Losing weight

[niknak]

Just had the annual poke and prod for the Class One Medical, and to cut a long story short, a significant reduction in the B.M.I (Body Mass Index - not the airline), is required.

Now I have a great fondness for good food and fine ales, and this combined with a significant lack of will power, does not help my cause.
Yes, I know the consequences of failure to act, and I've had the lectures that go with it, what I'd really appreciate is if anyone has any dieting tips/routines that really worked, along with any exercise regimes that made a significant difference.

Thanks in advance.

Hello niknac..Have a look at this earlier thread also. http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94324

cheers H

[Fujiflyer]

Hi Niknak

I spent the last year or so "descending" from a great fat 105kg to my present 75-80kg. I also love good food and fine ales!

I think the best advice really is just to bite the bullet and do it. The way I see it is that quite simply there is a price to pay for what you want to achieve - in this case it means sacrificing some "nice things" (so that you lose the weight you want to lose).

For me the best thing was to be very strict during the working week, the weekends then being a bit more relaxed,

Fujiflyer

[U2]

Due to the lack of responses from my topic "Body for Life." Im assuming that a lot of pilots don't know much about nutrition or excercise, or in your case will power. I am a week into my body-for-life 12 week plan. The plan is not difficult to stick too. You get 1 day off a week where your can binge if you want. The best part about the pogram is that the entire thing is planned for your. There is no grey matter. Most plans focus on excercise or diet, but this plan focuses on the big picture. Just after a week I feel better than I used too and am already shedding the "bush flying" from my bell. I.E coke, pies, beer, homebrew, bush tucker, cakes, ice creams, coffee, soft drink, candy bars etc.

Get the book if you are interested. The book itself is extremely inspireing reading by itself.

Body for life by bill phillips


Good luck

U2

------------------------------------
"It is not until you perceive failure, that you can reach new heights.
Perception is your limitation. Let inspiration and cunning be your
Liberation."
Courtesy of U2
U2
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[Granny]

U2
With the Body for Life diet is it nessecary to vist the gym everyday or how often?

[half-full]

i went from 185lbs to 160lbs in six weeks. did nothing special. i just ran anywhere from 5 to 10kms at least 4x a week, at good speed. this means achieving a target heart rate of above 168/minute (220-age=max heart rate). in other words, run until you ALMOST drop. no dieting required.

[gingernut]

Niknak, sorry to be brutal, but

crap food + inactivity = fat knacker

(or fat niknak).

Good dieting tip, learn the phrase "No thanks, I'm full."

Sorry I can't be more useful, but change one or both of the variables to the left of the = to influence the variable to the right !

(I love this website, shame I havn't got the bottle to speak to my patients like this!)

[U2]

The program is to excercise 6 times per week and eat six meals a day. The seventh day is couch potato binge day. Literally. The key to the program is to build a better body,not by constant excercise and dieting, but to rebuild your body with intense (INTENSE) GYM work and to eat alot of correct food.

Running for 2 hours at a time and eating salad all day is not the basis of the program. In fact I excercise less now than I did before I started. I also eat more often. The catch is; it is highly organised and requires discipline and motivation. Being a professional pilot you shouldn't have any problems sourcing those characteristics. The eating philosophy is completely opposite to the traditional womens magazine diets.


I am now nearing the end of my second week. I have already lost about 1 to 1.5 kilos and look forward to each workout. In fact I wish I could workout more often, but it would give me negative results.

U2

[JALD10]

Hi nicknack,
Recently I decided to get rid of the ol' beer gut. My problem is I am always on the road and finding a gym or taking a run without getting run over in Japan is quite tough. My good friend turned me on to a program called power 90. When he first told me about it I thought it sounded cheezy or like some info-mercial. I trusted him and bought the program which consists of a 4 level cardio/strengthening program on DVD and some power bands to use instead of weights. The beauty of it is, is that you take it with you on the road. All that you need is your laptop and 45 min. and you are off. I have been on the program for 60 days now and I have already lost the 17lbs. I wanted to lose and I still am doing the program for the good feeling and exercise benefites. I watch what I eat but I am not on a diet. I just cut out butter, creams, sweets, and fried foods. I still drink my beer and did through out my program. I just drank the light beer. Hope this helps amd good luck.

PS. Don't eat until you are full, but instead eat until you aren't hungry and then eat often.

Cheers:ok:

[Flyin'Dutch']

This being the year 2003 I realised that there were 2 biggies on the agenda this summer.

1. I was going to hit the big 40 and............

2. This would mean my next medical was due, with ECG and all the trimmings.

So in January I realised that a BMI of 35.5 was not going to be conducive to a long life full of flying, enjoying my pension fund and see my 5 kids grow up.

My dad has been an avid Atkins follower for 25 or so years but I always resisted going onto the diet as it so completely goes against the grain of all the accepted theories on food and exercise. These were further reinforced by that misspend part of my youth aka my medical training.

However with an ever increasing girth and reducing exercise span I decided to bite the bullet. I did not read the Atkins book but just bought the ketostix and cut out all carbohydrates from my diet.

The results have been astonishing. I am fitter now, am less moody, sleep better, feel less tired, lost 4 inches of my waist and have lost 20kg (just over 3 stone) in 5 months.

But what was truly remarkable of the entire exercise was that I have not had any problem sticking to it. With the absence of hunger I had no problem avoiding the usual pitfalls.

Previous attempts have been the usual lettuce and tomato diets, Slimfast and Weight Watchers. For me they were all short lived attempts (as in max 2 months), as a food junk I just can not cope with feeling hungry.

So you can understand why I am a bit of a convert.

I have 15 more kilos to go and think I will get to that by the end of the year.

FD

[Spartacan]

A few years ago I decided to tackle the issue and joined weightwatchers.

I lost 33 lbs in 40 weeks and have kept the weight off.

The beauty of the plan ithat you do not have to cut out any food you particularly like - you merely adjust the portions. Also, it is all very logical. Just make sure you stick to the points and it will work.

The weight came off gradually and, by the time I was at goal weight, I had developed new tastes in food which I have kept. This is important as you do not want to lose the weight and go back to old habits.


It really is worth the effort. There is now way I would ever go back to being overweight. It feels like I have gained years of my life back.

[slim_slag]

Dutch,

Did you really cut out all carbs? How do you use the ketostix, to keep you in ketosis, or out of ketosis? Is an extended period of ketosis good for you?

Sure sounds like it works for you!

Have you heard of the 'Zone'? It's not too big over in the UK, all the UK bookshelves seem to be full of discounted Atkins books. The Zone is sort of like Atkins, in that it sticks a finger up at conventional wisdom (love it) and is based upon facts (strange concept). The Zone is not a high protein/low carb diet and seems to take Atkins a few leaps further.

Zone theory is that we are fat because our insulin levels are thrown all over the place by our modern diet, especially the USDA food pyramid kind of diet with pasta and bread at the bottom. If you control insulin levels, you control your general health. Maintain insulin levels in 'the Zone' and you become healthy. If you become healthy and are overweight, you automatically lose weight. A 'Zone Meal' just looks incredibly healthy, an Atkins meal does not.

ISBN 0-06-039150-2 is also an interesting read. I haven't tried it myself, but have seen several who have, and I am amazed by their increased levels of energy. They also lose a lot of weight.

I see on the news that people are being advised to come off the Atkins diet during the current heat wave in the UK. What's all that about then?

Glad to hear you think your youth was also misspent, but it sure was fun. Those carefree student days..................

[Evo]

Zone theory is that we are fat because our insulin levels are thrown all over the place by our modern diet, especially the USDA food pyramid kind of diet with pasta and bread at the bottom. If you control insulin levels, you control your general health. Maintain insulin levels in 'the Zone' and you become healthy. If you become healthy and are overweight, you automatically lose weight. A 'Zone Meal' just looks incredibly healthy, an Atkins meal does not.


I'm not trying to knock these 'unconventional' diets - I don't know enough to - but aren't they at odds with what I've always believed to be an well-documented increase in health problems in places that have switch from their traditional low fat/high carbohydrate diets to a 'western' higher-fat diet (e.g. the mediterranean and I believe Japan) over the past half-century?

[Flyin'Dutch']

Slim Slag,

Initially yes pretty much so, but now just maintain a mild ketosis. I still dipstick the ketostix on a regular basis just to make sure.

I think there is no evidence (at least not that I am aware off) which suggests that ketosis is unhealthy. Of course a lot of people associate ketosis with the diabetic version which is something completely different and dangerous.

I think that the zone diet which you refer to may well be 'better' as I think that some real Atikins die-hards go overboard in advocating too much protein and fat. I just make sure that my diet is still varied and have not increased the intake of fat and protein, just cut out the carbs.

I recognise a bon vivant when you say:

Those carefree student days..................

Enjoy!

FD

[strafer]

NikNak - you know the answer to your original question - there is nothing else apart from burning more calories than you consume. And it takes willpower to make that happen.

Atkins-Smatkins.

(On a more positive note - the idea of going to the Gym or jogging personally fills me with dread, but playing football I enjoy. I'm now back playing 5-a-side twice a week and can eat & drink pretty much what I want. If your favourite sport is darts though, that's not much help).

[gingernut]

You've gotta be fit to play darts !

[slim_slag]

FD,

I'd say extended periods of ketosis is abnormal, so the burden is on Atkins to prove it's safe.

These diets are all competing for your hard earned dollar, I only wish I'd thought of them myself. Quackwatch is always a great read, and they have an article on low carb diets (http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/lcd.html). But then the article appears to ignore the findings of

Kekwick A, Pawan GLS. Calorie intake in relation to body-weight changes in the obese. Lancet 1956; ii: 155-160.

so it might be considered quackery itself.

Just remember, for balance, to have a slice of cheese with your wine when out bon-vivanting.

[Flyin'Dutch']

Hi Slim-Slag

Atkins did not make a penny out of me!

The book came from my Dad and the only thing I did was propping up the Bayer stockmarket value by purchasing their ketostix x4 @ £2-45 a pot (50 sticks)

Compare that to WW. Lost a lot of pounds for the first year. Unfortunately the only pounds that I lost were the ones that live in your wallet!
:O

Different things work for different people. I like the Atkins diet. There was recently a diet trial program on the Beeb. They followed 200 or so volunteers for 6 months, randomised over 4 diets.

Atkins did very well taking 2nd 3rd and 4th place (IIRC) with Rosemary Connelly's diet winning.

Would have gone for that myself, but thought that the leotard would be off putting :O

FD

PS: Miss the ability to enjoy the better reds at the moment but have to say that I did manage to adapt by increasing the amount of champers consumed. I know it is a dread.

[Semaphore Sam]

Here's one more pro-Atkins opinion.

August '02 went for FAA physical + extra blood tests; cholesterol very high (293), Blood Pressure 135/93 minimum, BP had been maxed out for last 3-4 years. I've tried to lose weight, running 3-4 miles/day and avoiding fats, eating only salads and odd desert (including potatoes, rice, etc) and stayed 210-220 lbs...couldn't lose weight. Went to other pilot friends with frustration, and was recommended Atkins book 'The New Diet Revolution'. It sounded reasonable, I tried it, BP no longer a problem (tonight 105/77), cholesterol still high at 239, but much lower, but triglycerides down 1/3 to 53.6 (well within limits), LDL (bad cholesterol) went from 226 a year ago to 157 now (still hi, but going down), VLDL from 16 to 11, and HDL (good cholesterol) from 51.4 to 70.9. Weight now at 163. Unhealthy? For the wallet, yes. I've gone from waist size 42 to 35; had to buy new pants...otherwise, there's no downside. You don't have to do it; buy one of those discounted books and see why it's so popular. Sam