biggest risk factor for insulin insensitivity seems to be eating sugar, probably due to the way fructose interacts with the insulin system. Eating starchy or glucose rich foods causes a very different insulin response.

Personally I don't think the number of meals makes much difference to fat loss or muscle gain speed; your body is very good at adapting to different eating schedules. Eating a few larger meals is probably what we're evolved for though as that would be the typical hunter-gatherer pattern of meals. FWIW I eat 3 meals a day with a couple of snacks, and I'm not fat in the least - 6 foot and just over 11 stone. But I also eat very little sugar - my entire sugar intake is via milk and fruit.

[Goozeman]

As someone who was in your position a year ago, DO NOT PUT THE WEIGHT BACK ON, christ it sucks so much to have to lose it again. Just keep going, be patient and reap the rewards

[merdat]

Was a a 'barbie' at the weekend and had a couple of big beef burgers and some salad. Now there were three types of salad all made up from 'slimmers world receipes so quite healthy. There was sunshine salad made with pineapple, rice salad plus a mixed salad. Got a nice surprise yesterday when 'host' appeared with the 'left overs' so no cooking for me for a couple of days.

[phinix]

I have slowly been losing weight since last November, originally started on 98 Kilos I am now down to 85 Kilos, however it feels like it is taking forever. ...

Just one comment on your weight loss so far - WELL DONE MATE!
13kg is a lot of weight! I understand that now, being pretty close to your perfect weight it will be hard to lose even a pound, but I can tell you that losing 13kg is a lot for many people! (including me)
..and looking on your daily menu - I wouldn't be able to keep it for a month and you did it for so many months! Well done and keep it up man!

[Harrybizzle]

My biggest piece of advice would be that to remember - "Muscle burns fat for fuel." Meaning that your cardio doesn't help you burn any extra calories when you stop, but if you build some muscle, you will be burning more calories at rest than you are now.

If you are generally an untrained individual (i.e. have little or no experience with resistance exercises - weight training, in other words), the fastest possible way to lose fat (not necessarily weight, as muscle weighs more) it to start building some muscle.

Big, compound exercises, which train lots of muscles at the same time are great - squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, powercleans, chin ups.

[Butcher]

My biggest piece of advice would be that to remember - "Muscle burns fat for fuel." Meaning that your cardio doesn't help you burn any extra calories when you stop, but if you build some muscle, you will be burning more calories at rest than you are now.

If you are generally an untrained individual (i.e. have little or no experience with resistance exercises - weight training, in other words), the fastest possible way to lose fat (not necessarily weight, as muscle weighs more) it to start building some muscle.

Big, compound exercises, which train lots of muscles at the same time are great - squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, powercleans, chin ups.

The fastest possible way to lose fat is to eat less - muscle takes a long time to build whereas you can lose fat very quickly by adjusting diet. It's much quicker and easier to eat less and lose weight than try to burn it off, with any form of exercise. A generally untrained individual isn't going to be able to do most of your suggested exercises in any event.

Weight loss is 80% nutrition, 20% exercise.

The main reason to do exercise is it's good for your heart, and cardio is particularly good for that. Also almost all the calories burned from doing exercise are while actually doing the exercise, and it's a lot easier to do lots of cardio than lots of weights.

That said, the best plan is to do both - cardio for fitness and health reasons, weights so that you look good and strengthen your muscles (which reduces the chance of injury in general).

[rhondagraymond]

I think you need to change your diet a little bit. A low carb, high protein diet should go a long way in helping you lose weight. I had 30 pounds to lose, and here are some of the weight loss secrets that helped me burn the fat. Include non-starchy veggies to your diet along with some kind of meat. Eat veggies (in the form of stir-fries, soups or salads) such as: Artichoke (globe), asparagus, aubergine, beetroot, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery/celeriac, chicory, courgette, cucumber, fennel, French beans, kohlrabi, lamb's lettuce, leek, lettuce, mushrooms, onion, palm hearts, peppers, pumpkin, radish, rhubarb, soya bean sprouts, spinach and tomato along with meat or protein-rich foods such as: Chicken, turkey, quail, beefsteak, rabbit, game, fish (bass, cod, halibut, herring, mackerel, salmon, tuna, swordfish etc) and other seafood (squid, clams, crab, lobster, shrimp, scallops, oysters, eggs, Greek yoghurt, skimmed milk, tofu and low-fat cottage cheese. If you include these food items to all your