Hello, everyone, I need a bit of advice!

[ReecePrinn]

Hi, everyone, clearly I am new here, and am in need of some advice regarding my weight loss program.

I've been dieting and exercising for a few months now, and my work has yielded some fabulous results thus far.

I'm 5'9", male, and my starting weight was 195 pounds. I now weigh 167 pounds, approximately 13 away from my goal, but I seem to have reached a plateau. Well, not entirely a plateau, but the rate at which the pounds are coming off has slowed, and I am bereft of ideas to fix this.

So far I have altered my workouts, found new paths for my walks/runs, and shaved an additional 100 calories off my daily energy consumption.

My other problem is that certain areas of my body still have roughly the same amount of fat as they did about 30 pounds ago. I know that spot-reductions aren't real, but I'm curious as to whether or not there exists a way to fix this. Or do I just need to keep moving along steadily toward my goal?

 

[YoshiMon]

ZigZag?

Hey there! New myself but have you looked at a ZigZag diet?

 

[Tawsif]

i am also new to this forum..
first of all congratulations on losing the weight .. about your plateau, i think after some times the rate at which you lose weight slows down a bit.. it may not necessarily be a bad thing..when you had more fat , your body burnt more and initially u also lost a lot from water mass.. now you might be making more muscle, as a result your weight machine may give a little higher result than the fat u are burning..but building muscles will help u to keep off the weight in the long run.. to mek sure if this is indeed the case u can keep track of ur fitness by other means.. u can take measurements of ur waist and ur arms.. u might be surprised to see that although ur weight machine doesn't show a huge change ur measuring tapes may show that ur waist has lost inches and ur arms have gained them, showing over all better fitness..
hope it was of any help.. once again congrats.. keep up the good work..

 

[bikinibound]

Instead of reducing your calories, you should take a week or two and eat at maintenance levels to boost your metabolism. Sounds counterproductive, but it works. Are you doing weights? Weight training during weightloss will promote fat loss and keep you from losing muscle--which can happen if you're only doing cardio.

 

[thin-is-in]

Grazing diet appraoch

Hi, everyone, clearly I am new here, and am in need of some advice regarding my weight loss program.

I've been dieting and exercising for a few months now, and my work has yielded some fabulous results thus far.

I'm 5'9", male, and my starting weight was 195 pounds. I now weigh 167 pounds, approximately 13 away from my goal, but I seem to have reached a plateau. Well, not entirely a plateau, but the rate at which the pounds are coming off has slowed, and I am bereft of ideas to fix this.

So far I have altered my workouts, found new paths for my walks/runs, and shaved an additional 100 calories off my daily energy consumption.

My other problem is that certain areas of my body still have roughly the same amount of fat as they did about 30 pounds ago. I know that spot-reductions aren't real, but I'm curious as to whether or not there exists a way to fix this. Or do I just need to keep moving along steadily toward my goal?

Grazing is by far the best way to eat. By eating small amounts of food throughout the day, you are keeping your metabolism at an optimum level. Metabolism is the rate at which energy (measured in calories) is burned. When your metabolism is high, you burn calories more quickly. When your metabolism is low, your body stores more energy as fat.

When you starve yourself and skip meals, you’re telling your body to keep metabolism low. Your body doesn’t know when it’s going to get energy again, so it stores most of what you eat as fat. When you graze throughout the day, you are constantly supplying your body with energy which tells the body that the energy is abundant and there’s no need to store it as fat.

 

[Steve]

Grazing is by far the best way to eat. By eating small amounts of food throughout the day, you are keeping your metabolism at an optimum level.

I think not.

Metabolism is the rate at which energy (measured in calories) is burned.

No it isn't.

When your metabolism is high, you burn calories more quickly. When your metabolism is low, your body stores more energy as fat.

Not necessarily.

When you starve yourself and skip meals, you’re telling your body to keep metabolism low. Your body doesn’t know when it’s going to get energy again, so it stores most of what you eat as fat. When you graze throughout the day, you are constantly supplying your body with energy which tells the body that the energy is abundant and there’s no need to store it as fat.

No. It's not about meal frequency.

 

[i_will_not_fail]

I have to agree with thin-is-in.. eating several small meals throughout the day keeps your metabolism at a steady rate at rather then extreme highs and lows.. I did the 6 week body makeover and it explained it perfecting in a way that I understood it.. and thin-is-in explained it pretty much perfectly too.. you should eat about 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day about every 2 and half to 3 hours if you schedule permits.. and switch up the foods you are eating.. try replacing some things with fresh veggies(greens especially if you can) and fruit... and cut out salt.. and drink lots of water!!

 

[txsqlchick]

Grazing is by far the best way to eat. By eating small amounts of food throughout the day, you are keeping your metabolism at an optimum level. Metabolism is the rate at which energy (measured in calories) is burned. When your metabolism is high, you burn calories more quickly. When your metabolism is low, your body stores more energy as fat.

Wrong. The metabolism is the set of chemical reactions occurring in any living organism in order to sustain life.

When you starve yourself and skip meals, you’re telling your body to keep metabolism low. Your body doesn’t know when it’s going to get energy again, so it stores most of what you eat as fat. When you graze throughout the day, you are constantly supplying your body with energy which tells the body that the energy is abundant and there’s no need to store it as fat.

For every study that says "GRAZE! IT'S THE SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS!", there is one that totally debunks it. I do not graze at all...I eat 3 meals a day with 1-2 healthy snacks IF I get hungry, which I don't always. I've lost almost 40lbs so far, so obviously I'm doing something right.

Plus...don't you think your digestive system would like a rest?

 

[txsqlchick]

I have to agree with thin-is-in.. eating several small meals throughout the day keeps your metabolism at a steady rate at rather then extreme highs and lows.. I did the 6 week body makeover and it explained it perfecting in a way that I understood it.. and thin-is-in explained it pretty much perfectly too.. you should eat about 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day about every 2 and half to 3 hours if you schedule permits.. and switch up the foods you are eating.. try replacing some things with fresh veggies(greens especially if you can) and fruit... and cut out salt.. and drink lots of water!!

I have never seen a scientific consensus that, eliminating all other factors, grazing will contribute to weight loss more so than eating larger meals on a more "traditional" schedule. I do not graze and I've lost a significant amount of weight. I don't think grazing is bad per se, but I don't think it's a silver bullet either. I find when I graze I get gassy and tired, and I tend to overeat. Other people may not. Do what works for you, but to state "grazing is best because it keeps your metabolism revved up" as 100% fact to me is not advisable. For every person on here who grazes, you'll find one who doesn't but who has also been successful at losing weight.

 

[Steve]

I have to agree with thin-is-in.. eating several small meals throughout the day keeps your metabolism at a steady rate at rather then extreme highs and lows..

No offense intended, but do you just parrot what all the 'gurus' say or do you actually have proof of this?

 

[usedtobefatmatt]

Steve,
Correct me if i am wrong on this. I eat the 6 meals a day and have heard that it "keeps up the metabolism going". My theory is (and its true in my case) that eating 6 meals works because it keeps you full and therefore will not binge when staving. I dont think the 6 meals "keeps the metabolism burning.

Im my case, i feel i am (or hopefully was) addicted to food so therefore i like to eat and eating 6 small meals gives me the eating feeling while keeping myself full. The weightloss i have had is more attributed to my 6 meals of healthy food than it is of 6 meals to ignite the metabolism. Make sense or am i completely off in my thinking?

Thanks,
Matt