On Thib’s YouTube Channel, there’s a video where he talks about physique competitors eating, like, 700 cals a day for weeks on end. He mentioned catching them eating toilet paper to stave off hunger pains. That’s fucking nuts.
Losing a few pounds seems significantly less nuts, even if for no other reason than to look marginally better at the beach. Seems like this should and could take a much gentler approach and less discomfort.
Yes! I mean, I can give it a two-week trial run and see what happens. Worst case, in two weeks, I look exactly the same.
No. I told him about my struggles with sticking to macros on parties or eating out. He said that I should do calorie cycling and rearrange macros as seen fit to hit averages.
The plan was to leave 500 calories for lunch since most of the time, the food at these gatherings aren’t too great (lots of carbs, pizza, etc) with only 1-2 palatable things (e.g., salad with chicken, grilled sausage). got blindsided by this
My willpower was already depleted. I’m at the point in the academic cycle where things get quite sketchy mentally
I do think bodies and needs change over time. I think I’ve made sweeping changes maybe three times as an adult, as my needs have changed. Some of it has had to do with time and family, this time it’s with physical changes as a result of aging. I have to work smarter now, because working harder isn’t possible.
I wonder if you need more food as a result?
But I sympathize with the difficulty of social when you’re trying to exercise control.
I’m off to a giant challenge today. Based on past experience, at 2:30 I will be confronted by a table full of chips and dip and homemade cookies and later pizza and then, finally, ice cream cake. There will be alcohol.
I HATE calling attention to myself by eating differently. Even at my highest-ever weight, I worry it’ll make me the focus of “you don’t need to lose weight!” type stuff and even more horribly, “look at me! I’m the one who should be on a diet!”
However - and this is perhaps my greatest accomplishment EVER - I went to Applebees with my work team Friday after a hockey game to benefit our clinic, and while I did have two Coors Lights, I did NOT have appetizers. Across from me were giant pretzel logs that were glistening (!), and which had melty cheese to dip in, loaded waffle fries, and artichoke dip with chips (not as tempting, that). Beside me were boneless buffalo wings. I could smell them. I skipped the pre-game pizza party (colleagues birthday, they had cake, too) and ate baked haddock, veggies, and a half cup of rice. As a result, the beer was within my calorie allotment. I’ve dropped a pound and a half since Friday and am now down 5.4 total, so it seems that the recent tweaks have helped.
I know everyone has to work this out for themselves, and I’ve never really cared what anyone thought about me (I lean really hard into bein an embarrassing dad), but isn’t it kind of funny how “the weirdo” is the person treating herself with respect? Like you feel like you have to justify not poisoning yourself, and might get asked questions about why you don’t want to eat garbage.
In my world it was always alcohol. And I drink when I want to, so it’s not like I was worried about others doing it, but even now when I’m older (and especially at work functions) it’s kind of the same where people ask why I don’t want something. I don’t really love feeling like crap all day tomorrow; I don’t care how much anyone else drinks and maybe it’s fine for them and they can hang.
Anyway, great work! I just always think it’s funny when someone’s dinner becomes such a topic for everyone else’s discussion.
I guess I should also note I think we’re weirdos if we act like martyrs to everyone about what we choose to eat, but that wasn’t the case in point.
My sense is always that I’ve triggered self-consciousness in other women, which is never my intent. And then they react by either saying what they would want to hear - that I’m fine, why worry - or else it triggers confessions about what they should and fail to do.
It never seems to trigger interested questions about technique, which of course I love to talk about. What you do, what I do.
As a non-drinker, a strategy I use to avoid having that attention is to take a drink, hold it and not drink it. No one tries to get me a drink nor ask why I am not drinking.
It works with food at a party too. Get some food on a plate and have it with you. You get left alone.
A tonic water with a slice if lemon does a good imitation of a vodka and tonic also. Barmen sometimes give me a funny look though when I ask for a vodka and tonic, hold the vodka.
Took a pic a couple of days ago which can double as my pre-sermorelin pic. I’m hovering at 250lb, goal for 2023 is to get to 360 and maintain sub 10% bf, starting to bulk as much as I can stand (I’m not a big eater), but adding a protein shake + egg whites before bed, plus just being very conscious to eat a big meal every meal is the plan right now
/edit: I meant to put 260 not 360!!! But leaving it bc it’s funny
Catching up a bit here and thought I’d throw in my 2 cents on the cardio/diet approach to weight loss
Over the years Ive come to adopt the approach that starting a diet you should find you “no-cardio weight loss calorie amount” (This is assuming the person dieting has some idea of the amount of calories they are eating per day, which not everyone does).
Once you have that number, or the general ball park for whatever amount of food that is, everything falls into place much easier
Ride that amount of calories out until 2 weeks of stalled weight loss (I like to keep a few different numbers tracked, such as scale weight and circumference of the love handles and thighs. If one of those numbers is going down its a good sign progress is still happening)
Once you stall for 2 weeks you can drop calories or add cardio. Cardio is tricky because you have to do a sufficient amount of it to get things moving again and time is finite, but in theory you should be right on the edge of losing weight anyway so any amount added should tip you back that direction.
From there, you either add cardio or remove calories however you like once the numbers stop moving for 2 weeks again.
As we all know, burning 250 calories takes a lot more time than not eating 250 calories… but you can only not-eat so much before that is an issue too, so its a balancing act. Although sometimes adding something like a 1 day fast, or even a “only eat dinner” kind of day is an effective way to wipe out 1,000-1,500 “weekly” calories in a single go, and some find 1 day stuff easier than the minor suffering of 7 days
This was more geared to my lifestyle when I was a bit more insane and actually competing, but its a good outline for how to answer the question “When do I add cardio/subtract calories?”
