Weight Loss

Regenerative Culture Health, Healing & Movement
#1

We carry around with us many burdens of civilization, and unfortunately one that I carry is excess weight. I consider dropping this weight one of the more important things I need to do in the processing of rewilding. I’ve been quite successful lately at dropping some, through exercise, adhering to a paleo diet, and lately taking a lot of green tea.

Can anyone suggest good exercises, food/food combinations, or other stuff that’s helped them? I’ve had a lot of success with moderate weight lifting and regular hikes in local forests, so those are my suggestions.

#2

So far, I’ve had little success with my own weight. Paleo worked great for me, while I could keep it up. But that illustrated the point I’d make here: weight problems come from a total lifestyle problem, not just something you can easily adjust by adding some diet and exercise. In my own case, the ultimate cause lay in just how much of my time I had to sacrifice to make a living. No time meant no time to take care of myself; instead, I used colas and junk food to keep my body going through chronic sleep deprivation, which of course, made my body hold onto the weight all the more. It caught me in a vicious cycle. Trying to break that by starting with diet or exercise never worked for me, because such measures addressed symptoms, while leaving the root cause untouched. So, if I took time to exercise or cook more of my own food rather than eat junk food or go out to eat, then I had to cut into my time to sleep, which made me even more sleep deprived, which made my body hold onto the weight even more.

I do have some hope for the future, because now I have addressed the root cause. I’ve got a new job that gives me more time. Unfortunately, it brought with it a new commute which ate up that time, but once I can move closer to the new office, I’ll finally get that time. Then, I guess we’ll see if I manage to make a difference here. So, as far as advice, I’d suggest pressing beyond the “obvious” explanations, and look at the total patterns of your lifestyle.

#3

Yea, I’ve been trying to work on this as well, but I’ve had difficulty doing so as a student. I really hate this aspect of going to school, about equal to hating the debt I’ll have for awhile. While I usually lament it, my recent stint of unemployment has at least given me more time to take care of myself. Unfortunately, I still tend to spend a bit too much time watching TV or surfing the net, when I could be getting exercise and fresh air in the woods (which surround my home quite well).

So I guess we really need strategies for getting ourselves to get off of our asses, and making use of the limited time our civilized lives allow.

#4

the biggest thing i’ve found for me is stress level, when stress is high, i do things that lead to weight gain, when low, i do things that lead to weight loss (or at least hovering somewhere close to my “ideal” weight).

having noted the underlying disease, the best thing i’ve found to treat the symptom is exercise, preferably something that combines weights and vigorous, aerobic activity. and, if at all possible, choose an activity that has a purpose other than just as exercise, but sometimes that’s a little difficult (it’s unlikely that I’m going to be carrying a deer thru 30 miles of woods 3+ times a week anytime in the near future, for example).

if you really want something specific that will lead to some weight loss, then try this daily for at least 6-8 months:

first, choose an aerobic activity that works for you, whether that be walking (in place or not), biking (again, in place or not), jumping jacks, Tae Bo, whatever.

1 set of 10 reps of leg curls (whatever weight works for you)

do 5 minutes of your chosen aerobic activity

do a 2nd set of 10 reps of leg curls

do 5 minutes of your chosen aerobic activity

do a 3rd set of leg curls

another 5 minutes of your chosen aerobic activity

rinse and repeat, but substitute bench presses, lats, crunches, and bicep curls for subsequent iterations.

granted, you could sub out weight exercises as desired, but my suggestion is to try to hit for several different muscle groups.

#5

572×523

I’m 6’ tall and I weighed 160 for many years, until I was in my late 30’s. I could eat anything in huge quantities and never gain a pound. At that time in my life I was doing very hard physical work and I figured that was why I never gained weight.
I had to get an emergency operation because my appendix burst on me and from then on my metabolism seemed to change. Even though I was still working in the woods and being very physically active, I started putting on weight. I’m at about 190 now and have to be careful or I quickly get up over 200 and keep going.

#6

Couch to 5k Running Plan: http://waycoolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

#7

Yeah yeah - old thread I know, but so are like 90% here…

So I wanted to say I am interested, too. I list 20# by dropping sweet drinks.
But before I was never eating breakfast, just water and little for lunch but still gained weight a lot over time. I guess I just made up for it by drinking Coke and eating the wrong stuff. For the past 3 years, I’m living with friends and we all take time twice a week to cook properly and share. So everyone gets a self cooked meal daily :smiley: - Now all we need to do is to get everyone to cook healthy :wink:

Exercise is really a bit of a trouble. The time between sleep, work, cooking/eating and doing housework like cleaning and washing is not exactly huge and there are about 20 things I want to do in that time, like making a bow, practicing archery, sewing clothes, read rewild.info and some other stuff, read books, watch the media on the “Must see list” in this forum, try to make fire with a bowdrill, paint, tend the garden,… so to go out jogging or aerobics is always a bit of a “waste of time”. Better is to walk the dog or go mountain hiking - that is at least fun at the same time it is moving the body :wink:

Greetings

#8

I know I’m not the first person to say this, but I think the focus, for people of all body types, should be on health rather than weight loss. Just because a person is skinny doesn’t mean they are healthy. Some people are skinny couch potatoes who live on junk food. Is this person better than a fit person who spends a lot of time outdoors, but has a bit of belly fat? My goal is to measure my body by what it can do, how fast I can run, how high I can climb, rather than the numbers on a scale or tape measure.

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#9

I whole heartedly agree. I can’t put on fat very well but that doesn’t mean I can’t live just as unhealthily as someone who can, even worse, without hardly knowing it. Focusing on weight rather than health focuses on image rather than feeling. I want to feel healthy, and thus display a healthy appearance.

However, if society at large adopted this method that would end all the weight loss drugs and such, sending the economy into ever more economic peril.