I love calcium- it's making me lose weight like mad

[WindRavenX]

I've been working out everyday now for about 1.5 months in my quest to lose the infamous Freshman 20 (or 24 in my case x( ), and I have been eating pretty much nothing but yogurt, granola, salads, and chicken.
Holy crap, my Buddha belly is almost gone!
They aren't kidding- calcium really does help lose fat!

[liberalnurse]

1. Don't stop now!

Tell us more about your plan. What is a typical day of meals?

[WindRavenX]

2. Keep in mind I have mad slow metabolism..

Breakfast:
Iced coffee and a Special K bar + banana

Lunch:
Chicken wrap + diet coke

snack:
fruit smoothie

workout:
20 miles on stationary bike ~45 minutes

dinner:
Smart Start + milk
banana
yogurt w/ granola
Odwalla Soy A'mondo shake :9

[liberalnurse]

3. Oh my....

That is sparse...I might last 3 days! Then again, your success is a great example. :bounce:

[bullwinkle428]

18. Ways to improve metabolism:

First of all, going 20 miles in 45 minutes on the stationary bike is awesome...I can see where the weight loss is coming from! However, you mentioned how poor your metabolism is. If you can start working some resistance training into your routine, you'll build muscle which will in turn will help to improve your metabolic rate. It's also importatnt to make sure you're taking in enough protein and GOOD (unsaturated) fats into your diet. Here's a great site on weight training for beginners, established by a Women's Studies professor at York University in Toronto. She has lots of good info on nutrition as well...

http://www.stumptuous.com/weights_index_revision.html

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. Your diet is not balanced

Are you taking other vitamins?

[WindRavenX]

5. oh yeah

Multi-vitamin suppliment and vitamin C.

[tjdee]

6. Who says calcium does that?

And not to be gross...but how is your...um...eliminating going?

Calcium rich foods stop up the works, so to say. I imagine the granola and salads help with that...

Glad it's working for you!

[WindRavenX]

7. Oh the dairy groups have been claiming that

My digestive system is fine, thankyouvery much- the coffee and salad = regularity baby!

[tjdee]

8. Ah coffee, the magic thing....

I didn't see the iced coffee part of your sample day's eating in whichever post...coffee makes everything alllllrrriiigghhht.

Wow, really...I like me some cheese, I didn't know it was helping me lose weight....mmmmmmm cheese....

[Skittles]

9. seems like it's more a lack of calories than calcium

doesn't it?

[WindRavenX]

10. I don't think so...

..I've tried similar plans in the past that have the same amount of calories (~1,200), but had little calcium.
I really do think it's the dairy.

[AlCzervik]

11. i take calcium as well and i think it does help when you are trying

to lose weight but another thing it does is that if you take it over a long period of time it helps to alleviate menstrual cramps.

[Skittles]

12. 1200! OMG I eat at least 2500 a day

exercise an hour daily too

[WindRavenX]

13. you probably have a better metabolism than I do

1,200 isn't that low for me, really!

[AlCzervik]

14. I couldn't survive on 1200 calories a day unless i had nap breaks

every hour.

[Left Is Write]

16. I eat a lot too.

When I was in weight loss mode a year ago, I was eating about 1400 or so calories a day, but I wound up losing more than planned. Now, in maintenance mode, I exercise vigorously six days a week (averaging an hour a day) and I eat quite a bit more.

[Left Is Write]

15. The Dairy Association says that consuming three servings

of lowfat dairy products (they are pushing yogurt and lowfat or skim milk in particular) as part of a reduced calorie diet can help you burn fat and lose more weight than a reduced calorie diet alone.

I don't think it's the calcium, though. Something about an enzyme or enzymes unique to dairy products.

[Floogeldy]

17. Granola, salads, and chicken are not calcium rich.

Somebody is confused.

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