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Girlfriend has tried everything to lose weight but to no avail

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Why to both of the bolded parts. Any good reason?

Personally, I eat a minimum of three eggs per day on most days.

Don't get me wrong - those are great foods but I don't think eggs are the best type of thing to eat daily if you're having weight loss issues (but it's perfect most likely if you're quite healthy and using it to build muscle).

Cheese is ... well it's cheese. Not helpful at all towards weight loss.

I'm not saying you can't have these, but if you want foods to have in moderation (towards weight loss), I would definitely say cheese and eggs.
 

Hamst3r

Member
Man, that diet plan is around 2800 calories. That's a lot of calories to burn off in a day, especially for a ladyperson. It should be under 2000 calories if you want her to lose weight.

EDIT: Misread the OP. I didn't see the days listed there and thought it was for one day.
 

SeanR1221

Member
Don't get me wrong - those are great foods but I don't think eggs are the best type of thing to eat daily if you're having weight loss issues (but it's perfect most likely if you're quite healthy and using it to build muscle).

Cheese is ... well it's cheese. Not helpful at all towards weight loss.

I'm not saying you can't have these, but if you want foods to have in moderation (towards weight loss), I would definitely say cheese and eggs.

Eggs and cheese for breakfast is a much better choice over cereal or oatmeal for weightless.

Crossfit. Do it along with her. I've seen it change people's lives.

Quick, someone post the crossfit video of the girls lifting dummy weights with horrible form.
 

Petrie

Banned
how do you eat 14-20 times per week off that though? Or do you eat a lot of meals out?

I just don't know how you make dinner every night if all you have is one lean meat and some veggies. Do you just have the same thing night after night?

I really need to start spend only $40/week at the grocery store, but I doubt I could once you figure in all the little things you need.

If you're trying to keep things cheap and lose weight, your diet is going to generally be a bit monotonous. You find a few things you like and stick with them for financial reasons.

Ignore the people recommending CrossFit. Overpriced nonsense.
 

jonezer4

Member
That's not a lot.

Seriously? $70/week is $10/day. That's $3.33 a meal!

Some of us aren't rolling in money where we have $3 to spend every time we want to eat.

Man, that diet plan is around 2800 calories. That's a lot of calories to burn off in a day, especially for a ladyperson. It should be under 2000 calories if you want her to lose weight.

Eat less.

You're either bad at math or reading, presumably the latter.
 

SeanR1221

Member
how do you eat 14-20 times per week off that though? Or do you eat a lot of meals out?

I just don't know how you make dinner every night if all you have is one lean meat and some veggies. Do you just have the same thing night after night?

I really need to start spend only $40/week at the grocery store, but I doubt I could once you figure in all the little things you need.

Buy in bulk from costco. 6.00 for 100 eggs, 20.00 for 10 pounds of skinless chicken tenders, 5.00 for a rotisserie chicken, 6.00 for a huge bag of broccoli, 11.00 for 12 large cans of tuna, etc.
 

Futureman

Member
If you're trying to keep things cheap and lose weight, your diet is going to generally be a bit monotonous. You find a few things you like and stick with them for financial reasons.

Buy in bulk from costco. 6.00 for 100 eggs, 20.00 for 10 pounds of skinless chicken tenders, 5.00 for a rotisserie chicken, 6.00 for a huge bag of broccoli, 11.00 for 12 large cans of tuna, etc.

yea makes sense I guess. I'm not really trying to lose weight, but I'm interested in saving $$$. Gotta look into Costco.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
HEY GUYZ MY GIRLFRIEND IS GUZZLING PEANUT BUTTER AND CHEESE AND SHE HASN'T LOST WEIGHT IN FIVE MINUTES WHAT IS SHE DOING WRONG KEEP IN MIND I'M GOING TO IGNORE ALL CONVENTIONAL ADVICE

A wild idiot has appeared. How long will he last?

Don't get me wrong - those are great foods but I don't think eggs are the best type of thing to eat daily if you're having weight loss issues (but it's perfect most likely if you're quite healthy and using it to build muscle).

Cheese is ... well it's cheese. Not helpful at all towards weight loss.

I'm not saying you can't have these, but if you want foods to have in moderation (towards weight loss), I would definitely say cheese and eggs.

So... nothing then? Eggs are amazing and nothing about them encourages weight gain. I hate the term 'superfood', but eggs would certainly qualify.

What is your basis behind thinking cheese and eggs make you fat? Let me guess, it's the high dietary fat content? If so, you don't know what makes people fat.

I will agree that gorging on cheese isn't the best idea, especially for people who don't handle dairy so well, but a egg and cheese omelet for breakfast is tasty, filling, and won't make you fat like the plethora of "conventional" breakfast ideas out there.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
Some of you guys really have no idea what you are talking about. Fat is in no way shape or form bad for you. It's a myth. I had my buddy on a low carb, high fat and high protein diet and he lost 30lbs. Weight loss comes down to calories out versus cals in.

You're the one with the overweight girlfriend right? So your expertise on this matter is obviously not what you think its cracked up to be. If your going to shit on people trying to help you then good fucking luck.

Nothing brings out the armchair experts like a weightloss thread. I laugh at the people who contest that reducing the amount of fat in your diet will help you lose weight.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
You're the one with the overweight girlfriend right? So your expertise on this matter is obviously not what you think its cracked up to be. If your going to shit on people trying to help you then good fucking luck.

Nothing brings out the armchair experts like a weightloss thread. I laugh at the people who contest that reducing the amount of fat in your diet will help you lose weight.

He's right though. He's asking for advice from people who know something about what they are talking about, not dudes who buy into the whole low-fat nonsense that's somehow propagated society.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
He's right though. He's asking for advice from people who know something about what they are talking about, not dudes who buy into the whole low-fat nonsense that's somehow propagated society.

If by "nonsense that's somehow propegated in society" you mean "has worked for millions and millions of people" then I guess you're right.
 
Crossfit. Do it along with her. I've seen it change people's lives.

jaHo8.gif
 
how do you eat 14-20 times per week off that though? Or do you eat a lot of meals out?

I just don't know how you make dinner every night if all you have is one lean meat and some veggies. Do you just have the same thing night after night?

I really need to start spend only $40/week at the grocery store, but I doubt I could once you figure in all the little things you need.
I don't eat out. :)

Those veggies go a long way to filling you up--use the meats as a salad garnish, etc. Sure, I left out some things from my shopping list, but a carton of eggs ($2) and a pack of turkey bacon ($3) can also be very tasty, filling, and healthy. Wheat tortillas are okay in moderation and only cost about $2 to $3. A pack of sirloin tips can run $7-$8 at the supermarket. A bag of frozen salmon fillets is close to $10 but it's very filling. Bags of frozen broccoli and carrots run about $4. Black beans--super fucking healthy and tasty (but high in carbs)--cost about $3 a can for low-sodium variety. Etc.

A lot is repetition. But if you buy frozen items or things with a long shelf life you can mix things up without getting bored. Also, do what I do and google for recipes to get creative and not eat the same thing over and over again (though my breakfasts are pretty static).
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
If by "nonsense that's somehow propegated in society" you mean "has worked for millions and millions of people" then I guess you're right.

It hasn't worked for millions and millions of people, unfortunately. You can continue being ignorant if you'd like, but I'd recommend you actually look into it. The demonizing of dietary fat didn't even start out as an issue that had to do with weight loss/fitness. It was pushed by dudes with an agenda as a way to battle heart disease with completely unfounded and inaccurate statements about fat literally "clogging" one's arteries. It wasn't until marketing people decided they wanted to sell low-fat that connotations of weight loss became associated with low dietary fat.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
There are many reasons why people can be overweight, and there are even cases that are entirely need medical intervention.

But I think the biggest thing that people overlook is the brain. The brain orchestrates body temperature, sex drive, sleep cycles, the circulatory system, etc. It also orchestrates metabolism (energy out) and hunger (energy in). If the brain thinks it's underweight, it will reduce metabolism and increase hunger.

One loosely understood area of research suggests that reducing food's rewarding properties improves the brain's body weight management. Conversely, artificially high rewarding foods interfere with the brain's regulation and defaults to excessive hunger.

What is food reward? Examples:
Pizza: Extremely rewarding
Boiled Potato, plain: Not rewarding

Buttered, hot popcorn: Very rewarding
Mashed corn, plain: Not rewarding

Chinese fast food sesame chicken: Very rewarding
Baked chicken, no spices/sugar/rice/etc: Not rewarding

That said there's no energy fairy. The brain can only reduce metabolism so much. If your gf is crazy hungry to the point it interferes with thinking, then it could be something like excessive reward or another medical condition.

And she should eat meat. Some people just don't do well on plant based proteins. Amino acids are essential for metabolism, neurotransmitters.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
Then why is obesity on the rise?

Pro-tip. People aren't eating more fat.

Pro-tip: if you want to lose weight, move your fat ass and reduce your caloric intake.

Fat contains twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbs. Reduce the saturated fat in your diet and you will lose weight. Yes, you can get down the detail of glycemic index and trans fats etc when your talking in degrees but when your obese, its a pretty simple fucking formula.

Pro-tip 2: reducing your fat intake diesnt mean you have to replace it with a litre-O-cola. Yes obviously if you significantly increase your sugar intake you'll counterbalance the fat reduction. Duh.

But hey, I'm not the one with the fat cheese and peanut butter munching gf on my couch so I guess I'm no expert.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Pro-tip: if you want to lose weight, move your fat ass and reduce your caloric intake.

Fat contains twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbs. Reduce the saturated fat in your diet and you will lose weight. Yes, you can get down the detail of glycemic index and trans fats etc when your talking in degrees but when your obese, its a pretty simple fucking formula.

But hey, I'm not the one with the fat cheese and peanut butter munching gf on my couch so I guess I'm no expert.

Wow, it's like you straight up used the satirical sentence I posted earlier.

This is why the current conventional wisdom sucks. People like you who simplify the issue and are horribly misinformed. Like you said, you're no expert. You really shouldn't be giving anyone advice.

One thing, though: the human body and its metabolic system is not a combustion engine in which you can plug your simple formula. Stop treating it as if it were one.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Also if you don't sleep 7+ hours per night, your body composition will suffer. They've done some trails on this and found with equal diets, equal exercise, both groups lose weight but well slept groups lost primarily fat; sleep deprived groups lost considerable muscle.
 

entremet

Member
Should've posted in the weight loss or fitness thread or p90x thread. Those threads have people who have undergone amazing transformations and are very supportive. Random weight loss threads always bring out the crazies.
 
My suspiscion is that she isn't eating enough but it's hard to get in cals when she wont eat meat. I tell her that she needs to eat more and more frequently throughout the day. Her BMR is around 1550 and with her activity multiplier she just isnt getting enough food. I want to encourage her to reintroduce meat into her diet.

First - all frequency does is make sure you're hungry less often: there is virtually no evidence supporting this as a weight loss method.

Second - meat has nothing to do with it. There are abundant sources of protein in a vegetarian diet, and it's easy to get the number of calories required from eating a vegetarian diet.

Third - what kind of "weight" are we talking about here? If you're talking about getting rid of subcutaneous fat then exercise is extremely ineffective as a means of doing so - exercise is perfect for burning excess caloric intake from food and also for getting rid of visceral fat (internal fat surrounding the organs - this is the dangerous kind), but has extremely limited effect on subcutaneous fat.

Fourth - her weight will go up and down - especially if she is active and doing strength based exercise. Types of food eaten will dramatically affect fluid retention - especially in females. Particularly salt intake, but also other food types. Likewise the stressing of muscles through exercise causes slight inflammation as part of their healing/growth process (which is part of getting stronger) - this causes additional fluid retention.

She may need a higher caloric intake - if she is dramatically under her energy requirements - particularly due to exercise - she will likely create a reaction which will slow her base metabolic rate.

[source: medical practitioner specialising in weight related disorders, particularly those with a hormonal component making it difficult to lose]
 

Srsly

Banned
Pro-tip: if you want to lose weight, move your fat ass and reduce your caloric intake.

Fat contains twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbs. Reduce the saturated fat in your diet and you will lose weight. Yes, you can get down the detail of glycemic index and trans fats etc when your talking in degrees but when your obese, its a pretty simple fucking formula.

Pro-tip 2: reducing your fat intake diesnt mean you have to replace it with a litre-O-cola. Yes obviously if you significantly increase your sugar intake you'll counterbalance the fat reduction. Duh.

But hey, I'm not the one with the fat cheese and peanut butter munching gf on my couch so I guess I'm no expert.

WTF. There's nothing that sets saturated fat apart from any other fat when losing weight. Lipids, on a per calorie basis, are generally just as satiating as carbs. In fact, lipids may have better long term satiating ability than carbs. But focusing on macros might not be useful. I think the food reward idea has merit. Eat boiled, plain mashed potatoes all day and it will be a chore to eat to maintenance. Same with plain, boiled meat.
 

Srsly

Banned
Also if you don't sleep 7+ hours per night, your body composition will suffer. They've done some trails on this and found with equal diets, equal exercise, both groups lose weight but well slept groups lost primarily fat; sleep deprived groups lost considerable muscle.

Yes. Sleep is massively important when it comes to body composition. Lack of sleep will increase ghrelin, which is a hunger promoting hormone, and decrease leptin, which tells your brain that your caloric needs are being met.
 

daycru

Member
Pro-tip: if you want to lose weight, move your fat ass and reduce your caloric intake.

Fat contains twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbs. Reduce the saturated fat in your diet and you will lose weight. Yes, you can get down the detail of glycemic index and trans fats etc when your talking in degrees but when your obese, its a pretty simple fucking formula.

Pro-tip 2: reducing your fat intake diesnt mean you have to replace it with a litre-O-cola. Yes obviously if you significantly increase your sugar intake you'll counterbalance the fat reduction. Duh.

But hey, I'm not the one with the fat cheese and peanut butter munching gf on my couch so I guess I'm no expert.
You are incredibly angry.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Yeah I know, the difference in chemical structure, behaviour, and human physiological responses between trans and saturated fats are significant, but my post was already long and I didn't really want to go through it because too much saturated fat is still far from ideal, albeit trans fat is far worse.

Not really. Saturated fats get a lot of false blame for heart disease, which isn't understood entirely. Science know statins reduce the risk of heart disease with people that already have a history with it, but it doesn't seem to prevent heart disease. Stuff I've read suggests it's a combination of a defect in the body's ability to clear out pattern B LDL from the endothelium, and too much pattern B LDL.

Saturated fat results in increased pattern A LDL. Pattern B is more correlated with high blood sugar, obesity.

Your best bet to stave off heart disease is to exercise, keep a healthy weight, and eat something that keeps you healthy.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
WTF. There's nothing that sets saturated fat apart from any other fat when losing weight. Lipids, on a per calorie basis, are generally just as satiating as carbs. In fact, lipids may have better long term satiating ability than carbs. But focusing on macros might not be useful. I think the food reward idea has merit. Eat boiled, plain mashed potatoes all day and it will be a chore to eat to maintenance. Same with plain, boiled meat.

Your right on that point but in terms of overall health, reducing saturated fats is a good idea but outside the scope of this discussion.

You're also 100% right that fats can be more satisfying per gram. All I'm suggesting is that when trying to lose a significant amount of weight, theres no reason to overcomplicate things. Cut excess fats to cut excess fat.
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Butter is an excellent oil for cooking many things. Stuff like French cuisine uses it all of the time.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Your right on that point but in terms of overall health, reducing saturated fats is a good idea but outside the scope of this discussion.

You're also 100% right that fats can be more satisfying per gram. All I'm suggesting is that when trying to lose a significant amount of weight, theres no reason to overcomplicate things. Cut excess fats to cut excess fat.

Dietary fat by itself does not make you fat, but you don't seem interested in hearing the truth.
 

GatorBait

Member
you're giving her large quantities of cheese, butter, and peanut butter, and then confused why she isn't losing weight?

I'm guessing the above may be the problem...but it probably isn't for the reason others are thinking.

Weight loss is not that hard, if you are doing things correctly, it just takes time - and I commend your GF for already losing a significant amount of weight! If she taking in ~1500 calories per day and exercising regularly, she should be losing a steady ~1-2 lbs per week, assuming your BMR calculations are in the ballpark.

My guess is she is either eating way too little or too much. I tend to err on the side of it being too much, but it is hard to say without knowing your GF's eating habits. Now, back to the quoted post above. Does she actually measure her food? I often find when people eyeball measurements, they are way off. Either by too little (they think a TBSP is as much as a tsp actually is), or too much (they are using 2-3 TBSP worth when they think they are only using 1). If she is regularly consuming calorically dense food like cheese, butter, peanut butter, oil, nuts, and avocados, she may be eating 100s more calories per day than she thinks she is, which can drastically affect her perception of how much weight she is losing vs. how much she is eating. Conversely, if fat is her main source of calories (since she isn't eating meat), if she is under-measuring her fats, she may be consuming much less calories than she thinks she is.

Also, weigh only once per week at the same time each day (I prefer first thing in the morning). Daily weight fluctuations and water retention can destroy a person's weight loss confidence unless they are mentally resilient to seeing the scale swing back and forth. Back when I lost 60 lbs, my weight loss could be +/- 1.5 lbs day-to-day based on what I ate and what type of workout I did the day before, but over time, there was a consistent downward trendline.

Also, I can only say good things about reintroducing meat into her diet, but she certainly does not need to do that. For the majority situations where people are trying to lose weight, a rather wide range of macronutrient ratios will work. I've seen people lose bad weight (fat) on 10% carbs and 60% carbs. Just keep her calories focused around clean, wholesome foods, make sure she is getting adequate protein since she is not eating meat, and she should be fine.
 

Srsly

Banned
Your right on that point but in terms of overall health, reducing saturated fats is a good idea but outside the scope of this discussion.

You're also 100% right that fats can be more satisfying per gram. All I'm suggesting is that when trying to lose a significant amount of weight, theres no reason to overcomplicate things. Cut excess fats to cut excess fat.

I kind of agree that people should cut excess fat. By that, I mean that added oils do no good. But avoiding eggs, meats, nuts, dairy and other whole, natural foods because they contain fat often sabotages efforts to lose weight because fats are important for absorbing certain nutrients and people tend to feel deprived without them over the long term.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
You are incredibly angry.

Nah not angry but it does frustrate me a little when people in threads like this respond to people offering sound advice with "lol you don't know anything". Especially when one of those people is the op who was asking for advice.
 

Petrie

Banned
I'm guessing the above may be the problem...but it probably isn't for the reason others are thinking.

Weight loss is not that hard, if you are doing things correctly, it just takes time - and I commend your GF for already losing a significant amount of weight! If she taking in ~1500 calories per day and exercising regularly, she should be losing a steady ~1-2 lbs per week, assuming your BMR calculations are in the ballpark.

My guess is she is either eating way too little or too much. I tend to err on the side of it being too much, but it is hard to say without knowing your GF's eating habits. Now, back to the quoted post above. Does she actually measure her food? I often find when people eyeball measurements, they are way off. Either by too little (they think a TBSP is as much as a tsp actually is), or too much (they are using 2-3 TBSP worth when they think they are only using 1). If she is regularly consuming calorically dense food like cheese, butter, peanut butter, oil, nuts, and avocados, she may be eating 100s more calories per day than she thinks she is, which can drastically affect her perception of how much weight she is losing vs. how much she is eating. Conversely, if fat is her main source of calories (since she isn't eating meat), if she is under-measuring her fats, she may be consuming much less calories than she thinks she is.

Also, weigh only once per week at the same time each day (I prefer first thing in the morning). Daily weight fluctuations and water retention can destroy a person's weight loss confidence unless they are mentally resilient to seeing the scale swing back and forth. Back when I lost 60 lbs, my weight loss could be +/- 1.5 lbs day-to-day based on what I ate and what type of workout I did the day before, but over time, there was a consistent downward trendline.

Also, I can only say good things about reintroducing meat into her diet, but she certainly does not need to do that. For the majority situations where people are trying to lose weight, a rather wide range of macronutrient ratios will work. I've seen people lose bad weight (fat) on 10% carbs and 60% carbs. Just keep her calories focused around clean, wholesome foods, make sure she is getting adequate protein since she is not eating meat, and she should be fine.
This is dead fucking on.

I remember when I started weighing food and found out what a serving of cereal was compared to what I thought it was. Same for tons of foods. If she isn't weiging stuff, I'd bet your estimates are way off OP.
 

amrihua

Member
She is eating more than I do, that's one thing I can tell. More importantly does she walk/cycle or drive? If you are not burning calories than even 1 calorie is too much.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
This is dead fucking on.

I remember when I started weighing food and found out what a serving of cereal was compared to what I thought it was. Same for tons of foods. If she isn't weiging stuff, I'd bet your estimates are way off OP.

I wonder if people like this never stop to think that weighing your food to get a high degree of precision is just a bit ridiculous. It just boggles my mind that people can think that putting your food on a scale and making meticulous calculations is a good way to lose weight and lead a healthy life.
 
If by "nonsense that's somehow propegated in society" you mean "has worked for millions and millions of people" then I guess you're right.

When people eat less fat, they wind up eating fewer calories overall. The millions of people currently failing at weight management aren't doing so because of their fat intake. It's carbs that wreck most peoples' diets. Bread and sugar are the things that get eaten in stupid-large proportions. A diet with a restricted number of calories can't magically make her obese just because it's high in fat.
 
1) Jog 2 miles a day, every day, for 2 weeks. (I don't care if you have to take an hour break in-between, when you're running, don't stop runnning)
2) Jump rope for 20-30 minutes, every day, for 2 weeks.
3) No fast food, soda, etc.

If you don't weigh less after 2 weeks, you need to go ahead and see a specialist to find out what's wrong with you.
 

saunderez

Member
I wonder if people like this never stop to think that weighing your food to get a high degree of precision is just a bit ridiculous. It just boggles my mind that people can think that putting your food on a scale and making meticulous calculations is a good way to lose weight and lead a healthy life.

You just do it until you become familiar with correct serving sizes, after that you can accurately eyeball the right about of food.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
You just do it until you become familiar with correct serving sizes, after that you can accurately eyeball the right about of food.

I've heard that before, and if that works, then I guess it's fine.

I'm just of the mind that you're better off identifying what kinds of foods are good for you and what kinds aren't. Then, eat the good foods until you're full and generally avoid the bad stuff.

That's the biggest part of how I managed to lose 80 pounds in around a year and get in shape. It just seems a lot more intuitive and natural than weighing things and making calculations.
 
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