The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I'm going to do 31 days of this:

1) Zero Calories via Beverages (not including alcohol)
2) Make healthier choices, in general (mustard instead of mayonaise, low calorie dressings, dipping dressing instead of pouring, etc)
3) Reduce carbs (smaller portions of carbs or half-servings of bread)
4) No sweets
5) No junk snacks between meals (if you're going to eat between meals, it has to be good caloric value)
6) Reduce the amount of food on your plate (if eating out, box up half immediately -- if at home, plate a smaller portion to start)
7) No snacks after dinner.

Anyone else interested?

I go back on my diet this week. From the middle of October til now I’ve been hit or miss and gained almost 20lbs. The last couple of years we’ve done this due to vacations and holidays. Basically we diet 5-6 days a week for about 9 months or so.

i'm not a after dinner snacker personally .. but i read a good tip for this .. instead of brushing your teeth before bed .. brush them after dinner so that you have to think twice about snacking after dinner.

^ I like that tip.

I keep a lot of fruit around, so if I want a snack after dinner, I'll grab an orange, or some grapes instead.

Number 1 tip.  Eat slowly and when you are no longer hungry stop eating.  You cleaning your plate will have zero impact on the number of kids starving in Africa, regardless of what your mom might have told you.

^ I'm kinda doing this with #6.  I'm just putting less in front of me.

I find that I don't really stop getting hungry until I'm well finished eating, either way.

I am doing a dry January - no booze for 4 weeks. Some people do dry July, but January is too freaking hot in South Australia for red wine so this is my month off.

You would be amazed how many calories there are in alcohol after your liver processes it (not to mention the unhealthy munchies that often accompany it). If you want to lose weight, it should be near the top of any drinker's list.

I don't usually adjust my diet for weight loss. I adjust for performance based on what I'm doing at the time. This season I played some flag football on top of the usual sports so I'm going to make some adjustments geared towards that.

Try keto and intermittent fasting for a couple months. Last spring I lost around 30 lbs in 3 months with about 85% compliance.

My wife struggles to lose weight and is very carb sensitive. Even strict diet and Crossfit didn't make it easier. Once she started the intermittent fasting she not only lost weight but can cheat on weekends. It has worked well for her. I'd try it but we work out at 5 am so I have to eat something then and am not stopping eating at lunch.

You could always go keto without IF. Works best in combination, but my 1st month was keto only and it worked great. I added IF in later down the road. However, I stopped because due to lack of carbs and glycogen my weight lifting suffered and I always looked flat. I still had strength but when you lift for aesthetic reasons, the lack of carbs and glycogen is counterproductive. At my age it's so hard to keep a 6 pack and fullness in my muscles. I try to keep a happy medium at around 14-15% body fat. But shit, with it being winter right now I'm probably closer to 18-19%. Hahaha, oh well, when the middle of February hits I'll start cutting again.....

She actually does a form of Keto with IF and that's what is working. She did Keto with Crossfit and it was still a slow process. It's funny but exercise, and Crossfit is serious exercise, doesn't seem to affect her weight loss.

Yeah, I learned a long time ago. Losing weight is 90% diet. You can instantly create a consistent calorie deficit by manipulating your diet. On the other hand, you can only exercise so much of a calorie deficit before reaching a point of diminishing returns and burning out. I tried Crossfit a few times and didn't like it. It was sort of "CULT" like from what I remember. I'll stick to working out alone at home or hit the gym with a buddy a couple times a week. To each his own though...

KETO!!

lost 50 lbs in under a year with zero exercise and got to eat like a king!  it's super healthy for you too and i can't really say enough about it.

One week in -- I already notice a difference this morning.  My clothes are looser in my mid-section.  I think it's probably just bloat.  The "no snacks after dinner" thing sucked horribly at first, but I've kinda gotten used to it.

I started today.  Bought a bunch of healthy food, really good cereal I found, Kashi GoLean. 

It definitely works. I would probably recommend it more for people who don't plan to exercise or work out. I had a hard time working out when I was doing keto/IF. But then again it may have been that my calories were too low at the time. I'll probably jump back on the keto train to lose some weight before summer hits and see how the workouts go with the calories a bit higher.

I used to eat the shit out of that stuff with no problem. Now it gives me gas so bad that it hurts my insides. It's good stuff though. Maybe I'll try another box and see, haha.

So, I'm going to try Keto, don't know much about it, so I ordered two books on simple meals & planning.  Being single and always on the go I tend to eat crappy food, and/or whatever is easy to prepare quickly.  Hopefully, I can preplan some meals for the week.  Are there any easy general rule of eat this, and don't eat that??  Do you NEED to eat specific amounts and percentages daily?

I've heard if you don't do Keto right, it is really bad for you so be careful.  Any truth to that?

Kind of a lot to explain here. Read this whole site before you start https://www.ruled.me/start-here/ (https://www.ruled.me/start-here/). I would also suggest you read other sources of info on keto before you begin. My best advice would be to research as much as you can for about a week before you begin going keto. You'll definitely need to up your electrolytes.

Yep, but then again any diet done wrong is bad for you, hahaha....

If she's losing a lot less weight with exercise than without, I'd be worried about muscle loss. Muscle isn't nearly as energy dense as fat and when you go on a diet, it's a good bet that you're losing both fat and muscle. What most people want is to push that balance as far towards fat loss as possible, but that also means you have to deprive your of a lot more energy to lose a given amount of weight.

For reference, fat contains about 3500 calories per pound and muscle about 700 calories. So if you get your body to burn an extra 3500 calories, that can result in either a 1 pound loss of weight or a 5 pound loss of weight -- or anything in between. Massive muscle loss would pretty much require you to be bedridden, but having 20% of the weight you lose be muscle is quite normal.

Scientific studies have shown that you can significantly reduce the amount of muscle mass lost by exercise and upping your protein intake.

She's getting plenty of protein... although she's tried diets without much like strict keto as well.  It's just that exercise doesn't affect her body type by burning fat as much as it might other people. She's spent years with different nutritionists and other exercise gurus.  The IF reduces insulin resistance and that seems to help the most. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible.

This is correct for a regular calorie restriction diet with carbs. However, not exactly accurate for Keto/If. Keto is by nature more muscle sparing than regular dieting. The body will be looking for energy from the calorie intake, then from ketones from body fat stores, then lastly from lean muscle tissue.

Any appearance of muscle loss is from water and glycogen depletion. When your carbs are low, your muscles and liver don't hold much water and glycogen. That's why on a Keto/low carb diet you lose a lot of weight in the first week. Your body burns through your glycogen stores. And for every gram of glycogen in your body, there are 3-4 grams of water attached to it. And we all know how much water weighs. So for every gram of glycogen you lose, you actually lose 4-5 grams of weight. Therefore, since most glycogen is held in muscle tissue, when you burn all your glycogen and associated water your muscles look flat and smaller than usual.  You can offset this with to a small extent by supplementing with creatine.  Also, even though your muscles appear smaller, they will actually appear bigger if you get your body fat level low enough. Returning to carbs and filling your glycogen back up will usually fill your muscles back out. You will of course gain weight and be primed to gain body fat. Therefore you should add carbs back in slowly over the course of a month or two.

Anyhow, in my opinion, even though keto is usually muscle sparing. I would incorporate at least 1 full body session a week of weight training and keep protein low to moderate. Conversely, on a regular diet I would hit each muscle group 2-3 times a week and keep protein high.

The issue with Keto is a lot (most) people do not do it correctly.

This is a decent article about the pro / con, written in lament terms.  It doesn't demonize the diet; it discusses the medical merits of it, why it's helpful and where some short falls are.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/keto-diet-is-gaining-popularity-but-is-it-safe-121914#7

However, this said, people need to stop focusing on the scale.  Do research and learn for yourselves - the most effective way to burn fat is strength training. 

1:  Find your body type.  Every nutritional guide doesn't fit the next.  Keto / caveman diet / Weight Watchers / _____insert here. 

*Are you an ectomorph, endomorph, mesomporh?
*Have you had your Lipid profile done lately?
*How does *your body* process food?  This could vary on many things.  How do you sleep at night? Do you ever experience stomach discomfort?  How often do you urinate at night? What is your family history of DMII and heart disease? 

Carbs are not the enemy.  You may have a body type which needs more than another.  Maybe you do need more protein.  Perhaps you're just not as active as you should be.

But I promise 100% of all of you this:

Understanding your body type, eating the right foods at the right time and working out 4-5 days a week (strength based workouts) you will start to immediately feel better.

For me - my meals are very simple.  I shop and meal prep on Sundays, everything is done for the week.  I literally eat the same thing all week and treat food as fuel:

Breakfast: 
1 scoop protein powder w/water on the way to work
.5 grapenuts (dry)
two hard boils eggs
Three pieces of turkey bacon
.5 blueberries

Snack: (about 2 hours later):
.5 strawberries
2oz chicken breast

Lunch:
10 oz ground turkey
.5 brown rice
.5 baby carrotts
2 cups baby kale

Snack (2 hours):
2 scoops protein w/water

Snack (2 hours):
2oz chicken breast
8-10 baby carrots

Dinner:
16oz chicken breast
2 cups baby kale
1 cup baby carrots

Snack before bed:
8-10 nuts or a cup of fruit

I lift four days a week; 3 days a week includes HIIT training (in addition to); yoga 3 days a week and I'm in the BJJ studio twice a week. 

I generally have a cheat meal every other week. 

My point - don't try anything cookie cutter.  You're *all* too smart for that.  Do research and find what works for *your body.*  But what WILL work is making yourself stronger.