Summer is coming! Lose weight get fit? Ask here.
 

Ok I am seriously over tired but I wanted to start this thread before I drink a cup of coffee and head to the gym.

Before we begin with questions or specifics lets cover some basics.

The only obvious way to lose fat is to burn off more calories than you take in, steadily, and over time.

So the first thing to calculate is maintenance calories (MC). Maintenance calories are the amount of calories it takes to maintain your current weight without change, at your current level of activity.

For people that are moderately active, say someone that goes to the gym about 4-5 days a week, or has a really active job, its aproximately 14cal/pound for females and 15cal/pound males.

So a 150 pound female that is moderately active has maintainence calories usually around 2100 calories a day. She won't suddenly start gaining weight at 2300 but she generally needs to go below 2100 to start seeing fat loss.

A pound of fat is approximately 3500 calories. So you need to drop 500 calories below maintainence per day to drop a pound of fat a week. 1000 per day to drop 2 pounds per week. That can be done with a combination of diet and excercise.

The other important element to your diet program is protein.

Adequate amounts of protein prevents the loss of lean body mass (LBM). A good rule of thumb for most people is one gram per pound of body weight, or one gram per pound of lean body weight if you are really heavy. LEan body weight doesn't have to be precise, just estimate your ideal weight and use that number. And use some common sense.

So that 150 pound female would get 150 grams of protein daily equalling 600 calories.

So lets take a quick look at her. Lets say we want her to lose 2 pounds of fat a week. 2 pounds a week is a 7,000 calorie deficit or 1,000 calories a day.

Maintenance calories = 150 X 14 = 2100

If she eats 1400 calories a day and burns off another 300 calories a day that totals to a 1000 calorie per day deficit.

2100 - 1400 = 700

700 calorie defict + 300 calories burned from excercise = 1000 calories.

1,000 calorie deficit per day X 7 days = 7,000 calories or 2 pounds.

Now out of the 1400 calories she is eating 150 grams or 600 calories should be protein. Which leaves 800 calories she can get from a combination of fats and carbs. She should make sure her fat stays at least 20 percent of her total calories.

Ok we all good so far?

So the two most important thing so far are total calories and amount of protein.

Random facts:

1 gram carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram protein = 4 calories
1 gram fat = 9 calories
Fiber is almost negligible.

I like ice cream and chocolate. Is this a problem?

Do you take your own advice? Seriously.

Don't forget that if you make sure you do some weight resistance exercise (not just aerobic), you will build muscle and 1 pound of muscle uses more calories than 1 pound of fat (and is much more dense/therefore smaller), so you increase your metabolism.

You also continue to burn more calories after you exercise, so you get a little bonus on calories used.

Wow, that's too much math for me.

My problem is finding time to get to the gym. Any moms have advice? My kids are toddlers, and neither goes to pre-school or daycare. Translation: I'm home all day with two kids and have a hard time getting out without them.

Perhaps I should look for a gym that provides babysitting?

Or, I guess I could just blow the dust off my TaeBo tapes.

Speed works well.

What about enrolling them in a class at the Y (like swimming) where you could take a class or work out while they are in lessons?

Something to think about when calculating your calories:

1. As you lose weight you burn off less calories.

If you consider that for women 14cal/pound is a way to calculate metabolism . . . if she loses 20 pounds she is burning off about 280 less calories a day. Thats an hours worth of cardio in calories for a lot of people.

Like taking off a 20 pound back pack. (Some really hardcore people will use a weighted vest to compensate for lost weight)

Thats where a lot of people go wrong when they try the "eat healthy" or "watch what they eat" approach to weight loss.

Because they didn't do the math they cut calories by eating less, but not enough to get to their goal weights.

And because they don't have a good idea of how many calories they are eating/burning they don't know what to do when they plateau or the weight loss stops.

Plus, a lot of initial weight loss is water . . the heavier you are the more of it is likely to be water.

Assume that over half the weight loss in the first two to three weeks is water. That may not be completely accurate but its a good assumption so you don't get demoralized if weight loss starts slowing down.

A neat web site if you actually want to try and calculate all your daily activities by hour:

www.caloriesperhour.com


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Holy shit, I would shoot myself before doing all this calculating. Here is my advice:

1. Work out really hard for at least one hour five days a week. This must include cardio and weights.

2. Eat what you want -- real food, not fake processed shit -- but don't eat too much of it.

Well, my problem, just like some others, is that I couldn't find time to go to the gym. I commute about 3 hours a day back and forth and work 10 hours, which doesn't really help that much.

I have a fairly moderate body, though I would like to get rid of the fat around my tummy. I started to do sit ups since I can do it at home and I heard it's better to get rid of the tummy fat.

But I also heard it would do the opposite because you would gain muscle and not lose the fat there...is it true?

Can you join a gym near your workplace and work out at lunch? Or maybe just leave the office and power walk for a bit? Cardio is absolutely essential to trim your stomach - you cannot "spot-tone" by just doing situps.

ADqtPiMel is correct. You can't spot reduce, although having a tighter stomache and can some aesthetic advantages.

Move closer to work or get a new job. I'm not trying to be an ass -- I'm totally serious. People who don't find time to go to the gym now are going to be fat and achy when they get older.

You don't need a gym. You can go outside and walk/run during your lunch break. You can do some situps and pushups in commercial breaks while watching tv. There is no need for a gym, seriously. I'm a little out of it, but I'll write a better post later.

I disagree with this. Walking isn't a workout and if you really want to be in shape, you need to do actual weight training, not just situps and pushups during commercial breaks. That might be a good start and it's better than nothing, but it's not enough.

I work in the Chicago downtown area, where gym choices are limited in a sense where they are quite pricy. Also I take the train that runs on a specific schedule. Though I've been considering to walk to the train station everyday after work (which takes about 20 mins) :)

I'm actually in the stage of saving money and buy my own place closer to work, or who knows, maybe in a couple years I may end up going to a closer company if this one drives me away :p

I'm not too afraid being too fat (the asian genes?), but more like the health risks associated with being fat, like heart failures and such.

One of my co-workers actually do this everyday during lunch time :D but if I ever do consider walking back and forth to the train station, then I might as well do that instead. I heard it's generally not a good idea to run on a full stomach (quote from my mom :p )

and seriously...haha, I recently bought this equipment that's suppose to help you do sit-ups (remember that ab machine that rocks back and forth, from tv?)......just because I can't do sit ups...I'm serious :p

Well if the point of going to the gym is to hop on a treadmill or elliptical (and sadly, so many people do), then it is pointless. Get a watch with a stopclock and a pedometer and don't waste the money.
The weight training is different...that is something that cannot be done at home. The percocet has worn off a bit so I can articulate better. Anyway, my point before was, to get a good start at least, just try going for a brisk 20-30 minute walk everyday. Gradually start running, 1 minute at a time, walk for 5 minutes, run for 1 minute, etc etc. until you've done 30 minutes. Start increasing.
Cardio can be done without a gym...hell I hated running on a treadmill with a passion. I was much happier outside.
Eventually a gym will be necessary, but again, the cardio is a start.

I agree that you don't need a gym to begin getting in shape. In fact, I'll take it a step further and say that you don't need a gym at all. When I was doing heavy-duty judo competition, I didn't belong to a gym.

I jogged and ran wind-sprints in my neighborhood park, I swam at our swim club's pool, I stretched on the living room floor, and I lifted free weights in my basement. It's all about being motivated and knowing the proper exercises and how to do them correctly. I had a training diary and kept to it religiously.

There's certainly nothing wrong with a gym if that's what you like. Personally, I prefer exercising on my own because-- although there are some serious athletes in there, there are also too many peacocks and gym bunnies in many of those gyms for my taste.

And... if running and lifting aren't your thing.. look into a good martial arts class. You can get all of the cardio, stretching and weight resistance in many of these classes.

BTW.. someone mentioned swimming to lose weight. Although swimming is an excellent exercise, it is not the exercise of choice if losing weight is our primary goal.

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/...h/swimming.htm

For those with back problems or knee problems, brisk walking is an excellent form of exercise. Get a heart monitor with an alarm and calculate your target heart rate. Start slow and stick to it-- rain, shine, sleet or snow! I find keeping an exercise journal keeps me on track.

Another resource is:

www.fitday.com


Its an online journal that tracks your calories and food intake.

I have friends who did cardio kickboxing, and they lost weight pretty fast!

Basically, everything you said here is why most people use a gym - I would infer, then, that unless you have access to these things . . . a gym membership (or acquiring access to these things) is probably necessary.

I agree completely with James and Valkyrie, though - integrating some form of weight/resistance training will dramatically increase your results . . . and even better, if you're starting to get "cubical sickness" or similar, it really helps energy levels and metabolism a lot more than simple cardio routines.

Find something you like, and go nuts - some people like lifting, some like classes, some like competitive judo . . . generally the path can go in almost any direction, it's a matter of putting in the effort and consistency, and enjoying it helps immensely.

High repetition, low weight lifting + running = big time weight loss.

I think low repetition, heavy weight lifting is more effective.

CONDITIONER IS BETTER.

I prefer long walks on the beach, holding hands, watching Grey's Anatomy, reading chick lit, and picking out wedding dresses. Are you the man for me?

Stop looking at me SCHWANN!

Low rep heavy weight is for building large muscle mass and bulking up.

OH MY GOD eHARMONY SAYS IT IS A MATCH MADE IN INTERNET HEAVEN

COMMENCE DOING IT ALL BAD, SLOPPY AND VANILLA-LIKE

Not until you paint your living room.

True, but most women aren't going to bulk up all that much, although personally I'd be thrilled to have a body like Serena Williams, LOL.

And DA, I'm hoping RC will be my knight in shining armor who does all the home improvement work while I sip wine like a delicate flower and read Cosmo.

This is generally true, but both contribute to overall increase in metabolism and advancement in lean muscle tissue over fat - so really, unless you're in great shape already, both will help.

I guess the way to look at it is, "if you're trying to lose weight, just f-ing go, don't worry about the semantics or specifics so much as being in the gym 5 days a week"

Yeah, I agree, I'm just saying that if you are overweight, I wouldn't start out with heavy lifting....unless you want to look like Nate Newton.

This is the best comparison ever - nicely done

This is what I have started doing and man it is a good work out! I have a trainer that comes to my house 1 to 2 times per week and then I run 5 miles 3times a week. You can do weights at home, my trainer has shown me all sorts of exercises using your own body weight. I also have barbells. I cancelled my gym membership though will likely join again as it will be 100 degrees outside soon enough and I almost heatstroked twice last summer running. Plus, I like the pilates classes that are available.

I compete in Figure, have had some level of success with it and these are the magic 3:

1) Resistance Training: don't be afraid to lift heavy. If you are a woman, you will NOT bulk up. If anything, you will get smokin' hot toned bodyparts.

2) Cardio

And MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL:
3) Eat Clean - the nutrition that you eat is 80% responsible for your body's appearance. (the other being 10% genetics and 10% training).

If you don't know what clean eating is, "Eat Clean Diet" by Tosca Reno is pretty good for learning what it's all about.

does anyone have any tips for getting over a plateu? I knew the last 15 pounds or so would be the hardest but eessh..

Seriously, what should I change in routine? Go more? go harder?

In gym: 5 days-one hour cardio, 3 days - weight training
In dojo: 5-6 times per week, various activties, including about 500 jumping jacks or more depending. Endless sit ups, I seriously loose track of those, however many push ups, until my arms fall off and reattach themselves then one more set.

and I want to loose another 15-20 pounds, i've lost like 55 pounds so far, this is the worst plateau ever.

I saw that you had 3 days of weights, so here is my suggestion.
Try 4 days of weight training with these splits:
Monday: shoulders and triceps
Tuesday: back
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: Leg Day (no skipping this one!!)
Friday: chest and biceps
Throw some abs in there (though not everyday).

To avoid plateau'ing, have a training buddy so you can lift heavy and have someone to spot you to give the full contraction. Also, make sure that you mix up your workouts...don't do the exact same chest and bicep exercises every single week.

And: eat clean. If you clean up your diet, the weight comes off very quickly. Buy yourself a lunch cooler, tupperwares and tote your pre-made homemade meals around. If you don't know what I mean by eating clean, befriend a bodybuilder.