Warrior weight loss

[Benno90]

I'm 22 years old, 6ft tall and last night weighed in at 212 lbs.

My stats at the start:

Chest (around nipples) - 108cm
Waist (around belly button) - 107cm
Hips - 108cm
Right arm relaxed - 34cm
Thigh - 61cm

My Primary goal is to lose body fat for now. However, along the way I would love to get generally fitter, stronger and become a better fighter.

I'm going to try the Paleo diet for the first 30 days. If it is working and I feel good eating this way I will stick with it. If not I figure it will at least break the cycle of any bad habits I may have. I won't be doing any training during week 1 whilst I adjust to my new diet.


I was pretty unprepared to start today so my foods were a bit limited.



7:00 - 3 egg omelette (plain)

1:00 - 1 chicken breast, baby spinach, 2 spring onions, and a little bit of red and green bell pepper

5:45 - Small steak on lettuce with some more red bell pepper and spring onion




I've actually felt really good today even though I thought I thought I hadn't eaten any where near enough. I had a few stomach rumbles before lunch and got a little bit head achey before tea but didn't get overly hungry at any point. I have tried to keep my water up but I have been really thirsty all day.

However, on reflection I have come up with 2 goals for tomorrow:

1) more healthy fats.
I'm going to get a big bag of almonds and have a handful as a snack between breakfast and lunch. I'm also going to get some olive oil to keep in my desk drawer at work. I'll mix some with balsamic vinegar to kill 2 birds with one stone - more healthy fats and it will make my salad a little more interesting and less dry. I need to buy some new fish oil capsules tomorrow as well.

2) more vegetables.
I'm thinking some spinach and red onion at breakfast - either in my omelette or with sausage. Then replace the lettuce I had at Dinner with some broccoli/Asparagus/Kale etc.

Any thoughts and tips appreciated.

Weight loss warrior blog

 

[Baianada]

If you are in a low carb diet don't bother counting calories, eat as much as you want until you feel satiated. The first days tend to be tough, your body will miss the carbs, so it is important to be always satiated.

After a couple of days, if you are still feeling hungry all the time try to cut on the carbs. Your hunger will start to decrease and you will eat less calories in a natural way, instead of going crazy counting calories.

One more advice: Diversify your meals, it is very easy to get bored when in a low carb diet so it is important to diversify as much as possible.

Here's an awesome low carb friendly website with literally thousands of amazing recipes: Linda's Low Carb Menus & Recipes - Home

Another great website for general low carb diet advice: Mark's Daily Apple

If you have some question feel free to ask me, I know quite a bit about low carb dieting.

And remember one thing: fats are your friend except by the trans type. All other ones are healthy.

 

[Benno90]

Thanks for the reply.

I was surprised I haven't felt more hungry today actually, but I think upping my fats slightly tomorrow will get rid of the very slight hunger symptoms I felt briefly today and will make this more sustainable. I'm assuming the next 3 days will be the hardest whilst my body is adjusting.

I haven't been actively counting calories but I know today was probably too low. It was high in protein and must have been very low in carbs though so it seems a decent starting point. Tomorrow i'll add 1-2 spoons of olive on salad at lunch and 10-15 almonds I think for fats.

Thanks for the links too because variety is one of my biggest concerns whilst following this plan.

I hope you keep checking back (i'm going to try and update everyday in the beginning) because i'm sure i'll need a lot of help along the way!

I should have said i've set myself a goal of losing 2lbs this week.

I'll be posting progress pictures and measurements on my blog too.

 

[Baianada]

Good luck. I'll be checking this thread regularly.

 

[Benno90]

Thanks really appreciate it.


Todays food:

7:00 - 2 sausages with a handful of baby spinach

11:00 - 12 Almonds

1:30 - Chicken breast, loads of curly kale, red onion, yellow peppers, and a table spoon of olive oil.

6:00 - 3 sausages, brocoli, carrots, and green beans.

Supps: Multi-vitamin and 2 fish oil capsules.


I had a little bit of instant gravy on top of dinner (mum offered and I was thinking) which I now regret, but I have learnt from it and so it doesn't seem like the end of the world as long as I don't repeat it.

I have felt surprisingly good again today and I haven't really felt hungry apart from when I woke up. I did get a little bit head achey etc. again in the late afternoon today and was a little flat when I got home. Dinner perked me back up and I feel fine now but I still have a slight head ache so i'm hoping this means my body is starting to get low on stored carbs and i'm moving towards being in ketosis.

Overall it's been a successful day, i've eaten a bit more fat and quite a variety of vegetables. I think I could stand to up my fats just a tad but I guess old habits die hard and i'm still a bit worried about over doing it. It's also hard to find ways to get it into my diet.

 

[Benno90]

Todays food:

7:00 - 3 egg omelette with spinach

11:00 - 12 almonds

1:30 - 1 chicken breast, curly kale, red/yellow/green bell pepper, lots of red onion, and a table spoon of olive oil

6:00 - 1 chicken breast with a little bit of broccoli

Supps: Multivitamin and 3 fish oil capsules.

Few problems surrounding dinner today. My mum told me microwave chow mein was for dinner and I said I didn't want it as it wasn't paleo, she agreed to do me some chicken with stir fried veggies but then filled it with loads of bean sprouts and some noodles which defeated the object. Any way I ate the chicken breast and picked out a few bits of broccoli which wasn't ideal. It hasn't caused me a problem today as i'm not really hungry but when I start training again this can't happen.

Moral of the story: I may have to start taking full responsibility for my meals even though it will cost me a lot of money as I imagine I will have to do my own food shopping.

Anyway, no major problems again today. I was a little flat in the morning but I haven't been feeling hungry, generally felt good, and no late afternoon headaches today. I really want it to be the end of the week so I can weigh myself and see if my sacrifices are paying off.

 

[Baianada]

Watch out for sugar on the sausage. Some brands add refined sugar on it.

Since you are planning to stay 30 days in a paleo diet to lose weight, I recommend you stay in a constant state of ketosis, not only that will accelerate your fat loss but being in ketosis really help in controlling the appetite, but to do that it's necessary some discipline, which means: no cheat meals.

To stay in ketosis you have to eat at most 30 grams of carbs per day (a lot of people can stay in ketosis eating more than 30g of carbs per day, but by eating only 30g you can be almost sure you're in ketosis), so it's really important that you only eat "paleo foods". Even the smallest cheat meal can break ketosis, and it takes around 48 hours until you fully return to a ketogenic state, so you get the idea on how important it is not to have cheat meals.

 

[Benno90]

Thanks for checking in again. I'll make sure I take a look at the sausages ingredients incase they have extra sugar.

I'm kind of torn at the moment because I feel good and if i'm getting results relatively quickly then I would love to keep eating like this (I assume I must be in ketosis by now) and use ketosis to blitz my body fat. However, I would love to start training again next week (either lifting or preferably some Muay Thai) and i'm not sure i'm going to be able to maintain that on such low carbs - especially the Muay Thai. Any thoughts on that appreciated.

Day 4 food:

7:00 - 2 sausages and a handful of spinach

11:00 - 12 Almonds

1:00 - 1 chicken breast, kale, some red onion, bell peppers, and a table spoon of olive oil

6:00 - Salmon on a bed of iceberg lettuce, spring onions, and some more bell pepper

Supps: Multivitamin and 2 fish oil capsules.

I'm still feeling good and late afternoon headaches are a thing of the past. I did however, have some cravings for sweet things this afternoon which I managed to ignore. These cravings had gone before dinner and any desire I had for sweet things had totally diminished after eating.

I have also noticed the foods i'm eating are already starting to taste better every day. I assume this is my body getting used to how real food tastes rather than super sweet artificial flavours. I think my skin may also be looking better.

 

[Nemesis48]

Your diet is bad ass - keep up the good work bro.

Also +1 about the sausage caution from Baianada - some of them has as much as 6g sugar per sausage.

BTW... if you have a craving for sweets use Stevia. It's a naturally occuring herb, not an artificial sweetener, it's very cheap, has 0 carbs, has no effect on blood sugar and is 100x more sweet than sugar.

Also - what's wrong with some cheese? I know you are trying paleo but I never saw any medical/scientific reason to avoid cheese.

 

[Benno90]

Thanks, that's great to hear.

Cool i'll bare that in mind. Hoping further down the line to be able to add a small amount of fruit and/or sweet potato around training times so hopefully that should help as well.

I don't particularly have anything against cheese, I just thought i'd give strict paleo a try for a while as it seemed perfect for weight loss.

 

[Benno90]

Today's food:

7:00 - 2 egg omelette with a bacon and spinach

11:00 - 14 Almonds

5:30 - Thai green chicken curry and lots of cabbage

I had lots to do on my lunch break today and by the time I got back I just didn't want to eat another salad - something I started to regret as the day went on. I didn't feel great after skipping a meal. However, I am really happy because I was certain I would go home and cheat on my diet to feel "better" and make up for the lost meal but I resisted temptation, ate a healthy meal, and feel good again. I have dieted before and failed long before this point. Little victories through adversity like this have filled me with belief that this is it.

Obviously I am a little down on my healthy fats and the amount of vegetables I would usually eat but no harm done and I will be back to normal tomorrow.

 

[Benno90]

Todays food:

8:30 - 3 rashers of bacon and 2 scrambled eggs

2:00 - Burger

7:00 - Beef with roasted carrots, parsnips, and a couple of roast potatoes.

Supps: multivitamin and 2 fish oil caps

Obviously the burger wasn't part of the plan but I got caught short by an unexpected trip to watch a football/soccer match. A positive from it is i'm already at the point where I really didn't enjoy the burger (For those of you not from England the typical burger sold outside English soccer grounds are far from gourmet 100% beef) and i'm not in a rush to slip up again.

So all in all a little slip, but for my worst day this week it could be a lot worse. I'm excited to weigh in tomorrow morning.

 

[Benno90]

9:00 - 3 egg omelette with spinach

4:00 - Turkey chilli on a bed of brocolli

Supps: Multivitamin and 2 fish oil caps

I haven't eaten enough this weekend at all, but that's better than my primary concern that I would get bored and stuff my face in my eyes. My level of activity today has been very low and I don't particularly feel hungry.


I have my first weigh in since I started the diet tomorrow morning. I will make sure to post the result here and on my blog.

Wish me luck

 

[Nemesis48]

Do you do cheat meals?

 

[Benno90]

It's funny you asked that actually because I ended up having an unplanned one today unfortunately. I opened up my lunch box today and I just couldn't face my salad again which is really bad.I think i'm going to have to find some ways to shake up lunch a bit, so any ideas appreciated. For now i'll switch the kale for spinach which I think i'll find easier to eat regularly.

However under the circumstances it wasn't that bad as a one off....

Now on to the great news, I had my first weigh in today. Drum roll please....

A week a go I weighed 212lbs

Today I weigh 202.5lbs

I know I will have probably lost a fair bit of water weight but still this is fantastic progress in a week, right?

Today's food:

7:00 - 3 egg omelette with spinach

11:00 - 12 almonds

1:30 - *earned meal* Cheese burger, fries, and a coke

6:00 - 1 chicken breast, spinach, red onion, and red and green peppers

Supps - 1 multivitamin and 2 fish oil capsules.

Once I start exercising again later this week i've decided i'm not going to worry so much about the scales because hopefully my whole body composition will be changing for the better and the way I look and perform will become better gauges.

All in all a great start and I think I already look and feel better. Continuity is the key now.

 

[Benno90]

Back to normality today. Skipped my usual snack of almonds as I wanted to make sure I was hungry when it came to eating my salad after my recent struggles forcing it down.

On the menu today:

7:00 - 2 egg omelette

1:30 - 1 chicken breast with spinach, red/green peppers, some spring onions, and a table spoon of olive oil

6:00 - Turkey chili on a bed of broccoli

Supps - 1 multivitamin and 2 fish oil caps

This weeks goal is: lose 2lbs

 

[Nemesis48]

Dude you should eat more bacon and really fatty meats if you are feeling the urge to cheat unplanned. Steaks, bacon, hamburgers etc will greatly induce satiety. I would say throw some cheese or butter on there too but paleo don't eat dairy so dunno, maybe caramelized onion would have a similar wholesome effect. But those sort of meals feel like you are cheating even though they are really good for you. You have a picture perfect diet, no wonder you are losing weight so quickly.

Still, I would try to eat so you don't have to "force down" anything - I mean that sounds brutal and it's a recipe for binging. Also peanut butter and cinnamon/stevia is a nice sweet thing you can eat and it's not cheating.

 

[Benno90]

Thanks for the replying again. I was hoping the reason I wasn't getting many responses was because I am doing a good job.

I appreciate the tips as always. The cheat meal didn't really come about because I was hungry or craving bad stuff. I was on my lunch break at work and just REALLY didn't want my salad that day and had to grab something quick. So it came about because of boredom I guess. Obviously it wasn't ideal but i'll just make sure it was a one off.

So rather than ideas for getting around a sweet tooth or cravings, I need to find some low carb alternatives or variations on my boring old salad that are portable and pre-prepped for work.

 

[Nemesis48]

Thanks for the replying again. I was hoping the reason I wasn't getting many responses was because I am doing a good job.

I appreciate the tips as always. The cheat meal didn't really come about because I was hungry or craving bad stuff. I was on my lunch break at work and just REALLY didn't want my salad that day and had to grab something quick. So it came about because of boredom I guess. Obviously it wasn't ideal but i'll just make sure it was a one off.

So rather than ideas for getting around a sweet tooth or cravings, I need to find some low carb alternatives or variations on my boring old salad that are portable and pre-prepped for work.

Just put some bacon in there, spice that shit right up! Also lupini beans, maybe some grilled or bbq chicken. Bacon is the holy grail of all foods and i'm surprised you don't eat it (judging from your log here).

Also you aren't getting many responses because this is a very low intensity forum - unless you do something epic you won't get many replies. Don't let it discourage you, your diet is pretty perfect from what I can tell.

 

[Benno90]

Good idea I might throw some bacon in a couple of my salads just for a change. I had peppered salmon in it today and it's surprising how much of a difference mixing it up can make.

I hadn't really thought about the lack of bacon in my diet so far, i've only eaten it once since I started. Would the high salt content not be a worry?

Today's food:

7:00 - 2 egg omelette

1:30 - Salmon with spinach, red onion, and yellow pepper

3:00 - 7 almonds

6:30 - Turkey chili on broccoli

Supps - 1 Multivitamin and 2 fish oil capsules