Electronic Weight Watchers

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
...
In three weeks I have lost 28 pounds. There is a real chance that I will lose close to forty pounds in the first thirty days. I'm forcing myself not to get over-optimistic about what I will lose per month in the next two to three months.
...
Your body can't mobilise 28 pounds of fat loss in 3 weeks. Assuming after the operation you are not exercising intensely, your calorie burn is probably around 2000 cals per day. Typical for a non exercising male. Let's say your diet is now 1500 cals per day, giving you a 500 cal deficit so your body may be able to mobilise and use 500 cals of fat a day.

That works out to 56 grams of fat a day or just under a pound of fat a week. The calculations are pretty simple. 9 calories is 1 gram of fat.

Of the 28 pounds loss much of that is unhealthy weight loss from stress, trauma and upsetting your body's digestive system. Much will consist of fluid drop and loss of muscle mass. There is probably quite a few pounds of contents of your digestive system included also in that loss, (which is not as bad as the fluid and muscle mass loss).

I'm glad the operation went well and that you are losing weight, but please be careful and watch your nutritional intake. I would be counting and logging calories consumed, and really making an effort with vitamin supplementation too. It places huge shock on the body to drop weight that fast.
:)
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Early on I started tacking supplements, vitamins B-E, Omega 3 (fish oil, nasty burps), a couple of other nutrients to boost my immune system. It seems to have helped.
 

Miss Kelly

Joined Nov 9, 2013
6
I swutched to red krill oil when I used up my fish-burp capsules. I like fish, but having cat food breath was a bit much to cope with.

I hope the recovery from bariatric surgery continues to go well. Please take care of yourself.

Miss Kelly
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
I swutched to red krill oil when I used up my fish-burp capsules. I like fish, but having cat food breath was a bit much to cope with.

I hope the recovery from bariatric surgery continues to go well. Please take care of yourself.

Miss Kelly
Thanks.

I am so much better today! I actually went out for a mile walk at noon. It was definitely at the limit of what I can do right now, though. I maintained a normal walking pace throughout, but I could tell from the start that I couldn't go much faster and the last quarter mile was progressively more difficult.
 

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
Medicine is really quite amazing.

When you consider a hundred years ago you could probably die from a tooth infection.....
 

Miss Kelly

Joined Nov 9, 2013
6
I'm being faithful to my back exercises, and even bumped things up a bit last night. Accidentally kicked two of my cats across the room in the process. Nobody was injured, although I did get dirty looks. Oops.

Miss Kelly
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Grrr. Stuck at 188 for two weeks. Must be what you call a plateau.
I've been doing physical work and living on one proper meal a day, but..stasis.
Oh well. No reason to buy cookies.
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
As far as I can tell, 20 hours of cutting out walls and iron pipes, moving a water heater, a water softener, and a clothes washer, and installing a hundred dollars worth of sewer pipe IS one good workout! Then I followed it up by mowing the lawn and finishing the wooden fence job today. (That's what I meant when I said I was doing physical work.) If I had been sitting in the air conditioning, operating a pencil, I wouldn't be complaining.
 

Miss Kelly

Joined Nov 9, 2013
6
Remember that you're building muscle with all that work. I've dropped four pounds according to the scale, but I can wear the jeans that were strangling me six weeks ago. I know my back exercises are taking the "menopot" down a little at a time. Plus, I've cut way down on the muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. I even found the courage to kick the Pepsi habit. Progress is sometimes measured in grams and millimeters. It's about getting healthier.

Miss Kelly
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Remember that you're building muscle with all that work.
...
Agreed! In two weeks #12 probably lost 2 pounds of fat and put on 2 pounds of muscle.

I don't rely on bodyweight measuements. I have bodyfat calipers and more importantly years of experience knowing how to use them well (from my bodybuilding days).

This talk of losing five, ten, fifteen pounds a week etc of bodyweight makes my hair stand on end. Get some calipers and measure the FAT loss.

And I'm here for advice, if anyone wants advice from someone with 12 years of advanced bodybuilding, who owned a bodybuilding sales business and wrote and sold two books on the subject.
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Agreed! In two weeks #12 probably lost 2 pounds of fat and put on 2 pounds of muscle.
Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that. Mainly because I don't know if a person can grow a pound of muscle in a week. I have a method, but it's just instinct, not education.

Things like:
Never eat until you're full.
There is no budget for refined sugar.
Vegetables are, "free".
Fruits are almost free. (Fruits have noticeable amounts of sugars but they are way healthier than candy bars).
you still need some small amount of fats and oils to stay healthy.
Carbs are where danger is.
You must learn the difference between hungry and tired.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Here is little tip. If you loose weight remember to trim your muscles of abdomen. For this common situps will work good at least for those muscles in the front. Run 3 series with as many as you can every day. And feel some pain before you give up on each series. The reason for this, is not to selective trim away fat. As that never works. But by tighten up the muscles of abdomen. They will work as an abdominal belt. This will give you a somewhat slimmer look. The effect is not radical but it help some
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that. Mainly because I don't know if a person can grow a pound of muscle in a week. ...
A lot of your muscle weight is stored glycogen. Fuel the muscles use. Your body can store extra glycogen quite quickly, especially in response to recovery after exercise. Also your muscles will increase water content. Those two can cause fast muscle gains. I've seen bodybuilders put on 10 or 15 pounds in a month, with no fat caliper increase.

Your body can chew muscle glycogen up quickly for fuel, which is one of the things that can give fast weight loss. But that is not fast fat loss.

Part of the problem with "exercising" to lose weight is that during exercise your body mainly burns glycogen for calories, not fat. And post exercise recovery you can burn a lot of protein for fuel. So exercising can give fast weight loss but it is not good for fat loss.

Your body burns fat for fuel when resting, while sleeping, or VERY low intensity activity like standing up or very gentle walking. Once it starts to feel like "exercise" ie sweat, heavy breathing, muscle burn etc you're mainly burning other fuels and not fat, and it will upset your body's regulatory systems and cause other issues (if your body is not used to that activity).

Your instinctive methods are good. :) Fat loss occurs best from very slightly decreasing calories, being a tiny bit hungry at times (but not too much), and a tiny increase in general activity (but not too much).
 

Miss Kelly

Joined Nov 9, 2013
6
Lying on your back and doing bridges is also a good way to tone your abs. If done correctly, the abdominal muscles engage to raise the back and but into the bridge position. It also helps to realign the vertebrae into proper position. I woke up one morning last week with the familiar "something's out of place in my back feeling." Did a couple of bridges, no more problem.

Miss Kelly
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
My doctor taught me methods to fix my own back. (They are probably available on the internet.) One is called, "hip roll". Do them in the morning before you get out of bed.

Letting my parts pop back into place each morning has saved me countless days of misery.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
My doctor taught me methods to fix my own back. (They are probably available on the internet.) One is called, "hip roll". Do them in the morning before you get out of bed.

Letting my parts pop back into place each morning has saved me countless days of misery.
Ok I did a search on the net and this video sums up the findings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Btyc_io4U
Members here never stop to surprise me me:rolleyes:
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Not that kind!:rolleyes:

You lay on one side, stretch your spine out as well as you can, let the upper leg fall over the side of the bed and rotate your shoulders away from the leg. After you relax, use the top hand to push the leg down and listen for the pops as your backbone slips back where it is supposed to be.

Rinse and repeat for the other leg.
 
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