Lose from 140lbs. to 120lbs.?

Question

How do I lose twenty pounds (being at five-foot-eight) without doing cardio? I have weak knees and ankles that get swollen and extremely painful when used, even speed-walking!! :'-( Is there anything I can do other than weight-lifting? I don't feel that weights really help. Oh, and as far as diets, I'm a health-freak and only eat two meals a day.

Melz~

Eating six times a day (snack size) doesn't work on me and no, I don't eat sugars but once a week (like milkshake) nor do I drink sodas.

Answer 1

You should really be eating more-only 2 meals a day tricks your body into thinking it's starving & therefore it tries to save fat instead of losing weight. Try eating ~6 small meals a day (hard to do w/work & classes, but you can probably get 4 small meals in a day if you try). This "tricks" your body into thinking there's a constant food supply & the small amount means that it has to burn some fat too supplement the calories. There's really a lot more to it biochemically than that, but that's the basic idea. Try to cut out most fats-definately give up sodas, fast food, chips, candy, etc...that stuff is just empty calories. If you're already eating healthy foods, then just focus on burning the calories by working out.

Have you tried swimming? It's easy on the joints & a great work out. If you don't know how to swim, the YMCA usually has summer courses & that'd be a great place to start. Some classes combine weights in the water, so you work out in chest deep water & really don't have to be a swimming expert (you just work out in place). And don't worry about how you look in a bathing suit--trust me, there's ALWAYS someone way bigger wearing something way smaller. Besides, it'll motivate you to work harder.

Answer 2

I don't think eating only 2 meals a day makes you a health freak. That's actually pretty dang UN-healthy!

As for exercise, stationary bikes are good for people with knee & ankles problems. You'll just have to go at a slower pace.

Answer 3

I think you should join Curves. It's really low impact and it would be easy on your knees. You can just skip some of the machines if you think they hurt your knees. Lots of Curves members also join Weight Watchers and they lose weight really fast if they do the two programs at once. Twenty pounds is a totally reasonable amount to lose. You can do it!

Answer 4

Aren't u supposed to eat more than that . I think u eat like it 6 times a day a snack in between meals or something like that.

Answer 5

if you would be a "health freak" you would know that eating 2 times a day is slowing down your metabolism.
to maximize metabolic rate you need to eat every 2-3 hours
be active
drink 8 glasses of water a day
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day

Answer 6

First, if you're 5'8", 120 lbs would put you at a BMI (body mass index) of 18.2; anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. So unless you're very fine-boned, a target weight of 120 lbs might be a bit too low; you should probably go for 125-130 instead (at least to start).

Weight-training accelerates your weight loss by replacing your fat with muscle. A pound of muscle burns a lot more calories than a pound of fat, even when you're not doing anything--but the rate of calorie burn depends on the metabolism of the individual.

First, muscle weighs more than fat, so when you're replacing nasty fat with good muscle, it initially won't show on the scale--but it'll pay off in the long run, and you'll notice the difference with eventual weight loss and better muscle tone.

But the biggest reason why you're probably not seeing any benefits from weight-lifting is that you're not eating enough. Only eating 2 meals a day does not make you a health freak. The types and amounts of foods you eat (lots of veggies, fruits, nuts, whole grains vs. fatty fried foods and high calorie sodas and snacks, for example) is what differentiates the healthy from the unhealthy.

If you are only eating 2 meals a day, and you're 5'8" and 140#, I'm willing to bet that you've slowed your metabolism to a crawl. (Fast metabolism burns more calories, slow metabolism burns fewer calories--leading to inability to lose weight...or weight gain).

Basically, the problem is that for millions of years, our bodies have become biologically programmed to survive long periods of starvation. It's really only recently, within the past 50 years or so, that technology has resulted in abundant and cheap food. 50 years is nothing compared to millions of years, and old habits are hard to break.

That means that when you don't eat enough food to satisfy your body's caloric/energy needs (because you burn a lot of calories just for everyday activities, not just for exercise), then your body thinks it's starving, and slows down your metabolism. By slowing down metabolism, your body is economizing. That is, it's squeezing more energy out of every gram of food you eat, by slowing down the rate at which you burn calories. Back in the stone age, when meals were scarce, you would have keeled over dead if your body ran out of calories before you found more food. These days, what was originally a survival mechanism, is no longer relevant in our modern world. But...your body doesn't know that.

To increase your metabolism, you have to convince your body that you're not starving. So...make sure you're taking in enough calories. I hope you're eating breakfast and lunch, rather than lunch and dinner. Eating breakfast "sets" your metabolism, and trains your body to start burning calories early in the day. If you wait 'til lunch to have your first meal...then between breakfast and lunch--your body thinks it's starving, and guess what? It slows down your metabolism. If your "metabolic furnace" starts up full blast at 7 am, as opposed to 12 pm, that's 5 more hours of peak calorie-burning capacity that you're gaining.

What I'm saying is that the act of eating (whether a meal or small snack) is what tells your body that it's okay to burn calories at a normal or increased rate. If you only eat 2 meals a day, your body will think food is scarce--i.e. it's starving. If you feed your body with enough food on a regular basis, then it knows it's safe to kick up your metabolism to full speed.

So if you want to lose weight, increase your metabolism by eating small meals more frequently; also, rule of thumb is to not eat less than 900 calories daily, because that will trigger metabolic "starvation mode".
--Eat breakfast within an hour after waking. I would suggest a small to moderate meal (not big, and preferably not too greasy or fatty).
--Have a small, healthy snack (a piece of fruit, some veggies, a cereal bar) between breakfast and lunch; you can also save a portion of your breakfast and eat it now.
--Have a good-sized lunch, and make it your biggest meal of the day. Keep in mind, though, that your body can only process a certain number of calories at one shot; it stores the rest as fat. So don't overdo it. But if you want to indulge in fried food or "less healthy" food, now's the time to do it, when your metabolism is at its peak.
--Have another snack at around 2-4 pm; you can also save a portion of your lunch and eat it now, or for dinner.
--Have a small dinner at 5-6 pm; something light, or a small portion of a normal dinner. Avoid fatty and high-carb foods at this meal especially: they're more likely to be stored as fat at this time, since it's close to the end of the day.
--Don't eat after 6 pm. You want your body to be using up the rest of the calories you fed it earlier. And again, the food is more likely to get turned into fat, since your body starts winding down your metabolism, in preparation for sleep. If you absolutely have to have something now, have an apple, a few baby carrots, or something very low fat and low calorie at this time.

Important: drink a lot of water throughout the day, as close to the recommended 8 glasses a day as possible (a water bottle is very convenient). Water kills hunger pains (they say that usually, when you think you're hungry, you're actually just thirsty--I've found that this is true). It also makes you feel full faster (so you eat less). And if you don't drink enough water, your body perceives it as a stress (just as much as breaking up with a boyfriend, or a fight with a friend)--and stress causes weight gain. Big time.

Drinking more water may also help the swelling of your knees and ankles, since that may be an indication of fluid retention, due to excess salt in your body. Some salt is necessary for proper function, but the water you drink will dissolve and flush out the excess. Then you'll be able to walk for exercise. :)

After convincing your body you're not starving (it'll probably take several weeks--when you start dropping pounds), then start lifting weights, and I think you'll see a big difference. But again, keep in mind that muscle is heavier than fat. So you won't immediately see a difference on the scale, but your clothes will start getting looser, and you may lose a dress size or two (because you've tightened up your muscle tone). As for cardio, you might want to try swimming.

As a note, what I've recommended is what I do, and sometimes I just have a bunch of small meals between 7 am and 6 pm. (My BMI is between 18-18.5--but I'm fine-boned.)

Good luck!