I have gained alot of weight over 3 years, I am worried about myself. How can I lose weight, any suggestions?

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

Take in less calories and take regular exercise. Even walking briskly for 2 miles 4 times a week is a help.
You need not go hungry but eat less fatty food such as half fat cheese, go easy on the drink as spirits are loaded with calories. Do not eat butter or fried food and cut down on pickles etc. No jam, no honey, no shop bought cakes, except as occasional treats. No biscuits, eat oat cakes instead. Eat porridge as most other cereals contain loads of sugar and fat. I did all of these things and I am still 3 stone lighter than I was even after 3 years. You just get out of the habit of eating the wrong things.

Answer 3

The universal law for loosing or gaining weight is energy imput versus energy output (the calories you put in such as food versus the calories you spend such as exercise)
Increase your exercise and eat a healthy balanced diet --- try 6 small meals a day as this increases your metabolism, try not eating carbs after 4pm and join a gym ---they have some great fun classes to participate in. Also don't forget the water!

Loosing weight is a change of behaviour --you have to be ready to make the change
Good luck

Answer 4

I have lost 35 lbs. in the last 4 weeks by simply taking all the food in my house that was bad for me and replacing it all with good. That means no sweet snack foods or chips to munch on are available when I get weak and want to binge. Eat small meals 6 times a day of nutritious foods. Anything with whole grains, vegetables, fresh fruits, low fat or non fat dairy products, 100 % juices with no sugar added, Lean meats such as turkey breast or very lean beef, drink a lot of water to help flush your system of impurities and start on a good multivitamin. Start an exercise program to fit your schedule. Most times a 20 minute work out 3 times a week is a great starting point. Check with your physician before starting anything to vigorous, you do not want to hurt yourself. My last advice is believe in yourself and do not get discouraged if you cheat occasionally. Cheating once a week is a way of satisfying your cravings. Remember we are all human, therefore not perfect. Good luck, I will be rooting for you.

Answer 5

I recently attended an Anthony Robbins seminar where on the 4th day we learnt about healthy living. We were set a 10day challenge to eat ONLY live/natural foods...so nothing processed.
We had to cut out all meat, dairy products, fried stuff tea/coffee, chocolates etc and not mix carbs and proteins in the same meal!
My diet changed from kebabs/fried chicken etc to starting the day with fruits and then eating bread and lots of sald/vegetables for lunch and dinner. Also we were meant to do 1 hr of exercise 6 out of the ten days...i feel full of energy and have lost weight since then! Ive decided to keep it going as this really does work! Try it for yourself, fatty!! :-)

Answer 6

Change your metabolism by having a baby and breast feeding it. When it gets older it will eat all your chocolate bars, sweets and pastries and possibly force you into poverty as you chase it around.
If this is not convenient, find a way to distract yourself from the pleasure of eating, finding other pleasures nearby. Only eat what you know your body needs, and then add the low calorie fillers such as more raw vegetables than you can stand and gallons of herbal tea. Use a ton of spices and pepper instead of salt. Brace yourself for a first month of constant desire, and discipline your mind to direct your body. Relearn the satisfactions of the strength of your body as you walk and run everywhere you can. Do not use a bathroom scale, only a measuring tape. Write down everything you eat and correlate with your measurements.

Answer 7

I gained weight after a series of operations and found that the best way of losing it was simply to keep a low calorie intake, eat healthily and not deny myself anything i fancy! i've lost over a stone and a half so far!

Answer 8

Mustard is a secret bulge-buster. It boosts your metabolism and raises natural ephadrine, the hormone of which burns fat. According to Jeya Holly, professor of human nutrition from Oxford Brookes University, just a tablespoon within your food can reduce a flabby waist by 20 percent!

Answer 9

Cut your calorie intake and start a balanced exercise program. Do not try to rush the weight loss. Instead, continue healthy living habits for life.

Answer 10

People who plan their weekly meals are usually successful at losing weight than individuals who don’t. Plan your dishes to include healthy carbs such as fairly sweet potato and wholegrain pasta, greens and lean proteins, buy all the ingredients in advance and don’t be tempted you can eat out or order in.

Answer 11

Change your diet. You know what you should and shouldn't be eating. Exercise. 1/2 hour a day at first then work your way up to and hour. The End.