Does eating extremely light meals help lose weight?

[disneychrista]

Invest in a new scale. Take it out once a week, weigh yourself and then put it back away. Let how you are feeling, how your clothes are fitting be your guide to your progress. Weight is only one measure of your progress.

 

[Foxhound3857]

Invest in a new scale. Take it out once a week, weigh yourself and then put it back away. Let how you are feeling, how your clothes are fitting be your guide to your progress. Weight is only one measure of your progress.

I know. The thing is, I have a pot belly, goes out about 4 inches over my pants. That's the single biggest thing I'm trying to lose right now, my belly, getting it to the point where it looks normal and doesn't stick out past my pants.

 

[clarabelle]

I agree -once a week.
The scale you might enjoy would be a food scale -a digital one.
They aren't terrible expensive and they give you portion size very accurately.

Are you exercising? How is that going?

 

[teskak]

Couple of things - while we might hope it is true there is no way to diet or exercise to get rid of the fat on one body part vs all over. So while you lose the belly you also will be losing fat on your chest, back, legs etc. So be happy for all weight lost even if it is not the bits you want.

Next, there has been a lot of good diet advice on the thread, but I am concerned "a cup of water and a small sandwich" might be too extreme to maintain. It is harder to hold your resolve when you are starving, especially if you were used to large portion sizes. I agree with FireDancer's view of aiming at the start for a 100 calorie a day deficit, but maybe more if you did your daily 30mins of hard exercise. What is hard? That is individual. Are you puffing or sweating? Just as important as diet

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Definetly don't be a slave to the scale. Once a week is more then enough.

You have to eat, excercise and drink alot of water. 3 years ago I lost weight by eating small meals every few hours and going on the tread mill daily. The Lean Cuisines were great in the beginnning but be careful of the sodium.

I still had my pizza and going out to eat on Saturdays. I cut down alot on carbs- breads, pasta.

What I ate and continue to do so
oatmeal
Greek yougurt
turkey slices
string beans and alot of them!
egg beaters
Fiber One 80 cereal for snack
grapes
apple slices
any vegetable
hamburger-93% fat free ( no bun)
Deli Flat pocket sandwich bread -100 calories. Add spinach and turkey and it's a very good sandwich

I can't Believe it's Not Butter spray- no calories

30 pounds by Christmas may be a little too much too fast, I found more success with a slow gradual weight -1-2 pounds a week. Good luck!

 

[FireDancer]

I know. The thing is, I have a pot belly, goes out about 4 inches over my pants. That's the single biggest thing I'm trying to lose right now, my belly, getting it to the point where it looks normal and doesn't stick out past my pants.

You can't spot reduce fat. The best thing you can do is work on getting your body fat down and let the pot belly go away with it. As you go down in body fat % your pot belly will start to go away. It is a long-term issue with a long-term solution. While everyone generally wants to lose weight as quickly as possible the people who stick to a sustainable lifestyle change as opposed to a crash diet will have greater long term results.

I try and tell people to look at it as a 5 year plan. That 5 years will come and go one way or the other. Either they will be spent getting healthier and down to the weight/body fat % you want or they will be spent doing nothing. When you look at yourself on October 6, 2016 either you will be happy with what you see because of how you spent the 5 years or you will be 5 years down the road wishing you had done something and looking at another 5 years.

It is easy to get discouraged when you realize it is going to take a while to get where you want but that is why I try and put the person in that point down the road when the work will be in the past as opposed to looming on the horizon. It is much easier to get the point across in person than in writing so sorry if this makes no sense.

 

[Liberty Belle]

You can't spot reduce fat. The best thing you can do is work on getting your body fat down and let the pot belly go away with it. As you go down in body fat % your pot belly will start to go away. It is a long-term issue with a long-term solution. While everyone generally wants to lose weight as quickly as possible the people who stick to a sustainable lifestyle change as opposed to a crash diet will have greater long term results.

I try and tell people to look at it as a 5 year plan. That 5 years will come and go one way or the other. Either they will be spent getting healthier and down to the weight/body fat % you want or they will be spent doing nothing. When you look at yourself on October 6, 2016 either you will be happy with what you see because of how you spent the 5 years or you will be 5 years down the road wishing you had done something and looking at another 5 years.

It is easy to get discouraged when you realize it is going to take a while to get where you want but that is why I try and put the person in that point down the road when the work will be in the past as opposed to looming on the horizon. It is much easier to get the point across in person than in writing so sorry if this makes no sense.

I agree. If you are really, really motivated to lose quickly by Christmas, however, I'd try to do it through exercise more than eating (I mean, eat a low-calorie diet, sure, but don't starve yourself and barely exercise).

Since you're a guy, you could (and probably will) lose weight more quickly than the average woman. The more muscular you are, the easier it will be to lose weight.

I think, if you really up the exercise and stick to around 1500 calories a day, you could safely lose about 3 pounds a week, possibly more some weeks. And don't skip breakfast! Just don't!

The thing that has helped me most is writing down a menu for myself the day before and sticking to it. But really you have to make sure you're eating enough or this simply isn't going to work (psychologically and physically).

 

[Foxhound3857]

Thanks guys. I'm starting to see results.

I found that my scale was just calibrated wrong, set 2 pounds higher than it should be. I reset it down to 0, and my weight this morning was 196lbs. It's starting to come off.

I'm upping my exercise plan a bit starting today, adding situps, 3 times a day, at least 50 a day. Trying to target the fat around my belly.

 

[teskak]

Be careful with the sit-ups. They will not make your belly look flatter until you lose the overlying belly fat. If you have not exercised in a while, poor technique can have you 'dragging' up your neck and give an injury.

Check out the LiveStrong website. A lot of work has gone into it, and the videos show CORRECT technique for the exercises and different levels of difficulty.

Forget about anything you can buy from the home shopping channel - the abblaster, fit master, rip_your_money_off machine will not give the results of the models demonstrating it. Remember just choose the exercise you like that will make you sweaty.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Forget about anything you can buy from the home shopping channel - the abblaster, fit master, rip_your_money_off machine will not give the results of the models demonstrating it. Remember just choose the exercise you like that will make you sweaty.

I used that freakin Ab Rocket for months with no results.

I finally got a little smaller after some diet changes and using the Cybex cross trainer at the gym.

 

[cornflake]

As someone else noted, you can't spot reduce fat. It just doesn't work that way.

Your fat cells, btw, will stay. They're yours to keep, gift with purchase.

They simply lose some of the fat they're holding if you get your body to burn it off.

Not that situps are bad or anything, you can build muscle, which burns calories both at the time and in the long run, but you can't spot reduce.

 

[almburr]

I suggest reading Tosca Renos books "Eat clean" very insightful and it works. I eat 6-8 times a day and work out for about an hour and a half a day-weights and cardio. ive lost 20lbs in 2 months. I never feel hungry or tired. Its real foods and lots of it.

 

[CathrynRose]

I have to pop in and just add something that drives me nuts: Starvation Mode. (and your body suddenly holding on to fat, as you waste the days away drinking nothing but water, and chewing on a celery stick....)

I'm sorry. It's absurd. Anyway you slice it, if you intake calorically less, you will lose weight. I don't see anyone on Survivor going into "starvation mode" and not losing an ounce. The notion is ridiculous, IMO.

So, whether or not it's healthy, is not what I'm arguing. But I still say a "low food diet" drops pounds.

 

[thumphries56]

well it will be hard for you to lose that much in 3 months. but the diet I have been on for about 5 months has worked good for me. I have lost 30 pounds. I agree you don't need to skip meals. that's how you fight hunger by eating several small meals. monday through friday, I don't eat meat, bread or sweets. here's how my day goes for those days. bowl of oatmeal about 8:00 am, then 10:00 am a fat free yogurt & cup of fat free milk. 12:30 I have a veg. plate that I bring from home so I know what's in the veg. then about 2:30 PM I eat a apple with a cup of coffee. I eat supper about 6:00 pm and it consist of a salad (let. tom. cucumber & celery) with italian dressing. with serving of special k chips or pretzels.. then I eat nothing else that day. saturday & sunday I allow my self a serving of baked chicken or fish and some time of bread. with some vegtables for supper. I eat the same during day as I do monday through friday. this diet has worked for me and I feel good. hope this helps.

 

[CathrynRose]

well it will be hard for you to lose that much in 3 months. but the diet I have been on for about 5 months has worked good for me. I have lost 30 pounds. I agree you don't need to skip meals. that's how you fight hunger by eating several small meals. monday through friday, I don't eat meat, bread or sweets. here's how my day goes for those days. bowl of oatmeal about 8:00 am, then 10:00 am a fat free yogurt & cup of fat free milk. 12:30 I have a veg. plate that I bring from home so I know what's in the veg. then about 2:30 PM I eat a apple with a cup of coffee. I eat supper about 6:00 pm and it consist of a salad (let. tom. cucumber & celery) with italian dressing. with serving of special k chips or pretzels.. then I eat nothing else that day. saturday & sunday I allow my self a serving of baked chicken or fish and some time of bread. with some vegtables for supper. I eat the same during day as I do monday through friday. this diet has worked for me and I feel good. hope this helps.

See? Low food.

 

[jsmith]

Just an observation-but you are a 23 year old male-i know everyone has told you 1500 calories a day-but thats actually based on the physiology of a 30 year old female-you should in fact be in the 1800 to 2000 calorie a day range.

To the poster who said "starvation Mode" doesnt happen-how do you think the jews in concentration camps lived, and worked as long as they did on 500 calories a day? Conserving fat is a physiological response to startvation. Yes you will loose weight eventually, but your body is going to hang on to fat as long as it can. Reason being is that the liver can convert fat to glycogen which is the main source of food for the brain. Thats why low/no carb diets work as effectively as they do as long as you keep eating that way-remove carbs, which are the primary source of glycogen, from your diet and and your brain says hey liver we are starving, we need to make glycogen-and the liver responds by kicking into ketosis-the process of converting fat to glycogen. Thats also the reason you regain immediately if you dont watch carb intake after a low carb diet-brain says to liver-hey we got carbs again, lets make lots of body fat so we dont die the next time we get starved.

Weight loss, and more importanly maintaining that loss is a fine line. Eat healthy food and exercise,because you have to burn more than you take in,but dont try and trick systems that evolution has taken a million years to develope-it will bite you later.

 

[cornflake]

I have to pop in and just add something that drives me nuts: Starvation Mode. (and your body suddenly holding on to fat, as you waste the days away drinking nothing but water, and chewing on a celery stick....)

I'm sorry. It's absurd. Anyway you slice it, if you intake calorically less, you will lose weight. I don't see anyone on Survivor going into "starvation mode" and not losing an ounce. The notion is ridiculous, IMO.

So, whether or not it's healthy, is not what I'm arguing. But I still say a "low food diet" drops pounds.

It's not ridiculous, it's science.

Yes, the people on Survivor do go into 'starvation mode' which doesn't include the body holding onto fat, I don't know where you got that, but includes the body responding to the deprivation by slowing metabolism, thus slowing weight loss and, when you start eating again, holding onto every calorie it can.

The people on Survivor lose weight because they're very, very low on calories and burning them. If they were eating enough calories to keep them over starvation, they'd lose it faster than they do, because they'd have the calories to keep their metabolisms burning higher, and the exercise would make it faster still, and they'd have more energy TO do stuff.

Notice at Survivor reunions when everyone looks all puffy? Because their bodies are holding calories when they come off that. Most of them are young and in shape and thus can overcome it eventually when they go back to normal life, but it WILL screw up your metabolism and make it harder and harder to lose weight, and easier and easier to gain it.

The more people do it, the worse it gets.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I have to pop in and just add something that drives me nuts: Starvation Mode. (and your body suddenly holding on to fat, as you waste the days away drinking nothing but water, and chewing on a celery stick....)

I'm sorry. It's absurd. Anyway you slice it, if you intake calorically less, you will lose weight. I don't see anyone on Survivor going into "starvation mode" and not losing an ounce. The notion is ridiculous, IMO.

So, whether or not it's healthy, is not what I'm arguing. But I still say a "low food diet" drops pounds.

True about Survivor--but they don't lose the weight right away...and the first opportunity they get to scarf food...they do.

I think they also don't get their minimum calorie requirements per day and over time--they do lose weight.

But you would have to really starve yourself on a diet to pull that up. Essentially--on tv, they are anorexics unless they win a food reward and then cross over into temporary gluttony.

So sure--if you take the anorexic approach, you will lose weight.

 

[joviroxx]

One thing people don't even realize is that losing the weight, believe it or not, is the easy part. KEEPING it off is the difficult part. How you lose the weight will contribute HUGELY into how easy/difficult/possible it will be to keep it off.

Its not just about calories in/calories out. What calories you eat matter just as much as how many you eat. Additionally, there is a mental aspect to it as well. People want to lose the weight. They want to lose it quickly. But too many don't put enough thought into maintaining the weight loss and what happens when you reach goal.

 

[disneychrista]

losing the weight, believe it or not, is the easy part. KEEPING it off is the difficult part. .

Ain't that the truth.