Anyone use Nutrisystem (or similar "Weight loss precreated meal services")?

[Zhukov]

I was varying degrees of overweight for way too much of my life. Now I'm not. Recently shed 20kg. (Or about 40lbs in your language.)

Fuck fad diets, just start counting calories/kilojoules. Yeah, it's tedious and annoying but it works. You'll save a ton of money too. These days I can eat for $50 a week if I need to.

Aim for about 2000 calories a day for gradual weight loss. It varies by your gender, size and age though. There are calorie calculators all over the internet that will give you a target. I aimed for 1500 calories a day along with an hour of exercise because I'm impatient.

Eat lots of protein and fiber. Not only are they good for you, they make you feel full with a relatively low amount of calories. I ate a lot of eggs and lentils.

Lose the soft drinks. Fucking permanently. They're bad for you and they're a ton of calories with basically zero nutritional value. Any time you even think about a soft drink just gulp down half a litre of water.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Aim for about 2000 calories a day for gradual weight loss. It varies by your gender, size and age though. There are calorie calculators all over the internet that will give you a target. I aimed for 1500 calories a day along with an hour of exercise because I'm impatient.

You and me both. I got a dressing down by the nutritionist I went to see at one point for going overboard. I'd cut down to about 1000 calories a day (from 3000 calories a day when I was chubbing out) on top of exercise seven days a week and completely dumping carbohydrates (ate ketogenically for about 3 months). I'm not sure I'd recommend being that ridiculous to anyone (the calorie reduction and halting carbs tanked my mood for a couple weeks), but the pounds sure melted off. I spent most of my adult life telling anyone who would listen that it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever slip below 200 lbs again. My peak weight was 236. I'm currently 166.

Probably the worst part is I can't slouch in chairs like an asshole anymore, because my tailbone starts to hurt. That and I get a fuckload colder in the winter.

 

[Zhukov]

I got a dressing down by the nutritionist I went to see at one point for going overboard. I'd cut down to about 1000 calories a day...

Oh Christ, fuck that noise.

I'm pretty sure that would mess me up. I get a bit glum and grouchy on 1500. I'd probably start losing friends on 1000.

(ate ketogenically for about 3 months)

That's the Atkins/Paleo kinda thing right? No sugers or carbs? Supposed to do something whacky to your metabolism so you burn fat?

Does it work?

I have a brother who's really into this kind of thing and he was pushing that on me for months. Never really took though. Too inconvenient.

Probably the worst part is I can't slouch in chairs like an asshole anymore, because my tailbone starts to hurt. That and I get a fuckload colder in the winter.

Haha, yeah, I have enough padding left over to slouch all I like, but I can't do sit-ups on a hard surface anymore.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That's the Atkins/Paleo kinda thing right? No sugers or carbs? Supposed to do something whacky to your metabolism so you burn fat?

Does it work?

Short answer is yes, long answer is "yes*".

Like most diets, it'll work through sheer elimination of 90% of the crap you were probably eating. Processed foods of all varieties will be out, as will fast foods and sugary treats and fattening breads. You kinda cannot help but lose weight on a diet like that. Since the body stores water with glucose, you'll also shed water weight like a champion (most people will point to Keto as a "rapid weight loss" diet for this reason, although THAT weight loss is of course illusory...start carb loading again and all that water comes back). You do eventually metabolize fat for energy more efficiently (turning it into glucose) although whether or not the body goes more aggressively after its own fat stores or just uses incoming fats is beyond me. I suspect the latter.

Why the asterisk?

Atkins "failed" for a reason. You'll hear a lot of Keto fanatics talk about being on a diet where they can eat all the bacon and ribeye they want, and...well...that's not a long term recipe for health. You can still overeat ketogenically, and make stupid dietary choices. Second, it's expensive as hell to eat little other than produce and meat and dairy, especially if you shop organic. Third, it's not the most varied diet and most people will eventually rebel. It was number two that caught up with me in the end...I wanted/needed bread so I could make some affordable lunches. I still keep carbs quite low though...under 100g a day where I can help it, and virtually none of that from sugars (outside of fruit). I was under 30g on keto, which can be tricky to get to.

I dropped about 30 pounds in 1.5 months on keto, but I was also cutting calories REALLY aggressively as mentioned (because I have no patience). I think a more natural weight loss rate would be about 2lbs a week, which is pretty close to what my GF saw when she ate the diet with me (assuming you weren't eating back all your calorie reduction in the form of a stick of butter with every meal). It's a good 'cleanse' diet to go on to kickstart a new healthy living regimen since it gets a lot of trash out of your diet, but like all diets it only has value insomuch as people use it to springboard into something sustainable.

So, is it good for weight loss? Yeah. Is it a sustainable long term lifestyle? Probably not, save for the fanatic few. I actually think it's a good way to transition into eating less carbs though, as the almost total abandonment of them for a few months makes the little bit I have now seem absolutely decadent, rather than a pauper's portion.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

You dont need expensive food, just eat under 2000 calories a day. I ate 1500 a day of whatever I wanted and went from 240 to 125 in about a year.

And I wouldn't suggest something like Atkins, that's crazy. Many days I eat nothing but carbs/sugar. A full box of Pop Tarts is right at my daily calorie limit, and I have made that a daily meal many times.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You dont need expensive food, just eat under 2000 calories a day. I ate 1500 a day of whatever I wanted and went from 240 to 125 in about a year.

And I wouldn't suggest something like Atkins, that's crazy. Many days I eat nothing but carbs/sugar. A full box of Pop Tarts is right at my daily calorie limit, and I have made that a daily meal many times.

You can lose weight on any diet as long as you cut calories.

Losing weight =/= getting healthy. Come back in 10-15 years and let me know how your Pop Tarts diet works out for you.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

You dont need expensive food, just eat under 2000 calories a day. I ate 1500 a day of whatever I wanted and went from 240 to 125 in about a year.

And I wouldn't suggest something like Atkins, that's crazy. Many days I eat nothing but carbs/sugar. A full box of Pop Tarts is right at my daily calorie limit, and I have made that a daily meal many times.

You can lose weight on any diet as long as you cut calories.

Losing weight =/= getting healthy. Come back in 10-15 years and let me know how your Pop Tarts diet works out for you.

Eat lots of sugar and die young, both major positives. But seriously, I dont have any major health issues related to my diet at this time. I might have issues in the future, but that's the future. I say my diet works for me, and that assertion remains true until proven false. You might be proven right in 10-15 years, but I'm right for the time being.

 

[Baffle]

just go running. It takes less than 10 minutes to knock out a 2k. I mean, it takes another 10 minutes of that horrible deep breathing Dyson is doing in terminator 2 once he's been shot in order to get your breath back, but it's quick and (semi) easy. like the first bad guy to die in The Crow says. Except he wasn't talking about running.

 

[tippy2k2]

just go running. It takes less than 10 minutes to knock out a 2k. I mean, it takes another 10 minutes of that horrible deep breathing Dyson is doing in terminator 2 once he's been shot in order to get your breath back, but it's quick and (semi) easy. like the first bad guy to die in The Crow says. Except he wasn't talking about running.

Exercise is something I'm actually pretty good about. I joined LA Fitness for the classes and get a lot out of it (Monday Cycling, Tuesday Pilates....stop laughing! Thursdays Boot Camp and Saturdays a P-90X type class; I also get bored every so often on those off days and go play on the elliptical or some cardio that's not running).

I'm in surprisingly good shape for a fat guy as I know my vice is food and sugar. Doing something like Nutrisystem I thought might help with that but I like Guppy's "Crock Pot everything!!!" idea so I'm gonna go with that now that my Mum showed me how to properly freeze soups and stews and all the other stuff you generally crock pot...

 

[Baffle]

Tuesday Pilates....stop laughing!

Hah! Do you play skippy rope too? Because you should, it's good cardio.

 

[Tiger King]

I used nutri system once.
whilst the food is 'ok' I didn't feel it worked because the portions are just too small. I was constantly hungry and lacking in energy. I've never had any luck with diets and by diets I mean the ones where you eat less instead of eating smart. you just end up starving yourself for a few weeks, initially lose some weight, feel good for a bit, then decide to 'treat yourself' and end up putting all the weight back on over a weekend from a night out for drinks with friends.

I got a new job recently that requires me to be very active and I've gotten better results than I ever did in a gym in years. That's probably because I lack the gym knowledge required to get results and I mostly ran on a treadmill anyway though.

But still, in one month ive lost some weight (not that I was fat or anything anyway) and my shoulders and biceps are bigger. I have to keep reminding myself to eat more though but I find it hard, American portions are huge! I eat breakfast or lunch and i'm full for the day.
One guy I work with eats so damn much, I dunno how he manages but the man is what i'd describe as 'wirey' thin but muscled, I can imagine his metabolism is like a furnace just burning away!

This getting old thing is most frustrating, I remember being able to eat whatever I wanted without consequences, now you have to inspect the packages on everything for sugar and fat and sodium content.

 

[Saulkar]

It seems you got a lot of answers, many of which are perfectly sound so I have very little to add. One thing I want to say is that the more muscle tissue you have the easier it will be to keep the pounds off. I eat 3000-5000 calories a day (depending on what I am going to be doing at the gym) yet I am only 173CM and 103KG at around 15% body fat as I workout an average of 10 hours a week to the point of sheer exhaustion/failure. You do not need to go to the extremes that I do but it goes to show that if you put in the effort and cut out sugar you can maintain a healthy body weight.

P.S. I am a powerlifter and not a body builder (but I still do some body building exercises for fun/endurance) so as a result aesthetics are not a priority and thus I still have some pudge (which is still an inch behind my pecs) despite also running 9 miles a week on average. Thus emulating what I do will not be ideal for losing weight but building muscles while maintaining your cardio regime (in addition to all nutritional advice given) will put you on the right track. Just remember, this is a lifestyle, not a temporary hitch in the road. GOOD LUCK!!!

Spoiler: Now for something gross, here is me vomiting while squatting 270KG/595LB)