tell me ways on getting thin, lean and sexy! (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Gatie]

Recovery time is more important than exercise, especially intense exercise to lose weight. Getting the right amount of sleep is also important. Exhausting or starving yourself just sets you up for body reactions that have more to do with survival than health (fat storage due to the body sensing the need for more energy, etc.). If your diet is a significant reduction of calories, burning too many on your "off" days will impede your weight loss. It's much healthier for your progress to have heavy workouts with significant calories burned followed by at least 1 day of rest; unless you are a competitive body builder or pro athelete. This also helps you prevent burn out, which can cause you to give up the program due to tiredness or boredom.

Especially with weights. Muscle gain requires you to push the muscles to failure, which causes tiny micro-tears in the muscle. These tears are built back stronger and the only way they are rebuilt is through rest. If you do not allow them time to rebuild, progress will slow to a stop.

 

[JonZ]

Its actually very simple.....

- Eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. Snacks can be just a apple or a yogurt. Portions of food should be able to fit into the palm of her hand.Meaning if your eating chicken rice and a veggie - each one of those should be able to fit into the palm of your hand. I had a neighbor who lost like 30 pounds just by controlling his portions. Its very easy to overeat. DO not starve herself. It will NOT help her loose fat, in fact it will do the opposite.

- Avoid sugar, drink plenty of water

- When doing cardio, she should try to keep her heartrate up for 45- hour range. This only works with the proper diet. You can walk on a treadmill for a hour a day but a few cookies during the day will undo that work.

- Put on some muscle. Yes even women. I cant stress this enough. 5 pounds of muscle will burn a extra 300 calories a day. Women will often resist this one, but I tell you it does them alot of good to put some on.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Absolutely. 99% of women will never develop the oversized muscles of a body builder, which they seem to want to avoid, with moderate weightlifting. They simply do not have the testosterone necessary for large growth. What will happen is their fat/muscle ratio will decrease and they'll be able to maintain weight easier. They will also get toned and much more fit.

 

[Ron C]

It's not just how much you eat but what you eat. Avoid simple carbs. No sugar, no bread, no junk food, no soda, nothing fried. Rice is fine in moderate amounts, stick to brown or basmati rices. Lean meats are fine although try to avoid beef. Seafood is good too in moderate amounts. Basically your diet should consist of the essentials: fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes and grains. (but no breads).


Now the challenging part - sticking to it. There are a few pointers that are very beneficial to follow. First, don't cut out snacks - substitute them. It is all about substitution. Instead of eating that bag of cheetos, have a bag of trail mix or fruit. Fighting hunger is a losing battle, you need to work with it. So, remove anything "bad" in your environment and replace it with "good" stuff. At work, make sure you have your desk stocked with “good” snacks. Otherwise you risk rummaging near the snack machine. Same thing with home. Do NOT keep any "bad" snacks at home; the temptation will be too great. I have a rule that there is no soda or junk food allowed in my house. Also, don’t shop when hungry, it will keep the “bad” snacks out.

Fortunately I have a health food store near me that has a lot of snacks that are healthy. Trail mixes are your friend. Many rice snacks are low in calories as well. There are rice crackers that taste good if not better than potato chips and are much healthier for you and have less calories. If you have a health food store, explore a bit and see what you can find. But do beware that just because it’s in a health food store, it doesn't mean it’s healthy.

As far as the main courses, stick to the main food groups mentioned above. Of course, the biggest thing is making sure they taste GOOD. A diet won't last long if you force yourself to eat things that you don't like. You will have to learn to "cook" a little, won't be too bad. Basically it’s mostly sautéing vegetables and cooking meats and fish. Seasonings are very helpful and mix things up a bit. Experiment and see what you like. Simple stuff like salt and pepper do wonders. Soy sauce can make any sauté taste good. Try out others as well. I like saluting brown rice with Spike, adds a good flavor. There are also some good frozen vegetable dinners for nights when you don’t feel like cooking. There are even a few with tofu that taste great (again scope out your health food store)

Lunch can be tricky. Avoid sandwiches – big weight gainer. Soups and salads are your friend. Grilled chicken with no bread is good as well. If you go out, stick to a health food bar or if you don’t have that, Chinese food. You do have to be careful with Chinese food. Find a place with no MSG and has brown rice. Avoid anything on the menu that is fried.

Breakfast is usually simple. Fruit and/or fruit juice will get you to lunch. Avoid coffee if you can. The sugar in fruit will give you more energy than any coffee anyways.

Here are some sample menus:
Breakfast:
Orange Juice, Apple, supplements and vitamins

Breakfast2: Eggs, apple juice, banana

Lunch:
Shrimp with broccoli or chicken with mix vegetable with brown rice from Chinese place
Health food shop deli
Vegetable soup, beans, chicken

Dinner:
Sautéed vegetables in soy sauté
Lean ground beef with rice
Rice and beans
Grilled chicken and mixed vegetables



The second half of all this of course is exercise – you need to burn off excess calories. A good weight program and aerobics classes are good. Most important things are to exercise daily and mix it up. If you can find a gym with distractions are great – a treadmill with a tv will make time fly by like you wouldn’t believe.

 

[Jonathan T]

Breads and Pastas for that matter, are important sources of carbs. If your trying to get into good shape, eating breads and pastas is still a good idea, just eat in moderation.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I think whole grain breads and cheese are fine. With any diet, moderation and watching the total calorie, fat, sugar and carb intake is key. Nutritious high calorie, high carb foods should be eaten wisely. Soft drinks, cookies, candies and pastries are often the culprits when somebody doesn't diet successfully. Avoid empty calories, don't avoid whole grain breads and cereals. Fiber is important.

Chris

 

[MarkHastings]

RE: Carbs

Also remember the glycemic index of things. While white rice and brown rice might have about the same number of carbs, the white rice carbs have a MUCH higher glycemic index, which means the sugar will hit your blood stream a lot faster than the brown rice carbs.

 

[felix_suwarno]

thanks for the advice.

i havent had the chance to pay a visit to this thread for a few days.

The problem is the differences between what you can buy from supermarkets in the united states and what I can buy from local supermarkets. I prefer to eat fish meat, but fish is not as popular as beef, fried chicken, or hotdogs.

How about condensed milk + oatmeal?

One more, I really like soya bean milk. Dunno if it is good or not. And what about bottled green tea? We have NuGreen brand in here. As far as i know, it is not available in united states. I think my worst habit is this : i dont like drinking water. I prefer soya bean milk or green tea, or diet coke.

 

[MarkHastings]

I hear ya. I don't like drinking water either...well, at least not as much as I should. I think I get this from my grandmother and her father (they both hated water). My great grandfather always used to say "Water rusts the bottom of the boat"

I love iced tea and have learned to love it without the sugar. I came across these Lipton Cold Brew black tea bags and I just add lemon juice to it. I drinks lots of this at home and figure, without the sugar, it's probably just as good as drinking water and is definitely better than juice or soda. You can also get decaffeinated if you don't want the caffeine.

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned breast feeding, which burns 500 calories a day.

 

[MarkHastings]

I can't reach mine

 

[Citizen87645]

Maybe you should check into this: http://www.thefrankanderson.com/

 

[Buzz Foster]

There is no majic bullet, as many have stated here. Dave said it first and best. "Eat less, exercise more."

I am lucky to have an endo-mesomorph body, and when I change my diet, it responds rapidly. I was looking a tad on the pudgy side three weeks ago at my high school reunion. So, I made sure I dumped the refined sugar (something I usually do anyway), and I started taking salads to work for lunch, usually with a grilled chicken breast to cut up and drop in. I cut my portions of other meals down, and three weeks later, I am down about ten pounds. I want to loose5 to 8 more, and get back to the low 180's.

I didn't really increase my physical activity, but then that is a lucky thing about my body type.

However, the advice above would be helpful for most people, even if they lost weight more slowly, or had to add physical activity.

1) Quit eating crap with refined sugars, and eat a piece of fruit if you are wanting something sweet. Yes, there is an adjustment period, but yu will be shocked how "sweet" raw carrots taste to you after you get through it.

2) Eat healthy meals that are not dense in calories. The beauty of salads is that there are so many different combinations of veggies to try that it would tak ea long time to get bored. Add a grilled chicken breast (but skip cheese, eggs, and other high-calorie items), and use a low-to-moderate fat dressing (avoid cream dressings), and you can have a filling meal that doesn't have many calories. Your body gets full, but it will also need to pull from fat reserves for energy...exactly what you want it to do.

3) Don't starve. Quit eating, and your body goes into starvation mode. It will hold on to body fat in a very stingy manner, and when you eat again, it will put more calories into body fat.

4) Get out and do stuff. One of the worst things for your body is to recline on its ass. So get off it, and get out. I don't run marathons, and I don't get enough exercise, I am sure. But on the weekends I am usually out doing something, and during the day when on a break at work, I will take a walk around the building.

5) When you give in to temptation...and we all do...don't act like you are doing something "wrong". You can actually eat anything you want any time you want. You are just making different choices. If you really REALLY want some of that brownie and ice cream everyone else is having, GO AHEAD. But make it a small amount. If everyone is having a 2" x 2" brownie square with a huge scoop of ice cream, have a 1" x 2" piece with a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream. And don't make excuses for "giving in" every day. Once a week having a small bit of high calorie dense dessert (or a meal) won't kill you. But there is no need to eat half the brownies and ice cream to feel as if you've had a treat. (I would suggest getting the kid-size at Cold Stone, but they might not like that...)

6) Celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. So it took you all week to shed another pound? Give yourself a high five, and see if there is something in your closet that might fit a bit better that will make you feel good about yourself.

 

[MarkHastings]

Will Power is the thing I see a lot of people failing with. Also, the biggest thing seems to be these extreme's:

Example: I take my mom out to lunch every Saturday, but today she said she didn't want to because she is trying to lose weight and wants to go back on her diet. For the past few months, she went off her South Beach diet and has been eating sugary foods and starches. I keep telling her she needs to cut back, but today, she pulled a 'classic' - She said she wasn't going to eat lunch today and that she only ate an apple. :frowning:

See, she gave into all this temptation (by eating crap foods the past few months) and then when she realized she gained a lot of weight, her solution is to stop eating. :frowning: She should have slowly stopped eating the junk foods instead of this "Crash Diet" where she think that starving herself is going to help.

But I guess that's the mindset these days. Quick and fast - everyone wants to go at things full force instead of easing themselves into it. Everyone wants quick results.

 

[JonZ]

People just dont understand the concept of not eating actually makes your body hold onto fat.

You an explain it to them over and over and theyll still do it thinking its the way to loose weight.