My story...hope it helps...
THE PROBLEM: I'm a fairly big framed guy (played LB in college). I ballooned to 265 lbs 4 weeks ago. Way too heavy at 46 years old. I considered myself a total fatass because, well, I was. Blood pressure was 165/120 which probably means I should be dead. Cholesterol was over 220.
THE CHANGES: Here's what I did on the advice of a friend...
Eating - I started by adding 2 meal replacement shakes each day. There are all kinds of meal replacement shakes on the market. No need to buy into online scams. Get the GNC Total Lean Shakes. Do not buy the bottled ones except for emergency use. They give lots of people headaches. Get the powder form, the chocolates are excellent. 1 scoop into blender, mix with a tiny bit of milk, ice, and water. It tastes awesome and runs about 180 calories with a nice blend of vitamins and protein. To vary it up I'll add peanut butter, cinnamon, banana, etc. I have one at 9 am, and one more anytime during the day. If the second one is at lunch I'll also have a baked potato, fruit or sandwich - something between 200-400 calories because I found I wasn't getting enough carbs. The beauty is I'm never hungry. I do not understand why, but it seems to be because of the vitamins and protein in the shake. I used to stuff myself with McDs, pizza, and all kinds of bad crap at lunch. The shake combined with some carbs is totally fulfilling. I also was able to cut out my 5 Coke a day habit completely. No idea why. Just don't enjoy them anymore. I think it's because I had a habit of having a drink of any kind, and the shake now serves that purpose. The caffeine withdrawal headaches were brutal for 2 days, then went away totally. At dinner I just try to be reasonable but with so few calories eaten by then I don't feel compelled to skimp much. Do stay away from too much red meat, which seems to bloat the midsection. I also added a vegetable. I try not to snack before bedtime, but I admit it's tough if I'm up past 10 pm, especially watching TV. Frankly I try to get in bed by 9:30 because my skinny wife it pretty revved up due to my success. The point is, everyone has to find something that lowers their calorie intake. This meal replacement shake is BY FAR the best thing to ever work for me.
Monitoring - I recommend the free Fitness Pal app. I had used it before on Atkins when I dropped a bunch, but Atkins is crazy to live on for a long period and I was always starving and finally gave up. But now I find the app very helpful for a different reason. It lets me know how much more I need to eat at night. Pretty much every day I've only eaten 600 calories by 4 pm. My target according to the app is 1800 which I almost never hit. But it reminds me to eat carbs, which I'm always light on.
RESULTS: After 4 weeks I'm down to 235. And I'm still never hungry. I'm pretty sure I can take it to 220 pounds or less, which is pretty good for my build. Blood pressure has dropped to 130/90. A lot of the fat has come off in my midsection. I've dropped from a 42 to 38 waist. So still fat but not ridiculous.
OTHER ADVICE THAT HAS WORKED FOR ME, AND MAY OR MAY NOT HELP:
1. DON'T eat breakfast. Possibly the biggest load of crappy nutritional advice thrusted upon the overweight adult is that they need breakfast. Total BS. The later I start eating, the easier the day goes. You don't need breakfast to have energy for the day. I can actually skip the shake and be fine until noon. If you are trying to lose weight, chances are your body has tons of energy stored up. It doesn't need to refuel in the morning. For my kids or maybe fit adults that hit the gym, I get that they need breakfast because they expend a lot of energy. But for the overweight person that rushes off to work and sits at a desk, it only makes you more hungry and adds calories.
2. Exercise is optional - Consumption is 95% of the key to losing weight. Obviously exercise helps, but what you consume is BY FAR the biggest factor in losing weight, and often the exercise just makes one more hungry.
3. Eat vegetables. I hate most of them so this is tough. But I've nailed down about 5 vegetables I can stand that come canned or in those steamer packs (corn, peas, butter beans, black eyed peas, etc). I wish I liked some of the ruffage ones, but my palate can't deal with them.
4. Drink lots of water. The more water you drink, the fuller you feel and the more you pee and poop. It gets the crap (literally) out of your body.
Good luck to all trying to slim down!
Totally bad advise IMO. Just bad.
Tell me how you do once you get off the shakes. Tell me how your going to eat again. I realize you got really heavy and wanted to lose weight fast. Mission accomplished. But what are you going to do to keep it off, what are you going to do when your muscles shrink, and tighten and give you aches and pains because you don't exercise them.
Lifestyle change. If you can;t live a healthy lifestyle, you will be doing fad shake diets, or whatever. I disagree about breakfast. The most important meal of your day is breakfast. You sleep 6,7,8 hours. You need to fuel your body in the morning and get your metabolism going.
I have raw food shakes 4-5 days a week for breakfast. I am talking real raw food.
Kale, spinach, grapefruit, goji berries, strawberries, blue berries, pecans or almonds, black berries, bananna, etc I have many different recipes. Plus adding good vitamin supplements in the shake. Either way these real raw food shakes changed my life. My energy level and mental sharpness is beyond great. My immune system is strong. I rarely if ever get sick. Seriously. I may have had a serious cold once in the last 3-4 years. I am talking the flu bed ridden fever type. It's been a long time.
Breakfast is non negotiable for me. it kick starts my body and my mind. Fuel your body. When I don't shake I have a simple bowl of good old cheerios and fresh berries. maybe one scrambled egg along with that. I graze all day on healthy foods. I am never overly hungry and my metabolism works all day.
Exercise - use them or lose them. If you don't exercise your body and mind will suffer in the long run. yeah you can lose weight drinking shakes, fad diets whatever. But trust me...your going to gain it back the moment you ween yourself off of them and fall back into the eating habits you had. You need to re train your body. When you do 30 minutes a day of regular exercise your using your muscles, which will thank you and your waistline. Not only that, your exercising your heart man. That muscle is the most important. Also your back and mid section. Super important. When you just do light dumb bell (3-5 lbs!!) mixed with cardio your burning fat and build lean muscle. There is nothing healthier for your body and metabolism. You want to feed your muscles. Not starve them.
Your story sounds great....but it is not a long term solution. Just my opinion of course. Living on shakes is not a long term answer.
If you coupled that with a great exercise program, then you could ween yourself off the shakes and eat healthy, because your body is being worked and will burn whatever you feed it. yeah you don't need exercise to lose weight. But you need it to keep it off and eat like a normal person again. And more importantly to stay strong, healthy and feel great.
You want to be able to eat again right?
I mean you would like to eat a normal breakfast, lunch and dinner and not a shake right? You can't change your lifestyle if you don't really commit to eating right and exercising.
There is no magic bullet. Good luck. I hope you succeed. But you going to have to get off the shakes at some point and eat a normal diet and maintain your weight in the real world. You can't live on that stuff man. It never works.
Old fashioned sweat and working hard and a good diet. That is the only thing I know that works 100% and is permanent.
