by hiccup on 9/13/13, 5:53 PM with 116 comments
by gxs on 9/13/13, 6:44 PM
Some people need extreme transformations like this to be successful. Most people, however, don't.
You'll have a much higher success rate if you're patient and change just one little thing at a time. Once you're comfortable, you move on to the next.
I myself have lost over 30lbs and increased strength tremendously (power clean 250+).
I went about it by doing one small thing at time. First I got used to going to the gym a couple days at a time. Once I was used to going to the gym, I started a strength program. Once I was used to going to the gym and being on a program, I started crossfit. Then after I was used to that, I started omitting wheat from my diet. Once I was used to that...you get the point.
by grecy on 9/13/13, 6:23 PM
If you burn more calories (energy) than you eat, you will lose weight.
Obviously, you have choices. You can cut down on all the really high calorie stuff. You can increase your exercise to burn more. You can (ideally) do a bit of both.
Of the hundreds of people I've known that have lost life-changing amounts of weight, I would estimate less than 1% of them had any idea how calorie dense the foods they were eating (and drinking) every day really are.
For the majority of people that are severely overweight, all they have to do is cut out high calorie snacks like chips, soda and anything deep fried and they'll lose significant weight, without even getting off the couch.
by ja30278 on 9/13/13, 6:59 PM
It really is that simple. There are many ways to lose weight, but dropping sugar (in all it's forms) is the most straightforward. It's the closest thing to a 'weight hack' I've ever seen.
If you are currently overweight, just cut out carbs completely for 3 months..don't bother to count calories; don't fret about nonsense like whether your food is organic, or free range, or locally sourced. Just stop eating sugar. No rice, no potatoes, no bread, no sugared soft drinks, no pasta.
by netcraft on 9/13/13, 6:26 PM
I am two months into it - and have already lost 15 lbs, without any additional exercise. The carbs were rather easy to give up really - less sugar in my coffee, no pasta, few potatoes. Sodas were a little harder, but at 40g of sugar for a single Dr. Pepper, the choice between that or a whole sandwich is an easy one to make. The sodium is quite hard if not impossible though, unless you make every meal at home and only use fresh ingredients. If it is in a box, bag or can you can forget it. There is hardly anything at any restaurant you can get that is low sodium though. Even salads are absolutely loaded with sodium.
I will say I feel a little better, and not just from losing a couple inches around my waist. Water all day certainly helps. I don't think my cholesterol numbers are going anywhere really, I think my genetics are to blame, but I hope not.
Just a short anecdote, but if you sit behind a desk all day and have put on a few lbs, its fairly easy to give up the fast food and watch your carbs. It sure didn't seem like it at first though.
by seiferteric on 9/13/13, 6:28 PM
by 001sky on 9/13/13, 6:39 PM
Good to see!! When you are burning this level of level of energy every day, its actually <hard> to keep a stable weight. (Author must have had some base fitness, too so good for him.)
At its core, Weight change is simple input/output math. The key variable is %deplete your glycogen levels (as % of full everyday.) That is the "cache" of energy from your daily diet. If you burn enough energy to deplete this, you will lose weight, as your body replenishes itself from non-dietary reserves (fat, protein en extremis).
Surprisingsly, these are highly realistic numbers (<1lb/day>), even for relatively fit (height/weight proportionate) people. Moderating the pace to emphasise endurance over power will lead to more loss of net-mass. Asympotically, you will reach a point of gradual returns, but it is not at all surprising to lose significant mass under such prolonged workloads.
TLDR: Glad to see this is not a crash diet.
edits: clarity
by swanson on 9/13/13, 6:36 PM
I made two small habit changes that I feel made a drastic difference:
* Bring lunch to work everyday (brown bag, leftovers)
* If I want to watch TV, I must be moving on the treadmill
by bcrescimanno on 9/13/13, 6:24 PM
The success stories all boil down to a few simple points: eat real food, cut down on alcohol, and do some exercise that you find enjoyable enough to do it every day.
by hiccup on 9/13/13, 8:36 PM
And at the 1 year anniversary of his epic hangover: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjlambert/8753966380/
by fingerprinter on 9/13/13, 6:48 PM
If you only care about weight loss: calories in vs calories out.
However
If you care about maintaining muscle while losing fat, the story is still pretty simple, and calories still count, but the macro ratio of those calories are very important. In this case, keep protein high and get the rest from carbs and/or fat. I personally recommend a more Keto approach in this case because most people will be satiated longer.
The point being, weight loss is one thing, but muscle sparring while losing weight is another. Understand what you are going after and know the correct path.
[1] - When most people say they want to "lose weight", they really mean fat. Really, who wants to lose muscle? Probably no one. That is why calories don't tell the whole story. If, however, you absolutely don't care about muscle (and if you say "yes" here, I would personally question that), sure, just pay attention to calories and ignore the macro ratios.
by penguindev on 9/13/13, 10:15 PM
Banting knew carbs made you fat over a century ago, but of course since the scientists couldn't figure out WHY they discredited it. And so it ever was.
They also knew carbs should be avoided by diabetics, but when insulin was invented they chose to (more profitably) just shoot people up all the time and make them sicker. Do you know what shooting yourself up with insulin constantly does, by the way? [2]
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting [2] http://garytaubes.com/2012/02/on-the-greatly-exaggerated-dem... [ see disturbing picture ]
by bluedino on 9/13/13, 6:39 PM
Clothing is not sized that way in the USA. 36" waist fitting into a medium?
by andrewcooke on 9/13/13, 6:23 PM
[edit: not to ask why you're losing weight so fast (because you're not eating, duh), but whether that rate is healthy.]
by yeureka on 9/13/13, 10:42 PM
Isn't it obvious this is incorrect?
I mean, go to Japan, where people live on white rice and wheat noodles and count how many obese people you see on the street.
You will also notice that consumption of bacon, butter, eggs and dairy is very low compared to western diets and even though they consume fatty fish they don't eat it in the portions westerners consume meat.
by alexPetrov on 9/13/13, 10:59 PM
1. Bike to work (~5 there plus ~5 miles back for a total of ~10 miles per work day)
2. Stopped drinking soda (and most sugary drinks)
3. Switched to a standing desk at work (I pace when I think so it's almost like walking all day)
4. Do minor exercise during down time at work (push ups, dips mostly)
5. Regularly asking myself if I have time to go to the gym and actually going when I find I don't have a good excuse (I got this idea from that lucid dreaming trick).
6. Consistently trying to eat less in general (based on rough calorie counts) by asking myself if I need to eat more or cook that much.
7. Continually improving balance in diet (more fruits/veggies is usually what I need to do)
8. Cooking as much as I would eat in one sitting, but saving half for lunch the next day (no more seconds)
I've always been pretty physically active, but I've also always had a tendency to eat as much as I wanted constantly. This led to rapid weight gain whenever circumstances had me exercising less. Restraining myself was a steady process, but now I actually can't eat as much as I used to, and I find I actually eat less when exercising less, which is good.
by peterwwillis on 9/13/13, 9:01 PM
I began to exercise a lot. A lot to lose that beer belly. Finally it mostly came off. Then I fell for the excuse of "you need to eat more to gain muscle!" and ate the amount of calories some online calculator told me i'd need to maintain a given weight.
I've never had abs, and I didn't get them then. I could out-run, out-squat, out-jump any crossfit contender I met; and I was still kind of flabby. My motivation sank. I moved away and stopped my routine. I went back to drinking and eating a lot, without working out as much. I lost strength. The belly began to return.
Recently I arbitrarily decided to cut out drinking for two months, which helped a lot. Then I decided to cut out wheat. Not gluten, just wheat and products made from it. So far? I'm looking more cut than I ever did, and i'm hardly exercising. Eating smaller portions and less empty calories/alcohol is giving me the body image I always wanted. (It's probably just the lack of calories and not the wheat specifically)
by pyrocat on 9/13/13, 11:37 PM
by HPLovecraft on 9/13/13, 6:34 PM
by jaredsohn on 9/13/13, 8:33 PM
by EricDeb on 9/13/13, 6:50 PM
Drink a lot of calorie free, caffeinated liquids. I probably drink more diet soda than I should, but tea and coffee are great as well and healthier
I find eating small amounts of crap can actually help. If your diet wasn't amazing in the first place, and your goal is to lose weight so you cut out all unhealthy foods, you're fighting two battles at once - cravings for sugary/unhealthy foods, and hunger cravings. Eating a small amount of ice cream or a few french fries can satisfy the unhealthy cravings, and work as diet foods as long as your calories are sufficiently low.
by OriginalAT on 9/13/13, 6:38 PM
Excellent read, and keep up the good work!
by joelle on 9/13/13, 6:50 PM
This is so true... why do we always say we'll start something on Monday? I'll start eating better... on Monday. I'll start my new workout routine... on Monday. Where did this come from? Why is it so hard to make the same commitment to yourself today? Congrats on making up your mind and following through! Super inspiring!
by WhitneyLand on 9/13/13, 6:54 PM
Maybe not - I bet somewhere in your ancestry we're lean, ripped, warrior/hunters who were like that due to the type of work they did, and because people didn't bring donuts every time someone in their tribe had a birthday.
Serious congrats and well wishes to you in any case.
by Miyamoto on 9/13/13, 6:43 PM
by daddykotex on 9/13/13, 7:02 PM
by xyfer on 9/13/13, 7:28 PM
by el_duderino on 9/13/13, 8:17 PM
by andykmaguire on 9/13/13, 9:06 PM