Who has Been Successful Losing Weight and Keeping It Off?

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SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,550
7,361
NE Wisconsin
I wish that applied to everyone. Family members told me I'd start putting on weight in my thirties. Turning 50 in two months and my metabolic blast furnace makes it a struggle to retain the 114 pounds I can only stay at by eating at least 4000 calories per day.

That is remarkable.
I guess that those of us whose struggle is with a slower metabolism can at least be thankful that we'll live a few days longer in a famine? Haha.
 
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Jan 30, 2020
2,091
6,853
New Jersey
I'm open to being on the wrong track, here -- just thinking out loud -- but, I've seen this argument made from old vs. recent beach photos.

And it seems to me that a very possible explanation is that, once upon a time, overweight or otherwise out-of-shape people felt a societal pressure not to denude themselves at the beach.

There are still people in great shape at the beach, just as there were way back when. The difference is that overweight people have been added to the equation. That doesn't mean that overweight people didn't exist back then. It means that they didn't go to the beach, or if they did they certainly didn't pose for photos.

Many don't care anymore. In fact they make it a point of pride. How many girls today flaunt their rolling muffin tops beneath ridiculous crop-tops?

So, it may be that an extremely high percentage of people in the 50s were uber trim and fit, but it also may be that the photographs showed the slice of the population that the era wanted to show.
I do agree with this. Historical photos are what the photographer chose to photograph. Once upon a time, being fat meant your were healthy, wealthy and noble. Drawings and paintings from this time period reflect an overweight, noble society.
 

gamzultovah

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
3,191
21,193
I haven’t read all the way through this post, but friends on mine who have taken weight off and kept it off went full blown on the Keto diet. My method, full carnivore diet: beef, chicken , pork in that order of importance (with some carbs thrown in when needed).
 
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AroEnglish

Lifer
Jan 7, 2020
4,983
14,539
Midwest
I have lost thirty pounds in a month by eliminating carbs and processed food. Also by intermittent fasting i.e. waiting 16 hours after last meal to eat again. I drink a glass of kefir or have a small bowl of Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a tin of fish some kind of pickled veg and a piece of fruit for lunch and a reasonable sized dinner. No bread, no fried food, no refined sugar. And I try to get 10000 steps a day. It takes a bit of mental fortitude but once the crap is washed out of your system you will never crave junk again. Oh, and water. At least a gallon a day. The weight will fly off.
So great to hear! Have you kept it off? If so, how?
 
May 2, 2018
3,973
30,698
Bucks County, PA
I came down with the Shingles pretty bad in December 2022. I was outta work for a month not being able to eat or sleep properly in all that time due to the dreaded symptoms. My stomach shrunk and my eating habits changed to eating 1 large dinner a day where I inhale about 2000-2250 calories roughly per sitting. I lost 40-50 lbs as a consequence & have kept it that way ever since. However, I don’t recommend getting the Shingles to loss weight…worst physical/medical thing to have happened to me yet. ☕🙏
 
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AroEnglish

Lifer
Jan 7, 2020
4,983
14,539
Midwest
I came down with the Shingles pretty bad in December 2022. I was outta work for a month not being able to eat or sleep properly in all that time due to the dreaded symptoms. My stomach shrunk and my eating habits changed to eating 1 large dinner a day where I inhale about 2000-2250 calories roughly per sitting. I lost 40-50 lbs as a consequence & have kept it that way ever since. However, I don’t recommend getting the Shingles to loss weight…worst physical/medical thing to have happened to me yet. ☕🙏
Wow, sorry you went through that. But also, welcome back! I was wondering where you’d gone. Is the shingles what kept you off of the forum/smoking in general for the last little bit?
 
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H

HRPufnstuf

Guest
OK. at the risk of being a real dick here, is this really the appropriate forum to be seeking health advice? Or giving it?
Who here has a medical degree?
Why hasn't admin addressed this sooner? It is a tobacco and pipes forum.

Common ground is well and good, so is a sense of community, but this discussion does not belong here.
 

SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,550
7,361
NE Wisconsin
OK. at the risk of being a real dick here, is this really the appropriate forum to be seeking health advice? Or giving it?
Who here has a medical degree?
Why hasn't admin addressed this sooner? It is a tobacco and pipes forum.

Common ground is well and good, so is a sense of community, but this discussion does not belong here.
It's under General Discussion. Have you seen what else is under General Discussion?

As for medical degrees, they too often represent lines which run exactly counter to the peer reviewed data available on PubMed. I still can't believe that the government makes PubMed available, as it frequently topples the oligarchy of experts.
 

SBC

Lifer
Oct 6, 2021
1,550
7,361
NE Wisconsin
That's just the what I avoided, extreme dietary changes. I refuse to disengage from foods, sweets in particular, I enjoy. I'm way too old to give up smoking, sweets, sugar entirely, and the like. No sweeping changes for a healthier diet. I simply wanted to take of fifty or so pounds and keep them off. I'm unwilling to entirely give up what brings me joy, just control my intake and make sure I burn usually burn more calories than I take in. Simple, no stress or undue monitoring and reading the tiny print on labels. rotf

We older smokers no doubt remember our mother's admonition, "All things in moderation." I simply had to relearn the old saw and exert a bit of will/won't power.

But, I certainly do admire those of you who want to live a healthier life through dietary choices bdw .

Right, it can be done without eliminating categories. See for instance this experiment:

 

Flatfish

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 20, 2022
737
1,848
West Wales
Diets I think of as temporary. People usually fail and pig out and become larger than ever.

Live style change is perhaps a better solution. Smaller portions. Better food. Less junk. You don't have to eat everything on the plate when someone serves you a silly sized portion. You don't need to eat your kids food off their plate if they leave any.

I have been fortunate to have been able to eat anything and not put weight on. But once I hit forty I noticed that finally I was gaining. So now I have to be careful. I am 6 foot tall and about 173 pounds now. So that is about right I think. A few pounds less and I'm hoping to stop snoring.
 
G

Gimlet

Guest
Diets I think of as temporary. People usually fail and pig out and become larger than ever.

Live style change is perhaps a better solution. Smaller portions. Better food. Less junk. You don't have to eat everything on the plate when someone serves you a silly sized portion. You don't need to eat your kids food off their plate if they leave any.

I have been fortunate to have been able to eat anything and not put weight on. But once I hit forty I noticed that finally I was gaining. So now I have to be careful. I am 6 foot tall and about 173 pounds now. So that is about right I think. A few pounds less and I'm hoping to stop snoring.
Dieting is certainly a temporary measure in my view and not a sustainable way of losing weight. Weird or extreme diets serve no purpose long term and are probably only appropriate under medical supervision when a patient needs to achieve rapid weight loss for surgical or specific health reasons.

I don't consider my diet, which cuts out refined carbs, refined sugar and processed foods and restricts intake to an eight hour period within 24 as fad or weird. It's basically a natural diet that you can eat for the rest of your life because it's the one our bodies have evolved to eat. Industrially refined and ultra-processed foods don't exist in nature and as far as I'm concerned, if nature doesn't provide it, our bodies aren't designed for it and we shouldn't be eating it. Sure people have been grinding flour and eating carb-heavy diets for tens of thousands of years, but few of us today live the physically demanding lives that they did in the bronze age. And our carbs today are highly processed and refined with much of the fibre and nutrients stripped out. Cutting it out or reducing it to a minimum seems sensible to me. It's certainly worked in my case anyway.

I take your point about "when someone serves you..". I live alone and I've found that as I've changed my diet I've reduced my portions without thinking about it. With the chemical messaging between stomach and brain now working as it should, I only eat what will make me feel full and never go beyond that. My eyes and my stomach now agree on what is a the correct portion size and I only prepare what I can eat. I certainly didn't do that when I was eating carbs, sugar and processed. I prepared portions that pleased my brain's over-stimulated rewards centres, not the quieter voice of my stomach.
I really notice the difference in terms of portion size and the amount of snacking going on when I eat at someone else's house.
 
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Sam Gamgee

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 24, 2022
649
1,694
50
DFW, Texas
OK. at the risk of being a real dick here, is this really the appropriate forum to be seeking health advice? Or giving it?
Who here has a medical degree?
Why hasn't admin addressed this sooner? It is a tobacco and pipes forum.

Common ground is well and good, so is a sense of community, but this discussion does not belong here.
Which would you prefer:

Folks who don’t have “medical degrees” just talking about what worked for them for weight loss (a topic apparently many here are actually interested in), or a thread where someone (again with no “medical degree”) admonished everyone to “go get their shots”? Did that discussion bother you as much as this one?

Or how about this: Why not just participate in the discussions that interest you and leave the rest alone?
 

simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,740
16,456
UK
Check yourself before you wreck yourself!!
That’s what I said when I hit 50. I enjoy good food & drink too much to bother with diets. Working out is the way. Those of us in the UK will remember Johnny Vaughn from the telly back in the 90’s. His fitness videos have been a great help to me. Essential if you want to look buff whilst puffing on your pipe.
 

bobomatic

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 11, 2023
120
510
Colombia
roberthunt.com
Just some observations, but living in South America, my diet is mainly vegetables, fruits, rice, beans, chicken and meat. Not a lot of meat but I do eat it. I don't really watch what I eat, I just kinda eat what my wife
prepares.

But... when I come back to the states, I gain weight. Never fails. My bad habits kick in. The food lifestyles in the US just seems inherently awful. There is so much more processed food here. The overwhelming choices of fast food, the portions, frozen food, etc... it's just in your face. It's so easy to eat lousy.

Back home, we shop at a very humble grocery store, all the basics and then some. There's not a shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables. It's more of the lifestyle there. But when I come back to the US and go to a grocery store, the choices of bad food is just overwhelming. It overloads my senses. For me, it's easy to see why so many people suffer from being overweight.
 
H

HRPufnstuf

Guest
Which would you prefer:

Folks who don’t have “medical degrees” just talking about what worked for them for weight loss (a topic apparently many here are actually interested in), or a thread where someone (again with no “medical degree”) admonished everyone to “go get their shots”? Did that discussion bother you as much as this one?

Or how about this: Why not just participate in the discussions that interest you and leave the rest alone?
Why don't you turn this into a personal attack rather than acknowledge it is a divisive and inappropriate topic?

Wait, you did. I, did not.
 
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