i need help loosing weight?

Question

im 18 and 5'5'' and weight 171 pounds! i feel so insecure!

Answer 1

On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. 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

Eating healthy foods are a good idea but even if you eat a lot of healthy foods, you won't lose that much weight. The key is to eat in the right portions and limit how much you eat each time you sit down to do so. Watch your calorie intake- it should not exceed what you are burning with exercise. Exercise and being active is another key part to losing weight. Try eating lots of veggies, fresh fruit, whole grain breads (don't eat too many carbs), lean fish, and water. Snacking is also a good idea so that you don't eat so much at meals but make sure your snacks are also healthy (apples, carrots, a handful of low-calorie/high fiber cereal). Remember to have self-control and that you are the only person that can change yourself! Good luck!

Answer 3

aww. well, exercise is ALWAYS the best.
and eating in moderation.
try exercising at least five times a week for about an hour and a half or so.
take some friends with you to the gym. it doesn't have to be torture, it can be fun :)
remember that wanting to eat something and being hungry are two different things.
only eat when you are TRULY hungry and drinking a lot of water is good too. it curbs hunger AND it cleanses inside you.
dieting doesn't have to be all hard-core. it's about changing your lifestyle and eating healthier.
good luck!

Answer 4

There's no replacement for eating a good healthy diet and getting lots of exercise. People do better when they try things they like, so how about swimming (indoor pool) or try bicucling or try running--how about hiking? As for food--do not skip breakfast-people who skip breakfast weigh more on average thna those who eat it. Why? You start the day with a good base in your stomach, which help you from overeating later on. How about making a smoothie with skim milk and frozen berries? Yummy!

Answer 5

To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in -- period. Short term diets are useless. Successful weight management requires a lifestyle change. If you eat healthy and exercise regularly you will succeed. If you starve yourself or seriously limit your caloric intake you will fail. I find that a low carb/no sugar diet works perfect for me. Good luck!

Answer 6

Its Simple Really..........Get Moving A.K.A Walking, Running, Cycling

Answer 7

I've heard absolutely great things about Weight Watchers. Everyone I know who has tried it has had success.

Answer 8

eat in moderation - eat lots of fruits n vegetables and drink lots n losts of h2o