How do you lose your weight?

Question

What's the most effective diet to go on I want to get twenty pounds worth of results by November fourteenth. Any help on that and the strech marks on my legs would be greatly appreciated!! :P

Answer 1

Your goal seems realistic. Here are some ideas from my 360 Blog of 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 2

If you want to lose weight, it has to be a lifelong commitment because once you stop dieting/exercising, you get your weight back plus more.

Incorporate healthy food choices and exercise into your daily routine. Go jogging in the morning, do some sit ups or whatever before bed.

Answer 3

Eat more frequent, smaller meals. DON'T eat to get completely full. Note: pay attention to the grams of carbs and fat. Protein is good, though. You can eat a decent amount of carbs from healthy food sources whenever you want though, especially if you are about to do some cardio.
However, Control yourself, not too many junk foods.
Do Cardio 3-4 times a week.
After a month, you should see some excellent results.

Answer 4

Can't help you on the stretch marks...those babies are there to stay. Stretch marks are pretty much scars, and will fade with time, but will never completely dissappear. In order to lose a pound, you need to eliminate or burn an extra 3500 calories. If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, this means 1000 calories burned or not eaten a day. Try to cut out 500 calories from your current menu, and burn 500 through physical activity. This is the safest way, and also will keep the weight from coming right back on.

FYI low carb diets are good for quick weight loss, but also put your body in an unsustainable toxic state to burn that fat. Everyone I've ever known on Atkins that lost weight and went off the program put it back on in record speed.

Answer 5

A quick way to lose 8 pounds is to cut your head off. Good Luck with your weight loss!

Answer 6

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 7

Well, I going to the gym three times a week and then, I watch what I eat, trying to avoid sugar and salt as much as I can.

I won't go on diets anymore. So far, I have tried a few and I always end up quitting. I don't want to be starved.

Answer 8

if only we could have a dime for every time we've seen this question asked......
through all the hundreds of times we've seen people ask for help losing weight the answer remains the same... eat appropriate amounts of healthy food and get exercise.

Answer 9

Eat less of everything, and extra-less or none of fattening things. Use a small plate. Don't eat out. Skip dessert. No sodas. No fast food. Lots of vegetables and fruit to fill you up. Don't skip a meal, it makes you too hungry to resist food, and slows down your metabolism.
If you're serious about weight loss, you dan do it. I promise this will work for you, and for anyone else, too!

Answer 10

cut out fats, one portion per meal and EXERCISE. Walk just 30 minutes a day.

Answer 11

low carb.... I've lost 17 pounds in 3 weeks... so far.
Eating chicken, tuna, eggs, etc along with 2 salads a day... and drink lots of water:o)

After you reach your goal, you can ease carbs back in!

Good luck!