How to lose weight and shape up effectively?

Question

Ok, I have lost more than 80 pounds within the last 9-10 months. I'm not happy about the way it happened. But it's gone. Now I want to shape it all up. I'm happy with my new weight, but my stomach needs some work. I have been running nearly 4-5 times a week and doing ab workouts. My problem is dieting. What is the most effective way to diet and shape up?

Answer 1

THIS IS IT!!!

Getting rid of fat in general, building lean muscle, and defining your physique is 60% diet, 30% exercise, and 10% mental thought. You must eat the right foods, exercise more often than you don't, burn more calories than you consume, think and speak positively about yourself, try making life as stress free as possible, and get rest so that your body can repair itself.

Portion control is key to reaching your goal. You don't want to over-eat. A portion should be the size of your fist. Meals should consist of one portion of carbohydrates and protein, and a portion of fat (is: a handful).

Carbohydrates:
Apples, Bananas, Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, Mangos, Pineapple, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Celery, Carrots, Broccoli, Asparagus, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Corn,
Steel Cut Oatmeal, Whole "Grain" Bread.

Protein: Egg Whites, Salmon, Tuna, Halibut, Chicken Breasts, Lean Ground Turkey, Turkey Breasts, Protein Powder, Protein Bars (Power Crunch Bar, Cliff Builder Bar) You don't want a high calorie, high fat, high sugar bar. The two I listed are good ones, and they taste great too!

Fat: Organic Peanut Butter, "Raw" Almonds or Walnuts, Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. (Only consume a handful of nuts, with your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.) Fats help with digestion.

You want to have 4-5 small meals per day. 2-3 hours apart. You will never go hungry and your metabolism will not slow down!Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed. If possible get 8 hours of sleep, this plays a major role in losing belly fat.

Meal Planning: (Preparation is key.)

Meal 1: Protein, Carb, Fat (1 bottle of WATER)
Meal 2: Protein shake or bar (A glass of WATER)
Meal 3: Protein, Carb, Fat (1 bottle of WATER)
Meal 4: Protein shake or bar (A glass of WATER)
Meal 5: Protein, Carb, Fat (1 bottle of WATER)

Drink half of your weight (or more) in oz. of water per day.
(ex: 120lbs = drink 60oz. of water per day.)

Exercise: (Arrange this plan to fit your schedule).

Mon- light weights upper body, 30-60 min cardio, and abs
Tue- cardio 60 minutes (power walk, run, elliptical, etc.)
Wed- light weights lower body, 20-30 min cardio, and abs
Thu- cardio 60 minutes (power walk, run, elliptical, etc.)
Fri- light weights upper body, 30-60 min cardio, and abs
Sat- cardio 60 minutes (power walk, run, elliptical, etc.)

It’s important to sign up to a gym, perhaps get a workout partner/personal trainer it offers motivation.

This is my plan that I have made after doing research.It has worked for me, and I've helped friends lose weight this way! If you stick with it, it eventually becomes a lifestyle. If you are going to eat junk food, do it in moderation. Eventually you won't even crave it.I like to keep my diet as natural and organic as possible. Multivitamins are also a good idea, just to help strengthen your immune system.

If you are looking for a health book that offers more information on food, fitness, meal planning, and motivation; I am a big fan of the "Body-for-LIFE" book as well as the "Eating-for-LIFE" cookbook. It is what got me where I am today, living a healthy and satisfying life.

If you have any additional questions or just want someone to talk with, feel free to e-mail me! I love talking about this stuff as you can see!

Answer 2

My ideas? Try to do 200 minutes of cardio a week. Remember fat does not turn into muscle, so you need to lose your fat while putting on muscle. Work hard, but don't over 60 minutes at a time. Do planks and other abs exercises on alternate days.

On training days, do 5-10 minutes of cardio to warm up, then do your weight training. Do 30 to 60 minutes more of cardio, then go home.

The best time to eat is just after your workout within an hour when your metabolism is raging. For your muscles, incorporate some isolated soy protein or whey protein. Whey is more potent but the soy tastes better!

Don't look at your scale as the be all and end all, but get a measuring tape to check your progress, and that will show more tangible results.

Read magazines like Shape, Womens Fitness, Fitness, etc to get tips and to stay motivated.

Good luck and stick at it. This plan has lost me 20 lbs in 12 weeks so far, just go for it!

Answer 3

Mari Winsor Pilates.

Answer 4

get a personal trainer

Answer 5

instead of using credit card always use to pay for foods at grocery stores

Answer 6

Without question add weight training at least 3 times a week.Running will not firm you nearly the way weights will. Don't neglect leg training either. Legs and back are the largest muscles so you get the most bang for your buck.

Answer 7

Here are some ideas from my 360 Blog September 10

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 8

Eat grapefruit before each meal

Answer 9

enjoy sweet ice cream but go for ones made out of goat s milk or almond milk for half the calories

Answer 10

try drinking skim milk at breakfast instead of juice overweight people who drank skim milk for breakfast ate fewer calories