Last few stubborn pounds!

[Johrai]

Appreciate all the responses! I have a schedule to meet with a personal trainer for a consultation as well, just to make sure I'm optimizing.

My Diet is;
-5 meals a day, with 2 protein shakes(no sugar, they taste horrendous though...)
-Mostly complex carbs in the morning before I go running at least 1.5 miles
-Vegetables and Vegetable juice throughout day and at work(pretty sedentary at work so I stay off the carbs)
-Balanced fat/protein meal at night after PT

My Exercise:
-1.5-3 miles in the morning, with stretches
-Max set of Pullups and Crunches in the morning(do them while I make breakfast =P)
-Light Jog in the evening as warmup for endurance and strength training
-Started doing the Crossfit daily, VERY good program! Thanks to TWDP, DrinkTwiceT1000, and other for the link, very effective training(sure feel it in the morning...)

I think following all of your advice broke my plateau, dropped 2 lbs since thread was started! I think my diet was the key; I started adding freshly made vegetable juice, cut out 100% sugar, and schedules my meals for optimal intake. Worked beautifully!

Thanks all, I owe you guys!

[CharlieDelta]

Heres my spill on it im 5'10 195' used to be 265
When you ingest 5 or more small meals a day your metabolism increases significantly because it thinks "damn i need to process this" so it does
Another great way to increase metabo is to start your morning with a drink consisting of blended fruit and water then go get a nice little run in come back and eat some eggs or as robbyj said oatmeal. oatmeal has officialy been listed as a super food so unlike arby's its actually good mood food.
Another thing is to stay moderately active all day as compared to pushing yourself 2 to 3 times a day. Reason being you may burn 150 cal. Each workout but in the long run thats max 500 cal. However stay active by WALKING, all day err day. Andnyes i know im guilty of it to but posting up on the couch and playing black ops isnt really good practice. Lifes beautiful go chill at the park n stuff of sorts
Also munkyvsrobot is right complex carbs is where its at things such as whole grain bread OATMEAL! Wheat pasta just keep it to two servings a day, your body needs carbs for energy and how do you expect to get energy if your pulling an Atkins diet
Which leads me to all protein diets these are descibed effective because of a process known as ketosis which is simply described as body produces ketones, ketones eat fat. Good right? Not exactly with no carbs no energy, and with high amounts of ketones in your body you are way more succeptable to kidney stones OUCH!

Basically man
Lemme tell you keep doin what your doin
Your body plateaus from time to time dont get discouraged
Eat smart, remember there are no shortcuts for permanent weight loss
A body in constant motion is a happy body
And look up super foods its like eating superman except without the latex
Oh yeah and always celery is a free food

[EpicPopsicle]

I'm 5'8 1/2. Was all the up to 233 now sitting pretty good at 177 right now. What worked for me was to keep your protein to carb ratio at 1.5/1 per body weight. That way your body will be forced to used up it's fat reserves because it will not have enough carbs to burn and you will not lose muscle because your body will have enough protein to keep it maintained. Try to eat less bread and other high carb foods and get it from stuff like fruit and nuts. For protein eat chicken(take off the skin) and try to get the leanest cut of meat you can like get like sirloin steak. Oh ya and weight lift (circuit training) and HIIT training for cardio instead of steady pace cardio (Do sprints instead of the treadmill).

[Gunstream]

I honestly haven't bothered to read all of this, but some things I skimmed over should be clarified:

1) Eating several meals a day doesn't increase your metabolism because you are constantly digesting, it increases your metabolism because it prevents your body from entering starvation mode. When you decrease your total intake, your body slows your metabolism to preserve fat. It's a survival tactic that is designed to keep you alive, should your intake stop completely. By eating several small meals, you trick your body into avoiding starvation mode.

2) Lifting weights will make you lose weight. Anaerobic activity has been shown to increase Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) for up to 48 hours following a lifting session. Additionally, lifting in circuits for 45 minutes has shown to burn more calories than moderate cardio for 45 minutes. Finally, muscle requires more caloric fuel than any other body mass, so increasing muscle mass further increases metabolism.

3) Protein is not converted into fat. Ever. Period. Eat your fill. Polysaturated fats and carbohydrates are converted into fat. Unsaturated fats run delivery service for branch chain amino acids into muscle fiber. They are good.

4) Whoever told you to eat oatmeal for breakfast knows what he's talking about. Listen to him.

[EpicPopsicle]

I honestly haven't bothered to read all of this, but some things I skimmed over should be clarified:

1) Eating several meals a day doesn't increase your metabolism because you are constantly digesting, it increases your metabolism because it prevents your body from entering starvation mode. When you decrease your total intake, your body slows your metabolism to preserve fat. It's a survival tactic that is designed to keep you alive, should your intake stop completely. By eating several small meals, you trick your body into avoiding starvation mode.

I think for diet it doesn't really matter whether you eat 5 or 6 small meals or 3 big ones, it's more important that you just eat something healthy and stay away from junk. Me personally I liked doing the 5 small meals diet because even though you eat small portions it still keeps you from feeling hungry and it seemed to work for me as it helped me lose almost 50 pounds. I miss going to the buffet though when you skip lunch and I just eat everything I see.

[Crusader0451]

I honestly haven't bothered to read all of this, but some things I skimmed over should be clarified:

1) Eating several meals a day doesn't increase your metabolism because you are constantly digesting, it increases your metabolism because it prevents your body from entering starvation mode. When you decrease your total intake, your body slows your metabolism to preserve fat. It's a survival tactic that is designed to keep you alive, should your intake stop completely. By eating several small meals, you trick your body into avoiding starvation mode.

2) Lifting weights will make you lose weight. Anaerobic activity has been shown to increase Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) for up to 48 hours following a lifting session. Additionally, lifting in circuits for 45 minutes has shown to burn more calories than moderate cardio for 45 minutes. Finally, muscle requires more caloric fuel than any other body mass, so increasing muscle mass further increases metabolism.

3) Protein is not converted into fat. Ever. Period. Eat your fill. Polysaturated fats and carbohydrates are converted into fat. Unsaturated fats run delivery service for branch chain amino acids into muscle fiber. They are good.

4) Whoever told you to eat oatmeal for breakfast knows what he's talking about. Listen to him.

[IHaveEGA843]

I got tired of mentioning my high fiber diet because people were shooting it down......it worked for me and I dropped weight like nothing.

[Gunstream]

I got tired of mentioning my high fiber diet because people were shooting it down......it worked for me and I dropped weight like nothing.

I fully suspect that it worked, but it's not as though fiber caused you to lose weight. Fiber and protein (particularly casein) are extremely complex macronutrients, and are subsequently more difficult for your stomach to break down. Because they are harder to break down, it takes longer to digest them. This makes you feel full longer, and feeling full longer makes you eat less. Eating less causes you to lose weight.

[MunkyVsRobot]

My problem is I still do everything Im not supposed to do. Im still within my ship weight last I weighed like 185 or so but I am undisciplined in that respect. I still drink beer occasionally I skip meals quite often when i do eat its like half a pizza or a 12" sub or something else terrible. I think about the only thing Healthy I do is take vitamins and protein, I eat fruits and vegetables just not everyday as someone should. Oh well to each his own I know what I have to do I am just reluctant because I want to enjoy the finer things in life while I still can. I pretty much have to give all this stuff up in a few weeks anyways I ship in 54 days.