What's the best way to lose the weight without giving up your favorite foods?

Question

I have been on many diets but I want to lose the weight, but I do like to exercise very lightly but I do more exercise than eat right. What am I doing wrong? Am I in the right direction, I don't feel I am? I feel embarassed by the way I look.

Answer 1

Be your own trainer and nutritionist, the basic rules to losing weight are no soda, no fast food, lots of chicken, fish, fresh (not canned that’s bad) fruits and vegies, whole wheat stuff, yogurt. Not so many cakes and donuts and cookies. Basic common sense for eating, you just need to enforce it. Get all the bad stuff out of the house right away, just toss it or give it away while your still motivated. No alcohol and no smoking if that applies. Some juice but make sure its all natural, because the ones that aren't are loaded with sugar and a leading cause in diabetes in children and adults. Lots of water, 3-4 liters a day, not all at once, but spread it out. Its really easy to down a liter or two while your watching tv or on the computer. Also drink some after you eat the bigger meals of the day, it helps your body pick out the nutrients in food when your food is more spread apart. You also need to stay away from any sports drinks unless you’ve just had a long workout and then you need to limit yourself. Most atheletes mix Gatorade with water because its two complex for your body to get all the nutrients out of. It needs to be diluted. These rules may be hard to adapt to at first so start with cutting out the things you know you can live without. Then work from there. Remember these are perfect eating habits, it can take you a while to work into it. If you know you can’t live without your one treat a day, don’t fight it by trying to eat something else, just eat it and make sure that’s the only one you cheat on a day. Otherwise you’ll get depressed and quit. Another important point is getting the right amount of sleep every night. You need 8-9 hours of sleep each night for your body to function correctly. This is an important factor of losing weight. Set up a routine for yourself and go to bed at about the same time each night.
As for exercise, lots of cardio. Find something you like. If you have never exercised much before, start with walking 30 minutes a day at a brisk pace. Move on to different terrains that include hills and increase the time spent. After a week or two, try jogging the route. No matter what find an activity you enjoy. Walking to jogging is just an example, try hiking, rollerblading, biking. Once you get into a regular routine, if your not happy with the level of difficulty, try signing up with a gym. Spinning, pilates or kickboxing classes are great. It will also introduce you to working with weights. Talk to a trainer for instruction before using any weights. A cheap investment is a balance ball, it works you stomach while your just sitting on it, like at your computer and its great for posture. There are hundreds of exercises you can use it for for your entire body. I can give you some ideas if you want, just email me. Also for more info on the benefits of water go to www.watercure.com Good Luck! Honestly if you need anything else don't hesitate to IM me, krista_girl86 even if you don't pick me as best answer, i'd be happy to help. Also check out the website for the tv show The Biggest Loser on NBC. There are many, many helpful facts on there.

Answer 2

If you are looking to lose weight consistently and permanently you will find these 3 keys to success very helpful.

1. Create a "Diet for Life". A healthy diet that will give your body the nutrients it needs without a high caloric intake and also be satisfying for you to maintain for years or a lifetime. Try going to www.ediets.com for some help.

2. Just like your diet you should have a fun and interesting workout plan that you can do on an ongoing basis. Do the things that you like doing and it will be a lot easier to maintain.
www.fitnessonline.com

3. Persistance is probably the main key. Know that if you are doing 1 & 2 correctly then the results will come. Don't get frustrated if your not losing 20lbs in a week. Keep on working at it and in 3 months you will be healthy and well on your way to a perfect body.

Much Success to you!

Answer 3

If you can't entirely give up your favorite foods, cut way back on them. Add in healthier foods if you're still hungry. Try some substitutions. On home-made pizza, use low-fat cheese and spray it lightly with olive oil spray to make it taste better. Or mix some low-fat and regular cheeses.
Exercise is good. Find something you really like. I do a special form of water aerobics which I love and see as a reward (I get to go in the heated pool!).
If given the choice between eating less and exercising more and you can only pick one, pick exercise. It raises your metabolism temporarily (permanently if you add muscle mass to your body) and it won't put your body into starvation mode. If you do build muscle, even if you don't lose weight you'll slim way down (that's what's happening to me).
Good luck. And love yourself no matter what you look like.
Write to me if you need a friend.

Answer 4

I will try to keep it simple. Your metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories to create energy. So the faster your metabolism, the faster you burn calories and the easier it is to lose unwanted weight. To boost your metabolism naturally you just need to eat the right foods.

You can sit down and literally eat a 1,000-calorie dinner and yet be absolutely starving just a few hours later and the reason is simple: Because your body didnt get what it needed in those 1,000 calories so it sends signals to your brain telling you to ingest more calories and thus, the late-night cravings. That means that the surest way to end those late-night cravings and keep your weight loss goals on track is to eat a more balanced, nutritious diet that actually gives your body what it needs.

It's VERY EASY to lose weight if you eat the right foods. Check out Dr. Charles Livingston's video here: http://www.sexyjese.com - it will blow your mind.

Answer 5

What kind of excercise are you doing? Is it enough? You need to balance good healthy foods with excercise. Then you can hopefully see better results. Maybe give yourslef one treat a day. And eat it when you are hungry and not when you are just snaking. Actually quit snacking all together. If you are in the mood to eat something but arn't hungry drink water or have a cup of tea. Or eat some carrot sticks. Just stay away from foods you know arn't good for you unless its your once a day or once a week treat.

Best of luck.

Answer 6

What is your age???

Generally you gain weight because of fats deposits, just dissolve them. How?

People go for losing weight by pills or starving.

Pills do not act effectively and for longer durations. Pills have many side effects for your health.

Starving weakens you and your defense system is also weakened. This makes you less resistant against infactions and other diseases.

The best way is to lose weight by change of diet and your physical activities. I do not know your favourite foods but I think they must be rich in sugar, fats and starch.

You will have to change your diet OR you will require more physical work. Just go with the following tips.

1. Reduce or stop to take oils and fats.
2. Stop taking sugar and glucose. (Mainly tea, coffee & cold drinks.
3. Stop taking potato, rice.
4. Reduce wheat and corn as much as possible.

Take vegitables, boiled meat, fruits (even sweet).

And at the top of all:

Walk at least 40 to 60 minutes twice a day.

You will start losing weight to the extent of daily difference.

Answer 7

First, take the word diet out of your vocabulary. Nothing kills your enthusiam for getting healthy more than that one word. Two, drink 16 glasses of water a day. The mistake many people make is eating when they are thirsty. Increasing you water intake will do two things, keep you from becoming dehydrated or overeating. Third, take the time to try and find alternatives to foods you like with little nutrition value. Examples are, energy bars instead of candy bars, yogurt smoothies or shakes instead of donuts or pastry in the morning ( the added benefit of drinking a yougurt shake is that many of them contain vitamins as well. Vitamins help your body to function better), slads with meat instead of brgers and fries. Finally you have choosen to begin this in hopes of being healthier, know there are no quick or easy answers. It's about doing what makes your metabolism work better. Start with being happy with yourself as you are, nothing sheds the pounds faster than losing that negative attitude. Take a good multivitiamin. I recommend ALIVE! multivitamins, you'll see why once you begin using them. Walk as much as you can during the day, As a person with a severe back injury I cannot exercise like many diets recommend, but I do walk as much as I can. You say you exercise lightly so I recommend this, start and end your day with 5 sit-up adding 5 every two weeks until you reach 50. After a month add one exercise a month until you create a routine that you enjoy doing that takes about 45 to 60 minutes. With exercise many people try to do too much too quickly and end up doing nothing. It is bettter to build into a good routine that you look forward to doing Eat 6 small meals instead of two big ones. and don't drink diet anything! Eat what you like but in much smaller portions, I love cake but now buy slices instead of a whole one when I get the taste for it. I don't look at it as a reward or "cheating". I'm just having my cake (better health) and eating it too.

Answer 8

Krista is full of crap:
"Some juice but make sure its all natural, because the ones that aren't are loaded with sugar and a leading cause in diabetes in children and adults. "
BS. Natural juices have sugar also. And there's no proven link between juice and diabetes.
"Lots of water, 3-4 liters a day, not all at once, but spread it out. Its really easy to down a liter or two while your watching tv or on the computer."
More BS. No proof that drinking water is helpful. All this is good for is making you pee a lot.
"Also drink some after you eat the bigger meals of the day, it helps your body pick out the nutrients in food when your food is more spread apart."
WHAT?? This is total crap. There is NO evidence to support this BS. (where does she get this?) Your body does NOT need extra water to "pick out" nutrients. What an absurd concept.
"You also need to stay away from any sports drinks unless you’ve just had a long workout and then you need to limit yourself. Most atheletes mix Gatorade with water because its two complex for your body to get all the nutrients out of. It needs to be diluted. "
More crap and BS. The science behind Gatorade has been going on for 30 years and there's NO evidence of any "need" to dilute it. It works just fine as-is. Again, your body does NOT need extra water to "pick out" nutrients.

Also, there's no truth to "Most people are dehydrated and don't know it". Pure bull.
Don't take diet advice from uneducated 19 year olds. It's full of myth and folklore, sadly lacking in truth and science.

Answer 9

Exercise every day, even if it's just a walk. Go on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. Eat fish, eggs, chicken, occasional lean beef or pork, low fat cottage cheese. Stay away from regular cheese, no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, peas, beans (except green beans). No fruit and no fruit juice (it's sugar water, my dr says). Cut down on carrots and tomatoes (included ketchup). Use mustard instead of mayonnaise in recipes. Eat lots of salads, green vegetables. Salads only have one tablespoon of dressing for the whole salad. No ice cream, or other desserts. 8 glasses of water a day. No caffeine

Answer 10

In short, if you don't want to give up your favorite foods. moderation. If you want to loose weight you must first reduce your calorie intake and now exercise to burn the calories your body has stored (fat). once you achieve your desired weight you must burn what you take in basically to maintain your weight. to loose the weight at first you will need to eat a little less and very healty. DON'T STOP EATING THOUGH! Your body will think it has gone into starvation mode and hold onto the fat in it and you will actually loose muscle mass first and you NEED that to help burn the extra calories and short weights and cardio together will give you a bigger boost.