I need weight-loss and metabolism advice, please

[Preacherman]

Back in February 2004, I injured my back.  Two surgeries later (a lumbar discectomy and a spinal fusion), and after two years plus in bed or house-bound, I'm diagnosed as 30% "whole body" disabled, and 50% disabled in my left leg due to nerve damage.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of so much time in bed and at home is that my weight has gone up significantly.  I guess I've gained 60 pounds, and I need to shed it.  I also need to regain my physical tone, which wasn't bad before my injury, but has gone to pot in the inactive period since.

However, I can't do normal gymnasium equipment and fitness classes anymore.  My back and leg won't let me exercise for any great length of time before letting me know that they're increasingly unhappy with me.  Also, I can't do weights or the usual strengthening routines.  I've bought a "Gazelle Edge" exercise machine, which is about as non-impact as they come (see http://www.tonylittle.com/detail.aspx?ID=2 for details, if you're interested), and while not perfect, this is at least beginning to restore aerobic fitness.  I'm also looking into pool-based exercise routines at a local health club.

What I'd like to know is this:  is there a product (natural health supplement, diet aid, whatever) that can help one's metabolism "speed up" to consume body fat?  My metabolism has obviously slowed to a crawl over so long a period of minimal activity, and if I want to lose weight in any realistic time period (measured in months rather than in years!) I need to find something to help.  Are there any such products out there, preferably ones that won't interfere with other drugs I'm still taking to control pain?  I've had a couple of suggestions, but I'm sure there are those on the List who can add to them.  Also, any good online sources of information about this?  Please provide links, if possible.

Any suggestions?

[USP45usp]

Well, when I was starting to gain abet of weight they sent me to the Sand Box.  I ate like a horse but my metab. went into high gear and I lost weight back to my "youth" days ( 165lbs ).

Besides the walking everywhere I went and the great intake of water on a daily basis, I didn't go to the gym or anything like that.

So maybe just walking a distance (further than normal) a couple of times each day and alot of water could kick start the ol' metabelism.

Wayne

[zahc]

swimming?

[TarpleyG]

I hate to say it but you have to eat less.  No magic bullet here.  You have slowed down and don't require as many calories.  It's as simple as that.  3000 calories = 1 pound...do the math.

Now, the good news is there are foods (certain veggies and other stuff) that will help increase your metabolism.  Look them up because I can't recall off the top of my head.

Here's what I do:

Start a journal.  Write down EVERYTHING (calories, fat, carbs, protein) you eat every day.  Weigh yourself every morning at the same time, naked, before you eat or drink anything.  You starting goal should be about 1500 calories per day if you are about my size (5'9" and currently 260--was 315).  I have done this a couple of times in my life and you will drop the weight, I promise.  Eat every 3 hours if you can manage it but keep to your calorie count regardless.  If you go over, skip breakfast or lunch the next day.  Weighing yourself daily is that little demon in your head telling you he's watching.

All in all though, YOU have to make up your mind to simply do it.  No excuses...just start watching what you eat.  You have to do it the rest of your life so throw the word "diet" out the window.  I don't exercise really, other than taking the dogs down the street every night to poop and working around the house some, I live a pretty sedentary life.

Like I said, I have been up and down my whole life.  Certain things set me back...being out on my own the first time, getting engaged, 9/11, whatever.  You just gotta pick up and keep going if you fall off the wagon.  I often tell people being addicted to food is the worst thing ever...you can't just stop eating food like you can stop taking drugs or drinking.  You NEED food to live, just not as much.  No cold turkey there.

Good luck and hang in there.  Maybe keep a post with a daily weight here will keep you in check...like somebody's watching you know.  Whatever works for you.  My wife has to go to Weight Watchers and spend $12 a week to have someone keeping her in check.

Greg

[mtnbkr]

What TarpleyG said...

I lost 35lbs a year ago doing exactly what he described.  My only exercise was an evening walk with my wife.  It took me about 4.5 months to do it.  

I cut back on anything fatty, carb heavy, or full of sugar.  I ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  I reduced my meat intake to 3-6oz per meal.  


Chris

[280plus]

My son works for GNC ( General Nutrition Center) where they sell supplements of all types. He must get 10 people a day that come in and ask, "What have you got that will help me lose weight?" His standard response, "Diet and exercise." Since my little stint with the stents I've cut back even more on the junk calories, cut most of the fat and sodium out of my diet and lo and behold I'm dropping weight. Limit your protein (lean meat) to 6 oz a day. That's a serving the size of one can of tuna. Swimming puts the least amount of impact on your body. Walking is next.

Goodf luck, I hope you get back to feeling good again. Give it time.

[Stand_watie]

Yes, there is a 'magic bullet'. It's called methamphetemine. I don't recommend it.  There are several other bullets out there that are helpful, but not quite 'magic', caffeine and ephedrine (ephedrine is a pre-cursor to meth). Healthwise your best bet is as TarpleyG said.

Start a journal.  Write down EVERYTHING (calories, fat, carbs, protein) you eat every day.  Weigh yourself every morning at the same time, naked, before you eat or drink anything.  You starting goal should be about 1500 calories per day if you are about my size (5'9" and currently 260--was 315).  I have done this a couple of times in my life and you will drop the weight, I promise.  Eat every 3 hours if you can manage it but keep to your calorie count regardless.  If you go over, skip breakfast or lunch the next day.  Weighing yourself daily is that little demon in your head telling you he's watching.

I'll say that the calorie per day requirement varies substantially by individual. You might not lose weight at 1500 calories per day, or you might at 3,000.  That is why the journal is so important. You need to determine exactly what caloric intake is keeping you at your current weight and decrease it.

There are lots of little tricks that will help you lose weight. Caffeine and ephedrine are both relatively safe and effective as appetite suppressants if used in moderation, although both will increase your blood pressure slightly, so don't add them to your diet unless your bp is well within safe range. If you drink coffee anyway, time it so you drink your coffee a little while ahead of eating. Try eating foods that are more bulky for their caloric content (I used to make omelettes out of egg whites and fat free cheese that were only 300 calories or so that were large enough that I, a glutton by nature, had difficulty eating the whole thing). Switch to calorie free drinks. Diet coke is no worse for you than regular, won't rot your teeth, and 150 calories less each.

Green foods are your friend. In general, lots of bulk and few calories.

I lost 80 lbs and kept it off for five years with the "calorie counting" method.

[Stand_watie]

I just remembered that I think you live in central Texas or the deep south is that correct?

280 mentioned swimming, and I was thinking that with the heat here upon us, if I'm remembering your location correctly, it would be the perfect time of year to set up a membership at a place that has a pool. My understanding is that swimming is one of the activities encouraged for people with major physical impediments.

Burning calories is good for you, and will help lose weight if you don't eat more calories. Remember though, that excercise will make you hungrier, so it is not a 'magic bullet' if your net calorie expenditure vs calorie intake ratio doesn't change. Good for your heart though, and after a couple years in bed, you could probably use some aerobic exercise.

If you lived up north, I'd tell you to get out into the cold, which burns an immense amount of calories. My little brother, who weighed a whopping 140 lbs at the time, used to work in a freezer department at a meat packing plant. He had to eat 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day to maintain weight in -5 temperatures, even wearing very effective insulated coveralls (I borrowed them in +15 temps and was sweating like a pig).

[Nightfall]

Some good advice. As was mentioned, the more often you eat, the faster your metabolism will go. Try to divide a planned out, low cal diet across 5 or 6 meals a day rather than 2 or 3. Besides the aforementioned speeding up of the metabolism, I think you'll find a lower cal diet easier to stick with if you only have 2.5 or so hours before you can eat again.

Oh, and youll probably find drinking enough water thru the day will definitely help with weight loss as well. Id say 2 litters a day or so.

[Live Free Or Die]

I'm not a medical practitioner, but I do know a little about metabolism.  This sort of thing is fairly well understood and agreed upon.  You can verify what I'm about to say on any number of fitness websites (or ask a real doctor).

There are two primary ways to increase your rate of metabolism: build muscle mass, and perform aerobic exercise.  Neither are very easy, and with your injuries they're even harder.  Builing muscle mass is the best way, since an increase in lean muscle increases your metabolic rate 24/7.  Doing aerobic exercise on your fitness machine is good too -- it increases your metabolic rate during and for a number of hours after exercise -- and along with a reasonably reduced caloric intake, it's the path to losing weight the quickest.

What you want is to be able to have diet and exercise habits that are sustainable for life.  Therefore it's generally a bad idea to undergo radical short-term changes in your diet.  You won't be able to keep it up for long, and even if you meet some initial goal, once your food intake goes back to normal you'll probably start to put the weight back on.  And the older you get, the harder it becomes to get the weight off again (your metabolic rate gets slower as you age, partially because your muscle mass decreases).

If you focus on only one -- either diet or exercise -- chose exercise.  I mean, don't go hog-wild with food or anything, but exercise is the key to good health.  Well, also genetics, but there's really nothing you can do about that part.  Increased fitness is strongly correlated with decreased incidence of just about every major disease.  I believe that a very fit person who eats poorly (within reason) is going to be better off than a sedentary person who eats extremely "healthy" foods.  The fit person's body might not be operating at peak efficiency because of substandard fuel, but he's statistically more likely to avoid the big killers like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

As far as dietary supplements that will increase your metabolic rate...I'm sure there probably are some, but the expression "there's no free lunch" comes to mind here.  The key is building lean muscle mass and doing aerobic  exercise.  There are no reasonable shortcuts as far as I'm aware.  As Tony Little would say: "You can DO IT!"

[280plus]

One more thing about swimmimg. Swimming is the ONLY exercise I've ever done where I find myself getting hungry half way through the swim ( i do a 1/2 hour a day when the pool is open). Swimming will make you RAVENOUS! It's up to you to fight that back and not overeat to satisfy yourself. Lowfat/nofat milk and Cheerios or rice krispies are your friend. Very low cal but filling. I think a nice big bowl of either is only 300 calories. If you're feeling hungry don't go for the junk foods, go for a bowl of cereal with no sugar or at least very little. I squirt a small amount of Hershey's syrup on them myself. Now I feel like I'm eating some kind of desert but it's still low cal / low fat / low sodium. At the hospital they were telling me you DON'T have to radically change your diet. Just learn to eat things in moderation. Only eat a few pretzels not the whole bag for example. I like mustard on mine.

Of course you COULD just go ahead and become a Meth tweaker, that'll take the weight off of you.

[Vodka7]

Since you mention back problems, I would recommend a recumbent bike.  It's the second most enjoyable way to get your heart rate up while laying flat on your back

Really though, Tarpley has the best advice--find out what's going in to you, and figure out ways to cut back.  Sometimes they're pretty obvious; when I started trying to lose weight I figured out that I was consuming almost 800 calories worth of soda a day, and learned how to like Diet PDQ.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

I'm going to be the contrarian.

There is a member here (John?  Want to acknowledge, or no?) who IIRC has lost over 100 pounds and kept it off, via a low-carb, high-protein regimen which has normalized his blood pressure, eliminated pre-diabetic symptoms, and given him back a level of vitality he had thought was gone for good.

Twice I have lost over 50 pounds using the same regimen.  Twice, I have fallen away, returned to the high-carb lifestyle, and re-gained the weight.
This is not a failing of the lifestyle, it is a failing of my personal self-discipline.

Atkins is way too extreme.  A MODIFIED carb approach will work, with OR without exercise, for the rest of your life.

None of the advice you've gotten thus far has been BAD.
This, to me, is preferrable:

http://www.proteinpower.com/

[280plus]

Fig, it still all boils down to calories in vs calories out. It doesn't matter what KIND of calories. The diet appealed to you so you had success with it. It FAILED you because it was too radical and hard to stick to. I've seen plenty of Atkins followers who've had the same problem. Great success at first but eventually they went back to the old lifestyle and gained it all back. Sometimes even more! It's too much of a lifestyle change to keep up. They stressed this to me in the hospital. MODERATION is the key. Eat ANYTHING you like but just not so DURN MUCH!

[Jamisjockey]

TarplyG did this one right for shore!



Eat less.  Eat smaller meals more frequently.  No more soda.  Cut back on beer.  No excess sugar (like sweet tea, in your coffee, etc).   Balance your meals.  Eat fruits and vegetables for snacks.  When you need a treat, things like pudding, yogurt, etc are good sweet treats.  
I still don't trust the no-carb diets.  Yes, you can't just eat a shitload of bread, but if you're exercising your body is going to need carbs to convert fat and calories to energy.  
Muscle burns calories, even when you're sitting on your ass.  I strongly suggest on top of cardio, doing low impact low weight high rep weights.  Seated upper body stuff, usually supporting your back against like on a seated recline bench or something.
Swimming is boring as sin, but probably the single most low impact high output exercise you can do.
If you like to exercise outside, consider a recumbant road bike.

http://www.burley.com/products/recumbents/default.html

http://www.recumbent.com/recumbents.html

Even with the disability, as you lose weight impact exercise will become easier.  

BTW, I once began having serious back problems.  Spasms, pain, discomfort.  I was 40lbs over my current weight (I'm 5'3"!!!!).  I was able to start cycling again and lost it.  I'm still not very good about my diet, though, and could weight less...

[Preacherman]

Thank you, everyone, for your replies and advice.  I'll put it together with other advice received and try to work out an adequate diet and exercise regime.  Figgy, thanks for the link - looks promising!

For those recommending exercise, particularly weights, this is a real problem, not just because of my weakened and fused spine, but because of nerve damage.  I'm in pain 24/7, but this can be controlled with a cocktail of medications.  The problem is that any exertion - ANY at all - intensifies the pain level, slowly but surely.  Non-impact exercise does so the least, but it still intensifies it, slowly but surely, until after a time I have to stop and lie down until the nerves stop twitching at me and the pain level drops.  That's the primary problem with an exercise-based regime.

I used to hike mountain trails, walk for miles, and be reasonably active.  Those days are past now.  I absolutely hate this, but there's nothing I can do about it.

[280plus]

I have had back pain for years. The only time I ever feel absolutely pain free is in the pool. Give it a try.

[Waitone]

Burn more calories and take in fewer calories
Modify the nature of calorie intake by avoiding bread, dairy products, and refined sugar (AKA junk food).  Shift your food from meats to veggies.  Minimize carbs and meat intake.  Don't make the mistake of eliminating red meat.  You need the iron.

I've been on a mass reduction program for a while now.  My dimensions are changing for the better but I have no clue about weight changes.  Exercise increases muscle mass which raises weight but increase muscle mass burns more calories.

You might also consider a periodic 3 day fast.  Does wonders for resetting the system.

Find something to increase your muscle mass without hurting your back.  Modify the nature of your calorie intake.  Matter of fact, consider talking to a dietician for food ideas.  Oh, shoot more often.

[Antibubba]

I'm still waiting for the FDA to approve my "Methamphetamine Diet Patch" (The "Tweak Less, Freak Less, Weigh Less" Plan.}

[lee n. field]

I hate to say it but you have to eat less.

Easier said than done for some.  Some foods make you hungry.  

Ditto excercise.  It's hard to run long distances when your feet hurt.  Biking (my own preference) has it's own "pleasures":  crotch sores, chafing thighs, knee problems and carpal tunnel, for starters.

I'd love to try a recumbant bike.  They tend to be quite a bit more expensive than conventional bikes, and the low profile makes you even less visible to the hordes of road hypnotized half asleep end-users careening on their way down your road.

[Bob F.]

I'm pretty much on the Tarpley band wagon; adding even walking in the pool as good exercise-less wt bearing with more resistance. Used to run a cardiac rehab program: told my pts use common sense. No tobacco! Cut back on everything, particularly calories with fat being absolutely loaded with calories. Having said that, don't quit everything you like. Have a Free-day, say Sunday. You can have a piece of chocolate cake on Sunday, not everyday and not the whole cake on Sunday!

There are good recipes out there, but all things are relative. Used to have a cheese-cake recipe with 12.5 gms of fat. Good cake with a lot less fat/cal than most, but still 1/2 to 1/3 of your daily fat grams. Use a little (LITTLE) bacon fat to add flavor or butter. When you melt the butter, brown it a little, more flavor from same amount.
Eat a handful (15-20) dry roasted almonds and a glass of water 1/2 hr before meals.

Mindset! Heard that before? Start thinking and doing healthy, more veggies, more salads, etc. First thing you know you'll be choosing healthy items without thinking about it, less interest in red meat, e.g. You can do skimmed milk in your cereal, etc. Used to grab a big bowl of any decent cereal with skimmed milk. Ran out and started grabbing a breakfast cake at the corner stop & rob. Gained 8lbs in a week. A "Bearclaw" has 28 gms of fat!! Went back to cereal and skimmed and dropped 8lbs in  a week!!

Hope that helps!
Bob

[Antibubba]

Is there any validity to the "Blood-Type" diet?

[Lee]

For temporary quick loss -  2 mg nicotine gum / hr + lots of black coffee. ...you'll drop the extra weight within a year. Pick up the exercise routine as you go.

[stevelyn]

I'm going to be the contrarian.

There is a member here (John?  Want to acknowledge, or no?) who IIRC has lost over 100 pounds and kept it off, via a low-carb, high-protein regimen which has normalized his blood pressure, eliminated pre-diabetic symptoms, and given him back a level of vitality he had thought was gone for good.

Twice I have lost over 50 pounds using the same regimen.  Twice, I have fallen away, returned to the high-carb lifestyle, and re-gained the weight.
This is not a failing of the lifestyle, it is a failing of my personal self-discipline.

Atkins is way too extreme.  A MODIFIED carb approach will work, with OR without exercise, for the rest of your life.

None of the advice you've gotten thus far has been BAD.
This, to me, is preferrable:

http://www.proteinpower.com/

I'm going to agree with Fig on this. However, I don't find Atkins too extreme. The initial start is extreme for some folks, but as you progress it can be modified. I recommend getting a copy of the Atkins book and reading it and reading it again. The low-carb appraoch was the only thing that ever worked for me on a sustained basis. I've lost weight with and without the excercise doing it. The weight comes off faster with the exercise.
The low-fat, high-carb, work-your-ass-into-the-ground approach is not sustainable for most folks who have a life and for the most part is nothing more than a big lie put out by medical treatment industry to keep you coming back.

There are other programs/methods out there that base themselves on the Atkins core theory. The book "Neanderthin" by Ray Audette is one, "Sugar Busters" is another. Do research and find what fits your lifestyle best.

I wish I had known this long ago. Perhaps my military service would have gone much easier.

[280plus]

I appreciate what you guys are saying but my problem is with the word "diet" or the phrase "I'm on a diet." because I've been taught that it just sets you up for failure. A "diet" is considered to be a short term thing and that when you've reached your goals you no longer have to be on this "diet". Then you have a big eating binge to celebrate. If you want to say (or think) "I have to be careful about what I eat" or "I have to MODIFY my diet." it puts you in a more favorable frame of mind. Yes, substituing complex carbs (veggies, whole grains and fruit) for simple carbs (white bread, pasta and cake and ice cream and cookies and "Funny Bones" (I love Funny Bones)) will help you lose weight. I need a doctor to tell me this? There are those out there that advocate low carb and others that advocate low fat. It has to be both! Think low calorie and BALANCED! Oh as far as lean red meat, the hospital stuff said stick to the "loins" sirloin etc. I had a friend who used to say, "The toughest part of losing weight is pushing yourself away from the table."

How did you know I had a piece of chocolate cake yesterday? Geez,,,I can't get away with NOTHIN' around here...

PS...

Sodium, noone has mentioned sodium. Now that they've got me paying attention more I cannot BELIEVE how much sodium goes into processed foods! Another good thing you can do is put down the salt shaker!  Go to your local market and ask for low salt cold cuts. Tell me they don't look at you like you're from outer space!