How do you guys lose weight?

I'm trying to get off a pesky 10-15 pounds.
I'm happily vegetarian again, after about a year of meat eating...
But now I just can't seem to get the weight off! it used to be easy for meee. I don't know what's going on...

What do you guys do to lose a few pounds?

 

Eat more meat. A vegetarian diet is extremely high in carbohydrates which for many people causes high insulin levels and a change in metabolism that makes it difficult to lose weight.

This article says it far more eloquently than I can http://www.rheumatic.org/insulin.htm

My personal tips are to exercise frequently throughout the day. Do your hard and rigorous workout in the morning but have a few quick 10 minute sessions throughout the day, preferably before eating. This will increase your metabolism naturally. Eating less food more frequently also will speed up your metabolism.

But really. It sounds like you're a protein type and for about 3/4 of North Americans a vegetarian diet isn't the healthiest or best way to eat. I don't know your reasons for being a vegetarian but if you want to lose some weight and avoid insulin resistance later in life you would do best to add some more meat to your diet.

 

Just limit the carbs, there is no reason to go back to eating meat! Rottign meat in your stomach can't help!

I used to eat too much bread and pasta, but then just had more fruit and veg to fill up on.

I am off to the market soon to get loads of fruit and will just have that for a few days - too much food over Christmas, I need the detox!

 

Listen to stabby, not tipsy.

Replacing bread and pasta with loads of fruit? light cigarettes work too... haha

 

So the idea of a healthy diet passes you by? Fruit is one of the healthiest things you can eat, and most have very few calories - hence, you lose weight by eating healthily.

 

Fruit and vegetables are mostly carbohydrates! The idea is to reduce carbohydrates and you propose cutting carbohydrates by eating carbohydrates. Silliness. Granted, fruit and vegetables are healthier than grains, but theyre still carbohydrates and will contribute to high insulin levels and excessive fat storage. They simply contain a lot of water so 1 cup of tomato has a lot less calories than 1 cup of rice. The problem is that simply eating less will make a person constantly hungry, malnourished and miserable. And eating less food actually slows down the metabolism. Less food and hgih insulin is a recipe for disaster. The idea is to eat plenty of food and burn that food.

My proposition: eat meat. Have a balanced diet. Vegetarian diets are not as healthy as omnivore diets and nowhere near as good for keeping the weight off for the majority of us.

 

Bread for example has between 15-20g of carbohydrate per slice, most fruit has around
6g less than this.

No silliness there.

 

look into fasting or intermittent fasting. It sounds hard and unhealthy but it actually is not.

 

1. log everything you eat for the next 1-2 weeks. don't worry about trying to lose weight yet. if it happens naturally, fine. but you need to have some data to see where you are currently at - and to see how much you really are or are not eating. you can do this at www.fitday.com

2. getting adequate protein and essential fatty acid intake - adequate protein intake is very important

3. getting adequate veggie intake

4. after having a steady log of what you eat, then you correct what you are eating...improve the ratios of the macronutrients.

5. create a daily calorie deficit. easier through diet, but can be attained through exercise.

6. its quite silly to be afraid of carbs when you eat a balanced diet. you don't need a low carb diet to lose weight. there is no magic happening when you reduce carb intake.

 

No silliness, only ignorance then. Of course fruit has less carbs than bread IF you eat less of it. Fruit has the same amount of carbs as bread if you eat the same number of calories of each. That's like saying "this single rib has less fat than a huge steak". No shit. Fallacy of proportion.

 

Shes a vegetarian. That means massive amounts of carbs and is not balanced one bit. I would definitely reduce carb intake if the vast majority of my diet was carbs.

 

i'll hold off telling her to do anything until she completes task #1

 

I am blessed with a fast metabolism. I can have as much beer as i want and as much of any kind of food. Im lucky.

 

A good idea. My one qualm with your strategy is that you emphasize number crunching too much and the "calorie deficit". I feel as if the best method is to focus on speeding up the metabolism as opposed to the traditional intake to output strategy. Exercise is less about burning calories during the exercise but about getting the body into the habit of burning more and storing less. By focusing on maximizing caloric burn, the body no longer feels the need to store fat and will burn the existing fat for energy more readily. You hit the nail on the head with adequate nutrition and balanced macronutrient ratios though. Those are essential to an efficient metabolism.

 

Even with taking drugs such as ephedrine + caffeine, the above baseline metabolic rate will only be around 5% higher. So yes, the real need has to be on accurately focusing on the amount of food you are eating. You are not going to speed up your metabolic rate to any degree with exercise that will outrun an inaccurate account of food intake that is well above daily needs.

 

I don't mean drugs. The best way to speed up a slow metabolism is to eat properly for your metabolic type which means find your optimal macronutrient ratio. So we have some common ground. Exercise is a huge contributor if it's frequent and not all in one session and then sitting around the rest of the day. More smaller meals is also another time-tested way to speed it up. It's all about letting your body know that you have constant access to food and that you need to be constantly burning fat because you exercise frequently. That and keeping insulin levels down. However, if somebody is eating way too much food, that will always be a problem, but the way to lose weight is never to reduce caloric consumption below what you will need to maintain your desired weight. A filling and nutrient-dense whole foods diet (preferably with meat) accomplishes this easily.

 

I brought up ephedrine because that is a drug that will raise your metabolic rate, where as meal frequency has no bearing at all on speeding up or lowering in metabolic rate. When calories are controlled for, eating 3 ,4, or 6 meals that are identical in total calories at the end of the day, will show the same response over time (3000 calories from 3 meals will be the same as 3000 calories from 6 meals).

There are benefits to eating more frequently that include stable blood glucose levels, not feeling hungry, and other health markers...but that doesn't mean eating more frequently is healthier - just means for some people it benefits them to eat more frequently to lose weight when they are in a calorie deficit. But the scientific literature is quite clear on this, meal frequency shows no changes in metabolic rate in humans - for rats and mice it does, but that has no applicability to humans.

 

If you are serious listen to stabby. Look up all the information you can on Low carb or Very Low Carb diets. Dont be a stooge on them and use common sense. Just because cream cheese and bacon are 'zero carb' doesnt mean you should stuff your face full of them.

 

Stable glucose levels and not feeling hungry are two huge reasons to do it. The idea is to keep insulin levels to a minimum, as insulin sends a hormonal message to the body to store fat and the more insulin secreted, the stronger the response. When 3 large meals are eaten you get much greater insulin spikes than in 6 smaller ones where the body is burning more glucose as energy and storing less away. Limiting the glycemic load of each small meal and getting some exercise in between meals accomplishes this much better than 3 larger meals.

 

You are missing the bigger picture and need to learn not to focus solely on insulin, as it is not the devil hormone you try to make it. context matters.

both carbs and protein elevate insulin levels. combine both and it will be elevated higher than it would be if eaten separately.

on a hypocaloric diet (meaning eating under maintenance) the body will still release fat from storage even with the presence of dietary carbohydrates.

in the end, what matters most in terms of losing weight is on the food intake side of the equation. calories matter most