Need to lose weight?

Question

Help! I am currently 215 pounds. I would like to go back down to 155 by February 1, 2007. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Your goal is a little aggressive. I'd suggest taking off 30 lbs during that time and continuing to your goal by May 1. Here are some effective and realisitic thoughts 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 work 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

That is a lot of weight to lose in four months. Generally doctors do not recommend losing anymore than 1-2 lb per wk. Which can put you into the category of losing approx 8-10 lbs by Feb 1st. In order to achieve a healthy weight start to count calories and minimize your fat intake. Try to avoid any processed foods and refrain from eating any take out. Subsituting a slim fast shake for a meal is also an option. Of course, exercise is key.. two to three times a week for approx 45 minutes. Start with walking, then go up to jogging, also joining a class such as aerobics or tae bo at the local gym will give you a support group that are also trying to lose weight.

Answer 3

This is what worked for me. I did 200 minutes of cardio every week. I did planks and other abs exercises on alternate days. On training days, I did 5-10 minutes of cardio to warm up, then weight training, followed by more cardio.

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.

The good news is that for a lot of women, the waistline is the first to go!

Good luck!

Answer 4

I have the same exact thing...weight and goal date. How ironic? Well, I actually just started my quest to a better body and I consume the following:
*2 liters of water a day (buy a one liter water bottle of fuji or poland springs and refill it twice a day it goes by faster than you think)
*eat MOSTLY fruits and veggies all day until dinner time, where you get your protine.
-by mostly I mean you can have an english muffin and a handful of peanuts.
*Peanuts are high in protine and have fiber. This also provides you with the "good" fats and oils that you need.
*for your meat eat a lean meat like chicken
*incorporate foods high in fiber. I love Thomas' Light English Muffins.
*Spruce up your veggies to make them tastier. I buy huge bags of frozen veggie mix's and put them in a pan with a tbs of olive oil and add seasoning, theyre awesome!
*When eating you meal at the end of the day, eat allllllllll of your veggies first, it will help you to fill up faster on the good stuff.


Also, dont deprive yourself of sweets or you will binge. Buy little mini snickers bars or something like that and allow yourself one during your period or if youve had a good week sticking to your diet, or you did an extra 20 minutes working out.

GOOD LUCK! IM WITH YA SISTER!

Answer 5

i think you know what you have to do. start exercising every day, cut out junk food, and start eating more fruits vegetables, and lean meat. The first 20-30 lbs will be easy. The other 30 will be the hard part. just keep it up and you will do it in no time.

Answer 6

Excluding refined sugars (candy and sweets) drinking LOTS of water, and eating healthier meals all along with a daily exercise routine will without a doubt help you reach your goal.

Answer 7

The Best Exercises To Lose Weight
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/best-exercises-to-lose-weight.html


Helpful Tips to lose weight
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/helpful-tips-to-lose-weight.html


Healthy Weight Loss : Start right away
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/healthy-weight-loss-start-right-away.html


Tips to maximize your metabolism.
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/tips-to-maximize-your-metabolism.html

Answer 8

Start working out.

Answer 9

how 'bout you fast for lets say 1-2weeks, that means you do NOT eat anything... just make sure you drinks tons of water.... with your daily exercise you will surely reach your goal.

Answer 10

read tips on weight loss and exercise programs to help you better on this site