After having talked to some of you over the last couple of days it occurs to me I’ve answered alot of the same questions more than once, and I figure that means I should put that info on the site somewhere. I guess a quick Q&A is easiest on me, so here it goes:
How are you calculating calories?
Guesswork mostly. I’ve been trying to eat at home more, and since I don’t really cook, those calories are easy to track as they’re listed right on the package of whatever I’m eating. When I eat out it’s trickier, but not impossible. As long as I’m willing to honestly judge portion sizes, I can get all the data I need using sites like Calorie King & Nutrition Data. Obviously in those cases the calories I’m listing are only best estimates (which I’ve been denoting with a tilde before the calorie count), but I’m working diligently to make those estimates accurate.
Eventually I plan to eat out less and cook more, but unless I buy a digital scale to weight out ingredients it will still result in the same basic guessing game. I figure as long as I’m seeing results, then I’ll assume my estimates are correct.
You don’t seem to be eating much healthy food…
No, I don’t. The scary part is, the meals I’ve been tracking here are exponentially better for me than what I was eating before. Up until about 3 months ago, I was literally eating fast food (Carl’s Jr, Del Taco, etc) 2-3 times a day.
I know I could lose more weight if I drank nothing but water, but I honestly don’t think I could maintain that. I’ve tried going cold turkey on things like that before and it’s never worked out. Rather than give myself rules I know I’ll end up breaking (and thus feel bad about), I’m trying to make intelligent decisions and use my better judgment.
That’s a terribly risky proposition for a ‘diet,’ but it’s a skill I’m going to have to develop if I ever want to live a truly healthy lifestyle. By making small changes, one or two things at time, I’ll eventually reach the same healthy lifestyle I could theoretically implement all at once, but this way I think I actually have a chance of succeeding.
Why is your goal 2,500 calories? Isn’t that alot?
Yeah, but I’m a big guy. When I started building this site, I used just about every tool I could find online to help me determine what were realistic goals.
I discovered that the recommended rate of weight loss while remaining healthy is 1-2 pounds a week in most cases; far less than I would have expected from shows like The Biggest Loser. In fact, most nutritionists seemed to agree that normal, healthy weight loss should not exceed 1% of your total body weight per week, which for me would be no more than 3.25 pounds. I then calculated my BMI, my BMR (2,476-2,809), how many calories I was actually burning in an average day (2,971-3,358), etc.
Armed with those numbers, and the knowledge that cutting 500-1000 calories a day results in 1-2 pounds a week, 2,500 was pretty straight forward – it’s about 500-800 less than I’m currently burning, and allows me room to burn more via exercise while staying in that healthy range of 1%.
It’s not the most aggressive weight-loss plan in the world, but I think it’s a realistic one I can stick to.
I think you have a good plan. I agree that going cold turkey off of things you enjoy and/or are addicted to is good in theory but not very practical. And in slowly assimilating the more healthful choices, you can adjust gradually and even learn to enjoy those choices rather than resenting some system of it all being taken from you. Like maybe its idealistic to think you will make your own lemonade but you might even be able to find one where it is sweetened with white grape juice or agave instead of sugar… jamba juice used to make it with the juice, I dont know if they still do. I make it sometimes for jon with agave and its great. But you know, you can find ways around giving up the things you love and once you wean your body off of the (very real) addictions to refined sugar and fats and stuff, you will actually LIKE the more healthful options and you will be turned off by the sweetness of soda and the chemical taste of processed foods and stuff…. Im just saying that you are definitely on the right track and part of what you are doing is not ‘depriving’ yourself of anything but in fact redirecting your body and at the end of all of this, you probably wont even WANT the foods you are giving up. Therein lies the beauty. Keep it up!!
Your reasoning seems impeccable, your methods sustainable, and your intentions unquestionable – trust yourself!
agave is a good idea; start weaning yourself off caffeine and as much processed sugar as you possibly can… those are the two most dangerous drugs you are addicted to right now so focus on eliminating them specifically over the next month. i wanna be able to help you break the addiction completely once i get down there, and we can rebuild slowly with healthier alternatives. don’t forget to take a walk at twilight, its important. and remember that your goals are completely obtainable and that the taste of that soda or burger or ice cream or candy bar or whatever the fuck isn’t worth the depression and self loathing that they create… simply not worth it. and just think, in 6 months (which is nothing relatively speaking) you will be about 50 pounds down (or more if i have anything to do with it) and the momentum is gonna propel you to your ultimate goal. we all got your back, and you better believe at this point breaking addictions is one of my better areas of expertise. i got your back homes, and we’re gonna kick some fats ass
everytime you substitute a bad choice for a good one you are one step closer to being healthy. It wont come overnight, and the healthy choices will soon overtake your sugar cravings. Berries and yogurt are some of my fave “treats” now and popsicles made from real fruit. I urge you to get nutrition drinks for the morning, they make a huge diffrence in your demeanor and keep you alert not to mention by the time lunch comes you are not ravenous. many small meals a day are better than three large anyway.