Foz tries out the Nutrisystem diet.
 

As some of you know, I'm a big guy. So, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Nutrisystem diet (which is 28 days of food, for about $300 per month). I'm going to track my diet here.. I'm hoping to lose significant weight on this, but I have several things going against me.

A) I'm a soda addict. Well, not addict, but I've gone without for a couple days and the headaches are like you won't believe. So the important part of any diet is going to be kicking the coca-cola habit and staying off.

B) Exercise. I ordered a DDR set to try to help out with this.. I'm not generally inclined to exercise (I hate walking to nowhere on a treadmill), and my job doesn't lead to it as well (sitting for hours at a time chained to a phone, no not literally).

C) My schedule is way out of wack. I currently work 6 PM-2 AM, so this means I'm up till 8-9 in the morning and sleeping till 4:30 or so in the afternoon. Just have to adjust my eating pattern.

But it's worth a try, right?

Definitely worth a try. I've also been working on losing weight and have lost about 20 pounds over the last 4 months. Good luck to you, I'll be following your progress. :)

Day 1: (5/24/08)

Food Intake: 1,090 Calories
Exercise: None

I'll say this, while the proportions are freaking TINY, there's a lot of seperate servings here. Here's a list of the food. (The Nutrisystem entrees are exact counts per packaging, if I eat something non-Nutrisystem, I'll note the approximate calories (since in a lot of cases, you can't get exactly 1 serving size)

Breakfast:
NutriFrosted Crunch Cereal (w/Milk) - Nutrisystem (190 Calories)

Snack:
Special K Choccolatey Delight (no milk) (Approx 120 Calories)

Lunch:
Cheesy HomeStyle Potatoes - Nutrisystem (210 Calories)

Afternoon Snack:
Fudge Brownie - Nutrisystem (140 Calories)

Dinner:
BBQ Sauce over Beef, Beans and Rice - Nutrisystem (270 Calories)

Dessert:
Chocolate Chip Cookie -Nutrisystem (160 Calories)

Day 2: (5/25/08)

Today was the first weigh in day. This sets a baseline for me. I eventually want to get down to 150 pounds, I haven't weighed that little in at least 2 decades (been a big guy a while).

To combat the soda urge, I've bought about 20 of those Crystal Light single serve packets.. they only have about 5 calories each, and put 2 of them in a 24 oz water bottle. They say drinking enough water is the key to losing weight, so I always have one pre made 24 oz bottle of crystal light in the fridge, and the other one is with me.

Food Total: 760 Calories
Exercise: None (setting up the DDR mat for playing some overnight though)

Breakfast
NutriCinnamon Squares Cereal - Nutrisystem (120 calories)

Lunch
Cheesy Cream of Broccoli Soup -Nutrisystem (130 Calories)

Afternoon Snack
Fudge Brownie - Nutrisystem (130 Calories)

Dinner
BBQ Sauce over Beef, Beans and Rice - Nutrisystem (270 Calories)

Dessert
Nacho Crisps - Nutrisystem (100 Calories)

5/25/08 Evening Weigh In:

Getting on the scale for the first time, is scary. I don't really want to know how big I've gotten. But I do, eventually.. and the numbers come up.

332.8 pounds (it's a digital scale, so it's that precise)

So the number absolutely sucks, but at least, it's going to go down from there. I hope.

Day 3: 5/26/08

Total Calories: 850
Total Exercise: 150 (DDR for 20 minutes on Workout Mode, across two sections)
Total Caloric Intake:700 Calories

Breakfast - Pancakes (3, no butter or syrup) Nutrisystem - 120 Calories

Snack - Special K Cereal- Choccolatey Delight (No milk) -120 Calories

Lunch - Cheesy Cream of Broccoli Soup - Nutrisystem 130 Calories

Snack - Nacho Crisps - Nutrisystem (100 Calories)

Dinner - Wedged Potatoes with Sliced Beef Steak (Nutrisystem) 220 Calories

Dessert - Peanut Butter Cookie (Nutrisystem) 160 Calories

5/27 Weigh-In.

I shouldn't be doing it this early, but I passed by the scale and had an urge to see what's going on.. so I checked my weight.

331.2 pounds.

Down 1.6 pounds already.

Not a bad start :)

Keep up the good work Fozzie...I'm trying to lose weight as well, but not on as strict a regimin as you. I'm walking at least once a day, and also trying to get in some exercise when I'm at the pool with my son. Trying to eat better and cut out sodas as well, though the soda thing hasn't gone so well yet - though I am down to only drinking diet soda. I did order a salad at Taco Mac last night instead of our usual nachos and wings, so I figure that is a step in the right direction :)

I'll be following your dynasty! Good luck!!!!

Just curious.......how tall are you? I'm going to guess 5'7"-5'8" given that your ideal weight is 150 lbs.

Also, exercise is the key. The more muscle you build, the quicker the pounds will come off.

Something like 5'4-5'6"... The 150 pounds was a general goal, and a long term goal.

And yeah, exercising is going to be a big deal. I'm hoping to set up one of those all in one DDR mats, and do a lot of Stepmania/DDR action.. it's the only real type of exercise I can stand doing besides general walking.

Thanks for the good thoughts, and Oliegirl, if you can stand the taste of Crystal Light, I recommend it, you can just carry around the packets and either get a bottle of water and add it, or like I do at work, keep one bottle chilled, and when you empty one, fill it back up with water and the packet(s) of crystal light, and put it in the fridge, so you always have one on hand.

Good luck, Foz.

Good to see that the weekend and holiday did not hurt you.

Make sure it is. The last thing you want is your body to start breaking down your muscle in search of calories. Your body naturally wants to keep as much fat as possible and if you are not active, it's going to go after the muscle tissue.

Taking in less than 1000 calories a day. Damn. I have trouble keeping it below 2500 a day (although, I am pretty active). Good luck.

Well, right now I'm sticking to only the Nutrisystem food (and an occasional snack), not eating fruits and vegetables like they suggest. I am taking some green tea caplets and a one a day vitamin to help pick up the slack.

Day 4 (5/27.. the Dessert hasn't been drank yet, but it's the only food I have at work)

Total Caloric Intake:800 Calories
Total Workout: 81 Calories (Dance Dance Revolution)
total Calories: 719 Calories

Breakfast: NutriCinnamon Squares Cereal w/4oz milk - Nutrisystem (160 Calories)
Lunch: Cheesy HomeStyle Potatoes - Nutrisystem (210 Calories)
Afternoon Snack: Pretzels (Nutrisystem) (120 Calories)
Dinner: Wedged Potatoes with Sliced Beef Steak (Nurisystem) (220 Calories)
Dessert: Hot Cocoa (Nutrisystem) 90 Calories.

Unofficially weighed myself before I headed to work today, down 3.0 pounds from start.

Great job man!

But seriously you've got to stop stepping on that scale. You won't notice the small drops and anytime you go up (which will be frequently due to normal fluctuation) you'll get down on yourself.

Keep it up, I'll be upset and disappointed if you don't keep this going!!

Just a thought. Try to mix in some crunches, squats, or shortened push-ups (i.e. on your knees rather than a full push-up) after your cardio on DDR. Just mixing in 3 sets of each exercise (10-15 in each set to start) will further build your muscle mass with minimal added time investment (5-10 minutes at most). You can add weight to the squats and crunches as needed once you move past the first 30-40 lbs lost.

Good luck!

You need to supplement your current caloric intake. You are taking in WAY TOO FEW calories each day. You might be able to do it for a while but in the long run you are just setting yourself up for failure.

Do what they suggest and eat a TON of fruits and vegetables.

And absolutely weigh yourself every day. It is great motivation.

Yeah, I found the darkside of the so low calories at work.

Not only was I damn hungry after my "Dessert" last night (hot cocoa was nice, but not exactly filling), but I had forgotten to clean out my desk of the corporate food stuff.. I was concentrating on a difficult case, and well, not accidentally, but certainly not intentionally, I ate one of those pretzel rods. Realized what was happening as I grabbed the other one, and was pissed at myself.

Spent the next five minutes making sure there wasn't anything else around that could screw up this program.

Work is the hardest part, since A) I'm the only one in the office for most of the day, so I need to make myself get up and do stuff, and B) There's no one there to keep me distracted.

Gonna try to make a grocery run before work to see what I can pickup. I'll also try out the workouts suggested, the nutrisystem packet recommends four workouts a week to start, so I'll hold off on DDR at least this afternoon (I will do so overnight after work), and may work in the crunches or the shortened pushups after that.

Day 5: 5/28

Total:1,026 Calories
Exercise: 0 (although I will be working out overnight after work)

Late Night Food: Pretzels (Non-Nutrisystem, 2 Oz) 216 Calories (what I mentioned above)

Breakfast: NutriCinnamon Squares Cereal w/Milk - Nutrisystem (160 Calories)

Lunch: Cheesy Cream of Broccoli Soup - Nutrisystem (130 Calories)

Afternoon Snack - Zesty Herb Snack Mix- Nutrisystem (120 calories)

Dinner: Thick Crust Pizza -Nutrisystem - (280 Calories)

Dessert: Pretzels (120 Calories)

Good luck. The fact that you are able to eat those snacks (except the pretzels) makes you a better man than I.

Thanks.

Dola: 5/29 Weigh In:

Couldn't resist yet another weigh in.. The news is good... VERY good infact.

328.4

-4.4 pounds from when I started.

A couple of co-workers have said they'll take me up to Foxwoods when I hit 275, so that might be before the end of the summer.. (if it continues to come off at this rate, yes, I know the pounds come off easy to start. :))

Day 6: 5/29

Total Caloric Intake: 835 Calories
Workout: DDR and 10 minutes of Short-Pushups: 171 Calories burned
Total: 664 Calories.

Have to admit, this was one of the few meals I wasn't really looking froward to. If they can't fully stock your "choose-your-own" order, they throw in a couple things there based on most people's favorites, so despite hating pasta in general (and microwave pasta specifically), I got Pasta With Beef in the order, and pulled it out of the cabinet and shrugged. Wasn't great, but I managed to get it down.


Breakfast: Pancake Mix (nutrisystem) 120 Calories
Lunch: Pasta with Beef (nutrisystem) 180 Calories
Snack: White Choccolate Chunk Cookie (nutrisystem) 140 Calories
Dinner: Teriyaki Sauce, Rice, Beef and Vegetables (nutrisystem) 270 Calories
Dinner: Carrots, 1 cup, baby-cut (uncooked) 25 Calories
Dessert: Caramel Popcorn (nutrisystem) 100 Calories.

Great job so far SirFozzie!!! Keep up man, I know you can do it!

Thanks Mizzou. good luck on your own quest :)

Day 7: 5/30

Well, after today, I'll have been on it one full week. My initial goal was five pounds in the first week, and I'm pretty sure I'll make that (official weekly weigh in in the afternoon on Saturday).


Here's the Friday breakdown
Total Caloric Intake: 1,025 Calories
Workouts: 2 (15 minute walk, and 10 minutes of pushups) -121 calories
Total Calories: 904 Calories

Breakfast:Nutricinnamon Squares Cereal w/milk (Nutrisystem) 160 Calories
Lunch: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar (Nutrisystem) 210 Calories
Lunch: Carrots (Raw, baby cut) 25 calories
Snack: Nacho Crisps (Nutrisystem) 100 Calories
Dinner: BBQ Sauce over Beef, Beans and Rice (Nutrisystem) 270 Calories
Snack: Grapes (30, Green Seedless) 120 Calories
Desert:White Chocolate Chunk Cookie (Nutrisystem) 140 Calories

Week 1 Weigh-In:

Well, here it is. One full week on the diet. So far, so good.

Time to step on the scale..

325.8.. Wow, that's seven full pounds, or a pound a day since I began

Not a bad start at all!

Initial Weigh-In (5/24) 332.8
Week 1 Weigh-In 325.8 (-7.0 Pounds)

Congrats on the strong start.

Yes indeed... great first week!

5/31:

Well, I'm planning to walk around Boston Sunday, so I didn't do much more exercising then just the normal DDR stuff. But I'll take a package of Lemonade packets with me, since I can pick up bottles of water anywhere. I might treat myself to a "treat" of a subway roast beef with honey mustard (plain otherwise). Who knows?

Total Caloric Intake: 875 Calories
Total Workout (DDR): 88 Calories
Total: 787 Calories
Breakfast:NutriCinnamon Squares Cereal w/milk (NS) (160 Calories)
Lunch: Cheesy HomeStyle Potatoes (NS) (210 Calories)
Afternoon Snack: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding (NS) (180 Calories)
Dinner:Zesty Cajun Style Chicken and Sausage with Brown Rice (NS) (250 Calories)
Dessert: Caramel Popcorn (NS) (100 Calories)
Dessert: Carrots, Raw (25 Calories)

Interested to hear how the nutrisystem works out. I think I'm going to start mixing in some meal replacement shakes and cutting out some of the crap(fuck McDonalds and their awesome tasting 1 dollar double cheeseburgers) I eat plus the soda. I'd like to get back around 240-250ish.

Anybody done Weight Watchers?

But here's what I don't get, the BMI still says that 6'4" 250 is "obese." Maybe that does not mean what I think it means, but I've fluctuated between 240-290 pounds over the last 5-10 years(now on the high end of that). I know I felt a lot better in the 240 range, my feet didn't ache as much.

Good start though Foz, the expense of the program will definitely be worth it if you can get to your target weight.

dola, working that swing shift really fucks your body up, did that for the last couple years and packed on the weight with the fourthmeal.

Have you considered getting on more of a normal sched and going to bed after you get home? I know it's a bitch when you want to unwind after work, though, I had that problem a lot too.

That BMI stuff is surprising to most people (myself included). Don't let yourself worry about that too much though... the pounds you'd lose going from BMI of, say 35 to 30 are much more beneficial to your health than those you'd from 30 to 25. (not to say that shouldn't/couldn't be a long-term goal...)

I'm more of a night owl, so this isn't so bad, actually. I'm rather bizarre in that my meal pattern gets somewhat turned around. here's what it's like right now under the Nutrisystem diet. Besides, they need me on this shift for what looks like at least the next two months.

Typical Foz Day under this shift/diet

3:00 PM, Wake Up
4:30 PM "Lunch" meal
7:30 PM Snack
10:00 PM "Dinner" Meal
12:00 AM Snack
4:30 AM Or so "Breakfast" meal
7:00 AM Asleep

Update on food and the like in the morning. I spent several hours walking around Boston today (stopped at a couple RPG stores, so even had a weight in my shoulder for most of my walking)..

My feet hurt. I'm tired as hell, but.. it was fun. :)

6/1:

Total Caloric Intake:785 Calories
Total Workout (estimate) 175 Calories
Total: 610 Calories

Breakfast: NutriFrosted Crunch Cereal (w/milk) (NS) 150 Calories
Lunch: Cheesy Cream of Broccoli Soup (NS) 130 Calories
Snack: Nacho Crisps (NS) 100 Calories
Snack: Carrots (raw) 25 Calories
Dinner: Wedged Potatoes with Sliced Beef Steak (NS) (220 Calories)
Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookie (NS) 120 Calories

Foz- Congrats on taking the steps.

My wife started it a few months ago ( she would kill me for posting this, she only wanted to drop about 20 pounds and didn't need to but women, what can ya do). It is really important that you eat the fruits and vegatables, getting to few calories is just as bad.

What we did was buy a big tupperware comtainer and sunday night made a huge salad in it. Then she could just have the salad ready through the week, we got different toppings for the salads like mandarin oranges, pecans, almonds, etc so it wouldn't get boring.

She finaly quit on it because she realized she didn't need to be doing it so now we are eating through the rest of the food. The portions are really small and a little bland, but all in all not horrible. And the crystal light packs are a great idea.

Good luck with everything, this may be the first dynasty I actualy follow.

I am not sure I support this. The world needs more SirFozzie, not less.

dola - j/k

Best of luck.

If you like gatorade, I picked up some stuff called "Replentish" in the single serve packs. Pretty good stuff, although I dunno if the electrolytes/sodium would mess with what you're trying to accomplish. 0 calories, and I'd say it's almost as good as G2(which I think has some calories).

You still need to increase you caloric intake.

Your body is freaking out and trying to hold on to every last calorie it can right now and has turned your metabolism into a limbless tree sloth stuck in quicksand (NOT kickstand!).

Sure, you are coming out on top of the basic calories in, calories out formula but you aren't burning calories with any kind of efficiency and eventually it will catch up with you.

Something to think about, at any rate.

6/2:
Total Caloric Intake: 938 Calories

No working out, but I just got done working out after I got home from work, so that'll be on tommorrow's list.

Breakfast:NutriFlakes Cereal - 40% Bran Flakes (NS) (120 Calories)
Breakfast: 12 Oz 1% Milk (120 Calories) (In cereal and seperate glass)

Lunch: Cheesy HomeStyle Potatoes (NS) (210 Calories)

Snack: Fudge Brownie (NS) (90 Calories)

Dinner: Teriyaki Sauce, Rice, Beef and Vegetables (NS) 270 calories

Dessert: Grapes (60) and one medium sized green pepper (sliced into chunks) (18)

Yeah, I'd eat more calories. And this is coming from someone who is not eating much. Right now, my typical day looks like:

7-8am: Oatmeal and Banana for breakfast

10am: serving of fruit and a carb snack (usually a 100 calorie pack)

noon: serving or more of carrots and a serving of fruit

1pm: Oatmeal

3pm: serving of fruit and carb snack (usually about a 1/3 cup of granola)

6pm: Lean Cuisine/Smart Start box dinner (usually around 240-300 calories) and a salad

8pm: desert/snack (small serving of pudding or slow churn ice cream, or 2 graham crackers with peanut butter, or 100 calorie bag of pop corn)

And about 8-10 cups of water all through the day, if not more.

I'd say add more fruits, vegetables, and salad to your diet.

I posted a comment about BMI in the other weight loss thread. I think it's ridiculous. For me to be safely in the middle of the "normal" BMI would require me to be at a weight I haven't been at since junior high. And that's about 10-15 pounds less than I think is necessary. I think that scale is unrealistic. Not to mention, I don't think it takes into account what your body consists of, so someone could be "normal" eating potato chips, ice cream, and snack foods all day while someone else eats healthy but carries more weight.

Big-assed salads FTFW.

Word.

Speaking from experience, either up your caloric intake appreciably or fail. It's that simple.

I don't want you to fail...eat salads and fruits!

I completely agree. The weight won't come off quite as fast, but it will be more sustainable and more healthy in the long term. Anyway, good luck with your continued progress. :)

I'll add to the chorus that you need more calories.

From personal experience, sustained low calorie counts like what you've got going on destroys your metabolism and makes maintaining the weight once you lose it a lot more difficult.

One of the problems is.. I'm not the one who likes to sit down and have a leisurely meal. I'm a speed eater. Which is not what you should be doing, even with these small meals. Go through food like a buzzsaw, if I get the chance :) So the problem with Salads and the like (besides the fact I like WAY too much dressing on them), is.. I'm not super willing to take the amount of time it makes to shred the lettuce, etcetera.

Maybe since I've worked for this place where you've eaten at your desk while you work for five years or so now, and more then a few times, lunch has gone untouched because the phone rang and I couldn't get to it, its ingrained habit.

Did two sets of DDR Hottest Party (and got another X360 Dance Mat via amazon coming) today (one in the early morning, one when I woke up in the afternoon) to workout today, probably will do so again tonight/tomorrow. I'm also looking into getting Wii Fit once I drop a few more pounds (I'm kinda close to the suggested weight limit here right now)

Total Caloric Intake:925
Total Workout: 185
Total: 740

Breakfast:NutriFrosted Crunch Cereal w/Milk (NS) 150 Calories
Lunch: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar (NS) 210 Calories
Afternoon Snack: Zesty Herb Snack Mix (NS) 120 Calories
Dinner:Thin Crust Pizza with Cheese (NS) 220 Calories
Dinner: Grapes 60 Calories
Dessert: Choccolate Chip Cookie (NS) 160 Calories

Overnight weigh in (6/3-6/4)

I've been avoiding weigh in, now that I know I'm off to a good start, so this is my first weigh in for a couple days...

323.8 (down 9.0 Pounds).

it's slower, but still sustained, which is good :)