Large Scale Central

OT/NT Weight Loss

General Discussion
#1

Standing around the kitchen this morning I got to thinking about my personal health (or lack thereof). I’m almost 37yo and about 20 pounds overweight. Did I mention I really like Cheeseburgers and French Fries! I’m a pretty slim guy, except the gut, which has exponentially grown in the last 10 years to a point I am no longer comfortable with. I drink no beer so I can’t blame that, I believe it’s a combo of bad foods and laziness! With the emphasis on lazy!

As many of you know, I’m not really one to finish things (ever seen the multiple track build logs that never reach completion?). Daily I think about losing weight, and exercise…but never really get going or if I do a few good meals and a trip on the treadmill, it only last for a day or so. Kinda like the time I quit smoking 365 times in the same year (finally kicked the habit in 1997).

Therein lies my reason for posting here, not on some lame diet board. I’m curious; am I the only one who knows they’re in bad shape and have yet to make strides to fix it? Is there anyone here who’d like to lose weight and be in better physical condition? Would anyone here be up for a “biggest loser” sort of competition…With bragging rights and maybe even prizes for the winner(s)? Would Bob be up for this sort of thing on his site? Would some of our sponsors or members be up to front a prize?

So, what do you think? I’m gonna do it either way, I have to, just thought we could have some fun along the way.

cale

#2

Oh, oh … chirp, chirp, chirp … suddenly it’s very quite around here!

Walt

#3

Every time I lose weight, it finds me again… and usually brings friends.

#4

I guess you dont want me to post. Im the guy everyone hates. LOL I have always been active running track and cross country in High School and college. After college I got bored of running so I switched things up. I started hiking, mt biking, rock climbing and cross country skiing. Then kids came a long and I found it very difficult to fit in exercise and even some cases my diet was not as good plus the body does not recover as fast. My biggest problem was, exercise to me was hiking 10 miles or running 8 miles. The little ones cant keep up as well as the wife and there was not enough time with so much else going on. I new those days were put on hold. I hade to make a change. I knew I could not excersise everyday and put in the miles that I would like. Rather then hike 10 miles I will go out for a 3-4 mile hike or do short scenic hikes with the kids. Days where time is very limited I will go out for a half hour run. I also try to do pushups and sit ups when watching TV or if you have a second to spare. I also made a hiking trail around my property that I will do often with the kids. The biggest battle I find is the motivation to get off your a-s-s. Once your off it, its easy. Diet solution for me is I just dont buy the crap food or carry cash when im working. All it takes is a half hour every other day either walking or running. We all have a passion in railroads see what kind of rail trails are in your area or better yet research logging railroads and try to find the path. You have to make exercise fun if you want to stick with it. Treadmills, stationary bikes, going to the gym is just boring. You have to make it fun. Cal you have 25 acres? Make a trail and walk it with the kids or bike it, do it a few times to get in the miles. I do that on my trail, my neighbors must think Im crazy LOL Im not in the shape I was before kids but with my new routine I am still able to keep my weight about the same. The keys is motivation and keep it fun and simple. Do you have a park close by with trails. Find a nice loop and do that on regular bbasis. Im lucky enough to live within a few minutes to hiking trails. Anyway Im done.

#5

I am a big guy, always have been. I have tried and tried but every time I manage to loss wieght it finds a way to come back, our bodies are genius at adapting to changes in our diet and exercise, its seams like we are proprogramed to gain weight as we age. At my peak performance at the peak of my Mtn Biking days I could never break the 220lb barrier no matter what I did, that included vigorous riding twice a week (5 hour weekend ride and a midweek 2hour ride) and adding a sweat-a-thon Spin Class to that once a week also, it just would not go away so I just accepted that short of radical surgury I always will be a big boy. I dont like it but then I refuse to eat nothing but carrots, rice cakes and diet water. I try to control my diet, no suger sodas, minimum limit on carbs, heavy on the protien, I should hit the gym more often but time constraints always pull me away, I dont ride as much as I would like for the same reasons, no time.

I KNOW the I wont have time for any kind of weight loss competition, especially with the holidays coming up, and not because I eat like a little piggy but because I am the taxi pick up and delivery service during the holidays and it looks like this years going to be a Martha Stewert holiday with lots of DIYS projects coming out the yin-yang.

Aging sucks Cale, get used to it, either work out more & eat a less junk or get used to elastic waistbanes.

#6

Well, when I look at the pics from the ops and Marty’s, I know we all could use or do some sort of dietric system.
(Ducking and running.)
OK, I’m back, bruised and beat up.
But it’s very, very hard to lose weight. ‘Specially me. I’ve tried it numerous times. I like good food too much!
Hell, I don’t smoke, drink and too old for that "other stuff’ :slight_smile:
So food is my one and only vice. And I should be watching it, because of a heart attack a few years ago and bad knees due to excessive flab.
Bad knees means exercise is limited.
So I guess it’s starvation if I am to succeed. :frowning: :frowning:

#7

cale,
i know that problem. ever since i stopped to work outdoors and hid behind a nice cozy officedesk i have been overweight.
i tried lots of “ideas” for a while each…
finally i lost weight effectively, because i participated in founding a volunteer’s firedepartment.
I’m still about 40 pound overweight - but i was at more than 80 pound overweight…

i think the point is, not to try to loose weight, but to do something interesting - with weight-loss as a secondary effect.

#8

What do you mean, I’m not in shape? Round is a shape! :lol:

#9

Then kids came a long and I found it very difficult to fit in exercise and even some cases my diet was not as good plus the body does not recover as fast.

Shawn this is the first time I’ve heard a man complain that his body didn’t recover after the kids came along. :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

#10

Like Victor, I too have always been a big guy. When I had my own construction company it was alot easier to keep my weight under control because I was always active, but after knee and two shoulder surgeries I went to work for a lumber company running their cabinet department, which ment sitting behind a desk with little to no physical activity.

Currently I’m medically retired. Last September I was diagnosed with leukemia after a bad bicycle accident. The chemo pills I’m on is doing its job on the leukemia, but the down side of the medication is extreme fatigue and weight gain. In a matter of a year’s time I gained 25 pounds. My cancer doctor said the weight gain was from water retention and the need for me to find a “New Normal” on what activity I could do.

I have found that “New Normal”, although I don’t have the same energy level as before I can still get things done just at a slower pace. Instead of an 8 hour project I break it up into two 4 hour projects on different days. Activity is the key to weight loss. I have lost about 10 of those 25 pounds I gained. I still have a long way to go, but it’s OK.

I like your idea Cale, if for no other reason then the support from others. I have a great bunch of guys that I meet with every week to drink coffee, shot the bull, and play trains with. It’s all about the fellowship and support of each other.

Chuck

#11

Well…since I traded sex for food…I can’t even get into my own pants anymore.

#12

I’ve got the body of a GOD! Buddha…

Seriously though the ONLY time I was succesful in my diet was before KIds. I’d been downhill skiing and had a minor accident (damn snowboarders)and dislocated my left shoulder. After the doc gave me a clear bill of health he said I want to you to work out to build the strength back or it will pop out again. I ahd a friend that was grossly over weight and he was body building so I started working out with him 5 nights a week. He could out lift me any day of the week but I strove to catch him and he storve to out lift me. When the weather got better we started lifting AND riding 10 to 20 miles on our bicycles. I dropepd weight like crazy between that and watching the fat grams consumed in that period. He got a new job and moved away and I lost my partner. I then got divorced and since remarried had kids and geuss what the schedule no longer allows for much physical activity. I figure I’ma good 50 to 60 pounds overweight and the doc would probably say 60 to 70 over. With the cholesterol drugs I am on though I have no strength and recovery for one days exertion is a week or longer.

#13
W. Chas. Ronolder IV said:
...With the cholesterol drugs I am on ...
that's the problem. they feed us chemicals, that make us tired. but if we only would move our a$$, we wouldn't need those chemicals.
#14
Dave Marconi said:
Then kids came a long and I found it very difficult to fit in exercise and even some cases my diet was not as good plus the body does not recover as fast.

Shawn this is the first time I’ve heard a man complain that his body didn’t recover after the kids came along. :slight_smile: :slight_smile:


That’s Hilarious :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

#15

All kidding aside, folks, it’s not your activity level that matters, it is calories in. I know that is a hard pill to swallow, but that is the truth. Activity level matters not, or very little.

Reduce your caloric intake, and the weight will fall off without further effort.

The Navy sent me to a “fat farm” where they set out to prove that to us. We were placed on a healthy food plan of about 2000 KCal/day for two weeks, and not allowed to participate in any physical exercise beyond normal walking to the chow hall, about 200 yards away. During that two weeks, I lost ten pounds. During the next 4 weeks of the “fat farm” physical exercise was added in, but I only continued to loose weight at that rate, actually less, because I lost a lot of water weight initially.

#16

And for those of you that like junk food, I suggest the “Twinkie Diet”: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-twinkie-20101115,0,405998.story

Or, like Steve says, just eat less…

#17

Well I’m 31 and it worked out that I’m a stay at home dad since getting laid off about a year and a half ago. All the weight my wife has lost has come to me, about 30 lbs. now. Its all in my gut too, with runnin around the house chasing our little guy I would think I would burn some off, but I don’t think the short little sprints burn much off, plus I find myself snacking all day which I never did before. I wish mine was water weight but I think theres to many Big Macs floating around in there.

#18

I find it hard at times keepin’ the figure and build of a 19yr old college athlete.

#19

There’s always “Jenny Frikken Craig.” :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

20 years ago my wife went on it and lost over 50 lbs. I said WTF, and joined with her. Lost about 30, gained about 50.
Food was terrible.

So I tried the “smaller and smaller” plate diet. Started out with a regular size dinner plate, then downsized the plates little by little, until I had one of the smallest. Didn’t matter what the food was.
It worked. dropped 30.
Gained it all back again.
Sigh…

#20
David Russell said:
I find it hard at times keepin' the figure and build of a 19yr old college athlete.
The only figure of a 19 year old athlete you have is in 1/32 scale :lol: Ralph