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The Biggest Loser - VC Edition 2016


Buffbloom
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Hi!

 

I don't know about you, but I need to lose weight in a big way.  I thought it would be fun to start a Biggest Loser competition.  I did this awhile back with a bunch of friends but no one (besides me) cared enough to input their weight every week (or day).

 

Anyways, if anyone is interested, add yourself to this spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VYiYnH16AmzqfxEfx9nOfEmw3N0-VGMUP2ayj-IbjRk/edit?usp=sharing

 

I'll start this monday and it will go on for eight weeks.

 

I'll make this interesting and will puchase a $25 record for the winner.  If anyone else wants to throw in for a prize, that'd be really cool too.

 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VYiYnH16AmzqfxEfx9nOfEmw3N0-VGMUP2ayj-IbjRk/edit?usp=sharing

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Ugh, my weight loss journey has been miserable. Last year I gave myself completely over to calorie counting and lost 35 pounds. I hit my goal weight of 215 and all my clothes fit wonderfully. I stopped being so adamant about counting calories and then I ballooned back up to 252. It's super hard to make total lifestyle adjustments.

On another note I haven't eaten anything that has a drive thru this year. I'm trying to stick with that for the entire year. I'll input my weight on the spread sheet after my morning workout.

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i lost about 110lbs (went from 275 to 160-165ish) a number of years ago and have kept it off. id be happy to answer questions.

How did you maintain your loss? What lifestyle changes did you make? How serious were you during your initial couple months of weight loss? Routine?

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I know that wasn't directed at me but gonna give my 2 cents.

It's 80% what you eat. If you are 30+ pounds overweight, you don't even need to work out. It's far more important to focus on a healthy diet. You also run the risk if you go to the gym and sweat it out for 2 hours of coming home and throwing it away with unhealthy eating because your body is exhausted and craves nutrition. Half hour of light cardio is all you need for weight loss.

No drinking calories (pop, juice, alcohol, etc). If you like brewing, take a month or two off. Be the DD.

Keep a food log. Plan your meals, weigh them, and stick to the plan. It really helps to prevent opening a bag of trail mix, thinking you are going to eat a handful, and finishing half the bag.

Eat a diet that is heavily based on fruits and vegetables. A little olive oil won't kill you but don't be dunking things in ranch and frying them.

Those are all pretty basic things.

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I know that wasn't directed at me but gonna give my 2 cents.

It's 80% what you eat. If you are 30+ pounds overweight, you don't even need to work out. It's far more important to focus on a healthy diet. You also run the risk if you go to the gym and sweat it out for 2 hours of coming home and throwing it away with unhealthy eating because your body is exhausted and craves nutrition. Half hour of light cardio is all you need for weight loss.

No drinking calories (pop, juice, alcohol, etc). If you like brewing, take a month or two off. Be the DD.

Keep a food log. Plan your meals, weigh them, and stick to the plan. It really helps to prevent opening a bag of trail mix, thinking you are going to eat a handful, and finishing half the bag.

Eat a diet that is heavily based on fruits and vegetables. A little olive oil won't kill you but don't be dunking things in ranch and frying them.

Those are all pretty basic things.

 

 

The drinking part is what kills me/has me fall back. I'm a sucker for sugar and when I cut out pop for a year I lost about ten pounds not doing anything else different. Sadly, back on it now, I know that'll have to go first. 

 

These types of things are a little harder for me too because I'm not focused on weight as much as I am inches and boobies basically. I did a bunch of weight training and the scale only moved a little but I fit into all my stuff/stuff I couldn't fit into before and felt better about it

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I know that wasn't directed at me but gonna give my 2 cents.

It's 80% what you eat. If you are 30+ pounds overweight, you don't even need to work out. It's far more important to focus on a healthy diet. You also run the risk if you go to the gym and sweat it out for 2 hours of coming home and throwing it away with unhealthy eating because your body is exhausted and craves nutrition. Half hour of light cardio is all you need for weight loss.

No drinking calories (pop, juice, alcohol, etc). If you like brewing, take a month or two off. Be the DD.

Keep a food log. Plan your meals, weigh them, and stick to the plan. It really helps to prevent opening a bag of trail mix, thinking you are going to eat a handful, and finishing half the bag.

Eat a diet that is heavily based on fruits and vegetables. A little olive oil won't kill you but don't be dunking things in ranch and frying them.

Those are all pretty basic things.

Good advice.

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It's cutting out the booze that has proven the most difficult for me.

this was huge for me. I quit drinking a couple months after I got a DUI three years ago. That has been the single most important thing in keeping my weight off. I never go to the gym and went from 210 to my now 165 purely from eating better, even only somewhat, and cutting out drinking. Kudos to everyone in here!!
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How did you maintain your loss? What lifestyle changes did you make? How serious were you during your initial couple months of weight loss? Routine?

 

Maintenance - Honestly, there's not a grand mystery behind maintaining weight loss. Being more fit and healthy is a lifetime commitment. Sure, there's some people walking around that look great and don't have to do a thing but most people you see that are in shape work hard at maintaining their appearance because they commit time and effort to continuously eating healthy and participating in adequate exercise. By the time you're at your goal weight, you're going to know what type of exercise you enjoy and what your body responds best to - and you need to continue to do those things. Otherwise, you're going to forever start and stop diets and exercising. You don't want to do this for a variety of reasons. Your endurance will atrophy and you'll have to start all over again. Also, this doesn't mean you have to live your life on a diet. It means understanding moderation in regard to food. Cut out your daily consumption of empty calories - sugary soft drinks, alcohol, excessive snacking, etc. Be sensible about food - pizza every night isn't going to work. Here's the other thing - if you integrate both cardio and weightlifting into your daily routine, your body's metabolism is going to always be burning at a higher rate. Moreover, if you build muscle your body is going to use the food you give it as a fuel as oppose to storing it as energy (ie. fat). So, the better shape you're in, the more you're going to burn even when you're just sitting around. Ever see those pictures of The Rock sitting in front of a stack of 12 blueberry pankcakes or Michael Phelps downing an entire pizza to himself? Now you know why.

 

Lifestyle changes - Honestly, the first thing I did is I figured out WHY I wanted to lose weight which has nothing to do with the actual act of doing it. A lot of people do it for all the wrong reasons (to get laid, fear of being made fun of/stared at, etc.). For me, it was purely for my health. I was 15 yrs old, weighed 275lbs and I was the only kid in class that couldn't run a lap in PE without feeling like I was going to die. I didn't care that I was the only kid that couldn't do it but it scared me that I might be someone that has diabetes at 30 or die of a heart attack at 40. You have to want it for yourself and if you can't say that, you need to find that reason first. Otherwise, the changes will never stick and your commitment to it won't last. Within the first few weeks of making changes, I had committed time to working out and I made changes in my diet. If you can sit in front of a TV for a half an hour, you can get 30 minutes of cardio in easy. You have to learn to make yourself a priority. A lot of people that are stressed or have a lot of responsibility struggle with this but its not about neglecting other priorities in life, its about making sure you're giving yourself equal opportunity. Sans a health condition that prevents you from being active, there really is no excuse for anyone to not exercise. Some of the other lifestyle changes are noted above. By the way, if you're stressed out all the time or your body feels constantly stressed - you're gonna feel like a million bucks in about a month. Think your current energy level is too low to workout daily? Wrong. Once you get up and move around and settle into a routine, you're going to have far more energy than you do now.

 

How serious - I was serious but realistic. Sure, you can try to run 45 minutes on your first workout but its gonna be really fucking hard and probably pretty discouraging (also, you don't really need to run that much). My first workout? I walked 5 minutes on a treadmill. I changed my diet almost instantly and went hard with that. That's difficult  for some people and if you need to taper off certain foods, I suppose you can. After about a week though of cutting out unhealthy foods (especially those high in sugar), it'll be a lot easier. As thebiglebowski noted above, your diet is key. I changed what I ate at every meal and cut out the empty calories. Every week I would build on what I did the previous week in terms of exercise. Once I started to see changes in my body, I never looked back. I got interested in weightlifting within a few weeks - and again, I started small and built on that.

 

Routine - Keep in mind that what works for one person doesn't always work for someone else. I believe in a combination of cardio and strength training though. I choose to generally eat a low carb diet (but I don't cut them out completely). I run for 30 minutes 4-5 times a week and do some kind of strength training 3-4 times a week. For me, running is what really put me into the best shape of my life. This is coming from someone who was terrible at running and was convinced I'd never be good at it. Now, I could run for an hour straight daily if I wanted (but I don't - its too hard on my body). Here's how I built myself up to that though:

 

Week 1/2:

Jogged 3 minutes, walked 3 minutes, repeat x 3 = 18 minutes total

 

Week 3/4:

Jogged 4 minutes, walked 2 minutes, repeat x 4 = 24 minutes total

 

Week 5/6:

Jogged 5 minutes, walked 1 minute, repeat x 5 = 30 minutes total

 

You see the pattern here though. This also illustrates my point about being realistic about your fitness goals. Listen to your body. Eventually, you won't even have to jog/walk. You'll just run by cutting out the walk intervals - but when that point comes will be different with everybody.

 

WIth strength training - I choose to train by muscle group. One day is biceps, one day is shoulders/back, one day is chest and triceps. Now, I'm at a point in my life where I don't at all care about bulky and I don't both much with leg workouts. Cardio is enough of a workout for my legs and I just prefer to be thin / toned - so my strength training is focused on low weight and high reps (you would want high weight / low reps if you're interested in building noticeable muscle with an appropriate diet).

 

Staple foods in my diet: eggs, oatmeal, turkey, chicken, vegetables, low-sugar yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts (for snacking - we all crave a snack every now and then), water, tea, coffee (very light on creamer, no sugar). i do like fruit but don't eat a ton of it. oh, and peanut butter. i really can't live without my peanut butter (but be careful). if you have a sweet tooth though - a spoonful of sunflower butter is a nice little trick to curb it.

 

Foods I stay away from daily: high carb snacks (potato chips, crackers, etc.), sugary soft drinks (sodas, juices, etc.), high-calorie condiments - syrups, dressing, mayonnaise, etc. and alcohol (dont get me wrong, I love to have a drink but if you wanna get serious about losing weight you can't be comin' home after work and downing a couple beers every night) And if you do wanna have a drink - get into drinking scotch or whiskey neat (pretty sure this makes you a lot more manly too). Stay away from mixed drinks.

 

Couple other pointers: Stay off the fuckin' scale. I know this sounds crazy but some people are serious slaves to their scale and they freak out when it says they've gained a pound even though they're busting their ass every day. I pretty much never weigh myself. Its important to know that your body weight fluctuates by about 2lbs daily. I always go by how my clothes feel. Also, try not to eat anything about 4 hrs prior to going to bed. Midnight snack before bed? Sorry, but its gotta go. Learn to look at the nutrition facts / serving sizes on the foods you buy. I try to eat most of my carbs early in the day (breakfast or lunch) to give my body time to burn them off throughout the day. Plus, I prefer to workout at night after I've gotten off work. Last but not least, you don't need a fancy gym membership to get in a good workout. If you're neighborhood is safe to run in do it. Go to a park. You can literally walk into your local walmart and buy a pull up bar that fits into a door frame and some free weights for not a lot of money (free weights like dumbbells are actually better, by the way, as it forces your muscles to learn how to stabilize the weight on their own).

 

Good luck!

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I'm following a couple of you on instagram, drop your name here so I can follow you there too or follow me and I'll follow back, it's tjm182 I'll throw in a prize pack of supplements if anyone is interested pre work outs, fat burners, amino acids and stuff.

I'm greg_is_rad and I'm following you now. I love the prize pack incentive, thanks.

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I added myself! I'm André. Coincidentally we just got a new scale on Saturday. Our 2 year old broke the last one (no, he's not that big, it was made of glass and he dropped it).

 

So, any "rules"? Did I miss that post or link? We don't vote eachother out, right? No teams like on the show?

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