Posted on 01/04/2008 1:53:30 PM PST by neverdem
Portion control and exercise are your friends........
Let me tell you something few people realize — Fat is an organ and will defend its position and mass. It even produces its own hormones. Losing weight requires cutting carbs and exercise and no carbs ingested after 4 pm. Eat hearty in the morning and sparingly in the evening and never at night.
Smoking worked pretty good for me. I never weighed over 190 when I smoked and was usually at about 180. Got up to 220 when I quit. Back down to 200 now (6’4”).
Interesting. Dieticians could not place why I am so overweight and yet this one line describes what would be one of the hardest things I could ever try.
1. Exercise is the morning is probably better for you than exercise in the evening. It helps you get a head start in the morning, and speeds up your metabolism for the entire day. Imagine going to work in the morning feeling like you don't need a dose of caffeine.
2. The single most important factor in weight loss may very well be SLEEP. Your metabolism will slow down if you don't get a good night's sleep every night -- and by this I mean enough sleep that you can wake up without an alarm. And whatever a "full night" means to you in terms of sleep should always be within the night itself -- not when the sun is up. Sleeping eight hours from midnight to 8 AM is less effective than sleeping six hours from 10 PM to 4 AM.
I lost 40 pounds in the last seven months. I did this by giving up fast food and most processed foods, and I quit drinking 4-6 Cokes a day (now I only drink carbonated water). The wake-up call was when I was carded for alcohol and almost turned downed because the clerk thought I was using someone else’s ID. My face was a lot skinnier in my driver’s license photo. Now I’m happy with my weight of 200 at 6’1”. The BMI charts claim that is overweight, but it seems to be the natural weight for me, as I’ve weighed around 200 since I was 16 and have never been obese (except for that brief period mentioned above).
It couldn't be more simple.
But how much are you eating? More importantly, how much are you burning? You can vaguely estimate the former, you can no more than guess at the latter.
I’ve heard it said “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinner to stay thin.”
Those of us that work from 9 to whenever have the most trouble with this...but I've heard that too.
I'm on a weight-loss plan now that's just based on reasonable portions and somewhat better food choices, nothing insane, no tofu or flashy workouts...just common sense. We'll see how it works.
heh - I wake up after 4 to 4 1/2 hours every night. However, many times those hours are in the daylight.
2. Enough sleep to not need an alarm? I've heard that and tried it, but I sleep so erraticly anymore it's all but impossible. Even if I 'sleep in' I usually wake up due to the cats or just not being comfortable in bed anymore.
heh - I wake up after 4 to 4 1/2 hours every night. However, many times those hours are in the daylight.
“Sleeping eight hours from midnight to 8 AM is less effective than sleeping six hours from 10 PM to 4 AM.”
Do you have a source for this?
I seriously understand the sleep thing re: daylight, but to do that in the summer, I’d have to basically do this:
Get up
Work
Come home
Go straight to bed
Get up
Work
Come home
Go straight to bed
Yeah, I've learned to ignore the BMI charts. They seem off. Even in the Army, they did it on bodyfat based on their weight guidelines.
Diets don’t keep the weight off because folks go back to the habits that made them fat to begin with.
It requires a change of lifestyle. Moving more, eating less still works - but it only keeps it off if you ‘diet’ for the rest of your life.
Lost 25 pounds over 5 years and am now holding steady...because I’m not willing to change my lifestyle. I’m already running/exercising as much as my time reasonably permits, and I don’t want to cut back on eating any more than I have.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.