Let's lose weight together if we need to.

[Metalhead]

I lost a couple of inches off my waistline but I still want to lose about another 60lbs to be at a healthy weight for my height.

I started training with dumbbells a month ago. I also gave up drinking soda. No more soda, no more beer, replacing it with coffee, unsweetened tea and plain tap water.

Cravings are strong for sugar and carbs, but I am fighting it.

Who else here is on a similar journey?

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Currently on day 5 of a 7-day water fast. Day 2 and 3 were a bit rough with all the waves of hunger, but day 4 and 5, I felt awesome. So far, I have dropped 13lbs, my blood pressure dropped some 20 points, no more aches and pains from chronic inflammation, my mental clarity is incredible right now, my skin is clear and tight. I am hydrating with a mild electrolyte solution, taking a multivitamin and probiotic.

It's not what you do but rather how you do it. I cannot emphasize this enough.

You cannot just jump into a prolonged fasting regimen without first putting yourself through some intermittent fasting first. Many people have chronically elevated insulin levels and are addicted to processed foods and sugar. Do several days of 2 meals a day, then one meal a day before pushing it out to 36-48 hours, and then later to several days. Ease yourself into it. The drops in insulin, the huge boost of growth hormone, autophagy, stem cell release, and having your brain operate on ketones, is amazing. Not for everyone, but for more information, here is a cardiologist's lecture on the topic.

 

[AprilR]

Me. I am trying to cut off carbs and sugar. Since i quit seeing a dietetician i have gained some weight

 

[Neri]

I plan on getting a personal trainer soon. I'm more interested in building muscle than losing weight at this point. I've gotten back into practising hatha yoga and I've been making a concerted effort to get out of the house more and walk. I already cut processed sugar out, and alcohol, for the most part and I eat pretty healthy, in general.
Weight became a problem when I hit 40 and just had too much stress. And I had already gotten over my anorexic tendencies, in my early thirties, so my metabolism would have been damaged from all the years of starving myself.
It's gone up and down, a bit, in the last 10 years, I had a few miscarriages which messed me up hormonally and made things worse but my muscles aren't too bad, from intermittent yoga, dance, walking and a little bit of weight training.

With my funding that's coming because I applied for NDIS (I am Australian) I can get support to get a great fitness regime happening and that what I'm going to do.

 

[zaphod]

About 8 years ago, I went from weighing over 250 down to a very muscular 185. Even could see a poor-man's 6 pack. I was in my late 30's at the time and lost it in less than a year. I kept the weight off for about 5 years, then the pandemic hit and I stopped working out (routine broken and I can't seem to get it back). Am around 210 now.

Would love to join you (competitions help me), but I'm not sure I can motivate myself enough. If you want any advice, let me know. At the time I did a ton of reading of published material to try to do everything as efficiently as possible (believe it or not, my work outs were fairly short and not overly intense)

 

[Aspychata]

@Neonatal RRT - thank you for posting that video. I needed to get in better health. I started running about 13 years ago. Nothing heavy duty, just consistently. I understand running for the OP isn't realistic, but whatever you pursue, just staying on top of it a couple times a week it a great goal. I deal with repetitive food likes, now l am stuck on hardboiled eggs with mayo, mustard, pickle juice. I want to eat this on salad, on crackers, on bread, dip chips into it. That's because l ate too many scrambled eggs recently. But eating repetitively does keep the weight off to some extent. As long as l don't emotionally eat, (depression, anger, boredom, and repetitive thoughts of adverse things that happened to me like @Metalhead ).

 

[Slime_Punk]

I don't need to lose any weight but count me in for maintaining good health, if that's also allowed!

Part of my holiday strategy is the same as always -- avoid the crap food (mostly) and keep working out . I'm very 'lucky' to have really bad stomach problems that don't even allow me to get too far off course, so there's always incentive to keep striving toward good health as best as I can!

 

[Metalhead]

My stepfather visited me today and he noted that my beer belly is getting noticeably smaller. I don’t see it, but he does.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Today is the end of my 7-day fast. 222lbs/100.7kg down to 204lbs/92.5kg. The first 10 or so lbs was water, but I have been in ketosis (burning fat only) for the past 5-6 days. A significant drop in my adipose tissue. Blood pressure sort of plateaued after day 2, a 20 pt drop, both systolic and diastolic, but right now my heart rate is in the 90's due to epinephrine release from my adrenal glands, a normal part of the fat burning process. I should see that heart rate decrease back into the 60s-70s in a few days once I start eating again, this, in turn, should result in another drop in blood pressure.

Today I will have a set of labs drawn, metabolic profile, hormone profile, complete blood count, lipid profile, thyroid panel. This should be interesting to compare to my previous labs last year. I suspect there will be a "critical low" on my blood sugar because I am running on ketones right now. I am most interested in my lipid profile.

After I get my labs drawn this morning, now will be the slow process of reintroducing food to my GI tract. Start out with Q2-3hr warm bone broth with a teaspoon of olive oil, then later tonight perhaps an egg. Tomorrow, egg, perhaps a small salad, olive oil, more bone broth. Within 48-72 hrs I should be back to normal. *Note: Introducing anything that will spike insulin during this phase could risk the chance of shunting too much potassium out of the blood, leading to hypokalemia,...worse case scenario, heart dysrhythmia.

I will continue with one meal a day and avoid carbs as best I can. I think I have another 10lbs or so of adipose tissue to loose, but I will give my body a rest and do another fast in a few months.