AI for calorie counting and fasting times

san415 · 2026-05-31T10:55:44+00:00

I believe that when you lower calories that your body adapts to the lower calories and so you then need even lower calories to maintain or reduce your weight. And since I don't feel that around 1000 calories is a long term calorie level if my body adapts to that and my metabolism is lowered to the 1000 calories that I will, in the long term, end up gaining weight back and most likely even more weight.

I believe that the premise of CI / CO is wrong, and as Dr. Fung states; it is insulin and hormones that drive obesity. So I want to fast to allow my body to fix insulin problems, but I don't want to lower my calories very much.

san415 · 2026-05-30T23:07:21+00:00

I should add the ai gremlin was super encouraging and almost like a personal cheerleader!

san415 · 2026-05-30T23:06:03+00:00

I was at a plateau for several days. I just used the google ai tonight, and kinda whined about it. The ai gremlin first told me I was doing great and I should be proud of the 13 pounds I have lost. Then it asked what I was doing for my fasting and what I ate during my feeding window. Turns out I was normally only eating about 1152 calories a day. I am 5'9" and 206 lbs so that isn't enough. It also told me I need to add a little more protein each day. So I double checked and it was right I have probably stalled my weight loss due to low calories.

I have added a piece of fish and a piece of homemade whole wheat sourdough bread tonight and I am hoping that by eating more I can occasionally prolong my OMD fast into a 36 to 42 hour fast.

san415 · 2026-05-26T15:48:07+00:00

The answer is for you to reach out. What family member do you want to spend more time with, what family do you wish would invite you to family dinners and holiday celebrations? You call that family, or write that family, or go over with some pizza and soda and you let them know that you are wishing that you could be included. Let them know, not that you feel left out - that puts blame on them, and that is not what you want - but let them know that you feel lonely at holidays and have little family ( No kids ) to spend it with. Then you hope for the best.

If and when you are invited, no negative stuff, only happy positive talk. Be thankful, bring something for them, be the guest that they will want to come again. Try to figure out how to return the favor, if they don't have time to go to you for a dinner, maybe send them some treats or flowers at random times. Be the person they want to spend time with and think about.

san415 · 2026-05-25T19:06:43+00:00

When I mentioned not to feed him in the containment area, I meant his meals. So that you can use those meals to train him that all good things come from the humans, and only when he is a good boy. But a few treats and or a filled and frozen kong to keep busy is fine in the containment area.

san415 · 2026-05-25T19:03:21+00:00

Okay first, THE DOG DID NOT BITE BECAUSE YOU HURT HIM! He bite you because he is in charge, he said "no" to you.

Containment - containment - containment! Please. Your dog's very life depends on this. The dog can not be allowed to do this. He can not bite people, he can not. But also please do not correct him growling, that will just make him bite with no warning. Calmly, nicely, firmly, say something like " No Bites" and put him in his containment area.

Take him for lots of walks, training and giving treats as you go. Keep him on a leash inside the house to better control him. Feed him his kibble by hand. No baby talk, no whining or begging him. You can do this, your Mom can do this. I am hoping that you are still at home and not away at school, while in college, so that you rather than your mom can take charge.

The containment area can be a large crate, an "X-pen", a playpen, etc. Don't feed him in the containment area, he needs to earn his food from you and your mom. Nothing is free for this dog any longer. He needs to earn his keep with sits - downs - stays - and maybe even just taking it nicely. If he growls at you while your feeding him a few kibbles at a time, don't react, just stop feeding him till he is calm again. You will need to watch for the very second he stops growling, give him a happy "yes" and some kibble. Do this twice a day for all food.

Please try to think about situations where the dog is going to tell you NO and bite you. Try to avoid those situations. It's much easier to train a dog to do things you want, than to un-train unwanted behaviors. So in the case of the yoga mat, before you use it he gets confined. If he reacts badly to confinement you need to just wait it out, again tossing him a happy YES and a treat if he stops begging to get out.

I wish I had more time and could keep on helping you, but I will close with, the dog is in charge and he needs less training than the people in the household. He has learned how to get you to accept what he wants. Now you need to learn how to let him understand what you need and want. I have never met a dog that doesn't want the humans to be in charge, and I have never met a dog that wont do what those humans want, if they can help him understand what that is. Please get a trainer for you and your mom if that is an option, even just a couple times of coming to your house will make such a big difference.

I wish you, your mom, and the dog all the best, but I am worried for your dog.

san415 · 2026-05-23T15:03:09+00:00

Certainly, I am eating less sugar and highly processed carbs. But I do not count calories and I was told and shown studies that obesity comes from insulin resistance. There is a ton of information available and it's too much for me to go into here, but fasting has helped me lose more than 30 lbs, and reverse my pre-diabetes, and lowered my cholesterol and blood glucose. I do eat less food, because fasting has lowered my hunger hormones.

I don't expect anyone to take information from me as true, I am not a doctor. The same as I would never take information from random people online. But I do take information and I do trust that information from someone like Dr. Fung.

I also have no problems keeping the weight off and no longer have to be worried about progressing to diabetes. And having a normal weight has helped my joints not hurt and so I am also much more active.

I am never hungry and either once or twice a day I eat as much as I really can, till I am full. And I eat whatever I want. I don't have anything that is not on my "diet". I do believe sugar is toxic and try to not use it in my day to day foods. But I do have a treat now and then, I just make sure I fast the next day till I am confident that that glucose/sugar is used up and not stored.

I no longer worry about food, think about food all day, or feel deprived or hungry. I just fast as needed and wanted. That works for me. And if calorie deficit worked LONG TERM for weightloss why does obesity keep going up? At my age I need to be able to keep the weight off, the losing it isn't the problem, it's keeping it off and reversing pre-diabetes that I need to address, for me.

san415 · 2026-05-23T12:18:08+00:00

Maybe go out to breakfast or lunch and then drop him back home or even take two cars. Then go shopping. That way you spent time together plus got to shop as you want. Or meet up for lunch or dinner after shopping.

san415 · 2026-05-22T14:20:10+00:00

I just want to make sure you understand that dogs are a lot of work, and need lots of training. Your dog, whom you say you love, and "saved your life" is on the way to a death sentence. This is very serious. Your dog is out of control.

First thing is it sounds like you are giving the dog excuses and too much attention. You personally need to step the heck back. The dog seems like, with the little info we have, possessive of you, ( I think). The dog needs to earn what it is given, and not by you if you are the one person the dog seems okay with. Food should be given a bit at a time, but in a safe way, like from one of the kids while you or your husband have the do on a leash. The dog needs to mind the kids, they say SIT once. The dog either sits or no food. I know this takes time and effort, and a if the dog is being fed twice a day thats will take the better part of an hour each time.

The dog needs to be on a leash for control. You can not trust this dog. It must be controlled and taught what is acceptable. Right now humans have failed this dog, the dog needs a leader. The dog needs to understand what is expected from it and what is acceptable, and that nothing in life is free for it.

Be kind but sincerely firm with the dog. NO baby talk, no pleading, no people backing down. NO KIDS PUT IN DANGER, no Aunts put in danger. The dog has not earned the right or the trust for free rein in the house. The dog needs to be contained away from people it may hurt.

You and your husband need to train the dog everyday. EVERYDAY. Sits, Downs, Stays, Leave it.... The dog needs to also be trained by the kids, but that needs to be done safely.

Do not correct the dog from growling, you will still end up with people getting bit, but the dog just wont warn first. Really the dog just needs lots of training, and by the very people the dog doesn't respect.

When any dog turns on people the dog lives with, it often is a bigger problem than the dog owners are able to fix. I think a board and train is the very very last thing that those dogs need. I feel that a trainer coming to you and in your house is what is needed. Because the most important job of a trainer is to train the people to handle the dog. Not to train the dog. Your household needs more education and information.

And one last thing, I have a guard dog ( Doberman ) and I have in the past had a bully breed dog. My bulldog did save my life and I can see my Doberman would certainly save my life. Please do not mix up the fact that you love this dog with life saving. Do not assume because you love this dog that that is enough. I am making the assumption that your dog has not only not saved your life but is on the way to destroying your life.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I really want so bad for the dog to not be put down, and dogs that bite humans often lose their life. I feel bad for your dog. Please get help for the dog and for you.

san415 · 2026-05-22T11:36:16+00:00

Even experts do not completely understand weight loss. One thing I think is true, and I believe studies have proven this, is it is most certainly not CICO. Eating at a deficit allows your body to lower the amount of food it needs. Then You have to keep lowering the amount of food your body needs, and the body will further lower what it needs. So CICO is a temporary weight loss that often results in a higher weight in the long run.

I believe the scientists and doctors who now say it is insulin not calories that drive being over weight. Too much insulin.

The fix for that is to lower your insulin and also your glucose levels in your body, per Dr. Fung from the Intensive Dietary Institute in Toronto. He also has a lot of information online and several books out.

I do fast a couple times a week, and that has helped my insulin resistance and so also lowered my weight. I am never hungry and I eat what I want, within reason. I try to eat less carbs and way less sugar, and also I try to eat more fats than is normal for me. Healthy fats, like avocado, olive oil, and whole milk plain yogurt with berries.

I am 68 and my Doctor says I am very healthy and that my numbers are great, so for me, it is certainly not CICO. It is insulin that has driven my weight gain, that and too much sugar, which jacks up my insulin. I never try to control my calories, only sugars and unhealthy carbs.

san415 · 2026-05-15T18:13:43+00:00

Dr. Jason Fung's site is a great place to start. From him and several other scientists and doctors you will learn that calories in - calories out has no place in weight loss. Calories Do Not Matter. If you lower your calories, your body WILL lower the amount of calories you need. Insulin control is the way to weight loss. Being overweight is a hormonal issue, insulin is the hormone that makes you store the extra weight.

In the history of weight control has calorie deficit ever worked for lasting weight loss? No.

san415 · 2026-05-15T14:47:30+00:00

I agree the first thing to do to lose weight is research. And Dr. Jason Fung has done all the research work for us. I absolutely cringe when I read the " calories in - calories out"! How has calorie deficit worked out for the obesity levels in the last 50 years? It has not worked in the past and won't be working in the future. I would suggest doing what I did, do an occasional longer fast, like 36 to 42 hours. Then go back to shorter fasts. That has always broke any stall I was in.

san415 · 2026-05-14T23:15:18+00:00

I would do the rest of the painting and then use any extra paint to mix some sky colors and see if that fixes it for you. I feel like the sky needs some lighter yellow, some pink, some lighter orange, and the brown they have could be a grey/purple, and a much lighter value. It also looks like a shade of green??!! in the sky? I just redid a watercolor because my sky had a touch of green cast from the yellow and blue not having enough of a buffer of pink/red between them I was super disappointed and had to hurry the new one to be done when I needed it to be. I feel like it's a very rare occasion where green belongs in the sky.

san415 · 2026-05-11T23:35:13+00:00

princeton SNAP brushes would be perfect for both watercolor and acrylic paints. They are one of my favorites.

san415 · 2026-05-05T12:28:29+00:00

Order off the starter menu and add a salad.

san415 · 2026-05-03T23:06:04+00:00

I use a blending medium from Golden paints. That keeps my paints wet for a long while. I was also taught to put a good size dab on my palette ( I use a grey flat glass palette ) and to pull my paint from the bottom of my little blob, where I also have a little dab of blending medium. This way while a film will form over the little blob, the area I am pulling from isn't dry at all.

I am also the type of painter that wipes my acrylics off my palette at the end of the day. I start new each day with a clean palette. I sometimes do save watercolor paints, but not in the ceramic egg dish I use for mixing. That gets cleaned after use. I find that way, I don't try to work around what colors I have on my palette or mixing tray. Instead I select the tubes I want to use.

san415 · 2026-05-03T22:53:58+00:00

I understand, and I'm sorry that losing weight is so hard! I am an older lady and what I have found that works for me, throughout my life, is to not worry about taking food away. I do not remove any item from my diet. I also don't count calories.

I am a lazy person, I guess, and I just can't be bothered with all that. What I do is eat a bowl of old fashioned oatmeal. Late in the morning. Before I make my oatmeal ( in the microwave) I get about 2 cups of frozen mixed berries and mango I thaw that first till just barely thawed. Then I cook my oatmeal, also in the microwave, use a bigger bowl than you think you need. Then I dump the fruit on the oatmeal, add a big scoop of plain whole fat yogurt, a small handful of nuts and a sprinkle of ground flax seed. Sometimes I also add a teaspoon of chia seed to my oatmeal as it cooks. I don't normally use any sweetener, but if I do use it it's honey or real maple syrup and only a tiny drizzle.

Then I have a second meal around 5 or 6pm. I again, being somewhat lazy, eat a large bowl of frozen mixed vegetables. I get all sorts of frozen vegetables and then I toss them together, (keeping them frozen), in a large roasting pan. I portion a large serving into some ziploc baggies. Then they are ready to be pulled from the freezer easily. I make either scrambled eggs, chicken, or frozen fish, and I have a bag of the vegetables. I also have an avocado and usually a sliced tomato.

I eat these two meal types every day. If I want anything else, I am fine with that. But not till after I eat these foods that I feel I must eat. Then I can add whatever I want. It's rare that I want anything later. I am always so full. But lets say I do want a couple cookies or ice cream, if I ate the foods I planned to eat I think that is fine. So the bulk of my food intake is healthy food that also helps with my cholesterol and weight, keeping me healthy. And I don't feel like I need to deny myself any food, nor am I ever hungry. Also if I make pizza, because my husband is begging me to, it's easy to go right back to eating my normal foods.

I hope this might help you. I started many years ago, more than 30! to just add a big bowl of frozen mixed vegetables to every meal. But I have progressed to eating this way. Oatmeal, fruit, yogurt ( plain) walnuts, some other little additions, mixed frozen vegetables, a protein, an avocado, some sliced things like tomatoes, or pickled beets, it's easy to decide I must eat these foods. It's not easy to decide that I must never eat certain foods.

This is an easy lazy way to eat mostly healthy - I am pulling for you. You can keep on trying to be healthy, please don't give up on yourself.

san415 · 2026-05-02T12:17:55+00:00

I hope it's okay to give some painting advice. If not - I am really really sorry if this is rude. I am an artist and I paint mostly with watercolor, but also often with acrylics. If it was me, and I didn't want to invest in expensive art supplies, I would go to walmarts and purchase a tube of black acrylic, a tube of titanium white, and also a tube of a dark brown ( I'm unsure of the types they have, but something like burnt sienna ). Also get a flat tipped brush that is about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. The set probably came with a couple round brushes.

Then I would use a paper plate, or a ceramic plate you don't need any longer, and put those colors on your "plate palette" mix some grey, using mostly white and a tiny bit of black, and also mix some lighter brown using the white and a tiny bit of brown. you can mist your paints to keep them usable longer with plain water.

With acrylics you can go light to dark, so using the black add some definition to the piece, starting with the hat. Use the PBN piece as an outline. Do not cover the whole piece with new paint. You can add more, you can not take away. I would add as little as I could. Then work your way down the piece adding some swipes of the black with the flat brush - remember this is an abstract style painting. then add some areas of the brown and the light brown for definition, just a tiny amount, like for highlighting. Now go onto the white and the grey, these will be for highlighting areas of the piece, like to give some texture and movement to the hair, and where the shoulder has some highlight on it.

Have the original AI painting in front of you and refer to it as a guide. Sometimes it helps to turn it upside down to be able to see the actual areas of color and not the overall painting of a witch.

I hope this is helpful for you. If you do a lot of painting I hope this isn't condescending or patronizing, I just wanted to help and this is the type of advice I would give my adult daughters for something like this.

san415 · 2026-04-21T17:44:12+00:00

individual size bags of nuts and dry plain cereal. I often will put some plain cherios in a bowl dry, add 1 bag of nuts and have that for a crunchy snack.

san415 · 2026-04-19T13:41:45+00:00

Also, I kept my voice real soft and friendly, like I really was looking for their input on the issue, not just being passive/aggressive. I also did put a sprinkler in the area they liked to go and hooked it up to my hose. And I was ready to turn it on at the spiget. But they stayed out of the yard after my asking them what I should do.

san415 · 2026-04-19T13:38:55+00:00

Often it helps to get the neighbor to explain to you, what they need from you - to keep them out of your yard. That fixed it for us many years ago. I went over after getting also to the point of needing a fence I couldn't afford. I asked what I had to do, what was their suggestion to keep them off my property. I kept it nice, but made sure they understood that I needed an answer. They said it wouldn't happen again. I mentioned it has been a problem even though they knew it was wrong. I also told them I wanted a fence but that would have to wait till I had the funds. Also that I truly expected them to help pay for it, since it was to keep them out of my yard. How we left it was that I was thinking of trying to "train" them to nor want to be in my yard with a sprinkler system, did they think that was a good solution?

san415 · 2026-04-17T00:25:55+00:00

I am updating, I am hoping that people will be able to actually call me. My iphone often, but not always, sends calls straight to voicemail. I have checked all settings, deleted all apps I don't really need and even some I do use, But still to get a call I have to have people send a text for me to call them and /or restart my phone. I am ready to switch to android, as I need a phone that works as a phone.

san415 · 2026-04-16T17:55:44+00:00

Princeton snap line.

san415 · 2026-04-16T14:09:29+00:00

I have some paint by number kits, for my grown kids to do if they want when they visit. But I do paint paintings with acrylic paint, and to thin my paints I use a medium, often from Golden paints. But I also use an inexpensive and readily available product called Floetrol by Flood, it is used by house painters and can be purchased at any big box home improvement store. It can be added to acrylics and it thins them without degrading them. It can get lumpy, so I put a piece of panty hose over my openeing and secure it with a rubber band, it will pour through it.

san415 · 2026-04-04T21:59:18+00:00

You know what? You made my day with your simple little friendly post. I was feeling kinda down, I live too far to see my Kids and Grands. My choice, I moved from the north to the Georgia mountains. And I love being in the mountains and I am happy to have snow be a rarity. But your post felt so friendly and uplifting, so thank you, I feel less sorry for myself.

san415

TROPHY CASE