Keep the weight loss questions coming! I liked this one:
Keep the weight loss questions coming! I liked this one:
This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:
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?
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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