I am obese by BMI. I have ten pounds to lose to be overweight. Note that I put on those ten pounds on the advice of a dietician who said that in order to lose weight I needed to eat more calories. IT WAS SUPER-EFFECTIVE. I am burning a spare 2000 calories a day, biking 30 miles for roughly 2 1/2 hours a day. I eat principally vegetables and protein, probably drink two drinks every couple weeks. I'm 35lbs away from "normal". I got within 10lbs of "normal" a few years back; to get there I have to be light-headed when I stand up all day every day. As you might imagine, blood sugar that low does not improve my mood, nor my interactions with my fellow humans. I don't have that luxury here; if I eat to lose weight burning that many calories the bike wobbles and I hit stuff and then I don't make it to work. I can't get a flu shot without someone telling me to lose weight. I went to the doctor once with foot pain while running. They told me "you know you'd be in a lot less pain if you lost about 40lbs." I mean, what do you think I'm trying to do here? Two days later I broke a pedal off the exercise bike (which I did an hour on every day after working out). It was the second time in six months. I debated bringing it in and asking her how she wanted me to go about it but knew she wouldn't have any idea, nor would she care. She'd looked at BMI and discarded everything else. She didn't even do anything about the foot pain. I went to a nutritionist who said "you're not fat, and we need to get your percentage body fat by doing a wet measure." I said "great. Can we do that here?" "No. There's only one place in Seattle to do it." "Is it covered by insurance?" "no. And it's $600." "Will it lower my insurance rates?" "No. They only care about BMI." You know what it's like? It's about crafting a Mii, standing on that goddamn passive-aggressive scale thing and have it balloon your character out to parade float proportions, complete with shame-faced shaking head and sad trombone.I cant even fathom what the problem is like.
What are you saying ? You and 80% of Americans have a special metabolism which make them only functional with 2500+ cal/ day? or BMI is a totally wrong measuring stick for Americans, but it work just fine for Japaneses? It seems you exercise way way too much to get there I have to be light-headed when I stand up all day every day.
You said you couldn't understand what the problem is like. I can only speak for myself, but for myself, the act of attempting to match society's expectations is arduous and humiliating. For the greater country at large, calories are cheap, nutrition is expensive, cortisol is abundant and exercise is a luxury. I used to be an exercise bulimic. Now I'm a commuter. When I'm not working I eat about 1300 calories a day. And I gain weight.
Oatmeal for breakfast, three pieces of lunchmeat and a celery stalk in a low-carb wrap for lunch, and a Blue Apron at around 500 calories for dinner. Last quarter sucked because I didn't have time to exercise. This quarter will be better because I'll have three afternoons off a week. I run basically so that I can have seconds. Or a snack. It basically takes me about two miles of running a day to fit in 2000 calories.
That's impressive - I reckon if I ate that I'd cease to exist. Or at the very least be extremely unpleasant to be around. Free-time rears it's head as a differing factor, I manage 6 evenings in the gym in sport off-season. If I get round to building a house/having a family I wonder how badly my body would cope with simply not having the time to get training done. Priorities shift and belly expands. Well that's a depressing link - although I'll take some hope from my low resting heart rate and try and tell myself it's working in my favour!
My maintenance is 1400. I’m 5’3. Sucks to be a short female. To lose it is like 1200. I have a lottttt of “natural” energy. I walk a lot, basically. So I usually get to eat more than 1200 kcal/day. FWIW, according to Fitbit (which maybe I live or die by) I average around 20k steps/day. That would be double what is recommended by the AHA for the average american in order to maintain weight.
1200! Do you just get to look at an apple for an afternoon snack? 20k steps in intense though, I recall having a challenge like that at my old work place; we formed teams and tried to get everyone to do 10k steps a day, but we're all desk bound so it was quite an undertaking. I walk to and from work (inner city living in a place that barely counts as a city is great) and coupled with all the sports and training, seems to keep me battling to get enough food in. I guess it's a good problem to have.
You know that doctor in the article who said he had an egg for breakfast? I was like yeah me too Seriously, I've been mealplanning. Here's what an average day looks like: Breakfast: 2-5 days a week, skip breakfast. Most of the rest of those days a week, 1 hardboiled egg with salt around 10 am. 1 of those days a week, an egg sandwich with bacon and cheese and sriracha (480 kcal) Lunch: 4-5 days a week, a mealprepped standard usually consisting of 12oz of a vegetable/lentil soup and 8 oz of a protein/veg mix. ranges between 490-650 kcal. dinner: a variation on the above. snacks: hardboiled egg or protein stick. also remembered that sugar free jello is 10 kcal a pack yay lol . or frozen vegetable packets hit minimum 12,500 steps a day, a 12-25 minute yoga session (at home) 3ish times a week, at least one set of 10 push-ups 4x a week, and that is my general daily. on weekends i like to max my steps bc i do step competitions on fitbit. that's how i average 20k a week when m-f i usually hit 1500 lately i keep my drinking to 3x a week, if i drink i try to take the calories out of meals. i allow myself a cheat day a week but it's usually a weekend day during which i also hit 25-34k steps. etc etc etc i have a beautiful mfp streak
Nice! Thanks for writing it out. Mine is quite.. straightforward - I guess that's a perk of not being too bothered by eating the same stuff over and over. Breakfast: Banana on toast, vegemite on toast or baked beans on toast. Depends on my mood that morning. Morning Tea: Two protein bars and a biscuit Lunch: Sandwich with any variation of ham/lettuce/bacon/tomato/cheese along with some nuts or crackers to snack on. Afternoon Tea: Banana and some mandarins Dinner: The big one, usually some kind of meat with sauce (beef or chicken), a head of brocolli, spinach, mixed veg on rice or potatoes. if I'm doing a vegetarian dish this changes quite a bit and I'm doing that more and more often, but the staple is always a big, big dinner. Protein Shake to see out the night. I walk about 3km a day at least, just getting to and from work. Then the gym training 6x a week for about 90 minute sessions. In Rugby season those sessions get cut down, with trainings twice a week with a Saturday match, in Touch Rugby season two games a week so on day gets dedicated to that - last thing I want is maxing on deadlifts only to be rapidly accelerating an hour after. Unfortunately I've developed a taste for craft beer. It may be my undoing.
I don't mind eating the same thing every day...but I really enjoy cooking. My compromise is to take one day a week and cook a bunch of things, so I get my cooking fix, and then eat it through the week to do the right cal/macro balance (or at least try!). :) If I didn't enjoy cooking so much, I would aim for the classic chicken and broccoli...but the truth is, my cheat day and the day I drink the most is the day I get to go grocery shopping and start cooking with a glass of wine and go for like 4 hours doing different things. Alcohol for a long time has been my undoing, which is why I limit myself so consciously now. When I drink, I also try to minimize the calories -- but I definitely have been expanding my appreciation for beer (had a great dark ale tonight, an almost-stout, brewed with coffee and pb which just tasted like coldbrew) -- so now each beer is more precious!
Can we get #Grubski up in here? Is there a go-to veg/lentil soup recipe you use?
I like to switch it up because I cook different things. My go-to food recipe website is budgetbytes because hey, cooking that is also budget conscious? How could you say no? Here is the soup I had this past week; morrocan veg and lentil. my opinion: it was ok. i like cauliflower so i liked that add in. however, could use more spice. (I am a CHRONIC hot sauce consumer. My current belief is anything another person would look at and go "hey that'd probably be good with some cheese in it," is something that I would think "hey that'd be great with some hot sauce in it." it is an enjoyable theory.) this is the one i've made the most, chunky vegetable and lentil i have also made this mexican lentil stew -DONT forget the lime it really makes it! I do find lentils don't really have a lot of flavor so here is a bonus cabbage and veg soup recipe which I also really enjoy. As you go on the site, I encourage you to check out the Zuppa Toscana recipe; I've made that easily half a dozen times and man. That is one soup that doesn't even need hot sauce. I love it. I plan on trying the golden coconut lentil soup recipe this weekend.
Can we get #Grubski up in here? Is there a go-to veg/lentil soup recipe you use?