
No Bread, Beer or Biscuits: How I Lost 63lbs in 100 Days - hiccup
http://chuff.it/articles/no-bread-beer-or-biscuits-how-i-lost-63lbs-in-100-days
======
gxs
This is great and certainly don't want to discourage anyone.

Some people need extreme transformations like this to be successful. Most
people, however, don't.

You'll have a much higher success rate if you're patient and change just one
little thing at a time. Once you're comfortable, you move on to the next.

I myself have lost over 30lbs and increased strength tremendously (power clean
250+).

I went about it by doing one small thing at time. First I got used to going to
the gym a couple days at a time. Once I was used to going to the gym, I
started a strength program. Once I was used to going to the gym and being on a
program, I started crossfit. Then after I was used to that, I started omitting
wheat from my diet. Once I was used to that...you get the point.

~~~
readme
I'd have to say of the three things, the one that definitely has to be given
up to lose the weight is beer.

Beer is not only caloric, but contains alcohol. When alcohol is ingested, the
body's fat metabolism practically stops until it's out of your system.
Drinking a beer each day would almost make it impossible to lose fat
efficiently.

It wouldn't matter if you were eating under, because your body would not be
able to easily burn fat for fuel. Instead, it would burn other things, acetate
(from the alcohol), carbs, your own muscle, then fat, etc.

~~~
127001brewer
_Instead, it would burn other things ... your own muscle, then fat, etc._

That's the first I've ever heard that a human body would burn muscle before
fat. Also, _a_ beer _each_ day would be out of your system relatively fast, so
it should have no lasting affects on your body's metabolism.

Also, if you're drinking a beer a day, then be sure it's at least bottle-
conditioned craft beer since the suspended yeast has many nutrients. ;)

~~~
legitsource
The only circumstances where you will burn a significant portion of muscle
before fat is if you are eating a high fat diet with less than 30 grams of
carbohydrates or protein per day.

If you are fasting or in nutritional ketosis, your brain still needs about 120
grams of glucose (or as low as 20 grams after it adapts to producing and using
ketones for fuel). If you aren't getting the glucose it needs or ingesting
carbohydrates that can be broken down into glucose, your body will begin
gluconeogenesis, a process that turns amino acids (from the breakdown of
protein) into glucose. If you are still consuming dietary protein, it will
break this down first, but if you are not, it will get these amino acids from
your muscles and other "lean" tissues.

Basically, if you are consuming an adequate amount of protein, it's pretty
hard to lose muscle mass without losing a significant amount of fat.

~~~
readme
I might not be right on the money that the body would burn muscle first, but I
can say with certainty that drinking causes your muscles to degenerate:
[http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/277/2/E268](http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/277/2/E268)

RE: the only circumstance -- I think sleep deprivation would do the trick,
too.

------
grecy
After attending hundreds of weight watchers meetings, and being involved with
hundreds and hundreds of people losing a ton of weight, I still genuinely
believe too many people make weight loss too complicated, which leads them to
give up. Keep it simple (as the article did)

If you burn more calories (energy) than you eat, _you will lose weight_.

Obviously, you have choices. You can cut down on all the really high calorie
stuff. You can increase your exercise to burn more. You can (ideally) do a bit
of both.

Of the hundreds of people I've known that have lost life-changing amounts of
weight, I would estimate less than 1% of them had any idea how calorie dense
the foods they were eating (and drinking) every day really are.

For the majority of people that are severely overweight, all they have to do
is cut out high calorie snacks like chips, soda and anything deep fried and
they'll lose significant weight, without even getting off the couch.

~~~
quadlock
All calories are not translated to weight equally, the efficiency your body
uses them matters greatly.

Sure dieting couch-potatoes will lose weight, but it will include losing a lot
of muscle.

I believe the most well researched book on fat control is Carb-Back Loading by
John Kiefer, the references chapter is 50 pages, it's terribly fascinating.

~~~
grecy
> All calories are not translated to weight equally, the efficiency your body
> uses them matters greatly.

Who cares. A beginner doesn't need to know that.

It's like telling a first time driver to worry about double-clutching the gear
changes.

Stick to the basics, as the person picks everything up, they can worry about
the complicated stuff that builds on.

------
ja30278
Exercise is wonderful, and (particularly strength training) can dramatically
change how you look and feel. If you just want to lose weight though, just
stop eating carbs.

It really is that simple. There are many ways to lose weight, but dropping
sugar (in all it's forms) is the most straightforward. It's the closest thing
to a 'weight hack' I've ever seen.

If you are currently overweight, just cut out carbs completely for 3
months..don't bother to count calories; don't fret about nonsense like whether
your food is organic, or free range, or locally sourced. Just stop eating
sugar. No rice, no potatoes, no bread, no sugared soft drinks, no pasta.

~~~
jaggederest
Elimination diets work because people fail to replace the missing calories,
not because there's something magical about the thing you choose to eliminate.

You can do this with colors of food, textures, anything that eliminates
~30-40% of the available food options.

~~~
penguindev
You couldn't be more wrong. You realize you can stock _different_ foods in
your house, right? Or buy different things at the store? You really think
people go to the store on a wheat belly / LCFH (low carb high fat) diet and
buy 30-40% less stuff?

I've lost over 10% body fat cutting the bread and carbs with NO exercise. Get
a clue and either 1. try a no wheat / sugar / starch diet for just 2 weeks 2.
read up on insulin, its causes and effects.

~~~
hughlomas
While we're on anecdotal evidence, I stay at a steady 155 (6 feet tall) eating
pints of Ben and Jerry's and Krispy Kreme donuts fairly often.

------
netcraft
I'm 31. A recent physical revealed that I have both high blood pressure and
high cholesterol. They've put me on meds for the bp (which is now under
control rather well) but they wanted me to try a lifestyle change before
putting me on cholesterol meds. I was ~ 10 lbs overweight, nothing major - and
while I wouldn't say I am fit by any means I wasn't out of shape either. But
they wanted me to lose the 10 lbs and so they told me to stay under 2500mg of
sodium per day, and less than 150g of carbs per day - no more than 50g per
meal. And no red meat - all I can have meat wise basically is chicken, turkey
and fish. Occasional lean pork.

I am two months into it - and have already lost 15 lbs, without any additional
exercise. The carbs were rather easy to give up really - less sugar in my
coffee, no pasta, few potatoes. Sodas were a little harder, but at 40g of
sugar for a single Dr. Pepper, the choice between that or a whole sandwich is
an easy one to make. The sodium is quite hard if not impossible though, unless
you make every meal at home and only use fresh ingredients. If it is in a box,
bag or can you can forget it. There is hardly anything at any restaurant you
can get that is low sodium though. Even salads are absolutely loaded with
sodium.

I will say I feel a little better, and not just from losing a couple inches
around my waist. Water all day certainly helps. I don't think my cholesterol
numbers are going anywhere really, I think my genetics are to blame, but I
hope not.

Just a short anecdote, but if you sit behind a desk all day and have put on a
few lbs, its fairly easy to give up the fast food and watch your carbs. It
sure didn't seem like it at first though.

~~~
fleitz
It's weird how that stuff works.

I'm 32, my last physical revealed that I'm 63 lbs overweight, I smoke (pack a
day), drink fairly regularly, my blood pressure is fine, my cholesterol is
fine, and have a great insulin response. Lung capacity is definitely not where
it should be though.

I also eat almost entirely meat and carbs, save for lettuce/salad. I can drop
5 lbs in a couple weeks just giving up soda, 10 lbs if I give up carbs
entirely.

I think the low fat / no meat thing is a load of crap. At least for me all I
have to do is drop the carbs, and especially sugar.

~~~
mason55
Have you kept going past the 5 - 10 pounds? It's doubtful that you'll continue
to shed weight at that rate. What happens is that without carbs your body's
glycogen stores begin to deplete when you stops eating carbs (carbs are
essential to glycogen production). Your muscles will take a week or two to
flush out all the fluid they were holding on to before eventually stabilizing
at a new level. Most people tend to drop a lot of weight at the beginning of a
diet, especially low or no carb, however once the initial glycogen depletion
happens they level off with the weight loss.

Some people hit a plateau and get discouraged or think they're done and start
eating carbs again and shoot right back up. Others continue on at a healthy 1
- 2 pounds/week until they reach their goal.

~~~
fleitz
Yup, I was down to 10-15 lbs overweight before I stopped freelancing (perhaps
it should be called free-ranging) and started employment again.

Office job plus free pop and chips plus stress = massive weight gain. I think
for me at the core it's a stress + easy access to unhealthy food issue.

------
seiferteric
Interesting. A few months ago I was really ill one day. The night before I had
drank heavily, but I think in this case I also got food poisoning from
something. Anyway, I vowed to stop drinking that day, and have. What I
realized is how much alcohol was affecting me. Even two days after drinking, I
feel tired, less enthusiastic and more depressed. What I have found is that
now I can exercise routinely (for several months now), where as before I would
give up after a few days or weeks of trying. I think it's important for
everyone to evaluate what in their lives may be holding them back, even if
they don't realize it. Also, want to point out that I am not advocating
everyone stop drinking, just that it seems alcohol affects me more so than
others.

------
001sky
_I upped my exercise, cycling 30-40 miles a day, every day for the first
couple of weeks._

Good to see!! When you are burning this level of level of energy every day,
its actually <hard> to keep a stable weight. (Author must have had some base
fitness, too so good for him.)

At its core, Weight change is simple input/output math. The key variable is
%deplete your glycogen levels (as % of full everyday.) That is the "cache" of
energy from your daily diet. If you burn enough energy to deplete this, you
will lose weight, as your body replenishes itself from non-dietary reserves
(fat, protein en extremis).

Surprisingsly, these are highly realistic numbers (<1lb/day>), even for
relatively fit (height/weight proportionate) people. Moderating the pace to
emphasise endurance over power will lead to more loss of net-mass.
Asympotically, you will reach a point of gradual returns, but it is not at all
surprising to lose significant mass under such prolonged workloads.

TLDR: Glad to see this is not a crash diet.

edits: clarity

~~~
ironchef
"At its core, Weight change is simple input/output math." But I also think
that...at its core it's very complex. What if you do all of that input in a
single large meal vs 6 smaller meals? That's a BIG difference. Similarly just
doing lots of cardio (and "burning" calories) vs high intensity workouts (like
crossfit) have very different results.

~~~
001sky
If you're interested in simplifying the analsis, don't look at people who are
trying to lose weight for your data. Look at people who are fighting to keep
it on!! Read up on people who have to do significant amounts of work under
limited caloric availability (not caloric restriction per se). At that level,
6 smaller meals keeps weight on (more efficient digestion). Eating fat leads
to more weight loss (heat entropy). At a certain stage, how you do the work
(cardio/crossfit) etc is irrelevant, because the order of magnitude of
output=input. For a normal person at a gym, they are at a fraction of this
workload. Walking an 4m/hour a day burns 400 calories a day. That's an order
of magnitude off your metabolic rate of 2500/day. Walk or run 10 hours a day,
you will burn 4000-8000 calories a day. You will deplete glycogen at hour 3-4
without a couple of those six meals. If you do this for 60 days on a 2500
calorie diet, even if its 40% fat, you will lose weight. Probably pushing
yourself into unhealthy territory afer only a fraction of that time (if you
have a standard BMI). That's a non-cardio, non-intensive workout BTW. That
stuff is irrelevant, provided your metabolism is set to max by dynamic caloric
consumption requirements at the same order of magnitude as base metabolic
reuquirements. Cycling 40 miles a day (as the author claimed) is much closer
to this threshold than other examples.

------
swanson
I dropped around 60lbs (5'10" SW: 285) in first half of 2012 and have roughly
maintained since (crept back to 235 - down to 230 again, still aiming for
200!).

I made two small habit changes that I feel made a drastic difference:

    
    
        * Bring lunch to work everyday (brown bag, leftovers)
        * If I want to watch TV, I must be moving on the treadmill
    

I would still go out to eat at work about once every two weeks and I would
sometimes sneak in an episode of Breaking Bad on the couch, but overall, I
stuck to those rules and everything else seemed to fall into place.

~~~
angersock
Hah, awesome! I started in a similar build, and am down about 35 pounds mostly
just through dietary changes (and stress, sadly). I've been biking everywhere
this month and I can pretty clearly feel a difference. Congrats man.

------
bcrescimanno
While it's always great to hear success stories, I think the broader point of
this post (and others like it) is that there's no "great secret" to weight
loss. There's no silver bullet and certainly no short cut. The simple truth
is: people in the western world eat crap and don't exercise.

The success stories all boil down to a few simple points: eat real food, cut
down on alcohol, and do some exercise that you find enjoyable enough to do it
every day.

~~~
ericcholis
Agreed, this story is as much about self-motivation and determination as it is
about weight loss techniques. They both go hand in hand. I saw myself at 192
and didn't like that number, so I got myself down to 174 after a year and
maintain that weight. It's not a huge difference in size, but I feel better
because of it. I also learned the value of staying away from bad habits, like
junk food and sedentary activities.

------
hiccup
Here's the author when he's heavy:
[https://www.everpix.com/public.html?id=cKG7XXCRD8BUu1tC](https://www.everpix.com/public.html?id=cKG7XXCRD8BUu1tC)

And at the 1 year anniversary of his epic hangover:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjlambert/8753966380/](http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjlambert/8753966380/)

------
fingerprinter
Since this is another weight loss post on HN, I'll tread out the old lines
again[1]:

If you only care about weight loss: calories in vs calories out.

 _However_

If you care about maintaining muscle while losing fat, the story is still
pretty simple, and calories still count, but the macro ratio of those calories
are very important. In this case, keep protein high and get the rest from
carbs and/or fat. I personally recommend a more Keto approach in this case
because most people will be satiated longer.

The point being, weight loss is one thing, but muscle sparring while losing
weight is another. Understand what you are going after and know the correct
path.

[1] - When most people say they want to "lose weight", they really mean fat.
Really, who wants to lose muscle? Probably no one. That is why calories don't
tell the whole story. If, however, you absolutely don't care about muscle (and
if you say "yes" here, I would personally question that), sure, just pay
attention to calories and ignore the macro ratios.

~~~
WhitneyLand
Bullshit. The fallacy is that someone can care only about weight loss.

I tried it for years. I burn 2200 cal/day so I can eat a large Cinnabon every
day (800 cal) and still lose weight.

The problem is it fucks your insulin resistance and turns into diabetes.

So, I don't consider a solution viable if one of the side effects is death.

~~~
fingerprinter
I'm not going to fight you on the point, see my note at the bottom. I feel
most people say weight when they mean fat.

Medically speaking, it is always about fat. If a doctor tells you to lose
weight, they mean fat.

------
penguindev
This person has rediscovered the William Banting original low-carb diet from
1863[1] : "The emphasis was on avoiding sugar, saccharine matter, starch,
beer, milk and butter."

Banting knew carbs made you fat over a century ago, but of course since the
scientists couldn't figure out WHY they discredited it. And so it ever was.

They also knew carbs should be avoided by diabetics, but when insulin was
invented they chose to (more profitably) just shoot people up all the time and
make them sicker. Do you know what shooting yourself up with insulin
constantly does, by the way? [2]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting)
[2] [http://garytaubes.com/2012/02/on-the-greatly-exaggerated-
dem...](http://garytaubes.com/2012/02/on-the-greatly-exaggerated-demise-of-
the-insulin-hypothesis/) [ see disturbing picture ]

------
bluedino
>> I’ve gone from a 42” waist to a 36”. I’m now buying t-shirts in a medium or
maybe a large rather than an XL or XXL.

Clothing is not sized that way in the USA. 36" waist fitting into a medium?

~~~
korethr
Waist sizes for pants in the US are deceptive. When I started working with a
personal trainer, I was wearing pants with a '34 inch' waist. However, when it
came time to take measurements, and I finally relaxed my gut instead of
sucking it in so we could get an accurate measurement, my waist measured 38
inches.

Also, one can get 'adjustable waist' pants with elastic slots in them that
allow the waist to expand such that someone with a 42 inch waist might fit
into a pair of '34 inch' pants comfortably. They don't help the situation any.

------
andrewcooke
isn't that rapid? it sounds awesome (and congratulations), but i would perhaps
check w a doctor or something that you're not losing weight too fast?

[edit: not to ask why you're losing weight so fast (because you're not eating,
duh), but whether that rate is healthy.]

~~~
staunch
If you start rapidly losing (or gaining) weight with no obvious explanation
that is a cause for concern. If you start eating much less, and exercising
much more, you probably don't need to ask a doctor why you're losing weight.

~~~
adamnemecek
I believe that the healthy rate is around 1 lbs per week with 2 lbs pushing
it.

~~~
chollida1
Not when you are morbidly obese like the author was. When you are that big(
pushing 300lbs) it's not uncommon to loose 5lbs a week at the start.

~~~
adamnemecek
Why is the weight loss mechanism different under those circumstances?

~~~
chollida1
[http://www.livestrong.com/article/406097-why-do-
overweight-p...](http://www.livestrong.com/article/406097-why-do-overweight-
people-lose-weight-faster/)

[http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121373121&pag...](http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121373121&page=1)

Higher Metabolism, more water weight to shed.

------
yeureka
This insistence in demonizing food groups or finding quick fixes by
eliminating some sort of magic food stuff is fascinating to me.

Isn't it obvious this is incorrect?

I mean, go to Japan, where people live on white rice and wheat noodles and
count how many obese people you see on the street.

You will also notice that consumption of bacon, butter, eggs and dairy is very
low compared to western diets and even though they consume fatty fish they
don't eat it in the portions westerners consume meat.

~~~
pyrocat
So you're saying, don't demonize or eliminate food groups, but cut out the
bacon, butter, eggs and dairy?

------
alexPetrov
I've lost a little over 40 pounds (272 to 230-ish) since February (and I'm
still losing weight pretty steadily). Here's what I do:

1\. Bike to work (~5 there plus ~5 miles back for a total of ~10 miles per
work day)

2\. Stopped drinking soda (and most sugary drinks)

3\. Switched to a standing desk at work (I pace when I think so it's almost
like walking all day)

4\. Do minor exercise during down time at work (push ups, dips mostly)

5\. Regularly asking myself if I have time to go to the gym and actually going
when I find I don't have a good excuse (I got this idea from that lucid
dreaming trick).

6\. Consistently trying to eat less in general (based on rough calorie counts)
by asking myself if I need to eat more or cook that much.

7\. Continually improving balance in diet (more fruits/veggies is usually what
I need to do)

8\. Cooking as much as I would eat in one sitting, but saving half for lunch
the next day (no more seconds)

I've always been pretty physically active, but I've also always had a tendency
to eat as much as I wanted constantly. This led to rapid weight gain whenever
circumstances had me exercising less. Restraining myself was a steady process,
but now I actually can't eat as much as I used to, and I find I actually eat
less when exercising less, which is good.

------
peterwwillis
I have never looked fat, in baggy clothes. In tight fitting clothes, years ago
when I was at my grossest, someone called me "the fattest skinny person i've
ever seen."

I began to exercise a lot. _A lot_ to lose that beer belly. Finally it mostly
came off. Then I fell for the excuse of "you need to eat more to gain muscle!"
and ate the amount of calories some online calculator told me i'd need to
maintain a given weight.

I've never had abs, and I didn't get them then. I could out-run, out-squat,
out-jump any crossfit contender I met; and I was still kind of flabby. My
motivation sank. I moved away and stopped my routine. I went back to drinking
and eating a lot, without working out as much. I lost strength. The belly
began to return.

Recently I arbitrarily decided to cut out drinking for two months, which
helped a lot. Then I decided to cut out wheat. Not gluten, just wheat and
products made from it. So far? I'm looking more cut than I ever did, and i'm
hardly exercising. Eating smaller portions and less empty calories/alcohol is
giving me the body image I always wanted. (It's probably just the lack of
calories and not the wheat specifically)

------
pyrocat
OP probably has a gluten sensitivity. It causes inflammation and cuttiing it
out of your diet like that can cause dramatic weight loss, even without
exercise.

------
HPLovecraft
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat,_Sick_and_Nearly_Dead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat,_Sick_and_Nearly_Dead)

~~~
taude
I was going to post a link to this movie. I think they have it on AMZN Prime.
Netflix has it. It's pretty inspirational, and discusses a great way to eat.

Another one of interest is Forks Over Knives, which talks about the benefits
of eating a mostly plant based diet.

[http://www.forksoverknives.com/](http://www.forksoverknives.com/)

------
jaredsohn
Reddit /r/loseit and /r/fitness have excellent FAQs for weight loss and
becoming fit and they offer communities if you are looking to learn or for
support.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/faq](http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/faq)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq](http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/faq)

~~~
SheepSlapper
/r/loseit helped me lose about 50 pounds, and getting another desk job helped
me gain about 20 of those back :)

Regardless, loseit is highly recommended.

------
EricDeb
A couple diet strategies that have worked for me:

Drink a lot of calorie free, caffeinated liquids. I probably drink more diet
soda than I should, but tea and coffee are great as well and healthier

I find eating small amounts of crap can actually help. If your diet wasn't
amazing in the first place, and your goal is to lose weight so you cut out all
unhealthy foods, you're fighting two battles at once - cravings for
sugary/unhealthy foods, and hunger cravings. Eating a small amount of ice
cream or a few french fries can satisfy the unhealthy cravings, and work as
diet foods as long as your calories are sufficiently low.

~~~
mason55
_> hunger cravings_

A good diet should almost never leave you hungry. The problem is the no
meat/no fat diets that people try to go on. When you eat high carb you get
very little bang for your buck in terms of both volume and satiety.

1 pound of chicken is only 520 calories and the protein will keep you fuller
much longer than 520 calories of Oreos. 1700 calories is a good target for a
typical male who wants to lose weight, which on a high protein diet can look
something like:

Breakfast: 16 oz non-fat cottage cheese (300cal)

Lunch: 10 oz chicken breast (330cal), 1/2 cup dry rice = 1 cup cooked rice
(300 cal)

Dinner: 10 oz chicken breast (330cal), two pieces bread (220 cal), bbq sauce
(140 cal)

You're at 1620 cals so you can still have an afternoon snack and be right at
your target. Add some veggies to your lunch and dinner and I challenge you to
eat all that and still feel hungry.

I'm not even recommending keto or paleo or any of that stuff, just that the
reason people feel hungry when they diet is that they generally don't eat
enough protein.

------
OriginalAT
This is an excellent writeup, and one that I have a few friends that could
benefit from. I try to tell people that it is the little things you do every
day that add up to big change. My friends mostly have this idea that you have
to make huge sweeping changes to your life to see any results at all, but that
is simply false. Start going on a walk or jog every evening instead of sitting
in front of the television. Start having nuts instead of candy bars for
snacks. Stuff like that adds up quick to some pretty impressive results.

Excellent read, and keep up the good work!

------
joelle
"But I made a decision to stop right there and then. I didn’t want to wait
until Monday, or until we’d run out of crisps in the cupboard. I was putting
an end to it."

This is so true... why do we always say we'll start something on Monday? I'll
start eating better... on Monday. I'll start my new workout routine... on
Monday. Where did this come from? Why is it so hard to make the same
commitment to yourself today? Congrats on making up your mind and following
through! Super inspiring!

------
WhitneyLand
>>I’m 6’4” and I’ll never be slight in appearance, that’s just genetics

Maybe not - I bet somewhere in your ancestry we're lean, ripped,
warrior/hunters who were like that due to the type of work they did, and
because people didn't bring donuts every time someone in their tribe had a
birthday.

Serious congrats and well wishes to you in any case.

------
Miyamoto
You should trade some of that fat with muscle gain (especially upper body),
instead of shedding it all. Develop a consistent weight lifting routine at the
gym. You'll feel a lot better about yourself. Stationary cycling might make
your legs great, but your upper body will probably start to look "skinny fat".

~~~
ihsw
Can't forget the core muscle groups -- a solid core is essential to balancing
yourself out. Lower back and abdominal regions being the main focus.

------
daddykotex
You were riding 100-150 miles a wee kand you didn't loose weight due to that?
What was your caloric inputs...?

------
xyfer
I once lost 140 pounds in a day. She was just weighing me down..

------
el_duderino
Great. This is going to turn into a weight loss show off site. Nothing wrong
with that & congrats but here?

------
andykmaguire
That's just badass

