Tips on dropping some weight

[Payne]

I dropped from 320lbs to 250lbs. and i've been between 240 and 250lbs for about a year. nothing i do seems to help, and believe me, i've tried almost everything.

for one, i eat really clean, i read these fourms, so i know the drill with that, drink lots of water, and ive tried lowering calories... checking my thyroid with the doctor, working out (which i still do, joined a gym so im working out now more than before) and tried hydroxycut

nothing has seemed to work. so i've basically just started going at the gym way more. for a few months, and still nothing. like im talking not even a poung. im getting more muscle tho so thats great.

any ways, i'm finally going to try an eca stack. from my understand is i take 24mg of E, 200mg of C and an asprin in the morning, then take the same dose of E and A, 2 more times in the day... so i think thats correct.

If that doesnt work, i'm looking maybe to try lipo6, or hotrox.

i wanted to know if anyone has any tips supplement wise that can help my work outs so i shed the extra weight, and i wanted to know if i got the dose right for the ECA.

im just frustraited with busting my ass and getting no results.

 

[Payne]

also i try to eat 2000 calories. i've tried cutting to 1500 (way too low) and i've tried going up to 2800... and still. no difference.

when i dropped all my weight it was cutting calories, and slight working out. i had no clue what i was doing. it worked, then the tyipical massive plateau hit. been there ever since.

 

[ronin0352]

But if you're gaining muscle and staying the same weight that means you're also losing about twice as much volume in fat as you're gaining in muscle, right?

I mean, if you wanna lose more weight, then cool, that's your goal, but don't get frustrated cause it sounds like you're getting results man.

 

[evilf22]

dont jump into full dosage of ECA, in my personal experience you build a tolerance quickly. ive had great results doing this.

week one and two - 25mg E/ 200mg C/ 240 A (3 baby asprin)

2X a day, one in morning before breakfast one before lunch


week 3-4 go to 3 doses a day. after week 4, take a week off, and start again with the 2 doses a day. if you dont get the rush like you did in the first cycle, you know you need more than a week to reset your tolerance. take 2 weeks off to reset tolerance next time if applicable. i build a tolerance quick, but luckily it resets quick too. everyone is different though, but this works great for me. you may have sucess using something different, but i STRONGLY suggest you ease into max dosage, dont start out at it.

i havent counted calories at all, just focused on eating 100% clean (yes 100%, 90% rule gets pushed aside when you get stuck at a weight, at least in my book) and busting my ass EVERYDAY. i too was stuck at a weight i wasnt satisfied with (190 @ 5'8") after losing a ton, (was 245) and it wasnt until i started doing something intense everyday multiple times a day the weight started dropping again. excercise 1 time a day wasnt enough, even with eating 100% clean. so i started to ride my bike in to/from work, 30 minutes (8 miles) each way. and ill do some kind of weight training everyday as well, though its only heavy 2-3X a week. the other days i focus on technique/speed. if i have the energy, ill spend anywhere from 30-45 minutes on the heavy bag afterwards. all said and done it ends up 2-3 hours a day doing something physical. its unorthodox, but it gets the results. and isnt that what really matters? we can debate over clinical trials, pubmed articles, strength coach recommendations, etc.... all day, but if it doesnt work for YOU, who cares?

 

[elbowsmash]

very hard to believe that at 250lbs , 2k kcal a day you are not losing weight.

my guess is that your 2000kcal diet is not strict.

rough numbers are that you need 3000cals a day just to maintain your weight (this is not including the extra cals you would need to offset your exercise either). so to drop
1k kcal a day, you should be losing alotta weight. (i know everyone is different, but honestly, not THAT different)

my guess? you are not strict on your counting, and your cheat days are huge. at 2000kcal strict, you would lose weight without even exercising.

that 1 piece of sees candy you eat that you dont count, 120kcal, gatorade that you drink while working out that you dont count? 200kcal.

that small mcdonalds cheeseburger you eat as a small snack? 450 kcal.


2000kcal is roughly what a 160lb male would eat to maintain his weight, not including exercise (he would need to eat more than 2k to make up for lost calories due to exercise)

i think if you want real results, start by keeping a food log of what you eat, and i by that i mean log everything, you eat 3 lays potato chips, you log it. it'll give you a more realistic view of how much you are actually eating, and where your problems lie.
people who log everything they eat have more success in weight loss cause they can't "trick" themselves about how much they really eat.
you'd be surprised at how much those little things that people forget to log in their calorie counts adds up.

dont just say, "its only a small piece" so i wont add it to my calorie count. that shit adds up.

 

[Payne]

my guess is that your 2000kcal diet is not strict.

Dude, all i eat is oatmeal in the morning. protein shakes or almonds for a snack. the only bad thing i eat is subway, but even those are just veggie subs, and thats like once a week. i eat veggies, drink nothing but water, and green tea. brown rice and chicken are my main dinners... when i first cut the weight, i thought i was taking 2000 but was really around 3000 calories a day. then i learned to count everything. i measure all that i eat. im pretty sure im at 2000 calories give or take 100. thats why i'm so frustraited. because i just dont know what it is. i change up my meals, change up my work outs. and nothing happens.

so yeah, i totally dont eat candy, or mcdonalds. i'd love to, haha but havent had that shit in years.

 

[evilf22]

try dropping carbs, you may have bad carb tolerance. paleo my friend, is awesome. people complain its restrictive, but there are a whole lotta different plants and animals out there to eat.

 

[Stormbringer]

The anonymitiy of the internet is a wonderful thing....

On that note, here's my long story short. Two years ago I was 230 pounds. I was an unhealthy fatass (I'm 5'9" with a medium/small frame BTW). Over the course of the next seven or eight months I lost about 50 pounds. Then over the next year after that I dropped MAYBE 5 pounds. That put me in at like 175-180 pounds. The thing was, during the last six months of the previously mentioned year, I was a running fool.

I was eating pretty damn healthy and running 6 miles a click, 3-5 times a week and lifting weights (mildly though, compared to most guys in this part of the forum) once or twice a week. However, I still had a decent amount of chub around my stomach area that would NOT come off for anything. I mean, if I lift weights twice a week and run an average of 20-25 miles a week (BTW, the running was additional to everything I was doing before to lose the initial 50 pounds) and my weight was literally completely stagnant, then I didn't know what would work.

Anyway, I tried the Hotrox Extreme. Honestly, I felt like I was 'selling out' when I used them. I actually haven't told anyone but you guys on this forum about them. Anyway, I took the pills for around 2.5 months. My exercise regimine actually decreased a bit (because of my motherf***ing knee, which I won't get into) during this time. During those 2.5 months, I lost around 10-15 pounds. I'm down to a consistant ~165-169 pounds now.

Hotrox basically makes not feel like eating as much. I'm well aware of the negative effects of not eating as much leading to a decreased ****bolism which means you'd gain weight when you start eating 'normal' again. And this was a bit scary when I stopped taking Hotrox about 3 or so months ago. However, my weight has stayed exactly the same since I stopped taking them. I'm exercising the same amount now that I was when I was taking the pills and eating a little more (if I HAD to put a percentage on how much more food I eat now, I'd say maybe eating 30% more, just because I'm more hungry).

So here's my anecdotal evidence on Hotrox: They work. They didn't work immediately though. It took about a week or two before I noticed any effect on the scales or in the mirror. And to this day, I can't say if they were some 'magic' pill OR if I just lost the weight because I didn't eat as much. However, I'm like 90% sure it was a combination of the two.

One interesting thing of note though, while I was taking Hotrox, my 'gas tank' decreased noticably. I noticed it and my Jiu Jitsu instructor noticed it. It was weird though, it didn't decrease it by such a HUGE margin for the initial say 80% of normal, but at the end of my 'tank', it made it nonexistent. Basically, when your body says "I can't really go anymore", typically you can FORCE and push yourself and get a lot more out of yourself. But when I was taking Hotrox, there was absolutely no pushing myself. When I got the initial feeling of fatigue, I was done. Period. End of story. I was just done. If I did try to push myself past the initial fatigue (which I tried lots of times), the only result was a feeling of severe light-headedness and the notion that at that point, it was literally NOT a mental game, but I was physically spent and there was no amount of mental willpower that was going to change it. It was the biggest physical brick wall I've ever experienced.

With all that said, I'd recommend Hotrox for a couple months to see what happens. It helped me lost that last little bit of weight that didn't seem to come off any other way. I haven't taken it for around 3 months and my weight is consistent (which makes me think it did not decrease my ****bolism while taking the pill, even though I ate pretty significantly less). I have my 'gas tank' back and everything is back to normal, except that last bit of fat around my stomach (well, the good majority of it) dissapeared when it seemed like it never would.

 

[JinKazama]

The anonymitiy of the internet is a wonderful thing....

On that note, here's my long story short. Two years ago I was 230 pounds. I was an unhealthy fatass (I'm 5'9" with a medium/small frame BTW). Over the course of the next seven or eight months I lost about 50 pounds. Then over the next year after that I dropped MAYBE 5 pounds. That put me in at like 175-180 pounds. The thing was, during the last six months of the previously mentioned year, I was a running fool.

I was eating pretty damn healthy and running 6 miles a click, 3-5 times a week and lifting weights (mildly though, compared to most guys in this part of the forum) once or twice a week. However, I still had a decent amount of chub around my stomach area that would NOT come off for anything. I mean, if I lift weights twice a week and run an average of 20-25 miles a week (BTW, the running was additional to everything I was doing before to lose the initial 50 pounds) and my weight was literally completely stagnant, then I didn't know what would work.

Anyway, I tried the Hotrox Extreme. Honestly, I felt like I was 'selling out' when I used them. I actually haven't told anyone but you guys on this forum about them. Anyway, I took the pills for around 2.5 months. My exercise regimine actually decreased a bit (because of my motherf***ing knee, which I won't get into) during this time. During those 2.5 months, I lost around 10-15 pounds. I'm down to a consistant ~165-169 pounds now.

Hotrox basically makes not feel like eating as much. I'm well aware of the negative effects of not eating as much leading to a decreased ****bolism which means you'd gain weight when you start eating 'normal' again. And this was a bit scary when I stopped taking Hotrox about 3 or so months ago. However, my weight has stayed exactly the same since I stopped taking them. I'm exercising the same amount now that I was when I was taking the pills and eating a little more (if I HAD to put a percentage on how much more food I eat now, I'd say maybe eating 30% more, just because I'm more hungry).

So here's my anecdotal evidence on Hotrox: They work. They didn't work immediately though. It took about a week or two before I noticed any effect on the scales or in the mirror. And to this day, I can't say if they were some 'magic' pill OR if I just lost the weight because I didn't eat as much. However, I'm like 90% sure it was a combination of the two.

One interesting thing of note though, while I was taking Hotrox, my 'gas tank' decreased noticably. I noticed it and my Jiu Jitsu instructor noticed it. It was weird though, it didn't decrease it by such a HUGE margin for the initial say 80% of normal, but at the end of my 'tank', it made it nonexistent. Basically, when your body says "I can't really go anymore", typically you can FORCE and push yourself and get a lot more out of yourself. But when I was taking Hotrox, there was absolutely no pushing myself. When I got the initial feeling of fatigue, I was done. Period. End of story. I was just done. If I did try to push myself past the initial fatigue (which I tried lots of times), the only result was a feeling of severe light-headedness and the notion that at that point, it was literally NOT a mental game, but I was physically spent and there was no amount of mental willpower that was going to change it. It was the biggest physical brick wall I've ever experienced.

With all that said, I'd recommend Hotrox for a couple months to see what happens. It helped me lost that last little bit of weight that didn't seem to come off any other way. I haven't taken it for around 3 months and my weight is consistent (which makes me think it did not decrease my ****bolism while taking the pill, even though I ate pretty significantly less). I have my 'gas tank' back and everything is back to normal, except that last bit of fat around my stomach (well, the good majority of it) dissapeared when it seemed like it never would.

wow, i honestly dont know if the trade-off is worth it

 

[Stormbringer]

wow, i honestly dont know if the trade-off is worth it

Where I work was so incredibly hectic (by coincidence) during 90% of the time I was taking Hotrox. Because of that, I only made it to my BJJ class like two or three times during those 2-3 months I was taking it because I was working late almost literally every single day.

I'll be honest, the thought of gassing like a wuss whenever we rolled in class after like 5 minutes would've probably been enough to make me stop taking the pills. As it happened though, it only affected my personal workouts, so it wasn't embarassing at all, though it was very frustrating. I don't know....I think it was worth it. As far as the lifting weights went, I could do that to pretty much the same extent (in other words, I could do pretty much my normal workout, but never any more), so the extreme gassing honestly didn't negatively affect ALL that much during the time I took the pills.

It was worth it to me because I pretty much picked up after I finished taking the pills exactly where I left off when I started in terms of my workout regimine. During those few months of pill-taking, I didn't really gain much if any muscle and I lost a little bit of cardio. My cardio took about three weeks to work it back up to the same level, but it was a fair trade off. Now, with the lessened weight, my cardio is better than ever. So yeah, it was decreased for a little while, but the semi-long term effect was a positive.

 

[KUJO SP]

ECA, HotRox, Lipo6, blah blah blah... Marketed as the best blah blah... don't waste your money... or do... whichever false promises and false studies sound the best plop your $50 down there.

My guess is your not eating enough...eat more and eat more often, your ****bolism might be in dire need of some calories and your body might be in storage mode cause it thinks your going through a famine.

 

[Stormbringer]

ECA, HotRox, Lipo6, blah blah blah... Marketed as the best blah blah... don't waste your money... or do... whichever false promises and false studies sound the best plop your $50 down there.

My guess is your not eating enough...eat more and eat more often, your ****bolism might be in dire need of some calories and your body might be in storage mode cause it thinks your going through a famine.

I was 99% sure it was bullshit too, before I took them. I'm a skeptic of virtually everything, especially when it comes to losing weight. I kept telling myself to just drop the last bit the ol' fashioned way, exactly like I did the other 50 pounds, by diet and exercise. It just did not work though.

Anyway, while taking Hotrox, dropping ~13 pounds in ~2.5 months while eating slightly less but at the same time doing pretty significantly LESS exercise is pretty difficult to argue with.

 

[upnorthmma]

Diet pills are not the answer, they can "help" if you have everything else going. Eating smaller meals 4-6 times a day kicks your ****balism up. Also more muscle tone increases it also. The only supplement that helps burn body fat is CLA. Google it, 4 grams a day (2 pills in the morning and 2 before bed) helps burn body fat. There is not thermogenics in it.

 

[joshetc]

You should try moving more. If you're not in a career-type job, a good idea is to get a job that requires you to walk around all day, or carry shit. If you don't have a job, you should get one.

If you want to lose weight, there are basically 3 things you can do in order of importance:

1. Diet
2. Exercise
3. Take medicine to help

If your diet is already where it needs to be (you say it is) Then there is an intermediate solution between diet and pills. If you already exercise, exercise more.

 

[Vector_X]

I took Lipo6 and really don't have anything negative to say about the product. It seemed to get the job done.