Labels: diet

Keep it up! The not cheating is the hard part. This last week has been brutal on me since it was my B-Day and I had cake almost every day. Still, I've lost 14lbs total. It's coming off slowly, but surely. 16 more to go.

By  Stan, at 8/28/2007 8:41 AM  

John,
Way to go. Just stick with it and you will keep losing. Be careful of the beer, that is what puts the weight on. When we get to see you next summer we will not know who you are. keep up the good work.
Grandmom

By  Anonymous, at 8/28/2007 6:06 PM  

Well done Holz.

In your body, there's a substance called Glycogen. Everybody has it, like fat. Fat people have more of it though.

Glycogen can hold up to *5* times its own weight in water. It is like a sponge. It soaks water up. So most programs like the one you are on, will tell you that in the first week, you will see a lot of loss. But it's mostly water. (And glycogen.)

Now, the glycogen stores in your body are depleted (and the 5 times amount of water is gone) the real serious part happens... Getting rid of the fat.

This will happen at a much slower rate. To give you an idea how slow... Let's say a normal male requires 2600 calories a day. (It's closer to 2500, I think but this makes the math easier.) The program you're on provides 1300 a day. That's a 1300 calorie deficit.

7 days a week, gives that 9100 calories. Now, a pound of fat is 3,500 calories. So in 1 week, a 2600 calorie spending guy, will lose 2 - 3 lbs of fat in a week, minimum.

You can try to increase this by excercise. But go lightly at first. Remember that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body burns even if not excercising.

Also, I don't know the details of the nutrition of the program you are on, but if it's high protein, low carb, then you will probably go into a state of ketosis. In which case, you won't be burning all the fat cells, you will actually lose a lot through urine etc... So your weight loss will be a little higher because of that.

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In a nutshell, when Weeks 2 and 3 are not as amazing as Week 1, please do not get discouraged.

Good luck!

By  Anonymous, at 8/29/2007 1:24 AM  

Thanks for the kind words... and Grandma, Kris cracked up at you "be careful of the beer" line with a "But you hardly ever drink!"

I wish I could blame my weight gain an a simple beer belly... no, I have a feeling it was the constant visits to Wendy's & Jack in the Box.

An MC, thanks for the glycogen info. Yeah, I think the biggest thing I've learned so far has been the calorie information. I'm wary to hazard an hard figure, but I imagine I was averaging between 3500 and 4000 calories a day before, with little to no exercise, so it's no surprise I was ballooning up. The fact that I can now average under 1500 can do nothing but help me overall.

I'm determined not to get discouraged, mainly because as a numbers guy, seeing the stark difference in caloric intake I *was* getting compared to now, it must be healthier.

The biggest surprise of the meals is the fact the stuff they provide actually isn't very nutrional. There's high amount sof fat, but it's al about portions, which since I haven't been starving, has been a pleasant surprise.

I'll try and keep everyone appraised on a Monday Morning basis...

Now if only I can catch up on my summer movie reviews and Potter 7 thoughts...

By  Holz, at 8/29/2007 9:20 AM  

Good job, keep it up
_chris

By  Anonymous, at 8/30/2007 9:23 AM  

Nothing like a good start to motivate you! Good job! Keep up the positive attitude!

By  Amber, at 8/30/2007 9:42 AM  

Ok....where's the week 2 update??

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By  Anonymous, at 9/04/2007 12:17 PM  

Huge blog entry coming later today... but I can say I beat my target in my second week :-)

By  Holz, at 9/04/2007 12:20 PM  

Nice!

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By  Anonymous, at 9/04/2007 1:12 PM  

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