From: krw@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (keith.r.smith)
Newsgroups: misc.fitness
Subject: Re: Bodyfat Reduction P-3
Date: 23 Dec 92 19:23:13 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <1ha9kfINNlfp@male.EBay.Sun.COM> sproule@gethsemane.EBay.Sun.COM writes:
>
>  (Part Three:)
>
>  So, if you were to reverse that trend and cause yourself to eat on average
>  200 calories less than you burn; it's only a matter of time before the pounds
>  drop off. So far, you are an active person as your posting relates. I'll have to
>  assume that your bodyfat percentage remains unchanged because you do not have
>  control over your eating.
>
>  And to that end, things get easy. All you need is determination and some self-
>  sacrifice. Learn to like being a little hungry and learn to eat lowfat foods and
>  high carbohydrate foods. Keep you daily caloric intack to about 1600-1800 for an
>  extended period of time. Also, figure the approximate number of calories you burn
>  on a daily average due to exercise and add that to your base metabolic rate. 
>
>        For example:
>                        BMR   -1900
>             Daily exercise   - 500
>                 Daily diet   +1800
>                             -------
>                      Total   - 600
>
>  Multiply -600 by 10 and you get -6000. Multiply that -600 by 100 and you get
>  60,000. See where this is going. 100 days roughly equals three months. Which, by
>  the way, is a very safe rate in which to drop 21 or so pounds. If you were to in-
>  crease that -600 to say -800, your results will come even faster. Only, be pre-
>  pared to deal with hunger. Make sure to become aquainted with the calorie content
>  of foods and organize a good daily caloric intack of 1600-1800 calories spread over
>  four meals. This gives you a 400-450 calorie range per meal. Make sure to eat
>  plenty of vegetables, drink lots of water, and don't pump too much on the protein
>  end of things. Keep the protein around 100-150 calories of each meal and the
>  rest spread among the other food groups. 
>
>            Dan S.
>
>
>                  p.s.
>                       Everyone, feel free to critique and/or highlight
>                       any weak or strong points in this regimen. I would
>                       appreciate the input. 

Hi Dan!
Your diet recommendations are right on the mark.  I would suggest, though
that a person not be much concerned about calorie counting if they are
eating the right balance of foods.  I also know that it is quite possible
for a person to get lean w/o getting especially hungry.  I think that the
discipline comes in wherein a person breaks a string of less-than-optimal
eating behaviors and replaces them with better ones. 

I lost 25lbs this year, from May to December, by simply tweaking my diet
and doing appropriate PT. I was definately not going around weak, hungry
or miserable.  The diet tweaking that I did was pretty much as you describe
above.  Basically, I cut my meat intake by about a factor of four, and made
up the difference in whole grains, legumes, potatoes, leafy vegetables
and fruits.  I eliminated steak sandwiches, hoagies, snack foods, sodas,
and beer (and other alcoholic stuff) from my diet.  These changes alone
eliminated a lot of the "empty calories" in my diet.  Whole grains, legumes,
and potatoes can be very filling, so therefore I was not going around
hungry. I don't believe that my diet has changed very much volume-wise,
calorie-wise, and energy-level wise, it has changed quite a bit.  By simply
reducing your intake of over-fatted foods, and replacing them with lowfat/
high complex-carb foods, you reduce the total calories in your diet quite
a bit, as fat is about twice as calorie-dense as protein or complex carbs.
The body also burns more energy processing complex carbs than it does
to store fat.  The third benefit to shifting to a diet that is higher in
complex carbs is that your stamina and alertness improve, so therefore
you can train harder/better, and therefore do a more efficient job of
metabolizing the fat stores that you already have.

My weight dropped fairly quickly for the first few months, on the order of
about a pound-n-change per week.  As I got closer to my normal "fightin
weight", the weight loss slowed to about a pound per month.  I lost _some_
weight overall, but it came off mostly in the midsection and the hips
(where I _wanted_ it to come off...... 4" off the hips  4" off the waist),
the "love handles" are gone, and the abs ripple again.

One thing that I would like to add here, is that I believe that the mirror
is a much better tool with which to gauge one's condition, than the scale.
When one gains weight, it can be fat, muscle, or both.  When one loses
weight, that too can be fat, muscle, or both.  the trick is to gain
muscle and/or lose fat, but not to gain/lose both.  The scale will not
give you that information.  The mirror will.

Keith R