Speeding Up The Metabolism

[Daddy2mylilgirl]

You do realize that the problem generally isn't overeating, right? I do it some, but not often. I usually find that I can't finish my meals.

This makes me happy.

Don't throw out figuring out how many calories you take in on a daily basis right away. You should sit down and really try to figure out how much it is. Cause if you are taking in 3000 calories a day all the exercise in the world isn't going to help you burn off enough calories to see any real results.

Also, it's not about HOW much you eat but about WHAT you eat. I know that kind of contradicts what I just said but a plate of southern fried goodness may be 1200-1500 calories. So even if you don't finish it all you still might have just consumed 1000 calories in just the one meal.

Cut out soda. Even diet. Start drinking green tea or water instead. Personally I brew my own from tea bags but you can buy bottled green tea. Just make sure you get the one with the lowest calories/sugar in it.

Take things slow. It took you a while to put on the weight and it's going to take you a while to take it off.

If you push yourself too hard too soon you might injury yourself and then you will be right back where you started sitting around doing nothing.

Good luck. And have fun. I know it sounds weird but if you don't enjoy it then you aren't going to want to stick with it.

 

[BiBunny]

Doing that, long term, will screw up your metabolism permanently. Cause your body will know that you're starving yourself and slow down your metabolism so that you won't lose as much weight.

AND when you starve yourself all you lose is muscle, not fat. That's why you're flabbier. You know, you lose 10 lbs but it's all muscle. Then you gain back 5 but look flabbier. Why? Cause you just regained it in fat, not the muscle you lost.

I've been saying that all along, but if you ever consult anybody about losing weight or getting into shape, that's the kind of crap they tell you.

I don't know what it's called in humans, but in horses, they talk about the difference in slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Horses--like Thoroughbred racehorses--that excel in aerobic exercise (like endurance riding or longer races like the Kentucky Derby) have more slow-twitch fibers. Horses--like Quarter Horses--that excel in anaerobic exercise (like quarter-mile sprints and all the rodeo/cow working stuff) have more fast-twitch fibers.

The fastest way to discourage a horse with a genuine work ethic is to put him to doing something his body's not designed to do. Using my own example, I'm an anaerobic, fast-twitch pony. I can run sprints all day if you'll just give me a chance to catch my breath in between them. I can move heavy shit all day long. But tell me to walk or jog a mile, and, no matter how good a shape I'm in, I can't do it well. I mean, I can make myself do it; it's just not as good as someone who's made to be a marathon runner, you know what I mean? Doing stuff like that just discourages and annoys me, and I think trying to fit into that mold of what "they" tell you to do is one reason pretty much all my weight loss ventures up until now have failed miserably.

So, yeah. High-impact. Enough food to give me fuel for short bursts of very heavy work. I know it works for men. Why do people believe it won't work for women, I wonder?

I figure why work against what the Good Lord gave me?

 

[Rosie_Riveter]

I love this woman's weight lifting site. There's a page in there on strength training without weights.

www.stumptuous.com/cms/index.php

 

[Homburg]

Don't throw out figuring out how many calories you take in on a daily basis right away. You should sit down and really try to figure out how much it is. Cause if you are taking in 3000 calories a day all the exercise in the world isn't going to help you burn off enough calories to see any real results.

Not quite. I've seen the diets of a few Canadian olympic athletes and they are eating in the neighbourhood of 4800-5200 kcals a day. And these are people in single digit and low teens for bodyfat percentage. You can exercise away a bad diet. It just takes hours of freakishly hard work each day.

That said, wooo boy, it is so much easier to eat clean and exercise intelligently.

----

I've been saying that all along, but if you ever consult anybody about losing weight or getting into shape, that's the kind of crap they tell you.

I don't know what it's called in humans, but in horses, they talk about the difference in slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Horses--like Thoroughbred racehorses--that excel in aerobic exercise (like endurance riding or longer races like the Kentucky Derby) have more slow-twitch fibers. Horses--like Quarter Horses--that excel in anaerobic exercise (like quarter-mile sprints and all the rodeo/cow working stuff) have more fast-twitch fibers.

Humans are built the exact same way.

The fastest way to discourage a horse with a genuine work ethic is to put him to doing something his body's not designed to do. Using my own example, I'm an anaerobic, fast-twitch pony. I can run sprints all day if you'll just give me a chance to catch my breath in between them. I can move heavy shit all day long. But tell me to walk or jog a mile, and, no matter how good a shape I'm in, I can't do it well. I mean, I can make myself do it; it's just not as good as someone who's made to be a marathon runner, you know what I mean? Doing stuff like that just discourages and annoys me, and I think trying to fit into that mold of what "they" tell you to do is one reason pretty much all my weight loss ventures up until now have failed miserably.

So, yeah. High-impact. Enough food to give me fuel for short bursts of very heavy work. I know it works for men. Why do people believe it won't work for women, I wonder?

I figure why work against what the Good Lord gave me?

Yup, I'm the same way. I hate running with a passion, but I'm perfectly happy sprinting. I hate doing slow-ass boring cardio, but will lift weights with no prob.

This sort of self-knowledge is a GREAT first step to figuring out your health issue. You most assuredly can sprint for health and cardio fitness. Simply put, increasing your anaerobic threshold will increase your aerobic threshold by extension. You can get into a sprinting program that will kick your ass in a VERY short period of time, and increase post-exercise oxygen consumption. The acronym for it is EPOC, but I don't recall why it's that way. Anyway, if you have ever worked really frikken hard, and been hot and sweaty for hours afterwards, you were experiencing EPOC. EPOC is basically your metabolism going into overdrive and staying that way. It's very good stuff. Sprints will do the same thing. So will serious weight training.

 

[EmpressFi]

As an update. Malin and I plateaued on Atkins and have switched to using weight watchers and watching the number of high fatty/calorie meals.

You'd like this one lady at our gym, something about your high impact comment made me think of her. She teaches a high impact aerobics class 3-4 nights a week and most weekends. Malin and I joke about shooting her because we only see her just bouncing all over the place like a kitten on crack. But I, also like you and Kitty, felt aerobics made me too awkward and I'd quit doing them. I like our routine right now. Granted it means about 8 hours at the gym a week, but it's 20-30 min on the elliptical or some other aerobics. And then, on alternating days, we work just legs and back, or chest and arms, and each time we do crunches as well.

The key point, is just do something. Get out and do something. I sit all day, so my 2 15-minute breaks are spent with me walking laps around the building. That's something I do every day. Also, with it being summer, we steam/grill a lot of vegetables to change up their flavors without adding a lot of fat. Also, Kraft puts out some great light and fat free dressings and believe me, I never thought I'd be saying that.

 

[celticsunspiral]

I have recently lost 20 pounds and have 25 more to go. What helped me? I started taking food to work, in my job I am stuck there from 7 am to 4 or 5 in the afternoon and I would not eat or eat crappy food.

In November I joined Curves with someone I work with and we were going 3 times a week. If you have one locally it is great because it is all women, young, old, fat, skinny whatever. You weigh and measure once a month so the fluctations that happen arn't noticed. It is also weight and cardio and you get done in about 45 minutes.

I also started on the Special K diet, which is really easy for me to follow since I buy a couple of boxes of bars, cereal, and protein drinks, stick them in a cabinet in my room and pull one out when I am hungry. That is what I eat for breakfast, snack and lunch then dinner I eat whatever within reason. I try to supplement with fruit, but I have an acidy stomach so I have to watch the fruit intake.

I hate water too but I like the crystal light peach mango green tea and a few other flavors and have been able to curb my soda intake till only when I am at home.

I havn't been doing to well this summer since I am at home with kid and that destroys the whole thing and then I may have carpal tunnel so I havn't been working out as much. 20 situps a night I will be glad when school starts to get back in my routine again.

I hope you find what works for you.

 

[EmpressFi]

I live on the crystal life peach tea and citrus.... I drink anywhere from 3-6 liters of water a day...

 

[graceanne]

I've been saying that all along, but if you ever consult anybody about losing weight or getting into shape, that's the kind of crap they tell you.

I read a book called 'fit or fat' for health class in highschool - it was required. It went into detail about why starvation diets don't work and the proper way to lose weight. I've never purposely done a starvation diet since. (Crohns attacks do not count, cause it's not on purpose when you hurl everything you eat.)

I've been exercising recently, myself. With the weather being nice I've been taking the kids to the pool for at least an hour a day. While they're playing I swim laps. I don't know if I've lost any weight, but I've lost size - I had a pair of jeans that were a shade too tight and now they're comfortable.

 

[Primalex]

I have a question for Primalex, though. You know how you said, "If you're hungry, you're doing something wrong"? I've heard that many times before, but I'm not really sure how it works. How do I keep myself full without falling into the trap of eating too damn much? Green veggies and water? Or is there some great secret I'm missing out on here?

Well, there is no simple answer - because first of all you would need to figure out what goes wrong.

If you are still hungry after leaving the table, then obviously your meal was not enough. So you didn't integrate enough veggies or other low calories stuff or you ate something your mind doesn't consider a "real meal". The mind does play a great role - researches have shown that the mind is so conditioned to eating a plate full of food that you won't feel satisfied until the plate is nearly empty. If you secretly refill the plate, people eat much more - but don't feel more full! If you are a steak guy, you can eat veggies all day and still feel hungry - or better: unsatisfied which is taken as sign of being hungry.

This is why my recommendation is to not dump the favorite recipes when you are trying to reduce weight. It won't work.


If you get hungry too early again though, you either didn't integrate enough carbohydrates and fiber in the meal (f.e. breakfast consisting just of four bananas...) or you are better off with multiple small meals. If you eat multiple small meals and feel hungry, you are better off with few large meals. I belong to the latter group. 5 meals a day don't work. I can live with a single meal. Or two. No problem at all. But just little snacks over the day, then my mind tells me all the time, I didn't eat properly yet.


The hard part of reducing the weight is finding the way that works for you. The rest is easy (just takes time).

 

[Desdemona]

there is a phenomenon called insulin resistance

It happens as a part of being overweight. A part of that results in blood sugar peaks and valleys. Many people who have significant weight to lose suffer from it. It can cause constant hunger.

When I was heavy, it didn't matter how often I ate or what I ate. I was never fully satisfied. Unless I took appetite suppressants, I was hungry all the time. I know others who experienced the same thing or are going through that right now.

This really isn't simple. It's hard to change your diet. It's hard to figure out how often to eat or what to eat to keep your blood glucose levels somewhat constant and to keep the hunger under control. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying there isn't a simple fix. And I'm saying that we can all offer advice, but only Bunny can figure out what works for her in her own situation. It's going to take some experiementation.

 

[sexycaz22]

Wow....quite a lot of some good advice!

I will need to come back to this thread, and read through each post!

I am slightly overweight, about 3-4 stones over what should be my weight. I am nearly 12 stones, and I am only 5ft 2" or thereabouts. I am not fit, not at all, and recently I developed back problems Which is really bad!

I do really need to get back to a healthy lifestyle, for me, it's all due to lack of motivation.

But this thread does help a lot, and it's good to read about other people's experiences etc, which have kinda of makes me relieved to see that there are other people going through similar experiences as me.

I think I am going to get back on the "wagon" as it is, and try to get my life sorted and back to the healthy me I used to be a few years ago when I was a lovely dress-size (UK) 12! (I am now 14-16, sometimes size 18 depending on which shop I go to)

Anyway, thank you, Bunny for starting this thread, and many thanks to everyone else for sharing!

 

[Qpet05]

i've lost almost 85 pounds over the past 2+ years... i found that when i can track my nutritional counts i do alot better there is a web site www.thedailyplate.com that you can track your food intake along with your exercises.

 

[graceanne]

I lost seven pounds!

 

[EmpressFi]

I lost seven pounds!

WOOHOOOO

 

[BiBunny]

Yay, gracie!

 

[FurryFury]

I recently was able for the first time this year to schedule an adult night out (overnight) with my husband. Woo hoo!

He wanted to eat out as well.

Thus I was reminded of a great lifestyle diet tip that has worked for me in the past and will again.

"Always eat as if you are going to have wild animal sex within thirty minutes." That's one of my rules to live by. I'd kind of forgotten because I haven't been getting nearly enough lately.

It's not that I didn't eat. It's just that I ate smaller amounts more often the way you should eat for speeding up that metabolism.

This is why my idea of a night out also includes (at the very least) a mini fridge. I get hungry again and again after wild animal sex!

Well, doesn't everyone?

I like to have some fruit, bread, cheese and chocolate on hand at all times!

 

[graceanne]

Thank you! Must be all the swimming I'm doing.

 

[FurryFury]

That's great Grace!

I'm the only one in my family that hasn't lost weight this summer / year.

I'm currently working on it though.

*sigh*

 

[graceanne]

That's great Grace!

I'm the only one in my family that hasn't lost weight this summer / year.

I'm currently working on it though.

*sigh*

*hugs*

 

[Homburg]

I recently was able for the first time this year to schedule an adult night out (overnight) with my husband. Woo hoo!

He wanted to eat out as well.

Thus I was reminded of a great lifestyle diet tip that has worked for me in the past and will again.

"Always eat as if you are going to have wild animal sex within thirty minutes." That's one of my rules to live by. I'd kind of forgotten because I haven't been getting nearly enough lately.

It's not that I didn't eat. It's just that I ate smaller amounts more often the way you should eat for speeding up that metabolism.

This is why my idea of a night out also includes (at the very least) a mini fridge. I get hungry again and again after wild animal sex!

Well, doesn't everyone?

I like to have some fruit, bread, cheese and chocolate on hand at all times!

Yup, when I know that it is going to be one of those nights, I tend to stock up on orange juice, V8, chocalate, carbs, etc. A mini-fridge is a necessity

 

[myinnerslut]

Yup, when I know that it is going to be one of those nights, I tend to stock up on orange juice, V8, chocalate, carbs, etc. A mini-fridge is a necessity

yep. lots of V8 for you. oj for me.

 

[Homburg]

yep. lots of V8 for you. oj for me.

Absolutely. V8 keeps me going in those moments.

 

[Xelebes]

White people can't dance is all I have to say and we are about as white as they come.

Then do white-as-fuck dances.

The Allemande (German)
The An Dro (French)
The Apache (French)
The Arkan (Ukrainian)
The Avant-deux (French)
The Ballu Tundu (Italian)
The Barynya (Russian)
The Bereznianka (Ukrainian)
The Bolero (Spanish)
The Branle (French)
The Bulba (Belorussian)
The Bygdedans (Norwegian)
The Céilidh (British)
The Chumak (Ukrainian)
The Cordax (Italian)
The Dirk (Scottish)
The Dubotanets (Ukrainian)
The Fandango (Spanish)
The Fling (Scottish)
The Galliard (French)
The Halling (Norwegian)
The Hambo (Swedish)
The Highcuts (Scottish)
The Holubka (Ukrainian)
The Hopak (Ukrainian)
The Hopak-Kolom (Ukrainian)
The Humppa (Finnish)
The Hutsulka (Ukrainian)
The Java (French)
The Jenkka (Finnish)
The Jig (Irish)
The Khorovod (Russian)
The Kolomyjka (Ukrainian)
The Kozachok (Ukrainian)
The Krakowiak (Polish)
The Kujawiak (Polish)
The Letkajenkka (Finnish)
The Lilt (Scottish)
The Mazurka (Polish)
The Metelytsia (Ukrainian)
The Moresque (British)
The Noze Iooan (British)
The Oberek (Polish)
The Passepied (French)
The Pavane (Italian)
The Piva (Italian)
The Polonaise (Polish)
The Pols (Norwegian)
The Pryvit (Ukrainian)
The Redowa (Czech)
The Reel (Scottish)
The Rundom (Swedish)
The Saltarello (Italian)
The Sardana (Spanish)
The Schottis (Bohemian)
The Sean-nós (Irish)
The Seann Truibhas (Scottish)
The Slip (Irish)
The Snoa (Danish)
The Springar (Swedish)
The Springleik (Swedish)
The Strathspey (Scottish)
The Sword Dance (Scottish)
The Tarantella (Italian)
The Troika (Russian)
The Trojak (Polish)
The Tropak (Ukrainan)
The Tropotianka (Ukrainian)
The Triplet Polska (Swedish)
The Twmpath (Welsh)
The Uvyvanets (Ukrainian)
The Vesnianky (Ukrainian)
The Vira (Portuguese)
The Visor (Danish)
The Zapateado (Spanish)

 

[graceanne]

I'm supposed to drink V8 every day, but I'm ROYALLY sick of V8.