How To Lose A Lot Of Weight

[studiodekadent]

I lost 20kg's (about 45 pounds) by doing this:

One meal a day, ideally when you first wake up.

The meal can be anything really bad. It can even be McDonalds or TGI Fridays. But keep away from sugars and any booze apart from straight vodka.

Next day you will weigh at least 2 lbs less!

[Brant Gaede]

I lost 20kg's (about 45 pounds) by doing this:

One meal a day, ideally when you first wake up.

The meal can be anything really bad. It can even be McDonalds or TGI Fridays. But keep away from sugars and any booze apart from straight vodka.

Next day you will weigh at least 2 lbs less!

So, you lost 45 pounds in 22 1/2 days?

--Brant

[tjohnson]

Mmmm...MacDonald's when you first wake up.

[studiodekadent]

I lost 20kg's (about 45 pounds) by doing this:

One meal a day, ideally when you first wake up.

The meal can be anything really bad. It can even be McDonalds or TGI Fridays. But keep away from sugars and any booze apart from straight vodka.

Next day you will weigh at least 2 lbs less!

So, you lost 45 pounds in 22 1/2 days?

--Brant

No, because I break my diet from time to time

If you stuck to it though, you COULD lose that much but it depends (weight loss tends to happen logarithmically).

Edited January 17, 2008 by studiodekadent

[Kat]

That doesn't sound like a very healthy diet if all you are doing is eating McDonalds once a day. Sure, you may lose weight eating one meal a day because you are most likely burning more calories than you consume, although with Mickey D's or TGI Fridays, that may be questionable...and you will probably be hungry most of the time, also. With any rapid weight loss program or crash diet, such as a fast or extremely low-calorie diet, it is best to only do it for a week or two, because to sustain that type of diet long-term is extremely unhealthy. Also losing weight in your twenties is far easier to do than when you are in your 40s or later. I used to eat all kinds of crap and never have to worry about my weight. Obviously, that changed over time.

For long-term healthy weight loss you must eat healthier foods and eat more than once a day. Frequent smaller meals/snacks is far better. You also have to exercise in order to burn more calories than you consume and you also have to watch your portion size, reduce calories and fat and increase your fiber and water intake. Don't forget to eat more veggies and switch your dairy products to non-fat or low fat. In Weight Watchers, we don't try to lose more than two pounds per week.

Generally, your diet and exercise plan has to be accompanied by a change in thinking. Losing weight is a mental as well as physical process. It is better to develop healthier eating habits that will not only help you lose weight, but improve your all-around health than to just lose pounds here and there on yo-yo fad diets, which IMHO are pretty much equivalent to binge and purge.

Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

Kat

[tjohnson]

Very sound advice. I have just lost about 20 lbs in around 4-5 months and it was quite difficult and I did just about everything Kat said above. It's especially true that losing weight gets harder as you get older so you young folks out there - don't develop a bad lifestyle!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

GS,

Finally you said something I can agree with 100%. Great advice for younger people. (I know because I did not do that and now I am paying the piper.)

Michael

[Judith]

Hmmm. I've eaten only one meal a day for decades. Hasn't helped me a bit with weight control. Admittedly, that meal is dinner, but you DID say "ideally" when you first wake up....

Judith

Edited January 17, 2008 by Judith

[studiodekadent]

Im doing this diet for aesthetic reasons, not health ones

But when choosing diet, please make sure you diet according to what you want. If you want a health enhancement, my suggestion probably is not the best. If you simply want to drop pounds to look good, you may consider mine more efficient over time.

[sludge7]

Im doing this diet for aesthetic reasons, not health ones

But when choosing diet, please make sure you diet according to what you want. If you want a health enhancement, my suggestion probably is not the best. If you simply want to drop pounds to look good, you may consider mine more efficient over time.

Um, maybe I am missing something here, but I generally find that healthy people look better than unhealthy ones...

[studiodekadent]

Im doing this diet for aesthetic reasons, not health ones

But when choosing diet, please make sure you diet according to what you want. If you want a health enhancement, my suggestion probably is not the best. If you simply want to drop pounds to look good, you may consider mine more efficient over time.

Um, maybe I am missing something here, but I generally find that healthy people look better than unhealthy ones...

What I am referring to is the fact that "health" and "thinness" are often independent variables.

Larger persons can be healthy. Thinner persons can be unhealthy.

My weightloss trick is for those that want to be thinner, not necessarily those that want to be healthy.

[Mindy Newton]

I have a weight-loss scheme that works for me. Assuming you are getting a reasonable amount of exercize: I eat an egg white (hard-boiled) and drink a can of V-8 juice mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Then, I'm just not very hungry at mealtimes or in-between. I enjoy these two things, but even if you don't, you can get them down pretty quickly, and V-8 now comes in those juice flavors. I eat meals normally, but conservatively, and the egg and V-8 are added on.

Another one that's surprising but works is to drink something like "Ensure" a couple of times a day, then just eat conservatively. It has a couple hundred calories, but gives you complete nutrition, which tends to cut your appetite. If you don't eat a balanced meal, your body will "crave." You feel hungry, but craving isn't specific enough to make you want the needed food-stuffs. You snack, but still feel hungry, because you didn't eat what your body needed. A multi-vitamin is also a very good idea, for the same reason.

A comment about that one-meal-a-day diet that loses two lbs. a day-- a lb. of body fat consists of about two days' worth of calories. Other than water-weight, which, of course, you just gain back, there isn't a normal-life way to lose at that rate, and Kat's right, of course, that it is very dangerous.

= Mindy

[sbeaulieu]

Im doing this diet for aesthetic reasons, not health ones

But when choosing diet, please make sure you diet according to what you want. If you want a health enhancement, my suggestion probably is not the best. If you simply want to drop pounds to look good, you may consider mine more efficient over time.

I can see if you're going for aesthetics, but there is still a problem in the long run because that weight loss won't last.

The human body is very, very efficient. For instance, the more water you drink, the less water your body will have to store (because it's getting a reliable external source). That's why you see fitness-minded folks drinking tons of it.

As well as water, the body will keep stored calories (fat) to a minimum if it's getting a reliable external source. Small meals (6 is the trend) throughout the day help stabilize your body's metabolism. Because of the low caloric intake, the body will not need to store excesses. The key here is to exercise to reduce the current fat stores of your body along with the daily food intake.

The aesthetics approach you're taking might be well and good on the short term, but it's likely that your muscle composition is taking the brunt of the punishment vs. your fat stores (the fat is the energy reserve, so used as last resort).

What does that all mean? Well, the one-a-day meals are likely getting stored as body fat (since it's not getting a reliable external source). Your metabolism is in the valley vs. the peak. If you do this over an extended period of time, your body won't adapt quickly when going to a regular diet again. It will still be thinking "I need to keep these calories because I'm not getting enough." This contributes to the quick weight gain crash dieters experience.

~ Shane

Edited September 17, 2008 by sbeaulieu

[Mindy Newton]

I can see if you're going for aesthetics, but there is still a problem in the long run because that weight loss won't last.

The human body is very, very efficient. For instance, the more water you drink, the less water your body will have to store (because it's getting a reliable external source). That's why you see fitness-minded folks drinking tons of it.

As well as water, the body will keep stored calories (fat) to a minimum if it's getting a reliable external source. Small meals (6 is the trend) throughout the day help stabilize your body's metabolism. Because of the low caloric intake, the body will not need to store excesses. The key here is to exercise to reduce the current fat stores of your body along with the daily food intake.

The aesthetics approach you're taking might be well and good on the short term, but it's likely that your muscle composition is taking the brunt of the punishment vs. your fat stores (the fat is the energy reserve, so used as last resort).

What does that all mean? Well, the one-a-day meals are likely getting stored as body fat (since it's not getting a reliable external source). Your metabolism is in the valley vs. the peak. If you do this over an extended period of time, your body won't adapt quickly when going to a regular diet again. It will still be thinking "I need to keep these calories because I'm not getting enough." This contributes to the quick weight gain crash dieters experience.

~ Shane

I think you misunderstand, Shane. I was saying to add those snacks to your meal-time intake.

= Mindy

[sbeaulieu]

Mindy,

I was referring to studiodekadent when I wrote this. I need to make it a habit of quoting or being more specific, so I changed my original post to reflect what my response was to.

~ Shane

Edited September 17, 2008 by sbeaulieu

[jeff]

I've lost about 25 lbs over the last 15 months and I have some advice.

1. Make health and fitness a permanent lifestyle. Don't just diet to quickly lose weight to look good temporarily.

2. Learn about fluid / electrolyte balance (sodium, potassium, water), protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, starch, glycemic index, fiber - these are inputs that can all be measured objectively in order to optimize nutrition.

3. Learn about blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, body fat % - these are outputs that you can also measure objectively to evaluate your health and fitness levels.

4. If you're trying to lose fat, shoot for no more than 1 pound of weight loss per week. Based on my own experience it is difficult to lose weight faster than this and keep it off. I personally lost 2 lbs per month on average.

5. Try eating the same thing every day. This way you can easily and consistently control your calorie intake and you don't even have to count calories. If after a month you don't lose weight, you know you're eating too much, and if you gain weight, you know you're eating too much, so you simply adjust 1 or 2 meals to increase or decrease your calorie intake. Just make sure you eat a large variety of foods to ensure you get the nutrition you need to be healthy. A good way to eat a variety of foods but also eat the same thing every day is to eat 6 smaller meals instead of 2 or 3 large meals. Also make sure your meals taste good. If you try to eat "too healthy" too soon it will be difficult to do every day.

6. If you're interested in growing muscle, bodybuilding, weight lifting, etc check out www.mikementzer.com. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his bodybuilding method, he was an Objectivist and much more honest than most health / fitness experts. I found out about Objectivism from reading one of his books.

7. Try completely eliminating caffeine, alcohol and any other kind of legal / illegal drugs, pills, medicine, etc from your diet. I still can't believe how great I feel all day long every single day since I stopped consuming caffeine and alcohol.

8. Sleep! Adequate sleep is also very important for muscle growth, fat loss and health in general. I try to get 7 hours per sleep at night and if I'm tired during the day I try to take a 5-10 minute nap at lunch time.

Edited October 24, 2008 by jeff

[Barbara Branden]

I no longer have a weight problem -- I seem able to eat whatever I want without losing or gaining weight -- which is perhaps one of the advantages of growing older. But I used to say that I was born dieting. Over the years, to maintain the weight I wanted, I went on just about every diet known to man. The problem for me is that I love sweets, and a day without something sweet -- especially ice cream and most especially Hagen Daz Coffee ice cream -- is an unlived day. That craving threatened every diet, until I finally found the solution. When on one of my many diets, I would every few days have a dinner that consisted of my favorite ice cream-- period. That satisfied my desire for sweets and satisfied my hunger, so that I could go back to my diet the next day without difficulty, and it didn't result in a weight gain. I recommend this indulgence to lovers of sweets; it prevents dieting from being a hair shirt.

It would not surprise me if it were discovered that the foods we crave do satisfy real physical requirements of our bodies.

Barbara

[Over43]

There is a diet similar to this called the "Warrior Diet" develped by Ori Hofmekler. He claims it is the diet the Roman Army ate on the march. I forget the details, but quickly you have a couple of pieces of fruit for both breakfast and lunch, I think drinking a lot of water is involved, and then sit down to a large, late dinner, that takes a couple of hours to eat. A lot of meat and vegetables. It is the poster boy diet for the Kettlebell crowd and from what I can tell some MMAers.

O.

[Selene]

There is a diet similar to this called the "Warrior Diet" develped by Ori Hofmekler. He claims it is the diet the Roman Army ate on the march. I forget the details, but quickly you have a couple of pieces of fruit for both breakfast and lunch, I think drinking a lot of water is involved, and then sit down to a large, late dinner, that takes a couple of hours to eat. A lot of meat and vegetables. It is the poster boy diet for the Kettlebell crowd and from what I can tell some MMAers.

O.

Now that makes sense, except for the fruit junk for the other two meals.

Then...

The after dinner workout is the proper way to lose burn calories.

Adam

one who luckily has never had to worry about weight, blessed with good genes I guess

[Backlighting]

For me, a lean protein diet, combined with 3 quarts of water daily works best.

If you can put in some cardio excercise a few times per week, that will accelerate the weight loss.

[BaalChatzaf]

Roman Legion troops marched thirty to fifty miles a day carrying about seventy pounds of kit. I think that had more to do with their weight control than what they ate.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Selene]

Roman Legion troops marched thirty to fifty miles a day carrying about seventy pounds of kit. I think that had more to do with their weight control than what they ate.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ya think so hmmm

So when Obiwan gives me that bowl of rice at noon before I have to go back to the re-education paddy for afternoon indoctrination, I will also lose weight!

Cool.

Therefore, all those weight health care costs will be eliminated and health care will be free!

Free! At last! Thank you.

Adam