Nutrition health and Weight loss

[jetmechmarty]

Well, I just stumbled onto this thread, and I'm working at losing weight. Last June I was 272 lbs and 6' and well into type 2 diabetes. 9.0 A1C. That was my wake up call. I got down to 262 by the end of October, by consciously cutting back portions, but it was seat-of-the-pants willy-nilly. I had another blood work scheduled in November and I wanted to get my weight down and hopefully my A1C. I weighed in at 256 on 11/17.
Weight management is simple math; if input > output, you gain, and vice-versa, as measured by calories. So I started counting them all, in and out. Suffice it to say, I like to eat, and I have a sweet tooth besides. My portions were double and triple what they should have been, with generous sweets in between.
I'm using the web site "Lose It!" dot com to track my intake and activities. To get down to 225 lbs by May, it calculated a caloric intake of 2100 calories/day. So I use a kitchen scale and I math the shit out of everything I eat. I love peanut butter, but it is ridiculously dense in calories. I still have a PBJ from time to time, but it uses up too much of my "budget" to be worth it anymore. Since 10/23/23, I went from 262, to 240 this morning. I still have a way to go, but that's how I'm doing it, obviously YMMV. I live literally 1180 ft from my front porch to the time clock at the school where I drive bus for bike money. I was driving it, but now I walk, and often walk the long way home, heading west when I live SE of the bus garage, eventually meandering home. (I don't need the money, but my wife and I have gone on some pretty nice vacations with the extra, along with me being able to have collected 7 XS 650s and several huge boxes of parts and engines. 2 are running and one more will be ready in early summer.)
This has worked for me and continues to work, but I have read the fasting posts and I think I may try that, just to jump start a weight loss when I seem to be stuck at a weight, like at 244 lbs and now at 240.
My A1C was 7.0 in November and 6.4 the last check in on Jan 17, and I was at 246 lbs. I'm getting there. Doc was impressed I got it down so far relatively quickly.

If I may recommend a book,
https://www.amazon.com/End-Your-Car...+carb+confusion&qid=1708022791&s=books&sr=1-1
Dr. Westman is at Duke University. In a nutshell, it’s an explanation of how our body functions. It’s not so simple as calories in, calories out. Also, this information applies plant based or meat based and in between.

Best wishes for continued success.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Valentines Day. Potluck last night. I went off the rails. I’m not insulin resistant, but have other issues with sugar. I succumbed to the cookies last night, and desert served with dinner. Potatoes as well. All stuff I avoid. I’ll get back on my horse tomorrow, but I’ll feel it when I go to the gym tomorrow. This stuff sometimes happens. The less often, the better.

Results of my bad behavior is swollen fingers with some arthritis pain. Also some heartburn and +3.5 lbs on the scale this morning. I’m back on my horse and this should pass quickly.

 

[Charles13]

Results of my bad behavior is swollen fingers with some arthritis pain. Also some heartburn and +3.5 lbs on the scale this morning. I’m back on my horse and this should pass quickly.

It’s amazing how much rich food, sweets and processed carbohydrates contribute to inflammation. From Christmas until the middle of January I swore I was ready for another new knee, 2 weeks of fasting and a whole food diet and I literally have zero knee pain.

 

[jetmechmarty]

It’s amazing how much rich food, sweets and processed carbohydrates contribute to inflammation. From Christmas until the middle of January I swore I was ready for another new knee, 2 weeks of fasting and a whole food diet and I literally have zero knee pain.

You know it!!!

 

[Charles13]

Well, I just stumbled onto this thread, and I'm working at losing weight. Last June I was 272 lbs and 6' and well into type 2 diabetes. 9.0 A1C. That was my wake up call. I got down to 262 by the end of October, by consciously cutting back portions, but it was seat-of-the-pants willy-nilly. I had another blood work scheduled in November and I wanted to get my weight down and hopefully my A1C. I weighed in at 256 on 11/17.
Weight management is simple math; if input > output, you gain, and vice-versa, as measured by calories. So I started counting them all, in and out. Suffice it to say, I like to eat, and I have a sweet tooth besides. My portions were double and triple what they should have been, with generous sweets in between.
I'm using the web site "Lose It!" dot com to track my intake and activities. To get down to 225 lbs by May, it calculated a caloric intake of 2100 calories/day. So I use a kitchen scale and I math the shit out of everything I eat. I love peanut butter, but it is ridiculously dense in calories. I still have a PBJ from time to time, but it uses up too much of my "budget" to be worth it anymore. Since 10/23/23, I went from 262, to 240 this morning. I still have a way to go, but that's how I'm doing it, obviously YMMV. I live literally 1180 ft from my front porch to the time clock at the school where I drive bus for bike money. I was driving it, but now I walk, and often walk the long way home, heading west when I live SE of the bus garage, eventually meandering home. (I don't need the money, but my wife and I have gone on some pretty nice vacations with the extra, along with me being able to have collected 7 XS 650s and several huge boxes of parts and engines. 2 are running and one more will be ready in early summer.)
This has worked for me and continues to work, but I have read the fasting posts and I think I may try that, just to jump start a weight loss when I seem to be stuck at a weight, like at 244 lbs and now at 240.
My A1C was 7.0 in November and 6.4 the last check in on Jan 17, and I was at 246 lbs. I'm getting there. Doc was impressed I got it down so far relatively quickly.

This is another great book that also deals with reversing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes;

 

[Raymond]

This is another great book that also deals with reversing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes;

I have not read Metabolical, so I took a very quick'n'dirty look at what it's all about. It would seem that Lustig's book is highly controversial - partly that's because he attacks the food and nutrition industry, a very powerful vested interest. Partly it's because some doctors and diet experts say Lustig is 'on a mission' and makes points which exaggerate or skirt the truth in other ways. He is accused of over-simplifying the link between carbohydrates and diabetes.

However, if the main point is that we should eat natural foods and avoid highly processed foods then that sounds to me like a good starting point.

 

[40north]

I read Lustig. Thought it useful, and a bit strident.

What seems very important to me is this> Over the long-term a man cannot control appetite by discipline. But he can control what he chooses to eat. If one chooses vegetables al dente with butter or plain yogurt, the gut bacteria will get used to that, and signal it to the brain. Eat slowly, enjoy it, eat all you want, pretty soon you'll do "pushaways" (as my ROTC instructor used to joke). Those little fellas and their wet warm cave are all tied to the CNS. All wrapped up with vagus nerve. Is an integrated system. It, and the bacteria, are your master. The bacteria that bias the body to lean take a few days to increase in proportion to the ones that make you fat, but they will do so in response to the vegetable routine. They send out control molecules, very sexy.

When I did that I lost weight something like a pound a day, something like 245 down to 155 fast!
Then I modulated it, added a few beers, some meat, but just enough to steady out at 170, which was about what I weighed in high-school. You may be on guard to the exhilaration or euphoria that may also manifest. I even started running I felt so fine, and hurt myself!

Remember Homer (the poet) in the Odyssey, Odysseus, costumed as a beggar, he tells us that man is ruled by his belly. But we are capable of some degree of choice. The control is indirect, one must negotiate with the gut bacteria. They're quite obliging fellers.

Warm regard old man...study, experiment... I am sure you'll trim down nicely.

 

[jetmechmarty]

I started CrossFit about five years ago as part of my lifestyle change. In the beginning, at about age 60, I wouldn’t/couldn’t deadlift over 135 lbs. Attempting more would likely have caused me injury. This week my deadlift is 305 lbs and I’m 65 years old. I know that’s not a huge number, but it’s a huge gain for me. I’m able to do that with no back strain whatsoever.

I’m still staying the course as to avoiding the standard American diet. I do have a few health issues, but I’m doing my best to keep them at bay.

 

[Raymond]

Tell me about cross fit?

 

[jetmechmarty]

Tell me about cross fit?

https://www.crossfit.com/

CrossFit gyms are all over the world. I will say that I would never work as hard as I do there, because of the structured environment and community. There’s no other way to get me to push that hard. The workouts appear to be structured for olympians. The workouts all get modified (scaled) to my ability. Getting hurt is counterproductive. There are people around me who discourage me as they consider it nuts. It’s anything but. My wife did it with me for some time. She went from the chair and telling me she can’t run to full blown running. She now walks three miles every day, age 66.

They may have a gym near you.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Five years ago, an orthopedic doctor told me I’d never be able to squat after he looked at my knee x-rays. The video is me with 150 lbs. (68 kg). I started by squatting to a box with PVC pipe.

I’m sure taking the garbage out of my diet has as much to do with it as the regular workouts.

 

[Wirenutt]

Just an update, I hit 235 lbs yesterday, (from 240 on 2/17) so counting calories is still working for me. I lowered by calorie budget by 100 to try to lose at a little greater pace. I'm averaging about a pound every week or two. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I'll start riding my bike up and down the old Erie canal trail. I can go 11.5 miles to the east and encounter zero traffic, and some very nice scenery, including a reconstructed aqueduct in Camillus, NY. Spring break for the kiddies is in about 3 weeks, so I'll plan to take that ride during that time, weather permitting. I'd rather work on my 78 XS, but if my health is shit, getting another XS running and roadworthy won't do me any good.

 

[Charles13]

I went from almost 200 post Christmas and I finally broke 170 this week, but I have hit a plateau where the weight is stuck, I am 66 and I do have a nice spare tire, I’m on the Real Food diet since Feb 1st and I’m starting every week off with a 50+ hour fast. I have more energy and my physiology feels like it’s working much better (healthier), but I’m bouncing at that 170 mark and it doesn’t seem to matter what I do. I haven’t ever counted calories, I wouldn’t even know how to, but maybe because of my age so I might start, I’ll give it one more week.

 

[Raymond]

I went from almost 200 post Christmas and I finally broke 170 this week, but I have hit a plateau where the weight is stuck, I am 66 and I do have a nice spare tire, I’m on the Real Food diet since Feb 1st and I’m starting every week off with a 50+ hour fast. I have more energy and my physiology feels like it’s working much better (healthier), but I’m bouncing at that 170 mark and it doesn’t seem to matter what I do. I haven’t ever counted calories, I wouldn’t even know how to, but maybe because of my age so I might start, I’ll give it one more week.

That's something that happens to me too - I think it's just something that happens. Your weight is going down at a rate you are ok with then it stops or even goes the wrong way a pound or two and it can even remain stuck the week after that. And you think, is that it, is that as far as my weight will go, has the routine made my metabolism so much more efficient that the future is starving meself just to hold this weight? I don't know why it happens maybe some factor like drinking more but usually if you continue to hold course to the routine it comes right and you weight resumes a similar path to before.

 

[jetmechmarty]

I’m eating. Usually twice each day, sometimes less. It’s carbohydrate that I restrict.