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bumble
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08 Dec 2013, 6:27 am

Ok, I go to the gym regularly, life weights, do cardio, swim, do yoga at home and dance. I eat a paleo influenced diet so nothing processed, no boxed foods, no additives, preservatives etc. I do occasionally treat myself to a slice of fridge cake though.

However I am not losing weight and am stuck at 16 stones.

This means I am unable to date as the only men I attract are obese men who don't exercise, dont care about their health and eat lots of nasty junk. I am not compatible with these types due to my lifestyle choices and my dislike of chemicals and junk foods and my preference for being physically active (I am a fidget who struggles to sit around doing nothing unless I am mentally occupied and even then I have to get up and walk around now and then otherwise all my joints go stiff and I get irritable. I actually prefer to be active where possible so sitting around doing nothing and eating crap bores the god damned hell out of me!)

I only sit around doing nothing when I feel poorly.

I like horse riding and tennis and weight lifting and hiking and dancing and yoga and beach combing.

I can get men who offer to meet up but they smoke or sit around eating yacky food. They want to cook for me, I don't want to eat what they cook as its processed and full of nasty stuff.

How can I get my body fat to reduce so that I can attract someone who is more active and more fun to be with as a result?

I desperately need to get this weight off or I will be alone forever. I can't be with someone who sits around all day eating horrid stuff and whom does not do anything else. That is a living hell of a life.

i want to be out at museums, at the theater, looking for fossils along the cost, hiking, taking photographs, traveling around. I have no problems with my energy levels despite my weight, the problem is that people make assumptions about my me based on appearance. So i need the wieght to move. An paleo related weight loss tips?

I can't go very low carb as I tend to feel unwell after workouts without some carb to keep me going (ie bowl of porridge oats...not strictly paleo but not a gluten grain either), especially after spending time on the treadmill.

I will also eat fruit.

Am I still eating too many carbohydrates?



Kurgan
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08 Dec 2013, 9:03 am

Keep in mind that there's a difference between low carb and no carb diets. Eat a couple of hundred grams of vegetables everyday (they will provide you with the carbohydrates you need), some fruit after each workout and be sure to get enough protein and unsaturated fats. Also, log your daily caloric intake and find your basal metabolic rate. If your basal metabolic rate + your energy consumption everyday is lower than your intake, you'll lose weight. :) At 16 stone, your BMR is 2100 calories. In any case, do not go below 1500 calories, as this will generally cause you to become fatigued, which in turn will lead to a lack of motivation.

Good luck.



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08 Dec 2013, 12:40 pm

You should stop eating the oats - they contain gluten. All oats contain gluten, no ifs or buts; there are some marketing claims made that they don't but they are simply lies made possible by the general public's ignorance of nutritional science. Fat made from gluten for a gluten intolerant person will never shift with exercise. Gluten has to be out of the equation altogether.

I don't know if you know but a good general tip is fruit juices are terrible for your weight. They are all the sugar of a fruit separated from the fibre which means your body can't digest It properly. If you drink them switch to smoothies but don't have more than one glass a day.



bumble
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09 Dec 2013, 4:02 am

I am beginning to think the paleo diet is bollocks.

It simply does not work for weightloss. Neither does weight lifting...I may see the personal trainer and ask them to do me a routine that focuses on fat burning at this time. My body fat percentage is not reducing...and my clothing size is not changing either. I can't even be bothered to go into the gym this morning as it doesn't work...

It doesn't work for weight loss
It doesn't work for finding friends.

I'd be better off staying home and doing aerobics in the front room or dancing on and off all day...that used to burn more fat.

And the paleo diet...I am on and off it like a yo yo as it's impossible to maintain. When I am out all day it is hard to find food to eat that does not contain gluten. I am not a cooking type gal...I really hate spending huge amounts of time in my kitchen preparing food. Im a heat it up and eat it type person. Cooking bores me as did playing with dolls when I was growing up. I know society thinks I should like these things because I have a vagina but I just don't.

Right now I want the diet and exercise plan that worked...I have lost weight before but with western recommended healthy eating guidelines and aerobic exercise and yoga (not weights). I put the weight back on because I got sick due to medication side effects and returning to smoking (something I have since quit). But its a pain as I can't eat out often due to having to calorie count everything and weigh everything. It was easier to get a prepacked sandwich whilst I was out and about though...it was usually calorie counted for me.

Months of effort..gym, swimming, cardio on the treadmill, the paleo diet, hiking/walking, being physically active in a more general way and nothing....no results.

Maybe I should fat burn first...and leave the weights alone until I have lost sufficient body fat. They don't seem to be helping and I seem to be wasting my time with them.

I was better off with dance aerobics and yoga.

Unless my metabolism has changed since then...



bumble
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09 Dec 2013, 4:03 am

Winner wrote:
You should stop eating the oats - they contain gluten. All oats contain gluten, no ifs or buts; there are some marketing claims made that they don't but they are simply lies made possible by the general public's ignorance of nutritional science. Fat made from gluten for a gluten intolerant person will never shift with exercise. Gluten has to be out of the equation altogether.

I don't know if you know but a good general tip is fruit juices are terrible for your weight. They are all the sugar of a fruit separated from the fibre which means your body can't digest It properly. If you drink them switch to smoothies but don't have more than one glass a day.


I avoid fruit juices as they give me acid gut. I do drink smoothies now and again.



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09 Dec 2013, 4:42 am

I know it's hard because I have been in a similar position. I never took medication for long so I am more fortunate than you there but I did put on a lot of weight once.

Though I hated it I had to cut out all gluten. You know it is good for you but you are not keeping it up because of the difficulty of getting food while you're out.

Try to reach a compromise. You hate cooking but you could make something easy. Boil a massive amount of potatoes in the morning. Take them in a lunchbox and then you can eat whenever you need energy.

Carry seeds with you too - sunflower seeds, poppy seeds etc. And nuts. A few of them are a good source of energy. They are both better than relying on fruit which you should treat as a dessert. Fruit is high in sugar so it is meant to be eaten in moderation, usually after a meal.



bumble
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09 Dec 2013, 12:59 pm

It is not a good idea for me to eat whenever I am hungry. I am often starving hungry and cannot stop eating. If I over do the carbs I feel just as ill as if I have not had enough.

With not enough carbs I feel spacy, angry, belligerent, aggressive and bad tempered as well as dizzy. I also get a headache and blurry vision, especially after exercise.

With too many carbs I sweat, even when sitting still, have to keep peeing all the time, feel dizzy, drowsy and tend to keep falling asleep (even in public..i have nodded off a few times on the bus this week). I also keep getting hot flashes.

I cannot seem to get the balance right so I may have to go back to having set meal times with small snacks in between with a maximum number of calories for each meal (balanced with protein, carb and veg).

If I eat when I want to I will over eat, as I often feel ravenous as though I have not eaten in a week.



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09 Dec 2013, 2:16 pm

The way you describe being dizzy, drowsy, needing to go to sleep, that sounds like a definite case of salicylate sensitivity.

Check it out:

http://salicylatesensitivity.com/info3/

What you wrote about how you feel are some classic symptoms: belligerence and aggression (without you wanting it to be that way, it just comes naturally), feeling spacy and getting headaches.

I suffered the same. You probably have the same rare hormonal imbalance I have.

You probably will not believe me but I am only trying to help you. If someone would have told me all this ten years ago I might not have dropped out of school and lost all my friends. Make a change before it's too late!

I won't give you any more advice now because I am probably coming across as too pushy. I will get accused of being obsessive and of advertising my personal interests by someone soon. So take or leave my advice, it's your call.



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09 Dec 2013, 11:17 pm

Kurgan wrote:
Keep in mind that there's a difference between low carb and no carb diets. Eat a couple of hundred grams of vegetables everyday (they will provide you with the carbohydrates you need), some fruit after each workout and be sure to get enough protein and unsaturated fats. Also, log your daily caloric intake and find your basal metabolic rate. If your basal metabolic rate + your energy consumption everyday is lower than your intake, you'll lose weight. :) At 16 stone, your BMR is 2100 calories. In any case, do not go below 1500 calories, as this will generally cause you to become fatigued, which in turn will lead to a lack of motivation.

Good luck.


Wait. Isn't this the other way around? Your caloric intake needs to be lower than your basal metabolic rate + energy consumption?

Anyway, you are probably consuming more calories than you think. Counting calories was the only way I could lose weight.
I used Myfitnesspal app to keep track of what I ate. If you don't have a smartphone, you can used it on your computer as well.
Also it might take a while to start seeing the results so even if you don't lose weight right away, don't be discouraged.

Good luck.



stompinmad
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10 Dec 2013, 7:14 am

+1 for Myfitnesspal

It has been helpful for me. I don't think it's necessary to follow their program but it makes it easy to see how many calories you are consuming. You might be surprised at how many excess carbs or fats you might be eating. I was over the top on carbs and fats and once I reduced those I dropped about 13 lbs.



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10 Dec 2013, 7:37 am

In general blindly following a diet, is nonsense. People are different, have different lifestyles, different personalities, different metabolism, ...What works for one, can be totally crap for someone else.

A general good thing is always having a food diary, in which you write anything. Even including the small christmas cookie, that a coworker offered you, when you passed his desk. :) And then make yourself aware of the calories of the food you eat.

Many people are riddling, about their weight, but are actually surprised how very small portions actually can lead to them eating 1/4 of their daily calorie income. So eating a small piece of cake as a snack between breakfast and lunch, having some creme coffee with sugar in the afternoon and a typical Snickers chocolate bar as a snack after lunch, and thats easily about 500 calories, which is already an full additional meal.

That does not mean, that you should neverever eat such stuff again, but you should make yourself aware what you eat, and how much calories the stuff you eat have. So you can easily avoid, all kind of hidden calories, that you were not aware yourself and might be easy to undo/exchange.

And simply watch yourself and your eating behavior. Try to find out, when you get "eating flashs". For some people eating sugar/carbohydrates causes "eating flashs", for some not. For some artificial sweeteners cause that, so eating/drinking light stuff, causes them in the opposite to eat even more afterwards. For some people it is easy to simply cancel a dinner, for others, out of their daily routine this is not possible, or causes them to eat tons of junk food before sleeping instead. Some people do easier with a small number of meals (2-3 a day) without eating anything between, others get "food-flashes" by doing so.

The general guideline about loosing weight is too increase your calorie output (which does not mean 2 hours hardcore training each day, but can as well be a walk after dinner, some exercising and stretching before television ^^) and reducing your calorie input a bit, best by avoiding all kind of hidden calories, that you might not have been aware of. (As example exchanging a cake/muffin/donut afternoon snack with some cucumber and carrots, are easily about 200 calories to be reduced and affects actually only a little snackmeal of your day.)

Just try different stuff, and see what actually really works for you. There are no ultimate diet secrest, simply because everyone is else. So actually that high protein/fat and no carbs diet, as example do work for many people, but are simply a horror for me. If I eat to much flesh, I simply feel sick, and too much fat lets me puke and causes my stomache to feel cranky. Additional that I simply get hungrier and hungrier for some good stuff like potatoes/corn/lentils ... and so get hunger flashs.

Experience yourself, what works for you. :) And find yourself healthy, low calories stuff, so that you still can have some "foodrewards" from now and then. As example I love strawberries or melon. :)



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10 Dec 2013, 9:07 am

Yuzu wrote:
Kurgan wrote:
Keep in mind that there's a difference between low carb and no carb diets. Eat a couple of hundred grams of vegetables everyday (they will provide you with the carbohydrates you need), some fruit after each workout and be sure to get enough protein and unsaturated fats. Also, log your daily caloric intake and find your basal metabolic rate. If your basal metabolic rate + your energy consumption everyday is lower than your intake, you'll lose weight. :) At 16 stone, your BMR is 2100 calories. In any case, do not go below 1500 calories, as this will generally cause you to become fatigued, which in turn will lead to a lack of motivation.

Good luck.


Wait. Isn't this the other way around? Your caloric intake needs to be lower than your basal metabolic rate + energy consumption?

Anyway, you are probably consuming more calories than you think. Counting calories was the only way I could lose weight.
I used Myfitnesspal app to keep track of what I ate. If you don't have a smartphone, you can used it on your computer as well.
Also it might take a while to start seeing the results so even if you don't lose weight right away, don't be discouraged.

Good luck.


What I meant was that if what you burn everyday is lower than you BMR and activity level, you'll lose weight. :)



Janissy
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10 Dec 2013, 10:04 am

Kurgan wrote:
Yuzu wrote:
Kurgan wrote:
Keep in mind that there's a difference between low carb and no carb diets. Eat a couple of hundred grams of vegetables everyday (they will provide you with the carbohydrates you need), some fruit after each workout and be sure to get enough protein and unsaturated fats. Also, log your daily caloric intake and find your basal metabolic rate. If your basal metabolic rate + your energy consumption everyday is lower than your intake, you'll lose weight. :) At 16 stone, your BMR is 2100 calories. In any case, do not go below 1500 calories, as this will generally cause you to become fatigued, which in turn will lead to a lack of motivation.

Good luck.


Wait. Isn't this the other way around? Your caloric intake needs to be lower than your basal metabolic rate + energy consumption?

Anyway, you are probably consuming more calories than you think. Counting calories was the only way I could lose weight.
I used Myfitnesspal app to keep track of what I ate. If you don't have a smartphone, you can used it on your computer as well.
Also it might take a while to start seeing the results so even if you don't lose weight right away, don't be discouraged.

Good luck.


What I meant was that if what you burn everyday is lower than you BMR and activity level, you'll lose weight. :)


If you replace the word "burn" with the word "eat", this sentence makes sense. Otherwise it doesn't. "What you burn" is just an informal way of saying "your BMR plus activity level".

Back to the OP: you've described quite a bit of exercise with a good balance of both aerobic and weight using activity. So it's time to tweak the food. Perhaps adding in non-grain carbs such as potatoes and starchy vegetables but decreasing overall quantity/calories. Or maybe stretch out the length of time between eating (that has worked well for me but isn't for everyone).

How do you feel about stews? They can be made in bulk in a crockpot (which is truly minimal cooking- just add stuff and leave it alone) and frozen for heat-and-eat convenience.



1000Knives
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10 Dec 2013, 12:09 pm

bumble wrote:
I am beginning to think the paleo diet is bollocks.

It simply does not work for weightloss. Neither does weight lifting...I may see the personal trainer and ask them to do me a routine that focuses on fat burning at this time. My body fat percentage is not reducing...and my clothing size is not changing either. I can't even be bothered to go into the gym this morning as it doesn't work...

It doesn't work for weight loss

It doesn't work for finding friends.

I'd be better off staying home and doing aerobics in the front room or dancing on and off all day...that used to burn more fat.

And the paleo diet...I am on and off it like a yo yo as it's impossible to maintain. When I am out all day it is hard to find food to eat that does not contain gluten. I am not a cooking type gal...I really hate spending huge amounts of time in my kitchen preparing food. Im a heat it up and eat it type person. Cooking bores me as did playing with dolls when I was growing up. I know society thinks I should like these things because I have a vagina but I just don't.

Right now I want the diet and exercise plan that worked...I have lost weight before but with western recommended healthy eating guidelines and aerobic exercise and yoga (not weights). I put the weight back on because I got sick due to medication side effects and returning to smoking (something I have since quit). But its a pain as I can't eat out often due to having to calorie count everything and weigh everything. It was easier to get a prepacked sandwich whilst I was out and about though...it was usually calorie counted for me.

Months of effort..gym, swimming, cardio on the treadmill, the paleo diet, hiking/walking, being physically active in a more general way and nothing....no results.

Maybe I should fat burn first...and leave the weights alone until I have lost sufficient body fat. They don't seem to be helping and I seem to be wasting my time with them.

I was better off with dance aerobics and yoga.

Unless my metabolism has changed since then...


Yep, pretty much. Lifting will give you muscle and strength and increase athleticism, but it won't really burn fat. It can't really. Lifting weights is anaerobic, so all it does is burn muscle glycogen up, which is made from glucose, but conversion of fat to glucose directly is very rare and some people think it's basically impossible in humans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis And yeah, you'll get enhanced metabolism and whatnot, so I think lifting does give you some leeway in your diet compared to not lifting, but yeah. The other problem I personally have with lifting is doing any sort of powerlifting program raises my appetite, and much of the weight gained is muscle, but still some is fat. I mean I still lift and like it, but it's not the be all end all to fat loss the interwebs makes it out to be.

As far as paleo goes, yeah it's BS. If you're sedentary then maybe it'll work. But if you're active, you need carbs, and gobs of them. If you're working out 1-3 hours a day (my normal workload) you need a lot of carbs. Actual sports nutritionists, working for small little organizations like the IOC and the NCAA recommend usually 5-9g carbs per kilo of bodyweight. Even at 5 (or 4 if you want) the number is astronomical compared to Mark Sisson saying you'll blow your pancreas up by eating over 120g a day or whatever. Even on huge calorie deficits I still get over 400g carbs a day now on most days, energy is better, workouts better, etc.

As far as paleo, well, numerous problems with it. Fat does in fact make you fat. Yes, you can get fat from carbs, but it's much less likely. The only thing carbs can do is spike insulin to store nutrients, which if you include a lot of fat in your diet, will make the fat get stored in your fat cells. Simple sugars are bad to an extent, in that after a certain amount they'll be converted to triglycerides in the liver, so don't eat 30 Bananas a day or drink entirely soda for your diet or anything like that, it's still better to have complex carbs/starches. The specific process for carbs being converted to fat is called de novo lipogenesis, and it's very rare in humans. You'd need to continually eat like 700g of carbs for it to happen.

That said, don't cut fat out entirely, just find the personal level where it's OK for you. Cutting it out will make you irritable/etc. An NCAA sports nutrition article I read said after fat gets to be less than 20% calories in your diet is where you start losing performance. That seems about accurate. A good sorta simple test is your hair and skin. If it gets oily, too much fat, if it's dry, too little. This is also dependent upon the types of fats you eat, too, and admittedly it's not scientific, but it's what I notice.

So in your case, it depends. If you want to keep lifting, you'll necessarily have to keep calories sorta high to have good performance lifting. If you do cardio by itself, you'll be able to eat less calories because it'll utilize fat due to it being aerobic exercise. HOWEVER, long term doing that, you know, just not eating anything and doing gobs of cardio, could potentially mess you up. Plenty of stories of people, especially women, who eat like 700 calories a day and spend hours a day doing cardio because their metabolism is trashed. Admittedly, this is how I lost a ton of weight initially (I'm a guy) just did gobs of cardio and didn't eat unless I felt really really hungry, no calorie counting/etc, just didn't eat much. Now (2 years later) I'm at the same weight where I got down to (180s) but I look a lot better and am noticeably skinnier in pictures compared to the "old" cardio only 180, so lifting does help in that end.

So a safer thing to do, despite how unlame and unpaleo and the fact it requires a decent amount of organization, use myfitnesspal or some sort of calorie tracker. Use the standard 55/30/15 macro, and maybe adjust fat to something lower, like 25 or 20 depending on how you feel, or maybe not, I dunno. It'll work assuming you actually stick to it. Deficit is up to you. Some people say start low (500 cal deficit) and then keep putting calories down when you stall out, some people say the opposite. I've generally done the opposite, or run a different deficit, etc. Either way, calorie deficit is pretty much always needed for weight loss.

Any other questions ask away. Ex-paleo, high meat/fat dieter here, wishing to officially renounce such dietary ideas.



1000Knives
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10 Dec 2013, 5:32 pm

Schneekugel wrote:

Many people are riddling, about their weight, but are actually surprised how very small portions actually can lead to them eating 1/4 of their daily calorie income. So eating a small piece of cake as a snack between breakfast and lunch, having some creme coffee with sugar in the afternoon and a typical Snickers chocolate bar as a snack after lunch, and thats easily about 500 calories, which is already an full additional meal.

That does not mean, that you should neverever eat such stuff again, but you should make yourself aware what you eat, and how much calories the stuff you eat have. So you can easily avoid, all kind of hidden calories, that you were not aware yourself and might be easy to undo/exchange.

And simply watch yourself and your eating behavior. Try to find out, when you get "eating flashs". For some people eating sugar/carbohydrates causes "eating flashs", for some not. For some artificial sweeteners cause that, so eating/drinking light stuff, causes them in the opposite to eat even more afterwards. For some people it is easy to simply cancel a dinner, for others, out of their daily routine this is not possible, or causes them to eat tons of junk food before sleeping instead. Some people do easier with a small number of meals (2-3 a day) without eating anything between, others get "food-flashes" by doing so.
)


I for one think this is somewhat of a psychological issue. A lot of fat people I know actually don't eat all that much, at actual meals. Just the "snacks" kill them. For example, say you load up a plate with pasta and some sauce. That's 450 calories, let's say (depending on the sauce.) Now, by comparison, have a Snicker bar and a cookie or a soda, then bam, same calories. I think the reason why people don't just eat, say, a plate of pasta or something when they're hungry is putting aside convenience (and this is huge, so I won't deny it) is that having a plate of food looks like you're eating a ton of food. So to other people that see you eat it, you look like a glutton. You look like you're eating tons of food, because the amount of room it takes up on a plate, you generally sitting down and eating it, etc.

I think especially among women, there's sort of a psychological block in their mind from eating a lot of food. Men I don't think it's quite as prevalent, but it's still there to some extent. The old time ideals of women not eating lots of food, especially at meals/socially with other people, I think exacerbate it. It's spread to men, but some men (myself) don't really care about looking like gluttons out in public eating gobs of food at a time. My sister for example, for her school lunch, is packing I think some tortilla chips and guacamole. That's it. It's 200 calories. It's not really a quality 200 calories, either. And definitely not a satiating 200 calories. So she complains how she goes over on myfitnesspal by 1000 calories. But then in the same vein says that lunch is satiating. Uh, no, it's not satiating, if it was satiating you wouldn't feel the need to eat 1000 calories extra for the day after said lunch, because your stomach would be full.

A lot of times people's dietary problems come because they don't eat a lot of actual food, don't have actual meals that are satiating, and then in a land of prevalent snack food they just "snack" themselves to death. On the same vein, it is very possible to eat "clean" and still get fat from going over in calories and fats, but I'd say it's more rare than the former of just not eating enough actual food at meals.



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10 Dec 2013, 8:55 pm

bumble wrote:
I desperately need to get this weight off or I will be alone forever.


Out of everything you posted, this is what stood out to me the most. If you figure out your BMR, track your caloric intake and make some of the other tweaks people suggest, but are still having trouble, try reframing your attitude towards what you are doing.

For me personally, the biggest enemy when it's come to weight management or loss has always been stress. (This is coming from a high-strung person who has struggled with eating disorders in various incarnations for years, so I know some things about stress and weight loss). Besides leading to emotional eating, stress or anxiety can also screw around with your hormones over time and increase your cortisol levels, making it incredibly difficult, if not impossible to lose.

Really, my advice would be to try relaxation techniques like deep breathing or guided imagery, try to get as much quality sleep as you can and make a conscious effort to be kind to yourself. Sometimes that kind of stuff can be just as helpful as portion control and exercise.