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Too Much Rat Man (Read 3016 times)
Rat Man
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Too Much Rat Man
Mar 8th, 2018 at 3:44pm
 
   Roughly fifteen years ago my weight ballooned up to just a few pounds shy of 300.  Scary.  I went on a diet and was extremely successful.  Some of you may remember me mentioning this a long time ago.  I lost almost 100 lbs in eight months and I didn't starve myself or even exercise.
    Slowly but surely my weight has worked itself back up to about 260. I'm tall and can carry some weight but to be honest I am fat. So about nine days ago I went back on the diet.  Once I get started I tend to be a hard ass about such things so I'm pretty sure I'll be successful.  I'm trying to get a good exercise program started to go with it. At 63 the body resists exercise but I'm stubborn. I'll whip the old carcass back into shape one more time. 
    One of the things that happens when you loose significant weight is that you loose first where you want to loose it the least and last where you want to loose it the most.  For most men the weight comes off the arms, shoulders, and chest first and off of the gut last.  For women usually their butts and thighs tend to thin last.  I know my diet is working because I can already see my shoulders are a bit smaller.
    The diet mainly centers around carbs.  Most people think of carbs as bad things.  Your body needs the complex carbs you get from grains and starchy foods like potatoes and doesn't need the kind you get from saturated fats.  Unfortunately most people get way too much of the good complex carbs that your body needs.
     Please keep in mind that I am not a Nutritionist or any sort of health care professional so try this at your own risk.  Most of this is based on ideas borrowed from Pat Croce, a former trainer then part owner of the Philadelphia 76ers. Basically this is it.
     This diet is as much about when you eat what as much as what you eat.  Let's start with what you can and can't eat.
    Things that are not permitted:  fried foods, fatty meats, cheese, cake, candy, chips, soda, butter, (margarine is OK within reason), etc.. Basically you're avoiding any sort of animal fat or sugary junk food.
      Things that you can eat: fruits and vegetables, lean meat in moderation, fish, and a variety of products made from grains.  Rice, some bread, oatmeal, etc.  Potatoes are permitted also as long as you don't junk them up with forbidden items.
    Of course both lists are much longer but with a little common sense you can fill in the rest.  As I wrote above, this diet is as much about when you eat what as what you eat.  I've had arguments with professional Nutritionists (Kugger slingdog for one) who claim that my diet is bunk and that it doesn't matter what time of day you consume which calories. All I can say is 100 lbs in eight months without starving. So you start your day with a fairly large breakfast.  As I mentioned, this isn't a starvation diet.  You want to pack in all of your complex carbs that your body needs for energy and to build muscle in the morning. You don't want to eat them at night then go to bed with a belly full of calories that you're not going to burn.  Breakfast can be a good helping of any kind of quality whole grain cereal, (not the sugar glop crap) with skim milk.  If you absolutely can't stand skim use 2% sparingly. Milk fat works against this diet. A bowl of rice with some margarine and soy sauce on it, oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, a couple of baked potatoes with some margarine on them, etc.. You get the idea. 
    Lunch you want to go much lighter on the complex carbs.  A can of soup like Campbell's is very low in calories and there's enough of a variety to keep you interested.  That and three or four crackers will get you by. Or a single peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  A tomato sandwich with a little mayo is OK.  I do mean a little. A can of dry tuna can get you by.  Eat the kind that is packed in water, not oil. The point is to limit the complex carbs with lunch.
    Dinner should be as close to no complex carbs as you can get.   A skinned, pan fried chicken breast, a broiled fish fillet, or even a lean piece of pork like the loin is OK.  Have it with some steamed or boiled veggies like string beans, corn, lima beans, peas, etc.  Sometimes I'll nuke a sweet potato. After dinner there are no complex carbs until the next morning.
     One of the things that makes this diet work is that any time of the day or night you can eat any quantity of fresh raw fruits or veggies that you want.  They won't put an ounce on you. Trust me.  Skim milk is also permitted and can help with killing your appetite.  I've found that grapefruit are great for suppressing your appetite also.  I like to keep a large supply of celery in. It takes more calories to digest celery than are in celery.  It's a good idea to buy fruits that take a little time and effort to eat rather then ones that you can just glom into your mouth.  Buy seeded grapes instead of the seedless kind.  Pomegranates are a great choice.   You get the idea.
    One other thing that helps this diet to work is that once a week you're allowed one big cheat.  If you want to eat a pizza on your cheat day go for it.
    I almost forgot to mention, lay off the booze. It has no place on this diet.  If you have to drink do it as sparingly as possible.  Beer, ale, stout, should be avoided completely (I know...) because they're loaded with empty calories.
    There's much more to it but this is the basics and should be enough to get anyone who is interested started. As I said, I'm nine days into it. Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted as to how the weight loss is going.  The last time without exercise I lost about 13 lbs per month.
    One more thing... I have gone on diets that cut out all of your complex carbs.  You just eat lean meat, fish, fruits, and veggies.  You will loose lots of weight very quickly on such a diet but the results won't last because you're starving your body of what it needs. Also you end up burning up your muscles as well as your fat. As soon as you reach your target weight and go off of such a diet your weight will come roaring back and sometimes you end up fatter than when you started. That's how people end up yoyo dieting.  I think I'm done.  Feel free to ask questions.
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« Last Edit: Mar 12th, 2018 at 2:22pm by Rat Man »  
 
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Bill Skinner
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #1 - Mar 8th, 2018 at 10:31pm
 
Hang in there Rat Man. 

I find that if I get hungry between meals, I can eat a handful of dried fruit and wash it down with plain old water, and feel full for a while.  For some reason, dried fruit and a glass of water work better for me than fresh fruit.  Keep in mind that I am not trying to be healthy, I am trying to not feel hungry. 

That's mostly for those times when you are really hungry between meals, for me, usually between breakfast and lunch.

I like a dill pickle but that has a lot of salt.   Cry
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #2 - Mar 9th, 2018 at 7:07am
 
huh weird - kind of a reverse caveman diet.
Heard a paleobiologist on the raido recently. They asked her about the caveman diet and she said: 'Lifespan of around 35 years, how good could it have been' lol

potatoes are usually counted as simple carbs and bad for people with diabetes.

But any diet that works for you is good Thumbs Up
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #3 - Mar 9th, 2018 at 11:54am
 
It may well be that you've just been dehydrated Bill. Most people when they think they're hungry are actually really just thirsty. With instant access to food and water (in most of the West and other developed countries) people have kind of lost the ability to distinguish between the two. If most people had a big glass of water the next time they felt hungry, they probably wouldn't want or need to eat anything.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #4 - Mar 9th, 2018 at 1:48pm
 
Nutrition strikes me as something that is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. Experimenting to find out what works for you is probably a pretty good strategy.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #5 - Mar 9th, 2018 at 1:48pm
 
    Though not really an essential goal of this diet for more days than not this time around I've been able to get by on just two meals per day.  I'll eat a big breakfast in the afternoon combine lunch and dinner.  This should expedite things.  I haven't allowed myself my cheat day yet.  I want to get a few weeks into it and see at least some preliminary results before I do that.  If I can be really hard core and get by without the cheat day all the better.  Thanks for the encouragement.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #6 - Mar 10th, 2018 at 4:44pm
 
Whatever diet works for you. My personal favorite is the Paleo which is probably the opposite of what you're doing. But hey whatever gets you where you want to be.

The one thing I like about the Paleo is if youre not cheating, you are virtually never hungry and never have cravings. It's very weird. When I eat a lot of carbs I have food cravings all the time. When I eat Paleo I never think about food. And you can eat as much as you want.

As for saturated fats, actually there is contradictory evidence that it's bad for your body. And tons of studies done that show it's not a cause for heart disease.

Saturated fats (animal fats) have been given a bad name for years for no good reason. Trans fats are bad as would be expected since they are not natural to begin with, but animal fat is perfectly healthy for your body.

The real culprit, especially in American culture is added sugars. We are finally starting to see a shift from fats being the bad guy to sugars, which cause inflammation and leads to all sorts of health problems. Cut out all added, unnatural sugars (fruit is ok) from your diet and within a month or two you will feel like a million bucks.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #7 - Mar 12th, 2018 at 2:32pm
 
    One more thing I wanted to mention.  I recommended Campbell's soups (or knock offs) for lunch because they're filling and low in calories.  This might not be a great idea for everyone because they are high in salt.  If sodium is a problem you can order their low sodium varieties straight from Campbell's.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #8 - Mar 12th, 2018 at 3:27pm
 
Or just make soup - it's dead easy, can be made in bulk and frozen in easy to microwave portions.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #9 - Mar 13th, 2018 at 1:35pm
 
Absolutely.  In that this diet calls for you to have a lot more veggies on hand than you normally might, making soup is a good way to use up the ones that aren't going to last much longer.  A stir fry is a good way to get rid of a lot of veggies too.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #10 - Mar 13th, 2018 at 2:48pm
 
KTO, not dehydrated.  The one thing I do regularly is drink.  And it's almost always water.  Coffee in the morning and then pretty much nothing else except water.  I don't drink sodas, most prepackaged drinks taste too sweet for me. 

The good news about the dried fruit and water is that it also provides a lot of fiber, depending on what fruit you eat. 

My guess is that as the dried fruit is in your stomach with the water, it re hydrates, which causes your body to take longer to break it down.  So you feel full for longer.  But that's a guess, I really have no idea.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #11 - Mar 16th, 2018 at 1:49pm
 
   Dried fruit is a great choice as a between meal snack IMO.
       There's one more thing I'd like to mention and it applies to any diet or exercise program.  Don't be looking in the mirror and weighing yourself every day.  You won't see daily or even weekly results and you'll become discouraged.  You will see monthly results though.  Weighing yourself once a month is more than enough.  I'm a little over two and a half weeks into it now.  I can see a slight difference and a pair of shorts that I couldn't squeeze into at the start of this I can now get into, though they are still tight around the middle.  I should hit my target weight around August.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #12 - Mar 17th, 2018 at 12:40pm
 
That's the other thing, don't try to lose too much, too fast.  It's not healthy and you usually gain it back just as fast as you lost it.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #13 - Mar 25th, 2018 at 3:08pm
 
   Thanks, Bill.  Tomorrow marks one month into the diet. I have stuck to it religiously.  I've even skipped my allowed once a week cheats.  I don't have a scale so I can't say how much I've lost until the next time I see a doctor.  I can see a slight change but I'm still big and fat.  NP. That's to be expected after only one month. If all goes well I should be at my target weight by August.
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Re: Too Much Rat Man
Reply #14 - May 15th, 2018 at 9:21am
 
   This is discouraging. Yesterday for the first time I got on a scale.  I'm 2 1/2 months into this diet.  I've done this before and I usually loose at least 12 pounds per month.  So far I've only lost 16 lbs.  I was expecting at least double that.  The thing is that this time I'm being much more hard core about it.  My activity level is higher, I'm only eating two meals per day instead of three, and I'm not using the one cheat meal per week that this diet allows. If anything I should be loosing faster, not at half the pace of the last time.  To some 16 pounds would seem good but I generally loose much faster.  Still, that's something.  I do look and feel a little better.  But where I was expecting to hit my target weight by the end of August now it looks like I'll get there around Christmas. 
    My resolve is strong. I'm going to do this.  I'm too old to be fat.  It's dangerous.
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