Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Let me tell you this. Before my mother went on her diet, she was a little overwait, but happy. She eventually joined the Weight-Watchers thing. As she lost more and more weight she got meaner and crankier. There were times when we would hide (literally) when she came home because of the erratic mood swings she had. She eventually went for help where she was diagnosed being Anoraxic. This was mostly due to her early family life. She was gone from Dec-Feb in Ohio for treatment. She's gained weight now, but she feels that she's overweight again although she's at her ideal weight. Over-reacting to weight problems can be a very dangerous thing.

My advice is simple. Eat less of the junk. Cut back on soda (pop) and candy bars. Don't give up on them, but just cut back. Carry less money on you so you don't go out and buy some at the store. Next, exercise. I don't mean join a gym and run 100 miles a day, but simple things. If you have a dog, offer to take it out for a nice walk. Park near the back of the paking lot. If you live near something, walk there, don't drive. Simple things like that will add up. Trust me, I eat a crapload of junkfood (ask BTG, he knows) but I then go and burn it off by running a mile and going to the gym. I'm 6'1'' and 185 pounds(20x6 kilograms). I'm skinny though. Not scrawny, but nice and fit.

Oh, a long rant TOTPD!

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Yeah, keep ramrod away from the ice cream sandwiches, he is like Kobiashi.

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how could i forget my favorite saying

"why have a six-pack when you could have the keg!"

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TIRES TIRES TIRES

Weight Watchers works if you follow it correctly.
My mum lost about 30kgs on it. You should join properly and go to the meetings. They have books which tell you how many points particular food items have, like the stuff you buy at the supermarket, tips for exercise, point guided cookbooks and special lollies and chocolates with a point value so you can treat yourself.
WW isn't a diet that you can finish, it's a complete lifestyle change.

And try switching all your foods to low fat. Better for you and they don't taste any different! Just don't fall into the trap of putting more low fat cheese on a sandwich, just because it is low fat though!!!

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I've lost about 20 pounds this summer, and I really haven't done too much differently. I eat less (smaller portions, not less often), and I cut back a little bit on the alcohol (probably should cut back more on that, I'm not Ted Kennedy or anything, but I should drink less). I'd say the exercise I get at work is doing more for me than anything. Lifting 80 pound steel shelf beams and moving pieces of fixtures is quite a workout (and it's giving me some nice muscleage)... I'm about 5'10" or so and I weigh about 180 give or take.. I'm overweight (according to BMI), but a body fat test showed 7% body fat (I think something like 15-20% is average for my age), so I'm-a go with that. My Doctor said "overweight" on the BMI scale is only something to worry about if it's fat, not muscle)..

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I'm badly overweight. I don't want to talk about it yet.

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Melonade Man: Gone forever.
Bye.

Wow. Apparently I'm late for the healthy ball.

My dear sisterly DG, since January of this year I've lost about thirty pounds, give or take. How this happened was surprisingly simple: I took a nutrition course to satisfy some of my BioSci requirements at ye olde university, and therein learned about healthy processes and not-so-healthy processes, started cooking for myself a lot more, and learned several key mottos. I'll try not to repeat any of the excellent advice around here, but I will applaud Didymus and SC for being right on the money.

1. Portion sizes are literally killing this country. The proper serving size for a sandwich should not resemble the size of Alaska. Most Europeans have completely one-upped us on this one, but never fear -- moderation is something everyone can learn.

2. Awareness is an important first step. For example, one of our nutrition course projects was to write down every single thing we ate every day and then enter it into a nutrition program database, which would then calculate how many calories/vitamins/minerals we ingested and extended. You'd be shocked at how many calories are hiding in so many benign-looking things.

3. Do not weigh yourself every day. Instead, go by how your clothes fit and by how you're feeling. Not only does weight fluctuate one or two pounds like crazy, and is thus liable to drive YOU crazy, but as you build muscle you're going to be putting on a few pounds anyway. (Pounds of muscle burn more calories than pounds of fat. This is why insanely-cut linebackers can weigh 350-ish and not die immediately.) The healthy rate of weight loss is about one pound a week, and that's exactly what I did. It's all very gradual and sensible.

4. Do NOT use any fad diets. Any. Also, do not listen to anything dieting-related that you read in magazines, on the news, etcetera -- health journals and well-scholared nutritionists are the only way to go for accurate nutrition information. The whole concept of a so-called "diet" is flawed from the beginning, because they tell us to eat very small amounts of things for a short amount of time, a time which eventually ends. It's simply starving and then binging, and then the old unhealthiness returns along with the old habits. Worse yet, fad diets all have long-term damaging results -- one of the many Atkins flaws is that, over the long term, it depletes your lean muscle mass, which can never be re-built. Also, in extremely layman's terms, your brain is powered by carbs. You need those carbs. Health is about balance, not about deprivation.

5. Focus on a healthy lifestyle, not on weight loss. You're not doing this to lose weight. You're doing this to live longer, to free up your blood vessels, to reduce your chances of heart disease and the like -- to be healthy. You want to be a healthier person, eating a healthy diet every day and raising your activity levels. (As SC said, the occasional indulgence is perfectly acceptable. This is where the phrase "worth the calories" comes in.)

6. Fruit and vegetables are your friends. Eat more of them. Learn yummy recipes with them. They are tasty-healthy-long life good times.

7. You need calcium. There's an osteoporosis epidemic going on in this country, simply because we're not getting enough calcium. Old people should NOT be breaking their hips when they fall down, and yet unfortunately they are doing so because they didn't get enough calcium when they were young -- it is a limited supply which can only be built up in your youth. See, skim milk is ALSO your friend. Very important!

8. It's going to sound crazy, but just like in 3, try not to worry about your weight so much. Alas, our media and our society provide us with a score of frighteningly unhealthy images: anorexic skeletons on one page, and full-color magazine spreads of deep-fat-fried puddings on the other. No wonder everyone's so confused! Through much adversity, I've gradually come to realize that, surely, you usually look better than you think you do. For example, I'm so tall that no one noticed anything weight-wise until I hit the minus-twenty-or-so mark. A good friend whom I don't see very often said to me recently, "But I ALWAYS thought you were all svelte and stuff." (Public service message: well-tailored clothes aid a wealth of insecurities.) But the fact is, I was eating nothing but uninformed crap before January, and I simply got sick of choking my once-amazing metabolism to death. I want to live beyond the age of fifty. I want to be ABLE to become one of those swanky, elegant, grey-haired ladies traveling around the world in a swanky, elegant manner. Here's hoping.

Whew. If you want for any further advice, I'm perfectly willing -- to the best of my ability, anyway. After all, I still have my nutrition book around here somewhere.

LONGEST REPLY IN THE UNIVERSE'D!!

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OMG MY WEBSITE IS YOUR MOMMA!

Wow, not a heck of a lot left for me to say - seems Didymus, IJ, SC and Queenie have told you all there is to know! I just want to wish you luck in your pursuit! When I moved out of my folks' house, I put on a bunch of weight (mostly because I was working full-time at Harvey's and eating there all the time instead of Mommy's home-cookin') but am now the same pant size I was when I first moved out. And I didn't really try to lose the weight, not consciously, anyway. I just started eating better.

I guess I can add a little something regarding cravings. If you're the type of gal (like me) who develops huge cravings for chocolate or chips or whatever, keep in mind that no amount of baby carrots will cure that craving. As for me, I keep a Ziploc bag of Hershey's Kisses in my freezer, and one or two of those will easily cure a chocolate craving without all the calories/fat/etc. that are in a handful of two-bite brownies or a chocolate bar. Same goes for those Halloween bags of chips. I've heard good things about Weight Watchers and their points program. Sure, at first you might spend a huge chunk of your daily points allotment on a Veggie Burger from Harvey's (Yum!), but eventually you might realize that it's not worth the indulgence just to be hungry most of the day. And if you stick with it long enough, it'll turn into a lifestyle change, not just a diet, like SC said. There are a bunch of Weight Watchers cookbooks available at Chapters/Indigo, and they all feature points as well as calories/fat/carbs/etc. So if you don't want to spend the money to actually join the program, hand off one of those books to your mom or whoever does the cooking at your place - there are some super yummy recipes in there.

Lastly, try not to be affected too much by the media. I will admit that I look at trash magazines and feel a twinge of envy when I see skinny girls in their bikinis, but I try not to let it bug me. The average (and by that I mean what we should think of as "ideal") pant size for a grown woman is more along the lines of an 8-12 than a 0.

Wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I intended! Good luck, sista, and put some Kisses in your freezer for emergencies!

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QC's points are awesome. Listen to this woman.



Yes, definitely.

Here's a tip: If you go to Applebee's, IHOP, Carlos O'Kelly's, TGI Fridays or the like, and you order an entree that comes with the potato and the soup-or-salad and breadstick and the big soda and you finish it all, you've eaten way too much.

Restaurants like those make people feel like they're getting a good deal by piling their plates with cheap food. And as a culture we've got all this weird stuff in our collective consciousness that makes it really tough to go to a restaurant, get all that food, and justify to ourselves not finishing it. Not least because it tastes really good.

You can do a lot just by asking the server not to bring stuff. If there's free bread or tortilla chips or or something before the meal, ask them not to bring it. If the people you're having dinner with protest, you may have to assent, but just tell your dinnermates to keep those things at the opposite end of the table. If there's free hummus and pita bread, ask them to send it to my house.

If you order something that comes with more than one or two sides (like the entrees at IHOP: rolls, salad, potato, and veggie?!), pick the one or two you like the most, or the ones that are most healthy (I'm lucky in this regard: I love salad) and ask them not to bring the others. I'm a big guy who used to eat almost the entire meal at IHOP, but now a sandwich and a salad fills me up easily, and I'm just as satisfied.

The hardest part about this is that you feel as though you are paying for these things, and sending them back feels like wasting money. But believe me, it's not. You win a lot more by asking them not to bring the third and fourth sides than by eating them and feeling overstuffed, or staring at them on your plate and trying not to.

Oh, one thing about salads: A lot of people look at salads like they're a zero-sum dish, like they can just tack a dinner salad on to any meal and it doesn't really add any calories or fat or whatever. But an Applebee's salad is anything but. Once you add the the tomatoes, the onions, the cucumbers, the cheese, the bacon, the eggs, the croutons, and the dressing (or even half of those things), that salad has turned into a meal itself, with the calories to match.

Oh, and steak: I love steak. But don't get the 12 oz. steak. Or the 10-oz. That's way too much. Get the 6-oz. or, if you're especially hungry, the 8-oz.

Oh! I almost forgot, the best way to deal with oversized portions: splitting!

Once I started getting in shape, I found that I got full a lot faster, and as I mentioned above, you feel bad for not finishing everything or asking the server not to bring certain things. So my girlfriend and I started splitting things. It really puts perspective on portion sizes when a meal that you used to be able to finish yourself is enough to fill both you and your girlfriend. And the best part is that it saves you a ton of money.

This is tricky, of course, if you don't have an SO or someone who is usually with you when you go out to eat. But if you go out with your family a lot, ask your siblings or parents. And, of course, trying to come to a consensus on one entree for two people takes some practice. My girlfriend and I have found that combination plates can be great.

Foo. I have to stop typing so much.

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Very yes there, Jonesy.. I used to do ye olde Doggy Bag, when I went to my favorite Italian eatery.. I could make 2 meals out of the Calzones there, and maybe 3 meals out of the entrees.
Like I said earlier, I've cut back on portions, and you know something? You really don't notice it when you do, but you definately notice the results.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Oh, duh. I totally forgot about that option: If you don't finish it, you can always take it home. Thanks for the reminder, StrongRad. Some stuff keeps better than others, but you can get some great lunches out of a too-big dinner.

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I've never yet had to really worry about weight loss, as I only weigh ~195 and am 6' 5". In other words, I have no advice to add really. I worry that I will have to eventually, as I can tell that I am getting older and my metabolism is slowing down. Even if it's not my weight I'm worried about ever, I do have a strong family history of high blood pressure and cholesterol. So I try to eat good foods (at my house we've substituted ground beef with ground turkey, buy fruits, go out to eat only once a week or less, etc..), though portion control is not something I have bothered to try yet.

I think the biggest thing that keeps me from gaining weight is that I'm too lazy to make food. I sit and think "Am I hungry enough to bother cooking? Am I even hungry enough to get off my butt and reheat leftovers?" Usually I'm not.

And about low-carb diets in general, I think they are a good idea if you are diabetic or if you have a family history of diabetes, but I consider them more risky than other options. Atkinz'd!

Um, I doubt it. I'm pretty sure Buz and Upsilon have got you beat somewhere. But it's up there, sister!

Speaking of Buz, anyone know whatever happened to him?

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Easy tips:

*When at a coffee place, get used to saying "skim, please"

*At a restaurant or cafe, ask for sauces and salad dressings on the side. That way, you don't have to eat every bit of it.

*If you normally get a dessert after a meal, share it with a friend.

*If going somewhere you know meals are large and high in fat, eat a low fat yoghurt before you go. It will help to fill you up so you won't eat as much during the meal.

*NEVER get fooled by the "But kids in Africa are starving" if you don't finish a meal line. The leftovers aren't going to get put in an envelope and sent to Botswana, is what you can tell them!

*Don't think that you are wasting money if you don't eat a full meal. If you're full, you've eaten your money's worth.

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Oh, yes, I definitely agree about the too-big serving sizes. In the past, whenever we had spaghetti or whatever and there was a lot left over, I always had some more. That will be the first thing to stop. There's a new book out, French Women Don't Get Fat, about the differences between American and European eating styles. The biggest difference is that in Europe they tend to get smaller portions and savour them more, rather than just shoveling down a ton of food.
Right now I'm writing down everything I eat and drink and figuring out how many points it all was. I'm doing pretty good so far, but I still need to get the moderation down. Also I'm not going to give up pop completely right away. (had a Pepsi Twist yesterday... wasn't as good as I remembered) It's gonna be more of a gradual lessening.

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Ditto on all of the portion comments. Another factor in how much we eat is how fast we eat it. The slower you eat something, the more full you will feel.

And really try to fit excercise somewhere in your life. It doesn't have to be an "official" program like pilates or whatever. It can be anything that makes you move. I prefer taking walks and playing ddr. The awesome thing about ddr is that they have a workout mode, and if you enter your weight, they tell you about how many calories you burn per song. Rock, rock on.

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I remember when both times I went to Europe, I lost a lot of weight. The portions are way smaller over there then they are over here. I also did a lot of walking overthere and drank gallons and gallons of water. So send me to europe for 6 months and I will be skinny.

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One thing I neglected to mention, DG, that I happened to think of while reading everyone's points, is that if you do add exercise to you life, you may actually experience a surge in your appetite.

Before I started seriously working out, I could have a few bites of a meal, push it aside and be happy. Now, I often find myself finishing meals and sometimes asking for seconds!! I was worried until a friend who had GREAT sucess on Weight Watchers pointed out to me that since my body was used to living on meager amounts of calories that the added activity made it imperative that I eat more. Now, this doesn't mean that I went for that second slice of chocolate cake; rather, I'd compensate with more veggies, water, skim milk, fruit, and the like. I have truthfully gained about 5 lbs since I've started working out, but my body is cut and lean - the extra weight is coming from muscle, like Queenie mentioned. Though I do feel bad that my two favourite pairs of jeans no longer fit (not comfortably or decently, at least)! ...*sigh*...someday...

I guess my point after this too long post is don't be surprised if your appetite spikes - just fill the void with low cal options - celery, cucumbers, water and the like are your friends here! Fiber is another key my Weigh Watcher's friend mentioned - it fills you up without a lot of calories. And also, as in my experience, your appetite will settle back down after awhile.

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In regards to the exercising = more hungry thing... Weight Watchers factors that into the program.
For a certain amount of time of a certain type of exercise (eg, running, basketball, rowing etc), you earn 'bonus' points which can be used during the week.
So if you earn an extra point or two during the day, you can have some more fruit or extra bit of meat for dinner.

Seriously DG, join the program for real and check out their books. Or find a friend who has the books and borrow them and check out all the benefits!

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I don't really have that much advice. Though I will advise you to stay away from those diet pills.

Taking pills to lose wieght = bad news

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Many awesome posts!! Here are my thoughts:

Drink lots of water. Helps cycle out toxins and tends to keep you feeling more full. I personally enjoy drinking severly watered-down fruit juice.. that way I get some vitamins and minerals but not all that sugar. I realize it sounds weird, but it's kind of like my own much cheaper version of Smart Water, Vitamin Water, or any of those other fruit-infused waters they sell for like $2 each.

Also, be sure and get a good work-out. I tend to walk for between 30 min to 2-3 hours per day.. props to me! Also, I've been trying to do my Denise Austin workout video a few times a week.. it's really nice-- gets my blood moving, and I lift some light weights too. It takes very little time, but I've noticed a huge change in my muscular development, waste size and weight. I do these workouts in order to put more air in my blood, but I can't complain about all the other cool effects and improvements it's had on my body.

Small portions = yes. Basically, when you're hungry, eat, and when you're not hungry, don't. It's not a bad idea to eat 6 or so small snack-meals, as long as they are healthy foods like carrots and yougurt, or other fruits and vegetables. Basically, think about what you're eating and how healthy it will be for you. I also like hummus a lot, but I definitely indulge a lot in chocolates and other such bad things-- so it's a mix. It's good to keep eating tiny meals throughout the day because then your metabolism stays up and you keep breaking down all the calories.

I tend to take a lot of food home from restaurants.. I'm not ashamed to ask for the doggie bag.

Also, it's best to eat a large breakfast and a large lunch, then have a small supper... after dinner, you usually go straight to bed, so there's no post-meal exercise to get rid of all those calories-- eat an early dinner, make it small, then go to bed at a reasonable hour so that your body gets enough rest and is ready to break down calories the next day at its best rate.

LONG AND REPETITIVE POST'D!!

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Hot!

If you have night-time cravings, try eating cerial, it's low fat, and has lots of fiber. Try to get the low sugar kind though, it's more healthy. Good luck with the weight loss! If you take a lot of walks, try walking different places to keep it more interesting, and if you have time to kill, take the long route. Little things are a bug help when it comes to losing weight.

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Week 1 weigh-in: lost three pounds! Thanks for all the great advice!

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I lost like 40 lbs by watching my caloric intake and working out thrice weekly.

It's more of a lifestyle change than a diet, though.

Goodbye regular soda...

Remember, DG: a healthy rate of weight loss is about a POUND a week. Please, never seek to do more. (It might HAPPEN, I suppose, but please don't seek it -- this implies the starving-binging cycle which I mentioned before with regards to fads, and that's not exactly healthy body times.) All those "drop twenty in two days OMG sickly toothpickpaint" articles happen to be damaging this country just as much as portion sizes are.

Just be careful, missy. It's a gradual road. Tread lightly.

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OMG MY WEBSITE IS YOUR MOMMA!

She probably lost some water-weight this week. It happens - you lose a BUNCH at first, and then taper off - still losing weight, but just at a slower rate.

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Isn't diet soda bad for you? My parents said it is because it has aspartame.

My parents won't let me near their diet soda, they don't want me to lose weight on any circumstance.

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SC: Yes, you're right. I wanted to throw that fact out there, though, just to make sure it was heard. I'm rather passionate about it.

No Smorking: At last, a myth I can publicly bust!

About twenty years ago, the news media decided to warn everyone about the so-called dangers of artificial sweeteners. Since then the masses have been very fond of villainizing these substitutes, as though there's some sort of sweetener conspiracy going on. By the time nutrition scientists proved otherwise, however, it was no longer deemed interesting and therefore the refuting evidence was never really heard. Hence: NEVER LISTEN TO THE NEWS FOR YOUR NUTRITIONAL INFO. (I once saw a news-ad blurb that said, "Watch out! Milk is bad for you!" I almost busted a gut laughing.)

Here's the skinny, straight out of my nutrition course book: Sizer and Whitney's Nutrition Concepts and Controversies, ninth edition. Basically, all substances are toxic if you eat high enough doses of 'em. That's why the FDA provides us with various recommended daily allowances. (See, moderation IS your friend.) In terms of sweeteners, there are not only various acceptable daily intakes provided for you, but there are actually various KINDS of sugar substitutes out there, including saccharin (SugarTwin, others), aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, others), sucralose (Splenda), and so on.

Saccharin was the first one to be buzzed about. "Questions about its safety surfaced in the late 1970s, when experiments suggested that it caused bladder tumors in rats" (Sizer 133). Although it's a little biological, I'm going to run it down for you, because I happened to find it interesting myself. "Rats that had been fed diets containing saccharin from the time of weaning to adulthood were mated. The offspring of those rats were then fed saccharin throughout their lives and were found to have a higher incidence of bladder tumors than comparable animals not fed saccharin" (Sizer 133). Based on these rat studies, various warning labels were put on saccharin products. Yet as of 2000, US government officials reviewed the research and reversed their opinion. After all, "a solid clue from the laboratory is based on some physiological differences between the urinary systems of rats and human beings. Proportionally, rats excrete far less water in their urine than people do. As a result, rats can make highly concentrated solutions of substances in just small amounts of water in their urine. Dissolved substances in such high concentrations are likely to crystallize. In safety tests, saccharin overdoses caused crystals to form in the rats' bladders, and the crystals probably caused the tumors. Human beings cannot concentrate urinary substances to such a degree, so they would never form saccharin crystals, even if they consumed larger-than-normal doses of saccharin. They would, however, lose large amounts of water as the kidneys struggled to free the blood of the overload. Overloading on huge saccharin doses is probably not safe, but consuming moderate amounts almost certainly does not cause bladder cancer in human beings" (Sizer 134). Voila. Unless you have the bladder of a rat, no need for alarm. Besides, I've never even HEARD of SugarTwin sweetener.

As for aspartame, it has been studied up and down and all around as well. (Interestingly, it's not heat stable -- while sucralose is, and that's why people can cook with Splenda but not with Equal.) The only real problem with aspartame is for people who have an inherited metabolic disease known as phenylketonuria, or PKU. Peeps with PKU cannot easily dispose of an amino acid called phenylalanine when it's in excess. And aspartame contains phenylalanine, so obviously, those with PKU probably shouldn't use it -- newborns are tested for PKU, and if they have it, they have to be very careful about what they eat. Poor things.

Furthermore, my book details the other aspartame controversy as follows: "A recent uproar about aspartame's safety began when a scientist wrote an article in a scientific journal [from the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, don't ya know] noting a parallel between an increasing rate of brain tumors beginning in the 1980s and the approval of aspartame for public use in 1981. The article put forth an observation, but presented no data to support a scientifically based relationship between aspartame and brain tumors; in fact, no documentation exists to show whether any of the brain cancer patients cited in the article had ever consumed aspartame. Still, newspapers, magazines, and other media reported the story with gusto and 'taught' the whole nation, wrongly, that a scientist had proved that aspartame caused brain cancer. Soon, stories circled the globe on the Internet accusing aspartame of causing everything from Alzheimer's disease and brain cancer to nerve disorders and skin warts. Meanwhile, a year after the release of the original published opinion, other researchers had finished their orderly scientific investigations into the theory and found no relationship between aspartame intake and brain tumors, behavior, mood, or brain chemistry. They did, in fact, find a disturbing unexplained nationwide acceleration in the incidence of brain tumors, but the greatest increase was recorded several years before aspartame's approval. Of course, the media had lost interest by this time -- the finding that aspartame is safe will not sell newspapers" (Sizer 135). BOOYAH. In your face, old boyfriend who used to furrow his brow at my packet of Equal!

There's practically an entire chapter on these issues. Basically, it all states the same thing: don't go hog wild and swallow the stuff at every turn, but reasonable use is simply not going to hurt you. If anyone wants to hear specific things about Splenda or any of the others, I'll do what I can to make them just as long-winded as this post. Don't say your queen never did anything for you.

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OMG MY WEBSITE IS YOUR MOMMA!

MMMmmm, Splenda! *eats whole bowl of the stuff like ice cream*

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