First time posting (kinda long)

"Chris Braun" wrote in message
...
Welcome, William, and congratulations on your good start. Your
approach is very like mine, and it has worked well for me. Stick
around, post often, and you'll get lots of good help! (You'll
probably also get some not-so-good advice, but if you've been lurking
here for a while you'll know that already :-).)

Chris
262/137/ (135-145)

Thanks, Chris! I've seen your recent posts and found them very inspiring.
I thought for the longest time that I don't have the ability to be a normal
weight again, but I just don't accept that anymore. You were a good 50 lbs.
heavier than me and you've certainly done it. I also read that you had
acheived exactly half of your top weight. I don't see that happening with
me (110 lbs.? No thanks!) Anyway, success stories like yours help me to
stay focused. Thanks!

William
210/205/160

My
wife and I just had a nice homemade Hawaiian pizza on a Boboli crust
(with
regular mozzerella). After two slices, I feel nice and satisfied, and I
don't have that groggy-head feeling I would usually get from fattening
pizza. We used to get the Tombstone or Red Barons, but not anymore.
Just
because we're dieting doesn't mean we have to give up our traditional
Friday
night pizza.

interesting.

I am curious, a couple of hours after that groggy feeling, did you
used to become ravenously hungry?

No, at least not that soon. Maybe 5-6 hours later, if I was still up (I'm a
nightowl). The late-night eating has done me a lot of damage over the
years. It's strange- when I'm bad-eating William, I can easily eat four
full meals a day and be hungry a lot. When I'm good-eating William, I have
no trouble eating 2 meals with various sensible snacking through the day.

William

My
wife and I just had a nice homemade Hawaiian pizza on a Boboli crust
(with
regular mozzerella). After two slices, I feel nice and satisfied, and I
don't have that groggy-head feeling I would usually get from fattening
pizza. We used to get the Tombstone or Red Barons, but not anymore.
Just
because we're dieting doesn't mean we have to give up our traditional
Friday
night pizza.

interesting.

I am curious, a couple of hours after that groggy feeling, did you
used to become ravenously hungry?

No, at least not that soon. Maybe 5-6 hours later, if I was still up (I'm a
nightowl). The late-night eating has done me a lot of damage over the
years. It's strange- when I'm bad-eating William, I can easily eat four
full meals a day and be hungry a lot. When I'm good-eating William, I have
no trouble eating 2 meals with various sensible snacking through the day.

William

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:26:42 -0400, "WT Brooks"
wrote:

"Chris Braun" wrote in message
.. .
Welcome, William, and congratulations on your good start. Your
approach is very like mine, and it has worked well for me. Stick
around, post often, and you'll get lots of good help! (You'll
probably also get some not-so-good advice, but if you've been lurking
here for a while you'll know that already :-).)

Chris
262/137/ (135-145)

Thanks, Chris! I've seen your recent posts and found them very inspiring.
I thought for the longest time that I don't have the ability to be a normal
weight again, but I just don't accept that anymore. You were a good 50 lbs.
heavier than me and you've certainly done it. I also read that you had
acheived exactly half of your top weight. I don't see that happening with
me (110 lbs.? No thanks!) Anyway, success stories like yours help me to
stay focused. Thanks!

William
210/205/160


Of course you don't want to get down to 110! I didn't have a goal of
getting to 1/2 my top weight either, but at least for me it's a
sensible number. (I'm female, by the way -- and 56 years old.)

Chris

On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:26:42 -0400, "WT Brooks"
wrote:

"Chris Braun" wrote in message
.. .
Welcome, William, and congratulations on your good start. Your
approach is very like mine, and it has worked well for me. Stick
around, post often, and you'll get lots of good help! (You'll
probably also get some not-so-good advice, but if you've been lurking
here for a while you'll know that already :-).)

Chris
262/137/ (135-145)

Thanks, Chris! I've seen your recent posts and found them very inspiring.
I thought for the longest time that I don't have the ability to be a normal
weight again, but I just don't accept that anymore. You were a good 50 lbs.
heavier than me and you've certainly done it. I also read that you had
acheived exactly half of your top weight. I don't see that happening with
me (110 lbs.? No thanks!) Anyway, success stories like yours help me to
stay focused. Thanks!

William
210/205/160


Of course you don't want to get down to 110! I didn't have a goal of
getting to 1/2 my top weight either, but at least for me it's a
sensible number. (I'm female, by the way -- and 56 years old.)

Chris

being groggy, and then ravenously hungry afterwards, after eating
foods like pizza, is a sign of "reactive hypoglycemia". Read up on it
and see if it applies to you -- you know yourself very well! If it
does, it is a serious issue.

I'll check into that, but I did see a doctor about possible blood sugar
issues a while back. I had a recent blood test and another one about 2
years ago, and both came up normal in all areas. My blood pressure is just
barely in the high region, though. I'm hoping that will go down as I lose
weight. What's encouraging to me is that the bad symptoms for me go hand in
hand with bad eating. When I eat right, as I've done the past week, I feel
sharp as a tack. That's a good enough incentive to stick to it right there.

William

This is all very consistent with the hypothesis that your body's blood
sugar control is not very good. A person can have high blood sugars
during the day, then have hypos, for many years, all the while having
good (or barely good) fasting blood sugar, which is what most doctors
measure. Diabetes is the very last stage of this... Especially if you
have some diabetic relatives.

Diabetes in my family? Hmmm...well, my grandma and my mom were/are both
diabetic. You don't suppose that has anything to do with me? :-[

What is your HDL and triglycerides, if you do not mind me asking? Low
HDL and high trigs also would be part of that metabolic problem. It is
sometimes called "syndrome X".

I didn't get those details from my doctor. He said that everything was
within range, so that was fine for me. I know, I should be more thorough
with these things.

William

"WT Brooks" wrote in message t...
Hi everyone. I've been reading this forum off and on for a few years but
never posted. I'm a 34 year old man, 5' 6" tall. I thought when I was a
teen that I was overweight, but looking back, I would attribute it more to
bad posture and being generally out of shape. I was about 160 lbs. then,
which is pretty much what I should weigh. Since then, I've put on weight so
gradually it was hardly noticeable to me.

been there, done that. I still don't see much difference between 180
and 236, but the belt doesn't lie...

I've been up to about 220 at the
most and gained and lost a little here and there, but luckily I've never
fallen victim to to huge swings of yo-yo dieting.

me neither (crosses fingers and reaches for the water)

Lately I've made a
decision to be done with all this and get back down in the 160s and stay
there. I'm not using any of the established diets, just plain ol' math and
common sense. I count calories and stick to foods that are under 30% cals.
from fat and just try to eat lots of good veggies, lean meat and go easy on
the white flour foods. I'm getting by on 1500-1800 calories a day,
depending on whether I do excercises that day. By my math, the pounds
should be coming off at a rate of 1-2 a week, so my goal weight could be
within reach around next spring, maybe. I started on Sept. 10 at 210 lbs.,
and I'm down to 205 so far. I've been over 200 for about 7 years, except
for a short stint 2 years ago where I reached 192. Obviously, it will feel
like quite and aceivement to have my weight start with a 1 again. Not too
far from that goal...

I lost 50lbs at nearly 2lbs/week using the same approach. One thing
though, I wouldn't be afraid of fat. Healthy fats are good for you in
(strict) moderation, and I eat 1oz of almonds every day as a mid-day
snack (I pour them into a cup, never eating from the can). The
fat-protein-carb profile for almonds is 15g-2g-6g, or ~60% from fat.
But I think eating fat helps the diet over the long-term, and I sure
don't want to give up stuff like almonds over the long-term so I see
no issue with eating them now.

The main reason I wanted to go ahead and post is that I've always had a
history of trying to lose weight but not sticking to it. Maybe coming clean
in a public forum would keep me accountable long-term. The bad thing is
that all the bad foods seem to keep me in a mental haze that makes me feel
like I can't cut down. When I'd get hungry, I'd get REALLY hungry and
high-fat food (especially Mexican food) would be the only thing that would
fix it. Since I broke free from that last week and got my head clear, I
really don't have trouble resisting. It's like an invasion of the body
snatchers kind of thing. I just want to be sure to stay on this side of the
fence.

Maybe your body is trying to tell you something? Now, I haven't eaten
a mexican combo plate feast in over a year, and I'm sure such a meal
would blow out my calorie budget for the day easily, but like I say
don't be afraid of fat, other than for its calorie density.

That's about it for right now. Reading everyone's posts has been really
encouraging. I'll be around.

William
210/205/160

50lbs is nothing, just half a year of sensible eating, but be prepared
to have to fight through those last inches on the waistline.

And if I could do the loss over I'd shoot for 1lb/week loss with more
upperbody lifting to keep the muscle loss to a minimum.

Heywood

232/182/182 (but I still need to change some belly fat into pecs,
triceps, and lats)

"WT Brooks" wrote in message t...
Hi everyone. I've been reading this forum off and on for a few years but
never posted. I'm a 34 year old man, 5' 6" tall. I thought when I was a
teen that I was overweight, but looking back, I would attribute it more to
bad posture and being generally out of shape. I was about 160 lbs. then,
which is pretty much what I should weigh. Since then, I've put on weight so
gradually it was hardly noticeable to me.

been there, done that. I still don't see much difference between 180
and 236, but the belt doesn't lie...

I've been up to about 220 at the
most and gained and lost a little here and there, but luckily I've never
fallen victim to to huge swings of yo-yo dieting.

me neither (crosses fingers and reaches for the water)

Lately I've made a
decision to be done with all this and get back down in the 160s and stay
there. I'm not using any of the established diets, just plain ol' math and
common sense. I count calories and stick to foods that are under 30% cals.
from fat and just try to eat lots of good veggies, lean meat and go easy on
the white flour foods. I'm getting by on 1500-1800 calories a day,
depending on whether I do excercises that day. By my math, the pounds
should be coming off at a rate of 1-2 a week, so my goal weight could be
within reach around next spring, maybe. I started on Sept. 10 at 210 lbs.,
and I'm down to 205 so far. I've been over 200 for about 7 years, except
for a short stint 2 years ago where I reached 192. Obviously, it will feel
like quite and aceivement to have my weight start with a 1 again. Not too
far from that goal...

I lost 50lbs at nearly 2lbs/week using the same approach. One thing
though, I wouldn't be afraid of fat. Healthy fats are good for you in
(strict) moderation, and I eat 1oz of almonds every day as a mid-day
snack (I pour them into a cup, never eating from the can). The
fat-protein-carb profile for almonds is 15g-2g-6g, or ~60% from fat.
But I think eating fat helps the diet over the long-term, and I sure
don't want to give up stuff like almonds over the long-term so I see
no issue with eating them now.

The main reason I wanted to go ahead and post is that I've always had a
history of trying to lose weight but not sticking to it. Maybe coming clean
in a public forum would keep me accountable long-term. The bad thing is
that all the bad foods seem to keep me in a mental haze that makes me feel
like I can't cut down. When I'd get hungry, I'd get REALLY hungry and
high-fat food (especially Mexican food) would be the only thing that would
fix it. Since I broke free from that last week and got my head clear, I
really don't have trouble resisting. It's like an invasion of the body
snatchers kind of thing. I just want to be sure to stay on this side of the
fence.

Maybe your body is trying to tell you something? Now, I haven't eaten
a mexican combo plate feast in over a year, and I'm sure such a meal
would blow out my calorie budget for the day easily, but like I say
don't be afraid of fat, other than for its calorie density.

That's about it for right now. Reading everyone's posts has been really
encouraging. I'll be around.

William
210/205/160

50lbs is nothing, just half a year of sensible eating, but be prepared
to have to fight through those last inches on the waistline.

And if I could do the loss over I'd shoot for 1lb/week loss with more
upperbody lifting to keep the muscle loss to a minimum.

Heywood

232/182/182 (but I still need to change some belly fat into pecs,
triceps, and lats)

WT Brooks wrote:
I hope you don't mind me asking this, but were you really hungry
when you went to KFC? Or did you want to eat in reaction to the
stress?

It was both, actually. I was absolutely starving. Normally lately,
I can be somewhat hungry and just ignore it for a while, but being
stressed out seemed to make me even hungrier. But I was still able
to have some control, luckily. I think that's the first time I left
any part of a KFC biscuit intact. :-)

I'm a sucker for biscuits myself.

--
PL
(320/291/170)
(First mini-goal: 299 Reached! 08/26/04)
(Second mini-goal: 279)


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