HTF Do I drop 20 permanently

Little background:
Been involved in some degree of fitness my whole life. 50 yrs. old. Heavily into football/wrestling when young. I am 6', 210 lbs. w/ really skinny legs to give you an idea of how much mass is above my waist. My wife feeds me well as in fresh from scratch meals and very little frying. I avoid eating $h!t.
Anyway, aside from making it hard to climb, I need to drop 20 permanently to get my fasting glucose levels down, I am just over the line for prediabetes. I have a gym, though somewhat undisciplined about the routine. Looking for advice.
Thanks.

eliminate refined carbohydrates such as bread, rice, potatoes, dried fruit, fruit juices. Eat mainly meat and vegetables, whole fruit.

Hi Mike. I agree with Peter that refined carbs are bad, especially refined wheat products. My wife and I have been on The Zone diet for the past five years, and it works very well for us. It keeps the weight off, plus you also have consistent energy throughout the day. Here is the website: zonediet.com/home

Meat and vegetables and whole fruit. Lose the fear of oil and fat. Oil won't really affect your blood sugar and is an excellent provider of calories if you're cutting out a bunch of unnecessary carbohydrates.

It takes about 50 grams of carbohydrates for a sedentary man to avoid ketosis (look it up if that word is new to you). 100 grams more per day per hour of daily exercise is all you need in order for an active person to avoid ketosis (a decent indicator of adequate carbohydrate consumption).

A day including two hours at the climbing gym (about an hour of actual climbing) would mean about 150 grams of carbohydrate (600 calories) that day. Add in another 100 grams of protein (400 calories) and you're up to 1000 calories. Eat another 1000 calories of fat (100-125 grams) and you'll be well on your way to weight loss and stable blood sugar. Again, don't be afraid of fat. You'll need the calories. Expect to feel a bit weaker for about 2-3 weeks while your body adapts. Fat has the added benefit of making you feel full. And it's delicious.

Climbing outside is atypical for most of us (on a day-to-day basis) and requires different nutrition from these day-to-day guidelines. It can be considered pretty much constant exercise.

This isn't a temporary diet. It's permanent. If you do this and continue to feel "low" for more than a month, slowly increase your daily carbohydrate intake. All of this is made easier if you don't count calories and just eat meat, vegetables, some fruit and oil.

You will get enough roughage with the veggies. They are also loaded with vitamins. Fruit juice is no different than drinking a Coke with a vitamin. The vitamins don't undo the crappyness of it.

Brian Abram wrote:Lose the fear of oil. Oil won't really affect your blood sugar and is an excellent provider of calories if you're cutting out a bunch of unnecessary carbohydrates...

I would qualify this by saying that everything I have read emphasizes favoring polyunsaturated fats over mono-saturated (and certainly transfats).

In other words, yes, oil is not ALL bad, but you should definitely make an effort to use olive, vegetable, and peanut oils, and still minimize lard, crisco, margarine, palm oil, butter, cream, and any animal fats. Your heart will thank you for it.

And, the original poster did not mention what sort of cardiovascular exercise he was doing. Much more than any sort of gym climbing, this can really be the key to burning calories.

Mike,

I would surmise that the fact that you are just over the line for prediabetes indicates that your body has been experiencing an overproduction of insulin for quite some time. I agree with all the above information about eliminating sugar and refined carbohydrates. I also give a glowing endorsement of the zone diet. Learn all you can about insulin and its effects on the body, and I am sure you will then alter your diet to avoid the production of insulin.

Good Luck!

I love the advice from the 30 somethings, you guys just wait! While I agree somewhat on the diets mentioned, I have to say that once you are over 40 the body changes and its not so much what diet you are on but just simple moderation at the dinner trough and increased exercise. I dont know about you Mike Lane but that extra 10-20lbs goes away every summer for me without too much effort. My weight gain has happened and increased every winter since about age 35 and I find it easy to pinpoint exactly why, its always lack of regular 2-3 times a week exercise and too much food. I'm glad the gym I go to has some cardio machines and weights or I might be 25lbs overweight right now...

I have found that my feet stick better on slabs now though.

Check out the Paleo diet by Loren Cordain and the Paleo diet for athletes by Lorten Cordain and Joe Friel. So far it is working for me.

With about 7 hours a week on my trainer!

Sorry, I should've mentioned the evil of trans fats (hydrogenated oils). Saturated fats like coconut, butter, and other animal fats are a lot more controversial, so I'll leave that one mostly alone (they may not matter so much if your total calorie count is reasonably low (which can easily happen through a big reduction of sugars and grains)).

I'm curious about this Zone Diet. Anyone on it care to elaborate? What is the cost like? Are the foods good? What kind of supplemental grocery shopping is needed?

Thanks for the info, never even considered a diet that delivers food to you.

Go on a month long mountaineering trip for your next vacation...or take a month long NOLS mountaineering course. Impossible not to lose weight.

The month-long trip is good advice. I did it and came back looking like a horse that hadn't been fed for 6 months.

I've got a similar body type, but at 5 8'+ 175...real thick up top from alot of years of weightlifting.

I agree with the protien and veggie diet, but all that fiber can be murder on your gut!

If any vegans have any advice on how to mitigate the effects of all that roughage I'm all ears!

camhead wrote: I would qualify this by saying that everything I have read emphasizes favoring polyunsaturated fats over mono-saturated (and certainly transfats).

I think you have this backwards...monounsaturated over polyunsaturated.
mono-saturated doesn't exist... perhaps you simply meant saturated?

I'm likin' this thread, thanks for asking the question. Sounding like good advice.

Eat supper for breakfast and add a whey protein supplement w/o flavoring or sugar (mix in something such as non fat, unsweetened yogurt or oatmeal). Use good fats as mentioned i.e. walnuts, avocados. Eliminate cheese.

Don't eat supper if after 6-7pm (if your evening is going to be inactive). If you are hungry, just have some fruit.

I am over 50 and it works for me. The extra protein (I am a vegetarian) kills any cravings as does the good fats.

Also, quinoa is really good as a staple. If you are prediabetic, have a small serving of chia seed before each meal.

Smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco.

Nicotine is an excellent appetite suppressant.

I've been using the tools on Lance Armstrong's site: livestrong.com. I don't treat it as a diet tool... it just helps me be more aware of what I'm eating. Over the past few months it's helped me drop 15 pounds without much of a concentrated effort. I feel it in my climbing for sure. Cheers.

The coffee and cigarette diet?

I was surprised a previous poster said "eliminate cheese". I was told by a Crossfit Zone/Paleo nutrition specialist that there was "a lot up in the air with cheese", and that our bodies metabolize the fat differently from other dairy products, more akin to how it metabolizes meat? Anyone ever hear that?

Just to dispel a myth.... cardio is not the best fat burner. High intensity large-muscle recruitment is known to be the best fat burner. Think Olympic Lifts... clean and jerk, squats, etc. That is what ramps up your metabolism and starts burning calories.

What worked for me was this:

Small snacks/meals throughout the day instead of a Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner scheme. Mostly whole foods, i.e. whole grain breads/pastas.

Make your breakfast, take it to work and eat it with your morning tea or coffee instead of at home before you leave, ends up being 30min-1hr later than if I ate at home and helps with not feeling hungry between my workday snacks.

Using whole fresh fruit as twice daily snacks, e.g. an apple + low-cal string cheese is only about 160 cals and filling, the fat in the cheese helps you feel satiated while bulk in the apple fills the stomach...candy bar or little pack of cookies by comparison is 250-350.

Cutting down on calorie dense stuff like Cheez-Its as snacks (I could mow through half a box at a sitting easily, loved those things especially at night sitting around the house), eating smaller meals more often before I am really overly hungry.

I don't eat a regular lunch meal, I eat oatmeal with dried or fresh fruit and some nuts for breakfast, ends up being maybe 350 cals at about 7:30am, a piece of fruit at about 10am ~100 cal, PB sandwich around 11 ~350cal, hummus sandwich around 1:30 ~350cal, apple and string cheese around 3:30 ~160cal, so at dinner time I'm only around 1200 calories.

4-6oz of fish or tofu, some kind of whole grain...quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat cous cous, and Barilla Plus pastas (a mix of wheat, spelt, flax seed, barley, lentils, chickpeas and oats...higher in fiber, lower in carbs, and 50% more protein than a std wheat pasta and available in regular grocery stores) are staples for me....and all the steamed veggies and/or salad you want for dinner, just dress the salad with something that isn't oil based, I make various vinagrettes. Then a small snack around 8pm...you can easily stay around 2000cals and by eating often you never really feel overly hungry.

No cals in your drinks, i.e. no soda or lattes. Drink water, teas, or black coffee.

Worked for me and I didn't have excess really to lose by most people's stds. On training days, there's usually more in there including the post-workout pint of chocolate milk and a pre workout snickers. I also work some 83% dark chocolate squares, about 120cal worth, into my day probably 3 days a week because I love that stuff and it's reasonably good for you. After about 6mo I grew to prefer the way I eat now, the really rich fatty processed stuff doesn't even seem appealing anymore.

Or you could just chew coca leaves all day?