Your body stores fat for exactly what your doing. just in case it needs it and you wont supply it.

Whats going to happen is your going to regain what you lose and then some. your body is burning what it can to stay alive and once you introduce food into your system again its going to immeasurably store every ounce you put in because its going to think this is an occurring problem.

stop changing your meals and calories. get off your *** and burn more than you take in. THATS how your gonna lose the gut. Sorry, if i sugar coat this last part you would just think "aw, its ok, im fine". seriously, get off your *** and hit the stairs. do cardio for a couple weeks 4-5 times a week for 2-3 hours. fat burning doesnt start until your almost an hour into a workout.

 

When you starve yourself, your body is NOT burning fat (initially)...

It will burn off protein first (lose muscle mass), carbs, and then fat.

 

Thanks man, when i start getting back to food, i was going to start on some boost drinks and fish/chicken ect, but after i get started i think i will try your outmeal method, probably be once a day and one meal, but we will see.

Well, since i have done this before with no issue, you are evidently wrong, lost fat and keep it off for a while, there are several ways to lose, and mine is not only about losing weight, but also self control, i am wanting to also after this make sure i can say no to foods that normally i would eat more than i need to. Thanks for the concern, but everyone is different. Just like in the gym, people said do this and that, and i just had to find what works for me.

 

Im with everyone else on this one, not eating is one of the worst ways to lose weight..your gonna end up losing muscle mass because your body will pretty much start feeding off of itself. If you arent gonna eat alot then at least find a good protein as a meal replacement a couple times a day. Im coming from experience with this, 2 yrs ago I weighed 220 and I know stand at 165(5'8")
I lost mine by eating 6 small meals daily and subbing a protein shake in for my breakfast, that along with 1yr of 3-5 days a week in the gym. You can end up causing yourself some serious probs in the long run by not dieting the right way.

 

 

Damn, I'm hungry. Anyone want to go grab some burgers?


GL OP, I had a friend in highschool think he could starve himself (he would run/jog every day too) into the size/weight he wanted to be.
He accomplished it. He lost a LOT of water weight. Within a month, he had gained it all back. He then got (semi)smart and looked up how to lose weight safely/effectively. He had better luck keeping it off.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else, over-weight and wanting to lose it quick, but there's no 'easy' way of doing things. You're slowing down your metabolism by not eating, you actually want to eat more (yeah, almost doesn't make sense), but eat more often (smaller portions) and you'll increase your metabolic rate and burn more energy.

 

Think what you want man, I'm a rookie at this working out thing ya know!

Starvation is not the solution.
I was just trying to help you out is all.

 

Any doctor will tell you that not eating is a TERRIBLE way to lose weight. You're doing yourself more harm than good. Eat proper sized portions and be active, then you'll lose weight safely.

What you're currently doing would be classified an anorexia.

 

Couldn't be more wrong, fat burning occurs when your bodies glycogen stores are depleted. Way overkill especially if he doesn't get enough protein, a workout should be an hour long at most if your trying to lose weight.

As stated before, smaller healthier meals. I eat about 5 times a day with 3 protein shakes (1 before workout, 1 post workout, 1 casein before bed) and get about 200 or so grams of protein altogether in a day with my diet included. Protein is a hunger suppressant. BenR will chime in as well in this hopefully, even though I've argued with him in the past he's no stranger to nutrition. Cardio I'd recommend sprinting and hill sprints, best way to deplete glycogen by going all out to failure and pushing your body to is maximum potential, jogging is pretty much pointless IMO. Strict diet and sprinting a couple of times a week and maybe the gym if you feel like it will yield you the best results. At the rate your going, your body will hold on to everything you eat so unless your going to not eat fat and carbs for a while what your doing is literally useless. P90x is your friend.

 

Well, guess my gut already slimming down is my over swole 6 pack of muscle being depleted by my body right now? Lol


Once again fellas, this is not just weight loss, it is so self control, it is not hurting anything than my feelings, and that is just till I start eating again. I do look foreward to the wheat noodles again, I actually like them, lol.

Glad to see so many care enough to take time to give opinion, I do appreciate it, I will keep everyone posted, I am slimming decent this far, my body knows it doesn't need food by now since looking and smelling food doesn't bother me a bit.

 

Basically. You really kill off carbs / glycogen stores much more rapidly than the protein stores though. It's sad but that is how we evolved. If we took out our fat stores first it would be much easier, but that just isn't how it is.

Yes. Also rapid weight loss usually isn't recommended because at a rate of more than 1 lb/wk usually isn't retained off.

Yeah, in fact there is a fair amount of data that over 40minutes can start to become detrimental.

edit: and to expound a little more about exercise... A lot of people like to jump in by ramping up into some sort of "cardio" routine. Unfortunately one of the other issues is that starting into a program like this can potentially lower basal metabolic rate (at least initially), and in many cases also affects satiety / feeling hungry. The other part of our evolution was that we are designed to to store energy in times of feast so it is there in times of famine. Which partly explains why when you increase you average caloric output there is a tendency to become more hungry and eat more in order to keep the weight stable. A good routine with some cardio and some weight training is probably the most ideal and has already been mentioned above.

Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand and you have been given some good advice in this thread. The food in this nation is pretty terrible which is why this can be difficult. You need to be very careful because with anything remotely processed they tend to jam a bunch of corn syrup into it for no reason and the calories are bumped way up (well no reason isn't true... it makes it taste better, and also calorie rich foods have a neat little narcotic like effect on dopamine reward pathways). For the most part, if you can stay away from that and stick with the vegetables, fruits (not juice, huge difference), and lean meats you might do alright. But portion size is key, and the nation as a whole has portions that are out of control (which when combined with overly caloric dense foods is a recipe for disaster).

At any rate, multiple small meals with decent foods. You would not get as the high insulin spikes, and you should end up feeling less hungry in the long run.

 

You gotta eat to lose weight. Sounds crazy but it's the truth. Eating right and exercise are the only safe ways to do it. I'm on the other side of the spectrum, I have a hard time putting weight on..that sucks as well.

 

That was my issue, i would eat as much as i wanted till i was full, that is too late, i was weak to the foods and they were hamburgers, fried foods, ect, so this time, after i start ramping back to food, it will be good stuff and perhaps the bullshit on the weekends on occasion.

 

Run, and eat 6 small portions a day. I dropped 25 pounds in a month and a half a few years back just doing this. I still drank just as much beer on the weekends too

 

There is a lot of misinformation within this thread. I'll let you in on a little known secret OP. And before any of you guys try to call BS with me, you should know that my football coaches throughout high school were brothers who ran a massively successful personal fitness business that taught me and my team half of what we know, which later inspired my best friend to get his personal training certification and become a fairly successful personal trainer himself. I too have recently attained certification and probably spend more time over on bodybuilding.com reading and learning and sharing thoughts and input with the top nutrition experts in the WORLD everyday, so I think I know what I'm talking about. If anyone wants to lay out the dicks on the table and measure, I'll GLADLY post a picture of my 8% bodyfat physique to shut any e-statters or guys who consistently try to come at me thinking that the few bits of info they've picked up in the gym or from an hour or two on google is better than mine.

Now with that being said

ZONE89RS, I hate to be one of the many agreeing bro but you are TOTALLY taking this the wrong way. I don't care if this **** has worked for you before in the past to be honest, this way WILL backfire and I'd be willing to bet that the weight you eventually gained back resulted in you having a lot more fat then you did before. When you don't eat the body turns to a lot of different things for energy sources, and one of the most important one of those things being muscle. Many say "Oh I'm not trying to build muscle, just lose fat" I used to also say that long ago. No, **** that, you do not want to lose muscle, that will result in you becoming skinny-fat which also looks terrible. You want to retain as much muscle as possible, trust me on that. Your body will "eat up" so to speak all of your muscle before it eats up your fat, trust me on this.

Now if you would like to do it the easy easy way, without having to monitor your macros, how many times a day you eat, meal spacing, alcohol consumption, and most importantly, what food you eat, keep reading.

Now what I'm about to say is hard for many ppl to wrap their head around and they instantly call bullshit. If you're going to do that, how about you instead stfu and read and become enlightened. I also had trouble wrapping my head around this and you wouldn't believe how often I would message this guy asking questions about something so simple because it was hard to believe. I remember contacting my old coaches and getting confirmation from them as well. At the end of the day, you can eat WHATEVER you want, it's all about calories in vs. calories out. For me, using some formulas and plugging in some body stat numbers, I calculate my daily calorie needs to maintain my weight at almost exactly 3000 calories (very convenient for me) to lose a pound of fat a week, which is the bets way to do it, nice and slow to KEEP the weight off, I need to reduce my calories by 500 a day. 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat. I do not exceed 2500 calories a day. I can get those 2500 calories from any food source, I can fill up on several McDonalds big macs, or I can eat a buffet of Salad until I hit that number, it does not matter what so ever. I went from 215 pounds high 20%'s bodyfat in September (rough year, got lazy when I got my car, no football etc) down to the best shape of my life. I'm 18 and I rep 225 on the bench press, can run a sub-6:00 mile, have 8% bodyfat, have women gush over my midsection everytime I take my shirt off for whatever reason (hell yeah I casually show off, I worked hard for these *******, I'm not just going to keep them covered)

The more elaborate guide I followed is this

Basically, just consume your LBM in protein per day. ZONE, if you can, find your bodyfat % with some fat calipers. It's a very nice $15 investment. How tall are you, what is your age, what would you estimate your activity level to be (i.e. how much activity do you do in your job, how often do you lift?)

Once you give those I can give you an idea of how many calories you need to eat per day. For the first few weeks you should count the calories to make sure you don't overdo it, but after a few weeks you become familiar with all the foods you typically eat and it becomes second nature so you literally just eat whatever. Don't think of it as a diet, think of it as 3 daily "restrictions" in your life.

Me personally, I love lifting, I go 4-5 times a week and train as hard as I can for at LEAST 1.5 hours almost every night around 1-2 AM. The protein I mix into two seperate 50 gram shakes, one in the morning, one during the workout. I use Optimum Nutrition's 100% whey 5 lb. tub, Cake Batter or Banana Flavor, I take Anavite as my daily Multi Vitamin (3 pills in the morning, 3 at night) and my results are phenomenal.

Yes this is a long *** post but I can't stand misinformation or people making the diet harder than they need to. The guy who posted that quote I put above looks like this FWIW. Many people lose a lot of fat and are shocked about how little of muscle they really have. He wasn't shocked, but he is currently bulking to put on some mass, since he had a very long period of time of no lifting due to injuries so he looks quite skinny here. Sad part is he probably has more muscle than most people who are overweight do, who all think they have a lot of bulk muscle and some fat covering it.



Here's more reading that supports that method of cutting that I mentioned above. The article is written by a well known fitness expert and much of his article is composed of a quote by another EXTREMELY well known fitness pro

http://www.myspace.com/leanmonkey/blog/176090863

And here's some further motivation for you



EDIT Oh yeah and the guy who wrote out the quoted guide and myself both take Sundays off and eat WHATEVER the **** we want as much as we want when we want. Only thing we make sure to do is take in our amount of protein per day. Remember, take in 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body mass you have

 

It's interesting to see how people think we use and store energy. Lots of wacky idea's and everyone seems to think they know the answer. I'm going to medical school (so I would say I'm more knowledgeable about the subject than most) and have paged through numerous weight loss articles. I am certainly no expert but from what I've gathered, the most important equation to know is: calories in = calories out.

Everyone wants the easy way out...I'm just going to eat this macronutrient (e.g. carbs or fats) or, even more asinine, I'm going to stop eating all together.

The very concept of a diet is flawed. Diets, by definition, are temporary (like starving yourself). As soon as you quit your diet, you shift back to your previous equilibrium. One needs to change their ratio of calories in / calories out in order to change their weight.

The idea is simple but people will create complex justifications about ways to beat this basic equation. Truth is humans have much less free will (ie decision making power) than we like to believe. We are mostly driven by emotions - not logic - and nothing illustrates this more than seeing people try to overcome the urge to eat.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write that. For me, as large and lean as i used to be, i know what i have to do, starving myself is just the start of something greater, so big deal. As i stated earlier though, to assume your body will consume muscle before fat is crazy, my stomach and love handles are pulling in already, so that disproves any theory on that for my particular body, i could agree it was water weight if i was not consuming water,and other liquids, but i am drinking whatever i want.

 

do a lot of cardio and cut back on calories, but dont cut them out completely. you'll get there eventually, just have to work at it.

 

I need to do alot of things mentioned myself. I need to lose some fat on my stomach, not hard just gotta change my eating habits. Once I get back in the gym that comes naturally. I just gotta find some "help" again to put some more mass on.

 

Sorry man but that's a horrible idea for numerous reasons - lean body mass loss, muscle tissue deteriation, body is actually going to retain every gram of food you take in when you do start eating and store it as fat since it thinks you're starving, etc etc etc...