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[the_gneech]

My weight is stuck at 280-286. It's been there for a long time now. Between periods of no exercise and intense exercise, bird-like diet or holiday indulgence, it just sits there. While the Bowflex and the Kung Fu have helped me tone up quite a bit, this stupid sack of flesh is still hanging off of my midsection, and I'm still lugging around the equivalent of a teenager in extra weight.

Just think of how much easier Kung Fu would be without having to shift all this stupid crap around. Just think how many pushups I could do if I had 85 lbs less to push up! Just think of what a breeze jogging around the dojo would be if I was just propelling 2/3 of my current weight around the room!

Since mid-January, I have cut out virtually all snacks, drink almost exclusively tea or water, stopped taking whipped cream on my mochas (they were already made with skim milk) and converted them from grande to tall. My meals have not gotten larger to compensate -- if anything, they're smaller than ever. I generally only eat half of a typical "serving" at a restaurant, saving the rest to have as another meal later; if we eat fast food, I get a chicken sandwich with no mayo and skip most of the fries.

I figured that this, combined with cranking the frequency of my workouts back up, would start pushing my weight down again, but so far no response. 281 this morning. Stomach still annoyingly floppy. Body still annoyingly Dilbert-shaped. If it weren't for the ever-so-slight building of chest and shoulder muscles that's taken place over the past month, there wouldn't be any improvement at all.

I am frustrated. And grumpy.

And I'm also wondering what the heck to do next to break this stupid plateau. Assuming the finances will support it, I'm going to go back to KF twice per week starting in March; maybe I need to cut the mochas back too, which will be painful.

Meh.

-The Gneech

Comments

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

If you figure it out, let me know. I've been slowly gaining, and now sit at about 310. I need to lose, because my blood pressure has been slowly rising with my weight.

[bauske.livejournal.com]

The problem lies in the diet. The exercise obviously seems to be working if you can notice a difference, but the weight still isn't coming off. I believe it's because your body has become used to the new diet you're providing it. Eating less isn't always better. In fact, sometimes eating less will hurt more. Your body senses the decrease of nutrition and begins to store up excess fat in case of future need.

To combat this, you need to up your metabolism while decreasing bad fatty intake. I've read that a good way to increase metabolism is to eat six small meals a day rather than three regular ones. In other words, a small breakfast, mid morning snack, small lunch, mid afternoon snack, supper and then an evening snack, or some similar schedule. This forces the body to increase metabolism to deal with the almost constant intake of food, which ups your calorie burning power. Meals should be healthy, low in fat and complex carbohydrates and high in protien. Calcium is also a good snack option, along with cashews and almonds. I read that in a study, people who ate more than three healthy servings of calcium a day lost more weight than those who didn't. Calcium is your friend. Regular meals should be servings of lean beef, chicken or fish.

I'll see if I can find any more information for you. Just for your general info, Men's Healthy magazine is an EXCELLENT source of nutritional and physical information. I subscribe to it and it really is fascinating. Again, the problem seems entirely based on diet from what you've said, so little changes here and there could help out more than you think.

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[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Ah, the sensible version of Atkins. That's what I have generally done since graduating from college, and I'm down from 250 to 185. That makes me one happy tiger.

-=TK

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[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

Good for you!....usually it's the other way around...gotta get back on the wagon after six months of a very screwed up diet (ergo 40 pound weight loss)...MLD

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[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty amazing considering I work at food service. Luba keeps me on my toes... hollers at me if I eat too many carbs, and I snack lightly throughout the day, then eat a heavy-protein dinner.

-=TK

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

The diet that's worked best for me (I've lost 30 pounds) have been low-carb diets. However, that's NOT a good diet to do when you need fast energy for kung fu.

Good luck.

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[dilletante.livejournal.com]

several of my friends have recently had great success with atkins-like (low-carb) diets. one also claims she has more energy now; but the usual experience is 3-4 days of grumpy hell during the induction phase, and then general low-energy (but gradual weight loss) after. studies i've seen seem to indicate that there's nothing magical about atkins per se, it's "just" a calorie-restriction diet; however anectodal evidence suggests that it helps control hunger better than others, so may be easier to stick with.

resistance training (the bowflex, or freeweights) is excellent for putting on muscle, which will help you in the long term (more muscle helps you burn more calories). but except at the very beginning, it will not help you lose weight directly. after a certain point, you won't put on muscle and lose fat at the same time; bodybuilders train in phases, first putting on lots of muscle and a little fat, then taking off lots of fat and a little muscle.

aerobic excercise is supposed to be the excercise form that takes fat off. jogging, biking, skating, whatever. jogging has some dangers if you're overweight beyond a certain point: it puts extra stress on the knees. a jogger friend of mine has spent the winter on the atkins diet hoping to lose enough weight to be able to safely jog come spring (looks like she will be fine). she's had knee problems in the past, though, which increases the danger.

jogging is "high-impact, weight-bearing" aerobic excercise. "high-impact" because of the pounding over and over on your feet, ankles, knees-- this is the dangerous part. "weight-bearing" because you use those same parts to hold you up... and that encourages the bones in your legs to stay strong/get stronger. so some good and some bad. biking, by contrast, is low-impact, non-weight-bearing, aerobic excercise. rollerblading is low-impact, weight-bearing, aerobic excercise.

i don't know where kung-fu falls in that. :)

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[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Kung Fu is high impact, if you're doing it right. *rubs bruises* Owie!

-The Gneech

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[dilletante.livejournal.com]

ah, this would not be a "soft" style, then? :)

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[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's about as nonsoft as they come, with the possible exception of Thai kickboxing. ;)

-TG

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

I need to drop some weight as well. :/

But, you might get a laugh out of some large toes in today's strip. ;)

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[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Hee! :) Thanks, bud. I did. :)

-TG

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

I knew exercise equipment was adjustable, but wow...

[joeygatorman.livejournal.com]

I liked it!

The songs lyrics in the ALT-tag -- did you write them yourself?

-G

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[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's an old 1980s band, "The Polecats" with "Make A Circuit With Me" :)

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[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, right... those are lion's toes... hee hee hee!

-=TK, who is slow on the uptake

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[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Those lions love to work out. :)

[nekomimikun.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you should put more emphasis into cardio-vascular and change the frequency of your meals. More meals and smaller portions can increase your metabolism.

Vegetables?

[rowyn]

I've been trying eating more vegetables lately. Most veggies are basically water, fiber, and nutrients, as far as I can tell. They have almost no calories. I like grape tomatoes and baby carrots, in particular, because they're bite sized. I eat them like potato chips, except that unlike potato chips, I am never going to eat enough grape tomatoes to have significant caloric intake from them. (A pound of grape tomatoes has, I dunno, maybe 200 calories.)

Anyway, my weight has stablized but not dropped appreciably on this plan. (I didn't stop doing eating anything else; I just started eating more veggies.) So I don't know if it'd help or not. But it does deal nicely with the urge to snack/hunger pretty well.

[camstone.livejournal.com]

Time to get out the DDR mat, perhaps?

And I'm going low carb, and more protein as well. Sort of a Dr. Atkins meets Dr. Phil. Seems to be working, although it's hard. Also, I'm drinking more water than ever before, with just some lemon added.

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

DDR? That would work for someone built like him, I guess (though I can't obviously say it with certainity since I've never met him)

It's a thought, though... personally I can't *stand* DDR.

Lizard Rat out.
Anti DDR in Woodbury CT

[tygermoonfoxx.livejournal.com]

No suggestions but lots of sympathy. I've been stuck where I am in the weight loss game since I fell off the wagon during the holidays. Now it seems like no matter how much I exercise or how little or how much I eat, I can't do anything with it.

I do have one suggestion....be patient with it. Your weight loss could have slowed because you're toning up. The closer you get to an ideal goal the harder it is to remove the weight. I was used to losing ten or twelve pounds a month. I'm now lucky if I see more than five a month.

[galish.livejournal.com]

Cardio workouts would help alot and also improve your stamina. Something that works your legs and arms at the same time, walking machine or nordic track type sky machine.

Keep a close eye on your heart rate and Blood Pressure and the meal ideas are good too.

Friend of mine gave me a diet he used for 8years when he was training for the Olympic Wrestling Team. Using it he stayed at 2-3% measured bodyfat. But you have to eat 8 times a day in small meals if I remember correctly. I'll try to find the txt file for you.

Gal'ish

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[galish.livejournal.com]

Ski machine...DUH...mind not working...TGIF....



Gal'ish

[fallwind.livejournal.com]

whenever you start a diet or excercise program i sugest hiding the scale for at least 3 months, it takes that long to get your bodys motabolism to change to a fat burning one. I lost 60 pounds in a year by going from a slow lifestyle with a high fat diet to a low fat, active one. I avoid refined suger like the plague, as low fat as i can, very high complex carbs (i live on rice) which are hard for your body to extract calories from.

just keep at it, its a long road.

[murrrmaiyd.livejournal.com]

My own personal recommendation is along with the others talking about the low carbo diet....it has worked the best for me, and ultimately ends up at a balanced diet...borrow my mother's copy of "Protien Power". It explains in detail why that works and all of the periferal benefits it gives too....not fueling with carbo forces your body to burn existing fat instead of burning the new carbo fuel and also having carbo/sugars creates a chemical reaction that tells your body to store fat instead of using it....the book explains that much better than I'm doing! lol! It really does make a lot of sense in the book.

Anyway, good luck!!

Mur

[murrrmaiyd.livejournal.com]

Bob says "You need to cut out ALL crap food completely. Eat lots of fresh vegetables, lay off the coffee, only drink water and no sugar at all. Another thing that will keep weight on you is sodium...you need to very closely watch your sodium. Look at your fat intake, and cut the fat so that you're only getting about 20% fat, and try to make that from healthy sources like olive oil. You should be having no more than 1200 to 1500 calories a day. Make your meat sources very lean, like skinless chicken and turkey breast, or just go with tofu if you like that. You do want to avoid dropping your protien, since you're building muscle, and you need protien for that."

He went to Raider Institute for eating disorders a few years ago (before we met) and learned a lot about this kind of thing....this is the diet he's on, and it's doing him a world of good. He's losing very rapidly, actually.....

Mur

Sometimes I think about

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

wanting to help, and if possibly could.

I've written up health pages on my website, but I don't think people really use 'em.. *peep*

I have many friends who could probably benefit if I were to be, say, a nutrition/health personal guide for them... but the one thing I can't quite be sure of.. is.... well, I do wanna keep my friends too.. *fluffle*... and I'm never quite sure which ones could be objective, or which might be resentful, ..if I were to be their dietary commandant.

*tucks beak under wing*