AF Biggest Loser/Fitness Challenge-May 3 to Whenever We're Not Fat Anymore

[Shell B]

I've plateaud because I've been too busy to be super diligent, but that small amount of diligence I can maintain has kept me level. No weight gain is good enough right now.

[Whateverist]

I'm not as hard-core as you guys, but I'm about 240 lbs-- got lazy after some hip surgery and then polyp and ulcer surgeries last year- and i want to get down to maybe 180.  You guys have definitely inspired me to get back into it.

I have only done one thing so far: no pure carbs like rice, potatoes, bread, stuff like that.  I'm still eating high-calorie foods, especially avocados, and I get one soda per day (yay Dr. Pepper!)  But most of my meals are stir-fried vegetables with tofu (tastes better than it sounds, actually).

So far, I'm down about 10 lbs, but I think the first few pounds were just overhydration, food in the gut and stuff like that.  If I can lose about 20 lbs more, I'll be under 100kg, which will be a real happy milestone

Good luck Benny.  Our parameters are about the same I got as high as 235 and I think eventually I'll be happiest at between 175 and 180.  I've been as close as 182 but for going on a couple years now I've been hovering around 190.  Being in the mode of actively losing is tough but finding acceptable limits for maintaining doesn't seem too hard now.  I'm much more physically active now and one limit I've adopted is that a scone or other bakery goody is only an option after a trip to the Y.

[emjay]

I'm currently at 13 stone 4 lbs, (186 lbs) which has gone above the range I'm comfortable with - between 12 and 13 stone - since I quit smoking nearly eight days ago... and since then my appetite has been pretty insatiable... putting on about 5lbs in just a few days... so I decided I've simply got to get fit at the same time as this quitting. So three days ago started using my old exercise bike... for a twenty minute workout each day... with the aim to do it six days a week and eventually get up to doing 45 mins a day... as I managed maybe a decade ago when I was at least relatively fit (exercise bike for 45 mins six days a week, upper body exercises three days a week, a fixed and rigid diet covering all the food groups, and with protein powder on my cereal... until I got ill after about six months of that, and since that broke my routine, unfortunately I never went back to it after I recovered from my illness.) I miss that... I remember feeling really good then, and proud of my slowly increasing fitness levels and musculature. But now I'm very unfit, not just because of smoking but also because of two health problems that both restricted my movement in one way or another... basically leading to me giving up on exercise altogether. But now it's time to give it another go and see how well I fare as a non-smoker (hopefully it will be easier and I'll get further). At the moment 20 mins is enough for me on the bike but I hope to do what I did before and just gradually increase the length of time I'm on it as he weeks go by until I get to, or beyond, 45 minutes... which I remember as a very satisfying but hard workout. As to the upper body I have no idea yet what I want to do and can't remember exactly what I did before... I think it was pressups, situps, and dumbbell curls, raises, and flyes. Any suggestions by anyone on a simple upper body exercise routine for a beginner would be much appreciated I don't wanna look like Arnie I just want to get some tone and lose weight... just do on my upper body whatever equivalent of toning would happen for my legs through biking... probably just lots of reps of a low strength activity... where I can just gradually increase the reps over time.

[Shell B]

Quitting makes you gain weight. It's rough. You'll even out.

[emjay]

Quitting makes you gain weight. It's rough. You'll even out.

Yeah, I know... but I don't see that appetite subsiding that much going forward... so I think I've got to try and get/stay on top of it exercise wise. I do enjoy the exercise bike so that's not a problem... and I like routine... so that's how I was able to do it before; because my routine hardly changed over that whole six months, except for increasing the reps incrementally.

[Foxaèr]

Feeling myself losing weight since I have been working the overnight shift.

After work and getting home, I take a shower and go to sleep at 9am. I wake up around 5pm. I am not in the mood to eat before work. I arrive at work around 10:45pm. I eat my one meal of the day around 3am. Get off work at 7:15am go home and start the process all over again.

One meal a day is all I can seem to manage on this schedule, yet I don't feel as though I'm starving.

[Jackalope]

YIL I learned a couple of things.

a) My BMI will be established at my appointment on August 2nd, not from my height/weight established at the primary care appointment when my doc referred me.
b) I will likely have to re-take the sleep study where I was positive for apnea.

What I already knew

c) If I no longer have sleep apnea or some other qualifying condition, my BMI cannot be any greater than 40.
c2) When I tested positive for apnea I was about 30 lbs heavier, possibly more. It's entirely possible that I don't have apnea any more.
d) If I do have a qualifying condition, my BMI cannot be any greater than 35. There is no danger of me going below that.
e) My wife suspects that the scale at the bariatric clinic is weighs a couple of pounds lighter than the one at home.
f) My measured height is between 5' 11.5" and 6' 0". Today my BMI would be at 41.1 or 40.5 respectively.

If I measure out to 6 feet tall, BMI 40.5 puts me at 4.2 lbs over BMI 40. With the suspected difference between scales, I could only have a pound to spare. My appointment is in 8 days. My equilibrium caloric requirement is 3300, and I have not been able eat that much - my stomach has shrunk substantially and I just can't cram any more in. I ate over a thousand calories after dinner last night and still came up quite short.

I know how to temporarily lose weight in a short period of time, but how can I gain at least a few pounds in the next 8 days?

My thoughts -

- Salty foods
- Strong beer (400 calories each for some!)
- Ben and Jerry's
- Don't poop

[Shell B]

Bread and cheese. They back you up and have shitloads of carbs. Carb loading works.

Obesity should be a qualifying condition itself. Like, fucking duh.

[Jackalope]

Proper carbo-loading will cause you to put on a little weight, because with each gram of glycogen your muscles store about 3 grams of water.

Woot! Pasta here I come!

[Jackalope]

Another interesting factoid -

400mg of sodium (a gram of table salt) brings two pounds of water retention along for the ride.