Getting Fit and Losing weight

[Guest]

... For me so I have decided to embark on a get fit scheme. So what in your opinion is the best way to lose weight. Obviously I know its not to eat badly, but what are good foods to eat etc.

Joined the gym and have been a few times, before you can build up muscle you have to lose the excess fat so thats what Im planning on doing. Anyone else doing this at the same time? I think to do this really you need a goal and mine is to get fit for my 2 month trip round South East Asia in the summer. Lets motivate each other. Its the way forward!

Responses welcomed.

DC

 

[TrueBlue]

Swimming is superb to help!

 

[hexagon_sun]

Prior to Christmas I came up with my own regime and lost a stone in 6 weeks. This is basically what I did - I ate and drank what I liked at weekends (except for beer/lager/ale which I totally gave up) and then Monday to Friday I had;

2 slices of wholemeal toast at around 09:30

A sensible lunch (sandwich [no white bread though], soup, salad) at 12:30

A healthy snack around 16:00 (1 piece of fruit or a small bowl of healthy cereal/muesli)

A sensible dinner no later than 19:30

The main thing was this though - apart from 1 cup of tea in the morning and 1 later in the evening, all I drank all day was water - apparently it's the quickest and easiest way to lose weight fairly quickly and it certainly worked for me. Other than that, just remember to eat smaller meals more often - helps speed up your metabolism and is far more effective than starving yourself all day and having 1 meal in the evening. Good luck!!

 

[Wessex Blue]

Quote[/b] (destination championship @ Jan. 18 2006,15:31)]... For me so I have decided to embark on a get fit scheme. So what in your opinion is the best way to lose weight. Obviously I know its not to eat badly, but what are good foods to eat etc.

Joined the gym and have been a few times, before you can build up muscle you have to lose the excess fat so thats what Im planning on doing. Anyone else doing this at the same time? I think to do this really you need a goal and mine is to get fit for my 2 month trip round South East Asia in the summer. Lets motivate each other. Its the way forward!

Responses welcomed.

DC

I've heard that dysentery is effective at shifting unwanted weight. Bit of a bind carrying two buckets around though....

 

[southend_utd_fan]

Quote[/b] (destination championship @ Jan. 18 2006,15:31)]Joined the gym and have been a few times, before you can build up muscle you have to lose the excess fat so thats what Im planning on doing. Anyone else doing this at the same time? I think to do this really you need a goal and mine is to get fit for my 2 month trip round South East Asia in the summer. Lets motivate each other. Its the way forward!

What Gym have you joined? Im a Personal trainer at one of the gyms in Westcliff. Need any advice or help give me a pm.

 

[hexagon_sun]

I just found the piece that inspired me to try and lose some weight...

Quote[/b] ]
The purpose of eating small meals is so that you are giving your body what it needs when it needs it, rather than letting excess carbs/fats/sugars just be stored by your body.

I know a lot of people don't eat breakfast. I never feel hungry when I wake up, but one of the most important things you can do when losing weight is to have a small bowl of whole-grain cereal in the morning, even if you don't feel hungry. By "small", I mean 3/4 to 1 full cup. Eating whole grains provides carbohydrates and nutrition for your body to jumpstart your metabolism.

If you had breakfast at 9, a good time to eat lunch would be around 12:30. Try not to postpone eating until you feel like you are starving. Instead, eat at the first twinges of hunger. This does two things: lets your body continue to burn fuel efficiently, and keeps you from overshooting how much food you actually need. A good analogy would be putting new wood in an already-burning fire... you don't want to smother it, just keep it going.

Have a healthy snack around 2 or 3pm (carrot sticks, an apple, celery, granola bar...), dinner between 5-7, and don't eat after 8. Your body's natural cycle is to start in the morning and start shutting down in the evening... if you work with the cycle, your body will take care of itself naturally.

Drink water all throughout the day. The recommended 8-10 glasses is kind of extreme (unless you want to spend your day at the urinal), but several glasses will keep you from falsely feeling hungry and will keep you hydrated.

As far as exercise goes, you don't need to over do it. I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like working out. I do 20 diamond pushups and 40 crunches in the morning, and the same when I get home and that's about it. The main thing is to be consistant. Don't work out like crazy one day and then not do a damn thing for the rest of the week.

Don't try to completely swear off junk food and everything else you enjoy. First, you'll say "f%&k this" after about a week and give up, and secondly, there's more to life than being healthy... it's a good thing to enjoy the occasional pizza or candy bar or whatever your poison is. The operative word is "occasional", though. Moderation is the key.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

If you go to the gym before work, try this little trick (esp if you're doing a lot of cardio-vascular work).

Have 2 cups of strong espresso coffee (black with NO sugar) about half-an-hour before you start & then try to drink a litre of water before the end of your session. The effect will be to speed up the fat-burning part of your metabolism & help you to burn fat more effectively. After your session take a quick carbo hit such as a banana or a cereal bar then have a sensible day of eating like mentioned above with also at least another litre of water.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (glasgowsufc @ Jan. 18 2006,16:54)]If you go to the gym before work, try this little trick (esp if you're doing a lot of cardio-vascular work).

Have 2 cups of strong espresso coffee (black with NO sugar) about half-an-hour before you start & then try to drink a litre of water before the end of your session.  The effect will be to speed up the fat-burning part of your metabolism & help you to burn fat more effectively.  After your session take a quick carbo hit such as a banana or a cereal bar then have a sensible day of eating like mentioned above with also at least another litre of water.

As someone who is also trying to lose weight, can I ask... why/how does that work?

It's a genuine question, incidentally - in that I'm always looking for ways to help lose weight, and I'm never 100% sure what the best way is.

I don't go to the gym; however, I do cycle to and from work, which is about 25 minutes cardio-vascular work in each direction. Any tips to help with fat burning as part of that exercise would therefore be greatly appreciated!

Matt

 

[Perth Bambi]

Becaue caffine releases chemicals that increase the use of free fatty acids and fat burning.

 

[Perth Bambi]

And its important to drink lots of water during and after as caffine is also a diuretic which causes dehydration.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Thanks Yorkshire Bambi. So long as I have a big slug of water on arrival at work, is that the way forward?

Equally, if caffeine is a fat burner, should I have a Diet Coke about 30 minutes before cycling home?

Matt

 

[Perth Bambi]

Well in theory water loss should also make you lose weight so lots of caffine and not much water makes you lose weight. (Shane Warne used diuretic drugs as a weight loss fix) but obviously not drinking enough water isn't particularly healthy and the average person shouldn't really go down this road as a lot of college wrestlers in USA try this and every year there are a few deaths.
ALthough caffine would help as weight loss i wouldn't really count on it, much better like people have said eat healthy and take part in light exercise.
Cycling to work is good, and even things like using stairs rather then lifts would help.
Would also advise having tea or coffee without sugar.

 

[Perth Bambi]

Exercising at around 80% of total maximum heart rate for around 30mins while eating a balanced healthy diet is generally seen as the opimum level for weight loss if this is carried out 4 times a week (3 minimum).

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Yorkshire Bambi's answered everything I could have added to my post MtS.

I don't think that the caffeine effect is proven to work in the evening though. It's all about kickstarting the metabolism. I tried it when I was doing a lot of cycling in the summer at weekends & really noticed that it worked for me.

 

[Mad Cyril]

I have lost around 10lbs in a month purely by avoiding carbohydrates.

I typically have fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and for lunch I have a salad with a hard boiled egg or some chorizo.

I can honestly say that I no longer crave food during the day. I used to eat a couple of rounds of sandwiches for lunch and an hour later I would crave a chocolate bar. It has also totally eliminated the feelings of tiredness I used to feel in the afternoon. I guess this is because I am eating foods with a low GI which release their energy more slowly.

During the evining I have a normal meal and usually a few beers or a bottle of wine and strangely I am still losing weight.

Mind you, I bet Freddy Mercury said the same thing

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

I started my diet on the 6th January and weigh in each Friday, so next weigh in tomorrow. Anyway I lost 7.5lbs in the first week. I'm not one for all these different fads i.e. have so much caffine, no carbs etc as whilst it might work initially it won't keep it off long term - It's about changing habits for good. Quite simply the reason for putting on weight is you have been putting more in than you have been burning off, therefore to lose weight you to need to do the opposite.

In my view there are only 2 things you need to think about:

1. Eat healthily - I've replaced Bacon butty breakfast with 2 slices of toast. I'm having a chicken/ham/turkey salad sandwich and a couple of bits of fruit and a yoghurt, and a fairly healthy meal in the evening. If I feel hungry during the day I eat fruit and drink water. So far I haven't felt hungry. Cut down the alcohol, but don't cut it out, you'll only be more encouraged to binge. In fact that goes for pretty much everything - Fancy a curry, either have a homemade one, or go for a Chicken Tikka, a lot healthier and beats your cravings.

2. Exercise. I am a member of a gym near my office and try and do 3 sessions a week around 30 minutes a time, with a bit of treadmill, rowing, cycling, cross trainer. Don't believe the rubbish that you have to lose fat before gaining muscle. Do some lighter weights quicker to build up your muscles, this will increase your metabolism and burn off fat quicker. And always do sit ups - its amazing how quickly it can help pull your stomach in. Even if you can't go to the gym, just go for a walk at lunch - it all helps.

So there you have it:
1. Eat healthily
2. Exercise.

TIP - If you have a bad meal/day, don't think I'll start again next week, and don't try to starve yourself the next day to make it up as it only leads to bad habits. Remember it's only 1 bad day out of 365 in a year!

 

[SARF]

Dont eat bread, or anything made from wheat..

 

[Mad Cyril]

Quote[/b] (SARF @ Jan. 19 2006,11:50)]Dont eat bread, or anything made from wheat..

It works for me.

I can't believe how much more awake I feel in the afternoon now I don't eat sandwiches.

 

[SARF]

Indeed M.C. I havn't had so much as a slice since the start of the year. I have lost 8 pounds and I wasn't even really overweight.
I used to eat loads of it , toast, rolls, pizza..
Now I seldom feel hungry, happily eat nice fat lamb chops with loads of veg and dont care and as with you, feel a lot livelier in the afternoons.
Its not the fat its the bread. In fact I would go as far to say that the western worlds dependence on wheat based foodstuffs is one of the main reasons for the current obesity problems..
If you looked at a loaf of bread before it was cooked you wouldnt eat it.. same with pasta, would you eat a cup of fancy Italian flour with an egg in it..
You are better off having bacon and eggs for brekky than a bagle..

 

[Perth Bambi]

You may think that and not eating carbs may keep the weight off (mainly due to the fact more energy and higher intensity exercise is needed to burn carbs) but carbohydrates (found in bread etc) don't cause high cholesterol, saturated fats do so a diet based around energy intake due to fat is not particularly healthy I'm afraid. Interesting to see that Dr Atkins (Atkins diet starter) was obese and according to many reports suffered from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and had a heart attack causing him to fall and kill himself.