Diet Archives - By Spear and Axe

Metabolic Damage And Why I’m Not Worrying About The Scale Anymore

What is “metabolic damage?” That may be what you’re asking right now. I get it.

Metabolic damage is a term used to describe a series of metabolic adaptations to dieting. In particular, adaptations which drive caloric requirements well below typical maintenance levels for a given body weight.

Some people don’t think it’s a real thing. I tend to disagree.

Why?

Because I’m pretty sure I’m suffering from metabolic damage right now.

Continue reading “Metabolic Damage And Why I’m Not Worrying About The Scale Anymore”

Tracking Your Food: Why You Should Do It

Tracking your food may well be the single most important thing you can do if you’re trying to lose weight. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Yes, I went there.

The truth is, though, if you’re trying to lose weight–or anything else with weight, really–you need to know how many calories and how much fat, carbs, and protein as well.

I’ve had people tell me I’m wrong, that you don’t really need to do that, that I don’t know what I’m talking about. It seems the almost 60 pounds I’ve lost thus far don’t really count as experience.

But I’m not the only person saying this, either.

Four Quick Changes That Can Help You Lose Weight NOW!

Weight loss can be pretty complicated, and there’s a lot of people who want to drop body fat but don’t because they’re suffering from paralysis by analysis. They’re trying so hard to understand all the things about losing weight that they’re not even remotely sure where to start.

To be sure, there’s a lot to learn about weight loss. I’ve written a fair bit about it based on my own experience of losing now 55 lbs and I’m far from an expert.

However, like I said, I do have some experience with this kind of thing. I’ve been down this road before, so I know a few things about how to make meaningful changes and to start making them quickly.

So here they are, four things you can do to start losing weight right now.

Setting Up And Tweaking The Macros

Recently, someone asked me about how to set up their macronutrients. It seems that losing a bunch of weight makes people think you know a little something about how to lose weight.

Go figure.

Anyway, I said I’d write about it, so here we go.

The Unexpected Struggles Of Eating Right

My son has decided to change his eating habits. This is a wonderful thing because while he’s tall, he’s also horribly obese. When we got him on the scale a couple of days ago, he was just a couple of pounds shy of being morbidly obese.

So changing what and how he eats is a great thing.

We sat down and worked out his calories and his macronutrients and yesterday he started. Because I do the cooking most of the time, he had a pretty clean diet for the day.

In the process, he ran into an unexpected difficulty.

Why The Easy Way Out, Usually Isn’t

A lot of the time, difficult things just suck.

When you like the difficulty, we tend to call it “challenging,” but when you don’t like it, we just gripe about how much it sucks. Don’t like doing your taxes (and how doesn’t)? Then it’s just a pain.

Because of this, we tend to like the easy way out whenever we can find one.

However, when it comes to health and training, the easy way out usually isn’t.

Weight Loss Journey Part 2: Switching Foods

When I wrote about my basic diet tips a few weeks ago, I suggested sticking with the foods you already eat. The reason for that was because it becomes a little easier to adjust to the changes simply because you’re still within your comfort zone.

However, as you proceed down this path, you’re going to have to change what you’re eating. The reason is very simple. After a while, you just aren’t going to get enough food eating some stuff.

That means it’s going to be time to adjust your eating.

When ‘Unhealthy’ Is Mainstream, Become Countercultural

I remember spending hours and hours sitting around the house, talking to my mother about the Sixties. I was born in 1973, so I obviously missed all of that, but Mom was there.

Deep in her heart, she wanted to be a hippy. She hated the Vietnam War and loved the music, but she was just a bit old for that culture. Plus, she was married to a man enlisted in the Navy, which might have played a factor.

Anyway, she would talk about the countercultural movement of that era with a certain reverence.

My father is still a dedicated smart-ass who was known for doing things others were afraid to do. Yes, that includes running into burning buildings despite his asthma.

I appear to be a combination of my parents, but I didn’t realize just how much of one I was until this morning. You see, I’ve become countercultural in ways I never expected.

Taking The First Step On Your Weight Loss Journey

Yesterday, I wrote about my before and after pics. Yes, I’m very proud of them, and I like to think I have a damn good reason to be proud of them.

To start with, though, I shared them on Facebook. This led to a lot of people mentioning to me they wanted to start along a similar path, but the trouble was just getting started.

Of course, I offered to help in any way that I could because, well, this is a great damn feeling and I want everyone to get to enjoy it as well. I genuinely want to help these folks. They’re friends. You help your friends.

But I also realized something later. A lot of these people want to start but part of the problem is that maybe they’re intimidated by the idea. Maybe it’s something else. Who knows? I’m not going to judge.

Instead, I decided to step up and come up with a few bits of quick advice to help folks get started from a standstill and maybe make their own awesome before and after pics!

Stop Your Bellyaching And Start Training

I love my son. I really do.

I’m proud as hell of the kid, too. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s got a lot going for him in this world.

However, I have to be honest, too. He’s lazy as hell.

It’s frustrating, too, because he’s like a lot of people in his generation. He doesn’t like being overweight, but he’s willing to do absolutely nothing to change it. Nothing at all.

At this point, I’ve lost about 30 lbs. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it means I may know a thing or two about getting the weight off. At least at the start. Especially since at this point about six or seven years ago, I did it then too.

But nope.

So many of his generation want to bellyache about their lot in life instead of getting off their asses and start training.

Continue reading “Stop Your Bellyaching And Start Training”

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: