I'd like to lose 20 pounds. Where do I start? What do I do? Any good diets to recommend?

Question

I weigh 140 ever since I gave birth 8 months ago, I am 5'1

I should be 110-125

Answer 1

I would recommend a steady diet of healthy foods. Contrary to what many say, low carbohydrates, or other diets such as the South Beach diet, aren't especially helpful, and will actually hurt you more.
Try a light diet exercise plan, because the easiest way to lose weight, is knowing how we lose it.
There's no way to lose 30 pounds in a month, nearly impossible without surgery. Even athletes will have trouble doing so. Since you're a mother, I suspect that you may not have much time, and health is very important.
1. Eat well, not less. Eating less and poorly will not do anything. It doesn't matter how many calories you intake, as long as they come from a steady source of healthy foods, such as light subs, salads, pastas, and healthy sandwiches. Having an occasional snack such as a piece of candy won't matter.
A nice diet will effectively be burned off by light exercise. However attempt to eat under 2500 a day for an adult!
2. Take two multivitamins, once in the morning, and another in the afternoon, I suggest Centrum.
3. Exercise lightly. Go out for a light jog, about thirty to fifty minutes a day. This is the major factor in burning off fat and keeping it off. If possible, do athletics. Muscles will burn 60% more fat! That's one reason athletes burn fat easily.
4. Drink plenty of Water and Milk.
5. Sleep well.
Sorry if this doesn't seem like a dream diet, but it is the most effective according to doctors and from medical advice.
And other diets are easily lost. I can't ever stand not eating any kind of food or starving myself! The longest it lasted me was 5 days.

Answer 2

I found the book to be very informative and easy to read.

I've lost 17 pounds in 12 days, I'm just concerned that I'm losing too much weight, too quickly. I will admit I haven't followed the guide exactly. I'm not sticking perfectly to the listed foods and meal plans (but mostly) and doing very little exercise, but the weight keeps flying off.

It clearly works and if I'd followed it exactly I think it would scare the living daylights out of me because of the amount that I'd lose. So thanks again for the information. I've never purchased anything like this before because they are usually full of trash, but 3WD has been a pleasant surprise.

Get started today!

Answer 3

Eat 6 small but balanced meals per day. Your carbs should be high in fiber and your proteins should be lean. Fats should be sparing but concentrated in the omega 3's and omega 6's. This will provide a slow but constant stream of vital nutrients. Avoid greasy foods, alcohol, and candy.

Lift weights or perform power yoga because either of these will slightly increase your lean mass, which will burn extra calories 24 hours per day. This will increase your resting metabolic rate. Also, some cardio helps.

Use a measuring tape instead of a scale to measure your progress because it is more accurate than the scale.

Here is a healthy foods list, a sample meal plan, and a sample workout:
http://www.spartafit.com/nutrition/preferred%20foods.php
http://www.spartafit.com/nutrition/sample%20meal%20plans.php
http://www.spartafit.com/exercise/home%20workout.php

Answer 4

two weeks before your next period go grocery shopping for you. pick out anything health that you can actually stand fruits, vegetables, fat free snacks, whole grain breads, whole grain pastas, lean pockets and every semi healthy cereal you like. for those 2 weeks eat all the time, say 6-8 small meals a day (1 to 2 hand fulls of food at a time). when you are hungry for something sweet eat cereal, if you crave chocolate get a bag of chocolate chips that are for cooking and eat only a hand full or less. eat a lean pocket for lunch. if you go out to eat get something good but only eat a third of it and eat it as three different meals. try to walk a little more. after your period is finished slow up to 4-5 small meals a day for 2 weeks and then start over. i lost 30 pound by aligning my diet to my menstrual cycle.

Answer 5

find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have lean meat (protein) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight training
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

Answer 6

go on a diabetic diet which is a low carb No sugar diet, no more than 45 grams of carbs per meal and i guarantee you will lose weight like you have never seen