10 tips to lose weight

[Charles]

Originally Posted by lola8822

Keep your heart rate up when working out if you want to loose body fat, this will not only shed fat but will incrase your metabolism both working and resting.

Exercise not likely to rev up your metabolism - Smart Fitness- msnbc.com

[Huckleberry3911948]

semi starvation combined with mild excercise will make you look really good.
you will have chronic fatigue but you will look great.
dont try this when you are working you will get fired.

[BigDGeek]

I am not a nutritionist or a fitness expert but I lost over 100 pounds in one year.

I did it by reducing my caloric intake and by exercising. I started exercising slowly, only doing as much as I could handle and gradually increasing the time/intensity as I became more fit. I did not want to injure myself exercising because damaging your feet, knees, hips, etc can put you back at square 1.

What you eat and how much of it is more important than exercise in that you cannot exercise off a bad diet. If you are eating 3,000 + calories a day there are hardly enough hours in the day for you to work it off and you would be surprised how few calories you burn by walking briskly on a treadmill or by lifting weights. Sweat does not equal calories burned. Also when you are cutting back on what you eat you need to be sure to get enough fiber. You need 25 grams a day and you will find that to get that on a calorie-reduced diet you will naturally have to eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit. Constipation and dehydration are common issues with people trying to lose weight so get plenty of fiber and drink plenty of water, do NOT take diuretics, laxatives or stool softeners unless you want to become dependent on them.

One problem a lot of people have when trying to lose weight is losing muscle in addition to or instead of losing fat. Good nutrition and strength training can help to prevent this, you do not want to lose muscle. It is difficult to build muscle when you are trying to lose weight so try to focus on preserving what you have instead of building more. From the beginning my workout was split 50/50 into cardio and strength portions.

I had two major plateaus on my weight loss journey. You have to be patient and persistent when it seems like what you are doing has stopped working. Sometimes you have to take a step back and re-examine your diet or your workout, ie maybe your calorie count has crept up without you realizing it or you need to work out for longer or at a higher intensity. My last plateau lasted for a month and it happened when I was only 9 pounds away from my goal weight. I intensified my strength training and after 3-4 weeks the weight started dropping off again.

Some of my major keys to success have been:

• Cutting out most processed foods including chips, candy, food in jars or cans. Chips and candy are occasional treats now.
• Eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Vegetables like broccoli and carrots are wonderful because they are low in calories but high in fiber and very nutritious. Try lots of vegetables prepared in lots of different ways if you are not used to eating a lot of them. Leafy greens are good but not very nutritious, especially iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce has very little nutritional value. Pears, apples, and oranges are higher in calories per gram than almost any vegetable but they taste wonderful and have tons of fiber.
• Cutting out most bread and refined sugars and grains. I hardly ever eat bread because most loaf bread is practically junk food. You can get high-fiber wraps or plain corn tortillas and they can be lower in fat and higher in fiber than bread, but read the labels carefully. I hardly ever eat pasta anymore but when I do, I eat whole wheat pasta because it is slightly better for you than the regular kind. I do not eat white rice anymore at all. I eat short grain brown rice, quinoa, or whole wheat couscous instead, always in small quantities.
• Cutting out most restaurant meals or carefully researching the caloric content of restaurant food. Sometimes it is not possible to figure out the nutritional content of a restaurant meal and sometimes you have to indulge and not worry about what it will do to your waistline, but one enchilada platter every few weeks is not going to kill you. I no longer eat at national chain restaurants that refuse to publish nutritional information (like TGI Friday's). At least at restaurants like Chili's, Chipotle, Macaroni Grill, etc. I can make an informed decision about what to order before I even leave the house, and I usually know what I am going to order before I go to the restaurant.
• Cutting out most fast food! I used to love going to Sonic, Wendy's, etc. but now I eat fast food once in a blue moon. I can count on one hand the number of times I have eaten at Wendy's in the last year and I have not been to Sonic at all. Do I miss it? Sometimes. Is it worth missing it to wear a size 8? YES. Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.
• Exercise, exercise, exercise. When I was actively trying to lose weight I worked out 5-7 times a week. Now that I am at goal I have cut back on the workouts to a "maintenance" level. I still do cardio and I still strength train. I am still figuring out maintenance. I also try to stay active by participating in local sports leagues. You do not have to be good at sports to get the health benefits of participating in them! Most large cities have recreational leagues for adults for softball, volleyball, tennis, kickball, soccer, etc. Try one! At least you are out of the house and getting some exercise, even if you suck at it! I suck at it but I still go. If that does not appeal to you, try riding a bicycle or going for a brisk walk or a jog. And lift weights, even if you are female. I am female, I lift weights, and I am not bulky. Women mostly lack the hormones necessary to get those big bulky muscles from frequently or heavy weight-lifting.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

What you eat and how much of it is more important than exercise in that you cannot exercise off a bad diet.
If you are eating 3,000 + calories a day there are hardly enough hours in the day for you to work it off and you would be surprised how few calories you burn by walking briskly on a treadmill or by lifting weights.
Sweat does not equal calories burned.

True, True, and true.

Exercising has very little to do with weight control. For every five calories you burn, you become six calories hungrier. It's all about willpower, determination, and persistence.
Almost everyone who loses weight puts it back on. If your body wants to weigh 170 and you want to weigh 140, you can get down to 140 - for a while - then you will go back to 170 - almost for sure. Very, very few people have enough willpower to stay at 140 when their body wants 170. Very few people.

However, those that do keep it off never let up on the discipline. There is no magic. They are hungry. If they aren't hungry then they wouldn't have gotten fat in the first place.

If your mom is fat and/or your dad is fat then there's a good chance you will be fat. (I have a cousin - both her parents are thin - she's fat - she has her aunt's genes. Her aunt is fat.)

If you are carrying their fat genes then you will either be fat or hungry for the rest of your life - unless the magic pill comes out - which it hasn't yet.

You can't learn to not like the stuff that made you overweight in the first place. Either you have willpower or you don't.

"Developing new habits" is just sugarcoating "not eating what you want".

Finally, all the advice and calculations and recipes and food choices are pretty irrelevant. People aren't fat because they don't know what not to eat. They aren't fat because they know how much or or little to eat. It has nothing to do with knowledge or education. Almost everyone, especially fat people, know exactly the correct portions and types of food to eat. And they are still fat. Overweight people can look at any quantity of any food and tell you withing 10% how many calories and fat are in it. They know. Nobody needs an expensive diet plan or personal trainer or nutritionist to tell them what they already know. They would be wasting their money. It's all about discipline and willpower. Either you have it or you don't.