How Do I Lose Weight?

How do I lose weight?

I’ve given several honest attempts at losing weight. In the gym, I tried high rep squats. Didn’t work. I tried cardio. Didn’t work. I tried dieting. It worked for the first week then I plateaued.

I’m working hard with my kettlebell workouts, and despite that, I gained 5 pounds back in less than a week. I went from 220 to 215 and it was mind-numbingly difficult. It took a lot of discipline from me to restrict calories to lose that weight. It took a good, solid 3 weeks to lose those 5 pounds, and then I slacked off for 2 days and gained it all back. This happened despite the fact that I work so hard with my high-rep kettlebell workouts.

I come here as a humbled and defeated man. I’m not trying to lose weight for bodybuilding purposes. This is for health. Doctor’s orders. My cholesterol and triglycerides are off the charts.

What should I do? What should I read? What’s a good strategy to lose weight?

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

This is about right.

Losing weight sucks, especially if you’ve never restricted your caloric intake before. You are most likely used to always feeling full, or at least satisfied. The reality is, to lose weight, you will most likely need to feel hungry.

I am always hungry. When I’m not hungry, it tends to mean I am getting fatter.

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@T3hPwnisher

I see. I guess I’m not the only one…

But anyway, what is your opinion on paleo? My mother bought a book called “Whole 30” which is a paleo diet book.

I can imagine how it would work. I’ve heard great things from paleo.

lol. What’s really funny is that I hate paleo for the simple reason that I’m a Christian who believes that the world is only a few thousand years old, as opposed to billions according to scientists. lol.

But anyway, what do you think?

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Paleo works for some folks. In many situations, having A diet plan, no matter how gimmicky, gives many folks some sort of plan for success.

I stick with a few core principles and focus on portion control. Works for me. Find what works for you and embrace the fact that, if losing weight was easy, there would be no fat people.

Losing fat is much harder than getting stronger or gaining muscle. The last two only require transient discomfort and focus, albeit on a consistent basis. Losing fat requires almost constant discomfort and focus on that same consistent basis.

What I’ve learned is that diet is to all extents and purposes the be all and end all. Get that right and how you train is of relatively little importance EXCEPT in terms of keeping muscle loss to a minimum.

For me, my go to guy for getting leaner is Paul Carter. His article below is largely how I managed to go from 25% bodyfat to under 15% in about 10 months without losing too much muscle.

I also remember reading something he wrote that echoes what @T3hPwnisher said: if you’re going to lose fat, get used to the idea that you are going to be hungry AF.

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Hi and welcome, I have quoted a response of mine to another post. It seems to pretty much cover what you’re asking. As for training I’d recommend a routine that focuses on big compound movements with the aim of getting stronger. As mentioned above it will suck but you have to grin and bear it if you want to lose a significant amount of fat.

You can’t think in terms of dieting. “Dieting” implies something you will give up, and that means you will give it up and then you’ll get the weight back. So you need to think in terms of a sustainable lifestyle.

If all you care about is losing weight, then you need to cut out all the junk food and processed foods, and learn how to cook for yourself in a healthy way. When you are hungry between meals, eat all the fruit you want. If you are eating real food, you can eat as much of it as you like. Avoid going out to eat; I have been stunned at how many more calories are in some different dishes depending on if they have been fried, breaded, etc.

If you get your diet right, then you don’t need very much exercise. If all I wanted to do was lose weight, then I would do about 10-20 minutes of home exercises each morning (push ups, squats, whatever you find on youtube that looks like fun) and walk for an hour each evening.

I will say that following this approach has gotten me fat in the past. Fruit is good, but it does have sugar and you can overeat it.

Veggies are usually pretty solid though.

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I actually believe this to be true, as well. I have maintained being lean and fit for over 10 years, and prior to that I wasn’t heavy but always had 10-15 pounds to lose. I eat all I want of raw fruit, raw nuts, plain yogurt, and raw veggies and have no weight gain. Stay away from packaged foods and restaurants, which have so many calories and are designed to get you to overeat.

As for the “controversial” unlimited fruit, how many times have you watched a basketball game and eaten 10 bananas? Or four cantaloupes? Never. When you eat whole, raw food you will naturally not overeat. Conversely, you can easily go through a box of “lowfat” Cheez-its which will pack on the pounds.

It’s the same with raw almonds. Don’t eat “smokehouse” almonds, but raw, plain almonds and knock yourself out. Also, if you load up on whole fruits, vegetables, raw nuts, etc… you’ll feel better which will curb your impulse to gouge on high calorie processed foods.

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your description suggests that you’ve never dedicated yourself to losing fat for more than a 3 week stretch, and that you found that 3 weeks to be ‘mind numbingly difficult’. That’s a big problem. Saying that you’ve ‘given several honest attempts at losing weight’ is simply not true if you have never dedicated yourself to the process for more than a few weeks. If at all it took was 3 weeks to reshape your body, everybody would do it.

Another observation: you likely didn’t gain 5 lbs back in 2 days. You’re almost certainly discounting the degree of water weight fluctuation in the human body. My own body fluctuates about 8-10 lbs every single day. I generally wake up about 4 lbs lighter than when I go to sleep. So I think your observations may be problematic in and of themselves.

So here’s the deal: you need to make good food choices. Calorie deficits are important for shedding lbs, but the absolute best thing you can do for yourself is to learn to cook, and to use quality, fresh ingredients. If your primary sources of calories are vegetables and meats, and you eliminate processed sugar completely from your diet (this includes things like juice. water should be your only beverage), then you will have success pretty quickly. When people cook for themselves each and every meal, they tend to develop much better eating habits, and they tend to eat less naturally, because of the effort required.

And speaking of effort… I see this as your biggest hurdle. You don’t seem to know what real work is. This is going to be difficult, but if you care about your health, you’ve just gotta suck it up for a bit until it gets easier. And it will, once you’ve developed good habits. But it can take a full month or 2 to really ingrain those habits and feel good about what you’re doing.

I hope you can find this dedication within yourself, for your sake. nobody can do it for you.

oh and lastly, do whatever you want in the gym. no program will substantially effect weight loss directly. Gaining muscle mass over time will help your metabolism, but just doing lots of work in the gym is largely ineffective, and it’s likely to beat you down more than help you. Just pick a program you know you can stick to.

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Why not? Dieting is giving up something. It’s giving up certain food choices in pursuit of losing weight.

I removed all junk food from my life and cooked all my own meals. I gained weight eating meat, rice and veggies. The quantity is a large portion of it.

This is extremely misleading, EXTREMELY. Fuck, can I go and eat 3 cups of rice, veggies and 20oz of brisket, all slathered in bbq sauce? That’s real food, but it’d be over 3,000 calories, and it’s something I did weekly last summer.

If you stay around maintenance, on average for the week, you will maintain weight. Similarly, if you eat, on average for the week, below maintenance you should lose weight. My guess is that your philosophy works for you, because the above is true. If you have a large appetite, or no appetite, then that philosophy does not work.

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I will eat entire orchids of wild blueberries if left to my own device. I pour them into a bowl and eat them with a spoon, like breakfast cereal.

I also have no idea if a large grouping of wild blueberries is in fact an orchid, or if there is a different term, but there’s still that.

Strawberries hold a weakness too. Actually, pretty much any sort of berry I have a voracious appetite for.

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Yeah, I ran into this as well. In my mid 20s, I could get away with eating as much as I wanted of quality food sources and still lose weight. Once I hit 30, I had to eat quality food sources AND in reasonable quantities.

Hunger is just kind of a way of life for me.

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Yup. Swap fruit with veggies and I’d agree too.

Man, it’s almost strawberry season. I could eat cartons and cartons of those.

Pretty much, I’ll eat 3 cups of brussel sprouts for lunch today. It’s basically eating nothing.

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basically what you’re saying is ‘i’ve never been fat’. This indicates to me that, while you may be able to eat all the fruit, nuts, etc that you want, you likely don’t want much in the first place. What you’re saying only makes sense if the person is not prone to overeating in the first place, and the OP clearly is. Of course people can eat too much fruit, nuts, yogurt etc and gain weight. Why would it not be possible? All of these things have calories, fruit is extremely sugary, depending on which fruit we’re talking about, yogurt and nuts are quite calorie dense. I just don’t think you’re considering what it’s like to be someone other than yourself. That is a mistake.

From my own reference point, I would never, EVER tell a fat person to eat like me. I just downed a bag of chips, I’ve got 2 sodas at my desk, and I’m about to go get some chicken strips, fries and a milkshake. I would clearly be foolish to say ‘look how ripped I am, this is what I do, you should do it too!’

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For some reason, people expect to lose weight very quickly and we expect weight loss to be linear. It isn’t. Weight loss is no different than muscle/strength gain in that it requires consistency and time.

My suggestion would be:

  1. Eat 200-225 grams of protein a day.
  2. Eat vegetables with every meal (with the exception of protein shakes if you prefer).

If you’re carb intolerant only eat them right before, during, and directly after your lifting and limit carb intake to less than 100g daily.

  1. Fill in the remaining calories with fat.

These very general guidelines have helped me lose about 20 pounds since January 1st and all of my lifts have increased. Don’t underestimate how useful walking 5+ hours (15+ miles) a week can have on body comp. It’s easy, simple, and is helpful.

Lol, ya. Broccoli and salads for me…

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Your genetics are superior to mine. I’m 27, but have had this problem since 24. That’s why your lifts are better too. :wink:

Ew, can’t stand that. I do eat its pasty cousin, cauliflower. I love fried cauliflower and cauliflower rice with sriacha.

No way, broccoli for life!

cauliflower and broccoli can both suck a dick.

Count me in for the strawberry addiction though.

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