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.

[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.