Wanting to loose weight

[ERaptor]

Firstly, English isnt my native language, feel free to go Grammar-Patrol on me.

As the titel suggests, im trying to loose weight. I switched from drinking the sugary, flavored-stuff to only water (Which helps a lot, at least that's what people tell me.). And as soon as im allowed to drive, im planning to get a Gym-Membership to workout 1-2 Times a week (Maybe more, but i have no idea how much i can handle).

However, there's a problem, the food. It's not that i cant resist eating the Sweet-Stuff, it's that i have no idea what Food im actually allowed to eat, and which Food i should dodge at all costs. The main thing is, that i work pretty far from home, this means i cant get home and cook something for lunch. Since Fast-Food is out of the question, and regular Restaurants can be pretty costly for someone in his Apprenticeship, i have no idea what good options would be. So, if anyone is or was in the same situation, i would be very grateful for some hints.

For those interested, the Reason im doing it is firstly, personal preference (Im getting tired of my habit of pulling my shirt straight, because i have this built-in fear People are constantly staring at my rolls) and secondly because i have been single for...forever. And appearantly living in Switzerland and being overweight makes getting a Realationsship about as feasible as growing Wings and flying to the Moon.

Again, sorry for the bad English, and if it matters for the subject, im a 20 Year old Male.

 

[Batou667]

Weight loss (or gain, for that matter) is just calories in vs calories out, so for most people diet is by far the bigger factor than exercise (although exercise is great and you should be doing it anyway!)

Use a site like this:

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

to calculate your daily maintenance calories, and then subtract, say, 500 calories from it, to give your daily goal calories for weight loss. That's the easy bit.

The tricky bit is now counting your calories each day and not underestimating how much you're eating. Common mistakes include people looking at a packet of food, noting down the calories-per-serving, and then eating the whole pack of food (which actually contains several servings). Often people forget to count calories in drinks - just about anything that isn't black coffee, green tea or water has calories, do count them! Better still, don't drink any of your calories at all - stick to water, and you'll have more calories to spend on food. Some people even believe that anything that isn't a meal doesn't get counted, e.g. if it's a snack it doesn't count, if it's chocolate that somebody else bought for you it doesn't count, etc. Be honest with yourself! If it goes in your mouth, count it.

Like archiebawled said it's a great opportunity to switch to less calorie-dense foods so you may not have to really reduce the volume of food you're eating, you'll just be eating "cleaner". Fruits and vegetables are a great place to start. Also go for high-satiety foods that are high in protein as these fill you better than fats and sugars. Pasta and rice are also good "filler" foods but choose brown or wholemeal rather than white.

Let's talk exercise. Cardio in the "fat burning" zone is good (elevated treadmill, cross trainer, resistance bike) but even an hour of this will only burn a hundred or so calories, so don't "reward" yourself with a post-workout coke or chocolate bar as you may very well be undoing all your hard work in a matter of seconds. Weight training is a good idea too as the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism is - basically, you expend calories even sitting on your butt at college or work. Don't do heavy cardio and heavy weights on the same day though.

Good luck! Also remember to photograph and weigh yourself fairly regularly so you have a record of your progress and can use that as motivation.

 

[ERaptor]

Thanks for the hints! I Love Potatoes and Tomatoes, so i will try the Salad Box-Approach combined with a bit of Bread. Might as well just go with sandwiches and some fruits, when i think about it. Is there a certain kind of Bread i should avoid?

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

The key to successfully exercising and dieting is to find a balance you're comfortable with. You don't want to completely cut sweets and all the foods you love from your diet, because one way or another you're going to get a craving, and then you'll binge and lose a lot of progress. So rather than just eliminating it, control your portions more. Still eat what you want, but find a better balance. Or, find some lower calorie snacks to satisfy your sweet tooth. I've found some low-fat ice cream bars that I'm able to eat one of and be satisfied for a while as far as sweets. It doesn't necessarily have to be something that's really good for you, just something that you know will keep you satisfied so you don't go back for seconds.

Also, in order for exercise to really be effective, 3 times per week is really the minimum, and 4 times per week is ideal. Whether you're doing cardio or weights, 3-4 times per week is what you need to do in order to see results. You might start with 3 times per week just to start getting your body used to it, but once you find a regimen that works for you it'll become more natural and you'll be able to bump it up to 4. You may feel like you suck at first, but trust me, once you start improving you'll be amazed at how far you can go if you stick to it. When I first started running, I could barely run .25 of a mile. This morning, I just ran 2.25 miles, and next week I plan on bumping it up to 2.5. Just keep at it and keep pushing yourself, and you will not be disappointed

 

[Batou667]

Is there a certain kind of Bread i should avoid?

Broadly speaking, bread is bread. Check the nutrition information on the packets and you'll see there's not much difference, even between white and wholemeal/wholegrain. I prefer wholemeal because it tastes better and it's supposed to be a slower-release carb source, and on the whole wholegrain is *slightly* lower-calorie and higher in protein than white bread, but don't worry about it too much. Just be aware that each slice of bread is about 100 calories.

 

[ERaptor]

Well, according to Batou's Site i have around 2800 maintenance Calories. That sounds like a ton, but granted i never actually bothered to read into the whole thing. The Plan is to reduce my income to around 2000-2200 and then see if it helps.

Concerning Exercise, i thought about just getting out and running, but im a lazy Idiot. I Think going to a Gym with somebody to push me a bit, and delivering a nice kick in my butt would help keeping me on track. I will also take Lilani's advice to heart and actually go 4 times a week, as soon as im able to drive. I'm usually at work early, which means i can also leave early and use the extra hour for going to the Gym. Maaaaybe i will try running anyway, half an hour each evening wont kill even a lazy sod like me, right?

 

[MHR]

^Yes, getting somebody to help or otherwise motivate you to exercize really helps. Even if you just tell somebody that day that you're going to work out in an hour or so could motivate you. It really only takes a couple of seconds of effort and you'll be more likely to actually work out because you'll know if you don't you'll feel like a tool and a liar and that person will be witness to it.

Yeah, switching from sugary stuff to water helps a ton.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

One very effective combo: lifting weights and eating several smaller meals throughout the day. The lifting will increase your muscle mass, which will increase your metabolism both at-rest and during exercise. Eating smaller meals, or even snacks, all day long will a) trigger your metabolism more often/more reliably, and b) stave off any hunger pangs because you will "always be eating".

For the snacks, you want to eat lean protein (chicken, turkey), eggs, raw or steamed veggies, raw nuts, and greek yogurt. You can mix in some fruit, but don't overdo it - lots of sugar there. Try to avoid any bread and just about all processed foods. Drink water almost exclusively, especially 10-15 mins before meals. Tea is also a great option: lots of anti-oxidants, plus it's a natural appetite suppressant.

Progress will go something like this: initial bulk up from muscle gain paired with tremendous soreness. The soreness will abate after 1-2 weeks of regular lifting, and the pounds will start to melt then, too. The diet is relatively forgiving because you can always munch on something whenever you get hungry so long as it's one of your "allowed items". When your weight loss starts to level off, add some cardio to shed those final few pounds. Note that it is easier to add cardio later when you've already lost some weight because you will feel significantly "lighter" on your feet.

Finally, don't be too hard on yourself. If you screw up, eat something bad, miss a day of exercise, just get right back on the horse and keep going. Don't compound mistakes or "give up" for a day/week. If you're finding it impossible to stick to it, give yourself a designated cheat day once a week. This will limit the damage you can do over time while taking pressure off the rest of your week.

 

[ERaptor]

Okay, i actually went running today and yesterday. Not far, mind you, as people suggested it's very harsh and my leg's are pretty sore. But i set myself a personal Goal of Jogging 4 Times a week, combined with a swim trough the pool afterwards if the weather allows it.

Considering food, i started to pay attention to the Calories of the stuff i eat (Usually, they are labelled pretty clearly.). Also, im pretty much doing what Fiery Trainwreck suggested, i.e. eating from time to time and just keeping an eye out to stay below my limit of 2000-2200 Calories daily. Concerning lifting weights, as soon as i actually get my hands on a pair of weights, i will start doing that. A good friend suggested that you can pretty much lift weights while watching tv / Anime or whatever. This will prolly make it a bit easier on my part.

One question tough, since the whole thing is getting "proof-tested" tommorow when im working again. As a snack, i bought a pack of Cornflacks to eat. Today i pretty much only ate 3 Bowls of these and my Evening Meal (Potatoes and some meat). Im planning to use the Cornflakes as my Breakfast or in-between-Snackfood, the Box says its 117 Kcal per 25g, which is one Bowl. Do you think its fine eating the stuff,a s long as im below my Limit?

 

[Glongpre]

Make sure you are eating a balanced diet, not just cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
What is your metabolism like?
Tuna is a great sandwich meat, and stay away from deli meats.
Try to get natural foods but that can be expensive.
Maybe try out a martial art, a class could be an hour and you will burn a shit ton of calories. I have cut weight for kickboxing, and it comes down to exercising and eating less. I would cut from 140ish to 132 over a month or so.

Also, do not get discouraged it is a slow process, and don't get discouraged by a plateau, it will pass.

Also!, make sure you eat enough, or else your body will go into survival mode and you will burn less calories. I have heard that 6 smaller meals is better than 3 big meals, but idk.

 

[Jarsh82]

I went Paleo and lost thirty pounds in three months without counting calories. I didn't over eat but always ate until I was full. I basically ate whole foods and avoided grains sugar and artificial sweeteners. I ate a lot of meat and veggies for meals and fruit berries and nuts for snacks. I found that even after a very large meal I always had plenty of energy. Do some research on it and give it a try.

 

[Jarsh82]

I would also suggest setting some fitness goals for yourself. I have found that it works better to focus on performance and clean eating rather that weight loss the weight loss will follow. When I was too focused on weight loss it often times like I was grinding through my exercise routine. Your weight can fluctuate from one day to the next without any change in body fat percentage. This can make weight loss goals very frustrating. Setting up some fitness performance goals will keep you better motivated and give your exercise routines focus and purpose. You could try signing up for a 5K in the early fall and set a goal of running the race without any walking breaks. Then sign up for a 5K a month later and set a goal of improving your time. This will give you a much bigger sense of accomplishment. You could also set some more minor goals like holding a body plank for a certain amount of time or doing a certain amount of push ups. Make it a goal to do a certain amount of pull ups. As far as watching TV while you work out, I would suggest that you immerse yourself in what you are doing rather that trying to distract yourself from it. If your not excited about what your doing then you won't be successful in the long term. You wouldn't register at a University planning to get mediocre grades and you shouldn't start an exercise program planning on doing it half way. That doesn't mean that it has to be your life but when your working out you should put all your heart into it. Exercising halfway is what makes it boring and tedious.

 

[BARQ]

If running is too hard an activity to maintain from the start (especially on colder mornings, brrrrr!) then there's always a good old fashioned walk around the block with a trusty iPod or MP3 player of choice. Walking with music you really enjoy makes the time and distance go by faster than you'd realise, and you feel great when you get back home or finish an album or two :}

I also do the same with bike riding, it's a great way to get around quickly that burns a lot of energy without running. I have serious asthma so running anything more than a few hundred metres sets me off but it's much more manageable at a steady pace on a bike.

 

[Glongpre]

If running is that bad, try skipping it is better on your joints, and I think it is a little easier.

 

[Batou667]

Im planning to use the Cornflakes as my Breakfast or in-between-Snackfood, the Box says its 117 Kcal per 25g, which is one Bowl. Do you think its fine eating the stuff,a s long as im below my Limit?

Absolutely it's fine, as long as you count the calories and also the calories from the milk. 200ml whole milk is 120cal, so it counts!

Also, weigh the cereal! 25g is a tiny portion size. Don't fill up a bowl and assume it's "one portion" as stated on the packet. Actually, with stuff like cereal (I eat oats in the morning, but same principle) to save yourself constantly weighing out portions, get a few plastic containers or zip-bags and weigh out portions of food. As long as you then measure your milk, you'll know exactly how many calories you're getting, and you can do a whole week's worth in one go. Breakfast can be one of the easiest meals to prepare and calorie-count so make life simple for yourself.

If running is that bad, try skipping it is better on your joints, and I think it is a little easier.

Swimming, cycling and cross-trainer are all good low-impact cardio too.

 

[FireAza]

I used to be on the heavy side, and now my underpants keep slipping down, so I think I've had some success

First and foremost: losing weight will involvement a PERMANENT change to your lifestyle! You know those stories where people say they lost weight, but then put it back on? That's because after they lost the weight, they went right back to doing what they were doing before. The stuff that made them gain the weight in the first place. Morons! If you want to keep the weight off, you CANNOT go back to doing what you used to do.

Also, get used to feeling hungry for awhile. If you normally eat large meals, you'll feel hungry after eating until you stomach shrinks back to a more normal size.

Okay, first thing is to get an understanding of the science behind weight gain. Forget about fad diet stuff like "carbs", we're getting down to the basics! Fat is unused energy that your body stores for later use. In order to remove fat you already have, you need to use up the energy you've taken in as food, and continue to burn energy beyond that, which will force your body to dip into it's fat reservoirs.

There's two ways to go about doing this:
A) Physical activity
B) Putting less energy into your body than it needs

Either way, your body needs more energy than it's getting from your food, so it starts burning your fat stores. Option A is the smart one, but personally, I don't have the time for a full workout routine, so I went for B with a bit of A (walking around). Also remember that your body burns energy just keeping you alive, so that's something to factor in as well.

Now, let's talk about energy and food. All foods are made up of the same basic "parts", regardless of what the food actually is. Your body doesn't care, it breaks down the food into these "parts", takes what it can use and poops out the rest. But some of these "parts" provide more energy than others. The most energy-rich "parts" are oils, proteins (meats) and sugars, i.e the stuff that tastes good. The reason for this is thanks to our big brains, which require a lot of energy to run, hence we're attracted to high energy foods.

Down the bottom of the chain are plant-based foods. You ever notice how a cow needs to spend ALL DAY eating but a lion can eat a zebra and sleep for a few days before it needs to eat again? That's because plants don't contain much energy, while meat does. So, on the food side of things, eating foods low in energy means your body will have to start dipping into it's fat reserves much sooner.

Another obvious thing is you should also reduce the amount of food you're taking in. Less food = less energy. So combine that with low energy foods, and you'll have lowered your total amount of energy you've taken in.

On this topic, here's something you might not be aware of: there's a large delay between when your stomach reports it's full and when your brain receives this message. What often happens when people are eating is they eat until they feel "full", when in reality, they were actually "full" 10 minutes ago. And if they had stopped 10 minutes earlier, they would feel just as full, but not have eaten so much. You can also try eating slowly to give you brain a chance to receive the "stomach is full now" message, which, again, means you won't eat as much.

I personally lost the majority of my weight during the school holidays, when the student resident I was living at stopped serving meals. Due to my laziness, I ate nothing but instant noodles, which in addition to being nothing more than plant-based (along with a few oils) and are far FAR smaller in size than what I would normally eat. So a combination of low energy foods and small servings meant my body was using more energy just to keep me alive than I was getting from my food.

I wouldn't really recommend this though, as there's the risk of malnutrition because there's other things your body needs that are unrelated to weight gain/loss that you don't get from instant noodles. I mention it because it provides an example of the science of weight gain/loss with regards to how much energy you get from what foods and due to "parts" and serving size.

So in closing, you need to reduce the energy that's going into your body, while using more than this amount. For food, my recommendation is "stuff on rice" i.e food on a bed of rice, like how most Asian food is served. The majority of the meal is rice, which is plant-based, and thus, low in energy, but you still get the taste from the little bit of meat and sauce. My favorite is Japanese curry, let me know if you want a recipe!

 

[gorfias]

in order for exercise to really be effective, 3 times per week is really the minimum, and 4 times per week is ideal. Whether you're doing cardio or weights, 3-4 times per week is what you need to do in order to see results. You might start with 3 times per week just to start getting your body used to it, but once you find a regimen that works for you it'll become more natural and you'll be able to bump it up to 4. You may feel like you suck at first, but trust me, once you start improving you'll be amazed at how far you can go if you stick to it. When I first started running, I could barely run .25 of a mile. This morning, I just ran 2.25 miles, and next week I plan on bumping it up to 2.5. Just keep at it and keep pushing yourself, and you will not be disappointed

That was my experience with exercise as well. I started treadmill walking at 2.5 mph for 15 min (with my wife mocking my meager efforts back then ). Bumped it up a bit at a time till I was jogging 3 miles 5 miles 4-6 times a week.

Also, as you lose weight, you want to firm up a bit. I would recommend starting with some low weights, high reps 4-6 times a week. (1/2 body one day, give that a rest the next day by working out a different 1/2). You don't have to (and shouldn't want to) get Schwartzenagarian. Just 15 min. to get some tone.

Personally, I've had a set back (I'm old, damn it) but I'm back on track again. It isn't where you are but where you'd be if you didn't try.

 

[ERaptor]

Well, im keeping it up nicely for the first week now. At least as far as i know, since you have no real feedback in the first 7 days. Since i started the whole thing when i posted first in this thread, i went jogging on 5 evenings. Only day i left out was Wednesday, since i was dead-tired from work and just couldnt muster the strength to go for a run. Since i've set up a personal goal of going for a run 4 times a week, that isnt too bad i think.

The only thing im worried about is, if the stuff im doing is actually enough. The lack of feedback has me worried a bit, since i will prolly only see my first results in a few weeks. Currently, my daily food input looks more or less like this:

Coffee after getting up (I'm using a sugar substitute, so apart from the milk in it no big deal) -> Croissant with my dad for breakfast -> sometimes a Small bowl of Cereal for my first Break on work -> a Sandwich for Dinner (Around 400Kcal if i eat a pre-prepared one. Self-made im guessing them to be a little bit less) -> and then whatever my Mom cooks in the evening. (I have no means to actually check exactly how much Kcal the stuff has tough, since i cant really expect my mom to run the math everytime. But im usually limiting myself to one Plate).

After eating in the evening, around 6, im going for a run for about 15 Minutes. I also drink only water or really low Cal drinks, and banned sweets entirely from my input.

I compared the above to my eating-habits of before and...nightmares. I was eating fast food for Dinner, snacked Sweets all the time and drank almost nothing but Nestea and the like. So it's definetly an improvement. But if it actually helps? No idea.

 

[ERaptor]

Okay, end of week two. I weighted myself midweek and had lost 2 kilo, weighing myself today im back at my starting weight, not 2 days later. Is that normal? I kept to my diet, was below my Kcal amount, at least as far as i know.