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!
For one caffeine is an ingredient in certain weight loss pills, so consider drinking coffee on a regular basis. Different amounts obviously work for different people, so just see which amount works for you. Also, if you do some research you should find that coffee has other health benefits too. Also prepare 2 cups of oatmeal and mix a little more than a teaspoon of cinnamon, ‘fridge it and eat it in portions throughout the day until it’s gone. May help relieve the appetite and be good for calories.
Comment by here78465 — May 29, 2010 @ 12:45 pm
The Magic Number for Weight Loss
Use more calories than you take in and you lose weight. Eat more calories than you use and you gain weight. Eat and burn around the same amount each day and your weight should remain stable. The relationship between calorie intake is known as the energy equation.
Many variables can affect this equation, and it doesnât factor in water weight that is lost or gained. Generally, though, if you knock off a portion of calories per day from what you usually eat, and you exercise to burn off a few extra calories above and beyond what your body normally does, as those caloric deficits add up over time, you will lose weight.
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Comment by Melisa — May 29, 2010 @ 1:37 pm
To lose weight. I have heard that if you are generally 20-30 pounds overweight then the Atkins diet is best for losing weight.
Eating 5 small meals a day is good for you.
Check out military.com, menshealth, and livestrong, for great tips on weight loss.
Comment by Mhernandez91 — May 29, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
Do not look for a miracle answer. One thing you mentions is diets which usually don’t work because most are depriving and not meant to last a lifetime. Ignore calories, what you need to cut out is ALL junk food, avoid sugars, and lay off the salt, too. Drink much more water. If anything water can be the miracle answer. For someone your size you should probably be drinking two gallons of water a day plus some. Yes, fish oil is healthy, cod liver oil can be a blessing, too. Most importantly, do not avoid foods just because they have fat in them. 30% of your caloric intake should be from fats. If you want you can email me telling me everything you’ve eaten today and how much and I’ll tell you what you should change. I think you should not think so drastically when it comes to a year. You have time. You need to make short term goals and reflect on how your diet changes affect you. As for exercise, go for an hour walk everyday.
Comment by Nutritiona — May 29, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
I think 100 pounds in a year is a good goal since losing to much weight to fast will make your skin sag. The best way to loss the weight is to jog. I don’t know much about eating healthy cause I don’t and I’m not a fitness freak but going to the gym and just doing any old thing isn’t going to cut it. Jogging will work if you can jog at all and keep doing it frequently. Any other movement based exercise would be good to; stuff that incorporates dancing and such. As for calories Idk but you can find out; there are tests I think. Before you try anything tho you should go to your doctor, explain to him what your going to do and then get a check up. Certain health problems could impact your efforts so it’s a good idea to know about them before you start anything serious. Also, KEEEP AT IT MOTIVATION MOTIVATION MOTIVATION. You have to keep it up and you need strong motivation. Most people quit within the first 6 months so find something to motivate you; looking up health benefits and risk to an unhealthy lifestyle might be a good place to start. I don’t know much about calories but there’s a website here that might help ya.You could also try a health class of some sort. The university I attend has human kinetics and recreation classes and they talk about health benefits, and all that kind of stuff. Good luck!
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
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