[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by thoma

What is a better way to eat vegetables?

The best way to eat vegetables is the home prepared way. The kerala upperi aviyal and such are easy and healthy options. I don't believe in boring salads

[GeneralJazz]

Originally Posted by thoma

Are chicken sausages okay for moderate to strict keto? Very difficult to have veggies raw or sauteed, and easily fed up with meat and egg alone. Sausage tastes good and I can eat any number any day, limited only by the cost of it.

My 12.30 pm breakfast of butter coffee, sunny side up and butter fried sausages:


What is a better way to eat vegetables?

Maida and Rawa are listed among the ingredients, both of which are unsuitable for a keto diet. Also from what I've read, chicken is processed using nitrates and nitrites to make the sausages/nuggets/etc.. Apparently these are broken down into carcinogenic compounds in the gut. So I guess eating regularly is not that healthy.

[Rshrey22]

So it's been exactly 2 months since I started my workout routine to lose weight.

I am 22, was tipping over 102 kgs when I started the routine and now I am at 95 kgs. I decided to lose weight when in addition to Type 2 Diabetes, I was also diagnosed with high BP back in August.

My parents could not believe this, at such a young age, a boy being diagnosed with such severe diseases. I was in a shock too. My blood sugar was 180 fasting and 240 post prandial.
Blood pressure hovering over 150-160 systolic.

So I decided it's time to do something.

I started with a prep phase :-

1. Bought a skipping rope, started skipping for 15 mins every alternate days.

2. Light brisk walking for 3kms every other days.

3. Had a pair of old dumbbells lying around, so started with bicep curls too.

4. Didn't control food intake though, ate whatever I liked.

I didn't see much results here, blood sugar was slightly less and so was blood pressure but no major change observed.

I followed this for a month.

Phase-2

1. I started walking on my treadmill for 30 mins daily.

2. Followed all the exercises I did in first phase too.

3. Included some more dumbbell exercises in my regime but nothing too dramatic or strenuous.

4.. Gained some control over my hunger pangs and started loosely tracking my calories uptake.

Still didn't see much results, my weight was still 102kgs but blood sugar and BP were considerably down although far from normal.

I followed this for 2 months.

Then came December, my frustration increased, and I wanted to quit these exercises as I was not seeing much results despite putting in what I considered a decent effort.

I discovered this channel on YouTube by the name Buff Dudes, they had many exercise tutorials for home and gym, their channel basically proved to be the Holy Grail!

I followed their Home Dumbbell Workout routine religiously and included major cardio exercises on a daily basis.

I walked and jogged for about 6.5 kms everyday in the park and then exercised with dumbbells at home.

During this period I ate a very limited calorie diet which was rich in protein and took in decent amount of fats too while carbs were given limited importance.

Total daily uptake didn't exceed 1800 kcal per day.

My blood sugar reduced to 115 post prandial and 80 fasting which is in the normal range. Although BP is still a little high at 130 systolic and 85 diastolic.

I am currently at 95kgs and am hoping to be at 80kgs some day.

This 3rd phase will be over soon! And I am going to join a proper gym, and do a proper workout everday!

I am very much excited for phase 4 and looking forward to losing those flabs of fat that I still carry on myself.

One thing I realised that losing weight is a very slow process but you have to be dedicated and religiously follow your workout routine to see some results!

[Mr.501]

So I am 20 years old as of right now and let me rewind 6 months of my life,
Starting my third year in an engineering college I was disappointed to see what my body had turned into. Although I had been a little plump up until 10th standard ,I had spent quite some time in the gym after that trying to get in better shape I dropped from 84 to 71 kgs and had pretty good muscle mass as well when I joined college but now all I could see was 86 kgs of loose fat poking out of all my slim fitted clothes.The last full semester had been spent surviving on pizzas,chips,soft drinks and instant noodles. I was at my life's unhealthiest.
Then one day I just decided that I wanted to get back in shape, and not just back into my former shape but the best I had ever been.
So what did i do?
Where did I start?
The internet and common sense helped ofcourse and so did my father(Professionally a Lawyer but has been bodybuilding since he was 13)

Where did I start?
1. Completely stopped junk food and sugary drinks and everything for the first month i.e. until I got my body into a rhythm.(Later on would allow a cheat meal or two a week)
2. Got active- Just got up and moved and by moved I mean really moved. I would have days where I would clock over 43000 steps in a day simply walking in circles in my room while doing random stuff like watching YouTube or Netflix or talking on the phone. Since I knew I would not be able to follow through a proper gym routine while being stuck with college I moulded my activities around just walking a lot. To be perfectly honest I am still typing this while walking in the same very room.
3. Didn't try to stick to a diet or a strict workout regimen because I knew I had tried and failed at least three times in the last year and this time had to be different.

In the first week I started by doing rounds under my building and cutting out carbs completely (Rectified this later). I had to fight the urge to eat and also the sloth.The first two weeks were the toughest as my body wanted what I denied it.

I was undergoing a carb deficit to promote weight loss but it didn't last longer than a week and a half when I realized that this approach wouldn't work as I felt way too tired all the time and was loosing my strength.
A couple of Google searches later and I realized that a calorie deficit would be better for me as I would still get some amount of carbs and would still promote my weight loss.

The first month was filled with these small trial and errors but I was on the right track and the approach was very simple eat less and better and burn much much more.
To put this into context, this is how much I walked in the next two months:


On a light day I would walk anyway from 10000 to 20000 steps and on a good day close to 40000 steps. My personal best was 53000 steps that were attained by walking all throughout binging on the whole season of Mirzapur in my room.(A trick that I use is to walk in a figure 8 i.e. trying to write the number 8 while walking end to end in your room, it helps maximize the space and helps prevents dizziness).

The next two and a half months was me just following my own advice. I ate relatively clean (I didn't strictly omit anything except sugar) and I walked and was generally active a lot. Initially I would work on approximation i.e. I would take a rough idea of my calorie intake and a rough number of hours I would walk but after a month and a half I used an app called MyFitnessPal to help me track my caloric intake and got the MiBand 3 to track my daily steps. Now I am simply not mentioning the exact number of calories I consumed because I don't want that to be a point of reference for anybody reading this as everyone has different body thresholds and should tailor it with their own judgement. Also MyFitnessPal would give you attainable targets on your body inputs.(I personally set my own targets and used the app to log the number of calories.)

So three and a half months later what were the results?
I went from 86 Kgs down to 64.7 Kgs
I was now in the best shape of my life. Granted I had lost significant muscle mass as well but the results were a shock to me as well. For me personally the weight loss happened at a pretty rapid pace, maybe it was the bodybuilding genetics or maybe it was just the being active 24*7, I was now pretty happy with the overall outcome.
Here is a before and after for everyone:


As of right now I am currently 65.3 Kgs as I have slowed my daily cardio and upped my caloric intake so as to maintain my weight and not loose anymore. Now my primary focus is to pack on the muscle I have lost and to chisel down the remaining loose fat.
Bottom line for me would be that it really just depends on the willingness to get up and get the extra weight off of you.No particular way is the perfect way,just get up and do something about it. It doesn't necessarily have to be sprints and pumping iron

This is what I look like while typing this:

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Mr.501

Bottom line for me would be that it really just depends on the willingness to get up and get the extra weight off of you.No particular way is the perfect way,just get up and do something about it. It doesn't necessarily have to be sprints and pumping iron

Ah finally, not too many posts talking about the benefits of exercise and being active (really active, not simply hitting the gym). Most of the posts only focus on calorie counting or technical diet jargon. Good to see your story.

Been my personal experience too, high intensity activity has worked much better for me than obsessing about what I eat, and I can easily say I've had a much healthier 30s than I did my 20s.

[Mr.501]

Originally Posted by am1m

Ah finally, not too many posts talking about the benefits of exercise and being active (really active, not simply hitting the gym). Most of the posts only focus on calorie counting or technical diet jargon. Good to see your story.

I am glad you enjoyed my experience and agree that sometimes the lesser complicated way could yield better results

[graaja]

Originally Posted by am1m

Been my personal experience too, high intensity activity has worked much better for me than obsessing about what I eat, and I can easily say I've had a much healthier 30s than I did my 20s.

Originally Posted by Mr.501

I am glad you enjoyed my experience and agree that sometimes the lesser complicated way could yield better results

How I wish this worked for me! I have been struggling to maintain my goal weight of 73 kilos in spite of a heavy workout routine.

I have been doing very intense training the past 6 months in preparation for my 70.3 triathlon. In a week, I do 100 to 120 km of cycling, 3 to 5km of swimming and 25 to 35km of running, half of which are at high intensities pushing the heart rate in the 160-180 range. My typical week looks like this.



Before beginning this training phase, I was doing moderate distances of all the three sports, but was strict in a low carb diet and IF. During this phase, I was able to bring down my weight from 90 kilos to 74 kilos. However, when I started the rigorous training, I decided I needed more carbs to fuel my workouts and went back to moderate carbs (included rotis in the diet), and also in January as my coach advised ate anything I wanted while maintaining the same training load (still no junk food or soft drinks or high sugar, just no limit on carbs). Forget maintaining the weight, I actually gained 5 kilos. At the time I went into the triathlon event on 13th January, I was 79 kilos.

I still believe the impact of diet or exercise on weight loss is unique to every individual and depends on age and genetic factors. The older you get, for most of the population, diet plays a major role in maintaining weight. At least I fall in this category. I consider myself genetically cursed.

I am not against the concept of "moving more" at all. In fact, I very much follow that. Just sharing my experience to show both sides of the coin

[am1m]

Originally Posted by graaja

My typical week looks like this.

Whew! And Wow! That's intense all right. I stand corrected. Guess genetics plays a big part in how the food we eat gets processed and broken down.

[Mr.501]

Originally Posted by graaja

I still believe the impact of diet or exercise on weight loss is unique to every individual and depends on age and genetic factors. The older you get, for most of the population, diet plays a major role in maintaining weight. At least I fall in this category. I consider myself genetically cursed.

I am not against the concept of "moving more" at all. In fact, I very much follow that. Just sharing my experience to show both sides of the coin

I can totally see how that works for you. In hindsight your goal requirements were completely different than mine and precisely why I believe what works for me might not work for somebody else. It is just amazing though that once one figures out how his or her body responds to a particular input, how much output can be juiced out

Originally Posted by am1m

Whew! And Wow! That's intense all right. I stand corrected. Guess genetics plays a big part in how the food we eat gets processed and broken down.

Genetics do play a very big role, the amount of input required to maintain a particular body type can vary drastically between two individuals. I am really thankful that I got the better side since although I tend to gain weight at an okayish rate I lose it at a similar rate as well. I have also noticed that I am able to eek out better results from my calves and shoulders which are coincidentally my father's biggest muscle groups. So yes Genetics do play a big hand but the initial crux of my extract wasn't that my way would work for everyone but that there could always be "A Way" to get your results and the initiative at least starts from being active.

[thoma]

And now another study that is against more than an egg a day!

"Associations of Dietary Cholesterol or Egg Consumption With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality"

https://m.timesofindia.com/life-styl...w/68494742.cms

I'm really caught between the devil and the sea. Which is the real right way? Egg or no egg? Keto or no keto?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by thoma

I'm really caught between the devil and the sea. Which is the real right way? Egg or no egg? Keto or no keto?

It is about how statistics is interpreted for real life usage.

For example, there was this NYT article on the colorectal cancer risks associated with processed red meat. The usual lifetime risk of getting colorectal cancer is about 4.49% for men. Eating 50mg of deli meat everyday will raise the risk by 18% or to 5.29%. So, will you make a major change based on this number? BTW, the original 4.49% most likely already includes the deli meat eaters. Most meat eaters won't change their diet based on 0.8% increase in risk.

In the article you posted, the numbers are entirely missing. What is substantial increase? One standard deviation? It appears to be just a scare mongering article than anything else.

[Samurai]

Here is a scary news for Keto diet followers:

https://indianexpress.com/article/li...ssels-5656252/

[sidpunjabi]

Originally Posted by graaja

How I wish this worked for me! I have been struggling to maintain my goal weight of 73 kilos in spite of a heavy workout routine....
.
.
.
At the time I went into the triathlon event on 13th January, I was 79 kilos.

What was your fat percentage/BMI score at 73kg vs 79kg?

Muscle mass is supposedly heavier than fat, so there's a good chance that the extra 6kg was just muscle replacing the fat, which in turn helped you in your triathlon.

[lazy]

Presenting my view, based on my own experience.

Exercising doesn't help much in losing weight.
Simple math will explain why. The duration of physical exercise required to burn even nominal amount of food is crazy high, so one can never create a calorie deficit by exercising alone.

What works is significant reduction in food intake.
Here are a few guidelines:
- be sure that you want to lose weight and are willing to make some unpleasant sacrifices,
- set a reasonable target - 1 pound per week is usually ok for body to adjust,
- adopt a diet that you can sustain permanently, else junk it,
- after a few weeks body adjusts to reduced intake and the cravings go away, have patience to reach that stage,
- at this stage do not quit eating any food type, since the body is already suffering with low intake, further stressing it with missing some favorites will be counter productive,
- basically eat your regular food, but much less quantity.
- start brisk walking or jogging (if you aren't already), say 30 min per day,
- don't do keto, GM, water, juice, sunlight, IF, diets at all - all these are unnatural and are harmful.

Doing above, a few years back, I got down from 82 to 72.
Then I realized losing weight isn't the same as being healthy, but it's a great start.

cheers
lazy

[graaja]

Originally Posted by sidpunjabi

What was your fat percentage/BMI score at 73kg vs 79kg?

Muscle mass is supposedly heavier than fat, so there's a good chance that the extra 6kg was just muscle replacing the fat, which in turn helped you in your triathlon.

I had not done a fat % percent measurement. Of the 6kg gain, as you mentioned, a part would be lean muscle mass. But as I was not doing any strength training, I felt most of this gain was due to fat.

An update:
The past three weeks, I have started adding cross training along with my regular triathlon training. Cross training includes two days of full strength workout and 2 days of cardio that also has lot of workout for the legs and core, and one day of hybrid which has a mix of cardio and strength.

Because of this double workout, I am not doing intermittent fasting or strict low carb. But I still avoid high glycemic food like sugar (except for those occasional cheat meals), rice, maida etc. I can feel some positive change like stronger core, increase in lean muscles etc. Planning to do this routine for 2 months and see how it goes.