losing weight?

[enderwiggen]

I myself have been in the process of losing weight and I am down about 40 pounds right now (still 60 more to go until I hit goal weight though-- but I focus on it 5 pounds at a time). The process is simple but you have to think about what you eat. Check your nutrition labels religiously. You need to be eating a low fat, low sugar, low calorie, HIGH fiber diet. But, none of this matters if you don't exercise portion control. You MUST measure everything and change your eating habits. You need to have around 2 portions of whole grain, 6-8 portions of fruit and veggies, 2-3 servings of protein, 1-2 servings of dairy, a multi-vitamin, and exercise.

For exercise I recommend just incorporating it into your daily life. DON'T go to the gym and kill yourself the first time. Start out simple. Park far away from the store. Take the stairs (ALWAYS) and NEVER take the elevator (my apartment is on the 8th floor of a building and I never take the elevator). If it is possible to walk somewhere, then do it. A 15-20 minute walk vs. 3-4 minute car ride is far healthier.

You shouldn't start out with a strict 1,200 calorie diet either. Take a week and write down exactly what you eat. Find out on average how many calories you eat a week. Then cut back about 3500 of your weekly calories. This (combined with moderate exercise) WILL result in weight loss. I GUARANTEE it. This is how I have lost 40 pounds and honestly, it's been easy. It's slow weight loss (1-3 lbs per week), but then again I am going for a total lifestyle change. I'm not trying to get thin for appearance only, but for my health.

It's all about knowing what you are eating, how much you are eating, and doing everything in moderation. The first 10 lbs that will come off will be quick and easy because they are mostly water. Weight loss slows down dramatically after the first 10 pounds. Take it slow, and it is less likely to come back.

 

[1NiceRod]

If you are up for a life style change that puts focus on eating the right foods and engaging in regular exercise then look into "The Abs Diet." It covers most of the good recommendations that have already been given in this thread, as much more.

 

[cdog204]

I've got to speak out against the whole 'eat breakfast or you'll go into starvation mode' jive. That is ridiculous. Human resting metabolism (not exercising or running around) gets set over a period of years. It doesn't vary wildly based on whether or not you eat breakfast. I've argued this with nutritionists who always advocate the breakfast thing and I've been backed by doctors. Bottom line: if you are hungry when you wake up, eat a sensible protein-based breakfast. If you're not hungry, don't eat.

 

[NightFish]

To increase weight/fat loss, start lifting weights, it increases testosterone production which helps your body to build muscle and remove fat from your body.

 

[D_Odipherous Pitts]

I've got to speak out against the whole 'eat breakfast or you'll go into starvation mode' jive. That is ridiculous. Human resting metabolism (not exercising or running around) gets set over a period of years. It doesn't vary wildly based on whether or not you eat breakfast. I've argued this with nutritionists who always advocate the breakfast thing and I've been backed by doctors. Bottom line: if you are hungry when you wake up, eat a sensible protein-based breakfast. If you're not hungry, don't eat.

If you're trying to build or maintain any amount of muscle mass on your body skipping breakfast is the worst thing to do! Your body already has gone 6-8 hours (or more, depending upon when you last ate before you went to bed) and is in a highly catabolic mode trying to repair muscle fibers, etc. during this resting period. If you wait until 4+ hours until you eat you have have gone half a day without proper nutriton!

Your body can store fat and carbs but the only place it can store protein is in the muscles themselves, so if your body wants to repair a muscle (after a workout for example) and you have not fed it protein within a few hours it will have to resort to breaking down your existing muscles to repair the ones which need it! It's robbing Peter to pay Paul!

Now if you don't care about losing any muscle and you just want to lose (not "loose" weight as many wirite...) then go for it, however here is another thing to consider about skipping meals:

The number of meals you have per day can also determine your metabolic rate. Increasing the number of meals you have per day will help speed your resting metabolism and help you burn calories while you are at rest. If you only have 1 to 2 meals per day your body goes into a starvation mode to protect itself. It doesn't know when it's getting its next meal so it will try to preserve the bodyfat it has to protect itself from YOU.

Eating more meals per day will do the opposite. Your body (after a getting used to the increase meals) will begin to burn more calories at rest to hlep it maintain it's current weight. Again, this is a natural protection mode of the body to prevent itself from getting too fat too fast.

When I begin a diet program the first thing I do is increase the number of meals I eat from 3 up to 6 or even 8 or 9 meals per day. This is NOT increasing calorie intake but rather spreading your daily calorie intake betwen a larger amount of meals. Where you might have eaten (for example) 3,000 calories per day between three meals, which equaled 1,000 calories per meal you might now eat 3,000 calories between 8 meals equals 375 calories per meal.

It's sort of a grazing diet, in that you're always eating. Most people have a hard time grasping this concept and can't imagine trying to eat so much in a day, however after trying it for a week or so they find that they then are always hungry which is a sign that their body has accepted this new trend and their metabolism has sped up. Grazing on veggies and such is a good way to consume food which is low in calories but is still the process of "eating". Your body recognizes the eating and digestion process but always doesn't grasp the extent of what you are consuming. The increased food consumption triggers an increase in your metabolism but not necessarily an increase in your calorie intake with these type of low calorie foods. Besides, didn't your mother say for you to eat your veggies?

Besides proper diet (which I strongly believe is responsible for up to 75% of your success for losing bodyfat or gaining muscle) cardio or exercise can also be an essential key. Muscle mass also burns more calories with your body at rest, so the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn (and also more calories required to maintain that muscle mass!).

I hate cardio but realize it is a necessary evil to getting lean and maintaining a lean physique. I have found for myself that HIT type of cardio is very efficient for me when done early in the morning.

I don't do cardio necessarily to burn calories but to help speed up my metabolism which has slowed as I've grown older. I only do 20 minutes in the morning and can feel the effect of it up until near noon each day. My HIT (High Intensity Training) sessions include 45-50 seconds of moderatey high speed cardio on an elipical machine and 10-15 seconds of very fast speed cardio. This equates to 15 minutes of moderate cardio and 5 minutes of VERY intense cardio during the session. No one could maintain the very intesnse session for 5 minutes straight but you can push yourself through 10 to 15 seconds of it! This is done for 20 minutes each morning. Since this is a cardio session and NOT a weight training session I keep the resistance of the machine very low to allow my legs to churn fast during the intense session. Give it a try!

nuff said...

 

[cdog204]

I don't advocate body building. Unless you are really serious about, like MM clearly is as demonstrated in his gallery, it can be quite unhealthy. Without going into a dissertation, the casual body builder (who typically gives it up in the mid 40s) is putting a lot of strain on the heart... even before starting with supplements and steroids.

Grazing doesn't work for me. I work out every day, and I am religious about not eating anything for at least 3 hours before my workout. I get nauseous otherwise.

 

[Liarliar]

I never understood that either.
And it turns out that the idea is false.
A calorie is a calorie is a calorie ... at 10 in the evening, no less than 10 in the morning.

The reason why the later calorie is more likely to be stored as fat is because while you are sleeping, your metabolism slows down. This is the same reason why active people or people who just have fast metabolisms don't store energy as much as someone who doesn't.

 

[D_Odipherous Pitts]

I don't advocate body building. Unless you are really serious about, like MM clearly is as demonstrated in his gallery, it can be quite unhealthy. Without going into a dissertation, the casual body builder (who typically gives it up in the mid 40s) is putting a lot of strain on the heart... even before starting with supplements and steroids.

Grazing doesn't work for me. I work out every day, and I am religious about not eating anything for at least 3 hours before my workout. I get nauseous otherwise.

Whoa guy! Why do you think working out, trying to gain or maintain muscles mass, and eating a well balanced diet is unhealthy? Are you one of those who things everyone who is bigger than you is on steroids? I am in the best shape of my life since I turned 40!

If you're an advocate of skipping breakfast that could be part of your problem.... now I think that is unhealthy! And skipping your Cheerios isn't good for your heart either!

I could never get through an intense workout without eating about an hour before I hit the gym otherwise I wouldn't have the energy to lift much. You can't build drive a big truck very far without some fuel in it!

 

[D_Sir Fitzwilly Wankheimer III]

I don't advocate body building. Unless you are really serious about, like MM clearly is as demonstrated in his gallery, it can be quite unhealthy. Without going into a dissertation, the casual body builder (who typically gives it up in the mid 40s) is putting a lot of strain on the heart... even before starting with supplements and steroids.

Grazing doesn't work for me. I work out every day, and I am religious about not eating anything for at least 3 hours before my workout. I get nauseous otherwise.

dude you have no business comenting on this thread. you have absolutely no clue. I don't even know where to begin.

 

[D_Sir Fitzwilly Wankheimer III]

Ok I know that this has probably been discussed a million times already, but what is the best way to lose weight around the stomach and waist. I'm not really fat, but I have a lot more fat than I would like around my waist, especially my love handles! I hate them! and I would like to get rid of what look like the beginning of man boobs if I get bigger one day, which I want to prevent! What would you guys suggest? I'm 18 and in college by the way, so I wanna get in shape to look good for the ladies and be more confident around my all-men's dorm.

thats the last place you lose fat and the hardest to get rid of and you can't spot reduce. diet is going to be the key. and when I say diet I mean your diet not a diet. it's a lifestyle change. once you stop you'll go right back to where you started. hit the weights, they're more important than cardio. for every lb of muscle you will burn 50 calries a day. for every lb of fat you'll burn 5 calories. cardio is important to keep the heart and lungs healthy but if you really want to tone up hit the weights and hit all your muscles. you'll find most people work on things they're best at. the exercise you that your not good at or hate to do are the ones you need to do.

the bottom line is it's not going to be easy if it were everyone would be in great shape. you have to want it and you have to work for it.

 

[cdog204]

Uhh, the thread was about weight loss, not body building. So...

 

[D_Sir Fitzwilly Wankheimer III]

Uhh, the thread was about weight loss, not body building. So...

first of all only an ass would consider and actualy belive that a rubber belt or suit will help you lose fat. you'll sweat lose water and put it back on in as soon as you take a drink. exercising your body , body building or other wise strengthens you heart. one routine/diet does does not work for just about everyone it's learning process you need to go through to see what works for you. breakfast is extremely important. those are four areas you commented on that you were totally wrong on. please entertain me with more of your wisdom.

 

[cdog204]

Okay: here goes. The OP was inquiring about weight loss. The 'starvation' theory came up. I don't buy into it - your metabolism shouldn't be wavering all that much. A lot of people do expound this theory. If you're trying to gain muscle, of course you should eat breakfast, duhh. But if you're trying to drop pounds, the most logical thing to do cut calories, and if you're not hungry in the morning, I can't see why on earth you should eat, especially if you are trying to drop some pounds.

As for the belts, they do seem silly and new-agey but they are everywhere. I can't think of any physiological reason why these things would work, but again I see them everywhere and some of my friends who are into non-traditional health practices use them. (These are admittedly the same people who enema with coffee...) I wouldn't actually use one, I was more making a comment/joke on the absurdity of it. At least that was my intent. I can see how that was unclear.

 

[Valiumland]

I have to "weigh" in on the breakfast issue. Not to dispute cdog204, but you seem to be separating weight loss from muscle gain in an arbitrary way. I have read several studies that have shown that people who consumed a high-protein breakfast consumed fewer calories throughout the day. So that's just good health, irrespective of your weight loss/muscle gain dichotomy. A calorie is absolutely not a calorie. The way your body uses fuel is highly dependent on 1. how quickly the fuel is released (simple vs complex carbs) and 2. where you are in the day's metabolic "arc", if you will. The time to be saving calories is not first thing in the morning, it's last thing in the evening.

Suggested reading for anyone concerned about this issue: "Ultrametabolism" by Mark Hyman MD.

 

[curiousvirgin]

check out truth about abs website.
has a lot of articles on diet and exercise.

 

[jockmaestro]

Don't think calorically as much as hormonally. See Dr. Sears' book " A Week in the Zone." changed my life, and not hard to follow.

 

[deleted462103]

eliminate white flour and sugar products... as well as white rice / pasta / white potatoes ....substitute brown rice or wild rice , quinoa (they make quinoa pasta now too) and red skin potatoes. none of these cause weight gain.
blue corn chips are good and bob's red mill makes gluten free flour and mixes.
nuts of any kind make good snacks