So, here's the problem...

[Skull]

I understand that losing weight is going to require altering my lifestyle. Some parts of this aren't bad, but some parts are inconceivable to me.

I mean, I need to get back into an exercise routine just for the physical therapy aspects, and any metabolic advantages are just icing on that cake.

Food, though, is a problem. This isn't going to involve some diet for awhile and then I go back to "normal". I have to change "normal". And I don't want to.

I like food. No, I love food. I eat recreationally. I love pasta and bread and rice and pastry and candy and ice cream and cereal. I love steak and hamburgers and hotdogs and chicken wings and chicken breasts and turkey and roast beef and pastrami. I love cheese. I adore chocolate. I even love vegetables and fruits.

I've made a lifestyle out of pursuing fine food, drink, and dessert.

How do I stop? What else is there in life? With what do I fill this empty hole in my soul?

[spicholy]

Don't beat yourself up for starters. Food can be an addiction like smoking and drinking.

You can still enjoy most of those foods. For starters, limit portions. Lay out a weekly menu of what you are going to eat at each meal and stick to it. Balance it out well. Your body needs a good mix of meat proteins, carbohydrates, and fruits and veggies.

Exercise. How are you at swimming? You can burn a lot of calories with very low impact on you body by swimming. If that is out, consider bicycling for starters.

[OMG]

Momma say fill your soul with Jesus

[Pat830]

With what do I fill this empty hole in my soul?

Track days, strip clubs, Jack and diet Coke.

[OMG]

If you are not using frosting for toothpaste you don't really have a problem.

If you don't fill your bellybutton with frosting in the morning for later you don't really have a problem.

If you don't mail yourself Hostess Twinkies so you can have a snack when you pick up the mail you don't really have a problem.

You do have a problem if you tell your friends you eat to give your truck better traction.

Or if you think of all the starving people in China and eat so the food isn't wasted.

And if you stand on the roadside with a sign that says "will work for doughnuts" you have a problem.

[Mikey]

For me, it was the extras that I cut out to trim down. It's a balanced equation that you are working on. (You may want to go find a science friend *nudge*).

Your body need of energy needs to be more than the energy you are offering it. Too drastic and it'll shut down and go into starvation mode and it'll take you forever to loose weight.

So if you want your 6lbs of pork rinds as an example, just make sure that you've excercised and burned off the equivalent (or preferably more) calories.

If you drink regular pop, find a diet one you can handle. If you can handle lower fat items then pick those. Don't go drastic...just be smart. I stopped eating (as I don't enjoy it as much as you) and I didn't need to adjust exercise. Since you want the food, then increase your exercise.

The delta value is the important value here.

[BearXX]

This is how I felt last year. I couldn't stop to filling up the pie hole.

But at Christmas last year I was so heavy and big that riding a blackbird

would almost be impossible. I gained 18 LBS from end of summer till New Year.

That did it for me. 40 years old and almost not able to wipe my own ass.

Now I'm looking forward to ride the Bird weighting below 275 LBS. Never done that before.

And to drive it at 198 LBS in August this year (I hope) is a very exiting thought.

125 LBS less baggage than last year will be like a new turbo

I'm 1/3 on the way to my goal.

Walking an hour 3-4 times a week will do wonders.

[Skull]

This is how I felt last year. I couldn't stop to filling up the pie hole.

But at Christmas last year I was so heavy and big that riding a blackbird

would almost be impossible. I gained 18 LBS from end of summer till New Year.

That did it for me. 40 years old and almost not able to wipe my own ass.

How do you stay away from food?

[John01XX]

Just acknowleding there is a problem is half the battle

You will succeed Skull

Keep up the hard work

[Mikey]

You know, we could just keep an eye on you, and when one of us sees you going for one of your favourites, we could grab it and throw it 100 yards away and you have to sprint for it.

It'll work.

[01xxallen]

Food, though, is a problem. This isn't going to involve some diet for awhile and then I go back to "normal". I have to change "normal". And I don't want to.

I like food. No, I love food. I eat recreationally. I love pasta and bread and rice and pastry and candy and ice cream and cereal. I love steak and hamburgers and hotdogs and chicken wings and chicken breasts and turkey and roast beef and pastrami. I love cheese. I adore chocolate. I even love vegetables and fruits.

It's worse than that.

When you start a diet, your body says, "A famine is here, I need to slow down metabolism and conserve fat." So it's even harder. Then when you reach your goal and eat normal food, you gain weight like a bear before hibernation.

Choices. How bad do you want it?

Right now I'm back to Nutrisystem. Since I travel a lot it's easy to take the packaged meals with me. And they are really good. The problem is, I've been down this road before and it worked then failed. I don't know what the answer is. Fat people are cursed.

Wait till skinny people give you advice. "I lost ten pounds by just using Nutrisweet instead of sugar in my coffee." Great, if that worked for me I'd be skinny too.

Exercise is a big help.

[Pat830]

Just go to Diamonds every night, you won't have any money left for food.

[Skull]

You know, we could just keep an eye on you, and when one of us sees you going for one of your favourites, we could grab it and throw it 100 yards away and you have to sprint for it.

It'll work.

It'd make for some great YouTube, that's for sure.

[TX1100F]

I'm telling ya...

www.fitday.com

I'm not on a "diet" but I log every bite that goes into my mouth. After about a week or two of diligence you will begin to see trends. I eat whatever the hell I want to but eat less of it. One bratwurst instead of three. 1/2 the order of pad thai and save the other 1/2 for later. Order the kids meals instead of the full adult meal (plus you get crayons and a toy!). I have also found that eating high protein is much more lasting on the stomach than any carb. And simply reduce your fat intake (1 vs 3 brats for example). I DO NOT eat lowfat or zero-fat bullshit food. Yuck!

I have lost about 30 pounds in two months and I never felt really hungry. You just need to make choices: 1 Snickers bar or a whole head of Romaine lettuce wiht ranch dressing and bacon crumbles. First month I held myself to about 1500 calories per day. But I missed going out for lunch with my friends. Now I hold it to 2000 and i still can lose about 3 pounds per week.

Personally I eat the hell out of grapefruit and cottage cheese and Romaine lettuce salads. Not because it's part of some fad "diet", but becasue I like them and it's healthier than the pizza or ice cream in the fridge.

Mostly you need to really be sick and tired of being fat. Without that, your only fooling yourself.

[Mekanix]

I'm telling ya...

www.fitday.com

I'm not on a "diet" but I log every bite that goes into my mouth. After about a week or two of diligence you will begin to see trends. I eat whatever the hell I want to but eat less of it. One bratwurst instead of three. 1/2 the order of pad thai and save the other 1/2 for later. Order the kids meals instead of the full adult meal (plus you get crayons and a toy!). I have also found that eating high protein is much more lasting on the stomach than any carb. And simply reduce your fat intake (1 vs 3 brats for example). I DO NOT eat lowfat or zero-fat bullshit food. Yuck!

I have lost about 30 pounds in two months and I never felt really hungry. You just need to make choices: 1 Snickers bar or a whole head of Romaine lettuce wiht ranch dressing and bacon crumbles. First month I held myself to about 1500 calories per day. But I missed going out for lunch with my friends. Now I hold it to 2000 and i still can lose about 3 pounds per week.

Personally I eat the hell out of grapefruit and cottage cheese and Romaine lettuce salads. Not because it's part of some fad "diet", but becasue I like them and it's healthier than the pizza or ice cream in the fridge.

Mostly you need to really be sick and tired of being fat. Without that, your only fooling yourself.

+1

[BearXX]

I'm telling ya...

www.fitday.com

I'm not on a "diet" but I log every bite that goes into my mouth. After about a week or two of diligence you will begin to see trends. I eat whatever the hell I want to but eat less of it. One bratwurst instead of three. 1/2 the order of pad thai and save the other 1/2 for later. Order the kids meals instead of the full adult meal (plus you get crayons and a toy!). I have also found that eating high protein is much more lasting on the stomach than any carb. And simply reduce your fat intake (1 vs 3 brats for example). I DO NOT eat lowfat or zero-fat bullshit food. Yuck!

I have lost about 30 pounds in two months and I never felt really hungry. You just need to make choices: 1 Snickers bar or a whole head of Romaine lettuce wiht ranch dressing and bacon crumbles. First month I held myself to about 1500 calories per day. But I missed going out for lunch with my friends. Now I hold it to 2000 and i still can lose about 3 pounds per week.

Personally I eat the hell out of grapefruit and cottage cheese and Romaine lettuce salads. Not because it's part of some fad "diet", but becasue I like them and it's healthier than the pizza or ice cream in the fridge.

Mostly you need to really be sick and tired of being fat. Without that, your only fooling yourself.

+1

+2

This is how I felt last year. I couldn't stop to filling up the pie hole.

But at Christmas last year I was so heavy and big that riding a blackbird

would almost be impossible. I gained 18 LBS from end of summer till New Year.

That did it for me. 40 years old and almost not able to wipe my own ass.

How do you stay away from food?

You eat less. I have 5 meals a day.

Breakfast at 8 and lunch at 11. Apple at 2 and dinner at 5. Then another apple at 9

Apple has a lot of fibre, water and nutrition for you.

And I move my heavy but out of the chair and exercise 1 hour every day.

I've lost 50.5 pounds in two months.

But you have to have motivation. If not there is no reason to start.

Eat less and read the labels of what you buy counting calories.

[TuffguyF4i]

Skull.

You need to get the idea out of your head that food must always give you some sort of pleasure. You need to eat to live not live to eat. My wife and i are in great shape and we still eat pizza, beer and ice cream one day of the week. But thats it. ONLY one day a week do we cheat. 6 out of 7 days we eat healthy.

Stop buying crappy food. Just stop. If it is around you will eat it. I'm the same way. Only buy the good stuff and you have to eat the good stuff.

Being healthy is great! You get to be active, have lots of energy, and stick around longer then if you where fat.

[RodeRash]

For decades, dietitians, doctors and nutritionists have made the link between eating speed and weight. People who eat slower tend to eat less and weigh less. The slower you eat, the less food it takes to get you full. The commonly stated reason for this is that the feeling of satiety doesn't really come from your stomach. Like every other feeling you experience, it comes from your brain. It takes time for your body and your brain to complete the communication exchange that finally tells you to stop eating because you're full.

In the last couple of years, science has backed up this common knowledge with experiments that test eating time, amount eaten and the feeling of satiety. The results are consistent: Eating slower means eating less and still feeling "full." A study presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in 2004 had 28 overweight subjects eat a meal at varied eating speeds, always eating as much as they wanted. In one meal, the subjects ate as quickly as they normally would; in another meal, for the first half of the meal they could only take a bit of food when they heard a beep, and for the rest of the meal they could take a bite whenever they wanted; and in the third meal, they had to match bites to beeps for the entire meal (the bites went on indefinitely, so they could still eat as much as they wanted). Invariably, the subjects ate less during the beep-mediated meals than in the free-form meal.

A 2006 study achieved similar results. In this one, 30 women were given big plates of pasta for two different meals. In each meal, they could eat as much as they wanted, but in the first meal, they were told to eat quickly. In the second meal, they were told to eat slowly, chewing each bite of food about 20 times before swallowing. In the fast meal, the women ate an average of 646 calories in nine minutes before they were full. In the second meal, they ate about 579 calories in 29 minutes before they were full. And they reported that they still felt full an hour after the second meal, even though they'd eaten less than during the first meal.

So what's the scientific reasoning behind the results? It's the same as the common-knowledge reasoning. Essentially, people who eat very quickly are overshooting their actual point of satiety. Since the feeling "I am full" comes from the brain, not from the stomach, the amount of food in your stomach is not the only factor involved in the satiety process. It takes time for the body to tell the brain that it has had enough food; and only when the body has sent this signal to the brain can the brain activate the satiety response (which originates in the hypothalamus) that makes us stop eating. Some experts claim it can take up to 20 minutes for the body's signal to reach the brain. So in theory, someone who takes one bite a minute may only overshoot her fullness by 20 bites of food, while someone who takes five bites a minute eats 100 bites more than her body really wants before the satiety signal makes it to the brain.

Twenty minutes seems like a very long time for a signal to reach the brain; but as it turns out, the signal is coming from the intestines, not from the stomach. It takes time for the food we eat to move from the stomach to the intestines, which could explain why it takes so long for our fullness to register with the brain.

If you really love food, eating slower means you get to enjoy it even more.

One of the best ways to slow down, is to put your fork or spoon down between bites. Don't scoop and chew at the same time.

Concentrate on enjoying that mouthful before you start on the next one.

This also works with things you eat with your hands. Set it down while you chew.

Despite what your parents may have told you when you were young, you do not need to clean your plate.

Leaving something behind is a good way to cut calories without changing your life.

[bigalyts]

Wow! I have heard some real good Stuff here. I joined the Forum yesterday and while, I feel like I am with some pretty smart Dood's and they ride the same kind of Bike that I do! My Mother should see, that Guyz who Ride Motorcycles can make sense. I have the same problem. I cant ride my Blackbird until I lowered my Pegs 1" and raised my Bars 2" with the Gilles Risers. My stomach gets in the way with my Tank. I had to pick uo my right Leg with my right arm by picking up on my Pants Leg. I quit smoking Cig's and they say you gain about 8lbs a Year. Pretty accurate! I Fricken Quit 10 years ago: You do the Math. That's right 80lbs over weight at least. I believe that the Eating fast is my "Profile", and my Middle name is HOOVER!