weight gain

Parent Cafe
41

<p>To the above 3 posters (37, 38 and 39), you are all right in part and wrong too. Here’s why.</p>

<p>First, dieting does not produce sustainable weight loss. It creates an artificial condition of depravation which your body attempts to compensate for by slowing your metabolism. Sure, you may lose weight over the short term of a year but virtually all “dieters” end up back where they were, or worse, within 2 years of going on a “diet”. What must occur is a sustainable change in lifestyle where you develop a regulated and consistent equilibrium between caloric intake and expenditures.</p>

<p>Regular exercise, as part of one’s lifestyle, is an important tool in developing and maintaining a sustainable metabolic balance. It ups your caloric expenditure and helps to maintain a higher and consistent metabolic rate. But exercise alone is not enough. You must also modify eating habits to enable you to achieve weight goals while maintaining energy sources to fuel your increased activity. Someone who simply “diets” will not achieve a sustainable consistent and efficient metabolism and risks losing weight from lean muscle and organ tissue as well as from fat. Someone who engages in high intensity exercise without modifying their eating habits will either continue to overeat or not eat enough to support their level of activity and ultimately not be able to sustain their program of exercise.</p>

<p>So, emeraldkitty, while you didn’t “diet”, you did modify your eating habits. Your appetite went down so you ate less. You did away with empty sugar calories that had no nutrient value and that cause blood sugar to swing wildly thereby creating artificial feelings of hunger and ups and downs in energy levels. You lost weight gradually, about 4 pounds a month, which enabled you to adjust and find a new equilibrium. Congratulations for your perseverance and results!</p>

<p>Foolishpleasure, if that’s all the doctor on Oprah said, he did not give good info. “Dieting” promotes the infamous “yo-yo” effect and not sustainable weight loss. Losing weight without exercise causes weight loss from lean muscle tissue as much as from fat and is counter- productive because as you lose weight your caloric baseline drops and as you lose muscle tissue your metabolism decreases. It becomes a never ending cycle of readjusting your food intake to meet your reduced metabolic needs and you end up feeling hungry all the time so you eat more and eventually gain the weight back. On the other hand, exercise alone without modifying bad nutritional patterns, won’t cut it either.</p>

<p>Bay, simply put, if you rely on exercise alone, it ain’t gonna happen. Foolishpleasure is right. Exercisers often do tend to overestimate calories burned. Simplistic consumer charts of x number of calories burned per hour of a particular exercise are often way off the mark. One’s body weight, metabolic rate and exercise intensity are all factors in determining how many calories are burned from a hunk of exercise. And “exercisers” do have a tendency to reward themselves for their exercise by eating more food they enjoy without thinking through the caloric balance with good information.</p>

<p>OK, I’m done pontificating :slight_smile: .</p>

42

<p>A fantastic website I have found is:
[Calorie</a> Counter, Diet Tracking, Food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate](<a href=“http://www.mydailyplate.com%5DCalorie”>http://www.mydailyplate.com)</p>

<p>You can easily keep a food journal of what you eat each day - you easily look up each food item you eat - anything from toppings, to tv dinners, to fast food, to fresh food - it’s all there! It will add up calories and nutritional values for you. Initially you enter in some personal info - height, age, current weight, etc. and it calculates how many calories you should eat to maintain, how many calories you should eat to lose, etc. - depending on your needs. Then as you enter your eaten items through the day it lets you know how many “calories” you have left to eat for the day. It also adds up the amount of sodium, fat etc. in your consumed foods - this was amazing to me - my total calories wasn’t so bad, but I tend to eat way over the amount of fat I need in a day - so, I know that is an area I need to work on. You can also add in any exercise you complete each day - from walking, climbing stairs, doing laundry - a WHOLE list of things - if you completed exercise that burns say, 100 calories, it will ADD 100 calories to your alloted amount for the day. IT IS WONDERFUL!!! Many, many more features for free! You can also subscribe, but I"ve never felt the need for anything more than the freebies.</p>

<p>I also mention this site cause it’s fun to use. Fun to click in all you’ve eaten. And since young people like spending time on the computer, thought it might be a good method for you…good luck!!!</p>

43

<p>crayola, I don’t think anyone has suggested this - but have you tried Weight Watchers? It really does work - it teaches you portion control and you lose weight slowly, but steadily. Also, you don’t have to buy packaged food, so it’s not as expensive as some other plans. It’s just that you have to get used to measuring out your food and that can be a pain - but it’s worth it if you gain good eating habits.</p>

44

<p>Don’t eat when stressed out. AVOID VENDING MACHINES. No impulse food buys. Try not to think about calories/food/eating/weight too much. Stay away from people who talk about calories/food/eating/weight a lot. All these things work for me. Unfortunately though, my parents love to comment on my appearance, weight, and eating habits. That sure doesn’t help.</p>

45

<p>Thanks for the numerous responses. I tried some of the workouts suggested today and I actually had a lot of fun doing them in front of the tv while I watched my favorite show! So I think I’ll ask one of my friend’s dad who is a pt about my knee. It could be hypothyroidism because it runs in my family…however the only symptom is weight gain and some puffiness. However I just assumed the puffiness was from the extra 20 I’ve been carrying around. Also I reduced my portion size by 1/3 and to be honest I didn’t feel hungry. I think I need to change my definition of full because I always eat till I can feel my stomach expanding rather than till I am pleasantly filled. I can’t wait to get into my old jeans!</p>

46

<p>Also I looked into the calorie counter and was shocked to learn that on christmas I ate 8000 calories. I also just did yesterday and I ate 5000 calories. That is probably a recipe for disaster since I literally didn’t walk at all yesterday. I think I am kind of a stress/boredom eater because I’ve eaten a ton in the past when I had nothing else to do. Also I do think the knee is a huge obstacle because w/my knee I literally can’t walk up a flight of stairs w/o having a tiny twinge in my knee.</p>

47

<p>Crayola, post 45 sounds like you’re making a lot of headway in many directions. Outstanding! Yay on you! Cointinue forward. You are getting many helpful responses.
I’m learning from what others are posting about nutrition and exercise, too :)</p>

<p>Adding quicknotes, just reflecting back your post #45: </p>

<p>hypothyroidism has a big heredity factor.</p>

<p>Having a pt to talk over the knee is terrific. </p>

<p>Noticing you felt better with even a small workout shows the direction you can seek. </p>

<p>And isn’t it a bummer to realize about all those Christmas calories. Ah well, tomorrow begins a NEW YEAR.</p>

48

<p>iloveagoodbrew - There were some interesting studies done about what type of exercise best helps lose fat. The initial premise was that cardio training at about 65% max HR was best because at that intensity the energy process your body uses to fuel the activity is fat based, ergo the exercise is “fat burning” and you will lose fat faster. Later studies debunked this and concluded that higher intensity exercise also produced an equal or greater loss of fat because in reality the only thing that counts is are you burning more calories than you are taking in. Your body doesn’t care what the bio-chemical process is for energy production, if you are burning more calories than you are taking in, your body will lose fat. </p>

<p>The advantage of throwing in some interval work (such as sprints) is simply part of the duration/intensity mix that burns calories. For example, using hypothetical numbers for illustration, if I go out riding my bike on the flats at a comfortable 18 mph for an hour, let’s say I burn 500 calories. If I were to ride the same hour at 27 mph I would burn 1200 calories. Clearly the higher intensity will promote greater weight loss gains. However, I can’t ride 27 mph for an hour, my legs blow up after a half an hour, I’m cooked and I have burned 600 calories. But if I take that hour and ride at a baseline of 18 miles per hour and throw in a number of intervals at 27 mph, I’m able to last the hour and up the energy expenditure to 800 calories. In simplistic terms, that’s why throwing in intervals of high intensity work is beneficial from a weight loss perspective. Also, because of the “training effect”, your body gets acclimated to a particular level of stress, becomes more efficient and you end up using less energy sources to produce the same work. Mixing up the intensity offsets this process. (There are other benefits from a training/performance perspective, but that’s outside the scope of this discussion.)</p>

<p>In reality, there is no exercise that is better at targeting “fat” than another, any more than you can do a particular exercise to target fat reduction at specific location on your body. It all boils down to burning more calories than you consume and changing the level of intensity as your body becomes more conditioned. I’ll bet the people you observe at the gym that you commented on don’t pay attention to either.</p>

<p>You probably knew all of this but I love these types of discussions :slight_smile: .</p>

49

<p>Jonri made several points that also work well for me. </p>

<p>Find tasty treats that don’t have a lot of calories and have them handy during the moments in the day that you are vulnerable. The sugar free Swiss Miss is absolutely brilliant and with a dollop of cool whip comes in at only about 80 calories. Enough to get you through a long empty-feeling afternoon or evening. </p>

<p>I also find targeted use of caffeine helps me a lot in controlling weight. Despite study after study, they just can’t seem to find an actual problem with coffee or tea and they keep finding good things about them. So long as you don’t interfere with rest, make caffeine your friend. I also keep lots of ice cream treats in the freezer - the low-fat Breyers, Skinny Cow, etc. that come in at only about 150 calories and are really satisfying - much better choice than a 400 calorie slice of pie or cake.</p>

<p>And sorry to go on so long but I think this is really key - if you have to keep control of your weight it helps so much to follow a very structured diet as recommended in the book “You on a Diet.” For me this means a very rigid breakfast and lunch just about every single day that is easy to access and healthy and tastes pretty good and fuels me through my day and keeps me lean. The key is to make it automatic, take the thought and guess work out of 2/3 of your daily diet. Then you only have dinner and dessert to think about. Makes it easier if you’ve been on track all day to stay on track in the evening. If you’ve gone astray during your day, it’s too easy to just do more of the same later.</p>

<p>Good luck! I was at my very highest weight as an undergrad. Getting older doesn’t always mean getting heavier.</p>

50

<p>Interesting discussion, that I, uh, needed to hear right now! Thanks!</p>

<p>Crayola, regarding that ‘twinge’ in your knee. Having had cartiledge removed from both knees, I’ve learned that supporting muscles are my best friend. I don’t know your specific problem, but my impression from knee replacements, ACL surgery on down, is that good muscle tone supports the joint, and is essential in preventing future problems. I got there with bicycling, after rehab. Some dedicated time in a gym with a PT can set you on the road to working with that knee. Did you not have PT after that surgery? Talk with the PT friend, get his or her opinion, though PTs specialize, and like nurses and Drs, may not know much out of their area of expertise. Some dedicated time with a PT who knows your specific issue might be invaluable in terms of figuring out your limits and recommendations for now and the future. Though if the current Dr. won’t write the recommendation, it might be problematic. I’m guessing it might be the surgeon who put those limits on your activity? If so, talk to your regular doctor about those issues, see if you can get a referral to PT. Someone at your school athletic facility who works with athletes and injuries might also be of help.
Take the above advice about HIPPA and being entitiled to privacy in your health care to heart. You have the right to take care of yourself in the best way possible, whether getting exercise advice, controlling what you put in your mouth, or anything else of concern.</p>

51

<p>Everyone is different and I know Weight Watchers is helpful to many, but the only time I tried it, I didn’t lose a pound and was obsessed with food all day long. I find the South Beach diet books to be very helpful because they deal with regulating bood sugar levels. Once you get an idea what foods to avoid or eat less of, it becomes easy to put the principles in place anywhere. He recommends a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack to keep blood glucose steady and avoid over-eating at mealtimes.</p>

52

<p>Crayola15 - With regard to your last post, 3600 extra calories equals a pound of weight gain. It’s very important to your success that you get a handle on a reasonable caloric consumption to achieve the results you want. It’s usually imprudent to generalize, because everyone is an individual, but I bet you are looking at closer to 2000 - 2500 calories a day as a reasonable intake. It can be tough to translate caloric needs into practical eating habits. I urge you to speak with a nutritionist at your college to get a better handle on this and to put together a food plan that will work for you. You are on the right track!</p>

53

<p>A lot of people gain weight when they go to college. It’s a lifestyle change, the food is different, there’s so much of it around, and it is so easy to consume more without really noticing. </p>

<p>Thinking of my own lifestyle, I would say it’s not the big Christmas meals, etc, that you have to worry about, because they are not what you have been eating in college anyway, but the little increases each day which gradually add up. For me, the increased calories come from things like lingering over meals with friends picking at the food left on my plate that I didn’t want, from coffees between classes, from the cookies I keep on my desk while I study, from the chips passed around while we watch movies, etc, etc, etc. Things that I am hardly aware of, and which it is easy to dismiss as the cause of weight gain, because it was just one coffee, just one handful of chips, but which are nonetheless things I wasn’t consuming every day before.</p>

54

<p>Soda has been mentioned repeatedly, but fruit juice is another culprit. Most of it is basically sugar water disguised as something healthy. Even with orange juice, a glassful is the juice of several oranges and a lot of the nutrients have been removed. Better to eat the fruit and drink water or skim milk.</p>

55

<p>Club soda is the dieter’s best friend – delicious in any pure fruit juice and cuts the calories in half.</p>

56

<p>Mike:</p>

<p>Here are some of the impressions I have</p>

<p>-Steady state cardio (with emphasis on the aerobic energy system) burns more calories than intervals during the duration of the training period.
-The advantage of training the anaerobic systems is realized because they create an oxygen deficit that the body has to compensate for (greater EPOC than a solely aerobic training)
-Yes, I agree that a good reason for the failure of steady state exercise to mobilize fat is because of the acclimatization.
-As visual evidence, I always compare the physiques of sprinters/track athletes vs long distance runners. </p>

<p>Justin Gatlin, olympic sprinter: <a href=“http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/2006/May/060510/060511_gatlin_vmed_9a.widec.jpg[/url]”>http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/2006/May/060510/060511_gatlin_vmed_9a.widec.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Haile Gebrselassie, marathon champion:
<a href=“Nazret.com”>Nazret.com;

<p>One of these athletes trains in short bursts of intensity, performs heavy lifting to train. </p>

<p>Pyrros Dimas, elite Olympic champ: <a href=“琼中洞汲信息科技有限公司”>琼中洞汲信息科技有限公司;

<p>Whose physique would you like to have?</p>

<p>On the nutrition side, a lot of articles and studies I have read emphasize controlling insulin as a very important factor in how lean you are. Please read into that if have interest.</p>

57

<p>“So pretty much my doctor has said I can control my weight only through what I eat.”</p>

<p>I’m skipping several posts to ask, but are you saying your doctor said there is no exercise that’s benefits outweigh the risks to your knee? Sounds like your getting some here, but I’d recommend getting a "second " opinion.</p>

<p>P.S. As much as everyone hopes that thyroid disease is the explanation for weight gain, in my experience thyroid replacement for subclinical hypothyroidism rarely results in weight loss.</p>

<p>For my own D I think the real risk is that the most accessible, easiest things to eat are often the poorest choices (i.e., bowl of cereal). Life style changes include taking the time to have available or prepare “good” food choices.</p>

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<p>iloveagoodbrew - Now you are getting into some really interesting stuff that is relevant to performance training as opposed to general fitness and health. Your observations of the differences between long distance runners and track runners are similar to those which can be observed between multi-day stage race bicyclists and track cyclists. There’s a whole different world of training specialization going on compared to the topics arising out of the OP’s post. The track athletes train, among other things, to develop muscle mass needed for explosive acceleration and higher power output over shorter periods of time than long distance athletes. The distance athletes actually want to reduce mass so as to reduce energy requirements and enable them to conserve their energy resources better over the long distances. No question though, that in terms of appearance, the track athletes in general look more fit and stronger than the distance athletes; in reality though, neither of them could compete successfully in the other’s world without radically changing their training and body composition. </p>

<p>I would agree with you that an hour of steady state training will burn more calories than an hour of aerobic base training with some intervals thrown in. The overall average intensity will be greater with the former than the latter. Most people exercising for fitness and health, however, are not focused on the difference between aerobic base training and steady state. So they get on a treadmill and run for a half hour at 70% of their estimated max HR using (220 - age) x .70 to figure out their target range. For those individuals, who are not stepping it up to the next level of training that you obviously do, I think it makes sense to throw in a few intervals of greater intensity in each work out to keep things fresh and avoid acclimatization. (It would also make sense for everyone who uses heart rate based training to at least learn about using the heart rate reserve method of calculating zones so as to better correlate % heart rate with % VO2 max - [(max hr - resting hr) x % + resting hr = target rate], but that’s a whole other story. If you are not familiar with this method, run the numbers for yourself and you will see a significantly greater target HR intensity until you hit about 90%)</p>

<p>Until recently, I was using heart rate based training utilizing lab measured HR, VO2 and lactic acid metrics to determine LT and AT thresholds. I recently broke down and bought the equipment to use wattage based training for cycling and in a few weeks will will be retested to develop wattage training zones. Should be interesting, provided learning how to use the new equipment doesn’t make me totally nuts!</p>

<p>I’ll look for those articles on insulin and nutrition. Sounds very interesting.</p>

59

<p>I lost 70lbs in 7 months. How did I do it? Exercise and changing my eating habits. I am definately a stress eater. Instead of candy from a coworker’s jar, I would bring carrots and cherry tomatoes to snack on. I like the 100 calories packs of snacks. I know what I am getting. Some other treats I’ve found are DQ Fat Free fudge bars, sugar free jello with fat free cool whip. pickles. I think being aware of how many calories are in foods helps alot. I started by biking which actually burna alot of calories. One of the posters suggested enlisting the help of friends. I agree. i signed up for an exercise class with a neighbor and make exercise dates with friends. I don’t know what type of meal plan you have, but you may want to check into alternatives. My D switched to 10 meals a week and buys food for the other meals. She too gained alot of weight her first semester. Look at a website called calorieking.com. I was surprised how many calories were in food at some fast food resteraunts. I love Applebee’s weight watchers menu because I know what I am getting.</p>

60

<p>Hey Mike, that is a good informative post. My interest is actually the latter! May I ask what you are doing/studying? It sounds interesting. My field is not exercise science related, but I try to read as much material on that and nutrition as I can. I also have interest in getting CSCS certified sometime in the next few years.</p>

<p>p.s. If you compare the VO2 and lactic acid metrics, do you see a pattern? I have wondered this.</p>