I weigh roughly 200 pounds, if I cut my calorie intake to 1600 and burn 250+ a day - Will it be effective?

Question

I am 5'10 and weigh 200 pounds. Right now it isn't convenient for me to go to the store whenever I feel like it. I also don't have the money to buy a lot of healthy foods that I can eat for 6 meals a day like a lot of people recommend. Right now I survive on frozen dinners, ramen noodles, cereal, and a lemonade made from a drink mix. I am going to start taking vitamin supplements to get the vitamins and minerals I don't get from everything else. My question is, will this severely slow my metabolism down to a point where my body thinks that it is starving if I continue on this diet? I have started running daily and am currently burning around 250+ calories a day, but with time I will try to increase that amount as I build stamina. Is this an effective way to lose weight?

Answer 1

No, it's not an effective way to lose weight, sorry.

For what you're spending on frozen dinners, you can do better learning to make healthy dinners yourself. Right now, you have no vegetables or fruit, and your protein may be lacking. The lemonade is just sugar water: drink regular water and flavor it with some lemon slices you cut straight from a lemon at little cost and no calories.

This won't be easy, but you need to study what your body needs and eat right. The running is good, but you'll want to vary your route and eventually add some hills.

Instead of frozen dinners, buy lettuce and tuna and make tuna salad. Add in some cans of peas, buy some broccoli and steam it, learn to slice up chicken breast and cook it. It's not hard, but you need to pay attention. By using canned and frozen food, you don't have to go to the store often.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi,

I know a lot about food and dieting, but I haven't got it all under control myself, it can be a hard road, especially if your overeating is emotional as it is with me. But I can give you the info on the theory of your question.

Most important about a diet is balance in everything. You can eat frozen dinners, ramen noodles, cereal and drink mix all the time, but it would be much better to eat different things throughout the day and week. The advantage of fresh fruit and veggies and whole grain foods if you're trying to lose weight is that the fiber in them will keep you full for much longer, so you'll be less hungry. If you buy a lot of processed foods with very little fiber your blood sugar will spike after eating them and that will make you hungry much faster.

On the other hand, if you take a multivitamin you can at least prevent the worst of not getting many fruits and veggies, but you still wouldn't have the fiber benefit. There are cheap fruits and veggies out there, I eat a lot of apples, oranges, and carrots and cucumber or tomatoes. Those are cheap. I also found that places like small import stores for chinese or middle eastern foods can be much, much cheaper places to get veggies than mainstream supermarkets.

If you eat 1600 calories and burn about 250 a day with some sport or activity you should lose about a pound a week, which is a good amount, but how well your diet will work with the foods you just mentioned is if you like them well enough that you'll not get upset that you're missing so much and that you don't feel hungry too soon. I eat six meals a day but I eat the same amount that someone with three meals a day would eat, just divided over six meals instead, the 6 meals is not about the amounts, it is about preventing blood sugar lows and hunger so you it will be harder to lose control because you haven't eaten in too long.

So in short, a 1600 calorie plan is great, but it helps to fill that with some fiber from fruits, veggies and whole grain type stuff. But it is possible (though harder) to do without, but make sure you take those vitamins, and vitamins are never as good as the natural foods. Some people do fine with 3 meals, some people need six, and the best way to find out what works for you is to try it out. Not every body reacts the same to specific foods.

I hope this gave you some idea! A good site to check out is www.pyramid.gov you'll find a lot there about good eating habits and they have a free tracker you can use for a year to keep tabs on what you eat and how healthy it is.

Take care and good luck with the weight!

Alexandra

Answer 3

Everyone knows that exercise helps you lose weight but cutting calories does not. You must eat different cheap foods. A whole cucmber cost @ 70 cents but it has only has 14 calories. Eat one before dinner and you will have less room for that other stuff so you eat less of it. It is 96% water.

Diets do not work. 99% of people gain the weight back. No one teaches the animal what to eat and what not to eat. He knows instinctively what to eat. Humans also have the same instinct. The way it works is just eat whatever tastes good and that will be healthy for you and non-fattening. That is why a baby tastes everything. So again whatever tastes good, is good for you. This is why you will spit out spoiled milk.

But wait!!! Man has the technology to create rat poison. It tastes like healthy food (good taste) but kills the rat. So man has done that to you. Note-- any food unaltered by man (uncooked) that tastes good, is good for you. So if you are stranded in the woods, that is how you know what to eat (cooking changes that). So man has created fake fruit. It tastes like fruit that exists in nature but it is terrrible for health, addictive and fattening called sweets.

So it is natural to like real sweets called fruit, like a baby does, but they have fooled you just like the rat. But they do not want to kill you. They want you to become obese so you will buy lots of their foods. This is called GOOD BUSINESS. Remember the above (not on site) and see site below to re-learn how to eat so you can be thin and fit for life.

http://www.phifoundation.org

Answer 4

Get monthly workout calender

Answer 5

spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down stairs

Answer 6

Avoid eating while rading listening songs and watching tv at your home or keep by kepping your hands busy

Answer 7

cut your lawn with a push mower for 17 minutes

Answer 8

Eat grapefruit before each meal

Answer 9

nurse a hangover sleep in for an hour and 53 minutes

Answer 10

save the kitchen and the dining room table for cooking and eating try not to use it as a place to do work or other activities or you may be tempted to eat more