The wife and I try to stay healthy.

I do in some months, but it depends heavily on where in the US you live. We CAN get good healthy food, but you have to work much harder for it than in Europe or Asia. The convenient stuff contains a lot of crap, a much of it not even legal in other countries! :oops:
Yes you can’t really buy American food here it doesn’t pass safety standards.
 
Here is a comparison for a slice of fast food (low) quality pizza. Which would you rather eat...

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Every day because it’s not linear.

Once a week works for me Andy. I'm making lifestyle changes and working on my overall health, not just my weight. I've dropped 20lbs and still have a journey to go but am pleased with the progress so far. Once I reach my target weight I'm going to increase my calories to a manageable level to maintain that weight and continue to weigh myself once week.
 
I’ve never even had a clue about how severe/bad it was regarding food in America and other countries. Seriously I’m chocked when I stumble upon reports and YouTube videos about it, and what some of you write also.
Recently saw a video of someone explaining that even down to the dna/structure of wheat/oat has been a total catastrophe compared to our stuff here. I do think Sweden is pretty good regarding that.

Of course I can choose bread that’s not particularly healthy if I wanted to. But then I basically need to look hard for it, because the shelves are full of healthy stuff here. It’s basically the most popular thing to advertise about: green, locally grown, healthy content. And most consumers here buy the stuff that has the right marks/approvals/certificates and what not.

If I wanted to get questionable food I go to some weird Lidl supermarket in the big cities that import everything from Europe… meat, dairy, everything is imported from Europe and that’s low quality from our pow.

I know there’s a lot of diets and methods out there.

But damn… please just eat healthy normal food, take the time to find it because it’s worth it. And move your asses damn it. Take walks, run, swim, bike…. The human body need to work and move, everyday, a lot! You don’t have to go to the gym, but do it if you must. There’s a lot you can do at home. You don’t even need weights, the body itself can do a lot of the work for you.

Look into calisthenics, it’s highly underestimated. Get guidance if you need to. Inner core strength/agility/endurance will do more for you than any expensive gym with high tech machines will do. And…. Move that body… move move move, sweat damn it.

Im Out Stephen Colbert GIF
 
how severe/bad it was regarding food in America and other countries.

I think we are the worst, heck, I think the poorest countries with limited food availability are eating healthier than the standard American diet!!!

We have high quality stuff available as well, but it often isn't convenient and it's not always cheap, and it's harder to find in rural areas. Things are finally starting to move in the right direction as more consumers are looking for healthier options, but it's going to take a while to break our addiction to additives, sugar, and seed oils.
 
I think we are the worst, heck, I think the poorest countries with limited food availability are eating healthier than the standard American diet!!!

We have high quality stuff available as well, but it often isn't convenient and it's not always cheap, and it's harder to find in rural areas. Things are finally starting to move in the right direction as more consumers are looking for healthier options, but it's going to take a while to break our addiction to additives, sugar, and seed oils.
Man… what a tough battle to fight. Super healthy isn’t exactly cheap here either. But normal healthy on a common sense basis is easier.

Sugar isn’t really bad. It’s the amounts of it. But I also realize I can’t compare our Coca Cola or sprite to yours. Or even a standard jar of strawberry jam. I’m not worried about a spoon of it in my yogurt every morning, but I probably would in America. It’s just not comparable. But I’m spoiled… my wife’s mother give us “queens jam” enough so we don’t need to buy, (raspberries and blueberries). Raspberries from their garden, blueberries from the forest.

Processed oils should not be overused, even here… but we’re not supposed to consume to much oils either way. Was never a thing and shouldn’t have become like that. It was always meant to be an ingredient or used sparingly for certain things.
 
I don't know if any athlete would benefit from keto honestly...athletes burn a ton of energy primarily from glycogen which is not going to get refilled on a keto diet. Keto may work well for sedentary people or people with some diseases where the body doesn't function properly (like diabetes).

Just for myself, I really tried to make a keto diet work over the last year and even tried to do a full carnivore diet. Early on I got full really fast on all the protein and fat and lost weight, but after a week or two cravings hit like made and I just failed to stick with it and regained weight. I also tried a whole food plant based diet a few years ago and stuck with it for about a month, lost a bit of weight and felt great, but the amount of work was crazy high and I couldn't stick with it and then regained weight.

Several weeks ago I even messed around with a super high carb, low fat and low protein "sugar diet" that was doing the rounds. I was surprised to find that I was eating 500g of carbs with a high amount of sugar and lost a bit of weight and felt really energetic for a few days. Then of course what happened? I got really sick of eating that food and cravings hit and I regained the weight.

I won't ever speak for anyone else because I can't. But my thought is any of these restrictive diets may have short-term success but long-term they seem to lead to cravings, lack of compliance, and ultimately weight regain. I think it's because your body needs some of all these nutrients, macro or micro, and if you aren't getting it then your body craves what it's not getting and eventually you go off.

The other side is that so much of the food we see today is just plain unnatural. Meals with a lot of fat and sugar didn't really exist until relatively recently. You were either hunting animals for meat or gathering fruits and vegetables or more recently cooking grains. Unless you were extremely wealthy, it was kind of battle to even get calories. I do think that hyper palatable modern food kind of warps the brain through all those dopamine triggers.

That all leads back to what I'm trying now, which is doing more extensive meal planning and prep to have highly nutritious food available extremely fast. There's no excuses then. When I get hungry eat the next meal I have planned, no deprivation or starvation, just eat the next meal. I suppose if I get through all my meals and I'm still hungry there's a chance to go off the rails, but I think over time that should decrease.

TL/DR - I don't have any long term success with diets that restrict any one nutrient, so leaning heavily into copying the diet of athletes with good physiques and then brining my activity levels up to match.
I'm not sure how common this is today, but there are definitely athletes employing ketogenic diets into their regiments. It can depend on what type of sport and individual needs, but it is a thing. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit back when I was still putting down 20 miles a week.

 
Just do 2500 calories of a whole food low GI diet and weight yourself every morning at the same time before you eat or drink anything. Do it for two weeks and you should remain appropriately the same weight. Then cut it by 500 . Aim to lose a pound a week. Avoiding all processed and preprepared food unless you made it yourself.

That's really close to my plan!

I'm targeting about 2300 calories per day with 40-50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20-30% fat. My maintenance calories are probably 2700 based on a lot of estimates I've seen and the activity estimates my Garmin watch has been tracking the last few weeks. I'm walking or running every day for 200-400 extra calories of activity. That should give me 500+ calories of daily deficit coming from both diet and exercise. I want a blend of both because I think the extra activity will help to maintain more muscle mass and draw down my muscle glycogen a bit, so some of the food may go to refilling that.

I'm making all my own meals, planning and prepping them for a few days at a time. I think having quick access to a planned and prepared healthy meal makes it much easier to stick with the plan. Where I've had success previously is again not chopping things out completely but taking regular things we eat and either adding more healthy foods or substituting things to fit the plan. So last night for instance was spaghetti and meat sauce, adding in a Caesar salad to bring in a lot more fibrous veggies and using a leaner ground beef to increase the protein to fat ratio.

Each week I'll come up with a couple new breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas that fit the plan. After 6 weeks I should have a dozen options to pick from for each meal that I can pick and choose when I'm doing my weekly grocery list.
 
I'm not sure how common this is today, but there are definitely athletes employing ketogenic diets into their regiments. It can depend on what type of sport and individual needs, but it is a thing. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit back when I was still putting down 20 miles a week.


Just from my experience, it was a mixed bag. I play hockey a couple times a week, and when I was doing keto/carnivore my overall performance dropped. I think it's because that's such an intense sport that draws a lot of energy from glycogen, and I had a lot less in the tank. I was feeling so bad I cut down my playing and started to think of quitting. I used to be able to play double header games with a short bench but right around when I started messing with carnivore is when I couldn't do that anymore.

Now I'm really excited...if I can hit my short term goals of losing about 15 pounds by the start of the season and I've got my nutrition dialed in, to see if I can have more zip and energy like I did 5+ years ago. I'm on the wrong side of 40 now but I play with a lot of guys who were pretty competitive well into their 50's.

I think higher fat keto might work better for more endurance sports as the body can get trained to use those fat stores for longer runs, but more intense burst exercise probably needs glycogen. I know a lot of really lean runners and cyclists will just ride sugar for those several hour events though.
 
What works best for me is decreasing carbs and not eat anything from about 9:00 pm to 11:30 am the next day. Between a semi-active exercise schedule, 2-3x per week, low/no carbs, and decrease alcohol consumption, it helps keep it off.
 
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What has worked for me is something I sort of came up with on my own from research I have done. It is probably closest to what they call dirty Keto. I have heart disease and diabetes in my family. I try to stay on the lower fat side, which makes Keto not really work for me. I am not a fan of the taste of fatty foods anyway. I also stay away from as much sugar as I can, even some natural sugar that is found in some foods. What I found from a plan I was on years ago is that a powerful combination it protein and fiber. You want plenty of both in each meal.

I weigh myself every morning before I get in the shower. This helps me adjust quicker if I start to go up in weight. Another thing that really helped me was I started intermittent fasting. When I creep up a little bit in weight I will only eat one meal a day for one or two days to bring it back down. I don't do this for more than two days in a row anymore. I used to do it for 5 to 7 days in a row. That really helped me drop some weight but it also crashed my metabolism. It took some effort to get that back up.

I stay away from processed foods as much as possible. We buy as much as we can in raw form and make most things ourselves. I started making and canning my own salsa because we use a decent amount of it. I make it with all whole ingredients. It is all natural with spices in it. There are no preservatives in it. I like it better than anything I have ever found at the store. I also make my own bulk sausage. I have a few different recipes. Mine has a good bit less fat than store bought. You can really see it when you cook it. There isn't nearly as much fat that comes out of it compared to store bought. I do a decent amount of grilled meats. I have three grills on my patio. They all have different cooking options on them. I do some low and slow stuff as well as stuff on a griddle.

Since there are only two of us in the house we tend to make meals for 4 and then have leftovers to have quicker meals. When I grind pork for the sausage I freeze it in two pound vacuum sealed packages and pull them out as we use them. This helps with some of the prep time. We tend to cook the bigger meals on the weekend then eat the leftovers through the week. Something I would like to get better at is to make something on the weekend then use what is leftover to make a different dish during the week.

I get it on not liking fish. I am not a big fish eater. I can't stand salmon or any of the fattier fish. They all taste like strong fish to me. I take fish capsules every day to get the oil. I have been doing that for years. I do occasionally get fish burps from them. That is almost as bad as eating the fish. My favorite fish is the ones that don't taste anything like fish. :) I like a lot of tartar sauce on mine. lol I discovered while on a business trip one time that raw salmon doesn't taste fishy at all. As soon as you apply heat to it the fishy taste comes out. I am not big on seafood in general. There are a lot of other things on the planet to eat so I am not planning on building up a tolerance to it.
 
Of course I can choose bread that’s not particularly healthy if I wanted to. But then I basically need to look hard for it, because the shelves are full of healthy stuff here. It’s basically the most popular thing to advertise about: green, locally grown, healthy content. And most consumers here buy the stuff that has the right marks/approvals/certificates and what not.
Yeah it's similarly easy to find relatively fresh produce, meat, bread etc in Finland. We also have it very good for e.g gluten free, lactose free, vegan and vegetarian options.

If I wanted to get questionable food I go to some weird Lidl supermarket in the big cities that import everything from Europe… meat, dairy, everything is imported from Europe and that’s low quality from our pow.
Lidl in Finland at least is a mixed bag. There are many products from Finland, but also from elsewhere in Europe so it's not all just cheap stuff from whatever country. I treat it as just another grocery store. I literally have all 3 of our major grocery store chains in the mall right next door (like literally about 100m walk) so it's very easy to just go to all of them and pick the best from each.

But damn… please just eat healthy normal food, take the time to find it because it’s worth it. And move your asses damn it. Take walks, run, swim, bike…. The human body need to work and move, everyday, a lot! You don’t have to go to the gym, but do it if you must. There’s a lot you can do at home. You don’t even need weights, the body itself can do a lot of the work for you.
I used to pretty much just run 5-10 km daily without paying much attention to diet and that kept me at a very healthy weight. Now that I'm older it's definitely harder to keep in shape.

The big problem is getting complacent and just sitting on the sofa. I did that for a few years and was in a crap shape. Going to the gym regularly has helped a lot, and I quickly lost a decent amount of weight. Still could lose ~5-10 kg (or turn it into muscle) but I'm working on it.

I don't like calorie counting, specific diets or anything like that. I know I would not be able to keep doing that, and if I stop I would likely just gain weight back. Much easier to just find things that you can actually keep doing without thinking. For exercise once you get past that initial "everything sucks" hurdle, you start to crave it. "I could go for a run", "I could go to the gym" becomes a regular thought.
 
One of the things in the book I'm following (Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto) is a heavy emphasis on goal setting and visualization. There's a lot of science in terms of your subconscious mind driving your daily activity, so really focusing on setting goals and visualizing that achievement really helps to stick with something that's difficult.

That's exactly how I quit drinking 6+ years ago. I read a book (This Naked Mind by Annie Grace) which helped to deprogram my subconscious beliefs about alcohol and drinking. When I unpacked that and then reprogrammed my brain to match how I wanted to see alcohol (as a poison that I never want to touch), then I flipped the switch and never touched it again and barely even remember how strongly I was ever addicted.

It's the same thing here, if you strongly internalize a goal and focus on positive thoughts achieving that goal and start to identify your self image with that goal, it builds in the subconscious and then it's not white knuckle willpower to follow a diet, which inevitably leads to cravings and binging. Or so the theory goes anyway.

We lost power in storms two days ago and yesterday kind of sucked. Couldn't really cook food and had to fill the fridge and freezer with ice to keep the food from going bad. I veered off slightly as I picked up some doughnuts and coffee for the family and had a breakfast sandwich for myself. Ended up eating one of the doughnuts later on. But my wife really wanted to get pizza at the end of a long stressful day and I really wanted to stick with my plan as the power came back on. So family ate some fun junk food and I had boring healthy dinner. But I didn't feel deprived at all, actually was excited because at the end of the day I still had a small calorie deficit.

Friday I'm going out for pizza and ice cream, and I don't intend to go off the rails eating an entire pizza by myself like I sometimes do, because I don't feel like I'm depriving myself throughout the week. I'm just eating a ton of really healthy food exactly as I planned, and then I will plan to have one cheat meal. Hopefully that carries through!
 
I tried for the longest to get my wife to enjoy walking, just normal exercise walking a few kilometers. Not that she actually needed it to burn or something. She just had overall low condition. Sooo boring, she hated it. I gave it a summer, forcing her to go with me for fast walks every evening, just 4-5 kilometers. At the end of the summer, she wanted it ever day and couldn’t wait to get going… just like @laxu says, once the body starts to work and stuff happens chemically the brains recognizes the benefits and suddenly you crave exercise.
It applies to all training I think. Even weightless calisthenics body training does that for me. I have my routines.
They. Must. Happen. Or. Else.
 
I have come to accept that many people are much more fussy eaters than I am. I have not accepted how some (not the OP) portray their fussiness as a form of superiority.

I feel for people who struggle to lose weight. I'm fortunate that I can always turn the activity and eating knobs and get back to the weight that works for me in a reasonable amount of time.
 
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