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At least 64 oz (or 2 litres), preferably more.
SnuzyQ, Thanks for the kind words. I should note that I'm a 57 year young man (I always told my kids that growing up was overrated) and 5'7".
This journey we're on is a long grind and full of up's and downs. I've set some pretty ambitious goals for myself this year and when talking it over with our trainer I asked her if she thought it was possible. She said she thought so but that the important thing was going to be to "trust the process" and ignore the number on the scale. I know people who obsessively watch the stock market every hour to see how they are doing, and I used to weigh myself every day I was in the gym, but it's not about the daily number it's about the trend. I now weigh myself once per week as well as meet with our dietician once per month, our LPN every other month, and our trainer about every 5 weeks or so, depending on how long it takes me to complete a "card". This week she put me on a really aggressive and much more demanding strength program so I'm really anxious to get that going full bore. I also set some aggressive fitness goals for myself, doing a 5k in less that 65 minutes, and riding a bike on one of our County Trails to a neighboring town (40 miles round trip). The last one will be fun because I haven't been on a bike in nearly 30 years, but I do plan on buying one this spring.
I was up 5 pounds over the Holidays, back spasms prevented me from exercising and I thought I'd reward myself for my hard work for the year by taking a week off. I didn't do anything dumb or consume 3000 calories in a day, but I did want to enjoy myself for just a bit. I've lost all but 1 of those pounds since then and am back in the gym 6 days per week. It's hard work but I really am enjoying the process and I truly do love going to the gym.
I wish you nothing but success in 2019 and let's make it a year to remember for all of us.
How much water should I drink per day to be healthy?
Wow...and congratulations on losing 80 pounds in a little over a year! That's great work. I'm also losing weight using your technique, have looked at the general BMR calculations offered off the internet and find this is good enough for me...I don't want to spend the extra money to get precisely tested and measured. It seems unnecessary. My tape measure is quite precise and it's fun to watch the inches fall away.
I wish so much that the 500 calories below BMR would give me a pound lost, but the actual number is 3,500 calories, which equals 1 pound. However, if you chose to eat 500 calories per day less than your BMR, this really adds up fast, especially at first when your weight is at your highest value.
Most women, at any age, find that they will lose weight if they keep their calories under 1500 daily. However, some who are older (over 65) and shorter (5'5" or less) may have to go a little lighter on the calories to be effective at weight loss.
At age 66, 5'7", 255 lbs. at my heaviest, and only moderately active, I chose 1,450 calories as my daily cap. Sometimes I chart in a little under that each day, but it's always close...not very precise because, well, you just don't have to be. I do find that by recording everything that goes into my mouth, I stay under the daily calorie cap. By going at weight steady and slow, I'm tricking my body into non-fasting status. A fasting or severely calorie-reduced diet causes the BMR to slow. This is the body's way of surviving famine. A reduced BMR is not what I want.
So...come back...I need your support. I'm unable to get weight-loss surgery, which is what I originally wanted and aimed for. This is my last hope to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Keep up your good work. Life will be so much better on the other side when we achieve our weight loss goals.
Congratulations on finding a path that works for your family. When we lived in Alaska we used a CSA, it allowed us to get fresh local produce once a week. It comes straight from the farm so you should see some savings, and of course you can't beat it for freshness. There is a website Local Harvest, where you should be able to look up farms using your zip code.
Wishing you happy, healthy eating!
Amy B
Every 3500 calories burned per week over and above will result in one pound of FAT being burned, health issues aside. Have a great day.
Private,
The first thing you are going to have to get over is that there is nothing that could be called "reality" in the "Reality TV" genre, it simply does not exist. Second, any diet that includes meal skipping (or fasting. if you prefer) or meal replacement shakes, is also doomed to fail. Why? What happens when you achieve your weight goal and start eating three meals per day? I'm not an MD but I can answer that question. So what you have done is taken the information gathered by a "team" that believes fasting is THE way to lose weight and call all other non-fasting programs failures. Again, I don't have a PhD but even I can tell what's going on there. Just make sure you ante up.
I don't have anyone yelling at me to push harder, I do that myself. Just last week I was asked what my "secret" was, and I replied that there was no secret, it's just a matter of making the numbers work in my favor and that's what I do. Sure I have days where I blow it, just like everyone else, but then I get back on the horse and start over again. Each day, each hour, each minute that I use those numbers in my favor, get's me closer to my goal, and you and everyone else on this forum who says I won't do it, won't deter me. I wish you nothing but the best on your journey.
I have read up on this and 3 things I recall..none of it is attractive in any way, IMHO, and I will say so.
1. You CAN'T eat too much at once- no matter how starved you feel or how good the food smells, or tastes, or if you waited too long before you ate or how quickly you must get back to work, or a meeting with the boss, a crying baby, etc. rushed eating will be bad. I think a big bowl of popcorn is out of the question forever (my favorite snack), or chewing it to paste before swallowing. ugh.
2 you will forever be standing over a TOILET- maybe a dirty toilet in a gas station or airport toilet someday- or onto the ground if traveling by car on a rural road, and manually turning the dial and watching the (smelly?) masticated grey/pink mess pour into the toilet. a REMINDER of your decision to need a device to tie you to a toilet, or bucket, or paper cup in an emergency. Will you begin to hate your decision? Can you just stop, and not use the device, or must it be removed entirely. I bet you do.
3 you MUST stick to a 20-30 min empty routine post eating ..so planning eating around work meetings, baby needs, a picnic in July, christmas party at someone's house, and knowing WHERE a toilet is at the right time. the semi acid digested food needs to be removed on time,or you get all the calories into your intestines as usual? I don't know.
I think people saw it like the lap band, an easy solution, no major surgery, risk of long time under anesthesia (risky for high BMI patients) cost, but I am betting too much food, a birthday cake that is irresistible in TASTE will get people into great abdominal pain. Even a big vitamin pill may be out and you must pay for liquid ones, at $$ cost, for life.
OK I painted a dark picture, but over 4 years I have researched all WL methods, joined every FB support page on each, seen hundreds of youtube "my story" videos on various methods, especially ones with unexpected problems, to know the WORST I must consider as a possibility. because it COULD happen to me.
This article talks about you MUST chew slowly and thoroughly or BLOCKAGE can occur. think- popcorn. This may be the same as a lap-band distorting the stomach, causing strictures and fibrous lumps as the body grows around it to tolerate a foreign object. And problems removing it years later, with no other WLS option possible. (as lap banders say)
My last negative image is observing a world in which so MUCH food is available that obesity is the norm over the misery of starvation, and wealthy westerners so over fed on great and bad food require a $$ manual 'dumping' purge..like the Romans using a tickle feather, handed to them by a slave, to stick in their throat, in the official 'vomitorium'. And then go back and feast again. Will it come to that? Will anorexia fears and issues INCREASE, in obese people!?
THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC IS WORSENING, NEW REPORT SAYS
https://www.wxxv25.com/2018/12/20/the-obesity-epidemic-is-worsening-new-report-says/?fbclid=IwAR0jrrx-N4FI2Fj0YGj8dfzT9CCNBWL6dgWBdS2xYPXW-EBrV9DMHa-yW-o
The psychology of this decision is what bothers me. How do you see yourself, how do you manage others view/judgement of you (as they do when we are obese). This may be medically a life saver for someone, and totally worth it.
But I can visualize a woman being in the bathroom at work to dump on time, she is standing in front of the toilet, like a man, shoes pointed forward, the possible stench, and plopping liquid sounds co-workers may hear..their questioning face when you exit the stall. Will you have to tell what that was. Will they assume you are secret transgender? so many images on the reality of living with this device. Can it get INFECTED from accidentally touching a dirty toilet edge (how long is the tube for a tall person, a short person, or public sink, etc. when you tidy up. when do you wash the tube out? does it need to be sterilized often so you can reconnect it next time? I am certain I am missing a few daily tasks required.
https://www.highya.com/aspireassist-reviews
Every 500 calories that one ingests BELOW that BMR number represents one pound lost. ??
you mean 500 calories less a DAY over a WEEK, from your BMR is supposed to result in 1 pound loss? That is how it is normally expressed. is that was you mean?
Unfortunately we are not bunsen burners, take fat, add flame, see it burn. As Julia said, and I also experienced, that never takes into consideration age, disability, genetics, hormone levels, a lifetime of bad diets followed faithfully, until a new one was lauded as better, etc. You F* with your insulin enough times and it stops believing you, and results to what IT knows is best, keeps weight on you to protect from that next crazy famine thing you seem to get, so our WILL and belief that 500 calories or 1,000 less a day results 52 or 104 lbs lost a year...exactly, if one is perfect.
95-99% failure rate can only indicate the method we 'believe' is wrong.
As Erma Bombeck, the 1960s comedian sad "
"In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet."
Because by THAT 500 calorie less logic the body would ALLOW us to KEEP doing that, until we disappear, or die.
I am always glad to offer the link to the study I refer to, otherwise I force the person to search by random guessing of key words. with millions of studies on pubmed.gov alone it can be impossible. And thousands of medical and weight loss studies and reports and nutrition are in magazines, and online.
Many people are genuinely wanting information to help them, It is respect for the OP that causes someone, like me, to ask instead of being stuck with fruitless searching. I always search on my own quickly because "google' is my friend, after all, an I enjoy turning up links to other studies of interest but then I ask when that fails.
For instance, the ridiculous TV 'shaming' FAD diet that forced people to puke, and cry, and humble themselves on Biggest Loser has been studied. 6 years later ALL but one has regained all their weight. and more. This people had intense supervision, support, encouragement, free gym equipment, were given awards like trips to Hawaii...so how did they all regain 100 pounds? With the world and their family and entire town knowing their success, and rooting for them? was that not enough to keep them going? not even!
I highly recommend reading this excellent, fact finding study of why they were DOOMED. And it is not laziness, or lack of willpower (some kept at 2-3 hrs of exercise a day)
https://idmprogram.com/the-biggest-loser-diet-fasting22/
