Weight loss support thread

[AtroposHeart]

I have a question for those of you who gained weight due to medication. How does that happen? What i mean is, does the medication screw up your metabolism, or cause you to retain water, or what? It seems crazy to me that a medicine that is supposed to help your mind is doing that to your body, and I'm just curious as to why that happens.

I lost about 15 pounds this year. I was a bit overweight, but now I'm down to average and want to lose another 15 because I'm not happy with how i look in a swimsuit. I never drink soda, and my job keeps me on my feet, I sometimes have to lift boxes and buckets that can weight up to 40 pounds, so I am lucky to have a non-stationary job. I admit I do pig out sometimes, but one thing that helped me was not having any snack foods around the house, so it's a lot harder to just graze when there's no easy finger foods at hand, so I now very rarely buy junk food to bring home. I do try to keep some sort of healthy snack at hand most times, like sunflower seeds or nuts.

I'm also a fairly picky eater, so I drink v8 to fulfill my vegetable serving requirement. Some of you may not like the taste (I like tomato soup so it's not an issue for me) but I find it comes in handy, I don't sip it, I just slam down a glass of it. I also recommend green tea, at least a couple of cups a day (you can use the same teabag a few times, so one teabag a day is my usual) and green tea has antioxidants and what have you. If you don't like sipping tea, just boil some water and let the green tea steep in it for several hours. The water will cool down, and you can drink this tea fast. I don't particularly enjoy the flavor of green tea but I drink it because of its benefits.

I am not sure why mood medications seem to affect your weight. I remember my doctor saying that it increased my appetite. As for green tea, I drink Milo's tea (A zero calorie version) that is very popular here in Alabama It actually has been antioxidants than green tea and I much prefer it's taste to green tea. I have it about two glasses a day with lunch and dinner. I have vanilla almond milk with my breakfeast

 

[Mourning Dove]

I have a question for those of you who gained weight due to medication. How does that happen? What i mean is, does the medication screw up your metabolism, or cause you to retain water, or what? It seems crazy to me that a medicine that is supposed to help your mind is doing that to your body, and I'm just curious as to why that happens.

For me, I think my medication (Aripiprazole/Abilify) slowed down my metabolism. I didn't eat more than before, but I was never much of an exerciser, so the subcutaneous fat layers then decided to augment themselves.

 

[The Hunter]

This probably should be in Hulkamania.

also there should be a weight gain support thread
115/5ft 10in here. (aka: severely underweight)

Jesus, I thought 140 was pushing it...

Any moron can tell you to sit on your ass and eat all day, but that's not the best call right there unless you want to give yourself diabetes. It may be a little hard to accomplish, but you need to build muscle as well as fat. Take baby steps, though. Increase the amount of protein you take in. Meat's an awesome source of this if you're severely underweight. If you don't eat meat for whatever reason, try supplements or increase your intake of beans, tofu, and other protein rich vegetables and fruits. While it's important that you increase the size of your portions or how often you eat, don't over do it. Skip out on fast food places as well. Trust me, there's a lot of slim people with heart problems. Your ideal weight at your height ranges from 170-180, but you can live at 140-160. Under 120 is definitely a problem.

I'm not really a professional, but I have some experience. In the end, though, you may just wanna talk this over with your physician.

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

SlowintheMinds - you should talk to a doctor, because being that underweight is a health problem just like being really overweight. I knew a guy who was ordered by his doctor to gain weight, so there may be some meds to help you. Other than that, Hunter gave you sage advice. You might want to read up on bodybuilders' methods to gain weight, because like Hunter said, you want to gain muscle.

As to why I gained so much weight on meds - I'm assuming it was increased appetite, no desire to do anything (I slept a lot) and my metabolism was wrecked by it, but I'll definitely ask my doctor why the meds made me gain so much weight, it might help me lose weight if I can understand that. My doctor keeps telling me to exercise more and eat fewer carbs, so that's the advice I'm getting right now.

The meds that did it were Seroquel and Invega if you care to look them up. I was on them for about 2.5 years and have been off them for about 2.5 years

 

[Niachu]

I have a question for those of you who gained weight due to medication. How does that happen? What i mean is, does the medication screw up your metabolism, or cause you to retain water, or what? It seems crazy to me that a medicine that is supposed to help your mind is doing that to your body, and I'm just curious as to why that happens.

That's a really good question. I've been taking antidepressants for nearly 10 years and while the depression itself isn't doing me any favors, the medication affects my appetite and sleep cycles. I can't break down the exact physiological reasons but it in my case it all added up: increased appetite, no motivation to exercise, too much sleep, etc. At that point it's on me to regulate my own sleep schedule and dig deep enough to go for a walk, yeah? I know how crappy I feel when I overeat (especially the bad stuff) and that's enough for me to watch my food intake.

 

[Mourning Dove]

Now it's my turn to give advice in this thread! It concerns stretch marks from weight gain, or just scars in general. Pardon me for sounding like an advertisement but...

I use this scar cream. It's seriously the holy grail of scar fading. It made my stubborn acne scars go away within a month. It also supposedly works well on all sorts of other scars too, both old and new!

 

[LM 697]

[youtube]1SUzcDUERLo[/youtube]

 

[AtroposHeart]

Question for my fabulous fatties. What is your exercise routine? Most days I don't go to the gym, so I mostly work out at home. I go on the treadmill for twenty minutes three times a day. That adds up to an hour in exercise. After each treadmill secession I do a short fitness video from youtube that is about 10 minutes or under. I try to make sure at least one of them is a weightlifting video.

My gym time is more random, and it depends on what I am in the mood for, but I usually spend four to five hours working out there. My favorite activity is just swimming laps and can go for two hours before wanting to do something else.

 

[Lady Houligan]

Now it's my turn to give advice in this thread! It concerns stretch marks from weight gain, or just scars in general. Pardon me for sounding like an advertisement but...

I use this scar cream. It's seriously the holy grail of scar fading. It made my stubborn acne scars go away within a month. It also supposedly works well on all sorts of other scars too, both old and new!

You have no idea how I appreciate this because seriously. I have so many stretch marks from this pregnancy that my stomach looks like a map of New York City was branded on there or something.

Question for my fabulous fatties. What is your exercise routine? Most days I don't go to the gym, so I mostly work out at home. I go on the treadmill for twenty minutes three times a day. That adds up to an hour in exercise. After each treadmill secession I do a short fitness video from youtube that is about 10 minutes or under. I try to make sure at least one of them is a weightlifting video.

My gym time is more random, and it depends on what I am in the mood for, but I usually spend four to five hours working out there. My favorite activity is just swimming laps and can go for two hours before wanting to do something else.

I have problem joints from various sports injuries in high school and college, so I tend to go low impact for workouts. I have a yogi whose channel I watch on Youtube for yoga workouts, and I'll use Netflix for other exercise programs. (At least I did pre-pregnancy. I have no idea if they still have that as a category.) I also have Zombies Run! on my phone, which keeps me interested in moving with the plot it sets up from "mission" to "mission": plus nothing works like a motivator like the sound of the undead groaning in your ears. Plus if you set up a good playlist it can feel super epic.

 

[The Hunter]

Question for my fabulous fatties. What is your exercise routine? Most days I don't go to the gym, so I mostly work out at home. I go on the treadmill for twenty minutes three times a day. That adds up to an hour in exercise. After each treadmill secession I do a short fitness video from youtube that is about 10 minutes or under. I try to make sure at least one of them is a weightlifting video.

My gym time is more random, and it depends on what I am in the mood for, but I usually spend four to five hours working out there. My favorite activity is just swimming laps and can go for two hours before wanting to do something else.

I do basic exercises and stretches in the morning and walk at least a mile a day. That really is enough to keep me from blowing up.

 

[Fibonacci]

I've maintained 276 for the last 5 years. I dunno how. I don't usually eat breakfast or lunch, though. When dinner comes round however, if I eat out, it's not unusual for me to eat two (or very rarely, three) In-N-Out burgers and drink an x-large soda. If someone makes dinner, I can and will eat large portions. Like nearly an entire pot roast with cream of mushroom gravy, for example. In fact, thinking about that's kind of making me hungry. I went to McDonald's Monday after work, but I was stopped in the parking lot by some guy rambling about insulin meds and needing change for food, so I gave him my sandwich since I don't carry cash or change on me. Haven't really eaten anything since.

Now that my life is starting to come together, though, I think losing weight is becoming important to me. Before, I never really had any reason to care about myself. I think losing 100 lbs is an unrealistic goal for me, but I wouldn't mind getting down to a much more manageable 225. One thing I have to watch out for is diabetes, heart disease and pancreatitis. Several people on my mom's side of the family have died from massive heart attacks. My dad was adopted so I don't know firsthand what kind of problems await me, but my dad had pancreatitis by my age and by 42 had suffered more than 11 severe attacks that put him in the hospital. The constant stress on his pancreas finally made him diabetic and he became insulin-dependent. It's not fun injecting insulin into your stomach every day, but it's even worse experiencing a pancreatic attack. I witnessed 3 of my dad's attacks, and all 3 times are the only times I'd ever seen him cry before. In one instance, he even tore the arms off a wheelchair in the ER waiting room.

 

[wheat pasta]

Hey, I've already reached my goal weight but I wanted to pop in and offer some support. It's super difficult to get started, but once you've well established a diet and exercise routine your body will start to crave it naturally and the going gets much easier.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ <--- this helped me a LOT when I was starting out. Learning to count calories can be one of your most effective tools in weight loss.
I only lost 60 pounds and it took me well over a year, so don't give up!!

PS:

Speaking from personal experience, it is just fine to indulge occasionally. The key is moderation.

 

[Niachu]

What American people need to realize is they don't need that much food. Yeah, Subway advertises 5 dollar foot long and stuff but you do NOT need a foot of food in one sitting. Here's a handy (lolol) chart to let you know what your portion sizes should look like:

Unless you work a labor intense job (like, construction) then you just don't need to eat that much, period. Once you start limiting your portion sizes, the fat shrinks and you feel amazingly better. I used to gorge myself but once I started learning about diet and the human body, I took a step back.

Some other easy traps to fall into are the tv dinners that advertise being low in fat.

What they don't advertise is making up the taste difference by loading it with salt and sugar.

A better way to eat AND save money is buying your own produce/meat, cooking yourself and eating in small portion sizes throughout the day. The brain doesn't start sending your body "I'm full" messages until a half hour after you are and it's pretty well too late by that point.

Small portion sizes don't look like much but the key is to eat slowly and chew your food. More small meals throughout the day is easier on your stomach and chewing well supplements that. The more you chew, the more time your brain has to determine how full you are. If you're too full to eat all that you've cooked, then just wrap/store it well and save it for later. Hell of a lot cheaper than three McDonalds runs a day.

BONUS: Click below for water porn. Never underestimate the power of water. Replace your soda with it and watch the pounds melt away. Carry a water bottle to work and school. Rinse your mouth with it right after a sugary meal to protect against tooth decay.

Spoiler

*Room temperature water is easier on your stomach but the image of that isn't quite as motivating

 

[Fibonacci]

Some other easy traps to fall into are the tv dinners that advertise being low in fat.

I never eat that TV dinner crap. Not because it's a trap but because they're expensive and taste like shit. Microwaved food is always flimsy and tastes like hot air.

 

[The Hunter]

BONUS: Click below for water porn. Never underestimate the power of water. Replace your soda with it and watch the pounds melt away. Carry a water bottle to work and school. Rinse your mouth with it right after a sugary meal to protect against tooth decay.

Spoiler

*Room temperature water is easier on your stomach but the image of that isn't quite as motivating

Out of all the drinks in the world, water is easily my favorite. I talk about sweet tea and lemonade all the time, but I can't drink ten pitchers of it a day the way I can with water. I don't drink THAT much of it these days and I've taken to eating awful food and drinking energy drinks to cope with stress lately, but man, when I cut soda from my diet, I must have lost twenty pounds. Can't wait to leave the house so I can resume taking care of myself. My dad always has soda around, and my brother and friend are huge enablers that cause me to not only overeat, but to binge on really shitty foods. That's another thing. Look into reducing stress in your life while dieting. I was under the impression that I was in a hit an run accident recently, and when I got out of the car, the door handle broke off. Concerned abou not having the money to pay for repairs (and the fact that the car that I thought had hit me had no license plates), I went straight to Taco Bell for the first time in my life. I'm very self aware and I know exactly how stressed I am and how to prevent things like that, but awareness is only the first step. Practicing Yoga is not only a good way to improve your flexibility and stay in shape, it also aids greatly in reducing stress and has helped patients diagnosed with clinical depression greatly. Something you can do that's easier than it looks is meditating. Meditation can be simply contemplating your place in the universe and discovering yourself all the way to sitting on the couch and watching a movie you love. The key is relaxation.

 

[CalmMyTits]

Mmm... water. I like to flavor my water with Propel.

Many times, I just drink water plain, it tastes really good by itself, but if I'm in the mood for something sweet (and yes I have a sweet tooth) I just add a packet of Propel to a large bottle of water. They recommend 1 packet for every 8 oz of water but for me that is too sweet, 1 packet for 16 oz is better IMHO. Propel is sugar-free and comes with B vitamins for a boost so it's not just tasty but healthy.

When it comes down to it, water is probably the most essential part of ANY diet.

 

[Pikonic]

Vitamin Water makes a carbonated favored water now, it's basically my soda replacement.

 

[Mourning Dove]

Concerning portion sizes, whenever I eat out I like to eat half or less of my meal and then take the rest home for other future meals. As Niachu mentioned, Americans just eat too damn much, so subsequently they weight too damn much. I've heard that a small McDonald's soda in the United States is a large soda in France.

 

[Stalin]

I guess I'll give some advice on how I lost 30 lbs.

1. No soda, fast food, or bread. Cut out these things and you will drop pounds ridiculously quickly. Chocolate and candy can be consumed in moderation.

2. Don't go cold turkey when it comes to cutting out this stuff. Ease yourself off it. You are addicted to sugar, and you need to wean yourself first.

3. When you're exercising, make sure to do intervals if your knees/joints are up to it.
3A. STRETCH!, warm up (mine was 6 mins on the rowing machine or an elliptical), abs x2, INTERVAL (do things to get your heart rate up again. I liked any kind of agility exercise and any kind of leg exercise), upper body x2, interval, cool down, STRETCH!!!

5. Stretch at the beginning and the end of your workout to avoid things like shin splints and tendonitis. Tendonitis did a lot of damage to my shins. Don't let it happen to you! Wear braces or compression sleeves if you feel like it (for fencing, I always wore a knee brace and a wrist brace, then added a calf compression sleeve). If you have flat feet, you are prone to shin splints.

6. Cardio 3-4x a week, strength 2-3x a week. I made a mistake doing cardio 6 days a week (lead to my tendonitis).

7. Do a workout you like! Every Saturday I went to fencing practice for 4 hours, but it went by so quickly because I love to fence. If you pick running because it seems the best, you will hate it and stop doing it.

8. If you can afford it/have the time, hire a personal trainer. Mine helped so much.

 

[The Hunter]

1. No soda, fast food, or bread. Cut out these things and you will drop pounds ridiculously quickly. Chocolate and candy can be consumed in moderation.

But bread is the best thing ever! O:

Actually, just from reading this thread, I got in the mood to just give up on soda entirely again. Somehow I was able to live without it for a looooooooooooooong time. Pretty sure I can do that again. Fast food's not gonna be a problem for me as I'm broke. Pretty sure I do have the ability to give up on it cold turkey even if everyone around me's gonna be drinking it. The only real addiction I have is to tea.

I'd rather exercise in solitude, personally. I hate being seen exercising. Somehow I'm comfortable telling people about all sorts of weird shit about myself, but letting them see me jog, nooooooooooo, that's a big big big fucking deal...