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Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

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Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#31

Post by garyrichardson »

I've lost about 26lbs since January 1. I've increased muscle mass and decreased fat. I feel fantastic all the time. I average about a 1 pound a week. I'm 5'10 and I've gone from 220 to 194. I'm still going down too. I don't know when I'll stop, but I figure around 170 is right for my frame.

I've made several changes in my life that I feel contribute to my loss. I don't know which changes have the most effect, but like anything I think it's a little bit of all of them.

First up, Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants. The book "In Defense of Food" changed my life. It's not a diet at all, but guidelines to how to eat better for yourself and the environment. I feel this has had the most impact on my weight loss. I eat way more fruits and vegetables now but less food overall. I try (it's damn hard) to stop eating when I'm full.

I also go to the gym every day. I don't have a in-depth program. I just have day 1 and day 2. Day 1 is 25-30 minutes of cardio and some simple weight training. I typically hit each major muscle set with one set of reps. Day two rests my weight training -- I do 40-45 minutes of cardio. I should also clarify that I don't hit the gym every day; I don't always go if I'm doing some other physical activity that day.

I've been working from home since mid-January. I use the gym in my building at lunch. Again, I do it every day. Commuting and lack of showers in my office were a huge mental barrier for me doing this in the past.

I've also been reliably and visually recording my weight. Every Monday I weigh in when I get up. I put my weight into a google spread sheet and it draws a graph for me. Seeing my progress has been a great reinforcement.

On top of the spreadsheet, I said in January that I want to be 190lbs by May 1 (I'm a pound off track right now). I used the spreadsheet to track where my progress should be. I purposely set my goals for roughly a pound a week. I was able to do a quick formula to show me where I should be every week. This allowed my to check my progress in bite sized pieces.

Good luck!

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#32

Post by JoeH »

webwright wrote: post #20

Joe Hruska (one of my co-founders at RescueTime, YC08) has lost 42 pounds in the last 3.5 months with approximately zero exercise. He pretty much did the South Beach Diet. It's kinda faddy, but it really is approximately what humans were designed to eat. You should pick up the book, but approximately: no white flour, no white sugar, no rice, no potatoes. First two weeks are pure carb-free (painful) but the rest of th…

On Dec. 17th I had blood work done for my yearly physical. At that time I was warned by the doctor that I was trending towards diabetes. My triglycerides were 381 and cholesterol was 173.

This really kicked me in the ass to drop weight. I did a fair bit of research into diets and really detested the idea of a fad type diet. But, for me - the South Beach diet allowed me to eat the food I enjoy and not feel like I was starving myself.

Fast forward to April 12th I had lost 42.6 pounds and had my blood retested. My triglycerides were down to 76 (a drop in over 300 points) and my cholesterol was down to 153. Granted triglycerides can range fairly broadly from day to day, but the doctor was very impressed with my progress.

This week, I started a morning exercise routine as outlined by the Hacker Diet ( http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/chapter1_2_5.html#Exerc... ). My goal is to drop an additional 25-30 pounds, which will get me to 170-175, over the next year by eating right and exercise.

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#33

Post by [deleted] »

webwright wrote: post #20

Joe Hruska (one of my co-founders at RescueTime, YC08) has lost 42 pounds in the last 3.5 months with approximately zero exercise. He pretty much did the South Beach Diet. It's kinda faddy, but it really is approximately what humans were designed to eat. You should pick up the book, but approximately: no white flour, no white sugar, no rice, no potatoes. First two weeks are pure carb-free (painful) but the rest of th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#34

Post by [deleted] »

scott_s wrote: post #13
mrtron wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent points. Muscle mass is key for many things, including burning more calories. I wouldn't focus on being a certain weight or losing a certain weight - you should initially be staying about even since you will be increasing muscle mass while reducing fat mass.

I also think that for many people strength training can be more fun, and consequently, are more likely to continue doing it. It's more visceral than most cardio, and the goal/reward system of increasing weight and reps gives faster gratification. Part of the problem is that most people have no idea how to do the basic lifts, and most personal trainers don't teach them. Another problem is a basic lack of structure, wh…

[deleted]

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#35

Post by Flemlord »

JoeH wrote: post #32
webwright wrote: post #20

Joe Hruska (one of my co-founders at RescueTime, YC08) has lost 42 pounds in the last 3.5 months with approximately zero exercise. He pretty much did the South Beach Diet. It's kinda faddy, but it really is approximately what humans were designed to eat. You should pick up the book, but approximately: no white flour, no white sugar, no rice, no potatoes. First two weeks are pure carb-free (painful) but the rest of th…

On Dec. 17th I had blood work done for my yearly physical. At that time I was warned by the doctor that I was trending towards diabetes. My triglycerides were 381 and cholesterol was 173. This really kicked me in the ass to drop weight. I did a fair bit of research into diets and really detested the idea of a fad type diet. But, for me - the South Beach diet allowed me to eat the food I enjoy and not feel like I was…

Congrats on the weight loss. Medical reasons kicked off my current diet too--I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. South Beach sounds similar to what I'm doing right now. The first two weeks of no-carbs should have kicked your body into ketosis, and it will stay there as long as you keep the carbs down.

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#36

Post by WilliamLP »

scott_s wrote: post #17
ejs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From someone who exercises a good amount (usually 5-6 days a week for 1-2 hours at a time) I never really believe in exercise for weight loss. The math just doesnt work out, go and run hardcore for about 3 miles at 250 lbs bodyweight and you are looking at burning about 500 calories. While thats a good amount its the same as maybe 2 bottles of soda. Its a lot easier to cut out 100 calories from 5 meals then to run 3…

Your math doesn't work because it's not that simple. The effects of exercise - strength training or cardio - do not stop once you stop. Your metabolism is raised for hours after, and your body has to start repairing itself. Also, please note there is more to exercise than cardio.

Go look at the actual research about raised metabolism after training, and about the increase with more muscle mass. You'll find it's actually pretty tiny.

However, excercise does have other effects, possibly including reducing cravings and changing hormone levels and maybe (over the long term) gene expression.

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#37

Post by misterbwong »

webwright wrote: post #20

Joe Hruska (one of my co-founders at RescueTime, YC08) has lost 42 pounds in the last 3.5 months with approximately zero exercise. He pretty much did the South Beach Diet. It's kinda faddy, but it really is approximately what humans were designed to eat. You should pick up the book, but approximately: no white flour, no white sugar, no rice, no potatoes. First two weeks are pure carb-free (painful) but the rest of th…

I did the SB diet also. Keep in mind it's not a no-carb diet. It's a complex carb (whole grains, veggies, etc) diet. The first two weeks are to break our "addiction" to carbs.

During those two weeks, it was hard to focus + I would get headaches from the withdrawl. Nowadays it's much easier to find whole grain/lean meat alternatives at every restaurant. All you need is will power to make the right choices.

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#38

Post by boucher »

Start a startup. My cofounder and I have both lost about 10% of our weight over the last 3 months. Its a combination of not eating out every day like we used to (there's no more time, and it's a waste of money), the increased stress level, and a little bit of motivation to do something away from our desks once in a while.

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#39

Post by misterbwong »

About a 1.5 months ago, I started the Men's Health BellyOff! program and I have nothing but praise for the system. The diet is pretty strict but its strength is its simplicity. I pretty much eat the same thing every day so I don't even think about cheating anymore. It sounds restricting but it really frees my mind up from having to ask "What should I eat?" at every meal.

The exercise regimen is very practical. It requires 30 mins 3 times a week. All exercises can be done at home with the addition of an exercise ball and chair-no need to buy expensive equip AND they can be done even when I'm away from home. The exercieses also increase in difficulty as time progresses so you don't feel stagnant. I've definitely seen results.

All the details on the program are here:http://bellyoff.menshealth.com

Re: Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

#40

Post by WilliamLP »

scott_s wrote: post #22
WilliamLP wrote: post #12

The best resource I have ever found on this is Lyle MacDonald's materials. You can go to ( http://www.bodyrecomposition.com ) for articles. He takes a geek approach to nutrition, and talks extremely straight about it, and bases all his conclusions on science and research. There are many myths and pieces of information out there on dieting. Yes, keeping protein intake up, to a point that many people would even conside…

Please explain why you think it's a mistake to "try and do too much in the gym." My observation is that people don't work hard enough in the gym.

Doing an hour of cardio every day might be too much. (I'm talking about something which is higher intensity than fast walking... That would be great.) Half an hour three times a week would be fine. The issue is with adherence, and also the body's negative response to this much exercise. In many people (including me for sure) it triggers an adaptation that makes them try to conserve calories by making them feel sluggish and lethargic later on.

Weight training has similar effects. The body can be in an anabolic mode with a caloric surplus, and in that case, yes it's good to work hard in the gym. (Most people shouldn't go to failure very often if ever though.) But when you are in a catabolic mode, working out very hard with weights is going to lead to adherence issues again, e.g. dreading the workouts. You don't really need to do all that much to maintain muscle mass, as opposed to building it when you are approaching your genetic limit. Three times in the gym per week at 30-45 minutes per session would be just fine in my opinion.

In summary, picking something you can adhere to is far more important than trying to optimize the equations in a way that someone with infinite willpower might manage.

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