For the past 16 years I have had to diet off and on. I started gaining weight at the young age of 13 and I have had to battle it ever since. Over the years I have learned a few things about how to go on a VERY strict diet and still not lose weight.
1. Set unrealistic goals. I like to do really stupid diet plans like: 20 pounds in 20 days! Or 15 pounds in 2 weeks. These plans normally last for about 3 days, and then the binge from Hades comes on and you eat about 50,000 calories in one sitting cramming everything edible into your mouth. Never allow yourself to be hungry or worse - RAVENOUS, you will always make poor decisions when you are starving.
2. Use starvation as a diet method. I did a juice fast for 4 days hoping to lose some weight, the problem was I might as well have eaten 3 meals a day at McDonalds because I was consuming that much juice and probably the same amount of empty calories. I also have tried numerous times to go without eating at all to lose weight. This only slows down the old metabolism and so unless you are fasting for religious purposes or you are Mahatma Ghandi, keep eating.
3. Over excerise. Once I went to the gym and worked out for about 4 hours when I hadn't worked out in about 4 years. The subsequent soreness and pain practically left me bed ridden for 3 days. I almost had to be spoon fed because my arms hurt to even move them to my mouth. For some reason I always try to speed up the diet process without way too much initial excercise, now if I haven't been running for a while, I know better than to go out and try to run 8 miles at one time. If you are just starting out, I say walk for 20 minutes a day and do some light weight training - just don't over do it!
4. Take diet pills. I used to take these pills called Hydroxycut, they had tons of caffeine and ephedra and they worked great at staving off hunger. However, they were expensive and they were a crutch. I suggest taking a good multi-vitamin and staying away from all other pills.
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. Purchase expensive exercise equipment or sign up for year long gym membership. I love to just throw money out the window hoping that the monetary outlay will force me to get my gigantic butt to the gym. This only helps you lose money, not weight. I say, if you think you are ready to commit to a gym, then see how good you are at just taking a walk every day for the same amount of time that you would spend at the gym. Or, if you do go to the gym, stay away from anything that requires you to do it alone. Get a buddy, or take aerobics classes, the camraderie is worth it's weight in gold.
6. Try to invoke an eating disorder. Guys rarely struggle with Anorexia or Bilemia, but I have tried to starve myself and I have tried to make myself throw on more than one occasion - neither one was very pleasant and I gave up on them very quickly. (These disorders are not a laughing matter, so please don't try this, and if you are trying it, please get help)
7. Buy a grocery cart full of healthy food that you don't like. Once I spent about a months worth of food money on
all healthy food. I figured if I didn't have any money left to buy junk food then I would be forced to eat the healthy food I bought - wrong. Most of the time I found that after about 4 days of eating healthy I was tired of it and half of the healthy food wasted and I was charging junk food on my credit card. Again, another way to lose money, and not weight.
8. Think that you can diet and lose weight without exercise. I used to think that with my body type that I could just eat healthier and the weight would fall right off. It didn't. I started running and eating healthier and I shed the pounds at a freakish rate - in one month I lost 25 pounds. Most people would be delighted, but after losing all that weight that fast was not healthy - the key is balance. Once you find that balance, then everything else falls into place.
Okay, that is it for now. I think I have finally found the secret for myself to getting thin and staying thin. With the way my body processes carbs I can never go back to drinking Dr. Pepper or eating chocolate chip cookies on a daily basis. I must make eating something I think about religiously and I have to exercise.
I told my sister recently, "In a month, people eat about 90 meals. Out of those 90 meals they may eat 10 salads and think they are eating healthy. So the other 80 meals they are eating fast food and high-carb, high-fat meals, however, if they flipped that around and ate 80 salads and 10 junk meals, then they would probably lose weight."
This is what I have to do. I have to eat 80 meals that are healthy each month, and throw in 10 meals of whatever it is I want to eat. It works. I am down 2 pant sizes, I have lost 35 pounds, and this time I am not losing muscle.
This may not work for you, you must know your own body type. You may have to try some diffferent ways of eating to find what works for you, but in the long run, it is worth it.
I am going to be 30 in December (the 17th just in case you are marking your calendar) and I had a close friend die of cancer this year and I realized that I needed to start taking better care of myself and so I have, I am investing in myself and I am doing it for me, and my family, and hopefully for my wife and kids someday.
Here is a picture of me looking a lot like E.T. (look at my neck!) when I was 230 pounds and wearing in this picture a 34 inch waist pant size. I ran a lot, ate mostly healthy choice meals and drank a lot of water. It was a diet that worked, but I got to were I had very little muscle - except in my calves, they are the eighth world wonder.
