dontoearth

15 hours ago, Kennycrossfit said:

Your just losing water weight. 

     It is not all water weight.  You can get more accurate info by finding a scale that will give you the full body measurements.  I used Tanita's BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) technology, the body composition monitors can measure #your: weight, body fat percentage, body water percentage, muscle mass, physique rating, basal metabolic rate (BMR), daily caloric intake (DCI), metabolic age, bone mass, and visceral fat.

       There is one here in bangkok at the Olympic club and you can get a full measurement when you work out with a nice body composition maps.  I measured about every 4 weeks to track progress.  Low carb diets are not all water weight loss at all like so many people swear.  

On 2/7/2020 at 2:39 AM, Happy Grumpy said:

Nonsense.

 

It is down to diet AND exercise.

 

As I said.

 

Intake less calories than you use, and you lose weight. The food doesn't matter. Intake 3000 calories of ice cream and chocolate donuts every day, you will lose weight if you are burning 4000 calories a day.

 

A healthy balanced diet will keep you healthy while you exercise to a point of burning more calories than you intake = healthy weight loss.

  Truly the science has turned against this theory.  There is so much out there to refute the CICO crowd you wonder why they don't do a few google searches on their own.

I think you should go to a local atty skilled in immigration matters and ask this and only this,"Am I legally married in the USA?"  I think the answer is no.  Just marking some forms that you are married doesn't really do it.  You would have needed to get everything filed at the US embassy and gone thru homeland security screening etc.  In the event the atty says you are married ask about the abandonment divorce law in your local.  In some areas of the US just swearing you do not know the location of your foreign wife and filing a 90 day paper is all you do to get a divorce.  Did it myself in Chicago Cook County just two years ago.

Lastly, she will never get into the USA under any circumstances and will never bother you again.  Go to a good therapist or hypnotist with the goal of forgetting she ever existed.  It will help you a lot with your medical problems.

Best of Luck.  I am divorced from my thai mistake wife by abandonment and in remission from cancer so their is hope. 

On 7/22/2019 at 10:41 PM, WaveHunter said:

Most people find they can accomplish far more than they believe.  Just about everybody is capable of such changes if they are truly serious about fat loss.  It all really boils down to how much you really want it. 

   It is more than how much you want it!  It is what you are willing to do to achieve it!

4 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Of course. Right away. Clearly he must be if you say so. Ill always trust anonymous dudes on the internet with an agenda, possibly ego driven, over a trained professional and Professor of Cardiology at one of the most prestigious Medical Schools in the world.

 

 

  Duke was the home of the Rice Diet plan.  A residential weight loss for people that were dying of hypertension or type 2 diabetes before the drugs to combat these diseases were invented.  Despite its name, this diet is not just about rice. It's been around since 1939, and got a new wave of popularity when the Rice Diet Solution was published. 

   Some diet plans have a history and lots of science and research behind them.  Kempner the doctor which invented the Rice diet at Duke did lots of measurement and follow-up.  Most of these residential clinics that put patients on diet plans and monitoring closed up once cheap drugs became available.  The residential settings and monitoring were too expensive for all but the very rich.

   The Pritikin diet plan still has a residential setting, and I believe one week is $7500 USD.  His diet is proven to reverse heart disease.  Of course even a small heart attack in the US will cost about $50,000 USD.  Medical insurance companies still find dispensing the drugs or surgery cheaper on the whole.

    Most of these diets are hard to follow but both are well proven by research.

    I don't think doctors are good at nutrition or diet advice or are up on the research as the vast majority of medical schools SPEND zero hours on the subject in their coursework.

10 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

I never had a fat doctor in my life. Never, not in 64 years. I dont think I ever even met a fat doctor.

   Do a cruise of the hallways of your local hospital and you will see lots of fatties.  It is not just the doctors. The nurses and assistants will be waddling along too.   My father's cardiologist was 150 lbs (us) overweight.  He did nothing but recommend drugs and surgery.  He said he couldn't make any sense of the diet plans and claims he heard about that caused weight loss and improvement in heart function.   

  In the forum there has been lots of good advice on picking a diet you can stick with for a long time.  In this video Dr. Greger explains that won't be good enough once the plateau comes you will need to further restrict yourself.  UGH!  He also debunks the whole 3500 calories restricted equals a pound of weight loss theory in another video if anyone is interested I will dig it up.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-reason-weight-loss-plateaus-when-you-diet/

8 hours ago, Huayrat said:

Who plans a loss of 30% of their pension? 

    Inflation takes away almost half your pension value in just 10 years.  So even people staying in their home countries feel that pinch hard.

8 hours ago, Rama said:

As someone that was a notary in the US at one time, notaries in the US only certify that your signature on a document is a true signature and that the person signing has presented document (drivers license, passport) to show that they are really themselves - they don't certify to the veracity of a document. Really doesn't mater what the document says or doesn't say. Doesn't require a specific place for a signature. Just tell them you will sign at bottom or end of document. Its takes nothing to become a notary in the US, so you can imagine that most don't know what they're doing. Lawyers understand, and lawyers always have an inhouse notary. Keep on trying different notaries or go to a lawyers office to get done quickly.

  Exactly what I did a few years ago.   Notaries do not care what is in a document they are only attesting to your identity and signature.  So a neatly drawn straight line with an X at the beginning and a request to the notary that they notarize your signature should be all that you need.  I had several different documents like this over the years of my travel from various embassies and never had a problem once I realized that notaries are not attesting to the validity or truthfulness of a document.  They are only responsible for your identify and your signature not anything else.  You can even get a paper notarized that says you take tea with space aliens if you want.  As long as you are signing somewhere on the document and have identification.

24 minutes ago, BestB said:

and one of the highest crime and murder rates in the world.

    I don't think it is probably any higher than Thailand really.  In all countries you need to keep your eyes open and OUT OF places that are not safe.   In my last few years in bkk I avoided Pattaya entirely for that reason.

On 8/29/2019 at 10:42 PM, simon43 said:

I left 2 weeks ago ????

   Simon I left last year.  Big problems renewing my retirement visa at CW.  Spent a full miserable day and couldn't get it straightened out.   I listen to friends still living in TH and try to be sympathetic about all this visa nonsense, but I think leaving is the best choice if you don't have all sorts of strings holding you back.  I didn't have property or a family.  That made it much easier I admit. 

    I am back home in Chicago and looking at Mexico as the place to live for the winter.  Good Luck to everyone regardless of what decision they make.  Mexico requires nothing in the way of visas, tm-30, tm 28, 90 day report, putting funds in a mexican bank, getting health insurance etc.  Mexico gives you a six month visitor pass at the airport when you get off the plane.  That is the entire winter rigamaroll with immigration.   And warm and friendly with good food and great prices.  

    I miss bkk and my old friends of so many decades but enough was ENOUGH! 

Today in the USA kids are living at home until about age 26.  50 years ago it was 18 and OUT.  I can't think of anyone of my friends that stayed at home past 18.  Today my nieces and nephews are quite content to stay on for the free room and board and food.  I fully expect with student debt and the need to stay on parent health insurance, phone plan, car insurance discount etc. that many US children may extend that to about 30 years of age now.  Times change.

9 hours ago, robblok said:

Yes its a big minefield and what works for one might not work for an other. I have found what works for me. But I actually learn new things all the time. I am not worried about revising my opinions about things.

 

For a long time I thought that I would not need cardio because I was huffing and puffing enough with my lifting raising my heart rate quite well. But recently I have read more and it was said that steady state cardio has a far better effect on the heart and arteries so I started doing cardio in the morning. I now don't hate it anymore and just do it and as an added benefit it seems to help me burn extra fat. (i still lift weights of course)

 

There is so much conflicting advice about so many things out there that it is just scary. Even among the people i respect and listen too (read or watch) they differ on things. So its hard to know what is truly the truth. I think a lot has to do with who you are and at what levels you are too. 

 

Anyway sometimes I get carried away a bit

 

My appologies at @dontoearth   

    No problem!  I specifically discussed the body problem of high internal fat called visceral fat.  It is a real hidden medical problem for those that use the look in the mirror approach or calipers to judge body fat. Rippling abs in the mirror would tell you nothing about your visceral fat measurements.  I also discussed a very expensive scale available for use at Olympic Health Club in Bangkok.  The Tanita Body Composition Analyzer from which I took measurements monthly (and no more) to get an accurate picture of my program to knock down visceral fat.  My family has been prone to heart disease among normal weight relatives.  

    I downloaded and read the entire product manual to find out about their testing comparison to DEXA.  I am like that intense and like to read original documentation not ask someone that really has no idea.  And I said I had no idea about the smaller scales available on places like amazon.  I can only suspect that they will get better and better since technology improves and becomes cheaper at very rapid rates these days.  I have never downloaded or read one of their product manuals.  I just know that the expensive Tanita Body Composition Analyzer does not use tables.  

    I would recommend anyone with my background get on the Tanita Body Composition Analyzer scale and give it a whirl.  It might be to their liking or necessary for others.  I have no access now to this level of measurement and wish I did.

    I am not following or commenting on the forum like I did when I was in bangkok.  I have found a few gems as I return to it lately.  I don't miss the bickering.

14 hours ago, robblok said:

I think a tape measure is best.. and clothing is great for measuring too. I recently had a real pleasant suprise. Last year I gained weight because i slept bad (still not going well) and i started eating crap food again. In Januari I had enough and now I am leaner then ever. I now wear clothes that when at my leanest I had an extra hole made in the belt. Its at a point that i again need an extra hole to keep it from falling off. However my weight is at a higher level then the last lean period. Clear sign i gained muscle.

 

Scales that show fat are good for 85% of the population but not for people like me and others. A friend of mine also has scales that show fat he lost weight but fat stayed the same according to the scales. While the mirror told him an other story. Those scales don't really measure your fat they just look up a value in a table for the average Joe and then say something. I lost 8 kg and fat percentage stayed the same (on the scales) while abs are popping out jeans are fitting better then ever. For athletes scales like that are not useful.

 

I now rely mainly on a combination of mirror.. tape measure and still scales (i am a numbers guy). They now offer a fat measuring dexa scan in Thailand. for around 7000bt. I would have loved to have done that this January. But as i near single digit fat percentage its not worth it. Maybe when i feel I am done to record it so I know where to go if I ever get lost again.

 

But like you said measuring progress is real important to keep motivated. I hate plateau's when nothing is happening or at least nothing measurable. I have learned one thing this time and that is that adding cardio to my strength training helps me break plateau's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The better scales do not use look up tables anymore.  Here is how they work:

     "such scales work with the help of sensors underneath your feet that use bioelectrical impedance. When you step on the scale, a small electrical current runs up through your leg and across your pelvis, measuring the amount of resistance from body fat."

      The big ones in some health clubs have additional hand sensors measuring the upper body.  AGAIN, no tables.  They are tested against DEXA scans and produce the same results 99.9% of the time now.  The DEXA is considered the medical gold standard for body fat measurement at this time.  

       The truly bad news is that many of us myself included have internal fat wrapped around heart and lungs.  Taking off weight is possible but it is a slow steady process to get this internal weight  which is a harder more dangerous fat to dissolve.  Doctors now refer to this problem as people being TOFI (thin on the outside, fat on the inside).   Since most doctors won't invest in a good 2 or 3 thousand US dollar scale for the office to measure and map body fat like the Tanita Body Composition Scale they just measure you like a sack of potatoes.  And they find out about the internal fat from the autopsy after your stroke or heart attack kills you.  This seems to account for people that die from these two killers that are in the normal weight and BMI category from medical measurements.  Before discovering this doctors just did the shoulder shrug and no one knows why speech.  

        I showed my doctor a print out from a Tanita Body Composition scale and he was amazed.  Said it would be helpful for the clinic and he thought they should order one.  A year later he is still doing the sack of potatoes scale.  They got new digital sack of potato scales that use wifi to fill in his medical charts on his ipad instantly.  Faster results that are not any better at all!  I haven't heard of any more talk of getting decent scales for the clinic.   

        Lastly, I have seen a few body builders get very vexed by the new more accurate body fat scales because the gain/loose cycles they used for muscle gain have packed fat around the body organs and their caliper measurements can't account for that.  The digital body map will show it to them.  Other than being angry and in denial I haven't heard any of them talk about a different strategy for their exercise and diet programs. 

        For me to get a decent body fat rating from this scale, I had to return to my weight from my early 30's along with doing the most rigorous workout program I could sustain with the help of a daily trainer, I  am now 62.  It was difficult but rewarding to have this extra measurement to help me.  I don't have any access to such a tool now.  I miss it.  It took several years for me to get a 19% body fat rating.  My body was slowly changing internally even tho.' all normal measurements were giving no new news!  The early body fat ratings were in the 30's even tho.' I looked and felt great and other measurements showed tremendous progress. 

        I have not read the product manuals for the smaller body fat scales available at amazon but don't think any of them use 'look-up tables' anymore.

11 hours ago, robblok said:

You have no clue what his body composition is.. BMI is outdated. I am 180cm at 92.5 kg with visible abs (low bodyfat). So I might be overweight but its not fat all muscle. BMI is outdated especially for people who exercise a lot.

    BMI is a good measure point for about 85% of the population.  It should be included with as many other measurements as are available to you.  A good scale that does body

fat muscle composition etc.  A tape measurement for the waist and hips and chest and biceps and quads and calves.  Record your clothes sizes!  The more the merrier!  It helps to see progress and single measurements don't help you realize that steady change is coming in a diet or exercise program.

Another article on inflammation as cause of weight gain.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/inflammations-immune-system-obesity-microbiome/595384/

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/08/counting-calories-to-stay-fit-theres-a-trillion-little-problems-with-that/

I have been very sick lately and my doctor has me on a antibiotic maintenance plan and have picked up 8 kilos.  This article explains why.  I should be able to leave this plan in about 6 more weeks.  It will take some time to get the weight back off my body.  

On 8/7/2019 at 6:24 AM, xylophone said:

 

There seems to be a lot of info out there with regards to psyllium husks etc, this especially for people who suffer from constipation like yours truly.

 

I went to see Professor A here at the hospital and took a long all of the "fibres" (both soluble and insoluble) that I had been trying to ease my constipation and these things included: – psyllium husks, Metamucil, apple fibre, oat bran, glucomannan (konjac root), Fibily (from Watsons) and a few others.

 

He suggested that I needed to drink more water and I did explain that my total water capacity was usually around 2 L plus a day and I didn't do much exercise, so I wasn't really sweating it out, and even when I did take the fibre, I ensured that I took it with plenty of water.

 

What he did say was that I was to steer away from any of the fibre products that turned into a sort of gel when water was added, and that includes many of those above I have mentioned.

 

By luck I happened upon a website specifically dealing with constipation and the causes thereof and one which caused me a great deal of joy was one which dealt with those folk, like me, who have a very slow digestive system – – called slow motility syndrome, and no matter how much fibre I take, it does nothing more than move very, very slowly through my system and even though I take a lot of water with it, it tends to have the effect of – – yes, constipation.

 

No amount of water helps it to move through my system any faster than my system will process it, so I'm pretty well stuck.

 

Getting onto the diet/vegetarian aspect of this thread, I don't eat much in the way of meat and if I do, it is usually chicken, with perhaps a little bit of ground pork when I make a Thai meal.

 

Pasta is a favourite as are my home-made pizzas with a very thin crust and laden with such things as tomatoes, onions or chopped leek, olives, artichoke hearts and occasionally chopped avocado, accompanied by a side salad.

 

Because I drink red wine, I do take a multivitamin and I suppose I am relatively healthy for a 72-year-old and now that I have conquered my constipation problem I am feeling better than ever – – – and the secret is not fibre per se, but drinking one large glassful of prune juice every morning and it is the natural sorbitol in the prune juice which seems to do the trick.

 

The object of this post was to make people aware that there are those folk out there who will not respond favourably to all sorts of wonderful "fibre solutions".

   I found I needed both high fiber and BULK for constipation.  The powder in liquid stir-ins did nothing and neither did any of the pills.  I use old-fashioned Post Cereal Original All-bran.  My granny ate a small cup of it everyday at breakfast and lived to be 94!  Most likely the grocery stores catering to the ex-pats will have a few boxes.  Give it a try for 3 or 4 days.  You will be amazed.

    I am not all the decided and do switch back and forth on many different diets.  I am concerned more with the health aspects of a diet than anything else.  I will say that vegan and vegetarian food in Thailand was a helluva a lot better than the crapola we get here in the USA.

14 hours ago, sirineou said:

All of the above could be easily gotted from other sources without the fructose.

 

      Thanks for posting that.  Very interesting information and some clues for me as to why I have high uric acid and some fatty liver deposits!  Will bring home a grocery bag of veggies this week not a grocery bag of fruit.

On 8/2/2019 at 3:09 AM, JimmyJ said:

Suggestion for the posters who believe that vegan food is not tasty and doesn't have variety:

 

If in Bangkok, have a meal at May Veggie Home:

8/3 Sukhumvit Soi 16 (at Asoke Sukhumvit intersection, Ratchadapisek Roak Klong Toei), Bangkok, Thailand, 10110

 

In Chiang Mai, try Vegan Heaven:

44/6 Loi Kroh Rd , Chiang Mai, Thailand, 50100

or Vegan Heaven 2:

Or I was about to also suggest Vegan Heaven 2, but just read on HappyCow.net:

"Second branch of Vegan Heaven, changed name in June 2019 and became a fully vegan pizzeria."

Haven't tried it's new incarnation, but looking forward to it and expect it to be delicious.

27/2 Moon Muang, Soi 9, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 50300

 

The owner has another CM restaurant, I believe her 1st, this one vegetarian - Taste from Heaven. Haven't yet gotten there.

 

 

These are only 2 restaurants. There are tons of others.

( I dined at many in CM, but the only one I ate at in Bangkok was May's. Several times).

Happycow.net lists vegetarian and vegan restaurants with reader reviews.

The free version of the phone app gives a max of the last 3 (or maybe it's 5) reviews of each restaurant.

The pay app gives access to all the reviews. (The only phone app I've ever paid for).

    There are two excellent vegetarian food booths at the MBK food court.  I had the vegetarian dishes from one of the indian vendors also.  This food is good tasting and interesting and something we don't get in the states at all.  They do lots of veggies and meat substitutes made of mushroom and soy.  When I ate there I didn't miss my meat portions at all.  I did eat heaping amounts of it because I was working out and needed more calories.  My body really liked it.  

     I am back in the US and can't find food like this at all.

     Ate at May Veggie which had vegan ice cream and desserts.  That is something you don't see at most veg places.

    I did a vegetarian two week diet a few years ago.  My doctor was insisting on using cholesterol lowering drugs.  I had read up on the dangers of these drugs and wanted nothing to do with it.  I told him we would discuss it at our next meeting.  Two weeks before the meeting I went vegetarian.  BTW!  That is different than vegan.  I did include eggs and some dairy in my diet.  I found the new processed soy chicken patties really good no feeling of deprivation at all from eating them on sandwich bread.  I also found vegetarian meatballs made from grain and soy quite nice.  Today they have huge variety in vegetarian meats with no animal products inside.

    I had my blood test for the next meeting with the doctor and he looked into his computer screen and said,"I have never seen such results.  I can't believe how well the statin drugs are working for you.  Truthfully this is  amazing."  

    I reminded him that we agreed to no statin drug and I had used my own methods.  I described my diet.  He turned his back to me.  He searched his computer screen in vain looking for his statin prescription then he announced the test was a fluke.  There was no known way to lower cholesterol by eating methods.  He wanted to give a prescription immediately and have it filled at his office.  (must be a big profit center for him)

    He is no longer my doctor.

    I am not doing vegetarian right now but think I probably should again before fall.  I am in the states now and those long dark winters inside pack the weight on you.  A few weeks of a vegetarian diet cleans up lots of fat on the body.   Besides lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure a vegetarian diet will clean up fatty liver deposits.  

The pain is aggravated by the rapid inflation in prices the last few years.  So not only less thai baht for your exchange but higher prices everywhere.  Not really paradise anymore.

2 hours ago, bimmerbob said:

We are evolving into a cashless society,; why insist upon 20k baht cash being carried by tourists?

   We are evolving into a paperless society.  Many airlines just send e-tickets now and most payments are done by electronic transaction.  How much longer can the thai immigration request cash and mounds of paper in such a world?

2 hours ago, rexall said:

That is the next step.  Not necessarily ankle bracelets, but some kind of GPS monitoring device is the logical outcome if the screws keep tightening.

    If you dig thru the archives they did propose just that a few years back.  Along with tagging you at the airport like an animal in a national geographic study.  ????????