Who here is trying to lose some weight?

I was doing pretty good before Christmas and was down to 197 from a start of near 220 in july. Now I'm back to 205 again I'm hoping to get down to 185 some day. I have joined the local YMCA and have been working out with the weights and swimming quite a bit, plus doing 30 minutes of hard peddling on the execise bikes each time. I hate backsliding. The wife likes me back in muscles again though. I need to get serious with what I eat. I eat way too much and the wrong things. Imported beer, Ice cream, chocolate, fries, fried chicken, dark rum, etc. I need to go back to the light beer and energy bars. I need to start using the tanning bed that we have too, I'm too white.

Drink lots of bitter and eat shepards pie and a lot of chips, and lots of ice cream If I had your problem

I could lose a bit...but I was waiting for the holidays to be over.

I'm too good a cook, though.

I am including more fish and leafy greens...those I can eat raw.

The greens, I mean.

Stay away from the energy bars....

I concur...I've read the ingredients label.

Those things are like instant diabetes... The calorie counts are sky high. The only ones my doctor lets me have is the oatmeal bars from Quaker.

Most are just thinly-disguised candy bars.

And those milk and cereal bars!...what idiot though solid milk was a good idea?

FYI...that ain't milk...it's nearly pure sugar frosting.

I have been eating the Metrx bars. 45 grams of protien and only 3 grams of carbs. they cost like 2 bucks a piece but they are the good ones. They are filling but you can taste the whey they put in it.

I don't mind tasting grains...I'm from a rural area and have just grabbed a handful of wheat and ate that. (Don't try that with corn. )

Check the calorie count. Those things are for people trying to gain muscle mass on regular lifting routines. They are NOT for people trying to get rid of fat on aerobic and low workout routines.

Oh, if i just have on for breakfast and that it until lunch then it would be one hell of a reduction for me. Even if it was 1000 calories. I eat man. Back before I started working out again, I kept a food diary for two weeks and tried to be honest. It was between 5 and 7K calories per day.

Dayum!

Going into full smug mode, I lost more than three stones (about 45 lbs) when I was ill last year, and none of it has gone back on. Now I'm about 145 lbs, which at my height and age is smack on normal.

I'm at 185 right now. Wouldn't mind getting down to 175, but I'm not going to obsess over it. I just need to be more careful of what I eat.

Not being naturally thin and having to work at it sucks ass.

I eat nutri-grain or granola bars for breakfast, healthy choice whatever for lunch, and just a little of whatever sounds good for dinner.

For workouts, eliptical/treadmill/Tae Bo for cardio, pilates for toning and flexibility, and sex for fun.

The sad, and generally unhealthy, thing for me right now is that generally my weight has a direct relationship with my bank account. If I have money I spend it one food, if I don't, well rent and utilities comes before food. IE, I've been on PB&J for the last two weeks.

It messes with my mind - I was such a skinny little kid! I think my ideal weight was 175 (I'm 5'10") around my mid-20s. When I hit 30 I hit 180. When I hit 40 I hit 190. Now at 48 I'm wavering bewteen 205 and 210. What happened to the skinny little kid?!

I just checked out some of those energy bars at the grocery store this moring and you are right. Most of them are shit. They have twice the carbs as they do protein. I didn't get any of those. The local super wal-mart carries the ones for weight lifting. These are much more protein and less carbs. These are the ones you want. Also, I stop by GNC and look through whats on clearance. Sometimes they have an off flavor that has all the good stuff for a decent price and I buy a bunch of them. Look for low fat, low carbs, high protein. This will go to the muscles and not to fat. Also the perfect food for weight loss is plain Tuna(if you can stand it). Right out of the can. Amost no fat, 0 carbs and high protein. Back before I hurt my back, I was big into working out with weights. Those body builders eat mostly tuna, chicken breasts, and green stuff like brocoli, etc. I tried that for a while and decided there had to be more to life. It will thin you down healthily though.

When weightlifting you are suppose to eat more than 3 meals a day. Like 5-6. It is a royal pain.

They advise that for everybody now. Having several small meals instead of a couple big ones. I can't do that.

I've put on a bit this last six months. Now I'm on a diet and back in training, so I've lost a couple of pounds. I need to lose a few more though.

I've actually lost 10-15 lbs. since last year . . . don't know where it went; I wasn't trying to lose weight or change my lifestyle or anything.

I'm 6 2' and weigh 14.5 stone(fluctuate between 14 and 15). No idea what that is in metric.

Not trying to lose any weight but could probably hit the gym a little harder, if only it wasn't so boring

Come summer and I'll be out on the bike again though.

Straight down the pub mind, but its a start!

I'm always trying to cut my weight. I'm not vastly over (6 foot tall and 198lbs as of this morning), but it's hard to know what my ideal should be - I like to stay fairly muscular so I know I'm not gonna hit my so-called ideal weight (which would require the loss of about 20lb).

If I could just lose the beer-gut I'd be happy, but I don't eat that much and get a fair amount of exercise (cycle to work each day, swim three times per week, occasional pushups and situps in the evenings). I never eat breakfast and ballparking it only have at most 2000 cals per day.

Probably the booze. Cutting back lately but as usual only because I'm "up". One bad week at work and I'll probably be back onto three bottles of wine a week and boozy snacks to go with...

I wish you'd all stick to metric system. After all, this is the 21st century.
Measuring your weight in stone sounds ridiculous.
* 1 stone = 6.35029318 kilograms, so if Mr. Scruff says the's between 14 and 15, he's saying he weights between 88.9 and 95.3 kg.. quite a difference. His Body Mass Index is between 25.2 and 27. Both overweight, by the way.

So:
* 1 stone = 6.35029318 kilograms
* 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg
* 1 foot = 0.3048 m.

Zenow: 179 cm, 76 kg, BMI = 23.7
Matthunter: 182.88 cm, 89.8 kg, BMI 26.8
Scruff: 187.96 cm, about 92.1kg, BMI 26.1
foil1212: XXXX cm, 115.6 kg BMI ?? (check here)
Forbin: 177.80 cm, 94.1 kg, BMI 29.8
Chuck: XXXX cm, 83.9 kg, BMI= ??
TheLurker: XXXX cm, 65.77 kg, BMI = ??
Dan Leach: XXX cm, 54.4 KG, BMI = ??
Enlisted Person: XXX cm, 92.9 kg, BMI = ???


As for what these BMI's mean:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Source: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Obesity Education Initiative
Watch what you eat, people. Completely getting rid of snacks/candy as a first step (or maybe 1 a week?) will already do a LOT (at least I found it did for me). Although that depends on what you call snacks and candy. I was very surprised when I first learned that in the US potatochips are called a side dish. We see them as snacks/candy here, we don't eat them for lunch. Typically, I'd say anything with an extreme amount of fat or sugar should be considered snack/candy.

Of course, soda and booze are the first things to go as well. If you have an alcohol problem, that might be harder to do, and requires professional help, imho.

Anyway, don't 'ballpark' anything - try keeping a list of what exactly you eat, especially those little things you buy & eat between meals. Personally, I was shocked when I first saw how often I ate candy. I often thought it had been a week since my last snack, when I had forgotten about what I ate only two days earlier.

By the way, Forbin is not the only one who should be alarmed by his BMI. Although I don't know your height, Dan, unless you're no taller than 171 cm, you're underweight.

I know BMI should be seen as an indication, no more, as there are different body types, but indications are good enough as warnings.

BMI can be a poor indicator, however. Since it doesn't distinguish between types of weight, a person can have a high BMI and just be extremely muscular. Schwarzenegger, for example, probably has a BMI of over 30 considering he's not that tall. Percentage body fat is probably a better marker.

edit: heh. slow typing.

BMI is bullshit, by the way, given it only factors in weight, and not actual fat.

Mr. Schwarzenegger over in California is technically obese, under that system.

YOu probably typed that as I edited my post. BMI is most definitely not bullshit, it's a very good indication of whether or not you should watch what you eat. Anyone even remotely like Mr. Governator doesn't need BMI, it's for us poor folks who even have a problem working out regularly.