As Bushie's World Turns (The Update Thread)

[Oakvale]

My guess is that when you had your doctor of 16 years, for the first 2-3 years, he told you to diet.  After you didn't for the first 2-3 years, he stopped  telling you, because you didn't listen.

And I'll predict the same thing with this new doctor.  He'll tell you to diet, and you won't listen.

Honestly, Jeff, if it takes a DOCTOR to tell you to diet, when you're morbidly obese, there's something wrong with you.  You yourself have told us you're 50% past the obese BMI... why does it take a doctor to convince you to eat healthier?  You should know that on your own.  It's simple math.  But you haven't listened before, and you probably won't now.  So in 2 years, if you're still obese, the Indian doctor probably won't be reminding you to diet.

I wasnt obese or even overweight in high school. I was just heavy.  He didnt see me much in college, because I was three hours away and was just starting to gain weight.

The thing Im lacking right now is motivation, which is a very good point that Duke brought up. I do havea support group, but I dont have the resources to go to a gym.  The biggest motivation I have, and I'm appalled I havent taken advantage of this reason, is my two children in Africa.

However, I have a new resolve now that its July. Im going to set my alarm earlier today and go for a 20 minute walk before it gets too hot. Wednesday, I am going to swim for three hours from 11-2. Thursday, I will walk more and again Friday. Ill mow Saturday for an hour.  Ive got a plan. Also, I am going to the grocery store on Wednesday to get some healthier food such as produce, fruits, veggies, and low fat milk, whole grain cereal, etc. I weigh 258 right now. I want to be sniffing 250 by 1 August and then 240 by 1 September.  Ultimately, I want to be down to 215 by Thanksgiving.

I am using you guys as my "support group". So, I am posting my plans so you can keep me accountable.

I recently lost the roughly eight pounds I gained after quitting smoking, so here's some tips.

I know there's kind of a difference in scale, but the same principles apply. (I also went from ~170 to ~150 - I'm 5'8" (AND A HALF!) and 146 lbs as of this morning - a few years ago and have hovered around there since. Again, not as big a loss as you'd be looking for but it feels a lot better not lugging around twenty pounds of fat with me, and I was - and am - a lot happier, too.)

The good news is if you're 260 pounds you're probably eating a ridiculous amount of crap just to maintain that weight, so just by eating somewhat sanely you're going to drop the pounds fairly quickly.

BTW, diet is pretty much everything when it comes to weight loss, exercise is important to stay healthy and fit, sure, but if you'd be better off focusing on improving what you put in your face. The worry here is that you could get burned out on exercising constantly, miss a few days, and then give up. This is pretty common AFAIK.

Eat vegetables and lean meats. Don't eat white bread or a bucket of fried chicken or whatever. Some people say fruit is bad 'cause it's basically sugar, but it's probably better than a donut. I don't know if  you drink, but if you do go for spirits instead of beer, since as we all know beer is liquid bread.

If you're seriously obese it might be worth giving low-carb or something a try. I don't have any experience with those diets, but some people swear by them.

By the way, the most important thing to do is to drink water. Drink stupid amounts of water.

You're still young, so time's on your side, but this is something you need to address, Bushie. If someone's overweight but in good health and happy, I don't think that they should feel a need to change just because society says so, but when your weight starts affecting either your health or happiness you have to change. Even if you don't have any major problems now, you will down the road. At the risk of being cheesy, this is an investment in your future.

If I can help you out feel free to ask or PM me. Again, I don't have some kind of ridiculous transformation story or anything, but I dropped twenty pounds and went from vaguely fat and crappy looking to slim and, well, uh, still crappy looking but that's cause I post on the Atlas and never get sunlight.

EDIT: If all else fails, just stick to this mantra -

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Oakvale]

do not take a sick day anytime soon!

Well, technically, I can't until I get past my 90 days which will be 18 September, so I'm good there, not that I planned on it anyway!

So what happens if people really get sick during the first 90 days?

Employers have no obligation to give time off for minor illnesses or for new employees. Employees are only entitled to (unpaid) time off if
1. The company has 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius of the worksite.
AND
2. The employee has worked there for 12 months and has worked at least 1250 hours.
AND
3. The employee is seriously ill or needs the time to care for an immediate family member who is seriously ill or a new baby.

Why are things so f**ked up in the US....? I'm sorry....but wow.

Yeah, that threw me. That's very Ayn Rand.

Also, everyone, I'm new to this thread... why is Bushie "beginning the Christmas season" when it's the middle of July?

[Oakvale]

I will accept my approaching permaban with good grace and humility.

[Oakvale]

Bushie, to re-iterate what I said earlier you're really better off changing your diet than trying to walk everywhere or whatever. No amount of exercise is going to negate a sh--ty diet.

Exercise just doesn't burn very much calories unless you're Michael Phelps. It's very important for general health and fitness, but your priority now should be to lose weight - you can worry about getting into shape after that's taken care of.

Start watching what you eat, and don't mess around - there's sites where you can keep a log of what you eat during the day, the calorie counts, etc. Even just keeping track of the food you're eating will help, just because you might realise how much crap you're eating without even realising it.

Bushie, look, you're morbidly obese. You're trying to lose weight so you don't die of a stroke or something at 40, you're not going to become a "self-righteous health-freak".

BTW, another problem I see with trying to exercise is related to what I mentioned above - you're going to (and, trust me, you will do this) massively exaggerate how much impact your exercise has, and if you're not careful it's very easy to turn that into "well, I walked for an hour today, guess I can help myself to a Big Mac!".

[Oakvale]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Behaviorist?!?  Dude, go back to the 30s

I'm no psychologist. Perhaps I used the wrong term. What I mean is what actually works to get people to change their poor habits. Just about everybody who tries to lose weight and keep it off fails. It would be nice to know how to change that beyond platitudes about eating better and being more active.

The reason that happens is because people think of it as a "diet" and when they "finish", they revert back to their old terrible habits. You're not going to find someone who made a permanent lifestyle change yet magically gained back whatever weight they lost.

Oakvale's Not Very Original Generic Diet Plan For Atlas Posters

1. Add a zero to your weight. If you're 190 pounds, for example, that's 1900.

2. Eat that many calories a day.

3. Religiously count your calories for at least a month, report back.

If you don't want to feel bad you should also consider the nutrient side -


Protein: IIRC the general advice is to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight - so in this example you'd be eating 190g of protein.

Fat: According to the internet, you should multiply your calorie goal as worked out above by 0.25, then you divide that number by 9. Eat that many grams of fat a day. Using our example, that works out to ~52 grams of fat a day.

Important - get your fats from good sources like cheese and eggs, don't pig out on a bucket of lard or something.

Carbohydrates: The general recommendation is to eat no less than 100 grams a day. Anything under can make you sluggish, although if you're going for a low-carb thing go ahead.

There's probably at least one bit of advice here that's very wrong, I'm just going from memory and some quick googling to refresh the gaps. But stick to this and you will lose weight. It's mathematics.

EDIT: Due to the curse of water retention, there'll be days and weeks where you plateau. That's normal, don't give up. It'll sort itself out. You're still losing fat, it's just being hidden. Also, drink water. Tons of water.