I don't know whether it's just me, but I prefer having a steak than having fast food. Much nicer, and a much better thing to eat. But hey... When I was at uni last year, I didn't have much student food myself. Steaks, roast potatoes, vegetables, apples etc. Quite healthy really.
Plus, I like walking, don't mind walking half an hour up to an hour to go somewhere. Sometimes used to walk half the way to the city centre before getting a bus (which was free for me as well). Probably just me, but hey, gave me time to think.
And I'm not fat, definitely not fat. I'm a good size, always have been. Short though... Ah well, I can deal with that. But I've been fitter this past year than any other time in my life. And no, it wasn't for not walking - it's just the distances were longer at uni than home. School was ten minutes away, while uni was thirty. Town centre was fifteen to twenty minutes compared to roughly forty minutes.

damn you

also, it's worth saying that the only time i was able to lose weight was in my college years and i attribute that to the increased metabolism of a stoner. the two flights of stairs leading to my apt probably helped, but i didn't leave much. unlike most folks, if i eat when i'm stoned it kills my high so i didn't eat much at all. once a week i treated myself to the USA Steak Buffet, but other than that it was mostly pizza and ramen.

Get exercise. Jog, walk fast, something along those line. Believe me, I have severe mental anguish and blinding hate. Jogging and weight lifting help tremendously. Also, once you lose weight, you will find that your knees and others things will stop bothering you and you will be able to jog a mile without stopping and do more weight training. Trust me on this. I know from experience.

Something buddykiller forgot to mention in that post: he also has severe back problems.

i get exercise when i can. in the winter time i walk the dogs at least 3-4 times a week. i also get alot of exercise when i go out toy hunting because i'll hit every toy store in the area unless i find something first. the list includes 3 walmarts, 3 kmarts, 1 TRU and when i'm desperate i'll hit up a kohls and two krogers. don't get to go on the marathon very often now thanks to gas -_-.

i have to wait for winter to walk the dogs because i get migraine headaches from the heat and they don't go away despite how much headache medicine i take. for a fat person, i really enjoy a good walk. i don't like it as much where i currently live, but here at mom and dads i love it due to the surrounding nature.

Normal food is actually cheaper than fast food. Only problem is: you have to prepare it yourself. That costs effort, which many people these days don't want to invest. If I buy smart and cheap, I can get around with about 1-2 Euro per day, which includes all the five food groups. However, I buy for a week, and if you buy everything at once, it does seem like it's cheaper to get fast food.

I hate to sound like an asshole, but this seems odd after seeing the pile of new toys in your "I understand MISB collectors" thread.

Bread and fruit and vegetables and lean meat and stuff aren't expensive... you just have to change your eating habits

but without exercise it'll have limited gains if any... you might just end up lowering your metabolism further if you eat less w/o exercise

Yeah...exercise is the thang to do. I've been changing my eating habits over the past several months, and know that it's all for naught without exercise. I defer to Diesel on all expertise about working out.

thats a 4 month haul >_>

also, like i said i've had quite a few windfalls these past few months. my uncle gave me $100, my mom bought a few of them for me, and i sold a speaker box for $130.

we buy what fresh food we can, but most of it is frozen crap. believe me, if i could afford to cook every meal i would. it tastes 20x better and i enjoy cooking. also, we have to shop for the entire month or theres no way we could afford it. we usually save our food stamps for going to places other than sav-a-lot so we can buy some things when they come on sale and fresh foods.

EDIT

anybody got any tips on making home-made weights?

EDIT

other than prison wights (plastic bags full of water) because thats just messy as hell.

Depends on what you want to use them for...

Buckets filled with sand.

Empty milk jugs filled with water (a gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds.)

You can always check out some local garage sales or flea markets where you can usually get a used set of weights on the cheap.

You don't always have to have weights, though, for strength conditioning. Nothing's better for your arms than push-ups. (I usually do at least 50 a night). Doing a few free squats without weights (especially if you're overweight) is good for you too. (Of course, this is all if you can do it without any undue pain.)

Honestly, cardiovascular exercise will help you the most... and you get the most health benefits from it. Walking for like 30-45 minutes every day would be a good start.

Yep. Plus I would wager that any back pain or other ailments would decrease tremendously with fat loss.

THIS

I used to be like "why do I hurt in places? I never used to feel that way...oh, before I got fatty." Weight training, IMO, is something to focus on as you get weight down.

"Weight training!"

At any rate, I concur. Some fairly severe morning back pain I suffered when heavier went away when I lost weight. Of course, now the pain is back with the weight I put back on, but I'm workin' on it...stop starin' at my gut!

not trying to really weight train, just trying to figure something out that i can do without killing my back. fractured disks = not good and no amount of exercise / weight loss will fix them.

yeah but being a fuckin' fatass won't help either


I say this in love of course

I believe this whole mess will be the start of the Fast Food wars, of which Taco Bell will emerge victorious. People will have sex through VR helmets, and Sylvester Stallone will be thawed from cryo to take out an unfrozen criminal and he will also knit sweaters for all.

oibviously, hence i'm trying to cut weight

YEA! SUCK IT YOU SKINNY batchES, WE FAT ASSES OWN YOUR fargING SOULS! NOW GO COOK YOUR FIRST BORN FOR US!! make sure you cut the head off before serving it to me because i don't like it when my food looks back at me.

Mmmmm...vir-sex with Sandra Bullock.

You mean fluid transfer?

Nah, that'd probably lead to a Tara Reid-ish aftertaste.

all of it QFT

In May, I scaled in at 220lbs... a bit much for my tastes. I admit that on weekends, I relied more on the fast food racket. I've narrowed myself down to 197 now (I'm 5'11) and still want to get another 12 off before I'm completely happy. Some of the things I've done are:

1) No fast food/frozen food. I have actually cooked fresh meats and used fresh vegetables. My whole thing was after working for 8hrs and commuting another 2hrs, I didn't want to exert the energy to cook an elaborate meal. Yes, I was LAZY!! Now that I've been fixing a fresh dinner for 2mos, I kinda wonder why I was lazy.

2) Biking. I have pretty much used my mountain bike to run errands on the weekend. If the weather wasn't steamy and it was within a 2mi one way distance, I have walked. Of course, gas getting up to $4.54/gal here kinda helped that decision as well. Last week, I moved within 2mi of my workplace and have only started the car 3x in the last 10 days, using the bike to commute. Needless to say my wallet loves me more, as well as my body.

3) No binging. This was hard for me. Being that I'm in my 30s now, my metabolism has shifted slightly. In my 20s I was lucky to stay above 165lbs. I've had to retrain myself that I can't give in to cravings as much as I have before without consequences.

Back on topic, to say that the fast food industry is the root of this evil is a farce and a blame game. If people want fast food to go away, they need to have the desire to make better choices for themselves so they do go away. However, I'm not saying fast food needs to go away. Relied on less, definitely. It still has a place in society though.

And that affects him how? So do I, and I do exercise, ride a bike etc. It's the easiest way to get fit actually, you get to where you want to go, it keeps you fit, and because you're constrained on space, you buy less and therefore save money. All good

back in the day I weighed 250, then I was on a manufactured drug program and got down to 160. of course it would've killed me eventually and one of my friend did die.
the point is there aren't any shortcuts. you have to do some sort of sweating and fat consumption lowering to lose weight. it takes lifestyle changes plain and simple.

for starters i never learned how to ride a bicycle. see my previous book of a post. my back problem is that i have 3 fractured discs. this means that what i can do is somewhat limited, at least until i can cut back on my weight enough so that it isn't such a strain on my back. rigorous activities (running, jogging, trampolining, etc...) can do more damage than it can help, as can most exercises as they put alot of stress on the back area. i've tried taking about every pain pill you can think of barring morphine and oxycontin (which i refuse to take, ever) and they don't do a damned thing for me. it's not surprising to me though, i have very high levels of chemical tolerance. i don't know why because other than my weight and problems caused by weight i'm extremely healthy. when i do get sick, it goes away in a day or two.

so, according to my doctor the only real exercise i can do is walk and anything that doesn't put excess strain on my back. hence my dilemma. as LMH has already pointed out unless you're starving yourself, dieting success is limited at best. i've almost cut out candy and other junk food completely. i'll treat myself every once in a while, but i never really ate that stuff much anyway.



yea, my doctor offered to give me some diet pills and i refused. that shot is way too dangerous.

Walking can do you worlds of good. I always thought I had to run (which I don't enjoy unless it's on an indoor track...I have girly ankles and have a fear of falling when I run) or bike to get a phenomenal amount of exercise, but walking will do more than you think.


Then there's always DDR

uh...i got hooked on speed, specifically crank. back before all the white people went apeshot over meth, crank was the thing. got myself off after a short time though. about 6 months later one of my best friends who was still on it started screwing with meth and a year later he was dead.

but while I was geekin' I thought "wow, I'm slim and didn't have to diet or excercise or anything, this stuff is great" :stoopid. of course it was easy to ignore the fact that I wasn't eating or sleeping for days on end because I was busy taking the Alarm clock apart and re-building it into a tatoo gun or some such stupid shit.

sigh.....

marijuana != speed

not gonna say anymore as i don't want to completely derail the thread.

dude I smoked for 10 years. believe me. marijuana is nothing like the speed I'm talking about. when you get up on monday and then a few hours later realize its Monday...again and the few hours was the last 7 days, during which you ate maybe one time,cleaned your house 30 times (and by god I mean CLEANED THAT MUTHA), worked on everyones car in the neighborhood and at some point remember being at the airport but don't remember why. then you understand. marijuana=/=speed

Okay, I thought I'd "weigh in" on this one seeing as how I'm a personal trainer. The #1 cause for obesity(in my opinion) is the lack of education. Sure there are genetic components, but I'd be willing to say that maybe 10% of obese people are genetically predisposed to it. I am ABSOLUTELY against McDonalds or any other fast food chain having to shoulder the blame for obesity. Yeah the food is cheap, but explain to me how I can buy $100 worth of groceries, and last two weeks on that? Even if you spend the minimum of $5.00 on a meal, that totals up to what,...over $200 before tax for two weeks worth of meals. I have NEVER seen Ronald McDonald and the Hamburgler holding anyone down, and forcing those burgers down a persons throat. It's a choice and people have to own that decision.
Anyway, if they take away fast food, people are going to find a way to still eat like shot. I can speak from experience on that. I weighed close to 300lbs, before I got serious, got educated, and stuck to my goals. And it's not even hard once you get over the first two or three weeks. And here's another little tidbit; Eating any calories(healthy or not) over what your body needs to function on a daily basis makes you fat. Weather it's burgers or a damn salad.
Sorry if that sounds rant-ish. But I've learned so damn much about health and fitness it's scary. If any of you would like advice or have questions, I'll gladly share what I know with you. Even the ones that think their injuries are too much to work around. PM me here ,or find me on myspace.com/primefitnesstricities.

Hooray! An expert!

Jared?

Ha,ha,ha,..Not Jared. Unfortunately I don't have a multi million dollar company to buy me personal training or give me free lunches! Sorry if I came off as sounding arrogant there, I meant no offense to any fellow members! I'm just passionate about fitness, and am always glad to help anyone with questions. I'm also big on personal accountability, which taking away Mcdonalds does NOT promote.

In honor of this thread, I had Scottish food for lunch today.

LOL!

no no no no no no no....

i thought you where comparing marijuana to speed, "!=" means does not equal or is not equivalent to. it looks better than =/= jmo.

yea, speed is really bad for you, so are drugs. hence i never have and never will use drugs. i loved marijuana though. the only reason i gave it up is because my wife is allergic to it or i'd still be smoking. i've tried so many anti-depressents it's not funny and the only thing that ever helped was marijuana. cured my sleeping problem too.



meh, i didn't think you sounded arrogant. just passionate. honestly, i don't believe in genetical fatness. it'd be great if i did because to the best of my knowledge most of dad's family has problems with being fat. i'd have a hell of an excuse then, but i think it's all conditional. i'm almost positive that what i posted is the reason i'm fat today and why i have such a problem with it. i also don't believe in the body mass index and it's "correctness". i know alot of so-called fat people that have no health problems at all. another thing i don't like is fat people that make excuses for themselves or get pissed off when people call them fat. at least recognize what you are.

since you're a personal trainer, got any tips for people in my situation?

god i love this thread lmao.

You didn't happen to be one of my room mates around 1994 or so, were you?

Yeah um, drug use is NOT a diet method . Well, not a GOOD one anyway.

And I totally second everyone else here that walking is probably one of the BEST physical exercises you can do for your body. And walking can allow you to shed pounds that will then allow you you to go further with your exercising.

Also, fast food IS NOT CHEAPER than preparing your own food. That myth, along with the myth of "KOOKING IS HARD WURK", have been one of the major derailers to our country's physical health and well-being.

Definitely, as I have recently allowed myself to learn. It's a lazy mindset.

actually yea it is. me and the wife can eat for $3 each at wendy's, if we where to prepare a meal it'd easly cost more than $8. however, we drink water or pre-purchased soda with our food and never order value meals, only stuff off the dollar menu. even then we don't eat out that often, our main problem as far as nutrition is concerned is having poor choices when it comes to every day meals which directly relates to our budget. fast food joints are certainly cheaper than healthier food outlets such as restaurants and sandwich places, even if you splurge and get the value meal. also, and this is a HUGE misconception, fast food salad is in fact less healthy than the burgers. that is, once you add on the salad dressing.

Yeah, if you only ever obsess about measuring the cost in dollars, a lot of things look more economically sensible than they really are.. When you cook at home, it costs you your own labor, your own time, the utilities you need to cook, and wear and tear on all that equipment, along with cleanup. Restaurants are typically much more efficient at every one of these tasks than you are and amortize all those costs over higher volume.

You cook at home for the cuilinary delight, or the convenience of not traveling, or for your health, or lots of other reasons. But if you wanna compare costs, it needs to be done correctly.

A loaf of bread and some Oscar Meyer turkey slices ain't no 8 dollars.

And it's more than one meal.

That you don't have to drive multiple times for, which saves you gas money.

And it takes almost no time to prepare, even if you get all fancy and toast your bread.

So even if you factor in condiments and stuff on your sandwiches, eating in is way cheaper.

And healthier.

lol, well i was thinking more along the lines of supper type meals. for lunch we generally eat a hot pocket (generic brand), or some ramen type meals (cup o noodles, chow mien meals, etc...). supper is usually when we eat the good stuff, or just run out for a bite (wendy's is literally 2 minutes away) if we're heading out anyway. i don't see how people eat that shot every day for every meal. that'd get expensive fast, not to mention that after a while you get sick of it.

we can't do alot of sandwiching because the bread would go stale. we've tried freezing the bread but it either turns to much or gets hard as a rock after it's thawed out. that and lunch meat goes bad surprisingly fast after it's opened.

I keep a big thing of lunchmeat in the fridge at work at it stays good all week. And the secret to keeping bread fresh is closing the bag.

It might not be "the good stuff" but your health and pocketbook are more important than the glory that is eating chicken nuggets, isn't it?

I know Hobbes, and I know Hobbes knows healthy eating!

Well, biking was just something I did. Even after it was stolen I lost weight just by walking. Just took me longer to get places
I was definitely the guy who walked the most in my halls, no-one else wanted to walk to the city, they'd much rather catch the bus. Don't know why. Sure, the bus was free, but walking was fun, let me admire things and I never got annoyed by being stuck in traffic. Plus I could look in the shop windows of the small shops I walked past, and go the park route (very nice thin path down a small stream that led to a park).

It never required much effort, and being honest, I didn't change my eating habits. I rarely eat fast food anyway, but occasionally would, normally either because we were going out and needed to grab a quick bit of food, or just felt like it. Maybe had it once a month, something like that. Normally always just preferred a BLT or something anyway...

And I've never been on a diet, never seen the point. Just walking more, and just changing what you eat slightly (instead of having pudding and then a snack later, just have your pudding later). I never even had to do that, I can't say I ate that healthily anyway - always had chocolate and crisps every day, but balanced it by eating lots of cherry tomatoes (love the things, they are brilliant, especially for watching TV/films - like popcorn but nice tasting and healthy ) and on most days an apple at some point. Granny smiths, very tasty

On back problems, I'm not sure what mine is. It's not fractured disks, it's because my back looks like an upside down question mark. Which isn't good. Just had an MRI today to see whether they can find out more (I doubt it). And before you ask, no, I have never been to the gym, been on treadmills or done any yoga/martial art style things. It was almost completely walking, which can't cause any problems for your back. Plus it also makes you spend less, because you can only carry so much - always a bonus really.

Not being unsympathetic, just realistic...


And on the fact of fast food being cheaper than cooking; complete rubbish. Sure, I could easily spend £50 on food a week, well mostly food, it doesn't sound it. But it ends up being £2.40 per meal ish. Which, if you look at compared to fast food prices, which are about £3.50-4 last time I checked, is quite a bit cheaper. And I know most people didn't spend as much as me on food each way. Amazingly I was the healthiest of the lot, or at least the fittest... Huh, well I'm not sure what that shows, being honest really. Ah well, I'm sure someone will figure it out at some point. If you do, would you care explain it to me? As I'm getting rather tired of writing now, and it's somewhat boring to. Plus my ear hurts, which can't be good...


Oh, and not keeping bread fresh? I managed to get through a packet of bread each week with it being fine. And kept meat fresh for a week as well. My mum claims wrapping the meat helps, and it does, a bit, but still lasts a few days anyway. Enough to have four slices of bread each day, filled with one slice of ham and some cherry tomatoes. Just keep the bread wrapped up (just stick a cable tie round the end or something), and keep it in the cupboard. And put the meat in the fridge. And you're claiming we. That means you would eat the bread faster. Sure, you might have to go to the shops somewhat more, but oh well, it's that much of an inconvenience. Just do it after work or something. The cheap supermarkets are open till late anyway, so that's not a problem.

And yes, your answer gets a from me to. You're probably leaving them open on the counter or something. Because that really works... Or you have no fridge. Well, you can get some small ones quite easily and cheaply that could store milk, sandwich meat and vegetables (lettuce and tomatoes) quite easily, and still have ample room for beer. In other words, it's all good really. And it's not expensive, not space using and not time consuming to get. I don't see how you're doing this wrong to be honest...


Wow, I forgot how much I could write when I felt like it. Shouldn't though, would start off that bad habit of continuous paragraph sentences again. Not a good idea. Really not. But I must say I'm so glad for a spell-checker; I'm hopeless at spelling and get some many words wrong. Like sentence, inconvenience, easily, definitely and more. So go me, go Firefox and go Team Retard


I would also like to make one last point. Why the hell does TFans not recognise the pound? You know, a £. Bloody hell, you guys on your American servers, not even being able to understand why the rest of the world hates you
In all seriousness though, what the hell?

You win the thread, sir