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How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

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Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#21

Post by likpok »

radu_floricica wrote: post #19
kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #15

It's great a calorie counting approach works for this guy, but it has a horrible clinical track record. Dozens of studies conclusively show it does not work in the long run absent focus on the composition of the calories. Even in clinical studies where they control everything the subjects eat it doesn't work. There is good empirical data on how to eat and exercise to get and stay thin. There's no reason to rely on ou…

Calorie counting always works - when you want to lose a lot of weight and lose it quickly. For maintaining long term you can't stick with it though, so you most likely want to make lifestyle changes, including exercise. Exercise is fundamentally hard for weight loss. It takes a lot of time exercising in order to make a difference. Eating 600 calories less is not that hard - but from a bit of googling it looks like it…

A few points about exercise: Some of the point I have heard is to change the metabolism, so that while you are doing other things, you are burning more calories.

The other issue is that simply eating less will cause you to lose muscle, not necessarily fat. Lifting will let you keep the muscle.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#22

Post by kingkongreveng_ »

radu_floricica wrote: post #19
kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #15

It's great a calorie counting approach works for this guy, but it has a horrible clinical track record. Dozens of studies conclusively show it does not work in the long run absent focus on the composition of the calories. Even in clinical studies where they control everything the subjects eat it doesn't work. There is good empirical data on how to eat and exercise to get and stay thin. There's no reason to rely on ou…

Calorie counting always works - when you want to lose a lot of weight and lose it quickly. For maintaining long term you can't stick with it though, so you most likely want to make lifestyle changes, including exercise. Exercise is fundamentally hard for weight loss. It takes a lot of time exercising in order to make a difference. Eating 600 calories less is not that hard - but from a bit of googling it looks like it…

Calorie counting doesn't even work well in the short term. Metabolism drops dramatically at the cellular level on restricted calories. Insulin levels are the key to fat catabolism/anabolism. Calories are secondary. You can get fatter in caloric deficit if you're just eating sugar, or injecting loads of insulin.

The value of exercise for weight loss has little to do with burning calories. It's about hormones. Brief, intense exercise boosts growth hormone and testosterone, which make you shed fat independent of calories burned. Your body reconfigures. Note that endurance exercise doesn't really have this effect.

Anaerobic exercise on an empty stomach directly burns fatty acids released from body fat. A quick lifting session (20m) while hungry followed by a one or two hour fast will burn a lot of fat. Aerobic exercise with a focus on calories is fairly useless, as you indicate. It simply burns down glycogen levels which are then replenished at the next meal with little impact on fat reserves, unless you go for a very long run or bike ride. But then this has the effect of dramatically boosting appetite, which can negate the effect.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#23

Post by dboyd »

kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #15

It's great a calorie counting approach works for this guy, but it has a horrible clinical track record. Dozens of studies conclusively show it does not work in the long run absent focus on the composition of the calories. Even in clinical studies where they control everything the subjects eat it doesn't work. There is good empirical data on how to eat and exercise to get and stay thin. There's no reason to rely on ou…

The empirical data that I've read and used was to...

- count calories, and ensure that I maintain a calorie deficit (which is the only way to burn body fat).

- eat frequently, to reduce hunger and maintain an optimum metabolic rate.

- brief bouts of difficult exercise (3x30 minutes of anaerobic and 3x30 minutes of aerobic exercise a week) (the on an empty stomach part isn't very helpful).

- but, first and foremost, set goals and measure progress.

I've lost 25 pounds of body fat and gained 7 pounds of muscle mass in the last 14 weeks using this approach.

For the first 4 weeks I used the "Lose It!" application on my iPhone to help me better understand my calorie intake and burn rates. I couldn't recommend that application more.

My best source of information that I've found had been this...

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Fat-Solution-Principles-Maintaini...

(Note that the paperback is coming out in December.)

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#24

Post by bedris »

"If you vigorously lifted weights for an hour, you’d only burn ~400 calories, less than a single cheeseburger! You’d have to keep that up every single day without increasing your diet to lose a less than a pound per week. I decided it’s easier to simply eat less."

What he is missing here is that lifting weights is anabolic and re-building damaged muscles from weight lifting takes lots of calories. Therefore, your metabolic rate increases and your fat burning increases 24/7 when you are progressively challenging your muscles by lifting increasing amounts of weight. Therefore, burning 400kcal in one hour lifting weights isn't the extent of the effect of that workout! This guy doesn't seem to know very much about physiology or metabolism...

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#25

Post by radu_floricica »

kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #22
radu_floricica wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calorie counting always works - when you want to lose a lot of weight and lose it quickly. For maintaining long term you can't stick with it though, so you most likely want to make lifestyle changes, including exercise. Exercise is fundamentally hard for weight loss. It takes a lot of time exercising in order to make a difference. Eating 600 calories less is not that hard - but from a bit of googling it looks like it…

Calorie counting doesn't even work well in the short term. Metabolism drops dramatically at the cellular level on restricted calories. Insulin levels are the key to fat catabolism/anabolism. Calories are secondary. You can get fatter in caloric deficit if you're just eating sugar, or injecting loads of insulin. The value of exercise for weight loss has little to do with burning calories. It's about hormones. Brief, i…

I object that calorie counting doesn't work, especially coming from a summer of losing 6 kg with no exercise. Granted, I did pay attention to my insulin (lots of fat, no carbs for the first month or so).

However what you say about anaerobic exercise sounds interesting. I'll google it more thoroughly when I have the time.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#26

Post by iterationx »

My personal trainer said that weight lifting is better than aerobics because it elevates your metabolism for 36 hours whereas running will only elevate it for 4 hours. Also after my weight training session on Thursday my heart rate monitor / calorie counter unit said I burned 800 calories in an hour so I believe the guy.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#27

Post by TrevorJ »

iterationx wrote: post #26

My personal trainer said that weight lifting is better than aerobics because it elevates your metabolism for 36 hours whereas running will only elevate it for 4 hours. Also after my weight training session on Thursday my heart rate monitor / calorie counter unit said I burned 800 calories in an hour so I believe the guy.

I'm not completely doubting your trainer, but I'd be curious to hear some research to back this up.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#28

Post by kingkongreveng_ »

dboyd wrote: post #23
kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #15

It's great a calorie counting approach works for this guy, but it has a horrible clinical track record. Dozens of studies conclusively show it does not work in the long run absent focus on the composition of the calories. Even in clinical studies where they control everything the subjects eat it doesn't work. There is good empirical data on how to eat and exercise to get and stay thin. There's no reason to rely on ou…

The empirical data that I've read and used was to... - count calories, and ensure that I maintain a calorie deficit (which is the only way to burn body fat). - eat frequently, to reduce hunger and maintain an optimum metabolic rate. - brief bouts of difficult exercise (3x30 minutes of anaerobic and 3x30 minutes of aerobic exercise a week) (the on an empty stomach part isn't very helpful). - but, first and foremost, s…

> eat frequently

The human body is made to run off a gas tank of fat reserves, not to be tethered to an extension cord of continuous eating. Eating every couple hours is historically impossible, and just on that basis one can reason it's likely maladaptive. You eat a proper meal, insulin levels spike to put the energy in fat and glycogen, insulin levels drop, then you switch over to running on the fat and glycogen. You are not built to always stay in the "post-meal" state of elevated insulin and fat storage.

There is no basis to the idea that eating frequently boosts metabolism. I think the practice really has origins in the body building community where they want somewhat elevated insulin levels in order to pack on mass. Body builders pack on fat along with muscle and then shed the fat later for competition.

Some recent studies indicate that the same life extending benefits of calorie restriction can be had by eating only every other day. The point is to spend much time with low insulin levels.

> I've lost 25 pounds of body fat and gained 7 pounds of muscle mass in the last 14 weeks using this approach.

Notice how you never hear from people who have stayed thin for years by counting calories. The research indicates it just doesn't work. Even in the short term we only get these anecdotes of success and the data indicates it's not very effective.

Re: How I Lost 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks With My iPhone (or: Data is King)

#30

Post by TrevorJ »

kingkongreveng_ wrote: post #15

It's great a calorie counting approach works for this guy, but it has a horrible clinical track record. Dozens of studies conclusively show it does not work in the long run absent focus on the composition of the calories. Even in clinical studies where they control everything the subjects eat it doesn't work. There is good empirical data on how to eat and exercise to get and stay thin. There's no reason to rely on ou…

I'd really like to hear some info on the headaches from you if you have any links - it sounds like something I deal with.
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