You can however, still enjoy sugar as long as you stay within the proper level of caloric intake. Is it good for you? No. But you will continue to lose weight as long as you are under your maintenance level of calories. Most sugary products just add extra empty calories that make it harder to stay under the appropriate level of calories in order to lose weight. You can however still enjoy them as long as you take it into account when calculating your macros for the day.
But as to the OP's question. I feel SOOOOOO much better being in shape now and having muscle. I don't eat perfect. I cheat often and as long as you keep track of it you will be fine. I went from 145-150 lbs. a year ago, to being 170 lbs. today. I have put on significant amounts of muscle and I just want more and more. I can say that I will never go back to being a lazy scrawny (or fat) person again. I just want more and more. Once you get started you will love the results and keep working to get more gains!
the brain runs more efficiently on ketone bodies derived from fat http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...-brain-ketones but I digress...
What kinds of foods are you planning on eating? (no need to count calories if they are the right stuff)
PS nothing tastes as good as the feeling you get from knowing that you look good.
You can't really know how it'll feel unless you lose the weight, maybe for you, losing the possibilty to eat w/e you like any time is not a pleasant life and it doesn't compare to the more energetic you will feel. You will feel more energetic though, that I can promise since I'm like the worst dieter when it comes to keeping the weight off, so I know the difference from experience :P.
In a few years time I went starting from my max (I am 1m.93), 112, to 80, up to 98, then to 80, to 93, to 80 and now 88 again so it's time to start again (this takes like a half year to a year to gain and 1/2 months to lose) (that's bad I know but /care) and I must say you feel an awful lot better when you're in great shape, the problem for me is the food I can eat gives me an equally good feeling(or even better) up until a certain weight when feeling less energized+ having worse looks starts to bother me(and being in (or even looking for) a relationship at that time makes that certain weight much lower), when I gain too much I start to feel a lot more tired and slow (can't really explain the feeling, way less energetic in everything) than I am at 80kgs so that is when I start going to the gym, etc etc again. Which is extremely boring for me to do so when I hit 80 I give up and start to stuff myself again I do have the discipline to lose the weight when I want, I just don't want to all the time since I can't live without the delicious food.
So right now, I don't really have to choose and am alternating between both eating/being overweight and being on a normal weight, would I need to really choose though I'd choose being in shape, because in the end, nothing beats feeling double the energy you would've had otherwise (And looking way, way better of course). I am actually lowering the weight gain already, going to the gym earlier to slowly but steadyly staying at a low weight
Think about it this way;
When someone asks you to do a chore and you jump up to help because you have the energy of 3 times your old self, instead of feeling shitty and being too lazy to respond will ultimately get you further in life on a personal and social level.
Or think about when you see kids running in the street and you get tired just looking at them and you think to yourself, "wow when we were little we could just run, jump, roll, climb and never get tired", well although that feeling never comes back, you can get a lot closer to that feeling.
Last edited by Outofmana; 2013-06-23 at 07:04 AM.
Well I can relate OP, last year I weighed in at 275lbs(120kgs I believe?) in january of 2012 and then I git the gym for a solid year and dropped to 250lbs but I bulked up a lot. Now come this year I had a 4 month period where I made a decision to leave school and learn on my own and it went badly for 4 months so I stopped going to gym and became depressed and now I'm at 260lbs again. But nonetheless things turned around in April this year for me with my new job and I find the job fun for me and I've picked it up very fast and have even been applying my programming background to my job (IT/repairs/networks/some small servers) and have now got back in full gear to programming as a hobby again.
Well I have this weekend begun cutting out all sugary beverages and am sticking to water then I plan to drop all "white" bread and chips etc. to only have a small amount of good carbs (such as wheat bread etc.) and lots of veggies and meat! Honestly I'm happy to be teaching myself coding more now as I did a lot last year and am now in the swing of things again. Also to add to that I'm happy as shit with my new job, I love troubleshooting problems and coming up with solutions, it's what I find I'm best at. Now it's time to tackle my weight problem and get down to 200lbs! I wish you the best of luck as well
It feels good, that's for sure. It's a huge confidence booster and it also changes the way people perceive you. Plus the ladies love some muscle. Anyway.. losing weight is the easy part. Staying fit afterwards is hard.
I started by quitting all wheat and flour after reading Wheat Belly, and lost 12 lbs in the first month. I also had a lot more energy and didn't feel those hunger pangs every 3-4 hours that go with wheat.
PS whole wheat bread and whole grain anything are also garbage carbs, based on the glycemic index. it's all equivalent to sugar.
True but I'm basically going High Fat/Protein with Low Carb, by eating wheat I mean a very small amount of some form of carbs. As in a piece of Whole grain wheat bread or rice etc. Personally it's soda that kills me, once that's cut I drop weight fast and cutting the carbs is to help with my energy level throughout the day.
At my healthiest, I got to the point where all of the foods I wanted to eat were good for me. The trick was to find a lot of healthy foods that I actually liked so that I wouldn't feel like I was depriving myself of the junk food that I used to eat every now and then. It's definitely a great feeling when you're fit, enjoy all the food that you eat, and can pretty much eat as much of it as you want.
Btw, I don't really consider 1 pound a week to be "all in" or "a lot." You should probably be going for 2 pounds a week at least if you really have time to lose the weight. (Don't go over 3-4.)
Being healthy feels great. When a person is healthy they will sweat less, can do more physical activity, and look good. People are nicer to healthy people. Being healthy lets people know your responsible and intelligent.
The 2000 calories is a out of date requirement for active people. Food has changed since then, 2000 calories of today processed food will leave you hungry and fat. But your diet of 2400 calories is a lot of calories for even a active person. If you live a sedentary lifestyle you should cut that back to 1000 calories. A sedentary lifestyle is one where the person does not spend 8 hours a day standing and at least 4 hours moving. Because you are fat now it is safe to assume that you live a sedentary lifestyle. If you are unsure then just assume you do and cut back to 1000 calories a day. Only eat real food. Food that grown from the ground or been alive at one point and that has remained relatively unchanged since that point. This would included chicken and oatmeal. Do not eat processed foods like microwaveable meals. Do not eat fast food. Fast food and most processed foods are not food but instead a food like product. Do not drink anything but water and no calorie juice. Follow this and you will lose weight. I have solved the great mystery of how to lose weight. All hail my skinny ass.
gw2 is a great game
I'm the best possible reference point to say yes it does. I was overweight/obese all through my teenage years into my mid-twenties. I then lost about 60kg, got down to under 100kg for the first time in a decade and felt completely different.
There's so many benefits you don't consciously think of. Moving around is easier. You sleep better because the weight's not effecting your breathing when you're asleep, so you sleep better and are more clear-headed during the day. Your mood improves. Your blood pressure improves. Those little cost/benefit ratio things we fat people do when we want (rather than need) to go up a flight of stairs for something: They evaporate. Your whole life changes.
Inversely, when you put it back on like I did (due to medical circumstances not entirely in my control, but I won't go into that) you get a much bigger picture of what you've lost. Sure puts it in perspective.
Also, one final note: I've been tempted after doing it the right way the first time, i.e. moderate sustained exercise and portion-controlled eating, to take a shortcut to get back there. Feeling like I've done the work once already. My advice: Don't. Stay away from shake diets and fad diets. They are brutal, sap your emotional energy and motivation and have a really low success rate. Do it right and do it slow, even if you just change one thing in your diet. Steer clear of the quick fixes. I've been down that road.
---------- Post added 2013-06-23 at 01:41 PM ----------
Good points there about the real food. Unprocessed carbs and heaps of protein are great for you.
BUT: Ignore that part about 1000 calories. That's getting dangerously close to putting your body in a metabolic state known as ketosis, where your body starts burning its fat stores. That's not always good if you're not doing it properly though as sometimes your body will go into full-on starvation mode and back on every bit of food you consume as fat. Think bear in late summer.
Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.
In some ways, yes. In others, no.
If you've been overweight and work hard at being thin you will obviously feel lighter on your feet, breath more easily and people will probably treat you better. However, psychologically, you might never think you're good enough, you're constantly worried about what you eat and drink and may become obsessed with staying fit. Not to mention if people treat you better because you're thinner then they are probably wankers that you shouldn't be associating with - being overweight helps cut the chaff from your social life.
Ultimately its a personal thing. Some people are comfortable being big, others constantly wish they could put weight on. Its up to the individual.
Well its great. Then again I have always been an "athlet" and been doing stuff my whole life. If you go to the gym like lets say monday, wednsday, friday after a while you will get addicted to it.
But 2400 is still A LOT of food. If you mean "eat what you want" is candy bars 24/7 or often pizza, burgers for dinner then I guess not. I eat on saturday like chips(but usually different peanuts as its good and healtier with proteins) and shit maybe some other day too but its still so much calories in that stuff so u cant really eat much else after anyway. If you do.. then I dont know. But ye 2400 is a lot
But I dont drink drinks with suger. I just cant do it anymore. I hate the feeling you get in the mouth when u do. Its like you have coat of suger on your teeth and tounge. I drink carbonated water that have taste, love that!
But I have never really been a big eater. Im in a "bulking" peroid while training hard to go from 76kg to 80kg. Still I dont want to get those 4kg in like 1 month as that would be like only fat lol. Maybe 2-3 months.
Last edited by mmocbc4c51efd3; 2013-06-23 at 01:56 PM.
Unfortunately fitness and health has become a time consuming luxury. If you can't easily afford the all including costs and have the spare time needed then you'll most likely fail, simple as that. It's true that motivation is key but when you work 10-14 hours/day for minimum/normal wage then it's no longer realistic, not in terms of economy and not in terms of spare time.
This is the costs and time tables I encountered when trying to get and stay in shape.
Gym: 3x Week, each workout about 1 hours 20 minutes long. Transportation to the gym took 30min each way (By bike). That's 7 hours a week of just focusing on the workout. My gym membership (like many others) was a 1 year contract, it costs about $80/month, there's no backing out of these contracts. So that's $80 for 16 hours at the gym every month for a minimum of 1 year. That's pretty expensive and yet this was the cheapest membership available, no benefits included at all.
Food: Breakfast, midday-snack, lunch, dinner and supper. This is where it got expensive. Spent about $20-30 and 2 hours of preparing/cooking every single day. Both time and money flies straight out the window. $1000/month in food & gym, and combined several days of preparing/working out/transportation each month.
Getting in shape and more importantly staying in shape is not a side track in your life, it's not a hobby, it's an entire life style of it's own.
Be prepared to overhaul your life and your economical priorities, because if you ain't rich this will be where ALL your time and money goes to.
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So to answer your question, does it feel good to be in shape? If you're interested(Think it's fun) in physical activities and the good health lifestyle then absolutely, this will be a wonderful experience for you. If you're a tiny bit like me; a tad lazy, like to relax and philosophizing about all the questions in the universe, nope, just don't. It's not worth the time or money in my opinion. But do try it before you turn this side of life away.
One thing I noticed was that after I had been working out for a while, I started to feel like my arms were actually craving for me to do it more. Drives me crazy on cheat day.
It starts to feel really great though.
I've been on both ends both physically fit / athletic and also overweight. For me it's easier and more enjoyable to be overweight. I'm not saying get so fat you can't move, but being able to eat what you want and instead of spending a couple hours everyday in the gym I find other things more enjoyable.
Ketosis has much more to do with carb intake than caloric intake, though. That having been said, I would not advocate going from 2400 calories a day to 1000 calories, at least not immediately. 1500 is probably a good goal to aim for, assuming average levels of activity.
Last edited by Shrouded; 2013-06-23 at 02:45 PM.
Ehm, before I ate 2900 calories a day, so going from 2900 to 2400 is a good improvement. :P 1500, 1000, they are all going overkill and I do not want that.