Losing Weight So far so good (any tips)

[Gene Starwind 21122]

So I started dieting back on July 5th this month and I have gone from 181 to 174.5. I'm trying to get down to 170 by Otakon. My goal is 160-165 range overall. I've cut out all soda, and most chocolate. I eat maybe a few hershey kisses (4 small pieces) to get rid of any migrains, and have a scoop of icecream once every 2 days. I keep track of my calories and work out. Right now I do about 100-150 sit-ups and 60 pushups and do a jog around my community for as long as I can until I get tired and litte headed. I do not eat out that often. The only time I do go out to eat is to go out with a friend on Sunday and even then I order healthy off the menu. I eat 6 times a day, having a small breakfast, lunch, and dinner with 3 snacks throughout the day. I drink between a gallon and 1 1/2 gallons of water per day. Right now my calorie count is between 1550-1750. Some days I don't get past 1300 calories.

So what do you guys think any recommendations?

I just did not want to see myself 10 years from now approach 40 years old and weighing 200 lbs. I want to lose the weight now and try to keep it off.

Gene

[BasharOfTheAges]

Man, I'd love to get down to that level. Good luck with it.

[NS]

Most important thing to remember is if you're burning more calories then you're taking in you'll lose weight, that's why some people who eat all the healthy foods but don't exercise only see minimal results. You seem to be doing this, so that's a great first step.

Another thing to be aware of is when people start dieting and working out seriously they will often lose a large amount of weight relatively easily. This is water weight from the fat and it's very easy to get complacent after hitting a small goal (yours seems very reasonable) and go back to old habits. Many people will drop 15-30 pounds very easily and then stark slacking and gain it all back right away. So really the important thing is to just keep it up, the more you exercise the easier your exercises will become, and then you can do more easily.

Best of luck .

[UniqueDazZzle]

Keeping track of your calories and shit is just a pain in the ass, to keep it simple and fast is to consume a lot of water throughout the day and don't eat anything after 6pm or 4 hours before you go to bed and of course you have to workout.

So far you're doing just fine Gg !!

[meleechampion]

Congrats on the progress you've made so far. My concern, as someone who lost 85 lbs two years ago and is now in the next stage, is over keeping it off. You're certainly working very hard right now, and that's good, but how much of it is because you just got stared? You know how people like to refer to their diets as "lifestyle changes" instead of "a diet"? Well, that's actually a very important mental outlook that is meant to avoid the terribly unhealthy "yo-yoing" dieters experience of rapidly fluctuating in weight. I mention this because you seem to be taking a lot of steps toward your goal, but have you thought about how many you will still be doing in a month, six months, a year, 5 years? Cutting out soda is a great first step for anyone looking to lose weight, it was mine and the jumping off point for a whole lot more. Are you going to go back to drinking soda though when you lose the weight? Limiting sugar is always good, but is that style of rationing something you can live with long term? Working out is very important (though not as important, certainly not more important, as what you eat) but will you still be working out anywhere near as regularly this time next year? If you want this to last longer than Otakon 2014, you should be making changes you can live with the rest of your life.

Anyway, that aside you are doing all very good things. Counting calories can be very important, if that's your main dietary restriction. A word of warning on your numbers though, I used to try and hit 1350, but my own doctors have warned me not to go below 1500 a day. (I'm a 6' male, for reference) So something to consider or ask your own doctor about.

I am curious what your actual diet consists of. (The only things you specifically mentioned eating were chocolates and ice cream lol.) For me, I not only tracked calories but also tried to limit my carbohydrate intake to ~100g a day. What I'm eating currently (also while I was losing) is a sort of non-strict Paleo diet. No breads, pasta, rice, etc. Some dairy occasionally, and I don't have to be gluten crazy or anything.

I could go into why limiting carbs is important, but that might be more than you're looking for on an AMV forum. I highly recommend anyone who is seriously interested in the topic to read some of the research done by Gary Taubes. (this is a pretty good lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6vpFV6Wkl4 )

Paleo is the change that worked for me, and there are plenty of lifestyles to choose from that have worked for a lot of different people. I think the key is picking something that you can stick with.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

Currently in the morning I'm either eating a cup of cereal and a banana or 2 eggs and a hash brown with Orange Juice. Snack is usually a banana or an apple. Lunch is usually a healthy choice meal between 190 calories and 280 calories. 2nd snack is usually some beef jerky (lots of protein per serving), dinner is usually another healthy choice meal or rice and either chicken or beef. My last snack is usually a half cup of ice cream (140 calories) or a bag of popcorn while watching anime (150 calories, 18g of protein.) I am going to keep up with it, as far as exercising goes, the more I do it the easier it is to get into the mindset. I still push my body while working out.

My concern is after I lost the weight I wanted to how do I stop losing weight and just maintaining it. I don't want to eat unhealthy foods but I don't want to become sickly skinny either.

I'm cutting out sodas permenantly. It was not fun going through the withdraw of it.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Castor Troy]

I went down from 185 to 160 in 2 years by mostly cutting out soda, most fried foods (sadly, fries are among my top favorite foods), and replacing meat with chicken when I can. I also walk for an hour every day and never try to miss it unless I have to do something important.

Also, allow yourself one "cheat day" to eat something from your favorite restaurant in order to fool your metabolism so you don't get super skinny to the point where you can damage your body.

I've done a pretty decent job of maintaining my weight, but I do feel I have to prevent myself from getting too skinny since most of my old clothes are too big on me right now to the point where it looks like I'm wearing a superhero cape.

[TritioAFB]

study medicine. No diets, no exercise, 4 years ago went from 170 to 155.

And although pressure has decreased you can still keep in form working in a hospital without the sunlight, without any dangerous food (since the food there should be made with calories restriction) and with lot of fun aka work

[Megamom]

and with lot of fun aka work

Sexy nurses

[Pikapwn]

It seems like your doing everything perfectly.

When I switched from cutting to maintaining, I had one cheat day a week, where I'd eat whatever I wanted, as Castor Troy said. When I was losing weight I was told to drink a large cup of water before every meal. For years I thought this was good for burning calories or digestion, but I recently realized this might have just been to fill my stomach up so that I eat less. Either way, it worked pretty well.