# I want to make some changes.



## Faine (May 5, 2012)

It's 2:20 am and I'm just sitting here thinking... I gained weight. I was on the facebook and I happened to cross this guy I went to school with and I noticed he lost weight. He was always chubby and there he was, all thin. I thought " wow, good for him " then It hit me. I let myself go and I gained weight. 

I'm 5'8ish 23 years old. My ideal weight/ best weight where i was happy with the way I looked was around 145. I was thin, toned and was happy with myself. I am now 177-180 depends on the day and i'm not happy with my body at all. Now I know i'm not FAT or OBESE or anything... I'm just a little chubby, i'm not used to it and I'm very self conscious of my body and stuff because I was picked on a lot growing up. ( was chubby ) and I finally did something about it when i was getting into highschool. I dont want to even go out with just a t-shirt on cuz you can see my gut and everything. and my face got a little fat. Again, i'm self conscious. I just look in the mirror and i'm embarrassed and I feel bad for myself. 



I really didnt give a shit about my eating habits until now... i used to eat pizza a lot ( worked at a pizza restaurant ) , i go out to eat with the gf ( she can eat all day and not even gain an ounce so i'm always eating whatever she eats like dominos, pizza hut mcdonalds ), soda, monster energy drinks, cape cod potato chips. etc... I want to change all that. 


I have a busy schedule and I dont have time to go to the gym, besides the gym isnt for me anyway. I lost 40 pounds before by just eating tuna sandwiches, turkey, salads, drinking lots of water, and walking at least 2 miles everyday. ( that was then )


now im sitting here, with a medium t-shirt on that used to be baggy is now air tight and i'm not happy. Summers coming quick and my girlfriend is all excited and wants to do this and that and beaches and pools and UGH.

what do? What should I eat? what can I do to lose weight besides the gym? walking? running? just eating right? Please help, I need to make a change. I cant take this anymore. haha


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## Greatoliver (May 5, 2012)

Take a look here: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lifestyle-health-fitness-food/192349-started-gym-today.html

This should give you some advice


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## GXPO (May 5, 2012)

Hey, I was in the same sort of funk myself once upon a time. I had gained weight to the tune of 14st 12lb's. 205 - 210lbs depending.. and saw a guy from school who used to be a bit big, always a nice guy but a large guy. He'd lost all the weight and was picking up girtls in a pool hall (who picks up girls in a pool hall? He could).

I realised that I had indeed gained some weight. I was a little loose around the middle. I went into serious research mode and learnt so much about nutrition that I became obsessed. I knew that I needed to make a huge change, I had realised that your diet is 90% of losing weight, that you can't diet effectively without making small life changes and that you have to be willing to commit to changing the right way. 

I had a friend who started doing atkins at the same time. He lost around 50 lb's and put 70 back on. I joined a (hfff..) slimming group with a bunch of 40 year old women who cried a lot. It was a mix of extremely funny and deeply sad  but I followed what they ask me to do and lost 40 lb's. My confidence came back and I slept with every woman who ever turned me down in the 3 years previous (bad call by the way, not normally my style). The major difference though was the confidence losing weight gave me. 

I met a wonderful girl who I now spend most of my waking life with, love her to pieces and can't wait to spend the rest of my life not being married chasing women with her (I KNOW RIGHT ). I gained the weight again, it's all back, every bit, exactly the same. But I love my life. I love my confidence and I'm not as worried about weight, I'm gonna lose it, but I'm in no rush. 

Long story short. the weight matters in terms of health, it's important for you, your confidence and well being. But is it the problem? If you make some positive healthy changes in your life no matter what they are, you will feel better. getting out a bit more, eating more fruit and veg, practicing guitar for a few more hours a week.

Make some changes, seriously. Worry about your weight and this other guy afterwards. You'll feel better. Good luck on your journey bro


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## Bevo (May 5, 2012)

You answered your own question, you lost the weight with what you ate and the walking.
At your age your in the prime of your life and as you get older it will be harder and harder to lose weight let alone stay at a decent weight.

I read somewhere that people that are overwieght in the 20's stay overweight for the rest of the life.

There are some shortcuts but they will take mental strength but it does not have to cost anything. Commit to eating better and excersizing every day and if you miss a day of excersize beat yourself up and do twice the next day.

Eating is a no brainer, fruits, veggies, no deep fried and portion control, eat till your good not stuffed and need a nap. What you eat matters but you don't need a diet, just eat good.
Excersize, fast walking is good, running is good yet hard but aim for some sort of cardio every day for minimum 20 min.
A better option is bodyrocktv.com they use a 12 min workout which is fast paced and really fire up your metabolism. It looks like its for girls but its not, I do it 3-4 times a week and realy helped my core for running. What I did was pick some excersizes I like and just do those, I watch the video for the girls 

Put your mind to it and work hard, you will be fine!


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## troyguitar (May 5, 2012)

IMO exercise is the harder path for weight loss. Just eat less instead. It costs no time or money, in fact it saves you a little of both as you'll spend less time and money eating. I lost about 20 lbs in a couple of months by eating 1200-1300 calories a day and doing ZERO exercise. I recently started exercising anyway because I want to get into shape again and not just be skinny, but it has been a lot harder. I'm losing less weight, am more hungry due to burning more calories, more tired from all of the running, and have less time because of the half an hour every day spent on running...


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## Faine (May 6, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Unfortunately, I didn't get off to a good start today... It was my dads bday cookout so I ended up having Grilled chicken and steak, a few cokes then b-day cake. It was icebox cake so there was pudding and gram crackers so it wasnt THAT bad.

For lunch I had a tuna sandwich 

Nothing for breakfast. Fail


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## Fiction (May 6, 2012)

^ Nothing wrong with a slip-up, at least it was for your dads birthday and not just sitting at home yourself chowing down on maccas 

Tomorrow get up early, throw on some joggers and go for a run, and once you get back you should be aching for a good meal. Good thing about morning runs are you feel like you have a whole day ahead of you instead of breaking your day in half with a run in the afternoon.

I've been waking up around ~7, have a coffee or a glass of water and around 7:20 I stretch up and walk til 7:30 and then run, I'm back, cooled down and showered by 8.30 or 9 ready to have a large breakfast.. I've been having Weet-bix with several fruits lately which can hold me off easy until lunch.

If you have work (I do night work or start at 11 so I get a bit of a sleep-in) you can try get up earlier, or go for an afternoon run. I prefer in the morning so once I finish I'm ready for breakfast. Only been doing this for 3 weeks now, but I haven't broken routine and I'm really really happy with progress, my acne has cleared up, I feel fitter, noticed quite a difference in running speed/distance.

I've cut out fatty food, we all know whats bad and what's not.. just stick to those good things and water is your best friend.

Good luck, man.


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## Bevo (May 6, 2012)

Don't stress over your bad day but think about what you did. The BBQ meat was fine just have it with salad, the cake was fine just have a smaller piece, the soda was not..ditch it and have water.
You don't need to starve and live in a box, do your normal life stuff but always think about what you eat before you eat it.

What about the excersize mister???

I do the same as Fiction and 3 times a week I am out the door running before 5am. Its crazy at first but it clears up my day, its quiet, its peacful and I am normaly getting a better run than in the afternoon when I am tired.

Think one day at a time, when you get into bed rate it at 1-10 and try to have more 10's than 1's.
The BBQ day was a 4 for you, if you walked or something for 30 min it would of been a 6 so not too bad.


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## Uncreative123 (May 6, 2012)

Bevo said:


> I read somewhere that people that are overwieght in the 20's stay overweight for the rest of the life.




This is obviously true.


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## Faine (May 6, 2012)

Even worse... Today was my friends wedding/baptism extravaganza...
On the good side, there was a platter of veggies and dip... But I might've slipped a cupcake in there  lmao I suck


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## Overtone (May 6, 2012)

I was told by my doctor not to eat a list of foods for 90 days because he is checking for food intolerance. Out of those foods, I am pretty sure that cutting out potatoes, bread, rice and corn caused me to lose about 25 lbs over that time without even trying. If you can live with that or at least replace those foods with other foods every chance you get, that might work. 

ANyway, don't feel bad. YOu are at that age where you stop needing as many calories... you just have to get used to your new needs. Try eating till you are not hungry instead of eating to finish your meal (save the rest for later) or till you are stuffed.


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## Faine (May 6, 2012)

^ holy crap man, you were able to eat anything you wanted except those foods and lost 25 pounds in 90 days?


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## Bevo (May 6, 2012)

Those sound like simple carbs, all the white food..bread, pasta, patatoes, sugar. These spike your blood sugar then shortly after you come down needing another fix.

Complex or brown carbs release slower so no spike which makes your body energy stay regulated and even, no cravings.

Check some of the lists out for calorie content, you will be surprised!


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

So for the first time, I actually wrote down what I ate and added up the calories. What I came up with I was a little more than surprised... Heres what I came up with just with a simple tuna sandwich.


1 can of tuna- 296 calories 1/4 servings has 70.
1 table spoon of LITE mayo- 45 calories
1 table spoon of green hotdog relish ( try it in tuna! ) 15 calories
1 bun i had it on- 160 calories


= 516 CALORIES?! just for a tuna sandwich at lunch time. 

I mean, It's probably not all that bad. Considering I still have supper to go... I dont even know how many calories I should consume in one day can someone tell me?

I'm 5'8'' 23 year old male. Right now I weigh around 175 and I would like to weigh 145 again. I'm not that active, I'll probably go for walks here and there, I'll play with my dog, My job doesnt require much physical activity, I dont like go to the gym or jog or anything.


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## Tiger (May 7, 2012)

Im just going to start recommending people listen to Henry Rollins speak 24/7 when trying to loose weight, honestly.


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## UnderTheSign (May 7, 2012)

Look up some articles on calorie consumption. Or, y'know, read the sticky "Calorie intake + General nutrition FAQs" 

As for the tuna sandwich... Why not put it on a slice of wholegrain bread? Ditch the mayo and other sauces, just add some tomato, salt, herbs, whatever, to add taste. Small things like that might not seem to matter but if it happens with every meal, it'll make a difference.


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

UnderTheSign said:


> Look up some articles on calorie consumption. Or, y'know, read the sticky "Calorie intake + General nutrition FAQs"
> .



I did look at that, I couldnt figure it out though. -__-


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## troyguitar (May 7, 2012)

Faine said:


> I'm 5'8'' 23 year old male. Right now I weigh around 175 and I would like to weigh 145 again. I'm not that active, I'll probably go for walks here and there, I'll play with my dog, My job doesnt require much physical activity, I dont like go to the gym or jog or anything.



I'm 5'10 and 26, started out at 175 earlier this year and down to 157 so far with a goal of 140. I ate 1200-1300 calories per day with basically no activity before the past week. Now I'm trying to keep the calories the same while adding in running. If you're inactive like me, your body hardly needs any calories to get through the day.


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

^ thanks man


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## Bevo (May 7, 2012)

I am also 5,8 but run on average 60-80K a week and weigh around 155.
My bones are pretty thin and I think for me even at my best racing weight 140 is too low.

Calorie wise I pretty much never go over 2,000 calories unless I am doing huge runs and am eating all day.
I have been eating more veggies and protien and cutting back on the carbs a bit and have leaned out a bit.

Your on the right track, keep your eating and excersize in mind each day, it will come!


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## GhostsofAcid (May 7, 2012)

I've been trying to lose a bit of weight too. I'm your height and a few years younger. I am a broad shouldered guy, so an ideal weight for me is ~155 (how much I weighed when i had a manual labor job that had me working outside 8 hours a day). Anyway, over the past year i kind of let my weight get out of hand and went up to about 190 for a while. I decided to do something about it and about two months ago I started walking/jogging two miles a day and completely cut soda out of my diet (didn't really drink anything else, got this bad habit from my dad). Didn't make any other changes, but that alone was enough to make me lose about 20 pounds in that time. Good luck with your goals


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

^ cool man, what did you eat though?


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## GhostsofAcid (May 7, 2012)

Faine said:


> ^ cool man, what did you eat though?



Junk, that's what's weird about it 

I have really poor eating habits, most of my diet is ramen/frozen food type stuff on account of my being broke and a terrible cook. I was honestly surprised as the progress i made. Although i don't eat a lot, typically something small in the morning and not much else till supper. Honestly i'm the last person that should give anyone dietary advice, I think i'll probably drop dead at like 30 due to my diet 

Probably what helped is the 500 - 700 less calories per day from not drinking soda.


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

That is weird. Although still inspirational lol. So you pretty much kept the same diet but cut out soda and walked a lot? Maybe you have a fast metabolism


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## GhostsofAcid (May 7, 2012)

Faine said:


> That is weird. Although still inspirational lol. So you pretty much kept the same diet but cut out soda and walked a lot? Maybe you have a fat metabolism



Perhaps. I'm fairly young at 18, so that may be a factor as well. I don't pretend to know a lot about nutrition/weight loss, just thought i'd share my own experiences.


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## Faine (May 7, 2012)

Thanks man!


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## Faine (May 8, 2012)

I just got back from a walk. Despite shitty weather and it eventually started to rain and more cars driving on my road than normal made me pause at times... I still got a good walk out of it, and I even had to jog back! I would say I only walked a mile though... Better than nothin!


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## Faine (May 8, 2012)

What I'm eating now for dinner! Home made Thai food. rice noodles mushrooms red bell peppers chicken, egg, shrimp and other things like spice and soy sauce.. Healthy? The only thing I can think of is the soy sauce being bad. lots of sodium.


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## Faine (May 14, 2012)

I lost 4 pounds my first week already just eating right and cutting out soda!
I also walked about 3 miles too


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## Bevo (May 15, 2012)

There you go, keep at it your on the right track!!


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## Faine (Jul 22, 2012)

...Like always I lose motivation or interest... I haven't been keeping up with it and here I am again. It always seems like this happens. I try for about 2 weeks and I let a few foods slip here and there, then I just get used to it and forget I'm trying to lose weight. It's embarrassing but i'm not gonna lie, Lately I've been drinking Mt dew eating pizza chocolate animal crackers doritos and just not really thinking about what I'm eating. I also have the shittiest metabolism, sleep, and exercise habits. ( cuz i really don't exercise ) 
Anyway....I just went up stairs to brush my teeth before bed and I looked at myself in the mirror and It really hit me this time... It was almost unreal. I let myself go .... 
I used to weigh like 145 at 5'9" and I was fit. I had muscle tone and I was happy with the way I looked. Now i'm like 180 or probably even more and I'm just squishy and chubby everywhere. I can grab a whole handful of fat like all over my gut. Its disgusting and I hate it and I don't know why i let myself get this far. 
I probably stood in front of the mirror for a good 7 minutes and I'm incredibly upset with myself. I seriously need to change and lose weight, I don't want to look and feel this way anymore. It seriously sucks. Its almost scary, I feel like i'll keep gaining weight if I don't diet or exercise. 
I need motivation, and I need to keep it until I reach my goal.


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## Winspear (Jul 22, 2012)

This probably wont help but I never really understood the trouble of stopping things such as smoking or unhealthy eating. In my mind it's as simple as just not buying those things. I'd suggest writing yourself a shopping list and not straying from it. 
Myself being on a strict diet I know the handful of foods I eat, and every day after work I will go and pick up what is running out from the store. I wont buy anything else, so I don't really have the chance to eat unhealthily. If I wandered aimlessly around the supermarket like most people I see, I would probably buy random things too.
Keep at it bro, think about the money you will save too!


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## troyguitar (Jul 22, 2012)

I was up to 175 at the beginning of this year and am down to 146ish so far. It's fucking hard work and sucks but there's no other way around it. I just plain decided that my stomach will be flat by the end of this year, no matter the cost. It's all will power.


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## agengxsi (Jul 31, 2012)

keep it simple
eat less n move more...
eat the more and more protein


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## Faine (Jul 31, 2012)

Thanks for your input guys.


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## Leuchty (Jul 31, 2012)

Faine said:


> ...Like always I lose motivation or interest... I haven't been keeping up with it and here I am again. It always seems like this happens. I try for about 2 weeks and I let a few foods slip here and there, then I just get used to it and forget I'm trying to lose weight. It's embarrassing but i'm not gonna lie, Lately I've been drinking Mt dew eating pizza chocolate animal crackers doritos and just not really thinking about what I'm eating. I also have the shittiest metabolism, sleep, and exercise habits. ( cuz i really don't exercise )
> Anyway....I just went up stairs to brush my teeth before bed and I looked at myself in the mirror and It really hit me this time... It was almost unreal. I let myself go ....
> I used to weigh like 145 at 5'9" and I was fit. I had muscle tone and I was happy with the way I looked. Now i'm like 180 or probably even more and I'm just squishy and chubby everywhere. I can grab a whole handful of fat like all over my gut. Its disgusting and I hate it and I don't know why i let myself get this far.
> I probably stood in front of the mirror for a good 7 minutes and I'm incredibly upset with myself. I seriously need to change and lose weight, I don't want to look and feel this way anymore. It seriously sucks. Its almost scary, I feel like i'll keep gaining weight if I don't diet or exercise.
> I need motivation, and I need to keep it until I reach my goal.


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## Metal_Webb (Jul 31, 2012)

I was in the same place as you are at the start of the year. I'd always weighed around 80-ish kg (173 lb) (last time I really checked was the start of 2011). Not so much fat, as just larger framed, but I have always had a bit of a gut. Once I'd started my job a few years back I put on quite a few kg of muscle from lifting shit all day and walking about. Work is about all the exercise I do, I really don't have time for gyms or a dedicated exercise routine as such.
Anywho, I kinda deliberately let myself go at the end of last year. I was stressing out at uni, drinking about 2 cans of mother a day and soft drink all the time, eating fried and shitty food for lunch at least 5 days a week, etc etc.
I've always been a medium in shirts and the wakeup call came when I tried to put on a shirt that I hadn't worn for a while; the fit was all wrong and it was stretching around my chest! Straight onto the scales and I was weighing in around 95kg (210lb)!! I'd put on 15kg of FAT in 12 months by eating like shit. So I decided to make a change.

I found the trick is to make the changes gradually. Do one thing a week and it's much easier than changing a ton of old habits all at once. First thing I did mid-March was stop drinking soft drinks. All they are is just sugar water and totally useless energy that makes you pound on the weight. With this I also upped my water intake to at least 2L of *water* a day. That's water with no additives at all. If you're a coffee drinker, it may be rough, but take out the sugar and milk. Use skim if you aren't man enough to drink it black  and limit yourself to 3 cups tops a day. The caffiene will stimulate your body and slightly boost your passive metabolic rate, so you'll burn a bit more, or at any rate, if you get the jitters you'll use some extra energy that way 

Next thing I did was make a couple of tweaks to my diet. I already eat fairly well at home as far as dinner and breakfast go. For lunch I've changed to a Caesar Salad or a salad of some variety and I've added a protein shake with breakfast. The shake will help prevent you getting the mid morning munchies by keeping you feeling full for longer. It won't stop you wanting to eat food, but it should make you be able to ignore the want to go and snack come 10-11am. 

Remember that one meal won't instantly make you put on 50lb. I let myself have something nice/unhealthy every couple of weeks (eat out at a restraunt with friends, grab some KFC after a night on the grog with mates, etc etc). It helps to keep me sane, however after a month of eating better, it's not so much a chore as much as the way you now do things.

That's really all the major changes I've done. I've been taking a couple of dietary supplements and they seem to be working, but they aren't a silver bullet, they only assist with getting things to shift. I've also cut back alcohol consumption a bit as well.

I've been doing that for 4 months now and I'm down to 86-85 kg (189 lb) and I'm feeling and looking better than ever. I'm fitting back into the medium sized shirts comfortably, I've got 2 inches under my ribs where I can actually start to see my abs and I've actually gotten waist definition. Getting the first complement from a lady about how I was going helped to keep the motivation up.

^That bit isn't all about me bragging. I'm just highlighting that probably the key thing to getting the weight off is time. You probably didn't put it on overnight, so it sure as hell isn't coming off that quick. 


Hit me up with a PM if you want any advice or support. I'm no dietician, but I can at least give you more details about what worked for me and having someone there hassling me about keeping it going at the beginning is what kept me on the right track.

Good luck mate


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## Faine (Jul 31, 2012)

^ thanks a lot man, thats an inspirational story. I gotta cut out the soda, cuz I drink a lot of that. Mt. dew and coke especially :/


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## Metal_Webb (Jul 31, 2012)

Faine said:


> ^ thanks a lot man, thats an inspirational story. I gotta cut out the soda, cuz I drink a lot of that. Mt. dew and coke especially :/



No worries mate, if it helps people out I'm more than happy to share.

Try going without drinking any soda for a month. I can nearly guarantee that you'll drop quite a few lb by doing that alone.

Might I recommend drinking green or white tea instead? The good stuff from a tea shop mind you, not the crap you get in tea bags. Have a cup of that instead of a soda when you want a mid afternoon drink and you'll be doing yourself a massive favour.


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## troyguitar (Jul 31, 2012)

As an interim drink you can always make Kool-aid and reduce the amount of sugar you use. One of my favorite "sugary" drinks is black cherry kool-aid with 1/3 cup sugar in the pitcher as opposed to the whole cup of sugar recommended on the packet. Still tastes good and cuts the calories down by 67%


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## Faine (Jul 31, 2012)

Thanks guys. All the feed back really helps and keeps my motivation going.


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## Faine (Aug 15, 2012)

I'll get there


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