I sat down and decided to write a few words about my weight. I don’t know if the result will read like a biography, a journal, a lecture, or a prescription, but I hope that organizing my thoughts leads me, and maybe you, to some sort of useful conclusion.
I’m no doctor, no expert, and the results I got from my various dieting experiences may or may not be typical. I don’t know what works for everyone else out there, but I have (through trial and error) come to find what works for me.
I’ve considered myself a fat ass pretty much as far back as I can remember. I love to eat, and always have. I grew up eating big family dinners every night, chugging pop daily, and pigging out on ice cream and fast food whenever I got the chance. I was heavy all through school, and then gained even more weight when I went away to college.
In the Spring of 1998, I weighed approximately 270 pounds. Somewhat depressed, I sat down one day and started throwing out things in my life that I wanted to change. Almost everything that I didn’t like was somehow related to the fact that I was heavy. I won’t go into all of the details, but if you’ve ever been where I was at that time, then you probably know what I am talking about.
So I decided to lose weight. I had never really put my mind to such a task before, so I didn’t really know where to start. I had been a vegetarian for the previous few years, but not for weight control reasons (I was the fattest vegetarian you’d ever seen!). All I knew was that I was big, easily exhausted, unattractive, and unhealthy, and that I didn’t like being any of those things. Thus began my struggle with diets.
During the Summer of 1998, a new diet trend was gaining lots of popularity. One brand in particular was heavily advertised and touted all of the normal diet promises. It was simple: Take 1-2 Metabolife pills about 1 hour before each meal of the day. The pills were supposed to give you energy, reduce your appetite, and increase your metabolism so that you burn more calories. It was also recommended that you eat a healthy diet and exercise to see the best results.
A bottle of pills cost around $30 and contained supplies that would last me about 3 weeks. While taking the pills, I started riding my bicycle a few times a week and eating a fairly decent diet. I didn’t follow any strict meal plan or stick to any specific workout plan; rather I just slightly increased my activity and decreased my eating.
A week or so into this new diet, I began to see pounds falling off. This encouraged me, and caused me to order more bottles of Metabolife. I used Metabolife for the entire summer, and for a few weeks once I started my senior year in College. In 3 months, I lost 60 pounds. At the time, I thought it was great. I got compliments from friends and family members, fit in to new clothes, improved my self-esteem and confidence, and even got myself a girlfriend. Life was good.
Then I began to really feel the bad effects of my magic pill. All along, I was aware of what Metabolife was: a stimulant. It is loaded with caffeine and ephedra along with some other filler. Shortly after taking pills, I would experience an increase in heat rate and alertness that was over the top. Eventually, I noticed that I also had trouble paying attention and a variety sleep related problems (trouble sleeping sometimes, trouble staying awake other times).
Unfortunately, by this time I was addicted. My addiction was psychological, not physical (thank God) – I felt like I had to continue to buy and eat these pills in order to control my eating and continue to lose weight. But I was torn between my addiction and common sense. I knew they were bad for me, so I began to research just how harmful they were. What I found encouraged me to ditch the habit.
There are lots of Web Sites out there that list the dangers of stimulant diet pills, so I won’t go in to too many details, but here’s the basics: Metabolife contains an herbal form of ephedrine, which is a methamphetamine like the street drug speed. Ephedra, along with a heavy does of caffeine, increases your heart rate, blood pressure, and overall metabolism. This can cause heart attacks, strokes, and death. Metabolife has been sued for millions of dollar in recent years for damages resulting from taking the pills. It boils down to the fact that extensive use of stimulants, for any reason, is bad for you.
So my experience with Metabolife was bittersweet. I lost a lot of weight, but in a very
unhealthy way. I still don’t know for
sure if I did any permanent damage to my body in the process, and that is quite
scary to me. Now, when I hear people
describe “magic pill”
diets that they are on that involve stimulants (and there are a lot of them out
there), I stress to them the dangers.
But I know from experience that to a desperate person, hell bent on
losing weight, the promise of results in convenient tablet form is tempting
enough to drown out even common sense.
With my pills behind me, I knew that I would have to find some way to keep from gaining all of the weight back. The obvious solution to my problem was exercise. Now that I was light (well, lighter, still 210 pounds), I found that I was able to participate in more sports and activities. I had been riding my bicycle on a semi-regular basis before, but more as a recreational activity. What I needed now was some serious, sweaty exercise.
So, I began running. At first, I ran a half of a mile and was completely exhausted. But improvement comes fast when you run every day. Soon I was running 3-4 miles at least 5 times a week. Incidentally, running has been a part of my life ever since, to varying degrees. At the same time, I started playing racquetball. I live in a Fraternity house with 30 other people, so finding someone to play a pick-up game with usually wasn't a problem.
I was active, very active, for the first time in my life, and it felt good. I continued like this throughout my entire senior year in college. Unfortunately, I did not worry about what I ate. I drank lots of beer and chowed down on fried food and assorted junk food daily (thanks, Sue). Over the course of the next year, I gained a few pounds back. When I graduated, I weighed 225 pounds. That year, I learned that no matter how active I was, no matter how many miles I ran a week, no matter how much I sweated, if I let my eating habits go unchecked, I got fatter.
When I graduated from college, I moved to the suburbs of Chicago. I remained somewhat active, still running when I had the time. But when my weight hit 230, I decided I needed to slim back down. Online, I came upon a diet plan that appealed to me. It was called “The Hackers Diet”. This diet took an engineering approach to weight loss. It revolved around strict calorie counting (in and out of your body) and depended heavily on keeping accurate records and charting progress.
During the first few days of this diet, I restricted my calorie intake to less than 600 calories a day. I was hungry all of the time. Over the next few months, using formulas and charts that were part of the plan, I determined how many calories my body burned per day. Using that data, I could adjust my eating habits according to the exact amount of weight I wanted to lose. I plotted my weight every day, and sure enough, the diet worked! My weight steadily declined just as predicted by the formulas, and after 3 months, I had hit my goal of 200 pounds.
Everything worked according to plan, right? Wrong. I was hungry all of the time, and easily exhausted. I didn’t have enough energy to work out or run as much as I had previously, so I lost quite a bit of muscle mass. Once again, I lost the weight, but in an unhealthy way. And even worse, since I was still habitually hungry, this was a diet I could not stick with long term. Dieting alone was not the answer.
In the next year, I took a new job in a new city. While at work, I received an email from a co-worker who was organizing a weight-loss pool. It was a simple idea: Over the course of 6 weeks, everyone in the pool had to lose 10 pounds. Those who did not make the goal had to pay $2 per pound that they did not lose to each person who made their goal. The contest was called “Fat Boy”.
I joined in, and lost 10 pounds. Looking back, I realize that the important thing I got from the experience was not how the weight was lost, but why. The peer-encouragement was enough to keep me focused on the weight loss. Add to that the threat of financial loss, and it was a perfect plan for a competitive person like myself.
Since then, I have been in four more Fat Boy contests. I made my goal in all but one of them, and succeeded in getting my weight back down to 200. I learned how important it is to share your goals and have encouragement all around you. Without the support of those around you, dieting becomes more of a struggle than it needs top be.
I tried the Atkins diet for one week. I learned that it does make you lose weight, but it takes a lot of will power to give up sugar, bread, and potatoes. I could never live the “Atkins lifestyle”, but I did learn a lot about the basic components of the food we all eat.
Americans eat too many carbohydrates and not enough protein. Most people think that cutting fat will help them lose weight, but when carbs are eaten in their place, the weight keeps coming on. In the end, the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. What this means is that foods that fill you up and keep you full will lead to less hunger, and less eating. Simple carbs cause a spike in blood sugar, followed by a crash – which makes you hungry again. What’s worse is that the high blood sugar also causes excess production of insulin which causes the body to convert excess carbs into stored fat and can lead to diabetes. Proteins and fats do not cause sharp spikes, and leave you with a fuller feeling.
By trying Atkins for myself and reading associated literature, I learned that excess carbs are bad, and fat is NOT the enemy. To be more specific, refined sugar and flour are especially bad since they contain no additional nutrients and are absorbed into the blood very fast. Use flour sparingly and use whole grains whenever possible, and limit sugar intake whenever possible, using natural sugars instead of refined ones. Be liberal with fat – enjoy it, and eat as much protein as you can!
While on Atkins, I also researched sugar alternatives. My biggest discovery was that artificial sweeteners are bad for you, period. They are chemicals that fool your taste buds into thinking they are sweet. They are also poisons. I wont go into detail on the dangers of aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, etc., because there is an abundance information online.
There are other types of sweeteners available. Sugar alcohols (sorbitol, maltitol, etc) taste like sugar, but are only partially absorbed into the blood. This avoids the hazardous blood sugar spike associated with many simple carbs, but it can lead to gastrointestinal trouble (bloating, gas, the poops) if consumed in large amounts. There are many sweet treats available that are made with sugar alcohols and some of them are down right tasty.
Another non-chemical sweetener alternative is the herb stevia. It is not approved for use in the US as a sweetener, only a diet supplement. Stevia extract can be used to sweeten drinks and also in baking. It doesn’t supply food with the textural benefits of sugar, but the sweetness is definitely there, and it is calorie free. It can have a green flavor when used in high amounts, but I got used to it quickly. Stevia has been used in Japan for years and in Paraguay for centuries, and no side effects have ever been noted.
I’ve gone through all the phases, tried all the fads, and spent countless hours reading and researching what it takes to lose weight. I’ve got an idea in my head of what to do, but it is always changing and evolving. My goal is to lead a healthy lifestyle and to reduce my weight to 180 pounds and keep it there. My custom diet is an amalgamation of the following key points:
- Follow a maintainable diet.
o Cut carbs, increase protein, enjoy fat.
o Minimize refined sugar, refined flour, corn, and potatoes.
o Eat whole grains and natural sugars when possible.
o Try to eat natural, organic food.
o Eat out no more than 3 times a week.
o Eat a variety of meat (fish, poultry, pork, red meat).
o Eat a lot of fiber.
o Pass on prepared snacks and eat fruits and veggies instead.
o Strive for 30% carb, 40% protein, 30% fat.
o Splurge every now and then!
- Follow a maintainable exercise plan
o Mix cardio and strength training.
- Seek support from friends and family
- No pills
- No artificial sweeteners – use stevia and sugar alcohols instead