Drinking only water and exercising, but...

C

Crysillion

New member
Hello, community. I'm sorry to just burst into here and start asking a bunch of questions, nobody probably remembers me but a while back I posted here and said I stopped drinking soda, and that I was going straight to water. That didn't work out as planned and unfortunately I found myself slowly going back to soda. Today I'm going to try it again.

I want to drink only water and I think I can pull it off. I like a good challenge and I'm serious about discipline, nothing quite like trying to quit the bad stuff cold turkey, but I know it won't be easy.

I was thinking however. Drinking water and exercising, is it OK to eat everyday meals? By that I mean, maybe I'll have some kind of pasta one night, or a pizza, and then have hamburgers or something else the next night. Would this heed results regardless if I was just trying to lose weight and pack on a bit of muscle?

I realize I'm being a bit vague here and I apologize, I was never really good at the whole explaining-the-situation thing. Basically, this is what's going on;

* Going to drink only water as a beverage. No soda. No coffee.

* Exercise daily in whatever way I can.

* Hold no restriction to eating, as long as I don't eat unnecessarily bad stuff like cookies, ice cream, chips, etc.

Do you think this would work? The reason I ask is because everyone always says to eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits, but let's be real here. Not everyone really likes all that stuff and in some cases, it's just too expensive. When you live with your family, you tend to eat what they eat and it usually isn't the best thing in the world for you.

I'm not expecting this to end up with the fast track to success, but with the ordeal with beverages and exercise, could I still see some very positive results? Or would it all be so slow going that I really need to do something about what I eat as well?

Thank you, community. Any help you can provide to this stranger will be highly appreciated!
 
Your diet is a large proportion of what will result in weight loss...so yes what you eat is important, and just drinking water with the same bad foods will not result in good results, in my opinion.
 
I think that's possible because that's pretty much what I've been doing o.o

But here's the thing though, I stopped eating all types of red meat. I still eat everything fried, rice, chicken, vegetables, ice cream, cookies, everything. But I've cut red meat for funsies.

That's like cutting a lot of fat already.

I think you should find out you BMR from HERE and then take those calories and subtract 500 from it. That's how much you're going to eat in a day. I tend to overestimate the calories on the food I eat because it's better in weight loss than underestimating (which will ruin the point of keeping track of the calories you're supposed to eat!)

Look up the calories online, (I use this) and just estimate. That result minus the work you do everyday should add up to 500 calories less in a day! So within a week, you would've already lost a pound. :3

Just remember not to cheat on it like getting a 5in x 5in in slab of pork chop and forcing yourself to believe that it's only 300 calories or eating something from McDonalds and saying it's only 500 calories. o.o There we go. My dysfunctional diet plan that kinda works on me but you can eat whatever the hell you want to eat.. kinda.

Don't forget to count the oils they fry up the meat with, alright? v_v
 
Crysillion, you do not need to cut anything from your diet to lose weight, but you do have to be aware of how many calories your body needs a day and how many you are putting in. I.E. you can't eat 5000 calories of pizza and pop and burgers and cookies a day on top of other meals if your body only needs 3000 calories to maintain weight, regardless of how much exercise or water you drink. Not being restrictive is pretty key to long term success. You always crave what you can't have, and then when you have it, you think you've blown everything and start to fall apart. I haven't eliminated anything I used to eat - pizza, chinese takeout, chipotle burritos, calzones from a tasty place called geppetos, etc. However, I haven't craved any of that food in a month now. I don't miss it yet. Rest assured, the day I want a burrito, I'm getting one!

Regarding cutting pop and switching to all water - not a bad choice if you can keep it up. But you mentioned you got pulled back to the pop somehow. I managed to cut it completely, after discovering I was drinking over 1500 calories a day in mountain dew!!! I've managed to not have a full caloried soda drink in probably over 2 years. Actually, I drink very little of stuff that has calories in it. I drink a lot of propel fitness water and crystal light though. And when I crave pop, I found it was easy to make the switch to diet. The coke zero product line is amazing! Even when I fell completely off the wagon last winter after needing to have my gall bladder removed, I guess I didn't fall completely off afterall because even though I started eating like crap, I stayed with the diet sodas. The full caloried stuff tastes too sweet and syrupy for my tastes now I can't even drink them anyways. There's nothing wrong with switching to diet for a pop addict. Its tough to go cold turkey straight to nothing but water, and you don't have to do it. Maybe if you used to like coffee with cream and sugar, try tea instead? Idk, I never got into either.

The reason I ask is because everyone always says to eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits, but let's be real here. Not everyone really likes all that stuff and in some cases, it's just too expensive.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but these are just excuses. I used to say I didn't like fruits and veggies, but thats because I'd rather have Burgerking, or macaroni and cheese. I start out every day with a banana. I love broccoli. I even love brussel sprouts, fried up with a little proscuito. I eat berries all the time. Strawberries dunked in dark chocolate pudding cups are an amazing snack. I ate an entire bag of mixed veggies with a salmon steak last week for dinner. Actually had to fight to stuff all the veggies down, but it was only 80 calories for the whole bag. It doesn't need to be fresh, and its not expensive. Canned fruits and veggies are the 50 cents a can? Frozen stuff is almost always on sale. You can always find deals. The only fruit I can honestly say I don't like, are melons. Watermelon, cantelope, honeydoo... I force it down sometimes because its fruit and its good for me if there are no other options, but I don't particularly like them. But There are literally hundreds if not thousands of options for fruit or veggies and to blanket them all with a "I don't like them" or "They're too expensive" really are just childish excuses.
 
Well, cutting out the soda and coffee will do a few things - definitely beneficial.... you'll have better blood sugar levels and by cutting out the sugar, you will start to feel better regardless of weight loss. Plus by increasing your water intake you should shed any water-weight you've gained through water retention.

As for weight loss itself.... it depends how much weight you want to lose or if you're just trying to improve your overall wellness. You may lose a few lbs with your approach. You may also hit a wall pretty fast, as you're not *dieting* per se.

Fruits, veggies and salad.... yup.... dun like 'em.... but I eat 'em everyday. Lots of benefits to doing so, fat/weightloss aside. Food is fuel.... liking it is secondary in my mind.

Dieting doesn't have to be expensive. Carrots are cheap.... so are apples. Besides.... you mean to say that spending XX dollars on a meal say at a Wendy's or something, is cheaper than buying some healthy stuff? If you want pre-prepared, then yes, the fast food is cheaper. But let's say your Wendy's meal costs 8$. That's a burger, fries and a drink (more or less). For 8$ you can probably get a small bag of baby carrots, a 2 lb bag of apples and maybe even a bananna or two or some pears. Taht's like.... 2 or 3 meals/snacks. Definitely more value for your money there.

Anyway, hope that helps. :) Hang in there! :)

bluemomma
 
if you look at the cost of buying groceries over fast-food, it always appears more expensive because you are buying it all in one shot, but, besides meats, it's always cheaper to prepare your own food. Buying seasonal stuff makes a huge difference.
 
As mentioned above, you need to figure out what your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. There are many online calculators for doing this. It is based on many factors including height, weight, gender, and age. You need to eat less than this to burn body fat.

Don't bother thinking ABOUT the kinds of food you can eat or not. That is a waste of time. Calories are the sole measure of energy, nothing else. Count the calorie you eat everyday. You need to do the dirty work of figuring this out. When you can account for every thing you eat AND you are eating less than your BMR, you will lose weight.
 
The calories you eat as well as the type of calories is important. SUre, you can lose weight eating 1500 calories of chocolate a day, but is that healthy? no. You are going to run into trouble fast if you are not somewhat careful about eating a balanced diet, even when trying to cut back on your intake to lose weight. Try to eat foods from all food groups each day. Eating fruits and vegetables for snacks can help alot with that.
 
There is only one thing you need to pay attention to lose weight and that is calories.

Put all of your effort on that. It would be nice if there are balanced, but if you goal is to lose weight, that is the only thing to pay attention to now.

It is about energy in and energy out.

If you do not balance your diet as suggested above, you are going to be very very hungry because you will eat high calorie stuff like chips, sugar soda, beer, cookies, fries etc.

You will automatically balance your diet when you realize that the game is won and lost SOLELY on calories.

Frank
 
Ok my first reaction to the original post was 'is someone trying to have us on here?'

The reason I ask is because everyone always says to eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits, but let's be real here. Not everyone really likes all that stuff and in some cases, it's just too expensive.

I'm sorry, not everyone really likes this stuff? Its too expensive? I think you will find that the vast majority of people in the world do like fruit and vegetables. And they are all sooo different in taste and texture that you can't just say 'don't like fruit and veg' unless you have tried them all. People tend to say this when they said it as children and were never discouraged to break away from it. And I don't think 69p for a punnet of mushrooms, or 80p for a bag of 9 apples, is very expensive. Its more expensive to eat unhealthily!

You also say you aren't going to eat obviously unhealthy foods like ice cream and chips, yet a paragraph before you are having pizza and burgers lol.

Ok just in case I have the wrong end of the stick and this is actually a real post, I have some advice if you want it:

...Don't cut out caffeine straight away completely. It can cause headaches and irritation and other things. Best to cut it in half then gradually reduce.
...You seem to really like soda and fizzy drinks. It might be difficult to just cut them completely and stick to water as your body is used to something different. Can you get some juice, or the juice you dilute in water? Sparkling water may be good to keep in as a treat as the fizziness is nice.
...You will not lose weight if you ignore your diet. Losing weight, in fact staying healthy and fit, is 80% diet and 20% exercise. You must must MUST address your diet if you want to be healthy. Water and some exercise is not compensation for good nutrition, and in fact your physical fitness will be reduced by poor diet.
...Find an exercise you enjoy, as you are more likely to stick to it.
...Do some research on healthy weight and healthly lifestyle. ADDRESS DIET
 
Moderation is where its at- you cut something out that you like to eat and your going to want to eat it more- it then becomes a battle which gets you down. As your feeling down your motivation drops, you give in and eat the banned food and feel worse, you eat more and gain weight and feel even worse....see the cycle?

If you want to eat something, make allowances for it, forgo something else, fit it in. Don't ban anything unless you really find it impossible to moderate it (thats after trying).

Although I would say not counting anything and eating what you want (apart from a list prepared) would be a good idea, it is still easy to over eat the required calories and gain weight. You can easily over do it on fruit for example, trust me, I do that quite often. I chain eat apples when I get hungry. And this is just apples, it can happen with any foods.

The problem is, the human body does not like to lose weight. We are preprogrammed to maintain or gain weight, we are still not far from the ancient humans who had to fight and kill for their food and droughts and famines were commonplace. As a result we developed a part of our brain that worries constantly about famine and so likes us to eat and then eat some more to save for later incase there is no food for later- it is afterall life and death to that part of the brain.
So whilst you think it may be possible to just go on hunger, its not so easy. Loud hunger pangs may make the hunger to eat just that little bit more or have seconds or a larger plated meal... hard to ignore. It also becomes hard to regulate what your eating: eat not enough (and live with the constant hunger pangs) without counting, you could be eating not enough. This then becomes difficult when your weight plateaus- where do you go from there? what else can you cut back on if your not sure of the amount your actually eating each day?

And a further issue would be your macros- you need to be getting enough protein for example to maintain your muscles and cell growth if anything. This would help you to continue to lose weight. But if your not counting anything, how do you know your getting enough? (1.5-2g per KG of your body weight) and how do you know your not going over the required deficit for a good weight loss? its not so easy.

Calorie counting is not about having you tied to a bit of paper and some kitchen scales, its learning about what you need to eat each day to lose weight. Once you become a bit more aware on whats going on in your diet you may be able to get away with not weighing everything or even knowing what a portion of tuna at 150kcals looks like without weighing it.

As far as soda drinks go- are you drinking the low cal stuff? damage limitation is better then nothing.
 
Good summary summer123!
 
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