Weight-Lifting
My surgery was on the 9th of Nov. last year and up until the last 3 weeks; I have lost 3 lbs a week minimum. I am down 154# now and have stayed more or less between 218 and a low this morning of 214.5. I have been at the gym 3 times a week lifting weights for a solid half hour, circuit training as has been mentioned. At the end of the half hour, I am indeed huffing and puffing as I have managed to set up my routine so that I have NO rest between sets. I just work different muscle groups to let one group get the rest between the sets. I can say that I feel better and have more energy but the scale has not moved much at all. I can say that I am into a 36 pant for the first time since I can remember and that is a good thing!
If I let myself go, I can eat cookies, cakes, pies and a little ice-cream. Not in large amounts though as I will defiantly dump.
I still try to take 10 minutes between bites and am successful the vast majority of the time. I do also with the 30 minutes between drinking and eating. I can go through 6 to 8 SF popsicles in a day but my daily calorie intake is still in the 1000 to 1300 range. I try to get a balance of 40% protein and 30% each of carbs and fats. I use the Fit day program I bought from them and it really helps keep track of what goes into the old body.
I find that if I do have something sweet, the after taste in my mouth keeps urging me to eat more sweets so I will rinse out my mouth to get rid of the after taste 
to reduce the urges to eat more. I also really try to listen to my stomach. Right now for example, my mouth is screaming for more to eat but the stomach says you better not cuz I am full! I have to tell myself that I can always eat more later after things settle down and I am no longer full.
When I get head hunger the worst is when I am sitting on the computer or watching TV. If it gets bad enough, I need to get up and do something to distract myself such as working in the shop or lately, re-doing the kitchen. This is a good thing as I get more done around the house, eat less and burn calories in the process. If I can distract myself for about 5 minutes, the head hunger will go away and I am happy. I can also abate the hunger if I drink some Chrystal light that will plump things up a bit and reduce any hunger or even give the full feeling.
It seems that several of us are at the same place. Hang in there guys, if we eat less than we burn each day, WE HAVE TO LOOSE WEIGHT!!
Joe, I have also had a slight bump in weight, I gained 4# overnight!
and it took several days to drop those # even though I didn't change a thing with my eating! As DX said, in his novel, when the musles store energy, it takes something like 4X the water to keep the energy there thus a 1# gain of stored energy equals a 5# net gain!
Hammering away the pounds!
Hi Jim,
I think what you need to do is not only add in weights, but a variety of exercise. The reason is, your body actually adapts to a repeated type of exercise by burning fewer and fewer calories and such adaptation may be even more likely to occur with aerobic activity. Read this for example :
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin4.htm
So, add in weights a couple of times a week, then some bike intervals where you get your heart rate up pretty high. 20-30 minutes of this, actually burns as many calories as 1.5-2 hours of jogging.
Losing weight is a tricky one, but I think we're fortunate just to be not gaining weight. You may need a few months of super low calorie combined with a lot of exercise from all three groups above, with long, slow exercise being the least necessary/ least helpful.
Hope this Helps,
Dave
Not sure if this is your thing, but another LA Times article:
http://www.championshipsoccerspeed.com/LA_Times_covers_Sprin t8.htm
Dave
on 8/9/07 1:08 am - Houston, TX
