Im, 18 and extremely over weight. I need to get back in shape. What is the easiest way to do so?

Question

I went on the adkins diet 2 years ago and lost 80 lbs but Ive gained it all back. Im not motivated to exercise and I dont feel that Im eating too horribly. I want to do something about my weight but dont want to make too many drastic changes because I did that before and it brought all the weight back. I need a diet that will work with me so I can still enjoy tasety food and still go out with friends. What diets are good for me or what are some easy ways I can loose some pounds? HELP PLEASE!!!!

Answer 1

On Yahoo!Answers I find the same questions being asked repeatedly. A couple of common question amounts to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete.

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

First you must be willing to make some changes and stick with them. If you don't mind walking, begin walking every day for at least 15 mins then increase it 5 a week until you are up to at least 30 to 45 minutes to an hour with no problem.

Also drinking lots of water helps get rid of a lot of water the body has retained. I have a huge 64 oz cup I fill daily and drink it. When I first did this I was amazed at how much water weight I lost.

Next I began with protein shakes I make and eating (nibbling on protein bars or veggies) every 2 hours not huge meals either. It's best to eat approximately 6 meals a day again the big main meals being breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you nibble every couple hours you are sending a message to your body that it does not have to starve and produce fat, you will begin to speed up your metabolism thus motivating your body to lose weight.
Want more info feel free to contact me at joshua1vrs8. This is pretty much what I do and the results are incredible and I still enjoy the foods I love, just not as big a portions and no second helpings.
I learned that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Best wishes to you. Don't give up.

Answer 3

Whatever you do, stick to it. Making the right choices is a lifestyle choice. Focus on what you like to do that is a benificial replacement of poor diet decisions, rather than just avoiding negative behavoirs. Eating in moderation, limiting your sugar carbs, and excercising regularly is probably the easiest to incorporate as a lifestyle choice. I've had friends who have done well with Weight Watchers, and I think that is the soundest method and you have a great support group, but you have to be extremely disciplined to stick with it. I've been a big fan of the Herbalife products. The meal replacement shakes are filling and very nutritious... have one for breakfast, one for lunch, and a sensible dinner. Unlike slim fast or other shakes, the Herbalife shakes have much more nutritional value.

Answer 4

There is no EASY way to lose weight. But i do recommend walking & trying to eat healthier. I have lost 20kgs from doing this & my partner has lost 60kgs. just walking at your own pace & slowly build it up over time. Start off by walking short distances & then making them longer when you feel ready. Also stick to it every day or at least 5 times a day. Cut out all the sugary sh*t & control portion sizes. At the end of the day that is really only the way to lose wieght. Dont workout like a maniac. Just go at your own pace. I know how hard it is but the thing is it's not hard to lose the weight it's hard to get motivated. Thats the hardest part. Stick to it. After about a weeks worth of walking you will start to WANT to walk & it wont seem like such an effort anymore. its just getting started thats the hard bit!

Answer 5

someone said purging...wtf? anyways here's some tips... but before that i really agree with what that lady said about this being a lifestyle. Thats the only way how this is gonna work. Seasonal diets don't lead to long term results. And you might not enjoy some of the things that you have to do but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make it.... Now with that said, here are my tips

-eat 5-6 meals/day
-drink 1-2 gals of water
-include resistance training (progressive weight lifting)
-perform cardio atleast 2-3x/week
-if you train, then take 2 days off/week (atleast 1 minimum)
-get your diet on check. You can get a nutritionist to help you with that
-include a protein source in each meal
-for pre workout and post workout, take in a protein shake with a carb source, preverably oats (grinded/blended up wit protein) and a fruit of ur choice
- Get healthy fats in: Peanut butter, Various nuts,
-if you eat out the order stuff like: fish, white rice (w/no additives), brocoli or any other vege, chicken (grilled chicken sandwhich if at a fast food place...no fries or burgers, nor soda).
-Lose only .5-1.5 lbs /week (preferably 1) for safety reasons and to minimize muscle loss....(gaining/sustaining muscle will aide ur fat fighting crusade)
-Sleep 7-8 hours/nite (minimum 6.5 if partying)
-no drinking, smoking, or any kinds of recreational drugs
-Make a time schedule for things cuz if you aren't organized then this is gonna be tuff
-buy foods in bulk and cook in advance while eating in rations so that you don't have to waste too much time cooking the same thing everyday.
-Be patient....with time, hard work, and consistency you will be a winner
-supplements:protein shake, multi vitamin, fish oil/flax seed oil, creatine (if you choose to lift weights), and an anti-oxidant (preferably green tea since that aides in fat loss). These are the basics...you need nothing else. know that all the suppz/drugs in the world won't help unless you got the foundation on point and working.

FOUNDATION= Diet+training+Rest+Life style

Handle it!!! No more complaining, Just do it....

can't think of anymore but if u need anymore advice email me. I think my email is on here somewhere, and if not then call tyrone or maybe askjeeves..... Good Luck = )


edit: ooopz forgot to mention a couple of things...

- cardio only for 30-45 mins
- eat every 2-3 hours (until you get the 5-6 meals in)
- when you figure out your maintenance area for caloric intake subtract 200-300 calories to be in a good fat loss area.
- weight lift for a max 45-60 mins
- if weightlifting, start light but make sure u progress since the body adapts and once that happens. Start off with machines but then later go on to free weights
- if at one point you stop making gains in ur weight loss then do something called a cheat/hyper feed. This is wear you eat a lil more than you usually or have a meal that you've craved for a while. This will reboost ur metabolism. Soome people like myself do this once everyweek. Key word here is cheat meal, not cheat day.

Answer 6

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 7

If you want to lose weight, you have to do some sort of exercise. Find something you like... walking, hiking, swimming (although not great for losing fat, but still helps some), martial arts, sports... whatever... Evaluate exactly what you are eating, and just make it a lifestyle change. Drastic won't work, so change a little here and there. Try to make these things habitual, and you won't have to think about it as much.

Answer 8

how about instead of being in a diet, you go in a lifestyle change.
diets are temporary but a lifestyle is forever(hopefully)

How about instead of drinking Soda drink fruit juice and also drink a lot of water.

Start eating less junk food and don't completely stop because then you will just think about the food all day and be miserable

WALK for an half an hour a day since you are heavy you will burn more calories. every week increase your exercise.

Answer 9

Hi . I am also facing similar problem and am overweight by 25kgs. I can suggest u to try water therapy (if you believe in yoga). what u need to do is drink 1lt of water for every 15kg of ur body weight. this does not includes the water that u drink along with meals. but u must practice it very very religiously. it will take 2 months atleast. it sounds quite simple but is not so.

Have a normal diet-- eat at the right time and in the right quantity but dont leave anything. u can have pizzas , burgers , anything u like but they should be in limits. if u want, you can couple this with a 20-30 mins brisk walk.

u will find urself urinationg very very frequently but thats ok. trust me it works... my frnd lost 25 kgs and 12 inches in two mnths. i am also on this.

Answer 10

OK, if you don't want to make a drastic change you just have to think of it as a lifestyle change...really, if you lose many pounds but you stop your diet, you'll gain them all back, and them some...reduce your fat and sugar intake....eat more chicken breast and less hamburgers, buy diet soda instead of regular one, don't eat anything fried, eat more veggies and fruits...eat more fiber...make healthy choices...you don't have to think of them as diet....But you really need to exercise...get and walk at least for half an hour each day...it doesn't even have to be all week...just three days at leat...but notice that the less you'll excercise, the slower the weight loss will be..good luck.

Answer 11

All i can say is to eat everything in moderation and exercise at least 3 times a week! Also make sure you drink lots of water! It takes time and effort, i dont think there is an easy way because fad diets dont work.

Good luck, hope you can lose those kilo(pounds) :o)