Here are my recent thoughts on this subject from my 360 Blog of September 10:
Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.
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.
To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.
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
2006-09-26 04:44:49
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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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!
2006-09-26 03:39:41
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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If you are SERIOUS about losing weight go to this website. I am a weight-loss coach and I found that these programs WORK. You just have to stick with it. Fill out the contact page and someone will call or e-mail you back with the information you need. Good Luck
2006-09-26 06:34:40
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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As a personal trainer, I get aksed this question so often that if I had a dollar for everytime I heard it, I wouldn't have to work for Gold's! LOL. Anyway, sorry, but none of these flavor-of-the-month fad diets (and yes--I'm inlcuding Atkins!) is a substitute for good old fashioned work. The only effective way to lose weight and KEEP IT OFF is to eat less and exercise more. Or eat healthier and exercise more. It's basic math, really: you have to burn more calories than you take in.
And don't look at it as a "program" or a diet, because that implies short-term. And indeed many dieters only lose their weight short-term! Look at it as a lifestyle change. Simply decide you're going to get healthier and stay healthier and begin exercising.
I know alot of people are going to get mad about me dissing Atkins. I wont go into it here--email if you want to know why its a terrible diet. I will tell you that I don't know ONE athlete or even person who works out who did that diet. Its a diet for sedentary people mainly.
Best of luck with your new healthy life!
2006-09-26 03:47:52
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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Try some weight loss programs and more on this site
2006-09-26 03:21:25
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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jenny craig. cost a bit about 80.00 a week. but i was loosing up to 5 - 10 a week, i did not feel weak or hungry at all. very good program. If i had themoney I will go again.
2006-09-26 03:24:30
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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Do your trips to market with a list and an occasion limit; that way, you're more unlikely that to stray into the highly processed foods section.
2016-02-17 14:21:28
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answer #7
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answered by Griselda 3
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Use a vegetable bean dip including hummus instead of ranch dressing or maybe a fatty cream-based dip.
2017-03-10 22:46:48
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answer #8
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answered by ? 3
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Do your food shopping with a list and an occasion limit; that way, you're not as likely to stray into the refined foods section.
2016-01-29 05:25:33
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answer #9
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answered by ? 3
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swap out brown rice or quinoa yes even the new super food which both add up to about 220 calories per cup for cauliflower or roasted peppers that are only about 30 calories per cup
2016-02-23 22:40:32
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answer #10
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answered by Kasey 3
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Decaf coffee is a good low-calorie fluid when you're having cravings (and an excellent source of antioxidants).
2016-07-06 00:55:49
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answer #11
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answered by ? 3
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