Damaramu

So what happens if I stay at 1200 a day? Will I stop losing weight? Because I certainly don't want that, but I'm in love with the way I'm losing weight! Haha. Getting 2,000 is hard for me right now.

Well what I'm doing right now seems to be working. Can't argue with 13 pounds in a bit over two weeks.

Like how many calories did you eat for lunch usually? I know you said to follow serving sizes and keep a sandwich around say 300 calories. But, is that all you ate? Because I've been counting my lunch and dinner calories. I'm typically getting around 600 calories at each meal. So usually throughout the day I'm getting about 1200 calories. Maybe 1350 if I eat oatmeal for breakfast. 1500 if I eat a snack at some point. So I'm low on calories still. It's hard to eat more. But, I have cheated on the weekend. So I think the calories I consume then probably make-up for the lack of calories here. I wonder how much the low-carb actually matters in fat loss? I've had people say "Well you need to limit your carbs. If you eat too many then you won't burn fat or calories when you workout. Just carbs." And then they want me to keep my carbs around like 30 a day. That seems really low. Of course these are the same people that propose a high-fat diet and tell me I need to be eating food soaked in olive oil and stuff glazed with almond butter and make sure I get plenty of high fat meats. Because they say the higher the fat content, the more weight you'll lose. That seems counter-productive. Oh well, I guess if I'm not taking in too many calories at lunch (like i said around 600-650) then I'm ok with what I'm eating. I figure when I get the fat off and if I'm unhappy with my muscle then I'll add a protein shake for extra protein and calories. For now I'm just going to continue to eat low low calories everyday. Unless you think it may hamper my weight loss. Then again I think the starvation effect sets in when you only eat like 500 calories a day.

Tyler, you said when you started you were fat right? So how were you running 8 miles at a time? When I go for a jog now I can keep up a jog for about a half mile then I have to walk until I catch my breath and my legs stop burning. It takes me like an hour to get through 3.5-4 miles off a treadmill because I get tired so easily. I don't even know if I'd have time to pound out 8 miles. How did you do it?

Don't the Trailblazers lead the league in 4th quarter comebacks?

Scandal~! Seriously I saw some Cavs fans at the ESPN boards claiming the NBA is out to get Lebron and the Cavs. So they got it right. Good for them.

Well, I've lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. My wife has lost 9. Just watching what I eat has helped tremendously. Of course the CF nazi's still don't think I can lose weight and have a nice physique if I don't eat strictly paleo. I mean something about the way they all latch onto that diet and act like every other way of eating sucks just gets to me. I mean, some people don't want to eat nothing but nuts, fruit, veggies and meat. And they act like if you don't do that then you're going to be a huge fatass your whole life. And I don't understand the methodology behind eating a diet that is really high in fat. That's another thing they suggest. "Eat a ton of fat!" I mean I know a low-fat diet isn't good like they lead us to believe in the 90's, but eating copious amounts of it seems like a one way ticket to a heart attack.

Unless any comibnation of Kobe, Lebron, Dwight Howard, or Kevin Garnett go down with an injury.

Perhaps my hatred of everything from LA is clouding my vision, but I still say the Finals are a different game than the regular season. I just can't stand any of those euro-pansies on the Lakers team. Nor can I stand Lamar Odom. I'd probably like Kobe if he wasn't playing for LA. But Vujajic, Gasol, Farmar and especially Walton could fall off the face of the earth and I wouldn't care.

Alright, that's what I'm talking about. Talk shit all you want Lakers fans. We'll see what happens if they play in the finals. It's a whole different ball game. I seem to remember the Lakers fans thinking they were a better team that was going to have a cakewalk last season too....hmmm.......we'll see.

The way I work is to not only hate the person that's overhyping them, but the person that's being overhyped. Because if it wasn't for the person who was being overhyped then we wouldn't have to listen to the person overhyping them. Much like why I hate black people. I mean I hate the KKK with a passion, but if it wasn't for black people I wouldn't have to deal with the KKK in the first place.

I do. The Lakers fans have been acting like their hot shit and they've never lost to Boston. They're acting like they've been spanking Boston for years upon years now. When they forget that it was less than a year ago when Boston was handing them their ass and winning the title. That's why I bring up last year because the Lakers fans I've talked to (remember, there are people outside this MB, so don't give me the standard "Who says that?" BS) are about to float away from the size of their heads. They, ESPN, and probably the Lakers themselves, need to come back to Earth and realize that these are two meaningless regular season games and we don't know how either team will react when the pressure is on in a Finals Series. All we have to judge off of is last year, where the Celtics completely manhandled the Lakers down the stretch. But, whatever. I'll let the Lakers and their fans enjoy the wins. We'll see what happens in the Finals.

Well.......because A: The Celtics are my favorite team and B........the Celtics are my favorite team. Having the Sonics suddenly set up shop and change their name isn't really going to change that fact.

Yes, suck it Boston. I mean you just lost two meaningless regular season games to the Lakers. So go on and suck it. It's not like you totally fell apart and looked like complete pansies in the finals only to get blown out by 40 points in a must-win game 6.........oh wait a minute.

Shut up. Bite me.

Good to see a ton of ticky-tack fouls called on the Celtics, but then when Ray Allen is shoved to the floor trying to hit the game-winner there's no call. Oh well Lakers, you can win the season series all you want. Who got the rings last year? Don't think it'll be a cakewalk this year either, especially without Bynum. You're not going to get every call in the Finals. God I hate Pau Gasol. Just looking at that vulture like face annoys me, and then when he celebrates it just boils my blood more. The Lakers have more annoying Euro-douches than any other team.

I usually hate over-hyped players (as documented in the sports folder) and Lebron has been no exception to that rule. But, I thought maybe this season I was feeling better about it. I didn't hate it everytime they mentioned him. Then Stuart Scott said "Bron Bron" and all that hatred filled my gut again.

OU didn't recruit any 5-star players but it was still a good class. They got a ton of 4-stars, and really filled some needs on the defense. They got about a billion DB's to fill the holes left by Nic Harris and Lendy Holmes. But, star ratings really don't mean shit. Rhett Bomar was a 5-star recruit. Sam Bradford was a 3-star recruit. Who was better? Quentin Chaney was a 5-star recruit. Juaquin Iglesias was a 3-star recruit. Look at their career totals and totals last season. Who was better? Hmmm...... So I don't put a ton of stock into the star ratings. It's usually who's recruiting you. You could be a 3-star recruit, but if Florida, OU and USC star recruiting you you're suddenly 5-stars.

So yesterday and today I only consumed about 1500 calories. I added up what I'm going to be eating tomorrow and it clocks in around 1500. I've run 3 miles everyday this week. I guess I should see the pounds melt off sometime soon! Haha. I've lost two more pounds since Sunday. Probably still water weight though. But, the low amount of calories I'm consuming kind of scares me. I mean I can't really consume more than I am now given my meal plan. So I'm just going to keep eating like this and get down where I want to be waist size-wise and weight-wise. I'll continue to lift weight to hopefully foster muscle growth while I'm running of the inches. The only thing I'm afraid of is not being able to foster that muscle growth while I'm trying to lose my stomach because of the low amount of calories I have. Should I integrate a protein shake in post-workout or at some point during the day? Or should I get down to my target waist size and weight and then integrate that in if I'm not happy with where my muscle is and want it to grow more?

It's kind of like a larger tequito.

These two articles are what's bugging me as far as my weight loss goes: http://www.theiflife.com/2008/08/19/the-bi...es-people-make/ And: http://www.theiflife.com/2008/02/25/fat-lo...ter-the-basics/ They kind of just seem to contradict what I know. Whereas I've always thought of weight loss like Tyler said earlier. "It's not as simple as calories in and calories out, but it's not much more complicated than that." Or something to that effect. Well it just seems like these articles are saying it has nothing to do with calories in or calories out. I feel like after reading these he's telling me that I can run all I want, but all I'll do is burn off muscle and if I eat a cheeseburger then all is lost because it's all about nutrition and almost has nothing to do with working out. Very confusing mixed signals.

Well Eric I've made a lot of these threads about working out, but I've always left the most important thing out: eating. I seriously my whole life have tried to eat what I want and workout and think that I'm going to lose weight. It's only now that I started changing my diet for the better. When all is said and done today I will have eaten around 1,800 calories. I'm a big guy, I need around 2,200. But, eating 1,800 should produce enough of a deficit for me to get some serious weight loss done and it won't be too low to be in danger of "starving" or whatever. I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast. It's good and fills me up. For lunch I had a sandwich with a serving size of everything, some almonds and a lot of brocolli and carrots. And I had an apple as a snack. I'd never have eaten like this before. Before I would have eaten sugary cereal for breakfast, a fried tornado from the gas station for a snack and then Taco Bueno for lunch. So yeah, yay me. Now the calorie deficit you're trying to create to lose weight. Is it each day or is it over the entire week? You have to burn a lot of calories to burn a pound of fat don't you? Also according to that calculator I burn about 2250 doing my daily activities. I plan on lifting heavy and then running at least 3 miles this evening. So I should be doing some serious burning. Not only will I burn while working out, but the lifting should keep my body burning that shit off later too.

Well how long of starving myself do I have to go before the "starvation effect" sets in? Yeah, I honestly don't know how much I'm going to be into weight loss as much as watching my waistline shrink. I wear size 42 pants. If I was wearing like size 36 and still weighed 270, I'd probably be ok with that! See I don't even know what a good waist size is because it's been so long since I've been thin! (5th or 6th grade!) But, I don't want to become a skinny rail. That's why I will be lifting, so I can gain muscle while losing the fat. So I don't think I'll get enamored with losing the pounds, just the inches.

Ok Tyler, I didn't realize how hard it was to keep your calories in check until you started reading labels. I bought some sugar-free bread and made a sandwich for lunch. I read labels and created a 390 calorie sandwich. I realized that if you don't keep control of things then the calorie count can get WAY out of hand. Luckily the only other things I eat are fruit and veggies that have little to no calories. So I doubt they'll get out of hand. That's why I was like "Ok so my sandwich is 390 calories and my oatmeal is going to be 140. That's 430 calories! How much will I have with dinner?" Then I realized that my dinner is going to be a porkchop and a ton of steamed broccoli. I may be under 1,000 calories. WTF? I have some smoked almonds. Those can add on some calories. But even then, I'm still struggling to even make it to 1,500 calories! I guess it's all the better because I had a bad weekend. I had some cheetos and pizza on Saturday because of the UFC and then had some chips at a Super Bowl party. So I got a lot of calories this weekend. So I'm going to have to kill myself in the gym and definitely watch what I eat all week. I do feel like I look a bit thinner though! And how overrated is the starvation effect? I've heard people say that if you don't eat in a few hours your body starts storing calories and fat to prepare itself and thus you don't lose weight. I've also heard that if you eat like under 2,000 calories a day your body starts doing that. And then I've also heard people say it takes a long time of continually starving and undernourishing yourself to actually make the starvation effect take hold. So, what is it? How long does it actually take of not eating enough calories before you stay fat? lol And I know we discussed this a bit earlier, about whether you can build muscle and lose weight at the same time. If I go in and have a heavy lift then go for a 30-45 minute run won't I be losing fat but putting on muscle? Isn't this the best thing to do? Just making sure I'm not going to retain fat if I go about this method. I doubt I would, because I'd probably be burning even more calories with the lifts. I just want to do whatever is the best and quickest way to get the fat off my midsection. It's really not about weight, it's about not being fat and having some muscle and definition. For a while there I was just going to the gym and just lifting. Yeah that wasn't a good idea. I got stronger, and my arms did get bigger (albeit without a ton of definition), but my waistline also expanded because I wasn't burning enough calories with just the lifts.

It's also hard for me to do a lot of the CF workouts. Be it physically or equipment wise. I think I may go back to my normal routine on days when I can't do the CF workout. My normal routine is: Bench Press 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 (getting heavier as I go) Military Press 3x10 Bent-Over Row 3x10 Lat Pull-down 3x10 Squat 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 Hamstring Curls 3x10 It's kind of basic, but I get some decent lifts for power and a few compounds ones that hit different body parts.