The BLF Get-in-Shape Thread: (formerly, "A Newer, Thinner Rusty" Thread)....

Wow, that is an amazing transformation. Good for you!! My best friend of 35 years just recently got to the 120 pound lost mark, and I know how much of a struggle it was in the beginning for him, I thought for sure he was going to quit or give up.

That and Id guess there would also be the aspect of coming to terms with hunger too. By eating once a day the idea of eating at the first sign of feeling peckish is addressed too.

Im also aware that if you eat near bedtime that turns to fat (sugars anyway) so if you time it away from sleep times then you shouldnt be able to store much of what you eat as fat (again, regarding sugars, Im not sure about fats). By eating then moving about you burn the sugars.

There is a thing called “hunger high” and it is basically the coming to terms with - and learning to function in - a state of mild to moderate hunger (not starvation, mind you, but hunger). Your body gets used to this deprivation and begins to burn what is ON your stomach instead of IN your stomach. Once you get comfortable burning fat instead of sugars, that’s when the big, big changes happen.

And, this is why, after some time, you start to want to eat healthier because you lack nutrients and your body instinctively calls for them. If you told me a year ago that I’d be eating wild blackberries, oranges, strawberries, and tons of veggies as the biggest portions of my meals, I’d say get lost and laugh at you! But it has become a reality! Nonetheless, I still have days where I go for Popeyes or whatever is less than optimal and enjoy it…well, somewhat enjoy it (not like I used to, though). It doesn’t really matter once you’ve obtained balance. You can enjoy your life and move on.

I don’t care for being full. I really don’t. I love running on…“me”…lol. Now that I’ve advanced my caloric intake, I can run hotter and harder for longer and I have great workouts—and I don’t feel so drained post-workout. It is amazing how your body can learn to ration its power. And this somehow does worlds for strength training. No shaky workouts, no early fatigue…just amazing.

The first week is especially tough, and the next 3 weeks continue to demand discipline, but when you get to that moment when you start to say to yourself: “I can keep doing this!”, then you’ve won. At times, you need to remind yourself why you must keep on (at first, anyway)…

1) You will only get worse if you go off it.
2) You will be feeling better.
3) You will save on food expenses.
4) You will have more time and be more productive during the day.

etc.

It happens NOT to be true that if you eat late you will gain weight. It doesn’t matter when or at which meal you eat. It is your calories-in/calories-out quota that determines weight gain or loss. Only in excess of your daily caloric needs does frequent napping enhance fat storage (sumo wrestlers do that to gain before competitions).

Rusty, its awesome, I admire your dedication, glad to see that you changed your life for the better, Id say for the best :)!

Congrats Rusty :slight_smile:

Congratulations Rusty! What an accomplishment!

-Garry

Well Rusty, you inspired me. I started your program Sunday after reading this thread. So far, it hasn't been too bad yet. I've had a few moments when I really wanted to eat something. But they passed. It's way early on, but I do feel better already. I sometimes take the stairs up to the 8th floor of the building I work in. They were much easier today.

I know I'm not supposed to weigh myself for a week, but I was down almost 9 pounds this morning (Started at 295lbs, I'm 6'1"). I imagine the loss is almost all water.

Started monitoring my blood sugar this morning. It was high at 107 and then before lunch today it was 112. I only get that high if I eat badly (not counting couple hours after a meal). Not sure what to think of that. Maybe my body is burning fat and conserving the glucose?

Whatever the cause, I will be monitoring my blood sugar closely. I imagine it will take a bit for it to stabilize.

That’s no easy accomplishment. Well Done!

PMing you.

Same here…full 24hrs done…not as bad as I had thought

Not a diet…going to change how I eat, I have tried EVERYTHING and failed, lets see if just eating once a day instead of snacking, meals, munching and crunching will have any effect on my metabolism (if you call it that…I can think of cake and gain 5 pounds!)

I have increased my water consumption…any time I feel a hunger pang I slug at least 12oz of water…it helps

Oh it will work. It can’t not work because of simple physics. Just don’t get talked or psyched out of it. Remember to include teas and coffees, especially teas. They literally promote fat burn and supress appetite.

Great job Rusty! I’ve lost 50 myself, but mostly doing maintenance weight training, hikes and decreasing processed food intake, more fresh food, higher protein ratios. Definitely not a fan of one meal per day, but to each his own, whatever works on your quest is golden. Flashlights have actually helped me in this quest a lot: this is actually how I started into LED flashlights, I use them to allow me to walk my dogs at night, so when other activities take up my daylight hours, its no excuse not to be active still. Plus, I get to play with all my cool lights. :wink:

Great job Rusty Joe, that’s awesome.

Great to have someone (In addition to our leader Rusty) with me WarHawk. Like you, I have tried most of the different approaches without long term success.

My blood sugar was better this morning 98. It actually did pretty good yesterday after such a big meal. 123 2 hours after eating. Normally, that much food would elevate my blood sugar quite a bit. Only lost a pound from yesterday. I know, I know, not supposed to weigh daily.

Hunger has not been an issue. I get hungry an hour or two before eating. I find myself "wanting" to eat at times, but I can now differentiate between hunger and wanting. The worst time for me is after work when I get home. I just pretend there is no food around to eat and get busy on something.

A nice surprise is that I feel like I have been freed to certain degree. Didn't realize how much of my life centered around eating regularly. Energy is definitely higher too. It's a big lifestyle change. So far so good.

EDIT: Congrats on pulling off 50 lbs B42. Before this I was down about 40 pounds from my peak, but stuck.

Trying it starting today. Had a big breakfast, not particularly healthy, and don't plan to eat again until tomorrow morning.

I think a window of eating, from 8 to 12 is good... can't function without a breakfast/lunch, but skipping dinner shouldn't be as hard.

started 2 days ago on my own version of your diet plan… down 3 lbs… it’s a small victory but a victory none the less.

For anyone who would like to add me on My Fitness Pal my username is Stratapastor

Cool. So 4 of us are trying this:

  • WarHawk-AVG
  • InfinitusEquitas - Breakfast/Lunch meal window
  • Acousticranger
  • Myself - Lunch is my meal window

May I ask what mods you have made to the plan Acousticranger? Since it's summer and I lose a lot of fluids when I work outside, I'm thinking of adding a banana or orange in the morning and/or evening to replenish potassium as needed. My wife told me this plan is similar to a plan called the Warrior Diet (or something like that). It seems possible the Warrior Diet has it's roots in this diet as this diet has been around longer (I think). Anyway, the Warrior Diet has one meal in the evening allows small snacks earlier in the day.

I'm down to 282 this morning. And that's after eating a big meal yesterday. Blood sugar readings are looking pretty good now. Even after I eating my bigger than average meals. Cravings are starting to pass faster now too.

Good work Mr Joe
Intermittent fasting
I have been doing it for about 3 yrs. I feel great and I work out fasting.
no processed food, good nutrients and no sugar or corn.

For those who are unsure if they are eating to much or to little and are not afraid of some numbers, a tool like fatsecret might be useful. Even if you don’t want to participate in this plan here, you can identify the source of your energy excess. You’ll have to log every single snack honestly, though. No cheating! :wink:
They already have a very large database for food and it’s easy to add own products. They even have a mobile app with barcode scanner to log stuff during the day.
If you log energy intake and your activities honestly and set a realistic calorie budget for your day, you can easily set a calorie deficit to lose weight.
I, for example, maintained a steady deficit of 500kcal/day. That will burn about a pound every week. May not sound impressive, but the thing is: high deficits over an extended time easily lead to starvation symptoms. You’ll lose muscle mass, feel crappy and eventually end the diet. After that, you’ll often gain more weight than you started with. It’s the typical result of those crappy women’s magazine’s diet plans that promise you 10 pounds in a week. 500kcal almost anyone can do. Usually without to much exercise, worries, medical supervision or big leftover skin flaps.
So even if you don’t want to go the hardcore way like those brave people here, give it a try. :wink:

For those interested, the book is called The Warrior Diet by Ori Hoffmekler and I got it and read it about six months ago since I’d heard it was about the same as what I had discovered on my own…

http://www.amazon.com/The-Warrior-Diet-Biological-Powerhouse/dp/1583942009

This is a very, very old plan, as stated - as old as humans have been humans - with the newer measures being johnny-come-latelys to the diet world. Yes, Ori’s is basically the same as mine, only my plan is much more structured, reserved for the morbidly obese who need to lose a bit faster than others and who struggle with metabolic complications.

I structured my plan to account for insulin resistance, pituitary issues, and those who won’t jump into “eating right” mode, as well as for bingers who need a little extra help in the beginning. I was a binger, a compulsive eater who would eat until I thought I was going to have a stroke. So I put this together to be simple and fail-safe, as a last-ditch measure at a normal life. That is why my version of the plan is more tailored to the broken, to the sedentary, to those who have been totally defeated by years and years of losing control and have given up like I had. I was so out of shape at first that just getting up and walking around was about all I could do. Two flights of stairs had me beat, like totally whipped. If someone had told me then to start eating fruit, I’d have wanted to cuss them out. I was that desperate, so I put this together and tested it and chronicled it into what you’ve been made a part of.

But that is my only real gripe with Hoffmekler’s book…it’s tailored for the active people who just need to lose a few pounds to firm the waist. He just doesn’t address the problem people who most need to benefit from it. The writing style is okay, but he speaks only to that audience for almost the whole way through. But to offset that, he goes into great historical detail on OMAD as it was practiced by elite Roman soldiers and Macedonian and Grecian meals and eating habits. Really good information, it is. I do recommend it.

The truth is, eating better and exercising are just WAY OFF for some people. You add those in after months of getting comfortable with the change. And it’s natural at that point, never forced. But by all means, tailor the plan to your liking. You’ll still kick butt and take names, so to speak. Like me, Ori talks all the time in his articles about how hard it is to keep his bodyweight up. I have now taken up strength-training and running and the firming-up process is yielding noticeable improvements almost every day. Every other workout, I’m going up 10 lbs in what I can lift and can sustain my level of activity longer.

And as you guys who have started are seeing, it’s amazing how much time non-OMADers spend per day just eating and digesting their food! You always have more day with one meal.