I made a Goal., && i'm going to reach it! Options

[DeadlyKitten]

Starting today i made a goal to myself to lose some weight and become healthier. I plan to work out every day that I can. I want to get a good body the old fasion way...WORKING MY ASS OFF! lol I tried the easy route (starving myself) and only ran into health problems. I plan to do this for 60 days. Ill have to lose between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds to reach my goal. Anyone have any possitive addvice? I really want to stick to it.

[Reidar]

Eat five to six complete meals a day. This will maintain a constant metabolic rate. You should also do some form of resistance training to prevent muscle atrophy (shrinkage). If you lose muscle mass, your body fat percentage will increase because more of you will consist of adipose tissue (fat) than before.

3.5 pounds is really a negligible amount. You won't notice a difference from that amount alone.

[jaeman]

I have no objections other than a few bits of advice. I would strongly recommend a consistent daily workout routine because you said "I plan to workout every day that I can." That sounds like there's room for laziness in there and you might go, "Oh, it looks like I can't go workout today, oh well." But you probably won't, I was just saying what came to my head. And you should do it naturally, those people that take dietary supplements and muscle enhancers might be kidding themselves, not that I have a problem with it. Just do what you do.

[DoubleJ]

Agreed with both responses. Definitely eat six meals a day because your metabolism will keep going. If you are going to do it for 60 days, you may end up losing more weight than you wanted to. Juts be careful and workout the right way. Hit a gym up if necessary.

[DeadlyKitten]

what i meant was 2.5 to 3.5 a week for 60 days. lol i plan on doing mostly cardio and a few strength work outs 2 times a week

[teeners4]

drink plenty of water and breakfast should be your biggest meal!

[RealTalk]

Good luck to you and I really mean it! Don't get discourage if you don't loose weight immediately. It takes your body a second to get used to diet change and exercise then it'll start responding.

[ArtofBreaking]

No, you should not eat 6 meals a day, those are for people in training, or trying to build muscle. The reason you eat 6 meals a day is to keep your metabolism up, yes, but also to keep your calorie count and protein up.
Being a female you should eat the normal 3 meals a day.

Breakfast - Like a king.
Lunch - Like a queen.
Dinner - Like a squire.

This means Eat a hearty breakfast(Eggs, Fruit, Maybe some bread, Orange juice) ,this will give you the energy you need for the day and your workout. Lunch should be light, like veggies and fruit, but enough to keep you nearly full. Dinner should be full of proteins(pasta is great), this will repair microscopic tears in your muscles, upon working out, over night.

And if all your doing is planning on losing weight, not building muscle, and just staying lean, you should stick to cardio(20 minutes everyday or on whatever days you workout) and crunches, not sit ups(they are bad for your spinal cord).

Just Note:
Starving yourself a day and tricking your body to lose weight will work, however when you stop all the weight will come back 10 fold. And is extremely bad for your health.

Blah blah blah.

[Reidar]

Very wrong. Foregoing constant nutrient intake will instigate amino acid catabolism, which causes the degradation of muscle mass and the excess storage of adipose tissue the next time that food is eaten. This is a natural defense mechanism, since fat has a much higher biological priority.

Eat five to six meals a day. The fallacy in the post above me is assuming a level of unfeasibility - that the pertaining number of calories is somehow reserved for a certain echelon of dedication.

In other words, you're not eating any more than you normally would. You're simply splitting up your regular meals into smaller, but more frequent, portions.

And "veggies and fruits" is not a complete meal. You should have protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins in each.

[ArtofBreaking]

First off, if you have a busy lifestyle day to day, it's not healthy to be eating 6 meals a day, this can cause your stomache to stretch and unless your plan on winning a food eating contest, this shouldn't be the best choice for you. Eating 6 meals a day can help you lose weight, sure, but speeding up your metabolism is not simply enough to lose 2-5 lbs a week. Ask any male physical trainer how to weight train or become lean, he will tell you, eat 6 meals a day full of protein and carbs.

Ask any female trainer how to lose weight gradually, she might tell you 1 of 2 options. Eat 3 full meals a day, or 6 very well portioned meals a day. That being the normal 3 meals a day, and healthy snacks in between. OR, eat 3 times a day, hearty and healthy. If you eat healthy, no sugars or refined carbs, and eat between 400 - 500 calories per meal, this will put you on a 2000 or under calorie a day diet.

6 small meals keep your blood sugar even. You'll see that you'll feel so much better.

It's not too much to eat. Some of these "small meals" are actually just snacks. Like a banana and a Granola bar. Or a bowl of hi-fiber cereal with berries. Or a salad of dark leafy veggies, tomatoes, raisins, carrots, and tuna. Those could be 3 of your 6 meals. About 600-700 calories? Right on track.

Once you reach your goal weight, to maintain that weight, eat your weight X15. So if you like weighing 120, you'd eat 120X15=1800 calories a day, assuming you're doing a normal amount of exercise. There are 3500 calories in a pound.

If you're a scale user, at least do it correctly. Weigh yourself ONCE a day. First thing in the morning, after you go to the bathroom, before you eat or drink anything, naked. That's your true weight.

Eating 5-6 small meals a day is probably your best bet, however it depends entirely on your lifestyle. Can't stress that enough.
And no, Vegetables and Fruit are a perfectly fine meal to eat.

[Reidar]

Your stomach doesn't "stretch" any more than it would if you had portioned those meals into one sitting. In fact, the latter would create an expansion affect to a greater degree, if anything. With the upped meal frequency, your metabolic processes have a chance to digest the components before more are added. Stuffing in everything in fewer sessions does not have that factor.

And no, vegetables and fruits in and of themselves are a very incomplete meal because protein is essential in every instance. Without it, catabolism is induced in order to preserve adipose tissue as a survival mechanism. Glycogenolysis (the utilization of glycogen) has biological priority over muscle tissue, but phosphorylation of phosphorylase kinase activates enzymes, which in turn phosphorylates the b form of phosphorylase.

This means that amino acids in protein are necessary for the synthesis of anti-catabolic molecules, such as arginine. Moreover, they're a component of glycogen usage in the first place. The glucose - alanine cycle, in which BCAAs are stripped from the muscle tissue and parts of them are converted to the amino acid alanine, is transported to the liver and converted into glucose because of amino acids.

Eat five to six meals a day. And don't depend on anecdotal claims. "I can't support what I say, but I promise you a personal trainer would agree with it!" is poor advice.

By the way, you would do well to pick up a copy of acclaimed strength coach Mark Rippetoe's Practical Programming, which dedicates a significant portion on how the personal trainer industry is severely misinformed. Pavel Tsatsouline also delves into this in his Beyond Bodybuilding, describing how fitness in the West has been perverted to profitability over actual truth.

If I had listened to personal trainers, I wouldn't even be benching with a full ROM. When I was 14, one stopped me while I was bench pressing, and told me not to let the bar drop down all the way to my chest. Luckily, a nearby powerlifter who actually had a semblance of knowledge on weightlifting came over and called him out on his garbage.

[ArtofBreaking]

Hey Congrats, I see you can read a book.
Yes, eating 6 full meals a day WILL stretch your stomach. I don't see why you are breaking this down to a cellular level, and making everything extremely complicated, when it's a simple as this.

Drastic changes are much harder to stick with than small changes. Try reducing the size of the portions you eat and giving up regular soda for a week. Once you have that down, start gradually introducing healthier foods and exercise into your life.
-This means converting from your eating habit immediately to a 6 meal a day diet is not good for you. End of story.

Many people find that eating a couple of small snacks throughout the day helps them to make healthy choices at meals. Stick a couple of healthy snacks (carrot sticks, a low fat granola bar, pretzels, or a piece of fruit) in your backpack so that you can have one or two snacks during the day. Adding healthy snacks to your three squares and eating smaller portions when you sit down to dinner can help you to cut calories without feeling deprived.
-This means eat 3 good meals a day, and healthy snacks inbetween. End of story.

Cardio work is a great way to get your heart rate up to optimize your workout routine. And like I said, ask a nutrionist or a physical trainer, as they earn those titles for a reason. Keep yourself well hydrated with water, cut out the sodas and sugar drinks. A slip up every now and then is fine, just put it behind you. I'm sorry I can't look up diet and workout sites or nutrionists online to quote anyone for you, but I trust you should know that i'm backing what i'm saying here to the fullest. -End of story.

Five or more servings of fruits and veggies aren't just a good idea to help you lose weight - they'll help keep your heart and the rest of your body healthy. One or two servings of protein and carbs is also healthy however, To much of ANYTHING can be a bad thing, or less effective. Just don't overindulge. -End of story.

By the way Deadlykitten. You don't need to pick up any copies of anything since your goal per week is extremely easy to accomplish and in the long run it would be a lot easier to just read up online about whats good or bad for you from the experts themselves. Good luck with your goal!
Keep it simple.

[Reidar]

Hey Congrats, I see you can read a book.
Yes, eating 6 full meals a day WILL stretch your stomach. I don't see why you are breaking this down to a cellular level, and making everything extremely complicated, when it's a simple as this.

Because you're ignoring the fundamentals of anabolism. Eating less meals that are bigger in their proportions will "stretch" (not that this even matters - that's like saying that one should avoid drinking water because it will expand your stomach cavity more than it would without keeping hydrated) your stomach to a greater degree than incrementally adding in content.

That's what's simple. You would fit more into a garbage disposal by adding in pieces of debris and eradicating them bit by bit rather than stuffing everything in with fewer repetitions.

Eating five to six meals a day is not a "drastic change." You continue to ignore the point of equal quantitative distribution. It's the same amount broken up into different servings. Stop creating a strawman.

It's particularly atrocious of you to continue to advocate a vegetable and fruit-exclusive diet after I've proven you incorrect on all fronts. You haven't addressed a word I've said directly. Your counter on why your prescribed diet is healthy? "It's simple."

Simplicity is not synonymous with being functionally sound. When you give someone advice on what to do with their body (and, therefore, their wellbeing) you have an obligation to address whatever part of your information comes under criticism. To not do so would be irresponsible.

[DeadlyKitten]

wow...lol. well thank you for the support and tips guys ^_^ and a certified dietition told me to eat no less then 5 meals a day. The meals should be between 200-300 if I want to lose weight, other wise they should be 300-500 calories. but I pretty much want to lose weight and pretty much eat more. lol i dont eat alot but when i do, its junk. so thats the food issue i have to fix. i'm doing cardio 4 days a week and walking every chance i get. my cardio is walking/running up and down stairs 50 x's (1 counting as going up then comming down)and increasing it every week. I'll do 50 this week, 60 next, then 70, then so on untill i reach 100. My legs are killing me from doing it yesterday morning so I know I got a work out. lol

[Reidar]

You're doing everything right, so far. Incline cardio (stairs, hills, etc.) is healthier for your joints. I use that as a staple for boxing.

Conquer.

[DeadlyKitten]

I LOST 10 POUNDS!!!!! WOOOHOOO! lol in just about 20 days. I started taking 5-htp and it is amazing!!! lol its a vitamin that helps your brain make your serotonin levels balace. not only am i happier everything seems to function right in my body!!! YESSSS!

[Reidar]

Give me your pounds. I'm trying to get to 240.

[Smarmosaur]

eat three decent, healthy meals. this includes some type of protein, bread, and fruit. decent means not huge but more than normal. you should snack atleast twice a day, maybe three, depending on your meals. one between lunch and dinner (this is when your body really need the extra boost to keep going), and one before you work out. optional would be between breakfast and lunch. your snacks should be a couple peices of fruit or something easy to munch on but gives enough to you. granola bars (special K bars are amazing) and trail mix can give you a nice benefit, too.
do some sort of Aerobics workouts atleast 5 days a week. also remember to stretch AFTER you work out. stretching before strains the muscles more than what's good for them. stretching after your work out is good because your muscles are warmed up by then and can take more good impact from the work out.
OH. it's also best to make a long term goal, like over a year. and reward yourself. when you lose a few sizes, reward yourself a new pair of jeans or something to benefit your workout-maybe a small peice of equipment or new tennis shoes.
start your workouts small, like 30 minutes, for one week. gradualy increase by 10-15 minutes each week. this gives your body time to adjust. remember the workout shouldn't be over the top. it should be challenging but if you're majorly struggling, slow it down. don't try something and just because it's not hard keep going with it. i do suggest walking a few miles once a week, although that works best in nicer weather. or you can always go walk around your local mall-most places don't have a problem with that.
also, ALWAYS have a water bottle with you. like 100% of the time. and take a BIG drink every 5-7 minutes!
last thing, i swear. the most important. tell anybody and everybody you can. the more you tell and talk about it, the more seriously people will take you, and the more support they'll give. give details, don't just say "i made a goal to lose weight". tell them your exact plans, such as workouts and eating.

sorry for the book...

[DoubleJ]

When I was in military school, my DI had us take animal packs before we would workout. I don't know if it was me, but those things really gave me that extra umph I needed.