How can I lose that last 25 lbs?!?

Question

I just had my third child 8 months ago and can't seem to shake off that last 25 lbs. For the first 4 months I ran every other day then when that got too hard on my knees I joined a gym and did cardio every other day with weight training on the days I didn't do cardio and I did this for another 3 months. But now, after seeing no noticable difference and still not being able to fit into my clothes, I gave in and bought a couple pairs of jeans. Is there anything I can do that will 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

You are probably still hanging onto hormones from the pregnancy and I'd guess, not eating properly. All of that jogging and gym work won't get that weight off if you don't use a moderate diet. Stress will also make you hang onto the weight. Try walking or strolling the baby for 1/2 hr a day. Moderate exercise is much better on your knees. Also, look into the "Sugar Busters" diet. It will give you clues on portion control and glycemic index (good carbs and bad carbs) that will make a huge difference in how you feel. You have to eat to lose weight. But you must eat the right things. The "exchange diet" is also very good. Godloveya...hug the baby for me.

Answer 3

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. Congrats on your progress so far, though!

Answer 4

Eat goats cheese as opposed to regular cheese. It contains 40 percent fewer calories than the cheese made out of cow’s milk.

Answer 5

People who plan their weekly meals will be more successful at losing weight than those who don’t. Plan your dishes to include healthy carbs such as special potato and wholegrain pasta, green vegetables and lean proteins, buy all of the ingredients in advance and don’t be tempted to nibble on out or order in.

Answer 6

Suck the item in. Consciously hold in and contract your stomach muscles while you’re walking, sitting for your desk or making the evening meal. This will help to strengthen your ab muscles and your core, and provide you with one step closer to the flatter stomach.

Answer 7

Get a treadmill and just walk for 30 minutes every day, you will feel the different, it works for me.

Answer 8

Beans, beans, are great for your heart, the more consume the more you... lose weight actually. Super-effective and full regarding fibre, beans will regulate your appetite and decelerate the rate at which your current stomach empties, meaning you stay fuller for longer.

Answer 9

Suck the item in. Consciously hold in and contract your ab muscles while you’re walking, sitting for your desk or making the dinner. This will help to strengthen your abdominals and your core, and enable you to get one step closer to any flatter stomach.

Answer 10

Eat goats cheese rather than regular cheese. It contains 40 % fewer calories than the cheese made out of cow’s milk.