I used to weigh about 185, and now I'm down to 164 and still losing. I know it's tough to lose weight and people are trying different things, so if anyone is interested they can read how I've had success (I did cheat a little). It comes down to those two famous dieters words: diet and exercise. However, it's improtant to know how to diet and exercise.
I'll start with diet, because I think it's equally if not more important. I cut back on my caloric intake. I restricted my calories to between 1200 and 1400 per day. I looked carefully at everything I put in my mouth. It takes a little discipline and a little math. If you eat out, remember to add the dressing and other condiments you put on your food. Calorie-count.org has the listing for most foods and different eating establishment. It's really a great tool if you're trying to lose weight. I added my calories at the end of the day.
I didn't restrict myself to bland food. I even had some ice cream cake for my brother's birthday and I had cheesecake and pizza on occasion. If I had something that was high on calories, I just cut back a little on the next meal to make up for it. The only problem with this is you lose some of your daily nurtritional value, but a piece of cake now and then helps you from going insane. Although I tried to eat only 10 precent of my calories from fat, it's really only the total number of calories that matters.
I found that a great way to cut calories is by watching what I drink. One bottle of regular soda is about 250 calories! If you switch to diet, or better yet to water, that cuts 250 calories out of your diet. If you drink 3 sodas a day, like I did, that's about 750 calories. I've found that those "Fuze" drinks are low on calories (about 10 per bottle) and contain vitamins. Vitamin water is okay, but it's about 150 calories per bottle. Drinking a lot of water also helps you fight hunger.
I also paid attention to serving size. For example, the bottle of pepsi says it only has 100 calories, but the serving size is 2.5, which means you just drank 250 calories. By checking the serving size, you get a more accurate calorie count. When you're out with your friend and you don't know the calories or serving size, you could just eat less than you normally would. It's not a great way to do it but at least you will still be reducing your intake. When drinking, I found that rum and diet coke is a fairly lean way to go. If you don't drink rum, Miller lite only has about 96 calories per bottle.
The second prong was an exercise regimen. I actually did two different exercise regimens. The first one was easy. Every day before bed, I would do a series of simple excercises in my room. These included: sit ups, leg lifts, knee lifts, "bicycle" sit ups, and push ups. These are all easy to do and you can do them when you're watching TV. I tried to do them every day, and I would do one or two more repetitions of each exercise each time I did them.
The second part was aerobic exercise. I either went to the gym and used the eliptical machine or I ran on the track. Whichever I did, I always tried to run a little further or work a little harder than I did the last time. I recorded my times/miles/cal and tried to beat it the next time. I tried to do this between 3-5 times per week (usually 4). You should always check with your doctor before starting an exercise program.
Anyway, that's how I lost over 20 lbs in a little over 2 months. I know it sucks to try to lose the weight, so I figured I share some of the stuff that worked for me. Good luck
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Different weight= different caloric needs
