Hey guys...
 

So I feel like I'm very obese now... I gained 40 lbs since last semester (half a year ago)... Now I feel motivated to lose weight after noticing that I have breathing problems while driving fast... God... Horrible feeling.. Anyways, anyone have any advice??

I lost 50 lbs and -refuse- to go back. So many 'problems' cleared up. I feel great. Do it!

Religiously count calories that you presently eat. Now reduce it by about 20% and stick to it. Start there, modulate up or down as needed.

You can find calculators on resting metabolism, but really, there is considerable individual variation (and these formulas were developed when Americans were far less sedentary...), so unless you can find a place that does the respiration test, just assume whatever number you arrive at when making calculations is probably an overestimate.

We are not so different from our ancestors 400 K years ago... but we are far less active and have agriculture, so we eat tons and tons of crap while sitting on our asses, even though we evolved to run around with not too much food. So, as compared to our ancient ancestors, modern humans tend to have less dense bone mass, less muscle mass, and are fatter. Oh, and then there's all the diseases directly tied to diet like late onset diabetes and heart disease...

Cut out anything that is mainly fats or sugar entirely (e.g., cheese, whole milk, white bread, soda). No booze, if you are really serious.

Drink more water. Lean meats, fish, fruits, veg. Go easy on anything that requires some form of processing before it can be eaten (e.g., wheat and rice products, anything deep fried...).

Begin a workout regimen. Start with the basics if you are out of shape; stretch, push ups, crunches.

Run. Seriously, run. As you get more fit, add some wind-sprints to it (full tilt, short bursts).

Track everything you do and eat in a log. Note progress in strength (e.g., can now do more push ups) and weight (a few lbs every two weeks or so is reasonable if you stick at it -- and it tends to drop off quickly as first if you are really packing too much excess fat).

Picking up a set of body fat calipers or a decent scale that can estimate it is helpful as well.

Log everything -- humans are bad at estimating without record keeping.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot BroZ. I appreciate ur motivational speeches. I just now did some weight training and jogged around my neighborhood for about 40 minutes. I can't say that sounds good compared to other people, but right now I'm just focusing on how I do. I think it was pretty great for a first time exercise! I'm actually feeling really good right now as I'm typing this. I think this is gonna be life changing :happydance:

i'd focus on my diet a big part of actually being healthy and looking great is in the diet. cut out non essentials like jordo! listed above. once you change the way you eat do some weight training. ease into it though if you aren't used to physical activity. once you start gaining muscle your body will begin to metabolize everything more efficiently, and you will burn a lot more fat as you gain muscle mass. the biggest thing is that these things take time so don't get discouraged early on stick with it and you will look and feel great.
good luck!

Congrats on taking the first step; admitting there is a problem. There are a lot of online resources that can help you on this journey. It can be a bit overwhelming to sort through it all, but don't be afraid to ask others for help.

As Jordo said, if you eat it then log it. This will take time, but you'll get better with time. Understanding your caloric intake and requirements will go a long way.

As Boost said, be patient. Don't be discouraged if you falter. This is a journey and it will take time.

Be sure to set realistic goals, and acknowledge any progress in the right direction. Being able to stay focused on the end result can be difficult without feeling positive about the progress.

I've been using an iPhone app (I think they also have Android) as well as online. It's called Loseit! It helps you keep track of your eating. With Premium membership, it will also link to MapMyRide and others to keep track of that also.
I've lost 2 or 3 pounds in the last week and my brother has lost 50 since he started in May.
Keeping track of calories will amaze you at just how much you ate in the past.
We had free pizza at work the day after I started this. I had 3 pieces of cheese pizza and one pepperoni. 1,000 calories. Half of my allotment for the day.

I've never had to diet but going by what I have seen of others who wanted to lose weight, going on a diet is a short-term fix. To keep the weight off, one must break old habits. I'm betting that you do a lot of snacking while studying ... cut that out! Or nosh on stuff with few calories. Pick lower-calorie foods and eat a little less (starving yourself is counter-productive, you'll be miserable and more likely to snack). Exercise is your best friend - burn those calories up before they have time to turn to fat.

Edit: BTW, "Hey guys..." is a real crappy title for this thread (or any other). Something like "Looking for dieting tips", "Help me lose weight", &c would probably work better. YMMV

1. find some kind of activity, that you like to do!!!, and do it often.
2. replace the bad things you eat with wholesome natural foods
3. cut out the sugar whether it be synthetic or processed
4. find friends that enjoy the same activities you do and hang around them often
5. take advantage of cold thermogenesis
6. If you are stuck in a chair all day, get up and move every hour
7. track your results weekly

I'm a fitness coach. Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions

This is a double edged sword... there are good calories and bad calories you can intake. Just because something might say it was 100 calories it doesn't necessarily mean it will benefit your body.

Honestly just start exercising daily, do a lot of cardio and if you want to lift weights, do low weight but high reps. 15-20 reps of 6+ sets. also, if you can go to the gym early in the morning i would suggest you do that. working out in the morning jump starts your body and you'll feel better as well.

There are fat burners but i'm skeptical about those and i would not recommend them, but they can help you take of weight a little bit.

Just be dedicated and don't pig out and you'll see an improvement.

I've found my clients to greatly differ with this. Some people can count calories and eat twinkies and doughnuts and still lose weight as long as overall calories are lower in deficit. Others, it greatly matters what they eat. I think there are 2 reasons for this.

1. Peoples bodies are different and react to foods/calories differently. Some peoples bodies don't burn stored fat easily, and store processed sugar and carbs as fat more rather than use it for fuel. It's mostly hereditary. In this case you'll need to learn to balance stress, keep your hormones in check and find out what foods work for you.

2. Some people are under educated on this. They don't realize how important it is to eat foods high in nutrition and low in calories. Once they learn about this, they eat more good quality caloric foods and actually feel less hungry. If you don't understand and eat low quality food dieting can be very stressful. You'll feel hungry constantly, and if you don't give in to the urges you'll just increase cortisol levels and your body will still store more fat!

yup, no 2 people are the same, got to find the right balance for everything.

I give specific dietary recommendations besides counting calories... I also recommended he use that as a STARTING point.

Yes, in principal, you can lose weight on twinkies and vodka, but you feel like **** and be creeping your way towards late onset diabetes...

Lean meats, fish, veg, fruit, limit processed foods (i.e., wheat and rice products), obviously cut out all foods devoted to high sugar, fat, or sodium content (i.e., snack foods), cut out whole fat dairy, and if really serious NO booze. For at least two months, pretend you are training for a fight and be disciplined. It will suck. It will be hard. But its only 8 weeks. You'll feel like a new man in 4, and that will galvanize you for the next 4. Then, re-evaluate your next move.

That hilarious 2000 Kc/day recommended for the "average" adult is, if you work out the values using the old BMR maths, for a 175 lb reasonably lean and physically active adult man. That's not a lot of people, as it turns out. In any case, the "average" American probably eats about double that or more.

Based on my recommendation, if he eats 7,500 Kc a day (quite possible if he eats lots of junk foods), cutting 20% is a drop to a "mere" 6000 Kc. Hardly starvation. Then those updated caloric needs have to be filled with densely nutritious foods.

40 lbs of body fat will drop off fast provided he reduces caloric intake, increases physical activity (especially resistance training combined with cardiovascular activity), while sparing (and building) lean muscle mass.

Stat light to moderate; work hard, but slow down if you get wiped out. Consult a physician if you are in poor health, injuries, or have heart/breathing issues to work around before beginning. When the exercise regimen seems fairly easy, time to work harder and do more.

Always stretch at least a bit before and after (there is evidence you burn more calories by skipping the pre-stretch -- more latent energy in the muscles -- but also greater likelihood of pulling something... so stretch). Flexible is good.

Set your goals to be challenging but manageable. If you feel like its too little, put more effort in. If you are ready to collapse (especially just beginning) slow the **** down and pace yourself. You'll be maintaining these habits the rest of your life, not for a month or two.

The only supplement I would recommend other than Designer Whey (the "designer" part is based on a production method that makes it more easily absorbed rather than destroyed in the gut), is calcium citrate (better absorbed than carbonate) and, if desired, as a very safe appetite suppressant/fat burner, good old caffeine. Mind your tolerance to it -- don't overdo it, obviously. If you are twitchy and can't sleep, that's not good... if you already down coffee on a daily basis, use that as your guideline.

Drink lots of water. Fills you up, keeps your cells hydrated, and helps with elimination. Good for the kidneys too.

Oh yeah, and if you smoke: QUIT.

Log everything, count calories, time, reps, weights, take notes.

Compare and contrast in 4 weeks. If you follow my advice, I predict a loss of around 10 lbs of fat and overall feeling surprisingly more fit, agile, and light on your feet.

Get yourself a decent physical with your Dr. If you dont have one go to your health clinic and make an appt. Before you go radically changing your life/diet etc find out how you are doing first. Its cheap easy insurance at your age.
Plenty of good advice here as well. Seeing a Doc if you have not been in a while is never a bad idea at all. We can have problems at any age.

NICE!!! We actually recommend a similar 2 month diet during winter training months for our endurance athletes. Not only do they lose weight on the diet but seem to continue losing weight in post diet months and seem to attest they perform better in races/workouts.

The only thing I'll add is about the stretching. A lot of recent studies are showing stretching before workouts actually contributes to injuries. Theory goes that stretching loosens up soft tissues and and promotes hyperextensions. Over the past few years we've been promoting regular use of foam rollers to lengthen muscles and take out adhesions instead.

I was about 6'1" 340lbs about a year ago. Went to the doctor for something unrelated and found out I was type 2 diabetic (big surprise) and was going to have to be put on medication / insulin shots etc.. f*ck that.

Been on the Ketogenic diet since then. Low Carb High Fat diet. No starches/sugar/very little carbs from vegetables etc. Basically forces your body to burn fat for energy instead of glucose (sugar/carbs etc). There's more to it but that's the cliff notes version.

Its tough sometimes. and going out to eat can sometimes be a huge pain in the ***. But its all about learning what you can and can't eat. It's amazing when you start reading labels and see how much sugar and BS is put in foods we buy everyday..

Slowly but surely down to ~280 and still going. With literally zero exercise (desk IT job). Check out the everything about keto forum. Get lots of info and support there..

Also can recommend the Myfitnesspal app thing if you want help tracking ****. I hate doing it but can help you realize how many calories and carbs you taking in.

Its not for everyone but its definitely working for me. Might be worth looking into.

^ careful with keto. you can't be on that diet for too long. watch for your kidneys. and use your carb-up days appropriately.

<scans thread>

Nobody mentioned copious amounts of blow yet? :shakes head:

+1 Keto is definitely an amazing option if you've tried other diets before and calorie counting just doesn't seem to work for you. As it has been said earlier in the thread the options to lose weight are numerous and some work better for different people.

I had a hernia surgery which was botched by the first surgeon who performed it and in trying to train for police try outs I re-opened the op site. Without the PTO required for the surgery I had to limit my physical activity till I could cover the hours needed to get the surgery, depressed and eating like garbage ballooned me to 235lbs I'm only 5'9 so that was a lot of weight on my frame. After my surgery I immediately started a keto diet with 0 exercise for fear of damaging my new op site. I am down 58 lbs in 4.5 months. Zero cardio, but I have picked up doing push ups, pull ups and squats recently and will start into cardio slowly as well.

It worked for me so it may work for you, I believe so heavily in it I made a small blog for my family where I put up recipes for foods I've made that are low carb and my father who is type 1 diabetic has benefited greatly as well. If you want you can try it out and see if you take to the diet. Pretty much the solid rule you abide by is stay under 50 grams of carbs a day, you cut out your carbs and up your fat intake far higher than protein intake. For snacks you would be eating nuts, jerky, etc. You will find you eat a lot healthier as you have to cook your meals and to keep things fresh you end up using a ton of vegetables that you otherwise wouldn't have considered prior.

I'm sure liquid G can attest to your energy level feeling completely different as well, it honestly feels like you are running on a higher grade of "fuel" if that makes sense.

Oro Strong That's the blog I have for some recipes but looking up keto you will definitely find other sites that are far more detailed and have more to offer but it might give you a few that you can try out and see if it is for you.

Again not saying it's the perfect diet, but it has been the perfect diet for me, and if it ends up helping you out then I figured it is worth mentioning.

-Cliffs
-Keto worked great for me
-Under 50 grams of carbs a day
-A few low carb recipes to try out

Keto is ABSOLUTELY a sustainable long term diet. Better yet, call it a lifestyle. What's not sustainable is the first 2 weeks that some people do in the beginning of Keto with no carbs or sugars including fruits and vege's. Longer term there are guidelines for adding good wholesome carbs into the diet from sources like sweet potatoes. One thing to remember with Keto, to keep it sustainable long term, is to eat good healthy fats. A lot of trans fats like removing the bun from your big mac!, is not a good long term play!!!! Choose lean, organic meats, nuts and seeds, and natural peanut butter, etc. Eat lots of vege's and fruits! There are plenty of people who do this long term that compete in Ironman triathlons! It took me almost a year to reap the benefits of it, and exercise sessions more than an hour at first really lacked energy. After a year, I had more energy, feel amazing, and I could do fasted 80% threshold bike rides for 3 hours at a time before I needed to fuel my body at all.

I have never been fat, chubby, large or any of those names. I simply never let myself slip far past being toned. People asked how I do it. First off, I tell them it's all about diet. It's takes me about a month to drink a 2 liter of soda. I basically only drink it after a burger meal, wings or them type of foods.

To give you an idea of how important a proper diet is; it takes your body about 1 mile of work to burn 100 calories. That means for every candy bar you eat, you need to run 1.5 miles to burn it off.

InTruth, it don't have to be 100 = 1 mile of running. You can walk it, jog, sprint. The distance and work on your body is the same. The only variable is the duration of work.

The other thing I tell people on how to eat better is eat 4 times a day. I use the rule of palm. you get your portions of healthy carbs and protein the same size as your palm. Imagine cutting your left hand off at the wrist as high up as you can. Then rid of the digets. you want your carbs and protein to be equal or less that the same size and thickness of your palm.

As For veggies, have as much as you want. Just donte load up with dressing, bacon, ham, fruit or whatever junk people put in it. Try just a dash of olive oil, fresh lemon juice and nuts instead of store brand dressing.

Then there is Bodybuilding.com. That is my go to place for brain food and inspiration to stay healthy.

start T25 ! or Insanity !

Id suggest T25 if you are not use to much cardio...25 mins is all the longer a workout lasts...all in the comfort of your own home. You wont regret it!
Insanity is ...well....insane. Start with T25. After you finish all those programs jump to Insanity!

hmm. That sounds good. In the absence of that, I'd argue for fairly light stretching before and more after, and/or in between sets. Hyper stretching will definitely loosen things up too much, so I'm not surprised of hear of evidence that it leads to injuries if people overdo it.

The "no pre-stretching" idea was based on fairly recent data that the tighter ligaments had more potential energy and therefore actually burned more calories when stretched during exercise rather than before.

I feel that is probably adequate advice for fit and reasonably flexible individuals (and irrelevant for ballet dancers and trained fighters or gymnasts). But newbies should definitely at least do some modest warm up stretches, if nothing else because figuring out the interval between "not enough" and "too much exertion" will be ill defined.

The foam roller probably works really well. Nothing like that at my gym that I am aware of, sadly... :icon14:

20-25 mg primetine + 200-250 mg caffeine + 50-100 mg aspirin 2- 3 x per day will result in less trouble with johnny law and fewer renal failures/heart attacks/strokes :icon17:

But, based on various acquaintances of mine, the Incas were definitely on to something...

I would advise strongly against eating too much fat that is solid at room temperature...

How much beer are you drinking? :yum:

My doctor told me to watch my sodium intake so I downloaded MyFitnessPal, it's amazing how much crap you realize you eat once you start tracking it. It's very easy (IMO) to stay around ~2000ish calories - check out WeightWatchers recipes online, some are delicious!

foam rollers are cheap! even a really good one is $35 on amazon. :tup: I always keep one in the house and take a lacrosse ball with me to work out adhesions and stay supple. :tiphat:

I didn't read everyone else's advice but there really isn't a lot to being healthy.

-Eat CLEAN. You don't have to eat like a pro body builder to be healthy. Knock out as much sugary crap as you can - stay away especially from sugary drinks (sodas, starbuck's, etc). Remove processed foods from your pantry. When you go to the grocery store, stay away from the aisles in the middle! In general, if you stick to the outside aisles of the grocery store (i.e. the meats, veggies, fruits, deli) you'll be fine. If you don't already have a crockpot, get one. Toss a pound or two of chicken breast in there with some chicken broth and spices on high for 4 hours on Sunday night and you've got enough chicken to make yourself healthy lunches for the week. Combine with salad, rice, etc and done. 6 packs are built in the kitchen - not just the gym.

-P90x and Crossfit and all those other fad workouts are great, but really hard to stick to if you're just getting started. The best way to stick to training at first is to just set the goal of breaking a sweat once a day, every day. Whether you're jogging around the block, lifting weights, or banging your lady - make it a point to raise your heart rate and keep it up for a while every day (pun kind of intended). Do this and you will soon find that sticking to the more hardcore workouts will come a lot easier.

-Baby steps. The main reason people fail when they decide to get in shape is that they try to change too much about their lives over night and it will never work that way. Set small goals every day and stick to them. Eventually all of the little things will add up to big changes.

Good luck!

Commitment is key. I'm 5'9ish and weighed 200 at once point. That was way too heavy for my height. I got on Insanity, started jogging 2-3 miles minimum daily, and got on a very strict [and super healthy] diet. With in 30 days, I dropped 25 pounds.

Sure, thats extreme and no one should drop that much in a short amount of time, but I really wanted the weight off. Someone called me "fat", and that got to my head like I would've never imagined.

But anyway, just try to commit. That's key. Commitment and Dedication. Completely stop your fast food intake. Your body will thank you.

use lunch money to buy car mods :tup:

:ugh:

Too bad most of you aren't premium, you could have joined my thread since it needs more action.

I second what DLSTR mentioned about getting a physical done first. I had been having trouble losing weight and with other issues until my doc performed a more thorough blood test. Turns out, I'm dealing with insulin resistance.

For prems if you want support:

http://www.the370z.com/premium-membe...e-support.html

Daily excercise will decrease the resistance.
I've been Type 1 Diabetic and my resistance is ridiculously high. I've been biking more and watching my food intake with "Lose It" app. 6 solid pounds lost this month. My brother has lost 60 in about 5 months.

Did the OP ever post again? Wondering if he found any of the advice to be worthwhile.

Well, FWIW, I got motivated to get back in something resembling peak condition for me again. So... no booze (heavy sigh), more running, and some further care in sticking to my already mostly spartan diet (not counting the beer, wine, and vodka that is), and four weeks later I've cut my bodyfat down to around 8-9% again (?!). Overall weight loss is minimal -- just a few lbs, so for once I've managed to keep the muscle and just drop the flab (not so easy for me based on past experience).

To everybody else who posted who is working hard to get in shape -- good job so far, and keep at it -- it will pay off if you are determined and disciplined! :tup:

If you slip -- tomorrow's a new day. Resume and keep going! Good luck!