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by gxs 4666 days ago
This is great and certainly don't want to discourage anyone.

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.

6 comments

I have gained and lost weight three times.

Each time that I lost weight it was due to vigorous exercise while doing sports for fun.

Each time I gain weight it is due to insufficient exercise and eating wrong stuff.

What works for me is keeping starchy foods scarce in my diet. As long as my diet subsists of fat, protein and vegetables I am fine. If I start consuming flour, rice, potatoes, sweets and alcohol I gain weight.

I have only recently realized how eating a meal rich in protein and fats keeps me fed for as long as eight hours. If I eat some sweets or a piece of bread I will feel famished in two and a half hours. Whats even worse I will crave more of simple carbs.

Losing weight on protein and fats is easy and effortless. Eating a "balanced" diet in small portions feels like torture to me.

As an added bonus it is really hard to consume a large ammount of protein and fat.

I'd have to say of the three things, the one that definitely has to be given up to lose the weight is beer.

Beer is not only caloric, but contains alcohol. When alcohol is ingested, the body's fat metabolism practically stops until it's out of your system. Drinking a beer each day would almost make it impossible to lose fat efficiently.

It wouldn't matter if you were eating under, because your body would not be able to easily burn fat for fuel. Instead, it would burn other things, acetate (from the alcohol), carbs, your own muscle, then fat, etc.

Instead, it would burn other things ... your own muscle, then fat, etc.

That's the first I've ever heard that a human body would burn muscle before fat. Also, a beer each day would be out of your system relatively fast, so it should have no lasting affects on your body's metabolism.

Also, if you're drinking a beer a day, then be sure it's at least bottle-conditioned craft beer since the suspended yeast has many nutrients. ;)

The only circumstances where you will burn a significant portion of muscle before fat is if you are eating a high fat diet with less than 30 grams of carbohydrates or protein per day.

If you are fasting or in nutritional ketosis, your brain still needs about 120 grams of glucose (or as low as 20 grams after it adapts to producing and using ketones for fuel). If you aren't getting the glucose it needs or ingesting carbohydrates that can be broken down into glucose, your body will begin gluconeogenesis, a process that turns amino acids (from the breakdown of protein) into glucose. If you are still consuming dietary protein, it will break this down first, but if you are not, it will get these amino acids from your muscles and other "lean" tissues.

Basically, if you are consuming an adequate amount of protein, it's pretty hard to lose muscle mass without losing a significant amount of fat.

I might not be right on the money that the body would burn muscle first, but I can say with certainty that drinking causes your muscles to degenerate: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/277/2/E268

RE: the only circumstance -- I think sleep deprivation would do the trick, too.

Is this true?

I used to work out a lot, and was in good shape- muscular and probably 12% body fat.

I haven't been working out for about eight months and I've lost probably ten pounds. I don't feel leaner though. I'm pretty sure I'm still at least 12% body fat, and that I've lost a significant amount of muscle.

I think I have been significantly losing muscle without losing any significant amount of fat.

If you're at 12% body fat, the ratio will be about 3:1 lean to fat loss[1] unless you're working out very, very hard and eating a ridiculous amount of protein (1+g/kg)

You'll need to work out a lot and be very careful with how much of a deficit you're running if you want to isolate fat instead of just reducing total body mass.

[1]http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n3/full/0803720a.html

I just want to point out that (1g protein / 1kg body mass) is high, but not a ridiculous amount for someone doing lifting. The rule-of-thumb number I've seen quoted a lot is (1g proten / 1 lb body mass), or in metric, (2.2g protein / 1kg body mass), as the maximum useful intake.
1g/kg is at least double what most people eat :) it's ridiculous from a general population standpoint. Personally I aim for more than that, but I'm not sure it's indicated for people who don't work out.
Alcohol doesn't go away after you stop feeling the effects, it stays for many hours more than that. If a person on a learners license was at a big party overnight, and had a big binge, then they likely still have enough to trigger a positive breath test the next morning.

I'm unsure what amount is required to produce the supposed fat effect though.

> When alcohol is ingested, the body's fat metabolism practically stops until it's out of your system.

Can you provide a source for this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

The impact of alcohol (ethanol) on the metabolism starts around minute 50. Still, I strongly advised watching the entire lecture/presentation.

I smell a ketoer
I found the opposite to be true: Bright Lines are more effective than half-measures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright-line_rule

I tried keeping soda and fast food to only one day per week, but bit by bit, "just this once", it kept spilling back into day-to-day habits, and/or miserable cravings. Only when the stimuli were removed entirely (and substituted with other goodies likes steaks and raspberries) did I start to get results, both in behavior and health (45 lbs in two months).

YMMV, different strokes, etc.

It's not clear that they is advocating 'half measures'. They is advocating changing one thing at a time. That could mean to only eating chocolate on the weekends, or to stop eating chocolate entirely - both of these measures are just changing one thing. I've had success just cutting out one thing at a time - instead of cutting out snacks entirely, I've cut out sweet snacks. Not salty snacks, just sweet snacks. This, in a way, "removed the stimulus entirely", because I find craving for sweets and salty/fatty stuff to be more or less distinct cravings. Now after I stopped having sweet cravings, I cut out salty/fatty snacks, and then I would hardly ever get cravings for chips and such.
That's a crazy heavy power clean weight. What kind of weekly weight increase?
I did a well known beginner's program called starting strength where you add 5 to 10 lbs per week depending on the week doing it once or twice a week. Then I did crossfit for almost a year and went back to starting strength.

By the time I went back to starting strength I was able to start much higher at about 180 and kept increasing from there out, again 5 to 10 lbs a week. The key I feel was consistency. You hardly notice the weight going up if you're consistent.

I am a huge proponent of strength training for general fitness. Please do reach out if you have any questions!

how does one 'reach out' other than posting a comment here?
Seriously. Props to you, gxs!
Citations?

At the moment you're simply relating a personal opinion against someone else's personal opinion.

It seems you have been struggling for a few years of losing and gaining it (like I have I hasten to add), trying different things:

https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Agxs+calor...

Note that 3 years ago you were actually recommending 100% wheat bread, now it's no wheat.

Let's just agree that no-one seems to know a reliable method yet. Some people find a way, I've a couple of friends who have, a couple who haven't. One did it on Dukan, which I found repulsive and made me feel ill. One simply pretends he lost no weight. Although if you've got good citations I'd be deliriously happy to eat my words and try it. Now, it really is time to sign up to the gym under my work...

EDIT: I suddenly realized, if it's working for you and you're happy with it, don't doubt what you're doing at all. My point was meant to be it seems different things work for different people.

>Citations? At the moment you're simply relating a personal opinion against someone else's personal opinion.

Isn't that how conversations work?

I have the impression that this is the strategy for a lot of people involved in personal development in general: change one habit at a time. Most people have enough time to not rush positive changes.