My humblebrag regarding weight loss

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! Did a great job to drop the weight. To maintain a lifelong sustainable diet, I think you’ll need to add lean protein: poultry, seafood, eggs. Your diet is way too carby for me, but obviously was right for you. Great job.

[Anonymous]

I notice that when mentioning your diet, you mention:

banana + water
fried egg with salt and pepper
potentially leftovers but usually celery + hummus
fruit
nuts

What about dinner? That does not seem like anywhere near enough calories for a person doing any kind of workout. It definitely would not be enough food for me. Did you forget to mention a meal, or were you legit starving yourself for that whole time? If the latter, are you planning on introducing meals again at some point?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations on the weight loss!!!

Now cut down your fruit consumption and snacking and eat real meals. You are keeping your blood sugar elevated all day long (especially with fruit which is full of fructose). Yes, you will lose weight short term eating fruit but keeping your insulin levels up like that daily is bad for you. Plus, fructose goes straight to the liver and makes you store fat.

Just food for thought (pun intended).

This makes sense. I am currently trying to transition from weight loss to weight maintenance and I'm not entirely sure how to do it. As I've told a few people, I have lots of experience gaining weight, and now quite a bit of experience losing weight, but I don't have any experience maintaining my weight.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Nice! I started just after Thanksgiving and have lost about 5 pounds so far. I'm now on a 30 waist jeans from 31. I'm a male 5'7 and about 167 so still more to go.

My issue is having enough time to exercise. How many minutes per day do you devote to it? I can barely get 30 minutes in.

I have definitely had an easier time scheduling workouts than most people because I work from home and work for myself. The time that most people spend commuting, I can spend exercising. I've been very lucky that way.

These days I'm more focused on calories than time, but the number of calories I target normally takes at least 100 minutes and frequently over 130. By focusing on HIIT, the time can be reduced radically, but you shouldn't do that every day.

[Anonymous]

WOW! Congrats!

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I love how technology plays an important role! Now that's an inspiring cover story. The tech behind the curtain of Dcum using tech for other Q of life. Where is Sports Illustrated and Wired and all those reporters looking for a scoop?!

One other bit of technology that has had an important role is RunSocial (https://www.runsocial.com). This is a program that runs on iOS and Androids that shows a life-like running course. The avatars of other runners using the program show up as well, so you feel like you are running in the real world with real people. We have a television in our exercise room and I display RunSocial on it, getting a big screen view. The program controls our treadmill (it works with several brands), registering the speed at which you are running and automatically raising and lowering the incline based on the terrain. I normally run the Japan 5K. In the beginning, everyone was passing me but now I pass about half the people (still get left in the dust by many others).

The program can also be used on an iPad with a non-supported treadmill if you set the speed on the program manually.

[Anonymous]

That is an amazing loss. But be careful of messing up your metabolism with going from what I assume was overeating to what you are doing now which is absolutely undereating. You need to find a balance so that you can maintain it as a lifestyle. Anyone who has lost a lot of weight will tell you that. It’s about the long game!

[Anonymous]

Fantastic! Congratulations!

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I notice that when mentioning your diet, you mention:

banana + water
fried egg with salt and pepper
potentially leftovers but usually celery + hummus
fruit
nuts

What about dinner? That does not seem like anywhere near enough calories for a person doing any kind of workout. It definitely would not be enough food for me. Did you forget to mention a meal, or were you legit starving yourself for that whole time? If the latter, are you planning on introducing meals again at some point?

Dinner is basically gone unless there is something special going on. Yes, scientifically I probably shouldn't have been able to survive this diet. I actually quit using MyFitnessPal for a while because everyday it gave me a warning that I wasn't eating enough and I got tired of hearing that. While my calorie intake was definitely low, I wouldn't say that I was starving myself. By eating a bit of fruit or some cashews whenever I felt hungry, I kept hunger pangs to a minimum. Also, constantly drinking water helped (which also kept me running to the bathroom which helped mean my stand goal). I found it very helpful to stay away from food. I work from home and having a kitchen full of food -- especially one in which other family members are constantly getting food from -- was a real aggravation. But, I have a home office and as long as I stayed in their, I didn't have so many food distractions.

One thing for which I don't have an explanation is that I didn't have a single day on which I felt fatigued, tired, or low energy. I kept thinking that so few calories would make me tired, but it never happened. In general, I've slept great as well.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:That is an amazing loss. But be careful of messing up your metabolism with going from what I assume was overeating to what you are doing now which is absolutely undereating. You need to find a balance so that you can maintain it as a lifestyle. Anyone who has lost a lot of weight will tell you that. It’s about the long game!

Yep, that's my current focus.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, you can get some of your clothes altered to fit you. My dry cleaner also does alterations, and I know she has at least one guy who comes in to get his pants altered when he loses weight.

[Anonymous]

Great job, and glad you shared it. Well done!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I notice that when mentioning your diet, you mention:

banana + water
fried egg with salt and pepper
potentially leftovers but usually celery + hummus
fruit
nuts

What about dinner? That does not seem like anywhere near enough calories for a person doing any kind of workout. It definitely would not be enough food for me. Did you forget to mention a meal, or were you legit starving yourself for that whole time? If the latter, are you planning on introducing meals again at some point?

Dinner is basically gone unless there is something special going on. Yes, scientifically I probably shouldn't have been able to survive this diet. I actually quit using MyFitnessPal for a while because everyday it gave me a warning that I wasn't eating enough and I got tired of hearing that. While my calorie intake was definitely low, I wouldn't say that I was starving myself. By eating a bit of fruit or some cashews whenever I felt hungry, I kept hunger pangs to a minimum. Also, constantly drinking water helped (which also kept me running to the bathroom which helped mean my stand goal). I found it very helpful to stay away from food. I work from home and having a kitchen full of food -- especially one in which other family members are constantly getting food from -- was a real aggravation. But, I have a home office and as long as I stayed in their, I didn't have so many food distractions.

One thing for which I don't have an explanation is that I didn't have a single day on which I felt fatigued, tired, or low energy. I kept thinking that so few calories would make me tired, but it never happened. In general, I've slept great as well.

I think you defied laws of nature due to grit, determination, good mental attitude, adrenaline, etc. You powered through hunger and fatigue. Which is a fantastic jump start. You know you need to start eating a more balanced diet — so add that slowly back to your healthy diet routine. I think your positive attitude is key. Wishing you continued good health. Oh, and be sure to see your PCP.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on the weight loss!!!

Now cut down your fruit consumption and snacking and eat real meals. You are keeping your blood sugar elevated all day long (especially with fruit which is full of fructose). Yes, you will lose weight short term eating fruit but keeping your insulin levels up like that daily is bad for you. Plus, fructose goes straight to the liver and makes you store fat.

Just food for thought (pun intended).

I notice that when mentioning your diet, you mention:

banana + water
fried egg with salt and pepper
potentially leftovers but usually celery + hummus
fruit
nuts

What about dinner? That does not seem like anywhere near enough calories for a person doing any kind of workout. It definitely would not be enough food for me. Did you forget to mention a meal, or were you legit starving yourself for that whole time? If the latter, are you planning on introducing meals again at some point?

I'm highlighting both of these posts because I disagree with one and agree with the other. Snacking through the day, "keeping insulin up", isn't really an issue if your overall calories are very low. On a very calorie restricted diets, you don't really have to worry too much about macros at all -- VLC diets solve all those problems. IME and it seems in Jeff's experience too, the easiest, most straightforward way to lose weight, is to stop eating. When you reach your goal weight, then you go back to eating the right amount of food -- not too much and not too little.

I lost weight last summer by not eating and have maintained since then by returning to a normal diet, eating the proper amount of food in reasonable, moderate macros.

Great weight loss, Jeff!

[Anonymous]

I LOVED reading this, and thank you for outlining what you did! I identify with closing rings, being in a "competition" only with yourself. It doesn't surprise me that technology was/is your friend with this. Again, and truly inspiration story.

FWIW, I don't think your diet sounds bad at all. Agreed, that is a lot of berries, but they are great for you. Maybe find a way to make vegetables more exciting?

You cut out sweets, which is great. I am not a sweets person (savory, cheese, etc. is my thing.) Every now and again though, I get a craving. I have done this:

Blend pitted dates, sliced almonds, and coconut in a food processor
Add a little water to make it a paste
Roll the paste into balls, then roll then in coconut
Put balls in freezer

They are AWESOME, and you are getting natural sugar from fruit, and protein from the nuts. It truly tastes like candy. One ball will do the trick. (There is a joke somewhere here.)

Thanks for sharing. Keep on keepin on.