Losing weight? HELP?

Answer 1

First, for all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it.


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

Helpful Tips to lose weight
Many people are really exasperated with the same old tips for weight loss. Therefore we have added a few different tips to lose weight below:

Always find a chance to move around. Do not use a vehicle if you are able to walk. Preferably run around if you have the time. Almost 70% of your calories are burned in this process. Instead of depending on magical ways to lose weight, apply your own efforts by eating less and moving more.

Reduce your junk food intake and stick to wholesome foods such as fruits and vegetables. Imagine your body as the machine to burn your weight and actually perform the workouts.
Do not plan dieting because it is not a solution for a longer duration. You can easily feel tired by following a particular diet pattern for a shorter duration. It reduces your rate of metabolism by draining away the water content and retaining the fat content.

Schedule an exercise program almost daily and gradually increase your workout. Reduce one spicy meal in a week and work towards healthy meal consumption.

Think in realistic terms and decide to lose about one to two pounds per week. Even if you lose weight rapidly you will revert back to the original weight soon. Contact people who have successfully lost weight and follow the same procedures they have tried out.

So if you follow these tips you are sure to achieve your targeted goal and lose weight consistently.

Answer 3

You're doing this all wrong.

You're looking for a "diet" that you can "do" until you get "back into shape." Then, of course, you can stop "doing it."

That's allll wrong.

You need to look at a LIFESTYLE change that will last FOREVER. You know... eating differently, getting more exercise, etc. In fact, it will demand that you change your lifestyle as much as if you CHANGED RELIGIONS.

From the top:

Your body is a machine. You take in fuel (carbs in your food, measured in calories) that your body burns (exercise). IF you take in more than you burn then you will gain weight, as extra energy is stored in an ever-increasing number of fat cells. If you burn more than you take in, then your body uses up the stored energy, although the fat cells remain.

When you "diet" like you describe, your body gets primed to gain it back even faster. You get more and more fat cells each time you gain weight, and when you lose, the brain thinks, "Well, we're prone to shortages of food, so we'll store it even FASTER next time."

Instead, you need to find a way of eating where your fuel intake is at the very level that your body is burning. In addition, you need to bump up your exercise level. To lose one pound per week, you need to change your calorie / exercise balance so that you either burn 3500 more calories per week, or decrease your intake by 3500 a week, or some combination that equals 3500.

One carton of McD's fries equals an one-hour killer -- and I mean KILLER, as in running, treadmill, etc -- workout. However, you can fill up on many other things, such as veggies, and not have very many calories at all, certainly not as many carbs. Sooo... you can eat fries, but then you have to pay the price for an hour.

Last thing... don't do diet pills. They do one or more of the following: Make you poop more, make you hyper (caffeine effect), suppress appetite. When you stop the pills, the weight will come back WITH A VENGENCE. While you take the pills, you'll have health risks from the side effects.

Answer 4

Stop counting you re not going to be lose weight overnight Just concentrate on diet and exercise

Answer 5

Are you losing weight? Do you want to? Do ypu want to know if I am I losing weight? What's the question?

Answer 6

My wife and i did minor changes. We started using the smaller utensils and cut the portion down. Don't stop enjoying the foods just cut down on the amount. Next our lifestyle is changed also I don't drink soda anymore. Water, Wine,Beer. in a limited amount. The last is Isogenixs works wonders for the cleansing the new you. You need to clean your colon, all or most off your intestinal tracks. Bottle Water if you can of boil water then put it in the fridge to save money on bottle water.

Answer 7

Having less than 1 200 calories a day may slow down your metabolism

Answer 8

well i lost 20 pounds since last year in the 8th grade. all i do is work out every night before i go to bed (burns all the calories i ate for dinner) and i started playing soccer, and started eating right. by working out every night i mean doing different types of sit up styles (30 of each) hope it helps.

Answer 9

Exercise and a good diet.... cut the crap out of your diet it will help alot. switch from regular soda to diet, or even better WATER. then walk, run, lift weights,dance. something that gets your heart rate up and keeps it up.

Answer 10

rake the leaves as a family

Answer 11

spice things up with 35 minutes of foreplay and 45 minutes of sex in different positions