Brent Butler read If I Can Lose It... and has just posted the following about his success:
One week progress report:
For the last week I've used a similar method for tracking what I eat to the method Jon describes in his book. I'm using a web site called SparkPeople.com instead of the one Jon has used. I doubt its any better than Jon's recommeded site, I just found it more conveniently as both an iPad app and regular web site, and my account logs in through both. In looking at EVERYTHING we were consuming, both my wife and I quickly tipped to some eating mistakes we had not been paying attention to. For example, I read Jon's book Sunday night a week ago, and we had already eaten dinner. My wife made a ham dinner with a vegetable and macaroni and cheese. When I found the web site and got set up, I entered what we ate for dinner. Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner ... 400 calories and little to no food value received in return. The leftover is still in a dish in the refrigerator, and likely we should just throw it out, because I can't imagine I'm ever going to want to eat any of it again. LOL Mac and Cheese is a somewhat regular staple of many home cooked meals. Fiber is low at 1.5 grams. Protein is at or below the levels of other family meal vegetables that could be substituted for it with no notice taken. 19 grams of fat for something that just tastes OK ... its not even a guilty pleasure. LOL
With that lesson learned, we started to do some more research. We read again about lot of foods we already knew about but were just out of correct eating habits. I don't drink diet drinks ... can't stand the taste. Recently I've probably had one or two cans of carbonated drinks a day ... at 150 to 200 calories per. I had exactly ONE all this week. I went on the water drinking campaign suggested by Jon, and many other places as well. I'm almost certainly drinking more than the eight 8 oz glasses suggested. I tend to drink more like 12 ounces at a time and I'm probably doing 9 to 12 a day. That much water does tend to kill off a certain percentage of snack craving. I also discovered that one grape tomato actually satisfies a snack craving for me just as well as three oatmeal cookies used to. The difference in calories? 2 for one grape tomato ... 225 for three oatmeal cookies. LOL
By adjusting what we've eaten this week to be more efficient, I'm actually eating far fewer calories than indicated by the program calculated by the web site, which I had set for 1.5 pounds per week. I probably cut 1000 to 1500 calories per day out of my consumption. Yet I'm feeling less hungry between meals, not more. When I do feel hungry I'm not minding it as much, probably because I'm over all the extra sugar that was in my daily consumption. I actually have more energy, because once again, I'm not running on sugar like I was 10 days ago.
Net result, I lost 5 pounds in seven days instead of 1.5 pounds. I don't seriously think I will continue to lose 5 pounds a week. The lower the percentage of body fat gets, the more reluctant the body is to shed what is left. However, its a very validating start, and if I continue at 1.5 pounds per week from now on I'll be quite happy.
My goal is to lose 20 pounds from the start of the diet, then asses what I look like at that point and decide if I should go another 5. I didn't start this at what anyone looking at me would consider to be overweight, yet I look "rounder" to myself in the mirror than I know I should. After I've lost the 20 (or 25) pounds, I'll increase my calories back up to a higher maintenance level to stop losing weight. I may even be able to throw back in a couple more of my cherished Cherry Dr. Peppers (per week) at that point! LOL
4th of July week will be a blip in the effort though. We're having a cook out, which means hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, and potato salad. I might gain back two pounds that week. I've already thought through the need to plan ahead for the 4th, Labor Day (another traditional cookout in our family), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. I should have the weight loss goal comfortably in hand before Thanksgiving. Then I'll look to gain no more than two pounds each for the upcoming three holidays, and go back on the weight loss calorie level for the month of January.
We'll see how reality meets plan now.
The above was copy/pasted without alteration
One week progress report:
For the last week I've used a similar method for tracking what I eat to the method Jon describes in his book. I'm using a web site called SparkPeople.com instead of the one Jon has used. I doubt its any better than Jon's recommeded site, I just found it more conveniently as both an iPad app and regular web site, and my account logs in through both. In looking at EVERYTHING we were consuming, both my wife and I quickly tipped to some eating mistakes we had not been paying attention to. For example, I read Jon's book Sunday night a week ago, and we had already eaten dinner. My wife made a ham dinner with a vegetable and macaroni and cheese. When I found the web site and got set up, I entered what we ate for dinner. Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner ... 400 calories and little to no food value received in return. The leftover is still in a dish in the refrigerator, and likely we should just throw it out, because I can't imagine I'm ever going to want to eat any of it again. LOL Mac and Cheese is a somewhat regular staple of many home cooked meals. Fiber is low at 1.5 grams. Protein is at or below the levels of other family meal vegetables that could be substituted for it with no notice taken. 19 grams of fat for something that just tastes OK ... its not even a guilty pleasure. LOL
With that lesson learned, we started to do some more research. We read again about lot of foods we already knew about but were just out of correct eating habits. I don't drink diet drinks ... can't stand the taste. Recently I've probably had one or two cans of carbonated drinks a day ... at 150 to 200 calories per. I had exactly ONE all this week. I went on the water drinking campaign suggested by Jon, and many other places as well. I'm almost certainly drinking more than the eight 8 oz glasses suggested. I tend to drink more like 12 ounces at a time and I'm probably doing 9 to 12 a day. That much water does tend to kill off a certain percentage of snack craving. I also discovered that one grape tomato actually satisfies a snack craving for me just as well as three oatmeal cookies used to. The difference in calories? 2 for one grape tomato ... 225 for three oatmeal cookies. LOL
By adjusting what we've eaten this week to be more efficient, I'm actually eating far fewer calories than indicated by the program calculated by the web site, which I had set for 1.5 pounds per week. I probably cut 1000 to 1500 calories per day out of my consumption. Yet I'm feeling less hungry between meals, not more. When I do feel hungry I'm not minding it as much, probably because I'm over all the extra sugar that was in my daily consumption. I actually have more energy, because once again, I'm not running on sugar like I was 10 days ago.
Net result, I lost 5 pounds in seven days instead of 1.5 pounds. I don't seriously think I will continue to lose 5 pounds a week. The lower the percentage of body fat gets, the more reluctant the body is to shed what is left. However, its a very validating start, and if I continue at 1.5 pounds per week from now on I'll be quite happy.
My goal is to lose 20 pounds from the start of the diet, then asses what I look like at that point and decide if I should go another 5. I didn't start this at what anyone looking at me would consider to be overweight, yet I look "rounder" to myself in the mirror than I know I should. After I've lost the 20 (or 25) pounds, I'll increase my calories back up to a higher maintenance level to stop losing weight. I may even be able to throw back in a couple more of my cherished Cherry Dr. Peppers (per week) at that point! LOL
4th of July week will be a blip in the effort though. We're having a cook out, which means hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, and potato salad. I might gain back two pounds that week. I've already thought through the need to plan ahead for the 4th, Labor Day (another traditional cookout in our family), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. I should have the weight loss goal comfortably in hand before Thanksgiving. Then I'll look to gain no more than two pounds each for the upcoming three holidays, and go back on the weight loss calorie level for the month of January.
We'll see how reality meets plan now.
The above was copy/pasted without alteration
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