Do you believe or Not?

Question

I have been exercising for 5 weeks and sticking with a diet. I'm even trying now the cabbage soup diet. But my weight still the same 150 sometimes 194.8 LBS but all the time is stuck with 150 LBS or 151. I am 5.5 tall and last year managed to lose ponds easily to reach 138LBS but I have put on weight through Summer time and now wanna lose 30 LBS to be in shape that I ever wanted. I joined 24 hours Fitness Club, and NO results at all at all at alllllllllll Please tell me what to do and please don't say it's muscles because I have fat everywhere especially in my ABS

Answer 1

Let's start by clarifying a couple of things:
1. weight is not the best indicator of your health (because muscle weighs more than fat, two people of the same height can weigh the same and be drastically different in terms of health).
2. Body fat percentage is a true indicator.
3. Fat is burned by reducing overall caloric value.
4. If you burn more than you consume, you will lose fat (lower body fat percentage)
5. If you exercise and strength train, you can burn more calories and replace fat with muscle which will allow you to burn calories even when you rest.

If you are trying to lower your body fat percentage there are literally hundreds of ideas out there. In my opinion, the best way, which has been proven time and time again, is a two part method: Eat right and exercise. First, exercise is a no-brainer. You have to burn more calories than you take in for exercise to be considered exercise. How you do it is worth another answer all to itself. So, that brings us to the Eating Right part. If you understand how your body works, you've got a head start on the world. Food is fuel for the body. Once you've accepted that concept as more important than the idea that food is entertainment, then the rest will be relatively easy. If you are American, and I assume you are, the Nutrition Facts label that you find on all foods bought in the U.S. are the next thing you need to understand. Go grab something from your kitchen (i.e. jar of peanut butter or a bag of chips...anything with a nutrition label). OK, yeah you need vitamins and minerals and all that. But focus on these three items: FAT, PROTEIN, and CARBOHYDRATES.
Let's take these one at a time:

FAT is basically divided into good fats and bad fats. The body needs good fats (mono- and poly-unsaturateds). You'll find these in stuff like olives and avocados where the bad fat is minimal if not nonexistent. The bad fats are your saturated and trans fats that you'll find in meats and oils. If you are trying to lose weight, keep these to an absolute minimum. My suggestion (based on a 1500-2000 calorie diet) is to limit yourself to no more than 15g of saturated fat per day. This is hard to do if you're used to eating fast food. It's also hard to do if you drink whole milk, eat cheese (even the 2% variety), and eat fried foods. All of these are high in bad fats. The good news is that you can substitute your diet to eat the very things you like to eat but with better ingredients. If you eat cheese, buy fat free. If you drink milk, buy skim. Slowly take yourself down from whole milk or 2% to 1% before going skim/fat free if the transition is too radical to do all at once. If you eat a lot of ground beef, use the extra lean variety (96% fat free/4% fat), or substitute lean ground turkey instead. Do whatever you have to do to get the bad fat grams down to less than 15 per day.

PROTEIN: The building block of nutrition (aside from your vitamins and minerals) is protein. You need it strengthen your muscles and it will be essential with your exercise routine. Without protein, you can't build muscle tone or lean body mass. And guess what? Just having lean body mass (muscles) allows your body to burn more calories even when you are sleeping. Therefore, you are able to lose weight (bad weight, that is) just by sleeping. But, you have to exercise!! Don't forget that. You can find foods that are high in protein but also high in saturated fat, so be careful. Stick to poultry (chicken, turkey), fish (tuna is a great source), and beans. Don't fry your meats because if you do, you just added a bunch of bad fat to your otherwise healthy protein filled meal. Instead, grill, broil, or bake. You can do this! Don't forget to exercise to exponentially reap the rewards of consuming protein.

CARBS. In my opinion, the no-carb diet is crap, because you need carbs for energy, especially because you are exercising! That's right, you can't forget you are supposed to be exercising. The trick is choosing the good carbs. You'll see on your nutrition label Total Carbohydrates and Sugars. Sugars should be kept to a minimum and should be avoided within hours of going to sleep. The calories associated with them get stored (for energy) but are not easily burned when it comes time to burn them. Therefore, it's harder to lose the weight associated with them. That's why it's not good to eat lots of candy, cookies, and ice cream that have a lot of sugar. The other kinds of carbs (complex carbohydrates) are essential. You can get these from grains and potatoes. Good stuff!!

Now that you have a brief understanding of these three nutrition components, time to get to it. Not as easy as it sounds? That's because, you're human. If you treat your body right (and I mean very right, by limiting your saturated and trans fats, limiting your sugar carbs, and eating plenty of protein), then you deserve a day when you can eat whatever you want. The body has cravings and you should be able to fulfill these cravings IF you can stand to wait until the end of the week. I call this one day of decadence your cheat day. After 12 weeks of exercising and eating right in this manner, you'll get to the point where you don't even crave the bad stuff anymore.

For more on this method, I encourage you to check out www.bodyforlife.com. The principals I wrote about are spelled out in greater detail there. Consult your doctor before drastically changing any diet or exercise routine. Good luck!

Answer 2

You may have hit a plateau which is very common. I always hit one too. I'm actually at one right now. I lose weight fairly quickly and then all of a sudden...nothing. I could still be eating right and exercising the same, too. The worst thing to do is to get discouraged even though it may be really hard not to. I know you don't want to hear that you aren't losing weight because of muscle build up, but thats also a possibility. You may still have fat, but the muscle underneath is building and tightening up. Add those 2 together and you won't see weight loss. Keep going at it though. It may take a while, but you will see results. You also may want to change up your routine. Maybe your body also adapted to what you do. Good luck!

Answer 3

You have reached what is called a Plateau.
Your body is fighting to remain at a comfortable 150-190 lbs. Don't give up because it will come, but it will take some time. I know because I was there, then when I stopped worrying about it, I lost the weight without trying and it's stayed off too.

Answer 4

continue with the healthy eating plan and exercise maybe mix it up cardio with strength training. If you build deep muscle tissue the wieght will burn off to supply the muscle with creatin and all the other delicious stuff fat contains that muscles eat. the exercises that get your heart beating will build surface muscle then the fat will be surrounded and flanked and will give up.

not sure if it's called creatin and am using the muscle eating term figuratively.

Also Muscle wieghs more than fat. so you might still be slimming down while remaining the same wieght.

Answer 5

if you don't get enough calories your metabolism will drop . so keep up your eating to the proper caloric intake then it's all content for diet high fiber that's vegetables like a salad everyday
and other cooked fiber foods add moderate fruits and whole grains avoid meat chicken fish dairy products and oils . you should cut fats and carbs keeping simple carbohydrates very low and a little sugar . drink a gallon of water everyday to hydrate and that's not including other beverages. normal to light exercise is recommended but not necessary and get a check up to see if any deficiencies are causing problems as well.
good luck and peaceout

Answer 6

you might want to try an herbal detox....thats what I am ready to do! Just so you dont' think you are alone out there.....I am 5'6" and about 140....I have never been this heavy without being pregnant.....I don't care if I still look good naked.......I hate it. And I have a couple friends experiencing the same thing....we call it stress....and she works out three hours a day!

Answer 7

Being that I'm not you, means I had to learn to work with my bodies program. We are all different. I take it you gain easily. Work with that. YOU have to. Develop your habits to work with the program. Don't drive yourself crazy with this. Take it slow and steady, and you will crack your bodies code.