Tracy Weight Loss

February 24, 2011

How to Hide Weight Loss?

Filed under: weight loss — Tags: , , , , — Tracy @ 7:02 am

What’s this week’s weight loss question? Let’s dive straight in…

Question: My family thinks I’m too thin and don’t eat enough ( I’m 5′9 and 115lbs)
I don’t agree at all!!
But they’re threatening to send me to a doctor or nutritionist
To make matters worse, if I’m classified as anorexic or something, im going to be taken off of the heart transplant list!
How do I get them off my back?? How to hide my weight and eating habits?

I think I need a heart more than weight…

Answer: Wear baggy clothing or layers when eating the large clothing can be used to hide solid foods that can be later disposed of making the appearance of eating, wear darker face make-up; like tan ivory cover up if available, nothing drastic.

November 1, 2010

Weight Loss Motivation?

Filed under: weight loss — Tags: , , , , — Tracy @ 7:02 am

A tough weight loss question this week. Let’s dive straight in

Question: I would like to lose some weight but having a lot of trouble getting started and sticking to it. I’m not obese, I would like to lose 15 - 20lbs. Problem is I cannot get myself motivated. I’m married and I’ve just become content with the way I am and my eating habits and it’s something that’s really hard to kick. How do you keep yourself motivated to eat well and exercise?
I would love to have a set time to exercise however my shifts change everyday where I work, it’s always different hours. Any suggestions for how to make exercise work for me?

[Note: For me my bad eating habit is at night. I eat little during the day, and after dinner I could eat and eat and never feel full. And I know the rule of nothing after 7pm, but that doesn't work for me when most of the time I don't finish work until 8pm and I have to go home and have supper yet]

Answer: Dear Heather,
I used to be the same way, I would workout on and off and would always stop after a week or two because I didnt see results, but then just last year I found some sites with real facts (not just all these crazy lose 10 pounds in 10 day diets) and really watched my diet and saw great results that week, and ever since them I have just been learning more and have never stopped making progress. Also I always get late night cravings (It happens because you starve yourself too much during the day, I reworked my diet since then) and I know I am going to pig out but what I do is make a huuuuge salad with a little bit of low fat dressing and a a few croutons (60 calories for the whole thing) and then I go on to whatever I want to eat and I am usually so full from the salad that I barely eat much afterwards. You can lose 2 pounds a week easily with just watching your diet and a little cardio. Let me know if you have any other questions at all I love to help. Also you should check out my fitness/fatloss blog I post updates, tips, videos and answer questions daily.

Here is an answer I put on another question it might be of good help to you. And remember to keep at it. Keep at it…GOOD LUCK :D

Hey anyway I think you should focus first on diet and then exercise, (diet is 10 times more important than exercise to lose weight) there are tons of sites with good info (http://thefatburningguide.com bodybuilding.com) but to start off a good diet and a little bit of cardio you can easily lose 2 pounds a week. Trust me I was recently cutting down for a competition and have a very defined 8 pack right now (the picture is a few months old and I work my abs maybe 10-15 min a week). I suggest you use the mayoclinic calorie calculator and make a 500 calorie deficit.
So first you should set up a good diet plan, which isnt that hard after the first week or two. I personally use Fitday . com to track my foods eaten when I am cutting. Also fat cannot be spot reduced (reducing fat on certain spots in the body) it is one of the top fatloss myths. You can usually lose fat easily from the arms and legs, then the butt, and then the lower abs and back are the most stubborn and last places to burn fat. You should try looking into HIIT and riding a bike for 2 hours is a great way to burn calories. You can look into doing a HIIT program with your bike. I personally do it with a jump rope. Also gaining muscle is much much harder than you think, it would take you months and months of hard work (great protein diet, and weightlifting protein) to gain any muscle size on your arms. There is just so much I can tell you but I am not sure exactly what else you want to know about. Remember diet is the most important part to fat loss, cardio just helps speed things along.
You can check out my site in the sources (has alot of good HIIT info and I am always adding more articles) and post any other questions you have I check it multiple times a day.
Here are some other tips I posted on a similar question.

1) Most important thing to lose fat is diet (80% of fat loss comes from it)
2) Diet :P
3) The first thing you should do is find your calories burned for the day (google calorie calculator…use the mayo clinic one..i find it the most accurate) then subtract 500 calories from that and thats what you should eat every day
I know it may seem hard to do but after a week you will get totally used to it. I use Fitday . com to track my calories and it makes a ton of a difference and gives me consistent results week after week for over a year.
4) Try doing HIIT cardio..it will allow you to burn fat fast (9-12 minutes of HIIT would burn the same as 20-40 minutes of normal cardio)
(OO ya and ab exercises will barely burn any fat at all)
5) Just check out my site in the source and post up any other questions you have..I check it multiple times a day and will get back to you.
6) the site is http://www.thefatburningguide.com

May 29, 2010

Weight Loss Suggestions?

This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:

Question: I’m 23 years old and 350 pounds at 6 feet tall. I know that’s not good at all which is why I’m here to do something about it. I know working out and eating healthy is how it works, please don’t post that just to get a point!

I’ve been overweight my whole life and haven’t ever done well with diets. I played 4 sports a year in high school and was very active but the weight continued to pile on. About a year ago I had back surgery for a pinched nerve so some activities might be off limits for me still.

I understand this won’t be fast and am looking for lifestyle suggestions not just diets. I know the basics of course, less junk food more time in the gym, what I’m looking for is specifics.

Information like how many calories should I be taking in each day for healthy weight loss and what kinds of activities should I be supplementing my eating habits with? Suggestions for how to balance meals better and what types of things I should be getting in my diet as well as supplements I can take for even better results (I’ve heard fish oil tablets are very healthy). I grew up in a junk food family so food health has never been a subject I’ve been good at.

I have a goal of losing 100 pounds in one year, is that thinking too big? What would be more realistic and what kind of eating/exercise routine should I adopt to achieve it?

Answer: 100lb in a year is perfectly doable at your weight and is a good goal to aim for.

First things first, you’ll need to get into the habit of counting your calories, everyday. At 1500 calories a day you will lose weight rapidly. But not all calories are even, so of course it’s more complicated than that. It’s important that you have a BALANCED diet, and by balanced I mean aim for 33% of your calories to come from carbs, 33% to come from proteins, 33% to be from fats. You don’t have to get it exactly like that, but the closer you can get it to being that the better it’ll be for your weightloss. The logical way to reach this kind of ratio for most people is by drastically lowering your carbohydrate intake, and upping your protein and healthy fat intake. Healthy fats mean non-processed fats, ideally from nutritious sources like nuts or eggs. Fish oil is a fat, and it’s great to get into the habit of taking 1 capsule with every meal for health and weightloss reasons. Just keep in mind that although balanced calories help, staying within your calorie limit has priority over everything, don’t compromise it because you’re hungry from exercise or anything.

There are a million different ways to exercise. I’ll give you a couple ideas and the benefits of them. I am of the opinion that every person wanting to lose weight rapidly should simply have a fast-paced walk every morning before breakfast, and this should idealy last 40 minutes to an hour. The benefit of this is that you’re pretty much guarenteed to burn fat during this period, unlike other ways of exercising. There’s conventional cardio: things like jogging, skipping, anything that gets your heart beating heavy for a long period. Cardio is a good way of getting your body fit and boosting your metabolism for the hours after you’ve done it, though the calories burned during the process aren’t that great, I only burn around 400 calories on a 40 minute jog, which doesn’t seem great to me for the amount of effort I put into it.

Then there’s weightlifting. Strength training has massive benefits to long term fat loss. It boosts our metabolism for multiple reasons. Firstly there’s the act of weight lifting itself, it burns calories the same way any kind of movement burns calories. Secondly there’s the metabolic increase resulting from our body having to repair the muscles. Thirdly there’s the metabolic advantage of the muscle mass we gain as a result, every pound of muscle we gain means another 6 calories burned each day doing nothing. So weight lifting is a great way to naturally shed fat in place of muscle, if you’re gonna get into it I strongly recommend you avoid following bodybuilding routines and instead look for 3x a week strength training routines, they suit your goals more. Here’s the routine you should start if you wanted to get into it: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:Introduction.

Avoid "fat burner" supplements, you don’t need them, they probably aren’t going to help and you don’t know what kind of side effects you could get. The only supplement I can recommend is fish oil, which you’ve already mentioned. Drinking a cup of coffee a day can help your metabolism too, and make sure you’re constantly drinking lots of water throughout the day.

It is ideal to spread your meals 5-7 times throughout the day, but it is not imperative. Some say it increases your metabolism doing so, some say 3 meals a day is exactly the same, so it’s up to you. Your body does definitely prefer having nutrients given to it in small doses every few hours though, and will be more willing to put on muscle if you do so. It’s important you never skip breakfast, if you’re gonna skip a meal ideally skip one late in the day. Make sure each of your meals contain a protein source and a fibre source (ideally fruit or vegetables). Your meals must also contain either a complex carbohydrate or a healthy fat, keep the complex carbohydrate portions at around 50grams though, more than that and your insulin hormones will be released and you risk storing fat.

I hope this information helps you and wish you good luck with your goal!

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