MinnMan

Yes, they are different. Maintaining weight for the long term requires actual lifestyle change.

zandoval 

I get ya... Yes... It could actually be a problem, but I think not. It's just people bouncing thier thoughts off of others they probably have more in common with then differences. Look at all the false crazy medical information you get off of Magazines, Books, Talk Shoe Hosts, and other Media most of it not peer reviewed or publicly studied. Yet here on the forum if ya post some crazy stuff that could potentially be hurtful within minutes someones gonna bust your chops...

Wyoguy

I already asked Dr Phil and Dr Oz, thought I would bounce the question off the folks here as well.

Hondo Gravel

I ask Dr.Seuss he said eating Green Eggs and Ham is the way to go.

Gym123456

I could ask one of my customers- he's a cardiac transplant surgeon and has about 20 bikes in his basement......

Wyoguy

Funny you should bring up Dr Seuss because my diet plan is eating Lox with a fox in a box.

Wyoguy

I'd be interested to hear what he has to say. I used to have my own transplant surgeon but he said I did not need his services (true story).

In the meantime I reached out to one of the only Drs I trust, my sister. Off the top of her head, she said "the faster you lose weight the faster you put it on". The reason I trust my sister's opinion over other Drs. is she might give an opinion off the cuff but she is now likely looking up relevant research on the matter. I will let you know what she comes up with.

MinnMan

with all due respect to your sister, the supposedly ignorant amateurs on this thread have said that repeatedly.

RH Clark

I've looked at a lot of data over the last 4 years. I am not an expert other than I have lost 160 lbs in a year and a half and kept it off for about 3.5 years after that. Most research suggests that extreme diets can be used to shed weight fast. The problem is that extreme can mean anything. I lost all mine on a low carb whole foods type diet, but there's a big difference between a low carb highly processed diet and a low carb whole foods diet.

The best diet is the one that you can sustain a lifetime and gives you the most varied amount of highly nutritional food with the least amount of toxins. Then when you factor in specific nutritional needs of individuals a diet becomes a very complex issue that isn't a one size fits all issue. Take for example, there is a hormone that is created when a lot of red meat is consumed. It promotes muscle growth if muscle growth is needed but the same hormone present in a sedentary person can promote tumor growth.

Wyoguy

I disagree with both the ignorant amateurs (your words not mine) and my sister on this belief the faster you lose it the faster you re-gain it. I was expecting there to be some professionals here either Drs, coaches and nutritionists, but I came here because I trust the opinion of a group of committed cyclists. My only problem with this thread is I came to ask about health concerns of rapid weight loss and this thread instantly became about keeping the weight off. The reason I disagree with the faster off faster on is this is a psychological issue not a physiological one, not all people are wired the same, have the same jobs, or family pressures.

I take full responsibility for my current weight and conditioning, I love good food and drink. So does my wife and as a professional chef she feeds us too well, I also cook and create lavish high calorie meals, I also like seconds and a 3rd or 4th beer most nights. I am also fairly motivated to work out and diet when needed but need to change the dynamics in the house. My wife cooked a home dry aged Ribeye Roast over the holidays and served me a 20 oz portion for lunch one day as much as I am a glutton I looked at that and said yuck and realized things needed to change.

My wife and I are both on this same diet/workout and she is now motivated to keep it off and has stuck to her workout as well. We are both looking forward to a skinnier summer when we are also in better shape. We will both have new bikes and have big adventures planned. Whether and how long we keep the weight off remains to be seen.

As for my sister's response to the health risk, she sees no concerns for me. "With a bad diet there is a chance of dehydration, and nutritional imbalance and a slight chance of gallbladder stones for too rapid weight loss."

RH Clark

It all depends on concerning rapid weight loss. If you are a crash diet type person and you can get weight off fast it's not all bad to some extent. Studies show that a fasting cycle is one of the best routes. People who lost weight fast by fasting intermittent periods lost less muscle in some cases compared to other groups. Nearly anything you do to get to a healthier weight is good. You just have to use good sense. You could actually drop weight by eating nothing but Hershey Snickers bars as long as calories consumes was less than calories expended. You just have to ask yourself how healthy over the long run could such a diet be. Everyone needs to find the balance between the healthiest possible and a diet that you can actually sustain. Personally, I drink too much red wine, but I don't mind paying for it by fasting a day or two now and again when I start to put on a few pounds. It's all just a balance game between what would be perfect and what you allow into your own lifestyle. Just be honest with yourself about your current program and what you would like to get to.

PeteHski

I think the reason this thread quickly turned toward keeping the weight off is because that's exactly what the main "health issue" is when going on a crash diet. The first question to ask yourself here is why are you in such a hurry to lose all this weight so quickly? Does it really matter if it takes 3 months, 6 months or a year? Is it not better to think much longer term and make the lifestyle adjustments required? In your earlier post you already mentioned dealing with the lifestyle changes after losing the weight, but to me that's potentially setting you up for failure once your crash diet motivation inevitably starts to wane.

Your situation reminds me of my cousin who was getting married a few years ago. She went on a rapid weight loss plan with the aim of fitting into her dream wedding dress. She lost the weight no problem at all, fitted the dress, looked great, got married and then within a year she was back to her previous weight. What went wrong? No long term plan once she got down to her goal weight. she stopped the diet (which was unsustainable anyway) and went back more or less to her previous eating regime. It took a bit longer for the weight to go back on than it came off, but on it went nonetheless.

GhostRider62

Losing 3 pounds of fat in 3 weeks isn't rapid weight loss.

How about shooting for 2 pounds per week. Let's say you have 50 pounds of extra fat. Give yourself half a year. Cut 500 calories per day out of your mouth (basal metabolic requirements) and exercise moderately for 10 hours per week. That is what it will take.

RH Clark

That's the healthy way to do it assuming a diet that satisfies all nutritional requirements. The problem with that approach is that overweight people, and especially extremely overweight people have already shown over a lifetime that they can't follow a sensible diet and exercise program. Sometimes an extreme weight loss event is the catalyst that it takes to change that person's lifestyle habit. The weight isn't even really the issue we should be focusing on. Simply get someone to change their lifestyle and their body will change to fit. There's the million-dollar question though. How do you get someone to change their lifestyle?

Personally, I turned off the TV and all forms of social media that I had been spending time on and used that time to do my best to educate myself as to what was the best human diet and what was the best way to lose weight. I spent 4-5 hours every day educating and motivating myself.

GhostRider62

You don't

People won't change unless they want to and most can't change their long ingrained behaviors if they tried, changing someone else is impossible.

Motivation is a very complicated subject.

From my experience, less than 20% of the population are intrinsically motivated. Most need something external to latch onto. The problem? The lure is short lived. A fairly rapid weight loss regimen over 2-3 months and then a rest at that plateau, working on maintaining the gains before another period of loss is probably a better strategy than thinking of a long grind of losing 2-3 pounds/week for a year. The external could be a reward. New bike or new clothes. It could be simply charting the weight loss or BF measurement decreases. Something as ephemeral as a "lifestyle change" isn't motivating to someone who loves to drink beer and eat pizza on a weekly basis.

RH Clark

Yea, I agree you can't change anyone else. I get asked a lot how I lost all that weight and kept it off. My point is that I could list all the things I did and exactly how I ate but the most integral part of my own change was constantly motivating and educating myself. I got so radical I nearly drove my family crazy, but it took that kind of intensity to half my body weight. I would have never kept up that kind of intensity if not for a heavy daily dose of You-tube motivation of everything from David Goggins to Dr Michael Mcgreggor.

MinnMan

??? I have a hard time picturing this.

If I had that amount of time (28-35 hours/week?) to dedicate to self-improvement, I'd be a randonneuring king, if my body could take all that saddle time . Heck, 20 hours/week on a bike and I'd be thin as a rail, no problem.

RH Clark

Maybe you don't have that much free time but take every second of time spent in front of the TV and on social media and do your best. Do you spend any time at night watching TV or looking at Facebook. If you want to get radical listen to an inspiring audio book driving to work. The point is to take every bit of time you can to reprogram your thinking.

MinnMan

I wasn't asking for your advice about how to spend my time or inviting you to judge whether my thinking needs to be "reprogrammed".
If I had as much free (non-work) time as you seem to have, I'd increase my time on the bike.

RH Clark

I wasn't judging you or intending to offend you. I wasn't competing with you either on time spent for self-improvement, or hours spent at a job every day. I was simply making the point that most everyone has more time than they think, if they wish to find a different way to use it badly enough. I'm sorry you have to work so much.

MinnMan

Thanks. I'm just surprised that on a biking forum, you make no mention of cycling as a route to self improvement. Personally, I find it to be the greatest salve to my mental health of any available endeavor.

Retirement is on the horizon. I will have more free time in a few years.

RH Clark

The only reason I'm not talking enough about cycling is my poor typing speed VS how much time I can spend right now on a forum. I totally agree with you about cycling. I cycle at least 3 times a week and became totally obsessed during my weight transformation. I still look at it as Zen meditation. My second year into my life change event, I rode 360 days that year. Sometimes it was only a 10-minuet ride around my property in the snow wearing full coveralls, on a MTB. A few times I was cruising the neighborhood after midnight. I live in a very safe rural area. I love cycling and own nice bikes in nearly every aspect. If we were strictly talking exercise, I would list cycling at number one.

I just talk up the new information side so much because looking back has made me realize that reprograming my brain with new information was the reason for every aspect of my change. If we just stop and think that all of us are just the sum total of what we have learned so far, it's easy to see that the only way to change is by learning something new. It's whatever you learn new that causes you to act differently. That's why I stress the motivational-educational approach.

PeteHski

I thought that too until I actually tried it. I found once you get up to around 20 hours per week it becomes pretty tough to sustain physically. Over-training is a very real and nasty illness - look up Overtraining Syndrome.

C_Heath

lol

Wyoguy

Here is a follow up of my diet.

Over the 28 day diet I dropped from 223 to 206 lbs. I was down to about 206 in around 23 days. I think I might have let myself get dehydrated that day and felt a bit of a bonk. To play it safe I stopped following the diet strictly and added more snacks and larger portions to my meals to try to stop the rapid weight loss. I have still lost about 2 lbs in the following week even with a number of cheat meals thrown in. Other than the one day, I have felt good during the whole diet. In about 20 days, I have changed a lot.

I lost 2 inches on my waist
My pre-hypertension blood pressure is now normal.
My belly is half it's size from Jan 2nd.
My cycling ability has doubled in the month. Not as impressive as it sounds considering where I started from
Officially I am no longer obese, just overweight.

No guarantee I will keep it off but am highly motivated and enjoying eating and feeling better and working to figure out how to sustain the journey towards better health. I have picked up a book on nutrition and my wife has got a book on macrobiotics menus. Even though I am still overweight by BMI measurements I am close to the weight I was when I participated in competitive and endurance events. Notice I said participated in not competed in, the only time I was competitive was when I weighed 195 lbs and came in 3rd in the Clydesdale division in a duathalon.