I recently decided to drop a few pounds myself. I found that a lot of the new hires at my place of work were little sticks, so I was feeling a little fat comparatively. I didn't do too much to drop about 20 pounds in two months. Basically, I cut out all soft drinks and switched to water. I HATE the tase of straight water...it's just too bland. I found this product called Water Sensations (www.watersensations.com). It's a little calorie-free liquid I add to my water to give it flavor. I use this as a "snack" alot because the flavor kinda tricks my mind into thinking I'm having something else. I also cut out fast food...no more late night trips to Taco Bell. I eat a banana or a mini bag of popcorn for my snacks. Sometimes a thing of applesauce (Mott's "Healthy Harvest" line has the fewest calories per serving). For dinner, I normally have grilled chicken or a steak...still have lots of rice, mashed potatoes & bread (I can't live without these!). I haven't exercised at all. I found that just changing my diet/eating habits worked for me. A friend of mine is trying this now, too...she's down a couple of pounds in just a few weeks. I went from a size 10 to a size 4...in two months.
Anyone know the effects of how the body reacts when you take away sugar? That's my greatest culprit. I say that as my cookie dough Blizzard sits to my left. I tried cutting out caffiene many years ago and I had a headache for about a week. I'm wondering what would happen eating just a minimal amount of sugar.
Unfortuneatly I found an answer to my question: The symptoms of sugar withdrawal can include headaches, fatigue, depression, drowsiness, skin eruptions, and mucus or throat discomfort. Some of these symptoms, especially the mood swings, fatigue and drowsiness, can occur on a daily basis as the blood sugar rises and falls on a high-sugar diet. http://www.stress-free-weight-loss.com/February-4-2003.htm
Actually, I've heard quite the opposite. In order to spped up your metabolism it's beter to eat 5-6 times a day - although in moderation (something I have a hard time doing - I love buffets)
I was in terrible shape after the summer of 04. I weighed around 180 lbs, which was about 20 lbs too much for my frame (I'm about 5'9ish). In about a year, I went from 180 to 158 and now I'm back up to 168 with added muscle. A few very simple tips.. 1. Try to eat no more than 2000 calories a day. Droxford gave some good advice about counting and doing the research before you eat something. Honestly though, thats very hard IMO. Cut out all the high calorie crap you eat. People don't realize how many calories sodas are juices are.. dont drink them (diet sodas are 0 calories so they are ok). This leads to my next tip. 2. Water water water water water water water... We are trying to speed up your metabolism here and this will jumpstart it. Some people say to drink a gallon of water a day. The best advice I've ever gotten was to drink half of your weight in fluid ounces. For example, I weigh about 170, so i need to drink about 85 fluid ounces a day. Thats about four 20 ounce bottles(normal size) a day, which is not hard at all to drink. In your case, you need to drink around 5 bottles a day. Trust me, the more you drink.. the thirstier you will get. 3. If your schedule allows, try to eat 4-6 small/medium meals a day instead of 2-3 big meals. This will put your metabolism into hyperspeed. Keep a few snacks with you if you can. Also, you will notice that you will start eating less. 4. Exercise: The more muscle you have, the more energy you will burn. You should do a good combination of both weights and cardio. You were a football player, so you are probably pretty sound at lifting. I'd recommend doing more light(for muscle endurance and toning) and medium(power) weights than heavy weights(building mass). Get your heart in good shape by doing cardio 2-3 times a week. 5. Fat Burn: When you sit down at a cardio machine you will see the chart for age/heart rate and what zone it is in.. There are 2 zones: cardio and fat burn. To summarize, you want to keep your heart rate very low and rely on the muscle using less oxygen causing it to require more energy (someone please correct me if this is wrong). I would recommend this 2 times a week for an hour at a time. This is extremely easy to do and they don't call it fat burn for nothing. Hope this helps... I'm trying to lose the last 2-3 pounds to get a stupid six pack that I havent had since I was a gymnast. If you follow most/all of these steps, there is no reason you can't drop the weight you want in about 5-10 months. Set monthly goals to keep yourself motivated. I even like to make a monthly workout schedule to force myself to go to the gym and follow it. Good luck bro
i'm intrigued by the cardio and fat burn thing you mentioned i'm usually running on the treadmill well high on the cardio scale. does that mean i'm not burning fat, and only improving my cardio (stamina)? i usually do 2 mins of jogging and 3 mins of runnning for 45 minutes, sort of my HIIT. i'm guessing if you're running in the fat burn zone, you're supposed to do it for a really long time?
You are most definitely burning fat because of the calorie deficit you are creating. However, your training sounds more like anaerobic training than cardiovascular though. Typical anaerobic work is 30 seconds of high intensity followed by 90 seconds of low/medium intensity usually for around 25-35 minutes. Typical cardio is usually 20 min of any intensity that gets your heart rate into the correct level. If you try the fat burn, you will see thats its very easy to do. I've known guys that have lost insane amounts of fat by sitting on a bike and going very very slow. When I do it, I will normally go for an hour.. It's a great workout to do if you aren't lifting weights that day.
