Question About Losing Weight?

[New England]

Understand that, I am more posting for the benefit of the OP who asked for advice on this topic in the hope that he will disregard what you have said.

on the topic of losing weight and getting ripped you suggested up to one meal a day each week at macdonalds is something within the realm of reasonability


maybe if you're 16 years old, or have a raging metabolism (which will slow down eventually)
maybe it works for you


for the rest of us, that should sound insane. if victor conte told nonito donaire that he could eat macdonalds every day would that sound right to you? nobody here is nonito donaire, but the principals apply. macdonalds is the "anti ripped" there is horrible stuff in there.


it worked for me when i was younger. i used to eat some of the junk food.
still do, once in a while. i have a horrible habit of hitting up dunkin donuts for long drives. i used to eat their egg sandwiches on long drives which are a routine in my line of work
i cut them out and noticed a huge difference. 3-400 calories (probably more, i really do not care about calories. once you know what's healthy they really dont mean much as long as you arent gorging and stop eating when you stop feeling hungry)

i also had a boatload more energy and felt a boatload better physically eating the healthy stuff


lets assume you eat three times a day (this fits most adult schedules best.)

subsitute one meal for a madconalds with big gulp soda or whatever the hell they call those 42 oz monstosities:

and you are 1/3 macdonalds
something to think about. probably more. it's not difficult to consume 1000+ calories at macdonalds quickly (or well over what you'd probbly want to eat in one meal if you are losing weight and you arent a huge guy)


there's a huge difference between macdonalds and healthy food


if you really require it, and arent simply being annoying//a child, i'll elaborate on what foods are healthy


in my opinion the best foods you can eat are fresh (as possible) fruits and veggies and lean meats in reasonable quan******.



again, if eating good stuff is poor advice (for somebody trying to lose weight)
and eating macdonalds once a day is good advice
i'm on the wrong planet


you wont find anybody who desires peak performance at macdonalds

i do not care about counting numbers
they mean nothign with food of that quality. sure, you might lose some weight for a period of time but it will eventually catch up with you.

it will make you sick and make you soft
not ripped. not healthy.



fat is not all the same
carbs are not all the same

in a limited diet you dont want to be wasting the calories you can be eating each day that are good ones by subsituting calorie heavy food that is essentially junk.


done posting in this particular thread
some people are beyond help. hoepfully the OP goes through the thread and figures out what works for him (for now and for down the road)

when you are 40 and can no longer eat macdonalds once a day without negative effects (please dont eat macdonalds once a day... i dont wish health problems on anybody) perhaps you'll get it

[IronBoxer]

This is personal preference. Personally I like big meals so I like to back-end my calories and have 1-2 larger meals after training in the early evening. If you prefer eating small meals regularly though this is obviously fine also. Meal timing and the number of meals over which you consume your daily calories are largely irrelevant in terms of weight loss and body composition. Just do what you like.

You're absolutely right. But eating more frequently ensures that the body does not enter a state of catabolism aka "starvation mode" and start breaking down muscle tissue to sustain itself. In addition, it helps regulate blood sugar levels as well.

But like you said, its all a personal preference. You have to find what works for you and stick to it.

[Dan...]

on the topic of losing weight and getting ripped you suggested up to one meal a day each week at macdonalds is something within the realm of reasonability


maybe if you're 16 years old, or have a raging metabolism (which will slow down eventually)
maybe it works for you


for the rest of us, that should sound insane. if victor conte told nonito donaire that he could eat macdonalds every day would that sound right to you? nobody here is nonito donaire, but the principals apply. macdonalds is the "anti ripped" there is horrible stuff in there.


it worked for me when i was younger. i used to eat some of the junk food.
still do, once in a while. i have a horrible habit of hitting up dunkin donuts for long drives. i used to eat their egg sandwiches on long drives which are a routine in my line of work
i cut them out and noticed a huge difference. 3-400 calories (probably more, i really do not care about calories. once you know what's healthy they really dont mean much as long as you arent gorging and stop eating when you stop feeling hungry)

i also had a boatload more energy and felt a boatload better physically eating the healthy stuff


lets assume you eat three times a day (this fits most adult schedules best.)

subsitute one meal for a madconalds with big gulp soda or whatever the hell they call those 42 oz monstosities:

and you are 1/3 macdonalds
something to think about. probably more. it's not difficult to consume 1000+ calories at macdonalds quickly (or well over what you'd probbly want to eat in one meal if you are losing weight and you arent a huge guy)


there's a huge difference between macdonalds and healthy food


if you really require it, and arent simply being annoying//a child, i'll elaborate on what foods are healthy


in my opinion the best foods you can eat are fresh (as possible) fruits and veggies and lean meats in reasonable quan******.



again, if eating good stuff is poor advice (for somebody trying to lose weight)
and eating macdonalds once a day is good advice
i'm on the wrong planet


you wont find anybody who desires peak performance at macdonalds

i do not care about counting numbers
they mean nothign with food of that quality. sure, you might lose some weight for a period of time but it will eventually catch up with you.

it will make you sick and make you soft
not ripped. not healthy.



fat is not all the same
carbs are not all the same

in a limited diet you dont want to be wasting the calories you can be eating each day that are good ones by subsituting calorie heavy food that is essentially junk.


done posting in this particular thread
some people are beyond help. hoepfully the OP goes through the thread and figures out what works for him (for now and for down the road)

when you are 40 and can no longer eat macdonalds once a day without negative effects (please dont eat macdonalds once a day... i dont wish health problems on anybody) perhaps you'll get it

Stopped reading after the bolded text. You are just plain wrong. There are a lot of top natural body builders who are at extremely low levels of body fat and eat junk food (including McDonalds) on a daily basis. What do you say to them?

Let me ask you this. If I presented you a diet under which I ate one meal of McDonalds each day, and ate 2000 calories per day whilst hitting my fat and protein requirements, would you think that diet was worse from a weight loss perspective than a 2000 calorie diet consisting of purely "clean" foods?

What I am getting at is that I think that it is your view that a gram of fat for McDonalds is worse from a weight loss perspective than a gram of fat from almonds. Its not.

[Dan...]

You're absolutely right. But eating more frequently ensures that the body does not enter a state of catabolism aka "starvation mode" and start breaking down muscle tissue to sustain itself. In addition, it helps regulate blood sugar levels as well.

But like you said, its all a personal preference. You have to find what works for you and stick to it.

Meal timing and the number of meals you consume per day have been shown to be almost completely irrelevant to body composition. But yes, if it is in line with your personal preferences, people can keep eating 5/6 meals of 350 calories per meal. Not my idea of fun but whatever floats your boat.

[- Ram Raid -]

Say I were to eat what I wanted but stayed under 2500 calroies a day and trained hard every day, would I lose weight and still get ripped?

Yes. . . . and no. You could still lose weight, but you wouldn't necessarily get 'ripped'. Plus you'd have to train harder for less results and your workouts will be more difficult to get through. Calorie intake, though important, isn't the be all and end all of weight loss.

Fat is important in your diet (50-60g per day) - It helps absorb vitamins, improve athletic performance and protects your tendons and joints against injury. So it shouldn't be cut out all together. It should be cut down however, so that means if you want to get better results with less effort then you can't eat what you want. Assuming that what you want is high calorie, fat and sugar rich foods. Fat is an energy dense nutrient, it contains nine calories per gram compared to four calories for carbs and protein. So eating foods high in fat and staying under 2500, means that you'd actually be eating less food, with more fat, with less nutritional benefits. In essance, you'd be sabotaging your own training.

To stop yourself craving high calorie foods theres a couple of things that you can do:

1. Never skip a meal - When we do our bodies release a powerful hormone called ghrelin that signals to the brain that our stomachs are empty. That triggers a powerful urge to compansate by eating high calorie foods. It helps to approach meal intake like you would fluids. When you're feeling thirsty your body has already started to become dehydrated (which impacts on your performance, and can affect the way your body stores fat and repairs muscle owing to poor organ function) so its best to drink (2-3 litres of water per day) before you become thirsty and eat before you become hungry. . . [A quick word on alcohol - it has a catabolic effect on your muscles meaning it prevents them from developing properly so if you want muscle mass then it's best kept to a minimum.]


2. Increase your protein intake - It keeps hunger pangs at bay by making you feel fuller for longer. When any food travels through your digestive system it triggers the release of a hormone called PYY into the blood stream. When this reaches the brain it suppresses hunger signals. Protein triggers far more PYY than any other food. It switches off your urge to eat. For the purpose of adding muscle you don't need any more than 1.5 - 1.7g of protein per kilo of bodyweight spread evenly throughout the day to maximise adsorption and minimise weight gain (unlike carbs, your body can't store excess protein, so it's used as fuel or turns to fat)


The type of carbs that you eat can also be responsible for altering your blood sugar levels and making you store fat. So counting calories alone wont get you ripped but knowing what food to eat will. Make the majority of your carbs unrefined, low on the glycaemic index, and high in fibre. This means eating plenty of wholewheat bread and pasta, oats and brown rice (Make sure it's wholemeal. Some 'brown rice' has just been coloured). These foods release energy slowly, ensuring that you always have enough stored glycogen for your workouts thus stopping muscle being broken down for fuel.

If you really want to get ripped take bread out of the diet and replace wheat pasta with pasta made from buckwheat and/or rice and millet. Oats breakfasts can be replaced with rice flakes, buckwheat flakes or puffed millet. Even if you don't want to go this far I'd still recomend that you make brown rice - long grain, short grain and basmati, your staple carb.


For cooking a steamer is a good investment. In terms of a diet for training and health gains it's the best way to cook lean fish and chicken. Don't overcook your veg and green leaves, it can reduce the nutrients that they contain.

Lastly, take supplements. Fruit and veg has less vitamins in now than they did during the period between the two world wars. It's very unlikely that you'll get what your body needs from your diet alone. As a stating point I'd advice a decent multi vit as a baseline, then vit c for your immune system and a B - complex for your nervous system and energy production. Glutamine in powder form to aid recovery. Amino acids are very beneficial particulary in liquid form but can be expensive. A cheaper option is l-arginine - it really fuels your workout, you can train harder and longer. It also has a not so unwanted side effect. It's used in the production of nitric oxide which relaxes the blood vessels giving you stronger and longer lasting erections. There's also evidence that dosages above 1500mg could trigger the pituitary gland into releasing growth hormone though if you take this level you will wake up with morning glory that's so hard it hurts.

Hope that helps a little.

[- Ram Raid -]

Stopped reading after the bolded text. You are just plain wrong. There are a lot of top natural body builders who are at extremely low levels of body fat and eat junk food (including McDonalds) on a daily basis. What do you say to them?

Let me ask you this. If I presented you a diet under which I ate one meal of McDonalds each day, and ate 2000 calories per day whilst hitting my fat and protein requirements, would you think that diet was worse from a weight loss perspective than a 2000 calorie diet consisting of purely "clean" foods?

What I am getting at is that I think that it is your view that a gram of fat for McDonalds is worse from a weight loss perspective than a gram of fat from almonds. Its not.

If we're looking at it purely in terms of weight gain, we've got to take into account that a body with a high amount of muscle mass burns more calories at a standing state than one with a lower muscle mass percentage. So a top body builder could get away with it without gaining too much fat but our man here couldn't.

The point about McDonalds Vs. Almonds isn't the case at all. There are very different types of fat that have very different effects on the body. Junk food like McDonalds contains high levels of satuates and trans fats which cause weight gain and are linked to high colesterol and heart disease. Almonds in comparison are high in monounsaturated fats which reduce the risk of heart disease and lower colesterol, aid strength and aerobic training and protect the body from injuries. They also decrease after meal rises in blood sugar levels.

From a purely weight loss perspective, a high monounsaturated/almond enriched low calorie diet is more effective at losing weight than a low calorie diet high in complex carbs. People who eat nuts at least twice a week are much less likely to gain wieght than those who never eat them so they lower the risk of weight gain.

It's more about the type of fats that you consume rather than purely the amount.

[copelahama]

If we're looking at it purely in terms of weight gain, we've got to take into account that a body with a high amount of muscle mass burns more calories at a standing state than one with a lower muscle mass percentage. So a top body builder could get away with it without gaining too much fat but our man here couldn't.

The point about McDonalds Vs. Almonds isn't the case at all. There are very different types of fat that have very different effects on the body. Junk food like McDonalds contains high levels of satuates and trans fats which cause weight gain and are linked to high colesterol and heart disease. Almonds in comparison are high in monounsaturated fats which reduce the risk of heart disease and lower colesterol, aid strength and aerobic training and protect the body from injuries. They also decrease after meal rises in blood sugar levels.

From a purely weight loss perspective, a high monounsaturated/almond enriched low calorie diet is more effective at losing weight than a low calorie diet high in complex carbs. People who eat nuts at least twice a week are much less likely to gain wieght than those who never eat them so they lower the risk of weight gain.

It's more about the type of fats that you consume rather than purely the amount.

Sorry but that's wrong. Weight loss is purely about calories in vs calories out - it is really that simple. The hard part is finding your correct BMR and the actual amount of energy expended through exercise, and logging all the calories you eat.
Eating nuts is actually overrated, fats, as you said have 9 calories per gram, which makes them extremely high in calories as most nuts are loaded with fats, albeit healthy, they still lead to weight gain. However, nuts do have high satiety levels which can mean you do consume less over the rest of the day - but back to my main point - calories in vs calories out, thats all weight loss and weight gain is about, not about macronutrient makeup.

[- Ram Raid -]

Sorry but that's wrong. Weight loss is purely about calories in vs calories out - it is really that simple. The hard part is finding your correct BMR and the actual amount of energy expended through exercise, and logging all the calories you eat.
Eating nuts is actually overrated, fats, as you said have 9 calories per gram, which makes them extremely high in calories as most nuts are loaded with fats, albeit healthy, they still lead to weight gain. However, nuts do have high satiety levels which can mean you do consume less over the rest of the day - but back to my main point - calories in vs calories out, thats all weight loss and weight gain is about, not about macronutrient makeup.

That isn't the case. Say if you consume 9 calories from fats your body either burns it or stores it as fats. If you consume the same amount of calories from say a wholemeal carb (which is converted to sugars at a much slower rate than refined carbs) then the units of energy are stored as glysogen in the liver and released at a slow rate. In the second case the calories aren't stored as fats to anywhere near the same extent.

Here's a link that explains nuts and weight gain (amongst other things) quite well. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...d****e&dbid=20

[New England]

Stopped reading after the bolded text. You are just plain wrong. There are a lot of top natural body builders who are at extremely low levels of body fat and eat junk food (including McDonalds) on a daily basis. What do you say to them?

Let me ask you this. If I presented you a diet under which I ate one meal of McDonalds each day, and ate 2000 calories per day whilst hitting my fat and protein requirements, would you think that diet was worse from a weight loss perspective than a 2000 calorie diet consisting of purely "clean" foods?

What I am getting at is that I think that it is your view that a gram of fat for McDonalds is worse from a weight loss perspective than a gram of fat from almonds. Its not.

to the bodybuilders at the top level i say have at it, you are doing something right, clearly, and dont need me to tell you what to do. light weight, baby.
those guys also use ungodly amounts of drugs (hormones, steroids, *******, etc) to get like that.

on the bold
you are correct. initially one would still lose weight if he's using (through biological processes and the work that he has done) more than he's eating.


keep in mind that a big mac, decent sized order of fries, and a soda is going to be half of the calories you've allowed for each day. probably more.



and on the last part, there's more to it than that. the way you carry your weight is affected by the food you eat.
just look at a serious drinker.
you've also got your heart to worry about. if you're trying to lose weight i'd go with nuts over macdonalds

[Sage84]

I never really took it that seriously when in training. I worked out most evenings and went for a swim every morning, after getting home from the gym in the evening I use to eat anything I wanted - was never really into junk food though. I use to make myself curries, chilli's, spag bolognese, sausages - like big meals in the evenings, and was always in good shape. It depends on you.