Gotta control my appetite

[penguinsfan]

During the first half of 2004, I took off about 20 pounds with some extremely hard work. Now, I have put most of it back on. Not to make excuses, but all throughout the fall I was bogged down with colds and flus. I was probably sick for two solid months and feeling sort of shitty for several weeks before that. The only thing that makes sense to me is that I burned my body out on so much overtime at my job. Anyhow, I could hardly stand to do cardio, while coughin up half a lung. In addition to inactivity this fall, I would ease my troubles and sore throat with a frozen ice drink at the local convenient store and would sometimes purchase ice cream.

I got a new exercise bike delivered yesterday to match my elliptical trainer. I want to get back into the groove, but I find myself eating so much. I remember when I was trying to strip off weight I would eat really small portions, but now I have developed a considerable appetite.

Any ideas on how to step back in and get my eating under control? FYI, I cannot handle a low-carb diet.

 

[TimBo755]

I can't really handle the low carb diet either..I've always found that eating your all your carbs before 8pm works and 4-6 small meals during the day.. Drink a lot of water and try to eat well balanced. The one thing I stick to with the meals is that I have to eat oatmeal in morning, also mixed nuts and fruit are good snacks...be creative.

You'll be suprised how much energy you have during the day once you start eating right. Im up at the crack of dawn right now and its by choice, i've gotten no more than 6 1/2 hours of sleep and im ready for a damn marathon. Try lifting weights, since you hate cardio, it burns more calories than cardio anyway and builds muscle at the same time. Everything else should work it self out for you if you follow a well balanced diet.

Good luck!

 

[bigbutnottoo]

Damn, I hate when this shit happens, I typed out a long ass post and then accidentally hit a button and erased it. Anyway, everything TimBo says is the truth. Once you start to control your diet, it will start controlling itself. You just have to start feeding your body a well balanced diet slightly lower than your maintenance caloric level, and it will adjust and want to eat nutritious.

 

[9_16]

I don't know what you can do about your eating habits, but I can say that you can skip rope to lose some of those pounds.
You don't like running... and skipping rope is fun. It's also a great shortcut.

 

[Egghead1]

i never really controlled my diet THAT much cuz i wouldnt really enjoy life that much, but what i do to balance that off is work 2 x harder at practice or the gym or home etc etc. Just burn it off like a mofo, and your body will have no choice adapt to the conditions.

 

[jakb]

Drink a lot of water and try to eat well balanced.

Best advice right there. MOST people are dehydrated, now when you are dehydrated you crave food because of the water that food contains that your body needs. I have found that if my clientele will do something as easy as drink more water then their body stops craving as much food and they get rid of weight alot easier(note I said get rid of instead of lose). If you lose something it is human nature to try to find it, think of losing your keys or the remote. Dont try to lose the weight, just try to get rid of it.

Use this equation to get the amount of water you should drink daily.

Bodyweight/2=said weight
Convert said weight to ounces and that is what you need a day.

ex. 200lbs/2=100lbs
100lbs=100ounces to drink

Good luck man!

 

[ctmwm]

Well guys I'm also hitting it! I have tripled my water / Crystal lite intake and have started cutting back on my portions too. After the Xmas holiday I'm kickin in with some kind of work out. I have to loose 30+ by April / May and I'm gonna do it!!

 

[bigbutnottoo]

I drink at least 256 oz of water a day. I am always thirsty, i dont think I could ever not drink enough water-I would be dry and uncomfortable as hell.

 

[penguinsfan]

Wow! Two gallons is a shitload of water.

I have historically had a high water intake, but that too has slacked off a little lately. I'm lucky if I get 8-12 glasses per day now, whereas I was at around 20-30 glasses. My plan is to step up the efforts on that aspect too.

 

[ctmwm]

Wow! Two gallons is a shitload of water.

I have historically had a high water intake, but that too has slacked off a little lately. I'm lucky if I get 8-12 glasses per day now, whereas I was at around 20-30 glasses. My plan is to step up the efforts on that aspect too.

SLOSH SLOSH SLOSH hehehe keep it up rofl

 

[9cyclops9]

Woop woop!

I'm in on this weight loss thing too. Never thought I'd say that, being a former national champion gymnast and all. I'm starting in on some exercise program soon too, and it will probably be modeled around a gymnastics-type conditioning program and running. I generally eat very well, but my problem is I eat too much, and last semester I got into the habit of eating dinner anywhere between 10 pm and 2 am. Not good. This semester my schedule should be more normal so it will be easier to eat meals at normal times.

 

[penguinsfan]

Well, my schedule is quite abnormal too. I wake up around noon, workout and stuff, leave for work around 4:00 pm, then get home around 3:00 am to 8:00 am depending on whether or not I need to work OT. I eat around 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon, around 8:00 pm, and again around 3:00 am.

 

[9cyclops9]

I would think that if you did that every day it wouldn't be so bad. The thing with my schedule was that I never knew when I was going to have time to eat, so sometimes it would be at 7 or 8 and sometimes it was midnight or later.

 

[penguinsfan]

Personally, I think the eating late thing is overrated. I've also read recent opinions that suggest a calorie is a calorie, whether it is consumed at 8:00 am or midnight. I think eating right before bed is normally a sign of a person that has his eating habits completely out of order, altogether. Usually such a person is not the health-nut type individual. Anyhow, I almost never eat right before bed. Usually, if I eat at 3:00 am, I'm not going to sleep till around 6:30 am. Anyhow, I don't think it's been making or breaking my diet, but the schedule still sucks.

 

[bigbutnottoo]

I am mostly from the "calorie is a calorie" school. Usually, IMO, a lot of thoughts on what food to eat and when are not based so much on any effect they will have on your body at that time, but what behavior they may trigger. For example, eating before bed you may not be able to get to sleep,etc. Personally I see reasons to both eat and not eat right before bed. Eating before may support any night time anabolism/catabolism. I think guidelins such as not eating after a certain time or not eating carbs after a certain time is more a device of discipline and just another one of those tricks resulting in a caloric deficit.

One thing I would stress that I DO believe affects weight and fat loss is sleep. Just from my own reading and experiences, I am not sure it matters what your sleep schedule;but it does matter that you get a full nights sleep. Not sleeping is pretty much in vogue now. There are even Time magazine pieces recently highlighting people who dont sleep at all and work 2 jobs,go to grad school,etc. Now it may seem like a sign of toughness,but to me its a sign of stupidness. The brain simply isnt going to function and neither is the body. I have found that a lack of sleep is enough to screw up your metabolism. I used to get by on 4 hours max or less and thought I was tough because i could go out at night and by at work at 6am. No more of that.

Anyway, calories are the bottom line to a certain extent. There are other things affecting metabolic processes, but it comes down to calorie in and calorie out,and the more fat you are ( the more you are above around 12-15%) the easier it is to create a deficit.

 

[penguinsfan]

People that don't sleep at all? Are you serious?

I could get away with 3-4 hours or so consistently when I was a teenager. Once I started college, I tried to continue that and I could feel it hurting me. After my fresHydromaxan year, I made sure that all-nighters were only an occasional occurence due to academic necessity and my GPA basically went up over a full point. My parents in their late 60's can't even function if they're up late more than a couple hours beyond their usual bedtime. Guess age is a killer with this sleep shit.