The key to becoming healthy (and staying that way): good diet good exercise That's a very vague statement though. Let's be more specific... You must do it by the numbers. Diet: You must identify how many carbs/calories/fat grams you should put into your system every day. That means that you must identify how many carbs/calories/fat are in ALL the foods that you will be eating. You must control the intake of those elements by controlling the food you eat. Just because an apple is fresh fruit doesn't mean that it doesn't have calories in it. You must not eat anything that you haven't checked the carb/cal/fat content of and haven't factored into your daily intake. Exercise: Now that you know how much carbs/calories/fat you'll be consuming, you can figure out what you need to do to burn them off. Build an exercise routine that is designed to burn calories. Use the internet to identify which exercises burn how much carbs/calories/fat. You must follow this process rigidly if you want to lose weight. If you don't, you will only maintain your current weight and won't burn off fat. If you intend to lose weight, you will need to burn off a little more carbs/calories/fat than you take in. In doing so, your body will start burning off the fat reserves in your body. This means that you will feel hungry and week. You'd better get used to that idea. You should NOT deprive your body of meals. That's bad. You should eat meals. But you should burn them off (and, to lose weight, burn off even more).
Those aren't really a protein source and are full of sugar, so they're not ideal for breakfast. If you want quick, then I would suggest something like a Myoplex shake. I've been trying to come up with other good, quick breakfast idea, so if anyone else has some I'd love to hear them.
go bike/run/play some basketball or football a few times a weed, for 1 hour or so, before and after excersise drink some protein drink, but dont eat anything other than fruits, basically cut down on fat/sugar laden drinks and food, eat lik 9 serving of fruit and vegitables everyday. on a side note, anyone that runs or bikes in winter got any tips for me?
Uhhh, keep doing it? It's still only in the 60s at night in H-town, perfect running weather in my book. If you're somewhere colder I'd suggest layering. Your local running store should have good clothing that'll cut out wind/cold and still release body heat. If you're running someplace really cold and don't like the pain in the lungs, look for one of those masks you can wear. I've seen people running with them in Wisconsin during January. They serve as a warming screen for your breath. As far as breakfast, I have a protein shake, banana, and some pineapple. It's quick and delicious.
I've been on Atkins for a while now, and it's been the first diet I've ever been successful with. I know people say about how the saturated fat is bad for you. But if you cut down the read meat and use vegetable oil, it's hardly a concern. In general, you can cut down a lot of bad stuff by cooking all your meals from scratch, so you know excatly what you're eating. Snackswise, nuts are very good. They're nutritious in general, good tasting, and a few really fills your stomach. Excercise-wise, you don't have to do serious workouts everyday. Even moderate excercise, like going up and down the stairs for 20 minutes a day, can have unusually nice effects without taking much time or effort. Basically, just work up a nice sweat. My personal choice is biking and playing Dance Dance Revolution(surprising addictive game) on my PS2.
EddieWasSnubbed, The key to long term weight loss is reducing your calories while still feeling satisfied by what you eat. This is the bottom of all bottom lines with weight loss. How to go about this varies from person to person. 1 Don't do Atkins or any other fad diet that you cannot continue indefinitely. If you do something for 3-4 months and then stop, you are 99.5% likely to regain the weight. This is why the whole concept of diets is flawed. You won't lose weight long term by doing something in the short term. South Beach is a smarter version of Atkins, but it still has the same basic problem. This is just my experience, but of the 25+ people I know that tried Atkins, only 1 kept the weight off longer than 2 years. 2 Understand the difference between appetite and hunger. Hunger is your body talking to you. Appetite is your brain. Most American eat according to their appetite and are never hungry one day in their lives. Example: You are doing something and not even thinking about food. You then smell something that makes you want to eat. Appetite or hunger? It's 100% appetite because your brain is reacts to the smell by making you want to eat. Your body doesn't want food any more than it did before the smell. Appetite is also driven by habits, such as wanting desserts after dinner and a snack before you go to bed. The key is realizing it's your appetite that is driving you. When you feel hungry (due to you appetite) but know you aren't, just distract yourself for 15-20 minutes by doing something and the feeling will go away. If you are weird like me, just sit, think about it and it will go away. It took me about 5 days to conquer my appetite this way. Conquering my appetite and not letting it yank me around was 90% of the battle for me. 3 Stay busy. If you are idle a lot, your mind will wander towards food a lot. 4 For the most part, ignore the fat vs carbs arguments. A rice crispy bar has very little fat, but almost all of it's nutritional value is sugar. Eating simple sugars will stimulate you to eat more calories later. Too lengthy to discuss here but it is a fact. "Low fat" labeling and advertising should be banned from products that are nearly 100% sugar IMO. The one part of Atkins that I support was the argument that obesity is as much (or more) due to overconsumption of carbs and sugars than fat. 5 Avoid consuming large amounts of high calorie liquids such as regular sodas, fruits juices, energy drinks, some Starbucks concoctions and even milk (my weakness). Liquid calories tend not to satisfy appetite/hunger as much as solid food. Some people actually consume 25% of their calories in liquids. 6 Exercise helps, but diet is overwhelmingly the most important factor in weight reduction for people 20+ lbs. overweight. For many, exercise encourages them to be more aware of what they eat. Statistics seem to show people who exercise are more likely to keep weight off after losing it. (This doesn't apply to me. I lost 40 lbs in 4 months without any exercise and have kept it off for over 3 years). I caution you not to put too much faith in exercising to lose weight. Keep your focus on what you eat. 7 Counting/charting exact calories and portion sizes for a short period of time can be helpful. This will help give you a true idea of what you are eating and where you need to improve. If you are one of the few that can do it long term, hats off to you. I don't have the time. Doing it for about a month taught me a lot. You should also become expert at reading nutrition labels, which is fairly easy. 8 You don't need to resort to protein shakes or other such things in order to lose weight. If you would enjoy these regularly for breakfast then go ahead. For breakfast, I recommend a breakfast cereal with fruit most of the time. Switch it up to keep it interesting. Breakfast is an important meal because it often sets the tone for what you eat the rest of the day. People who skip breakfast are twice as likely to be obese as people who don't. Losing weight isn't rocket science. You can eat regular food and be very successful. Don't use gimmicks or fads diets because the weight will come back. As someone said earlier, it's a numbers game, pure and simple. My slant on the numbers is that it's not hard to reduce intake by 500-1000 calories/day long term if you're sensible about it. Don't get discouraged. It may take several weeks before you find a routine that works. Exercise is good, but if you are busy and work 8+ hours/day and have childern like me, time will bite you. Eating better/smarter doesn't take extra time. Don't let your diet depend on your exercise routine.
exercise, nothing to drink but water. No fried foods and a strict schedule of eating. Don't eat out too often (u'll save money). Workout before bed and right after u get up. Work out means some exercise, not like run a marathon. Don't eat 3 hours before u sleep. good luck
Great suggestions guys, keep them coming. Overall, I feel like I have a good concept of what I should do, but as always, the more suggestions, the merrier. One more question....When I'm at college during the day, what would be a good lunch suggestion? Today, I went with a Turkey sub (swiss cheese, mayo, onions, lite lettuce, and banana peppers). I've always heard that turkey subs can be pretty healthy, but do those kinds of toppings make the health aspect fade? Also, are there any other things I could eat(we have things like salads, wraps, sandwiches, etc.) that would be a more healthier alternative. Thanks, once again.
Many people make the mistake of making those shakes with juice instead of water (myself included). Orange juice has a lot of sugar in it as well.
A better way to think of this is, "how much carbs/calories/fat is in a Subway turkey sub, and how much exercise do I need to do to burn off the sub's excess (and more)." Also, it depends it it was a footlong sub with cheese and mayo or a 6" sub with mustard and no cheese. Cheese, mayo, and salad dressing can contain lots of excess carbs/calories/fat. You can check out Subway's nutrition info at http://www.subway.com/applications/NutritionInfo/nutritionlist.aspx?id=sandwich
My friend (who is overweight) went on a strict diet, and was eating like a champ. But he said he hated to drink water, so he drank orange juice, apple juice, and gatorade all day long. (he thought juices were "healthy".) Needless to say, he actually gained wait due to all the sugar he was ingesting from those juices and gatorade.
If you are just trying to eat less, that turkey sandwich has fat you could cut by substituted mustard for mayo and by losing the cheese all together. If you are doing the low carb diet, you need to loose the bread as well. Subsituting a wrap for the bread should reduce your carbs (and calories btw).
Thank you. Many people don't realize that drinking large amounts of fruit juices is not a good thing. Has your friend tried Ozarka and some of the other water brands? I think they have a very good flavor. Diet soda is another option.
If you can stand it, I think salad is the way to go. Top off the veggies with some tuna or chicken, and use dressings that are low in sugar and saturated fat. If you REALLY want to be healthy, just make your own Italian dressing with vinegar and olive oil. Some cheese is fine. It's nutritious, and moderate amount of it for any diet isn't going to kill you. Croutons and other bread stuff, IMO, doesn't help. But if you must have some, don't overdo it. I also like soup, because the water will help give you the "full" feeling without adding calories. It's great for people like me, who eat fast and tend to overeat without even realizing it. Just choose ones with fairly clear broth.
That "magical powder" is high in gelatin, which is good for joints and cartilage, and is derived from ground up horse. Yes... HORSE!
I thought that was just a common myth. Last I heard, they took fats (or some kind of substitute like it) and boiled it until it formed a skin on the top of the water. Then, they scrape the skin off and make it into a powder...
No sh*t...Just starve yourself, although, that wouldn't be healthy...I remember I cut out fast food, ate a lot of baked potatoes and chicken and it worked...Hell, if you cut out all the crap we normally eat, its bound to be healthy...Now, I just work out a lot and eat what I want, although, the food wins most of the time as I have no self control...
