Posted by Deneb on January 13, 2013, at 20:21:23
In reply to Re: holiday pounds...anybody else? » SLS, posted by Dinah on January 13, 2013, at 14:23:31
I've discovered that exercise does nothing for me in terms of weight loss, and in fact, it does the complete opposite, it makes me gain weight. The more intense my exercise is, the more weight I gain. I'm sure now that it is mostly muscle, but it might also be fat because I did not notice any considerable "slimming" in my waistline, which is the first to show weight loss.
The problem is, (and there is a lot of research to back this up), exercise doesn't work for weight loss in and of itself for the majority of people. People conpensate energy wise in very subtle ways. Our bodies are very good at preventing weight loss. Sometime has simple as less fidgeting or more fidgeting can maintain our weight.
For me I think I was fidgeting less on my heavy exercise days and also eating more calories, not necessarily more food, but I think I tended (on average) to choose things with more calories and it made a big difference in negating the effects of my exercise.
The only thing that has every worked for me for weight loss is very OCD type no fail calorie counting of every single morsel of food I ate. If you think you can disregard that little "sample" you tried at the grocery store, you're wrong lol. Depending on what that tiny sampe was, 2 or 3 can add up to maybe a couple of hundred calories and if you eat normally the rest of the day, over time that can add up to a lot of weight gain.
Most people way underestimate the amount of calories they are consuming. They might read, oh, 0.75 cup of rice is about 300 calories, and think that means I just ate 300 calories for my stir fry, but if they actually measure it out, i can almost gaurantee that a plate of stir fry is way more than one cup of rice.
Actually weighing and measuring your food is *crucial* for calorie counting, at least for the first couple of months to learn how much a serving *really* is, then repeat frequently because you're going to slowly overestimate after not measuring all the time.
Also, unless that stir fry was made with just plain nothing added steam rice, it's going to have a lot more calories in it than for just "rice". Oil adds an amazing amount of calories to food. I'm not saying that low fat is good (I don't think it is), but just be aware that most foods have way more calories than even the calorie counts for that specific food.
Fast food places are guilty of this all the time. I can pretty much guarantee that my "Subway artist" puts way more sauce on my sub than what is specified in the calorie counts for the sauce.
When in doubt, always overestimate the amount of calories in a food. When you have absolutely no idea what the count is, assume the worst lol.
When I first start calorie counting it's always very hard to not be hungry. I'm just used to eating so much. But, the good thing is my body gets used to it pretty quickly and soon I get full sooner and don't want to eat as much. I'm also satisfied with way less food.
I think it's important to not totally shun fats when calorie counting. If I eat a huge salad with no fat dressing for example, I'm stuffed for an hour, then I've ravenously hungry again. It has zero staying power with me.
But if I eat something with protein and fat, I'm full for hours, at least 4.
Losing weight and keeping it off is super hard. I haven't been successful yet. I wonder if things would be better if I had never tried to lose weight in the first place. But now I'm at a place where i'm clearly too fat so I need to lose some.
Oh, i read that this app called My Fitness Pal is very highly rated for weight loss. It's free. Recording what I ate everyday was key in calorie counting.
Wow, sorry for the long rambling post lol.
I've had a lot of experience with diets. lol
poster:Deneb
thread:1034999
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20130101/msgs/1035421.html