Have you ever been on a diet?

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Now that I could not cope with, I am seriously addicted to the stuff. But I am curious, caffeine is fat, sugar, and calorie free, so how does giving it up help you loose weight?

If you have issues with sugar, like I do, caffeine can cause your sugar to yo-yo more than normal. I gave up caffeine about 3 months ago and WOW do I speed if I have any, lol.

I tried atkins diet for awhile, lost weight. then I went through CEA-HOW (compulsive eaters anonymous) which is a 12 step program and their diet is fanatic. I lost the weight, but you are basically eating about 1,000 calories a day. I was always hungry. No flour. No sugar. you weigh and measure everything. Very fat restricted.

When I went off that, I slowly gained up to about 10# over what I am now. Tried atkins again, my cholesterol went up to almost 300. So now I'm back to vegetarian and my cholesterol is the lowest its been in my life.

I'm finding out I have to cut out all high carb / sugar junk foods or my sugar goes too high. Even things like too much brown rice can do it. It is tough to lose the weight now, since if I eat too many carbs, I pour insulin into my system, that makes your body super efficient at fat storing, and I'll gain back the last 5# I lost.

So my diet today is a long-range style of eating that you can find in the book / website ultrametabolism.com by Dr. Mark Hyman. I am working on exercising more too. If I stick with that, I lose weight, and I don't feel deprived at all. It is a "whole foods" diet, eating foods in natural or as close to natural form as you can.

JackDaniels, you might want to pick up a cheap blood gloucose test kit. Eat something that has sugar / carbs, check your sugar 1/2 hr, 1 hr after and se where it goes. If too high (over 200 is diabetic, over about 170 is pre) then know you can't eat that. It helps finding the foods that is triggering that and avoiding them, so you don't keep producing excess insulin and turning your body into a fat storing machine.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

JackDaniels, you might want to pick up a cheap blood gloucose test kit.

If you do this pick up one that directly measures your blood (i.e. one you have to give a drip of blood to). The results from ones that test your urine are only slightly better than an educated guess.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

If you have issues with sugar, like I do, caffeine can cause your sugar to yo-yo more than normal.

I have a bigger sugar problem if I give up caffeine. After about 48 hours without it I am so depressed and pissed off that I don't care about anything, even my health. So I end up eating candy bars like I am trying to kill myself.

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by ecchi

I have a bigger sugar problem if I give up caffeine. After about 48 hours without it I am so depressed and pissed off that I don't care about anything, even my health. So I end up eating candy bars like I am trying to kill myself.

LOL. I had to cut down to 1 cup a day, and do that for about a month, then stop. I truthfully haven't had any side effect of not drinking it this time, other than a little tiredness which I found was low vit B levels from being a vegetarian. Once I started taking extra B, that went away.

The good thing after quitting is I don't get as many mood swings, and I don't get my heart feeling like it is going to jump out of my chest anymore.

[RedCherry]

I agree alot with UW. One of the reasons I do that ultrametabolism. It isn't a diet, just a way of eating healthier. I've done diets, and they may work in the short run, but not in a long haul.

My dr. keeps telling me it is a matter of more exercise and watching what you eat. As you get older, it gets harder, because your metabolism slows down.

The only reason I joined Curves (a gym for women) is because it gets me out of the house for an hour, and motivates me because of the success stories I'm surrounded by. Also all the machines are built smaller scale for women.

Unless it is pouring rain, I always park about as far away from the entrance to stores as I can get and still be in the parking lot. And try to walk some and ride my bike a bit each week. Every little bit of extra movement helps.

I like what you said on portions UW that is my problem, I like a LOT of food. So I try to bulk up with a LOT of salad greens. Makes it look like I'm eating a lot yet it is only about 30 calories.

And bagged sweet peas or chinese peas are good snacks too, very crunchy.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

I truthfully haven't had any side effect of not drinking it this time, other than a little tiredness

You are so lucky, I have twice tried to give up, and twice stayed a few days with someone who doesn't believe in caffeine, so won't serve drinks containing it. About 24 hours after going without I get a migraine to end all migraines, and a further 24 hours after that I get depressed, ratty, argumentative, and become a complete uncaring bastard. On the only occasion I did not 'giving up at giving up' at that point I eventually ended up sitting on the floor in the corner crying because the shirt I had just tried to iron was dirty, no one could console me and I genuinely believed that the shirt being dirty was the worst possible thing to ever have happened to anyone in the world.

Since then, for my own health, and for the good of mankind, I have never tried to give up (and when I stay with anyone I always pack a jar of instant coffee in my wash bag just in case).

In my own defence; Robert Downey Jr used to be an alcoholic and a junky. He has since 'gone clean' but in an interview said that giving up coffee was much harder than giving up alcohol or hard drugs, and he described the side effects of giving up coffee as "loosing the will or any desire to live". Although he is now off coffee, he still drinks tea which has some caffeine in it.

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Since then, for my own health, and for the good of mankind, I have never tried to give up (and when I stay with anyone I always pack a jar of instant coffee in my wash bag just in case).

Believe me, I've tried to give it up before, with the same results you described. It was horrible. But I went from drinking a pot (or 2) a day to zero. This time, I tapered off. I have an irregular heart beat that is aggravated by caffeine. So I started cutting down how much I drank a little at a time, until I was on 1 cup a day for a long time. That worked.

I have also found that, if I watch my sugar/carb intake, wow my mood swings dissapear. If I eat too much sugar more than 1x in a day, I'm horribly depressed. Might want to check if that isn't part of your problem.

Finally, there is a brain chemical abnomality I read about (wish I could remember) that some people addicted to caffeine are actually treating with caffeine. You might be one of those people, and might be why you can't withdraw off it.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

I have also found that, if I watch my sugar/carb intake, wow my mood swings dissapear. If I eat too much sugar more than 1x in a day, I'm horribly depressed. Might want to check if that isn't part of your problem.

I am diabetic so I monitor my blood sugar level carefully. But, yes, one of the early indications that my blood sugar level has got too high is that I get ratty and unpleasant to be around.

[sue-fl]

UW your advice was great

Drinking lot's of water and walking my dog for 30 minutes a day has kept me at the size I like to be.

And don't eat anything after 8pm at night!

[Mr Exotic]

I was always a bigger guy, even growing up as a kid I remember trying to lose weight as early as elementary school. In high school I eventually became steady at around 260-270 pounds. I played basketball all the time, and played organized baseball until I was 17. Since I was so active I wasnt overly huge but 270 pounds for a 6'1 guy is still a lot of extra poundage. Then when I quit playing sports I ballooned up like a fucking whale. I eventually got up to 335. I started playing in softball leagues 3 years ago but was still eating badly and just getting some exercise in I dropped down to 300. Part of it was frustration of not being able to play ball like I used to and the other part of it was I just got sick and tired of feeling like shit, so I decided I was gonna get serious about losing weight.

After trying too many different things to even remeber I kinda came up with my own diet, along with taking 75 mg of epederine first thing in the morning along with a pot of coffee. Yeah alot of people say ephederine and caffeine are bad for you, but I guess you gotta figure how fat you are (in my case I was becoming morbidly obese) and if losing weight is worth the epederine.

First thing when I wake up is take 75mg of ephederine (most say your only suppose to take 25mg at a time 3 times a day, but if I take any past noon I cannot sleep at all, I have ended up staying awake for 4 days straight before), along with 600 mg of caffeine pills, I have since replaced that with drinking a pot of coffee. Then the hardest part is I didnt eat a thing until around 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening. I ate whatever I wanted and quite a bit of it, just not Thanks Giving Dinner portions That one meal is all I ate all day long, so I made sure I satisfied my hunger. After about a year of sticking to that 90% of the time I was down to 205 pounds.

Yeah some people say epederine, caffeine, only eating once a day is bad for you, but I know of all the things I tried this is the only one I could get to work. My blood pressure which was thru the roof is fine now, (not sure about my cholestorol, but I dont worry about it because I dont eat a whole lot of meat). I feel awesome, I really feel like a whole new person and pretty much my whole life is completely different just from having 1000x the energy.

Now that I am in my happy weight area, seems like when I hit 203 my body screams feed me non stop. What I do to maintain is still take my ephederine and drink my coffee but I let myself eat twice a day now, usually around 1 or 2 pm, and eat again around 7 or 8 at night. I try not to eat too much but sometimes I do. If I catch myself getting over 212 I go back to the above until I get back down to the 205 area.

Probably not the best or healthiest method but that is exactly what I did and it worked for me.

[Lemmy]

I've tried many diets over the years and have come to the understanding that "diets" are quick fixes. Though they may work temporarily, they do not address the underlying problem which is a poor lifestyle.

If you're fat and out of shape it's because you eat too much and excercise too little. Some diets, like the Atkins diet and any other that advocates cutting carbs dramatically while allowing for large amounts of bad fats (bacon, cheese etc.) are potentially dangerous.

The only "diet" that works long term is a change in lifestyle. Eat healthy, balanced and in moderation, excercise regularly and stick with it.