The Weight Loss Challenge

I've lost about 20 pounds since winter using the "Fat Flush Plan." The general theory is that one of the liver's main functions is to burn fat, but the typical modern diet overloads it with processed foods and refined carbohydrates, which reduces its ability to do so. So the plan emphasizes lots of fresh vegetables, lean proteins, no processed/prepared foods, and "smart" carbohydrates (whole wheat bread, etc.)

The plan does recommend certain vitamin, nutrient and herbal supplements which help restore the liver's function and help control appetite cravings. I don't know if that would count as "diet pills" but it's not like commercial products marketed as "take these pills and you'll lose weight," the supplements just jump-start the body's natural functions that have been disabled by a processed-foods diet.

One of the hardest things for me was to make time in my schedule for food preparation! Now I allow at least a half hour in the morning to make the salads and cut vegetables for the day. I prepare my steak and chicken entrees on the weekend and freeze them for the week; I have fish twice a week but that's quick to cook.

For exercise, the main thing is to get moving! Walk a lot more and take the stairs whenever you can. Take a half-hour each day to walk around the neighborhood. Make it a habit and make it fun. Even in the runup to Anthrocon when I was super busy, I managed to walk nearly every day -- just rolled out of bed, pulled on a T-shirt and shorts, and got moving at a time when before I'd just be groggily lying in bed trying to wake up.

And at AC I was able to wear a suit I hadn't fit into in 15 years.

Good luck!

Simply swapping out some of your regular meals for vegetarian meals will help. Of course people rapidly get sick of salads, so I suggest picking up a good vegetarian cook book. My usual is the the Moosewoods Restaurant New Classics:
http://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Restaurant-New-Classics-Collective/dp/0609802410/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1260074-4541510?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184079963&sr=8-1

Almost all of the recipes are worth the time it takes to make them. I cook for my retired parents who come from the age of dinner is meat and potatoes. I can usually get my father to eat most of these without complaint. Except tofu. He just doesn't like the texture and makes faces at it.

Make lots and freeze the rest is probably the best thing you can do. Figure out some healthy recipes that will withstand freezing, make extras, and pot them up in dinner size portions. (this is easier if you have a seperate freezer in the basement) That way when you're too tired to cook, its a matter of taking out the healthy thing to zap in microwave instead of the frozen pizza.

Try soup to start. Most soups freeze beautifully and with something on side to give you a different texture (bread, small salad, etc) will work as a good light meal. Make a big pot on the weekend and pack up the rest and you're good.

Not sure if you have one or not, but how bout a fursuit. Just over the AC weekend I lost 8 pounds.

While in suit, you really don't want to eat anything because it begins seeping out of your pores onto your suit. But you'll be having so much fun you don't even have the urge to eat. You'll also only feel the need for water and not sugary drinks.

gl hope it works out i need to lose like 20-30 pounds as well but just am to beat after gettign home form work aroudn 6-8pm every night. finding that motivation just isnt' there >_< i hope you do better and don't stray. ^_^

I was impressed to hear of the challeng.

I'm hoping to do something similer myself. before the con I had just dropped under 400 lbs and I figure I dropped a few at the con.

though theres no bet on my part I hope to meet your chalange myself

There is one thing that your going to what to remember:

Once you lose the weight, your going to have to still try and keep the weight off. For some reason, the human body tries to go back to its 'original' state. Which seems to be being chubby.
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As someone getting on in his years and having foot/knee problems, I do not recommend DDR.

The reason being that the motions usedin DDR (basically stomping on a hard sufrace) are very high stress on the foot, knees, and ankles. If you're under 25, it might not be so bad, but when you get older, the same amount of activity is far more likely to cause injury.

That being said, I would recommend joining a gym. It's very easy to work out a regular routine with the help of one of their trainers, and you can very quickly see what sort of exercises work for you and which don't.

Good luck!

 
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My LJ - My Website

You can do it! I know, because I did the same. I dropped 80 pounds in 5 months, with more weight lost later.

I went from 300 lbs down to about 180 now. Have a look at this Livejournal post for before and after pictures: http://moresobaplease.livejournal.com/27748.html

Start walking, control your portion sizes, and - while you should avoid junk food - don't deprive yourself. Eat an occasional dessert or other treat in a small amount to satisfy any craving you might have and to keep yourself from becoming depressed.

Also, stay off the scale. Weighing yourself every day is discouraging. Do it once weekly (or even less often). If you're losing weight, you'll notice it in other ways.

My own will power was horrible, so if I can do it, anyone can. Good luck! I'm here for moral support anytime.

Ooh ooh my turn to offer what I know!

One great way to lose fat is to lose your thyroid and end up on 250 micrograms of synthetic thyroid hormone that your doctor accidentally prescribed you as too high a dose when you're supposed to be on 150 micrograms of the stuff, like my doctor did once

Hehe seriously though, you really can't beat propper diet and exercise. Both are okay on their own, but if you combine the two, you really can't go wrong.

The trick I found that really made a nice difference was that I started regulating my diet. I would eat my meals at or close to the same times of the day, every day. It took a while for my body to get used to, but the results were pretty well worth it. What happens when you do that is your metabolism starts to realize that "Hey, it's 8 pm, the food should be coming in any time right aboooooouuuuuuut..... NOW! Sweet, the food has arrived" and then it knows that it's time to start doing it's job.

Long story short, when you eat around the same time every day, your metabolism functions a lot better than if you eat whenever you feel like it because it won't know when to expect the food.

Another good trick is to monitor your caloric intake. The best way to look at getting fat is that if you take in more calories a day than you burn off, your body stores it as fat for later when you need it. So common sense says that if your daily activity requires you to burn off something like 2200 calories, and you've only taken in 1800 calories, then your body should dip into your fat stores just to get that extra 400 calories.

Another "dieting technique" you can do is use maths to chip away at the pudge.

A pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. If you get to the point where you have the motivation to count your calories (it's tough at first, but like any routine, once you get used to it it's not that difficult. Kinda like eating junk food and staying up late), all you need to do is drop 500 calories a day from your diet. Multiply that by 7 days (3500 calories) and you've been able to cut 1 pound out of your diet that you would have otherwise stored as fat. So you're basically cutting 4 pounds a month off of your caloric intake.

If you were to spend 1 year doing this, that's 48 pounds gone.

For those unfamiliar with calories and nutrients etc. your body needs energy to go about it's daily routine. It can be anything from typing to doing the iron man competition every day. Obviously one is going to warrant more energy than the other, so you need not just the right amount of food/stored energy to do this, you also need the right kind of food/stored energy to do this (but that's something I'm not going to get into).

Another little trick you can do if you're dieting is to eat oatmeal for breakfast. It's gotta be the most boring food I've ever eaten, but the stuff works wonders

It takes a certain amount of time for your body to convert certain foods into energy. Oatmeal is considered to be a slow released carbohydrate. What that means is that it takes longer for the energy in oatmeal to be broken down into useable energy. What that means is that when you eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast in the morning and go about your daily routine, your body doesn't have much chance to store the food energy (convert it into fat) released by the oatmeal, so as soon as the food energy starts to become available, your body is already there breaking it down into the energy you'll need to complete whatever physical task you're doing.

And no... I seriously reccommend you do NOT bring oatmeal into the bedroom with you. Sure... it'll give you energy but your sex life is probably going to suffer "Ho... hold on... *pant pant* gonna break for oatmeal *yom yom yom yom y...* Where... hey where you going?" call it a hunch

But seriously though, the best way to look at food vs. energy is that when you eat something, your body converts it into energy, and if you don't burn or burn enough of that energy while it's still available, your metabolism says "Wel'p, time for you to go hang out with the fat". That's why eating cereal for breakfast isn't exactly the best dietary choice you could make

Make sure that it isn't water-weight that you're losing, either. Stay hydrated (I sure as heck didn't...), drink 8 glasses of water a day. Bike 10 miles a day for six days out of the week. Subway is your friend, too.

Always remember, you can't get fat from drinking water.

I would drink fuse it has tons of vitamins for daily activities and hydrates really well just don't drink to much gatoraid or you'll find yourself gaining mor than U lose it's a fact that people that don't run X-stream routes end up hurting themselves cause they don't burn it off and gain more than they lose in other words they get fat from it there is a loop hole to everything yes gatoraid does make you fat if you don't burn it off cause your body considers it a food and stores it as fat^^ that's Y I drink fuse ^^

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shoot now ask..... well NEVER

I Happily Cheer you on!!! (Lol Sorry Kage! I'll Buy you a drink when the Con is over )

Annnnnnd! Next AC, if you reach your Goal, come see me for a drawing done of ANYTHING you want! (not too much incentive but sadly, I am rich in pocket lint and not money)

I also second Giza about jogging and DDR. They are horribly punishing on your joints and can cause pain in your future. Physicians generally recomend Brisk walking as a jogging replacement as it gets your heart rate up and still remains easy on your knee's and ankles.

Drink Water when your thirsty and all natural fruit juices when your thirsty. The fruit juices have a good amount of sugar in it yes, but it's sugar your body has no problems digesting and turning into energy. Granola, crackers, and fruits and veggies are tasty snacks as well.

*dons cheerleading outfit and starts tossing around pom poms*

awww man. I'm not losing a single pound playing fantasy football.

Here's an example of a fur friend of mine that I helped lose weight:

Before:

After:

Originally I had him on a cardio and weight training plan, but with his busy schedule he only had so much time to spend in the gym, and financially he wasn't able to afford to add more to his grocery list for the foods needed to bulk up (more muscle means more fat burning), so we just stuck to a cardio regiment.

All in all, within that 10 month period, he went from 248 lbs. down to 172 lbs. and needless to say, he was pretty happy

So if you're ever having motivational issues, hopefully this will help in some way