The Biggest LOOSER -- running weight loss thread

[bigpern23]

Ok so it's Jan. 1 and l, with the holidays behind us, I'm at 170 still ... The lightest I've been since junior year of high school.

Having dropped 60 pounds since this time last year, I feared the holidays. Worried I was going to put 10 pound ( or worse) back on. I haven't been working out like I should have been, but I've kept my diet ok (in between holiday parties and cookies) and I'm still doing well.

2010 was for weight loss. 2011 is going to be all about looking ripped for the summer. Gotta keep setting goals and keep this new lifestyle working for myself. I'm just thankful that it has turned out to be so much easier than I thought possible.

 

[Matt1735]

Congrats BigPern....

I weighed five days before Christmas, and won't weigh again until Monday... after that every week on Monday, but gave myself a week off for the holidays (off from the scale)... Hoping to be about even.

Simple goal, a pound a week this year... If I can do that, everything will work out great.

Might not make it every week, but overall, the number should be there...

Good luck to everyone on their quest/journey/trip

 

[WriteThinking]

He isn't on this board (I don't think), but I thought I'd post this here as a matter of possible interest.

As I think I've posted before, I watch "The Biggest Loser" regularly. Many here find it exploitive and bad, and I guess it can be that way, sometimes, or in some ways. But, I also find it pretty inspirational, and it makes me think, and be careful of what I eat -- and how I train.

(I do think the workouts on the show are generally unrealistic in everyday life, but I know the weight-loss process and what contestants get, basically, is a crash course/short-term total immersion and a jump start, not something they necessarily should do, to that extent, for the rest of their lives).

Anyway, Rulon Gardner, the U.S. gold medal-winning wrestler in the 2000 Olympics and a bronze-medal winner in 2004, is scheduled to be one of the contestants on the latest edition of "The Biggest Loser," which premieres tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

He supposedly gained more than 200 pounds post-Olympics, and will start the competition at 474 pounds. It'll be interesting, I think, to see if any game-playing goes against him and he becomes something of a target as a result of his fame, especially because, up until now, "The Biggest Loser" has been unlike some other reality shows in that it hasn't generally made a point of including "name" competitors or famous athletes, just Average Joe Overweight types.

That is actually something I have liked about the show. It is not all about names or long-after-the-fact fame.

 

[Matt1735]

I too am a regular watcher and wonder how the "game" will be played with him in it. I don't see him making it to the end because of that... But i hope, as I hope for everyone, that he is successful.

 

[Dick Whitman]

There's a good story about the show in the latest "Runner's World."

What I love about the story is that, at some point, Jillian Michaels or someone like that is quoted as saying that you don't turn your life around by taking a leisurely walk 30 minutes a day. Of course, that's what everyone wants to do. My wife is a slender woman, but whenever she talks about getting exercise, it's, "I'm going to start walking."

Walk, walk, walk.

fork walking.

I swear, every time I read a mainstream story about exercise, it's about how you shouldn't work too hard. You don't need to work to hard. You can lose 100 pounds by walking 10 minutes a day, three days a week. And on and on and on.

I get that most people don't want to work as hard as it's going to take. But I'm glad this show turns that on its head and actually makes people hurt. It's about damned time.

 

[bigpern23]

Good point, deck. In addition to a culture that encourages people to lose weight "the easy way," there are a surprising number of people, like the poster above, who wonder if some losing weight is "getting too skinny."

I get that a lot from my family. "don't lose too much weight," "you need to eat," etc. I eat MORE now than when I was overweight, but I'm more active and I eat better.

Part of it, I think, is that America is so overweight in general that lean people no longer look "average" so people assume they are unhealthy. Also, there are so many stories of eating disorders, but most seem to focus on anorexia or bulimia, that if you lose a lot weight people think that's how you did it.

And I'll be the first to admit that I thought I was supposed to weigh about 200 pounds, not 170. Americans as a whole are just so poorly educated about health that they make incorrect assumptions about what is healthy or how to be healthy.

 

[21]

To me, it seems pretty snooty to slam people for walking. Will it transform you into a swimsuit model, no. But the benefits of doing SOMETHING instead of nothing are immeasurable, and if someone is willing to walk, maybe they'll like it enough to run a block or two...or three or ten or a mile. Maybe not, but they're still moving around, using muscles and joints and not just laying on the couch all day.

Also, for people with back or knee problems, walking is still a decent alternative, if you move at a good clip for a prolonged time. Not talking about a latte stroll through the park, but a powerful stride for an hour. It works.

Tell a non-exerciser walking is a waste of time, and they'll remain a non-exerciser, because the alternative--strenuous exercise--is too hard or too daunting, or even too unhealthy to consider.

Is it complete bullshirt to claim that 6 minutes a day can give you an exquisite physique, solid abs, and glorious weight loss? Yes. Not possible. But for someone who does nothing, those 6 minutes can be the start of something better. Or not. But still better than nothing.

Re Bigpern's post about other people reacting to clean eating and weight loss, agree completely. I eat a certain way, I don't talk about it or make a big deal about it, but in a group, someone will make a comment. Which is funny, because no one ever announces to an overweight person, 'Oh my God, you eat like a pig and it shows, you need to stop, that's gross, you're so fat! How do you get so fat??' But no one thinks anything about saying, 'You're so thin, you're going to waste away, you eat like a bird! Come on, have the dessert, just a taste, you have to, I ordered it for you! You're no fun anymore!'

 

[HC]

This thread is about weight loss and any exercise can help with that. The idea that a killer workout is the only way to lose weight stops a lot of people from even trying.

As for 21's observation about people commenting on eating I think that most people feel that saying you're too thin is a compliment.

 

[Dick Whitman]

And I'll be the first to admit that I thought I was supposed to weigh about 200 pounds, not 170.

I was the same way. I thought I was supposed to weigh 170. When I got into the 160s, it was like a miracle. It took me years to realize that I should really be in the 140s-150s. And that I was even capable of it. Total mental barrier, brought on by, partly, society's idea of what is "normal" in 2010.

 

[Dick Whitman]

To me, it seems pretty snooty to slam people for walking. Will it transform you into a swimsuit model, no. But the benefits of doing SOMETHING instead of nothing are immeasurable, and if someone is willing to walk, maybe they'll like it enough to run a block or two...or three or ten or a mile. Maybe not, but they're still moving around, using muscles and joints and not just laying on the couch all day.

Also, for people with back or knee problems, walking is still a decent alternative, if you move at a good clip for a prolonged time. Not talking about a latte stroll through the park, but a powerful stride for an hour. It works.

Tell a non-exerciser walking is a waste of time, and they'll remain a non-exerciser, because the alternative--strenuous exercise--is too hard or too daunting, or even too unhealthy to consider.

Is it complete bullshirt to claim that 6 minutes a day can give you an exquisite physique, solid abs, and glorious weight loss? Yes. Not possible. But for someone who does nothing, those 6 minutes can be the start of something better. Or not. But still better than nothing.

Re Bigpern's post about other people reacting to clean eating and weight loss, agree completely. I eat a certain way, I don't talk about it or make a big deal about it, but in a group, someone will make a comment. Which is funny, because no one ever announces to an overweight person, 'Oh my God, you eat like a pig and it shows, you need to stop, that's gross, you're so fat! How do you get so fat??' But no one thinks anything about saying, 'You're so thin, you're going to waste away, you eat like a bird! Come on, have the dessert, just a taste, you have to, I ordered it for you! You're no fun anymore!'

I agree that I'm probably being overly non-sympathetic. Probably to make a point more than anything. I love to test my physical limits. But I, personally, have injured myself in the past doing that. So you have to be smart and aggressive at the same time.

And totally sympathize on the comments from people. My wife tells the story of one year when she walked into her work cafeteria and someone had posted a derogatory cartoon about "skinny benches" on the refrigerator for everyone to get a laugh about. There seems to be an attitude - particularly among women, though I hear it, as well - that people who take care of themselves are vain or somehow lack character in some way or another.

 

[The Big Ragu]

No offense, but anti-walking posts are ludicrous.

1) A lot of people are ghastly out of shape. You don't start wind sprints, a heavy rowing regimen and 45 minutes of knee-busting, calorie-burning exercise because you woke up one day and said, "I am going to stop smoking, stop eating twinkies and drinking soda and lose weight." You have to ease into it. The worst thing you can do is go too fast, too soon. It increases the chance you won't continue, because when you are out of shape and tax yourself beyond what you can handle, you are likely to just quit. It also increases GREATLY the chance you will injure yourself. Walking is the basic building block to building up your stamina and general shape so you can handle more strenuous workouts. Anyone who is overweight and not used to exercising is an idiot if they don't start simply -- walking every day.

2) Walking *is* good for you. Even if you do no other exercise. If you eat sensibly and walk, the walking part DOES burn calories, as opposed to doing nothing. Especially if you walk vigorously. Even more important, while the focus here for some has been to lose weight quickly and measure quarter inches off their waist, the real benefits to the more common-sense advice on here are that you are making yourself healthier -- not that you are going to model for GQ. And walking every day gives your heart a workout. It might not be the workout you get from running, but for most people it is light years beyond the sedentary lifestyle they live. If more people in this country a) ate REAL food (and diet coke doesn't qualify), mostly plants and not to much, and b) did something as simple as walking for 45 minutes every morning, our healthcare costs from the reductions in heart-related problems and diabetes-related problems (which is past epidemic proportions) would be eye-popping.

I hope no one in horrible shape reads some of the posts on here and thinks, "Walking is useless. I am going to try to run a 10K." If you don't hurt yourself, I guarantee you will quit your exercise regimen soon afterward.

 

[Matt1735]

To defend the anti-walking sentiment (but only to a point)...

I don't think anyone disagrees that walking is better than nothing. It surely is.

But you will not lose all of your weight and you will not get into great shape by taking the leisurely 45 minute stroll around a quarter-mile city block.

People who believe you are going to drop 50 pounds doing that are the ones that quit too.