I wanna lose weight But i don't wanna do it in a unhealthy way?

Question

I wanna lose weight but I don't wanna do it in an unhealthy way and i don't have the money for a gym membership or diet pills. i can't go outside much because of the cold weather and low immune system. So can you please help me?

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

There is a million things you can do. :) But when you said low immune system the first thing i have to say now is talk to your doc and see if an exercise program is good for you and Way would be your limitations. Okay now that that's out of the way you need to start eating healthy. Cut your calories to what you need in a day.here is a website that will give you an idea about what you need. http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Now if you break your meals into 5 small meals a day you're metabolism will go up. Also cut the refined sugars out or your diet. That means candy and sodas, you know all the good stuff.
Now about the gym, look around. I know where I am at Worlds Gym had a special going on, no sign up fee and 20 dollars a month. 20 dollars a months is not bad i saved at least that when i cut the junk food out of my diet. That deal was a no contract deal too so you can quit when you like or put the account on hold.
Okay now down to business. Working out to loose weight, the key is getting your heart rate at your target heart rate for at least 45 minutes, about 60 minutes is good.
Here is a website for target heart rates.
http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/hr.shtml
Lift light weights for alot of reps. That helps define your muscles and burn fat. But if you can get out to run that would be good, or bikeing, or stairs ect....
Good luck dont pick goals that are not possible, be patent and give it some time.

Answer 3

You are a smart girl . You can lose weight without pills or a gym membership if you do a few simple things . I am not sure what you mean by "low immune system" or if you have any other underlying health issues so you should check with your doctor before starting an exercsie program.

FIRST - What you eat is 60% of your results you need to make sure that you are taking in fewer calories than you are burning - There . The first is to figure out how many calories your body needs each day - add 15% to the number the calculator gives you and subtract 500 - That will give you an idea of how many calories you need to lose weight .

THEN - check out the link with the USRDA guidelines , it will tell you how many servings you need from each group and teach you about serving sizes and portions (most people underestimate their caloric intake by 800 a day!)

EXERCISE - You will need to get in 3 days of cardiovascular , 20 - 30 minutes a day (to strip fat and energize you) and 2 sessions of resistance training (to shape your body and add a bit of muscle to help you burn fat)

DVD's like TaeBo or the Firm are wonderful to do at home (you can search online for the best prices) or

you can start with simple body weight exercises like pushups, wall squats, planks and dips for some resistance training and

If you have stairs, you can go simply walk the stairs - start with what you are comfortable with and work up to 20 - 30 minutes

No stairs? Try something simple like jumping jacks or simple jogging in place while you watch tv -

The most important thing is that you get started.. at a level at which you are comfortable and work up

Answer 4

Healthy eating is a good start. I joined Weight Watchers three different times in the past 30 years and lost all of my weight (25 - 30 lbs.) each time, before I ever exercised.

You don't have to buy expensive food and they will teach you a very healthy way of eating. Of course you should exercise but you can lose the weight through proper eating habits first.

Good luck.

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 (not backbreaking) workout as well.

Answer 6

Eat 5 6 small meals a day instead of 3

Answer 7

Music makes you eat more. According to a survey by the journal Psychology along with Marketing, soft, classical tunes encourage that you take time over your food, so you consume more foods. So, switch off – silence will make you more aware of what you’re putting in your mouth.

Answer 8

Welll you have to start by eating healthy. Do you have stairs in your home? You could use them as a stair stepper. You can also use cans of vegetables as weights. Lots of things you can do with the things you already have. One of my favorite ways of exercise is to play some of my favorite music and just dance around the house.

Answer 9

It’s Friday brunch time and you just can’t stop going back with regard to seconds. But hang on! Stop to get a minute and suck on another strong mint. The flavour will certainly put you off that third plate of chicken korma/roast beef/sushi medley.

Answer 10

Limit your intake of food, and exercise. You can jog in place at home or do some aerobics...."jogging in place " is very simple an practical. and do it regularly. if you are forced to eat. Eat in divided meals. Eat four times a day but with less amount of food each.

Answer 11

Music forces you to eat more. According to research by the journal Psychology and Marketing, soft, classical tunes encourage that you take time over your dinner, so you consume more food. So, switch off – silence will make you more aware of what you’re adding your mouth.