My humblebrag regarding weight loss

[Anonymous]

My only comment is that as someone who has struggled with this before, it sounds like you are sliding into disordered eating. This is the downside of tracking every single calorie in and calorie out and then getting competitive with it.

I'd think about sustaining for awhile and learning how to eat normally. Not just fruit and nuts all day long. That is NOT an ok diet. As your My Fitness Pal was alerting you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My only comment is that as someone who has struggled with this before, it sounds like you are sliding into disordered eating. This is the downside of tracking every single calorie in and calorie out and then getting competitive with it.

I'd think about sustaining for awhile and learning how to eat normally. Not just fruit and nuts all day long. That is NOT an ok diet. As your My Fitness Pal was alerting you.

I think I agree with this. Jeff, you mentioned that you want information about how to transition. Great time to talk to a nutritionist. Adding fish, lean meats, etc. would be beneficial perhaps. I like what the other poster said about thinking "Long Game." You want to stay healthy so you age well. Perhaps not your case, but you can be skinny, and unhealthy, which won't do you favors as you get older.

If you haven't already, I would get a full blood work up to make sure everything is in balance.

And, I loved reading your story!

[Anonymous]

Good work. It’s proof that exercise really does matter. Of course diet makes a difference, but a lot of people on this board completely discount the value of exercise. Here’s to many happy, healthy years for you.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

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.

In my experience, you have to weigh yourself daily. When you’re up on the scale, you cut back. You should be able to figure about how much you can eat/not exercise without gaining weight.

I weigh myself daily and this keeps me within 3-4 pounds, including when I’m having my period and put on water weight. Once I’m up 3 pounds I know I need to signriciantky cut back and get back on track.

It sounds like a bit much but I find it’s what it takes to stay thin when we are constantly around food and we have to fit in exercise with busy schedules. It’s pretty similar to checking your bank account balance daily when you’re watching your money. If you notice you’re dipping too low, you make sure and not spend too much, right?

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!! Awesome job.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

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.

Mind blown. This allllmost makes me want to start running. I do other sports but this kind of running "socially" seems very revolutionary to me, given the problem with the stereotypical sedentary "lonely" gamers. This is such a fun solution.

[Anonymous]

So cool to see your post, Jeff! I’m a DCUM original (an OG lol) from all the way back to 2001. Congrats on the weight loss and fitness accomplishments!

[Anonymous]

Way to go!

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the weight loss!

As you’re learning to maintain weight, I suggest you consider trying the RP Strength Healthy Living templates: https://renaissanceperiodization.com/shop/healthy-diet-templates/

I have used RPs performance templates to lose and gain weight for a sport, and have been really happy with the healthy version for just maintaining weight. It is not tracking macros, it is very easy after a week or two, and it has a normal and low carb option so you can eat how you feel is best for your body, while avoiding or repairing metabolic damage. It’s been great for me and my DH (currently making his way from 250lb to 185lb).

[Anonymous]

Jeff, excellent job re: weight loss. You have amazing will power. I also though will shout out to the person who mentioned disordered eating, only because it might be difficult to maintain your health on that diet.

I mention this because at the point in my life when I was most aware of how fat I was, and then how fat I had been and wasn't anymore, I was also at my most unhealthy, due to my extremely restricted diet.

15 years post that extreme diet, I have all kinds of extreme vitamin deficiencies.

I'm not a dietitian and cannot comment (and wouldn't try) with authority on your diet. I'm just saying to please run it by a professional and get feedback, to stay healthy.

[Anonymous]

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).

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!

For weight loss if may not be important but studies have shown that if you keep your Insulin levels up (blood sugar above 90 most of the time) it’s akin to being diabetic (even though you’re not) and it can lead to health issues.

[Anonymous]

Congrats Jeff. Thanks for sharing our story. You've showed that there is no easy fix for losing weight. It's calories in/calories out. No fads or diets of the month. So many people on DCUM are constantly asking for quick and easy ways to lose weight. They should all be directed to your post.

[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.

Did you, by chance, use phentermine? I know that was a really hot topic in the fall. I just cannot imagine how you could eat so few calories yet never feel fatigued or lacking in energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For weight loss if may not be important but studies have shown that if you keep your Insulin levels up (blood sugar above 90 most of the time) it’s akin to being diabetic (even though you’re not) and it can lead to health issues.

Small snacks don't really keep insulin up and restricted calorie diets improve insulin sensitivity in those who are insulin resistant.

Very low calorie diets are short term, though. Returning to a normal diet and maintaining is the next challenge. Jeff has shown will power. He'll make it happen.