Weight loss

[Pilsburry]

Don't hate me for posting it here, I just feel it's more food related than anything else.

Step 1 - Easy changes:
1) Replace regular Soda with water, propell, or diet soda. Everytime you grab a drink you will save 120-170 calories.

2) Add in some Calcium with Vitamin D pills from GNC for $5/month or so...Calcium helps your body to burn fat, but your body needs Vitamin D to process Calcium (and I think sunlight too).

3) If you cut soda to tap water or home-filtered water take that savings and you can buy a metabolism booster too....but that's like $40/mo and only a small benefit (burns like 1 can of soda a day or half a candy bar, it's an edge though.)

4) Find diet versions of foods you already eat. Like low cal bread, butter, syrup...some of it is good....some of it sucks. For example:
Mrs. Butterworths lite syrup is nasty...it's like slime...
Aunt Jemina's lite is good.

Step 2 - The sucky part
1) Cut meal portions....learn the difference between clean plate, satiated, and full. Most people eat until they are full, full is a sign that you ate so fucking much your body can no longer hold anymore. Also society teaches us to clean out plate restaurants don't tailor the serving to the person eating, so a clean plate is bad...you have to learn when to stop. On the bright side you can maybe save some money on a 9oz steak instead of the 12oz or 16oz.

2) Avoiding some of your favorite foods like fries or pizza. That part really fucking sucks.

3) Lunch location is important because most fast foods suck for you. If you have a microwave some diet frozen meals, they are like $2/ea...saves you cash, calories, and time.
Uncle Ben's Rice Bowls are good.
Healthy Choice Fettichini Alfredo is good.
I had this Lean Cuisine cheese burrito with spanish fried rice last week at my mom's it was very good (they don't have it at my local store /cry)

4) Adding vegetables to your diet, and other dietary fiber. Like switching to WHOLE WHEAT bread. Or changing from doughnuts to say...cereal of some sort, but not like coca puffs jackass.

5) Cutting out snacks or substituting snacks:
Sugar-free life saver brand popsicles...5 calories each
Popsicle brand fudgesicles (Mmm chocolate)....30 calories ea.
Popcorn is high fiber/low calorie, but they make too much for one snack don't eat it all.

Step 3 - If you really want to see good results go to the Gym
It's like $30/mo...I paid $500 in advance for 18mo....but I wouldn't suggest you do the same because lots of people chicken out.

1) Cardio and Crunches...If you want weight loss I suggest your focus be on the crunches and cardio. If you have never been to a nice gym here is the good news....

Thier crunch machines make it much easier on your back and neck, honestly.....trust me I know better then most.....I have a spinal injury, 2 crushed disks. Oh yeah you will see people doing crunches on thier sides, I suggest you work some of those in there as soon as you can...it really helps.

My gym (Gold's) has 2 cardio rooms, one is light and has maybe 8 TV's to different stations for CNN, VH1, MTV etc...and you tune your walkman to the appropriate frequency (it's on the wall next to the TV) to listen to it.

The other cardio room is dark so people can't see you sweating like a pig (like I do). I think it's a bit cooler but it's probably just my imagination. They have one big projection screen and tend to show movies on it mostly popular recent movies...like 2 month old video release stuff that blockbusterscaled back from 20 copies to 4 copies probably.

Both cario rooms have bikes, treadmills, and cross trainer (I don't know what it's called, it's like cross country skiing kinda but elliptical). And they have lots of each...like 8 cross trainer, 8 bikes, and 16 treadmills in each room. So it's rarely the case you can't find a machine. Lots of people just walk so if your really out of shape you can walk and watch a movie!

Cross trainer burns the most calories per minute if you want out fast. That' what I do...I burn 800-900 calories in 60mins. But not many people do that machine at 70-80 RPM's for 60 mins....it's hard work. Not for beginners at all...beginners maybe do 60-65 RPM's for 15mins. That will get you a good 150 calories or so.

Walking on the treadmill is probably the lowest calories per minute, but you can watch the whole movie, not sweat, and anyone can do it.

2) Weight training, I know I know...you don't want to bulk up or be he-man or whatever. But it helps. You burn calories working out with weights, plus you tone up, and any muscle mass you add is likely old fat converted to muscle in addition to what the cardio burnt off. It's like your hitting it from 3 angles, redce the intake, burn it off, and convert it. The difference between fat deposits and muscle is muscle takes energy to use, to build, and to MAINTAIN. So you end up burning more calories just sitting still if you have more muscle, that's a good side effect.

What exercises should you do? For beginners, I suggest the machines not the free-weights. Low weight high reps. Like 3 sets 12, 10, 8..where the weight increases on the 3rd set to something you can get up with some deal of effort but not where you feel your going to crap your pants or blow a nut...just to the point where the last time your pushing up your arms feel weak.

I don't care if your legs are in good shape or whatever, don't skip muscle groups. My legs are in great shape but I want my metabolism higher so I need the extra muscle. I'll even get on the machines for my inner thighs and do the gay butterfly looking shit. It all counts.

Now maybe you will want to do legs one day and upper body the next time, it's up to you. I personally do it all....because I'm not going 4x a week.

Step 4 - Optional stuff
1) Tanning bed it's more for your benefit then anyone elses. You want to look nice and see results, well a tan sure helps make you feel like your making progress when you look in the mirror after a shower. Even when your progress is slower. There is a reason most weight loss pictures in magazines show a fat pale guy and then a tanner thin guy, a tan just makes you look healthier even though your not. Work it slow, don't burn yourself....you got lots of time. Lotions will help you tan, Bronzer means it has like a dye in it which is fine, hot action or tingle factor means it will have a burnign sensation it brings your blood near the surface and makes you look red for a couple hours too, so don't use those if you plan on going somewhere soon, lots of people hate those because it does have an odd sensation. If your afraid of skin cancer I'm sure someone can point you in the direction of a sunless tan product....I've always been afraid I would streak myself with lines or turn orange.

2) Take pictures of yourself in your swim suit or something every 2 weeks or so. I wish I did that...it makes it easier to see progress, you see yourself every day, it's hard to notice the changes without something to compare it to. And it's really hard to stay encouraged when you hit a bump like I did, I got stuck at the same weight for 3 months. But I was converting fat to muscle etc still....that would have shown on my pictures. But I couldn't see it. Now I'm at my target weight but the process is still on going, I still have more conversion to do....but how do I measure my progress, the scale won't show it. Pictures would.

P.S. Longest post ever?

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Step 1:

3) Metabolism booster? BS or unhealthy as hell, stay away from it.

Step 4:

1) Yes, now that you've worked so hard to get your body in shape with healthier food and exercise, why don't you celebrate by working up a nice skin cancer.

[Avestan]

I know what worked for Drolgin was that he stopped eating teh penis.

Maybe you should give that a try?

[Chidoro]

-Most metabolic boosters wreck your liver and kidneys. Avoid them.
-Calcium should be balanced with Magnesium. Should have about a 2 to 1 ratio in favor of calcium. Magnesium helps relax muscles that get constricted by taking only calcium.
-Diet soda may actually slow down your metabolism indirectly. While it's probably better than drinking regular soda, best to stick with the water or propel.
-I haven't looked it up but I'm guessing that all of your lunch alternatives are very high in sodium. it's usually best to stay away from the frozen stuff. In all honesty, a well made tuna fish salad (low fat or very little mayo, celery, etc) sandwich can go a long way.
-Fries and pizza are fine, in moderation. Pretty much the key there. In fact, pizza really isn't bad for you at all if you prepare it the right way or watch your portion from a pizza joint.
-Add fruit to your snacks. I know I was amazed how great tasting an apple was after having not eaten one for a few months.
-Gym costs over $70 a month by me. Consider yourself lucky
-I'm not going into the exercise program as there's far too much to cover in a little snippet post.

[Avestan]

On a more serious note, dieting is ok, but there will never be a substitute for exercise.

I played football and threw shotput and hammer in college until my junior year. When I quit, I was a very strong 290 lbs., but I could not jog more than about a mile and a half at a 9 minute pace. Over the following Summer I decided to lose the weight and ran every day during the lunch break at my internship and I lifted every other day at night. By the time I went back to school I was 225 and almost as strong as I was at 290.

The secret to losing weight is to start small. . .don't push it, but every week add a quarter mile or a half mile to how far you run. Before you realize what is going on, you will be doing 4-5 miles and you will feel like a God because you have never run that far in your life. You have to make a schedule and stick to it. It has to take priority over everything else (especially Everquest). Even if you feel like crap, go out and walk a mile because you MUST keep to a schedule or it will be too hard to keep it up.

Especially early in the process you really have to push yourself in cardio exersizes and eventually everything will get easier.

I would not touch a fat burner of food supplement for my life. If you are really dedicated to it, you CAN lose the weight on your own and I am highly skeptical of taking shortcuts because in the end, it is your work ethic that will keep the weight off, not some supplement from GNC.

[Sueven]

In terms of things to eat: I'm amazed at the amount of effort some people go to in order to avoid making their own food. If you buy ingredients and spent 10 minutes making a simple meal or snack, you will save money, have healthier food, and it'll taste better than that diet shit. Hell, it tastes better than the non-diet shit too.

[Kithyen]

You have to make a schedule and stick to it.

This is the most important thing about dieting/excersing. You can have the best diet layed out for you. You can have top of the line equipment in your very basement. You can have the world's top personal trainer giving you tips on loosing weight. It all means shit if you don't have consistency. It's all about inconveniencing yourself and yes you will have to do it. But if you want to lose the weight (Or gain weight in my case ) you have to keep to your schedule.

[Pilsburry]

I said if they want to avoid the cancer find a sunless tanning product.

I agree on the diet soda, suspossedly it dlows downt he metabolism (but like you said, probably not as much as drinking stuff that has calories like regular soda or juice).

As for the metabolism boosters, I don't think they are worth it, like I said they burn off maybe one whole soda a day, the gain from it is so damn small and it costslike $45/month to stay on them. I did take them for a while, and I'm finishing up my bottle. But I bought the ephedra free stuff and I take half the dosage.

I didn't know about the magnesium....that's good information...I just double checked and I got it covered....1200mg calcium, 600IU Vitamin D, 600mg of magnesium. I have overkill on calcium because my multi-vitamin was weak in that area...20% RDA...and I'm lactose intolerant so I don't get much calcium from my foods so I had to get a calcium supplement in addition to my multi-vitamin. But my multi vitamin and calcium supplemnt covered the 2:1 ratio seperately as well as combined.

As for lunch personally....I work from home so I can grab any real food I feel like, I just know what office is like for lunches. Here I usually grab a few slices of fat free turkey in my hand. Although that might be high sodium also.