Mail for August 8, 2002

From: Don Wakefield
Subject: Weight Gain and Loss

Cam:

I was interested by your approach to weight loss. I've always had a bit of a spare tire, though it's size has varied most of my life. I'm curious as to why eating more fruits and/or vegetables 'can be difficult'. Given that they have fiber and phytochemicals not generally found in vitamins, it's better not to treat vitamins as a substitute. True, when you're young, your body can get away with a lot of abuse, but take it from this 45 year old that the abuse adds up.

A few years ago I had a lot of success following the advice in this book:

Dr. Bob Arnot's Revolutionary Weight Control Program

Yeah, I know, TV personality, all that. And the book does have it's flaws. He seems to think you have unlimited funds to buy those rollerblades, and can take off from work for an hour at lunch to go exercise. But the chapters on the effects of food on your brain and body are real eye openers.

When I was following the 'lifestyle' in the book, I got my weight down to 190 lbs. (I'm 6' 2" tall, stocky). Over the years, that crept up on me again, especially after I *really* messed up my ankle and had to stop running. I kept exercising regularly (still do, using an elliptical trainer and a Bowflex), but the intensity doesn't match running 45 minutes a day.

About six months ago, I topped out at 230 lbs. When I started developing sleep apnea, I decided it was time to get serious about weight loss again. It's tough, I've gotten lazy about buying food at the company cafeteria, or going out to lunch with friends. So I'm trimming that, eating more like I did a few years ago. I haven't increased my exercise schedule, but I'm losing weight again. Yesterday, I weighed 216 lbs.

So it's doable. You know all the old saws ("you didn't gain the weight overnight, don't expect to lose it overnight"), so I won't belabor that. I'm just writing to encourage you and say good luck!

From: stranger
Subject: vegetables

weird process just to tell you that if you aren't getting enough vegies (which you are not) try V8 juice. Multivitamins are okay, but they are often mixed incorrectly and so they cancel each other out or they can't actually be digested. There is a whole world of information about vitamins that I am not particularly interested in but I trust. Try an apple a day.

Just happen to know an awful lot about not losing weight on diets.

cheers

stranger

From: David Wood
Subject: Hello fellow dieter...

I know what it means to need to lose weight... depending who you ask, I currently need to drop between 60-120 pounds.

The recipe the nutritionist at the gym I go to gave me was something like: 1-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight, 1-1.5g of carbohydrates per gram of protein, and no more than 10% of calories from fat.

What your nutritionist recommends in foods is between you and him, but mine recommends avoiding sugar, milk (lactose), fruit (fructose), and "enriched" white flour (even enriched, it doesn't have sufficient nutritional value to make it worth digesting).

From: Joe Mahoney
Subject: the whole diet and exercise thing

Hey Cam

Best of luck with the health kick. About 7 weeks ago my girlfriend and I started doing the Body For Life 12 week programme and we're seeing great results. I've lost almost 10kg in weight, but more importantly for me I've gone from below average fitness up to excellent.

Our twelve week programme calls for gym sessions 6 times a week - 3 for only 20 minutes of cardio training, 3 for resistance training with weights. The diet side involves eating 6 small meals a day, with one day off a week where you can eat what you like. You're actually encouraged to indulge on the free day so that your metabolism doesn't slow down. In body for life a meal should be low in fat, have small portions of high carb foods and a portion of protein.

Anyway, I hope you get the results you want.

One last thing: Ovaltine. Ewwwwww. I'm a Milo man myself.

Cheers,

Joe

From: Aled Davies
Subject: RE: Diet and Exercise

It seems that we have the same issue with the whole weight and training thing. About five months ago I started seeing a personal trainer, first once a week now I go twice. This is probably the most regular exercise I've done in a long time.

But the same as you my weight has stayed constant at 220lbs (I want to be down in the 190-200 zone). My muscle tone and strength has improved, and i've lost inches here and there, but nothing on the weight front.

Everybody including my trainer has said that I'm converting muscle into fat and people say I'm looking thiner and that you should go off body mass index rather than weight. But the doctor goes off weight and moans that I need to lose 20Lbs every time I see him.

A couple of pointers which I was given which might work for you. From looking at the diet is possible that you are not eating enough calories, and your body is going into starvation mode and is conserving fat for later use. One of the things my trainer has drummed into me is that you need to keep eating small amounts regularly especially if you are working out. Also maybe look at increasing the protein and decrease the carbs.

One tip which has really paid off for me is the book 'Body For Life'. If you ignore the pictures on the inside cover it actually gives good advice for diet and a cardio workout routine which works better for me than the one my trainer recommends. I've been following this for a couple of weeks and it seems to be work better, although its too soon to tell if there are any results on the weight front.

Not sure if any of this is helpful, but its nice to know that someone is in a similar boat. I'll ask my doctor about the thyroid next time I'm in as maybe that could be what's keeping my weight up.

Aled.

From: Dave Smith
Subject: Diet tips

Drinking lots of water (~1/2 gallon a day) helps keep your metabolism going, and also helps with flushing waste products. You'd think that drinking a lot would leave you waterlogged, but the reverse happens: because you're getting consistent hydration, tissues don't need to hang on to water. When I was dieting and remembered to drink, it was worth an extra -1 pound a week. YMMV.

From: bill lazar
Subject: dieting

You ought to look into Body for Life if you want an integrated nutrition/exercise program. For diet only I recommend Atkins (www.atkinscenter.com). I know several people who've used BfL successfully, numerous successful Atkins adherents (including me, I lost 39 pounds in 4 months two years ago), and one who combined the exercise regimen of BfL and the Atkins diet. This last guy looks better than I've ever seen him.

Good luck, and have fun in Siberia.

From: Josiah Gordon
Subject: Your Exercise Regimen

Cameron,

I started a similar workout regimen about two years ago. I too had a goal of losing about 30 pounds and after a year and a half I finally met my goals.

I studied some introductory kiniesology in college and knew about the biological and physilogical effects of my diet and exercise on my body. I went to the gym five times a week for a little over an hour, burning a similar amount of calories to you, but my weapon of choice is the elliptical machine.

After six weeks I noticed very little change in my physical appearance. I saw no loss in inches until six months. The thing that kept me going, however, was a Tanita body fat monitor scale (http://tanita- scale.com/home_scales/tbf622.html). Tanita's line of body fat scales is very accurate. They work by having you enter your sex, height, and weight and then shooting a tiny eletrical pulse through your feet, measuring the time it takes the pulse to pass from one foot to the other (water and fat have different electrical resistances).

Even if you cannot see or feel changes to your body, I assure you that burning an extra 3000 calories a week is necessarily benefitting your body and metabolism.

Keep it up! You'll love your self in a year for the gruelling hours in the gym...

BTW: don't worry about your diet. In normal cases your body will take care of itself by subtly notifying you with "cravings" for the foods it needs.

Josiah Gordon

From: art
Subject: diet

I know high protein restricted carb diets have gotten a lot of mixed press but my wife and I have recently started a pseudo-Atkins diet and have both had success losing weight. It is not an easy diet to get started on, things like bread and french fries are hard to give up and you quickly get tired of bacon and eggs for breakfast. But the way I look at it, it's kinda like going on a body builder's diet or perhaps an Inuit 's (your choice). To top it off my wife's situation was similar to yours - she was working about for about a month and eating "sensibly" and no weight was coming off. She and I jumped on the high protien bandwagon and the weight started coming off.

I am going to stop now before I start sounding like a Scientologist.

Art

From: Alison
Subject: Siberia/comments on your weight-loss program

Cam,

Long-time reader--I enjoy your site.

Trip sounds cool! Do you know any Russian at all? If not, you might want to get a crash course on the Russian alphabet & learn to speak and/or recognize a few helpful words. I'd go for taking the train vs. flying anywhere inside the country--many of the horror stories you may've heard about the airlines there are true.

Re: the weight loss program. Good for you! My question is: are you sure you're not over-doing it? 5 days a week might be too much, too soon, and the last thing you want at this point is a stress injury. The important thing is to listen to your body (and your trainer, if he/she knows their stuff).

Count me in on the chorus of fruit & veggie promoters! I recommend apples, and we are in the middle of summer, so there's tons of yummy peaches, pluots & such out there. Also, drink water.

Good luck & have a great trip,

Alison

From: Gem Ma
Subject: Dieting

Dear Cam,

I think you are on the right track to lose weight. I was in a similar bind some years ago and lost the weight doing what you're doing, but I took a somewhat different attitude to food. I ate 2/3rds of what I used to eat, plus I cut out all foods that were more than 5% fat. Black coffee and diet sodas also can help. To get the weight around your midsection down, the crunches should help. Are you doing them from side to side as well?

YIA, Gem Ma

From: Garret
Subject: workouts and muscle mass

cam,

carlos is correct. if you've worked out for a while, you've picked up various muscle mags, and seen the 'before-after' pics of body builders. they look bloated in the off-season, but it seems the fat turns almost directly to muscle once work is applied. muscle weighs more than fat, so if you're emphasizing muscle over aerobics, look for your actual weight to go up. you will fill out whatever bulk you have with muscle.

the tendency in the gym is to go heavy, low reps. going moderately heavy, and doing more reps (up to 25, for three sets) will burn more fat and lean out the muscle. you don't 'feel' as worked out, but over time, it shows. you'll get 'cut.'

the midsection is the hardest part to shave off; that area from the sides to the back. it's not area-specific exercises that will help the most; it's upping your aerobic duration and intensity overall. russian twists can hit the obliques, as can swivelling when you do sit-ups.

i highly recommend steve ilg's book, 'the outdoor athlete'. it's something of a bible to those who use their fitness in outdoor recreation. i've been using his book as a guide for years, for my various outdoor pursuits, with no complaints. what he's recommended, has worked for me.

... garret.

p.s. your workout club may have a rower. a concept II rowing ergometer. those are the finest rowing machines made, and will take your excess weight off in a *very* short time. i'd put it right up there with a nordictrack aerobic workout. the workout place i used to use had two, and we'd have races. you'd end up working out much harder than you intended, while the spectators watch the virtual yards race by, cheering for the leaders. it was a lot of fun.

From: Dave Aiello
Subject: Do You Have a Heart Monitor?

Cam:

I saw your post today on the exercise / lack of weight loss issue. I have had some of the same problems. I am currently 5'9", 207 lbs. I am down from about 220 or so. I am a former Division I ice hockey player who spent about 8 years working as an IT contractor on Wall Street.

I have found it easier to lose the weight in the past two or three months. Of course, this corresponds to a lack of full time contract work / a real job.

I have gotten a much better handle on my metabolism since I got a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. I bought an S-710, a super biking gadget that measures heart rate, calories burned, V02-max, and biking stats as well, such as speed, distance traveled, elevation gain, pedal cadence. You can upload the data to a program that comes with the HRM via an infra-red interface.

Do you have one of these things? What does it tell you? If you don't have one, it might help. It definitely got me to push myself to the next level. It's hard to believe how aerobically fit I could get at 215 lbs, where I plateaued for a while.

Dave Aiello
CTDATA

From: CHris
Subject: Throat Singing

"If I have the time and money, I may even fly up to Tuva and see the Tuvan throat singers."

I would kill for the opportunity to do this. Tuvan Throat Singing was the unofficial hobby of a webdev group I worked with about three years ago. One of the guys in the group taught himself how to get three notes at once, and it was amazing. During the six months I was contracted with the company I spent much of my commuting time practicing the art and now I can achieve two sounds with little difficulty, and can occasionally bend the notes of the higher-pitched sound. Not that I am accomplished, I can barely keep the notes going for more than fifteen seconds, but still... It is such an incredible experience when you first hear the high-pitch over the low tone.

Anyway, enjoy yourself, have a good time and try not to drink the water (seriously). I've had friends visit Moscow and pick up nasty intestinal discomfort that makes the flight back quite nightmarish.

CHris

From: Aaron Morris
Subject: Your Diet

Cam,

Try reducing you intake of simple carbs and starches. Loose the Crispix. If your eating a full size sub, switch to a half size with double meat.

Loose the Centrum. Solaray, NOW and Twin Labs are reputable vitamin companies and you will tell the difference.

I can't recommend enough taking a good B-Complex vitamin. For me personally, B is very hard on the stomach so I take a chewable from Solaray a couple times a day. Works Great!

You'll notice a difference in your gut with just two mods.

1. No starches. This means, bread, potatoes, rice, noodles.

2. Replacing 4 meals a week with a big ass salad. I the big ass salad thing mon-thur for lunch. Friday I eat some oily Chinese (skipping the rice) to prep my stomach for Friday night binge drinking!

Good luck...

From: Kurt Sussman
Subject: training and weight loss

When I started working out seriously, I weighed about 175. For three months I weighed 175 while doing a workout that my friends called insane; running trails, sometimes with a backpack full of lead plates, sometimes running sprints in sand with a vest full of bagks of lead shot, carrying logs up hills, plus the usual pushups and situps. Can you tell my trainer came from the military?

During that time I converted a lot of fat to muscle, and after three months my weight started creeping down to 155. Part of the training (after the first two months) involved eating with the trainer (it was a group workout, so he only had to eat once to teach 3-12 people). He was pretty brutal, and we only ate at places where he had the staff trained: no butter, salad dressing on the side, no fat snacks on the table before the meal, etc. Often when someone would order something that didn't fit the program, he'd ask "will that be fuel on the hill tomorrow, or dead weight?".

Your diet looks fine, but when do you work out? If you exercise in the morning it pumps up your metabolism for the entire day.

In any case, good luck, and as long as you feel good, keep doing it. Diet is not a verb, it's a habit.

--Kurt

From: wade naveja
Subject: Diet and Exercise

you must be dropping fat and adding muscle. and with all of that regular cardio activity, you're probably lowering blood cholesterol levels as well.

i've been a gym rat at times and i'm certainly no nutritionist, but if you're wanting to drop mass as opposed to converting it, perhaps you should consider doing longer cardio sessions and doing less strength training for a while.

From: Jason Rothstein
Subject: Diet

Hi Cam,

One other thing that can affect metabolism is vitamin deficiencies. I couldn't help but notice that your daily diet basically devoid of fruits and vegetables. Do you just not like them, or does it seem like a hassle to prepare them?

This is an area where it's worth getting into good habits. Even if you never cook, there are lots of easy ways to fit them in: juices, individual fruits, smoothies, prepackaged sliced raw vegetables, etc., etc. Not to mention that you live in New York, which seems to be the salad bar capital of the world.

Good luck!

Jason

From: Adam Fields
Subject: Losing weight

I've had personal success recently with a low-carb (specifically, low-starch) diet. I've dropped 14 pounds in 4 weeks (more the first week and a half, now seems to be relatively steady at about 2 pounds a week). I haven't been counting extensively, but I estimate that I get less than about 50-60 grams of carbs a day. Specifically, I've eliminated bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, sugared drinks, and high fat/high carb desserts (ice cream, cookies, cakes, etc...).

This is not the Atkins diet. I still eat whole grains (albeit in very small amounts), beans, vegetables, fruits, olives, and the like. I notice that your diet consists almost entirely of processed foods. Mine in the past month has included almost none. My main snack is carrot sticks or grape tomatoes and hummus, my main dessert is fruit (usually berries, since they're good during the summer) with greek yogurt and wheat germ. My main courses are pretty similar to what I was eating before, just without any of the starches.

In the past month, I have not felt hungry, I have eaten what I want within the limits set, when I wanted, and I've lost weight. I'm pretty convinced that fat intake does not equal fat storage, at least for me. I think the nutritional community is confused and operating on too little information to be able to know what actually works.

I get moderate amounts of exercise (usually bike riding), although I've joined a gym recently and expect that to increase.

Who knows what will work for you, but I think it's worth considering.

Adam

From: Tim McCoy
Subject: Weight Loss

How much water are you drinking? My wife wanted to loose weight and - even though she is notoriously cheap - brought a Sparkletts (sp?) water cooler into the house. We get about 4 big jugs of water delivered every 2 weeks.

When she is hungry, the first thing she does is pour out a glass of cold water and drinks it down. Then she eats something. She's had 2 babies. On the last one I think she weighed 180 lbs. (her brother asked her if she was carrying the baby in her ass!!) Now she is a normal weight...she never goes back up. Drink lots of water.

When the food is high quality she goes for it. I don't think people get fat eating prime rib once a week...they get fat eating crap all day/week long.

Another issue may be at what times during the day you are eating. You should probably make a rule for yourself not to eat after 8:30PM - except for fruit or salad. Of course there will be exceptions...enjoy them.

Lastly, I believe you must become thinner in your mind first. Stop thinking about being too heavy and recognize that you have the power to be lean and are becoming leaner. Don't consider this to be an issue of character. Change yourself "in the moment" and let the future take care of itself.

good luck - mccoy

From: Hagen
Subject: Diet stuff

Hey Cam,

I know it's terribly trendy, perhaps, but do take a gander at the book "Protein Power" by the Eades's. Your body does need fat to survive, getting only 10-12 grams a day isn't enough.

Personally, I was very skeptical about the whole protein rich diet mantra, but it has worked better than anything ever has for my mother.

And yes, what Carlos said is also true, muscle building will mask some fat loss.

Other articles to look for are on the NYTimes site. One is titled "What if it's all been a big fat lie?". It's written by Gary Taubes. Hmm, I just checked, they've moved that article into the "premium" archive. I have access to the articles, let me know if you'd like a copy.

Good luck with the exercise and diet.

ttyl, Hagen

From: Carlos Tirado
Subject: not losing weight

I'm sure you already thought of all this, but you didn't mention it on your post so here...

You're also lifting weights, and muscle is heavier than fat, so you could even be /gaining/ weight while becoming leaner.

I don't know about your thyroid, but you could also be retaining liquids. This should be easy to notice on your skin though. In any case, dinking more water (not less) could be of help.

It's always a game of patience. You just keep at it for months and months, until your metabolism adapts to the new activity levels. Just a couple of weeks worth of exercise will not do the trick. If it does, it's an illusion.

Carlos