a guide to losing weight the healthy way Options

[iheartjohn]

Mmmhmmm.

Please note that the ONLY way you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat.

Example:

I ate 1200 calories today.
I burned 2400 calories. Thus, I lost 2 pounds.

--------------------------------------

Got it? Okay, onwards.


Step 1. Eat right.

Don't cut out your carbs, okay? You're young. Don't screw with your metabolism.

The essentials: vegetables (crrots, lettuce, broccoli); fruits (apples, oranges, bananas); grains (cereal, bread, pasta); dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) and iron (meats, fish, nuts)

Here are some eating tips.


Instead of French Fries, consider baked potato chips.

Instead of sugar, try Splenda or brown sugar.

(more suggestions coming soon)



Cutting these out of your regular diet will cut MAJOR calories.

Eliminate ALL soda.
Eliminate anything salty.
Cut out junk food ALL TOGETHER.



9 Rules of Eating

1.Prepare a balanced meal plan and stick to it.

2.Try to stick to regular meal times the best you can.

3.Eat slowly and chew each bite completely to decrease your appetite.

4.Avoid eating while you're watching TV or preparing a meal. It is far too easy to overeat when you are distracted or surrounded by food.

5.Cutout a picture of someone whose figure you admire, to keep you motivated.

6.Eat the most filling, least fattening foods first (for example salad before the pizza, soup before the meal) so you fill up faster and consume fewer calories.

7.People that eat mostly fruits, vegetables and whole grains often find that they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight.

8.Drink four to six glasses of water each day, especially before meals. Water has no calories and it will help you to feel full.

9.Remember it takes your brain 20 minutes to realize that you are full, so eat slowly and chew your food as long as you can.


Boost your metabolism
Why? To keep your energy pulsating and your body in shape.

1.Drinking hot water as apposed to cold water can increase the speed of your metabolism and burn more calories.

2.Do not skip breakfast. A breakfast bowl of vegetables and brown rice is a great way to kick-start your metabolism for the day.

3.Avoid stress. Physical and emotional stress activates the release of cortisol, a steroid that slows metabolism.

4.Sleep. Research shows that people who don't sleep for seven to eight hours a night are more prone to weight gain.

5.Be positive! The more you feel good about yourself the easier and faster it is to lose weight.



Now on to being active.

Firstly, don't automatically run like hell everyday for the next two weeks to shed some weight. Start yourself off in moderation, so you don't get tired.

Start with a modest goal, like 15 to 20 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Gradually extend the duration and the speed.

Walk up one or two gentle slopes.

Your walk should be comprised of three segments: warm-up, exercise pace and cool-down.


How to walk:
That's right. You're probably doing it wrong.

Walk with your chin up and your shoulders held slightly back.

The heel of your foot should touch the ground first. Roll your weight forward.

Swing your arms as you walk.

To avoid stiff or sore muscles or joints, start gradually. Over several weeks, begin walking faster, going further, and walking for longer periods of time.

Walk on soft ground.

Rehydrate yourself -- drink 8-10 ounces of water for every 20 minutes of activity.


More information.

The more you walk, the better you will feel. You also use more calories.

Walking will give you more energy, make you feel good, help you to relax, reduce stress, help you sleep better, tone your muscles, help control your appetite, increase the number of calories your body uses.

To lose weight, it's more important to walk for time than speed.

Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with less soreness - leading to more miles and more calories spent on a regular basis.

Make walking a daily habit or at least 3-5 times a week depending on your schedule.




If you want to add some tips of your own, you're very welcome to. I will add more of my own later.

[sharpandcuddly]

:D I have a tip to add!
Okay, my momma goes off and on diets, but when I was little - she stopped drinking juices, sodas, anything except water.
In about two months, with eating like she normally does and just drinking water, she must've lost about 20 pounds!

So, drop everything you drink except water.
Also, if you want to fill yourself up fast in salads, add lots of cucumbers. They have ZERO calories! :D

[kimmytree]

ate 1200 calories today.
I burned 2400 calories. Thus, I lost 2 pounds

Huh? How do you figure that? Do you mean you actually lost 2 pounds, or you *should* lose 2 pounds?

[nyctophiliac]

very good tips, thank you.
I really want to start running tomarrow...seriously

[iROCKYOURSOCKS]

i disagree with jo3 about drinking 16 glasses of water. thats really unhealthy even if its water thats like constanly washing out ur kidneys! but the rest i agreed!!! THANKS FOR THE TIPS!!!

[kimmytree]

Please note that the ONLY way you will lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat.

Thats completely wrong. I can bust my butt for an hour and ride 8 or 9 miles on my stationary bike, and only burn around 400 calories. So if you're correct, that means I have to eat less than 400 calories to lose anything. Hahaah. xD

Your supposed to consume around 2,000 calories. It all depends on your weight, height, ect. For instance, for my size, I can consume around 1800 calories and maintain my current weight. The more I go over the 1800, the more weight I'll gain. And the more I go below 1800, the more I will lose.

There's calculators all over the internet to calculate the amount of calories you should consume. But please note, as you lose weight, you'll need to re-calculate how many calories you can actually have. Because as you lose weight, the amount you can have to maintain your weight will drop.

[edit]

On the average day, I consume between 500-800 calories. I pig out on veggies and fruit, and I usually have 2 lean cuisines. I'm not even exersizing, and I've lost almost 20 pounds in the past month. Lol.

[clarity]

Thats pretty smart.
How many calories are in a pound, though?

[illriginal]

Eat 6-8 meals a day, no oily food, no salty food, no fast food.
Eat carbs and proteins. Eat more carbs in the morning than the afternoon. Carbs gives you energy. Try to make all your meals have protein. Only meals that shouldn't have protein would be fruits and vegetables (they barely have any to begin with)

Meats: Turkey, Chicken, Steak, Tuna, Salmon, Talapia, etc....

Whole Grains: Brown rice, whole wheat bread (make sure it's not bleached flour), oatmeal, and pasta.

Fruits: Apples, Bananas, Oranges (try to not eat fruits that are very sweet such as strawberries, grapes, kiwis, mangoes etc...)

Dairy: Glass of milk each day, yogurt, cottage cheese.

Nuts: Handful of most types of nuts is good as a meal.

Water: 1 to 2 gallons of water each day

Cardio: HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) This is a type of cardio where after you warm up (light jog) you pick up the pace just a little bit faster in your jogging pace. You jog for 2 minutes then switch to sprinting for 15-20 seconds, then you quickly switch back to jogging again. You're doing intervals of high intensity runs, this type of running will boost up your heart rate within 2 minutes, will make your sweat alot more effectively (which is your goal to make you lose fat), and will build up your endurance and quickness in running. This type of training makes your quicker in running for the fact that your "fast twitch" muscles are being worked hard. What are "fast twitch" muscles? Those are your reflexes/reaction muscles, the stronger they are the quicker you react.

With this type of cardio, you only do it for 10-12 minutes if you're first starting off. Then once you get used to it (you wont be out of breath as like you were when you first started this training) you should bump it up to 15 minutes, then 17 minutes, then finally 20 minutes should be your max. Once you're able to do 20 minutes of this and you can endure this much intensity, you're now considered an athlete.

Your new goal is to add more intensity, how is this done? There's two different ways to go about this, both work very effectively, this level is where vascularity is built.

A) Go back to doin 12 minutes, but instead of sprinting for 20 seconds, you're now
gonna sprint for 30 seconds. So the interval should be 2 minute jog then 30 second sprint then back to 2 minute jog.

B) Go back to doing 12 minutes, but instead of jogging for 2 minutes, you're now gonna jog for 1 minute. So the interval should be 1 minute jog then 20 second sprint, then 1 minute jog again.

After you're able to do 20 minutes worth of HIIT of either formula (A&B) you then bump up the amount of sprint time. You do not want to jog less than 1 minute, instead you want to get to the point of joggin 1 minute, then sprinting 1 minute for 20 minutes. Once you're able to do this, congratulations! You've endured the worst of the worst, so running a mile will not only be cake work for you, but it'll be a quicker time. If you're able to defeat HIIT, endurace training such as 10, 20, etc. mile runs will be the next challenge, but wouldn't be as difficult as HIIT.

Your goal in losing weight is simple:

Eating healthy food (the foods I listed above are all healthy)

Eatin the right amount of calories to control your weight (to lose weight, you want to eat less calories than "maintenance calories" or atleast burn more calories than maintainance, but keep in mind you MUST eat atleast 6 meals in order for this to be effective 100%)

Keep your motabolism running at all times by eating 6-8 times (Your motabolism helps burn fat)

Drink enough water, atleast 1-2 gallons a day (Water liquifies fat, so it makes hard fat into loose fat, which is essential for cardio)

Do cardio, rather it be the treadmill, rather it be track, rather it be 10 yard sprints, rather it biking... any activity that makes your heart race and makes you sweat is considered cardio)


Remember this, drinkin plenty of water loosens of your fat, loosening your fat makes it easier to burn. How do you burn this loose fat? With cardio, how do you know cardio is burning your fat? When you sweat... how do bodybuilders know it's a fact that you're burning fat when you sweat? Taste your sweat, if it tastes really salty, guess what? That's really fat liquified. Also eatin a lot of sodium, salty food, and greasy/oily foods is gonna prevent the water intake from doing its job. In fact that's what creates fat to begin with. Large amount of grease becomes layered fat, salt/sodium "hardens" fat, makin it harder to melt the fat off.


Good luck... and if you ever have any question, PM me or IM me on AIM: Tamacracka
I'll be glad to help, especially Americans, since our country's full of obese people, thanks to fast food.

[JenxCrazii]

=O.
i`ve gained 12 pounds in 2 months bkos of:
- 7 ~ 8 hrs of sleep. now i kno u gain more weight like that.. .
- im always eating in front of the computer.. . T_T; [ alot ].
- alot of stress.

-- -

but b4. i was really stressed&kinda emo. but now im not.
but when i was.. . i just kept on working hard on hw [ summerskool =\ ].
its a shame. hw was like really hard. highschool&college work.
i came home at like 4. then start at 5.. .& work till 12 or later.. .
[ that really helped me.. getting skinnier&smarter ].
not good experience though.

starving myself.
and i ate less. first it was 3x a day.
then 2x a day. [ most ].
sometimes 1x a day.
i did that for a month.. .
& i looked better & i was able to get energy without eating.. .

[kimmytree]

^ You're probably gaining weight because before, your body was going into starvation mode by you not eating enough. Now that it has food, it's storing more fat.

I'm kinda having the same problem, after stopping my diet. I wasnt starving myself, but I was staying under 1000 calories per day. Even though for my size I can eat 1600 calories and not gain weight, I'm still gaining weight because I was depriving myself before. You should eventually balance back out though.

[JenxCrazii]

omggg !
im not losing any weight !
its so freaky ! =[
i keep gaining weight !.
& i eat fastfood like everyday because thats the only thing i can eat when im out. & i dno't even get enought sleepp !
=[

[jesusisthebestth...]

^^^maybe u should pack lunch...or when you go out dont eat so much. if u get a burger eat half of it and not the whole thing. or u could have ur biggest meal in the morning, then all you'll feel like eating is a fruit or a granola bar or something at lunch



ur tips are great...
but i wanna add 1 thing:

WATER you have to drink water...if you don't you will not lose weight...no juice, no soda...water water water!

[clarity]

Here's a tip if not said already.

WATCH YOUR FAT!
You know they do give you nutritional information on the food boxes for a reason. Your supposed to only have 20 fat grams per day. I found it helpful if you limit your self to 12 fat grams per day.

WATCH YOUR CALORIES!
Try limiting yourself to either 1,500 calories - 2,000 calories a day.

GET EXERCISE!
Put in AT LEAST an hour of moderate exercise everyday. It helps burn off calories.

WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU EAT!
It's helpful to write down what you eat and put down the calorie and fat content down.


For you're biggest meal of the day you should allow yourself to have 800 calories and 8 grams of fat. But remember just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

SNACKING
For snacking, limit a snack to 100-120 calories and 3 or less grams of fat.


You're day of food should consist of breakfast, 2 snacks, lunch, and dinner.

The best time to use your snacks would be to have one between breakfast and lunch and then the other one between lunch and dinner. Also in between, drink lots of water! It will help you feel full.

"BUT... BUT... I'M GONNA MISS MY OLD FOOD! "
Remember, just because you're cutting out all fatty foods doesn't mean your giving out great tasting food.

Instead of french fries try sweet potatoes fries!
Instead of regular chips try baked chips!
Instead of peanut butter try "Better N` Butter"!
Instead of regular brownies try "No Pudge Brownies"!

You can also find many fat free cookbooks online!

Remember, if it comes in fat free, go for it! Taste it. Try something new, you never know you may end up enjoying it.


WATER TIP
For water, use a nalgene. It really helps control how much water you drink. For me I try to drink 3 full nalgenes a day.

SODA TIP
Those who may wonder, "What's wrong with soda" or "Okay I cut out regular soda what about diet soda?"

With regular soda, your drinking your calories. Don't do that if you can help it! What's wrong with diet soda is, since your loading yourself with splenda it makes you hungry. Your body thinks when you drink diet soda that your preparing yourself to eat right afterward.

"NO SODA? THEN WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO DRINK? "
Get those "on the go" crystal light packets. They're only 5 calories and are a great way to get some taste in your drink!



Hope this all helps.

[RAWRstephishere]

Do you actually know how hard it is to burn 2400 calories?

I know its just an example, but thats a bit over.