What's the best way to lose weight?

Question

Do dieting pills work? Does anyone have any workout or eating tips?

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

I determined the booklet to be very informative and handy to learn. I've misplaced 17 kilos in 12 days, I'm simply worried that I'm wasting an excessive amount of weight, too swiftly. I will admit I have not adopted the consultant precisely. I'm now not sticking flawlessly to the indexed meals and meal plans (however almost always) and doing little or no endeavor, however the weight continues flying off. It certainly works and if I'd adopted it precisely I consider it might scare the residing daylights out of me for the reason that of the quantity that I'd lose. So thank you once more for the understanding. I've by no means bought whatever like this earlier than for the reason that they're commonly filled with trash, however 3WD has been a great shock. Get began at present!

Answer 3

It depends on whether you want to bulk up your muscles at the same time or get long lean muscles. Personally, every day food-wise this is what I do:

---Morning when I'm on my way out the door-- Slim Fast Optima snack bar and my One-A-Day Weight Smart Vitamin
---Lunchtime-- Slim Fast Optima Meal Bar and an apple or orange.
---Dinnertime-- Lean Pockets, SmartOne Meal, etc-- something you have all the calories right in front of you on the box makes it real easy to make sure you're not over-eating. I also typically have some celery or cucumbers with some Hidden Valley Fat Free Ranch Dressing (which is probably the healthiest salad dressing you can possibly find-- go ahead and look at the nutrition stats)

I'm using a trial version of Personal Trainer One (http://www.download.com/Personal-Trainer-One/3000-2129_4-10073313.html) which has really helped me to keep track of the number of calories I've taken in and how much exercise I have done for the day. It also lets you create a regiment which will tell you exactly how many calories per day you should eat to lose the amount of weight you would like to in however much time you want.

That way, I keep my body nourished. Then, I always do some sort of cardio workout. I use Ten Minute Solutions tapes. It's nice because there are 5 different workouts and depending on the amount of time you have and how much cardio you'd like to do, you can pick and choose 10 minutes to 50 minutes of cardio >> http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com/index.asp?p=CatalogDetail&SKU=DV13106&PriCatID=2

Then, I do area specific workouts to get rid of the fat and tone up my muscles. For this I use 10 Minute Rapid Results Pilates (http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com/index.asp?p=CatalogDetail&SKU=DV14625&PriCatID=2). I like them because they're not real strenuous, they don't tire you out for the rest of the day, but they do help strength and stamina and make your muscles leaner.

If you want to bulk up your muscles, I've always liked Tae Bo. I used to do the entire tape series, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. It's nice because it works your whole body, and if you're looking to bulk up or do something a bit more strenous, it's something you can look into.

I haven't lost a lot of "pounds" per se, (In a week I've lost about 4 pounds) but I've definetly seen a dramatic decrease in the fat around the areas I've been doing the pilates.

=)

Answer 4

Dieting pills do not work! They might help you temporarily but they are not the answer. Try walking 3-5 miles a day. When you eat stay away from the sugar, deep fried foods, and eating out (no temptations.) white potatoes, rice and bread. Always eat breakfast it revs up your metabolism for the day. Instead of using a dinner plate to eat from try a smaller salad plate. For some reason this helped me out made me feel like i have already had a whole plate of food and i shouldn't go back for more. drink a small glass of low-fat milk after or before each meal. this will help you feel full so you won't overeat. This is how i went from 250 to 158lbs! Still trying.

Answer 5

You might think about trying this book called "The Movie Star Diet" by Steve Simmons. It helped me lose thirty pounds in 2 1/2 months when I didn't think anything would work. My goal to begin with was only 20 lbs! It has a really easy plan to follow and an excellent workout to use as well.

Answer 6

NO PILLS... I once had a heart attack while taking one and I'm only 20.. I took 1 and the dose was supposed to be 2. any ways.. eat SMALL meals every 3 hours... you can look it up in the yahoo search engine "3-hour diet" and lots of cardio and little weight training. I lost 17 pds in 2 months

Answer 7

Today there is too much information available on losing weight that has become more confusing and sometimes difficult to follow. It’s actually very easy to lose weight if you follow my weight loss tips.


* Be in right frame of mind
Before you can start any diet program you need to be in the right frame of mind. If you do not feel good about yourself you probably will not want to choose healthy foods. You cannot expect the act of going on a diet to make you feel better about yourself. The only way you can choose to eat a healthy diet to lose weight is if you have a positive self-image.

* Eat whole food
Top weight loss tips
Eat whole foods that are as natural as possible. When you eat whole foods that are full of nutrients your body will know how much to eat and how much not to eat. You do not have to count calories because your body is a wonderful machine.

* Eat fresh fruit
Eat at least two servings of fresh fruit every day. Choose whatever type of fruit is in season.

* Drink enough water
Drink the best weight loss supplement known to man, water. Most people do not know the difference from being hungry for food or thirsty for water. A great deal of times people eat when they should drink. Most likely you will not feel as hungry if you are getting enough water. You will be satisfying the thirst, which is confused for hunger. Water also helps you digest food better. Drinking water before you eat will help fill you up.

* Always chew your food
Always chew your food well. Chewing your food well will ensure that you get the most nutrients out of your food. Getting the most nutrients will satisfy your body therefore you will eat less. Another benefit of chewing well is that it helps aid in digestion.

* Take small meals
Eat small, frequent meals in a day. Large meals tax your digestion system, making it work harder. Taking too much time in between meals makes you hungrier for the next meal.

* Include protein at meal
Include good sources of protein at meal, chicken, fish, legumes, peanut, cottage cheese, eggs or yogurt.

* Shut off TV while eating
Shut off the TV whenever you eat – that includes meals and snacks. Studies show that we automatically eat larger portions when we snack in front of the tube, and typically those foods are high in fat and sugar, which means excess calories!

* Increase your physical activity ( Cardio )
Increase your physical activity. Most people are over weight because of a lack of physical activity. Start walking more, bicycling, walks your dog for longer periods of time, swim, dance and leave the car at home when you can. It’s important that you choose a physical activity that you enjoy because you’ll stick with it.

*Weight training ( Light 5 to 10 lbs )
buy some dumbells that are 5-10 lbs and do some exercises with them. Search google: Dumbell exercises and you will see a bunch of useful links along with pictures and description on how to do it. When gaining weight but your doing everything correctly and see changes in your shape, that means you are building muscle and muscle weighs more than fat so dont be alarmed when that happens

Answer 8

Drink more water, less carbs, exercise, dont eat past 6 pm and try not to drink too much caffiene

Just some things that worked for me.

Diet pills work, but you gain all the weight back once you stop taking them because you are soooo hungry,,,,

Answer 9

Weight Watchers, eveyone who I know who has actually stuck with the plan has lost weight and it is a healthy way to lose the weight and keep it off.

Answer 10

Remember, losing weight is a lifestyle change. Don't "diet", do "live right".

Answer 11

the diet doesn't work.just don't eat too much,do sports and exercises every day.and the best thing is to RUN