Kccc : "Mark, it sounds as if your maintenance plan might be drifting toward something closely resembling Vanilla No-S! Even though you didn't really follow it to lose weight initially, from what you're saying now it sounds as if it might be just the ticket. The No-S structure limits your "bad" days to 1-2, which you say are easy to erase (and I agree), and you don't restrict after, which you say causes problems for you anyway (and I agree)...
Or maybe not Vanilla, but something close. The "habit-based" aspect really is key to long-term maintenance, and it does take time to build.
Good luck."
********* Thanks for the tip, KCCC. Wow, it makes me laugh - - because it's true ! I didn't realize it at the time ... this sounds more like
Vanilla No-S than what I was doing before ... so maybe for me the best to lose weight was to do my own more restrictive plan but
to maintain going 'Vanilla' would probably help. Good advice ! Oh, I'm doing really well by the way, I weighed myself this morning
and I'm in the 192's now so I'm close to my comfortable range really ... 189-193, that would be the best for me. A few days in a row being good
and I bounce back to the low 190's ...
Oolala53
"I know some people on No S have brought up Eat Stop Eat (Brad Pilon) and intermittant fasting before. I bring it up only because he questions a lot the idea that body building demands frequent eating. I get the sense that even when he's eating, which is most days of the week, he doesn't necessarily eat 5-6 meals a day, but he trains hard. However, he's not a big proponent of cardio, claiming it's more efficient to eat less. He believes it's easier to eat 300 fewer calories than work them off, especially when they represent less than a tenth of a pound, or a little over an ounce of fat. I wonder if your eating is more a habit that seems to be linked to freqent training? Maybe if you trained less, you could actually be satisfied with three meals a day? There might be a transition time. Pilon is also not a proponent of pre- and post training eating. But, heck, who am I to say? I haven't lost 90 lbs. and kept them off for a year. I did weigh over 190 for quite a period of time about 10 years ago, and went up to 200 for a short time. I've gone through periods of being very active, but never as consistent as you.
Anyway keep up the good work, both mental and physical."
********* Good point oolala53. Since I train a lot I need more calories than a lot of people of course ... but when I take a day off
and I'm not training I try to cut a few calories, nothing excessive though ... I would cut 300 calories (out of 2,700-2,800) Less than 10%
This is not a precise science of course, I'm just ballparking it. I usually have 3 main meals and 3 small snacks too ... if you try not to snack
it can lead you to become ravenous and then overeat extensively so I'm really against the no snacking rule (You have to snack on something good
for you of course, not ice cream .... yogurt, fruit, raw veggies, etc. Just a small snack, not a meal !) I have found out lately that it's easier for me to be good when I eat a lil' bit more and train a lil' bit less so I'll check into that. It's worth it to eat 100-200 extra calories daily and train 5 minutes less (on average)
if it keeps me from overeating many days in a row if I am too deprived the way I operate now. This way I avoid gaining 4-6 pounds quickly and then scrambling
to lose those right away of course. I usually have a snack right after a work out, often yogurt, fruit, milk ... it's good to build MUSCLES
from what I read but of course there are a lot of theories out there.
NLB
"Hi Marc,
I tried No S 3 diff times and was not successful, and I think it was a lot to do with what you are struggling with - maintenance, however, wanted to lose those last 5# too. While flwg I always read your input with great interest. Your cont'd wt loss was awesome!
Eating 3X/day = too much food (FOR ME). I studied both ESE and Fast-5, went with F-5 most days, somedays practice F-8. Now I eat 2X/day, one break fast meal (usually cereal & fruit or fruit & cheesestick) and regular dinner. Fasting not only made my wt go down, it took off inches. I got down to 113 (goal-112 or a little less to allow for normal fluctuation.) It is 3:00p now, have not yet eaten & plan to lift some wts and walk a couple more miles, then break my fast, then have substantial dinner.
This is not starvation, after all you eat everyday. And maybe for those who used to eat 5-6X/day; eating just 3 makes them lose just fine. No S can establish great habits; it just wasn't enough of a kick in the butt for me. Admittedly, I do consume wine calories almost everyday which is fine on both No S and F-5, just not too much.
All the best,
nlb"
********* Thanks, NLB ! I think eating only twice per day would be really hard for me ... most experts say you should eat 5-6 times per day (not huge portions each time, 3 meals and small snacks !) . This is supposed to keep your metabolism up too because your body doesn't go into starvation mode waiting many hours for a meal ... so it's trying to conserve the fat to make it through. My advice would be to spread your calories throughout the day as much as you can and also drink plenty of water. If you must cheat try to have things that don't have a lot of calories and are satisfying, like oatmeal for example. (Plus that's quite
inexpensive too) Hum, what you are describing is really the opposite but I'm not knockin' it either because if it works for you, it's all good ...
I know the way I work out, high intensity, often using interval training, it would be tough to do that on an empty stomach, yikes.
It's a good idea to work out
HARD and FAST if you can of course, this way you can get everything done, even just 20 minutes HARD is excellent if you do that 3-5 times per week ... better and more efficient than
a longer work out where you're hardly sweating at all. Hum, yes, I do like to have a few glasses of wine and beers once a week,
it's a treat ! I was doing that even when I was losing weight so it didn't affect me too much. On those days I try to save a few calories
from food, I eat 300-400 less calories and this saves a few for the booze, heh. You need discipline though because when you have
had a few it is really easy to overeat on various things that are not good for you. It's not a tragedy if you cheat of course, all hope is not lost
because you cheat one day, or even one week ... just get back to your good habits and try not to do it again too soon. Problem solved.
Good luck !
Cheers !
Marc
38 Years Old, 5'10" Tall
Nov. 1st. 2008 : 280 Pounds
Nov. 1st. 2009 : 190 Pounds
(1 Year : - 90 Pounds)
Current Weight : 192 Pounds
It's a journey we are all on together.
I have problems thinking 100% and not "just this once". We learn as we go. Keep at it!