need tips on losing some weight~

[NewSc2]

okay, i've been mulling around my apartment for too long, and i need to drop about 10-15 lbs. before winter comes along. I know people have done it here before, and I have too, except that was when I was living at home, and had a car and parents to take me out to eat.

my fridge right now is stocked with semi-junk food (tv dinners, corn dogs, chicken pot pies, burritos, etc.) and not much healthy food, but i'm not going to go grocery shopping for a while. any tips that could start from there?

I've been just thinking about cutting a meal off, or maybe buying some slim-fast mix or drinks next time I stop by costco. I'll try to get myself to work out a bit more, except that doesn't look like it'll really happen. Right now I work out about every other day, and I'll stick with that.

Anybody tried Slim Fast? Any tips out there? (doing a certain thing each day will shave off this, or that, etc.)

*will check back in morning, 99

 

[GRIFFIN1]

Start smoking.

Tapeworm.

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: NewSc2
okay, i've been mulling around my apartment for too long, and i need to drop about 10-15 lbs. before winter comes along. I know people have done it here before, and I have too, except that was when I was living at home, and had a car and parents to take me out to eat.

my fridge right now is stocked with semi-junk food (tv dinners, corn dogs, chicken pot pies, burritos, etc.) and not much healthy food, but i'm not going to go grocery shopping for a while. any tips that could start from there?

I've been just thinking about cutting a meal off, or maybe buying some slim-fast mix or drinks next time I stop by costco. I'll try to get myself to work out a bit more, except that doesn't look like it'll really happen. Right now I work out about every other day, and I'll stick with that.

Anybody tried Slim Fast? Any tips out there? (doing a certain thing each day will shave off this, or that, etc.)

*will check back in morning, 99

Exercise is the best way to lose weight. Aerobic exercise. Go running.

 

[MomAndSkoorbaby]

Exercise, eat less calories but make sure you are getting healthy food! I personally would go through your fridge and just get rid of the junk, give it to friends or whatever. Then fill it with healthy food....veggies, good sources of protein, etc. Exercise is the key...

 

[Fausto]

Turn on dispos-all in sink. Insert arm for 20 sec. Note weight loss. Repeat until you have reached your desired weight. Use other arm if necessary.

Okay, serious answer: I've typed out lengthy responses to this very question so you'll have to exercise your search engine powers for those since I'm too lazy to type them all out again. The short answer is: don't eat crap and get at least 30 min of cardio in 3-6 times per week. You need a caloric deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound and it's easier to do this by adding exercise than by cutting out food IMO. See what you can dig up from my previous posts and then PM me if you have further questions.

I will say one thing: f*ck Slim-Fast. That stuff has been linked to all kinds of bad stuff, including damage to your gall bladder. Stay far away.

 

[Spac3d]

Working out + change of diet = pounds will melt off.

Working out:
Do aerobic excersize, not even necessarily weight training. Do some jogging 3-5x a week (depending on how sore you are). Don't forget to stretch

Diet:
Ditch the junk food. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Lay off the fast food (seriously, I dropped the fast food, and lbs came off easy). Stay away from soda/beer. Don't eat huge meals that make you feel stuffed, eat enough to be satisfied.

It sounds like a lot of work, but once you get in routine, you wont miss the stuff you used to eat.

Good luck

Spac3d

 

[Deeko]

Go running. Runnig running running. You can't beat good ol' fashioned running for weight loss.

 

[dullard]

I'll get a million flames for this post - but please read it out and try to be rational about it.

American's are probably as conserned (or more conserned) about their weight as any other nationality. We hear suggestions like those above daily. We spend multi-billions of dollars for low fat, low calorie diets, exersize gyms, personal trainers, etc. It is really funny to look at graphs of American's habits and their weight. The "better" they eat, the fatter they get. The food pyramid itself is exactly what farmer's feed to their livestock to force them to GAIN weight before selling at the market. As the amount of exercise we do increases, so has our weight. Something is wrong with the conventional theory (otherwise these tactics would be working).

Conventional theory: Calories In - Calories Burned = Net Weight Change

Go back to your elementary science books. The law of conservation of energy cannot be violated but it isn't written like you see above. Instead it reads:

Calories In - Calories Burned = Net Energy Stored

There is a subtle difference between the two. For example, when you recharge a battery its energy in is larger than its energy out, so it has a net gain of energy stored. BUT IT DOESN'T CHANGE WEIGHT. Now that seems very contradictory to the conventional theory (and that is a good thing since the conventional theory is failing us). Go back to your science books and read about mass instead of energy:

Mass In - Mass Out = Net Mass Change.

Hmm lets put this in as an example. Put a box with objects inside it on a scale and check its weight. Add 10 pounds of food (regardless of the fat/calorie content). Mix it around. Then remove 5 pounds of stuff. Weigh the box again - it gained 5 pounds we all know that will happen. The amount of calories added was meaningless to this weight problem. Why would it be any different for humans? Fact is American's eat more food than other cultures. More mass in = more weight gain. You want to lose weight - one way to do it is to eat less (if only we had the will power to do so). This doesn't mean exercise is useless - exactly the opposite. Study after study has shown that moderate to agressive exersize causes people to want to eat less. Thus exercise helps dramatically lose weight since it affects the mass of food we eat (the calories burned is meaningless). Exercise also affects the second part of the mass equation (the mass out part). Thus exercise has a dual beneficial effect on our weight. But there are other ways to affect the mass out part. Take fiber for instance - we cannot digest it so it passes right through us. Several studies have shown that the best diet change possible to help weight loss is to add fiber (note lower calorie diets didn't help much in these studies).

Here are helpful tips:
1) Eat less food. This is very difficult to do by shear will power so try these as well:
1a) Exercise curbs food cravings.
1b) Don't skip meals since we then binge at the next meal.
1c) Stop eating when full - forget how much is still in the pot or on your plate. To make this easy, just cook less to begin with or go to restaurants that serve smaller portions.
1d) Eat many small meals. Try 5 or 6 a day instead of the typical American 2-3 meals. The many small meals means you never have large cravings and thus avoid binging.
1e) Eat a small high fat item 30 minutes before meals. Sounds strange doesn't it. But remember calories don't affect your weight. And many studies have shown that fat reduces hunger drastically. Basically I'm telling you to do what your mother always warned against: spoil your appetite for dinner. A small handful of nuts is great example. 30 minutes before a meal - you'll eat much less food at the meal.

2) Poop more food out. Ok that was a bit graphic, I'm sorry. Anything you don't digest doesn't go to your belly/thighs. We cannot safely take laxatives long term (but laxatives work wonders in weight loss). So instead do this:
2a) Add fiber.
2b) Exercise.
2c) Add fiber.
2d) Did I mention, to add fiber.

Ok I know I'll be flamed for this post. But you have a choice: (A) do what American's have done for the last 30 years and gain weight with them. Or (B) realize that something is wrong with that logic and go with what science and studies have proven to work - basically what I summarized above.

 

[kherman]

1) Start doing arobic exercise.
2) No-carb diet. Get teh Atkins book and read it, then do it.

I dropped 20 pounds in 3 months doing this! Ate wheenver I wanted to, it was great! Baconand eggs for a late night snack, AWESOME!

 

[Amused]

Screw special diets. All you need to do is eliminate the junk food, and rid yourself of unhealthy munchies. Replace the chips and crackers with fruits and veggies. You'd be surprised how good apples, citrus, bananas and peaches are. They're sweet and juicy.

Then follow this plan to the letter, and do it religiously. I guarantee you'll be in great shape by the ninth week, and you'll feel MUCH better about yourself. I would also do moderate weight training three days a week as well.

If you simply diet and not exercise, you'll lose muscle mass and end up with a skinny little girly body. Not to mention you'll never fully lose the fat around your waist.

 

[StageLeft]

Screw the funky diets. People who consistently maintain a good weight loss and are trim and fit are not on the atkins diet or the zone. They're doing it because they excercise and they eat properly (unlike all the garbage in your fridge), and they don't pig out 1500 calories at lunch, then again at dinner, then more snacking at night.

 

[Azraele]

Forgive me for saying so, but you don't really sound comitted or motivated.

But anyway, cut out soft drinks. Drink water or juice instead. Eat balanced, healthy meals. Exercise.

 

[wonTong]

I don't want to crap too much on the Atkin's Diet since I don't know all the details... but no carbs means your body goes into ketosis right? Your body starts breaking down muscle and fat tissue as a last reserve since there are no carbs to provide for energy. How else would someone get the fiber or phytochemicals that they avoid in grains and fruits? And isn't the bacon high in fat and cholesterol? That'll hurt you in the long run...

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Azraele
Forgive me for saying so, but you don't really sound comitted or motivated.

I got that impression as well. The thing about losing weight is it's difficult enough that unless you're really committed it just will not happen. A truly comitted disgusted-with-their-body person at this point would throw all that food away or give it to friends and go to the grocery store. If you don't keep junk around the apartment there is none to eat.

 

[KC5AV]

Ok... it may sound ultra-simple, but here is one thing that has worked for me.

1. Don't eat until you get hungry.
2. Stop eating when you are full.

The first one is easier than the 2nd... at least it was for me. The problem is that most people don't realize that they aren't hungry. They eat because it's dinner time, or it's time for lunch. Try waiting until your stomach acutally growls. Then wait another 15 minutes. If you are still hungry, then go eat. When you do go eat, eat the best stuff first. If, for example, you have a McDonalds #3 hold the onions, and are only getting the fries because it's just as cheap to get the value meal as it is to order a burger and a drink, don't eat all of the fries just because they are there. That's where then 2nd part comes in. You have to pay close attention while you are eating. There should come a point where the food just doesn't taste as good as that first bite. At that point, stop eating. It's a slow process, but if you pay attention to it you should be able to drop about 1-2 pounds per week.

 

[queenmege]

dont skip meals...eat 5 small meals a day. eat until full, not until all the food is gone. eating more fruits and veggies also helps. stay away from pop, it may seem tough but i have been pop free for over 3 months. lay off the hostess snack cakes and find a healthy food that you enjoy eating. not all health food is gross.

 

[NewSc2]

heh, well you're right about the not being so motivated part. Actually, I did lose about 20 lbs in a month a couple years back, but I'm really not quite sure how i did that, and not quite sure how i gained it back. I took some metabolife, and would stop drinking soda (good thing i only have water and juice and milk here). I think i'll just start by swimming maybe half an hour after lifting weights daily, because I really have nothing to do around here in my apartment.

Problem is, like on the weekends at parties and stuff usually i end up pigging out anyways, and that part is probably the hardest to stop. I'll try to report back on ATOT i suppose to report my progress; when I lost 20 lbs. in that one month it was because I was doing a self-improvement project for Psychology, and I was being graded on it, and I suppose without anybody looking over me I don't really care as much anymore. Any tips would be useful still

 

[Legendary]

How I lost 8 lbs. in 3 weeks.
I run every morning.
I eat a very small (in comparison to before) amount of non crappy food 5 times a day.
I binge once a week to keep me sane.
It works.

 

[dolph]

[bitter]
forget all these posts about "exercising" and "eating healthy." they're bullshit, really. here is dolph's guaranteed perfect body plan, where you eat as much as you want of whatever you want, do zero exercise, and still wind up looking like a abercrombie and fitch model:

1. make a lot of money
2. go to this secret link
3. repeat steps 1 and 2 when necessary

screw those jerks who want you to do anything you don't feel like doing just to look a little better.

one more thing: slim fast, phen-fen, atkins... they're all golden. there's no such thing as sounding too good to be true. no rebounding, no side-effects, you lose the weight you want, where you want, as fast as you want, and it stays off forever. how cool is that?
[/bitter]

is the concept of losing weight an enigma to you? stop making excuses why you can't do it. you know exactly what to do. eat better food and less of it, and exercise. wow, i just discovered how to lose weight. i should go write a book.