This thread is for anyone who can give me better advice than 'start smoking cigs again' Advice is very welcome, I could use some help here. I gave up nicotine 1 year and 1 month ago. The day before I gave up I was about 1/2 a stone under weight and I smoked about 20 cigs a day plus spliffs. I lived pretty much on junk food and black coffee. In the year after I gave up, I put on two and a half stone! The thing is, I wasn't being particularly greedy, I ate less 'bad' munchies than I did when I smoked, but the weight piled on. It has become very clear that nicotine completely changes the way my body processes food. Now that I'm completely over my nicotine addiction, I need to concentrate on losing a load of this weight. I'm just not as happy a person as I was, I don't like carrying excess weight. Since January, I have lost 10lbs, I have done this just by cutting out all snacks, fizzy drinks etc. My weakness is wine, since I gave up smoking, I've started drinking, But I have now got that down to one glass a day. The problem is over the last month I've been working really fucking hard, but I'm stuck on the same weight. Three times a week I just have fruit for lunch, I never exceed 1,700 calories per day (Oh yeah, I'm female) and I'm very active. I also never eat a thing after 7pm at night. I've literally halved what I was eating and it's not doing a thing! I feel hungry most of the time, which would be worth it if I was losing weight, but I'm not. I only wanna lose another stone, I can live with that. This is pretty depressing, anyone got any tips 'cos right now returning to nicotine seems pretty tempting. I'm prepared to suffer if it helps! Maybe I should go score some speed....
I did not read anything about exercise in there... Let me break down weight maintenance for you: -Your body needs energy to do everything -This energy comes in the form of calories, in the form of food. -Food = calories. A gram of protein is 4 calories. A gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories. A gram of fat = 9 calories. -Your body takes calories, and uses them as fuel. -The calories that are not utilized are stored as fat reserves. -Your body is constantly adapting to whatever routines/habits/situations it finds itself in --To lose weight, you must use more calories than you consume. To lose weight, this means one of three things: You can eat less. OR You can exercise more. OR You can eat less and exercise more. You've done that first one for a long time sounds like.. Since you've been dieting for so long...your body has adapted to maintaining a weight it likes to be, and it happens to do just swell on using the calories you are giving yourself (1,700) to complete your daily activity level. Right now you need to get on the cardio AND the strength training. The latter is overlooked in weight loss but its super important because a)in shape muscle speeds up the metabolism and b)in shape muscle takes in those excess calories instead of having them go to fat
Hey man, thanks for the response, I appreciate it. I have done this. It seems harsh that I have reduced my calorific intake so dramatically, yet it isn't apparent in my weight. I'm not small either, I mean height wise, I'm 5'11 (think lamp post ). Regarding exercise, I am an ex athelete, so I have a residual fitness and a need to be active that I don't think will ever leave me. I no longer compete, but I now keep horses which keeps me pretty fit. I figured about a month ago that I was delusional about this making a difference, so I have slowly been incorporating aerobic and muscle exercise into my daily life. My breathing is way better than it was a year ago after I just quit the cigs, but it's still not great, so I find more than 10mins hard aerobic exercise quite difficult. The muscle training comes quite easily and I am up to 50 sit ups, 30 press ups yada yada per day. I still smoke j's, and clearly that isn't helping the whole needing to breathe thing. I have noticed that the flab is becoming more toned because of these exercises, but the weight remains. Since posting I have reduced my calorie intake further and I am increasing the amount of exercise each day. It's taking time to regain a higher level of fitness. So the answer is the cardio stuff huh? Fuck. Is there any point if I can't do more than 10mins at a time 'cos I'm a wheezy bint?
In that case, you may want to look into High-intensity interval training (HIIT) cardio. A good 15 minutes worth of this is equivalent to 40-80 minutes of standard cardio. Here is a good outlining article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/fashion/03Fitness.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 The principle can be applied any form of cardio There's always a point to exercise. Anything is infinitely better than nothing.
I hear the best excercise is to swim across the atlantic to visit friends. Try convincing me you wont lose weight on that journey between the bit of a haul snd the lack of food and drinking water for that matter. You'll be good to go But seriously, how has the weight prob been goin for you as of late? Im a skinny dude who cant gain weight..... ironic yes lol. Ill take some of the weight. Or we could find our own way to work out A quite productive and reproductive form Thought I was gunna stay serious in this paragraph....oooops
idk i gained 94 lbs after i quit now im fat aand the only thing thats diferent is i just eat alot and my gf is fat
the amount of energy used to keep your body in a stable condition while its trying to deal with a pack of day of tar and nicotine in addition to all the weed is probably rather large. now that you're not smoking your energy requirements have dropped to the floor. 1700 sounds like a lot for a woman who is trying to lose weight (assuming you're 5'5" - 5'10" and under 150lbs). to figure out how much you need for energy go to: BMR Calculator enter your information and the number spit out is how much your body needs just to supply enough energy to your internals. then go to the link below that says "Daily Calorie Needs" and find the number that corresponds to your activity level and multiply it with your original number. subtract 500 from that number and that's how many calories you need to lose a pound of weight healthily a week.
lmao! Soz man, only just saw this post!! You're a very bad man. Thanks for asking though dude! I ended up losing 2 stone! Perfect! That's why I said don't look at the pic of me with the pot on my bonce, I was at my heaviest then. Now I am back to my original slender self! I did it by introducing running into my daily routine and continued to eat healthily. I still run about 5-6 miles a week - I'm totally addicted to it! Lol, try running?! I remember thinking it was fucking harsh that I was having to diet and quit nictotine at the same time, now I see that I was being melodramatic I'm way healthier now, have a much better diet and am slim n sexy! Thanks for the input man. I'll bear that in mind if I turn into a fatty again. Although I don't think I'll ever let that happen to myself again though! I like being slim too much.