Do you lose weight when living in Thailand?

[tryasimight]

12 hours ago, npboy99 said:

When I moved to Thailand I found a condo with a small gym and began working out. The changes in body composition over time encouraged me to start being more selective about the foods I was eating. Over the period of about a year I lost almost 25kg and got my body fat level around 10%. I'm 53 years old now, still in SE Asia and have retained most of the weight loss for the past 5 years.

 

I think it would be possible to do this anywhere in the world, but the close proximity of a simple gym, reasonable food (beware there is a tonne of sugar in most Thai cooking), lots of sun and time by the pool, all helped me to achieve the result. 

 Lots of sun will help you lose weight especially when the melanoma mestastises. 

[Jip99]

2 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

 Lots of sun will help you lose weight especially when the melanoma mestastises. 

 

 

What a cheerful bugger  you are !!

[tryasimight]

8 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Nothing wrong with social drinking, but IMO, drinking alcohol every day means there is a drinking problem.

Why? 

[tryasimight]

7 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

What a cheerful bugger  you are !!

Sadly so many of the bald headed brethren forget they are a white man in a dark man's country. I wear a silly looking cowboy hat.... 13 year melanoma survivor..... So far

[tryasimight]

8 hours ago, Media1 said:

Humidity plays a big part. Hydration cooler conditions allows weight increase easier

Obviously you've never been to northern Australia.  It's ALL about diet. Calories in and calories out.  More in than out..... Weight gain .  The opposite and weight is lost

 Weather has no bearing whatsoever except perhaps making people lazier and thus contributing to the calorie imbalance. 

Edited July 17, 2018 by tryasimight

[NoshowJones]

8 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

Why? 

It is just my opinion.

[tryasimight]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

That's still big, at nearly 10% overweight.

 

How tall is he?  If he is 200cm he is probably quite skinny. 

[tryasimight]

1 minute ago, possum1931 said:

It is just my opinion.

Fair enough.... That's what a forum is for.  

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

How tall is he?  If he is 200cm he is probably quite skinny. 

6' people tell you their height in the first sentence (along with if they're Vegans).

Only shorties leave you guessing.

[tryasimight]

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

6' people tell you their height in the first sentence (along with if they're Vegans).

Only shorties leave you guessing.

Oops...... Didn't see that..... Should have gone to specsavers 

[poanoi]

for me, its inverse proportional to

how much protein i can get my hands on,

i gained an incredible amount of fat in cambodia

since they didnt sell protein there,

so i resorted to feed on chocolate, ice cream & cookies.

3 stinking years of protein deficit

before i finally turned 50 and could get the hell outa there

Edited July 17, 2018 by poanoi

[55Jay]

Yup, same when I go back to US, except for this last time, I didn't hit the Mexican food and beer as much. I got heavier but didn't blow up like a balloon and get the face fat/double chin going like before.    When we get back to Thailand, without much effort, usually takes about 2 months to slim down.

 

Little more than a month ago, cut out the bar stool commando beer drinking lifestyle here. Try not to eat after 1800 and began exercising for an hour a day or every other day.  Those three things and getting the Mrs to be more mindful of portion sizes, seems to be effective in trimming down, toning up and generally feeling lighter and "with it", compared to my previous sedentary, beer swilling life.

[Lake Palmer]

just count calories to make it under 2000 a day and the weight should drop off

7eleven chicken breasts are about 100 calories, large beer 300 calories

so 5 breasts spread throughout the day + 5 beers = 2000

hope that helps

[totally thaied up]

I take medications that gain massive amounts of weight and started these drugs five years ago. I went from 71kg to 107kg in one year. I was stable and still alive, and that's a good start but the weight gain was so painful. Once I stabilized at 107kg, I started the hard game of taking it off. When on drugs like Epilim, Lithium, Stresam, and Risperidone, it is a very hard task. All fat drugs but they keep me sane and alive. At that time, it was all that mattered. I was on Lithium for around 30 years, but my condition changed and more drugs needed to be used. Lithium never really gained me weight but when paired with Epilim, the weight piled on really fast. 

 

I am now down to 93kg and have a target weight of 82kg. This has taken two years to achieve. I just don't eat. I have been now on a fasting diet for a long time. Eat once every 20 hours a normal meal and drink lots of water. Since I can spend a great deal of time in bed sick, I try to walk for an hour or so a day. I have just bought a decent treadmill and put it next to my bed. 

 

The foods I eat are very basic (fish, meat, salads, and veggies) and no more than 1500 calories a day. I was not on large amounts of medication when I lived in Thailand before this advent, so I did not gain weight. Being active at that stage of my life and just eating a good breakfast and a meal at 4 pm and nothing else after until breakfast in the morning, kept the weight off. 

 

I am a firm believer or IMF (intermediate fasting) and have been for most of my life. My parents are 80 and 78, and both have fast for most of their lives. They are so fit and have very few medical problems, and Dad has the basic undertone of a six pack at 80. They eat at 12 noon every day, have a small breakfast at 5 am and don't eat at night anything but a piece of fruit. They have done this, as long as I can remember. The meal at 12 noon would be around 2000 calories, so they are not starving themselves, and it is always, once again fish, veggies, salads and meats like lamb or rib fillet every second day.  

 

I have friends who drink like fish here and never gain weight but for a few of them, once they reached 70 and kept the drinking up; they suddenly got very fat. I had two uncles who were extremely thin and drank heavily, and once they hit the 70 mark; they just got very obese, very sudden and then major medical problems set in. I think I saw a lot more fattish farangs over in the Philippines than here when I lived there. More likely the food (which is terrible compared to Thailand) and much cheaper beer.

Edited July 17, 2018 by totally thaied up
spelling and tidying up

[laislica]

16 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

I take medications that gain massive amounts of weight and started these drugs five years ago. I went from 71kg to 107kg in one year. I was stable and still alive, and that's a good start but the weight gain was so painful. Once I stabilized at 107kg, I started the hard game of taking it off. When on drugs like Epilim, Lithium, Stresam, and Risperidone, it is a very hard task. All fat drugs but they keep me sane and alive. At that time, it was all that mattered. I was on Lithium for around 30 years, but my condition changed and more drugs needed to be used. Lithium never really gained me weight but when paired with Epilim, the weight piled on really fast. 

 

I am now down to 93kg and have a target weight of 82kg. This has taken two years to achieve. I just don't eat. I have been now on a fasting diet for a long time. Eat once every 20 hours a normal meal and drink lots of water. Since I can spend a great deal of time in bed sick, I try to walk for an hour or so a day. I have just bought a decent treadmill and put it next to my bed. 

 

The foods I eat are very basic (fish, meat, salads, and veggies) and no more than 1500 calories a day. I was not on large amounts of medication when I lived in Thailand before this advent, so I did not gain weight. Being active at that stage of my life and just eating a good breakfast and a meal at 4 pm and nothing else after until breakfast in the morning, kept the weight off. 

 

I am a firm believer or IMF (intermediate fasting) and have been for most of my life. My parents are 80 and 78, and both have fast for most of their lives. They are so fit and have very few medical problems, and Dad has the basic undertone of a six pack at 80. They eat at 12 noon every day, have a small breakfast at 5 am and don't eat at night anything but a piece of fruit. They have done this, as long as I can remember. The meal at 12 noon would be around 2000 calories, so they are not starving themselves, and it is always, once again fish, veggies, salads and meats like lamb or rib fillet every second day.  

 

I have friends who drink like fish here and never gain weight but for a few of them, once they reached 70 and kept the drinking up; they suddenly got very fat. I had two uncles who were extremely thin and drank heavily, and once they hit the 70 mark; they just got very obese, very sudden and then major medical problems set in. I think I saw a lot more fattish farangs over in the Philippines than here when I lived there. More likely the food (which is terrible compared to Thailand) and much cheaper beer. 

 

Sorry to hear your story, Meds can be both good and bad and when bad, they obscure everything and stuff things up so that you body no longer responds as it used to.

A good friend of mine had meds that actually made him depressed.

Recently, he moved to another Dr and had his meds changed.

In just a week he is much more like the guy he used to be.

Can your meds be tweeked in the hope that the weight can be losed?

 

Great that you are doing your best to take control of things.

 

Only prob I can think of with a constant and reduced calorie intake is that your metabolic rate may turn down.

Thus making it even harder to control your weight.

 

Because of the effects of your meds, it must be difficult to find a MD who actually understands nutrition to the point that they can make a diet for you and exercise program that is sustainable in the long term and with the goal of returning you to your healthy weight and yet continue to gain the benefits from the meds.

 

Thanks for sharing and showing that someone in your awful situation can still keep control and not simply fall into the lazy trap.

 

Well done M8, good luck and keep it up.

[totally thaied up]

18 minutes ago, laislica said:

Can your meds be tweeked in the hope that the weight can be losed?

Cannot be changed much more. Took a lot of work to get them to work as they have now and I dare not change.

 

19 minutes ago, laislica said:

Only prob I can think of with a constant and reduced calorie intake is that your metabolic rate may turn down.

Thus making it even harder to control your weight.

Fasting like this will not affect your metabolic rate. Had some pretty fancy doctors go into depth over that issue with me and they told me in most cases, it can turn up a notch in fact if you are eating right. It all depends on timing. It is awfully complicated and we have two camps on this at the moment but the doctors I have seen in Australia, seem to know what they are doing.

 

22 minutes ago, laislica said:

Because of the effects of your meds, it must be difficult to find a MD who actually understands nutrition to the point that they can make a diet for you and exercise program that is sustainable in the long term and with the goal of returning you to your healthy weight and yet continue to gain the benefits from the meds.

Almost impossible to find in Thailand but I have a good network in Australia that spoke to my current doctors here via email over a long period and they now seem to be on the same page. It took some time, but it has been workable.

 

24 minutes ago, laislica said:

Thanks for sharing and showing that someone in your awful situation can still keep control and not simply fall into the lazy trap.

 

Well done M8, good luck and keep it up.

Thank you very much for the encouraging words. 

[Gulfsailor]

Within 3 to 4 weeks in farangistan I gain around 8% body weight. I lose it again in 6 to 8 weeks when back in Thailand. Reason is simple; I eat once or twice a day in Thailand and 3 or 4 times a day in Europe, just to stay warm. 

[Ks45672]

11 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Nothing wrong with social drinking, but IMO, drinking alcohol every day means there is a drinking problem.

I think I have the opposite problem 

When I'm drinking  I don't bother to eat and have no appetite 

 

When I make an effort to get fitness back I stop drinking and start eating and training seriously 

 

Rince, repeat lol

[laislica]

1 hour ago, totally thaied up said:

Cannot be changed much more. Took a lot of work to get them to work as they have now and I dare not change.

 

Fasting like this will not affect your metabolic rate. Had some pretty fancy doctors go into depth over that issue with me and they told me in most cases, it can turn up a notch in fact if you are eating right. It all depends on timing. It is awfully complicated and we have two camps on this at the moment but the doctors I have seen in Australia, seem to know what they are doing.

 

Almost impossible to find in Thailand but I have a good network in Australia that spoke to my current doctors here via email over a long period and they now seem to be on the same page. It took some time, but it has been workable.

 

Thank you very much for the encouraging words. 

 

Really great to hear that you have a good set of medical supportors that know what they are doing, so really hard to find.

Having said that Aus might be the best place to find em!

 

There are so many ""urban Myths" out there.

e.g., a recent study showed that a group of strict Keto eaters and a group that also included carbs  did a same calories/day controlled diet. At the end, the group with the carbs lost most body weight!.

Thus: we need carbs.....

 

I'm an old geezer, 76, now weighing in at 70Kg or less.

Now, more or less off all meds.

 

It's not easy to stay this way, especially since there are 2 things I can't resist.

Pain and temptation !   LOL

 

Good on you M8, stay strong and on top!!!

x

 

 

 

 

I

[fathersicksendmoney]

Carbs and sugar in every <deleted> thing (rice) is the culprit here. I dont know how the thais stay so skinny when rice and sugar is in every meal?

I went atkins and cooked at home every meal and hit the GYM hard  and lost 20kg so fast I thought there might have been a health issue like cancer. once I hit target I got back on the beer and put most of it back on as the body burns carbs and calories from alcohol first . I kept the Atkins diet as I love it but the beer won in the end

 

Started Atkins again yesterday this time Im gonna make it last ?

[laislica]

56 minutes ago, fathersicksendmoney said:

Carbs and sugar in every <deleted> thing (rice) is the culprit here. I dont know how the thais stay so skinny when rice and sugar is in every meal?

I went atkins and cooked at home every meal and hit the GYM hard  and lost 20kg so fast I thought there might have been a health issue like cancer. once I hit target I got back on the beer and put most of it back on as the body burns carbs and calories from alcohol first . I kept the Atkins diet as I love it but the beer won in the end

 

Started Atkins again yesterday this time Im gonna make it last ?

Hee hee.

What you did was a short time lifestyle change and you saw the benefits.

Then another life style change - got un fit again.

 

Answer, go back and make it a life style change and keep it going.

 

Stop the Yo Yo!!!!

 

Best of luck, I'm sure you can do it!!!

 

[Damrongsak]

5 hours ago, Lake Palmer said:

...  so 5 breasts spread throughout the day + 5 beers = 2000 ...

I'll have a 6-pack and a pair of breasts.  Close together, not spread, please.

[davidlkelley]

I go there for 3 weeks at a time and I fine that I loose between 5 to 10 lbs. when I return to the US. Like one of the comments said, I do a lot more walking and other activity's while there. When I eat the street food, I try not to eat fried foods and eat small amounts at a time. But I do gain back the weight when I return back to Texas.  

[cornishcarlos]

9 minutes ago, davidlkelley said:

But I do gain back the weight when I return back to Texas.

 

How does that happen !!!

 

 

[NoshowJones]

8 hours ago, Ks45672 said:

I think I have the opposite problem 

When I'm drinking  I don't bother to eat and have no appetite 

 

When I make an effort to get fitness back I stop drinking and start eating and training seriously 

 

Rince, repeat lol

I don't know about you, but almost everyone I have known both here and in the UK who have serious drinking problems eat very little, though there is one guy I know right now who does drink every day and also has a good appetite, but is very overweight, and lost one of his legs through diabetes.

[KhunAussie52]

20 hours ago, BritManToo said:

That's still big, at nearly 10% overweight..............................rubbish, have been assessed by my doctor in Australia!!!!

 

 

 

[Ks45672]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

I don't know about you, but almost everyone I have known both here and in the UK who have serious drinking problems eat very little, though there is one guy I know right now who does drink every day and also has a good appetite, but is very overweight, and lost one of his legs through diabetes.

Im more of a binje drinker than an alcoholic tbh

I can decide not to drink for weeks or months but when I do drink I drink heavy

 

(I know, its not optimal lol) 

[NoshowJones]

36 minutes ago, Ks45672 said:

Im more of a binje drinker than an alcoholic tbh

I can decide not to drink for weeks or months but when I do drink I drink heavy

 

(I know, its not optimal lol) 

I am no expert on this, but IMO, if you are not an alcoholic now, I do not think you have a drink

problem, but again IMO, there is no excuse for anyone being drunk, if that's what happens when you drink heavy.

[ivor bigun]

Once i cut down on rice i found i lost weight 12kg .plus i eat far more fruit veg and nuts here.my wife loves running and likes to eat healthy.so i guess it has helped me loads.but i dont run .just walk more.

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[MyFriend You]

I was a porker after working in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan for 4 years - spent 5 months in Thailand on a diet of Kai Dow, Khao Muen Kai twice  a day  (soft boiled eggs, steamed chicken & rice, 2 large Changs at night, and exercise/swimming............lost 24kgs  -  went back to work, and gained most of it it back again  -  no problem, I am due to stop working in a month, so I will lose it again  -  no will power when I 'See Food, I eat it'..............will power, where does it come from, can we buy it???  I'm 68, 94kgs 170 cent meters.  Don't tell me to stop drinking beer  -  I like the taste, I don't drink to get drunk.  Haven;t been drunk since 1995.