SugarySnax

I have used bicycles and walking to lose weight. I have had the most success with bicycles. Getting on a bike somehow inspires me to go places and burn calories far beyond working out on some indoor elliptical or Nordic Track. But I have never been able to keep the weight off for long. When I quit riding, the weight comes back. Often, I become acclimated to a higher calorie diet while riding and then I can't quit that diet. I get extra bummed out and eat more.

Most of the time I quit riding because of winter or physical problems. Last year I quit a little early because I developed tingling issues. I wanted to ride, but I feared doing worse permanent damage. I tried switching to longer hikes. That worked for awhile but all that hiking caused knee and foot problems. Then the weather got a lot worse and I cocooned.

This has happened again and again. I've tried lots of things. Everything they (you know, THEY) tell you is just something somebody made up or didn't test fully. "Put your food on a smaller plate it tricks your mind into thinking you've had a bigger meal."

No it doesn't. My mind insn't stupid. It isn't getting a full meal and it knows it. It will now nag me all night to get some yummy stuff and devour it.

My theory is that each cell has a will to live. When you put on weight, you create new cells just for storing fat. They now have a will to live and will nag you for food for the rest of your life. Your brain keeps track of how many cells are in the body and if some fat cells are starting to starve your brain will nag you ceaselessly because it does not want any cells to die. Your brain is stupid in much the same way as your brain and systems do not kill cancer cells, they also do not kill useless fat cells. Even if you do starve a fat cell to death your brain will tell your body to create two new fat cells to replace the lost one and that will make you fatter.

Each person also has a second, central nervous system that is below the belt. It is this system that keeps bugging you for food. Its very primitive and doesn't care what you or any scientists think. "Bring me more of that delcious ice cream" it says. "More bacon. Hits the spot you know."

GeoBigJon

Well then not really sure this is the place.

youcoming

Wow, I'm just going to sit back and see.

ursle

~:~

goldfinch

Growing up doesn't seem to be the issue.

Yes, there is a drive to eat and for many of us, a drive to overeat. That drive can trump efforts to keep off lost weight.

Otherwise, Sugary's post is weird.

craigrrr

from what I have learned over the years of weight loss struggles is the body is craving NUTRITION plain and simple, you give your body nutrition and stop the junk foods such as white breads, candies, sweets etc.. the weight will come off, you will not want to eat as much as before cause the body knows it is full.

the bike riding is a plus , calories in calories out

SugarySnax

People who have been substantially overweight, like fifty pounds overweight for five years or more seldom lose that weight and keep it off for more than a year. And hardly anybody keeps it off for five or ten years. People who've had operations might be more successful but that's pretty extreme. I always wonder if they're now satisfied with eating less or do they just find it impossible to eat what they used to because it makes them sick. If that's the case, I wouldn't say they're entirely successful because the desire to eat excessively is still there.

Has anyone here lost forty pounds and kept it off for five years? Did you have that extra forty pounds for five years before you lost it?

Craig, I'm interested in the kind of bread you eat. It sounds like you eat some kind of whole bread. What's it called? I might be able to tell you something about bread that you don't know.

goldfinch

Yes, there are people here who have kept more than 40 pounds of weight off for five years. Yes, it is not the usual result. Exercise though can improve your odds. As can eating breakfast. As can being a person who does not tend to depression or impulse control issues.

I disagree with Craig that the body craves nutrition rather than calories. It may crave both and you can have perfect nutrition and still have the drive to overeat. That said, too much sugar certainly does not help. I can eat a good diet with no sweets and I still am hungry. I do not have an appetite off switch and I always want more to eat. Diet be damned.

youcoming

January 1st 2006 I was 305 - 315lbs and had been around that for years, by fall 2006 I was 198lbs. I have not kept it all off and have fluctuated but never anywhere close to 305. I have a new goal of getting to 185lbs and staying there, today I am 213. I will say it's hard I love food and booze and have wild cravings and pig outs but it's all in the mind. The brain is what controls it all, I have no magic words as everything is different for everyone. Myself, my two boys both ride, most of my friends ride and I'm sick of being dropped on the hills every spring till my cardio and legs overcome my fat. I have made a stand to be a skinny person. I'm quit happy to be at the weight I am as it's amazing compared to where I was but for me everything revolves around my performance on the bike and another 30 pounds off would do nothing but make me faster.

snidely

Nevermind.

Neil_B

I've lost more than fifty pounds, and kept more than 50 pounds off, since 2006. I probably had your hypothetical 50 pounds for the hypothetical 5 years before. What is the point you are trying to make? Please tell me. I'm too busy being successful at weight loss to spend more time on your post.

craigrrr

Actually no bread... I have been using Dr. Furhmanns plan Eat to Live. Basically I have become lacto-ovo vegetarian. I will eat some brown rice mixed with wild rice maybe once every two - 3 weeks. Well I forgot I do have a thin whole grain 3" round pita with a portabello mushroom every couple of weeks.

I have lost 30 pounds just by following his plan for 6 weeks. I drink no SODA at all I am serious about getting back to my weight from 17 yrs ago which was 190 #

I have also become friends with Scott Cutshall you can even google his name as he has made a lot of news in the biking world and I have learned a lot from him.

JackoDandy

Ive lost 'almost 40lbs' and kept it off for some time now. Its not easy and its a constant struggle to keep the weight off. I ride a lot of miles and watch my diet but now that I'm getting older, how long can I keep up the mileage? 5 or 10 more years? Then what?

I also don't subscribe to the 'ex-fatties', glassy-eyed, nirvana-like state that people get into. Where its just so great and preferred over the old habits. Habits they embraced for decades. I disagree as ts tough to choose oatmeal over bacon. It has been for years and I suspect it will continue to be. We just have to be honest is all.

Wooden Tiger

I'd recommend seeing a doctor about those "tingling issues."

As for eating, you can't help your body craving food, but you can help what you feed it. Drop the Doritos and pick up an apple. You'd be amazed at how much better an apple tastes.

I couldn't help hitting the Fritos, Doritos, Cheetos, etc. for a long time. I had to apply and discipline myself to eat something healthy instead of garbage. Within about a week or two, I no longer craved those "snacky" foods. Not only did I not crave them anymore but once I started eating healthy my energy level climbed, things tasted better, I lost weight, and even my personality changed a bit. Simply put, I just felt better. Despite this, there were times I fell off the wagon and went out for a Five Guys burger and fries or chowed down on some buttery microwave popcorn, but I had to keep it to a minimum. Not surprisingly, when I ate those foods I immediately noticed a difference in how I felt; tired and lethargic.

nymtber

People that make excuses. Stay fat.

digger531

mmmmmm five guys.....

Anyways... I would first like to say, this is one of the snarkiest threads i have ever seen in the clydes/athenas forum

I have a tendency to hibernate in the winter also but have found that weight lifting and racquetball help pass the months.

I KINDA hear what your saying although HOW you are saying it does seem strange. I think your "theory" could use some work and is mostly a built in excuse you use to justify your up and down weight loss and I believe THAT is the biggest problem a lot of people have. Using some unproven theory to justify they're actions. I believe this happens to great extent in a lot of areas. Alcoholics claim to drink because its a disease and they can't help it but yet millions of people who were supposedly alcoholics quit drinking (myself being one) as millions of overweight people do successfully lose weight and keep it off.

If we can cut through all the crap and adjust our thinking it can be done.

Wooden Tiger

I agree with this. Today is the day and age where people aren't held accountable for their actions, or it's "always someone else's fault;" nothing's EVER "my fault." Sleep in the bed ya made. You wanna eat Wendy's Double Baconators, Five Guys, and King's Chicken Parmesan, go right ahead, but don't complain about how THEY made you fat.

Yeah, I'm overweight and I have no excuses. Wanna know why I'm overweight? See above. Now, I'm paying for my sins and have to work hard to work off all those Double Baconators, Five Guys Burgers, and King's Chicken Parmesan. Yep, that's right, I did it to myself. Nobody forced me to stuff my face with that juicy, high-calorie, tasty garbage.

1242Vintage

I was 250 lbs for many years and i dropped 65 lbs in 2009 by cutting out soda, fast food, and those delicious sweet snacks my coworkers like to bring in to work to share. Then to improve my fittnes I ramped up my cycling and over the course of about 6 months put back 10 lbs and have been happily sitting at 195 lbs for the last four years.

The key for me was to find a good motivator for weight loss and sustaining a lifestyle change. Mine was simple. Wife took a bad picture that showed how out of shape I was. Looking at that picture I knew I had to make a change. Goal was to get and stay under 200 lbs.

Have kept the weight off for four years .... But now I have a new motivator. At almost 50 started racing again. To be competetive (which for me means finishing in the middle of the pack instead of near DFL) need to drop another 25 lbs, down to 170.

There are many here that have lost weight and kept it off.

JackoDandy

WonderMonkey

I will chime in on some things.

I do believe the body wants to eat at a volume that it is accustomed to because it is a habit. Probably a long time habit. How you satisfy and change this habit is a key for many of us. For the first time in my adult life I have been able to change my habit for a length of time. Here is how I did it:

- Made a decision to make a lifestyle change. I've decided this before but for the first time I am locked in on it.
- Made space in my week to prepare at the grocery story and in the kitchen.
- Did the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge. This works wonders if are making a lifestyle change, else it is like anything else and the results are temporary.
- When I got the urge to eat a volume of food I made it broccoli or carrots or something like that. I got creative on the various ways to prepare them so I didn't get tired of the same old same old.
- Increased my exercise consistency. Burning calories, building a bit of muscle, etc.

Back to the habit of volume..... whatever it takes to get you down the proper trail on changing what volume satisfies your mind is what you should do. Smaller plate? Sure, if that works for you? Eat a bunch of food that isn't horrible for you? OK. Whatever you need. However over a period of time, whatever time that takes, you need to apply a bit of will power and reduce that habit of volume.

Pamestique 

see I took this post totally different so don't get all the hate directed towards the poster... I thought he was being facetious and funny but I may be wrong.

There is some truth to the fact that the more fat cells developed the harder to lose weight as those cells do work hard to stay intact. Even with weight loss they are not gone, only reduced in size. Only lipo or surgery removes fat cells. Internet is down right now for me (so how am I posting - weird!) but I believe if you do research on how fat cells hamper weight loss you will get what the poster was trying to say... or not... I got lost in reading everyone elses responses...

jethro56 

I read the original post and just felt like it just wasn't helpful to anybody including the original poster. Since there appears to be interest in this, I'd thought to share some newer research. Like many here, I thought that once you created more fat cells and they "learned " how to get big, you were now in a situation where it took herculean efforts to maintain that loss. It appears now that fat cells die and are replaced at about a 10% rate per year. The research didn't specify whether this was longevity driven. Note that the total number of fat cells is fixed in some manner in an individual and there is a correlation between the number of fat cells and obesity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/he...5fat.html?_r=0

My take on this is a positive one. I have no control on the amount of fat cells I have. I didn't create a bunch of new ones. It's just who I am. If the ones I had somehow "learned" how to get huge then they're being replaced. Maybe this explains why people who maintain weight loss for 5 years are more likely to keep it off, but I'm not sure that statement says anything except "Don't give up".

goldfinch

Thanks Jethro, I haven't seen this one yet.

Johan13

Hi sugary, sorry for all the negativity that has been in this thread. What I can say is that in order to be successful, you have to be proactive and not reactive. A reactive person is one that feels helpless because they focus on things out of their control. An example is not exercising because of the weather. The weather is controlling you. A proactive person will do their workout because they want to do. It's not a need thing, it's a want thing. It's not a weather thing. If you don't like biking in the rain, bike on a stationary bike. Go for a run. Play squash. Go for a swim. Skip rope.


Take responsibility for your health. You want to be healthy and fit, you need to take control. People are fat today because they do too little and eat too much crap and don't take responsibility for their health. I work in health care and see many patients who are simply dying from diabetes because they expect others to help themselves and do not take control of their health. The obesity epidemic has happened in the last 30 years. Without a doubt, human cells and genetics have not adapted to being fat over this time. What has changed? Less exercise and more food and possibly a less proactive society.


so the question is, are you going to continue and be a victim or are you going to actually stand up and do what you know you need to do. The choice is yours, please don't excuse your health to your stomach when you overeat. It is you that chooses to overeat. Remember that and i think you will be much more successful.

jim p

I don't know how the body operates in respect to developing fat cells and such.

Everything that I read indicates that the attitude or mind set of the person greatly impacts how a person acts and reacts to situations. With a negative attitude 99% of the time you are going to get the negative outcome that you expect. With a positive attitude and realistic expectations you are very likely to achieve your realistic expectations. But with a positive attitude and fantastic expectations you are very likely to achieve the fantastic expectations.

Change the minds way of thinking and the body will follow along. I am not saying that you can grow a new arm of leg that has been lost but the mind is very powerful more so than I and many others can even comprehend.