Alligatorob's Diary

alligatorob

alligatorob

Respected Member
I am just getting started, yesterday was my first day.

I weighed in at 320 lbs, I am thinking my ideal weight is 160, so I have about 160 lbs to lose. I know that is a real long term goal, my immediate goal is to do well today.

I am a 66 year old man who has been overweight all my life. I have lost weight at times, but could never keep it off. Any advice or comments would be welcome.

Yesterday

Breakfast
Oatmeal 150
Raisins 150

Snack
Ideal Shake 120

Lunch
Grits 200

Dinner
Eggplant Parmesan 300
Salad with blue cheese dressing 330

Total 1,250 calories
 
Hey Alligatorob and welcome to the diaries! The first thing I see is that your calories are VERY low, which is often hard to maintain in the long run. Losing the weight a little more slowly tends to be easier to maintain. Maybe more like 1750 a day if you´re sedentary? Either way: best of luck!
LaMa
 
Thanks LaMa, you are not the only one who said my calorie count was too low.

My thinking was to kind of kick start the diet by keeping calories low for a couple of weeks and then transition to something more moderate. Does that make sense? Or am I on the wrong path?
 
I guess that depends on how much willpower you have. I´d start binging within a week no matter how motivated I was - but then I´ve dieted before so my body knows what´s coming and just freaks out preemptively, screaming for more calories. The thing is: the difference between crazy low calories and something you may be able to keep up is around a pound a week. If you think you can keep this up for three weeks you can lose an extra 3 pounds in that time. Do you think you can keep 100% focused for that long and 3 pounds are worth that level of commitment? If you do: go for it.
 
Yesterday was a good day, I ate well and feel good!

LaMa I know what you are saying but in my experience it takes no more will power for me to just eat 1,200 calories a day than to eat a bit more. Anytime I don't eat to the point of being overstuffed I crave food, always have. That is my problem, I've lost a lot of weight over the years and always gained it back. Twice in my life I lost over 100 lbs, and I never lost that craving. I am not sure how to control it this time, but right now my goals are a lot more short term, mostly getting through the day without overeating.

Yesterday

Breakfast
Oatmeal 150
Raisins 150

Snack
Ideal Shake 120

Lunch
Grits 200

Dinner
Spaghetti Squash 62
3 1/2 meatballs 233
Tomato sauce 70
Ice cream (small portion) 137
Blackberries 31

Total 1,153 calories
 
Does it help to fill up on a (low- to no-fat) soup or salad before each meal? Just to get some more volume in without adding a ton of calories? If one strategy doesn´t take more effort than another I´d say just eat as much as you need to get all your healthy fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals in for a couple of weeks.
 
I've found it helfpul to be a volume eater of vegetables. I eat a reasoable portion of meat/fat/fruit/starches, but pretty much go ham on vegetables. You feel like you get a lot of food without consuming a horrific number of calories.
 
Yesterday was a good day, ate pretty well and I feel good.

I've about decided to go with a couple of weeks of a ~1,200 calorie or so diet to kind of reset and then start figuring out what makes more sense in the long run. So far the 1,200 calories feels ok, I am hungry sometimes but not starving. I am craving lots of foods but in the short term at least I think I can control that. I am also going to try to eliminate or reduce alcohol for that time. Alcohol has calories and can weaken my resolve.

Last night the grandkids were here and we ordered Dominoes Pizza, I had some but not too much. I sure would have liked more, but I didn't do it. We had a lot more leftover pizza than usual, mostly my uneaten share I guess.

Yesterday

Breakfast
Oatmeal 150
Blackberries 31

Snack
Ideal Shake 120

Lunch
Grits 200

Dinner
Pizza 330

Snack
Popcorn 300

Total 1,131 calories
 
Yeah if you´re going to go with such low calories - even short-term - definitely ditch the alcohol for a while. Alcohol messes up your metabolism: liver wants to get rid of neurotoxins more urgently than it wants to burn fat so as long as you´re digesting alcohol your body´s not breaking down stored fat no matter how hungry you are. Plus it gives you more calories to work with in order to get your nutrients in.
 
i will be turning 66 in a few weeks. almost a year ago now i was pushing into the obese BMI range, about a 32. for the preceding two years i tried and tried to drop weight, but i kept hitting a wall and could not get past that point which was still 40-50 lbs over a normal/ healthy BMI. then i got smarter by learning about nutrition. i went to a plan of drastically reducing sugar. i was stunned when i discovered that nearly everything off the shelf in a box or a can has added sugar. some days i was exceeding the maximum recommended allowance by 10am.

the other part of my plan was to adopt a schedule of daily intermittent fasting. for the next 4 months i averaged 2-2.5 lbs/week loss. when i hit a BMI of 25 (borderline healthy/ overweight), my loss slowed, but over the past 4-5 months i have probably dropped another 8-10 lbs and at the moment on good days i'm flirting with a BMI of around 23.5.

there are some links on my diary page to a few lectures by people who really changed my misunderstanding of how nutrition and digestion work and how very simple changes can make a huge difference. by the way, i have arthritis and have already had three joint replacements (both knees and a hip), so i don't do much more than walk for exercise. i did not really increase my exercise during the months of my weight loss, it was simply learning most importantly, when to eat and when not to.

good luck.
 
Regarding pizza, I have found it effective to supplement with salad. I eat one to two pieces (depending on size and topping) and eat a big salad with it. It feels more like a meal and I don't walk away hungry because I only got one piece.
 
Hi Rob! Agreed with the folks above, your calories are super low, and would be even for a person in the normal/overweight BMI range. I think you're right that you might kickstart a weight loss, but you also risk kickstarting a pattern of binging behavior! Of course you know yourself best, but I can attest to it from personal experience... maybe try a website like this that helps you see how much you should eat based on your height/weight for safe and, most importantly, sustainable weight loss:
Calorie Calculator

Thanks for sharing!
 
Yesterday was a good day, I ate well and feel good.

My Lean thanks for your input, it seems most people don't think my low cal kick start is a good idea. I am considering all opinions and appreciate your insight and the insight of others. I have tried many times just cutting back a bit and that hasn't seemed to work very well. My body and mind have been in an overeating mindset for years, binging most every day, I was just thinking this might be a good reset. I know this will lead to bigger weight loss in the first couple of weeks, I also know that in some ways that early quick weight loss isn't "real" and it won't be sustainable. But it does feel good and will help with my mindset, for a while anyway. Figuring out how to stop binging long term is a very different problem, one I don't think I can figure out right now, not that its too soon to start thinking about it. Right now I just want to stick to this today, that is no small goal, but one I think I can achieve. Ok, enough rambling, yesterday I ate:

Breakfast
Cheese sandwich 420

Dinner
Spaghetti and meatballs 600

Snack
A little pizza 120

Total 1,140 calories
 
Today was a good day, I ate well and feel good. I have been feeling hungry more than other days since I started this, but I am resisting. Talked to my wife about it this evening, she is trying to help. She found the lowest cal microwave popcorn she could for snacks and bought a bunch of veggies.

Today

Breakfast
Grapenuts 200
milk 30
banana 105

Lunch

Grapes 80

snack

banana 105

Dinner
Salmon 305
Salad with a little blue cheese dressing 200

Snack
Popcorn 110

Total 1,135 calories
 
Day 6 was a good day, I stayed on track and am happy about it. I have to be honest I was hungrier more of the day than I like, tried using snacks to get through it.

Breakfast

Cheese sandwich 320
Snack

Ideal Shake 120
Lunch

Oatmeal 150
Raisins 100

snack
banana 105

dinner
salad with few blue cheese sprinkles (no dressing)125
lean pork 222

Total 1,142 calories
 
Don't want to nag but I do hope you're taking vitamins because you're nowhere close to meeting your nutrient needs. Well done on the willpower though!
 
Welcome Rob.

For what it’s worth I too agree that a super low calorie diet is extremely hard to maintain for most people (you may be an exception; only you will know that) but you need to ensure you get a balanced diet with all the nutrients you need. Perhaps a visit to a dietician could help?

The more you follow this journey you’re on the more you will naturally learn about nutrition so please don’t be scared or concerned about starting the learning now (even if you have a good knowledge of nutrition it’s NEVER a bad thing to get back to basics).

Great to see you’ve set yourself a long term goal but do you have short and mid term? Are you happy to reassess if your long term seems to be unrealistic in the future? Ie; if you’ve got you’re 160lb goal from a BMI calculator be aware they are notoriously poor predictors and don’t account for people with higher muscle mass. I would have to have close to no body fat to achieve a “healthy” BMI.

At any rate great to see you here, if you need anything yell out and keep your diary entries coming! We’re all here to support when you need it.
 
Thanks TM, the 160 lbs comes from my historic lows when I felt like I was at the right weight, once when I was 16, and again at 31, now that I'm 66 those are distant memories. Right now my real goal is to make it though today eating right. I prefer not to think too much about the long term.
 
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