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I need to loose weight

JeanJean Heartbroken papa bearGatineau, QuébecRegistered User regular
edited July 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
Im in serious need of loosing weight and I could use some advice. Here is my situation :

Im 5 feets 8 inches, 28 yrs old, male and I weight 186lbs. Thats the heaviest I ever been.

I work as a security guard on an oil site. I stay 14 days on camp then I go back to town for 14 days.This job is not physically demanding at all but after working for 12 hours straight, you just dont feel like working out :S.

I already made some changes to my diet. I only drink water now and I stopped eating bacon and dessert. Im not a picky eater thankfully so Im up to eating anything if it helps me loosing weight.

I walk several hours every day while in town. Is that good enough to make me loose weight?

They sell so many products in pharmacies for weight loss. Kinda makes my head spin. Is any of them worth the money?

"You won't destroy us, You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked'' - Jens Stoltenberg
Jean on

Posts

  • FantasmaFantasma Registered User regular
    I see no problem with your current weight. Do you have a big belly or something like that?.

    Be careful with those products they sell, they are not very good for your overall health in the long run.

    Hear my warnings, unbelievers. We have raised altars in this land so that we may sacrifice you to our gods. There is no hope in opposing the inevitable. Put down your arms, unbelievers, and bow before the forces of Chaos!
  • JeanJean Heartbroken papa bear Gatineau, QuébecRegistered User regular
    Yeah I do have a belly :S

    I havent bought any product because I am sceptical of them.

    "You won't destroy us, You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked'' - Jens Stoltenberg
  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    What is your pant size? 5 foot 8 and 186 sounds relatively well proportioned to me? Do you drink a lot of alcohol and have the beer gut or something?

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    What is your pant size? 5 foot 8 and 186 sounds relatively well proportioned to me? Do you drink a lot of alcohol and have the beer gut or something?

    It's a little big. I'm 5'11 and 165 and that's about perfect. I'd say he's about 15-20lbs over his ideal.

  • kaliyamakaliyama Left to find less-moderated fora Registered User regular
    Esh wrote: »
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    What is your pant size? 5 foot 8 and 186 sounds relatively well proportioned to me? Do you drink a lot of alcohol and have the beer gut or something?

    It's a little big. I'm 5'11 and 165 and that's about perfect. I'd say he's about 15-20lbs over his ideal.

    What Esh said. 150 should be a good goal weight for OP. OP's current BMI is well over the OK range. It will be hard to do lots of cardio given your schedule, but I'd try to do some weight lifting at camp and work in more cardio on your two weeks off. Diet is far and away more important.

    fwKS7.png?1
  • DjeetDjeet Registered User regular
    Walking several hours a day is good in that you've avoided being "sedentary", but to lose weight you'll likely need to do exercise and/or restrict calories. Counting calories is actually a terrible way to view things. You don't really need to count if you make sensible food choices (for example, it's impossible to eat enough baby spinach to even maintain your weight). No need to go crazy on diet or exercise. Make better food choices and try getting up early and exercising before work (that's the only thing that worked for me). It may not make sense, but I actually have more energy if I work out regularly. Also the most time efficient workouts are fast circuit weight training and high intensity intervals on the cardio.

    Don't take pills to lose weight, they either don't work or will damage your liver or heart. The ECA stack worked, but it's hard to get ephedrine now, and I'm betting it never did anything good for your blood pressure.

  • Dr. FrenchensteinDr. Frenchenstein Registered User regular
    BMI IS HORSESHIT... I'm 6'3" and i think my "ideal" weight is 185ish. the lightest i've ever been was 235 (in my adult life) and i was pretty svelte at the time. I don't think i could get under 200 without the help of a debilitating disease.

    counting calories is less important than what those calories are comprised of. Maybe try waking up a bit earlier and getting some pushups and situps, or cardio in on your working days? is there any kind of fitness equipment in camp? How long has it been since you changed to water only and no dessert? I think i lost about 10 lbs in a month when i severely cut back my beer intake back in the day, but i had no idea i was losing weight until i randomly weighed myself.

  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    BMI IS HORSESHIT... I'm 6'3" and i think my "ideal" weight is 185ish. the lightest i've ever been was 235 (in my adult life) and i was pretty svelte at the time. I don't think i could get under 200 without the help of a debilitating disease.

    counting calories is less important than what those calories are comprised of. Maybe try waking up a bit earlier and getting some pushups and situps, or cardio in on your working days? is there any kind of fitness equipment in camp? How long has it been since you changed to water only and no dessert? I think i lost about 10 lbs in a month when i severely cut back my beer intake back in the day, but i had no idea i was losing weight until i randomly weighed myself.

    Unless you're muscular, you weren't "svelte" at that weight/height.

  • WassermeloneWassermelone Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    Esh wrote: »
    BMI IS HORSESHIT... I'm 6'3" and i think my "ideal" weight is 185ish. the lightest i've ever been was 235 (in my adult life) and i was pretty svelte at the time. I don't think i could get under 200 without the help of a debilitating disease.

    counting calories is less important than what those calories are comprised of. Maybe try waking up a bit earlier and getting some pushups and situps, or cardio in on your working days? is there any kind of fitness equipment in camp? How long has it been since you changed to water only and no dessert? I think i lost about 10 lbs in a month when i severely cut back my beer intake back in the day, but i had no idea i was losing weight until i randomly weighed myself.

    Unless you're muscular, you weren't "svelte" at that weight/height.

    Yeah, I'm 6'3 and 192 lbs and I'm trying to get down to 180 or so. As Esh said, unless you are very muscular I just can't imagine the shape that would be svelte at 235.


    ANYWAY! For the OP, I highly suggest signing up to myfitnesspal.com and start tracking exactly what you are eating in a day. It will calculate about how many calories you need to eat in a day to lose weight safely (for the record, unless you are significantly overweight, 2 lbs per week is apparently the usual safe limit, although the first week you'll usually lose more just in water weight). Eat healthier too. Green veggies are really low in calorie and will be what fills you up.

    Then, cardio. Running/swimming/rowing/bicycling/etc. Myfitnesspal will be able to track that as well as estimating the amount of calories burned.

    Wassermelone on
  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    Yeah dr, I'm not sure you are being completely honest with your opinion.

    Unless you have Lats like woah and legs that people regularly lean against because they mistook them for tree trunks it's hard to describe anyone under 220 as "svelte".

    OP I think you need more specific goals. While you aren't skinny. You'd still be well in a healthy weight range. Do you want to just lose the belly? Put on some muscle? Be healthy?

  • Dr. FrenchensteinDr. Frenchenstein Registered User regular
    I wasn't going to be in any competitions or anything but i was pretty muscular, my legs were/are massive and that's always been an issue for me. i definitely still had some fat to lose at that point, but certainly not 45 pounds of it. i think 185 is like just under the "overweight" category for that height as well. God I can't wait until i'm in that kind of shape again.

    What i'm trying to say is, BMI is not gospel when it comes to what constitutes a healthy weight.

  • wonderpugwonderpug Registered User regular
    BMI was never meant to be an evaluator for fitness on the individual level. It was designed to help make statistics on fitness for large scale population groups, which it does pretty ok. I don't know who started saying it worked well for individual evaluation, but even doctors are misguiding people these days.

    As for Jean, I'd recommend:

    A) Do Couch to 5k
    B) Enter your info on The Daily Plate, set a pounds per week weight loss goal, and start tracking what you eat. Or use myfitnesspal.com, whatever.

    Now, I don't completely disagree with what Djeet and Frenchenstein said about counting calories not being the end all be all. But I do think it's useful to track them at least for 2-3 weeks (or more) just to develop a better concept of how much you're really eating, and where your calories are coming from.

    Don't count out how many peas your allowed to eat each meal, but just make a habit of entering in your meals. Think of it as a food diary rather than a "what can I eat" rulebook, and just compare your daily totals with the recommended calorie amounts for your weight loss goal. This will let you go "ah ha! I had no idea the salad at the restaurant had more calories than the sandwich I was eyeing."

    Eating with more knowledge + regular exercise via Couch to 5k = sustainable weight loss and better fitness

  • Panda4YouPanda4You Registered User regular
    Ah, someone already mentioned couch25k? Nevermind then!

  • Draken50Draken50 Registered User regular
    I'm about 5'11'' And I started the year around 240 lbs. I'm down to about 200 now. The key thing for me was a change of diet. I'd highly recommend looking at the paleo diet. Basically Fruit, Vegtables, Meat, nuts and such. I saw pretty good results and I'm still losing and I haven't felt like I've been suffering foodwise. Might be worth a look for you.

  • BuddiesBuddies Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    wonderpug wrote: »
    BMI was never meant to be an evaluator for fitness on the individual level. It was designed to help make statistics on fitness for large scale population groups, which it does pretty ok. I don't know who started saying it worked well for individual evaluation, but even doctors are misguiding people these days.

    As for Jean, I'd recommend:

    A) Do Couch to 5k
    B) Enter your info on The Daily Plate, set a pounds per week weight loss goal, and start tracking what you eat. Or use myfitnesspal.com, whatever.

    Now, I don't completely disagree with what Djeet and Frenchenstein said about counting calories not being the end all be all. But I do think it's useful to track them at least for 2-3 weeks (or more) just to develop a better concept of how much you're really eating, and where your calories are coming from.

    Don't count out how many peas your allowed to eat each meal, but just make a habit of entering in your meals. Think of it as a food diary rather than a "what can I eat" rulebook, and just compare your daily totals with the recommended calorie amounts for your weight loss goal. This will let you go "ah ha! I had no idea the salad at the restaurant had more calories than the sandwich I was eyeing."

    Eating with more knowledge + regular exercise via Couch to 5k = sustainable weight loss and better fitness

    Best advice so far. Counting your calories is necessary if you are serious about losing weight. At 185 pounds with a non demanding lifestyle your total caloric needs are easily met even with sensible food choices at 3-4 meals per day. Get one of those aps for your phone and start logging what you eat. You don't have to change your diet much at all in the beginning, just get an idea for how many calories per day you take in so that we can figure out how many you can reduce by. Unless you notice yourself eating over 3k calories per day, then you might want to lower that a bit.

    Weigh yourself, then track your intake for two weeks and weigh yourself again. If you lost close to 2 pounds then you are doing good, if more than that keep at it for another 2 weeks to see if it was water weight. If you didn't lose any weight, then reduce calories by 500 per day and weigh yourself again in two weeks.

    The most important thing is that you realize this needs to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary diet to get you down to where you want to be because you won't stay there if you revert back to the way you used to eat. That's why I advocate tracking calories for at least a little while, that way you find out how many calories are in different types of food, and more importantly how much you need to actually eat to maintain a healthy weight. Most people tend to eat the same type of food week to week, so after two weeks you should have an idea of what the calorie count is in your favorite dishes. Calorie counting doesn't have to be down to the pea, but you do need to know about how much you are eating in order to figure out where to cut back.

    Buddies on
  • oldsakoldsak Registered User regular
    ANYWAY! For the OP, I highly suggest signing up to myfitnesspal.com and start tracking exactly what you are eating in a day. It will calculate about how many calories you need to eat in a day to lose weight safely (for the record, unless you are significantly overweight, 2 lbs per week is apparently the usual safe limit, although the first week you'll usually lose more just in water weight). Eat healthier too. Green veggies are really low in calorie and will be what fills you up.

    Then, cardio. Running/swimming/rowing/bicycling/etc. Myfitnesspal will be able to track that as well as estimating the amount of calories burned.

    That's what I used when I lost ~30 lbs. Set a weight/time goal and figure out your lbs/week and calories/day accordingly. Personally, I found it helpful to be really strict with diet and exercise during the work week (being on a regular schedule helps) and slacking during the weekend.

  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    Though it's definitely not a path to health, just weight loss, you can probably get to your target weight purely through counting calories. Talk to your doctor or a nutritionist and ask them how many calories you should have each day, then track your intake. Try not to go over, and also don't go too far under. Exercise would be great for your overall health (and I'm definitely recommending you do exercise), but will probably not affect your weight as much as being conscious and careful about your diet.

  • CrumbCrumb Registered User regular
    Draken50 wrote: »
    I'm about 5'11'' And I started the year around 240 lbs. I'm down to about 200 now. The key thing for me was a change of diet. I'd highly recommend looking at the paleo diet. Basically Fruit, Vegtables, Meat, nuts and such. I saw pretty good results and I'm still losing and I haven't felt like I've been suffering foodwise. Might be worth a look for you.

    This isn't terrible advice. An easy way to at least get yourself started is following the whole30 challenge http://whole9life.com/2012/01/whole-30-v2012/. I'm not suggesting you stick with it beyond that initial 30 days, but it is a great program for starting to eat better and getting over the hump of cravings for foods that are not good for you. If you follow their outline (which is free) I can assure you that you will lose weight and feel better on a day-to-day basis. After the challenge is over it's sort of up to you to either stick with it or to start adding things back into your diet. For example, I don't shun bread and pasta, but I also don't eat it regularly any more. Outside of that you're going to have to force yourself to exercise. There is just no way around it. Once you get on a schedule of exercise -> work or work -> exercise and cut out the nasty stuff you'll drop weight pretty rapidly.

  • Arson WellesArson Welles Registered User regular
    I agree with the BMI being not a great way to measure your correct weight.

    In this picture, I'm 180 pounds, and I'm only about 5'11.
    skinny.jpg

    BMI says I am overweight, but I am pretty rail thin there. Since then, I have put on a ton of weight, but I'm slowly working it off.

    What has worked for me so far was The Four Hour Body. It has a lot of options, from just losing weight to working out, and I've managed to shed 30 pounds so far. I have thirty left for my ideal weight, but I'm still working on it.

  • SebbieSebbie Registered User regular
    wonderpug wrote: »
    B) Enter your info on The Daily Plate, set a pounds per week weight loss goal, and start tracking what you eat. Or use myfitnesspal.com, whatever.

    This site has been such a huge help for me. I'm 5'11 (and 3/4!!!!!) and was about 205 lbs before I got on a stricter diet than my eat-whatever-the-fuck-I-want diet. The myplate feature on that site really helps you put things into perspective because it breaks down your calories per meal and shows you information such as a protein/carbs/fat pie chart. I went down to about 170 lbs before I stopped counting every day. I'm now 182 but I started counting again a few weeks ago after letting myself go for a year or so.

    Anyway, everyone will tell you that the key to success is a healthier diet and exercising but if you're just going to count calories that site will help.

    I'd like to also add that "counting calories" sounds like such a chore but it gets really easy and after a while you can kind of tell how much you're consuming. If you're like me, you'll also find that you can eat quite a bit of food and still be under your calorie goal, you just have to shake off the bad habits of eating a handful of whatever you find as you walk by the kitchen :)

    Good luck!

    "It's funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating."
  • wonderpugwonderpug Registered User regular
    I found that tracking my food on the Daily Plate was cumbersome and counterproductive when I used it to calculate how much I was "allowed" to eat before each meal. Much better when I just tried my best to eat right and then used Daily Plate as a reality check at the end of the day, so I can calibrate my concept of appropriate portions as I go.

    Some of the "ah ha!" moments I gained by using Daily Plate
    • The bleu cheese dressing I was dipping my buffalo wings in was far more calorie-heavy than the deep fried wings themselves. (not that I'm advocating deep fried chicken wings as healthy food)
    • I hadn't realized what a gigantic calorie difference there was between bagels and english muffins.
    • I was amazed at how many healthy-seeming restaurant menu options turned out to be as bad or worse than
      some of the options that looked like indulgences
    • How much even a single soda or beer a day can contribute to your weekly calorie surplus
    • omg those Hanover Pretzel Pieces are not in any way shape or form the 'light snack' I previously thought them to be. Might as well eat a Cinnabon.

  • Metal JesusMetal Jesus Registered User regular
    I wanna throw my endorsement over to a free app called MyFitnessPal. I use it on the iPad & iPhone to track nutritional info and calories, plus any exercise you might do. What's great is that it uses the camera built into your iPad/iPhone to scan barcodes so you don't need to look most things up.

    For me, it was all about portion control, as I am 6 foot 4 and weighed 240lbs and I love food & beer way too much. After about 3~4 months, I have now lost 38 lbs, which feels about right. No crazy diets... just understanding what goes into my body a bit more.

  • CangoFettCangoFett Registered User regular
    Myfitnesspal is the reason I found out the avocado vinaigrette dressing on my salad had more calories than half a sirloin steak.

  • KillgrimageKillgrimage Registered User regular
    Okay, weight loss. I've been on a lot of diets, but the one the one that is working well for me now is one my doc recommended to me called HMR. It's food replacement (think Jenny Craig) but it's medically monitored and I have to go to the clinic every week and get blood drawn etc etc. It's working better than WW and will hopefully get me down to a reasonable weight. Now, I'm obese, so I don't think this drastic measure is necessary for you. BUT the thing that they have really taught me is that you are at your most vulnerable when you are hungry. So, ironically, the way to lose weight is to keep yourself full...but full with good foods, not crap. Foods that are high in water, high in fiber, lots of "bulk" and nutrients, these foods will fill you up but not add a lot of calories. So you can eat and eat and eat but there is no way you are going to get to 3K of calories on like, asparagus, or strawberries or whatever.

    I always rolled my eyes when people say "eat more healthy foods," but I wasn't really thinking about the reason behind it. If you can get yourself to a full state with good stuff, that's really going to crowd out any junk. So for you, what I would try is to eat as much fruits and veggies and lean meats as possible. Once you are full, you won't want those potato chips or ice cream so bad. You can also up your activity, but if you try this first you might not even have to. You only have like, 20-40 lbs to lose. Males in my group meeting have been consistently 10lbs a week and historically in my experience, men lose weight much faster than women do.

  • WiseManTobesWiseManTobes Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    Your job, is it mostly sitting, and does it give the odd little wait/delays? I work computers myself, and been getting a gut from it myself. I've started looking into exercise's that I can do a few reps of while waiting for a large file save, an upload, or a simple reboot, I have those delays 10-15 times a day.

    This is one I was shown recently, and the burn from just doing 10-15 during a waiting at desk delay is very very noticable.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPSVpo4mzNI

    It's good to get some movement and such when stuck during your downtime, or else it's more of a shock to the body when you bust out the exercise's after a long shift of downtime.

    WiseManTobes on
    Steam! Battlenet:Wisemantobes#1508
  • EgoEgo Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    Try adding the following to your routine:

    three sets of fifteen push-ups (start with angle-push-ups if you can't pull this off, which shouldn't embarrass you since like 80% of people can't do a single push-up anyhow.)
    three sets of fifteen squats
    three sets of fifteen sit-ups

    It's super, super easy, takes very little time at all and everyone I've convinced to try it is amazed at how much of a difference it makes. It also does quite a good job of building up basic core strength for people who've never really worked out, and gives you a jumping point for further exercise.

    Frankly I wouldn't recommend pharmaceuticals for weight loss but if you're going to go that route, go with what we know works: an ECA stack (look it up on wikipedia, but basically several daily doses of ephedrine (or pseudoephedrine in the states --twice the side effects, half the results,) caffeine, and aspirin per day.) Which you will need to buy separately, because when put together the product is now banned from sale in North America on account of the strokes and heart attacks people using it sometimes had.

    The 'herbal' weight loss shit you buy will, at best, be an ECA stack made out of 'natural' components that have ephedrine/caffeine/aspirin. Except dosing is really inexact in herbal shit. So if that's the route you're taking just buy the proper pharmaceutical components and put them together yourself.

    Ego on
    Erik
  • ProkFrProkFr Phoenix, AZRegistered User new member
    Funny I'm close to your stats (5'8" and also 28) I weigh about 10 pounds less and think I'm pretty normal. If you have a gut I would say exercise and eat healthy. I do smoke but I am trying to quit. But genetics play a factor too (my older brother eats less than me and yet he appears thicker dunno why).

  • ZYIZYI Registered User new member
    My nutritionist says to eat smaller meals more times a day every 4 hours, she also says to make sure you eat a carb and a protein, never one without the other. She also recommended that I try to do excersize 5 days a week. It can be anything you like to do, I walk my dog to the mailbox (which is clear across our apt complex and has a steep hill) and I also do wii active2. I love the wii active2 it's got many activities and most of them are fun. If you have very little time I would suggest WA2 because you can pick how long you want to excersize and it tracks your progress. I've noticed that after the small adjustment in my diet and doing more movement (I caregive for my Grandmother so my life is pretty sedimentary) I have felt better and I want to do more. It takes a while to kick in but after a while you will notice. These are the things that are helping me.

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