Guide: Losing Weight

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Marik_757

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Well since I work at the fitness center I might as well give a few tips for healthy weight loss, right?

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Before I even begin let me lay a few facts down:

1. Don't fall for those workout equipment you see being sold on T.V. (98% of them is crap...) if you notice the people using them are already buffed (Perfect abs,chest,ass,you name it..) it didn't just happen with just one equipment. This will never get your ripped ... EVER! ... makes me laugh each time it comes on tv, $29.95 my ass... I can do that for free!

2. Supplements = Waste of money! & could be harzadous to your health. If you eat properly then you don't need all that garbage... Even if you read it in magazines, don't believe it! Most of the companies who publish the magazines are the ones who make the supplements. Only supplement I'd recommend if you were to buy would just be an ordinary vitamin

3. Losing x amount of weight over night is not gona happen. 1~2 lbs per week is considered a safe amount of weight to lose. Anymore could be excessive on the body, I'll explain later.

4. Diet soda is NO! Diet soda is designed to make you crave carbs. Just stay away from soda all together... except for Dr. Pepper j/k ... best Soda ever though!

5. Chilling in the Sauna/Steam room wont make you lose weight. Ok, well you will lose some, but that's not the right weight you're losing. That's water weight from dehydrating yourself, not loss of fat...

6. Just doing ab work won't shed them pounds around the waist. Any kind of ab workout is just designed to build up the ab muscles, which is great for later if you can get rid of the layer of fat surrounding them.

7. Never get to the point of starving yourself. IN fact starving yourself can lead to weight gain. Body will want you to stuff your face even more when hungry

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Rule #1: Heatlhy Dieting

First thing first... in order to lose weight you need to eat... "Healthy" I meant ... True you need to watch what you eat, but you need to increase your metabolism. A higher metabolism means that the body is able to digest food at a faster rate, so your body absorbs less. You should be eating "Small Meals" every 3~4 hours. 3 main meals and small snacks in between (fruits/nuts mainly) to help increase that metabolism. Remember portion control! thanks alonewanderer for reminding me of that.

I recommend:
Main Meals should be no more than 350~400 Calories
Healthy Snacks 100 calories or less

** Fiber = Very important: A diet high in fiber makes you feel fuller a lot longer. Whole wheat breads, Sugar free oatmeal, vegies (not leafy kind, things like carrots/Broccoli/peas), some fruits and alternatives such as FiberOne bars/cereal will help you with this.

Diets should be (Just some fyi):

Carbohydrates = 45-65%
Proteins = 20~35%
Fats = 10~20%

To equal 100% ... don't worry about this too much... this is just a general idea I don't really worry about this myself. WHo said eating had to be complex... just use good judgement in what you eat. Obvilously grill chicken is better then fried... that kind of common sense...

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Rule #2: Determine your daily caloric needs

Calories = Energy
If energy out = energy In: Balanaced or you maintain your weight
If energy out > energy in: weight loss
If energy out < energy in: weight gain


Now here is the tricky part first we need to figure out how much calories you need just to survive everyday aka Resting Metabolic Rate(RMR):

Formula:

Men: 66 + (6.22 x Weight) + (12.7 x Height) - (6.8 x Age) = RMR

Women: 665 + (4.36 x Weight) + (4.32 x Height) - (4.7 x Age) = RMR

weight (pounds), height (inches), age (years)


hope your math skills arent bad...No need to be on point with this, it's designed to give you a general idea of your calorie needs. The number you calculated is your total calories just to survive! But! we're not done yet!

Now multiply that number by how active you are:

x1.3 (Light, normal everyday activities. Deskjob type person, no sports, sits in corner)
x1.4 (Moderate, light exercise 2~3 times a week, gets out and goes shopping)
x1.6 (Active, exercises 3~4 times a week, goes to gym, plays sports)
x1.8~x2.0 (Very active, Goes to gym 4+ times a week, high energy sports)


This number you get is how much calories your body needs to keep up with your daily activity. With this number we subtract 500 calories and this is how much calories you need to maintain for 7 days in order to lose 1 pound of weight per week.


So for me for example... my RMR = 1507 (Just enough calories to survive) but since I'm very active since I work at the gym I multiple that by x1.8 which gives me 2712 calories to maintain my daily activity. But if I wanted to lose 1 pound a week I need to knock off 500 calories a day which gives me 2212 calories a day.

Why -500 calories?

1 lbs of fat = 3500 calories!

so -500 calories a day x 7 days a week = -3500 or a loss of 1 pound a week.


It doesn't matter how you lose the 500 as long as it's equals 500 or more. YOu can go to the gym and burn off all 500 if you wanted if you with to spend that long there... or you can burn 200 at the gym and eat 300 fewer calories... what ever is easier for you...

Now for those who think 1 pound of fat is too little to lose a week, then subtract 1000 calories a day for 7 days.

** NOTE if your daily calorie count falls below 1200 after subtracting 500/1000 then I high advise seeking a medical provider to keep watch of your diet. To live off 1200 or less calories a day is drastic.

===================================== ===

3. Breaking down the fat


Sprint walking/jogging/running is definately the best exercise to lose weight. But people don't understand at what intensity they need to workout at.

Whether you are at the gym using a treadmill, eliptical, stationary bike or outside doing whatever. You need to be doing "low intensity workout" (walking/sprint walk/light jog/light run) for a "long duration" (One hour or more).

Weight Loss = Long duration, low intensity workout for 1 hour or more
Cardio Training = Short Duration, High intensity workout for 20~30 minutes

Short duration high intensity workouts burns stored Carbs.
Long duration low intensity workouts burns stored Fats.

==========================



 
Great guide, just wanted to add portion control and meal frequency to help boost metabolism. I aim for meals ( snacks?) that consist of 250-350 calories 60/20/20 weighing more on protein about 4-6 times a day.
 
Thx for the great post Marik. I know a lot about this stuff but due to other heath issue I have to be very creative as to eating healthy. I'm not aloud to eat foods containg yeast, or foods that causes gass, so all my carbs must come from fruits. I have a special diet plan my dr. gave me to follow. As for the soda's what you said is definatly true. I either drink water,100% fruit or herbal teas, no coffee, no tea.
I have lost 14lbs since beginning Nov.
I'm also insulin resistend and started using medication for that, I have other heath problems as well not caused by over weight but making loosing weight harder. Due to a hip injury my exercise as been limited to non impact exercises. As I loose more weight I might be allowed to do some exercises not allowed now.

I forgot to say there are a bit of info I did not know and I'm glad as it will help on my journey to weight loss. Especially about the low intensity work out vs the high intensity workout thx.
 
alonewanderer said:
Great guide, just wanted to add portion control and meal frequency to help boost metabolism. I aim for meals ( snacks?) that consist of 250-350 calories 60/20/20 weighing more on protein about 4-6 times a day.

Good call on the portion control/size, totally forgot that ... and as for snacks, I do mean healthy snacks not the junk food ... remember this is for getting the metabolism going. Eating 4~6 times a day is not enough in my book, but eating small portion meals to include snacks every 3~4 hours will provide your body with the nutrients it needs around the clock.
 
Marik_757 said:
6. Just doing ab work won't shed them pounds around the waist. Any kind of ab workout is just designed to build up the ab muscles, which is great for later if you can get rid of the layer of fat surrounding them.

Stupid question but how do you do this? And dumb it down a little I'm not up on all the lingo if you start saying reduce carbs and stuff. I really don't watch what I eat, okay I do a little but I never had to worry about that before and I would have no idea what's in what or what has what. I have a bit of a gut, not much but I would like to get rid of it, and if ab work won't do that then how?

 
Sci-Fi said:
Marik_757 said:
6. Just doing ab work won't shed them pounds around the waist. Any kind of ab workout is just designed to build up the ab muscles, which is great for later if you can get rid of the layer of fat surrounding them.

Stupid question but how do you do this? And dumb it down a little I'm not up on all the lingo if you start saying reduce carbs and stuff. I really don't watch what I eat, okay I do a little but I never had to worry about that before and I would have no idea what's in what or what has what. I have a bit of a gut, not much but I would like to get rid of it, and if ab work won't do that then how?

Doing ab work just builds muscle, doing light cardio work will shed the pounds. Men store fat in their gut, so when you begin to lose pounds you will start to notice your abs. Doing ab work will give them better definition and make them bigger.
 
Marik_757 said:
2. Supplements = Waste of money! & could be harzadous to your health. If you eat properly then you don't need all that garbage... Even if you read it in magazines, don't believe it! Most of the companies who publish the magazines are the ones who make the supplements. Only supplement I'd recommend if you were to buy would just be an ordinary vitamin

Creatine works :D

Ladysphinx said:
I have lost 14lbs since beginning Nov.

Well done :)
 
Ladysphinx said:
Thx for the great post Marik. I know a lot about this stuff but due to other heath issue I have to be very creative as to eating healthy. I'm not aloud to eat foods containg yeast, or foods that causes gass, so all my carbs must come from fruits. I have a special diet plan my dr. gave me to follow. As for the soda's what you said is definatly true. I either drink water,100% fruit or herbal teas, no coffee, no tea.
I have lost 14lbs since beginning Nov.
I'm also insulin resistend and started using medication for that, I have other heath problems as well not caused by over weight but making loosing weight harder. Due to a hip injury my exercise as been limited to non impact exercises. As I loose more weight I might be allowed to do some exercises not allowed now.

I forgot to say there are a bit of info I did not know and I'm glad as it will help on my journey to weight loss. Especially about the low intensity work out vs the high intensity workout thx.



That's great news to hear, Keep up with your goals!


Punisher said:
Marik_757 said:
2. Supplements = Waste of money! & could be harzadous to your health. If you eat properly then you don't need all that garbage... Even if you read it in magazines, don't believe it! Most of the companies who publish the magazines are the ones who make the supplements. Only supplement I'd recommend if you were to buy would just be an ordinary vitamin

Creatine works :D

I'm iffy on creatine, it only works if you keep using it... if you stop you'll feel the withdrawl effects. Basically it's just a pump to give you more energy to do things, and makes your muscle absorb more water, making them look bigger ha!

 
Marik_757 said:
Doing ab work just builds muscle, doing light cardio work will shed the pounds. Men store fat in their gut, so when you begin to lose pounds you will start to notice your abs. Doing ab work will give them better definition and make them bigger.

Um what works best, what kind of cardio work?

 
Cardio is cardio, anything that elevates heartrate and respiratory response = calories burnt. (sexercise :D) Agreed on Ab work, it just makes you expand at the waist...such a waste. Weight training is good for burning calories and when you couple it with bike/treadmill/ellipitical that's about the best you can get, ellipiticals say they burn twice the calories.

Creatine works great...for about 2-3 months then you need to cycle off of it (for a month) to see any sort of gains, this is how people get addicted to supplements by the way. You get hooked to the quality of the pump and refuse to back off because the gains don't seem as large/good.

(saunas are very bad for your skin too )

 
Marik...EXCELLENT THREAD! I loved reading this. I'm big on diet and working out. The fitness aspect keeps me moving without fatigue and a clean diet, one minus junk food and empty calories keeps everything else running smooth. This is one of the best guides, bar none, I have read. Loved it! never leave us...Keep the wise words and fantastic tips coming, as well as the encouragement coming...

Ladysphinx---Kudos to you!
 
Ah, maybe I should try shoveling my parking lot by hand then instead of sitting on my ass in the skid steer...on second thought no way my parking lot is too big. Sexercise eh alonewanderer, does self love count LMAO!! Oh I'm sorry for that I'm just in a goofy mood today.
 
Sci-Fi--Goofy is good.... Laughing burns calories...Ride the skid steer and laugh you ass off and it's all good! :D
 
Of course, the diet soda making you crave carbs thing may not be true for everybody. Just wanted to point that out, since I lost over a hundred pounds and have always preferred diet soda. It wasn't the reason I was so big, and it wasn't the reason I lost the weight. *shrug*
 
Sci-Fi said:
Ah, maybe I should try shoveling my parking lot by hand then instead of sitting on my ass in the skid steer...on second thought no way my parking lot is too big. Sexercise eh alonewanderer, does self love count LMAO!! Oh I'm sorry for that I'm just in a goofy mood today.

If it raises your heart rate... :p
 
Hi dear...
You raise the good points... Different brands of exercise equipment provide us fake information regarding the equipment that is ethically not good... So we avoid to purchase these equipment...
And usage of supplements without the guidance of doctor can also be dangerous...
 

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