I didn't want to hijack the other thread :

( Preparing for no food - get lean or bulk up? ) .. so started the question here. Everyone knows the simple rule ( eat less , excercise more). But there are ssome details that need clarifications.

For example, I heard some of my freinds who started walking an hour a day and controilling diet, they said they lost some weight and then ... weight was as stubborn as a rock.

Then I read many times about losing muscle instead of losing fat ( not good !!) and that can be caused by body going in starvation mode and shutting off fat consumption, in which case it starts to consume muscle !!

I am 56 yo and very sedentary and overweight ... My waist has almost doubled in the last 10-15 years.

On my drawing board, I have a plan of walking 30 minutes a day ( which weill be an achievement in itself since I don't seem tro stick any program like that) .. After it becomes routine and my fitness can take that comfortbaly I will increase it to one hour

phase 3 will be one hour daily walk carrying a light load of 10-15 pounds

phase 4 will be phase3, plus garden work.

Garden work will be for both physical benefit plus growing my own fruits and veggies.

Any advice is apprecaited , especially in the weight loss side. How do I avoid "eating my own muscles". ??

Double or Even Triple up Portions of Greens such as Collard,Mustard,Turnip Greens.Double-Back or Reduce 2 times as much or eliminate Alltogether,Starchs,ie,Rice,potatoes,Cous cous/Pasta,Bread,etc.,Reduce Sugar intake or Replace Entirely with Honey,Quit Smoking(If you do),Replace salt with Lemons/Limes as much as possible,Carry a Bunch of Toiletpaper with you,& Don't forget to Stay Hydrated at All times!It will feel like,You have entered The gates of Hell for the 1st month,After that You will have so much energy,Increasing your Mileage/Km's will be,Actually Fun & You will be proud of Yourself,& Very Glad it is a Month Behind you!For each month behind you,You will have gained 2 Ahead of you,In terms of Quality of life! Good luck!

My solution was the Aktin's Diet. It used to be very fashionable to bash it but an awful lot of recent studies have validated the basic approach. In the short term, you cut out nearly all carbs- initially you'll only eat about 20 grams per day. As you lose the weight you will start adding back the "good carbs," but to keep the weight off you really have to lose the bad ones. There's no diet I know of that allows you to eat a bunch of candy, soda pop, Dominoes pizza and milkshakes for every meal. The more processed foods you cut out the better off you'll be. Stick to real food, things that are identifiable on the plate.

I lost over 100 pounds this way, and have kept most of it of for around 10 years. Occasionally, maybe every couple years, I have a phase where I stray from the path a bit and put on maybe 15-20 pounds, but at the heaviest I've been I was still around 75 lbs lighter than my heaviest point pre-Atkins. It's harder to keep weight off as you get older and often more sedentary, but I find it's been easier to eat healthy. Partly it's just years of evidence of just how bad some of those foods are.

It's astonishing how much better you feel just taking 10-15 pounds off. Losing 100 pounds feels miraculous.

Phaedrus, your post is motivating
I can feel it glowing with inspiration .. Thanks for sharing your experience. I heard about Atkins and thought of trying it earlier , but .. lazy me.


Richlacal
Thanks. But I didn't quite understand the toilet paper thing.
Please explain.

I don't drink or smoke at all, and work in no-smoking environment. My wife is trying hard to prepare healthy meals for us .. but stress and depression often causes me mood swings at work ..etc. which leads/pushes me to overeat. In most cases an apple or orange is not available so I eat the only thing that is availabel in the carfeteria >> junk food.

So, I ought to change my lifestyle , not only the food type.

Although I am not waiting for retirement to improve my health , but I think that 3-4 years from now I will be retiring and will be mostly at home ( supervised by DW )LOL. In my retirement I will have a new lifestyle and be less stressed.

Anyways
Here is the question that worries me now : If I reduce the carb intake suddenly, won't that cause the body to go in "survival mode" and shut down or slow down fat consumption and increase muscle decay ? I need to understand this point a bit better.

Thanks again everyone

One way to make a waking program more viable is to incorporate other activities of interest to you - do it in an interesting environment, see something interesting. Tour a Civil War battlefield or go bird watching, etc. - whatever floats your boat.

I always like mixing walking or hiking with bike riding. You burn the same amount of calories per time unit in each activity, but you go about three times further on the bike. How about commuting to work on the bike? Is that feasible?

Can you stash healthy food at work rather than rely on the cafeteria?

Personally, I have had better success with gradual reduction in calories rather than s sudden change. I have also found it helpful to weight myself regularly, but not often.

I have done Atkins also and can attest to its effectiveness. First google it and learn all about what happens. Yes you will bonk a little in the first day or so, but the body is very effective at compensating. It starts to burn fat to make up for the lost carb sourced glycogen. It does not go into survival mode because calories are still going in.

My experience...works well but is not a true lifestyle. Use it to jump start the weight loss and then change your eating habits and exercise routine to maintain a healthier lifestyle.

Now if I could only cut out all those beers......

Bill

Disclaimer right off the bat: I am not a doctor or other healthcare professional. I am not overweight but I am badly out of shape; DW has had a weight problem for most of her life. We have been through all this so I do have some experience with it. Both of us are not active enough so we share a lot of your concerns. To begin, you know you should consult your doctor first. I would suggest you do as there are many times you will want to consult with him/her in your weight loss journey. It will also alleviate a lot of the concerns you mentioned. Once you are cleared with your doctor to start, I would suggest you start with the exercise (your doctor may suggest otherwise in which case I would suggest starting with whatever s/he says to start with). You will be amazed the difference more physical activity alone will make. Next, work on your diet. As others have suggested, replace any processed foods with more nutritional ones. Only you know what works best for you. Quit cold turkey or make the changes gradually. It will take some effort and LOTS of will power to make these changes. For instance, if you often eat microwaveable dinners from the freezer, you could start by replacing those with a healthy dinner from home. These are surprisingly easy to do. Prepare healthy meals on the weekends and put them in Tupperware type containers to put in the freezer. There are other options out there as well. I suggest if you fall off the wagon and binge on something you shouldn’t, then get right back on the wagon. This is the mistake most people make (including my wife). A binge snack that turns into a binge meal that turns into a binge day that turns into a binge week … well, you get the idea. Some people like a planned binge. Again, whatever works for you. Also, change the way you react to stress and depression. Binge on exercise instead of food. As you progress, exercising more and altering your diet, it will improve your mood anyway. When you hit a plateau (and you will hit many as your body adjusts to each change) there are several things you can try. One is to not weigh yourself as often. Another is not to worry about the weight, but rather concentrate on other factors like how you feel, how your clothes fit, and your fitness level (once again your doctor can help you measure this). This is what it SHOULD be about anyway, right? Other options include changing up your diet (reducing calories if appropriate, or replacing another processed food … this may be a good time to consult your doctor or a dietician) and changing your fitness routine (low impact aerobics, yoga, biking or weight lifting instead of or in addition to walking – again I’d suggest that you consult your doctor). Just remember it has taken 56 years to get where you are now. Change will not be immediate, but you can do it. Most importantly, talk to your doctor. They can help you along the way and probably suggest more options, a good dietician, maybe a support group, and answer a lot of the questions you have. Ask your questions and tell them your concerns. If they try to offer a prescription for the latest diet pill you do have the option to tell them no. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Ask Oprah. She's tried EVERYTHING. Ha! Ha ! Ha!!

Pete #2

Congrats on wanting to change your fitness level. My suggestion is to try and incorporate a bit of walking into your everyday activities.
- If you drive to a shopping center/mall, park farther away from the door
- 'Pay' for each meal with a five minute walk beforehand, after the habit is established, increase to 10 minutes or longer
- If you work in a multistory building, walk up one flight of stairs everyday
- Sign up for walking tours, nature walks, orienteering competitions
- Go hiking. It's more interesting to go for a walk in the woods than the same boring walk around the neighborhood
- Listen to audiobooks while walking

The simplest and best diet recommendation I've ever gotten was by Michael Pollan:
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
By "food" he means food with minimal processing. If it comes out of a package and has more than five ingredients on the label, then it probably should be avoided. Buy ingredients and cook your meals, and avoid packaged meals and snacks. Another food rule from Pollan is "don't eat any foods you see advertised on TV."

Get more active and eat healthier food, then start working on portion control. Gradually increase your exercises to include some strength training and more activities that burn calories.

+1

I am not an expert in nutrition but I have been in the fitness industry for 15 years and trained or assisted hundreds of people into the best shape of their life, through diet and exercise. I understand these at a very high level.

Lots of good advice on here, except stating Atkins is good for you. I am sorry but Atkins, apart from being a great self-marketing company that reinvents itself every ten years, is a horrible long term strategy for success and creates no long term positive eating habits. I will never advise a client, friend or family member to do this program.

YOU CANNOT SUSTAIN A LIFE LONG HEALTHY EATING PROGRAM BY DENYING YOURSELF FOOD. The biggest failure in Atkins is psychologically people miss the 'crunch'. Aside from bacon and pork rinds you are hard pressed to find foods that are crisp. Add to this, the lack of carbohydrates and the body enters a process of Ketosis.

People who partake in this diet do see immediate weight loss in a range of 10-20% but like most denial diets only about 5% will maintain that loss for even a short period of time. Eventually you have to start eating in the real world and the cascade of denial psychosis leads to binge eating and eventual yo-yo back to the start weight or higher.

I do apologize for speaking harshly about Atkins and I am not being personal, but it is a horrible diet program usually started by people who are looking for quick fixes to a long term eating problem.

The real fact is this. Almost every diet is crap. Seriously. Less than 5% of 'dieters' maintain their weight loss long term. Don't even start on the latest fad, HCG. The highest percentage of people who successfully lose weight and maintain that weight loss are people that make lifestyle changes that can be followed for life.

*In order to lose weight you must eat less, move more.
*Find your resting metabolism to find how many calories you burn in a day. stay under that number either through 100% nutrition or a combination of nutrition and exercise.
*My personal experience with people shows a percentage of intake equaling about 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, 30% fat is a simple and long term sustainable nutrition plan.
*Vary the exercise with frequency, intensity, time and type and plateaus will be rare.
*If your unsure, unmotivated, have a medical condition, or do best with a laid out plan, there are a variety of resources to get the education, motivation and accountability you need.