Comments on: Weight Loss Wednesday: Week 5

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:21:58 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I just wonder of all pictures that you could imagine to post here, why is it the lion? Anyways, hope to see a picture of you cause it seems that you’re too worried of your figure(body) or your weight to be exact. If you want to loss weight, you should at least be serious with it. I mean, make a determination on the things that you really want to do for you to achieve things that you want.

I will share you this one:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/29/from-geek-to-freak-how-i-gained-34-lbs-of-muscle-in-4-weeks/

This is a blog about gaining 34 lbs of muscles in 4 weeks, and loosing fats and calories at the same time. This is about self-discipline.

Hope you will like it! And looking forward for follow up post for this. (Put your picture next time):-)

Thanks and more power to you!

Cassandra

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:01:59 +0000

Cheating once a week would be alright, assuming that you stick to a strict regimen during the weeks you’re on diet. This link could help you out perhaps:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/

I don’t know if it will work for you but I hope you find it interesting and helpful. The idea of a Sunday free-for-all at any restaurant of my choosing sounds attractive to me.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:49:03 +0000

For the record, I wouldn’t say the Friday beer led to the pizza ‘n beer on Sunday, and both were more or less factored into the diet; if not with all the anal number-crunching one might hope for. While I normally try to consume around 800 or 900 calories per day, on Friday I went up to about 1500 including the beer; on Sunday I didn’t eat anything all day except the pizza and beer (yeah, I know) and while I didn’t bother to tabulate the caloric content, I am pretty sure it was still less than my approximate BMR of ~2000 calories. I figure, if I’m around 800-900 most days, and never over 2000, I should be alright, but we’ll see! In any case, I don’t plan to have another pizza-n-beer day. It was not exactly spontaneous–I’d been thinking about it all day Saturday and finally decided to go for it, so it’s not like I had any guilt. My rules for cheating (which I did break a *little* over the weekend) are more or less:

1) Plan it in advance.
2) Factor it in as much as possible.
3) Stay as far away from 2000 calories and 100 carbs as possible.
4) Space it out to about once a week, no more than twice.

Sounds reasonable to me.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:21:28 +0000

Been in your shoes before…Software developer and my peak was 245, miserable in the morning, miserable in the afternoon and miserable in the evening, lol… Decided it was time to do something about it and 1 yr later I’m now at 175. Those feelings of hunger are not a good sign for long term weight loss and you shouldn’t have them. I suggest protein intake. Get yourself a 5lb tub of protein and everytime u feel the hunger urge (exception of meal time) take a protein shake. Protein leaves you feeling full and keeps you from shedding muscle weight (which drives metabolism and ultimately burns fat). Also, a cheat meal is good for you once a week (maybe not Pizza every week) and if your wanting to trim the storage tank (belly) the beer has to become an occasional beverage of choice. :-) Once you start seeing major progress and feeling much better, those cheat meals will become less appealing. I’d be willing to share what i ate with you to lose the pounds if your interested. Just drop me an email and congrats on the weight u lost this week.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:12:44 +0000

I think what Callous said is actually a good idea. If you factor in a cheat food into your daily or weekly diet, you know how those calories are impacting your total caloric intake. Also, if you know you’re going to have that food or drink, you’ll look forward to it and appreciate it.

One thing I noticed about myself when I was losing weight (I went from 215 to a now steady 170 over about 3 years) is that when I started making progress I would get scared of eating. I wanted a pizza, would think and obsess about a pizza, but know I shouldn’t have it. Then I would give in, eat, and feel really guilty about it afterwards. One pizza will not totally derail your diet, if you’re aware of it. If you don’t count those calories and make sure you’re sticking to a schedule all the other days, you’ll soon find the train coming off the tracks.

I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Everybody needs a cheat meal otherwise you’ll go nuts. But don’t get too out of hand. A few beers was o.k., then it lead to a pizza and beers, what’s next?

One other thing, always go with the thin crust.

By: Callous

Callous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:18:57 +0000

I did what you did, and never once “cheated”. -50 lbs, three years later, still -45.

I felt it was easier to not be tempted, and when I did have a little taste of something “bad” – like a single potato chip – it was incredibly good. But I didn’t need to have more. And I was concerned I would enter into a trade-off deal with myself “Well, I’ll just have a beer today, and not have something tomorrow.” Screw that, I knew I’d pass out if I didn’t eat what I needed to eat that next day.

Now, having said that, I did have a medium-sized Slurpee factored into my calorie plan. Every. Single. Day. Oh yeah, baby. Drove people nuts.

Everyone I know who allows cheating has fallen off the diet. But they’re probably just weak-willed anyway. After all, they needed to cheat.

And you’re right on the money with the “want to eat” vs. “hungry” feeling.

By: tec

tec — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:31:22 +0000

I suggest you give yourself one day (or maybe half a day) a week for cheating. In that time, you eat/drink whatever you want, provided you don’t consume it in ridiculous portions. It shouldn’t be too much of a burden on your diet, and will lessen the burden on your mind/taste buds considerably.