(October 7, 2009 at 8:08 am)Dotard Wrote: JUST STOP EATING! Simple. 100% gaurenteed (<-sp?) to work. Put down the cheetos.

It's not that simple. You have to balance healthy eating with lower calories and satisfying you hunger. If you just eat as little as possible you go into starvation mode and you don't lose anything, then you crash and binge and you're no better off. So no, stop eating doesn't work,

If you're talking about fad diets, I agree, they don't work. Diets in general don't work. If you go into losing weight with a mindset of being on a diet with the implication you stop when you lose weight, you'll gain it all back. The tried and true method is to take in less calories than you burn, but if you try to do it without consideration to what you're eating, you can end up splurging and losing track. I don't consider myself to be on a diet. I need to reinvent what I eat and how I eat it to make a lasting change and feel healthier. I've been eating more fruits and veggies, complimenting my meals with these sides to make them have more food but less calories.

So maybe it's seen as a waste of money to use weight watchers, but I've learned a lot on how to make lasting changes to my diet, and it makes it easier for me to track what I eat, and that's worth it to me. As far a joining a gym...I can't afford an elliptical machine, and if I could I'd have nowhere to put it, so gym is my only option to have access to one.

Lol Dotard ^_^

It is that simple... terrible to go through... but simple The body begins feeding upon the built up fat to sustain itself. Keep liquidated... and you will lose fatness (and weight). However, starve for too long and you begin to lose muscle mass too. You can see this survival tactic used by cold-weather mammals as they prepare for winter (Bears for instance). Nomadic hunter/gatherers were no different: they needed to stay warm over the winter, and they needed to survive foodless periods. Buildup of fat, and the body using this fat had the duel effect of keeping them nourished (albeit painfully?) and keeping them warm.

Simply not eating is how you lose fatness... though there are healthier methods (albeit slower) that one can pursue in exercise and maintaining a healthy diet.


An interesting tidbit on eating plants. Plant cells are made of cellulose, which is very difficult to digest. Therefor the body needs to work harder to obtain the nutrients from them. The body does not get it all (in fact, it gets very little..), so you end up with a system that gives you few more nutrients than meats... remains largely indigested (thus plant 'fibers')... and makes your body digest any remaining fat and muscle mass to sustain itself. Why do you think so many vegetarians are 'scrawny wimps'?

(October 7, 2009 at 2:45 pm)Saerules Wrote: The body begins feeding upon the built up fat to sustain itself. Keep liquidated... and you will lose fatness (and weight). However, starve for too long and you begin to lose muscle mass too.

Sae,

You got this backwards and your thinking is the number one cause of yo-yo dieting. The problem with starvation diets is it causes the body to consume muscle first which lowers the metabolism.

Let's ask our good friend wiki what it thinks (bolding mine):

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieting

Quote:All body processes require energy to run properly. When the body is expending more energy than it is taking in (e.g. when exercising), the body's cells rely on internally stored energy sources, like complex carbohydrates and fats, for energy. The first source the body turns to is glycogen (by glycogenolysis). Glycogen is a complex carbohydrate, where 65% of it is stored in skeletal muscles and the rest in the liver (totaling about 2000 kcal in the whole body). It is created from the excess of ingested macronutrients, mainly carbohydrates. When those sources are nearly depleted, the body begins lipolysis, the mobilization and catabolism of fat stores for energy. In this process, fats, obtained from adipose tissue, or fat cells, are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids, which can be used to make energy. The primary by-products of metabolism are carbon dioxide and water; carbon dioxide is expelled through the respiratory system.

Basically you just need to take in enough nutrients and strength train to stave off muscle loss.

Rhizo

As with the acids: how weird... I suppose it leaves the fat so that it will remain warm longer?

I had an hour walk five days a week more or less, and I had just the 1 sandwich instead of 2, and only ate when I was hungry (except for my main meal, which I always had). And I lost over a stone, (14 LBS, or 6.4 KG).

Walking is excellent for if you're feeling down, in my experience. And it's an easy exercise to keep up and do consistently - and the most natural one I guess.

I've never been able to do gym, I get worn out right away and I hate it. But walking I absolutely adore. I pace up and down in the house quite often, as a substitution for standing still. And I sometimes can't help but do that when music is on.

EvF

Hmm, interesting question: How many of you pace? Chronic pacer here, and apparently EvF is one too

Ummmmmm...at the time when I lost my computer. I pretty much paced 24/7, unless I was watching TV...

..I was gonna say "Or unless I was playing Pool" but even when I play pool, I pace round the table while I'm thinking.

It's funny because some people seem to think since it's in the house, it can't be that far you've walked. But I must have walked miles and miles in the house - more than outdoors probably. It's just that there are no hills, and I'm not gonna monopolize the stairs

Walking+Thinking=Bliss.

EvF

I naturally pace if my mind is preoccupied. I don't like to do it otherwise.

(October 7, 2009 at 8:27 am)Eilonnwy Wrote:

(October 7, 2009 at 8:08 am)Dotard Wrote: JUST STOP EATING! Simple. 100% gaurenteed (<-sp?) to work. Put down the cheetos.

It's not that simple. You have to balance healthy eating with lower calories and satisfying you hunger. If you just eat as little as possible you go into starvation mode and you don't lose anything, then you crash and binge and you're no better off. So no, stop eating doesn't work,

Not true. You don't HAVE to balance health eating blah blah blah.....

If you do not eat, your body will consume it's fat reserves. That is what it does. If you stop eating you will shed pounds rather quickly. And you won't die. You will become a walking skeleton before that happens.
If you bing afterwards then 'losing weight and keeping it off' is really not what you desire.

"That's not healthy!" I hear my detractors hollering.

Yeah, whatever. Do you want to shed that "little overweight" 20 pounds or not?

It was my understanding that if you stopped eating to lose weight, your body would go into overdrive the next time you *did* eat something, and would try and convert as much of the food to your fat deposits as possible.