Congratulations! Now just make sure you don't lose too much / put it all back on...
does calorie-counting work because it constrains you into only eating "healthy" things, or do "healthy thing" diets work because they reduce your calorie intake by stealth?"Healthy thing" diets typically work by reducing calories by stealth, either by filling you up on low calorie things, or by eliminating high calorie things. Some also claim to alter your metabolism (base calorie burn rate) by altering the balance of your diet, but this runs the risk of a seriously unbalanced diet which has other unpleasant consequences
( ... )
I've had some serious advantages on this diet: I was talking to mrpj_antarctica the other day about another advantage you may or may not have had... Apparently he's noticed a significant increase in his calorie burn when he's been slightly cold - especially at night (hopefully he's around to elaborate/correct).
I'm a big fan of high metabolisms - I'd quite like to understand what puts them there, and what keeps them there (regular eating habits? Regular exercise?).
I have lots of anecdotal evidence that being in a low temperature environment consumes vast amounts of calories. I know that our field rations for people working in Antarctica provide around 3500kCal per day, and people still lose weight in the field (perhaps because it's difficult to eat the full butter ration without putting butter in everything!). There'll be some medical evidence somewhere, but I can't be nothered to look for it yet. The crucial thing is that a night spent sleeping in a cold room is eight hours of increased metabolic activity without any effort on your part, other than a little discomfort when you go to bed and get up again in the morning!
It does get cold here sometimes. I think it also helps that I go out hillwalking in the cold and the fresh air - even though I'm wrapped up, I'm sure it burns a lot more than walking on a treadmill in a warm room.
I'm making good progress on my soon-to-be-patented "narrowboat diet and fitness plan". I'm using the Hacker Diet methodology to track my weight, but I'm not counting the calories: cycling 18 miles a day and living on a cold boat means that I'm generally losing around 1kg a week, as long as I only have a light supper after eating my main meal at lunchtime.
I'm down to 74kg (11st 10lb) today, having started at 85kg before Christmas, and been 90kg for most of my time in Antarctica. 75kg was my initial target weight, but the fat around my belly is remarkably persistent, so I'm aiming to go down to 70kg and then stop.
Yeah, I'm going to have to decide at what point I'm going to buy new trousers. The 36" waist ones are already bagged up to go to the charity shop, and I'm wearing the 34" ones I bought before Christmas (feeling smug that I was a 34 again for the first time since the age of 18) but they're now much too big...
I've found the whole trousers thing very annoying. I used to be slightly overweight but the same shape as trousers. Now I'm a better weight, but a completely different shape to most trousers, due to actually having a waist >:(
There's also the lazy approach to exercise, which we tried in the winter: do lots of weights. Resistance exercise is less tedious than doing indoor cardio (running/cycling indoors is the most depressing thing ever, IMHO) and you burn calories three ways:
- doing the exercise itself - your body goes, "oh, that was hard, better grow some more muscle", which uses tons of energy - then the new muscle burns energy even when it's not doing any work, raising your overall metabolism.
This technique works better for men than women. One of my co-winterers had to go easy on the weights because her shoulders became extremely unladylike!
I've also heard that resistance training increases your metabolic rate for several hours after you stop; that may or may not have something to do with point (ii). I certainly feel much more energetic after hitting the free weights, although that might just be the endorphins.
I've found that 30 minutes of waving heavy things around is practically guaranteed to make me incredibly hungry, though, so it doesn't work as a weight loss tactic for me. I have developed some rather unladylike shoulders, though, which I <3. I just wish I could develop unladylike biceps to match, but they're being uncooperative. -_-
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(sadly the 'having a good time' and 'having a good time eating and drinking' are pretty firmly connected for me too :( )
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(silliness aside, thank you, that's very sweet)
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does calorie-counting work because it constrains you into only eating "healthy" things, or do "healthy thing" diets work because they reduce your calorie intake by stealth?"Healthy thing" diets typically work by reducing calories by stealth, either by filling you up on low calorie things, or by eliminating high calorie things. Some also claim to alter your metabolism (base calorie burn rate) by altering the balance of your diet, but this runs the risk of a seriously unbalanced diet which has other unpleasant consequences ( ... )
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I've had some serious advantages on this diet:
I was talking to mrpj_antarctica the other day about another advantage you may or may not have had... Apparently he's noticed a significant increase in his calorie burn when he's been slightly cold - especially at night (hopefully he's around to elaborate/correct).
I'm a big fan of high metabolisms - I'd quite like to understand what puts them there, and what keeps them there (regular eating habits? Regular exercise?).
Reply
Reply
Reply
I'm making good progress on my soon-to-be-patented "narrowboat diet and fitness plan". I'm using the Hacker Diet methodology to track my weight, but I'm not counting the calories: cycling 18 miles a day and living on a cold boat means that I'm generally losing around 1kg a week, as long as I only have a light supper after eating my main meal at lunchtime.
I'm down to 74kg (11st 10lb) today, having started at 85kg before Christmas, and been 90kg for most of my time in Antarctica. 75kg was my initial target weight, but the fat around my belly is remarkably persistent, so I'm aiming to go down to 70kg and then stop.
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(The comment has been removed)
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- doing the exercise itself
- your body goes, "oh, that was hard, better grow some more muscle", which uses tons of energy
- then the new muscle burns energy even when it's not doing any work, raising your overall metabolism.
This technique works better for men than women. One of my co-winterers had to go easy on the weights because her shoulders became extremely unladylike!
Reply
I've found that 30 minutes of waving heavy things around is practically guaranteed to make me incredibly hungry, though, so it doesn't work as a weight loss tactic for me. I have developed some rather unladylike shoulders, though, which I <3. I just wish I could develop unladylike biceps to match, but they're being uncooperative. -_-
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